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This tech feature comes from our friends at DJMICK V2, the site filled with "All things Sexy and Cool". |
February 3, 2010
Phones in Japan play a slightly different role to those used anywhere else in the world. Handset technology has come so far that phones are now totally integrated into everyday life.
For example, paying for a drink in your local shop can be done with your phone thanks to its integrated Felica system (an electronic wallet). You can board the train in Tokyo by tapping through barriers with your phone and then watch your morning TV on the handsets hi-def screen.
Friends exchange details by infra-red business cards transferred between phones and shopping can be done by scanning barcodes from adverts on the train.
Here’s five of the coolest, gadget-packed Japanese mobile phones that you won’t be seeing anytime soon in your local mobile store unless you plan on relocating to the land of the rising sun.
1. Hitachi Mobile Hi-Vision Cam WOOO
Not exactly the easiest name to remember, nor is it the prettiest of handsets, bearing more of a resemblance to a cheap handy-cam than a phone. But it’s the technology within Hitachi`s latest offering that makes it so special.
The WOOO sports a ridiculously oversized camera capable of recording 720p/30 frames per second HD movie footage. It also, as is the norm with most Japanese phones, sports an enormous screen capable of transforming the phone into a widescreen tv (by flipping it on its side). Oh and of course, its available in a nice shiny pink colour.
2. Sharp Solar Phone
Can you imagine if your wallet was battery powered? Can you imagine if it ran out of battery or it got wet?
Well in Japan for many their phone is their wallet and the battery running flat is precisely what you don’t want. Sharp hopes to combat flat-batt syndrome with a solar powered phone. The Sharp Solar phone has a large solar panel on the front which charges up the handset whenever it is out of your pocket.
If that’s enough the phone is also waterproof, so its no big concern if you drop it in the sink while doing the washing up. A liquid paper display on the front shows you the intensity of the sun and how much juice its giving your phone. Don’t think a summer day is going to let you talk forever though as half an hours worth of sunshine equates to just two minutes of talk time.
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To see the remaining cool cell phone on the list, click here to head on over to DJMICK.
