KDDI has announced an agreement with Toshiba Corporation and Hitachi Limited to cooperate on research into the next generation of batteries for mobile communication devices such as mobile telephone handsets. The objective of the research is to develop a compact fuel-cell battery that can be used in mobile phones by the end of 2005.
Earlier this week, NTT DoCoMo showcased a prototype 3G/WLAN combination phone carefully configured to make it useless for public hot spots. Against this, Fujitsu Labs and spinoff Net-2Com Corp. have developed something much more useful — a VoIP/PHS phone aimed at the consumer market to be commercialized this fall, with CDMA, GSM, and other versions to follow “depending on market demand.” WWJ treked over to the Fujitsu Solution Forum event in Tokyo recently to have a look at this breakthrough phone; we also took a test ride on Fujitsu Lab’s new PDA unit running a virtual hotspot application that should be coming to reality near you sometime soon.
NEC Electronics Corporation and its subsidiary in Europe, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, today introduced the PD161451 bridge IC for 3G mobile handsets, a chip that facilitates development of handsets with rotating high-resolution TFT displays, leveraging the advanced technology of NEC Electronics’ Mobile CMADSTM high-speed serial interface. Recent evolutions in mobile handsets have seen increasing popularity in handset designs with rotating or revolving high resolution thin film transistor (TFT) displays. Compared to previous clamshell designs, the part that connects the display to the main body in these new phones is much narrower, necessitating different design requirements such as a significant reduction in the number of data transmission lines that cross this segment.
Wireless watchers will be aware that the number of FM radio keitai seems to be proliferating. Just this week, KDDI announced that its latest batch of new offerings offer the FM option. Now Vodafone K.K. is tuning into the possibilities with the the V401SA, the carrier’s first handset with a dedicated FM tuner. But does this mean FM will be an optional extra — a bit like having fins on your PDC Cadillac — or will FM become an indispensible, must-have feature for keitai in Japan?
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.
Vodafone K.K. announced today that from July 15 it will offer the V401SA by Sanyo [.jpg image] which features a built-in FM radio tuner. The V401SA’s main feature is an FM radio tuner that lets customers enjoy FM broadcasts in stereo sound. Customers can also take photos and enjoy the Vodafone live! mobile internet service while listening to FM radio broadcasts simultaneously. In addition, the V401SA supports the “Now on Air” function so customers can retrieve song titles and artists names in real time while they listen to the radio. The new model features advanced slide-type design, 1.3 megapixel camera and lots of storage to saving photos for easy printing.
