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

We normally don't bother with telling you about what new laptops and such are released in Japan, unless they're truly exceptional, like Sony's update to the VAIO type U. The type U isn't available outside of Japan (perhaps for the better), but Sony today announced they would be throwing a One-Seg tuner to create the "VAIO type U VGN-UX70." Otherwise, it has the same WSVGA 4.5" screen, same CPU, same 512MB of memory, and same 30GB hard drive as before.



Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/0830/sony1.htm

Press Release:
http://www.vaio.sony.co.jp/Info/2006/products_0830.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.

KDDI Labs has a new software solution for recognizing the rotation, pan, tilt, and zoom of a handset. This allows users to "directly control" the operations of their handset, for example enabling them to scroll a map by moving their handset in the direction in which they want the map to scroll.

Similar technology has already been employed on Vodafone's "V603SH" and "904SH," as well as DoCoMo's "N702iS." However, these implementations involved the use of additional hardware inside the handset, such as acceleration sensors, gyroscopes, and so on. KDDI Labs' solution however takes advantage of hardware already present in the handset -- its camera -- and analyzes video data is it is received by the handset. This video data is analyzed so that the phone is able to "sense" its positioning. Because it requires no additional hardware, it has a lower implementation cost for KDDI, and it can operate using software alone.



Inspired by:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0608/25/news099.html

Press Release:
http://www.kddilabs.jp/pr_pdf/060825.pdf

The Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department arrested 4 merchants including a company president on the 23rd for selling Vodafone handsets with the SIM lock removed, citing trademark infringement and the Unfair Competition Prevention Law. The offending parties illegally modified the "U-SIM" card software of the handsets, thereby removing what is referred to as a "SIM lock." SIM locks are to prevent handsets from operating with the SIM cards of other providers.

Handsets were sold and delivered to customers using standard home delivery services. Vodafone's first quarter earnings report indicates that merchants receive 44,00 yen as an incentive for establishing new contracts for users, bringing the "true handset cost" for Vodafone to in-store cost + 44,00 yen. Vodafone, saying that this sort of activity "undermines [their] business model," estimates that damages range "in the millions" per month from this kind of activity.

Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30723.html

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department:
http://www.keishicho.metro.tokyo.jp/

Vodafone announced that they will be expanding their global roaming service area on September 7th. Additions include Angola to the list of countries that support voice calls -- this makes it the 166th country where Vodafone users can make voice calls. Likewise, they will be adding Vodafone Live! and data transfer to Pakistan, Belarus, Kenya, and Réunion (a small island and French territory off the coast of Madagascar), bringing the number of countries where Vodafone Live! can be used to 95. 13 of company's devices, including the 705SH SLIMIA, 705T, 904SH, 904T, and 804SS handsets and VC701SI connect card support global roaming.

Inspired by:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/mobile/articles/0608/24/news074.html

Press Release:
http://www.vodafone.jp/japanese/release/2006/20060824j.pdf?cc_1441=

A Japanese company called "Astala Vista" has officially announced their "Astala Vista" DVD rental vending machines. The machines will be placed in 10 stations in the Tokyo Metro on the 25th, and the company plans to have machines in as many as 150 private railyway stations before the end of the year. More details inside.

Toshiba is ready to release their newest dynabook, the "dynabook SS S30" in early September. It features a 12.1" widescreen display and single spindle (e.g. no optical drive). It's one of Toshiba's smaller dynabooks, measuring 283 x 196.6 x 26.9 ~ 35.5mm. Some other nice features of the SS S30 include a "Water Block Construction" that prevents water that may have spilled on the keyboard from reaching the unit's internal components, lock feature (like the one on your portable audio player to prevent accidental keypresses), fingerprint security, and a presentation button for changing to external output with a preset resolution.

Two models will be available: the "lightweight and long battery life" model with a 1280 x 800 dot screen, Core Solo U1300 (1.06GHz) processor, Intel 945GM Express chipset, 512MB of memory, and 30GB/4200rpm hard drive, and the "high speed hard drive model" that knocks the hard drive up to 40GB/5400rpm. Each model is equipped with three USB 2.0 ports, a Type2 PC card slot, SD card slot, IEEE 802.11a/b/g LNA, Gigabit Ethernet, a modem, and mini D-Sub15 pin. The battery on the "long battery life" model lasts roughly 9 hours, and on the fast hard drive model about 7.7 hours.



Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/0824/toshiba.htm

Press Release:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2006_08/pr_j2402.htm

Toshiba's new line of SD cards support the latest "SD Speed Class" specification from the SD Card Association, which guarantee minimum speeds by allowing host devices to check and read the cards tht are inserted in their SD slots. At the top is the "Ultra High Speed Series" sustaining 20MB/sec available in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB capacities, and "High Speed Series" available in the same capacities guarantees transfer rates of 5MB/sec.

There are three classes in the SD Speed Class: Class 2 guaranteeing over 2MB/sec, Class 4 at 4MB/sec, and Class 6 at 6MB/sec. Toshiba's new cards fall into Class 6 and Class 4, and are compatible with existing SD card-supporting devices in addition to SDHC devies.



Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/0824/toshiba2.htm

Press Release:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2006_08/pr_j2401.htm