NEC has been making displays for computers and digital signage for years. The company of late has been focusing on new green displays that sip power and save money on utility bills. The company has unveiled a new large format display called the P521.

The new display is a 52-inch unit with a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a 2000:1 contrast ratio. The LCD has a brightness of 700 cd/m2 and has integrated thermal controls and a timer to turn it off when not needed.

I am a big fan of large displays in the living room and for my computer. However, there are uses for displays that have nothing to do with computer work or home theater. NEC has unveiled its latest large screen display that is aimed at the digital signage industry called the P701.

The huge screen measures 70-inches diagonally and supports full 1080p resolution. The contrast ratio is 2000:1 and the screen has an average brightness of 420 cd/m2. NEC integrates thermal tech to shut the display down if it overheats to prevent damage.

Sometimes products that are green cost more to purchase because of the green features. NEC has debuted another new LCD today that is both cheap and green called the AS171. The LCD is small by today’s standards at 17-inches.

The native resolution is 1280 x 1024 and the screen has VGA and DVI connectivity. Contrast ratio for the screen is 900:1 and it has a 5ms response time. The display is EPEAT silver rated and has Energy Star 5.0 and TCO 5.0 ratings.

Years ago, I worked for a company that had its own marketing department. The people there were always complaining because the colors they saw on the screen of the computer wasn’t what printed out on the printer. This can be a big issue for designers and NEC has a new screen specifically for these users.

The screen is called the PA241W and is 24-inches with a 1920 x 1200 resolution. The big thing about the LCD is the 10-bit IPS panel with 14-bit lookup table that allows for billions of possible colors. NEC says the screen is good for 102% of the NTSC color gamut and 99.3% of the Adobe RGB gamut.

Green is a big deal into the computer market. Large companies can save lots of money by saving seemingly small amounts of power across all the computers in their company. Power saved among computer users adds up to big savings in pollution overall.

NEC has unveiled a new LCD called the MultiSync EA222WMe. The LCD is LED backlit and designed with an eye towards being green in all aspects. The screen uses 20% less power than other panel types. It also consumes up to 52% less power and radiates up to 61% less heat than previous NEC LCDs.

NEC has dropped yet another eco-friendly LCD monitor, this one aimed at business users. It’s called the MultiSync LCD175M, a 17-inch LCD monitor with an energy efficient display, reducing power consumption by nearly 42% compared to regular panels.

Some specs include a native resolution of 1280 x 1024 pixels, 5ms response time, 250 cd/m2 brightness and it features an EPEAT Gold rating, a TCO 5.0 certification and Energy Star 5.0 compliance. The NEC MultiSync LCD175M retails for just $179.

A device that automatically translates other languages instantly still seems like science fiction, even today. But we are getting very close. Check out NEC’s Tele Scouter. It’s a retinal-display that translates what people say to you by displaying the translations as text on your glasses.

It looks pretty bulky still, but even at that size it is impressive. It requires a computer to be hooked up to the glasses to do the bulk of the work. And even then, the translations aren’t good enough yet to make wearing this thing practical. But soon it will be.

NEC has announced a world’s first. They are boasting that the Aterm WM3300R is the world’s smallest WiMAX router with wireless LAN support. The device measures just 94mm x 67mm x 22mm and weights 145grams. This WiMAX router comes with embedded Wireless LAN (BG), offering Multi SSID functions and basic Wireless LAN Security protocols like WEP and WPA(TKIP/AES).

The WM3300R connects to your computer via the USB port and will be available in early November 2009 in Japan for 25,000 Yen or $272.

We don’t have much info. Just a small image and a few specs at the moment, but it looks like NEC is working on a mobile business tablet PC that looks to be Android based. The touchscreen tablet has a 7- to 8-inch LCD display and NEC is apparently predicting that they’ll eventually ship over 1m of the UMPCs each year. So they seem pretty confident.

We don’t even have a name for the device yet, but it’s set to go on sale in Japan this fall. NEC is boasting that it’s a fast-booting device with heavy use of cloud-storage and cloud-computing “capable as a personal computer”.

Companies big and small are pushing hard to reduce energy consumption inside their offices. The reason is for the environment and to save money on utility bills. NEC unveiled three new LCDs today that are aimed at companies looking to go energy efficient.

The new screens include the 19-inch AS191, 19-inch widescreen AS191WM and 22-inch widescreen AS221WM. The LCDs all have similar features with 1000:1 contrast ratios, VGA and DVI inputs and response times of 5ms.

This has been a week packed full of new projectors. The good news is that many of the new projectors announced this week are lower priced making them affordable replacements for HDTVs in the living room. I think most guys would want the largest image they can get, and a projector delivers that.

NEC has unveiled a pair of new projectors called the NP110 and the NP215. These projectors have up to 2500 lumens of brightness and integrated speakers. The native resolution for the NP110 is 800 x 600 while the native resolution for the NP215 is 1024 x 768. The contrast ratio is 2000:1 and the lamps promise up to 5000 hours of life.

NEC has released its latest LCD monitor, the MultiSync EA231WMi which is aimed at business situations, education, government and other suit wearing types. This high-end monitor has several advanced features, starting with an IPS panel, which enables a great viewing angle and image stability.

It also features: 4-way ergonomic stand (110mm height adjust, pivot, tilt and swivel), Two-step ECO Mode for significant power consumption savings, Three-step ambient light sensor for automatic brightness adjustment, Carbon footprint meter, DisplayPort, VGA and DVI connectivity, EPEAT Gold compliance, Energy Star 5.0 and TCO 5.0, Integrated 4-port USB 2.0 hub, Space-saving, down-firing multimedia speakers with headphone jack, Dynamic Video Mode with five presets for real-time optimization of image quality and Built-in carrying handle.

NEC has a pair of spiffy new LCD displays available in the U.S. today to match a recent release of similar models in Japan. The LCD2490WUXi2 and the LCD2490W2 both feature 24-inch screens and IPS panels. These displays offer a much better image quality than TV or PVA screens and allows them to show 96.7% of the sRGB color space.

Professional graphics editors and photographers are going to love these models. Some other features include auto-brightness, 12-bit color lookup tables, ambient light sensors a 320cd/m2 brightness, a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, VGA and DVI inputs.

This curvaceous monitor was first spotted at CES 2009. It’s NEC curved monitor (CRV43), originally named the Ostendo CRVD-42DWX+. It consists of four DLP displays that offer a 10,000:1 contrast ratio, .02ms response time, 200 cd/m2 brightness, and 2880 x 900 resolution.

Crazy huh? The CRV43 will hit shelves next month if you’re interested. Just be sure to bring $7,999 with you. Look, if you want a curved monitor, it’s gonna cost you. Do you have any idea how hard it is for them to curve technology?

We love video games around here. Whether we’re playing the Xbox 360, the PS3 or even an old Atari 2600. We thought we would take a look at the history of gaming consoles from 1972 to the present. You grew up with the vintage consoles, you play the new ones, so take a walk down memory lane and revisit all your favorites from the massive list below.