Olympus Japan today announced the development of the worlds first 360 degree lens and camera prototype. With a vertical coverage of 180 degrees this camera is a boon to surveillance systems everywhere.  This camera won’t miss a thing as it can cover every possible angle so long as the room isn’t too asymmetrical.

No word from Olympus if the prototype camera will be commercialized or how much it’ll cost, but you can bet it’ll be out of the price range of most consumers.

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Japan’s largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo announced this morning that for the first time in the world, they have managed a 100% population 3G coverage with their WCDMA network. The last 2 villages with reception towers installed are both in Okinawa, where they don’t even speak proper Japanese. The towers will be powered up on Mar28. Take note that this is only population coverage but not area coverage, but you can expect that there’ll be 3G signals as long as there is a village. (We have no way to assess DoCoMo’s definition of a “village”) The company will continue to expand their coverage area (in rural areas) with the new 1.7Ghz band that they obtained from the government, on top of the ongoing HSDPA upgrading. You can call NTT obsessive for building towers in places where nobody uses cellphones anyway, but don’t forget that a lot of so-called developed countries don’t even have a satisfactory 2G coverage, cough ATT cough Vodafone. –Sam Chan

Press release [NTT DoCoMo]

One of the reasons of choosing a cellphone operator over another would be coverage, but no matter how good the network is there are always blind spots, this is especially true when you are 3G users (higher frequency lower diffraction), out of the city center, or even in your own room sometimes. NTT DoCoMo has got it figured out and started selling this box-like household antenna for you to put next to the window, dragging a 3.5 meters long cable and attach to your phone. There should be no chance of missing any calls anymore, if you are a frequent mobile internet user, this would speed things up a bit too. The model itself measures 10×10x4cm and weighs just under 300 grams. The best part is that the suggested retail price is only 25USD so you should seriously consider picking up one of these if you live in Japan and are users of the latest 903i/703i series. The antenna can take signals from the usual 2Ghz as well as the 1.7Ghz FOMA-plus area coverage at the suburb. For users with older phones including the PDC ones, you can pick up some of the older and less attractive models. –Sam Chan

Accessories [NTT DoCoMo]