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

Year: 2004

Samsung Plans NCF Function

Samsung and Philips announced they are teaming up to incorporate Near-Field Communication technology in future cellphone models from Samsung, giving users the ability to use their phones to make payments. Incorporating an NFC chip from Philips in Samsung’s phones will effectively turn the handsets into contactless smart cards, with the ability to make payments, according to a joint statement. The phones could also be used as a key card to enter a building, for example, this is the same technology, by Sony, that powers mobile FeliCa by in Japan.

Bluetooth Driving Hands Free

The (enforced) Road Traffic Law comes into effect Nov. 1 banning mobile phone usage while driving. With stiff fines, and even prison terms, announced people will be shopping for alternatives like this new Handzu-Free Bluetooth product. Tested to run on over 40 different DoCoMo Mova handsets these handy little devices will likely see critical mass adoption in Japan during the next year, then again it’s always a good idea to read the fine print..

New 802.11 Network Camera

Matsushita Electric has announced a September 17 market launch of the Home Network Camera BL-C30 is the latest IEEE802.11b/g-compatible wireless web camera. The product allows for built-in tilt and pan control from remote locations and can be set to automatically send e-mail alerts with attached snapshots when motions are detected by the built-in motion sensor.

Mobile Phone for Seniors

While thousands of workers were laid off at the “big” mobile phone companies, a small swiss company dares to start their own mobile phone: Mobi-Click – the mobile phone with “only” three buttons to dial, but with many other surprises, which can’t be found in any other phone: Mobi-Click “Compact” is not only the easiest to use mobile phone, but it also has a emergency call, babyphone and alarm-system integrated. Japan would seem like a natural target for this type of handset..!!!

Opera Offers KDDI Browser for BREW

Opera Software today announced it will deliver Opera’s port for the BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) application development platform with KDDI, Japan’s second largest mobile operator. “Opera’s full Internet browser offers the greatest advantage with the high-speed and efficient data communication capabilities of the 3G CDMA network,” says Dr. Seiichiro Sakai, Director, Product Management Department, Service & Product Planning Division.