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

Year: 2004

DoCoMo to Launch i-mode Disaster Message Board Service in English

NTT DoCoMo Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced that they will add English language capability to the i-mode® Disaster Message Board service beginning September 1, 2004. DoCoMo set up this electronic bulletin board service in Japanese last January, to be activated in the event of a major calamity such as a high-magnitude earthquake. The bulletin board will enable i-mode subscribers within the disaster area to post messages in order to notify family and friends of their personal safety and whereabouts. The service was launched in order to ensure communication and prevent a degradation in network performance, since an overflow of voice calls and data packet transmissions would likely follow a major disaster.

Mobidec 2004 Wireless Tradeshow

The Mobidec 2004 annual event is back for their 4th year, slated to run Aug. 26 – 27th in Tokyo’s Aoyama Diamond Hall. Discover the future for fusion of cybermoney, music distribution, rich contents, and broadcast. As the cellular phone and mobile web usage are increasingly expanding, this two day seminar will explore the affects of the wireless domain on the real economy. The key players in Japan’s cellular phone business and technology sectors will make presentations, and display company exhibits, of their unique experiance in this field.

MediaArtist Video SDK for 3GPP

Panasonic announced the release of it’s SDK MediaArtist, an MPEG-4 related AV software encoder for the 3GPP/3GPP2 and SD-Video standards, will go on sale Sept. 1st. Designed to operate with the SD memory card in target devices such as a cellphones, car navi systems, television, and camera models which are increasingly being adopted. Configured for the 3G phones of Japan’s wireless carriers and using the 3GPP standard, the original MPEG-4 object model has been significantly extended. Press Release in Japanese.

KDDI Announces the Merger of Four Subsidiaries, Launch of 'KDDI Network & Soluti

KDDI has announced the impending merger of four subsidiaries to form KDDI Network & Solutions Inc., to strengthen management efficiency and improve response times for corporate customers requiring broad and comprehensive solutions. The new company is expected to become a pillar of the corporate fixed communications business for the KDDI group. K-Solutions Inc., KCOM Corporation, OSI Plus Corporation, and KDDI Msat, Inc. will be merged into the new company on October 1, 2004, to strengthen the KDDI Group base and enable greater corporate-wide deployment in the communications service market where the Group expects an intensification of competition in the future.

Cellphones to Track Farm Produce

Japan’s farm ministry will begin a project in fiscal 2005 to create a tracing system enabling consumers to know the “history” of farm products by means of mobile phones, ministry officials said Wednesday. The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries plans to complete the system, which will cover half of agricultural products, in three years, they said.

Vindigo Studios Acquired by For-Side.com Co., Ltd.

Vindigo Studios, one of the best-known publishers of consumer applications for mobile devices, today announced it has been acquired by For-Side.com Co. Ltd., a leading worldwide mobile content provider based in Japan. The Vindigo Studios acquisition was completed earlier this month for $36.5 million. Through the all cash agreement, Vindigo Studios will continue to operate as an independent entity led by existing management and will continue to market itself under the Vindigo Studios brand.