Report: Docomo To Launch New Tablet In March

Japan’s No.1 mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, which saw No. 3 SoftBank winning the rights to distribute the iPad in Japan last year, is planning to launch a tablet on its own. Japan’s biggest business daily, The Nikkei, reported yesterday that Docomo commissioned LG Electronics to manufacture a device designed specifically for the Japanese market. The… Continue reading Report: Docomo To Launch New Tablet In March

Docomo To Unveil Feature Phone-Only App Store On Monday

Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei is reporting that the country’s leading mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, is to unveil a a new app store of sorts on Monday, December 6. The portal will offer 1,200 apps from the get-go, in addition to 1 million music titles and a total of 30,000 e-books – exclusively for… Continue reading Docomo To Unveil Feature Phone-Only App Store On Monday

Earthquake Warning For Japanese Cellphone Works Well

In Eastern Japan, around 5 p.m. on 29th (Japan Standard Time), massive number of people in office and home got different than usual sound on their cellphones. It was one of the latest function on Japanese feature phone, Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) system. The earthquake itself, which happened in Fukushima prefecture, northern Japan, recorded 5.8-magnitude,… Continue reading Earthquake Warning For Japanese Cellphone Works Well

Is Yahoo! Japan Switching To Google Search?

Wall Street Journal’s blog All Things Digital(ATD) reported that Yahoo! Japan is going to announce that they will use Google Search as its search backend, switching from their customized Yahoo! Search Technology(YST). At this point, there are no Japanese media reported this rumour, except Bloomberg Japanese [J] which just refers All Things Digital. Until more… Continue reading Is Yahoo! Japan Switching To Google Search?

January 2010 Japan-IT Links (part 2)

News on the latter half of January 2010 which we did not write as a dedicated article. Part 1 is here. Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. METI Lottery In Exchange For Used Cellphone Campaign Collaborates Hatsune Miku Chinese Guy In Saitama Arrested By Providing Proxy Servers For Chinese Gamers To Play… Continue reading January 2010 Japan-IT Links (part 2)

Japan’s First Android Phone HT-03A By NTT DoCoMo

Last night, before the release of the first Android phone in Japan [J], NTT DoCoMo, Google and HTC Nippon(=Japan) had a “touch and try” event with 70 bloggers at Roppongi Hills. The new phone HT-03A [J] is based on HTC Magic, with some customization for Japanese market. Japanese Input Method Omron’s iWnn is bundled. Wnn… Continue reading Japan’s First Android Phone HT-03A By NTT DoCoMo

Manga Mode: DoCoMo brings e-manga to European cell phones

Japan’s biggest cell phone carrier NTT DoCoMo and major publisher Shueisha have teamed up and plan to launch an e-manga delivery service for cell phones in Europe. Dubbed Manga Mode and launched yesterday, the service already lets manga enthusiasts in France choose between about ten different titles. Certainly the manga with the biggest potential is… Continue reading Manga Mode: DoCoMo brings e-manga to European cell phones

A report of ESPer2008 conference

ESPer2008 conference has been held with 100+ attendees in Shinagawa, Tokyo at 14th September 2008. ESPer is a conference held by alumni of the Mitoh software grant (Exploratory Software Project) (in English). The Mitoh is a grant by Japanese government which is given to individual software developers. There are around thousand Mitoh alumni in Japan… Continue reading A report of ESPer2008 conference