New Technology Makes Mobile Phone Smarter

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STEVE INSKEEP, host:

Some of the technologies on display have already caught on in places like Japan. Japanese consumers already use their mobile phones to watch TV, pay for chewing gum at the convenience store and buy subway tickets. New technology is making the mobile phone even smarter now. And our last word in business today is remote control.

At the Consumer Electronics Show, a group of Japanese companies and universities showed off an iPhone application that allows the user to switch the lights on and off in an apartment in Tokyo. So if you think you might have left the light on, just call. The technology also allows for the phone to control home appliances from afar, which means that while you are at work, instead of going online shopping, you can do more exciting things on company time, like wash your clothes and do the dishes.

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