May 19 - 10:40am EDT   AU Optronics today at the SID Display expo showcased a number of advances it believes should advance LCDs for handhelds. The highlight is the world's first curved LCD, according to the company: a new thinning technique allows the company to produce a screen with a 100mm (3.9in) radius that not only arcs but which has even backlighting across the entire display. The invention could mean a generation of devices with LCDs where they were previously difficult or impractical, such as wristwatches or instrumentation built directly in-dash for cars. AUO doesn't say when it expects the technology to reach shipping products. [full story]

May 16 - 7:55am EDT   Two panel makers are evenly splitting orders for new LCDs to be used in upcoming consumer MacBooks, according to a story in Taiwan's Commercial Times. The newspaper claims that two of the island's more prominent display makers, AU Optronics and Chi Mei Optoelectronics, are being tapped by Apple to produce the screens for mainstream systems that will be launched sometime during the summer. The Times doesn't mention screen sizes or other characteristics of the LCDs. [full story]

March 11 - 9:05am EDT   Taiwan display maker AU Optronics today revealed what it says is the world's first truly wide-aspect, full HD 24-inch flat-panel display. The LCD adopts the same 16:9 ratio of many HDTVs and is capable of a native 1080p resolution. While shorter than the 1920x1200 resolution of existing 24-inch computer screens, the wider display makes it better-suited to widescreen movies with the image filling more of the available space. The new design is also half as thick as the taller displays: where a conventional display would measure 1.38 inches deep, the new implementation is just 0.55 inches. Combined with a narrow bezel, this allows a same-size display in a much smaller ... [full story]