June 23 - 9:20am EDT   Japanese carrier Softbank has announced its planned prices for the iPhone 3G, Reuters writes. Launching with the initial wave of 22 countries on July 11th, Softbank will sell the 8GB iPhone for 23,040 yen, or approximately $215; the 16GB iPhone should cost 34,560 yen ($322). It is expecting most subscribers to sign up for a 7,280 yen ($68) per month plan, which will guarantee unlimited data use and free calls to other Softbank users. [full story]

June 20 - 10:05am EDT   NTT DoCoMo is defending its inability to secure an iPhone deal, writes Japan's Impress Watch. Speaking at a shareholder meeting, DoCoMo CEO Masao Nakamura has stated that while the iPhone is attractive and has an appealing fanbase, many of its features are already present on the likes of LG's Prada touchscreen phone, or the Sharp SH906i. The first iPhone was also unusually heavy, says Nakamura, although he appreciates that the 3G model weighs only 4.7 ounces. [full story]

June 11 - 3:20pm EDT   IDC is projecting worldwide PC shipment growth of 15.2 percent in 2008, reaching 310 million units. The analysis firm predicts that growth will remain in the double-digits through 2010, followed by high single-digit growth through 2012, boosting annual shipments to over 472 million in 2012. Meanwhile, the fall in average PC selling price will be offset by an ongoing transition to sale of notebooks, which generally cost more than desktops. IDC's report also says that the Asia/Pacific region excluding Japan (APeJ) surpassed the United States as the region with the largest PC market in total annual shipments at the end of 2007. [full story]

May 23 - 1:55pm EDT   Sanyo is switching to Sharp LCD panels for its HDTV sets, the former company has announced. While Sanyo is well-known as a brand in general, its TVs have not been able to compete against the likes of those from Samsung and Sony. The Japanese electronics market has been consolidating as whole, and has forced the adoption of strategies similar to Sanyo's on the part of companies like Pioneer. In Sanyo's case its consumer electronics division has done poorly, and Reuters notes that on Thursday, the corporation announced its first profits in four years. [full story]

May 19 - 9:25am EDT   Two Asian countries may be engaging in an unusual deal in order to secure the iPhone, according to rumors. Japan's NTT DoCoMo and South Korea's KTF are said by Telecoms Korea to be in talks for a joint release, though the reason for combining the pair's efforts is unknown. The two countries do however rely on W-CDMA broadband, as opposed to the HSPA the 3G iPhone is expected to use in regions such as Canada and the US. It may thus make sense for KTF and DoCoMo to cooperate on a shared iPhone format. [full story]

May 5 - 1:55pm EDT   The latest developer version of the iPhone 2.0 firmware adds dramatically different non-Phoenician language support, accounts say. Most notable in v5A258f may be new support for simplified Chinese, and in particular handwriting support, a feature that may prove crucial if and when the iPhone is adopted in China. Chinese is a more complex language than English, making it difficult to type out quickly; as a result, companies such as Motorola have developed phones whose primary focus is on easing Chinese writing. [full story]

April 23 - 4:15pm EDT   Fujitsu has announced a new desktop system, the F/A50. The computer represents part of an increasing trend in the PC world, in which low-cost PCs by the likes of Gateway and Dell have attempted to reproduce the all-in-one design of Apple's famous iMac. Similarities in this case are extremely close, as the A50 features an identically-proportioned case, rear-mounted ports, and glowing indicator lights buried under plastic. The display is smaller however, measuring 16 inches, which limits it to 1366x768 resolution. [full story]

March 26 - 12:50pm EDT   Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo has managed downlink speeds of up to 250Mbps in field testing of LTE (Long Term Evolution), a company announcement claims. LTE, often dubbed 4G broadband, is expected to eventually replace the current worldwide 3G standards, HSDPA and HSUPA. LTE should allow individual cellphone users to reach download speeds of up to 20Mbps; this at least two and a half times faster than the fastest 3 and 3.5G deployments, still used in a minority of public networks. Most 3G connections are over five times slower. [full story]

March 11 - 1:55pm EDT   The Japanese industry ministry is reportedly investigating an incident in which an iPod Nano "overheated and discharged sparks." Reuters quotes the ministry "The battery part of the product overheated while being charged and sparked," Apple's iPod safety manual states "When you're using iPod or charging the battery, it is normal for iPod to get warm. The exterior of iPod functions a a cooling surface that transfers heat from inside the unit to the cooler air outside." As such, iPods have been known to overheat when placed in cases that do no allow adequate ventilation. [full story]

February 29 - 7:20pm EST  In brief: Apple ranks 15th in Web traffic in Japan, RAM for new MacBooks, MacBook Pros is available, Freeway 5 beta 3 has been released and Switching to the Mac: The Missing Manual, Leopard Edition debuts ... Apple ranks 15th in Web traffic in Japan according to new statistics release by comScore. Apple garnered 15,633,000 unique visitors in Japan in January. comScore reports "January saw increased visitation to education, career, automotive and real estate sites as many people in Japan focused their Internet activity on planning for the New Year. Several news sites, including J-Cast.com, Sponichi.com, and Jiji.com, saw significant gains in January, with elections in Osaka, the Sumo wrestling ... [full story]

February 27 - 12:30pm EST   Japanese carrier Softbank is preparing an unusual addition to its lineup. Toshiba is developing an exclusive phone for the carrier called the 815T PB, meant to help promote a TV drama called Ketai Sousakan 7, directed by Takashi Miike. Owners can attach a set of flexible robot limbs to the phone, enabling various poses; for full effect, the phone also comes installed with an AI personality called "Buddy Talk," which makes various expressions and responds to voice conversation, gradually improving its answers. [full story]

February 25 - 6:50pm EST   Claiming to mimic the design of its Viera line of Plasma televisions on a handheld device, Panasonic has introduced the P905iTV, a new sliding handset featuring "one-segment" mobile TV on Japan's DoCoMo network. The device offers frame conversion technology from 15 frames to 30 frames per second on 3.5 inch full-wide VGA large screen. The new handheld's screen has a contrast ratio ratio of 4000:1 and uses "LCD Artificial Intelligence" which adjusts the brightness of a display automatically and LSI based on "UniPhier" for mobile phone for power saving. The phone also features 3G international roaming and HSDPA, autofocus 2.0 megapixels camera with six-axis image stabilizer ... [full story]

February 22 - 12:05pm EST   Japanese engineers from the Nikkei Electronics Teardown Squad judge the MacBook Air as being wasted space inside its otherwise efficiently designed chassis. According to TechOn the engineers claim the ultra-portable uses entirely too many screws to secure various pieces, counting over 30 to secure the keyboard, for example. The engineers say that they could produce the same computer with fewer screws, and a resulting lower cost. [full story]

February 6 - 5:50pm EST   Japan's DoCoMo wireless provider is currently in talks with Apple over the iPhone, with current conversation revolving around technological issues, as well as the division of profit. Bloomberg reports that a partnership with DoCoMo would most likely mean Apple is preparing a W-CDMA version of the iPhone – DoCoMo operates on this standard rather than the current GSM standard the iPhone operates under. Apple is concerned that adopting W-CDMA could potentially cannibalize the company's existing markets. [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]