July 3 - 1:35pm EDT   The iPhone is currently the best-selling smartphone in Japan, at least at retail, according to a recent survey. Gathered by research firm BCN, data from 2,300 stores shows the 8GB iPhone 3G as the most popular smartphone, followed by its 16GB sibling. Ranking third in the survey is the NTT DoCoMo Aquos SH-04A, designed by Sharp; RIM's BlackBerry Bold ranks sixth, and a full four slots in the list are occupied by devices from HTC. [full story]

June 24 - 5:45pm EDT   A number of Sharp LCD TVs have been banned from unlicensed import to the US, as part of a ruling resulting from a patent dispute with Samsung, according to Bloomberg. The two electronics manufacturers have been battling over technology used in the displays, specifically "apertures formed in the conductive layer comprising the electrode." The technology is utilized in LCD panels with wide viewing angles. [full story]

June 4 - 2:20pm EDT   Today's featured deal of the day from DealNN is on the Sharp Aquos Blu-ray player from OneCall.com. It is regularly priced at $249.95, but has been reduced to $219.95, and a fathers day promo code drops the price again by $20 to $199.95 making this the lowest total price we could find on this Blu-ray player by about $45. The Sharp Blu-ray player features 1080p HD-resolution and provides playback of Blu-ray discs as well as DVDs and CDs with full up-conversion. [full story]

May 25 - 11:40am EDT   Japanese wireless provider KDDI will soon launch the second solar-powered cell phone, with the SH002, built by Sharp. The solar panel built into the backside of the handset will, in 2 hours of exposure to the sun, charge the battery to provide 10 minutes of calling time or 140 minutes of standby time. A 1.1-inch electronic paper display shows the charging efficiency and status of the solar panel and battery. The phone is also IPX5/7 rated for resistance to water exposure. [full story]

May 22 - 9:55am EDT   Sharp today introduced the world's first 20-inch LCD HDTV with a built-in Blu-ray recorder, the 20-inch AQUOS DX. Combined with a built-in digital TV tuner, the set lets users record digital broadcasts onto BD-R/R DL and BD-RE/RE DL. While users cannot write to DVDs, they can play media stored on them, including MPEG-4 and AVC (H.264) format files. Up to 30 hours and 20 minutes of HD video can be recorded on dual-layer Blu-ray discs in a 7X recording mode. [full story]

May 21 - 4:20pm EDT   Sharp has recently released its new RD-PM10 multimedia e-dictionary that shares many of the same design traits as a Mobile Internet Device (MID). While there is no Wi-Fi connection for web access, users can watch videos and play back music on the device thanks to its internal 8GB of storage and a microSD memory card slot. The interface for the sliding form factor device is via a 4.3-inch, 480x272 touchscreen with a QWERTY keyboard and a number of shortcut buttons. [full story]

May 20 - 3:50pm EDT   Sony is bringing its TransferJet wireless data transmission technology closer to production by announcing recently it is now accepting licensing applications from interested companies. A Wednesday report has Sony taking "adopter" membership from companies that are interested in incorporating TransferJet into their products. TransferJet, which operates on a 4.5GHz radio frequency, lets users transfer data between portable devices at up to 375Mbps when they are about an inch apart. It is faster than wired USB 2.0 and FireWire connections and is supported by Japan, the US, European Union members and South Korea. [full story]

May 19 - 11:10am EDT   Japanese carrier SoftBank has recently announced it will soon add the 934SH and 936SH handsets to its range, both manufactured by Sharp and meeting IPX5 and IPX7 waterproof specifications. The former also goes by Mirumo because it features a unique external LCD display developed by Sharp with a 456x240 resolution. Not quite e-paper, the display simply turns off the backlight and is said to use up 500 times less power than a conventional OLED display. [full story]

May 19 - 9:55am EDT   SoftBank has recently showed off this high-end camera phone, the Sharp 933SH AQUOS Shot. It not only sports a 10-megapixel camera but has an extremely high ISO sensitivity range, at up to 12,800, for capturing images in low-light environments without blur. The camera functions are accessed via a 3.3-inch, 854x480 rotating LCD touchscreen that is mounted on a two-axis hinge. Continuous autofocusing is also built in, and touching a subject on the screen will result in it always staying in focus, even if it moves. [full story]

May 11 - 12:05pm EDT   Sharp made a push in earnest into Internet-capable TVs on Monday with the launch of the AQUOS D series in its home country of Japan. The new sets add support for a Yahoo video service that streams multiple content channels online using a built-in Ethernet link. They also bring 1080p, faster 120Hz panels and 15,000:1 dynamic contrast ratios for every set. [full story]

May 8 - 12:05pm EDT   Fractus has revealed that it has sued 10 cellphone manufacturers this week over their allegedly violating nine different patents relating to internal cellphone antenna technology. The Spanish company's targets are most important world firms and involve HTC, Kyocera, LG, Palm, Pantech, Research in Motion, Samsung, Sharp, Sanyo and UTStarcom. These companies were aware of the patents but violated their use all the same, Fractus claims. [full story]

April 21 - 1:10pm EDT   The Japanese division of Sharp has announced the Mebius NJ70A, its newest netbook. While designed in a standard 10.1-inch format, the system is said to be the first netbook in the world with an LCD trackpad. The pad measures a separate four inches, and is equipped with LED backlighting and resolutions scaling up to 854x480. Users can run several apps directly from the screen, such as games and a paint program. It additionally recognizes multi-touch gestures similar to those on the Apple MacBook, such as pinching and expanding fingers to scale content. [full story]

April 8 - 5:15pm EDT   A new handset built by Sharp has shown up for testing on the FCC website and is expected to be the previously leaked 2009 Sidekick LX. Other hints that point to this include the Danger logo being present on the FCC label, and the device's support of the 1,700MHz AWS spectrum, or the same band T-Mobile uses for its 3G network. T-Mobile is the carrier of previous Sidekick models. [full story]

March 23 - 5:20pm EDT   The long-standing legal battle over a patent related to liquid crystal displays between Samsung and Sharp has been settled, as a Tokyo court upheld Samsung's countersuit, filed back in 2007. Samsung noted on Friday that allegations in a June countersuit were upheld in a Japanese courtroom. [full story]

March 23 - 5:00pm EDT   Sharp Japan on Monday announced the forthcoming release of it’s AQUOS A-series LCD HDTVs, made up of the 40-inch LC-40AE6, 46-inch LC-46AE6 and 52-inch LC-52AE6. All share the same 1920x1080 resolution 120Hz speed panels, a 15,000:1 contrast ratio and 450cd/m2 brightness rating while being very energy-efficient. According to Sharp, the 52-inch set uses 175kW/h over the course of a year, while the 46-inch will use up 145kW/h and the 40-inch model 120kW/h. [full story]