Sharp FX Plus venturing beyond Walmart this month, we go hands-on

If you haven’t heard of the Sharp FX Plus, you must not be the type to troll the halls of your local Walmart. The phone went on sale there a few weeks back, and a PCD rep just confirmed it’ll soon venture outside Walmart’s massive aisles, hitting select AT&T stores by the end of the month. We spotted it tonight as we were wandering around a New York City media event. There it was, sitting on a lone table, overshadowed by the likes of the HTC Thunderbolt and Incredible 2. Alas, the device on hand wasn’t active, so we didn’t get to peek the software / performance, but hit the break for some quickie impressions of just how much hardware this free phone’ll get you.

Continue reading Sharp FX Plus venturing beyond Walmart this month, we go hands-on

Sharp FX Plus venturing beyond Walmart this month, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Sep 2011 22:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp Aquos SH8298U 3D smartphone goes under the knife, comes out in China

Same phone, different market — that’s pretty much what we’re looking at above with Sharp’s “new” 3D Aquos SH8298U. We first got our hands-on this device’s twinner — the Aquos SH-12C — back at Computex, with that model sporting the Japan-only 1seg receiver, FeliCa (NFC) and 800MHz / 2100MHz bands. This time out, the OEM’s made some subtle changes to its China entry, reducing the handset’s storage from 8GB to 2GB, and packing it with GSM / WCDMA / HSPA radios. The rest of the spec list remains exactly the same, leaving this skinned Android 2.3 phone with a 4.2-inch qHD stereoscopic 3D display, dual 8 megapixel cameras, 512MB RAM and a 1.4GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon processor. If translated pressers are your idea of fun, go ahead and check out the source.

Sharp Aquos SH8298U 3D smartphone goes under the knife, comes out in China originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 10 Sep 2011 15:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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LG, Sharp and Philips to build developer’s kit, create Smart TV app standard

A triumvirate of television titans — LG, Sharp and Philips — are joining forces to create a development kit, defining a common standard for their Smart TV apps. The power play addresses the problem of fragmentation, since developers will only need to make one version of an app for it to work across all three of the ‘tubes operating systems. Based on open standards like HTML5, CE-HTML and HbbTV, developers should get their hands on a beta version by early October, with the finalized version due by the end of the year. The better question now is whether the Romanesque trio can drum up enough developer support to beat out competitors in an app-tastic coup d’etat, or if the likes of Vizio, Sony and Samsung will eventually join in. Needless to say, we’ll be digging for more at CEDIA later this month.

Continue reading LG, Sharp and Philips to build developer’s kit, create Smart TV app standard

LG, Sharp and Philips to build developer’s kit, create Smart TV app standard originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Sep 2011 09:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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FCC Fridays: September 2, 2011

We here at Engadget Mobile tend to spend a lot of way too much time poring over the latest FCC filings, be it on the net or directly on the ol’ Federal Communications Commission’s site. Since we couldn’t possibly (want to) cover all the stuff that goes down there, we’ve gathered up all the raw info you may want (but probably don’t need). Enjoy!

Phones

Read – Samsung I919
Read – Samsung I727
Read – Samsung GT-S5360
Read – LG AS680
Read – LG C800
Read – LG L55C
Read – LG VS920
Read – HTC PI39100
Read – HTC PI39110
Read – Mobo Murano
Read – ZTE N860
Read – Motorola P56MA2 (GSM / WCDMA)
Read – Motorola T56MP1 (Sprint CDMA)
Read – Sonim XP1301
Read – Sharp SH80F

Peripherals

Read – Huawei E560S-6
Read – Plantronics M155

FCC Fridays: September 2, 2011 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Sep 2011 10:02:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp Galapagos A01SH tablet goes on sale in Japan from $1, comes with a catch

Sharp’s 7-inch tablet running Android 3.2? Yeah, it’s taking its sweet time arriving stateside, though our friends in Japan can get the Galapagos A01SH now for a starting price of… $1 (¥100). There’s more than a little fine print, of course, which states you have to sign up with an ISP to score that deal — a curious promotion given that this is a WiFi-only slate (carriers will bundle it with a portable hotspot). Those who like their tabs no strings attached can scoop one up for ¥44,800 ($583). As for those of you mumbling something about how we need another Tegra 2-powered Android tablet like we need a hole in the head, remember that this remains one of a handful of 7-inchers running Android 3.2 — a space currently occupied by the Acer Iconia Tab A100, ViewSonic ViewPad 7x and forthcoming Huawei MediaPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7. So if you’re dead-set on a 7-inch tab, like Honeycomb and are lucky enough to be wandering the streets of Nippon, have at it, folks.

Sharp Galapagos A01SH tablet goes on sale in Japan from $1, comes with a catch originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp RW-T107 Android tablet packs NFC reader, will accept payments in Japan

Tools like Square’s credit card reader and Apple’s proprietary iOS retail system make mobile payments possible in the US, but they’re hardly streamlined, or widespread. A new Gingerbread tablet from Sharp — the RW-T107 — sets out to simplify payments in Japan with its built-in NFC reader. You won’t be using your own tablet to pay — instead, retailers will utilize point of sale apps to process transactions, without a customer ever needing to swipe their credit card. RFID payment cards, like Sony’s FeliCa, have been used throughout Japan for the last decade, so consumers are already familiar with the technology and ready to make payments. There’s no word on what retailers will expect to pay to add Sharp’s tablet to their checkout mix, but with the company set to release only 5,000 devices per month (and no plans to introduce them to the US), we’re not planning to ditch our cash just yet.

Sharp RW-T107 Android tablet packs NFC reader, will accept payments in Japan originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:32:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Xiaomi Phone with MIUI OS: a $310 Android with 1.5GHz dual-core SoC and other surprises

If you’ve already seen the Xiaomi M1 announcement about a month ago, well, forget it, because Xiaomi has already made some significant changes since then. What we’ve just learned from today’s Beijing launch event is that the M1 — now officially “Xiaomi Phone” — no longer packs a 1.2GHz dual-core chip; instead, it’s been given a bump to a Qualcomm MSM8260 SoC, thus becoming the first Chinese phone to sport a 1.5GHz dual-core chip. As part of the Snapdragon package, the phone is also powered by a powerful Adreno 220 graphics processor, which will no doubt make good use of the phone’s 1GB RAM and a staggering 4GB ROM. Oh, and that ¥2,600 (about US$410) price tag? It’s now ¥1,999 ($310), and will be available for pre-order on August 29th for October delivery. Read on for more surprises!

Update: We’ve just been informed that there will also be a 1.2GHz version available for an even cheaper price!

Update 2: Our hands-on post is up!

Continue reading Xiaomi Phone with MIUI OS: a $310 Android with 1.5GHz dual-core SoC and other surprises

Xiaomi Phone with MIUI OS: a $310 Android with 1.5GHz dual-core SoC and other surprises originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Aug 2011 04:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp’s energy-efficient LED ceiling lights are hip to be square

If you live in Japan and are looking to lower your household electricity bill, you might have to empty your bank account first. Sharp recently introduced its new line of ELM-branded LED ceiling lights and the highly energy-efficient, square-shaped bulbs won’t come cheap — retailing between 35,000 yen (about $456) and 55,000 yen (about $717). Pulling inspiration from the LEDs used in LCD televisions, the company was able to achieve an industry-leading 81.3 lumens per watt for the smallest of its three designs, and an average life of 40,000 hours for the entire lot . The energy-sipping set of overhead bulbs come housed in an insectproof shell, offering over 100-plus ambient light settings, controllable via remote. You can snag these utility-friendly lights on August 27th, just don’t complain at the checkout when you see the price — we warned you. Peep the video explanation after the break.

Continue reading Sharp’s energy-efficient LED ceiling lights are hip to be square

Sharp’s energy-efficient LED ceiling lights are hip to be square originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:36:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp Elite LED LCD TV hands-on (video)


Earlier today, Sharp and Pioneer re-launched the Elite brand, with its Pro-60X5FD and Pro-70X5FD LED LCD TVs. Both models cater to the high-end home entertainment crowd, with pricing set at $6,000 and $8,500, for the 60-inch and 70-inch sets, respectively. We had a chance to take a look at the larger model at an event in New York City this morning, and were certainly impressed with its high contrast and excellent deep black levels. Set against a black wall, it was nearly impossible to distinguish a black image from the TV’s brushed aluminum bezel or the wall behind it when viewed in a pitch-black room. Plasma TVs, such as Pioneer’s discontinued Kuro, have been able to achieve deep black levels for years, but LCD TVs like the Elite we saw today historically suffer from light bleeding, which causes black images to appear gray.

The Elite TV also includes built-in speakers, which sounded fine in a noisy room, but considering that you’ll be spending north of $6,000 for the smaller set, we imagine you’ll be pairing either model with some external speakers as well. Internet connectivity alone certainly isn’t going to motivate anyone to spend this much to outfit their home theater with a high-end set, but streaming is important nonetheless, so we were happy to see that Sharp included a somewhat diverse offering of services. The TVs ship with apps for Netflix, Vudu, CinemaNow, YouTube, along with Facebook and Twitter — there’s also a dedicated Netflix button on the remote, letting you access the movie streaming service without clicking through several menu levels. Overall, we were impressed with the Elite during today’s brief demonstration, but we’ll need to wait for the full review before we can determine whether Sharp can justify those sky-high price tags.

Continue reading Sharp Elite LED LCD TV hands-on (video)

Sharp Elite LED LCD TV hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 10:52:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sharp and Pioneer resurrect Elite with line of LED LCD TVs, pricing starts at $6,000


Remember Pioneer’s Kuro brand of HDTVs? The high-end plasma line became the benchmark for the home theater market, leaving a rather large void in the hearts of the HD obsessive after it kicked the bucket two years ago. Now, Sharp and Pioneer are bringing back some of the technology used in that line, while leaving the Kuro name to rest in peace. The Elite branding will remain, however, with the new line of LED LCD TVs. Available in 60-inch and 70-inch flavors, the new Elites will only be available through high-end retailers, and will be priced at $6,000 and $8,500, respectively. The Pro-60X5FD will ship in the US next week, and the Pro-70X5FD will hit stores later this month.

Among the sets’ features, Sharp promises excellent contrast ratios, high color fidelity, and very low black levels, thanks to zone-based local dimming. The company claims a frame rate of “about 720hz,” thanks to 240Hz quadrupling and scanning backlight technology. The TVs also include Sharp’s quad-pixel technology, complementing the typical RGB pixel arrangement with a fourth, yellow sub-pixel. This sounds similar to the company’s Quattron technology, though Sharp doesn’t appear to be using that name with its new Elite line. There’s also 3D functionality, and Internet connectivity, with pre-loaded Netflix, Vudu, and social media apps. The TVs also include Elite Advantage Live, for real-time remote technical support. We’re at the Elite event in New York City, so stay tuned for more details and a full hands-on later this morning.

Continue reading Sharp and Pioneer resurrect Elite with line of LED LCD TVs, pricing starts at $6,000

Sharp and Pioneer resurrect Elite with line of LED LCD TVs, pricing starts at $6,000 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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