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Mobile WiMax continues to make rapid strides in the race to establish a long-range alternative to Wi-Fi, with the latest breakthrough being a demonstration of wireless high-def TV broadcasts.

KDDI, the second-largest cellphone network in Japan, made a surprise move over the weekend when it announced that it is to begin operations in the US shortly.

Social networking services (SNS) such as Friendster and MySpace are evidence of the popularity of interacting with like-minded people online, but none can be as cutesy as the new mobile-phone SNS from Disney Japan.

The business section of Sunday’s New York Times has a rather breathless feature story [registration may be required] about an incredible new phenomenon that is sweeping the mobile phones of Japan – two-dimensional barcodes known as QR Codes.

Several months after being announced, Y-E Data’s YD-300 WUSB hub is finally on sale in Japan.

Nowhere on Earth do brand goods go down better than in Japan, with so-called designer labels stuck on everything from special-edition Hello Kitty keychains to cross-branded fast food, so NTT DoCoMo’s new Dolce & Gabbana handset is in good company.

Samsung’s other attention grabber on show at the Mobile Solution Forum today is evidence that the essentially meaningless pixel-count war between digital camera and phone vendors isn’t about to end anytime soon.

We all know that comic books are pretty popular in Japan among adults and mobile phones even more so, which is why one major publisher is putting the two together to launch the first subscription comic specifically for phones.

Japan’s cellphone users – i.e. pretty much everyone and their dogs here – could be in for a rude awakening if proposals that will result in them paying far more for their handsets bear fruit.

A survey in Japan has confirmed what we all suspected – the mobile phone is rapidly eating into how most people use their free time, as well as destroying more traditional forms of communication.

Once in a while reporters living, like your humble correspondent, on the bleeding edge of technology that is Japan have to let the façade slip and admit that something like NTT DoCoMo’s new mobile phone for the elderly actually looks rather appealing.

We all know Japanese cellphone users have it made, but the latest service available on handsets there is literally out of this world.

In today’s ‘Only in Japan’ corner, we have quite possibly the finest chimpanzee-based GPS sleuthing game ever to grace a nation’s cellphones.

As if they didn’t already have enough customers between them, those two 800-pound gorillas, NTT DoCoMo and McDonald’s, are teaming up to bring burgers and bytes to each other’s patrons across Japan.

After the phonic fun that was the 3GSM Congress in Barcelona this week, here’s a quick look at a rather appealing concept handset

Not content with having more 3G mobile phone users (65 million) than the entire population of the UK, Japanese scientists have achieved phenomenal download speeds on an experimental 4G network.

If any company knows how to make gorgeous phones affordable it’s Samsung, and the Korean giant’s latest handset does a fine job of keeping up appearances.

After the unwarranted hype surrounding Apple’s iPhone, which won’t see the light of day for months yet, we now have a little intrigue over a similarly hybrid phone that never was and never will be.

Next month in Japan sees the beginning of the endgame in an ambitious scheme to entirely do away with paper tickets across Tokyo’s complex public transport network.

Logitec’s latest Skype-toting pseudo-phone to be released in Japan stands more chance of success than most, as it comes as part of a deal with one of Tokyo’s largest Wi-Fi hotspot operators.

Japan’s third-largest mobile phone operator, Softbank, chose yesterday to unveil its master plans for an assault on market leaders NTT DoCoMo through its spring line up of handsets.

This is an odd one – a mobile phone that’s designed to sit on a desk and operate as a speakerphone, rather than actually go anywhere.

So, KDDI and NTT DoCoMo went off the rails today and unveiled 20 new phones between them but there’s really nothing much to write home about. As usual, we get a bunch of clamshells with not much originality to speak of, however…

Apple’s iPhone isn’t going to be available anywhere for half a year and won’t even make it to Japan at all unless a non-GSM version appears. Considering that isn’t happening until 2008 at the earliest, is the “Jesus Phone” even relevant to the Japan market? After all, aren’t the handsets here the best in the world anyway?

If you’re already weary of all the CES hype, with its rampant consumerism and one-upmanship and in need of a little divine help, then how about a cellphone strap featuring seven lucky, dangling gods from Japan?

Hypothetical question — If you’re a cheating dog who lives with his wife, yet spends most evenings fielding cellphone text message and emails from your little bit on the side, do you…

Don’t you just hate it when big companies take legal action that seems to rest on assumptions that their customers are morons? This story about RIM suing Samsung over the use of the word “Black” in the Korean firm’s BlackJack smartphone is a perfect example.

After at least one false start, Thursday this week sees Japan finally get a Motorola RAZR to call its own when DoCoMo launches the M702iS.

It may be ugly as get out, but Korean firm Miu’s new UMPC seems fairly feature packed.

Next time you fancy getting the theme from The Godfather or Close Encounters as a cellphone ringtone, just be careful where you buy it — you could be helping put the seller behind bars.

Palm’s Treo just went on sale in the US for $400 unlocked or $200 with a contract. Check out our video of the Great Candy-colored Hope after the jump.

Far Eastone Telecommunications has begun offering MSN/Windows Live Messenger to users of i-mode mobile phones, one of just a handful of companies offering the service globally.

Worldwide mobile phone sales grew 21.5 percent year on year to 251 million units in the third quarter, with India and China driving growth, according to research from Gartner.

Construction of Singapore’s planned free Wi-Fi service, called Wireless@SG, is now underway as the three operators chosen for the project prepare for the network to enter operation in early January.

Google has expanded to several additional countries a test to provide ads to mobile devices, as the search engine giant pushes into this uncharted territory and attempts to extend its vibrant advertising business into the realm of cellphones.

NTT DoCoMo and Intel will publish Wednesday a set of specifications that will allow users to load a second operating system onto their cellphones, the companies said Tuesday.

Taiwanese handset maker E-Ten Information Systems has launched a new Windows Mobile-based smartphone packed with GPS, computing capabilities, and VoIP software from Skype.

Sony has just let slip that its mylo folly is due to go on sale in Japan after all — in the middle of December in fact.

Japan’s NTT DoCoMo has attracted more than 860,000 people to its DCMX service that allows a cellphone with an IC chip to be used to make credit purchases in stores, it said Thursday.

Intel is blazing a trail from fixed to mobile WiMax with a chip that has just begun shipping in sample quantities.