It's not often that we have an opportunity to point and laugh at the crushing antiquity of anything in Japan. Look, don't get your hopes up, we can't really do it here either -- but with LTE, it seems like the rest of the world has finally reached technological parity. Japan has just gotten around to approving its 4G carriers' game plans, with NTT DoCoMo likely first out of the gate thanks to deployments in 2010 (around the same time that Verizon expects to have some markets in action). eMobile, Softbank, and current CDMA carrier KDDI will follow on through 2011, with a grand total of over a trillion yen (about $10.4B) being spent in the next half decade. Don't get us wrong -- we're sure the handsets will still be cooler than anything we can get, and they'll likely have the entire country blanketed in 4G before most others have just a handful of cities live, but at least they're not on 5G. Yet.

[Via IntoMobile, thanks Lauren]

It may be a Japan exclusive for now, but Hitachi's Mobile Hi-Vision Cam Wooo has folks drooling from sea to shining sea. The cats over at Akihabara News were able to take a glimpse while KDDI unveiled its summer lineup, and they seemed to be quite impressed with the video quality and ease of use. Check the read link for a video of the flip phone in action, but remember, don't get too attached unless you call Japan home.

Japanese carrier KDDI au has now followed Softbank and NTT DoCoMo in pulling the red velvet cover off its summer 2009 devices, and as always, there are some neat tricks in here. From Toshiba, the Biblio is billed as an e-book reader; granted, it's using an LCD instead of an E-Ink display, but it's a doozy at 3.5 inches at 960 x 480. It features 7GB of user-accessible storage on board for books, and also has a slide-out dynamic keyboard that can display a numeric pad in the portrait orientation or full QWERTY in landscape. Moving on, the Sharp Sportio Water Beat -- as its name suggests -- is a waterproof sports-oriented set with advanced calorie and distance tracking (a la Nike+), but you're still never too far from your true destiny as a couch potato thanks to the phone's one-seg reception. Next, the Hitachi Mobile Hi-Vision Cam Wooo is the latest in the multimedia-centric Wooo series, becoming KDDI's first phone capable of 720p video recording at 30fps -- and there's HDMI-out on board for when the time comes to enjoy your footage. Finally, the SH002 is the realization of Sharp's solar phone concept from earlier this year, delivering one minute of talk time for every 10 minutes of charge time. There are other announcements in the mix here -- eight new phones in total -- but those were the killers of the bunch, and as always, this post is about as close as most North Americans will ever get to them.

[Via Engadget Japanese]

In continuation of a recent trend of major manufacturers announcing a new-found interest in making a buck off developing nations solar-powered cellphones, AU (KDDI) and Sharp have announced the June launch of this unnamed solar handset. Besides being the world's first waterproof solar handset, it charges to a minute of talk or 2-hours of standby after just 10 minutes in the sun. No other specs were announced though we seriously doubt it'll be a power-sucking feature- or smart-phone. Naturally, it'll still be a boon to people where electricity is scarce but what about the industrious guy who owns the village car battery?

[Via Akihabara News]

Don't know why the Motorola rumors are flying hot and heavy today, but right on top of that connected GPS whisper comes word that the struggling device manufacturer is being tapped to build a new version of KDDI's multifaceted Au Box set-top unit that runs Android instead of the previous custom Linux build. The Au Box, if you'll recall, is a trick little IPTV box with a DVD drive that can rip audio and video and transcode it for transfer or streaming to your cellphone -- kind of like a more flexible Slingbox that costs $3/month for KDDI subscribers. Definitely interesting, especially since Android could make browsing and email extremely easy to implement as well -- hey Moto, maybe you want to ditch your current garbage Stateside cable box lineup and start shipping these things at home?

Update: Turns out there's no Android here at all, according to Moto. Instead it's running on KreaTV platform. Is it just us or did this thing just lose about 50 megafonzies on the cool-o-meter?

[Via CNET]

Japan's KDDI au has long been famous for its Design Project handsets -- some of which have made the leap from concept to production -- and the CDMA carrier is looking to ramp up its fashion street cred with the creation of an entire brand dedicated to those oh-so-special models. iida is launching with five models out of the gate: the G9 from Sony Ericsson and misora (neither of which are particularly Earth-shattering in their design) along with three stunners from celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama. These are pretty... shall we say, "interesting" handsets, owing in no small part to their in-your-face polka dot design (Kusama's trademark, it seems) -- but what's more, one of the three docks to a sculpture of a dog and another is the shape of a miniature handbag for the ladies. Continuing with the bizarre theme, iida is selling a unique charger whose cord looks like an ivy vine -- must be an eco-friendly unit, otherwise the irony is overwhelming -- and a pico projector using TI's DLP tech that'll connect to your handset for that impromptu presentation on the go. Check out a gallery of some of iida's wares below.

[Via Engadget Japanese]

Gallery: KDDI au unveils iida sub-brand for high design

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

You know -- after gawking at smartphones all day, Kyocera's latest flip phone just looks stunning in its own simplistic way. Sure, there's nothing at all fancy about the NS01 that we mentioned in our KDDI blowout. It just makes / receives calls, sends the occasional text message and displays information on a 2.8-inch QVGA display; heck, even the two megapixel camera doesn't make it extraordinary. Still, the all white design just does it for us, and the included belt strap is simply too cute to ignore. 'Tis a shame we aren't privy to pricing details, but folks over in Japan should be able to snag one soon on KDDI.

So KDDI's latest lineup of new phones features the usual array of 8.1 megapixel cameras, wide VGA displays, one-seg TV tuners, and teleporters, but one particular handset stood out: Hitachi's Wooo H001. The dual-hinge flip's claim to fame -- well, besides the bizarre color scheme -- has to be the stereoscopic IPS display that presumably uses the same parallax barrier method shown off by the carrier late last year. The phone will happily serve up 3D-ified versions of various UI elements and mobile TV content, and when you start to get woozy (or Wooozy, as it were), just flip a switch and you're back to the reassuring flatness you're used to. It'll launch in three colors in April, and naturally, you'll have to be in Japan to get it.

[Via Akihabara News]

Just last month we heard that Japan's CDMA giant (that'd be KDDI) would be throwing its weight behind LTE, and now we have every idea that it'll be filling out an application to prove as much in April. According to a new report in The Mainichi Daily News, Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications has decided to begin taking applications for 4G frequency allocation beginning in around three months, while approvals are expected to start in June. NTT Docomo, KDDI, Softbank Mobile and Emobile have all been granted permission to apply, and if we had to bet, we'd say the entire foursome will do just that. Ah, 4G -- so close, yet so far away.

[Thanks, Vagrant]

In most parts of the world, the cute little device you're looking at here would pass as a perfectly acceptable Walkman. In Japan, though, it's more than just a Walkman -- it's a Walkman phone, people. The Sony Ericsson Xmini has been added to KDDI au's CDMA-based lineup, measuring just 75 x 44 x 18mm and tossing aside the usual barrage of 8-megapixel cameras and wide VGA displays for a mere 320 x 240 screen and 4GB of on-board memory. When closed, its colorful chin reveals music controls; opened, the whole thing morphs into a tiny handset -- and a refreshing change of pace from the giant clamshells those poor souls on KDDI are usually subject to, may we add.

[Thanks, Desaine]

With UMB officially out of the picture, carriers effectively now have only two options when choosing the faithful path to the fourth generation: LTE and WiMAX. There's no question that WiMAX is quietly gaining traction in pockets around the world, but LTE still commands the lion's share of attention -- and it's especially interesting every time a current CDMA network chooses the GSMA-backed tech. Confirming earlier rumors, Japan's KDDI is the latest to swing that way, hooking up with Hitachi and Nortel to deliver an LTE overlay that's interoperable with its current EV-DO infrastructure. Odds are they'll be offering 20-megapixel cameraphones with 1080p displays by then, too.

[Via Phone Scoop]

It's that time of year again -- the time when Japan's carriers announce a seemingly never-ending torrent of phone after incredible phone. We've already hinted at some of these monsters, but we wanted to take a deeper dive and really find out what's being offered this time around. Follow us right this way, won't you?

NTT DoCoMo's fall / winter 2008 lineup
KDDI au's fall / winter 2008 lineup
Softbank Mobile's winter 2008 collection