dottocomujapan: technology, politics, frivolity.DoCoMo to launch video voicemail- August 31, 2006 NTT DoCoMo announced yesterday that they're to launch a video voicemail service on September 20. 68 of its 3G FOMA handsets support the service; if you are making a videophone call and get redirected to voicemail you will now have the option to follow onscreen prompts and leave a video message, of up to 3 mins in length. SMS is used to inform you of waiting messages. Via K-Tai Watch (Japanese)http://www.dottocomu.com/b/archives/003184.html Japan gets countdown traffic lights- August 30, 2006 One gratifying feature of many pedestrian crossings at large intersections in Japan is that they feature a segmented LED "hourglass" LED next to the lights themselves, with red-lit segments disappearing to indicate the time until you can cross. Now Nagoya is trialling the next-gen of the same approach, with a numeric display abovebelow the obligatory standingwalking pedestrians. The benefit versus the old version (apart from the fact that we think they look cool) is the fact that you can now.http://www.dottocomu.com/b/archives/003182.html OQO officially available in Japan- August 30, 2006 Brule has announced it's to begin selling the OQO Model 1+ (in both Win XP Pro and Tablet flavours) in Japan. There have been a few shops importing the OQO up to now, but this marks the start of sales via an official route with Japanese interface as standard. No changes that we can see to the specs, and the price looks to be around the US mark at Y259,800 for the Pro version and Y279,800 for the Tablet version. Via Impress PC Watch (Japanese)http://www.dottocomu.com/b/archives/003181.html Ricoh's WiFiBluetooth Caplios- August 29, 2006 Ricoh today announced two additions to its Caplio range, the Bluetooth 2.0-toting 500SE model B and the BluetoothWiFi 500SE model W. The latter supports 802.11b and g, plus WEP and WPAWPA2 security. Both have an 8.13-megapixel CCD and 3X optical zoom, and sport a 2.5-inch LCD on the back. Storage is via 26MB of internal memory and SD cards. As you'll have surmised from the rather functional looks, the cameras are also watershockdust resistant. Weight and pricing are both hefty; the 500SE...http://www.dottocomu.com/b/archives/003178.html |