BenQ announces the next entry to the XL monitor series at the Intel Extreme Masters World Championship-- the XL270T, a "world-class professional gaming monitor" featuring a 27-inch display.

The 120Hz monitor features LED backlighting, 12 million:1 contrast ratio and 1ms response time. Dual HDMI ports handle connectivity.

Further technologies include Display Mode (allows users to switch between 9 monitor sizes), Smart Scaling (scales screen on-the-fly without impacting controller sensitivity) and x2 variations to the FPS Mode preset.

Also ideal as an entertainment display, the XL2720T is Nvidia 3D Vision 2 certified and carries 3D Lightboost technology for up to twice the original screen brightness.

Go BenQ Announces Launch of XL2720T Professional Gaming Monitor

Sharp gets an investment worth $110 million from Samsung-- giving the Korean giant a 3.08% stake in the struggling CE maker and increased access to the Sharp LCD panel supply.

The news represents a rare cross-border technology deal between two rival countries, one a former giant and and the other a successful upstart, and is a first agreement of the sort for Samsung.

The agreement is mutually beneficial for the two companies-- Sharp gets much needed cash and a production boost at the Kameyama 10th generation display plant while Samsung buys more TV-size LCD panels at a preferential price, potential access to IGZO (indium gallium zinc oxide) display technology and a chance to swallow production capacity from a plant making Apple device display panels.

Sharp already has a similar December 2012 deal with Qualcomm, one worth $120m. It is also hoping for further investment from Taiwan's Hon Hai Precision, even if reportedly talks broke down following sharp drops in Sharp share prices.

Meanwhile Reuters suggests Samsung might invest further in Sharp, by either tying up with or acquiring its solar panel business.

Go Sharp Capital Alliance With Samsung

Go Samsung Gets Foot in at Key Apple Supplier Sharp With $110m Investment (Reuters)

Rovi presents the results of a Consumer Mobile Streaming survey at Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2013-- and reveals how more W. Europeans are consuming streaming video on their mobile devices.

The survey covers consumers in Italy, France, Spain, the UK and the US.

In fact, according to Rovi the majority of respondents stream video on mobile devices "at least" 2-3 times per week, and demand more premium video content (mostly TV shows and movies) on mobile devices.

Italy and Spain show the highest streaming frequency, with 73% and 71% of respective consumers streaming video on tablets 2-3 times per week or more. However just 20% of overall mobile users rate the quality of their video streams as "excellent," pointing out an opportunity for new adaptive streaming technologies such as High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC).

Savant Systems expands the capabilities of its SmartView Tiling technology-- now handling nine (up from six) HD content or media windows on a single display.

Ideal for both residential and commercial applications, SmartView Tiling accepts 1080p video inputs (from up to x24 sources, including Blu-ray players, cable STBs, security cameras and other video devices) and delivers video via HDMI.

Users can arrange tiling, change content programming and save configuration preferences via TrueControl iPad app, all with familiar touch-based gestures such as drag and drop tile selection or pinch to zoom commands.

The 9-tile version is available now with the VOM-SV02 multi-window processing module and the SVT-009 platform.

Go Savant Expands SmartView Video Tiling Technology

The saga of Palm's webOS mobile operating system gets an unlikely new chapter-- the ill-fated OS now belongs LG, where it will find use not in tablets or smartphones, but in smart TVs.

The news comes from MWC 2013, Barcelona.

According to the announcement LG now owns the webOS source code, documentation and related websites, as well as licenses and patents Palm had transfered to HP following its 2010 acquisition and "stewardship" of the open source webOS and Enyo projects.

What remains of the webOS team will also find employment in the LG Silicon Valley Lab.

There are 2 reasons why LG will employ webOS in smart TVs-- the company is committed to Android as mobile OS, and most of the webOS team working on mobile devices at HP has already left for (hopefully) greener pastures.

Go LG Electronics Acquires webOS from HP

LG Display invests around $656.7 million (or 706 billion won) in an 8th generation OLED TV panel manufacturing line in Paju, S. Korea, as it bids for a TV market edge against rival Samsung.

The plant will use the LG WRGB OLED evaporation process, and will make as many as 26000 input sheets (each large enough to make six 55-inch displays) once production kicks off on H1 2014.

LG Display not only supplies panels for LG Electronics, but also for the likes of Apple, among others.

As seen at CES, 2013 promises be the year for OLED TVs with Samsung, LG, Panasonic and Sony competing for the titles of "first" and "biggest" OLED TV at the show. However, according to IHS iSuppli "OLED TVs face an uphill task of competing on prices with lower-priced, higher-resolution 4K LCD and even Full-HD LCD TVs."