The concept is similar to the Sony Tablet P, and allows for either two apps to run at once utilizing their own screens, or taking up both screens for a larger view of things.

Currently only certain apps such as Google Maps, the web browser and media players make use of the dual-screen function. The ability to fold the phone in half and share videos, and photos with people sitting opposite sounds particularly useful, and could be used in future games (Connect 4, Battleships etc).

The Medias W is currently only available in Japan, and it seems as though this dual-screen wonder might stay that way for sometime to come. What do you think, would you be interested in seeing such a device ship outside of Japan or do you feel that this is a very niche product with limited real world use potential?

[ Source ]

The post NEC Medias W is a Dual-screen, Folding Smartphone appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

NEC started working on organic radical batteries back in 2001 and the company has just introduced their latest development, a 0.3mm super-thin prototype organic battery that appears to be a perfect fit for future integrated circuit cards and may be the world’s thinnest battery yet.

Organic radical batteries are incredibly thin, have a very high energy density and use no heavy metals (therefore no problem of proper disposal). ORBs of 0.7mm thickness were standard until now. The newly developed NEC organic battery is ultra thin and can be printed directly onto a standard IC card of 0.76mm thickness.

And we will be able to add circuit boards with tiny components like a display and antenna onto the surrounding polymer film. According to the company, the new technology will allow us to incorporate features such as a display and data communications to next-gen smart cards.

But for now, all those things that could be incorporated will depend on the battery which comes with a capacity of 3mAh. The company says that this is good for refreshing the integrated display (unspecified) up to 2000 times or for transmitting data via the antenna 35 times before there is a need for a recharge. The incredible thing is that it will take only around 30 seconds for recharging the battery fully. And after 500 recharges, its capacity will be reduced by only 25%.

The post NEC’s Organic Battery Is Just 0.3mm Thick appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Aside from swapping out the name, NEC doesn’t appear to have changed very much with this since we saw it in January. There are two seven-inch 800×600 displays, but they are sadly both of the resistive touchscreen variety. I guess you need the precision of a stylus to write certain Japanese characters, but capacitive really should be expected in this day and age.

The other big downer? There’s absolutely no mention of any Honeycomb action for this poor tablet, getting stuck with a stretched out version of Android 2.2 Froyo. It also doesn’t help that there’s only 384MB of RAM and a mere five hours of battery life. A Cortex A8 processor runs the show, but they’re not talking about clock speeds.

I don’t mind the idea of a tablet with two touchscreens, since it’s almost like a netbook without a physical keyboard, but the NEC LifeTouch W isn’t really the way to go about doing it. Look at the size of those bezels too! In any case, it’s set to ship to Japanese retailers next month.

The post NEC Android Tablet gets Dual Display appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Android isn’t just for smartphones and tablets anymore. If NEC has its way, you’ll be wanting to get your hands on its Android-powered LifeTouch Note netbook too.

The idea isn’t exactly original, as other companies have entertained the idea of an Android netbook in the past, but you would think that plunking Honeycomb on something like this would have made more sense. That upgrade might come in the future, but the LifeTouch Note is getting pre-loaded with Android 2.2 Froyo instead.

Tech specs include an NVIDIA Tegra 250 mobile processor (Tegra 2), up to 8GB of internal memory, GPS, accelerometer, WiFi, SD/SDHC slot, and a 2MP camera. You can get it with or without 3G, but the weird thing is that the 7-inch LED backlit display is a resistive touchscreen. Seriously? Why not capacitive like everyone else? It’s not like you need the resistive precision for handwriting or text entry. You actually have a physical keyboard.  It also has a touch-sensitive pad so you don’t have to mark up the screen.  A headphone jack and mini USB.

I guess it’s an interesting idea, but it looks like the netbook realm is better reserved for Chrome OS.  At least we can expect it to be cheaper than a Windows netbook.  We’ll have to wait and see how it competes with the Asus slider netbook.

[via Akihabara]

The post Android Powers NEC LifeTouch Note Netbook appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Designed to run independent applications that can run at the same time, at first glance the Cloud Communicator looks and sounds interesting. On the inside it’s powered by an ARM Cortex A8 processor which should provide somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1GHz of processing power. It also comes with the standard user-facing camera and a trio of wireless connectivity options.

Now with everything going right on the hardware we can’t figure out how NEC fumbled the screen so poorly. Rather than deliver multi-touch displays that are the new norm in this technology, the Cloud Communicator display is based on resistive technology coupled with stylus input.

The OS is courtesy of Android but details are vague as to which version it’s running, we expect Android 2.3 (Gingerbread)  but will wait to hear more on this front. NEC provides access through the device to their own Android application market known as andronavi which is interesting but hardly a game-changer.

Lastly, battery life clocks in at a paltry 5 hours which seems ridiculous but when you factor in dual 7” screens it’s slightly more understandable. There is a single-screen Android tablet that was also launched by NEC at CES, the LT-S Cloud Communicator, which has somewhat better battery life but is still delivered with that disappointing resistive touchscreen.

Oh, and if you thought the inclusion of the word “cloud” in the product name might include some cloud-based advantages to these devices like Chrome, NEC failed to mention anything in that vein so don’t hold your breath.

The post NEC dual-screen tablet is best judged by its cover appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

I imagine that much of the “guts” of the dual-screen tablet will be the same as its single screen counterpart, meaning that we should expect an ARM Cortex A8 processor, 3MP camera, SD card slot, WiFi, GPS, and Android 2.1. The main difference, of course, is the inclusion of a second 7-inch “Retina Touch Panel” display.

The idea of rocking two touchscreens on a single tablet isn’t exactly new, but many of the concepts and prototypes we’ve seen thus far have left something to be desired. I’m not entirely sure what NEC is going to do to make its doubled-up Cloud Communicator any better, but if the rumors hold true, I should be able to find out in just a couple of weeks.

[NEC]

The post NEC Cloud Communicator Android tablet with dual screens at CES appeared first on Mobile Magazine.