The mobile phone, or cell phone, or smartphone as we now tend to call it, has come a long way since its invention. To celebrate its 20th anniversary Japanese communications company NTT DoCoMo put together an actual display, illustrating the the evolution of its phone line.
Grip-Based Phone Interface Lets You Squeeze to Tap
If you've ever tried to use your smartphone while standing in a cramped subway car, or while carrying a bag of groceries, you soon realize the limitations of a touchscreen UI. You need two hands free, particularly in the age of the jumbophone. So as an alternative means to interact with your device—not a…
There's a Smartphone Battery that Can Recharge Itself in 10 Minutes
On display at Japan's CEATEC tradeshow is a new technology developed by NTT Docomo and NEC that can fully charge a lithium ion battery in 10 minutes.
I Am Not Talking on a Human-Shaped Phone That Feels Like Skin
Japanese researchers at the Advanced Telecommunications Research Institute International seem to think that making a humanoid-looking phone and covering it in a material that feels like skin will make us feel closer to whoever we're talking to. Judging from that photo, I'd be seriously weirded out.
Buy a Galaxy S, Get a Free Sith Lord
Why is this man lounging in a rowboat with Darth Vader? Because apparently when you buy a Galaxy S on Japan's NTT DoCoMo, you get the power of an evil intergalactic wizard along with it. Or something like that. [YouTube]
The Japanese Love Chocolate So Much They Made a Chocolate Phone
This Japan-nly NTT Docomo Melty Chocolate phone is ridiculous. It's a working phone—it has 8-megapixel camera, digital TV tuner, Bluetooth and such—but the menus are designed to look like chocolate, and the outside looks like chocolate.
What Is This Guy Doing?
What is Mr. Roboto doing here? Perhaps checking some CEATEC booth girl's ass? Staring at the suspicious character crawling towards him off camera, the one dressed as a giant pink chicken? No, the answer is much cooler than all that:
NTT DoCoMo Snap-Apart Phone Belongs in Museum of WTF
Charlie at Wired's Gadget Lab finds NTT DoCoMo's two-piece magnetic phone entertaining, but to me, the reasons it's supposed to be useful range from frivolous to baffling to just plain dumb.
DoCoMo DLP Phone Projects TV, Makes Butt Look Big
The NTT DoCoMo prototype phone shown in the video above has an embedded DLP projector, presumably using an LED light source in order to project a respectable 20- to 25-in. video image on the wall a few feet away. The downside, as you can hear from the dude asking questions (AOL Switched's Tom Samiljan if I'm not…
Sharp Builds Wireless Electronic Car Keys into a Phone, Finally
In collaboration with Nissan and NTT Docomo, a Japanese mobile operator, Sharp has developed what they claim is the first mobile phone that also functions as a keyless entry and ignition device for cars. Rather than building a new system from the ground up, Sharp has simply opted to include Nissan's existing…
