Hasta La Gadget!

NTT Docomo Inc. is said to begin offering their “Tsunagari Hot Support” application software, where it will target the elderly as well as their families, and this particular app has already arrived on smartphones from the company on March 25. This particular software would now receive a new function known as “Tsunagari Hot Support”, where this particular service is capable of notifying registered people of how the phone is used over e-mail whenever the (elderly) user uses his or her phone.

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NTT Docomo Smartphone Elderly Monitoring Service Launched original content from Ubergizmo.

With the number of engaging apps on our mobile devices these days, it is extremely easy to get “lost” in them. For instance, just pay attention to any metropolitan area by sitting at the sidewalk with a cuppa, and see how many people actually do not really see where they are going. Rather, they would most probably be holding their smartphone with one or both hands, texting or sending some sort of update, or even talking on their mobiles, all without paying much attention to what is going on around. In fact, you can say that the minimal amount of attention is used to prevent bumping into another person on the street, but that’s about that. Docomo of Japan has something to offer that might just signal the end of texting while walking.

Bsically, Docomo intends to offer a “safety mode” that Android users can choose to activate if they want to. For those who enable this mode, a message will appear if you attempt to make use of your smartphone while walking. This message would read, “Using your smartphone while walking is dangerous. The phone senses you are walking. Please stop.” Should you choose the path of willful ignorance and tap “close”, you will be given another 10 seconds of use, while pressing the power button would result in another 5 more seconds of use before the device turns off.

Docomo Safety Mode Might Just Save Your Life original content from Ubergizmo.

Japanese carrier NTT Docomo has revealed that it experienced a record monthly drop in subscribers for September, which is somewhat surprising given that the company was the lone remaining major Japanese carrier without the iPhone on offer until the release of the iPhone 5s and 5c, also in September. The mobile operator blames the iPhone as the reason behind the dip, however, in a twist that shows that when it comes to iPhone, customers are looking for immediate satisfaction.

Docomo blamed a drop of 66,800 subscribers during September to limited stock of new iPhone devices, according to a report from Reuters in Tokyo today, which contrasts considerably with what rivals KDDI and SoftBank saw. Both of those carriers received net subscriber additions in September thanks to the new iPhone’s launch, something Docomo ascribes to them having plenty of iPhone hardware on hand to meet demand.

Despite this setback, Docomo will probably eventually see a net benefit from having the iPhone. Using the U.S. situation as an example, it took a long time for AT&T’s competitors to start to win back the subscribers they’d slowly shed to that U.S. carrier after it held the iPhone exclusive contract for years. Low stock out of the gate for Docomo vs. both KDDI and SoftBank suggests that perhaps the two existing players got preference as to early shipments, or it’s possible that Docomo underestimated demand for Apple’s iPhone and as a result put in low initial orders.

There’s a larger point to be made here about the iPhone and its effects on carrier fortunes: This is definitely a device that people are willing to jump fences for. The example here proves that customers weren’t willing to wait even so much as a few weeks to get their hands on the device on a network they’re already used to when it’s readily available elsewhere. Of course, the ultimate fear for mobile operators is that they become just another interchangeable dumb pipe, with the device driving buyer network decisions, and it looks like that could be exactly what’s happening in the Japanese market, at least.

Following DoCoMo’s detailing of its 5G network ambitions, the company has displayed its smart glasses concept here at CEATEC 2013, something that is presently four different glasses concepts that will be unified into a single product offering when it heads into production. The smart glasses offer a variety of functionality, the most interesting of which […]

[CEATEC 2013] We spent some time with the Vuzix M100 smart glasses before the super long queues were formed, and here are some of our impressions on it. The hardware is based off the Vuzix M100 of course, but the software was powered by NTT docomo. We mentioned in passing that this particular pair of glasses would be able to identify someone’s face using facial recognition technology, before it communicates with a server to pull out information on a person for you to see. Here is what we think about it.

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NTT docomo’s Vuzix M100 Hands-On original content from Ubergizmo.