With the holiday shopping season firmly upon us one of the most wanted gifts for Christmas is a HDTV set. While we have many brands and makes to choose from here in America, the only commercially available OLED television is a Japan-only item this year.

Sony first announced its XEL-1 3mm thin waif of an HDTV in October with the caveat that the set would only be available in Japan. With the impact the thin OLED set had on gadget and home theater buffs, the Sony XEL-1 led other HDTV makers to promise OLED sets as well. Toshiba was the first to make the announcement of bringing OLED TVs to market after Sony was Toshiba. Toshiba claims it will have a 30-inch OLED TV on the global market by 2009.

Not to be outdone, Samsung announced its OLED roadmap in late October, stating the company would have OLED HDTVs in large 40-inch and 42-inch screen sizes on the market by 2010. DailyTech reported in early November that Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow said the XEL-1 could make it to America this year, providing the demand for the XEL-1 in Japan didn’t move all the thin-screened beauties Sony had produced.

Today Engadget reports that there are only a total of 2,000 Sony XEL-1 TVs available in the entire world. That means that the 2000 XEL-1 TVs will be spread across 700 stores in Japan working out to a bit more than two XEL-1 HDTVs per store.

American fans of the XEL-1, your chances of getting a set this year just got much smaller.


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At the Inter BEE 2007 taking place in Japan TechnoHouse showcased the 'Lifefast' a transparent 360° LED display unit. Manufactured by Kinoton GMBH Germany it is a cylindrical transparent display unit for displaying products. In the product, four vertical bars, each fitted with 600 three-color LEDs, are arranged at 90 degree intervals. The bars make 12 or 13 revolutions per second, thereby displaying images. The product can display three images of 600 (vertical) x 800 (horizontal) dots each, two images of 600 (vertical) x 1,200 (horizontal) dots each or one image with 600 (vertical) x 2,400 (horizontal) dots. It supports VGA, DVI and video signals. Sizes vary from 75cms to 150 cms. The Technohouse Transparent 360° 75 cm display unit is available for 700,000 Yen in Japan. (pictured above)

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All-in-one computers have been quite popular with Mac users since the introduction of the original iMac back in 1998. Apple continues to sell its iMac computers which now feature Core 2 Duo processor and 20” or 24” LCD screens. On the PC side of things, however, all-in-one designs haven't fared so well.

That hasn't stopped companies such as Sony with its VAIO LT and Gateway with its "One" from trying to test the waters Intel Core 2 Duo based machines -- with 22" and 19" LCD displays respectively.

Dell too is looking to throw its support behind all-in-one PC designs with the XPS ONE. The machine features a 20" WSXGA display and Intel Core 2 Duo power -- base machines come with an E4500 processor while higher-end units get the E6550.

Standard features across the board include 2GB of DDR2 memory, a slot-loading 16X dual-layer DVD burner, hybrid analog/digital TV tuner with remote, 8-in-1 media reader and Windows Vista Premium. Base systems come with integrated Intel graphics and a 250GB hard drive, while the range-topping machine features an ATI Radeon HD 2400 Pro and a 500GB hard drive.

Those interested in the XPS ONE can purchase a system direct from Dell's website today, but systems aren't expected to ship until November 27. Dell provides four XPS ONEs to suit your needs: The Essential One, The Music One, The Performance One and The Entertainment One. Pricing for the machines begin at $1,499, $1,748, $1,999 and $2,399 respectively.


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