sharp

Sony is suddenly in unfamiliar territory. And that's not a bad thing.

The consumer electronics company, which has long put a premium on quality over TV volumes, was the leader in LCD televisions shipped in North America during the fourth quarter. At an almost 13 percent unit share, it's a fairly dramatic leap for the company, which jumped from fourth place to first in the space of one quarter.

Sony entered the last year with caution, saying that flat-panel TV prices were dropping too fast, but ended on a decidedly different note.

Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow seemed … Read more

If all-in-one PCs and TVs are the way of the future, their stands may be following suit. Cabinet racks with integrated speakers have become almost standard fare from the likes of Sony, Yamaha, and Evesham. And now Sharp is throwing its hat into the ring too.

The Aquos Audio AN-ACD2 touts itself as a home theater built into a multimedia stand. The system features a 2.1-channel receiver and supposedly produces 150 watts of sound, according to Akihabara News.

Its $892 cost may seem a bit on the high side, but it could be a lot worse. Flatlift's "… Read more

On Tuesday, we wrote that the 1998 Mitsubishi Pedion was the thinnest notebook ever.

On Thursday, we learned that isn't the case, thanks to Jorge Pullin, at the Horace Hearne Jr. Institute for Theoretical Physics at Louisiana State University.

Back in the first years of the decade, Sharp released the Muramasas. Measuring 0.54 inch thick, the Actius MM10 Muramasa notebook, which hit shelves in 2003, came with a 1GHz Crusoe processor from Transmeta, 256MB of memory, a 15GB hard drive and a built-in Wi-Fi module. It ran 2.5 hours on a regular battery, and cost $1,499. … Read more

As usual, there were many specific rumors about what Steve Jobs would be announcing at MacWorld Expo this week. Several were reasonably credible, but Apple runs a tight ship; there's really no way to be sure what will come out at any given show.

At the beginning of the year, based on the better rumors and some discounting of existing Mac products, I was pretty sure we'd see four things: new Mac Pro workstations, a refresh of the MacBook Pro line with Blu-ray optical drives and Intel 45nm processors, minor improvements for the iPhone, and a new subnotebook.… Read more

Sharp has always offered high-end (read:expensive) LCDs, but its new line of "Special Edition" models hits a new level. The Aquos SE94 series consists of the 65-inch LC-65SE94U, 52-inch LC-52SE94U, and 46-inch LC-46SE94U, which have list prices of $11,000, $4,200 and $3,200, respectively. For your extra dollars, the series features a unique "Cornerstone" design and also has Aquos Net functionality built-in. Aquos Net allows the TV to pull down content from the Internet using the set's Ethernet port, although Sharp only mentions basic functions like checking the weather or getting stock … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Sharp is going to put select Internet content on some models of its TVs, the latest attempt by TV makers to cut out the PC.

The Aquos Net service, which kicks off later this month, will let viewers click a button on their remote and get Nasdaq stock quotes, local weather information, high-definition images, traffic information from Traffic.com and cartoons. NBC later will put information from some of its sites on the Aquos Net service.

Other publishers will be added later. (Sharp has offered a similar service in Japan for a little over a year.).

The Internet content … Read more

Blu-ray has gotten a lot of flak regarding its trio of profile specifications--making it confusing for buyers who just want a fully functional Blu-ray player. Well, CES 2008 should mostly end the confusion, as all the new Blu-ray players are are Profile 1.1 compliant, meaning they'll be able to play "picture-in-picture" commentary tracks available on some new Blu-ray discs in 2008.

Sharp has announced one of these new Profile 1.1 players, the BD-HP50U. This is the follow-up to Sharp's first Blu-ray effort, the BD-HP20U, which broke some ground by offering extremely fast load … Read more

Following on the heels of yesterday's Crystal LCD release, Dell is at it again today with a new 30-inch LCD monitor, the UltraSharp 3008WFP. Compared to last year's 3007WFP model, which we liked, the 3008WFP features a new look and loads more connections. The image here doesn't do it justice, but the 3008WFP has a brushed aluminum housing that sits atop a glossy, flat base (say goodbye to the Flying V stand of last year's model). And the cantilever arm allows for more flexible positioning.

Our biggest complaint with last year's model was the limited … Read more

When we first plugged the Sharp DK-AP2 speaker system in and turned it on, we didn't know whether it was going to play music or take off. This iPod dock looks like something the Millennium Falcon should be avoiding.

The triangular DK-AP2 works with your iPod and is easy to use and compact. Essentially it's a plug and play machine. It's just a case of docking your iPod and plugging the system into the mains and away you go.

The DK-AP2 comes with a standard AC/DC power lead and a series of iPod adaptor connectors that … Read more