NTT DoCoMo is one of Japan's biggest wireless operators. So it is only logical that consumers would expect the bigger innovations to come from them. The company delivered indeed last Monday after announcing five new 3G FOMA 904i models capable of motion-sensing gameplay.

Accordingly, the motion-sensing capability has been made possible because of Chokkan Game support. After downloading the games from online sites, consumers can play these mobile titles by using intuitive motions such as tracing a finger and tilting or waiving the handset. Of course, the type of motion is dependent on the game's content.

The new phones sport pre-existing features common to DoCoMo units. But aside from the above mentioned, they will also have the following:

• 2in1 support: This service provides the capabilities of two separate handsets in one single unit. Under a single FOMA card, users are provided with two phone numbers and two i-mode mail addresses, and these are accessed independently by means of a Mode Switching function. Switching between modes changes the phone number, i-mode mail address, address book, mail boxes and call history. When using A Mode, the customer cannot view B Mode, and vice-versa.
• Uta-hodai support: Users can download full music tracks from i-mode sites supporting Uta-hodai for a flat monthly subscription fee. When downloading, users will accrue an i-mode information fee and packet communication charges. DoCoMo suggests that users planning to download a significant volume of data every month consider subscribing to flat-rate data communication billing plans "pake-hodai" or "pake-hodai full."

The D904i, F904i, N904i and SH904i could begin arriving in stores as early as May; at the latest they will be available in June. The P904i will go on sale in June.

Textbooks are written to do two things: to teach and to bore students. And that's why ZMP created its robots. The company believes a robot is the most suitable hands-on teaching material for basic mechanical, electrical, electronic, control and information engineering.

Its newest mechanical baby is the Nuvo robot. Nuvo is controlled via FOMA (Freedom of Mobile Multimedia Access), which is a 3G service available only Japan. Although far from perfect (the video was cut short just when the humanoid was about to tip over) it can pick itself up from flat-on-the-floor position. Something many super-sized and inebriated humans can't do. The company says it hopes teachers will use the Nuvo bots in class. We have a feeling students would want that, too.