Soyea Z5 3G mobile internet device

The Chinese company, Soyea, known primarily for its televisions, has released a latest mobile internet device (MID), Z5.

New Soyea Z5 is built on the 1.2GHz Intel Atom Z515 processor, it is equipped with a 5-inch touchscreen TFT display with 480×800 pixels (WVGA), a 8GB SSD, slot for microSD memory card, miniUSB and VGA port, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth version 2.0 + EDR, stereo speakers, touchpad, and webcam. Soyea Z5 MID is used Windows XP or Linux OS.

In addition, the Soyea Z5 MID is equipped with 3G module, which supports work in the networks CDMA EV-DO mobile network via China Telecom operator.

Dimensions of Soyea Z5 are 155×94x23 mm and weight is approximately 350g. Cost of Soyea Z5 MID in Amazon China online store is 5999 Yuan ($878).

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Hell Freezes Over, DoCoMo Offers a ROM Update for One of Thier Smartphones

One thing in Japan that pissed me off for years (8 in total) is the lack of ROM updates for Windows Mobile devices… During the pocket PC era, when Compaq, then HP and other manufacturers, provided ROM updates for their PDAs Japanese manufacturers claimed that ROM updates were impossible and pushed you to purchase a new PDA instead… Later on, HTC via DoCoMo and Softbank did the same. If you wanted a ROM update you'd have to invest in new device while in the rest of the world you could get an upgrade… Basically, if you were/are a Windows Mobile user in Japan you're badly screwed… Operators don't provide free ROM upgrades on Windows Mobiles devices…

Pissed by this lack of support from Microsoft, HTC and mobile phone operators, a year or so ago I asked Microsoft why? Why can't we get proper ROM upgrades? Apparently, before the iPhone was launched in Japan, it was impossible for mobile phone manufacturers to provide ROM upgrades (via Push or download) without loosing their phone certification given by the Japanese government… Once a phone is approved here in Japan, the manufacturer isn't allowed to change it in any way without loosing this certification… Since the certification process is a real pain, everyone gave up on offering ROM updates.

While this certification problem still exists, it appears that iPhones, and now Android phones, in Japan (HT-03A) are immune. After Apple updated their iPhone's OS several times in the last year or so (Softbank), now the giant DoCoMo is offering an upgrade from Android 1.5 to 1.6 via download (from the device itself)…

Now I'd like to ask to DoCoMo, Softbank, AU, HTC and Microsoft what the hell is going on? Why don’t you offer ROM upgrades, even a paid ones, while others, like Apple and Google, offers them in Japan? Apparently the certification process isn't that tough, maybe Microsoft doesn't care much about the Japanese market after all?

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Toshiba's Dynario Fuel-Cell, the Future is NOW !

Well next week actually, but WOW!!! Finally someone has the courage and give us, ultra hardcore geeks, the chance to play with fuel cell technology for real! Limited to only 3000 units and sold at 298,000 Yen (and 3,150 Yen for each fuel cartridge), the Dynaro allows you to recharge. “any” mobile device on the go and in the most elegant and hyped way possible…

To Toshiba engineers and folks working there… Congrats and well done!

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Twitter Now on a Ketai Near You!

Believe it or not but until recently Twitter was not available on Japanese mobile phones, and since just recently announced (made public yesterday) Twitter will have a mobile portal for Japanese mobile phones… Twitter hopes to penetrate the Japanese market where others like MySpace and FaceBook failed…

It's true I've never been much of a Twitter fan, or FaceBook fan either. I use both of these services but sporadically… And as for Japan, I believe Twitter will have a better future than MySpace and FaceBook, but I don’t see Twitter as a game change…

To put things in perspective, Twitter Japan since its launch has something like less than 900 000 users, while Mixi, the FaceBook like Japanese social networking giant has over 17 million users and is aiming to achieve 30 million accounts in less than four years… So Twitter has quite a challenge here and may soon face the horrible fact that in Japan, if you want to succeed… you’d better be Japanese.

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