A new addition
to Japan's NTT DoCoMo's Raku-Raku range, the Phone IV from Fujitsu, has
officially shipped today. Raku loosely translated means comfortable or easy.
But to us Westerners, a Raku-Raku is mobile handset deliberately designed to
appeal to the senior citizen whose eyesight and hearing are beginning to fail.
So that's Old Farts, then. In order to help out the older citizen, the handset features noise reduction
to improve the clarity of the call and sound levelling to improve what the other
party hears. This handset is claimed to be the first in its genre to actually have a GPS
receiver built-in along with associated mapping software. So if you've forgotten
where you are, then you can find out. There's also an intriguing scanner facility which enables the user to create
emails without having to touch the keypad. Which is great considering the
complexity of Japanese Kanji scripts. Although this is yet another Symbian based phone, its chances of shipping
outside Fujitsu's home market look very slim indeed.
