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MWI Mailing Lists Now Open

The Mobile Web Initiative, part of the W3C and described in this week’s WWJ Newsletter, has set up two public mailing lists: public-bpwg@w3.org (dedicated to discussion associated with the Best Practice Working Group), and public-ddwg@w3.org (dedicated to discussion associated with the Device Description Working Group). If you’re interested in participating in public discussions or if you have something to contribute, the folks running the Initiative would love to have you sign up.

Vodafone Slams Spam

Vodafone Japan said today they would limit SMS transmissions starting 31 May 2005 as part of new anti-spam measures aimed at making its Vodafone live! mobile Internet service more dependable for customers. Specifically, the number of SMS that can be sent to from a Vodafone KK 3G handset within one day will be limited to 500 starting 31 May 2005. Handsets that exceed this limit will not be able to send additional SMS for the following 20 days.

Mitsui Invests in Mobile Multimedia

Japanese corporate powerhouse Mitsui is making moves on international mobile markets. The company has invested US$8.2 million in Buongiorno Vitaminic’s US operations. Mitsui’s equity investment gives the Japanese trading company a minority position in Buongiorno US with shares totaling 19.9 percent. While Buongiorno Vitaminic may sound like a health drink, the company is actually a five-year old Italian multinational handling multimedia content for telephony and digital channels. The company maintains a presence in all major European markets and is pushing into the US as well.

Japan Cell Phone Sales Drop

Domestic shipments of cellular and automobile phones in Japan totaled 44.77 million units in fiscal 2004 that ended March 31, down 12.2 percent from the previous year for the first decrease in three years, the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association reported Tuesday.

DoCoMo Announces Five New 3G Wallet Phones

DoCoMo Announces Five New 3G Wallet Phones

With little fanfare and no press conference, NTT DoCoMo has released five new 3G FOMA 901iS FeliCa-enabled handsets into the digital world: D901iS (Mitsubishi), F901iS (Fujitsu), P901iS (Panasonic), N901iS (NEC) and SH901iS (Sharp). All have certain features in common with other 901i models, including music players, “3D Sound,” Deco-Mail to decorate email, G-GUIDE interactive TV guide and recording programmer (see the .pdf for full specs). New features include a 4-megapixel recorded resolution camera for the D901iS and a full Web browser on the N901iS. The company says that the 901iS-series is DoCoMo’s first in which all models are equipped for mobile-wallet functions, but the five handsets actually do a lot more than drain virtual bank accounts. The pre-installed Adobe Reader LE, for example, enables 901iS phones to view PDF files downloaded from i-mode sites. The application includes access to all basic PDF functions including scrolling, paging, text searches, bookmarks and page rotation and users can easily email files, dial a number or navigate to a Web link in the file. But wait, there’s more…

i-mode Getting Results at Telstra

At the Mobile Content World Asia Pacific conference in Sydney last week, Graham Gordon, GM Wireless Consumer and Data Services for i-mode alliance partner Telstra, reported “a sensational” 87-percent active user base for its i-mode portal, meaning that users have used the portal more than once in the last 30 days [Should that be ‘at least once’? — Ed.]. Subscription rates to i-mode are more than 500 percent higher than to Telstra’s WAP service and informed observers are predicting that total subscribers will reach 65,000 by the end of May, some 3 months after the hard launch.

KDDI Ready to Roll-Out Free Mobile Blog (MoBlog) Service

KDDI Ready to Roll-Out Free Mobile Blog (MoBlog) Service

Word to the Wireless — Japan’s KDDI will launch a free mobile weblog system, dubbed Duoblog, for subscribers to its 3G WIN EZ Web service on 19 May. In a first from Japan cellcos, users can access and update these mobile blogs directly from their handset or PC through the KDDI Duogate portal. Duoblog sites will be fully customizable with backgrounds (skins), emoticons, images, and applications. Maybe your humble scribes here at WWJ should sign-up and join in the fun..?!? Overseas mobile sites like WinkSite and Hip-Top Nation (to name a few) already provide tools to create free moblogs (mobile blogs) or mobile editions of web logs that can be accessed worldwide from Web enabled cell phones, PDAs and PCs.

At press time, NTT DoCoMo spokesperson Tomoko Tsuda stated that the company has “no immediate plans” to launch a mobile blogging site. Vodafone Japan, too, is taking a wait-and-see attitude, saying they would “monitor market developments in this regard.”

NEC to Supply Platform and i-mode Mobile Handset for MTS Russia

NEC announced today that it has received orders of Mobile Internet Platform and mobile handsets for Mobile TeleSystems (MTS)’s i-mode(TM) service. MTS Russia’s largest mobile phone operator in Russia and CIS which is currently holding over 40 million subscribers and over 35% market share. i-mode operation in Russia is scheduled to start in September 2005, and further operation is scheduled in Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Belarus in the future. Expansion of high-level functionality for the mobile Internet services in Russia is moving forward, and advanced and rich services are becoming a reality in near future. “Russia is one of the important markets for NEC.” said Noboru Wakita, Senior General Manager of NEC’s Mobile Solutions Operations Unit.

Japanese Use Cell Phone QR Bar Code Readers to Check Food Safety

Japanese Use Cell Phone QR Bar Code Readers to Check Food Safety

Belly up to the Bar Code: QR codes are reducing the fear factor for foodstuffs in Japan as agricultural associations embrace the new wireless technology tagging fresh produce for quick access to mobile information Web sites. A new English-language report [.PDF] released this month by NTT DoCoMo on QR code use in agriculture reveals the growing popularity of this medium.

Forget any assumptions about Hicksville. Japanese farmers have little fear of technology. Rural Ibaraki Prefecture has turbo charged their QR coding for agricultural products tagging a wide variety of vegetables grown in that prefecture. Ibaraki Prefectural authorities and the JA Ibaraki Prefecture Central Union of Agricultural Cooperative cooperating with other farming and agricultural associations are adding QR code labels right at the point of origin. In the supermarket, consumers use camera equipped cell phones to scan the QR code on the label. The code links to a mobile website detailing origin, soil composition, organic fertilizer content percentage (as opposed to chemical), use of pesticides and herbicides and even the name of the farm it was grown on. Consumers can also access the same information over the Ibaraki Agricultural Produce Net website by inputting a numbered code on each label.

Nintendo, IGN Join to Create a New Wi-Fi Mobile Gaming Network

Nintendo is partnering with IGN Entertainment to create an innovative network for portable video games that is not only expansive but also extremely easy for everyone to use. Set to debut later this year, the wireless service for Nintendo DST will use IGN’s GameSpy Technology to let people around the world link easily and wirelessly to play games, just as if they were playing face-to-face. The Nintendo DS service will provide an easy, seamless transition to wireless Wi-Fi gaming, the service represents the first foray by IGN’s GameSpy into portable games.