Softbank releases 812T for the kiddies

by Chris Ziegler, posted Dec 14th 2006 at 3:41PM

Softbank and Toshiba have teamed up to release another ~~electronic tether~~ GPS-enabled phone for children, the 812T. The pastel clamshell is visually distinctive, thanks to (what appears to be) a rather large ring for attaching the phone to clothing, backpacks, or keychains -- but the real draw here, of course, is the GPS receiver that parents can use to watch their little ones traverse the streets of Japan from the comfort of their softly-glowing computer monitor. Other features include a 1.3 megapixel cam, a QVGA internal display, microSD memory expansion, and Yahoo! Messenger support (this is Softbank, after all, purveyor of Yahoo!'s Japanese 'net service). We're also guessing those clear lenses on the phone's front cover some strobe lights for criminal-blindin' action when necessary. [Warning: PDF link]

[Via Akihabara News]

Filed under: Handsets, Others, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, Softbank Mobile

Tags: 812t, child, children, clamshell, flip, kid, softbank, softbank mobile, SoftbankMobile, toshiba

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Neutral

JX @ Dec 14th 2006 7:35PM

Look at it! And we're giving our kids crappy "phones" (firefly and such) that don't do half of what this does. Japan's kids are going to come out ahead for sure.

Neutral

-_- @ Dec 14th 2006 9:06PM

aw, come on. having crappy phones builds character. XD

Neutral

vincent @ Dec 14th 2006 9:52PM

Wow, that post on Akihabara News was quite acerbic. Geez, it's hard to disagree with his point, but still...

With regards to this particular phone, for junior HS students and up, it's probably good. But I think it's a waste for any child younger than that. The younger children are better off with a firefly type of phone. Unfortunately, that "Kodomobile" tag printed on the cover will probably dissuade any of the HS age kiddies from buying these things.

Neutral

Jon @ Dec 15th 2006 12:45AM

Cool phone, this will give parents a run for their money on their children phones

Neutral

axel @ Jan 14th 2007 4:55AM

the "rather large ring for attaching the phone to clothing" is not to attache to the cloth thats all is an alarm ring ...the children attack on the street pull the ring and the mobile will make a very loud alarm sound to attract the attention of people near by and make the criminal go away ..plus it active the GPS alarm to alertthe parent at home and on theyr mobile aswell so every body will know where the child is in real time at the moment the crime happened.

lol ......rather large ring for attaching the phone to clothing....lol

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