June 21st, the beta version “ibisBrowser” has been released!

The full-html browser displays websites as they would be seen on a standard personal computer. Fullscreen browsing (with both left and right scrolling to see the whole page) is now available on the 900iX, 901iX and 700iX series phones!

The software reportedly contains features like quick search, high-speed cache and “keitai view”, which I think means rotating the handset 90 degrees.

The software is also due for beta release for the 505iX and 506iX series over the next few days!

Ibis: http://www.ibis.ne.jp/

LG and NTT DoCoMo have apparently come to an agreement to create a dual-mode 3G FOMA handset that works on W-CDMA and also supports international roaming for GSM/GPRS networks.

Of course the handset will support all basic FOMA and i-mode features.

I expect the new hanset will be similar in function and features to the N900iG by NTT DoCoMo, which also supports GSM/GPRS.

The handset is planned for release in spring 2006.

Over the past few weeks, NTT DoCoMo have been steadily releasing their highly anticipated FOMA 901iS series! They’re all out (Excluding the N901is) and boy do some of them really stand out!

The D901iS takes the cake for features, including a hefty 4 mega pixel camera in slide form. It also includes a slightly larger than usual 240×345 resolution 2.4 inch screen, plus a huge 600 hour standby time. That’s providing you’re sitting perfectly still and not using it, of course ;).

The other that stands out, the SH901is is a very stylish ClamTwist handset, with a 3.2 mega pixel camera.

The other two F901iS and P901iS come with some cool new features as well!

All the models feature iMode FeliCa, of course! These new models are likely to be far more successful than KDDI’s recent launch, purely because of their aesthetic and functionality value.

In good time, the N901iS will be available and I’ll get you some info on that too! Stay tuned :)

Here comes the new Sony Ericsson Premini-IIS. The Premini series is nice because they are smaller than your average Japanese keitai, yet unlike the Tu-Ka phones, they didn’t have to remove all the cool features such as camera and email capabilities to reach a reasonable size. Also, the Premini phones look nice and this one is no surprise there either. Specs include a 1.9″ QVGA screen, 107×47x20mm and 99 grams, 1.3 megapixel camera.

But this time, this is not all beauty and small-ishness, the Premini-IIS is actually your excuse for usually being not-so-environmentally-friendly. As Tech-On! reports, NTT DoCoMo has now decided to use vegetable resin in commercial mobile phone handsets, starting with the premini-IIS which uses plastic with corn-based polylactide “as its major component in only one button”. If you haven’t read the last part properly, read it again: “as its major component in only one button”. Yes, overall this is great news. Yet, it is so funny.

The vegetable resin part is the button showed on that picture, inside the red circle. It is the button that changes the shooting mode of the camera from normal to close-up. This button was chosen “because it is not used very frequently,” according to NTT DoCoMo’s spokesperson. Last month, the two companies made a prototype handset based on the mova SO506iC model, using corn-based polylactide plastic. The prototype was not commercialized but of a total of 140 grams, 22 grams were made of vegetable resin. Hopefully, by testing the resin in real life now, NTT DoCoMo and Sony Ericsson will be able to release phones containing more of this resin soon.

via Tech-On!

If you are a girl and you have no real technological/geek expectations in a mobile phone, but give a lot of thought to the kawaii factor, the new NTT DoCoMo Lechiffon is made for you. Officially released as the P253iS, Panasonic’s Lechiffon lacks pretty much everything, except style perhaps. And in fact even its name is a bit strange: while “chiffon” in english refers to an “ornamental accessory, such as ribbons or laces, for women’s clothing”, the word comes from french (hence the “le”) where it actually means “old rag”…

Anyway, what makes this phone the perfect keitai for every kogyaru in Shibuya is that it comes in pink, blue and white (”rose”, “bleu”, and “blanc” actually) to match your nail polish, that the camera lense is like a little jewel, inserted in a little metallic shape (heart, clove or square), surrounded by little shiny brilliants, and that it is soft and flexible like a (very fat) ribbon.

In fact, playing with it is a strange experience, as it really is a “very soft” phone. Opening the little hook that holds it closed tight releases the spring reaction force in the rubber and lets the phone open itself without any clicking noise nor mecanical resistance. Folding it back feels strange too, because it is just too easy. But hey, it’s kawaii!

But details have not been neglected: the fake leather cover hides a pattern of a matching color on the inside, and the user interfaces colors also differ from one phone to the next to fit the color theme. Hopefully, that should distract you from wanting a better digital camera than the 0.31 megapixel CMOS one.

In fact, Lechiffon is so overly sweet, you should be able to spot it soon in a J-Lo, Britney Spears, or Gwen Stefani music video…

Main specs:
* weight: 122 gram
* size: 102*65*27 mm (soft rubber clamshell)
* main display: 1.9 inch with 65,000 colors (no subdisplay)
* main mobile camera: 0.3 megapixel CMOS
* No real features except Chat Mail and iMode

A presentation on the Panasonic website is here

We just told you the first generation Premini is now 1¥ (that’s 1 US cent!), and of course it means the new Premini is about to be released. It has been announced by DoCoMo at the end of January and it is now officially in the February brochure. A little bit bigger than the Premini and the Premini-S, it is still quite small (105*46*19.4 mm), and they had to get rid of some features customary is many DoCoMo phones these days to make everything fit in such a small body, including its 1.3 megapixel camera, MP3 player, and MemoryStick Duo slot.

This month, if you open a new account with NTT DoCoMo, the Sony Ericsson Premini is 1¥. But it is the first generation, not the most recent model. Plus, it still cost you $100+ if you already have a DoCoMo account and you just want to change your mobile phone… :(

Of course DoCoMo is not the only one to emphasize the music playing capabilities of its new Music Porter (”music“, got it?). AU and Vodaphone are there too. In fact, AU really are in tune and are pushing the music thing as much as they can. There new slogan (which started a little before Xmas) is “Need music?”, and there is little chance to misunderstand their point…

From the ads in the trains to their catalogs, everything is done for the users to realize that buying a portable mp3 player is not such a good idea.

In fact, when looking at the latest AU catalog, one could almost be mistaken and think it is a brochure for an mp3 player shop.

A while ago, when cameras in mobile phones were the edge, big electronic retailers were displaying prints of snapshots taken by the keitai, next to the keitai itself. Potential buyers could have a look at the specs, the coolness/colors/buttons, and the actual photos taken from the tiny camera at the same time. Now, music is the feature to market, and one can find speakers and/or headphones alongside the keitai, on the display, to try out the music performance of the phone before buying it. A nice marketing side-effect is that people spend more time playing with the phone, while they listen to the music.

AU is not only trying to sell more phones, they also push their music download business service forward, through their music-enabled phones. First you can play your mp3’s, then you naturally download new songs (in one click) straight from your keitai. If Apple could do it with the iPod and iTunes Music Store (and with the iTunes compatible Motorola phone to be released soon), AU and the other mobile phones providers must try to ride that wave too. Their phones don’t have the same cool (nor the same low-low pricetag) as the new iPod Shuffle, but since you gotta have a phone in your pocket anyway, why buy one that doesn’t play music? Actually, the TV ad (CM) for NTT DoCoMo’s Music Porter is even selling it as a “Music player, sometimes a mobile phone”…

So, everyone is jumping in and trying to sell music as being the ultimate option this winter? Even Vodafone? Yes, they have this ad campaign where a guy seems to be so happy he can listen to music, he keeps on screaming and wearing strange colors and strange clothes. First Beckham, then that? Vodafone Japan sure as a strange way to advertise.

Ok, just one last ad, in case you didn’t get you NEED to get an mp3 player in your mobile phone yet.
One of the faces of AU is the extremely beautiful and popular actress/talento Nakama Yukie. Of course, she’s listening to her music on her keitai too…

(If you are interested in specs of these mobile phones, let us know in the comments below and we’ll post a description of the phones individually)

Latest must-have in the keitai world: portable music. DoCoMo (and its competitors) are entering the world of digital music player. Their pitch: Why buy an iPod if you can listen your mp3’s through your mobile phone?

Mobile phones with music playing abilities are not really a new thing, and the SH053 from J-Phone was already featuring an mp3 player about 2 years ago (even before they became Vodafone). But the rage now is fueled by the success of the iPod, iPod mini, and all the tiny flash players out there. Hopefully, someone will notice the huge gap of storage capabilities between hard drive and flash players and fix this.

So here comes the Music Porter, from DoCoMo. It looks a bit like a GameBoy Advance SP, comes in 3 colors (black, white, and dark red), features a megapixel digital camera, and has a remote as minimalistic as the Apple iPod one. Of course, if you have nothing else to do, you can also listen to FM radio with it too. Although it is not clear if one can record music from the radio to the MemoryStick Duo card or not.

DoCoMo have hired the J-Pop singer Crystal Kay to do the promo of the Music Porter, and the phone comes pre-loaded with a “Music Porter edition” of her new single “Kiss”.

The TV ads (CM) are even displayed in commute trains, which defeats the purpose of a music player since the sound is switched off… Anyway, she said she’s very happy to finally appear in a commercial, since her songs have been used many times in TV ads but never herself as a person.
Watch the Music Porter CM here.

The TCA (Telecommunications Carrier Association) released the subscriber growth numbers of the four major mobile carriers.

As of November 30th, there were 85 million subscribers (excluding PHS), an increase of 312,000 in comparison with October 31. DoCoMo was still by far the largest with almost 48 million subscribers, followed by KDDI - 18 million - and Vodafone - 15 million. KDDI daughter Tu-Ka had 3.5 million subscribers.

If we look at the growth numbers for this calendar year, KDDI is growing at the same absolute rate as DoCoMo, while Vodafone is feeling control from its headquarters. This year, Vodafone headquarters started synchronizing the deployment of new services and devices world-wide. Because Japan is well ahead of the other Vodafone territories, it could not launch as sexy devices as KDDI and Vodafone.