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
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
