S-LCD Co., the joint venture for making LCDs for TVs between Sony and Samsung, will soon be history. The Japanese company today announced it will exit the 50-50 venture by selling its share to the Korean rival for US$940 million, after seven years of collaboration.

After inking a final agreement, Samsung is ready to absorb the South Korea-based joint venture into its existing LCD business and turn it into a 100% subsidiary. Samsung’s LCD business will then be the second-largest in the world by revenue, trailing only LG Display.

Sony, which has been reporting losses for its TV unit for years, said that parting ways with Samsung will result in savings of about US$640 million every year. Last month, Sony issued a financial report forecasting a US$1.15 billion loss for this fiscal (for the company as a whole), but it didn’t say if the forecast will be revised.

To some extent, Sony and Samsung are continuing to collaborate in the display area. The Japanese company, which will keep on producing TVs, says it “entered into a new strategic agreement for the supply and purchase of LCD panels with a goal of enhancing the competitiveness of both companies”.

If you thought the 4.5-Inch LCD screen with 720×1,280 pixels resolution Hitachi showed three weeks ago is cool, think again: Toshiba today took the wraps off a mobile LCD that’s even better. Sized at 6.1 inches, it boasts 2,560×1,600 pixels resolution and 498 pixels-per-inch density.

Needless to say, the direct-view-type screen is the first of its kind. It has a contrast ratio of 1,000:1, displays 16.7 million colors and offers a 176° viewing angle (horizontally and vertically).

Here’s how a set of Japanese characters looks like with different PPI:

Toshiba plans to showcase the LCD next week at the FPD International 2011 exhibition in Yokohama, Japan.

In August, the company announced it will merge its small LCD business unit with those of Sony and Hitachi.

Back in February this year, Hitachi Displays took the wraps off a super-advanced LCD for smartphones that boasted a 4.5-inch IPS LCD with 720 x 1,280 resolution. Fast forward to today, and the company is now announcing [JP] the development of a very similar panel with (almost) the same quality that costs “10-20%” less than touch displays currently used in smartphones.

This new panel shares the main specs with the one shown in February: same size and resolution, 500cd/m² brightness, LED backlight, and 329ppi pixel density. The only difference is that the older model had a better contrast ratio (1,100:1 vs. 1,000:1).

And this time, Hitachi used amorphous polysilicon to manufacture the display, a material that’s often used for making TVs and that’s cheaper than the low-temperature polysilicon smartphone panels usually are made of.

Hitachi Displays (or possibly Japan Display) expects to begin mass-production of the new LCD display by the end of this year, targeting phone makers in Japan and abroad.

Note: the picture shows the old model, as Hitachi hasn’t released one showing the new display.

Sharp Japan announced [JP] the Aquos Quattron 3D LC-70X5 for the local market yesterday, a follow-up of sorts to the LC-70LE735U that’s been available in the States for a few months now. Just like that model, the LCD measures 70 inches, can produce 3D pictures and offers Sharp’s “Quattron Quad Pixel Technology” for better display of colors.

The main selling point of this new model is the full array LED back-light that Sharp markets as “Mega Brightness Technology”. According to the company, the backlighting in the LC-70X5 is twice as strong as in the previous model, obviously resulting in brighter pictures (see below for an example).

The TV features full HD resolution, THX 3D, 15,000,000:1, dynamic contrast ratio, two USB ports, four HDMI ports, Ethernet, web connectivity (VOD), wireless to connectivity to other Aquos devices like smartphones and Blu-ray recorders, recording on external HDDs, and 176-degree viewing angle.

Sharp plans to start selling the device in Japan on September 25 (price: US$10,400).

Sharp Japan announced [JP] the i3board PN-L702B for the Japanese market yesterday, a 70-inch electronic whiteboard targeted at businesses and schools. The device is essentially a 70-inch touchscreen (LCD) that comes with a Stylus pen and special software, enabling users to make notes or draw on the screen, scroll or change the size of objects by using gestures.

The whiteboard can be used to display any type of content (including video) transferred to it from a Windows XP/Vista/7 PC (via USB) or directly from the web via the LAN port. It features full HD resolution, LED backlight, 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 300cd/m2 brightness, and an HDMI port.

Sharp plans to start selling the i3board PN-L702B in Japan on September 20 for US$9,700. A smaller (60 inches) version will retail for US$7,100.

Yesterday, we reported about Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba planning to establish a joint venture for small and mid-size LCD panels in Japan. And today, the three companies, plus major shareholder Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, made the plan official.

As reported, the semi-public organization will control 70% of the venture (to be set up by the end of the year), with the other partners holding a 10% stake each. Tentatively named “Japan Display”, the venture will launch with a cool US$2.6 billion investment and instantly control 21.5% of the world market for small and medium-sized LCDs.

According to Japanese business daily The Nikkei, Sharp will be the second-largest maker of this type of displays with a 20% market share. The same newspaper says the four companies involved in Japan Display are currently trying to figure out where to set up plants in order to start production as quickly as possible.

Apart from LCDs, Japan Display will also invest in OLED-related research and development.

Quite big news from Sony, Hitachi, and Toshiba today: according to Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun [JP], the three companies today decided to merge their LCD businesses, at least for smaller and mid-sized screens used in smartphones, handheld gaming devices and tablets.

If the report is to be believed, a joint venture will be set up by the end of the year. What’s interesting is that the so-called Innovation Network Corporation of Japan, a semi-public organization, will control a whopping 70% of the newly formed company. The organization is ready to invest a total of US$2.6 billion (and fend off competition from South Korea, Taiwan and other places).

Sony, Hitachi and Toshiba will hold 10% each of the yet to be named joint venture. It will control over 20% of the world’s market for smaller and mid-sized LCDs, making it the biggest company globally in this field.

We covered the first rumors about the merger back in June.

Sharp in Japan updated their line of AQUOS LCD TVs with the so-called Freestyle AQUOS F5 series [JP]. The four TVs in that series, sized at 20/32/40 and 60 inches have a few common selling points: they are extremely thin, light (one of them is “portable”), and networked.

The 60-inch flagship model (pictured above and below) comes with a UV²A panel with full HD resolution, LED backlight, 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 176-degre viewing angle, 2x10W speakers, an HDMI interface, two USB ports (connecting external HDDs is possible), and Ethernet. It weighs 21kg and is 2.1cm at its thinnest part (3.5cm at the thickest).

The 32- and 40-inch models share the main specs but are much lighter (8.5kg and 5.5kg, respectively), prompting Sharp to choose the term “freestyle” for the series (the company says they can be moved and installed anywhere).

Like the 32-inch AQUOS, the 20-inch model only offers 1,366×780 resolution. The smallest TV in the series is based on a model Sharp showed earlier this year and weighs just 2.5kg . For an extra $80, users can attach a hook to it to make it really portable (see below).

What all the models have in common is IEEE802.11n/IEEE802.11a Wi-Fi and wireless connectivity to Sharp devices, for example AQUOS Blu-ray players or smartphones, and to various video-on-demand services and YouTube.

Sharp plans to start selling their new TVs in Japan from next month (prices: $4,930 for the biggest model, $1,950 for the 40-incher, $1,430 for the 32-inch model and $1,040 for the smallest one).

Sony announced WhiteMagic today, a “next-generation”, 3-inch TFT LCD screen that boasts 1.23M-dot full VGA resolution. What’s special about the display is that it has two distinct modes: if switched to “low power mode”, power consumption of the backlight is pushed down by over 50% to 125mW, with Sony saying brightness in this mode is still comparable to that of conventional LCDs.

When choosing “outdoors mode”, WhiteMagic’s brightness can be boosted from 470 cd/m² to an impressive 1,000 cd/m², while power consumption of the backlight in this mode (300mW) stays about as high as that of conventional screens. By way of comparison: the iPhone 4 reaches a maximum brightness of 500 cd/m².

Sony achieved this by adding a white pixel to the Red-Green-Blue (RGB) pixels and developing an algorithm to correct picture distortion (“RGBW method”).

The company plans to start shipping the first samples as early as October (price: $65 each). It expects WhiteMagic to be used in mobile devices, for example cameras and smartphones (even though it’s not a touchscreen apparently).

What’s interesting is that neither one of the companies but a government-backed investment fund will take a major stake in the new entity, which is expected to be established by the end of this year. That fund, Innovation Network Corp. of Japan, will likely control 70-80% of the entity, according to Japanese business daily The Nikkei (the rest will be shared between Sony and Toshiba).

Toshiba Mobile Display and Sony Mobile Display will cease to exist, and the yet to be named entity will compete with Sharp, the Hitachi-Foxconn alliance, and others in the global small LCD panel market.

Another interesting point is that the Sony-Toshiba move is aimed at getting both companies ready for a post-LCD future: the new entity is supposed to streamline all future R&D in OLED technology by the Sony and Toshiba. So far, big S and big T have been developing OLEDs separately, but they are far behind Samsung, the current global leader in that market.

If you currently look for a large sub display for your computer, Japanese accessory maker Green House has a pretty interesting solution in its pipeline: the GH-USD16K [JP] is a 15.6-inch LCD screen that boasts a power consumption of just 5W and requires only a USB 2.0 connection to work.

Spec-wise, you can expect 1,366 x 768 resolution, 400:1 contrast ratio, and 220cd/m2 brightness. The display is sized at 377.7×141.8×287.8mm and weighs 1.2kg. If you want to go wild, you can connect up to six of the devices to a single machine.

Green House will be selling the GH-USD16K on its Japanese website by the end of this month (price: $215).

Make it bigger in case you really want some attention: that’s what Sharp must have thought when they thought of this 330-inch (8.4m) digital signage display. The company announced [JP] this monster will be installed in Tokyo station (one of the biggest stations in Tokyo) tomorrow.

The display actually consists of a total of eighteen 60-inch screens with 1,366×768 resolution and 700 cd/m² brightness. It features the world’s thinnest system frame width of 6.5 mm and was first unveiled by Sharp in June this year.

Sharp says that apart from the huge size, the system’s main selling point is that it can display multiple contents at the same time, for example commercials on one side and information like news or the weather on the other.

Hitachi was able to push down the touch panel portion of those 1.5mm from 0.5mm to 0.1mm by removing glass substrate and other substances. The company says that its proprietary touch screen control software will be able to suppress the increase in noise emission that comes with thinner screens.

Hitachi plans to start mass production in the second half of next year and expects the new panels to be used for smartphones and other devices.

Apologies for the small picture, it’s the only one available at this point.

What does it mean to the consumer? Probably the same it meant the last three times: very little.

There’s several new models, but they all use LG’s NetCast system. NetCast gives you access to online content like Netflix, VUDU, YouTube, and Picasa directly to your TV. The new televisions also claim to save you energy, something that LCD televisions have been criticized for in the past. The new TVs have an “Intelligent Sensor” that claims to automatically calibrate and optimize brightness, contrast, white balance, and color based on the ambient light in a room. The TVs also also for a “day” and “night” mode, letting you set optimal levels for viewing in your living room.

So let’s talk pricing. Of course, there’s multiple sizes available, at different price points. All of the pricing we have now is MSRP of course, so the street price may be a bit different. The 55-inch, model 55LX9500 is $5,400; the 47-inch, model 47LX9500 is $4,300. Both of these models are 480 Hz, and THX certified. Next we have the 55-inch model 55LX6500 priced at $3,499; and the 47-inch model 47LX6500 at $2,699. These two models are not THX certified, and run at a lower 240 Hz.

LG also announced their latest Blu-ray player today, the BX580. This new player supports both 2D and 3D discs, and also supports LG’s NetCast. The BX580 supports wifi, Blu-ray and DVD disc playback, upscaling, and HDMI 1.4a output. Expect to pay $349.99 for this new model.

View the full press release for the TV’s, and for the Blu-ray player.

Apart from displaying two different pieces of content on two different screens at the same time (the resolution is the highest “in the industry”, according to Sharp), the controller makes it possible to view pictures in full HD (1,920 x 1,080i at 60 Hz or 1,920 x 1,080p at 24 Hz) on externally connected TVs, projectors etc.

Sharp says samples are already available and cost $27 each. The company is expecting mass production (100,000 units per month) to begin in September this year.

In my opinion, it’s a for some kind of hybrid still and video camera. It just feels like something that you’d see on the back of a pretty advanced camcorder, but we still see the manual controls you’d expect on a still camera. Of course, I could be completely wrong, but that’s the fun of it right? Here’s Nikon’s wording from the patent application:

“In a digital still camera, when the reproducing mode is selected, an indication to the effect that the operation is in standby for reproduction is displayed on an indicating device, and if the command dial is not operated until 16 seconds elapses after the indication has been started, the supply of source voltage to the various parts of the camera is stopped, to achieve a reduction in power consumption. If the command dial is operated within 16 seconds, image signals are output to an external monitor and also an indication to the effect that reproduction is in progress is displayed on the indicating device. If the command dial has been operated within three minutes after reproduction of a given photographic frame has been started, reproduction of the following frame is performed, but if the command dial has not been operated until the three minutes have elapsed, the indication to the effect that the operation is in standby for reproduction is displayed again. If the sensitivity changeover switch and the command dial are operated together during reproduction or standby for reproduction, the photographic frame to be reproduced is determined in correspondence to the quantity and direction of the rotation of the command dial and the frame number of the frame thus determined is displayed on the indicating device.”

Nothing really concrete there, right? Well, I’m sure we’ll see what it is later. Here’s some more images from the patent application.

[via Nikon Rumors]

For whatever reason, BenQ’s new line up includes the 18.5-inch GL9320, the 19-inch GL931, the 21.5-inch GL2230, and the 22-inch GL2231. BenQ claims to have the highest contrast ratio in the industry, but I suspect they might have forgot about LG. Or maybe they are calculating hte contrast using a different method. No pricing as of yet, but expect to see the latest from BenQ at your local retailer sometime in July.

[via Electronista]

The Yanko Zero camera looks like what happens when a Motorola Razr mates with a camera. Essentially the idea is that the LCD screen is hinged to fold over the lens, protecting both the camera lens and the LCD screen when the camera is put away. Interesting idea. It’ll be even more interesting if someone decides to actually build one, and put it into production. Until that day, check out Yanko’s site for even more wild ideas.

This is something gadget modder Ben Heck might have thought about, but if yes, Japanese game peripheral maker HORI (which also sells stuff in the US) was faster this time. The company today announced [JP] a portable LCD screen, which, once attached to the top of a PS3 Slim, makes the console (somewhat) portable.

The HP3-87 will be marketed by HORI as a PS3 Slim docking station. It allows users to play games on the go (again: kind of), with images in 720p quality on an 11.6-inch screen with 1,366×768 resolution, 200cd/m2 brightness, 500:1 contrast ratio and 7ms response time. The device is also compatibe with torne, Sony’s Japan-only DVR/TV tuner for PS3.

It’s licensed by Sony and sized at 295×255×55mm. Buyers also get a built-in stereo speaker, two headphone jacks, and component/ multi-AV out interfaces.

Hori is planning to start selling the HP3-87 in Japan on May 27 for $280. No word yet from the company regarding an international release, but Hori says the model announced today is for use in Japan only (it can switch between NTSC and Pal though).