Japan Computer Industry Scan articles from April 2004

Japan Computer Industry Scan archives from April 2004

KDDI finds defects in 320,000 units of 'au' mobile phones.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... TOKYO, March 29 Kyodo KDDI Corp. said Monday it has found defects in about 320,000 units of its ''au'' brand mobile phone handsets. KDDI said it will upgrade the software in about 258,000 units of A5503SA ''au'' mobile phones...

Pioneer to form in-house company to enhance plasma display business.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... TOKYO, March 30 Kyodo Pioneer Corp. said Tuesday it will establish an in-house company to enhance its plasma display business April 1. The move is part of a reorganization of Pioneer's home entertainment company that has kept the...

NTT DoCoMo develops controller to run appliances with handsets.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... TOKYO, March 30 Kyodo (EDS: APPLICATIONS FOR MONITORS OF FIELD TEST OF NEW CONTROLLER IS ACCEPTED AT http://fomafp.jp) NTT DoCoMo Inc. said Tuesday it has developed a controller that enables home appliances to be operated with its...

Personal info about 75,000 Suntory customers leaked.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... OSAKA, March 31 Kyodo Personal information on about 75,000 customers of Suntory Ltd. has leaked through a Tokyo marketing company that collected the information for the Osaka beverage maker, Suntory officials said Wednesday. But the...

Subscribers of optic fiber-based Net hookup services top 1 mil.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... TOKYO, March 31 Kyodo Subscribers of optical fiber-based broadband Internet connection services have exceeded 1 million for the first time, the Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and Telecommunications said Wednesday. ...

NHK, private TV broadcasters to enhance digital program copy control.
April 5, 2004... TOKYO, March 31 Kyodo Japan Broadcasting Corp. (NHK) and the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters in Japan said Wednesday they will stonewall attempts by viewers to illicitly duplicate digital television programs for commercial...

Casio, Hitachi launch mobile JV to challenge high-tech rivals.
April 5, 2004... TOKYO, April 1 Kyodo Casio Computer Co. and Hitachi Ltd. launched a mobile phone joint venture Thursday in yet another marriage between high-tech heavyweights pursuing cost effectiveness in a cutthroat market. Tokyo-based Casio...

IBM opens microchip technology, reveals deal with Sony.(Author Abstract)
April 5, 2004... NEW YORK, March 31 Kyodo International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) said Wednesday it will allow Sony Corp. of Japan to collaborate on the design of new chips as part of its new strategy to open its microprocessor technologies to other...

Sony sues Kodak over digital camera patents.(Brief Article)
April 5, 2004... NEW YORK, April 1 Kyodo Sony Corp. said Wednesday it has filed a lawsuit against Eastman Kodak Co. for infringing 10 of its patents on digital camera technologies. In the complaint lodged with a New Jersey federal district court,...

NTT Communications to offer broadband content service for condos.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... TOKYO, April 8 Kyodo NTT Communications Corp. said Thursday it will offer a high-speed image-distribution service for condominiums and other housing complexes across Japan, starting July 1. The fiber optics-based NTT Com CoDen...

Subscription growth slows at Softbank's Yahoo! BB services.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... TOKYO, April 9 Kyodo Softbank Corp. said Friday that subscriptions to its Yahoo! BB asymmetric digital subscriber line (ADSL) services totaled 4,004,000 as of March 31, but monthly growth in the number slowed considerably. The latest...

Fujitsu's U.S. unit to buy self-checkout business from Canada firm.(Brief Article)
April 12, 2004... TOKYO, April 10 Kyodo Fujitsu Ltd.'s wholly owned U.S. subsidiary will buy a self-checkout system business from Optimal Robotics Corp. of Canada for $35 million, a major Japanese business daily reported Saturday. The Nihon Keizai...

Ministry to reprimand Softbank over customer data leakage.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... TOKYO, April 12 Kyodo The telecom ministry will issue a warning paper this week to the Softbank Corp. group over a massive leakage of client data from Internet service provider Softbank BB Corp., ministry officials said Monday. The...

Fujitsu to enter self-checkout system business for retailers.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... NEW YORK, April 12 Kyodo Fujitsu Ltd., a major Japanese computer maker, said Monday it will enter the self-checkout system business for retailers with the acquisition of a unit of Canadian company Optimal Group Inc. Fujitsu said its...

LEAD: Takashimaya, Credit Saison enter capital, business tie-up.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... TOKYO, April 13 Kyodo (EDS: RECASTING WITH MORE INFO) Major department store operator Takashimaya Co. and Credit Saison Co., a leading credit card company, said Tuesday they will jointly develop and issue a new credit card for...

Softbank reprimanded over customer data leakage.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... TOKYO, April 14 Kyodo The telecom ministry issued a warning paper against the Softbank group Wednesday over a massive leakage of client data from Internet service provider Softbank BB Corp., ministry officials said. The Ministry of...

Sky Perfect, Excite tie up for Internet content service.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... TOKYO, April 14 Kyodo Sky Perfect Communications Inc. and Excite Japan Co. said Wednesday they have agreed to use each other's Internet portal site for content distribution and other services. The agreement covers the Sky Perfect BB...

Sony, Toppan Printing develop paper optical disk.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... TOKYO, April 15 Kyodo Sony Corp. and Toppan Printing Co. said Thursday they have developed an optical disk made primarily from paper and capable of storing large volumes of high-definition images. The 25-gigabyte disk is based on...

NTT Com to enable IP phone chat among users of different providers.
April 19, 2004... TOKYO, April 15 Kyodo NTT Communications Corp. said Thursday it will offer a new Internet-based phone service on May 10 that allows broadband subscribers to call each other, irrespective of their Internet service provider. The...

LEAD: Hitachi to release 5 DVD recorders.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... TOKYO, April 15 Kyodo (EDS: ADDING ESTIMATED PRICE) Hitachi Ltd. said Thursday it will be making a full-scale move into the fast-growing market for DVD recorders by introducing the Wooo series of five models offering DVD-RAM, DVD-RW...

Sony establishes mass output technology for blue-violet laser disks.(Brief Article)
April 19, 2004... SHIZUOKA, Japan, April 16 Kyodo Sony Corp. on Friday unveiled its new mass-production technology for next-generation large capacity optical disks using a blue-violet laser called ''Blu-ray'' disks, which are capable of recording over two...

Matsushita, Apple Computer develop editing system for TV.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... OSAKA, April 19 Kyodo Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Apple Computer Inc. of the United States have jointly developed an editing system for television programs targeting high-definition broadcasts, Matsushita officials said...

CORRECTED: Matsushita, Apple Computer develop editing system for TV.
April 26, 2004... OSAKA, April 19 Kyodo Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Apple Computer Inc. of the United States have jointly developed an editing system for television programs targeting high-definition broadcasts, Matsushita officials said...

NTT West unit to sell broadband kid-monitoring system.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... OSAKA, April 19 Kyodo NTT Marketing Act Corp., a subsidiary of regional telephone carrier NTT West Corp., said Monday it will put on sale Tuesday a system that allows parents to monitor their children in kindergartens with personal...

Sony Ericsson logs 3rd straight quarterly net profit in Jan.-March.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... LONDON, April 19 Kyodo Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications AB, a mobile phone manufacturer, said Monday it posted a net profit of 82 million euros in the January-March quarter, the third straight quarterly profit. Sales for the...

Any Music to distribute music to owners of special hi-fi stereo.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... TOKYO, April 20 Kyodo Any Music Inc., a joint venture involving eight companies, said Tuesday it will begin May 20 distributing music via broadband lines to owners of compact hi-fi stereo sets designed for the service. Any Music...

Sharp to enter rear projection TV business, targeting U.S. market.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... OSAKA, April 21 Kyodo Sharp Corp. President Katsuhiko Machida said Wednesday his company will enter into the large-size rear projection television business, targeting the U.S. market. But he declined to disclose details, including...

Mitsubishi Plastics to sell device for replaying video on handsets.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... TOKYO, April 22 Kyodo Mitsubishi Plastics Inc. said Thursday it will put on the market at the end of June a device that can easily record television programs in memory cards for replay on mobile phone displays. The pyramid-shape...

Sony, Nichia sign cross licensing deal on blue-violet laser diodes.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... TOKYO, April 22 Kyodo Sony Corp. and Nichia Chemical Industries Ltd. said Thursday they have signed a cross licensing contract on blue-violet laser diodes used in rewritable optical memory disks. The agreement allows the two...

Shoppers flood Yahoo with 100 mil. eMac orders after glitch.(Brief Article)
April 26, 2004... TOKYO, April 23 Kyodo About 20,000 online shoppers have placed more than 100 million orders to purchase eMac personal computers after a glitch in the Yahoo! Shopping site displayed about one-40th of the actual price of the computer,...