New Tech & Services
New Tech & Services

New Tech & Services

StarHub Signs MOU for Osaifu-Keitai

Singaporean telecommunications service provider StarHub plans to release a mobile wallet based on NTT DoCoMo’s Osaifu-Keitai (mobile wallet) system. Accoring to this announcement StarHub has signed a memorandum of understanding with NTT DoCoMo to explore a mobile wallet concept similar to the Osaifu-Keitai system for a near future implementation in Singapore. Singapore will be the first market outside of Japan to launch an official study and eventual pilot of this service.

Mobile 3D Avatars Join Broadcast TV Show

TV Asahi has joined forces with Artificial Life to pilot a so-called interactive mobile participation television program, titled ‘Hoshi-ichi Owarairyoku Test’, which is scheduled for a one hour debut on 14 June. The concept of this show, loosely translated, is a search for the planets (or at least Japans) funniest entertainer.

Legions of mobile users will be represented on-screen, live in real time as custom 3D avatars on a system that can apparently scale to animate 100,000 concurrent identities, will participate in the contest. What are you waiting for.. advance registration starts today!

Sharp 906i Handset has Touch Technology

DoCoMo announced it’s new summer handset line-up last week and, as mentioned, there really is ‘plenty of material to wade through’. While seperate posts reviewing the increased Napster video offering and the expected impact of Flash 8 enabled handsets are certainly worthy, we had to post this link for promo video of the SH906i in action.

That 15-second tv spot was on during almost every tv commercial break here last night, no doubt the company is trying to raise awareness about it’s slick functionality before this ‘other phone’ hits the street!

As this model is also Bluetooth enabled, hardcore mobile users are encouraged to take advantage of the k-tai shop campaign and grab a wireless keyboard.. while supplies last.

DoCoMo Announces Mobile to PC Service

DoCoMo will launch a new service called Pocket U which will enable subscribers to view and browse, from anywhere, content such as video, music, image and text files stored in their home PCs via mobile phones as of June 6, 2008.

Customers will require a flat-rate data plan and subscription to the Pocket U service will run an extra $5 per month. Apparently a VPN will be used to prevent third-party users from pretending to be subscribers of the service.

McDonalds Japan Rolls RFID Coupons

McDonalds Japan has announced the deployment of an e-wallet coupon and payment system, using Felica and DoComo iD readers, at 175 locations as of May 20th with the target of all 3,800 retail shops nationwide to be completed by 2009. While the company has been active in the mobile space since 2003, quoting 10 million registered users, this effort was touted as the first of it’s kind during a recent press conference held here in Tokyo. More details after the jump.

MediaFLO and 1Seg Multi-Mode TV Tuner

Qualcomm announced that it has successfully demonstrated the capability to support the MediaFLO and ISDB-T (1Seg) mobile TV standards on a multi-mode handset. Powered by their Universal Broadcast Modem — UBM — chipset, “the technology illustrates that MediaFLO technology can complement the free-to-air standard used in Japan and Brazil to enable a mix of free and paid mobile broadcast content and services to drive consumer adoption and revenue.” See our video interview with MediaFLO recorded here in 2006.