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 announced that the deal has unceremoniously fallen apart.
→ 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 in recent months, but this model is just 6.7mm thin and has the best specs. → 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 fiscal (which ends in March this year), NEC now expects a net loss of $1.3 billion. The company says restructuring costs alone will cause a US$520 million net loss. → 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 developing small and eco-efficient chips to supply to mobile device manufacturers in Japan, Korea, and other places. Docomo says the main focus will be on “products for LTE and LTE-Advanced mobile communication standards”. → 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 simultaneously. → 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 Embedded CE 6.0-equipped (portable) terminal, it produces pictures in 800×600 resolution that can be superimposed onto the real world. → 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 and Wi-Fi connectivity, and 10 hours of battery life. → 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 protection”), falls from 90cm onto concrete, or water ( projected by a 6.3mm nozzle) aren’t a problem. For use in extreme situations, the company promises 12 hours of battery life. → 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 itself. → 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 deal with NEC, which will use the technology for their wearable computer Tele Scouter starting in the fall. The company expects the Air Scouter to be used in device assembly, parts picking and selection, and remote operations in factories. → 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 government is already thinking about what will happen in 2020: by then, the plan is to develop a computer that handles exascale computing or, in other words, one million trillion operations per second (that computer would be 100 times more powerful than K). → 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 share). → 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
San Francisco, CA
