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Sharp AQUOS Ultra HD, 1080p HDTVs eyes-on
Sharp just announced a slew of new HDTVs at its CES 2013 press conference (relive the liveblog now), We've got all the details on the standard models, including pricing right here, but we'll have to wait until the second half of the year to learn more about its AQUOS Ultra HD model. That doesn't mean you have to wait to see it however, we've got a few up close pics of the new high-res champ (until Sharp's 85-inch 8K monster hits the streets anyway), check them out in the gallery. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub. Billy Steele contributed to this report.
Sharp launches AQUOS Ultra HD panel for second half 2013
Sharp announced a 32-inch AQUOS Ultra HD set at CES complementing the other TV launches for this year. Set to debut sometime mid year, the 240Hz 4K panel will feature a 4K upscaler, active 3D with Bluetooth 3D glasses, built in WiFi and a subwoofer to boot. No word on pricing but we'll get back with that as soon as we're able. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Sharp announces second screen support on iOS and Android for its SmartCentral HDTVs
We're here at Sharp's CES 2013 press conference, that it'll release a SmartCentral second screen and remote control app for its Aquos TVs. The service will offer split-screen TV and web browsing support, and users will be able to "flick" photos and videos from their mobile device to the TV, presumably in a similar manner to Sony's Throw. The company is also announcing support for Netflix's second-screen control, previously seen on the PlayStation 3 and a wallpaper mode that'll help your HDTV blend into your wall covering. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Sharp announces new 6-, 7- and 8-Series AQUOS LED TVs as part of 2013 lineup (update: pricing info)
Despite not having the best of years, Sharp has still managed to make its presence felt in the television market -- namely by introducing plenty of AQUOS TVs in recent months, including that 90-inch LED beast we saw back in June of 2012. Today, the Japanese electronics maker is looking to increase its efforts on that front, with the firm adequately choosing this year's CES as the platform to unveil its new lineup of 60-,70- and 80-inch LED televisions in the 6-,7- and 8-Series. For starters, the entry-level 6-Series will boast 1080p capabilities with AQUOMotion 240 (120Hz) as the main driving tech behind it, while the higher-specced (and presumably more expensive) 7- and 8-Series are set to carry the same resolution features (sorry, no 4K here) but with Quattron "color intensification" and AQUOMotion 480 and AQUOMotion 960 technology inside both. Smart and 3D features can also be found in most of Sharp's novel TV models, which should pair nicely with what the company's calling "striking new slim designs." All in all, Sharp is kicking off the new year with about 18 new AQUOS LED TVs -- and for those interested in learning each model name, the presser after the break should help do just that. Update: We have just received pricing information from Sharp, and it looks as if the cheapest model will start off at about $1,500 for the 60-inch, non-3D LC-60LE650, while the most expensive HDTV is set to be the 80-inch LC-80LE857 with a hefty price tag of $6,500 -- both of which will be available in February and April, respectively. In addition, Sharp today also announced its new SmartCentral platform, which will be a one-stop hub for the now-accustomed smart TV applications like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu and Facebook. You'll find more pricing and availability information for the other models inside the updated PR past the jump. Follow all the latest CES 2013 news at our event hub.
Live from Sharp's CES 2013 press conference
Sharp has pushed its displays to be bigger and better each year, and we don't expect CES 2013 to be any different. With its IGZO technology there should be high res screens of all sizes, so tune in to see what's new for this year.
Sharp 'Integrated Cognitive Creation' 60-inch 4K LCD goes from prototype to reality in February
We got a preview of Sharp's "Integrated Cognitive Creation" 60-inch 4K LCD during CES early this year, and now it's almost ready to launch in Japan. Branded the ICC PURIOS, it brings a new premium level above previous AQUOS models, thanks to not only the 3,840 x 2,160 resolution but also professional quality image processing that Sharp says brings "unparalleled realism and excitement." This panel is ready for use in video production, and the LC-60HQ10 is also proudly trumpeting its status as the first THX certified 4K display. All of that'll cost buyers, however and when the build-to-order models start shipping on February 20th, 2013, they'll run 2.62 million yen ($31,376). That might not too much to pay if you're mastering the next James Cameron flick, but we'll be keeping an eye out for slightly lower priced Ultra HD TVs next month in Las Vegas.
WSJ reports Apple has tested TV designs -- don't get too excited
In a saga that makes its lawsuit against Samsung seem like only a brief moment in time, the rumors of an Apple-built HDTV are going around again. After CEO Tim Cook dropped a nugget about TV being an intense area of interest in interviews a few days ago (the exact same thing he said in May), now the Wall Street Journal is reporting rumors from suppliers that it has, for several years, tested designs in concert with companies like Sharp and Foxconn. Of course, reading beyond the headline reveals deep caveats like "Apple ... works with suppliers to test new designs all the time" and "Apple could opt not to proceed with the device" as well as referencing older rumors about team ups with cable or satellite companies, which should let you know that really, nothing has changed. Since this rumor will never die, and the hype will continue to flow when Apple and HDTV are mentioned in the same breath, we'll spell it out for you one more time: no matter what they say or don't say, Apple is -- like nearly every other technology company -- extremely interested in developing products for your living room. They were under Steve Jobs, they are with Tim Cook at the helm. Unfortunately, for reasons ranging from studio licensing agreements to DRM to a lack of access to pay-TV provider data/content, it's very difficult to do with the level of polish and control of experience Apple would like. Microsoft and Sony are spending billions of dollars on their Xbox 360 and PS3 just to grab a foothold in this market, with varying levels of success, while Google's TV project has experienced even tougher growing pains. CBS executive Leslie Moonves explained on a conference call around this time last year why his company had declined to partner with Apple. Read those comments, and you'll probably feel as we do -- until the various regulatory and/or commercial gatekeepers to premium content in the living room change their minds about how the TV business works, it remains just as unlikely that we'll ever experience the products of Apple's tests for ourselves.
Sharp and Qualcomm to team up for energy-efficient IGZO display venture
We already knew that Sharp's been asking around for some much-needed help recently, and now we can all breathe a sigh of relief, as Nikkei is reporting that said manufacturer has finally found a new friend to help co-develop its energy-efficient IGZO LCD panels. Set to announce as soon as Tuesday (presumably Japan time), the deal will involve Qualcomm initially throwing in five billion yen ($61 million) by the end of the year, with a double-down of another five billion yen after "sufficient progress has been made." There's no timeline yet on when (or if) a full investment would be secured, but if all goes to plan, Qualcomm will eventually hold nearly five percent of Sharp's stock, whereas Sharp will more or less get back the 10 billion yen it lost to Sony following the termination of their joint venture earlier this year. Additionally, Sharp will also share some of the IGZO magic with Qualcomm to help improve the latter's Pixtronix MEMS display technology. Not a bad way for the two companies to wrap up 2012, eh? Richard Lai contributed to this report.
Sharp reveals the LL-S201A: a 20-inch multi-touch and stylus-friendly display
Sharp's continuing to push out new displays despite its well-documented financial troubles, and today it's got the LL-S201A model to show us. The 20-inch LED screen supports 10-point multi-touch input, and comes with a stylus which measures 2mm at the tip -- offering greater precision than finger-mimicking nibs of 6mm or more that Sharp says are normally used with capacitive panels. You can stick it on your desk in the standard monitor orientation, but design pros will want to lay it down, although they'll have to be working on a Windows machine (XP and up) as it's not compatible with Cupertino's OS. The 1,920 x 1,080 panel has a 3000:1 contrast ratio and 5ms gray-to-gray response time, and is fed from HDMI- and DisplayPort-ins -- complete with support for MHL on the former. It's due to launch in Japan on January 30th 2013 and, if it comes at a good price, could offer some strong competition to its stylus-friendly peers.
WSJ: Sharp courting US firms for investments, will trade displays for dollars
Loans, cuts and mortgages -- Sharp is doing everything it can to meet its "profitable by 2014" pledge, and according to the Wall Street Journal, it's looking to US suitors to lend a hand. Sources close to the company say that it's offering a stake in Sharp to companies like Dell, Intel and Qualcomm in exchange for a capital investment. So far, all four companies have declined to comment, but investors would reportedly score easy access to Sharp displays, a deal that could be a boon for Dell's hardware division. The display outfit had originally hoped to bolster its bottom line by selling a capital stake to Hon Hai, but the deal fizzled in August. No official numbers have been announced, but the WSJ is being told that Sharp is hoping to take in ¥20 billion (about $240 million) from both Dell and Intel, and is negotiating a more meager investment with Qualcomm. With any luck, the international agreements will keep Sharp afloat long enough for its IGZO-based LCD panels to put some black ink in the firm's ledgers.
Sharp's first 4K 32-inch IGZO LCD is destined for Japanese workstations
We've been waiting to enjoy the promised extra detail and low power consumption of IGZO-based LCD panels for a few years now, and they're finally starting to appear. The latest on the docket is Sharp's new PN-K321 monitor, built for professional use with 4K resolution (3,840 x 2,160) plus HDMI and DisplayPort inputs, and what Sharp claims is the industry's thinnest frame at just 35mm thick. With an expected price of 450,000 yen or so (about $5,500 US) when it debuts in February 2013 it's still too pricey for our desks but if you're doing CAD work you may be able to design a budget it can fit into. We're seeing them in phones, tablets and now monitors overseas, here's hoping we'll see plenty of these high pixel density yet power-sipping panels with US release dates at CES in January.
Sharp ships its first phone with an IGZO display on November 29th, ushers in a low-power LCD era
The gray clouds of Sharp's gloomy earnings are about to get a silver lining: NTT DoCoMo is at last launching Sharp's new flagship phone, the breathlessly worded Aquos Phone Zeta SH-02E, on November 29th. When it arrives, the SH-02E will be its* first smartphone to carry an IGZO-based display and show us just how well the high-brightness, low-energy invention fares in a 4.9-inch, 720p LCD. There's no known fixed pricing, although it's likely the Android 4.0 device will be sitting at the very top of its Japanese carrier's range through its Snapdragon S4 Pro, 16-megapixel camera and LTE data. Not fully convinced of IGZO's worth? Fujitsu's more conventional Arrows V F-04E is arriving a day earlier with a regular LCD and a Tegra 3, although we'd say that it's worth waiting the extra 24 hours to be a technology vanguard. Update: While the SH-02E was the first phone announced with an IGZO LCD screen, it's been beaten to the market by ASUS' Padfone 2, which is also rocking the new technology.
Sharp unveils bright, 90-inch LCD for uncannily life-sized signage
It would be a shame if Sharp kept that giant 90-inch AQUOS TV confined to living rooms, wouldn't it? The company is inclined enough to agree that it's building an industrial version, the PN-R903, for digital signs. Its 1080p resolution and local-dimming LEDs are as familiar as a well-worn pair of shoes, but that 6-foot, 8-inch width lets Sharp claim a record for public spaces: the R903 is supposedly the first LCD sign with its technology that can display average humans at real size when tilted to a portrait view, making it an ideal fit for fashion or most anything where one-for-one scale matters. The 700cd/m2 brightness helps by keeping the picture visible in harsher lighting. If you're not quite ready for the uncanny valley, you'll be glad to know that the R903 won't ship until January 28th, when it goes on sale with open pricing. Those who'd still prefer something less imposing can buy a 60-inch PN-R603 at the same time or wait for the 70-inch PN-R703 to grace storefronts on February 25th.
Sharp Cocorobo vacuum gets new Android app, lets you control it from afar
Perhaps in response to iRobot's recent Wireless Command Center, Sharp has introduced a new Android app that lets you remotely control the company's little Cocorobo while you're out of the house. You can map out your floor plan so that it'll know what objects to avoid, specify cleaning patterns and even receive carpet-view photos so you can admire the robot vacuum's handiwork. If you attach an optional Navi controller to its USB port, you can even use the app to control other Sharp devices like televisions, air conditioning systems and LED lights. Sharp also introduced a smaller version of the Cocorobo, the RX-V60, which measures about 4.7cm less than the original. Designed to fit in tighter spaces, the RX-V60 will be available in Japan for 75,000 yen ($900) starting December 13th. Check out the video after the break to peek at the new smartphone app and miniaturized vacuum 'bot.
Sharp Aquos SH930W reviewed early in Russia, mates Sharp's 1080p screen with a mid-tier phone
Lest you think HTC has a complete lock on Sharp's supply of extra-dense 5-inch, 1080p screens for the Droid DNA and J Butterfly, Sharp itself is building a phone around the giant LCD. The Aquos Phone SH930W slightly rethinks the internals of HTC's new Android 4.1 flagship to make it more affordable, doubling the non-expandable storage to 32GB but scaling back to a dual-core, 1.5GHz Snapdragon S3 and dropping the currently unsupported LTE. That cost-cutting will be vital, as the SH930W is headed to a more price-sensitive Russia first, in late November -- one of the few (if not only) times that Sharp has tailored a smartphone to a country other than its native Japan. The 22,000-ruble ($694) off-contract price in Russia could undercut mere 720p rivals that often cost 25,000 rubles ($789) or more. It's an odd phone by any account, and Mobile-review was curious enough to snag a pre-release SH930W for an early inspection. While the device under the microscope was running vanilla Android rather than the planned Feel UX and may easily have a fair share of buggy code, initial benchmarks seem to validate fears of a mismatch between the display and an underpowered chip: the S3 is fast enough for common tasks at that resolution, but chokes with playing 1080p video and certain 3D games. Anyone buying the extra-large Aquos Phone will mostly be choosing it for the good battery life, the camera and that killer price, the site says. We'll admit to being slightly disappointed at such a pedestrian fate for Sharp's screen so soon into its lifespan, although we suspect performance-minded Muscovites could get a chance at a much faster HTC Deluxe in the near future.
Sharp expects to post $1.94 billion operating loss for the year, score a meager Q2 operating profit
Sharp hasn't quite laid out its Q2 2012 financials, but it has laid down some bittersweet projections. According to Reuters, the Japanese firm hopes to post an operating profit for the current term, but will take a $1.94 billion loss for the year as a whole. This prediction is a tad more dismal then its earlier forecast, which predicted a $1.25 billion loss for 2012. The TV maker also cut its predicted net loss from ¥240 billion to ¥450 billion ($5.6 billion). Sharp still is hoping its cuts, layoffs and mortgages weren't in vain -- and a short term profit for Q2 could be all it needs to vindicate the $4.6 billion loan it took out in September. Sharp also said it was penning in $1.1 billion for restructuring expenses in Q2, hopefully helping it stay on track for its 2014 profitability goal.
AUO develops IGZO-based, 65-inch 4K TV screen, vows high resolution without the high power
It's now clear that Sharp doesn't have an exclusive lock on IGZO displays, even for the big-screen TVs that are still the company's domain. AU Optronics has developed a 65-inch IGZO panel that wields the very light-friendly technology to reach 4K resolutions without the usual penalties -- as the screen doesn't need much backlighting to illuminate all those pixels, it can stay slim and keep the shocking energy bills to a minimum. The smaller size and miserly power draw also leave a real chance that any pricing will be closer to the mere mortal realm than current 84-inch behemoths. And while it's mostly up to other companies to decide if and when they use AUO's flagship display, we'll have choices of our own should the IGZO TV still be too rich for our blood: the Taiwan firm has simultaneously developed a more conventional, 55-inch 4K screen with a wide color range as well as a 50-inch, 1080p panel with an extra-skinny 0.14-inch bezel. It's at least good to know that there's already competition for technology that's just getting started.
Sharp announces first TVs with Moth-Eye technology: the AQUOS XL series
Sharp may look like it's in trouble, but that's not stopping it bringing new displays to the market, including today's announcement of the AQUOS Quattron 3D XL TV line. Behind the mouthful of acronyms, these LED-backlit LCD panels are the first to feature Sharp's Moth-Eye technology, designed to reduce glare and pump out bright colors, as well as a deep black. The company's 'four primary color' tech is partly responsible for the rich output, which squeezes a yellow sub-pixel in with the standard R, G and B. All the panels run at 1,920 x 1,080, as you'd expect, sport a 10 million to 1 contrast ratio and use five speakers to deliver audio. Prices aren't fixed, but the 46-, 52- and 80-inch models will be released in Japan on December 15th, while the 60- and 70-inch variants will come slightly earlier, on November 30th. You're going to have to be quick on launch day, though -- only 10,000 units are expected to be available in the first month.
Sharp's 7-inch AQUOS Pad SHT21 brings low-power IGZO LCD tech to tablets in Japan
The AQUOS Phone Zeta SH-02E was first with Sharp's new IGZO LCD technology a few days ago and it's been followed quickly by another device, the AQUOS Pad SHT21. Scheduled to debut on Japanese carrier KDDI in mid-December, this 7-inch slate claims battery life of up to two and a half times greater than the previous model thanks to the low-power characteristics of its display, and weighs just 280g. It's powered by a 1.5GHz dual-core MSM8960 Snapdragon S4 CPU, and features a 1280x800 screen resolution, pen input, 1GB RAM, 16GB built-in storage, microSDXC slot, Bluetooth 4.0, MHL, NFC, 3,460mAh battery and 4G LTE capability. Hit the source link for more details courtesy of Engadget Japanese.
KDDI unveils HTC J Butterfly (HTL21), the first phone with 5-inch 1080p display
We've been hearing about a certain 5-inch HTC phablet for Verizon since July, but it looks like its Japanese counterpart may actually hit the market first. Unveiled by KDDI as the HTC J Butterfly (HTL21), this Android 4.1 device is the first announced phone to feature a 5-inch, 440ppi full-HD "Super LCD 3" panel, and it's fittingly complemented by a 1.5GHz quad-core APQ8064 underneath, making this the latest member in the small family of Snapdragon S4 Pro phones. There's an eight-megapixel camera that naturally handles 1080p video at the back, accompanied by a 2.1-megapixel front-facing imager. Other details include 2GB RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSDHC expansion, 802.11a/b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 (LE), NFC, LTE and CDMA/GSM/UMTS/GPRS radios -- that's right, it's a global device. Not bad for a 140g package, and it's waterproof as well, rated at IPX5. But the question is how well will the 2,020mAh battery last under that super dense LCD and high-end processor? Only time will tell -- even KDDI has yet to finalize this part of the specs. Folks on the KDDI network can grab hold of this powerful phone in early December, with a choice of red, white or black. Update: HTC confirmed to us that this phablet will use panels supplied by Sharp and JDI.
