Yamaha has just completed a major reorganization, moving its entire content division out of the parent company and into a subsidiary called Yamaha Music Media (YMM). Until now, YMM has focused mainly on publishing instructional books and magazines for pianists, guitarists and other musicians. Under the new structure, this print media will be combined with Yamaha’s considerable mobile content assets, as well as its music software catalog.
CESA posted an update yesterday regarding the Tokyo Game Show 2007 agenda with more details on their popular event scheduled for 20 – 23 September out at Makuhari Messe. They have secured 162 exhibitors, up from 148 last year, with companies coming from the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, Israel, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, and China. Our video coverage from TGS 2006 has been one of the most popular programs on WWJ and there’s little doubt it will be another fantastic show this year as well. [video from the 2007 event now available Here -- eds]
The latest Music Media Watch newsletter from Steve Myers came out yesterday with an op-ed feature on the-phone which we covered to great extent – for our paid subscribers – back in January. That being said it’s well worth the read (for free) as it even popped-up on the O’Reilly Radar this morning 😎 Meanwhile, there’s a few other “Noteworthy News” tips clipped from his blast after the jump.
DoCoMo introduced their 704i-series of eight 3G FOMA handsets, as mentioned yesterday, featuring a range of models from Fujitsu, NEC, Panasonic, Sharp, Sony Ericsson, Mitsubishi and the LG Chocolate design. The F704i, SO704i, N704iμ and P704iμ will be available this month while the D704i and SH704i will go on sale by the end of August. The P704i will be launched by the end of September and we’ll have to wait for that LG sweetness until sometime in October. Specs and images after the jump.
Toshiba has announced a new series of embedded NAND Flash memories for mobile phones offering both a configurable single-level cell (SLC) memory area and a multi-level cell (MLC) memory area, allowing applications and data to be stored on the same chip. The five memories in the mobileLBA-NAND series range in capacity from 2- to 32-gigabits(1) (Gb). The 2Gb, 4Gb and 8Gb versions can be allocated as SLC up to their full capacity, while the 16Gb and 32Gb versions can support up to 8Gb of SLC, offering manufacturers greater flexibility in allocating memory in their products. Samples of mobileLBA-NAND packaged in MCPs will be available from August 2007.
Back in November 2005, Tokyo-based Image City announced the beta launch of MYUTA, a new service allowing subscribers to store their digital music files (for their own personal use) on a central server. A key feature of the service was the capability for subscribers to access and play the stored music tracks on their mobile phones. JASRAC immediately stepped in and contacted Image City, claiming the service required its approval in order to launch. Image City disagreed, saying the service was outside of JASRAC’s domain, and the stage was set for a legal battle.
