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NTT Docomo achieved 5Gbps 5 years ago.

http://www.nttdocomo.com/pr/2007/001319.html

As a telecommunications engineer, I do not understand what is new with this.

If you want to check out something that will have a real impact on such video/radio applications, have a look at SVC.

I have some printet material here from this year's IBC where it seems NTT actually already have a software implementation of it.

Check out softbank and docomo's web pages. My "free" handset from Softbank has a 320x240 display, two 2-megapixel cameras, bluetooth (duh), and is of course 3G with a nice high speed data connection. The current gen of phones, before you even have to pay extra, have "PC-style" (stupid marketing term) image capable web browsers, QC-code readers, kanji dictionaries, and do on. Then come the phones you pay extra for, which get super awesome pretty fast. (Link is for a phone series with a TV tuner, DVR, 3" 16x9 VGA+ display, GPS (and sweet-ass moving map app), 4Mbit data rate, etc).

Docomo is offering FOMA, a 4-7Mbit data service, which pretty much renders wireless hotspots superfluous, since you can buy PC-card FOMA modems that work with your docomo data plan at lots of places, even convenience stores I think.

That said, Apple is missing out on a major market here; the iPhone would sell like crazy.

Actually, this isn't some flakey hack by any means. I'm a coder at this company and currently working in our mobile division. The technology has been perfected and runs efficiently (and even more so once I'm done optimizing key functions in ARM assembler). We have done quite a bit of testing and even in situations where there is lots of motion in the scene, the software is able to compensate quite nicely! We actually use the lowest resolution of the camera so power consumption is minimized. Sure accelerometers are more accurate BUT because they are so expensive, manufacturers are reluctant to use it and we offer a good alternative so long as you have a camera handy on your phone.

As for the technology, we can do quite a lot of cool things with it. As the article stated, we have 3 distinct types of motion we can detect - rock, roll and shake.

Roll can be used for ball rolling games, UI navigation or even as FPS controls. Shake has been used for shuffling an MP3 play list but can be used for rolling dice in an RPG or shooting virtual craps! The rock is perfect for "reloading" a gun or maybe throwing something in game. We had one app which allowed you to launch virtual pies at people. That was a popular one!

One thing is certain... we have done something right for Japan's LARGEST cell phone carrier to have picked us up for use in 2 major game releases using their phones - Crash Bandicoot and Katamari Damashii not to mention our tech has been in used in alot of other games already. We have our camera tracking on many platforms including the PS2, XBOX 360 and PC.

Here is the docomo press release:
http://www.nttdocomo.com/pr/2007/001335.html

What others are saying:
http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2007/04/25/2553676.h tm
http://www.digitalmediaasia.com/default.asp?Articl eID=23946

If I'm not mistaken, this technology has already been implemented in some Japanese phones. I recall seeing it advertised on the http://www.nttdocomo.com/ website more than a year ago. Other features at the time included what equates to our PayPass, except that it was inside your cell phone. Another more widely used feature was the barcode scanners that would allow you to take a picture with your phone's camera of a square-shaped barcode that could be found on many advertisements and products and then find more information using the phone's web browser. Perhaps I misread the website a long time ago, but I'm pretty sure some other phone has already been released with that capability.

If you were on DoCoMo in Japan it would:
http://www.nttdocomo.com/corebiz/icw/barcode.html/

You're wrong. It is supposed to be MaDoCo not DoCoMo

WiMax (or something very similar) will show up when it's good and ready, catch on, and be the Next Big Thing.

I doubt it'll be WiMax...and that has nothing to do with the technology so much as its nearest competitor: cellular data.

Seems like we're not too far away from ubiquitous 3G implementations for data transfer... and companies like DoCoMo pushing 4G Research and Development are just around the corner from implementing multi-megabit data transfer. Other techs aren't likely to get the same penetration as cellular networks have already achieved, hence, they'll start off as also-rans.

I'm looking forward to cell data networks for Internet access... leave the 802.11x for home/LANs.

The waterproof mp3 player reminds me of the Finger Phone. At least with the mp3 player you don't have to walk around with finger stuck in your ear.

Gah, you need to add the www.

go to NTT Docomo to see their phones and what they are capable of. Barcoding, ticket sales? Already in place for the past 2 years in jp.

My gut feeling is:

• Data transmission: maybe, but bandwidth will be low.
• Power supply: won't work

Eye of the Frog writes "Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. and its subsidiary NTT DoCoMo Inc. have developed a device that attaches to your PDA which uses the body's conductivity to transmit data at an amazing 10 megabits per second.

One of the main things driving mobile phone sales is, of course, fashion. Especially among the younger consumers.

And the problem with most of these crossover devices is that they are Huge.

I know a few people with these Nokias and these T-mobile-thingies, and they just look ridiculous.

Now look at Japan.

As soon as we have normal-sized phones that do all the e-communicating and surfing we normally use our computers for, without looking stupid, then we'll see them replace PDAs for most people.

This actually was reported yesterday in Japan (here), but I could not find any article in English until now.

Courtesy of the Rejected Post Machine:

NTT DoCoMo: Linux-based 3G Mobile Phones in 2004

* 2003-12-02 11:59:33 NTT DoCoMo: Linux-based 3G Mobile Phones in 2004 (articles,pilot)(rejected)

Reuters cites a confidential source as saying that NTT DoCoMo will offer its customers Linux-based 3G mobile phones in 2004. DoCoMo has apparently sent specifications to handset manufacturers and DoCoMo supplier NEC has said that it will offer Linux-based phones by 2004. If true, the report would indicate a shift from the dominant TRON and Symbian-based handsets.

This was also submitted yesterday morning, but I guess Reuters wasn't considered authoritative enough until the English version of the Japanese story. =)

videophones have been around for a while in the UK and in other countries(seems to be broken?). The quality still isn't brilliant but Orange(I think) have started to offer Soccer highlights over the latest phones.

moon colonies, ok, we chose to put a space station up there first, and then realised it costs a lot of money for little (commercial or military) value. Moon colonies are sadly not as sexy as say a Mars colony, or even a Mars mission, which ESA has planned in 25 years, NASA tried and continues to test methods of producing enough food,air and water, other countries,notably India and China have planned Moon landings so we are going back. Space is unfortunately used as a pissing contest between nuclear neighbours, when this stops then some more science can get done(e.g. Hubble, Galileo, Beagle 2)

food in pills. You can get food in pills, just not the calories, vitamins will give you nearly all of the trace elements you need to live. Calories are a lot harder, to get 500 Calories into a pill means eating something with 40 times the energy concentration of sugar or twenty times the concentration of fats, I doubt the human body would have much success digesting such complicated food. You can however get protein and creatine supplements which are in tablet/powder form, and sugar sweets( those silly energy sweets which taste of really sour orange) have more calories than their equivalent weight in sugar. (The protein supplements also tend to taste bad and are fed to animals instead. )

cars that drive themselves; power steering has been around for a while, as has ABS and cruise control, that is about as much as the current laws will allow on the public roads. intelligent cars have been developed, which, when combined with other intelligent cars, are actually safe. It's the human drivers who freak out at the sight of a driverless car that's the problem :-)

jet packs; Jet packs appeared in Thunderball (James Bond). You can buy them if you have enough money, or you can build them if you want. They're not used much because, much like the Segway, there are easier and cheaper way of getting around.

moving sidewalk's are in most airports now, as well as some metro stations. There have also been "moving stairs" around for just as long.

This post brought to you by Google.com, paid for by Google For America, Inc.

NTT with their DoCoMo service launched 3G services a few months back.

One cool feature they are offering is if u (and the person u r speaking to) have a mobile phone with a camera and screen u can see the picture of whoever u r speaking to while u speak to them.

Mind u that is a still JPEG not moving video yet but we are getting to mobile video.

I think NTT is offering a limited type of videophones. U get to see the persons jpeg image while u talk to them. Also they are offering some entertainment services. More on their site Docomo

I saw this last night on TechTV and the new release of these video cell phones in Japan. They looked really nice and actually had nice video feeds. You can read more about the phone here on this link Read here.

GPS will aid GSM, but you can do without it.
In cities, GSM can give you position information in with an accuracy of about 100m. Which suffices for several location based information.
PHS systems will provide an accuracy from up to 100m, too.
Telcos currently know in which cell you are and how far you're away from its base station. Sometimes, they even know your distance from a second base station.
This is already used to offer differentiated price schemes and (e.g cheaper rates in your home cell (no pun intended)) location based services in at least Japan and Germany, and BT has invested quite a amount for wcities, some location-based information service provider (a new buzzword, rejoice).
As you may see it's not far fetched, it's already (to some degree) there and it is considered as the next goldmine (or at least the investors hope so)

This doesn't necessarily requires advertisement as it can be seen as a advertisement in itself.
The providing telco can use it as argument to differentiate itself from other telcos.

Nonetheless, I think it'll surely lead to advertisement. The whole thing reminds somehow of yahoo.com.

Here are the specs from the DoCoMo web site. 64 Kbps for real-time video, max 384K bps downlink, 64K bps uplink. Decent (but not great) battery life, too.

They also have the absolutely kick ass mobile phone system, DoCoMO, that make look wap like the bullshit it is.More Info

DoCoMo

Go Go Gadget FingerPhone!

Damn straight. And the bizarre thing is, these is a WAP equivalent that does not suck: NTT Docomo's i-mode. Unfortunately, it's a proprietary PDC (Japan-only) system and so it will never be seen elsewhere, but it has managed to avoid the key mistakes which are likely to doom WAP to oblivion.

• Mistake 1: WAP phones do not allow access to the Internet (yes, I know about gateways and such, but they're a hack). i-mode phones do. Result: right off the bat the i-mode can access a lot more content.
• Mistake 2: WAP is so overpriced it's not even funny. Here in Finland, which usually has very low prices for cellular use, a single WAP call can easily cost several dollars -- compare this with less than 10c for an SMS or a one-minute call. In Japan, i-mode costs a low fixed monthly fee and e.g. e-mail costs one yen (approx. 1c) a pop.
• Mistake 3: WAP phones are normal phones with teensy screens. i-mode phones have huge displays, the never models even have color screen. Usability is much better.

Cheers,
-j.

What CNet said about cell phones in japan isnt really new. Email/Short Message Service is available worldwide, so is voicemail (though not locally on the phone), and voice recognition/dialing, and special ringtones etc etc can all be found in most GSM cell phones made by Nokia and Ericsson. Whats new are the i-mode phones by NTT DoCoMo. These have 256 color vdeo capable displays and other neat features.