Apple To Use OLED Displays On iPods?

[emotion]

tis a good idea, however methinks the lifespan should be a little more than 4 years before they seriously consider it.

Y'know OLED displays are used in a lot of car audio systems these days (and have been for a while). I suspect the displays on them don't fail after 4 years.

Makes sense to use them in the smaller ipods I think.

 

[Macnoviz]

This sounds like it would suit the shuffle down to the ground (at least for those who want a screen on the shuffle). Because its been out a while with no new revision (other than price drop), perhaps the shuffle would be first, followed by the big boys a little later?

The fact that I recently put my shuffle through a white wash, and hence have a very clean, but slightly temperamental player, has no bearing on this post though...

I don't think the Shuffle really needs a screen, besides, navigating on a one line display is about as hard as finding it blindly on your Shuffle (by alternating the two play modes, I can find the right song in about 30 seconds)
But finding exactly one song is not what the Shuffle is for, really

 

[C00rDiNaT0r]

I think they can do better than that on the price look at the Digital Cube istation V43 that thing cost $600 bucks for the 30gig and $700 for 40gig just to get it from Korea or Japan to North America. It has a portable AMD chip comes with a 4.3in wide-screen display. The thing with this player is the os is Linux based so it has a lot of customization. It comes with built in, dmb tv, tv in and out ports, fm radio, and touch screen. Then my understanding is you can get optional gps(which was also available for the older model) and wifi support. Pretty much you can make this into a pda that can play a huge array of video and audio format(even more with tweaks). Last I checked the 30gig was going for around $470 at a North American online retailer.

To me this sounds all possible for something Apple to do and do it at a reasonable price.

Do you have any hands-on exp. with that istation? I guess Apple has to make something better now... maybe a 3G iPhone?

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I just hope that whatever it is, really is unique. That sony, although I would never buy it just because it's Sony, is pretty nifty. The 50 hour charge, and hidden screen are way cool.

All apple needs to do now, is improve upon that.

 

[7on]

The realistic life expectancy for an average person's iPod is probably not much longer than 4 years anyway.

bollocks, I'm 6 months from using my iPod 4 years.

 

[Yvan256]

The realistic life expectancy for an average person's iPod is probably not much longer than 4 years anyway.

And is it four years non-stop? I'd bet even the most die-hard on-the-go music user will only use it eight hours at most, which means the display on such an iPod would "only" last 12 years (at worst).

 

[abrooks]

And is it four years non-stop?

That's my question.

 

[Craiger77]

Here is a pretty comprehensive article on OLED. This is one of those technologies that have never lived up to its initial hype. 3 or 4 years ago cheap, low power displays that could be rolled up or folded were just around the corner. The article explains well why that hasn't happened.

OLEDs still have a longevity problem and it is made worse by the fact that blue degrades faster than red or green so you not only get a dimer display over time, you also get a color shift as well.

They are also very sensitive to exposure to water and even air so they must be sealed well, driving up the cost of using them.

 

[Yvan256]

Seeing the difference between my Nintendo DS and my Nintendo DS Lite, I'd prefer if Apple kept using TFT LCD's for the time being... OLED might be new and low-cost, but if everyone is still using TFT LCD's, the demand for it drives the price down to probably the same cost as OLED anyway.

 

[MrCrowbar]

I guess the 4 hours are "total ontime". The lifetime of lightbulbs is given like this too. Most lightbulbs las 1000 hours or something but you only have to replace them once every few years because your light isn't always on. Same would go for the iPod.

4 years total lifetime for an iPod display would be plenty enough. Assume you're not looking at your display while you sleep (8 hours/day in average), so that alreay makes 5,33 years. Plus the backlight of your current iPod already has this life expectance. It's just a big LED and will eventually die. The only real bad thing about OLED (LED screens in general) is that you don't see anything when it's off. So the display would actually have to be always on when playing if you dont want to fumble the device to check the display (I hate having to do this thus never use screensavers. It's bad enough I can't disable the dull clock screensaver on my nokia. Have to unlock it to check the battery and signal.).

That's what I like most on LCD screens: you can read them in bright sunlight too, backlighting off. The colors and contrast are crap, but you can read it. So I have some doubt that Apple is really making an iPod you can't use in bright sunlight anymore.

 

[edcrosay]

Y'know OLED displays are used in a lot of car audio systems these days (and have been for a while). I suspect the displays on them don't fail after 4 years.

Makes sense to use them in the smaller ipods I think.

My car stereo is a Pioneer Premiere that I bought about four years ago or so, and the OLED display crapped out a few months ago. Unless they improve it, I don't want it on any iPod but the shuffle.

 

[MrCrowbar]

My car stereo is a Pioneer Premiere that I bought about four years ago or so, and the OLED display crapped out a few months ago. Unless they improve it, I don't want it on any iPod but the shuffle.

There's been quite some technological improvement since 4 years. Maybe Apple has some advanced things that last considerably longer and can be read in bright sunlight too... Just wait and see.

 

[beige matchbox]

heres an mp3 player with a colour oled screed - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/ProductInfo.aspx?ProductID=13964&GroupID=0&source=MDnewsletter - check out the price hehe

I've seen oled screens first hand, admidtly it wan't much bigger than as stamp. There was no odd contrast problems when tilting the screen, the colours were far more vivid than any lcd i've ever seen.

As to the lifespan of a oled screen, i seem to remember that it's just 1 colour that has a very short life span, the others being about the same as the average lcd backlight, i can't remember which as the information is second hand

 

[redeye be]

...The only real bad thing about OLED (LED screens in general) is that you don't see anything when it's off. So the display would actually have to be always on when playing if you dont want to fumble the device to check the display...

I thought that one of the big things about OLED was that they only require power to change state. As i know, from this thread, now that in OLED displays every pixel is it's own backlight this doesn't seem possible and make MrCrowbar's comments very valid.
Would anyone know where i got this idea or are there 2 types of OLED? The ones that need backlight and the ones that do it themselves?

Cheers

EDIT;
I read the article posted in one of the previous posts. I understand now. thx

 

[ezekielrage_99]

I wouldn't mind an iPod Shuffle with an OLED screen

 

[bowens]

I wouldn't mind an iPod Shuffle with an OLED screen

No, I don't think the shuffle needs a screen. I've had one for about a year and I can throw it in my pocket and not have to worry about damaging a screen or anything. Also, like someone already posted, finding a specific song on a one line display would not be anymore efficient than finding it with no display.