Chip Cuts Power Consumption 90%
Hitachi Ltd., a major electrical machinery manufacturer, and Renesas Technology Corp., a microcontroller producer equally owned by Hitachi and Mitsubishi Electric Corp., have developed system-chip technology that can reduce the power consumption of cellular phones during standby time by 90%, the companies said Monday. The technology will enable mobile phone batteries to last 10 times longer with a single recharge, thereby extending their standby time to a maximum of about 30 days from the current two to three days, they said.
As if Japanese phones weren’t mobese enough, KDDI is first out of the gate with music distribution for cell phones — allowing multi-slackers to download artists’ songs in their entirety right to the handset. Launching this month, users of EZ Chaku Uta Full (Chaku – download, uta – song, full – in its entirety, get it?) will have access to 10,000 songs from six web sites covering everything from pop princess Hilary Duff to indie artists. Playlist and music sites are set to expand over the coming year. The company also plans to enable downloads through their ‘NOW On Air’ FM radio subscription service, though a start date has not yet been set. Content fee per song should average around 315 yen and transmission speed will hit a maximum of 2.4 Mbps under KDDI’s ‘Double Flat’ fixed packet charge service.