New Tech & Services
New Tech & Services

New Tech & Services

Casio Develops the World's First Transparent Ceramic Lens

In conjunction with its parent company, Casio Computer Co., today announced that using its proprietary optical technology, it has developed the world’s first lens using transparent ceramics. This breakthrough will make it possible to create zoom lenses for cameras with greatly reduced profiles. Ever since CASIO’s EXILIM thin card-size digital camera went on sale, the entire digital camera market has undergone a huge change. Compact digital cameras offering mobility in a small package have become mainstream, while there has been a major push in technological development to find better methods of creating smaller, thinner cameras.

Macromedia's Flash Lite Shines

Fujitsu's New VoIP/PHS HandsetFlash has been an integral part of the fixed-line Web for years and with its launch on DoCoMo’s 505i-series 2G handsets in spring 2003 (and on FOMA 3G last fall), it has developed into a mobile Web standard in Japan as well; six major Japanese manufacturers are already producing Flash-enabled handsets. Flash has now rolled out on yet another batch of 3G phones, this time from KDDI. We caught up with Macromedia’s senior director of marketing for mobile, Anup Murarka, at KDDI’s launch event in Tokyo and had a fascinating discussion about the past, present, and future of Flash for wireless. Full Program (also available in Real Player and Quick-Time formats) Run-time 20:51

NTT DoCoMo to Offer Financing for FeliCa Service Startup at GEO

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the company entered into a financing agreement with multimedia retail company GEO as part of a strategy to promote i-mode FeliCa service in the Japanese market. Under the agreement, NTT DoCoMo will provide financial assistance for the development of a network system to support i-mode FeliCa service at GEO outlets, and the installation of smart-card reader/writers at approximately 600 GEO shops beginning this November. In order to recoup its investment in the system, DoCoMo will collect a commission for each usage of the FeliCa service. GEO is a major player in the rental and sales of videos, DVDs, CDs and game software.

Vodafone K.K. Offers Auto Image Size Conversion for Sha-mail

Vodafone K.K. announced today that it will offer a new automatic image size conversion function starting September 1, 2004 to make exchanging Sha-mail picture messages among Vodafone customers even more convenient. Currently, various file sizes and formats exist for exchanging images on mobile handsets, and not every handset can automatically receive multiple image formats and file sizes. Using the new automatic image size conversion function in the Vodafone K.K. network mail system, the attached image’s file size and number of colors are automatically converted when a Sha-mail is sent to another Vodafone customer *1, thereby making it possible for the sender to send a picture message without worrying about the receiver’s handset type.

Vodafone Releases Sharp TV Keitai

Are they ahead, or behind the curve. WWJ has great coverage coming up of the future showing KDDI au/ Hitachi’s W11-based digital TV tuner concept keitai at Wireless Japan 2004 in action. For the present, however, Vodafone continues to press on with analog TV tuners, and massive TV advertizing. The latest offering is Sharp’s V402SH, which will be on sale tomorrow, armed with a swivel screen that allows punters to watch TV (reception willing) even when the phone is closed. The V402SH comes with a 2.2-inch QVGA (240 x 320 pixel) LCD screen and a 1.3 megapixel CCD camera. Happy viewing! [.pdf here]

Interactive Posters for Mobile Phones

Mobile phone solution provider K Laboratory has announced that it has developed FeliPo, an interactive advertising system designed for use with FeliCa-enabled public posters. Users of FeliCa mobile phones will be able to receive detailed information and special discount coupons online from a FeliPo-enabled advertising poster by simply holding their handsets against the ad.