SlashPhone » KDDI

DoCoMo, KTF to sell Google phone next year

Budi Putra — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:41:18 +0000

Google phone goes Asia next year. Japan’s top mobile phone operator, NTT DoCoMo Inc, and South Korean partner KTF Co will team-up in developing Google OS-based smartphone for launch next year.

DoCoMo, which owns 10 percent of KTF, aims to offer the Android phone at a lower price than existing smartphones. Beside DoCoMo, Japan’s second largest wireless carrier, KDDI Corp, is also a member of Open Handset Alliance, a global alliance to develop phones based on Google’s Android platform.

[Reuters]

Your cellphone can be your style advisor

Budi Putra — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 05:05:42 +0000

Asia has become a continent of ideas – in term of mobile technology innovation. Now, your cell-phone can be your style advisors, too. You can ask them anytime and get their recommendations on the go immediately.

An application, developed for Japanese second largest operator KDDI au, can help you decide the best suites or haircut to be applied. Named as EZ My Styling, this application is really useful, especially for those fashion people who would like to see whether he/she will be fit in to new trend.

[via 3Gweek]

NBC Universal announced branded mobile portal in Japan

Budi Putra — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 02:02:01 +0000

NBC Universal has launched of its new mobile portal in Japan. The portal goes live recently to coincide with the theatrical run, in Japan, of the major blockbuster movie ‘Wanted’ starring Angelina Jolie, James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman.

Customers of the three operators — NTT Docomo, KDDI-au and SoftBank Mobile — will be able to download a variety of mobile content, including themes, tones, decoration emails, made-for mobile comics, flash and casual games.

NBC Universal will distribute and market its content and services under the ‘Universal Mobile’ brand. The service will allow access to content from a number of NBC Universal film and TV properties.

New Sharp Aquos W64SH TV phone hits Japanese KDDI

Budi Putra — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 01:37:24 +0000

It’s a sophisticated TV phone, indeed. Sharp announced new line up for Japanese carrier KDDI: Sharp Aquos W64SH featuring a neat 3.5 inch screen, DMB capability, 5.2MP camera, Mobile ASV, high color rendering backlight, 2,000:1 contrast ratio, SV engine + and smooth mode, Bluetooth, FM transmitter, Stereo speakers, Dictionary.

With the dimension of 116×53×16.5mm, the TV phone offers color variants: quite mature, earth green, mars red, and galaxy black. Which one do you like best? Mine is the black one.

[I4U via 3Gweek]

HTC Touch Pro CDMA for KDDI users

Budi Putra — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 03:22:06 +0000

What? HTC Touch Pro for KDDI users? Take it easy. Since Taiwanese phone maker HTC Corporation has teamed-up with KDDI, Japan second largest mobile operator, so Japanese mobile users can enjoy HTC Touch Pro CDMA too! They called it E30HT Windows Mobile smart phone, which is based on the HTC Touch Pro (just like HTC Raphael, HTC Touch Pro CDMA for US’s Sprint users).

KDDI announced that they would be unveiling the smart phone at CEATEC, Japan’s largest electronics products exhibition, September 28-October, this year. However, commercial sales of the E30HT, are slated for spring 2009. Why does it takes so long from its first showing up and comercial availability?

[TheUnwired via 3GWeek]

KDDI launch Visual Search app for Japanese camera-phones

Chris Davies — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 18:54:27 +0000

Japanese carrier KDDI is launching a visual search application on its Spring 2008 range of “au” handsets. The app, called ER Search, was developed by Evolution Robotics and is operated by Bandai networks, who have already installed it on more than a million handsets in the past twelve months. Described as “hyperlinking the physical world”, ER Search allows users to take photographs of books, CDs, DVDs and other items and then view content based on software recognition of that image.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Taking a photo of a CD, for instance, could pull up price comparisons from online stores (with the ability to buy direct from the handset), links to the artist’s back catalogue and even lyrics from featured songs. Audio and video clips would also be available. The software is being offered as a free download to owners of earlier “au” model cellphones; Bandai apparently funds the system via referral fees.

ER Search is similar to the idea of ‘augmented reality’, whereby real-world objects are tagged with real-time data on a mobile device. Enkin, a recent entry in Google’s Android Developer Challenge promises just that, with GPS and motion data used for real-time object/building tracking. However Enkin goes farther than ER Search, as it works in real-time rather than from snapshots.

[via mocoNews]