The zombie kid isn’t the only one that likes turtles. Microsoft does too. At least that is what the Project Pink phone prototypes indicate. Above are the first screenshots of the devices, called the Turtle and the Pure.
The Turtle and the Pure phones will be made by Sharp. Sharp was the company behind the Sidekick hardware, made by Danger. Danger is a telecommunications company that Microsoft bought a couple of years ago for $500 million. Rumor also has it that the Turtle and the Pure will have their own app store and will complement the Zune.
Epson Imaging Devices has plead guilty to price fixing LCD screens that were sold to Motorola. As a result, the company will be paying $26 million for the conspiracy. Epson Imaging Devices is a subsidiary of Seiko Epson. Motorola used the LCD panels for their Razr mobile phone devices between 2005 and 2006.
During the time of the conspiracy, Epson was called Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices. The U.S. Department of Justice accused Epson for meeting with competitors and agreeing to set the prices of LCDs that were sold to Motorola.
This past December, LG made a similar confession to the U.S. DOJ. LG was sentenced to pay $400 million for price-fixing LCDs. Around the same time Sharp paid $120 million for the same charge. Sharp fixed the prices of LCDs that were sold to Apple, Motorola, and Dell.
About one month later, Chunghwa Picture Tubes plead guilty and was forced to pay $65 million. This past May, Hitachi paid $31 million for selling fixed-price LCDs to Dell.
Last year Sharp introduced the world’s first HDTV with Blu-ray players. Ever since then Sharp has been on top of their Blu-ray game. This year Sharp is releasing a new TV that has Blu-ray recording capabilities. The problem is that the DX2 series of TVs made by Sharp are only in Japan so far.
The 1080p AQUOS HDTV is available in 40″, 46″, and 52″. The 720p AQUOS HDTV is available in 32″ and 26″. The AQUOS TVs will be able to burn about 30 hours of HD video on dual-layer Blu-ray discs. The price of the HDTVs range from ¥170,000 ($1,740) from the lower end to ¥480,000 ($4,946.40) on the higher end.
Some of the mobile phones that are being released in Japan before the U.S. are just plain cool. Check out the touchscreen Sharp AQUOS SHOT 933SH. This phone has a 10 megapixel camera with a low-noise CCD sensor. The screen also works as point-and-shoot mode for the camera. The screen is a 3.3″ WVGA display with global roaming capabilities. If they bring this sleek-silver device to the U.S., I think it would sell very well here.
Sharp has introduced a new laptop that features an LCD screen as the trackpad. The Sharp Mebius PC-NJ70A has an LCD built in to the trackpad. The screen can output 854×480 and the brightness automatically adjusts to ambient light. The trackpad also can be used as a secondary display for programs.
Surprisingly the PC-NJ70A is not a laptop, it is a netbook. Having a trackpad like this instantly distinguishes this netbook from the rest of the competition. Other features include a 10.1″ display screen, 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB RAM, 160GB hard drive, 3 USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, Bluetooth, WiFi and multicard reader. The netbook runs on Vista which may require some sort of RAM upgrade since 1GB is not enough.
Although a price has not be announced for the U.S. market yet, rumor has it that it will cost $800 in Japan.
A District Court in Tokyo has sided with Samsung Electronics in an LCD panel patent dispute against Sharp. Samsung filed the lawsuit around June 2008 and claimed that Sharp was infringing on their patents. Samsung has a patent on “a LCD module manufacturing technology.” Sharp was order to halt production, import, and export of their LC-32D10 LCD TV.
Last month Sharp won a patent dispute against Samsung too. Sharp claimed that an LCD module that was included in several TVs manufactured by Samsung violated their parents. The patent reflected upon LCD technologies such as wide viewing angles and enhance resposne speeds.
Electronics company Hitachi will be paying $31 million in fines to settle a role in a conspiracy involving selling fixed prices of LCD display panels to Dell. Hitachi Displays committed the act along with LG, Chunghwa, and Sharp. Between the period of April 1, 2001 and March 31, 2004 – Hitachi met with companies in Japan, Korea, and the U.S. to discuss prices for LCDs. Hitachi also agreed to cooperate with further investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice.
This past December LG was found guilty for conspiracy and had to pay $400 million. This is the second largest fine every imposed by the Antitrust Division. Executives from LG and Chunghwa also had to serve time for between 6 and 9 months along with paying a fine. About $585 million in criminal fines have been made against all of the companies involved.
