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NEC Introduces 3G Mobile Phone Chip for Rotating TFT Displays

NEC Electronics Corporation and its subsidiary in Europe, NEC Electronics (Europe) GmbH, today introduced the PD161451 bridge IC for 3G mobile handsets, a chip that facilitates development of handsets with rotating high-resolution TFT displays, leveraging the advanced technology of NEC Electronics’ Mobile CMADSTM high-speed serial interface. Recent evolutions in mobile handsets have seen increasing popularity in handset designs with rotating or revolving high resolution thin film transistor (TFT) displays. Compared to previous clamshell designs, the part that connects the display to the main body in these new phones is much narrower, necessitating different design requirements such as a significant reduction in the number of data transmission lines that cross this segment.

Vodafone's FM Handset Launched

Wireless watchers will be aware that the number of FM radio keitai seems to be proliferating. Just this week, KDDI announced that its latest batch of new offerings offer the FM option. Now Vodafone K.K. is tuning into the possibilities with the the V401SA, the carrier’s first handset with a dedicated FM tuner. But does this mean FM will be an optional extra — a bit like having fins on your PDC Cadillac — or will FM become an indispensible, must-have feature for keitai in Japan?

Vodafone K.K. Releases V401SA with Stereo FM Radio

Vodafone K.K. announced today that from July 15 it will offer the V401SA by Sanyo [.jpg image] which features a built-in FM radio tuner. The V401SA’s main feature is an FM radio tuner that lets customers enjoy FM broadcasts in stereo sound. Customers can also take photos and enjoy the Vodafone live! mobile internet service while listening to FM radio broadcasts simultaneously. In addition, the V401SA supports the “Now on Air” function so customers can retrieve song titles and artists names in real time while they listen to the radio. The new model features advanced slide-type design, 1.3 megapixel camera and lots of storage to saving photos for easy printing.

DoCoMo Drops Consumers from WLAN/3G

NTT DoCoMo took the wraps off its NEC FOMA N900i combi WLAN phone, the N900iL, today and quickly did its best to shut down the possibilities of the terminal actually being any use outside of narrowly defined office environments. According to their press release “The handset, which is scheduled to be marketed in Fall 2004, has been specifically designed to support the new PASSAGE DUPLE™ system that was developed by DoCoMo to integrate the two-network operation. Under the PASSAGE DUPLE system, the N900iL may be used as a standard FOMA handset, as well as an in-house VoIP phone utilizing a company’s internal wireless LAN network. The dual-network solution targets corporate users, and will be marketed through DoCoMo’s corporate business division and partner companies. The system will not be available through DoCoMo shop locations.”

DoCoMo to Invest in FOMA Single-Chip LSI

NTT DoCoMo, Inc. announced today that the company will invest in Renesas Technology Corp. to jointly develop a single-chip LSI making FOMA 3G handsets compatible with both W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS networks. Currently, it is necessary to embed two chips in the handset in order to produce a dual-mode W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS handset. However, by combining DoCoMo’s W-CDMA technology with Renesas Technology’s LSI fabrication capabilities, multimedia application processors, and GSM/GPRS technologies, a single-chip will be developed that enables a lower-cost 3G handset to run on both network standards.

KDDI: Fuel Cells in 2007; Where's NEC?

The Nikkei reported on Saturday that KDDI aims to commercialize fuel cells for keitai using Hitachi and Toshiba technology by 2007; this is supposed to be at least two years behind claims often made by Japan’s mobile-phone leader NEC that it will have fuel cells ready for commercialization for mobile phones by next year at the latest.