Let us be perfectly clear: When you see through all the smoke and glitz and glamour, transparency very much rules the early hours of CES 2024. The latest entry comes from Samsung, which is hardly a stranger to clear displays. The new hotness, though, is a transparent microLED display.
And let’s be clear about what this is not: Unlike what we’ve just seen elsewhere, Samsung’s transparent microLED isn’t being showcased in a consumer-ready product. This isn’t a television you’ll be able to purchase later this year, though Samsung does say that the microLED is good for “a clear, unobstructed picture for various use cases in both homes and business environments.”
For now, all you need to know is that it looks very, very cool. Or hot. Or whatever sort of image someone wants to pump through it.
The new transparent microLED display was just one of three transparent technologies Samsung had on hand. And while the end result didn’t necessarily look all that different (I didn’t stare at it hard enough to really see anything stand out), live microscopic looks at the panels themselves certainly showed a difference in how microLED works versus OLED and traditional LCD options. (Not that we’re anywhere near ready to call transparent displays “traditional.”
The end result from all three techs is, of course, a display that you can see through. Each will have its own application, as well as costs. You’re probably more likely to see this sort of thing in a business setting than you are in your living room. And while that might seem like a bit of a bummer at first, consider that you’re also more likely to see content and design that’s purpose-built for this sort of tech than you are from a highly compressed streaming service.
Samsung says the microLED tech that goes into these new panels utilizes “a modular design that allows viewers to personalize the shape, size, and ratio of screens to fit any space.”
Instagram is making its way to yet another screen, and this time, Apple TV is getting a taste of the Reels rabbit hole. The company has launched a dedicated Instagram app for Apple TV, bringing Reels, longer videos, and live shows to the big screen. So, if watching one quick clip on a phone somehow turns into an hour of scrolling, there's now a much larger screen for that.
Instagram brings Reels and more to Apple TV
Audio-Technica, a brand well known for making some of the best studio and professional headphones on the market, has just come out with the ATH-AWX7000, which the company itself claims to be its "finest headphones ever." The new flagship closed-back headphone has debuted at an eye-watering price of $3,799. It combines hand-finished Japanese woodwork with a newly developed 58mm driver.
The earcups are made from Kiso cypress, a prized wood historically used for Shinto shrines and Buddhist temples. Each housing is finished by hand with traditional Echizen lacquer, which brings out the grain and is expected to darken over time. The frame and sliders are finished in a deep navy kachi-iro shade traditionally associated with samurai.
This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Best Buy.
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