25th Oct - DoCoMo To Release 3-D Smartphone

NTT DoCoMo Inc. is introducing about 20 new cell phones and seven smartphones for the winter 2010 and spring 2011 seasons, including Japan's first handset with 3-D capability.

The company is expanding its product lineup with sleek new models to try to stimulate consumer buying appetite and win in competition with Apple's iPhone, sold in Japan by Softbank Mobile Corp.

A new Sharp Corp. smartphone running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system will enable users to see 3-D images without special glasses.

Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Akiba outlet in Tokyo's Akihabara district: DoCoMo will bolster its smartphone marketing operations.

Other new cell phones in the pipeline will have upgraded features including being water- and shockproof in line with U.S. military standards. They are being developed by NEC Casio Mobile Communications Ltd., a joint venture between NEC Corp, Casio Computer Co. and Hitachi Ltd. . Casio technology used in its G-Shock brand watches will be applied to these new models.

DoCoMo will also release a touchscreen model with a Japanese cypress exterior in an attempt to win over environmentally conscious customers.

According to the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, domestic cell-phone shipments totaled some 31 million units in fiscal 2009, about 60% of their peak in 2000.

Despite sluggish demand, Softbank continues to expand the number of iPhone subscribers.

KDDI Corp., which provides the au cell phone service, is also stepping up product development and will debut a smartphone with e-wallet functions in late November.

6th Oct - CEATEC Japan features smart grid power network, 3-D technology

The CEATEC Japan 2010 information technology and electronics fair opened Tuesday in Chiba, featuring displays of a next-generation smart grid power transmission network and a wide lineup of products using 3-D technologies.

A total of 616 companies and groups, of which 196 are from overseas, have registered to exhibit their products and technologies in 2,255 booths, organizers said. The five-day fair is being held at Chiba's Makuhari Messe convention center.

The organizers said they expect the fair to draw some 200,000 visitors, compared with last year's 150,000.

One of the highlights this year is a 3-D theater where the audience can experience a simulation of a near-future city. The city features an IT-driven smart grid that optimizes the balance between demand and supply of electricity to achieve a low-carbon society.

Smart grids are efficient power transmission networks that are also expected to encourage the use of renewable energy because they provide stability even if fluctuating natural power sources such as solar and wind are used.

"Smart grids are the ultimate way of monitoring and providing services to customers," said Mitsuhiko Yamashita, executive vice president of Nissan Motor Co., which developed the smart grid presentation jointly with Namco Bandai Games Inc.

By finding out how people are using their utilities, it becomes possible to provide electricity, water and gas more effectively, Yamashita said in a speech.

Among the presentations of products using 3-D technologies, Toshiba Corp. is showcasing 3-D televisions that can be watched without special glasses. Toshiba plans to become the world's first company to release such a product when it markets the TVs in late December in Japan.

Toshiba unveiled 12- and 20-inch liquid crystal display 3-D Regza TVs, while a 56-inch model is also on display.

Among other high-profile exhibits, Hitachi Displays Ltd. is demonstrating a new type of energy-saving compact display it has developed jointly with Pixtronix Inc. of the United States.

The display, intended for portable devices such as smart phones and tablets, consumes only about half the electricity of an LCD, allowing people to read electronic books longer without having to recharge their device, the Hitachi group company said. Hitachi Displays plans to begin mass-producing the display possibly in late 2011.

The organizers of the trade show will also open a space for business-to-business communications from Wednesday through Friday aimed at increasing business opportunities for vendors and users.

CEATEC, which stands for Combined Exhibition of Advanced Technologies, has been held every year since 2000 as a venue where business professionals and consumers can view the latest developments in the electronics industry ahead of the yearend shopping season.

DoCoMo Uses Handset to Show PC-stored Content on Remote TV

NTT DoCoMo Inc developed the "MH2H (mobile home to home)," a technology to enable its users to display the content stored in the PCs in their homes on the TVs in their friends' homes when they visited them. The company expects that the technology will be used to show pictures and movies taken by a camera to users' friends. It exhibited the technology for reference at CEATEC Japan 2008. With the MH2H, a mobile phone equipped with a wireless LAN function acts as a virtual media server in the network in a user's friend's home, and transmits the content stored in the user's home via the Internet. The technology is based on the "DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)," a standard to share content in a home network. NTT DoCoMo is now providing the "Pocket U" service with which users can watch or listen to the content stored in their homes by using their mobile phones away from home. This time, the company developed the MH2H as the next-generation function of the Pocket U. "Thanks to the Pocket U service, we can now watch and listen to content whenever we want even if we do not have any content stored in our mobile phones," the company said. "However, displays of mobile phones are too small to be watched by multiple people at the same time. So, we decided to show the content on a large screen of a TV and make it possible to share the excitement."
Handsets become virtual DLNA servers
The MH2H enables a user's mobile phone with a wireless LAN function to act as a DLNA's "digital media server" in the network of his/her friend's house. As a storage place of content, the IP address of the user's PC in his/her home was sent to a "digital media player," which streams content (PlayStation 3 in the demonstration). At this point, the mobile phone orders, via a mobile phone network, the PC installed with software for the Pocket U service to accept an HTTP request from a device outside the user's home. Those techniques enabled the DLNA, which is usually used for home networks, to transfer content between homes. Any device can be used for the service without changing its specifications, as long as it has DMP capabilities.
In addition, with the MH2H, a mobile phone can periodically check if it is connected to the network in the user's friend's home. Therefore, the user's friend cannot watch the content without the presence of its owner, NTT DoCoMo said.

Sony May Have Made the Best TV Ever

I'm talking about Sony's OLED TV. The XEL-1 is the first organic (based on carbon) light-emitting diode television. Sony calls it "the next big thing" in television technology. Sony means big in terms of quality, not size. OLED TVs are actually amazingly thin. Sony's breakthrough design boasts a 3 millimeter-thin panel and mind-boggling picture quality with amazing contrast, outstanding brightness, exceptional color reproduction and a rapid response time. The XEL-1 is tiny. It measures just under 12 by 10 by 5.5 inches overall and weighs a little more than 4 pounds. The small, super-thin screen measures just 11 inches diagonally in the standard 16-by-9 ration widescreen format. The display's native resolution is 960 by 540 pixels. The set is capable of handling progressive and interlaced video signals from 480 through 1080. Sony says that even though the screen measures 960 by 540 pixels, the OLED TV yields the same pixel density as a 40-inch (measured diagonally) 1080p LCDTV.
This little TV set crams all sorts of goodies inside the enclosure, like Auto SAP, Dolby Digital sound, virtual surround sound, a 3D comb filter, one analog and two HDMI inputs, a memory stick slot to view photos and the like, plus lots more. Sony includes a nice-sized, nifty remote control as well. All in all, it's a pretty neat package. Although super small on the outside, this OLED looks better than any TV I've ever seen in my home. Sony says it has a lot to do with the set's contrast capabilities. The breakthrough technology is capable of completely turning off pixels when reproducing black (unlike other video technologies), resulting in more outstanding dark-scene detail, and a contrast ratio of 1 million to 1 is light years ahead of the competition.

Japan's World On-Demand IPTV launches new media player

Tokyo based New Media Group KK, owner and operator of the World On-Demand IPTV platform, on Thursday launched a new media player designed for both TV and PCs to deliver VOD, SVOD, linear channels and live events to end users. Long supporting both TV viewing with its own set-top box and PC viewing via a single user account. Now via its new player based on the Microsoft Silverlight platform, World On-Demand permits Mac OS X users to enjoy full-screen viewing of their favorite television while also taking advantage of a range of other new features that the new Silverlight player boasts such as a graphically enhanced user interface, easy channel and video on-demand selection, all under the umbrella of built-in and faster stream loading and security. “We asked World On-Demand users what they really want in their online video experience, and the new Silverlight player is the first step in implementing that feedback,” said Sergio Miyama, lead developer at World On-Demand. The World On-Demand Silverlight player presents viewers with a single interface to search, browse and view all video on their accounts, from major television networks such as Fox and TV5, to specialized video on-demand from content providers in North America, Europe and Asia. As with television, the interface is simple enough to be driven by fast clicking, consistent from program to program, and displays video in a full screen TV-like experience.
Key features include: Channels – browse for content by channel visually (i.e., FOX News, Australia Network, E! Entertainment). Video selection – select new videos in your personal media space without leaving full screen mode. Interact – a new feature due to arrive soon, the ability to chat and interact with other World On-Demand users currently watching the same TV as you from all around the world. To encourage ever more people to join the World On-Demand and experience the new features, from Dec 1 until the end of the year, all Mac users are eligible for a free month of content. Referral rewards shall also have double value when existing subscribers refer their friends and relatives.
For more information, visit www.worldondemand.net.

Softbank launch iPhone 1Seg TV accessory

Apples iPhone has come up short in Japan for various reasons, including its lack of the TV function available on the newest generation of mobile phones.

Softbank is tackling this shortfall with a new gadget that works with an iPhone and allows it not only to pick up 1Seg TV broadcasts but also pull double duty as a battery booster. The unit includes a TV tuner and aerial and it retransmits the signal via Wi-Fi to the iPhone, eliminating the need for a physical connection, unless you need the battery booster. Users will need an extra software application, but that will be available free of charge when the device goes on the market in mid-December. The new Softbank gadget measures 50×85×16 mm and tips the scales at about 80 grams. It delivers enough power for up to three hours of viewing on each charge. The device can be recharged in four hours via a computer USB port or in two hours when connected to an AC outlet. It is expected to cost around ¥10,000.