The Economist: One drunk driver, 32 traffic violations and 15 miscellaneous offences. A daily tally of crimes in Cochin, a city in the Indian state of Kerala, appears on the mobile phone of Sanjay Vijayakumar, the young co-founder of MobME. His firm, which provides “value-added services” for mobile phones, has outfitted the Cochin police with camera-phones.
Instead of describing crime-scenes to their control room over a walkie-talkie, the police can now snap a picture (stamped with date, time, and place) and send it over the airwaves. It takes just a few seconds to send a photograph over India’s mobile networks. Users can also send live video via 3G networks.
We doubt you need a translation to figure out what’s going on here, but to summarize: the crew at mobile@mail.ru managed to get what they’re saying is an exclusive hands-on with a red Nokia E55. It’s the same compact QWERTY phone you’ve grown to love vicariously through photos and video, only now with a little rouge. Check out the read link for more pics.
Last week we had the pleasure of talking at length with CNN about Japanese mobile phone novels, how the trend manifested itself, and where it’s going from here.
Click below to read all about keitai shousetsu (mobile phone novels) and their unique imprint on the Japanese media landscape in the last couple of years.
We explored the topic previously on-camera with German ZDF.
Sure, we’re still anticipating — but not necessarily merrily — the release of Windows Mobile 6.5, but for those who wish to look even farther into the future, Microsoft head honcho Steve Ballmer said in a conference call this week that WinMo 7 will be out sometime next year. That jibes pretty well with what we’ve heard from Motorola and ZDNet before, although there’s probably a dozen or so known unknowns that could push it well into 2011 or beyond. For now, however, we’re willing to take Steve at his word. Hey, at least they’re not gearing up for a Windows Mobile 6.75 in the interim… right?
Swiss auto design house Rinspeed, the company behind last year’s sQuba diving car, will reveal an electric car concept vehicle that can be controlled by an iPhone at the Geneva Motor Show next week, Macworld reports.
The iChange uses an iPhone in lieu of car keys. The iPhone clips into a holder on the dashboard to either side of the steering wheel, the report said. “Once connected a green “start” button appears on the iPhone’s display and one push brings the iChange automobile to life. When you’re driving the car the iPhone can also be used for other control functions, such as switching on and off the headlights.”
Recently, women’s undergarment maker Peach John started offering a line of gashapon capsules containing their own branded items. These miniature mobile phone “straps” attach to the hole on a mobile phone for decoration and can be found on just about anyone’s handset these days.
Below is a video introduction to the Peach John shop in Shibuya 109.
Peach John’s straps are available in machines in their shops, but if you go to just about any shopping center or toy shop you can find row upon row of gashapon machines that dispense everything from miniature anime characters to collectible items on just about any topic. Many of these machines are selling branded items, typically miniature versions of the real product, that can be attached to handsets. Below are four examples (out of many) that we saw recently representing Mister Donut, Lotte Gum, AU mobile (mini handsets!), and Gatsby hair gel.
While brands often give away mobile phone straps as promotions, these cost money (from $1 – $5) and still manage to sell out. This is where Japan’s deep consumer and mobile phone cultures collide in a fun way.
Trend Potential Mobile phone culture runs deep in Japan, and accessorizing the devices is particularly important for users regardless of age. The Mobile Trendpool features the rest of this report and many other similar marketing and mobile trends.
I like the new Windows Mobile 6.5 interface, specially the new home screen, which is brilliantly executed. Running on the new HTC Touch Diamond 2, everything looked smoother, cleaner, and matched the iPhone’s lick factor.
While everything seems to have been touched up, simplified, and polished to no end, what really makes this version of Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t the new, revamped browser—which uses the engine deployed in 6.1 but feels a lot faster and has a good new interface—or the honeycomb start screen—which I don’t find particularly impressive—or the cleaner UI designed for one-finger operation or the speed or the touch gestures.
To me, what really makes this new operating system great is the new home screen, combined with the lock screen. The lock screen doesn’t look very good aesthetically—somehow, the elements don’t appear tight enough—but it allows you to see what’s cooking in your digital life with just one glance. Turn the screen on and you will see whatever pending alerts, mails, calls, short text messages, or any other element that requires your attention. No need to get deeper into the phone applications. From there, if you want to drill down, just slide-to-unlock the notification and you will be taken straight to the info.
Once you unlock your phone, you are taken to the home screen. This is the true jewel in the operating system: A simple list of categories which let you access information without having to get into the phone applications. It sounds like the lock screen, but from here you can get deeper into the information itself. Here’s how it works:
When you slide your finger over the list, it scrolls like it’s passing through a visor. The visor transforms the text line into the information itself, so if you go through “text”, it will show you the last received text message. Once you are looking at that, you will effectively have access to all your SMS messages right on that screen: Just swipe your finger like passing the pages of a book and it will change the text message. The same happens with all the other categories. There is even a custom “Favorites” category, that would allow you to navigate through whatever you want to put in there, from weather reports to Messenger’s messages.
Then you have the start menu, which is accessible through the now-obligatory Windows flag start button, which must be present in all Windows 6.5 cellphones. Microsoft calls this the “start experience.” I call it: “about time something makes sense in your damn phones.” The start page shows all your available applications displayed as icons in a honeycomb. You can scroll up and down the honeycomb to start apps. No more start menu. The honeycomb is supposed to make it easier to see the icons and click on them. It works well.
Of course, Windows Mobile 6.5 is not perfect. I doesn’t seem to support multitouch, for example. However, it’s a huge leap over the previous fugly versions, which were completely unpalatable. If it fulfills its promise, this one will make Windows users think twice before getting an iPhone or an Android phone.
From this first touch on, it looks like Microsoft is back in the game. They don’t have the upper hand yet, but they are clearly waking up. We will see what happens and how deep these changes really are once it gets released.
Springwise.com: Finding an ATM in an unfamiliar city or neighbourhood can be a real hassle. So it’s no surprise that various applications have been developed for the iPhone and other mobile devices, that use built-in GPS to map the nearest cash machines. ING Wegwijzer, a new application built for the T-Mobile G1 (Google) phone, takes the concept a step further. The G1 phone has a built-in compass, which means that it can not only determine where users are, but also which direction they’re facing. Which gets interesting when combined with the phone’s camera, which is what the Dutch bank’s new tool does.
How that works? A cash-seeking user opens Wegwijzer, selects the camera mode, and holds the phone as though to take a picture. Layered over the live image of what’s in front of him, is a label showing where the nearest ATM is, literally pointing to the building that houses the machine. Which, for most people, is a far more intuitive way to find an object than by looking at a map; it’s the phone equivalent of asking a human and having them point to what you’re looking for.
Not just a mobile phone, these new models are being marketed as lifestyle accessories to fit users’ specific lifestyle priorities.
KDDI has announced their new AU handset line-up for spring—a product range that indicates an increasing divergence from the idea of an “all-around good phone” into a wide-range collection of phones that are really advanced in one particular function from touchscreens to fashion design.
To that effect, KDDI is offering the Walkman Phone Premium3 from manufacturer Sony Ericsson that promises the best sound quality to date for those who are fans of AU’s Lismo music download service. Then there is the Wooo H001 (created by Hitachi), the world’s first mobile with a 3D image supported 3.1 inch liquid crystal screen, for those who prefer high-tech visuals.
Meanwhile the SH001 is a Sharp phone that excels at photography, with an 8 mega pixel camera loaded on board. And from Kyocera, AU is offering the K001, a phone with a colorful band and customized skin that allows the phone to function like a clutch purse—for the fashion conscious, or perhaps those who are tired of missing important phone calls trying to dig their mobiles out from the bottoms of their massive handbags.
Trend Potential
Hardware has come a long way, but not everyone needs what their phones can do, and prefer them to act as they want them to. From external design to interface and hardware functionality, there are endless ways to create phones to fit very niche markets. Find out how this can help your business by exploring this trend and more in our Trendpool database.
Remember Hair Style the mobile website we reported on last year that let you try on different hair styles? Well, that popular site from So-net, which offers makeovers via photos taken by users’ mobile cameras, has since introduced new options that include cosmetic and species makeovers. Yes you can now see what you look like if you were broccoli!
Now So-net has debuted a spin-off site called Koakuma Henshin (or “little devil metamorphosis”) that takes your ordinary portrait and sexes it up a bit.
While “koakuma” might be used to refer to a woman who is a bit cheeky or manipulative, the word also carries the undertone of a young women working in a “kyabakura” (“cabaret club,” or bar where dolled-up young women wait on, and flirt with, a typically older male clientele). For example, Koakuma Ageha is the name of a fashion magazine read by the sexier breed of “gyaru,” who are also prone to working in such establishments.
While young women working in kyabakura hostess clubs might be looked down on by mainstream society, Koakuma Henshin is marketed as harmless fun. After all, what average girl wouldn’t be curious about what she might look like donning the requisite brown hair extensions and a low cut dress?
Trend Potential
While services like these began as purely for fun, as technology advances they are evolving into real tools for beauty and fashion. Not only that, but there are many options for monetization as well, especially in Japan. To read in more detail, check out the Trendpool database.
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I like the new 
While everything seems to have been touched up, simplified, and polished to no end, what really makes this version of Windows Mobile 6.5 isn’t the new, revamped browser—which uses the engine deployed in 6.1 but feels a lot faster and has a good new interface—or the honeycomb start screen—which I don’t find particularly impressive—or the cleaner UI designed for one-finger operation or the speed or the touch gestures.
