If you look at the batches of new cell phones Japan’s leading mobile carriers have been presenting in recent months, you’ll notice the high-quality cameras some of the models have. And now major Japanese chip maker Renesas (which merged with NEC last year) is even promising [JP] 16MP cameras in future handsets. → 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
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
There’s just one Android phone currently available in Japan, one of the biggest mobile markets in the world. But the HTC Magic, which Japan’s biggest telco, NTT Docomo, started distributing last summer, will soon be joined by the Sharp IS01 [JP] – which is not really a “smartphone”, but rather being marketed as an MID or “smartbook” instead. → Read More
Nokia pulled out of Japan, one of the world’s biggest mobile markets, as early as November 2008. But because this country is quite wealthy, the Finnish company decided to conquer Japan with their luxury brand Vertu [JP], starting operations in September 2009. Initially the plan was to market handsets priced between $16,000 and $50,000.
But today Vertu Japan announced a “golden” handset with a… → Read More
I can’t think of too many use cases for this, but they did it: A team of researchers from the University of Tokyo (Japan’s MIT if you will) has developed a technology that makes it possible to “physically” convey emotions from cell phone to cell phone. The key elements of the technology are a sensor and a Peltier device that’s attached to the back of the phones. → Read More
As reported (and following Final Fantasy I and II, which are now available), the App Store will get another hit Japanese video game this month, Streetfighter IV. It will be the first mobile version of the Arcade game that so far was only ported to PS3, XBO360 and the PC. And today maker Capcom released the official trailer and a slew of new screenshots. → Read More
The nation’s “fastest” (and often most frustrating) 3G network (i.e. AT&T) is adding another netbook to its lineup of 3G portable devices, the Samsung Go. So what exactly is said Go? Well, according to Sammy, it’s “a compact and lightweight netbook with instant access to broadband speeds powered by the nation’s fastest 3G network and the Microsoft Windows 7 Starter Edition operating system.” → Read More
Oh, U.S. Senate. Just when we thought you had turned your collective attention to the plethora of incredibly important issues to tackle (read: healthcare, 2 wars, global warming, education, etc), you go and pass the Safe Prisons Communications Act of 2009. → Read More
Fuel cells, those electrochemical conversion devices, which are supposed to make the lives of gadget freaks easier, are still a hot topic in the alternative energy sector even though the technology hasn’t penetrated the mass market yet. Toshiba, for example, has been experimenting with fuel cells for quite some time now. And the company has now announced the development of a fuel-cell based cell… → Read More
Despite being able to choose between an enormous number of super-advanced cell phones for years now, the Japanese have come to embrace the iPhone. The number of iPhones in circulation is estimated to have topped the 1 million mark quite some time ago, which triggered SoftBank BB (a sister company of Japan-exclusive iPhone provider SoftBank Mobile) to start offering something very Japanese and… → Read More
Following KDDI, Japan’s No.3 telecommunications company SoftBank today also presented the new cell phone line-up for this spring. The company presented a total of nine models and will start selling the first handset of the line-up (the Panasonic 930P) from tomorrow. → Read More
Japan’s second biggest mobile phone carrier KDDI au today presented their new cell phones [JP] for this spring. The first handsets will be available in Nippon on Saturday.
And they have a few spectacular models to offer – if only the Japanese carriers did what they promised a few months back (large-scale internationalization due to a shrinking home market), everyone could get their hands on… → Read More
Apropos of the ongoing ruckus about President-elect Obama’s BlackBerry — the so-called “BarackBerry” — an interesting question is coming to the fore: why is the President, or even a prominent Senator for that matter, using a civilian mobile phone? With matters of national security, policy, and locations of our most powerful citizens being beamed through the air, it behooves us as a… → Read More
Tokyo-based Ubiquitous Entertainment has developed iShodo, a calligraphy application for the iPhone.
Japanese calligraphy in particular takes years and years to master and is widely considered as a form of art. I wrote “CrunchGear” in Japanese on my own iPhone using iShodo and you can see the result in the picture below (believe me, my handwriting is bad – even in Japanese). → Read More
Rumors have been floating for weeks now and we knew the 8900 would be coming sometime in early ’09 and tonight T-Mobile has made it official. However, the 8900 aka Curve II aka Javelin will not be hitting store shelves on the 11th or 18th according to the press release. T-Mobile is being coy and saying it’s coming sometime this month. It could happen on those dates, but T-Mobile isn’t confirming… → Read More
If this screenshot from TmoNews is legit, which I’m inclined to believe it is then (even though they originally said it would be the 18th as well as BGR) the 8900 will be in my nerdy paws a few days before the expected February 11th launch. I don’t see a whole lot else that we didn’t already know about the Curve II. I just wish it were 3G. *sigh* → Read More
RemoteDroid allows you to use the touchscreen and keyboard of your G1 as inputs for your PC. I’m trying to think of a situation in which this would be handy and not just cool, but I can’t. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s totally awesome. Actually, it could be useful for a home theater PC setup, or for making people think your computer is haunted. → Read More
In what can only be described as the most insane move of all time, Japan’s Saitama prefecture (analogous to a state or province elsewhere) will be banning cell phone use by students at most of its primary, middle, and high schools. If this doesn’t incite Japanese schoolgirl riots and widespread destruction, I don’t know what will. Various reasons are cited, including studies… → Read More
Revising their previous target of 600,000 HTC G1s shipped by the end of 2008, HTC CEO Peter Chou has disclosed that the company now expects to ship at least 1 million of the world’s first Android handset by year’s end. While it’s not quite as mind-boggling as the 1 million iPhone 3Gs Apple sold in just 3 days after launch, pushing one million handsets in 2 1/2 months is no small feat. Read… → Read More
Although the market has more interesting phones and services than ever before, what with iPhone triumphant, Android ascendant, and data unlimited, the economic slump has curbed spending on what consumers perceive (probably correctly) as a luxury. For someone like moi, the newest smartphone is easily justifiable, but fewer people than expected, and probably even less next year, are making that same… → Read More
Caution: Pink Floyd blasting as soon as you hit “play” I’m pumped about this because I just got a G1. This video shows a pretty basic paint program tracking two inputs at once — it’s pretty hacked together but it clearly works okay. We knew it was possible technically, now we see it’s possible practically, and hopefully soon we’ll see it supported… → Read More
Though nearly the entire pre-flight process has been tweaked to make use of modern technologies, one outdated aspect still lingers: the tickets. Every single time I fly, I find myself checking the location where I put my tickets once every 3-4 minutes. Are they still there? Did I remember to zip up after I last checked? When I pulled my hand out, did the ticket sneak out? I’ve never lost a… → Read More
This morning Nokia made the E63 official although we found out about it yesterday. Nothing too fancy compared to the E71, but it does come with Wi-Fi, 3.5G and a 2-megapixel camera for 199 Euro. Read the rest at MobileCrunch → Read More
I haven’t run into any surfers with iPhones, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t out there. Today, Oakley (the guys that make those hideous Thump sunglasses) and Surfline announced their free app: Surf Report. There’s only one other surf-forecasting app, GreenRoom Surf Forecasts, available today and it costs $2.99. It’s limited to spots in California, but you can get a seven-day forecast… → Read More
Alright, folks. Here we go. This is the new Palm OS, fresh out of Access, the company that bought PalmSource during the Great Post-.Com Boom Palm Upheaval. The OS supports Linux applications along with classic Garnet apps from the previous generation. Access has published PDFs on the OS and framework and there is some expectation that the OS will be hit Japan sometime this year and, if the angels… → Read More
Hot off of Apple’s Q4 earnings call comes a bit of iPhone news: Alongside 2.6 million Macs and 11 million iPods, Apple managed to sell 6,892,000 iPhones in the fourth fiscal quarter of 2008. In contrast, they sold just 1,119,000 iPhones in fiscal Q4 of 2007. Feeling a bit spunky, Jobs’ mentioned that they’ve outsold some significant competition, saying “We’ve sold more phones than… → Read More
You have to imagine that at least a few Xbox Live users have a BlackBerry and this app is aimed right at ‘em. XBerry Live! seems to do about everything a Live user would want on the go, but be warned that this BlackBerry app isn’t going to make your day go by any quicker. Just think, it’s around 2 o’clock and you see all your buddies gaming away on COD4 while you have a… → Read More
Pantech’s C610 clamshell was announced today for AT&T and we were lucky enough to have one dropped off at the office. The C610 isn’t a bad looking phone to be honest and is well equipped. It can tap into the 3G network for downloading music, games and watching TV clips. It even gives directions with built-in GPS. Memory is expandable via microSD and also includes Bluetooth. The… → Read More
Nokia announced their Comes With Music program last month, a media download offering with backing from Sony BMG, Warner Music Group, EMI, and Universal Music Group. The system, along with the Nokia Music Store, has about 5 million tracks currently available and Nokia has announced the Music PC client for easy downloads. You can drag CDs into the application for immediate ripping. Comes With Music… → Read More
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