Mitsubishi
Mitsubishi

Mitsubishi

Ecrio Announces $3M Investment for 3G Mobile Software

Ecrio Inc., a global provider of advanced software for mobile phones, today announced that Diamond Capital Company Ltd., the venture capital arm of Mitsubishi Tokyo Financial Group Inc., has invested $3M in its new strategic investment round. They join current investors Nexit Ventures, Cypress Ventures/CIR Ventures and CDB Webtech. “We are very impressed by Ecrio’s technology and the traction the company has generated in the mobile phone software market for advanced 3G services,” said Mr. Tetsuya Mori, Director of Diamond Capital.

Japanese TV Powers Up Over Fast Networks, 3G Phones

Japanese TV Powers Up Over Fast Networks, 3G Phones

Japan’s PoweredCom announced the start of a Video on Demand (VOD) distribution service over high capacity fiber optics broadband networks. Powered Theater will soft launch August 11. Full service should begin in mid-September. Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) is a partner in PoweredCom and very interested in seeing more traffic on their fiber optic networks. For this project, the company tied up with cell phone content provider Index Corps’ subsidiary Neo Index and Mitsubishi as a technology/programming partner.

In a separate development Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and Culture Convenience Club, parent company of video rental giant Tsutaya, have put together a joint venture to distribute programming over Internet broadband networks, original DVDs and through mobile phones. Though few details are available the new company should start at the end of October. TBS owns a controlling interest of 51 percent and CCC 49 percent. TBS also recently partnered with ColorZip Japan for a late-summer launch of TV applications using ColorZip’s server based ColorCode code recognition system linking TV broadcasts to related digital content for sponsored websites, music samples, contests and prize drawings.

ACCESS' NetFront Powers Full Internet Browsing on N901iS 3G Handset

ACCESS announced that its NetFront full Internet mobile browser has been selected by NTT DoCoMo for deployment in its 3G FOMA N901iS handset. The N901iS is part of DoCoMo’s 901iS Mobile Wallet series—the most advanced handset series ever developed by DoCoMo. In combination with ACCESS’ NetFront browser, the N901iS handset’s advanced functionality expands to deliver support for both i-mode as well as full Internet browsing. ACCESS’ NetFront browser provides N901iS end-users with a rich, full Internet mobile browsing experience that includes the ability to scale down standard Web pages to fit the width of the phone screen, thus eliminating the need for horizontal scrolling while significantly facilitating the mobile browsing experience.

ACCESS Announces NetFront v3.2 Browser for Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition

ACCESS announced the availability of the English language version of NetFront® v3.2 for Pocket PC 2003/2003 Second Edition (SE) which supports Microsoft Windows Mobile 2003 SE. NetFront v3.2 for Pocket PC 2003/2003 SE builds on the success of ACCESS’ award-winning NetFront v3.1 for Pocket PC browser by providing support for key new technologies and features including JV-Lite(tm) 2 CE edition, ACCESS’ Sun authorized Java virtual machine which supports the Connected Device Configuration (CDC) standard, and native support for Macromedia Flash(tm).

DoCoMo Announces Five New 3G Wallet Phones

DoCoMo Announces Five New 3G Wallet Phones

With little fanfare and no press conference, NTT DoCoMo has released five new 3G FOMA 901iS FeliCa-enabled handsets into the digital world: D901iS (Mitsubishi), F901iS (Fujitsu), P901iS (Panasonic), N901iS (NEC) and SH901iS (Sharp). All have certain features in common with other 901i models, including music players, “3D Sound,” Deco-Mail to decorate email, G-GUIDE interactive TV guide and recording programmer (see the .pdf for full specs). New features include a 4-megapixel recorded resolution camera for the D901iS and a full Web browser on the N901iS. The company says that the 901iS-series is DoCoMo’s first in which all models are equipped for mobile-wallet functions, but the five handsets actually do a lot more than drain virtual bank accounts. The pre-installed Adobe Reader LE, for example, enables 901iS phones to view PDF files downloaded from i-mode sites. The application includes access to all basic PDF functions including scrolling, paging, text searches, bookmarks and page rotation and users can easily email files, dial a number or navigate to a Web link in the file. But wait, there’s more…

France Telecom & ACCESS Develop Rich Media Solutions

ACCESS announced it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with France Telecom for the joint development of a complete wireless Internet solution based on ACCESS’ products and services. This R&D partnership will enable both companies to collaboratively design and deploy innovative, rich media mobile Internet technologies for France Telecom mobile customers. The R&D department of France Télécom and ACCESS are committed to leveraging resources and sharing expertise to develop products based on the NetFront browser framework. The technologies that will be supported within the browser framework include SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics), streaming video, SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language), and other rich media and animation technologies.