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QUALCOMM Announces Finalists for Annual BREW Developer Awards

QUALCOMM Incorporated pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology, today announced the finalists for its annual BREW Developer Awards, which recognizes outstanding applications developed in the past year for the Company’s BREW solution. QUALCOMM will reveal the award-winning applications during the BREW 2004 Developers Conference, June 7-9, held at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel & Marina.

The Ultimate 'Next-Generation' Mobile Gaming System

The Ultimate 'Next-Generation' Mobile Gaming System

Before all you Die Hard gamers on a post E3 convention rush get too excited, note we put quotes on “Next-Generation…” because this one is recommended for the age-6-and-up crowd. Also, to those business/suit types who are about to click away and search for “ARPU” and “Wi-Fi,” you might want to pause and read between the lines. OK, onto the skinny… Bandai have recently launched this very cool — a la Japanese style — clamshell handset to an eager young target market. In fact the handset was the must-have item during Japan’s recent Golden Week shopping spree… think Tickle-Me-Elmo-type hysteria. The “Card Commun” unit retails for about US$30 and features an onboard swipe function for the collectable character card-series based on Toei Animation’s popular Sunday morning cartoon show “Precure.” Simply put, this is like Pokemon and Tamagochi combimorphed, with a cycle or two of steroids tossed in! What really struck us was that while of course there is no voice function — or monthly call charges — it does have a P2P sync feature built in so kids can share content by joining their handsets together.

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.

Mobile Intelligence Tour Report

Seeing is believing! – Travelling to Tokyo to meet some of the best companies and individuals in the Japanese mobile economy once again delivered an incredible ROI for our time and money. Working with Daniel Scuka, co-founder of Toyko-based Wireless Watch Japan, is always fun and very professional, especially on Tokyo turf where Daniel spent 9 years of his life and knows almost everyone. This time, from 12 – 16 April 2004, we enjoyed the company of 10 happy participants including operators, game developers, researchers, analysts, consultants and usability engineers from Germany, Switzerland, Austria, USA, Australia and even Japan…

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.

Mobile Contents for China

UNISK, formed by SK Telecom and China Unicom, is China’s first joint venture telecom service provider that operates with both foreign and national companies. Their pilot service launched on March 13th, one month later, it had obtained about 40 thousand subscribers for the monthly flat rate. The UNISK wireless Internet portal service is offering approximately 2,700 types of content, in five categories, in China.

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.

UEFA Site Coming for i-mode

NTT announced it will launch an official “uefa.com” site for i-mode mobile with the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). The service is set to begin on April 19, 2004. They will provide the latest highlights from the official Japanese UEFA site “jp.uefa.com,” including updates from games such as the UEFA Champions League and UEFA EURO 2004. Other features will include interviews with popular players, information about individual players and their teams, and a variety of screensavers.

GoForce Tie-up for 3D Mobile Games

HI Corporation and NVIDIA Inc. have announced a new agreement for a worldwide alliance on advanced interactive 3D games for mobile phones. The companies will cooperate in the porting and marketing of the Mascot Capsule Engine Micro3D Edition on NVIDIA’s newly-announced GoForce architecture.

G-mode goes Java for Games in Indonesia

G-mode has signed a licensing agreement with inTouch Wireless Services of Singapore, and begun providing subscribers of PT Telekomunikasi Selular Indonesia, the leading GSM provider in Indonesia, with Java-enabled cellphone game titles. The GSM provider had 10 million subscribers as of February 2004. The number of mobile phone users in Indonesia is estimated at about 18 million, and is expected to reach 24-27 million by year-end.