With the web, mail, and TV all on your cell-phone, you might be too busy to go anywhere or actually have a life. Vodafone doesn't care though, as long as your cell-phone bill goes up.

(Sorry I haven't been writing recently. I have started a new job and haven't spent that much time at home anymore.)

Over the summer, we covered the "FeliCa" contactless IC system in four different volumes. Here's Part o­ne, Part Two, Part Three and Part Four if you missed them.

Anyway, FeliCa functionality was previously limited to a few select NTT DoCoMo handsets. This will no longer be the case soon enough. Vodafone has announced they too will be releasing some handsets with FeliCa functionality. Below is the English press release:

http://www.vodafone.jp/english/release/2005/050224e.pdf

This past week, Vodafone KK's Shiro Tsuda announced that he will be stepping out of the President's position he assumed o­n December 1st, 2004, and will become the Executive Chairman. In his place comes Bill Morrow, a name that should be familiar to Vodafone UK users.

More information available in the English press release (PDF).

Toshiba has a new phone out for Vodafone, and it frankly, it looks pretty nice. Certainly much nicer than the 700i series I'll be reporting o­n later.

I think it's nice because of its ability to display TV fullscreen -- and in landscape mode, too, so you can take advantage of the 320 x 240 LCD. Hot hot hot. So much for portable TVs.

Read the English press release (PDF). Pics, too. Or the Japanese article; I'd translate it, but hey, Vodafone already has an English press release out.

What happens to your phone when it gets runover by a 4 ton truck?
Well, for starters, it doesn't work anymore...

Speaking of phones, Vodafone announced 7 of the damn things in o­ne day.

Here's the breakdown:
-Sharp's "Vodafone 902SH"
-Sharp's "Vodafone 802SH"
-Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications' "Vodafone 802SE"
-NEC's "Vodafone 802N"
-Nokia's "Vodafone 702NK"
-Motorola's "Vodafone 702MO"
-Motorola's "Vodafone 702sMO"

Since our friends at uber-international Vodafone already have this press release available in English (as is the drill over there), I won't be doing translating anything for this o­ne. But I do have some nice pictures of the phones, so please look at those at least.

It's also important to note that Vodafone will be releasing all of the above phones, besides the 802N, in Germany at the same time they are released in Japan.

Interim president Green is out, and they're bringing in a traitor.
English press release ahead.

Vodafone K.K. and Vodafone Holdings K.K. (who are going to merge soon anyway) announced today their new President and CEO - Dr. J. Brian Clark.

The previous person in this position, Darryl E. Green, was president of J-Phone when Vodafone took over the company in 2002. He resigned for "personal reasons."

English press release here.

Vodafone has an English press release, as always, for your viewing pleasure.
For some reason, though, it doesn't seem to contain images. You can visit the Keitai Watch article and look at the pretty pictures.
Doesn't Virgin Mobile in the USA have a prepaid phone that looks almost exactly like this?

Vodafone announced their FY2003 numbers today, and they were apparently in the hole 100 billion yen.