MarketWatch: Samsung Electronics and Sony have agreed in principle to invest further in their liquid-crystal-display joint venture to meet rising demand for large-size flat-screen televisions, a Samsung executive said Thursday.

“Both sides reached a consensus on the joint investment and working-level officials are now discussing details such as the timing and amount of the investment,” Yeong Duk Cho, vice president of Samsung’s LCD business, told Dow Jones Newswires. The new investment will go into the construction of another eighth-generation LCD production line, capable of producing panels larger than 50-inches, Cho said.

“It took a couple of months for Sony to decide on its investment in the first 8G (eighth generation) line. I believe it’ll take a similar period of time for Sony to make a decision on this,” he said.

Samsung and Sony’s investment plan is a sign that LCD makers are becoming more confident about market demand for liquid crystal displays.

lcd Samsung Sony

Telegraph: Fresh fears over the health hazards linked to using mobile phones have been raised after scientists found that handset radiation could trigger cell division.

A study found that exposure to mobile phone signals for just five minutes stimulated human cells to split in two - a process that occurs naturally when tissue grows or rejuvenates, but that is also central to the development of cancer.

Previous research on the safety of mobile use has led to conflicting conclusions, with some suggesting links with tumours in the nervous system and others finding no risks.

The six-year Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research Programme, which provided £8.4 million of Government and industry funding for 25 studies, is expected to present its final report next month.

Official guidance that mobile phones were safe was based on the mainstream scientific assumption that electromagnetic radiation from such devices could damage cells and tissue only by heating them.

But the new research, reported in this week’s New Scientist, supports the position of those researchers who argue that handsets can trigger potentially harmful changes to cells irrespective of temperature changes.

Prof Rony Seger, a cancer researcher at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, and colleagues exposed rat and human cells to electromagnetic radiation at a similar frequency to that emitted by mobiles but at only about one tenth of the power.

After just five minutes the researchers identified the production of extracellular signal-regulated kinases (ERK1/2) - natural chemicals that stimulate cell division and growth.

cancer health research Mobile phone use mobile telecommunications

Times Online: The Nintendo Wii has become the fastest selling video games console in British history after one million of the machines were sold 38 weeks after the device made its high street debut.

The Wii achieved the one million landmark in a shorter time than the Sony PlayStation 2, which, after a difficult launch in 2000, went on to become the world’s most successful console so far, selling more than 115 million units worldwide.

The Wii, designed to attract “non-core” gamers, is outselling both the struggling PlayStation 3 and Microsoft’s Xbox 360 by at least two-to-one.

Last month Nintendo announced that its first-quarter net profits soared more than five-fold, further vindicating the Japanese group’s declared policy of making video games for “people who don’t like video games”.

The company also sharply raised its full-year forecasts on soaring sales of the Wii and the continued success of its DS handheld machine.

Microsoft Xbox 360 Sony PS3 UK sales wii

VNUnet: Sharp Electronics announced yesterday at the IFA consumer electronics show in Berlin that it is preparing an LCD TV plant in Poland to help meet demand from European consumers.

Europe is currently the biggest LCD TV market and will make up one third of the global market for LCD TVs by 2011, according to Sharp.

Almost 10 million LCD TVs were sold in 2006 in the four largest European markets for consumer electronics, namely the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

To help meet this demand, Sharp’s target is to achieve an annual production of 10 million LCD TVs by 2011.

lcd sharp

NaviGadget: Together with the nuvi 750 and the nuvi 760, the newest top of the line nuvi from Garmin is now nuvi 770.

The Nuvi 770 will have bluetooth hands free calling, live traffic information with 3 months of free subscription, maps of the U.S., Canada, Puerto Rico and Europe, text-to-speech function to pronounce street names, and just like the other 700 models will have a wide 4.3″ screen.

Garmin Nuvi 750 Garmin Nuvi 760 Garmin Nuvi 770

TechDigest: As predicted, Nokia announced its digital music store yesterday morning, at its Go Play event in London. The new store is called Nokia Music Store, and it will launch by Christmas in Europe.

Nokia claimed that it’s the first music store to be truly online and mobile, although all the mobile operators offering their own dual-download stores might disagree strongly. However, the store will sell DRM-protected tracks, against the industry trend towards selling DRM-free tunes.

You’ll be able to tag songs on your phone, for download via PC when you get home, which will get around data charges. And later on, Nokia plans to launch a new PC music client, although this won’t be available at the launch of the Nokia Music Store.

Nokia Music Store