It’s easy to laugh at the Raku Raku III phone with its built in pedometer (ha ha), but it could actually be useful I suppose.

‘The pedometer is activated even while the phone is being carried in a handbag, etc. By setting the user’s weight and length of stride, distance walked and calories consumed can be calculated and displayed on screen.Furthermore, the pedometer function is integrated with the handset mailing system. Email messages indicating the amount of walking, and corresponding calorie burn, can automatically be sent to a designated mail address at a preset time everyday. This function is particularly relevant to users wishing to regularly update their doctors with this data.’

[I can just picture thousands of Japanese doctors receiving a zillion emails detailing the movements of their hypochondriac patients. “Are you sure I’m not dying, doc, I just felt a palpitation?”]