March 2 - 4:45pm EST   Sony has recently announced the upcoming release of two new series of Bravia HDTVs in Japan, the W5 and F5, with the majority sporting 240Hz panels. They center on a FeliCa RFID tag reader built right into their remotes that lets owners pay for Video on Demand and other multimedia purchases using their cellphones. The W5 TVs are available in 52-, 46- and 40-inch models, while the F5s can be had in 46-, 40- and 32-inch sizes. All have full 1920x1080 high-definition resolution, except for the 32-inch KDL-32F5, which tops out at 1366x768 pixels and has a 120Hz panel. [full story]

July 14 - 10:20am EDT   Japanese interest in the iPhone 3G surged to where more than one in seven Japanese phone customers has been considering an iPhone, according to a survey published today by iSHARE and conducted at the end of June. The researchers note that while a pre-announcement study showed just 8.9 percent of buyers considering an iPhone, that number has since climbed to 14.5 percent, a jump of about 63 percent in just a few weeks. Existing subscribers with official iPhone carrier SoftBank are disproportionately more likely to want the device, with exactly one in five (20 percent) likely to buy while just 10 percent of those with other providers mulling a switch of carriers to get ... [full story]

January 29 - 12:25pm EST   Japanese carriers KDDI and Softbank are adding a unique Hitachi phone to their lineups, according to multiple reports. The W61H uses a regular, 2.7-inch LCD on the inside of its clamshell design, but this is mirrored by a similarly-sized e-ink display on the back, where most phones would place an OLED screen. This screen is not intended to be practical, however, but instead display one of 95 decorative patterns, matched to the available black, silver or cyan colors. [full story]