In Japan, Sharp has been offering AQUOS LCDs with integrated Blu-ray players or recorders for quite some time now. And today, the company announced [JP] the AQUOS DX3 series, which consists of another five of those TVs (with built-in Blu-ray recorders) for the Japanese market.

Buyers will be able to choose between screens sized at 26 ($1,500), 32 ($1,700), 40 ($2,400), 46 ($3,400) and 52 inches ($4,100/pictured below). The main technical difference between these devices is that the three bigger models are full HD, while the smaller ones just feature 1,366×768 resolution.

Spec-wise you can expect a contrast ratio of 2,000,000:1 (but just 7,000:1 for the 26-incher), 10W×2ch speakers, three HDMI interfaces (just two for the two smaller TVs), two Ethernet connections, LED backlight, DLNA support, BD Live, web connectivity (Yahoo! JAPAN for AQUOS, for example), and Sharp’s proprietary UV2A photo-alignment system.

All AQUOS TVs from the DX3 series will hit Japanese stores on May 20 (no word yet from Sharp on availability outside this country).

Virtually every Japanese tech company has made some 3D-related announcement in the past months, but one remained suspiciously quiet in that area: NEC. We covered their (apparently very cool) glasses-free 3D 12.1-incher last year (it’s yet to be commercialized), and today NEC made some initial announcements about a 3D desktop PC that’s supposed to hit Japanese stores by year-end.

To be more specific, NEC’s executive director Takatsuka said during a press conference in Tokyo the PC is likely to ship within the first half of the current fiscal year, meaning by October 2010 (fiscal 2010 in Japan ends at the end of March 2011).

Details about the PC itself are scarce, but here’s what Takatsuka mentioned:

• the PC will require users to wear polarized 3D glasses
• it will be based on NEC’s “Valuestar N” series [JP] of all-in-one desktop PCs
• content-wise, NEC will mainly count on 3D Blu-rays
• the PC will cost $150 to $200 more than a similar, conventional model without 3D capabilities (Takatsuka said NEC regards pricing a key factor)
• it will likely be the first 3D PC on the Japanese market

More information should be available within the next few weeks. We’ll keep you posted.

Via IT Media [JP]

Major toymaker Bandai yesterday announced the Hyper Telescope [JP], which is being marketed as a “science toy” for kids. It’s the ideal gadget if you want your kid to become an astronomer, as it allows users to observe the sky and view relevant information on connected displays or within the device itself. All that needs to be done is to specify one’s location on earth and the current time.

Users can then move the telescope around, pointing it to a spot on the star map they want to know more about. The LCD within the device, which features three joints and an accelerometer, will then display the corresponding information on a “virtual” star map (see below for an example). Others can view what is being displayed if the telescope is connected to a TV, for example.

Bandai has built 20 background melodies and data (stats, pictures, etc.) on about 300 stars and similar objects into the Hyper Telescope. Over a thousand of those objects can be identified.

Bandai’s Hyper Telescope weighs 600g, is battery-powered and will carry a price tag of $200 when it will arrive in Japanese stores on May 29. It’s hasn’t been announced for other markets but could find its way outside Japan soon, too.

Sanyo announced two new “dual cameras” (camcorder and digital camera in one) for the Japanese market yesterday, the Xacti DMX-CG100 (that’s the pistol-grip model) and the Xacti DMX-GH1. Both feature an extra-compact body and the ability to record video in full HD and take 14MP pictures.

Both also come with Sanyo’s proprietary “Double Range Zoom” function, which allows users to instantly switch between “Wide Mode” (40 mm to 240 mm) and “Tele Mode” (80 mm to 480 mm) with the push of a button (see graphic below).

The two cameras are equipped with a 2.7-inch TFT LCD, a 1/2.33 inch CMOS sensor, 5x optical zoom, SD/SDHC card support (up to 32GB), SDXC card support (up to 64GB), 50MB of internal memory, USB 2.0/mini HDMI ports, and Eye-Fi support.

The pistol-grip model weighs 176 g, while the DMX-GH1 weighs 172 g (including battery and SD card). Apart from the weight and different form factors (obviously), both of these Xactis are more or less identical.

They’ll hit Japanese stores on April 16, and both are priced at $390.

You can’t use this device as a tumbler and I’m not even sure it makes sense functionality-wise, but Sony Japan announced [JP] the SOUND MUG yesterday, a speaker that’s shaped like a tumbler. To be more exact, the portable device is being marketed by Sony as a dock speaker specifically designed for their Walkmans.

Buyers also get a cigarette lighter socket (12V) so they can use the SOUND MUG in the car as well (see picture above). The 16W speaker can also be controlled with a mini remote Sony will throw into the package. The dock weighs 540g and stands 216mm tall.

The SOUND MUG will be available in orange or black when it hits Japanese stores on April 24 (price: $220). No word from Sony yet regarding a release outside Japan.

Here’s Sony Japan’s promo video:

Via AV Watch [JP]

Big news from the Japanese video game world today: Nintendo announced [JP, PDF] they will launch a successor to the DS/DSi for the next fiscal year (which begins next month in Japan and ends in March 2011). And what sounds particularly cool so far about the Nintendo 3DS is that the new portable device won’t require any special glasses for users to see the 3D images, according to Nintendo.

Details are scarce at the moment (no price, no specs, no pics), but what’s confirmed so far is that “3DS” is just the tentative name of the device. It will be backwards compatible to conventional DS/DSi games (meaning it will have 2 cameras again) and is sure to hit Japanese stores first.

Just as a reminder, Nintendo will release their new handheld, the DSi XL, on March 28 in the US.

Nintendo also said they will give us more details about the DS sucessor at the E3 gaming conference in Los Angeles in June. Now let’s just hope the 3DS won’t be another Virtual Boy…