Sharp is getting smarter. The company is moving into the smart TV space with SmarTCentral. The smart TV platform brings industry-standard apps and functions to the entire Sharp 2012 TV line.
The platform should be familiar. In all honest there isn’t much new here. Netflix, Vudu, YouTube, and all the other standard content apps are present. But at least Sharp is keeping up with the Jones. → Read More
Sharp. Everyone likes Sharp. They can do wrong, really, and they are taking the stage next at CES 2012. Their press conference, which is embedded after the jump, is set to kick off at 11:00 am PST. Expect thin LCDS and perhaps a thin LCD with Google TV built in. The event is expect to take 45 minutes. We’ll be there live as well, ready to post on whatever exciting products coming from The House of Sharp. → Read More
It seems Sharp saw good sales when the company launched the so-called AQUOS PHONE THE HYBRID 007SH on the Japanese market, the world’s first clamshell Android phone. Today, Sharp’s AQUOS PHONE IS14SH [JP] went on sale in Japan, and again they squeezed a ton of smartphone functions into a feature phone body.
The obvious target here are customers who want to type on a physical slide-out keypad but don’t want to miss out on the typical specs a Japanese Android phone is offering. → Read More
Smartphones are soon to become thinner: Sharp has developed a 1/3.2-inch CMOS camera module that’s just 5.47mm high, making it the thinnest module out there. The so-called RJ63YC100 features 12.1MP resolution, optical image stabilization and is specifically designed for use in handsets.
Sharp says it used “proprietary high-density packaging technology” to make the back-illuminated module as thin as possible. The device supports full HD video shooting and is sized at 11.0×11.0×5.47mm. → Read More
In September 2010, Sharp announced a 5.5- and a 10.8-inch Android tablet for the Japanese market, followed by a 7-inch version in August this year. After seeing they had no chance against the iPad 2, Sharp discontinued the first two “Galapagos” models, with the industry betting not on if but when they will stop producing the 7-inch tablet.
But Sharp isn’t ready to give up on the booming tablet market: the company announced yet another Android Galapagos model for the Japanese market yesterday, the Galapagos EB-A71GJ-B. → Read More
Solar energy has just made one step forward: Sharp announced that it has developed a solar cell boasting the world’s highest conversion efficiency of 36.9%. This number is 1.1 points higher than for the company’s last cell, which was unveiled in October 2009.
The new 1cm2 solar cell consists of three layers made of indium gallium phosphide, gallium arsenide and indium gallium arsenide (see below). Sharp says it was able to increase the conversion efficiency by using new materials and reducing the resistance of the junctions connecting the layers. → Read More
Full HD resolution (1,920×1,080 pixels) isn’t enough for Sharp. The company has developed [JP] a TV that’s capable of producing images with 3,840×2,160 resolution and is ready to show the device to the public during the CEATEC 2011 exhibition that takes place next week near Tokyo.
The 60-inch 4K TV has been developed in cooperation with the I3 (I-cubed) Research Center in Kawasaki. I am assuming Sharp will share more detailed specs when they bring the prototype to CEATEC (so far, only the size and resolution have been revealed). → Read More
Is this finally the beginning of Japanese Android phones being made available outside their home market? Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo yesterday announced it has inked a deal with French telco Orange to bring a Sharp Android handset to Asia and Europe.
The handset in question is a pretty nice one, the AQUOS PHONE SH80F (pictured), that Sharp introduced (together with Docomo) in Japan back in May. → Read More
Sharp has been producing quite a few nice Android phones for the Japanese market lately (with a 25% share, it’s the leading manufacturer over here), and today, the company introduced [JP] another great-looking handset, the AQUOS PHONE 102SH.
Local carrier SoftBank will start distributing the phone in Japan in December as part of its fall/winter line-up. And there can be now doubt that subscribers can get a real monster with this model. → Read More
About a year ago, Sharp decided to enter the rapidly growing tablet market with the terribly named Galapagos, two Android devices sized at 5.5 and 10.8 inches that went on sale in Japan last December. The company then launched a 7-inch version on the Japanese market last month and announced that model will hit the US “this year”.
But sales must have been really bad for the initial models, the 5.5- and the 10.8-inch versions, as Sharp Japan today announced [JP] it will stop taking orders for the Galapagos in those sizes from September 30. The company said, however, that it will continue to offer the 7-inch version in Japan (where it costs US$587). → Read More
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). → Read More
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. → Read More
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). → Read More
Sharp just did the unthinkable. The RW-T107 Gingerbread tablet is actually useful and gives businesses a new way to interact with consumers with a built-in NFC and RFID reader. This is the future, kids.
The tablet itself is of the 7-inch Gingerbread variety. It’s of a standard build and includes microUSB, a HDMI port, SIM card slot, and a headphone jack. Sharp expects to release 5,000 a month starting next month and it will likely be reserved for the commercial market and not hit the consumer channels. It’s only meant for the Japanese market where RFID payment cards are commonplace and NFC mobile wallets are gaining traction. → Read More
Japan gets an Android-based “Yahoo Phone” [JP]: what may sound weird at first is actually not that surprising a news item, given that Yahoo is the country’s biggest website. Add to the fact that the country’s third biggest mobile carrier SoftBank, the provider of the phone, is Yahoo Japan’s biggest shareholder, and the emergence of such a handset makes even more sense. → Read More
If you thought Android and clamshell handsets won’t fit, think again: Sharp today introduced [JP] the so-called AQUOS PHONE THE HYBRID 007SH, a flip phone running on Android 2.3. It’s the first of its kind (at least by a major company), but that’s not all the device has to offer. → Read More
Can you imagine owning a TV with 16 times the resolution of HDTV (or, in other words, about the same resolution as IMAX)? That’s 7,680×4,320 pixels, and today Sharp (in cooperation with Japanese national TV broadcaster NHK) showed a 85-inch LCD TV boasting that spec, also known as Ultra HDTV or Super Hi-Vision. → Read More
We covered NTT Docomo‘s smartphone line-up for this summer here, but Japan’s leading mobile carrier also revealed 11 new feature phones today. And here are all of them listed up. → Read More
Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo has announced its summer line-up of cell phones today, and we have squeezed all their nine new smartphones (plus Fujitsu’s Windows 7/Symbian hybrid) into this article for your reading pleasure (click here for a list of all new feature phones). → Read More
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