New Tech & Services
New Tech & Services

New Tech & Services

IC Mobile Payment Reaches Mainstream

WWJ Portable Reportable MP3 audio report
Of the 10 mn Japanese using some form of the FeliCa contactless IC payment system as of 1 April, 700,000 are already mobile-enabled, according to Tokyo’s bitWallet, the joint-venture set up to commercialize Sony’s FeliCa technology. In today’s WWJ Portable Reportable, we speak with Norihiko Fujita, a bitWallet manager working on extending the FeliCa-based “Edy” payment service into mobile platforms. After NTT DoCoMo launched their own-branded “i-mode FeliCa” service last summer, Vodafone and KDDI are playing catch-up in 2005, and they’d better hurry: with 20,000 merchants already accepting FeliCa-based payments, there’s money to be made from mainstream users. (“Edy” stands, somewhat hopefully, for “Euro, Dollar, Yen”).

Mobile Phones Jump and Jive at 3G Wireless Disco

Mobile Phones Jump and Jive at 3G Wireless DiscoHong Kong’s Artificial Life turns 3G handsets into funky dance machines via V-disco, a wireless subscription site combining chat, music streaming and music downloading to mobile phones with interactive 3D graphics and animated virtual avatars. V-Disco will initially launch throughout China, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Japanese 3G handsets should come on line in the very near future. The company plans to take on Japan’s 3G market full throttle and is currently in negotiations over its debut here.

Users and visitors to the virtual disco select an avatar persona for themselves and join the party in the club’s three interactive levels. Club goers select genres and songs from the club list, listening to their tunes while their avatar strolls along chatting – if they choose – with other party people in real time and checking out 3D animated characters moving to the beat. Avatars act as guides, companions or dancing doppelgangers. Though the figures retain a slightly cylindrical, rubbery look the V-Disco has a fun Dance Dance Revolution feel to it with a good backbeat.

Digital TV Cell Phone Test Drive

Digital TV Cell Phone Test DriveDigital terrestrial broadcasting for mobile phones is scheduled to begin in Japan by spring 2006 and both Vodafone and KDDI had demonstration models up and running on the first day of the NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories open house yesterday. An annual event open to the public, this year’s show focused once again on digital TV broadcasting with three floors of cameras, servers, receivers and handheld devices. Mobile receivers drew packed crowds herded into Disneyland-style long lines waiting their turn to handle an 801SH Vodafone/Sharp CDMA Qualcomm handset. No bigger than a conventional cell phone, the 801SH has a hybrid split-screen displaying images on the upper half with the bottom reserved for scrolling data feeds and Web links to programming, etc. Exclusive from Wireless Watch Japan!

Enfour Launches TangoTown in Australia on Telstra i-mode®

Today Enfour announced the official content listing of TangoTown in Australia on Telstra’s new i-mode® service. TangoTown was first released in Japan in May 2002 and this latest release is the fourth time it has been accepted as official content by a major mobile phone carrier around the world. TangoTown, the first fully-featured premium mobile content service specifically services the Japanese language reference, learning and lifestyle needs of students, language enthusiasts, tourists and business travellers.

Vodafone K.K. Enhances Automatic Image Conversion Service

Vodafone K.K. announced today that it will enhance its Automatic Image Conversion function for Vodafone live! mail services from 30 June 2005 to make it possible to better receive Movie Sha-mail video messages from other Vodafone K.K. handsets and imaging files sent from non-Vodafone K.K. handsets and PCs. The Automatic Image Conversion function was first launched in September 2004, making it possible for Vodafone K.K. customers exchanging Sha-mail picture messages to have images automatically converted by the mail system to a size and number of colours optimal for the receiver?fs handset. The service does not require an application and customers are only billed for communication charges incurred when sending and receiving mails.

ACCESS and Abaxia Collaborate to Deliver New Data Capture Paradigm to Mobile

ACCESS announced that it has collaborated with Abaxia to integrate its MobileTag 2D barcode reader solution with ACCESS’ NetFront® Mobile Client Suite, the world’s most advanced, integrated browser-based software solution for advanced multimedia-enabled mobile phones. The joint solution enables a new data capture model between mobile devices and barcode-enabled applications like advertisements, brochures, posters, direct-mailers, or any object that can support a barcode.