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Japan Cell Phones: Most Individualized, Intimate Technology

The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) isn’t particularly renowned for exciting, fun-to-read reports. The global standards body tends to produce authoritative but somewhat plodding publications that delve into the arcana of topics like radio spectrum management and regulatory trends. But a recent case study examining how Japan’s mobile Internet works and highlighting some of the key technology and applications driving 3G is refreshingly non-academic, not to mention pretty darn accurate.

Casio Launches 3-Megapixel Camera Phone

Today, Casio announced the world’s first 3.2-megapixel camera phone, the A5406CA [image] for KDDI. Fully equipped with an automatic focus function, the 2048ױ536 QXGA image size compares in quality to what the company calls “traditional” digital cameras. Mobile snappers can choose from 9 Best Shot modes, including twilight, panoramic, fireworks, and the unlikely named “food” setting. The unit also boasts up to 60 minutes of video recording (clips are saved to the onboard 12-MB data folder). A WWJ English Web news scoop! Press Release in Japanese.

New Nokia 3G Mobile Phone for Japan

The dual-mode GSM / W-CDMA “Nokia 7600” handset which was announced last October will finally hit the streets in Japan by middle of June. At the suggested retail price of 73,290 yen (or approx. $700 usd) and apparently not supporting Vodafone Live, although it conforms to the .3gpp standard, we wonder just how well this will be recieved. The unit does have a camera built-in its stylish Euro design [.jpg image] to compliment the bluetooth and global roaming sim card functions, and will be available at Nokia shops online and at Narita airport.

Summer Handset Parade on Video

Summer Handset Parade on VideoThe Tokyo Business Show 2004 opened yesterday with a light show and pounding music that highlighted Vodafone on center stage. They have taken a beating in the marketplace — and the press — lately over the lack of new handsets, but here are 5 fresh-for-summer models that should make the critics, and customers, take notice. The V602SH from Sharp would seem to be pick of the litter with its industry-first, 2x-optical-zoom camera and huge, swivel-style LCD screen. The sleeper surprise unit, upon closer inspection, has to be the V401D from Mitsubishi with its Super-CCD Honeycomb 2-megapixel camera and — another industry first — a side-mounted finger tracing control feature to operate screen scrolling and camera zoom!!! We were in for another treat afterwards wandering by the DoCoMo booth to see they had just rolled-out the new micro-mini Premini by Sony Ericsson. If you couldn’t make it out to Tokyo Big Sight in person then we hope you’ll enjoy this quick video clip from our adventure. Program

Sharp's Galileo PVR with WiFi

Sharp Electronics, in partnership with Instant802 Networks, has just released the Galileo Personal Video Recorder (PVR) with wireless 802.11g video distribution technology in Japan. It has the ability to communicate and serve up video, photos, music, or any type of file on its hard drive to just about any Web enabled PC, PDA, or Cellphone.

Shazam – Name that Ringtone

SystemK announced April 1 that a filed test of Shazam, a music recognition service developed by Shazam Entertainment of London, ended in great success. By simply pointing a cellphone toward any music for 30 seconds, the user can find out the name and the singer of the tune.