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Omron Announces 'OKAO Vision Face Recognition Sensor' for Mobile Phones

OMRON Corporation, a global leader in automation, sensing and control technology, has announced “OKAO Vision Face Recognition Sensor”, a world first* in face recognition technology which can be implemented in PDAs, mobile phones or other mobile devices with a camera function. The ability to recognize and verify the authenticity of the user through face recognition is meant to contribute to greater security and safety for mobile devices, and the information they contain, in the future. The technology will be on show at the “Security Show Japan 2005”, which will be held at the Tokyo Big Site from March 2nd to March 4th, 2005.

Mobile Intelligence from CEATEC Japan

Panasonic CEATEC TourIn today’s program, we speak with Yutaka Nakamae from Panasonic’s Corporate External Relations Group who met with us during last fall’s CEATEC consumer electronics show in Tokyo. While there’s plenty of eye candy, including Panny’s 900iV (released in mid-2004), some skin-able models to please those who can’t decide on their favorite color and the very cool GSM X700 (now on sale in Europe), the real intelligence relates to finding our who’s boss in the carrier/manufacturer relationship (Hint: Who owns the customer?). Today’s proggy is not only a fun one — showing some great cellys from the October CEATEC show — but it also reconfirms the reality of the relationship between cell-phone makers and cellular operators in Japan — in this case, Panasonic and DoCoMo.

ACCESS NetFront Global Profile Selected for First Motorola i-Mode Handset Deploy

ACCESS announced that its NetFront i-mode Global Profile integrated software solution has been selected by Motorola for deployment in its E378i handset. This innovative handset will initially be offered by leading Spanish mobile operator Telefónica Móviles, with additional carrier deployments to follow.

ACCESS NetFront Browser: 150 mn Deployments Worldwide

ACCESS announced that its market leading NetFront(tm) browser has surpassed 150 million deployments worldwide. Widely recognized as one of the most advanced Internet browsers in the world, NetFront now also stands as the most widely deployed and actively used browser in the beyond-PC market, which includes mobile phones, PDAs, Digital Televisions, set-top boxes, digital televisions, automobile telematics, game consoles, Internet kiosks, email terminals, and many other Internet devices.

NeoMtel CEO Paul Kim to Speak at 3G Mobile World Forum

On January 13 at the 3G Mobile World Forum 2005, NeoMtel Corporation CEO Paul Kim will present the streamed session A : 3G content, services, applications, focusing on killer mobile graphic applications and Korean case studies. NeoMtel, the professional company in part of mobile multimedia solution, will be demonstrating the latest mobile multimedia technology, VIS 2.0 in the own booth (No# 22) where attendees can see how the latest mobile vector graphic technologies can be applied to eye-catching mobile services.

Decuma becomes first company to join UIQ Alliance Program

UIQ Technology today announced the new partnership program, UIQ Alliance, which is targeting a chosen set of companies providing applications or services, based on the UIQ user interface. The UIQ Alliance Partner Program provides an increased choice of UIQ compatible technologies and knowledge that will be introduced to UIQ customers. “Members of the UIQ Alliance will possess diverse skills and experience, and deliver a variety of compelling technologies, products and services to the growing ecosystem built around UIQ,” says Johan Sandberg, CEO, UIQ Technology. “This will make it easier for mobile phone manufacturers to find good products and services supporting UIQ, which will be of high importance to the creation of a mass market for mobile phones based on UIQ”

Recent Mobile Developments — UPDATE

In yesterday’s WWJ Newsletter I mentioned the news last month that DoCoMo had developed a software platform for FOMA 3G phones — comprising two options: both Linux and Symbian (sorry Bill!), adding “This is big news.” WWJ’s ever-keen Digital Media Director Lawrence Cosh-Ishii pointed out last night that, in December 2003, we carried a video report from Big D’s year-end presser wherein then-CEO Tachikawa said: “Simply speaking, Microsoft is not offering an open standard and an open minded approach” and that DoCoMo “prefers Symbian and possibly Linux for 3G OS.” Never let it be said that WWJ editors miss a chance to say We Told You So!

Business mopera Access Simple Launches in Japan

Today SEVEN announced it is powering NTT DoCoMo’s Business mopera Access Simple — a mobile groupware service that enables secure remote access to email, calendar, contacts, and documents via i-mode phones. Available today from NTT DoCoMo’s direct business sales force and NTT DoCoMo’s retail stores throughout Japan, Business mopera Access Simple is a tier-one i-mode service and is a core “i-mode for Business Solutions” offering. NEC and SEVEN partnered to develop Business mopera Access Simple; it is based on SEVEN’s “behind-the-firewall” Server Edition software.

Symbian 3G Collaboration

Sharp has signed an agreement with the Japanese division of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications [Press Release in Japanese] to collaborate on development of cell-phone handsets based on the Symbian operating system for NTT DoCoMo’s FOMA 3G service in Japan. The two companies plan to share selected hardware while developing 3G phones that will be unique to the Sharp and Sony Ericsson brands.

Symbian Hit with Skulls Trojan

F-Secure just posted they’ve had “some isolated reports of users who’ve been hit by the new Skulls trojan on their phones.” It has been distributed on some Symbian shareware download sites as “Extended Theme Manager” by “Tee-222”. If you see it, don’t install it on your phone. According to the article “the most obvious symptom of the trojan is that the typical programs on the phone won’t work any more, and that their icons get replaced with a picture of a skull.”