Demand for Sharps face masks crashes website and smart home gadgets

Sharp announced last month that it would begin making face masks at its TV factory in Japan, and this morning they became available to order — at least, that was the plan. Demand for the masks has overwhelmed Sharp’s servers to the point that not only is it near-impossible to access the online store, internet services for the company’s smart home gadgets have apparently been taken down too.

The Asahi Shimbun reports that Sharp IoT devices like air conditioners that connect to the internet and use smartphones for controls are currently experiencing problems. A Sharp representative apologized for the trouble and said the company is looking into the root cause. According to the company, it’s possible that the problems were caused by...

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