Toshiba has released an astounding looking device scheduled for release in Japan at the end of May. No info anywhere in English yet, but the Japanese page is very well designed: http://genio-e.com/pda/

I've been pretty lazy keeping this Blog up-to-date - but one of the reasons is the Tokyo PC Users Group tpc.mobile newsgroup to which I post quite a lot. You can link to the the web or news version or sign up for the mailing list here. The group is great for finding out about the latest tools and services available in Japan and worldwide and the knowledgeable people there are very forthcoming with help and advice.

Following the release of the Casio E-2000 and the NEC Pocket Gear things have been pretty quiet on the Pocket PC scene here in Japan. Toshiba and Hitachi have announced they have new devices planned with Intel XScale processor, but Fujitsu has been most forthcoming with a device for the consumer market, announcing a planned release date of the end of May. CNETAsia has a nice article on it.

I decided not to upgrade from my G-FORT for the moment. The NEC PocketGear was almost right but I really wanted 64MB of RAM. The Casio looked cheap compared to the flashy images on the web and the bundled software was uninspiring. Will wait for something better. It's interesting that the Fujitsu mentioned about will come with Bluetooth in Japan but wireless phone functions instead elsewhere in the world.