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As the screens on mobile phones and PDAs get bigger and more colourful, they soak up more battery power. The Japanese consumer electronics company Matsushita which owns the Panasonic brand, has a simple idea that might help (GB 2384400). Many screens emulate computer displays by showing black text on a white background. This means switching on almost all of the LCD pixels to give the white background and leaving only a few pixels switched off to produce the black text. Matsushita’s idea is to reverse the display like a photographic negative when the user is talking. The text is displayed as white on black, thereby saving power. The reversal happens automatically when a call connects or when an infrared sensor detects that the phone is next to the ear.