You wouldn't want a bunch of handsets out in the wild without your own company name on them, so SoftBank has announced 13 handsets to "launch" alongside the new brand.

Luckily SoftBank is continuing the tradition of putting out English press releases and information alongside Japanese press releases and information, so you can head over to the official page for more information. Just so we're clear, the handsets are:

• 910SH, a Sharp handset with 5MP camera and 2.4" display
  
• 910T, a Toshiba handset with 1GB of internal memory, Bluetooth, and music player
  
• 810SH, a Sharp handset with a VGA display and "elegant design"
  
• 811SH, a Sharp handset with a VGA display and 21mm thickness
  
• 810T, a Toshiba handset with "Advanced Simple Mode"
  
• 811T, a Toshiba handset with audio playback and GPS
  
• 705N, a NEC handset with 16mm thickness and "stylish design"
  
• 705NK, a Nokia handset with 3.2MP camera and bar design
  
• 705P, a Panasonic handset with a 14.8mm thickness and one-push button open
  
• 705SC, a Samsung handset with 12.9mm thickness and sliding mechanism
  
• 706SC, a Samsung handset with a 12.3mm thickness
  
• X01HT, a Windows Mobile smartphone known elsewhere in the world as the hTc Z, with HSDPA support
  
• C01SI, a CF connectivity card with HSDPA support.
  

NTT DoCoMo has announced they'll be releasing the "BlackBerry 8707h" to corporate customers on September 26th. The 8707h is a "Global Model" of the BlackBerry 8707, offering support for W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS, so it can be used outside of Japan as well. It seems to be some sort of adaptation of the 8707v available for Vodafone (whoops) in the UK. Specifications include a 320 x 240 color screen, Bluetooth, 64MB of memory.

Specs-wise, the 8707h does not support Japanese. However, the device does support Namimail, a Japanese reading/input solution offered by NTT DoCoMo USA. Namimail can be used on most modern Blackberry devices, even those on carriers in the USA, so this might be one of the first and only times in history that a handset in the states actually has the same capabilities of a handset in Japan.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/31076.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060919b.html

DoCoMo is geared up to release their bone-conduction receiver microphone, the "Sound Leaf," on the 15th. The Sound Leaf plugs into the earphone/mic port of DoCoMo's FOMA handset and uses bone conduction technology to deliver sound. Bone conduction is a technology were sound travels through a person's skull to be delivered to their ear, rather than through the air canal, enabling the Sound Leaf to be used "even in places where a lot of noise makes it difficult to hear." The Sound Leaf officially works only with FOMA handsets.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30996.html

Product Information:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060912.html

Vodafone and JR East Japan have announced that you'll be able to use Mobile Suica with Vodafone handsets from December 2nd at 4PM. Mobile Suica uses the "FeliCa" contactless chipset found in many modern Japanese handsets to allow users to ride trains without paper tickets.

Only two Vodafone handsets currently available will support Mobile Suica: the 904SH and 905SH. The name of the service itself will also be changed from "Vodafone live! FeliCa" to "S! FeliCa" when Vodafone's brand name changes to "SoftBank" on October 1st of this year.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30887.html

Press Release:
http://www.vodafone.jp/japanese/release/2006/20060905_1j.pdf

NTT DoCoMo went ahead and announced their rates for Mobile Number Portability, which is slated to begin on October 24th in Japan. The announcement says that besides the standard charges associated with a new contract, you won't be charged anything if you move your mobile number TO NTT DoCoMo. When moving away from NTT DoCoMo, you'll be charged 2,100 yen. They also announced a campaign where they offer 2,000 DoCoMo Points to those who move to DoCoMo before the end of the year.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30775.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/notice/page/060829_00.html

The "TiMO" is a new handset being released by Toyota, branded by au. It's a joint effort between Toyota Motor Corporation and KDDI, based on Toshiba's "W44T" handset. The specs are the same as the W44T, but there's on key difference: hands-free connection with Toyota's official Bluetooth Navigation System. We unfortunately don't have any details on exactly what this connection entails (if anything beyond using Bluetooth for hands-free talking), so hopefully we'll hear something about it from Toyota.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30786.html

Press Release:
http://www.kddi.com/corporate/news_release/2006/0830/

SoftBank's logo looks pretty nice on the "SoftBank 705SH," a handset being offered in a limited run by Vodafone. In actuality, the phone is already available in Champagne Gold, Royal Black, Silky Pink, Black, White, Pink, and Blue -- but on September 2nd the company will be adding Copper, Green, and Red to the lineup. 10,000 of each color will be available, so if you've been dying for a phone with SoftBank's branding, knock yourself out.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30791.html

Press Release:
http://www.vodafone.jp/japanese/release/2006/20060830j.pdf

Nevermind leaving someone a voicemail; leave them a videomail! NTT DoCoMo is all geared up to expand FOMA's "Answering Machine Service" to add support for the recording of video messages. Messages as long as 3 minutes can be recorded, but hopefully the person hasn't left the country; messages will automatically be deleted after they've been around for 72 hours. As many as 20 messags can be saved.

No less than 68 FOMA handsets (the number that support both FOMA's TV Phone and DTMF) will support the new service.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30790.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060830a.html

KDDI isn't NTT DoCoMo; they're not just going to throw out a bunch of handsets without services that support their new features. That's why KDDI has announced a whole bunch of new services to go hand-in-hand with their announcement of a those new handsets.

The new services are:

• TV Phone Service
  
• EZ Channel Plus
  
• au My Page
  
• EZ News Flash
  
• EZ Keitai Arrange
  
• Address Book Entrust Safety Service
  
• Decoration Mail
  
• Picture Talking Mail
  

Oh giggity! More details on each new service inside.

KDDI made an enormous announcement for au on Monday: 12 new handsets are to be released from as early as September. In the lineup we have the:

• W43H from Hitachi
  
• W47T from Toshiba
  
• DRAPE from Toshiba
  
• W43CA from Casio
  
• W43SA from Sanyo
  
• W43S from Sony Ericsson
  
• W43K from Kyocera
  
• W41SH from Sharp
  
• W45T from Toshiba
  
• W42SA from Sanyo
  
• W44K from Kyocera
  
• A5522SA from Sanyo
  

The W47T and DRAPE both support the upcoming EV-DO Rev.A, which we reported on last week in this article. The W43H, W43CA, DRAPE, and W47T also support BCMCS, also described in the above-mentioned article.

More details on each handset inside. Rather than making a different article for each handset, we'll instead puch each handset on a different page of a single article.