Ron Mertens' blog » OLED http://www.ronmertens.com/blog Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:45:40 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 The OLED Handbook is in the top 1,000 Lulu.com titles http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2012/01/04/the-oled-handbook-is-in-the-top-1000-lulu-com-titles/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2012/01/04/the-oled-handbook-is-in-the-top-1000-lulu-com-titles/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 11:45:11 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=424 This is nice – I just found out that The OLED Handbook is #980 best selling Lulu.com book. Lulu is one of the most popular print-on-demand book publishers today. I’m very pleased with the sales of the Handbook, so this is not really surprising – but still nice ;-)

The Lulu sales rank takes into account the sales revenue and not just the number of books sold (i.e. the price of the book times number of sales). The OLED Handbook costs $149.99 for the printed edition. The digital (PDF) edition, costs $97, and is much more popular (about 4 times more popular, actually).

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2012/01/04/the-oled-handbook-is-in-the-top-1000-lulu-com-titles/feed/ 1 OLED lighting – is it starting to happen? http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/11/28/oled-lighting-is-it-starting-to-happen/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/11/28/oled-lighting-is-it-starting-to-happen/#comments Mon, 28 Nov 2011 07:10:45 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=422 If you know me, you know I’ve been following OLEDs for years now. One of the most exciting applications of this new technology is lighting. OLEDs enable efficient, beautiful, thin area-lighting panels, which may also be color tunable, flexible and/or transparent. In the past few weeks, three companies sent me new OLED panels and lamps for review. If you want to see what the lighting of the future looks like, check out these reviews – the Philips Lumiblade panels, Lumiotec’s Hanger and Vanity lamps and Blackbody’s V-LUX lamp. And here’s a short video showing all OLED panels I’ve got:

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/11/28/oled-lighting-is-it-starting-to-happen/feed/ 0 That’s it, I’m no longer offering Windows software http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/09/19/thats-it-im-no-longer-offering-windows-software/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/09/19/thats-it-im-no-longer-offering-windows-software/#comments Mon, 19 Sep 2011 08:31:58 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=416 Today I finally done it – I’m no longer offering Windows software. This was not an easy thing to do. I remember my first windows software from back in 1998 (it was called Bullsy, and I developed it together with my friend Alon Keinan when we were in the second year in University). It was a freeware mastermind game. I “established” Metalgrass and started offering Square-Off back in 2000 just before leaving to my after-the-army trip to NZ and Samoa.

Square-Off was an AdWare at first (I was working at Cydoor at the time, after all) but later I converted it to shareware. It was then followed by Karteset, SAM and finally AdSenseLog. I was selling those titles for over 8 years or so – but never managed to make it successful. In fact, in just two months I sold more Nonogram Kindle titles than all four Windows titles in all those years (although of course revenue from AdSenseLog was still a lot more as the price was $69.99 and the Kindle Nonogram costs just $2.99).

So now I’m focusing mostly on my technology blogs (mainly OLED-Info) and Kindle software. Maybe one day I’ll go back to desktop software, who knows?

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/09/19/thats-it-im-no-longer-offering-windows-software/feed/ 1 OLED-Info getting more popular http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/09/02/oled-info-getting-more-popular/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/09/02/oled-info-getting-more-popular/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2011 12:35:26 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=410 Back in March 2010 I posted that OLED-Info is one of the world’s most popular blogs – the 928th, at least according to Technorati. Anyway, these ranking change wildly, but today I checked again and now OLED-Info is at number 844. It’s also the 52nd most popular gadget blog, the 90 on the Technology list, and the 2117 on the green list (okay, that’s not so impressive). Technorati ranks blogs according to their Authority, which measures a site’s standing & influence in the blogosphere. These ranking, like I said, change all the time, and doesn’t really mean anything, but I just wanted to brag a bit. I’m allowed to, ain’t I?

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/09/02/oled-info-getting-more-popular/feed/ 1 My very own OPV flashlight http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/07/19/my-very-own-opv-flashlight/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/07/19/my-very-own-opv-flashlight/#comments Tue, 19 Jul 2011 09:19:54 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=397 The OEA sent me their latest organic-electronics brochure, and with it a very cool demonstrator flashlight – that has an organic solar cell (OPV), a flexible battery, a printed electronics circuitry and a white LED. This whole thing looks like a bit of cardboard – but it actually works and is pretty cool…

You can read my short hands-on review here

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/07/19/my-very-own-opv-flashlight/feed/ 0 The OLED Handbook http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/05/31/the-oled-handbook/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/05/31/the-oled-handbook/#comments Tue, 31 May 2011 09:45:54 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=386 Here’s the second large project I’ve been working on lately – The OLED Handbook, a guide to OLED technology, industry and market. I believe that this book provides the best introduction to the world of OLEDs – and covers everything you need and want to know about this exciting technology. I launched the book today and it is selling for $97.

This is the first e-book that I’ve written, I hope it will be well received. Initial response from people who read an advance copy were quite good…

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/05/31/the-oled-handbook/feed/ 3 OLED-Info gets a new design http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/05/23/oled-info-gets-a-new-design/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/05/23/oled-info-gets-a-new-design/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 12:05:44 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=384 In the past few months I’ve been busy with 3 projects. One of them was a new design for OLED-Info , and it’s finally live today. I hope it makes the site easier to navigate, and I think it also looks better. News on the other two projects soon…

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/05/23/oled-info-gets-a-new-design/feed/ 1 How does an LCD display work? http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/03/18/how-does-an-lcd-display-work/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/03/18/how-does-an-lcd-display-work/#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2011 06:34:27 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=379 If you know me, you know I’m into emerging display technologies (OLEDs, pico projectors, e-paper and other). Here’s a very cool video that explains how an LCD display works:

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/03/18/how-does-an-lcd-display-work/feed/ 0 OLED-Info won a Golden Retrevo Award! http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/02/03/oled-info-won-a-golden-retrevo-award/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/02/03/oled-info-won-a-golden-retrevo-award/#comments Thu, 03 Feb 2011 12:46:27 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=373 Remember the OLED-Info nomination for a blogging award a few weeks ago? It turns out that I’m one of the winners… ;-)

OLED-Info was chosen as one of the best blogs this year in the Gadget Accessories Plus category…

]]> http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/02/03/oled-info-won-a-golden-retrevo-award/feed/ 4 So I finally have a new phone http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/01/20/so-i-finally-have-a-new-phone/ http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/2011/01/20/so-i-finally-have-a-new-phone/#comments Thu, 20 Jan 2011 13:48:52 +0000 Ron Mertens http://www.ronmertens.com/blog/?p=369 A few months ago I found out that my Nokia phone is not water resistance – in fact it died after spending a few minutes in the pool. I had to switch to a phone we bought in China – a Nokia 1202, which is probably Nokia’s simplest phone ever (although it does sport a very cool flashlight). But it was actually great – small, good display in all conditions, and battery that lasted for a week or two (well, I don’t talk much on my mobile).

But it didn’t have Bluetooth (we have a bluetooth headset in the car) and no Hebrew support (as we bought in China). So I finally took the plunge and got me a new phone – a Samsung Galaxy S. It’s an Android v2.2 smartphone with a 4″ Super-AMOLED display. And yeah – I chose that one because of that cool OLED display…

So I thought I’d write a short review comparing these two phones. As a phone, I have to say that the Nokia wins hands down. It’s smaller (less than half the size), has about 10 times the battery life, can be read better in the sun, the sound quality is better and the speaker is a lot better (The Galaxy S speaker is awful).

Now of course the Galaxy S has some advantages. Like the beautiful OLED display, touch (writing SMS messages is great!), applications, GPS, camera (and quite a good one, too) games (although, to be fair, the 1202 has Snake built-in while the Android phone comes with no games, so it’s a tie on games really) and the internet of course. Yes – I can now behave annoyingly like everyone else and stare at my small phone all day long instead of looking after my daughters at play. I can check my stock portfolio, read my gmail messages and throw birds at angry pigs (or is it the other way around?).

The biggest advantage of the Samsung phone is the great OLED. I can finally show everyone what I’ve been talking about all the time for about 12 years. It is really quite impressive – the colors are just so beautiful – when you take pictures, it looks better on the screen than in real life.

So am I happy with the switch? sometimes. Luckily I have two sim cards with the same number, so I can take the Nokia with me when I want to talk. To conclude, here’s a short feature-by-feature comparison:

  • Display: the Galaxy S OLED is amazing, but the Nokia is more readable in the sun. It’s a tie really.
  • Size: The Nokia is smaller – about half the size. Nokia wins hands down.
  • Talking: The Nokia has better sound quality and a better speaker. Nokia wins hands down.
  • Battery life: The Nokia lasts for 2 weeks, the Galaxy S only 2 days. Nokia wins here too.
  • Buttons: There are a lot more buttons on the Nokia, so it wins again.
  • Price: The Galaxy-S costs around 2,000NIS, you can get the 1202 unlocked for around 200. Nokia wins.
  • Connectivity: The Nokia supports GSM. The Samsung has GSM, UMTS, HSPA, Bluetooth, Wi-fi and GPS. Samsung wins.
  • Games: The Samsung has tons of games which you can download, but none are pre-installed. The Nokia has Snake, Chess and Sudoko – you don’t have to download anything. It’s a tie.
  • Attention: The OLED on the Samsung is great, but everyone has such a phone today, so you don’t get any attention. The Nokia sure stands out though. Nokia wins
  • Usability: The Galaxy-S is great if you want to find contacts, send messages, take a photo or a video, surf the internet or anything really. It wins here.

Final score:Nokia 8, Samsung 4. But I’ll keep the Galaxy S – just for the OLED display ;-)

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