What happens when you put some of the biggest names in the Japanese wireless industry in the same room to work up a plan to develop some home-grown mobile chipsets? The answer is, apparently, not much.
Just over three months after NTT DoCoMo, Samsung, Fujitsu, NEC, and Panasonic Mobile Communications announced the creation of a mobile joint venture to do just that, DoCoMo has recently… → Read More
NEC did it again: about 11 months after unveiling the world’s slimmest smartphone at that time, the company is ready to release another super-thin Android phone with a set of impressive specs (via Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo). Dubbed MEDIAS ES N-05D [JP], the handset will hit Japanese stores in February or March this year.
NEC rolled out quite a few Medias-branded Android phones… → Read More
Bad news from Japanese tech powerhouse NEC: the company yesterday announced [PDF] a net loss of $1.13 billion in the three months through December 2011, compared with a net loss of “just” US$350 million in the same time frame last fiscal. NEC said it wrote down its deferred tax assets.
For the three-month period, revenue dropped from $9.3 billion to $8.7 billion year-on-year. For the full… → Read More
Big news from Asia’s mobile market today: Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo (55 million customers, over US$50 billion in sales per year) is teaming up with five other tech powerhouses to develop chips for next-generation mobile devices. Docomo’s partners are NEC, Fujitsu, Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd., Panasonic, and Samsung.
The goal is to use synergies in the six companies’ expertise in… → Read More
7-, 9-, or 10-inch tablets are out: NEC Japan today announced the so-called X-info Table [JP], a 52-inch “tablet” (NEC does use this term to market the device) with full HD resolution. Much like similar devices, the idea is to make it simple for multiple users to view and alter content shown on the screen at the same time.
NEC says that the X-info Table supports up to ten touch points… → Read More
NEC announced the so-called Tele Scouter [JP] in Japan, a futuristic, see-through head-mounted display (HMD) for augmented reality applications. The device is based on the AiRScouter, which Brother has been working on for years (and which we covered here, here and here).
The Tele Scouter, which NEC calls a “Wearable Computer”, is sized at 75×40×35mm and weighs 64g. Powered by a Windows… → Read More
NEC is working on an super-thin notebook that’s powered by Android (version unknown) and that’s just 9.9mm thick. The so-called MGX (an internal code-name, “MG” stands for “mobile gear”) is currently just a prototype, but it looks pretty slick.
In its current form, the device is 215mm long, 109mm wide, and weighs 350g. It features a 7-inch OLED touch display with 1,024×600 resolution, HSUPA… → Read More
All these ruggedized computers available on the market out there aren’t tough enough for you? Then you might want to take a look at the ShieldPRO N22G that NEC announced [JP] today for the Japanese market. It’s essentially a Windows notebook, but specifically designed for use in severe environments.
According to NEC, temperatures from -20 to 50 degrees Celsisus, dust or sand (“complete… → Read More
NEC announced [JP] the so-called LaVie Touch for the Japanese market today, a tablet with two rather special features: it’s powered by Windows 7 Home Premium, and it comes with a total of three hardware add-ons out of the box: a mix between stand and DVD-drive (dubbed “Multistation”), a wireless mouse, and a wireless keyboard.
In other words, it won’t be possible to purchase the tablet by… → Read More
Sometimes futuristic-looking prototypes of gadgets do get commercialized: Brother has announced it is ready to bring to market the so-called AiRScouter, a head-mounted and transparent transmissive liquid crystal display that was first showcased back in 2008. When worn, the device creates the impression of a 16-inch screen that’s about one meter away from user’s eyes.
Brother says they inked a… → Read More
There is a list of the world’s 500 most powerful supercomputers, and the last time it was updated, back in June this year, Fujitsu’s “K” (pictured) came out on top, taking the No. 1 spot from Tianhe-1A (a supercomputer from China).
It was the first time since 2004 for Japan to get to claim those bragging rights, and now the country’s largest business newspaper The Nikkei reports that the… → Read More
NEC is ready to use some of the expertise it gained by developing lithium-ion batteries for Nissan’s electric vehicles in recent years for home use: according to a report in Japanese business daily The Nikkei that was published today, that new 6kwh household power storage system will only cost around $12,300 – which is about 50% cheaper than comparable systems on sale today. → Read More
The joint venture NEC and Lenovo announced back in January is now reality: the companies today said they have finally set up “NEC Lenovo Japan”, which Lenovo holds a 51% stake in (NEC holds the rest of the shares). The joint venture is limited to the Japanese PC market at this point, but NEC Lenovo instantly gained the bragging rights to call itself the country’s biggest PC maker (about 25% market… → Read More
China-based JUST GOOD Technology Corp. and UNIS Corp. must really like the PaPeRo, NEC’s super-cute mini robot that was first shown to the public back in 1997. Or how else can you explain the existence of their so-called UNISROBO? As Plastic Pals points out, both robots are very much alike from a design perspective. → Read More
Face recognition technology that can be used to identify a given person’s age and gender isn’t exactly new. But NEC has now developed a system [JP] that’s sized at just 7x12x1cm, which is about 100 times smaller than existing solutions (according to the company). NEC also claims that their mini system needs 50 times less power than its already commercialized counterparts. → Read More
Face recognition, personalization, flexible screens: digital signage has come a long way. Now NEC is offering up its own digital signage solution, which has two distinct selling points: it’s pretty big (4.1m wide and 1.15m high), and it boasts multi-touch control. → Read More
NEC and a researcher from Japan’s Tohoku University, Professor Hideo Ohno, are working on a power chip that solves a pretty big problem: completely eliminating electricity consumption of electronic devices that are in standby mode. The key piece of technology here is CAM, the world’s first content addressable memory. → Read More
The dual 7-inch screen Android tablet that NEC introduced during CES earlier this year is finally ready to ship (in Japan, at least). The company today announced [JP] that it’s now called LifeTouch W, and that it’s scheduled to hit stores over here sometime next month. → Read More
Japan’s biggest mobile carrier NTT Docomo has announced its summer line-up of cell phones today, and we have squeezed all their nine new smartphones (plus Fujitsu’s Windows 7/Symbian hybrid) into this article for your reading pleasure (click here for a list of all new feature phones). → Read More
Here we have another Windows 7-powered tablet from Japan: NEC announced [JP] it yesterday, and it’s called the VersaPro Type VT. Details are scarce at this point, but NEC does say its tablet will sport a 10.1-inch LCD screen with 1,280×800 resolution. → Read More
Did you ever ask yourself where the fruit you are about to buy in the supermarket comes from? If yes a new “fruit identification system”, developed by NEC, might be the right solution for you. The technology allows you to identify the origin of a given fruit by taking a picture of it with your phone’s camera. → Read More
Have you ever tried pushing buttons on your music player while you’re out jogging or reaching for your cell phone when you’re stuck in a crowded train? It’s not a nice experience and a problem that NEC is trying to solve with a new system [press release in English] that is supposed to let you control consumer electronics by tapping your arm. → Read More
NEC today announced it has developed the industry’s first contact-less biometric authentication system that can read both fingerprints and finger veins. According to the company, the “HS100-10 Contactless Hybrid Finger Scanner” is extremely difficult to deceive and makes it possible to authenticate people with close to 100% accuracy. → Read More
On Monday, we’ve just shown you some leaked pictures, but we can now confirm the world’s thinnest smartphone, NEC Casio Mobile’s MEDIAS N-04C, is real. And provider NTT Docomo, Japan’s biggest mobile carrier, doesn’t want to lose time in bringing it to market: it will hit stores over here as early as March 15. → Read More
NEC is apparently to unveil the “world’s thinnest smartphone” (7.7mm) on Thursday, if a “leak” covered on a Japanese blog today is to be believed. That leak, reported today by Akihabara News, is actually a few days old (see this Japanese blog post, for example). → Read More
I’m not sure zoom noise was really the most pressing concern (I’m more worried about feature bloat and low-light capability, personally), but apparently NEC thought it was worth looking into. They’ve created some tech, apparently already employed by the Casio ZR10, that knows what noise the zoom mechanism makes and works to cancel it out while you’re shooting movies. → Read More
The dual-screen Android device NEC showed off at CES wasn’t exactly a crowd-pleaser. Without the latest version of Android, and sporting a rather low five hours of battery life, there wasn’t much to get excited about. But I like the idea of two discrete screens a la the Entourage Edge and the ill-fated Courier. NEC decided it’s an interesting form factor for medical software, of all things. → Read More
First a LifeTouch-branded Android tablet, now a netbook: NEC took the wraps off the so-called LifeTouch Note [JP] today, a netbook with Android 2.2 and a 7-inch LCD touchscreen on board. → Read More
The world gets yet another 3D device. Today, NEC in Japan announced [JP] a new 3D notebook, as part of the company’s spring line-up of PCs for the local market. It’s the last in a series of 3D-enabled laptops we’ve seen in the last few months. → Read More
Big shake-up in the PC industry: Yesterday, the country’s biggest PC maker NEC and Lenovo announced a plan to form a joint venture to create Japan’s largest “PC group”. Lenovo will hold a 51% stake in the joint venture (to be incorporated in the Netherlands), while NEC will own the rest. → Read More
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