Gearfuse

Willcom today also announced 2 design updates to their tiny “nico” phone (45×125x14.3mm 67g). As if the original design is not cute enough, they’ve decided to mount a cat cartoon character Koneko on top, they’ve also added the relevant wallpaper, ringtone and accessory to bundle with it. So now you can have a cat hanging out of your suit pocket (picture after the jump). Also announced today is the Benetton-branded nico phone; again without much differences apart from the color scheme. The nico phone is really a no-frills phone, with no camera, no fancy functions whatsoever. However the nico still takes Willcom’s W-SIM, which is not just a card but a full PHS module. So by plugging the W-SIM into a PDA (Sharp’s W-Zero Windows Mobile PDA) your PDA can make calls and get online on PHS. The nico phone boasts one of the lowest SAR ratings in the world which is 0.065w/kg. Just like the whole PHS line from Willcom, the nico can roam to Taiwan and Thailand. Price starts at $70 for the basic model, and $110 for the cartooned model. We’ve got a lot more graphics after the jump.

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Japanese network operator Willcom has announced the JRC WX220J this morning. The phone is nothing compared to the 20 phones you saw from AU KDDI and NTT DoCoMo 2 weeks ago, however the WX220J retains a really retro (20th century) design and stripped off everything fancy. The WX220J is targeted towards companies that use the PBX standard for their indoor chordless phone network; that is, when you call the land line, somebody will be picking it up at the other side on the chordless WX220J. The phone itself can hold up to 10 different (fixed line) numbers, so this is excellent for the person left behind when everybody else is out for lunch.

Once that poor employee gets off work, he can bring the WX220J home and expect it to work on the train, because the phone itself cam work just like any other PHS cellphones, and it will run on Willcom’s nation-wide network. The screen is a basic 128×160 65K color TFT, internal memory is only 1.5MB, but PHS roaming to Taiwan and Thailand is supported.

The good thing about using PHS is that the battery life is usually impressive: phone conversations can go up to 7.5 hours per charge and standby is up to 700 hours. To protect commercial secrets, there will be no camera on board; to keep all the employees focused, there will be no MP3 or JAVA program files supported. What’s left would be the Email support which ensures that nobody slacks off and can reply emails within minutes. The WX220J will be on shelves by Jan25, the price will be $110. Just treat this as the Japanese’s Blackberry, but with indoor cordless phone functions. — Sam Chan

JRC WX220J Product Page [JRC Japan]