Wireless News
Wireless News

Wireless News

Au Blitz Unveils Seven New Handsets

KDDI has just held a press conference in the New Otani hotel to introduce another seven new handset models for the summer season just as the most recent batch announced earlier this year are now hitting the streets here in Japan. The new hardware on tap includes a Walkman branded model from Sony Ericsson and Casio’s follow-up to last years popular G’zOne water-proof ‘tough phone’ offering. They have also announced another Hitachi handset with the felica mobile wallet chip, a super-slim Kyocera coming in at 18mm thick with a 2.4inch ASV liquid crystal screen (and analog tv tuner), a new Toshiba ‘mass music’ model with bluetooth and 1GB memory on-board plus an additional digital TV tuner enabled unit (with PC site viewer) coming from Sanyo.

KDDI Adopts Google for Mobile Search

KDDI and Google held a joint press conference today to announce Google search will launch on KDDI/au’s EZ Web mobile platform starting in July. The new service will apparently also include contextual Adwords based on the input text and the companies have stated the tie-up will allow them to test, improve and add more services in the future. The announcement indicates this new tie-up is not aimed exclusively at mobile phones, but will also provide an extensive search service that targets content on fixed-line PCs as well.

Will it be SoftBank or J-Phone?

Since the news first broke that SoftBank was taking over Vodafone K.K., speculation has been rife in the media over the new name of the company. Several (including us) pointed out the logic that switching back to the former well-known and loved J-Phone brand would be a strong move to hit the ground running. However, local media reports over the last few days have carried leaked news stating that it may indeed be called ‘SoftBank Mobile.’ Better place your bets now because the official announcement is due to hit the wires in the next hour or so via a press conference at a downtown Tokyo hotel with SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son and Vodafone’s Arun Sarin on hand.

(Update) It’s official: SoftBank Mobile wins! [.PDF]. The press conference live stream is here.

World First Mass-producible Polymeric UWB Antenna

Omron announced that it will introduce a new SMD Polymeric Antenna for short-range, wireless Ultra-Wideband (UWB) applications. Product launch is scheduled for June 1, 2006. UWB is a recently commercialized short-range wireless technology, expected to be widely adopted in consumer goods. Applied in dongles, personal computers, printers, mobile telephones, digital televisions and DVD players, UWB functions as a low-power-consuming wireless USB (universal serial bus), allowing users to transfer large amounts of data rapidly between various devices in close range.

InnoPath Appoints New President for Japan

InnoPath Software, Inc. today announced telecommunications industry veteran Shinichi Sawai as the president of InnoPath’s Japan operations. Sawai brings more than 20 years of expertise and knowledge in the Japanese telecommunications industry and will be responsible for continuing InnoPath’s positive growth of influence within the Japanese mobile device management (MDM) market. Sawai recently oversaw the successful promotion of global business for NTT Data Corporation, a system integrator group comprised of 100 subsidiaries and affiliates. Prior to NTT Data Corporation, he played a major role in developing 3G radio systems for Lucent Technologies, Japan.

Vodafone KK roaming service areas top 150

Vodafone K.K. announces today that from 25 May 2006 it will expand international roaming service areas in which customers can use their Vodafone K.K. 3G handsets abroad. With this expansion, roaming will be available to Vodafone K.K. customers traveling to Armenia, Gambia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Venezuela and Alaska, enabling them to make voice calls in a total of 151 countries and regions.