Featured Stories
-
Vegas Tech Start Up Questionable LLC Launches Questionable Friends iPhone App
23 May 2012 4:53 PM | No Commentsvar AdBrite_Title_Color = '0000FF'; var AdBrite_Text_Color = '000000'; var AdBrite_Background_Color = 'FFFFFF'; var AdBrite_Border_Color = 'CCCCCC'; var AdBrite_URL_Color = '008000'; try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==''?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe='';var AdBrite_Referrer='';} document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(' src="http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=2053203&zs=3436385f3630&ifr='+AdBrite_Iframe+'&ref='+AdBrite_Referrer+'" type="text/javascript">');document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62)); LAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Questionable™ today introduced Questionable Friends™ for iPhone®. Questionable Friends lets you send questions to your...
Read More -
Sidecar Revolutionizes Phone Calls by Bringing “Smart Calling” to Smartphones
22 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsSAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Launching today, Sidecar (www.sidecar.me) is a new mobile app that brings Smart Calling to smartphones. Smart Calling allows people to share live See What I See video, brilliant ...
Read More -
TransCore Launches Mobile iPad App for TransSuite Traffic Management System
21 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsWASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intelligent Transportation Society of America Annual Meeting – TransCore brings the ease of mobile computing to its TransSuite® advanced traffic management system (ATMS), launching its iPad® ...
Read More -
Cellfish Marvel’s The Avengers Live Wallpaper Android App Reaches 1.3 Million Downloads
16 May 2012 2:05 PM | No CommentsNEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Marvel’s The Avengers Live Wallpaper Android personalization app, created by Cellfish, has been downloaded 1.3 million times, driven by the massive success of Marvel Studios’ blockbuster movie. ...
Read More -
Kodak Introduces ESP 3.2 All-in-One Printer and New Pic Flick HD App for iPad
16 May 2012 12:30 PM | No CommentsROCHESTER, N.Y.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Continuing to offer consumers a no-compromise choice in home printers, Kodak today introduced its new KODAK ESP 3.2 All-in-One Printer combining advanced features, quality, and ...
Read More
-
cell phones Archive
-
Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone units, go international
Posted on June 17, 2010 | No Comments
We reported last week that two of Japan's top cell phone makers, Fujitsu and Toshiba, were in talks to merge their cell phone businesses. And today, we have the rumor confirmed. Under the agreement, Toshiba will spin off its handset unit and Fujitsu is expected to take the majority stake in the joint venture (between a whopping 70 and 80%, according to reports in Japanese media).
Read the rest on MobileCrunch.
-
Confirmed: Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone units, go international
Posted on June 17, 2010 | No Comments
We reported last week that two of Japan's top cell phone makers, Fujitsu and Toshiba, were in talks to merge their cell phone businesses. And today, we have the rumor confirmed. Under the agreement, Toshiba will spin off its handset unit and Fujitsu is expected to take the majority stake in the joint venture (between a whopping 70 and 80%, according to reports in Japanese media).
-
Report: Fujitsu and Toshiba to merge cell phone operations
Posted on June 11, 2010 | No Comments
Big news from the Japanese cell phone industry today: Two of Japan's top handset makers, namely Fujitsu and Toshiba, are in talks to merge their cell phone operations within this year. According to the Nikkei ("Japan's Wall Street Journal" and usually a reliable source), negotiations already reached the "final stage".
The joint venture, if it happens, will create Japan's second largest cell phone maker (with a combined 18.7% domestic market share), following Sharp (26.1%). Fujitsu (the current No. 3 among Japan's handset makers with over 5 million handsets shipped in 2009) is expected to become the main stakeholder in the joint venture. Toshiba is the eighth biggest (1.28 million units).
-
New Japanese cell phone behemoth NEC Casio Mobile to go America soon
Posted on May 27, 2010 | No Comments
We reported last year that NEC, Hitachi and Casio were in negotiations to merge their cell phone operations to become Japan’s second biggest manufacturer, following Sharp. And the new company, which is called NEC Casio Mobile Communications and was established on May 1, just yesterday announced ambitious expansion plans.
-
Photo gallery and video: NTT Docomo unveils 20 (partly amazing) cell phones
Posted on May 19, 2010 | No Comments
Japan has been flooded with new cell phones over the last few days. We've shown you KDDI au's 10 new handsets Monday, SoftBank Mobile's 13 new models yesterday, and now it's time for NTT Docomo's summer lineup. Japan's biggest mobile carrier (55 million) unveiled 20 new cell phones [press release in English] yesterday, some of which are just awesome.
Here’s Docomo's complete line-up for this summer.
-
Photo gallery: Japan’s SoftBank shows 13 Twitter-powered cell phones
Posted on May 18, 2010 | No Comments
We've shown you the summer cell phone lineup from KDDI (Japan's No. 2 carrier) yesterday. Today, Japan's third largest carrier, SoftBank Mobile, showed its own summer lineup during a special press conference, and all of their 13 new models have one thing in common: they all come with Twitter pre-installed.
The buyers of these cell phones will be able to access Twitter either via a pre-installed app or through a pre-installed widget on the homescreen. The background is that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son himself is a huge Twitter fan (he has almost 300,000 followers) and believes Japan is set to become Twitter country. And in fact, by some measures it's already No. 2.
Photo gallery of all the 13 new Twitter-powered cell phones over at MobileCrunch.
-
Photo gallery: Japan’s SoftBank shows 13 new, Twitter-powered cell phones
Posted on May 18, 2010 | No Comments
We've shown you the summer cell phone lineup from KDDI (Japan's No. 2 carrier) yesterday. Today, Japan's third largest carrier, SoftBank Mobile, showed its own summer lineup during a special press conference, and all of their 13 new models have one thing in common: they all come with Twitter pre-installed.
The buyers of these cell phones will be able to access Twitter either via a pre-installed app or through a pre-installed widget on the homescreen. The background is that SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son himself is a huge Twitter fan (he has almost 300,000 followers) and believes Japan is set to become Twitter country. And in fact, by some measures it's already No. 2.
-
Photo gallery: Japan’s KDDI shows summer cell phone line-up
Posted on May 17, 2010 | No Comments
Japan's second biggest mobile company KDDI today unveiled [JP] the 10 cell phones of their new line-up for this summer. The first of these models, the majority of which are waterproof (which seems to indicate a new trend in Japan's cell phone industry), will be rolled out in Japan as early as at the end of this month.
Here's the complete line-up.
-
New software converts 2D cell phone games into 3D
Posted on May 10, 2010 | No Comments
3D continues to be a hot topic in the tech world. Tokyo-based middleware company HI Corp. today announced [JP] it has developed software that makes it possible to convert regular 2D cell phone games into 3D games. HI claims its image-rendering software, the new version of "MascotCapsule", lets users then play the 3D games without glasses.
-
New market study shows iPhone continues to be big in Japan
Posted on April 23, 2010 | No CommentsA lot has been written on how the iPhone performs in Japan, the world's most advanced mobile nation, but the general consensus in this country now is that it sells very well (even though both Apple and provider SoftBank Mobile refuse to break down Japan-specific sales numbers). It's rumored that the number of iPhones sold in Japan has passed 3 million. There are reasons for this success (super-low pricing, aggressive marketing, Apple's pre-iPhone brand popularity in Japan, clever product positioning by SoftBank, etc. etc.), but we're talking about a country in which basically every cell phone is a smartphone, a country where you'd be hard-pressed to find a handset without a digital TV tuner or e-wallet function, for example.
-
Vertu to sell 4 golden cell phones in Japan (price: $215,000 each)
Posted on March 26, 2010 | No Comments
Nokia pulled out of Japan, one of the world's biggest mobile markets, as early as November 2008. But because this country is quite wealthy, the Finnish company decided to conquer Japan with their luxury brand Vertu [JP], starting operations in September 2009. Initially the plan was to market handsets priced between $16,000 and $50,000.
But today Vertu Japan announced a "golden" handset with a price tag of 20 million yen (it's made-in-Japan gold lacquerwork, to be more exact). That's $215,000, with the price including free domestic calls. Buyers will be able to choose between four equally priced models: Kinko (pictured above), Kikusui, Nanten and Daigo (pictured below). The different designs stand for the different seasons of the year.
-
Traveling with batteries and ordering gadgets online could soon get pricey
Posted on February 6, 2010 | No CommentsHere are two totally unrelated things I like to do: order gadgets and smartphones online, and travel with loads of spare batteries. Well, perhaps they’re not all that unrelated. Both offer a lot of convenience and save a good amount of cash, but with a new proposal from the U.S. Department of Transportation, that could [...] -
Cell phone has built in cigarette lighter. In other news, I have officially seen it all.
Posted on February 4, 2010 | No Comments
Straight out of China comes “The Machismo!” – billed as “the world’s hottest cigarette lighter mobile phone.” Does that mean there’s more than one? Like, are there other, lesser, not-as-hot cell phones with built-in cigarette lighters? Nothing would surprise me after seeing this.
-
Cell phone charger wheel of karma alive and well in the hotel industry
Posted on January 22, 2010 | No Comments
You’ve left your cell phone charger at a hotel, right? At least once. Plenty of frequent travelers leave their chargers behind all… the… time.
If you’ve forgotten various phone and mobile device chargers in the past, you are entitled to partake in the wheel of karma known as the lost and found box at your nearest hotel. You can defer your participation to a later date or use it right away. Up to you.
-
Video: Sharp’s chocolate cell phone
Posted on November 20, 2009 | No Comments
You know when a given country, in this case the nation of Japan, is over-saturated with cell phones when you get to see something like this: A cell phone that's supposed to be similar in shape to a chocolate bar, available in two versions: Melty Bitter (brown) and Melty Strawberry (pink). The Sharp SH-04B [JP] is part of NTT Docomo's winter line-up of new handsets for the Japanese market (unveiled ten days ago).