Gaming, Displays Nintendo 3DS to feature 3.4-inch Sharp parallax barrier display?

There aren't many mass production options on the market when it comes to glasses-less 3D displays for Nintendo's forthcoming 3DS handheld gaming console. And according to early leaks from Japan, the special Nintendo 3DS display is supposedly built by Hitachi and Sharp using a parallax barrier system. So guess where this new 3.4-inch, 480 x 854 pixel display is likely headed? While Sharp doesn't say for sure, it's a good bet that this parallax barrier 3D LCD will be fronting the user interface on the 3DS. Unlike the 3D displays you'll find in modern 3D HDTVs requiring the viewer to wear active or passive glasses, Sharp's display uses a parallax barrier system to create a sense of depth by using a series of vertical slits in an ordinary LCD to direct light to the right and left eyes. The panel offers a 500nit brightness, 1,000:1 contrast, and is available with or without a touchscreen. A non-touchscreen version of the display goes into mass production before June but there's no specific mention of the touchscreen timeline (but we imagine it won't be far behind). In other words, we could have a Nintendo 3DS on the market before the holidays. Just saying. Guess we'll find out for sure at E3 in June.

Sharp IS01 Snapdragon-powered 3G MID introduces AU to Android

After Softbank announced the HTC Desire and DoCoMo began pushing its very first Android smartphone (Xperia X10), Japan had big hopes for AU's press event today. An EVO perhaps, or maybe something more from this once proud home of the original superphones? Unfortunately, Engadget Japanese let out a collective meh in response to a 5-inch IS01 handheld from Sharp running Android 1.6 on a Snapdragon processor and measuring 83 × 149 × 17.9mm and 227g. While it looks like the classic Japanese eDictionary, the IS01 is meant to be used as a general purpose MID with a 5-row QWERTY, Sharp-built "New Mobile ASV" multi-touch capacitive display pushing a 960 x 480 pixel resolution and a 5.27 megapixel auto focus camera on back with a 0.43 megapixel jobbie up front for video calls. Rounding out the specs are 802.11 b/g WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, microSD slot, 1Seg mobile TV tuner, IrDA, 4GB of internal storage, and Qualcomm 3G CDMA data. Look for it to ship in October while a developer friendly version (JN-DK01) should be available in May.