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Vodafone Japan Launches TV Phone Surprise

Vodafone Japan Launches TV Phone SurpriseFlashback a few years when J-Phone stunned the competition, and started a global wireless trend, by rolling out their new camera phones; well they may have just done it again. J-Phone was officially renamed as Vodafone KK on Oct. 1st. We were on hand to see President and CEO Darryl E. Green announce the company’s strategy going forward. After his brief pep talk, and during the rather harsh question period from reporters on J-Phone’s recent performance, Green pulled out a shiny red metallic NEC handset. The cameras strobed and the room began to buzz as it became clear that Vodafone had scooped everyone yet again with Japan’s first TV-Phone, set to hit Tokyo streets just in time for New Years. Full Program Run-time 14:24

WPC Expo: FOMA, Telematics and Wristomo

WPC Expo: FOMA, Telematics and WristomoWireless Watch Japan was on hand for FOMA’s first international video call in Sept. at the WPC 2003 event. After the keynote introduction from Hutchison’s CEO Bob Fuller, and the World Call demo., we chatted with DoCoMo’s Mariko Hanaoka about their new service. We also took a ride on the upcoming telematics platform in a quick interview with Hidenori Obara of DoCoMo’s ITS Business Promotion Office, and heard that Seiko will add a color display, but not a camera function, to its next generation of the Wristomo PHS phone. Perhaps someday DoCoMo will bundle all three services together…!! In a seperate development we got a peek at Panasonic’s killer app. for camera phones everywhere. Full Program Run-time 16:22

Tokyo Game Show 2003: Mobile Gaming BREW's Up

By December HelloNet Co. Ltd. of Busan, Korea, will launch a Massive Multi-Player (interactive) BREW based game in Japan making use of KDDI’s CDMA 1X speed, Chief Executive Officer Lee Hwan Joon told WWJ at last week’s Tokyo Game Show. He also put us straight on a few pertinent questions floating around the event. Namely: Is BREW difficult to write? Will MMPGs be too expensive for users? There just won’t be a market for such apps, right? The answer we got from Lee was NO-NO and thrice NO. With a grin and a game that supports 8,000 players acting out on his phone, he was of the opinion that BREW’s a better way to go for the next generation of interactive, keitai-based games. Lee was the most upbeat developer we met at TGS, which itself was an upbeat show. With the mobile games industry set to explode, the evidence is that new JAVA games continue to rock and developers need to be brave if they are to take advantage of 3G’s potential. Oh, and by the way, in our upcoming video program you’ll be some of the first to see Final Fantasy played on a ‘coming soon’ FOMA handset.

Area Information Service to be Tested

DoCoMo announced today that its R-Click Service, a new area-information service incorporating i-mode mobile phones and a “wireless tag” device, will be tested by Mori Building Co. Ltd. at the Roppongi Hills complex in Tokyo. The test will be conducted from November 1, 2003 to February 1, 2004. Individuals participating in the test will each receive a wireless tag transmitter, called a Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tag. Approximately 4,500 RFID tags will be distributed for the test.

Test Drive on Sharp's J-SH53 Handset

Test Drive on Sharp's J-SH53 HandsetTake a 2 hour trip to Tokyo – compressed into a 3 minute time lapse – and check out Vodafone’s answer to the 505i series. Boasting a 256k capable java appli that makes the ’53 a perfect gaming device, its little wonder that companies like Namco and Taito have lined up some great content for the early adopters. Perhaps most impressive was how clean the 3D Polygon graphics look on that QVGA screen, pardon us for almost forgetting this unit was also the first mega-pixel camera phone on the market to boot. Its not all just games either, a couple of sexy voice recognition functions are on tap in this demo as well, so buckle up for a great ride..!! Full Program Run-time 19:57

WPC Expo 2003: 1st FOMA Intl. Video Call – DoCoMo Finally in the Drivers Seat?

WWJ was busy shooting video at Makahari Messe in Chiba last week, think telematics, wristphones and international FOMA videoconferencing. But enough teasing: The news we didn’t see elsewhere about the show was that DoCoMo, is – finally – taking telematics seriously, as we found in a quick interview with Hidenori Obara of DoCoMo’s ITS Business Promotion Office. Obara admitted that DoCoMo is “behind” KDDI, with the latter pushing all sorts of mobile-WLAN technologies to potentially hook into a slab of Japan’s 12.3 million in-auto car navigation (car nabi) systems. In a separate development, we heard that Seiko is adding a color screen, but not a camera function, on its Wristomo PHS phone. Unsurprisingly, they are not planning to mount a CCD chip because it’ll make the wearers’ wrist limp from the extra weight, and the extra battery power needed might be another issue. Tune in next week and see it all for yourself when we show FOMA’s first international video call, chat with DoCoMo’s Mariko Hanaoka, and get a peek at Panasonic’s next killer app. for camera phones everywhere!!