Out to save the world, are ya? No, no, don’t start shoveling your propaganda down our throats. We get it. You have your hybrids and we have our Hummers. But here’s a product we both can agree on: Fujitsu’s “Zero-Watt” Monitor. It claims to use absolutely no power when the display is in stand-by mode, which means two things: lower power usage and lower utility bills.

A nifty little switch automatically turns off the power of the monitor when your computer goes idle. When the PC becomes active again, so does the monitor, which is then powered back on once the computer emits a signal. You’ll be able to get your own personal “Zero-Watt” sometime in the summer months of this year for around the same price as a conventional monitor.

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You know how China is a land of freedom in terms of copyright laws, with all those small brands copying Nokia phones and iPhones with the sole consequence of making (good) money. Now how about a big brand copying another big brand, this time being staged in the land of Japan? Jump for more drama.

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Nom Nom Nom. Now that is what I call a tasty notebook. Don’t get us wrong. We understand laptops have quite a long way to go before they are considered a green consumer electronic, but Fujitsu is on the right track with this laptop made from a corn polymer.

Similar to the material which makes up biodegradable plastic beverage cups, the polylactic acid which is the main ingredient for the casing is made from fermented biomass. So in other words, the corn niblets left over from dinner. Which only bares the question, is this laptop case edible? Not saying I would eat it, but ya know, just in case. Speaking of which, this image is vastly lacking a hottie Asian model, which I would also…. not eat, just in case. — Andrew Dobrow

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Fujitsu was once known for bathing cell phones as well as dirty Asian model girls, but a new Chinese phone, the CK800, can do so much more. Not only can this bad boy take a bath to wipe clean your bad breath residue, but it can take a fall like a professional wrestler.

The CK800 is water and shock resistant, great for the outdoorsmen or just chilling in a 20-foot tall bathtub. It also comes with a handy AA-battery external charger. Take the jump for some naughty bathing action. (more…)

The UBWall is a Fujitsu-made concept which has burrowed its way out from under the R&D walls into Japan’s busy consumer district. UBWall is an interactive touch display with integrated Wi-Fi and RFID capabilities which first appeared about two years ago, but is only recently being used in the wild.

Financial-services company Nomura Securities is installing an still undecided amount of the UBWall terminals in a number of their institutions with the goal of providing customers with relevant information. UBWall contains a gigantic 50-inch plasma screen which lies dormant in “attract” mode until a customer approaches, which is detected through motion sensors. The integration of RFID into UBWall allows for any brochures or information about the company to be wirelessly sent to their mobile device, which really is pretty damn cool. — Andrew Dobrow

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If you’ve been weirded out by finger print scanning biometrics, then prepare to be even more unsure. Fujitsu announced its implementation of its PalmSecure Biometric Authentication System which reads the veins in your palm instead of finger prints. The PalmSecure went to work at the Hospital for Charged Particle Therapy at the National Institute of Radiological Studies (NIRS) near Tokyo, Japan.

Physicians and medics who are in need of a patient’s medical file are issued a smartcard implanted with an IC chip which holds a scan of the patient’s palm vein pattern. To unlock the information, a medic inserts the card into a card reader, and scans the patient’s hand on the palm reader. Fujitsu claims that the system is extremely reliable, with a false acceptance rate of less then 0.00008% and false rejection rate of 0.01%, adding that the complexity of palm veins makes it almost impossible to forge. — Andrew Dobrow

Press Release [Fujitsu, via Digital World Tokyo]

What da heck right? Yeah, what da heck, but that’s what fujitsu did at the press conference this morning, having the F703i phone ringing in the tub with a model, just to let the world know how important and beautiful it is to have a waterproof phone. “Moshi moshi!” We feel sorry for her- hopefully she’s paid well. Oh yeah, the phone can be washed over the tap, see? Apparently they’ve been developing this for 3 years, and managed to halve the thickness. Bravo.

Bravo to the marketing, too. What da heck. — Sam Chan

Press Conference [ITmedia +D]

Most of the scanners in market nowadays have OCR functions, that is, they can recognize the alphabets on the paper and convert them into texts (not graphics). More advanced scanners can scan documents and safe them directly as PDF or MS Word files. PFU, a subsidiary of Fujitsu Japan has just brought out a scanner that can scan your graphs into MS Excel. The new ScanSnap S510 can scan paper sizes from small business cards up to A3. Scanning speed at 150dpi is 18 sheets per minute, it can also perform scanning at up to 600dpi but at a much slower speed obviously. Bundled with the $500 kit is Adobe Acrobat Standard, ABBYY FineReader for ScanSnap and a couple of more ScanSnap softwares. The ordering opens today, but the scanners will be shipped in early February. — Sam Chan

Press Release [PFU]

Just 4 hours after AU KDDI’s announcement, NTT DoCoMo announced the new WCDMA 703i series in Tokyo. Nothing out of our expectation as we wrote about before. Also announced are the SonyEricsson BRAVIA SO903iTV DMB phone and Mitsubishi’s double-internal screen D900iDS, both of which Gearfuse premiered on Sunday. The 703i series is the mid-low end of DoCoMo’s 3G portfolio, so don’t compare their specifications with that of the W5 series from AU KDDI. Take note that all these phones will only be available in Japan and Japan only, they will not be unlockable, and neither will other versions be released outside Japan as they are co-developed between NTT DoCoMo and the manufacturers. We have pictures and details of all these cool looking phones after the jump.

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With a capacity like this, that’s a crap load of pirated movies you could fit on this thing! The announcement of Fujitsu’s 300GB 2.5″ hard drive, notebook owners can soon have as much storage space as most desktops on the market. There’s no estimated price in the press release, but we are guessing it’s going to be something like $2000, plus your first born son.

Fujitsu has been on the leading end of the stick where high-capacity products are concerned. With their mastering of Perpendicular Magnetic Recording (PMR), Fujitsu has kept ahead of the crowd with small and high storage equipment. Less then a year ago, Fujitsu announced their release of a 200GB 2.5″ drive. The 300GB is another small step for man, but a very giant leap for gearhead kind. — Andrew Dobrow

Fujitsu Announces World’s First 300GB 2.5″ Hard Disk Drive [PR Newswire]