New Tech & Services
New Tech & Services

New Tech & Services

Psycho-Analyse Your Mobile Messages

Have you ever received a message on your phone from someone special but weren’t sure whether the text represented their true feelings? It’s this kind of problem that Animo is trying to solve with its new i-mode service Email Truth Checker which is similar to the Feel*Mail handset function I posted on yesterday. To use the service, you choose your gender and the relationship between you and the person whose message you want to analyse (you can chose from partner, crush, superior, family etc.). After you’ve uploaded the message in question, the system analyses the language used and rates the authenticity of the feelings expressed.

Mitsubishi Announces Developer Contest

DoCoMo’s recent introduction of new handsets included the D800iDS from Mitsubishi with an innovative dual touchscreen design. The handset manufacturer has just announced a competition for developers to create new applications for the device with prizes of LCD TVs and DVD recorders on offer. Mitsubishi will provide 30 selected entrants with a software simulator for the D800iDS until its launch and a loan handset once it goes on sale in February.

KDDI Announces More GPS 'Sweets'

KDDI announced new handsets and services this week for their Safety Navi series, original debut in 2005 and improved January 2006, targeted at the the family / youth market. This latest line-up addition includes 3 new models; the Sanyo A5525SA, Toshiba’s A5523T and a so-called Sweets Cute (also by Sanyo), plus several new advanced GPS offerings. One example shows the progress of a users location through the day – using data collected each minute – plotted on a map and viewed by parents or guardians with authorized access on mobile phones or PC’s. The company also announced something that roughly translates into Automatic Photo where remote requests can be made for the handset to take and send a picture!

DoCoMo Funding Nanotech Research

Nanosys, Inc. and DoCoMo Capital, Inc., a wholly owned US subsidiary of NTT DoCoMo, Inc., announced they have entered into an exclusive collaboration agreement to develop Nanosys’ nanotechnology platform for potential product opportunities in wireless communications for mobile telephone applications in Japan. Under the terms of the agreement, NTT DoCoMo and DoCoMo Capital will fund development efforts at Nanosys and NTT DoCoMo. In addition, DoCoMo Capital announced its equity investment in Nanosys. Financial details of the agreements were not disclosed.

Time Machine Navi GPS Application

Osaka-based Dorga Ltd.has announced their Time Machine Navi application which displays historic scenery according to the position and the direction of an enabled cellphone screen. The sample site, Ruins of Heijo Palace in Nara, was unveiled in the final report of the ‘Intellectual Cluster Creation Business’ that the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology creation has been funding since 2002.

Japan Plans GPS Watch for Kids

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.