We in Asia have to wait till 2007 for the iPhone to arrive, the recent report from FCC has shattered dreams of millions since the widgets were to be substituted by Cingular’s monopolistic services for the mean time, the sole support for 850 and 1900Mhz would make parallel import (or roaming) to most parts of the world impossible.

The Japanese aren’t waiting, so they wrote an iPhone theme for their super high-end Toshiba 911T phone… and unfortunately the whole package does look a lot more attractive than the iPhone itself. Think about it, a 3″ W-VGA screen (800×480 pixels), One-Seg DMB tuner, HSDPA support, a microSD slot with support up to 2GB (plus 1GB internal memory you get 3GB), a battery that lasts more than 40 minutes, an anti-shake 3.2MP camera with autofocus, removable battery (thank god), Microsoft Office and Adobe PDF document reader, bluetooth A2DP supporting streaming to HiFis, a slider with a real keypad, 3 shiny color variations… we can also pick up the Oakley A2DP sunglasses with headphones. If you live in Japan, forget about the darn iPhone. –Sam Chan

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Softbank announces today their strongest ever multimedia phone, the 911T manufactured by Toshiba. This slider houses a 3″ W-VGA screen (480×800 pixels) in its 17.9mm thin sliding body (4mm thinner than the Toshiba W52T slider, 51×112x17.9mm 142g). The phone runs on Softbank’s 3.6Mbps HSDPA network, receives One-Seg digital TV service, comes with Bluetooth A2DP profile so you can connect your stereo headphones wirelessly, you can also stream music to supported bluetooth HiFi’s. Toshiba has partnered Oakley to design a pair of sunglasses with stereo bluetooth headphones on it, these cool looking glasses will come with the phone as you buy it, so be prepared to pay for quite a bit. The camera is a 3.2 megapixel CMOS with autofocus and anti-handshake functions; internal memory is 1GB and you con expand it with microSD up to 2GB (that’s 3GB altogether). The standard highend features such as MS Office document reader, full HTML browser and Felica electronic money chip are all built in. This mad phone will go on sale in March, expect it to be a hit. Jump for more pics.

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You know how sometimes you need to have the gadget grow on you after the purchase before you start to get comfortable with using it? Well, Japanese toys manufacturer Takara-TOMY has brought this to a completely different level with the new kind of One-Seg DMB toy TV they showed us at Toy Forum 2007 this morning. This portable TV itself certainly reminds us of the iRiver Clix, it carries a 3″ QVGA TFT screen which is not bad, and it runs on alkaline batteries you buy supermarkets (61×99x20mm). The TV can last up to 4 hours each time and you can record your programs to microSD. What’s so special about it is that there is actually a character built in- a female voice that will respond every time you press the a button: changing channels, adjusting brightness and volume, turning it on or off.

The voice will start off as being unfriendly, but as time goes by, when you use the buttons more it’ll become more and more friendly. And this change of attitude will be reflected by her reaction when you press your buttons. So on the first week she’ll say things like “Don’t you think it’s a bit too bright?” or “Are you just changing channels for fun because it’s annoying…”, but if you get acquainted with the TV over time, she’ll start saying nicer things like “Oh, you’re back!” or “Yep, turning up the brightness for you now”. (We’re serious, these quotes are translated carefully) The company is going to release a whole series of these TVs with different characters and different personalities. We think it’s a bit kinky, but in case you are interested, you can pick them up in Japan for 200USD autumn this year. — Sam Chan

Takara-TOMY toy TV [Impress]

You’ve seen how DMB tuners are built into your music player, PDA, phone, electronic dictionary; how about just having a DMB tuner with a screen? If you like to go back to basics, Bluedot might just have the answer for you. Announced today is the BTV-400K that does nothing but receive DMB (One-Seg) broadcast, in fact it is the world’s first portable TV that does that (DMB and DMB only), even the USB port at the side is solely for battery charging but not data exchange with your computer. Well done. You’ll be glad to know that the a 272×400 pixels 4″ TFT screen is mounted on a 70×126mm package with a thickness of merely 11mm. The battery should last for 3 hours, and can be expanded to 10 hours by an optional battery. This portable DMB TV is only available in Japan for USD 300. Another pic after the jump.

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The Japanese tend to make things complicated. Against all odds, they decided that electronic dictionaries are better than paper, and figured out ways to assert the belief. The electronic dicionary should be goodlooking, intelligent-looking, pocketable and very expensive. In fact, the Japanese spend more time with their handsome looking electronic dictionary-cum-translators than actually learning a language for real. Sharp even bothered to add a DMB (one-Seg) tuner into their sentimentally named Papyrus line of electronic paper-free dictionary. Excellent combination, just when you were watching Friends and wondering who da heck are your friends, simply swivel the screen and check your list against the dictionary definition. ITmedia took the PW-TC900 for a spin and liked it. The ASV screen was awesome and the reception was good. The extra MP3 and JPG support came as a bonus and added to the fun. The team concluded that the TC900 was “sinful” as it could distract users from what they should really be doing. — Sam Chan

Sharp Papyrus PW-TC900 Review [ITmedia]

Here’s Toshiba’s first attempt to put a DVD drive and DMB (One-Seg) tuner into their DAP, what’s more they even threw in Divx support. ITmedia Japan took it for a test drive, and it went well. The digital broadcast quality was suboptimal, but that’s due to the broadcasting technology itself rather than the player. Divx support worked flawlessly, DVD playback was fine. The built in speakers were tad soft in volume, but those on the cradle were great. They called the size and 650g of bulk “appropriately proportional” to the brilliant 5″ screen. Their bottom line is that the SD-P50DT is a good DAP for watching movies on the train. Really, we prefer getting a UMPC. No comment on whether this will be exported, note that this model does not belong to the Gigabeat line. — Sam Chan

Toshiba SD-T50PV Review [ITmedia Japan]

It was just a while ago since we thought that Digital TV was something out of this world: amazing quality (not really), amazing coverage (nope) and premium price (not anymore). What we really care more is that we won’t miss any programs that we want, and we want them recordable, cheap, anytime and anywhere. Well, recently USB digital TV tuners (One-Seg Service) have been engaging in a price war, so much that you can pick one up for the price of a prepaid phone (9000 yen = $75). If you happen to drop by Japan, why not? It might not work in your own country, but it makes a decent geeky Christmas gift. Here’s an excellent buyer’s guide to DMB USB modules. And no, you don’t need to know the language, all you need to do is to recognize the picture and the price-tag. — Sam Chan

USB DMB Tuner Comparison [Impress Japan]