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May 02, 2024
 

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IGADGET

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 11, 2007
Digital graffiti lets you make your mark
Irony is a word that is no doubt found in every language. A case in point is the widely accepted view that English is the lingua franca of the Internet. Unfortunately, while this expression nicely captures the linguistic dominance of English, the term itself originates in Italian. Despite this quirk English speakers unquestionably dominate the Web, but it's no linguistic desert for the rest. Spicing up the cyber offerings for Japanese speakers, Google recently launched a Nihongo version of its famed book search engine. This is the not-without-controversy service that allows you to search for a book and read an excerpt of it for free, perhaps even eventually prompting you to loosen the purse strings and splash out the cash on some literature. The new addition to cyberspace can be accessed at: books.google.co.jp/
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jul 4, 2007
R2D2 shapes up as the real gadget star
In the 70-odd years since the advent of talkies, how big a movie star you are has been measured by how many lines of dialogue you get. Presumably these need to be uttered in a language known to at least some members of humanity. R2D2, the robot droid of Star Wars legend, defied that convention to grab more than his share of the billing while emitting lots of sounds but not a syllable of it intelligible to anybody who was not a script writer. Proof of his enduring appeal is to be had in the latest gadgets rendered in his image.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 27, 2007
Finding a final resting place for retired mobile phones
No self-respecting person is going to toss out their address book into the street for one and all to peruse at their leisure. It would invite too horrendous a violation of privacy. So, it is only natural that we are loathe to trust our retired "keitai" to the tender mercies of the communal trash, especially considering the bountiful quantities of personal information that we leave in our phone's care. Getting rid of the hardware is easy enough, but how do we make sure that data kept on them disappears into oblivion, too? Exacerbating the issue is that technology and fashion attributes of mobile phones are changing at such a pace that a handset is lucky if it remains in employment after a year. This is feeding a constantly rising mountain of discarded but not disposed of phones. NTT DoCoMo as one of the chief keitai providers is naturally at the center of the dilemma. But it has burnished its credentials as a good corporate citizen by operating a recycling system for the secure disposal of no longer wanted handsets, and the erasure of the information stored on them. This recycling system has been available at DoCoMo stores for a couple of years, saving 40 tons of copper and more than 100 kg of gold in 2005. The system is now being extended with the help of the am/pm convenience store chain. The pair are teaming up to provide antitheft cell phone recycling bins in the convenience stores all over the country, providing a somewhat better option than a plastic bag on the sidewalk outside your apartment block.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 20, 2007
Gadgets to the rescue — vibrating pillow curbs snoring; toothbrush tracks your hygiene habits
Snoring is like the common cold — they both prove that the world's scientists are clueless about what is important in life. Rather than building a better spaceship, how about just removing these banes from our lives? Francebed, the name of which is only half truthful as it is the moniker of a Japanese sleep furniture company, is stepping in where the Nobel Prize coveters fear to take their slide rules. It has developed a vibrating pillow that is intended to reduce a user's snoring. The pillow packs a snore detection sensor rigged up to an internal vibrating mechanism. When the sensor picks up snoring, the pillow vibrates, presumably to get you to alter your position. It includes a microphone jack so you can record your snoring sounds, a winning idea if ever there was one, to check how well the pillow functioned. I would have thought anybody within hearing range of you could do that. The pillow is slated for release in September with a price tag of 29,800 yen with more information available at www.francebed.co.jp/. Perhaps most importantly at that price it's also a comfortable foam pillow so you can get to sleep without too much of a struggle. After all, it can hardly help you cut your snoring if you never get to doze off in the first place. But then again . . .
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 13, 2007
Dancing penguin ups the cute factor for iPods
Teddy bears might be the tradi tional cute characters of choice but the animal shape of the moment in Japan is undoubtedly the penguin. This is in no small part due to JR's Suica card advertising campaigns. Sega Toys are not a company to miss a trend and so, perhaps in tribute to the animated movie "Happy Feet," have followed up their iDog ad iFish robot toys with the iPenguin. The 12-cm tall robot flightless bird connects to your iPod and dances to the beat. Beyond its balletic prowess the iPenguin also feels happy or sad depending on what music you have playing. Just tap its beak twice while the tune is on and it expresses its feelings by flashing off and on the multicolored LED light display on its chest. Presumably its musical tastes are in line with those of its owner. The nimble-footed avian is coming out on July 26 with a price tag of 2,940 yen. It runs on three AAA batterie with more information available at www.segatoys.co.jp
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jun 6, 2007
Cell phones put you on a diet, find your celebrity look-alike
T wo obsessions in Japan — celeb rities and the cell phone — go to gether like sushi and soy sauce. Magic has taken this unholy alliance a step further with a new service dubbed "Face Check" (Kaochecki). This rather literally named offering is intended to tell you what celebrities you look like. Jut take a picture of yourself with your cell phone camera (or heaven forbid, even make use of a real camera) and then e-mail it to [email protected] for guys or [email protected] for the ladies, or even [email protected], presumably for others. The company then scans your face and dispatches back to you three photos of celebrities that you allegedly resemble, based on Oki Electric Co.'s face-recognition software. Some 15 million users have done so since the service's recent launch.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 30, 2007
DIY bread makers fill big gap in Japanese menus; robot cubes mimic people
Japanese cuisine does for seafood what French wineries do for the gift of the grape. But what it does for bread is more akin to the imposition the English have made on the world's palate. The alleged loaf consisting of six thick white slices with not a crust in sight at either end of it, and apparently consisting of ingredients shorn of all taste and nutritional virtue, is a culinary crime only too common in supermarkets here. Thankfully, there are options. Making your own bread is probably not one of them. It's a bit like building your own car when there are people who are paid to do it for you. But National might get a few more DIY chefs into the kitchen with its SD-BT153 automated home bakery. The device looks like a rather tall rice cooker and in fact works pretty much like one — except that it cooks bread. You simply put your ingredients — butter, sugar, water, yeast — into the silver container, close the lid and press the button. The device's menu lets you pick what cereal concoction you want, such as French bread or a regular loaf. It can also whip up pasta, cake and, what a gift, mochi. If your taste runs to raisin bread there's a special tray for nuts and raisins that will distribute them evenly in the bread as it cooks. This is what the Nobel Prize was created for. More information is available at the site ctlg.national.jp/product/info.do?pg=04&hb=SD-BT153
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 23, 2007
Internet umbrellas — today's pet rocks?
Once upon a time, during the stone age era known as the 1970s, a product completely devoid of usefulness was created: the pet rock. This thing enjoyed a burst of commercial success that engenders acute embarrassment. Its inventor proved that the alchemists were right, you can make gold out of completely valueless minerals. Now, whether an intrepid pair of researchers originally hailing from Keio University have crafted today's high-tech version of the pet rock, in either its irredeemable lack of utility or ridiculous success, only the heavens know. But in the Pileus, an Internet umbrella, they are giving it the old college try. The umbrella created a publicity splash some time ago as an umbrella that was wired to display photos on its underside, via the Flickr Internet photo service, a must for all rainy days. The digital marvel has since evolved from its first-generation version through two subsequent efforts to the latest incarnation that supports both Flickr and Google Earth, packs a built-in camera, a motion sensor, GPS and a digital compass. Its two main functions are the sharing of photos on the walk and navigation. Using the umbrella's camera a user can take a picture and upload it to Flicker via a wireless Internet connection. Just to complete the distraction, beyond viewing still images on the umbrella, an advanced prototype allows the user to stream video from YouTube. Using Google Earth, a 3D bird's-eye view of the area around the user can be displayed. These may all be useful ideas but I fear for the longevity of any pedestrian packing such a device, they will need a car navigation service to help them avoid the traffic and other obstacles they won't be looking out for. The device formerly used for keeping off the rain is not yet at the commercial production stage but fear not, even pet rocks were just once lowly stones on the ground.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 16, 2007
Gadgets fall prey to multitasking, and a mouse keeps an eye on your computer
P eople these days are more like ly to remember to take their keitai in the morning than their keys. After all, the later only protects your life's property and valuables, whereas your mobile phone makes life worth living. Or at least it seems to be for those who spend more time with their portable communicators than they do with their significant others. Naturally then the devices end up getting draped with all manner of decorations and accessories. Yamato at least tried to make the attachments practical. It has come out with the NA150 glue stick and the NA200 pen, both of which attach to your phone's strap holder. In truth they both look like little pots of glue with keitai straps on the end so check which one you are using before applying attachment to paper. They cost 315 yen with more information to be had at: www.yamato.co.jp/item/minipen/index.html. While no doubt being useful for the declining minority who still use paper I wonder if there is enough space left on that holder for the low-tech phone strap. It does it all: The keitai is not alone among gadgets in being compelled to multitask. Thanko has outdone itself with this nifty device. It looks like an ordinary, albeit stylish and grip-friendly thick, silver-colored pen. It does in fact do duty as a pen but also packs a voice recorder and MP3 player. Clicking the silver knob on the pen's cap activates the recorder. When the top is off USB is revealed for connecting to your computer. At the base of this is an LED light that tells you which electronic function it is performing — green for playing music, orange for recording conversation and yellow for playing back a recording. The pen costs 6,800 yen for the model with 512 megabytes of recording capacity, and 8,800 yen for a 1-gigabyte model. Details are available at: www.thanko.jp/mp3pen/
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 9, 2007
BYO cool air and pet stress patches
Climbing Mount Fuji is a right of passage that comes with a price tag. Just breathing at that elevated altitude is a challenge. Technology offers a solution, at a cost, with canned oxygen. An object of some ridicule during the climb's early stages, it is a blessed relief near the top. Now, strutting around Tokyo in summer might not be in the same league but here too relief from the elements comes in a can. Strapya has created a portable air conditioning spray in a 220 ml aerosol can. Deploying the chemical cocktail, which includes ethanol, so smokers beware, on your clothing makes you feel like you just stepped into winter. They are available for 600 yen from online retailer Rakuten.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
May 2, 2007
Sony goes drag-and-drop for digital music
Sony's missteps in the world of digital music players provide lyrics for enough blues albums to populate, well, an iPod. But while the electronics behemoth may never script another legend like the Walkman, it refuses to shuffle quietly off the stage. Sony is set to bring out the B100 series of MP3 players. Looking rather like USB keys, the B100s are flash-based devices, ala the iPod Nano. They are notable for being Sony's first drag-and-drop MP3 players supporting MP3s, non-DRM'd WMAs and, very likely, AAC formats. The glaring omission is Sony's own digital music format, ATRAC. The Sony format just never took off, in large part weighed down by the clunky SonicStage software. Ditching SonicStage, B100 users will simply plug in their devices and load their songs straight from their computers. The new gizmos will come in 1-, 2- and 4-gigabyte sizes, be available in three different colors and come with OLED color displays. Voice recording will be included and FM-radio variants are in the pipeline as well with the new players expected to hit the shelves in Maysk
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 25, 2007
Moving with the times -- electronic paper lets watch change its face
Loggers aren't exactly reaching for the job ads cursing the new wonder technology of electronic paper for rendering them as employable as horse-drawn carriage drivers. But the promise of flexible sheets of electronics that can do everything paper can do -- only better and without having to fell the timber -- remains alluring. Beyond the obvious applications of electronic books and advertising signs, at least one more obscure usage for e-paper has already made it to the marketplace. Timepiece maker Seiko hit the headlines two years ago with a men's watch, the Seiko Spectrum, that used an e-paper display. The advantages of the unusual material are that watches can made lighter, the faces can be contorted into a variety of shapes and e-paper uses far less power than what conventional technology does. Seiko's new watch is for ladies and does double duty as a bracelet with the watch face wrapped around the wrist of the wearer. Combining titanium with e-paper, the device weighs in at just 80 grams and is 7 mm thick. The watch face does its job in four different colors and thanks to its use of e-paper it can change its size and style, accounting for up to two-thirds of the entire surface area of the bracelet. When set to "efficiency" mode the face sticks to being informative and easy to read. If the user switches to a "mystery" mode it adopts a more imaginative method of telling the time. While the new, as yet untitled, timepiece looks like a radical new direction, it sticks to the tradition of new technology debuting with a hefty price tag. The limited edition piece, only 1,000 are planned to be crafted, will carry a price tag in the neighborhood of 500,000 yen with production set for August.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 18, 2007
The iPod universe just keeps growing -- even Sony is catering to it
Alarm clocks and iPods span the aural spectrum -- from the noisemaker that most of struggle to live with to the iconic music player that many of us just can't live without. I guess merging the two was inevitable. Logitec performed the deed with its LDS-iALARM, making use of the i designation. It looks vaguely like an old fashioned circular-faced alarm clock, with two stubby little legs and a couple of big round bells on the top. But instead of a standard clock face it has a rectangular receptacle into which you insert any one of various permutations of the Apple product -- including the nano and the video iPods. When combined with the Logitec gadget the iPod becomes a more melodious method of waking up. The iALARM comes with a pair of 6W speakers and is available in either plain white- or black-colored faces, keeping up with the iPod decor. Check it out at: www.logitec.co.jp/press/2007/0404_02.html
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 11, 2007
Music player goes swimming
Jogging might be good for your body but just how many brain cells die of boredom in the process? Swimming laps is perhaps a more palatable exercise method but it doesn't lag running by too much in the boredom stakes. What serious pool lappers need is a waterproof iPod, or some facsimile thereof. Century is giving it a go with the niftily named Dolphin Player. Not only is the gadget waterproof but a swimmer can dive up to 1 meter below the surface with the player on. The Dolphin consists of a lightweight aluminum cylinder, measuring about 11 cm by 2 cm, with waterproof earphones connected to it and can easily be attached to swimming goggles. The player has a capacity of 1 gigabyte, handles both MP3 and WMA file formats and the battery lasts for eight hours on one recharge. It is on sale for 12,800 yen with more information available at www.century-direct.net/
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Apr 4, 2007
Robot chicks -- Japanese gadgets are just so conspicuously cute
Conspicuous consumption is the art of spending lavishly on goods or services in a way that serves no real purpose except to show that you have lots of money. The great Norwegian-American economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen put Nostradamus to shame with that insight from 1899. In Japan today, Veblen is half right. Here, entire industries are devoted to making products that are conspicuously cute. Whether you think these make Veblen entirely correct depends on how important the "kawaii" factor is to you. SegaToys provides fodder for the debate with its newly released Robot Chick. This electronic toy fits in the palm of your hand, looks just like a baby chicken and, true to life, it chirps and cheeps when it is picked up. Looking cute and acting that way are all that it does but as long as you keep it on a diet of fresh batteries it does them well. It sells for 2,310 yen with more information available from SegaToys at www.sega toys.co.jp/yumepet/hiyoko/index.html
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 28, 2007
Good vibrations: Turning your skull into a speaker and manga electric guitars
VIBRATING BONES: Call me old-fashioned, but I feel attached to speakers. Innate pieces of metal and plastic vibrate in harmony to produce sound waves to caress the ear. The idea of substituting my body parts to carry out the vibrating bit of the business just doesn't hit the right note for me. But hey, bone conduction, to give it its due title, is a technology that is getting its 15 minutes' worth. Temco is doing its bit with the HG40SAN-TBT, a hands-free Bluetooth headset that allows you to hear music and conversations thanks to vibrations transmitted from the headset via your skull. The battery life is three hours for telephone conversations and five hours for music playing and the set weighs in at just 50 grams. Maybe I am just not good at using my head.
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 21, 2007
Healthy living: A computer mouse to stimulate your muscles and a kitty to purify the air
Computers might be the greatest tool since the stone ax but unlike that early technological breakthrough they have done nothing for improving the human physique. Adding injury to declining muscles, contorting our body to allow us to chain ourselves to the desk leaves us with a lot of dull aches. The obvious solution is to hit the off button and get some exercise. But that isn't going to happen. Luckily the whizzes at Thanko have come up with a gadget to address the problems our old ones give us. The USB Muscle Mouse uses electrical stimulation to tone your muscles while you keep working away on the next pain in the back. You attach a pair of electricity-inducing patches, powered via the USB-connected optical mouse, to your ailing muscles and the patches ease the muscular tension. You can switch between three different modes and 20 levels of stimulation via controls on the mouse, allowing you to fit the "workout" to how much tension you need to relieve. Those who are pregnant or have a pace maker are included on a list of those are advised not to use the system.
'So hot you can't breathe': Extreme heat hits the Philippines
A pedestrian cools himself with a folding hand fan as he waits for a ride along a road in Manila on Wednesday, as extreme heat hit the Philippines.
Did Japan intervene to prop up the yen? Analysts think it did.
A man walks past an electronic board displaying the exchange rate for the yen against the U.S. dollar (right) in Tokyo on Tuesday.
Town to block view of Mount Fuji in response to overtourism
The town government of Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi Prefecture, decided to set up a 2.5-meter-high screen to prevent tourists from taking pictures of Mount Fuji looming behind a convenience store.
Number of vacant homes in Japan hits record high of 9 million
A vacant house in Tokyo is seen demolished in January 2020.
Weak yen fattens tourist wallets in Japan
People visit the Ameya Yokocho market in Tokyo's Ueno district during the Golden Week holiday on Tuesday.
Yellow sand allergy: A health issue made worse by climate change
A screenshot of the Meteorological Agency's satellite image of clouds and yellow sand (in pink) on Sunday.
Climate change, chalky grains and the risks for Japan’s rice farmers
A farmer plants seedlings in Satsumasendai, Kagoshima Prefecture. Japan’s self sufficiency rate for rice is nearly 100%, compared with 38% for food overall, on a calorie basis.
Japan wants you to spend more with ‘luxury tourism’
Performers play a traditional drum unique to Wajima, Ishikawa Prefecture, in the prefectural capital of Kanazawa on March 16 to mark the extension of the Hokuriku Shinkansen line to Tsuruga Station in Fukui Prefecture.
Theaster Gates’ ambitious ‘Afro-Mingei’ brings Black Chicago to Tokyo
Theaster Gates' “A Heavenly Chord” lines up church pews before seven speakers and a Hammond B3 organ, a type of electric organ prevalent in Black American churches.
Casa del Cibo: A thriving jewel born from Tohoku’s harsh past
When chef Ryohei Ikemi moved to Hachinohe, Aomori Prefecture, and opened Casa del Cibo in 2011, it was the first proper Italian restaurant in the city.

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