Tag - phones

 
 

PHONES

Positioned as Google's answer to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Gemini aims to tap into Apple's vast user base to expand its footprint in a rapidly evolving artificial intelligence landscape.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 15, 2024
Google launches Gemini app — with Japanese support — on iOS App Store
The app gives iOS users direct access to Gemini, which was previously accessible only by navigating through the main Google app or a web browser.
Hackers infiltrated the networks of multiple U.S. telecommunications companies to steal customer call records and compromise the communications belonging to a "limited number” of people in government and politics, officials said.
WORLD
Nov 14, 2024
U.S. accuses China of vast cyberespionage against telecoms
The hackers infiltrated the networks of multiple telecommunications companies to steal customer call records and compromise communications.
In the past two weeks, developer DeNA has raked in over $50 million for the Pokemon Trading Card Game Pocket app, a free-to-play game that charges for premium features.
BUSINESS / Tech
Nov 14, 2024
Gotta collect 'em all: New Pokemon trading card game becomes big hit
The novel yet nostalgic app has amassed over 30 million downloads worldwide in the first two weeks of its release.
Operators respond to telephone directory inquiries from Tokyo at a call center in Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, in October 1997.
JAPAN / Society / Regional Voices: Okinawa
Nov 11, 2024
As NTT ends its Dial 104 service, Okinawa's call centers look elsewhere
Naha and Nago were home to Japan's biggest call center operations, receiving around 125,000 calls a day at their peak in 1999.
Mazuki Takarada, who was arrested last month in connection with the murder of a 75-year-old man in Yokohama, is believed to be part of a series of robberies that have taken place in and around Tokyo since the summer.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 10, 2024
Japanese police seize over 100 smartphones stolen in serial robberies
The police are making gradual progress with more than 50 arrests, but the ringleaders remain at large due to the group's system of anonymity.
NAACP President and CEO Derrick Johnson speaks during the first day of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in August.
WORLD / Crime & Legal
Nov 9, 2024
Authorities probing bigoted text messages that spread alarm across U.S.
The messages urged recipients to report to a plantation to pick cotton, an offensive reference to past enslavement of Black people in the U.S.
A text message sent by a scammer tells a recipient that a refund can be made only through an electronic money transfer.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Nov 5, 2024
Police warn of refund scams involving smartphone payment apps
Scammers are exploiting smartphone payment apps, particularly PayPay, and fake online discount stores to commit fraud.
Nanako Fujita competes during a race in 2019. The recent news of Fujita quitting after her suspension for breaking horse racing's strict phone rules shows that bad habits related to smartphone use don't discriminate.
MORE SPORTS / Horse Racing
Oct 25, 2024
Horse racing in Japan has a smartphone problem
Nanako Fujita's recent retirement over breaches of smartphone rules put a spotlight on a big issue for horse racing in Japan.
People from Thailand look at used smartphones in Tokyo's Akihabara district in October 2022.
BUSINESS / Markets
Oct 23, 2024
Japan's secondhand smartphone market booms as households struggle
Sales of used goods in Japan have grown rapidly as households struggle to make ends meet.
Some 930,000 defective SIM cards of NTT Docomo and other carriers that use Docomo's network might become unusable even if they are functioning normally now.
BUSINESS / Companies
Oct 10, 2024
NTT Docomo recalling almost a million defective SIM cards
The defective cards were manufactured between December 2021 and October 2022, with serial numbers that start with GD06.
Mobile phone numbers with a 060 prefix could be available as soon as December.
BUSINESS / Tech
Oct 3, 2024
Japan considers new 060 mobile number prefix as 070 runs low
Numbers starting with 060 could be available as early as December, according to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
Actor Zhu Jian, 69, rehearses with other actors on the set of a micro movie during a filming session at a banquet hall in Zhengzhou, Henan province, China, on July 16.
BUSINESS
Sep 23, 2024
Micro dramas shake up China's film industry, aim for Hollywood
The leader in the micro drama space is Kuaishou, an app that accounted for 60% of the top 50 Chinese micro dramas last year.
A man holds a new iPhone 16 at an Apple store in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on Friday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Sep 20, 2024
Apple's iPhone 16 released in Japan
The Japanese version of Apple Intelligence will be launched next year.
An Apple store in Tokyo's Omotesando district
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Sep 18, 2024
Seven quasi-gang members arrested for obstructing Apple store in Tokyo
They are believed to have been seeking to purchase many iPhone 15 handsets at the store in the Japanese capital's Shibuya Ward for resale.
An attendee wears an Apple Vision Pro while holding the Apple iPhone 16 Pro during an event at Apple Park campus in Cupertino, California, on Monday. Apple introduced the latest version of its flagship device, the iPhone 16.
EDITORIALS
Sep 13, 2024
The genie is out of the bottle and headed for your phone
The touchscreen smartphone is now humankind's ubiquitous companion, and with each new product release, phone makers unveil new innovations.
A woman uses her mobile phone while holding a placard reading "STOP 5G" during a protest against 5G technology, in Bucharest, Romania, in 2020.
WORLD / Science & Health
Sep 4, 2024
No link between mobile phones and brain cancer, WHO-backed study says
The findings even apply to people who make long phone calls or those who have used mobile phones for more than a decade.
The Consumer Affairs Agency is advising people to ignore unfamiliar payment requests over the phone, even if a major company is named.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
Jul 9, 2024
Beware of overseas number phone scams, Japan’s consumer watchdog warns
Scammers claiming to be telecommunications company NTT demanding “unpaid fees” have duped victims into making substantial payments amounting to millions of yen.
Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani said that the mobile company now has more than 7 million subscribers, and is seeking to hit 10 million subscribers next.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 27, 2024
Money-losing Rakuten Mobile rolls out new 700 MHz service
The new offering, which is being introduced incrementally, will improve connectivity, including in densely populated areas, it says.
Apple CEO Tim Cook speaks during Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in Cupertino, California, on Monday.
BUSINESS / Companies
Jun 11, 2024
Apple's AI push could reinvigorate iPhone sales as customers look to upgrade
Facing choppy consumer spending and resurgent tech rivals, Apple has looked to AI as a way to invigorate its loyal fan base.
My Number cardholders will soon be able to save their identity verification information on smartphones.
JAPAN / Crime & Legal
May 31, 2024
Japan enacts revised My Number law enabling info on smartphones
The move is expected to boost My Number cardholders' convenience.

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Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?