Bluetooth headset with bone conduction technology

 Bone conduction technology has been used to great effect with a wide array of gadgets to date, and this time we have the Sound Leaf Plus Bluetooth headset from NTT DoCoMo that features such technology as well. It functions just like any other bone-conduction gear, save for the fact that it hooks up sans wires to your Bluetooth-enabled cellphone for a truly hands-free experience. Unfortunately, you will probably feel its weight as the Sound Leaf Plus tips the scale at a relatively heavy 45 grams and is powered by a couple of AAA batteries which offer up to 15 hours of talk time. That’s not very much when you think about it, so hopefully future iterations will be smaller, lighter, and last way longer.Source: NTT Docomo (in Japanese) 

A slice of cellphone: PROSOLID μ by Panasonic

 NTT DoCoMo released the world’s thinnest 3G flip phone, PROSOLID μ. The phone’s depth is only 9.8mm !!! The main feature of this phone is that no build-in camera so that people work at institutions that have high level security can bring into their workplace.The spec is here.  Unfortunately,  this phone does not support GSM technology so I can’t use it in Canada… I wonder when are they gonna change to 3G in North America. Maybe it would never happened because it seems like people in North America are happy with GSM and it is too costly to build new 3G network in big countries like Canada and the United States.

Sony stops making cellphone for DoCoMo

Sony’s old school tech from my high school age, SO505i

What the heck is going on here? Despite the overwhelming popularity of gizmo-heavy mobile devices in Japan, working with megacarrier NTT DoCoMo must be a losing proposition for many of its manufacturing partners, because just days after Mitsubishi’s announcement of its withdrawal, a fresh Nikkei report indicates that Sony Ericsson is raising the white flag as well to divert attention and resources to less saturated and more profitable markets. Apparently, DoCoMo will bear the brunt of the downsizing, while Sony Ericsson’s partnership with KDDI.

Source: StockHouse.ca

P905iTV

Panasonic has announced the P905iTV for the Japanese market, and as you can expect by the cellphone’s name, it is capable of streaming TV content into the big 3.5-inch display screen with a 854×480 resolution.

The Viera TV Phone has a sliding keyboard that is hidden when not in use, and features a 2 megapixel camera for the photos and videos that can be recorded/played at 30 frames-per-second.

Other details are scarce so far, but the numbers of the battery life are known - 230 minutes of talk-time, or 160 minutes of video.

Source: NTT DoCoMo Product Page (in Japanese)

LG KU990: From Korea

The LG KU990 Viewty is a true powerhouse packing a mass of high-tech goodies under its hood: the impressive 3″ touchscreen display with 240 x 400 pixels resolution, the HSDPA 3.6 Mbps capability, the stereo Bluetooth and the highly intriguing 5 megapixel camera with autofocus, which is also capable of capturing video at 120 fps. Feature-packed and exquisite, the LG KU990 looks set on the fast track to success and we were more than happy to get our hands on it.

Main Features:

• Tri-band GSM/GPRS plus HSDPA support
• 5 megapixel autofocus camera with image stabilization
• Camera strobe flash and focus assist beam
• Secondary video camera for video calls
• 3″ 262K color TFT touchscreen display with 240×400 pixels resolution
• VGA video recording at 30 fps
• QVGA video recording at 120 fps
• TV-out support
• Original stylus dongle
• DivX video playback
• Haptic feedback when the screen is pressed

Source:

LG 

XPERIA X1 by Sony Ericsson

Sony Ericsson last night announced a new smartphone range. Dubbed Xperia, the series’ flagship is the X1, featuring a Windows Mobile-based handset with a slide-out Qwerty keyboard and 3in, 800 x 480 display.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia X1: arc slider

Sony Ericsson calls the X1 an “arc slider” handset - the keyboard curves forward as it slides down. The handset measures 110 x 53 x 16.7mm and weighs in at 145g. It comes with 400MB of internal memory with Micro SD card support. It has a 3.2-megapixel autofocus camera.

Connectivity comes via quad-band 3G HSDPA and HSUPA, quad-band GSM/GPRS/Edge, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth with A2DP stereo streaming. It also feature assisted GPS, providing navigational functionality.

Xperia Panels UI sits on top of Windows Mobile

The X1 is Sony Ericsson’s first Windows Mobile handset, but the company’s attempted to overcome the Microsoft OS’ interface limitations with a front end of its own - much as HTC now adds its Touch UI to its own Windows Mobile phones.

Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Panels UI display photo-style icons of key applications to guide users straight to the tasks they want to perform. Which apps are presented this way is entirely up to the user, Sony Erisson said.

The Xperia X1 will be available in the second half of the year. No pricing information was available however.

Sorce:

engadget

921T: with OLED

Toshiba introduced new cellphone, 921T for Softbank Bobile yesterday. It’s the first cellphone with organic light emitting display for toshiba. OLED makes wider viewable angle and also can play speedy videos. Plus, the phone has light censor to adjust brightness of display and keys automatically. 921T is one of the best phones to watch TV or YouTube for Softbank Mobile users.

General Spec:

size: 51×106x19.4 mm

weight: 132g

continuous talk time: 180 minutes (3G)

continuous standby: 440 hours (3G)

outside camera: 324 megapix cmos camera with AF

external memory: microSD

main display: 2.8 inch wide QVGA(240×400 pixel) OLED w/260,000 colors

sub display: 0.6 inch mono-color OLED

main functions:Bluetooth, MP3 player, full-spec web browser, GPS, Felica, one-segment digital TV

Source:

Fudzilla

Toshiba website

It’s time to throw your digital camera away

When I was surfing the net this morning, I found an article about the latest mobile phone in Japan, which even I didn’t know about. NTT DoCoMo, which is a giant wireless network service company in Japan, is releasing a new cellphone for their network; SO905iCS. The main feature of this cellphone is “Cyber-shot”. It has 5.1 mega pixels with hi-def LED flash light and auto face recognition function, so although the object of shooting moves, it automatically chases their face and focus on it.

Click here to read the article I found

Specification-

size: H 113mm, W 50mm, D 24mm

Weight: 150g

Continuous standby time: 520 hours (3G), 300 hours (GSM)

Continuous talk time: 200 minutes (3G), 180 minutes (GSM)

Continuous video telecall: 130 minutes

Display: 2.7 inch VGA full-widescreen

Camera: CMOS 5.1 mega pix with x48 zoom (maximum)

External memory: microSD

face recognition function

This phone is locked to NTT DoCoMo so you can’t just buy it in Japan and use it in Canada. However, if you unlock it somehow, you can use SO905iCS in almost any country that uses WCDMA 2100 or GSM network technology.

Here is an additional article that I used to enrich information (in Japanese only)

Unlocking locked cellphones in Japan is still gray, which means it could be considered as illegal so please take full responsibility for your actions if you want to do it.