New Tech & Services
New Tech & Services

New Tech & Services

DoCoMo R&D – Wireless Charger

Every once in awhile we come across something from DoCoMo’s Yokoska R&D labs that really turns our head and this is a great example, Video Here. The company appears to be working on a wireless charger function for enabled handsets to ‘juice-up’ while away from the home station charger cradle. As the increase of power hungry on-board applications continue to push usage and drainage this would seem to be a logical pursuit that we forsee becoming future reality. Meanwhile, the just announced AquaFairy solution will have to do (?!?) for quick power charge while on the go.

Interoperable Barcode and RFID Standard

Five Japanese companies including Fujitsu and NEC developed a systematic method to facilitate information sharing using varieties of barcodes and RFID tags. They have agreed on a method to create conversion tables that allow a company to translate the serial numbers used by other companies into the company format. This systematic method may facilitate information sharing across different companies, which would be useful for building traceability or retail systems.

JCB to Trial NFC in Netherlands

JCB, the Japan-based payment card company, says it will trial a Near Field Communication (NFC)-based mobile-phone payment service in Amsterdam beginning this autumn, according to an online article. The company says it is conducting the pilot because it sees payment applications on mobile handsets as a way to convert small-value transactions to its card scheme. Seven other companies are involved in the pilot, providing chip, personalization services, payment terminals, the phones and transaction processing.

Vodafone K.K. Announces Reco Mail Service

Vodafone K.K. just announced the roll-out, available from today, of a new service called ‘RECO MAIL’ which enables customers to send their favorite mobile content such as music, video and games via MMS and other methods to friends and acquaintances as recommendations. At the time of launch, 17 content sites with an estimated 33,780 files, on Vodafone live! support this new so-called “Super Distribution” copyright protection method communication service.

Windows Live Messenger for DoCoMo

Microsoft Corp. will release a version of its Windows Live Messenger application for use on NTT DoCoMo mobile phones “very soon,” sources at Microsoft say. Windows Live Messenger is Microsoft’s online chat program, which competes with a similar offering from Yahoo Japan Corp. The Japanese mobile version will allow real-time chat with other users on PCs or phones, access to buddy lists, and a “wake-up” feature that will send e-mail to a user’s phone when friends want to chat.