Willcom and Sharp Corporation managed to come up with one of the sleekest UMPCs created in the market. They just unveiled Willcom D4, also known as WSO16H.

Having physical stats of 470g and sizing up with 84x188x25.9mm, this little gadget pack quite a punch. Find out more on this baby in the full article.

When certain well-known companies are accused of price-fixing, you know it's fertile soil for a scandal to take root. In the case of Sharp Corporation and Hitachi Ltd., the two companies were probed by Japan's antitrust regulator under suspicion of having price-fixed LCD screens of Nintendo's DS portable. Probe the full article after the jump for more details.

Rivals Sony and Sharp, both electronics manufacturing giants, have decided to sign a deal and develop a joint venture in order to manufacture flat panels for LCD TVs.

This move done by the two firms is seen to be a win-win situation for both as reviewed by analysts. Find out more after the jump!

It looks like Sharp is well on its way to developing technology for solar-powered homes. They have plans to produce storage batteries for solar power systems of homes along with two other companies, Daiwa House Industry Co. and Nippon Printing Co. Find out more after the jump!

Here's some news for our readers who are fans of green living: a new partnership between Sharp Corporation and Tokyo Electron Ltd is expected to boost the production line of solar cells. With the heat seemingly getting to be more intolerable each year, we might as well make use of the Sun's barrage of rays. More details in the full article.

Syntax-Brillian of Arizona is bracing itself for a bigger 2008. The camera and LCD maker has signed a new supply pact with Japanese firm Sharp Corporation for massive quantities of flatscreen panels. Find out in the full article just how big the deal is and which market it's targeting.

When it comes to technology nowadays, a few of the essential features consumers are constantly looking for include portability and style. The trend now is not making new equipments at all but is more leaned towards improving the current ones we have.

It's because of this that we often hear gadget news boasting about the latest innovations. Sharp Corporation would now like to be a part of that list as it has just successfully engineered the world's thinnest LCD for mobile devices. Their "world's thinnest" LCD is named Mobile Advanced Super View LCD.

Sharp's Mobile Advanced Super View LCD is scheduled to be displayed at the event FPD International 2007 at Pacifico Yokohama from today until October 26. Sharp also added that the resolution power of Mobile Advanced Super View LCD is comparable to today's LCD TV. Here are other specifications provided by the company:

• Screen size: 2.2 inches
• Pixel count: 240x320 (QVGA)
• Module thickness: 0.68 mm
• Contrast: 2000:1
• Viewing angle: vertical, horizontal, and diagonal: 176 degrees
• Response speed: 8ms (black - white display)
• Applications: mobile phones, digital cameras, and other mobile devices

By way of a press wire in circulation, Sharp Corporation Japan has announced the upcoming release of what may be the world's smallest blue laser to date. This new semiconductor-based laser measures in at just 3.3 mm in diameter - see the press photo above for reference - and is announced to be compatible with both HD DVD and Blu-Ray format players.

It will be noted that not too long ago, Sharp made a similar announcement stating that they would be increasing blue laser diodes production for their factories in Japan. How that production increase and this recent announcement will affect the ongoing competition between HD DVD and Blu-Ray remains to be seen, although we hope this means better diversity (and lower costs) for consumers.

The new laser - under model number GH04020A4G - is scheduled to have sample shipments released this June 13th at an expected price of ¥12,000 (US $ 100) per pop. The mass production run starts this July at an expected rate of 500,000 units per month.

Remember those blue laser diodes that have been at the heart of the current feud between the Xbox 360 and the PS3? It seems that another player's entered the fray, as Sharp Corporations announces that it has started commercial production of blue laser diodes.

The diodes, needed for DVDs running in either Blu-ray or HD DVD format, were under production since November at 150,000 units a month in their factory in Western Japan, relayed Sharp spokesman Hiroshi Takenami. From this initial production run, Sharp plans to up the figure to 500,000 units per months by the end of 2007.

Sharp, according to the business paper Nihon Keizai Shimbun, is expected to make annual sales of ¥ 5 billion  (USD $ 127.2 million) for the diode's initial stage.

Given that both the 360 (HD DVD) and the PS3 (Blu-Ray) are dependent on these diodes, we'll just have to wait and see what effects this announcement will have for Sony and Microsoft, especially in, light of the PS3's production run.

While a lot of us like the idea of solar panels finally becoming a cheap, viable energy source, there's a lot of serious hurdles the project needs to face, such as its massive surface area requirements, inefficiency, and astronomical costs.

One way around this problem is the implementation of a concentrator system, or in layman's terms, a lens system built to focus sunlight into a smaller, and hence more intense, surface area - like how we used a magnifying glass to fry ants when we were curious little toddlers.

"I'd much rather make a few square miles of plastic lenses--it would cost me less--than a few square miles of silicon solar cells," Jerry Olson had to say about this particular piece of technology for solar energy collection.

A research scientist at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Josh says that the advent of concentrator systems would reduce the amount of silicon collectors needed per square foot to gather the same energy as a concentrator-equipped solar panel.

Case and point? A traditional solar collector would need four-square-miles of land to be able to collect one gigawatt of electricity, whereas one using concentrators would only use up somewhere between two to two-and-a-half-square-miles. Aside from reduced surface areas, the less dependence on silicon panels also cuts down on costs, making this technology more accessible by the public.

In connection with this, some high-profile companies have already started taking notice of this new trend, and are now planning their own ventures into this alternative power source:

• Japan's Sharp Corporation just showcased their venture into this collector technology last year, introducing a Fresnel-style focusing lens for gathering solar energy - similar to the lens design we see in lighthouses.
• SolFocus and Energy Innovations, tow companies based in sunny California, are also making ventures into concentrators, though there are no details as to what they're planning.
• Spectrolab, a Boeing subsidiary, is also delving into this concentrator project, and is currently supporting a concentrator project in Australia that aims to power 3,500 homes. We'll remember Spectrolab that built the hard solar panels for the mars probe.

For anybody who remembers Die Another Day, sorry, there has yet to be word on an Icarus project, though you'll be the first to be illuminated with news on this topic. For now, feel free to take a look at this smaller, but far more lethal light-based death ray.