The Japanese government (Soum-sho) is planning to spend 1.2B Japanese Yen (about $10 million usd) to build “a system for watching kids” using mobile phones, GPS, RFID tags, etc. The ministry seems to be looking at systems that monitor kids’ whereabouts using GPS-enabled mobile phones, RFID tags carried by kids, and RFID readers and communication devices installed at school gates and electric polls.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that it has acquired 760,500 shares, approximately 3.0% of total issued and outstanding shares, in Nippon Television Network Corporation (NTV). Under a tie-up agreement concluded in February 2006, DoCoMo has already been working with NTV to provide attractive services converging mobile communications and broadcasting.
Magic iLand has quickly established itself as the gold standard for mobile phone novels. Work published there is guaranteed hundreds of thousands of readers and lots of street cred. Since its inception, the library has added at least 10 new titles per month. It includes frequently updated reviews and instructions on how to write a mobile phone novel. Last month, the site held the world’s first mobile phone novel award — with the cooperation of heavyweights like NTT DoCoMo, D2 Communications and video-rental giant Tsutaya.
Three major electronics companies have been sued by a foundation which claims that their use of Bluetooth wireless technology infringed on patented work at the University of Washington. According to the lawsuit, Bluetooth-based computers, cell phones and headsets made by Matsushita, Samsung, and Nokia have violated four patents, including one that was issued for research done in the mid-1990s by Edwin Suominen when he was an undergraduate student at the University of Washington.
DoCoMo will keep initial investment on its so-called super 3G network down to 100-200 billion yen ($841 million-$1.7 billion), according to reports in the Nikkei shimbun. DoCoMo has spent a total of 2.8 trillion yen on its 3G network in the past six years. Since the company will use existing base stations and other equipment for the super 3G, it would be able to keep down the necessary initial capital spending, the Nikkei said.
