FOMA
FOMA

FOMA

Vodaphone KK Unleashes 2.5G Terminal Blitz

It’s been a year or so, but finally Vodafone K.K. is attempting an aggressive rollout of impressive (albeit) 2/2.5G handset terminals clearly aimed at fun– and the young. Over the next couple of months the company is adding 5 terminals [.pdf here], including the new V602 from Sharp and V601 from Toshiba that have mulitimedia features even more impressive than those aboard DoCoMo 900i series, as well as an improved radio phone from Sanyo and a clearer TV picture from Sharp. Better still, last week’s news that Vodafone has decided to adopt a FeliCa compatible removable solution for contactless payments shows the company is definitely on board with promoting the mobile phone away from a communications/ game device into become a viable e-commerce tool not only here in Japan, but potentially accross the vast Vodafone empire.

Japan Keitai Truisms

In a report released April 6, Tokyo-based Ipse Marketing gave the results of a survey conducted in January 2004 on the degree of usage of advanced phone features. The report said that users of mobile phones are “more adept at utilizing various functions in a mobile phone than they were a year ago,” and specifically highlighted Java application programs, movies, video, and the use of an external memory card as new features that the average i-moder in the street is increasingly using…

DoCoMo's 506i Series Launch Event

DoCoMo's 506i Launch EventWe’re not too sure about NTT DoCoMo’s motivation for fielding the first three models of the new 506i-series second-gen cellys. Sure, Big D have got to stay in front of the public eye with new models, new colours, etc. Japan’s consumer terminal market is nothing if not intensely competitive and trying to sell six-month old cell phones — which have often already lost 50% of their value at retail — is like, Oh, Soooo six-months old… Missing a slot in the handset upgrade cycle can be costly, as No. 3 competitior Vodafone has found to their regret. Full Program Run-time 14:32

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.

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.

Japan Mobile Video Evolution

Japan Mobile Video Evolution“Always in motion, the future is,” says Master Yoda – and your faithful Jedi knights at WWJ just got a lesson on what’s coming out for mobile phones here this summer. Conventional H.264 video compression requires a large volume of arithmetic operations, and additional components such as H.264-dedicated LSI application processors (essentially a high-speed digital signal processing chip). However, when a H.264/MPEG-4 AVC codec meets a super algorithm that boosts on-chip processing, the result is super-clear video with less demand on battery power. “Algorithm Specialist” Techno Mathematical Co., Ltd., has just released its Digital Media New Algorithm (DMNA) and today’s program takes a look at the results. Full Program Run-time 13:10