Gizmodo: au

Japan's Finest: KDDI Fall Winter Cellphone Line

Elaine Chow — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 02:30:00 EDT

Proving again that Japan has the prettiest phones in the world, au by KDDI has released its Fall and Winter lines, showing off eight new models with emphases on super bright and big Organic EL screens, multimedia “au BOX” connectivity, and a funky mobile personal trainer and calorie counter called “Karada Manager.” While we will probably never see these gadgets States-side, because AU makes some of the gnarliest Japan handsets around, I can't stop myself from obsessing over them. Perhaps I've got a case of unrequited mobile love.

The Hitachi Wooo W63H and Casio Exilim W63CA both came with 3.1-inch organic electro-luminescent screens and the ability to sync up with au BOX and Lismo Video (which lets you download full movies onto your handset). The Casio Exilim also boasts an 8.1MP camera, making it a pretty good point-and-shoot replacement.

Sharp Aquos' model beats out the Hitachi and Casio on screen size (3.5-inches), even if it's not OEL. While the battery life is probably shorter, those .4-inches could make a big difference if you're a big TV-on-the-cellphone watcher.

Sony Ericcson's re fashion phone kind of reminds me of the Nokia I owned in High School, only its interchangeable fashion plates are much nicer. Right now, you can buy soon-to-be-dated 007 and Fifa World Cup themed plates.

The Toshiba W65T is a sportsy slider that includes, along with the au BOX connectivity and LISMO movie viewing, a Wireless Music option and GPS.

The last three phones in the line up are, more simplistic fashion phones. I guess not everybody's enamored with a handset that has more features than you can shake a stick at. Though the Kyocera W65K, SE W64S and Panasonic W62P (left to right) eschew LISMO and au BOX, they still come with the Karada Manager.

Even if none of KDDI's lineup makes it outside the Land of the Rising Sun, some of these features will probably trickle to the States a couple years down the line. [au by KDDI via Gizmodo Japan]

AUO's 24-inch, 16:9 LCD Display is World's First Truly "Widescreen" Monitor

Jason Chen — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 17:00:21 EDT

College students and people who enjoy watching movies on their computers will enjoy this AU Optronics 24-inch monitor, which is the world's first 16:9 aspect ratio display for your desk. Why would you want something that's 16:9 as opposed to the slightly narrower ratio that traditional "widescreen" desktop monitors have? Because 16:9 is the ratio many HDTV programs and movies are filmed in, and this AU set will get you a native 1080p display. Other details: CCFL-lit display (not LED), 1000:1 contrast ratio, and various different size displays coming soon. Is a 16:9 aspect ratio display worth it just to not have black bars when watching a movie? Probably not unless you're a nut that hates black bars. [Electronista]

Au Claims Its W61SH Widescreen Cell has a 2000:1 Contrast Ratio, We Say, 'Blimey It's Pink'

AddyDugdale — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:14:26 EST

Au, the company that brought us the rather sexy Infobar 2 has released a high-res widescreen phone in Japan that they claim has a 2000:1 contrast ratio. Manufactured by Sharp, the hot-pink number has a 2.8-inch Acquos screen, 240 x 400 resolution and this rather crazy 2000:1 contrast claim. You can find a mini-gallery after the jump.

Available in black and white as well as hot pink, the M61SH has support for a microSD card, and will be available in Japan from next month. [Impress]

New Au Infobars Shave Corners, Just Need Lube

AddyDugdale — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 04:50:46 EDT

Au's Infobar 2 is hitting the streets in Japan in November. Impress describes it as "Square it was and the form like whether the candy dissolved in the mouth and had roundness of," which makes me certain that it was designed by Yoda (another clue is that it comes in Yoda Green.) The 2.6-inch OLED screen has 240 x 400 resolution, there's a 2-megapixel camera, mobile TV tuner, micro SD card slot, 290 minutes talk time and 350 hours' standby. It comes in four colors for now &mdash the white and blue models in the pic will be out at a later date &mdash and I am so bored of the iPhone that I am going to make this my latest object of affection. [Impress]

ActFace Concept Cell Has Looks, 3 Touchscreens

msparkes — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 06:31:39 EDT

This is the ActFace Japanese cell phone concept from au by KDDI. It laughs in the face of the iPhone and its single touchscreen - with not one, not two, but three, and no visible traditional buttons. There's a video of the two front screens showing some impressive animation after the jump.

Although it may seem like an unlikely concept, if it's going to happen anywhere then it's going to happen in Japan. [Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]

Touching Dozens of Beautiful Japanese Cellphones

Brian Lam — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 11:39:11 EST

I'm in Tokyo, and I've been avoiding gadgets. After all, I'm supposed to be on vacation. But today Lisa took me to Akiba, and I ended up running through a dozen stores, groping over 50 handsets. I've written about some, like the incredibly simple Wilcom R9, glowing Sony Ericsson w43s and walkman-like w42s. But gripping the alien tech live was unexpectedly incredible. Here's a video of the most gorgeous handsets I could find. –Brian Lam

Japan [Gizmodo]

Yamaha's Mobile Phone Stereo System

Noah R — Thu, 19 Jan 2006 10:26:54 EST

Chaku-uta furu ("receive music full")—mobile phones in Japan are used for playing real music and have become a competitor to the iPod and its ilk. Yamaha is capitalizing on this trend with a compact speaker system (NX-A01) and a Bluetooth receiver unit (TRX-RO1BT) in cooperation with the mobile phone provider au. This cubic form speaker is white (3.3x 4.6x 3.3 in.) and the wireless receiver is black (1.7x 1.8x 1.7 in.) and together they give you decent sound quality from a mobile phone. A stereo mini cable for connecting with a digital audio player or PC is also included. On the market in Japan in the middle of February, price TBD.

Yamaha Home Page

Sanyo Phones for the Very Young and Very Old

Noah R — Fri, 13 Jan 2006 11:18:33 EST

Three new 3G mobile phones from "au" are coming on the market in Japan in February.

The first is the compact and basic model A5518SA that carries a 1.3 megapixel camera, FM radio, infrared communication function, miniSD card slot and a dispersion type sound recognition function for "input by voice" (this is known as Hallo Messenger). The phone comes in 3 colors: passion red, raster white and smoke silver.

The second is the Sweets Pure series in colors fitting the sweet and candy image: macaron franboise, cafe cream, and boir chocola. One package comes with 4 different kinds of stickers to customize the handset appearance. The camera and IR function is the same as in the phone above, but it has some additional functions such as a Japanese-English and English-Japanese dictionary, security buzzer, mini light and so called teen‘s mode, which checks out whether the girlies are doing too much calling.

The third phone, A5520SA, is strictly for kids. It has a security alarm function. When the alarm is turned out, GPS mail is automatically sent to an adult's mobile phone, which is registered in advance. One color. They are all manufactured by Sanyo.

More photos after the jump...

Impress Watch

AU Phones: Media Skin, Machina, Hexagon

Noah R — Wed, 23 Nov 2005 10:12:40 EST

As part of the ongoing AU Design Project, Japanese communications company AU recently unveiled some promising new concepts for future phones. The AU Design Project is a department of AU responsible for making phones that are, well, just way way sexier than anything else on the market. The AU Design Project gave Japan such coveted phones as the Talby and the Penck, so whenever new concepts come along from them, people tend to sit up and take notice. And drool a lot.

More photos and details after the jump...

First up is the curiously-named "Media Skin" by designer Tokujin Yoshioka, whose credits include work for Issey Miyake, Hermes and Bang & Olufsen. Deliciously slim, with an elegant, minimalist feel and an iPod nano-esque scratch-attracting screen. I'm probably not alone when I say that if this ever makes it to production, I would gladly sell body parts to own it. Well, not my own body parts.

AU also introduced concepts by design team Waterdesignscope. The "Machina" and "Hexagon" are both slightly more abstract in shape, with the Machina also — I'm assuming — capable of random acts of homicide thanks to the designer's choice to include a HAL 9000 in every handset.

Introducing the Media Skin, the Machina and the Hexagon (Japanese site) [AU KDDI]
The AU Design Project (English) [AU KDDI]
AU Design Project Prototypes - a rundown of past concepts (English) [AU KDDI]

KDDI Phones Play Digital TV

tgrumet — Mon, 24 Oct 2005 11:51:25 EDT

More cool Japanese phone news comes our way with the new KDDI lineup, allowing you to watch short segments of digital programming on your mobile phone. Made for KDDI's main phone service au, these phones aren't only state of the art, but should have afforadable service as well—something all of us would like to see more of as new features increase. In addition to the digital TV function, these phones will also gives you access to something called "Hello Messenger", which lets you send text messages and images to up to four other people—kind of like a group chat on your computer. The phones will be manufactured by Sanyo and Kyocera.

Japan's KDDI unveils phones with digital TV, chat [Reuters]