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NTT DOCOMO's Touch Wood mockups make naughty puns easy
We're still not entirely sold on the intersection of gadgets and wood. Nevertheless, companies keep pumping out the concepts in response to our greener times. Here's NTT DOCOMO's effort using surplus wood leftover from Pacific culling operations. The Touch Wood prototype was developed in tandem with Sharp and Olympus and is based on the SH-04A slider. A Touch Wood mockup (pictured above) resembling a more feminine bean was also announced. In either case, the Touch Wood body is made of cypress without adding any artificial coloring or paint. And by using Olympus' 3D compression molding technique, they've manage to maintain the kind of durability, and resistance to water, insects, and mildew that you'd expect from, well, a tree. With any luck, these handsets will be on exhibit in October at the ITU Telecom World and CEATEC Japan shows... touch wood. SH-04A prototype pictured after the break.[Thanks, Stop Spamming]
Researchers show 100Mbps cellular data
As usual, we're given virtually no time to revel in the high-speed (relatively speaking, of course) wireless data we do have before some eggheads have to go and throw the wet blanket on us. Researchers from Germany's Heinrich-Hertz-Institut (a division of Fraunhofer) have apparently taken some standard-issue UMTS equipment and modified it to use MIMO -- the same tech employed in many modern WiFi devices -- to achieve 100Mbps downstream and a full 50Mbps upstream. For the sake of comparison, UMB (aka EV-DO rev. C) takes the crown with 280Mbps down; while there's no word on when this MIMO stuff might hit the streets, UMB won't see the light of day until 2009 at the earliest, so our German friends have a little time to capitalize. And yes, we'll be just fine with a mere 100Mbps on our cellphones, thankyouverymuch.
SmarTone-Vodafone gets Toshiba TX80, TS32
The goodness coming out of Hong Kong's ITU Telecom World 2006 continues, and this time it's Toshiba flaunting the hardware. Their new TX80 and TS32 are both destined for Hong Kong's own SmarTone-Vodafone, and Toshiba seems pretty confident about the launches -- the senior VP of its mobile group even went so far to say that these are "just the phones that people in Hong Kong want and need." We're a little skeptical about the claim, though, seeing how the TS32 doesn't even do 3G, instead topping out with EDGE on the 900, 1800, and 1900MHz bands. Other features include a 1.3 megapixel cam, microSD slot, and Bluetooth in the buyer's choice of Lunar Graphite, Desert Gold, and Midnight Purple. The TX80 is the more exciting of the pair, bringing 3G data, dedicated music controls, and a more respectable 3.2 megapixel shooter. Both should be available now across Hong Kong, though we don't envision much of a rush for either phone. Sorry, Toshiba![Via I4U News]
