As 2010 draws to a close, smartphone use in Japan has risen to an all-time high, accounting for around 50 percent of all handset sales here. Yet it shames this columnist to admit that I’m still rockin’ an old Windows 6.1 phone — insofar ...

At the Eco Products 2010 show last weekend, Sony proudly displayed a new 13.3-inch plastic substrate e-paper prototype. While the company was not willing to disclose many details about the technology, it does use E Ink Corp.’s electronic paper technology. Unfortunately we have no ...

It’s never easy searching for the right Christmas gift for your geeky friends or family members. But when in doubt it’s always safe to go with a practical option. And if it happens to be fun too, then all the better! In keeping with ...

The second-generation Apple TV that Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced back in September has finally hit the shelves here in Japan. Despite the fact that it looks like little more than a hockey puck, the new digital-media receiver from the folks at Cupertino should ...

Japan has produced a number of fun USB storage devices over the years (“humping dog” memory stick, anyone?) and now there’s another to add to the list thanks to the good people at Cut n’ Paste. The Ninja Driver is a new USB memory-storage ...

Usually, if someone tells you their Wii is all red, you’d suggest they see a doctor. Thankfully, Nintendo’s new red Wii is more cause for celebration than medical scare. The Kyoto-based company is marking the 25th anniversary of one of its most popular games, ...

Most readers in Japan will be familiar with the local phenomenon of purikura. Translated as “print club,” they are small, user-decorated photographs with sticker backings. These personalized stickers are quite popular among young girls in Japan, who will often plaster them all over notebooks ...

While this columnist is admittedly upset that Mouse Computer named their latest product after my old college dorm room without attribution, it’s certainly very exciting to see an Android-based competitor for Apple’s “revolutionary” iPad coming out of Japan. The LuvPad AD100 is a 10.1-inch ...

One of the more popular items to come out of Japan last year was Kotobukiya’s “Star Wars” Light Saber Chopsticks, which made the rounds on popular tech blogs such as Gizmodo, Wired and TechCrunch’s CrunchGear. And while they might not have “the force” (nor ...

From high atop the summit of Mount Fuji last summer, despite miserable weather and poor visibility, 32-year-old tech enthusiast Joseph Tame sent video coverage of a spectacular solar eclipse live to the Internet from an impromptu mobile-broadcasting studio. With little more than a laptop ...

In November, more than 100 people met in Yokohama for a daylong “unconference” on technology and the Internet. Attendees addressed each other on topics of their choosing — the roster of speakers determined solely by whoever signed up fastest for time slots on a ...

Speaking on the sidelines at the CEATEC technology conference in Chiba on Friday, Takahito Iguchi made a bold statement: “We will make a new environment.” Iguchi is the CEO of TonchiDot, the company behind Sekai Camera, a much-hyped program that lets users digitally tag ...