helloNetwork, the top developer of Java(TM)-based wireless streaming media technology, has partnered with Today Fast East Tone (FET), the third largest mobile carrier in Taiwan, to launch a new range of services which provide multimedia services to FET’s Bravo subscribers. These new services include downloadable movie clips and MTVs for a variety of different GPRS and JAVA enabled handsets.
Yamaha Corporation, the world’s largest manufacturer of musical instruments and a leader in digital audio, announced today that it will expand its “Ringtone@YAMAHA” ringing melody distribution service in China giving customers using CDMA mobile phones of China United Telecommunications Corporation (China Unicom) a vast choice of different melodies for their handset ringers. The service to distribute harmonic 16- and 40-tone ringing melodies nationwide will begin on July 1, 2003, permitting China Unicom CDMA mobile phone subscribers.
Electronics conglomerate NEC Corp. said on Wednesday it would re-enter the U.S. mobile phone market this summer with the popular Internet-ready handsets that have made it Japan’s top cellphone supplier. “We’ll be supplying Internet-enabled phones from this summer, and plan to announce further details in the United States on July 22,” an NEC spokeswoman said.
Matsushita Electric, best known worldwide for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronics and digital communications products, announced today that it will begin marketing of “Kurashi (Japanese for ‘home life’) Net”, a networked home appliances/housekeeping system to enhance the users’ daily living. The system, to be marketed from September 1, will enable the user to control networked home appliances, such as air-conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and microwave ovens, through wireless control from the central terminal, named “Kurashi Station,” or from a mobile phone. The system also monitors security and other household conditions, alerting the users by sounding an alarm linked to the “Watchdog Safety Sensor” in cases of emergency.
NTT DoCoMo and its eight regional subsidiaries today announced that they will begin marketing the 3G N2102V videophone from July 18, 2003. The smallest in the FOMA series, the new model boasts a compact and lightweight (109g) design that is on a par with 2G handsets. It also features an enhanced mail function and longer battery life. The N2102V’s enhanced Speed photo mail function allows users to simultaneously call and send mail with attached photos taken either on-the-spot or previously saved. When enabled, the function automatically displays the e-mail address link of the person being called.
Seiko Epson Corporation has developed a color STN display control LSI that is capable of displaying 65,536 colors while consuming very little power. The new driver, named the S1D15G17 and aimed primarily at the European mobile phone market, is already shipping in sample quantities.
