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TOKYO EDGE : February's coolest gadgets
By Martyn Williams
A new feature is making its way into a number of recently launched cell phones in Japan and South Korea: motion sensing. The capabilities of the handsets vary a little but the basic idea is that moving the phone through the air translates into actions and inputs on the screen.
The latest handset to offer such a function is the V603SH, produced by Sharp Corp. for Japan's Vodafone KK. Three similar handsets have already been announced in South Korea: Pantech Co. Ltd.'s PH-S6500, LG Electronics Inc.'s SV360 and Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.'s SCH-S310.
Looking at the four phones, gaming appears to be the main beneficiary of the motion technology. There are a couple of games for the Vodafone handset that rely on the system.
The first, 'House of The Dead Mobile,' is a zombie shoot-em-up game from Sega Corp. The screen shows the game scenario from the character's point of view, and as the player turns around with the phone, so does the character in the game. In 'Full Swing Golf,' from Taito Corp., the player holds the phone as if it were the golf club and swings it to hit the ball on the screen. A warning before each shot reminds the user to avoid hitting people when swinging the phone.
Similarly, the Pantech handset comes with a fishing game that requires the user to swing the handset like a fishing rod, and a racing game in which the handset becomes the steering wheel. LG's phone, which actually looks as much like a portable gaming device, includes a skiing game that uses the motion technology.
Not only games use the movement technology. Users can dial with the Samsung phone by drawing the numbers in the air with the handset, for example, or end a call by shaking the phone twice. Other functions include a sharp move to the right or left to tell the built-in MP3 player to skip forward or back a track. Vodafone's handset can be programmed to perform similar functions when it is moved in different ways.
The Pantech phone is already on sale in South Korea for 451,000 won (US$440). Vodafone will begin selling the V603SH from mid-February, while the LG and Samsung phones are due on the local market in March or April. Prices for those have not yet been announced.
None of the handsets are based on the widely used GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) standard and they won't be available outside their home countries immediately. However, Samsung will consider adding the function to international models if it is well received in South Korea. Aichi Steel Corp., which is making the motion sensor for the Sharp phone, has already begun offering it to other companies for use in their products, increasing the chance that it will make its way overseas.
Sanyo HDR-B5GM hard-disk drive voice recorder
Add voice recorders to the list of portable gadgets that include hard-disk drives. Sanyo Electric Co. Ltd.'s HDR-B5GM includes a 5G-byte, 1-inch drive that provides a maximum recording time of 693 hours in the lowest quality MP3 recording mode. There are four quality modes and recording time drops to 57 hours with the highest of them. The device doubles as a music player and plays Windows Media Audio (WMA) and MP3 files. In addition to the hard-disk drive, there is an SD (Secure Digital) card slot and the recorder can copy files from the card to the hard disk, freeing up the card for re-use. It will go on sale in Japan in early March for around ¥53,000 (US$507). Sanyo will sell the HDR-B5GM overseas although no firm plans have been set.
http://www.e-life-sanyo.com/products/hdr/HDR-B5GM_S/index.html (Japanese)
Casio Exilim Pro EX-P505
Casio Computer Co. Ltd.'s EX-P505 digital still camera packs a 5X optical zoom and a 5 megapixel image sensor into a compact body. It has a shutter lag time -- the delay between when the shutter is pressed and the image captured -- of 0.01 seconds, and is ready to take a picture 0.8 seconds after it is first switched on. Notable functions include VGA quality MPEG4 video recording at 30 frames per second and a 2-inch LCD monitor that flips out from behind the camera so that it can be seen from in front of or behind the lens. It measures 98.5 millimeters by 55.5 millimeters by 73.5 millimeters, weighs 215 grams and has a battery life sufficient for 220 images, according to Casio. It will go on sale in February in Japan and the U.S., and in March in Europe. It will cost US$500 in the U.S.
http://www.casio-europe.com/euro/dc/exilim/exp505/
Hitachi Living HMP-1 Audio Player
Hitachi Ltd. will release a new digital audio player in Japan in early March. The HMP-1 plays MP3, WMA (Windows Media Audio) and WAV files and comes with 256M bytes of built-in memory, plus an expansion slot for an SD (Secure Digital) memory card. Other features include an FM radio, voice recorder, a USB 2.0 interface for connecting with a PC, and support for English, Chinese or Japanese on-screen display. In music playback mode it will run for up to 13 hours on a single AAA battery. The device, which has a rather basic rectangular design, measures 56.3 millimeters by 45.3 millimeters by 13.3 millimeters and weighs 30 grams. It will be available in Japan from early March for around ¥15,000. The company has no current plans to put it on sale overseas.
http://www.hitachi.com (Japanese)
Aiwa XDM-S990 Digital music player
Sony Corp. has launched a couple of new flash memory music players as part of its Aiwa family of products. The XDM-S900 and XDM-S990 are both similar to the XDM players announced by the company a couple of months earlier but come with at least double the memory: either 512M bytes or 1G byte. Like the other members of the family they play MP3- or ATRAC3-encoded music and offer a battery life of about 100 hours. They'll be on sale in Japan and Europe during February. There are no current plans for sales in other regions. In Japan the XDM-S900 will cost ¥25,000 and the XDM-S990 will cost ¥30,000.
http://www.eu.aiwa.com
Sony DCR-PC55
Sony Corp.'s latest digital video camcorder, the DCR-PC55, is one of the smallest such devices yet, being just a little larger than a pack of cards. Sony says that, as of the end of last year, it was the smallest MiniDV-based camcorder on the market. Sony had great success in Japan with a passport-sized camcorder released a few years ago, and this new model is even smaller than that, at 45 millimeters by 99 millimeters by 72 millimeters. Despite its size the camera features a 3-inch display on the side that can be turned to face either outward or inward. The lens offers a 10x optical zoom and the camera adds a 120x digital zoom function. It will be on sale in the U.S. in February for about US$800.
http://www.sony.com
Posted February 9, 2005 05:00 PM | TrackBack (1)
