Microsoft has stepped into a new and uncertain era with the announcement that CEO Steve Ballmer will retire within 12 months, triggering a search for a successor to take over the software behemoth. The announcement on Friday surprised analysts and investors and sent shares surging, reflecting belief that the company will benefit from new leadership as it tries to innovate and chase the market for smartphones and tablets.

Panasonic is targeting rooftops for its solar panels as developers struggle to find big enough plots of affordable land in Japan with the access to transmission lines needed for utility-scale projects.

Probably 20-30 years to get to 70-80%, but 80 years to get the last 20-30%.

Organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is the most exciting display technology since plasma, but there are a few things it needs to overcome before hitting the mainstream.

What makes an OLED TV better than an LED or LCD TV? How is OLED superior? Are there any disadvantages to OLED? We've got answers to those questions and more, in plain language, below.

Originally developed for avionics and military displays, Direct-Dry-Film (DDF) optical bonding is now moving into industrial and consumer applications such as touch screens, TVs, smartphones, tablets, digital signage, and medical imaging.

BOE Technology Group announced that it has placed significant orders for advanced Gen 8.5 and Gen 5.5 display production equipment from Applied Materials for use in multiple facilities.

TIME can really drag when you're waiting for a bus or train. Soon you might be able to use that dead time to contribute to a crowdsourced project.

Industry experts are racing to produce the next big conductive coating.

The industrial HMI is continuing to evolve with the addition of multi-touch capabilities that are now standard on smartphones and tablets. With multi-touch functionality, HMI operation is simplified and enhanced, but the biggest question is how quickly these more sophisticated interfaces may be adopted by machinery builders and users.

Capacitive touchscreens in consumer electronics took off with the introduction of Apple's iPhone in 2007.

According to Harman, the next generation of sat-nav software will be more user-friendly and use a head-up display (HUD).

Omate Truesmart - a smartwatch with a built-in five megapixel camera - is set to go into production after hitting its crowdfunding target.

Selling a gold-colored iPhone could be popular in countries like China and India, where Apple and Google are fighting it out to be the dominant player in their still-booming smartphone markets.

Micron Semiconductor Asia is laying off some 150 staff in Singapore. That is about 2% of its 7,500-strong workforce here.

For the first time since the Carter Administration, solar panels are going up on the roof of the White House.

The CPSC is recalling two models, a 12-watt and 12.5-watt Endura LED. Here's how to know if your bulb is the right one:

Several major trends have been driving technological innovation in the display industry since its early days. These trends include image quality, screen size, portability and form factor.

Good news for gamers (and rubber duckies). A Kinect-based setup out of Japan transforms water into an interactive surface for playing games, watching movies, and maybe more.

Mitsubishi Electric Europe B.V. Semiconductor Group has announced a major initiative to expand sales efforts in Europe for its industrial TFT-LCD modules.

The next-generation games machine will become available in North America on November 15 and Europe on November 29.

Occasionally an existing technology is improved to push components into new usage areas. Sharp has done that with the monochrome LCD display, pushing it into microwatt power consumption territory while approaching e-ink display contrast levels. Coupled with pixel memory, they are call memory LCDs.

Tabletop computers have not exactly taken the world by storm, as some predicted they would. While a few have appeared in shops, bars, and hotels, it's not hard to understand why devices that until recently cost more than $8,000 have failed to gain wider adoption.

Two of the largest oil producers are readying the Middle East's first big push into renewable energy, planning solar-power plants that will need more than $1.5 billion in financing by the end of 2014.

China's solar industry may revive this half as consumption grows abroad and local demand takes off, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said.

Watching Apollo in action in its dedicated darkroom in the European Solar Test Installation (ESTI) in Ispra, Italy, puts a whole new sizzle on PV calibration: shutters slowly swing open revealing an array of 11 zenon lamps while several feet ahead a curtain draws aside.

Innovative storage system could enable offshore wind farms to deliver power whenever it's needed.

Apple may release a gold-colored version of its next generation iPhone, TechCrunch reports, citing multiple sources.