No doubt, Japan is on its way to becoming Android country. The newest alternative for the 100+ million mobile subscribers in the country is Fujitsu-Toshiba’s ARROWS ES IS12F, which was announced [JP] by major telco KDDI au today. Their biggest selling point is that the handset is just 6.7mm thick.
Fujitsu-Toshiba is still a bit slow on bringing their (mostly) awesome Android phones to North… → Read More
Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo has developed a real-time Japanese <-> English translation service for mobile phones, the first of its kind. The way it works is that you speak something into the device and wait to hear a voice interpretation of what you just said in another language.
As you can see in the videos embedded below, the service, which uses the cloud for the heavy… → Read More
Japanese mobile carrier Willcom has announced [JP] the WX03A today, the world’s smallest ten-key cell phone complying with the PHS standard (Willcom is Japan’s only telco left supporting that network system). The company markets the device as a “Frisk case”-sized handset, and in fact, it’s really tiny.
Sized at W32×H70×D10.5mm, it’s smaller than the already tiny Palm Pixi (55x111x10.85mm)… → Read More
First KDDI’s iida INFOBAR, then Sharp’s clamshell Android phone HYBRID oo7SH, and now the so-called Smart Bar [JP]: Japan is getting more and more specially designed Android handsets. As you can see on the pictures, the Smart Bar adopts the “traditional” candy bar form factor but is actually powered by Android Gingerbread.
The device is manufactured by Huawei and will be distributed in Japan by… → Read More
Kyocera did what a clever cell phone manufacturer whose home market has the oldest society in the world (over 20% of the Japanese people are 65 or older) has to do: it manufactured a cell phone specifically designed for the elderly. While the basic concept isn’t new, the way the so-called Mi-Look [JP] works certainly is. → Read More
Hitachi announced [JP] a new mobile 3D screen today: the IPS-based LCD is sized at a respectable 4.5 inches, doesn’t require glasses to view pictures in 3D and has 400 cd/m2 brightness in 2D mode and 470 cd/m2 brightness in 3D mode. But perhaps the biggest selling point is the fantastic resolution of 1,280×720. → Read More
Today, on the first day of the yearly Computex Taipei exhibition in Taiwan, Asus took the wraps off the Android tablet/phone combo it teased last week. Dubbed Padfone, Asus is relatively mum on details (specs, pricing, availability) at this point. → Read More
Here’s another CrunchGear Shock Study, shocking not because of cognizability but because of what it claims. The study by the University of Manchester says that RF exposure from cell phones does not appear to increase the risk of brain cancer by any significant amount. → Read More
There’s a new study out that says having tax dollars go towards free cell phones for the poor actually creates money for the economy. They’ve been dubbed “Obama Phones” in the press even though the program, Lifeline Assistance, has been around for many years. The theory behind the program is that people who cannot afford to have a phone miss out on work opportunities. The study, conducted by the… → Read More
It’s certainly not the first combination of a watch and phone out there, but the model Japanese electronics company ABIT recently showcased in Tokyo is pretty cool nonetheless. Function-wise, the so-called Wristwatch Phone is at concept stage, but it’s actually a standalone PHS phone – and it’s working. → Read More
In September last year, Konami Japan released a dating simulation called LovePlus that went on to become a huge hit on the Nintendo DS. It’s so successful that last November, a Japanese man married a character from the game. Now Konami decided to give a merchandising license to Tokoy-based Webcrew Agency [JP], which today announced cell phone chargers [JP] based on LovePlus. → Read More
About ten days ago, we reported about Sharp’s 003SH, the company’s new 3D smartphone, which will go on sale in Japan next month. And now, thanks to our friends over at Diginfonews, we can see the device captured on video. Japan’s biggest mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, will brand the device as “Sharp LYNX 3D SH-03C” (that’s how the device is being referred to in the video). → Read More
The Biscuit and wooden cell phones Sharp yesterday announced for the Japanese market weren’t the only ones worth mentioning. Big S also unveiled [JP] the SH-05C, a handset featuring a built-in projector that’s usable for up to 120 minutes on a full battery charge. → Read More
That wooden cell phone wasn’t the only silly cell phone Sharp introduced today in Japan. It was actually joined by a slightly sillier handset, the so-called “Bisqui Phon”. Yes, it’s shaped like a biscuit for some reason. Sharp seems to like manufacturing these things. → Read More
Toshiba in Japan has announced [JP] their first Android cell phone today, the Regza T-01C (Regza is also the brandname for the company’s flat panel TVs). Big T says they used the “Mobile Regza Engine 3.0″ for the phone’s touchscreen, which is sized at four inches and features 480×854 resolution. → Read More
<img src="http://www.mobilecrunch.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Picture-5.png" /
Japan's No. 3 mobile carrier, SoftBank Mobile, has unveiled its cell phone line-up for this winter and spring yesterday. We already blogged in-depth about the two most interesting models, Sharp’s naked-eye 3D Android phone, but here’s the full line-up (not including simple updates of existing… → Read More
In September, we blogged on CrunchGear about Sharp’s entry into the Android tablet sector (the company is currently readying a 5.5-inch and a 10.8-inch version). Strangely dubbed “Galapagos”, the tablets, which will be available in Japan starting next month, will soon be joined by two smartphones carrying the same name. → Read More
Last week, we reported about the new cell phone line up of Japan’s second biggest mobile carrier, KDDI. The company unveiled no less than 19 new handsets, and among those, one model stood out because of its unique design: the aptly named X-Ray. → Read More
KDDI, Japan’s second biggest mobile carrier, has today announced its cell phone line-up for the coming winter and spring. The company has shown not only three smartphones and two new iida “designer phones”, which we covered here, but also 14 new feature phones, some of which boast impressive specs. → Read More
Japan’s second biggest mobile carrier KDDI has just announced its cell phone line-up for the coming winter and spring. The company unveiled no less than 19 new handsets today: three smartphones, 14 feature phones and another two “designer phones”, which will be marketed under KDDI’s sub brand iida.
Here are all the main specs for the new smartphones and iida handsets (the feature phones follow in… → Read More
If you needed one more piece of evidence that Japan is crazy about everything mobile, here it is: the country’s leading mobile carrier today announced [JP] a system that provides user-specific instructions to home gardeners via cell phones and special “garden sensors”. NEC is a partner in the pilot project, which actually began last Saturday in 30 selected households in Japan. → Read More
Earlier this week, we blogged Sharp’s new Android phone, the IS03. On paper, the handset has a lot going for it: a nice 3.5-inch touchscreen with 960×640 resolution (same as the iPhone 4) with a combined memory LCD, a 1GHz Snapdragon CPU, a 9.6MP CCD camera, Wi-Fi, and Android 2.1 as the OS. → Read More
One of the hit products at Fujitsu’s booth at this year’s CEATEC exhibition (that’s currently taking place near Tokyo) was the so-called “Dual-Touchscreen Mobile Phone”. As the name suggests, it has no physical keyboard but boasts two screens instead, and it’s designed like a typical Japanese clamshell cell phone. → Read More
Panasonic was all mysterious when it announced a “Lumix Phone” last week, teasing it with a special website (now updated, but still in Japanese) that contained neither pictures nor solid information about their newest cell phone. But the company today unveiled the handset at CEATEC 2010, Asia’s biggest technology and electronics exhibition, which takes place yearly in Chiba (one hour away from… → Read More
It took Japan’s handset makers and carriers a while, but interest in Android is picking up steam over here. Sharp, for example, announced two Android tablets for release later this year just last week. Earlier this year, the same company presented the IS01 (full details), an Android-based smartbook distributed by Japan’s No. 2 mobile carrier, KDDI au.
And today both companies announced [JP] the… → Read More
There will be a large IT and electronics exhibition in Japan happening next week (CEATEC), and Panasonic Japan just announced [JP] it will use the show to announce a new cell phone. The company has set up a dedicated site [JP] for the new device but is being pretty mysterious about it (no pictures). → Read More
After teasing it in May, Japan’s No. 3 mobile carrier SoftBank Mobile (25 million subscribers) now added a Gundam-themed cell phone to its line-up. Gundam is one of the most famous anime series out there, and the new handset is geared towards fans of that series (and cell phone otaku in general). → Read More
Japan’s second biggest cell phone carrier KDDI (over 30 million subscribers) rolls out quite unique handsets from time to time, mostly under their iida sub-brand. The company today in Japan introduced [JP] another “lifestyle” cell phone, the so-called Light Pool. Technically, the device isn’t anything special – but it’s rather pretty. → Read More
And we have yet another cell phone maker joining the Android bandwagon. Various Japanese media, for example Sankei Digital [JP], are reporting that Fujitsu is currently working on an Android-based smartphone. → Read More
Big shake up in Japan’s cell phone industry (100 million mobile subscribers) today: NTT Docomo, the country’s leading carrier (55 million customers), is planning to make all of its cell phones SIM free as early as April 2011 (the start of the new fiscal year in most Japanese companies). → Read More
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