ntt docomo

Samsung Electronics will be the first to sell a smartphone running on the Tizen operating system through Japanese carrier NTT Docomo and other partners next year, according to Japan's Daily Yomiuri.

Samsung, NTT Docomo, and their partners hope to build a platform that will rival the major operating systems from Apple and Google. Other carriers interested in Tizen include the U.K.'s Vodaphone and France Telecom, according to the report.

CNET has contacted Samsung for comment, and we'll update the story when the company responds.

Tizen is a Linux-based operating system that emerged from the death of … Read more

NTT DoCoMo has always showcased interesting concepts at trade shows. For example, we saw a breathalyzer in a smartphone and an ultra-high-speed charging jacket at Mobile World Congress earlier this year.

This time, at Ceatec in Japan, NTT DoCoMo has come up with a concept handset that can be operated with one hand simply by gripping it in various ways.

The Grip UI, which is really a combination of hardware (pressure sensors on the back and both sides of the phone) and software, can be applied to activate shortcuts for opening apps or unlocking the phone. … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--We're always intrigued by NTT Docomo's booth at trade shows, and this year's MWC is no different.

The company demonstrated a smartphone case with an embedded sensor for hygiene purposes. Similar to the ultra high-speed charging jacket, the device snaps onto the smartphone's chassis, much like a backup battery. However, there's a sensor, microchip, and NFC module embedded in this "jacket."

The most interesting capability of this sensor jacket has to be ranking your alcohol inebriation on a scale of one to five, one being the lowest.… Read more

Japanese phone giant NTT Docomo has announced the launch of Sony Ericsson's Xperia Ray smartphone, available later this month.

The Android 2.3 Gingerbread device was originally announced at CommunicAsia 2011 in Singapore. Powered by a 1GHz CPU, it has an aluminum body that's only 2 inches wide. It weighs 3.5 ounces.

It has a 3.3-inch, 854x480-pixel display as well as an 8.1-megapixel camera with a Sony Exmor R CMOS sensor, as well as face-detection, 16x digital zoom, and autofocus features.

Other features include xLOUD sound technology for enhanced audio quality, and POBox Touch 4.3, a predictive text-input system that facilitates typing in English as well as Japanese.

Available in pink, white, and gold, the Xperia Ray hits Docomo shops in Japan on August 27, with orders accepted from August 12. … Read more

I am not sure I would ever want a cell phone with a wooden case.

But if anything could ever persuade me to consider it, it has to be this wildly inventive (and therefore Japanese) ad for the Touchwood SH-08C by NTT Docomo.

In order to show the sheer magic of wood, the ad's creators, a company called Drill Inc., decided to go to a wood. This is what we in advertising call "lateral thinking."

However, in between the trees they then built the largest, Rube Goldberg-est wooden xylophone ever.

Then they rolled a little wooden ball … Read more

BARCELONA, Spain--One of the best things (and sometimes the most torturing) about Mobile World Congress is checking out handsets from around the world. I think it's fair to say that the U.S. is a bit behind the times when it comes to the mobile space, so it's always great to have an opportunity to see what other kinds of technology are out there.

Over the past couple of years, NTT DoCoMo, one of Japan's largest mobile operators, has provided some unique and most entertaining phones, and it didn't disappoint this year. DoCoMo outdid itself this … Read more

Despite an overwhelming wealth of confidence from Google's Android team, smartphones and other devices running the open-source operating system remain few and far between. As Crave's Kent German wrote earlier this week, 2009 was supposed to be the "year of Android" and five months into the year, not a single new Android device has landed in the United States.

But it looks like Panasonic is getting closer to taking the plunge into non-Japanese markets as the company launches the HT-03a, its first Android-based device for NTT Docomo this summer in Japan.

Speaking at a press conference … Read more

For your next spy mission, consider the F-01A phone from Fujitsu.

It's a sleek-looking phone with some serious, sophisticated technological and rugged credentials. It's submersible--it will still work if dunked in 3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes--and also functions as a fingerprint-scanning device.

The phone uses AuthenTec's TouchStone technology, which is a fingerprint scanner that is utilized to navigate the device's controls, and TrueFinger, which is security software from AuthenTec, which matches fingerprint patterns. It's the first phone to use the software/hardware combination, according to AuthenTec.

The F-01A also functions as … Read more

CHIBA, Japan--If the concepts on display at Ceatec are any indication, completely deconstructing the traditional form factor of the mobile phone is one of the next major phases of design and development research.

Japan has one of the most robust mobile phone cultures anywhere, and it shows here on the second day of the show. Sharp, Fujitsu, NTT DoCoMo, and KDDI each had intriguing takes on the next form factor for devices used not just for mobile communication, but watching videos, playing games, and performing mobile navigation.

Take the necklace on the right. It alerts the wearer when there's a call or a message incoming. It's made by Fujitsu and, while it isn't an actual product, is indicative of how cell phones are thought of here: not just communication devices, but accessories made to fit neatly and inconspicuously into the daily routine.

Then there were a host of phones whose screens and keyboards pull apart to be used separately. The Fujitsu version shown below uses magnets to connect the two pieces in the desired configuration. NTT DoCoMo was demonstrating a similar concept.

But as far as futuristic, elegant design goes, KDDI was far and away the winner. The wireless company showed off beautiful designs, which are nowhere close to being reality, but show the aspirations it has for the cell phone. The Ply was part of its yearly Design Project. (Here's a picture of last year's version.)

Designed by Hideo Kambara, the Ply imagines the phone as a device with a series of layers. One layer is a pop-up projector, another is a slide-out keyboard, and another is a printer, a game controller, and so on. The ones on display here and shown further down the page are just papercraft renderings.

… Read more