Posted 11/13/08 at 09:26:29 AM by Paul Lilly

Sharp, LG, and Chunghwa have each agreed to plead guilty to a price-fixing conspiracy related to LCD display panels and will pay $585 million in criminal fines, the Justice Department said. The plea agreements were filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, California.

"These price-fixing conspiracies affected millions of America consumers who use computers, cell phones, and numerous other household electronics every day," said Thomas Barnett, Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust at the Justice Department n Washington.

The extent of the losses as a result of the alleged price fixing conspiracy remains unknown, but Barnett said he expected to outline the damages at the time of sentencing. According to the Justice Department, LG Phillips, who plead guilty to participating a conspiracy from 2001 to 2006 to set LCD panel pricing worldwide, will be hit the hardest and ordered to pay $400 million. That ranks as the second highest criminal fine ever imposed for price fixing.

Sharp will pay $120 for its alleged role in three separate conspiracies with unnamed partners who sold price-fixed panels to Dell for monitors and laptops, Motorola for Razr phones, and Apple for use in iPods. Chunghwa will pay $65 for participating with LG and other unnamed co-conspirators.

The Justice Department warned that the investigation is ongoing, meaning more charges could be brought against individuals from each firm or from other firms.

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lcd, display, legal, hardware, LG, sharp, price fixing, chunghwa

Posted 10/16/08 at 09:48:48 AM by Paul Lilly

The decision of whether or not to pick up a Blu-ray player at the same time an HDTV is purchased may soon get a little easier, as the two are poised to come together in a single package.  As of next month, Sharp will become the first company to offer an LCD HDTV with a built-in Blu-ray player and recorder.

• 26" LC-26DX1(1366x768)
• 32" LC-32DX1 (1366x768)
• 37" LC-37DX1 (1366x768)
• 42" LC-42DX1 (1920x1080)
• 46" LC-46DX1 (1920x1080)
• 52" LC-52DX2 (1920x1080)

Sharp's new Aquos DX series will allow viewers to watch a program on one channel while recording on another at the same time. By supporting H.264/MPEG4 AVC encoding, Sharp says its built-in recorder will be able to hold up to 11 hours of high-definition video in 720p on a single 25GB Blu-ray disc.

Pricing will start at about $1700 for the 26-inch model and run up to $5000 for the 52-inch set. Japan gets first crack at the new sets starting on November 20, with U.S. availability by the end of the year.

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Blu-ray, HDTV, consumer electronics, sharp

Posted 09/11/08 at 03:49:17 AM by Pulkit Chandna

Opera Software has been formally initiated into the Symbian Foundation, the body that now oversees the development of the Symbian platform. Opera isn’t the only new initiate as some other companies including Sharp have also joined the Symbian Forum. Nokia decided to turn Symbian into an open-source platform, governed by a consortium, after it bought the remaining shares in UK-based Symbian earlier this year. More than 40 companies have joined the consortium since its inception in June, 2008. Opera Software, for its part, has emerged as a major player in the world of mobile web browsers. It will be an important cog in the Symbian wheel.

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Software, open-source, Nokia, web browser, sharp, mobile browser, opera software, mobile phones, symbian forum

Posted 07/23/08 at 08:10:57 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung, Sharp, Sony and Amimon have joined forces and formed the Wireless High-Def Interface Special Interest Group (WHDI SGI), an initiative to standardize the transmission of wireless high definition content to various devices using Amimon’s promising WHDI technology. WHDI uses the exact unlicensed 5GHz band of spectrum as 802.11a but utilizes its own proprietary protocol.

Using the WHDI standard it is possible to transmit 1080p uncompressed content using two 20MHz channels and 1080i and 720p on a lone 20MHz channel. It can send high definition content ripping through walls up to 30 m, with a latency of only 1 millisecond. However, the members of the newly formed consortium are not bound to integrate the technology in their products.

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wireless, samsung, sony, high definition, consumer electronics, sharp, motorola, amimon, whdi

Posted 07/08/08 at 07:52:51 PM by Pulkit Chandna

Pioneer has to its credit a $145 Blu-ray player - on sale only in China, perhaps the cheapest BRD player in the world. However, it was a tad watchful during the course of the format war. Now with Blu-ray having emerged victorious, Pioneer is making a deeper commitment to it. It has announced plans to launch Blu-ray recorders by the end of the year in Japan. The recorders will be developed with some help from its minority owner Sharp (14% stake), which is amongst the six Japanese majors currently offering Blu-ray recorders.

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HD DVD, hardware, consumer electronics, build a pc, pioneer, japan, sharp, blu-ray recorders

Posted 07/07/08 at 09:14:22 AM by Pulkit Chandna

In today’s world, people are beginning to judge each other based on their carbon karma and the power consumed by the gadgets they own. Sharp has developed a solar-powered LCD TV for all the alternative-energy patrons and parsimonious energy spenders. The LCD TV is three times more energy efficient than a regular CRT TV. And this frugal use of energy allows the LCD to completely depend on solar energy. A 26-inch prototype is on show at the upcoming Hokkaido Toyako Summit, Japan - better known as the G8 summit.

Sharp has also developed a solar cell module of the same size as the LCD TV to power it. The two will most probably be sold in conjugation, as if inseparable technological cognates. The company is targeting the product towards about 1/4th of the earth’s population which still has no or intermittent access to electricity. Many of these people might be living in such underdeveloped and impoverished places that they would be more interested in basic necessities of life than such flash technology.

But, of course, if Sharp can successfully sell this to even a very few of the world’s electricity-deprived populace, it certainly will be very happy.

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consumer electronics, japan, sharp, lcd tv, solar powered, solar panel, g8 summit 2008

Posted 06/24/08 at 05:40:23 PM by Pulkit Chandna

TV manufacturers are literally contesting every inch and when most gadgets are shrinking – in keeping with the dominant small-is-beautiful spirit of our times, TV manufacturers are spending millions on adding extra inches to LCDs and Plasmas. Now Sharp has unveiled the largest LCD TV in the world, a 108” behemoth.

The Sharp LB-1085 108” LCD is now on sale across Europe, and an outrageous sum of $185,000 and a ridiculous 16 weeks of delivery time is all that separates European consumers from it.

It is certainly not the TV you can move around your house at will as it weighs a staggering 430 pounds. It features Full HD, 400 CD brightness, 1200:1 contrast ratio and 6 ms response time. Its U.S launch is slated for September.

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lcd, tv, sharp, world's largest, europe