December 1st, 2008
The days for Japan’s mobile digital TV standard One-Seg may be counted
Renesas, the world’s biggest manufacturer of microcontrollers, is planning to unveil a processor that will make it possible to view full HD video in 30fps on cell phones during the ISSCC 2009 (International Solid State Circuits Conference) that will take place in San Francisco [...]
November 5th, 2008
Japan’s biggest telco NTT DoCoMo today announced 4 new cell phone series (STYLE, PRIME, SMART and PRO ), which are part of the company’s fall/winter product line-up. Docomo will offer a total of 22 new handsets.
As Japanese handset makers have recently vowed to internationalize more agressively, there is a good chance at least some of [...]
October 30th, 2008
Softbank Mobile today announced the release of a One-Seg digital TV tuner for the iPhone [JP] for the middle of December. One-Seg is a digital TV system only available in Japan and Brazil and usually stands for great picture and sound quality.
The device makes it possible to watch digital TV via WiFi by converting TV [...]
October 28th, 2008
Japan’s second biggest mobile phone carrier KDDI au yesterday unveiled new cell phones for its year-end sales campaign. Priced between $400 and $550, the first handsets will be sold in early November.
Here is the complete line-up:
Hitachi Wooo 63H
(featuring a 3.1-inch OLED display)
September 2nd, 2008
Sony Japan today added the XDV-W600 [JP], a mini TV (145×42×98mm, 302g) to their Bravia brand. The new device is waterproof and supports the Japanese digital TV standard One-Seg.
The 4-inch LCD TV (16.7 million colors, 272×480 resolution) boasts an IPX7 and IPX6 waterproof rating, meaning that you can theoretically watch TV under water (at a [...]
June 19th, 2008
Japan’s most renowned business newspaper Nikkei recently released the result of a survey among Japanese consumers according to which 91% don’t want to buy an iPhone. Tokyo-based web research company iShare [JP] conducted the survey on June 5th and 6th.
The findings are not representative for a number of reasons. There were only 402 respondents, but [...]
June 16th, 2008
Today Sony announced new Bluetooth headphones [JP] for the Japanese market. The company will offer the DR-BT140QP in white, pink, black and silver. It can be used for music players, cell phones and One-Seg digital TV receivers.
The headphones, with a range of 10 meters, feature Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, frequency response of 16Hz-24,000Hz and support A2DP/AVRCP/HFP/HSP [...]
June 12th, 2008
In light of the end of analogue TV broadcasting in Japan in July 2011, the Japanese government today announced that it’s considering providing up to 1 million households on welfare in this country with digital TV tuners - for free. Another 15.8 million households consisting of elderly or disabled people may receive aid in the [...]
June 4th, 2008
Japan’s second biggest mobile phone carrier KDDI au yesterday followed DoCoMo and Softbank with their presentation of 12 new cell phones to be released this summer. The first models will be sold at the end of June.
Here is the complete line-up:
W62H from Hitachi
(equipped with a 2.8 inch OLED display featuring 480×240 resolution)
June 4th, 2008
Today Panasonic Japan [JP] unveiled a new mini TV specifically aimed at Japanese women in their 20s and 30s. A marketing research company conducted a large-scale survey asking this target group what they would like to do while taking a bath (Japan has a unique bathing culture). 64% responded with “listening to music”, while 51.5% [...]
