Todays & Tomorrows Technology

Sharp have announced a new range of AQUOS LED-backlit LCD TVs, the LE700 series, ranging in size from 32- to 52-inches. Each offering Full HD 1080p, they use Sharp’s X-Gen LCD panel with 10-bit processing and a dynamic contrast ratio in excess of 2,000,000:1.

The 52-inch and 46-inch sets also have a dejudder function, while all four include 120Hz refresh and 4ms pixel response time. Viewing angles are supposedly 176-degrees, while LED lifespan is expected to be 100,000 hours.

Connectivity includes four HDMI v1.3 ports, two component inputs, integrated ATSC, QAM and NTSC tuners, PC input and RS-232C for custom installations. A USB port allows for photos and MP3s to be played, and there’s also AQUOS Net – aside from on the 32-incher – which brings weather, stock, gaming and news reports to the HDTVs.

All four new HDTVs will be available this month in the US. The 52-inch LC-52LE700UN is priced at $2,799.99; the 46-inch LC-46LE700UN is priced at $2,199.99; the 40-inch LC-40LE700UN is priced at $1,699.99; and the 32-inch LC-32LE700UN is priced at $1,099.99.

We can’t say we looked at the Sharp Mebius NJ70A netbook – with its nifty touchscreen trackpad – and thought “what this needs is a second touchscreen”, but then we’re not SKY at UMPC Fever. After unboxing the N270-based netbook, he loaded up Windows 7 and then installed a touchscreen layer so as to use handwriting recognition direct onto the 10-inch display.

Interestingly, while he had the NJ70A open, SKY discovered that the optical trackpad actually has its own processor and RAM, meaning it doesn’t rely on the netbook’s own Atom CPU. He’s now trying to identify exactly what those mysterious components are.

Other hardware details include two RAM slots inside, which makes upgrading from the standard 1GB straightforward. XP will only recognize a maximum of 2GB; Windows Vista will recognize 3GB; and Windows 7 will recognize 3GB but only allow you to use 2GB.

Sharp’s Mebius NJ70A is still too rich for our blood – $1,000 or thereabouts is simply too much to pay for a netbook, no matter how slick its touchscreen trackpad - but that doesn’t mean we’re not interested in lapping up all the information about the distinctive ultraportable that we can. UMPC Fever have acquired one of the Atom N270 netbooks and promptly shot a video unboxing.
It’s not just the trackpad – which is actually a 4-inch optical-touchscreen running at super-crisp 854 x 480 resolution – which makes this netbook stand out physically. The huge Mebius logo, basically a stylized Möbius strip, certainly stands out on the lid, but it’s arguably more attractive than a massive Sharp logo.

Inside, there’s an easily accessible Gigabyte WiFi module and Fujitsu 160GB hard-drive; the RAM also looks pretty easy to reach too. We’re just hoping that Sharp see sense and drop the touchscreen into their more grown-up ultraportables; pair it with something other than an Atom N270 and a somewhat more realistic price and you’d have a real winner.

Samsung may have managed to get several models from Sharp’s TV and monitor ranges banned from import into the US, after convincing the U.S. International Trade Commission that the products infringe one of its patents. The IP refers to LCD display technology, with sets from Sharp’s Aquos range of HDTVs named as potentially in violation.
While ruling against other Samsung patents the company had accused Sharp of violating, the agency decided that one particular patent, granted in 2004 and titled “Liquid Crystal Display having wide viewing angle”, was indeed infringed. The ITC are now suggesting that Sharp LCD products should be banned from import into the US.

A final ruling in Sharp’s complaint against Samsung is yet to be reached, though an ITC administrative judge actually Sharp’s spokesperson declined to comment on the ongoing process, while Samsung could not be reached for a statement.

It’s Monday morning, so what better way to start the day than with two netbooks most people can’t officially buy. Sharp’s Mebius NJ70A is one such device, complete with a touchscreen display in place of a traditional trackpad and Intel’s Atom N270 CPU, while the 1.86GHz Sony VAIO P25G has the faster Atom Z540 processor currently unavailable through official channels in the US. After the cut there’s a boot race video, plus more details on that surprisingly clever touchscreen.

Contrary to initial belief, the touchscreen used in the NJ70A isn’t a standard capacitive panel such as you might find gracing the front of the iPhone 3G S; nor is it a resistive panel. In fact, the Sharp netbook uses a 4-inch “photosensitive” screen, which can not only respond to finger-touch but also pen input for recognizing Chinese, Korean and Japanese handwriting.

What will be particularly interesting is whether such displays – which seemingly combine the touch-feel of capacitive with the stylus-flexibility of resistive – transition over into Windows Mobile devices. Microsoft have justified their mobile platform’s dependence on resistive touchscreens as that it caters for handwriting recognition, important in Asian markets.

While you're replacing your household incandescent light-bulbs with LEDs in a bid to save energy and possibly cash (over the 40,000-hour lifespan) you might want to consider these remote-controlled lamps from Sharp. The DL-L60AV gives you on/off and dimming functions as well as the ability to adjust the light in seven shades of white to warm up or cool down the glow. Best of all, they screw into a standard E26 socket for a one-to-one exchange with your existing ocean warmers. The features of the remote control are still unclear (lighting zone support, range of operation, etc.) but it appears to work with multiple-lamps in parallel which is a nice touch. However, we'd like to see Sharp integrate a Z-Wave or ZigBee chipset so we could link these directly (without special wall-switches) into a tricked-out home automation and power managment system. The DL-series start at ¥3880 (about $40) for simple LED lights before hitting ¥7980 (about $82) for the fully-equipped DL-L60AV and begin shipping July 15th in Japan.