Year: <span>2004</span>
Year: 2004

Year: 2004

Cell-Phone Soap Opera a Cool New Genre

Love comes to the really, really small screen in a mobile, only-in-Japan, soap opera made exclusively for KDDI 3G cellys. The live-action soap opera, Yokohama 80s, follows the predictable lives, loves, and losses of young, beach-loving Japanese boys and girls back when Madonna was still Like a Virgin. Eighties’ big hair, big shoulders, and big hits have been downsized to tiny, two-and-a-half-minute broadcast bites. The story is adapted from Shogakan Shukan’s weekly Big Comic Spirits-series “Tokyo Eighties” (published as a serial manga) but features all-new original characters and storylines by the same author. Can the mobile laundry soap commercials be far behind?

Telco's Form Bridge Mobile Alliance

Seven leading Asia-Pacific mobile operators, including Ayala-owned Globe Telecom, are investing $30 to $40 million over three years to form the region’s largest joint venture mobile company, with a potential customer base of over 300 million. The regional mobile alliance, Bridge Mobile, will be the commercial vehicle in which the seven operators jointly invest to build and establish a regional mobile infrastructure and common service platform.

Second 3G operator in Hong Kong

Hong Kong’s SmarTone Telecommunications Holdings announced Tuesday it will roll out its 3G mobile phone network in December, making it the territory’s second provider of 3G services. “It is clear indication of our commitment … to deliver seamless, advanced and faster multimedia services,” SmarTone Chief Executive Douglas Li said at a news conference to announce the December launch of 3G services.

Samsung Unveils New Smart Chip

Samsung Electronics, the world’s largest maker of computer memory chips, said Tuesday that it has developed the world’s highest-capacity smart cards with wide-ranging applications for high-end mobile phones. The company said it had introduced the three memory cards with smart-card functions at an industry trade fair, Cartes Paris 2004, with the aim of becoming the world’s biggest smart-card vendor.

TruVideo, Beijing DG Telecom in Mobile Video Partnership

Beijing DG Telecom, a mobile applications and infrastructure provider, has announced an agreement with TruVideo, a Berkeley, California, based company specializing in mobile video solutions, to provide mobile video applications for the greater Chinese mobile market. Freeverse Partners, a Tokyo based company specializing in assisting foreign companies in Asian mobile business development and strategy, facilitated the partnership.

3,645 Cell-Phone Drivers Fined

Kyodo News, 3 November 2004
Police caught 3,645 drivers using cell phones while driving Monday, the day the revised Road Traffic Law came into effect in Japan, the National Police Agency said Tuesday. Under the law, drivers are fined if caught using a cell phone held in their hand — including for conversation, messaging and reading the screen — while driving.

NEC Establishes Linux Partnership

MontaVista Software and NEC Electronics Corporation have announced a strategic partnership to integrate and optimize MontaVista Linux for NEC Electronics’ embedded hardware platforms. Through the partnership, MontaVista will provide MontaVista Linux platforms to NEC Electronics for use in its mobile phone, digital consumer and car navigation solutions. The integration of technologies will enable device manufacturers to build high quality products, with lower total development costs and reduced time-to-market.

Talking Art with Talby

TalbyKDDI brings a cool synchronicity of art and technology to a new mobile handset, the Talby. Conceptualized by acclaimed Australian designer Marc Newson, it weighs in at just 79 grams and a mere 13 mm thick. Though you might readily file it with other vanity handsets, it’s not just a pretty face. Arguably the lightest handset yet (except perhaps for DoCoMo’s tiny Premini at 69 grams but we’re talking about cell phones you can actually use), its ultra-slim, ultra-flat design is achieved in part by placing the antenna internally.

Talby also has a high-resolution QVGA LCD screen, Flash, 2-D barcode reader, camera, is compatible with KDDI’s EZAppli BREW applications and their advanced EZNavi Walk navigation system, plus other bells and whistles — but the “phone as fashion accessory” is definitely part of the message here.