Rubbing the Asia-only status of 1Seg mobile TV in our sullen, pouting faces, Sharp today announced their latest tuner for cellphones and mobile devices.  Measuring just 5.9 x 5.9 x 0.9mm, the VA3A5JZ922 may not win any fans for its “bury me on a baseboard” name, but the digital noise reduction and super-frugal power requirements certainly make up for it.

In fact, the new Sharp tuner is the smallest such 1Seg device ever, 35-percent smaller in surface area than their previous model and 28-percent thinner.  Samples go out to manufacturers at the end of this month, and then Sharp expect to start churning out 1m a month from the end of September 2008.

Right, I’m off to be bitter and jealous.

[via CrunchGear]