Cool, now you can buy Wii Points from your cellphone by the middle of this month or NOW. Check out the press release by KDDI here…
In the middle of December, you will be able in Japan to purchase Wii Points directly from your mobile phone, without needing any credit card. Simply put, from your mobile phone you will have the possibility to add Wii points to your account (1000, 2000 or 3000 Yen), without the need of using a credit card; the amount you choose will be later on added to your mobile phone monthly bill. Simple and painless !
Via Akihabaranews.
Toshiba’s W56 is the new OLED phone for AU. It’s sleek and thin exterior with a splash of color (orange in this case) makes for a very chic phone aimed at the younger masses. Specs for this phone is as follows:
With a 2.8″ OLED screen (QVGA) which can rotate 360°, our phone supports both the 1Seg TV (Digital TV) and Digital Radio, supports LISMO (A service like iTUNES from AU), supports multitasking, has a 3.2Mpix AF camera, GPS module, PC Site web browser, Bluetooth, EZ Felica (electronic wallet), and a storage capacity of 800Mb; this in only 145g and 50×106x17.8mm.
There are also three colors to choose from.
Akihabara.
WIMAX is a wireless broadband technology that is going to be introduced in Japan really soon. And WIMAX handset is said to be gracing the Japanese shores really soon although no definitive date has been set yet. The design of the phone is really slick and simple, check them out.
Picture from Akiharabara.
The summer collection of phones by au KDDI is pretty unique in all its sense as in each individual phones are different from one another. In all there are 10 phones out in their summer collection and they range from pink to orange in color as well as designs. The color themes doesn’t just ends there too, as each phones have their own color schemes as well. I think my favorite phone of the 10 is the first one, W53SA. :) The reason why is because I love it’s design. It looks like a pillow :)
Checkout their interactive and bilingual website: au KDDI Summer 2007
Au (KDDI) has come out with a kiddie cellphone made for children – Junior Keitai A5520SA/SA II. It’s not the first kind but at least they did the marketing scheme right but emphasizing on the GPRS GPS tracking system that is within the phoneto the parents. That would really hit home run since most parents would like to know the whereabouts of their kids all the time. Which parents wouldn’t?
The phone comes in cute colors and does not have the KODOMO sticker on it whcih makes the next kid who has this phone first the coolest. YEs, i kid you not. :P
Check out the specs and more information about the phone at KDDI au.
Video on the Junior Keitai.
Sony Ericsson W44S Bravia
Sony Ericsson has announced a new mobile phone with a very interesting, exotic look. It’s created for the Japanese markety only. Unlike the conventional phone which opens like a clam, the W44S opens horizontally like a little notebook AND vertically as well. And on one side of the flip, it has a screen large enough to play movies and videos in. The specs for the phone is pretty impressive too:
* one-seg digital TV broadcast reception
* digital radio reception
* CDMA EVDO
* felica electronic money
* 3″ (240×432 16:9) wide screen with Bravia RealityMAXtechnology
* 3.2MP CMOS camera with AutoFocus
* dual 16mm diameter stereo speakers for 128voices polyphonic ringtone
* MS Pro Duo slot built in 115Mb flash
Reviews have said that this phone could very well rival the Nokia N series but Nooooo…Sony Ericsson has to make it just for Japan, which means it’s AU KDDI only. So while the rest of the world has to content themselves with less technologically impressive Sony Ericsson phone, Japan will have this, the W44S. And they’re not THAT impress because they’re sorta used to swweeettt phones like these.
Flips conventionally too
Source: Mobile Mentalism
Ha, timing.
After Jon from PingMag posted about his love and unending quest for au’s Neon phone, Jean Snow writes that au KDDI seem to have stopped production.
This Neon was really the epitomy of all things shiny and glittery. Designed by Naoto Fukasawa, it’s been sold out throughout Japan for a few months now. There was a “hidden” LED display on the phone’s cover. It could display the time, a message, or some light patterns. Despite the fact that it didn’t have some of the latest features available to mobiles in Japan today, the beauty of the phone won out.
I remember once watching a girl on the train transfixed with her Neon’s light display. Thinking back now, I reckon she must have just bought it. She’s one of the lucky few, it seems.
Jon at PingMag has written an article comparing the most popular phones in Japan with the most popular in the West. Japan (and maybe South Korea) is easily the mobile phone (or cell phone, if you’re that way inclined) capital of the world. They aren’t just phones. Nowadays, they’re also TVs, your train ticket, business card as well as all the functions known to the West, like email, mp3 player and personal organiser.
I like the phones in Japan. Australia is usually about 3 years behnd the rest of the world technologically, so there’s no way my old candybar style Nokia can compare to what can be found here. An interesting point to note: nearly all the phones here are flip phones. It’s gotten to the stage where it’s embarrassing to take out my top-of-the-Australian-line phone out, because it’s just plain ugly and featureless compared to the phones you can find here.
I think I’ll have to get myself one of these phones soon. The one with digital TV looks tempting.
Over on the Japan Media Review website, Kenji Kohiyama, Professor at the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Keio University, examines the “Meaning” and the “Future” of Keitai. Author of the book Keitai, he seeks to understand the culture of mobile phones in Japan, their multimedia use and their societal impact. Not really “fun” per se, but an interesting read if you are into mobile phones and Japan (otherwise why would you be reading this anyway?).
The keitai (mobile phone) is like a toy box with lots of different media stuffed inside where one can pull out the one of your choice as if from a magician’s hat.
In this book I hope to look at the meaning of these and their interest they bring and to gain some understanding on these issues. For this reason, I will take up each of the various media that are in a keitai, the very thing that our country is leading the world in promoting, and investigate their purpose and potential.
The Meaning of Keitai
The Future of Keitai
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