Ceatec2008 -- Engadget Mobile

ceatec2008 posts

DoCoMo serves your DLNA content to a friend's TV via mobile phone

by Samuel Axon posted Oct 10th 2008 @ 4:49PM

Eager to live in the fantastical future it has prophesied, NTT DoCoMo went to CEATEC and demoed an upcoming addition to its Pocket U service: MH2H (Mobile Home to Home), which gives you the ability use your cellphone to stream content from your computer at home to a friend's TV. The phone connects to your friend's WiFi network and sends his or her DLNA-compliant receiver the IP address of your also-DLNA-compliant server, then tells said server to accept the connection and start streaming any videos, songs, or photos you feel like sharing. When you leave, the connection ends and every one goes back to partying on their own isolated media islands like it's 2006.

[Image courtesy of Tech-On!]

KDDI shows off Samsung-made 3.1-inch WVGA OLED display, 3D LCD panel

by Donald Melanson posted Oct 2nd 2008 @ 6:57PM

It's been almost a full year since Samsung first announced its plans for a 3-inch WVGA OLED panel, but it's now finally delivered, and found a partner in the form of KDDI, which was showing off the panel at CEATEC. As Tech-On notes, the panel is quite the upgrade over Samsung's current top-end 3-inch QVGA panel and, best of all, KDDI says that it'll be showing up in actual products "shortly," though it's not about to get any more specific than that. As if that wasn't enough, KDDI also had a new "3D LCD" panel built by an unnamed "Japanese panel manufacturer" on hand at the show. It boasts the same WVGA resolution as the OLED and employs a "parallax barrier method" to magically "convert 2D images into 3D in real time -- check that out after the break, and look for the panels to be productized by the end of 2009.

[Via OLED-DISPLAY.net]

Continue reading KDDI shows off Samsung-made 3.1-inch WVGA OLED display, 3D LCD panel

Concept phone can see through walls -- in theory

by Tim Stevens posted Oct 1st 2008 @ 3:29PM

Remember that scene in 'The Dark Knight' where (spoiler alert!) Batman uses the city's cell-phones to look through walls and find the bad guys? Totally awesome, right!? A group of scientists at KDDI apparently thought so too, creating a prototype they say could do something similar. Using geomagnetic sensors, accelerometers, and GPS, the device is able to determine its position and render its surroundings on the screen in OpenGL, including areas that are currently out of sight. We're guessing you must have already scanned those areas with the phone and that it can't actually see through walls, but we'd be happy to be proven wrong -- whenever they actually have something to show us. Like the group's funky concept phones we brought to you earlier, this one doesn't actually work. Yet.

Toshiba powers cell phone with methanol fuel cell -- no, you can't have one

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 1st 2008 @ 4:47AM

Toshiba continues to tease us with its prototype liquid fuel cell-powered gadgets: last year it was a Gigabeat media player, and at this year's CEATEC you can check out a direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) that's been crammed inside a cell phone, lending it a robust six hours of talk time (compared to the paltry three or four hours of a traditional battery). Toshiba won't reveal the capacity of the DMFC, but they have said that a 50ml cartridge is good for about 15 refills. No release date yet, but the phone "might" be available "as early as next year." In the meantime, enjoy this picture of a woman holding a flip phone with "DMFC" clearly visible on the display.

DoCoMo's separated phone hands-on and video from CEATEC

by Joshua Fruhlinger posted Oct 1st 2008 @ 2:20AM

We got all down and dirty with DoCoMo and Fujitsu's prototype "Separated phone" today at CEATEC, and we can confirm that the device does, in fact do what they say it does. As reported earlier, the device uses Bluetooth to communicate between the phone's two magnetized halves, enabling configurations in everything from standard clamshell to gaming landscape formats. Perhaps the most compelling configuration is one that allows the phone to be held to the ear while one accesses data on the another half, complete with neck cramps. The touchscreen, Symbian S60-based UI was easy enough to use (albeit in Japanese) and features a hearty media playback element, but we were unable to squeeze any commitment to a launch date, price, or probability of seeing the unit on the market. That all said, the demo units were very much operational as you can see for yourself in the video after the break.

Continue reading DoCoMo's separated phone hands-on and video from CEATEC

KDDI au concept phones invade CEATEC

by Donald Melanson posted Sep 30th 2008 @ 2:49PM

We already caught sight of KDDI au's cellphone as musical instrument concept devices last month, but it looks like the company's fanciful design group had plenty more than those to show off at CEATEC, as evidenced by Akihabara News' slew of pictures from the show. Those include the satellite-like device pictured above, as well as a neat little minimalist number pictured after the break and another folding contraption (also after the break) that we're still trying to wrap our heads around. Hopefully we'll get a chance to check these out ourselves before CEATEC wraps up but, until then, you can hit up the read link below for some more pics.

Continue reading KDDI au concept phones invade CEATEC

DoCoMo and Fujitsu show off splitting phone at CEATEC

by Joshua Topolsky posted Sep 30th 2008 @ 6:46AM

DoCoMo and Fujitsu are showing off some interesting phone tech in Japan at this year's CEATEC, particularly a concept device which can be split into two pieces. The gadget features a separate screen and keyboard segment, and the pieces can be configured in a standard flip-phone-like arrangement, or snapped together to form an X1 or Touch Pro-esque landscape QWERTY variation. The two halves are held together by magnets and communicate via Bluetooth. Of course, right now this is very much in the concept phase, and honestly -- aren't we trying to minimize the amount of electronic components we're carting around? Still, it's a fairly slick design, and certainly a new way of thinking about phones. Take another look after the break, and hit the read link for a slew of pics.

Continue reading DoCoMo and Fujitsu show off splitting phone at CEATEC