mo

I still see kids in the Tokyo subway actually using payphones (remember those?) to call their parents as they make their way home from school. Telecommunications giant NTT DoCoMo seems to be launching this just-for-junior Android-powered smartphone to convince them to knock it off.

The HW-01D (PDF) comes in yellow, blue, or pink. It's powered by Android, has a 2.0-inch QVGA screen with a 240x320 resolution.

The browser and phone can be restricted to parent-set contacts and sites.

It has a 100-decibel alarm to ward off nasty people, GPS, and can send SMS texts so you can keep … Read more

NEW ORLEANS--After you've covered the big news and handled the new phones, it's always fun to walk the CTIA show floor and seek out the weird and wonderful. There's usually plenty of sights to behold, and you always can count on NTT DoCoMo to lead the way.

The Japanese carrier's booth this year was smaller than usual, and it lacked a collection of high-end "only in Japan" phones, but it showcased some pretty cool technologies that I haven't used before. Some were practical and another was just for fun, but they provided a … Read more

A record number of smartphones will jump on the LTE bandwagon before the year is over.

Eyeing a "breakout year" for 4G technology, Strategy Analytics expects LTE phone shipments to grow 10-fold in 2012, rising to 67 million units from just 6.8 million last year. The push is being driven across the entire industry.

"Multiple operators and multiple phone vendors will be launching dozens of LTE models across numerous countries worldwide," Strategy Analytics analyst Neil Mawston said in a statement. "LTE has quickly become a high-growth, high-value market that no operator, service developer, device … Read more

TOKYO--Though its growth has slowed significantly in recent years, DoCoMo managed to get more than 60 million Japanese to sign up for contracts as of last Sunday.

That's nearly half Japan's population of 127 million. The figure includes subscribers to DoCoMo's LTE, 3G, and 2G mobile services.

DoCoMo's high growth period in the late 1990s saw it increasing by 10 million users in only 18 months. But recent years have proven more challenging for the phone giant. … Read more

Virtually anyone who's used the built-in Windows search utility can tell you that it has a lot of room for improvement; it's slow and not particularly powerful, and finding needed files with it can be an exercise in frustration. Fortunately, there are plenty of alternative search options, such as Mo-Search. When we tried it, this easy-to-use program left the built-in Windows search in the dust, quickly returning relevant results while the Windows search continued plodding along at a snail's pace.

The reason that Mo-Search is so quick is that it creates its own index of your files, … Read more

LAS VEGAS--Hey, remember the Asus MeMo that debuted a year ago at CES 2011? Don't worry, not many do. Anyway, it's back this year and according to Asus, the 7-inch tablet will actually be released in the second quarter of 2012. The kicker is that it will sport a Tegra 3 CPU and cost only $250.

Editors' note: This post was updated on January 10, 2012, to reflect corrected pricing, specs, and feature info for the Asus 370T.

For those not familiar with the long-delayed device, let me catch you up. The MeMo is a 7-inch tablet, with a 1,280x800-pixel-resolution IPS screen. There are versions that will be released in other countries that include stylus support, but Asus has dropped the stylus for the 370T's US release.… Read more

Internet and network connectivity is becoming a key feature in more and more home entertainment products--everything from TVs to Blu-ray players to audio components. But many of these products come with a big caveat: they don't include built-in support for wireless networking, or Wi-Fi.

This list of wired-only products includes such mainstream devices as TiVo, Slingbox, most entry-level Blu-ray players, many Internet-ready TVs, and the pre-2010 versions of the Xbox 360. Even pricier products such as AV receivers (including the otherwise excellent Denon AVR-1912) don't necessarily come with wireless connectivity on board. For many of these, manufacturers offer … Read more

According to a report from the Wall Street Journal, Apple has not given in to pressure from Japan's largest cellular network, NTT DoCoMo, to include carrier-specific apps on the iPhone. Apple's stance has caused negotiations to get the iPhone on NTT DoCoMo to stall.

NTT DoCoMo CEO Ryuji Yamada says that his company's apps, specifically an e-wallet app and an e-mail service app, are important for his Japanese customers. While that may be true, Apple isn't budging. Providing the user with a clean, nonbloated experience out of the box is what Apple is all about.

Most … Read more

If the mobile version of your Web site is a stinker, Google would like to have a word with you.

The company this week began pitching a new initiative (read: marketing push) to get businesses to create mobile versions of their Web sites using compatibility diagnostic tools, along with a directory of mobile-site developers, if the results turn out to be underwhelming.

The new initiative, called GoMo, is a blending of "Go Mobile." The site's name was leaked earlier this week, as spotted by blog Fusible, however it was behind a password-protected page, which, as TechCrunch notes, … Read more