July 1 - 11:55am EDT   Toshiba today at last said it will hold a launch event for its TG01 smartphone. The July 9th gathering in London is expected by SlashGear to mark the formal start of sales for the Windows Mobile handset in Europe; it's already on sale in Japan as the NTT DoCoMo PRO T-01A and should be available not just in the UK but Germany, Spain and possibly other countries. [full story]

May 25 - 1:20pm EDT   Wireless providers NTT DoCoMo and Telefónica on Monday announced that the TG01 full touchscreen handset, Toshiba's first, will launch in their respective markets of Japan and Spain. The Japanese version, called PRO T-01A, will arrive sometime in June, while Spain will get the TG01 in July. [full story]

May 21 - 9:15am EDT   Panasonic late on Wednesday said a real chance exists that it may develop an Android-based phone of its own before the end of its fiscal 2010 year, which ends next March. The company's mobile device director Keisuke Ishii told guests of a press conference for its new phones that Panasonic is "seriously considering" Google's mobile OS. He couldn't provide a timeframe but said the market for open-source smartphones would explode to 100 million phones by 2012, giving the electronics giant a strong reason to do well in that area itself. [full story]

May 20 - 3:50pm EDT   Sony is bringing its TransferJet wireless data transmission technology closer to production by announcing recently it is now accepting licensing applications from interested companies. A Wednesday report has Sony taking "adopter" membership from companies that are interested in incorporating TransferJet into their products. TransferJet, which operates on a 4.5GHz radio frequency, lets users transfer data between portable devices at up to 375Mbps when they are about an inch apart. It is faster than wired USB 2.0 and FireWire connections and is supported by Japan, the US, European Union members and South Korea. [full story]

May 19 - 3:35pm EDT   Atheros today unveiled a new cellphone chipset that could let cellphones host Internet connections as easily as with a typical wireless router. The AR6002 can run its Wi-Fi as a hotspot and can share its connection without the manually configured, ad hoc tethering over Bluetooth or USB normally needed to make the link. It can potentially save battery life for the devices connecting to the phone as it lets them idle or go to sleep where tethering requires both to be constantly alert. [full story]

May 11 - 9:50am EDT   Japanese wireless provider NTT DoCoMo on Monday announced it has developed a spatial audio transmission technology for cellphones that lets users set the spatial direction of callers' voices when in a conference call. For example, callers wearing headphones and talking to two other individuals in a conference call can set one's voice to come from the left speaker and the other from the right, almost as if they're sitting around a table. The technology is still in prototype stages but NTT DoCoMo would like to see it used for conference calls, online gaming and tele-education. [full story]

April 28 - 4:10pm EDT   ASUS, in conjunction with Japanese wireless voice and data network provider NTT DoCoMo, is due to release a 10-inch netbook with built-in 3G access that supports NTT's FOMA data network. NTT DoCoMo subscribers will be able to download data at speeds up to 7.2Mbps without being tied down to a hotspot or wired connection. The Eee PC 1003HAG otherwise sports standard Eee PC fare such as a 1.66GHz Atom N280 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive and 1.3-megapixel webcam. For local area network connections, there is integrated Wi-Fi as well. [full story]

April 3 - 5:50pm EDT   Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo demonstrated several devices at the CTIA expo, including the F-01A waterproof clamshell, a phone for kids and a handset with a separable screen. The F-01A, produced by Fujitsu, is claimed to enable submersion down to three feet for a duration of 30 minutes. The device offers a 3.5-inch touchscreen and a 5.2-megapixel camera, with support for GSM and W-CDMA networks. [full story]

February 27 - 12:00pm EST   Japan's biggest wireless provider, NTT DoCoMo, has stopped sales of Research In Motion's BlackBerry Bold because some of the phones overheat while being recharged, a Friday report says. Of the 4,000 Bolds sold in Japan, the provider received 30 complaints saying the keyboard area heats up, though there are no reports of fires or fingers being burned. RIM said the issue is only prevalent in the Japan-bound devices, as the handsets sold in the country are unique quad-band 3G handsets with an extra 800MHz HSPA band. [full story]

February 9 - 4:15pm EST   The LiMo Foundation on Monday announced six new wireless providers have committed to release LiMo Platform based handsets in 2009. The Linux OS-based phones will become available from Verizon Wireless, NTT DoCoMo, Orange, SK Telecom, Telefonica and Vodafone sometime in 2009. The open-source Linux operating system in the devices will be based on the latest version of the LiMo Platform. [full story]

January 19 - 1:55pm EST   Maker of fingerprint sensors, AuthenTec, announced on Sunday that Fujitsu has started shipping the F-01A handset, the world's first with IPX5 and IPX7 waterfproof specifications and a fingerprint scanner. The handset is being offered by Japan's NTT DoCoMo wireless provider, and can remain submerged under up to nearly 3.3 feet of water for up to 30 minutes. The phone is also the first to utilize AuthenTec's TouchStone packaging, which includes AuthenTec's TrueNav technology that lets the AES1711 fingerprint scanner double as a touchpad for navigating the phone's controls. [full story]

January 14 - 4:45pm EST   Japanese wireless provider NTT DoCoMo and handset maker Fujitsu on Wednesday announced the Foma F905i handset will be offered in Taiwan. Offered for the first time outside of Japan, the handset will support traditional Chinese characters and therefore enable users to access the Taiwanese carrier Far EasTone's i-mode mobile Internet service. The handset has a swiveling 3.2-inch, 480x864 display and features a fingerprint scanner usually found in notebook PCs for security. [full story]

November 19 - 10:00am EST   Japanese cell carrier NTT DoCoMo and Korean carrier KTF are working together on an Android-based phone for 2009, the Nikkei Business Daily said in a report today. The two are allegedly hoping to undercut the prices of smartphones by about 20 percent by using the free mobile operating system on a jointly-developed device. Other features haven't yet been discussed for the handset, which would be either provider's first Android phone. [full story]

September 24 - 12:10pm EDT   Automaker Nissan, wireless network provider NTT DoCoMo and electronics maker Sharp on Wednesday announced they have developed a prototype cellphone that doubles as an intelligent ignition key for automobiles. Like the system used in Nissan’s Japanese cars since 2002, the intelligent key uses two-way wireless communications capable of triggering the doors or engine but without requiring a separate device. [full story]

August 15 - 9:35am EDT   The new-found popularity of the iPhone in Japan is as much a failure of local industry as it is an advancement by Apple, a former NTT DoCoMo executive claims. Tsuyoshi Natsuno, who lead the carrier's i-mode division, describes the Japanese cellular industry as having fallen into a "collegial system," where phones are designed explicitly according to specifications outlined by carriers. The phones in fact have no existence outside of their carriers, a situation which Natsuno believes to offer no incentive for driving technology forward. [full story]