OLED Laptop Screens Are Very Good Apparently, And Other Facts
Welcome to What We Learned This Week, a digest of the most curiously important facts from the past few days. This week: A good reason to pick up the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga, how home burglars do what they do and why jeans are bad now.
WELL, WE'RE SOLD
The OLED Screen On Lenovo's New Laptop Is So Good A Tech Writer Blogged About It
Earlier this week, James Vincent, a writer for The Verge, wrote a love letter about OLED screen of the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Yoga. If you're curious about why he loves it so much you should, well, read it. He describes the switch from the LCD display on his aging MacBook Air to The X1's OLED screen as "like being dragged out of Plato's cave to witness the true nature of reality."
That said, he doesn't explain why OLED is that much better than LCD, so I will. Unlike a liquid-crystal display, a screen made up of organic light-emitting diodes does not require a backlight. Which means that darker colors are, well, darker — thus enabling higher contrast ratios. In other words, things just look less washed out because there isn't a big white light powering the entire display.
According to tests by Digital Trends, OLED is empirically better when it comes to contrast ratios, but is also empirically worse when it comes to battery life. And given the price tag of an OLED-equipped laptop — we're talking $1300 minimum — the future is still a few years away from going mainstream.
IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE
Most Burglars Just Look For Unlocked Doors
NBC's Portland affiliate spoke to 86 burglars about their line of work. It turns out they aren't criminal masterminds. They usually operate during the day, when people are at work. If they find a house with an unlocked door, they go in. If they see an NRA sticker, they assume there are probably guns to steal.
It also doesn't take a mastermind to foil your average thief. Burglars, or at least the good ones, don't want to get caught. If an alarm goes off or they even slightly suspect that someone is home, they'll bug out. So, keep a light on, keep the blinds open and lock your dang doors.
[KGW]
CUT YOURSELF SOME SLACKS
Jeans Are More Trouble Than They're Worth
On the face of it, Hanson O'Haver's takedown of the blue jean for Racked seems like a bad-faith argument designed to outrage every sensible person. Who doesn't own a pair of jeans? Or more accurately, who wouldn't want to own a pair of jeans?
But O'Haver has a point. How many pairs of jeans have you owned over the course of your life? And out of those, how many would you consider good pairs of jeans?
Personally, I can only think of one. I bought them from the Gap in 2011. They had natural indigo dye which stained my fingers for weeks on end. They fit great until extended use blew out the crotch. I think every pair of slim, flat-front chinos has been good. I wish I could say the same about jeans.
[Racked]
BURN IT
A $1500 Toaster Oven Is Something You Can Get Justifiably Mad About
Consumer technology is a very embarrassing industry where a bunch of blissfully ignorant engineers try to bring the latest technology to bear on problems that have been solved decades ago. The June Intelligent Oven is just the latest embarrassing gadget in a long line of embarrassing gadgets.
For $1,500 you will get a toaster oven that uses sensors, a digital camera and an internet connection to cook a piece of salmon. And as Fast Company's Mark Wilson finds out, it even fails at that.
Which makes you wonder: who exactly is this for? June's creators stress that it will make cooking easier, and thus more accessible. Makes perfect sense — were it not for the $1500 price tag.
Previously on What We Learned This Week
It's Okay To Not Think About It For Five Minutes
A Simple Logic Puzzle Will Make You Feel Dumb
Donald Trump Dresses Like A Slob
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