May 25 - 1:25pm EDT   Toshiba has recently introduced a KDDI handset known as the biblio that, in addition to voice support, will double as an e-book reader as well. Instead of an electronic paper display like ones found in established e-book readers, such as Amazon's Kindle, the biblio makes do with a traditional 3.5-inch LCD touchscreen with an extra-long 480x960 resolution. The handset will have 7GB of internal memory for storing content that can be expanded thanks to microSDHC memory cards up to 8GB. [full story]

May 25 - 11:40am EDT   Japanese wireless provider KDDI will soon launch the second solar-powered cell phone, with the SH002, built by Sharp. The solar panel built into the backside of the handset will, in 2 hours of exposure to the sun, charge the battery to provide 10 minutes of calling time or 140 minutes of standby time. A 1.1-inch electronic paper display shows the charging efficiency and status of the solar panel and battery. The phone is also IPX5/7 rated for resistance to water exposure. [full story]

May 25 - 10:05am EDT   KDDI unveiled its summer 2009 roster of phones and headlined it with one of the most advanced video-capable phones available. The Hitachi Hi-Vision Cam Wooo has a 5-megapixel camera capable of not only playing but shooting 720p video with true 3X optical zoom, autofocus and image stabilization. It records at a relatively high 9Mbps bitrate and can handle up to an hour of continuous shooting. An HDMI output similarly provides full-resolutino viewing, and a microSDHC slot provides the bulk of storage: an 8GB card can take 2 hours of video at maximum quality. [full story]

May 22 - 10:25am EDT   A leak today has revealed that Hitachi is planning the imminent launch of only the second phone to record HD video after Samsung's Omnia HD. Named in the brochure as the Hi-Vision Cam Wooo, the thin swivel phone found by Engadget would have a 5-megapixel camera capable of recording 720p video along with face detection. It would also get HDMI video output and a microSDHC slot that, with an 8GB card, could hold 2 hours of footage. [full story]

April 7 - 12:00pm EDT   Japan's AU KDDI recently created a new brand, iida, which is meant to appeal to fashion-conscious customers. One of the first products to be released under the brand is a new Sony Ericsson slider known as the G9. The handset sports a 1Seg TV tuner built into its stainless steel body, which is coated with a thin coating of titanium compound. Unlike AU KDDI's other phones, the G9 supports both CDMA 1X and GSM networks. Apart from this, a few exterior changes as well as a different display and camera, the G9 is similar to Sony Ericsson's Cyber-shot S001 handset. [full story]

January 30 - 8:00am EST   Hitachi is joining KDDI's spring phone launches with the Wooo H001. The swiveling clamshell has the same 854x480 resolution as most other phones in the lineup but adds a unique toggle that lets owners switch to a 3D parallax view. The effect not only pops in automatically for 1Seg digital TV and other video that includes 3D but can convert existing 2D images and photos to 3D, customize the perceived depth, and works either in portrait or the phone's notebook-like landscape mode. [full story]

January 29 - 4:10pm EST   Sharp is due to release its SH001 handset in Japan for use on KDDI's CDMA 1X WIN 3G network. The clamshell handset's notable features consist of an 8-megapixel CMOS camera and a dual-hinged design that allows the 3-inch, 480x854 pixel LCD screen to rotate out to face the user while being folded into the handset. The camera has an integrated autofocus and face recognition capability, while its ISO rating can be set as high as 2,500 for capturing images in low-light environments. [full story]

January 29 - 9:35am EST   As part of a sweeping update to KDDI's phone lineup, Sony Ericsson has launched a pair of handsets that both have features often left out of non-Japanese cellphones. The Cyber-shot S001 has the 8-megapixel camera still rare for the company but centers on an extremely sharp, 854x480 OLED display with enough color saturation to help previewing photos or watching 1Seg digital TV. The camera itself also has features closer to dedicated cameras with shooting up to the equivalent of ISO 1,600, image stabilization and detection of both faces and smiles. [full story]

January 29 - 3:40am EST   Casio, together with KDDI, has recently unveiled the CA001 handset, equipped with a 3.1-inch, 854x480 resolution touchscreen display among many other features. It's the first Casio handset to run on KDDI's 3G CDMA 1X WIN network, allowing download speeds of up 2.4Mbps. The flip phone is double hinged, allowing the screen to be rotated towards the outside and fold back into the handset, similar to a tablet PC's operation. [full story]

October 27 - 4:50pm EDT   Casio, in conjunction with KDDI AU, on Monday announced the upcoming release of the EXIFILM-series W63CA flip phone that features one of the most advanced cameras in the industry, with an 8.1-megapixel camera carrying a nine-point autofocus and a wide-angle mode. The CDMA handset also sports a 3.1-inch, 480x800 OLED screen that rotates in the same fashion as a tablet PC's screen and can be left facing outside so users can enjoy streaming video provided by the phone's 1Seg support in Japan. [full story]

October 15 - 5:00pm EDT   KDDI has shown a prototype of its Portable Viewing System that can display images wirelessly transferred from cellphones on a 13.1-inch electronic paper display in color. What KDDI claims is the first electronic paper display capable of showing images stored in cellphones, the system uses infrared waves to transfer the image from the phone to the display. The display uses Bridgestone's Electronic Liquid Powder technology capable of reproducing 4,096 colors. To redraw the near A4-paper size image, the display needs 12 seconds. [full story]

October 1 - 11:20am EDT   KDDI at the CEATEC technology expo today showed two displays that promise to significantly improve the quality of cellphones and other handhelds. A Samsung-made, 3.1-inch display both uses OLED to improve its color accuracy, thinness and the battery life of the attached device but also displays an 800x480 picture. Such resolution is high enough to support viewing some DVD resolution video without shedding pixels and results in near print-quality text. [full story]

September 26 - 3:35pm EDT   To further its fixed mobile broadcasting convergence that combines a fixed phone, mobile phone and broadband service, KDDI will demonstrate its new au BOX at the CEATEC show in Japan that kicks off on September 30. The set-top box will allow users to download music and video content from the Internet to enjoy on their cellphones or TVs without the need for a PC. It will be launched in conjunction with Japan’s Okinawa Cellular Telephone Co. and be offered on a rental basis with a subscription to users. [full story]

August 8 - 8:30am EDT   Japanese wireless carrier KDDI has seen its growth stifled in July primarily by the iPhone 3G launch the same month, according to a report from the company itself. The company's subscriber growth was near flat at just 17,000 new users for the month and saw the first month KDDI has known where the amount of cancellations with phone number portability, or the number of customers switching to rivals, overtook new subscriptions of the same kind. The sudden downturn comes just as the iPhone's official carrier, SoftBank, saw an immediate spike and added 52,000 new users. [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]