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Under the terms of the alliance, Sony and VeriSign Japan will jointly market Sony's latest FeliCa card that provides network security using VeriSign's Managed Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) Service. The network security-enabled card is embedded with Sony's Dual-interface IC technology, co-developed with Infineon Technologies of Germany, to provide PC users with system authentication and email encryption capabilities.

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today that they will market the mova SH506iC [.jpg image], the second smart-card handset that is compatible with i-mode FeliCa service for mobile wallet applications. Sales will begin on July 16, 2004. DoCoMo's revolutionary new service and smart-card handsets may be used for a variety of unprecedented functions that were previously possible only with IC-equipped cards, including train travel, debit card (electronic money) and credit card-based withdrawals and transactions, and personal identification.

Vodafone K.K. announced today that from July 15 it will offer the V401SA by Sanyo [.jpg image] which features a built-in FM radio tuner. The V401SA's main feature is an FM radio tuner that lets customers enjoy FM broadcasts in stereo sound. Customers can also take photos and enjoy the Vodafone live! mobile internet service while listening to FM radio broadcasts simultaneously. In addition, the V401SA supports the "Now on Air" function so customers can retrieve song titles and artists names in real time while they listen to the radio. The new model features advanced slide-type design, 1.3 megapixel camera and lots of storage to saving photos for easy printing.

It's back! The Mobile Intelligence Tour, that is. Building on the highly successful MIT 1 held in April 2004 and co-organized by Wireless Watch Japan chief editor Daniel Scuka, MIT 2, 3-8 October 2004, promises to be better than ever. For full details at Mobile Intelligence Japan.

Texas Instruments Inc. and NTT DoCoMo, Inc., have announced a joint agreement to develop a cost-competitive, multi-mode UMTS (W-CDMA/ GSM/GPRS) chipset to serve the Japanese, U.S. and worldwide 3G handset market. An integrated UMTS digital baseband and applications processor will be developed based on TI's OMAP(TM) 2 architecture and NTT DoCoMo's W-CDMA technology for NTT DoCoMo handsets and other 3G handsets worldwide. Additionally, the agreement will include development and testing of power management, RF and protocol software that will be made available as system solutions to TI's worldwide customer base.