Dare I say this is the first Korean handset in Japan?

No, I daren't. But I know this is the first foreign-made handset for AU since their deal with Motorola in 2000. I await the day Samsung enters the Japanese mobile market.

CEATEC JAPAN 2005 is in full swing until like Saturday, I think. Not like I'll be flying all the way to Japan just to go to it, but that's fine -- we're o­n the internet! Of course, Impress Watch and ITmedia did a more than fine job of covering the event.

That's why this article is nothing but a gigantic collection of links to CEATEC JAPAN 2005 articles o­n each site!

As usual, if there is something in particular you want translated, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Here's what happens when you duck out of the news for a few days to study for exams, and write papers. Everything. In the past two days, new phones have been announced by DoCoMo, Willcom, and AU -- three of the four Japanese cellular carriers. Instead of getting bogged down with extraordinarily specific details about each handset (which is what we typically do for some reason), I'll just do a brief summary of each providers offerings in three articles called the "Phone Bonanza" series. Let's start things off with Willcom, who has announced the WX310K, WX300K, WX310J, and WX310SA.

JATE has approved a number of new handsets. Expect to see these officially announced within the next few weeks:

• Sharp - V604SH
  
• NEC - Vodafone 703N
  
• Sharp - FOMA SH902i
  
• Kyocera - CDMA A5515K
  
• Kyocera - WX310K
  
• Mitsubishi - MOVA D253iWMS
  

Real Fleet is introducing three new products in their line of design-centric electronics: a phone, a learning remote, and a cleaner. I know there are a lot of you out there who wouldn't want a device that sacrifices functionality for design, but I really liked the look of these.

Rather interesting idea from Ricoh -- they're including a little window and graph on the package of their new line of DVD-R media so that you can "see" how much capacity you have left on a disc without having to put it into your PC/recorder.

A trained eye can take a fairly accurate guess, but this is a nice idea for those who may not realize what the different bands of color means on the back of their discs.

Remember the Play-Yan? To go with the release of the "Gameboy Micro," Nintendo has announced a new version, aptly named the "Play-Yan Micro."

Anti-piracy warnings at the movies are nothing new these days but Japan's equivalent of the MPAA, JIMCA, has taken things to a new level (low?) with their recent campaign. As recently mentioned on BoingBoing, the campaign features dark and disturbing images of the apparent destruction that piracy can cause. A friend of TechJapan, Whiteangle, recently risked life and limb at a screening of The Island in Tokyo to capture exclusive footage of JIMCA's "Save Our Movies" anti-piracy campaign. Read on to view the video and a transcript.

I've finally finished moving, and now have a desk so I can actually type up posts.

And wouldn't you know it, right when Obon is going on. I'll probably do some cleanup from what I missed last week. My apologies for the delays.

I'm moving to a different apartment, and that's part of the reason there hasn't been any news posted this week. Here's what I would have posted, maybe:

Aya Ueto scheduling software
HD DVD camp complains about Fox's announcement the other day
JVC Minicompo with "Sound Lifter"
Sharp slot loading DVD player
Two new phones from AU - W32S, W32H
Five new phones from DoCoMo - Dolce, SA700iS, N701i, D701i, P701iD
DoCoMo introduces iChannel service
Full metal keyboard

Well, maybe not all of those, but you get the picture.