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DoCoMo Raku-Raku touch screen mimics real buttons

You'd think there aren't any Japanese left whose fingers aren't incessantly caressing a smartphone touch screen, but NTT DoCoMo begs to differ.

The giant carrier will launch the Android 4.0 Raku-Raku Smart Phone on August 1, targeting novice touch-screen users, with a display that mimics the feel of old-fashioned buttons.

When a menu item on the screen is touched, it gets highlighted. The user then has to push more firmly to confirm the choice. The handset responds with a click and slight vibration. … Read more

Nottv smartphone TV broadcaster to debut in April

MAKUHARI, Japan--A smartphone-only TV broadcaster will begin beaming programs to handsets in Japan next April, offering users live commenting as well as text content and games.

Promoters for Nottv were staging fashion shows in a TV studio set up at the Ceatec 2011 trade show outside Tokyo to drum up enthusiasm for the concept.

Japanese consumers have been able to watch conventional TV on their phones for years using the 1seg service. But Nottv will be the country's first dedicated smartphone TV channel.

Nottv shows will make use of frequencies left vacant when the country officially switched to digital … Read more

TV convergence: It's happening in Japan

CHIBA, Japan--Remember convergence? The idea that the TV and conventional technologies would merge? It came out about the same time as that series ER and has aged about as well in North America.

In Japan, it's another story. Watching TV on your PC is actually quite common. A huge number of desktops and notebooks come with TV tuners and people actually use them, according to several residents.

"There are a lot of ads for TV PCs," he said Yasutoshi Magara, managing director of Microsoft Japan. Sharp Electronics, he noted, just came out with a PC-TV combo with … Read more

Toshiba's latest Gigabeat V series PVP

Toshiba announced that they will be releasing an updated version of the Gigabeat V portable video player on June 1st in Japan. The new Gigabeat V series will be available in 40GB and 80GB capacities priced around $409 and $491 respectively. Beyond increased capacity, the new series improves on the features of last year's Gigabeat V30 by offering a 4-inch, 24-bit color display with a resolution of 480 x 272. Like its brother the Gigabeat S, the V series also uses the Microsoft PMC interface and supports Windows Media DRM 10 and WMA 9 lossless. The new Gigabeat V … Read more