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music

Sony to Demo TransferJet at CES

Sony has announced “TransferJet”, a new Close Proximity Wireless Transfer Technology enabling the high speed transfer of large data files (photos, HD images, etc.) between electronic devices such as mobile phones, digital cameras, digital video cameras, computers and TVs. Using this technology, data can be sent at speeds of 560Mbps. Sony will present reference exhibits of this newly developed technology at CES International, to be held in Las Vegas from January 7th.

Disney to Launch the iPhone in Japan

Disney to Launch the iPhone in JapanOnly those who have been totally blocked-out from all media sources over the last year would wonder what an iPhone is as the so-called “Jesus Phone” has been in the mainstream headlines since even before it was officially unveiled in January. However, for a combination of reasons, there has only been mild speculation about when – or indeed how – it would become available in the Japanese market. Citing the initial lack of 3G capability, not too mention an ‘unusual’ operator revenue share arrangement, the story so far has centered around deployments in the US and Europe. Full skinny after the jump!

DoCoMo Strikes Back with 905i-Series

DoCoMo Strikes Back with 905i-SeriesDomestic market incumbant NTT DoCoMo came out with all guns blazing during their press conference at the Grand Park Hyatt in Tokyo on November 1st. For the first time ever they combined the launch for both of their upcoming 700 and 900 series models – a record 23 handsets unveiled at once – and the announcement included several new service offerings as well. Marking another notable difference from previous line-up introductions was the absence of Natsuno-san, famed ‘father of i-mode’ and always energetic MC, from the stage.

The companies flag-ship 905i-series included 10 models which will all come fully loaded with high-speed HSDPA, 1Seg digitial-tv, DCMX m-commerce, GPS, 2in1 dual-sim identity and enabled with GSM chipsets to allow global roaming complete with voice-to-text translation capabilities for English, Chinese and Japanese. Further enhancements in handset design include increased multi-media applications in motion sensor gaming, flat-rate music subscriptions and i-motion videos along with updated i-area mapping and cell broadcast emergency announcement services and Flash Lite 3 pre-installed all coming as standard features across the board.

Taito Unveils Air Guitar for Mobile Phones

Talk about Mega Games, wish we had seen this at TGS in Sept., Taito has announced it will release a motion sensitive music application for DoCoMo 904i-series handsets (D904i excluded) in December. Their so-called “Intuition Band” game also makes use of the built-in camera sensor and a/v output allowing ‘players’ to create their very own mobile music! It will apparently also do other instruments, such as drum tracks (not sure about vocals?), and the company will be offering a free trial version via the i-mode menu from early November.

Impressions from the MoMo Global Summit

Impressions from the MoMo Global SummitThe 3rd annual MobileMonday Global Summit was held in Helsinki, Finland, on 10 September with an estimated 1,500 attendees; this year included a bonus side-trip to St. Petersburg, Russia, the following evening. WWJ was there once again, as founders of the MoMo Tokyo chapter, along with representatives from over 20 MoMo cities around the world. In addition to our Trip Report, WWJ’s ed-in-chief Daniel Scuka offers these thoughts about the experience.

Japan Recording Industry Assoc. Q2 Results

The number of downloads from legal music and video services in Japan has fallen for the first time, according to the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ), Via PC World. A total of 111.6 million downloads were made during the second quarter of this year, down from 114.3 million in the first quarter of the year. The figures are derived from data supplied to the RIAJ by its 42 member companies. Despite an increase in ringback tones and a jump in cellular music downloads from 23.3 million tracks to 25.5 million tracks, the entire mobile Internet download market shrank 2 percent quarter-on-quarter to 104.8 million downloads, said the RIAJ.

Hideki Komiyama to Lead SonyEricsson

SonyEricsson appointed Hideki Komiyama its new top executive as Miles Flint has decided to step down from the post. Flint, who became president in 2004 and guided the venture to profitability, will remain executive adviser to Komiyama until the end of the year. Komiyama, currently chairman of Sony Electronics, will move into the new job on Nov. 1.

Targeted Ads Planned for AU-One

KDDI will analyze the browsing activity of their “au one” customers from this autumn and introduce targeted advertisements that match the history preference of the individual. Mediba and and DAC (digital advertising consortium) will jointly develop this technique and according to this press release it’s introduction into mobility will be the first in Japan.