Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

With the rife competition in the HDTV market it is good to see companies like LG trying to come up with innovative ideas to help improve market share.

Shortly after announcing a blu-ray player with the ability to play YouTube videos and receive on demand content they have announced a new TV that will have access to the Internet.

Specifically this will be used to access to services such as NetFlix, but could include any other number of on-demand sites and hopefully, YouTube and free access to browse and stream as you see fit.

There's no release date confirmed for the new screens, dubbed 'Broadband HDTVs', but they are expected to command a premium of around £200 over conventional models.

Price fixing seems to be quite common in big business and the latest 2 companies to be caught out are LG, Sharp Chunghwa Picture Tubes.

The three companies will face a total fine of $585m. LG has the largest fine of $400m for conspiring to fix prices from September 2001 to June 2006. Sharp have a fine of $120m for inflating prices of panels sold to Dell, Motorola and Apple between 2001-2006.

Sharp have responded by imposing a 10 to 30 percent pay cut for 3 months to reassure shareholders.

Personally 10 to 30 percent seems a bit lenient considering it probably netted the company hundreds of millions in extra revenue.

Telefónica plans to start testing a 3D IPTV service in São Paulo this year, according to local reports, using a TV supplied by Philips which does not require special glasses to view the 3D image.

Telefónica will offer the service to residents of the region of Jardins in São Paulo, as these clients are connected to a fibre optical network which has the transmission capacity to deliver 3D IPTV. The biggest challenge for the service is that it is currently only possible with the specially developed Philips television the WOWvx-powered 1080p 52-inch Philips 3D HDTV, which currently costs around €18,000. However Philips believes that the television will be much cheaper in the near future: "Today the technology is aimed more at corporate applications," said Renato Secco, Director of the company's Brazilian subsidiary. "Inside three or four years it will be much more accessible to the consumer."

Samsung's Armani Paw LCD TV is available in 46 and 52 inch screen sizes with a cabinet designed by the man himself. The TV is currently only available in Korea, but features 120Hz picture processing and built-in RSS feed support. Price? If you have to ask, you probably can't afford it.