Sharp unveils Android phone

MODELS displaying Sharp’s new Android-based smartphone, the IS-03, in Tokyo on Monday. The new smartphone, equipped with a double 3.5-inch high-resolution, low-consumption LCD, and a 9.57-megapixel camera, will go on sale in Japan at the end of this year. (PHOTO: AFP)

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Sharp challenges rivals in lucrative e-reader market

TOKYO

SHARP said on Tuesday that it would launch an e-reader this year, which can handle text as well as video and audio content, in a bid to challenge Apple and other rivals in the lucrative market.

The Japanese electronics giant said that it had updated its e-book format with the “nextgeneration XMDF” platform, an advanced multimedia version of the XMDF format for text and still images that it launched in 2001.

“The next-generation XMDF enables easy viewing of digital content, including video and audio, and allows automatic adjustment of the layout to match and meet publishers’ needs,” Sharp said in a statement.

Sharp plans to begin the service and sell two types of e-readers, which resemble Apple’s iPhone and iPad, by the end of the year in Japan, and will then also export the gadgets.

“Now, there is a lot of attention on the e-publishing business,” Mr Masami Obatake, a senior Sharp official, told a news of this year will be good timing.”

The company said it had already reached basic accords with major Japanese publishers
and newspaper companies on content, adding that it was open to further collaboration to establish an e-book market.

In late May, Sony announced a similar plan jointly with telecoms operator KDDI, the Asahi Shimbun newspaper company and the Toppan printing company, with each company taking a 25 per cent stake.
AFP

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Aquos Quattron LE820M series LED TV

Sharp Aquos Quattron TV rich in colours and features

At a time when 3DTVs are all the rage, Sharp's newly launched Aquos Quattron LE820M series LED TV (available in 40, 46 and 52 inches) boldly ditches the third dimension in favour of a four-colour filter system - red, green, blue and yellow - called Quattron technology. That's one more colour than the traditional red-green-blue (RGB) system found in other HDTVs.

With yellow thrown into the mix, a wider range of colour tones can be reproduced, so Quattron-enabled TVs can deliver more photo-realistic colours, like brilliant sunflower yellows, sparkly golds and vibrant emerald-greens of the ocean, whereas other HDTVs have to resort to close approximations of those true colours.

The four-colour system is coupled with Sharp's LED-backlit X-Gen panel that enhances light efficiency and eliminates backlight leakage to achieve a higher contrast ratio. In addition, 100/120-hertz Fire Motion Advanced technology reduces motion blur.

Colours are not the only thing the LE820M series is rich in; features, too. Four HDMI slots, a USB 2.0 port, and network connectivity via Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) protocols ensure that you can input content from many sources. A wide variety of video and audio formats are supported, too, from common formats like .avi and .mov to the rare but nonetheless popular Matrovska files (.mkv) that feature XviD and H.264 compression.

The LE820M series does not support 3D. Sharp representatives at the LE820M launch event today said that 3D-enabled Quattron sets are forthcoming - they were announced in Japan in late May - but they will be rolled out in home territory first before markets like Europe, United States and Asia are considered.

The Sharp Quattron LE820M TVs will be available this month (prices unavailable).

Online Only - Sharp Aquos Quattron TV rich in colours and features
by Sim Cheng Kai
08:40 PM Jul 02, 2010

http://www.todayonline.com/Tech/EDC100702-0000323/Online-Only---Sharp-Aquos-Quattron-TV-rich-in-colours-and-features

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In Sharp definition

SHARP, Japan’s electronics giant, unveiled a new multi-screen-display system in Tokyo
yesterday.

One multi-screen consists of 6X5 60-inch LCD displays with the world’s thinnest panel frame. The bezel width between neighbouring displays is only 6.5mm.

Each 30-screen display can show 8kX4k high-definition images. The system will be available for purchase
from the end of August.
(PHOTO: AFP)

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