toshiba
toshiba

toshiba

KDDI to Launch EZ Navi Walk, a Full-scale Navigation Service

KDDI, Okinawa Cellular and Navitime Corporation are pleased to announce that they will launch ‘EZ Navi Walk’ at the end of October 2003. EZ Navi Walk is a full-scale navigation service for pedestrians that makes use of location information from GPS satellites. EZ Navi Walk has been developed from EZ Navi, and allows users to quickly measure the location of a mobile phone through GPS positioning enabling real time continuous display of their location. The service is equipped with voice guidance and other functions that can navigate users to their destinations.

Toshiba Announces Methanol Fuel Cell for Portable Devices

The world leader in bringing fuel-celltechnology to portable products, today announced a prototype of highly compact,direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that opens the way to the use of DMFCas an alternative power source to recharge batteries for personal devicesas small as cell phones, digital still cameras, PDAs and mobile TVs. The new DMFC issmall enough to fit in a carry-on bag or even in a jeans pocket as aportable power source.

Mobile Kaizen and Why Japan Still Matters

Conventional wisdom teaches that Japan’s mobile industry is at least 18 months in front of Europe (and years ahead of the US). That truism is no more, however, as Europe’s cellular carriers, handset makers, and wireless Internet content providers have sweated blood to catch up – and catch up they have indeed. Daniel Scuka is in Germany this fall where he’s helping WWJpartner Mobile Economy conduct a series of seminarsentitled “Mobile Kaizen in Japan” examining how Japan’s mobileindustry maintains its lead through the continuous roll-out of improvementsin all aspects of the wireless Internet.

Micro-Fuel Cells offer More Power

The current buzzword in personal electronics is Wi-Fi, but the full potential of the latest laptops, cell phones and PDAs is being held back by batteries that last just a few hours. Major consumer electronics firms like NEC, Toshiba and Motorola, along with a number of startups.. are working on micro fuel cells, which theoretically can generate power 10 times longer than conventional batteries.

Toshiba Utilizes Applied Materials

Applied Materials Inc. today announced its Black Diamond and BLOk low k dielectric films are being used by Toshiba Corporation for volume production of its advanced 90nm CMOS4 process in the Oita, Japan facility, further validating the manufacturability of Applied Materials’ low k films. Toshiba is using Black Diamond and BLOk to deliver higher performance and lower power consumption required for its TC300 family of ASICs, now being incorporated in the latest wireless devices, networking and server products.

The Sky's Possibly the Limit for Mobile Broadcasting Corp.

Japan is six months away from an exciting new multimedia mobile experience courtesyof satellite broadcasting. If this sounds like a curtain raising, rewritten press release circa 1996 previewing the impending launch of the then PerfecTV! digital satellitebroadcasting service, well there could be a parallel or two about the storywe predict will unfold with Mobile Broadcasting Corporation’s attempts,starting next spring, to beam.

Panasonic Introduces Networked Home Appliances System

Matsushita Electric, best known worldwide for its Panasonic brand of consumer electronics and digital communications products, announced today that it will begin marketing of “Kurashi (Japanese for ‘home life’) Net”, a networked home appliances/housekeeping system to enhance the users’ daily living. The system, to be marketed from September 1, will enable the user to control networked home appliances, such as air-conditioners, refrigerators, washing machines and microwave ovens, through wireless control from the central terminal, named “Kurashi Station,” or from a mobile phone. The system also monitors security and other household conditions, alerting the users by sounding an alarm linked to the “Watchdog Safety Sensor” in cases of emergency.

KDDI Add Two Models Supporting MovieMail to au 3G Lineup

KDDI Corporation and Okinawa Cellular Telephone are pleased to announce the release of the A1304T (manufactured by Toshiba Corporation) and the A1401K (manufactured by Kyocera Corporation) as part of a new 3G (CDMA2000 1x) lineup, enabling data transmission of up to 144kbps. Both support MovieMail, enabling users to capture and send seamless movies. The two new handsets are scheduled for sale from the beginning of August.

Toshiba, Matsushita to Offer Smaller SD Cards

The SD Card Association, a group of about 500 firms dedicated to the promotion of SD Memory Cards, on March 13 announced a new mini version of the cards. The smaller SD Memory Card, which has about 60% less capacity than current cards, will be used mainly in mobile phones for recording image data. Association member Toshiba Corp will market a version with a 32MB recording capacity in June and another with a 64MB capacity in July.

SD Card-format PHS Mobile Data Cards

Went to Machida on Saturday to buy a 256-MB SDRAM memory module to replace the original one that has long plagued my PC with crashes and other devilry (3900 yen, for those that are interested). Sofmap was selling the new SD Card-format mobile data cards for DDI Pocket’s PHS network for 17,800 yen – a little pricey for something that is so small it can be lost in a blink.