Bluetooth
Bluetooth

Vodafone K.K. to offer V902T 3G handset

Vodafone K.K. today announces that, as part of its new 3G lineup, it plans to offer the Vodafone 902T handset by Toshiba in late April. The Vodafone 902T features an Active Turn Style design, which allows the display to swivel 180 degrees clockwise while the handset is open, so customers can enjoy the most suitable style when taking pictures or making video calls. Using a concept called Switch to Fun!, the Vodafone 902T’s design was conceived to enable customers to fully enjoy 3G services. The Vodafone 902T is a high-end model in the Vodafone 902/802/702 series that takes full advantage of Vodafone 3G services, with features that include an auto focus 1.92 megapixel camera, a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, twin stereo speakers and Bluetooth support.

Mobile Intelligence from CEATEC Japan

Panasonic CEATEC TourIn today’s program, we speak with Yutaka Nakamae from Panasonic’s Corporate External Relations Group who met with us during last fall’s CEATEC consumer electronics show in Tokyo. While there’s plenty of eye candy, including Panny’s 900iV (released in mid-2004), some skin-able models to please those who can’t decide on their favorite color and the very cool GSM X700 (now on sale in Europe), the real intelligence relates to finding our who’s boss in the carrier/manufacturer relationship (Hint: Who owns the customer?). Today’s proggy is not only a fun one — showing some great cellys from the October CEATEC show — but it also reconfirms the reality of the relationship between cell-phone makers and cellular operators in Japan — in this case, Panasonic and DoCoMo.

Software Lets Mobiles Control PCs

Toshiba has developed software to remotely operate a PC using a mobile phone over a cellular network. The software will be available in Japan, in cooperation with one of Japan’s cellular networks in late March, a Toshiba executive said in a press conference today. The software, called Ubiquitous Viewer, is installed on the mobile phone and on a client computer running Windows. The software recreates the desktop of a PC or notebook PC on the mobile phone’s screen, allowing the user to complete tasks such as reading e-mails and editing documents on the PC via the phone.

BREW Runs Robot via Bluetooth

KDDI started New Year with a bang yesterday, with three seperate press releases; they announced over 1 million full-song downloads (already!) and something about OTA (over-the-air) updates which we can’t quite make out. However the one about their new BREW-based, Bluetooth-controlled robot [ .jpg ] looked pretty interesting. It seems that Robot Labs has a 29-cm tall, 2-legged beast that weighs in at about 950 grams. Available in early February for about 198,000 yen, it [ .pdf ] has servo motors and gyro sensors — so it’s got to be cool — and will respond to various movement commands (“kick,” “punch”) issued from the cell-phone appli via bluetooth.. Wow!

KDDI Unveils MS Wi-Fi Phone

KDDI and Fujistu have introduced a prototype smart phone, or “hybrid information terminal,” that will be available to visitors attending the Aichi World Expo 2005, which begins here in March and runs through to the end of September. The ‘Love and Mate’ [.jpg] (yes, that’s what they’re calling it) handset comes in Orange and Blue; both feature Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition for PocketPC software for PDA and phone operation, and Windows Media Player 9. This is one of the first deployments of Windows on a phone in Japan.

Telephone Tunes: KDDI Launches Mobile Music Downloads

KDDI WIN Chaku-uta Full-compatible handsetsAs if Japanese phones weren’t mobese enough, KDDI is first out of the gate with music distribution for cell phones — allowing multi-slackers to download artists’ songs in their entirety right to the handset. Launching this month, users of EZ Chaku Uta Full (Chaku – download, uta – song, full – in its entirety, get it?) will have access to 10,000 songs from six web sites covering everything from pop princess Hilary Duff to indie artists. Playlist and music sites are set to expand over the coming year. The company also plans to enable downloads through their ‘NOW On Air’ FM radio subscription service, though a start date has not yet been set. Content fee per song should average around 315 yen and transmission speed will hit a maximum of 2.4 Mbps under KDDI’s ‘Double Flat’ fixed packet charge service.