gadgetPhreak Gadget News Blog. Futuristic Gadgets and Portable Electronics

July 13, 2006

Toshiba delays RD-A1 HD DVD recorder launch

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Lately it's been the Blu-ray camp cruelly torturing us with product delays, but in a refreshing change of pace, today it's rival format HD DVD's main proponent Toshiba announcing that a next-gen optical disc device won't be shipping as scheduled. Unlike Sony's procrastination in releasing the PS3 and BDP-S1, though, Toshiba claims that it only needs two more weeks to get its RD-A1 HD DVD recorder out the door, citing inadequate inventory stemming from component shortages as the reason for putting off tomorrow's scheduled launch. Since this model, with its 1TB storage capacity and OTA digital tuner, is only headed for Japan anyway, the delay probably doesn't concern the vast majority of our American readers -- nor most Japanese, for that matter, as the $3,500 pricetag will likely dissuade all but the most fervent early-adopters.

[Via HDBeat]
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July 11, 2006

Targus’ iPod Mobile “Security Lock”

Filed under: CombinationLock,Security,combination lock,iPod,japan,targas,theft — Thomas Ricker @ 9:04 am

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Whether urban legend or fact, the fear of iPod theft has created a vast market for this iPod Mobile Security Lock from Targus. As you can see, the chubby end attaches to your wo/man-sack while the end sporting the combination lock somehow “secures” your iPod’s dock connector at a retractable cable length of up to 30.7-inches away. We might be wrong, but this device should make you feel about as secure as a shot of cheap whiskey. On sale now in Japan for ¥4,000 or about $35 green.

[Via Impress]

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July 8, 2006

Plen the Bluetooth Skating Robot On Sale In Japan

Filed under: Bluetooth,Robots,japan,plen — Gizmodo @ 1:46 pm

This roller skating robot from Japan may not drink and spew catchphrases like "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass", but unlike Bender, you can control this one with your Bluetooth-enabled cellphone.

Plen has 18 movable joints and a 32bit ARM7 CPU inside. You connect him to your PC using USB and he runs/walks/skates for 25 minutes on one charge. There's only a few available from Japan, so if you want one you probably need to hurry. Available from the land of Dragonball Z for 262,500 Yen ($2,200).

Plen: Bluetooth controlled robot goes on sale [New Launches]

July 7, 2006

Novac’s TV for Skype Anywhere: watch TV via Skype, seriously

Filed under: Skype,StreamingMedia,japan,novac,stream,streaming media,television,tv,video — Thomas Ricker @ 9:33 am

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Twas only yesterday the lads in the Engadget mansion were lamenting about giving Skype a try if only it streamed some of that hot analog TV we've been hearing so much about. Little did we know that in some back alley of Akihabaraville, a team of hucksters from Novac in Japan were putting the finishing touches on their TV for Skype Anywhere (or something like that) product. Just load-up Skype and Novac's software onto your home PC, slip in their USB stick with integrated analog tuner, and voila, you're ready to stream the sweet, sweet TV out the Internet to any of the newer Skype clients capable of video calls. The TV will even call you and then allow you to change channels via a chat window if we're reading the machine translation correctly -- enter "the ##12#" to switch to channel 12, for example. Not likely to give Slingboxers any competition in terms of functionality or quality, but for ¥9,800 or about $85, you're not likely to find a cheaper solution boxed up so neatly. Oh Skype, come 'er and give us a cuddle.

[Via Impress]
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ByD:sign / EyeFi’s 1080p LCD TVs for Japan and beyond

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Here ya go TeeVee fans, 5ish new models straight out of Japan. We know it hurts to see all this not-for-the-US tech coming through but just hang with us on these, ’cause from the looks of it, they’ll be available on these golden shores under the EyeFi branding soon enough. The five HDMI-equipped sets break down into 37, 32, and 27-inchers capable of 1920×1080, 1366×768, and 1280×720 pixels respectively. Each model features an ISDB-T Hi-Vision (high definition) digital tuner for Japan (with ATSC and DVB-T tuners on the way for the US and beyond). The big, bad, 37-inch LF-3701DFK (pictured) brings a 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 8-millisecond response, and 176-degree visibility along with the usual in and outs consisting of S-Video, 2 x composite, Japanese D4, and RGB. And fortunately, that speaker sprouting below the panel can be chucked for a cleaner look when attached to your home audio system. The two 32-inch models — LW-3202DFK and LW-3201DFK — are the same panels only with fixed speakers mounted either below, or along sides of the LCD. Same story on those 27-inchers — the LW-2702DFK and LW-2701DFK — with the former also offering that 1366×768 pixel resolution seen by the 32-inch models. Prices are set to range from ¥99,800 to ¥199,800 (or about $863 to $1,729) when these panels hit the streets of Japan starting today — righteous pricing by the time these panels hit the US.

[Via Impress]

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July 5, 2006

Mobile Internet access outstrips PC access in Japan

Filed under: Internet,PC,access,computer,japan,mobile,study — Chris Ziegler @ 9:12 am

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Why does this not surprise us? According to a report published by Japan's government this week, more of its citizens hit the Net via phone -- 69.2 million, to be exact -- than by personal computer (66 million). Mobile users are also more likely than PC users to log on at least once a day by about 11%, not surprising considering the relative likelihood of having your mobile on your person when you just absolutely must check your email. Of course, if our country was completely blanketed in glorious FOMA, we might be able to put up similar statistics, but in the meantime, we'll take an EDGE-ready UX, thankey.

[Via MocoNews]
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July 3, 2006

MET’s BauXar Marty101 custom designed speakers

Filed under: BauXar,MET,Marty 101,Marty101,MartyWear,Speakers,cylinder,japan — Thomas Ricker @ 9:32 am

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Japan's MET Corp. bring us these new BauXar 6-Watt cylindrical speakers "for the life with nudie sound," whatever the hell that might mean. Ok, ok, the speakers themselves aren't new, we're just getting a few new colors and a custom-fit, MartyWear service which gives you the privilege (for an extra ¥20k Yen or about $170) of dressing up their ¥30k/$260 Marty101 speakers in a custom kit of your liking. And if we're reading the machine translation correctly, the custom designs they offer aren't limited to a catalog. Oh no, MET designers will slap whatever image your freakish interests might crave onto that 12-inches of cylinder -- just send in a drawing or photograph and they'll take care of the rest. As to the 360-degree nudie sound these speakers tout? Well all we can tell you is that as usual, a pair is required.

[Via Impress]
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Cowon’s iAudio U2 2GB now in white

Filed under: IaudioU2,U2-2G-WH,cowon,dap,iaudio,iaudio u2,japan,mp3,ogg — Thomas Ricker @ 8:02 am

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Cowon of Japan wish to remind you that they’re still shipping the iAudio U2 player. How? By bucking the trend of dropping a limited edition pink model and throwing us the 2GB pearl-white iAUDIO U2-2G-WH instead. Everything else on this popular player, which many of you dubbed the best flash player on the market, remains unchanged: MP3/WMA/WAV and OGG support,128×64 LCD, line-input sound and voice recording to MP3s, FM tuner, and 20 hour battery with fast recharge. So get ready to enjoy that, uh “color sound” starting July 7 when these hit Japan for ¥18,980 or about $163 in greenback.

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July 2, 2006

TDK reveals 6x BD-R disc

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Even though the fastest Blu-ray burner you can buy today maxes out at just a 2x write speed, media manufacturer TDK is already looking towards a wonderful future filled with 4x and faster drives writing 200+GB of data to 8-layer discs. Now that they're gotten the capacity part down, the company is hard at work on discs that won't take five hours to burn, and the first fruit of this labor -- a 25GB platter rated at 6x -- was recently unveiled at Japan's Eighth Data Storage Expo -- although don't expect it to hit stores until next year. They were also showing off that 100GB quad-layer BD-R we heard about awhile back but never got the chance to peep, so make sure to follow the Read link to check out that plus many more exciting shots from what we hear was a pretty happening storage conference.

[Via HDBeat]
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July 1, 2006

Robot Museum opening in October

Filed under: RobotMuseum,Robots,japan,nagoya,robot museum — Ryan Block @ 9:01 pm

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Ok, so while it's not quite as flashy as the Robot Hall of Fame, Nagoya's about to get its automaton on in October when they'll be opening the Robot Museum. We recommend patronizing this landmark if for no other reason than making sure your identity appears in the museum's records of attendance -- anything to score a few points with the bots should they, you know, run amok and use the Robot Museum as the capital for the new world order. You know what? Forget it, we don't need some joke about robots taking over the world to justify attending this museum. You should go because pretty much anything they could put in there -- from Daleks to Totoya assembly arms -- is  gonna be freaking phenominal. Did we mention how much we love robots?

[Via Pink Tentacle]
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June 29, 2006

Super-slim laser beams promise to boost optical disc capacity

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Researchers at Japan’s Kyoto University have recently announced a breakthrough method for shaping laser beams that could result in optical disc capacities up to ten times higher than what’s current available from state-of-the-art HD DVD and Blu-ray discs. Using several layers of so-called photonic crystals incorporated into a small semiconductor chip, the researchers were able to manipulate a light beam’s constituent photons in such a way that the resulting laser output could be shaped into a number of exotic beam patterns — such as hollow beams, concentric hollow beams, and most importantly for optical disc capacity, solid beams with diameters much smaller than had been previously achievable. The best part about this technology is that the narrow beams can be formed without changing the wavelength of the laser, meaning that the technique could theoretically be applied to existing blue lasers, enabling next-gen optical discs to hold hundreds of gigabytes worth of data. Or, to put this in layman’s terms, the $1,000 BD-P1000 you’re planning on buying will now be, like, totally obsolete before you even tear open the box.

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June 13, 2006

Eizo launches a pair of UXGA FlexScan LCDs

Filed under: dvi,eizo,flexscan,japan,lcd — Paul Miller @ 9:55 am

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Nothing too standout, but Eizo has announced couple of new FlexScan LCDs for Japan. Both the 21.3-inch S2100 and the 20.1-inch S2000 screens sport 1600 x 1200 resolutions, 1000:1 contrast ratios, 8ms response times, 300cd/m2 of brightness, and 178 degrees of viewing angle. The displays have the DVI hookup and some USB jazz, but we're quite in the dark as to the price and release date of these screens.

[Via Akihabara]

Read - FlexScan S2000
Read - FlexScan S2100
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Toppan reveals 5.5-inch active matrix OLED

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Having already wowed us twice with its wall-sized e-newspaper and RFID shielding material, Japan’s Toppan Printing Company has once again managed to impress with a large OLED display that could find its way into all of those portable devices that we love. At 5.5-inches and 400 x 234 pixels, the screen revealed at San Francisco’s Society for Information Display 2006 is one of the larger models of its type, and what’s more, sports active matrix technology to improve upon the passive matrix OLEDs of the past. Brighter, sharper displays realized through Toppan’s manufacturing process will begin showing up on portable DVD players and the like sometime next year.

[Via Akihabara News]

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June 8, 2006

DoCoMo bringing BlackBerry to Japan

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Having already conquered the US and much of Europe, Canada's most famous contribution to consumer electronics is poised to take over yet another Asian market, when the ubiquitous BlackBerry hits phone-mad Japan this fall. Coming hot on the heels of KT Powertel's introduction of the 7100i in South Korea, wireless giant NTT DoCoMo has announced that it is partnering with BlackBerry-maker RIM to offer customers GSM / WCMDA "worldphone" versions of the addictive handhelds -- which is yet another step towards the carrier's commitment of having an all-GSM-enabled lineup within the next two years. Besides the traditional push email functionality that we've come to know and love, nothing much is known about the specifics of these upcoming foreign models, like how the pocket-sized BlackBerries will manage to pack in the thousands of keys necessary to represent all those Japanese glyphs.

[Thanks, Gina]
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June 5, 2006

NEC’s 42-inch PX-42XM4J business plasma

Filed under: 1,024 x 768,1,024X768,42-inch,Displays,business,japan,nec,pdp,plasma,px-42xm4j — Evan Blass @ 8:55 am

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Japan's NEC Corp. is offering a new 42-inch plasma display designed for corporate deployment whose 3,000:1 contrast ratio and 1,400-candela/square-meter brightness should make it a hit in keiretsu boardrooms nationwide. Which is a good thing, because at almost $4,500, the PX-42XM4J -- with its 1,024 x 768 resolution -- probably wouldn't attract today's consumer looking for that all important 1,080p designation. Interested Japanese IT directors can start filling out their requisition forms in triplicate right away, as NEC's new PDP is available immediately.

[Via Impress]
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June 2, 2006

HP’s Pavilion DV1700 and DV5200 laptops

Filed under: Pavilion,core duo,coreduo,hp,japan,laptop,notebook — Thomas Ricker @ 9:31 am

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HP just gave a bump to their Pavilion lineup with the introduction of their DV1700 and DV5200 laptops in Japan. Destined for casual consumers, not suits, both models feature Core Duo CPUs, up to 2GB memory, ExpressCard slots, a multi-format memory card slot, and HP QuickPlay allowing you to fire-up DVDs and CDs without booting into XP. The DV1700 gets down with a Core D14-inch, 1280 x 768 (WXGA) LCD, up to 100GB SATA disk, Intel’s 945GM Express integrated graphics and the ability to tuck the remote control card away in the ExpressCard slot. The DV5200 features a 15.4-inch LCD with a 1280 x 800 resolution, up to 120GB of SATA disk, integrated Altec Lansing speakers, and the same Intel integrated graphics which may, or may not be adequate to make Vista’s Aero interface sing. Both slabs will drop in Japan on June 2 with base configs for the DV1700 pulling ¥79,800/$710 while the DV5200 will start at ¥84,000 or about $750. Snap of the DV5200 after the break.

[Via Impress Watch]

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May 30, 2006

Promet’s little bro, the HRP-2m “Choromet” humanoid robot

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It’s no secret that we love us some humanoid robots around here, and while their skiing, fighting, and temp skills are always impressive, all we really wanna do is watch the little guys dance. Unfortunately for us, most of the dancing bots we see around here are crazy expensive — see the Partner Ballroom Dance Robot, for example — including the HRP-2m “Promet” model that costs over $70,000-a-year just to rent. Well apparently Promet’s manufacturer, Kawada Industries, haven’t found much of a market for their pricey life-sized bot, so they’ve teamed up with Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) and three other firms to build a smaller, cheaper version of the HRP-2m called the Choromet. Powered by Linux, this 35-centimeter tall version can perform most of the same tricks as its big brother (such as standing on one leg, or delivering a killer Voltron impression) at a much more reasonable $4,450, and is being targeted towards the academic and research communities (which is where Promet originally learned to shake his groove thing).

[Via I4U, thanks Bram V.]

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Epson’s budget slim-line tower, the Endeavor AT960

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Japanese consumers looking for a slim-line tower PC on the cheap could probably do worse than Epson’s latest Endeavor desktop, the AT960, which features a 2.53GHz Celeron D processor and 256MB of DDR2 RAM for $420. More yen lets you step up to a Pentium 4 chip as fast as 3.8GHz, up to 2GB of RAM and 250GB of hard drive space (compared to  the sparse 40GB in the base configuration), WiFi, and a DVD burner — but no amount of money can improve upon the ATI Radeon Xpress 200 integrated graphics. Likewise, there’s not much you can do about the dearth of input options, so the four USB 2.0 hookups and serial and parallel ports are gonna have to stand in for the missing FireWire.

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Nintendo releases Rumble Pack for DS Lite

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No surprises here: Nintendo has loosed a version of the venerable Rumble Pak on Japanese DS Lite owners, with a US model forthcoming. Besides being smaller than its big brother in order to fit flushly in the Lite’s cartridge slot, the new Rumble Pak sports all the same vibrating goodness, and for the same price too. (In case you don’t remember, that price is a mere $10). Unfortunately, both versions of the Pak are still only supported by a handful of games, so here’s to hoping you haven’t beaten Metroid Prime Hunters yet.

[Via DS Fanboy]

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May 22, 2006

Vodafone Japan announces summer lineup

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New Softbank property Vodafone K.K. has announced four new 3G handsets -- along with the 2G Toshiba V304T "simplephone" -- that will be released this summer in Japan, including Sharp's 905SH clamshell with a 2 megapixel camera and One Seg digital TV reception. Also seen before was Voda's version of Nokia's N71, dubbed the 804NK, which sports those same multimedia and smartphone features along with obvious addition of bilingual menus. Like the three models mentioned previously, the Toshiba 705T and Sharp 705SH SLIMIA also sport clamshell designs, with the Tosh featuring external music controls and the Sharp (pictured) rocking dual cameras. Additionally, a sixth model, Sharp's 2G V403SH (also a flip phone), was announced as getting a summer makeover, and will now come in your choice of cloth beige or cloth blue.
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Mitsubishi’s new 21-inch RDT212H monitor for Japan

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Mitsubishi has just announced a new 21.3-inch flat panel monitor for the Japanese market, and even though it offers two DVI ports and a UXGA resolution of 1,600 x 1,200, we're not sure how many folks will be willing to part with close to ¥200,000 (about $1,775 US) to have this model on their desks. The RDT212H, in silver or black, does offer a pretty nice 1000:1 contrast ratio, but the 16-millisecond response time won't impress any gamers, and the 300cd/m2 brightness is nothing special, so we're struggling to discover what those hundreds of thousands of yen are really buying you. We'll have to wait a few weeks to find out, though, as that's when this LCD is scheduled to hit stores -- stay tuned to Engadget Japan for the latest.

[Via Impress]
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Sony Ericsson’s W42S 3G Walkman phone for Japan

Filed under: MusicPhone,Sony,SonyEricsson,japan,music phone,sony ericsson,w42s,walkman — Thomas Ricker @ 3:20 am

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We’ve been feeling the Walkman love from Sony Ericsson for what constitutes forever on a tech timeline. Oddly, Japan is only now getting their first taste of these little musicphones with the newly announced W42S. However, don’t feel sorry for our former tech overlords just yet, the W42S packs in a cool 1GB of internal memory which can be supplemented with up to 4GB of Memory Stick Pro DUO expansion and sports a power saving mode allowing up to 30 hours of music playback. This 3G (CDMA2000) slider also features a 1.3 megapixel cam, a 2.2-inch, 240 x 320, 262k color LCD, FM radio, an EPG to keep you hip to the TV schedule, and a feast of dedicated player controls including a new mechanical wheel unique to Walkman phone navigation. And by partnering with KDDI, owners can snag music over-the-air via the 5 million downloads-per-month strong LISMO music service. No price announced but “local media” is reporting that this musicphone will fetch $181 (with contract and telco rights to your vital organs we presume) when these drop in late June. Click-on for a few hands-on pics.

[Via Impress Watch]

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Sony Ericsson’s W42S 3G Walkman phone for Japan

Filed under: MusicPhone,Sony,SonyEricsson,japan,music phone,sony ericsson,w42s,walkman — Thomas Ricker @ 3:20 am

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We’ve been feeling the Walkman love from Sony Ericsson for what constitutes forever on a tech timeline. Oddly, Japan is only now getting their first taste of these little musicphones with the newly announced W42S. However, don’t feel sorry for our former tech overlords just yet, the W42S packs in a cool 1GB of internal memory which can be supplemented with up to 4GB of Memory Stick Pro DUO expansion and sports a power saving mode allowing up to 30 hours of music playback. This 3G (CDMA2000) slider also features a 1.3 megapixel cam, a 2.2-inch, 240 x 320, 262k color LCD, FM radio, an EPG to keep you hip to the TV schedule, and a feast of dedicated player controls including a new mechanical wheel unique to Walkman phone navigation. And by partnering with KDDI, owners can snag music over-the-air via the 5 million downloads-per-month strong LISMO music service. No price announced but “local media” is reporting that this musicphone will fetch $181 (with contract and telco rights to your vital organs we presume) when these drop in late June. Click-on for a few hands-on pics.

[Via Impress Watch]

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May 21, 2006

All DoCoMo handsets to be GSM-capable within 2 years, sez paper

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Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun is reporting that NTT DoCoMo is working to make all of its handsets GSM-compatible in the next two years, which would allow them to work in over 130 countries. Furthermore, DoCoMo’s customers would have access to the popular i-mode Internet service in over 70 countries under the new plan, according to company sources quoted by the paper. Reuters reminds us that this move comes at a time when Japan’s wireless industry is preparing for increased competition this fall, and may also be a response to the attractive packages Softbank can now offer thanks to their recent purchase of Vodafone Japan.

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May 17, 2006

Sanyo Epson’s “Photo Fine Vistarich” enables extreme-viewing-angle LCDs

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Researchers at Japan's Sanyo Epson Imaging Devices Corporation have just developed a series of small LCDs that, unlike most traditional displays, are almost perfectly viewable even at extreme 90-degree angles. Available in sizes ranging from 2.4-inches to 10.1-inches, the displays will be employed in any number of portable devices, from cellphones to PDAs to PMPs, although the best use we can think of is to put them on cameras, which should make it a lot easier to see what you're shooting when you need to take pictures over a crowd. As for the use of this so-called "Photo Fine Vistarich" technology in devices that we're viewing personal/secure information on, well, we're not necessarily sure we want to make it easier for everyone on the subway to peep our Treo screen. Sanyo Epson says production of these displays will begin this fall, which mean we should probably see corresponding products on the market before the end of the year.
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