Content experiments are also under way for WiFi Hot Spots scattered throughout Tokyo. I helped to setup some of these.
DoCoMo is looking to establish services that can be accessed from its phones as well as wirelessly connected PDAs and laptops. Their aim, I'm sure, is to setup another "walled garden" (which has helped to make i-mode a success) that encourages consumers to purchase additional DoCoMo hardware to access the latest DoCoMo-branded content.
We can expect to see a number of interesting wireless services that push curent Japanese technology even further along.
Interestingly enough, the data center for NTT Communications ( a subsidiary of Japan's massive telco, NTT) is ready to roll with IPv6. Apparently they are the first and only data center capable of this.
A sign of the times when a slow moving behemouth like NTT can be so forward thinking. Must be the influence of DoCoMo.
Keep your eyes on http://www.chakumatic.com. Currently this site focuses on the rather strange Japanese "chakumero" phenomenon where cellphone owners spend *hours* keying popular melodies into their phones in order to have a personalized ring. Chakumatic.com lists dozens of user-generated songs and key sequences for a variety of popular Japanese phones.
The last I checked, the most popular song was one about racoon testicles.
Anyway, over the next couple of months the site will move away from just chakumero to include news and information about the Asian cellphone market, as well as WAP and Japanese iMode-based software.
Its a bilingual site, by the way: Japanese and English.
Slashdot Mirror
Content experiments are also under way for WiFi Hot Spots scattered throughout Tokyo. I helped to setup some of these.
DoCoMo is looking to establish services that can be accessed from its phones as well as wirelessly connected PDAs and laptops. Their aim, I'm sure, is to setup another "walled garden" (which has helped to make i-mode a success) that encourages consumers to purchase additional DoCoMo hardware to access the latest DoCoMo-branded content.
We can expect to see a number of interesting wireless services that push curent Japanese technology even further along.
"Hello. My naame is Ruuuuuuu-bik."
God I used to love that cartoon.
Interestingly enough, the data center for NTT Communications ( a subsidiary of Japan's massive telco, NTT) is ready to roll with IPv6. Apparently they are the first and only data center capable of this. A sign of the times when a slow moving behemouth like NTT can be so forward thinking. Must be the influence of DoCoMo.
Keep your eyes on http://www.chakumatic.com. Currently this site focuses on the rather strange Japanese "chakumero" phenomenon where cellphone owners spend *hours* keying popular melodies into their phones in order to have a personalized ring. Chakumatic.com lists dozens of user-generated songs and key sequences for a variety of popular Japanese phones.
The last I checked, the most popular song was one about racoon testicles.
Anyway, over the next couple of months the site will move away from just chakumero to include news and information about the Asian cellphone market, as well as WAP and Japanese iMode-based software.
Its a bilingual site, by the way: Japanese and English.
1:30am in Tokyo and all is well.
Except, of course, for the giant lizard staring into my Shinjuku apartment.