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DoCoMo

ACCESS Announces NetFront v3.1 Browser for Symbian OS

ACCESS, a global provider of mobile Internet technologies, today announced the immediate availability of its NetFront v3.1 browser software for UIQ 2.x, a customizable user interface platform for smartphones based on the widely adopted Symbian OS. NetFront v3.1 redefines the mobile Internet browsing experience for UIQ 2.x devices with advanced rendering technologies like Smart-Fit Rendering(TM) and Rapid-Render(TM), two unique technologies that dramatically improve the quality and speed of the browsing experience. A free demonstration version of NetFront v3.1 for UIQ 2.x is available for download from the ACCESS Systems.

DoCoMo Unveils 3 New 506i Handsets

DoCoMo unveiled the new mova® 506i series of three PDC (2G) i-mode mobile phones [.jpg image] in Tokyo and WWJ was on hand to video the event. These new handsets feature cameras with effective resolutions of more than one million pixels. They also come with infrared ports for exchanging data and photos with compatible handsets, performing infrared-based functions such as remote-control operation of appliances and authentication and cashless payments with your Visa credit card.

Pyramid Power Records TV for Mobile

Due on the street in Japan this June, we think this could turn out to be a very disruptive technology for digital broadcasters. Japanese firm Solid Alliance, in partnership with Mitsubishi Plastics, Media Ring, and Connect Technologies, has come up with a little pyramidal device [.jpg image] that hooks up to your TV and records video in 3GPP format onto an SD or miniSD card for playback on a cellphone. Two hours’ worth of programming will fit on a 128-megabyte card, and can be played back on any of DoCoMo’s recent FOMA phones or most of the newer Vodafone handsets.

Vodafone Happy Talk?

Wireless Watchers will have noted that it’s changing-of-the-guard season in Japan, with NTT DoCoMo’s Keiji Tachikawa about to move on just as the company enters a self-described “paradigm shift.” We believe we know what his successor, Executive Vice President Shiro Tsuda, will be up to — mainly because DoCoMo strives at every opportunity these days to tell one and allit’s not a carrier any more, but rather a budding e-commerce service platform provider. More intriguing, however, are the senior staff developments at Vodafone’s struggling Japan opco, Vodafone KK (struggling, that is, through a device dry spell that won’t see any significant new 3G models out until the fall). Big V has just shipped over a new COO, David Jones, who has arrived, we guess, with a briefcase full of spring-cleaning items. Certainly the appointment of a new chief operating officer hints at a change of gear for the company. Is this a push to boost the lagging 3G provider from neutral to at least first gear?

H.264 to Displace MPEG Video

A new video encoding method nicknamed the “mammoth Codec” is attracting the attention of engineers in a wide range of equipment development sectors. The primary reason is the high data compression ratio, significantly better than that offered by existing Phase 2 (MPEG-2) or MPEG-4 Visual schemes. Many authorities working on international standards for encoding technology feel that little further improvement can be expected in the compression ratio, making the new technique a trump card that closes out the current series of MPEG-based Codecs, which began with MPEG-1.

DoCoMo W-CDMA FOMA Adds 0.72 Million

FOMA is finally flying for NTT DoCoMo, with the 900i series proving a huge hit. Last week DoCoMo announced that its 3G subsriber base had topped three million and the figures in from Japan’s Telecommunication Carriers Association show that for the first time in over half a year DoCoMo is punching toe-to-toe with KDDI for new subscribers. In fact, it was a very close call; for March 2004 DoCoMo raked in 723,800 new 3G adds against Au Group’s 742,800. The point: The 900is are living up to the hype.