Wellness phone and mobile TV: Crazy Japanese inventions
If you're not satisfied with the technological capabilities of phones in the UK, then you need to up and move to Japan. Their phones do it all
What we really like about Japanese handset culture is its absolute openness when it comes to trying out new ideas. The US and European markets are mainly driven by popularity and although some manufacturers are brave enough to break the mould, many don't.
Enter NTT DoCoMo's stand at the Mobile World Congress and the Wellness handset (pictured), a phone designed to keep you fit and healthy as well as make phone calls. Why, you ask? According to one of its creators, it's because the Japanese diet is changing and people need an easy way of keeping track of their health.
The Wellness phone offers an impressive variety of features including a pedometer, heart rate monitor, body fat monitor and even a bad breath monitor -- you don't want to be fit but have smelly breath, do you? At the moment the phone is only a prototype but will probably be made at some point.
Click on the next page for pictures of the Wellness phone and some more Japanese phone goodies, including the Panasonic Viera TV phone. -Andrew Lim
It's chunky but if you're buying this to keep healthy, then carrying this brick around will be an added bonus to your workout regime.
Look at that pimped-out casing that, aside from matching your chrome wheels, will also act as a great SOS mirror when you're stranded in the park after having gone for a long twilight jog.
If proper mobile TV ever makes it over to the UK then we definitely want to see handsets like this pop up all over the place. Not only was the picture extremely sharp on the Panasonic Viera phone, but the phone itself looked pretty cool too.
Watching TV on your phone is supposedly the next big thing. If this phone is anything to go by, we can see why everyone's so excited. Still, you might not want to get caught watching Neighbours when you're at work. Or Hollyoaks -- that's just sad.
Check out the plethora of buttons on offer. This handset is meant to be played with and fanatical button pushers will be in heaven.
There's no denying you're the bee's knees when you whip this keypad out. Just look at the size of the Viera phone when it's fully extended -- this phone means business. Let's hope we see a Viera phone in the not so distant future. Either that or we could always move to Japan.