JCB, the international payment brand, AEON Credit Service, the retail-affiliated credit card company, and NTT DoCoMo jointly announced today that JCB and AEON have developed the QUICPay payment solution for cards with contactless IC chips. The QUICPay service is also compatible with NTT DoCoMo’s smart-card handsets. A trial project for the new QUICPay solution will begin this autumn.
Japan, China, and South Korea are likely to reach an agreement to standardize integrated circuit tags in fiscal 2006, sources said Saturday. A single tag consists of an IC microchip, each side measuring 1 millimeter thick or smaller, which includes an antenna for wireless communication. The product’s details are entered into the chips and can be read by a device through a signal emitted from the antenna. The technology, which may replace bar codes, provides a better method to monitor stock and manage distribution.
NTT DoCoMo, Inc. and its eight regional subsidiaries announced today that they will market the mova SH506iC [.jpg image], the second smart-card handset that is compatible with i-mode FeliCa service for mobile wallet applications. Sales will begin on July 16, 2004. DoCoMo’s revolutionary new service and smart-card handsets may be used for a variety of unprecedented functions that were previously possible only with IC-equipped cards, including train travel, debit card (electronic money) and credit card-based withdrawals and transactions, and personal identification.
The Nikkei reported on Saturday that KDDI aims to commercialize fuel cells for keitai using Hitachi and Toshiba technology by 2007; this is supposed to be at least two years behind claims often made by Japan’s mobile-phone leader NEC that it will have fuel cells ready for commercialization for mobile phones by next year at the latest.
Do you need hassle-free WiFi & Bluetooth connectivity? Of course you do (so do we, come to think of it!) and Hiromasa Takato, product manager at Toshiba’s Global Strategic Planning Group, claims that their ConfigFree software will soothe you into a seamless WiFi connection wherever and with whatever Bluetooth-enabled device(s) you have at hand. WWJ took Hiro, his Pocket PC e805 PDA, his laptop, and a Toshiba A5504T (au) cellie for a test run — and a beer — in downtown Shinjuku. With hotspots multiplying like tribbles and all the buzz about VoIP and Bluetooth-enabled keitai about to boom, this is definitely a WWJ peek at the future — right here and now. Subscribers read on to get the full skinny! Full Program Run-time 12:51, also available in Real Player and Quick-Time formats.
DoCoMo has tossed its FeliCa chips on the table, and they’ll probably end up a winning number. In a press release today, Big D revealed that they are releasing their, and the world’s, first i-mode FeliCa Service smart-card handset on a (Gasp! Huff! Huge Disappointment!! Not 3G!!) mova P506iC 2G phone, on 10 July 2004. WWJ video of the 506i event here.
