Qualcomm may be many things, but it ain't stupid. On what basis do we make that bold claim? Historically, it's been very good about supporting and profiting from standards that aren't its own with one hand, even as it's pushing alternatives with the other. They've pulled this trick recently with comprehensive LTE support with CDMA migration -- a double whammy, considering that CDMA is Qualcomm's baby and LTE goes head to head with Qualcomm's UMB. Now, the firm is pairing up its MediaFLO mobile TV tech on a single hunk of silicon with support for ISDB-T, used in Japan and Brazil; essentially, the idea is that free programing would flow over ISDB-T and pay channels would come down on the FLO signal. It's an interesting concept, we suppose, but with mobile TV yet to be a profitable venture in most parts of the globe, it might be still be an idea just a bit ahead of its time.

[Via Phone Scoop]

As our mobile devices skew from email, voice, and web surfin' to include more multimedia -- think live television and video on demand -- nobody (big emphasis on "nobody") is going to get into live TV on fuzzy, blurry, low res screens. To save us from future misery, Sharp has announced a QVGA 2.2 inch LCD with a 2000:1 contrast ratio, a 176 degree viewing angle, and an 8ms response time. The company expects to ship samples for One-Seg mobile phones (portable Aquos?) this fall, followed by a rollout into its other mobile handsets and cameras shortly thereafter. Japanese shipments of One-Seg compatible devices is expected to reach 10 million this year alone, so this could become a seriously hot item -- though, as usual, don't get your hopes up that this will be hittin' our shores anytime soon.

[Via Mobiledia]

While we loved the specs on Sharp's W-ZERO3 / WS003SH, let's just say that its plastic, chub of a case was seriously short on swank. Now check the W-ZERO3 [es] / WS007SH hotness which our brethren at Engadget Japan got the jump on this AM. Developed under that same partnership with Sharp, Willcom, and Microsoft, the new WS007SH variant keeps the Pocket PC flavor of Windows Mobile 5.0 and 416MHz Intel PXA 270 proc but brings a second, standard phone keypad to the mini, sliding QWERTY. They even managed to squeeze that same VGA resolution into a smaller, 2.8-inch screen while keeping the best of the rest: 128MB flash (60MB allocated to the user) and 64MB of SDRAM, miniSD expansion, USB, and 1.3 megapixel cam. All this and she still manages to slim-down from 70 x 130 x 26-millimeters and 220-grams to 56 x 135 x 21-millimeters and 175-grams. Ok, no WiFi or Bluetooth yet folks, but these, like a Japanese OneSeg expansion pack for digital TV on the go are currently under development and will certainly increase the bulk. Available only in Japan starting July 27th for ¥29,800/¥36,800 (or about $260/$321) with/without a one-year contract. Many more pics, including the OneSeg TV expansion after the break.

[Via Engadget Japan]

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.

As if the world needed yet another broadcast digital video standard, Japan's taking their stab at it today by officially finally rolling out One Seg, which sidechannels analog terrestrial broadcasting with digital signals. Apparently it's be free to air and now live in and around Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya, which is nice, but we're never too stoked for yet another radio standard the world's got to deal with supporting. Though we understand there are already a half a million One Seg mobile devices floating around Japan as we speak beginning with a December rollout of the standard, including Vodafone's new Sharp 95SH.