GPS
GPS

Nissan Wings Mobile Navigation

Nissan Wings Mobile NavigationNTT DoCoMo and Nissan Motor are flying in tandem through a new tie-up between i-mode and the carmaker’s Carwings navigation system. The new service, Okutto-Keitai, allows drivers to receive destination-based i-mode digital maps and restaurant data via their NTT DoCoMo mobile handset. Drivers can also request information from Carwings’ live operator or by selecting information manually through the navigation system. Digital maps are provided by Zenrin; restaurant information through Gourmet Navigator, Inc.

Given the GPS technology on many wireless handsets these days plus the rich variety of navigation content sites, the main offering navigation systems have going for them is bigger screens. DoCoMo competitor KDDI would have you just lose the navigation console completely and rely on their increasingly micro-comprehensive 3G “Navi” systems. Nevertheless, automotive electronic devices continue to show strong growth here. A recent survey of auto parts makers by the Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) estimates sales of auto electronic devices — including car navigation systems — will hit 2.79 trillion yen for the fiscal year ending March 2005.

Rocking & Rolling at Mobile Monday

Thrilled to join with nice folks at HP Bazaar to co-host a rocking good MoMo Tokyo debut event on 13 September and it seemed as though most of the unwired digerati within commuting distance of the Pink Cow, in ubertrendy Shibuya, were there. In today’s Portable Reportable, Chief Editor Daniel Scuka quizzes WWJ’s Lawrence Cosh-Ishii on what he saw and heard at the Mobile Monday launch in Tokyo.

QUALCOMM, IDG Ventures and TOM Online Invest in Great Wall Software Group

QUALCOMM, pioneer and world leader of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) digital wireless technology; IDG Technology Venture, a US venture fund focusing on the information technology industry in China and TOMOnline, a leading mobile Internet company in China, today announced the successful closing of a US$3.5 million investment in Sichuan Great Wall Software Group.

GPS Golfer Location Service by NEC

NEC has announced the development of a GPS-based golfer information service, whereby the locations of players on a golf course and their scores are displayed on a large screen or a PC monitor in realtime. The service will be tested in August at the NEC Karuizawa 72 Golf Tournament, where NEC’s NESPIT III positioning terminal, NEC Software Chubu’s realtime GPS, Scala’s InfoChannel3 broadband display solution, and NEC’s UNIVERGE IP8800 multilayer switches and UNIVERGE WL wireless LAN systems will be used for the test.

Mogi = Socially Connected GPS Gaming

Mogi: Socially Connected GPS GamingYou may have read about it in Wired or The Feature, but our program today is the first Web video coverage for Mogi, a GPS game that may be The Future of Mobile Content, Version 1.0. Mogi is a multi-player network game in which individuals or teams hunt down virtual treasures hidden in Tokyo’s concrete jungle. Mogi players interact in ways that the much-talked-about i-mode has yet to deliver. It’s new for Japan, even newer for the rest of the world, and there’s no lucrative revenue model. Yet.