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Boring conversation? Snooze with phone pillow

If you can't bear to go beddy-byes without a goodnight from your sweetheart, or if the person on the other end of the line simply bores you to sleep, lay your weary head on the Hanashicom pillow.

The star-shaped headsets are fluffy pillows with embedded microphones and speakers that link to your phone.

Softbank group company Willcom is offering the pillows to new subscribers to its flat-rate Personal Handy Phone (PHS) service through the end of February. … Read more

Japan handheld with Intel Atom chip debuts

Sharp got atomized Monday. The Japanese electronics maker along with Willcom announced the ultra-mobile Willcom D4 "communication device" based on Intel's Atom processor and Microsoft's Vista operating system.

Microsoft and Intel were also credited with development of the device, according to the Japanese-language release on the Sharp Web site.

The handheld-size device uses a 1.33GHz Z520 Intel Atom processor and runs Windows Vista Home Premium (with Service Pack 1). Other prototype devices based on similar designs--referred to as mobile Internet devices or MIDs--have also been shown running the Linux operating system.

With a separate headset, … Read more

Fingerprinting by radio waves

Some of us at Crave are known for our obsessions (we like to call them "quirks"), among them gadget security and, specifically phone safety. So we're compelled to mention a new mobile phone from Willcom, even though it will be available only in Japan for the time being. This model, brilliantly named the "WX321J," has a fingerprint scanner that doesn't require direct contact: Its authentication system uses radio waves instead, to avoid moisture and other possible interference. Other than that, Slashphone says the features are pretty standard. But we can't get past the … Read more