A blog juggly.cn reported that they got a leaked image of Fujitsu's new 2011 summer model cellphone for Docomo, which name is LOOX F-07c, which is a dual boot cellphone with Symbian/Windows 7.
It's not "Windows Phone 7", "Windows 7". The reported specifications are:
Windows 7/Symbian dual OS, switchable in a single action
125mm(H) x 61mm(W) x 19.8mm(D)
4 inch WSVGA(1024x600)
Intel Atom processor
32GB SSD
color: navy black
option: cradle with USB/HDMI sockets
Symbian might mean that the regular Japanese feature phone OS. Many of Docomo's feature phones are using customized Symbian OS for Japanese market.
juggly.cn says that there has been no official announcement yet so you should see it "as a rumor level". Another anonymous comment on 2 channel [J] says that the battery will last 1.5-2.0 hours in Windows 7 mode.
As noticed on this story, Japanese four tech start-ups and Korean two start-ups five Japanese tech start-ups and six Korean tech start-ups had jointly a presentation event in Seoul on Wednesday. I just wanted to join them for covering what happened onsite, however, I couldn't make it because of my another assignment in Malaysia. Alternatively, I tried my best for making a wrap-up of the event by checking out a Ustream video and a series of tweets by those who were attending.
The event took place at a hotel near Teheranno St., known as the epicenter of many tech start-up movements in the city. Presentations were made in English, Japanese and Korean with simultaneous interpretation. Let's start with a presentation made by Korea's start-up Mindsquare.
Mindsqaure provides a variety of foreign language learning apps. They employs app developers in Korea and are doing business in Korea, Japan and the US. Most of their revenues came from Japan, and intends to the US market. Mr. Park says,
Shares of the iPhone apps by category: entertainment 47% and education 35%. No iPhone game app is unavailable because of restriction by the Korean government. In Japan, entertainment shares 9%, education 9% and game 68%.
An average price for the iPhone apps on the Korean AppStore is USD1.96.
The most popular paid iPhone app records 1000 downloads a day, which is one-third of that of Japan. There are more free apps than paid apps in Korea.
Revolutionizing Digital Entertainment by advanced video search technology
Presenter: Jonnpyo Lee (이준표), Enswers Inc.
The Company has developed a video search technology that allows users to find an expecting result from YouTube and other video sharing services.
They have head-hunted many talented engineers from all across the country.
Big trends in Japan – Optimization and Personalization Technology
Presenter: Takashi Uemura(上村崇), ALBERT Inc.
He explains Japanese ad industry.
Information to collective intelligence LastSupper – spot to intelligent map / mironi – listen, share, enjoy
Presenter: Jongil Yoon (윤정일), Revlix[K]
Revlix is an app developer in Korea. They have introduced a smartphone app called Mironi[K] (coming soon), which is called a social music player, allowing you to share your music listening experience with other users.
Mostly 50% of all businessmen and students have smartphone handsets.
The company has also introduced a social app called Last Supper[K], which allows you to share your dining experience with other users.
Japanese mobile market and Global mobile ads
Presenter: Kiyotaka Kobayashi(小林清剛), Nobot Inc. (see these Asiajin stories for more details)
They earned 1.1billion monthly impressions last month, and are planning to partner with major ad networks in Korea.
Evolution of ebook – interactive ebook
Presenter: TaeWoo Kim(김태우), Moglue[K]
Moglue is developing a desktop platform that allows publishers, amateur authors and artists a way to create interactive stories and release them as apps for iOS and Android operating systems with one-click publishing.
Their apps for iOS and Android are currently available only in closed beta.
Social Monitoring "@hentaiAlert"
Presenter: Yusuke Takahashi(高橋雄介), Individual Company
The company is currently developing a social monitoring service called Hentai Alert.
The service, literally alerting against suspicious people, helps you find suspicious people around you by analyzing accumulated knowledge about them on social media. As more vicious crimes happen in these years, the service helps you keep away from possible dangerous people.
Cizon develops a social comment service called LiveRe[K].Live Re, that allows you to leave a comment with your account of Twitter, Facebook and Korean social networks such as Me2Day[K] and Daum's Yozm[K]. It's Korean version of Disqus.
Live Re is now adopted by 200 companies for their websites, it shares 80% in this entire web service category.
In app purchaise iOS/Android/Japanese Style
Presenter: Kentaro Hashimoto(橋本謙太郎), Conit
He introduces the in-app purchase system for multiple smartphone platforms that Conit has developed. Refer to this Asiajin story for more about the system.
Digital Hollywood was founded in 1994 by Dr. Tomoyuki Sugiyama[J] who had worked as a visiting researcher at MIT Media Lab, and later then it became a university that has grown out of a vocational school. The university holds an annual conference, which is named DigiColle[J] after Digital Hollywood Collection, to show up research results chosen from many applications by their students. This year's one was held in early March. I'm afraid I've been concentrating on catching up the quake-related updates and missed to write about it for almost a month.
At the conference, I could see ten interesting ideas that future techpreneurs were presenting. Let me expose them to the eyes of the international tech community. The conference was recorded by the university's professor and ad planner Takuya Kawai a.k.a. Himanainu[J] (meaning a boring dog) and is available on Ustream.
Timecode (starting at)
Presentation
00:11:00
A Story of Bump & Concept
by David Oshima (3D CG Expression Lab)
He studied a technology that converts 2D dot images to 3D images and animates them. His view on the changing of computer graphics technologies is worth a listen.
00:24:00
Sustainable Social Business in A Rural Village of Bali Island
by Kumiko Kobayashi
For over seven years, she has been involved in founding business in the rural village of Timbul, Bali, Indonesia. In order to grow her business up to a sustainable social business, she compares it with the successful business case of Irodori[J] in Tokushima Prefecture. For your reference, Irodori is a community-based company producing decoration leaves especially designed for Japanese dishes. The community used to suffer from depopulation, but the company helps elderly people make a living with their highly intelligent marketing efforts.
00:42:00
Phone Concierge Service for Chinese Travelers Visiting Japan
by Chen Yang
He got an idea of a phone-based concierge and interpretation service called eTravel, which intends to remove language barriers from Chinese travelers during their visit in Japan. eTravel, an online travel concierge service for Chinese visitors to Japan
01:07:00
Investigating Reasons Why The Featured Two Movies Were Hits
by Toru Kawana and Yohei Miyazawa (Hit Content Lab)
By comparing KPIs from movie-related blogs, roadshow promotions and ticket sales, a team of the two guys has investigated the reasons why the two movies of Red Cliff and Ponyo[J] were hits in timeline from their pre-roadshow date to post-roadshow date. They believe the method is efficient to analyze blogsphere effects spreading out to various content businesses.
01:26:00
Saving Process and Time of CGI (computer graphics imagery) Production with Wirless Virtual Camera by Takashi Kitada (@kitada3_frame)
Using a motion capture facility enabling high-speed and accurate detection of a digital video camera, it shows composite motion images on a screen of the camera.
01:33:00
Using ARG (alternative reality game) for Promoting New Movies
by Nami Ikeda (Media Communication Lab)
This is a joint project with Warner Entertainment and Domino Pizza. She studies how social media can deliver positive effects on promoting new movies.
01:49:00
E-Sports Training App by Kotaro Tsukuma and Toshiki Kakehata (Console Game Produce Lab)
A team of the two guys are developing an iPhone app that intends to train e-sport skills. (not yet released on the iTune Store)
02:05:00
Developing a Character Business in Shanghai for Promoting the city's Sightseeing Business by Zhu YuanFang
As China develops in its economy, more people pursue their mental richness. Character business draws the people's attention in the country. In partnership with the city's local government, he would like to develop new line-ups of souvenirs using the character.
02:21:00
Designing an E-Publishing Flow of Drawing Books for Kids by Yoshiro Kosuge and Chieko Mori
Drawing book authors are mostly not familiar with e-publishing. A team of the two guys worked with those authors and succeeded to create a new type of drawing books that had been never introduced.
02:39:00
Torao[J]: Helping the Primary Sector of Industry Promote Their Products By Social Media Marketing
by Masahiro Takeda
He visited a town of rice fields in Akita Prefecture and worked with young farmers for promoting their direct online sales of rice products with social media such as Twitter. His website Torao[J] is named after the nickname given to guys using tractors for cultivating rice fields.
Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications(MIC) announced [J] that they had requested four Internet related organizations to delete "false rumors" on online bulletin boards "to keep safety and peace of mind in disastrous area".
On the request [J, pdf], MIC stated, "false rumors around the Eastern Japan earthquake and the nuclear plant accident are circulated over word-of-mouth, e-mail and online bulletin boards", and asked web site owners "to take voluntary action such like erasing information violating the laws and against public order and morals." Interesting thing is that the request says "please take prompt countermeasures with due considerations to freedom of expression". So they are at least aware what they are requesting.
There are, of course, immediate reactions on web. Some said that government is taking advantage of the disaster to gain control over the internet. But there are also opinions that Japanese government is so confused and too naive, unskilled on the Internet to expect that this kind of order will have any meanings. I feel that might be true, though it cannot be excused.
