Domo Arigato, Mr. DoCoMo
If you plan to be traveling in Japan anytime soon, NTT DoCoMo has a couple of clever phone tricks you should know about! DoCoMo will begin offering Area Mail, a new feature that delivers emergency information to mobile phones in a specific area. So you’re not tempted to ignore your phones, the emergency alerts come with a distinctive ringtone. The fact that the emergency alert can be limited to those subscribers most likely to be affected shows real promise over less intelligent mobile warning systems.
The other little trick DoCoMo is offering allows users to take advantage of Hon-yaku, a Japanese-English automated translator. If you speak into the phone in either Japanese or English, the phone will speak back in the other language. The translation takes place on a server, so you don’t need to worry about overtaxing your mobile handset. It also means that the handset needs no special technology and doesn’t require any upgrades to provide the service.