KDDI's Infobar 2 debuts in Ceatec, Japan

Damian Koh | Oct 09, 2007

I think it's pretty safe to say we're sick of hearing about all the wonderful technology in Japan. It probably assumes that anywhere outside the land of the rising sun still belongs to Dark tech Ages. But that's not going to stop us from writing about all the gadgets we can't get (actually we can, but then we may end up writing about the iPhone again). Anyway, here's another one that surfaced at the recent Tokyo Ceatec exhibition in Chiba, Japan--the KDDI Infobar 2.

According to Yahoo News, the Infobar 2 is expected to debut in November in Japan at an estimated price of 20,000 yen without a service contract. Although we're not particularly excited about the handset's 2.6-inch OLED 240 x 400-pixel screen, 2-megapixel camera, 100MB onboard memory and microSD expansion slot, its embedded FeliCa chip allows for contactless electronic payment and is something the world is still trying to play catch-up with.

Besides free digital television broadcast (in Tokyo, there are envy of envy seven channels), KDDI offers a music download service for its users via its Lismo music store. Particularly of interest is the search feature which lets users look for a track by typing the artist's name, song title, or even humming into the handset and letting the system do the match. Really, who needs the iPhone after this?

[Thanks Steve Levenstein for the tip]

Via Yahoo News

Filed under: Mobile Phones
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