blog.aka.me - Filed under 'keitai'

September 8, 2007

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| Japan | keitai | UI |

Thoughts on Casio's W53CA for AU

After my recent announce of the new AU Summer Collection, I had to wait a couple months before the official release of the Casio W53CA phone.

I got the phone a few weeks ago and it's a beauty, as always. It's even thinner than the 43CA, the hinge is even smaller and more elegant. The screen is wider and QVGA (480x800) resolution. You know all those phone ads where the screen looks incredible crisp, but then you buy the phone and it's some crappy 120x60 resolution... Well the 53CA screen makes pics look like printed matter. Simply incredible.

The camera is pretty amazing too. It does take beautiful Exilim pics, better than any other camera phone I have ever seen. Of course, certain lighting condition will always be challenging but this thing can survive just about anything.

So is there anything to complain about?

The only hardware minus point I found was the new keyboard. While thinner, it's also harder to operate in the dark or blindly as the keys are mounted nearly seamlessly. But you get used to it. The side buttons are also thinner and harder to press when operating the camera...

As far as software goes, nothing to complain about besides:
1. the camera interface
2. English translation

The camera interface hasn't really evolved over the past few models and I wish it had!! This is a major minus in this otherwise great product!
The submenus feel randomly crammed into the maximum 12 top menus which means that after having used this interface for more than 2 years, I still can't remember where what is what!!
And since I fiddle with menus a lot, this is a big issue.

ex 1:
when you choose the Scenes menu (called Best Shot - key #2), the first dialog box to come up asks you whether to turn it "ON" or "OFF". How weird, why not just give me access to the list of scenes?!

ex 2:
White Balance, which I use 50% of the time to correct the weak light condition auto evaluation of the camera software is hidden in the 4th position choice of menu key 6 (shot assistant). That's 11 clicks or scrolls to access it when you are trying to take a picture!!! And it doesn't even have a shortcut key while Self-Timer (mislabeled as Self-Timer Setup) gets its own top menu. I have never ever seen anybody (nor used it myself) use a self timer on a keitai camera.

ex 3:
"Album" is to view your photos. It takes the 3rd position of the menu just under Best Shot. Again it would be faster to access your pics via the Data Folder menu form the main camera menu. Why clog my menu when I am trying to take a picture.

ex 4:
Shot Size gets 4th position. Is that really a priority? I would like to see user studies that prove people change picture size before taking shots, on a regular basis. Personally, one prime reason for doing so would be to make it lighter to send it to a friend, but the "mail this" menu offers to do just that when I DO actually want to mail them.

ex 5:
Macro mode needs 7 click to be set up (although it does have a keypad shortcut). No wonder I never see people use it when they need it. Actually I rarely see people use it with conventional digital cameras either...

I guess this list could go on and on but overall, I love this phone and would NOT trade it for anything else on the market!!

But anyway, if anyone knows people at Casio/Hitachi, I would be happy to send in a more detailed report on the camera and funny English translations or even come in for a chat! Yes I am talking to you... S. ;-)

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August 4, 2007

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| Japan | keitai | UI |

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New AU phones - Summer 2007

This just in!
A week after DoCoMo announced their new accelerometer-fitted mobile phones, AU have just done the same with their own Summer 2007 collection...
10 phones!

Quick snippets:
- 2 Casio phones. One of them (the W53CA) is now branded with Casio's digital camera brand Exilim and boasts a 5.1 MP camera! You know which phone I am already considering buying... ;-)

Update 1:
The W53CA has finally been announced and is coming out in Tokyo on the 9th of August. It's the last one of the new collection to come out.

New details have emerged on the phone. They have really worked hard to build it as close as possible to a real camera. Here are a few points:
- 5MP CMOS sensor that goes beyond just cramming more pixels on a 2MP sensor
- wide angle!!
- 9 zone autofocus
- Auto-Exposure-Bracketing!!
- Night shoot mode
- Camera launch made ultra fast when twisting and folding the screen back on itself.

I'll be queuing next Thursday to get the phone.
Any good address in central Tokyo to get it cheaper than the Bic Camera monster?

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March 4, 2007

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| Japan | keitai |

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New AU phones are out. Which one's it gonna be?

Updated
The Spring 07 collection of AU phones is out and AU has not let me down this time. It will have finally taken 12 months (3 collections) to lure me away from my uber-awesome bestselling W41CA. It is now time to upgrade!
Out of the 10 phones on the shelf, only 2 caught my eyes. They are the only 2 phones to have the new WVGA screens with resolutions of 800x480px. And unfortunately, the forever-beautiful-W41CA-inspired form factor of the W51CA will probably not be enough to distract me from those screens.

All 3 phones I have selected below have the usual AU features + a few new funky features. All have in common:
- Naviwalk + 3D navi
- 2 or 3MP camera with anti-shake software tech and AF

W51H (Maker's site)
- 50x106x22
- bilingual
- finger digit reader (sensor) for added security. Sensor can be used to scroll or zoom on screens or pics or even click on links.
- 2.9in WVGA screen of 800x480. view full webpages in landscape mode. makes Opera mobile really attractive now.
- interface seems to be shared with Casio phones (shortcuts on desktop)
- Open Appli player that seems to be able to play Java apps within Brew
- Electronic compass for the GPS (automatically rotates and scrolls map)

W51CA (Maker's site)
- 50x105x22
- bilingual
- TV
- Open Appli player that seems to be able to play Java apps within Brew

W52T (Maker's site)
- 51x111x22
- NOT (!!) bilingual
- bluetooth
- 3in. WVGA view full webpages in landscape mode. makes Opera mobile really attractive now.
- TV

To be honest, because of screen resolution, the Casio phone seems out of the race this time.
While the design of the 51H is letting the whole phone down and the 60,000+ screen colours instead of 260,000+ for all other phones leave me a bit disappointed, the sensor security/scrolling features are very attractive, as well as the excellent but rare electronic GPS feature and the potentially awesome library of apps I could use beyond BREW with the Open Java player give the 51H the edge over the 52H and its however delicious blue LED lighting and sliding screen.
What do you think?!

Update 1:
Saturday, went by the Bic camera in Yurakucho to check out the 51H and 52T which came out on Thursday. There were no working models on the shelves but fortunately they had some if you asked at the counter.
Here are my first impressions:

W51H
The design is not as bad as I expected. A pretty well finished piece, even if it will not win any beauty contests.
The menus are the same as the Casio one, so no surprises there. No beauty contest winner either actually, once you go deeper than the root level... ;-)
The keypad has large, comfortable keys. The screen is incredibly fine.
The camera, as tested in the brightly lit store seemed good, and you could operate the sensor to zoom or raise luminosity levels pretty easily. A good surprise.
Because this model actually had a SIM card in it, I had the chance to be able to try the Opera browser in landscape mode. A very impressive sight, but unfortunately, used as a mouse pad the sensor felt near to useless, too slow or imprecise although the staff assured me that I would get used to it and "master the sensor" in no time with a bit of practice. The click, double click feature though worked nicely. Gmail, full screen, in landscape mode, on a keitai... hahaha!

W52T
As it turns out, this is not a bilingual model. So no English menus.
Even though I am a fan of sliders, the finish quality is poor, the buttons are too soft and small. Worst of all, the menu graphics were not upgraded for the high-res screen and are displayed in all their pixelated horror.
I didn't try the TV, but discovered that the browser cannot be used in landscape mode.
Anyway, no amount of luscious blue LEDs will change my opinion... I was really not impressed.

And I also tried the W51CA.
Ohhh, what a beauty! Very tight body, very strong finish, great buttons, I mean, if I had the vocabulary and my geeky gauges were not already in the red, I could talk about this thing like photographers do of their old SLRs.
The camera actually seems to smooth pics more than the over sharpening W41CA and comparing pics taken in the store by the 2 cameras seemed to show very very similar results. Nothing as bad as what Doug claims to have gotten out of it in the comments...

All in all, the W52T is out, and I think I'll need to take another look at the W51H... I am interested in trying something new so I may give a chance to the Hitachi model but I need to get confirmation that the camera is of the level I expect in low light conditions.
More later...

Update 2:
Gen & Matt bought the W51H last week and so I went for a walk with Matt to show him how to use his GPS etc... The 3D Navi was really impressive. You can really compare buildings. We were surprised at how accurate the 3D models were!

On the way, I did 3 night photo tests, to compare the Hitachi's camera with my W41CA's.
The results were very good. I thought the pictures were more crisp than the slightly over-sharpening Casio. Note: the anti-blur function of the Hitachi was OFF.

Results:
Wooden Gate: W51H: M, XL - W41CA M, XL
City Neons: W51H: M, XL - W41CA M, XL
Coffee cups: W51H: M, XL - W41CA M, XL

For argument's sake, I wish I could do the same tests myself with the new Casio W51CA. The results that were sent in by Doug in the comments were frighteningly bad... But apparently can be attributed to the new anti-blur function (which should just be switched off) and a smudge on the lens.
I would just wish to do my own test...
Doug, you wanna meet up?
Anybody else bought the W51CA?

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March 4, 2007

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| Google | keitai |

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Google Calendar & Mail on Japanese mobile phones!

It's been possible to use gmail on Japanese AU phones (sorry for DoCoMo and Softbank...) for 3 months now, by simply going to gmail.com on the EZ browser and logging in there. No mojibake guaranteed (!!), unlike the previous gmail.com/m version.

But I recently discovered that you can check your Google Calendars too!

Thanks to YamamoWorks's Google Calendar Mobile Gateway, you can now browse your calendars on the go!

Here's how to do it:
Note: You'll need to be logged in to your Google account on your mobile before that, so check your email, or visit gmail.com on it first and log in.

1. Using the EZ Browser, go to http://www.yamamoworks.net/gcmg/
Scroll down to the second link on the page (in Japanese) called "認証開始", click.
2. On the Google Accounts Access Request page, scroll to the bottom, to the Grant Access button, click.
3. Enjoy!

The gateway is in Japanese, but the functions are so simple, you can't really go/do anything wrong.
Don't forget to then bookmark your calendar page.

You can:
- show/hide calendars (checkboxes)
- add a new event (press key [0])
- scroll along your calendar (with keys [1] and [9])

It's a wonderful private Google world!
and 2 more reasons to be AU customers!

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October 12, 2006

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| Japan | keitai | UI |

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Winds Of Change?

Wouuuuh! the new DoCoMo phones just came out and I am blown away (for the first time in 4 years!); they have managed to 1-up ALL of the recent AU phones! My jaw is on the ground!
The Sony-Ericsson has a 3!! inch screen + a 1.5in sub-display (and a dual Mini SD !!! / Memory Stick Duo Pro slot) and at least 6 of them do GPS and most have 3MP AF cameras and can send mail attachements of up to 2!! MB (against 500kb in AU)...
*puts head in freezer & goes to buy more exclamation marks from the corner shop*

OK, more details later (I need to sleep) but I was on the market for a new phone, and hadn't really been impressed by the latest AU collections (hence my silence) and the long-awaited "number portability" freedom operation ("take your number with you when you change carrier") is 11 days away...
I have a feeling I may be taking my business to DoCoMo real soon!

Update
OK, so I can now confirm that the 903i series has introduced 11 new phones.
6 are the main usual models, that get updated everytime, and 3 have a TV and 2 others do high speed data.

Design
Well, I have to admit that nothing comes close to AU phones. The DoCoMo phones are usually bricks, where each new iteration can barely be distinguished from its previous incarnation.

Specs
The main 6 phones now have a GPS (and only them), that's a 100% improvement over the previous collection. With that comes the usual pedestrian navigation assistance services (similar to AU's Naviwalk) powered by both Navitime and Zenrin Map. And then you get the Anshin Navi to spy on your kid's whereabouts, as well as another new service to locate your phone you lost last night when you were so drunk!
All 6 phones are bilingual.
All 6 phones have a 3+ MP camera. 2 of them are CCD, the others are CMOS (arguably of lower quality)
That means they all qualify for a phone that I could use!

Noteworthy
- none of them come with Edy pre-installed, but of course they come with IC chips and you can play with their mobile credit card DCMX, and the new QuikPay service that seems to want to compete with Edy, SUICA etc... and I guess you can install Edy later, on your own.
- the NEC comes with T9 input engine, which for foreigners that email a lot in English comes handy (if you're tired of punching your keypad like it's 1998)
- you can send emails of up to 2MB, against formerly 500KB.
- oh, and that great Push-Talk service that was launched to incredible PR with the 902i series...? well, you'll have to scroll down ALL the way to the bottom of the presentation of the 903i series to find a mention of it... To be fair, AU's Hello Messenger didn't fare much better.

Me?
I am very interested in the SH903i.
It's got a nice 2.8in Aquos screen.
It's the only phone with an autofocus 3.2 MP CCD camera, and a twist-and-fold screen (a must for shooters like me).
The camera launches automatically, and in full widescreen, when you twist-and-fold the screen. That's a great touch, instead of having to do the twist thing and then launch the camera.
And a quick photo effect screen (white balance, light, resize) that you can access on the fly (smth the W41CA doesn't have and did really badly and killed my use of the camera where I had to dig into a sub menu, select the effect I wanted to use, click, then confirm that I wanted to use it (duh!!) click etc...)
It also seems to be their thinest model.

the void
Well I have never been a DoCoMo customer before, so don't know what I am up against. Don't know anything about their pricing, don't know about their customer service, don't know how slow data transfer is compared to WIN phones, don't know about their coverage, don't know how easy it is to write in English on the phone, don't know how easy the menus are to handle, don't know how easy it'll be to convince Akiko to follow me to DoCoMo so wecan still enjoy the Kazoku Waribiki etc...

Any ideas?

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October 10, 2006

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| GPS | Japan | keitai |

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In Oct 2006 in Japan, 75% want a GPS in their phone against 29%, in Jan 2004

NEPRO Japan, following their previous study published in January 2004, have again published the results of a study into people's useage of their mobile phones' GPS function. [via]

What must be said on the number of mobile phones equipped with GPS: as of summer 2006: 90%+ of AU models since 2004, 3-4 models for DoCoMo and Vodafone (rebranded Softbank as of 1st of Oct.) so it's unlikely that more than 50% have a GPS chip in their phone, but DoCoMo and Vodafone do still provide local information using cell-tower signal (400m accuracy at best I think) to roughly identify where you are in Japan and what shops, restaurants, convenience stores, banks, ramen shops etc... are around you.

It seems that compared to January 2004, 2.5x more want a GPS in their phone and that twice as many use theirs.

About the precision of such phones: indeed, simple GPS systems will not work well in the shadows of tall buildings, but the systems available in Japanese mobile phones are of course ready for urban action. The precision is surprising, 5m (the maximum commercially available, I think) even in dense areas, because not only is the phone capable of reading GPS satellites broadcasts on its own, but it is also refining its coordinates helped by the position of the nearby cell towers (using triangulation).
I recommend you to read more on that GPSone chip inside those AU phones.

Reusing the results translated by What Japan Thinks:

Of the 3608 people interviewed.
Female: 58% (previsouly 61%)
Men: 42% (39%)

Age class.
under 10: 2% (9%)
20's: 35% (45%)
30's: 44% (35%)
40's or above: 19% (10%)

Q1: Do you use your mobile phone's GPS functionality?
Yes: 26% (against 13% answering Frequently, Occasionally and Almost Never in Jan 2004)
No, but it has the capability: 25%
No, and it doesn't have the capability: 49% (82%)

Answer #2 seems too high indeed if added to answer #1 and may be due to people confusing GPS functions with the local area info offered by all carriers using cell-tower signals to locate your phone.

Q2: Do you think it's useful that mobile phones have GPS functionality?
Yes, really or a little useful: 75%!! (29%)
No, not really needed or not needed at all: 17% (17%)
Don’t know: 8% (28%)

The following questions are different from 2 years ago. But comparison is still possible.
Q3: For what purposes would you like to use a mobile phone with GPS functionality? (multiple answer)
Navigating towards my goal: 69%
Navigating towards a travel destination: 59%
Locating safety zones or evacuation zones during disasters: 48%
Searching for information on nearby public facilities: 39% like love hotels?
Checking the location or safety of children or old people: 39%
Replace car navigation system: 36% like this?
Searching for nearly car parking: 24%
Work-related navigation functionality: 9%
Other: 7%

Q5: What would you worry about when using mobile phone GPS functionality? (multiple answer)
Battery life: 69% yeah... a bummer...
Transmission or usage fees: 69% On AU phones with flat-rate data fee, no problems. Usage is about 90yen or day or 315/month
Infringements of privacy: 60% Be scared!
Accuracy of positional information: 43% Be scared!
Coverage area: 35% Unfortunately, yes, if the phone is off the network, then, no GPS...
Seems difficult to use: 15% Is pretty easy though!
Other: 5%

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October 2, 2006

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| design | keitai |

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Nendo's new mobile phone design for DoCoMo's N702iS

Another playful project by Nendo. Sounds like he had carte blanche and he made full use of it to push the metaphore of the glass until he drowned in it! ;-)

This mobile phone handset was a collaboration with NTT DoCoMo and NEC. We wanted a product that felt accessible and close to home, so we used the concept of a drinking glass, a form familiar to the hand.

We cast the phone in two layers of transparent and coloured resins to give a sense of transparency and depth. The indicator lights that signal an incoming call or text message move like bubbles, representing both bubbles in a drink and the way that information transmits from inside to outside. The earphone jack lets the user "drink up" music like you would put a straw in your glass. Both the inner and outer casings are interchangeable so that users can match the phone's contents to its form, just like we would choose a coffee mug for coffee, a teacup for tea, and a glass for water, and the options panel gives users a choice of eight different screen colours. The interface uses triple-axel speed sensors to give a "liquid" effect. When you stand up the handset and then turn it over, an hourglass starts automatically. When you shake it, the alarm stops. When you lean it towards another handset, information "pours" from one handset to the other just as we would pour liquid. The screen rocks in response to motion, and the "water level" goes down as the battery runs out. These are some of the features in our experiment to create a consistently sensory design.

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May 17, 2006

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| keitai | UI |

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SONI ERI W42S, S for Spy Shot

I am getting pretty excited by this spy shot of what looks like a shop-shelves dummy model of the forthcoming AU Kddi Sony Ericsson WIN phone series W42S.
Notice the "Walkman" icon (weird... all AU phones are already mobile digital music players thanks to LISMO)...
Notice the weird metal dial at the bottom of the phone (some kind of attach for a hook system to strap your phone on your bag or clothes?)...
Notice the unusual Xpad with a weird plasticky area at the center (this has to glow and blink during calls, or it could be some sort of novel trackpad area... scroll pages by rubbing your thumb there...).
Woooooooooooooh!

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March 26, 2006

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| GPS | keitai | UI |

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AU's new 3D Navi!

woua! am all over this one! Especially cos it's not supported (yet) by my new phone, but AU is releasing a complement to their popular Naviwalk pedestrian navigation service, called 3D Navi, that will detail road intersections and destination maps in 3D. Only one phone is supported for now, the WIN43T to be released at the end of April. 2 view angles will be available, eye line and bird view. The service will keep its current price between 95� a day and 315� a month. The funky views will only be available to lucky Tokyo strollers.
Look at the pics!!

[via]

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January 19, 2006

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| keitai | mobile | UI |

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Scroll wheels, discs, pads and cylinders

Updated [MP3 Insider] Synaptics wasn't offering its technology to any other MP3 player companies until recently, and it still doesn't offer the round version found on the iPod to anyone but Apple. However, as mentioned above, the company made a straightened-out version of it for Creative's Zen Touch, which evidently doesn't violate whatever agreement Synaptics has with Apple. It makes a bit more sense conceptually, since song lists run up and down instead of in circles, but the scrollwheel lets you scroll faster, because your finger can go around continuously instead of returning to the top of the strip. To make the Zen Touch even more competitive with the iPod, I recommended to Creative that it implement a new feature that would scroll down one screen.

Limiting my scope of discussion to navigation wheels and pads (& co.) found on MP3 players, I have to admit that neither the iPod wheel (a disc really), nor the Zen's pad feel really practical to use.

In general, I like:
+ buttons you don't have to press hard on to click (but touch-sensitive buttons don't always work... therefore I don't trust them and am forced to double check my actions on the screen, which is counter-productive etc...),
+ an interface that very obviously links the movement of your fingers with the direction of your input (rotating a disc to scroll vertically in the iPod is irritating),
+ a physical input interfrace like the disc of the first generation iPod that was actually rotating under your fingers. Give me more of that!

For those reasons, my favourite input interface for an MP3 player would be closer to the Sony scroll wheel (cylinder really), like the one found on my mobile phone:
+ it's small, yet allows for efficient and fast scrolling,
+ it mimics the direction of the scrolling interface,
+ gives discreet step-effect feedback to the finger.

However, the buttons they added on the sides for Next and Back are too small for my big fingers and too hard to press (in contrast, the wheel has to be caressed, and pressing on the side buttons makes me press on the wheel too).
For the side actions, I would re-use the Microsoft's tilt wheel mechanism as:
+ it allows for minimum-effort panning forward or back in the interface.
+ your finger move in the direction of your navigation in the interface instead of clicking down to move right and clicking down to move left too...

Integrating some of this essence in the Sony scroll cylinder to make it perfect for me, I would:
+ double its length, merely using the space previously taken by the side buttons
+ give it touchpad-like properties that would allow me to rub my thumb left and right along its length to navigate back and forth in the interface.

Update
Now, what I found out while playing Bomberman on my phone is that, no matter how practical for surfing the net it is, the scrollwheel is unusable for gaming. You have no way to precisely control your up and down input and it is likely you'll go up 2 blocks instead of one and step in the field of the bomb etc...

So that kills any of my theories above... and that killed the scrollwheel on the Sony phones (sometimes in mid 2005) who gave "gaming" as their official reason for phasing it out in favour of the ubiquitous Xpad with center button (it was also making phones too thick and letting too much dust inside the phone leading to more breakdowns - I heard from insiders).
Probably feeling a little bad for this awkward move (aren't Sony totally marketing their phones as music players and not consoles though, in Japan!!?), Sony now offers "page scrolling" buttons on the side of their phones, but reaching for those buttons after having clicked the center pad button requires moving your thumb to a totally different place on the phone which actually requires you to modify your handling of the phone all together, and therefore, I never use those buttons... Duh!!
Or they could have just made a tiny scroll wheel to fit in the space of the Xpad center button. but they didn't and I found something else...

Enter the Jog Ball.
Have you seen some of the super thin D-Snap Panasonic digital cameras... they had, in place of a dial or Xpad, a ball. a super tiny 10mm diameter ball that you could also click (same as on some of those huge mouse/joystick combos...).

Now, imagine replacing the center button of any mobile phone Xpad with a ball that can scroll in any direction and be clicked...
You'd keep the clicking, you'd keep the super fast scroll (which is a pain in the ass on ALL phones) and you'd keep the Xpad for gaming and usual tasks. You could think up a hundred new cool games around the new inputs. You could use the jog ball as a precise mouse cursor...
Hear me!!?

First published on 2005-01-28

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