Japanese Company Archive

  • dynabook TX/98MBL: Toshiba announces 3D notebook

    dynabook TX/98MBL: Toshiba announces 3D notebook

    Posted on June 7, 2010 | No Comments
    Not a week passes without a Japanese company announcing a 3D-enabled device lately. Today, it's Toshiba, which just unveiled [JP] a 3D-capable notebook, the dynabook TX/98MBL. According to the company, it's the world's first notebook that lets you view 3D content stored on Blu-rays (next to playing NVIDIA 3D Vision games).

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  • Robot “I-Fairy” leads nuptials at wedding in Japan (videos)

    Robot “I-Fairy” leads nuptials at wedding in Japan (videos)

    Posted on May 17, 2010 | No Comments
    We all knew this day would come eventually, and that day was yesterday: a robot called I-Fairy conducted a wedding, an official one. Needless to say that the wedding took place in Tokyo and that the robotic wedding conductor is the brain child of a Japanese robot company called Kokoro.

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  • Charry: Outdoor charging box for electric vehicles

    Charry: Outdoor charging box for electric vehicles

    Posted on May 3, 2010 | No Comments
    One critical factor that stands in the way of electric vehicles becoming mainstream is the lack of charging stations once you're on the road with your e-bike or electric car. In the case of bicycles, 37km, for example (as seen in Panasonic's newest models), isn't a bad number for an assisted travel distance, but it's not enough for those really long trips.

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  • Daily Crunch: Decent Edition

    Daily Crunch: Decent Edition

    Posted on April 17, 2010 | No Comments
    Video: Japanese company shows Super Mario Bros. on Kindle emulator CrunchGear celebrates National Scoop the Poop week with a Dog-e-Minder giveaway! EasyBloom Plus allows nerds to garden like a pro Descent coming to WiiWare – prepare barf bags Shrimp shells may be used to repair spinal injuries, glass can help rebuild bone

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  • Video: Japanese company shows Super Mario Bros. on Kindle emulator

    Video: Japanese company shows Super Mario Bros. on Kindle emulator

    Posted on April 16, 2010 | No Comments
    We've shown you an N64 emulator running on a hacked iPad just a few days ago, and now it's time to see how Super Mario Bros. would look like on a Kindle. And the short answer is that the 1985 NES game would look awful: it's slow, it's in black and white only, it has no sound, it's buggy (since when can Mario kill Goombas by bumping into them?), and apparently, you can't even control Mario properly. Not that this is surprising.

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  • Nap Vieeb Plus II: Wearable doze prevention device

    Nap Vieeb Plus II: Wearable doze prevention device

    Posted on April 1, 2010 | No Comments
    Are you constantly in danger of falling asleep while working or driving? Alarm clocks, watches or your cell phone are of no help? Then the oddly named Nap Vieeb Plus II [JP], offered by a Japanese company called Takanoha, might be the right thing for you. The Nap Vieeb Plus II is a simple earpiece alarm gadget whose first version was released about four years ago.

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  • Japanese company offers anti-pollen allergy ringtone

    Japanese company offers anti-pollen allergy ringtone

    Posted on March 5, 2010 | No Comments
    Do you remember the ringtone for dogs a Japanese company started offering two years ago? Now Japan gets to download another equally zany app for their cell phones, a ringtone [JP] that's supposed to clean your nostrils in case you suffer from pollen allergy. The way it works is pretty simple.

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  • COOL LEAF: Mirror-like, button-less, flat input devices

    COOL LEAF: Mirror-like, button-less, flat input devices

    Posted on March 3, 2010 | No Comments
    A Japanese company called Minebea has announced [press release in English] a series of input devices, namely a keyboard, remote control and calculator, that have three things in common: They are stylish (with a mirror look), offer no physical buttons and are really flat. Based on a "next generation" input system Minebea has dubbed COOL LEAF, the designers did away with all key tops.

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  • Music Planet: Ball-shaped, water-proof MP3 player for your bath tub

    Music Planet: Ball-shaped, water-proof MP3 player for your bath tub

    Posted on March 2, 2010 | No Comments
    A Japanese company called Idea Label has designed the “Music Planet” [JP] today, a portable, ball-shaped MP3 player that you can take with you to the bath tub. The device is IPX7-certified, meaning it can withstand immersion in water up to a depth of 1m for up to 30 minutes. The device also features an FM [...]

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  • SMASH: Electric guitar made just to get destroyed, then recycled

    SMASH: Electric guitar made just to get destroyed, then recycled

    Posted on February 24, 2010 | No Comments
    I don't know how to begin this, so I'll get right to it: A Japanese company called K's Japan is offering an "electric guitar" [JP] that's just made to get destroyed. And, after you smashed the thing to bits, you can recycle it. So what we have here is a "destroyable price and recyclable system" (K's Japan's official tag line), which is ideal for guitarists who want to look cool without sacrificing their real instrument.

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  • Toner-, ink- and paperless printer (video)

    Toner-, ink- and paperless printer (video)

    Posted on February 8, 2010 | No Comments
    A Japanese company called Sanwa Newtec has developed a printer that works without toners, ink or (copy) paper. ThePrePeat RP-3100 is rather based on a line thermal head and special paper that's made of PET plastic and can be reused over and over again. In other words, if you have a sheet that you don't need any longer you can insert it back into the printer (where it gets "cleaned") and immediately print out a new document in one go. Each of those special sheets can be used 1,000 times, saving not only the costs for 1,000 sheets of copy paper but also 5.7kg of CO2 for the environment.

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  • New technology extends lithium-ion battery life

    New technology extends lithium-ion battery life

    Posted on February 4, 2010 | No Comments
    A Japanese company called Eamex claims it has found a way [JP] to increase the life of high-capacity lithium-ion batteries (that can be used in electric vehicles). Eamex says the new batteries can be charged and discharged over 10,000 times. Apparently, they can last about 20 years, too.

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  • New polarizer film to boost contrast of LCDs more than 10-fold

    New polarizer film to boost contrast of LCDs more than 10-fold

    Posted on January 26, 2010 | No Comments
    A Japanese company called Zeon claims it has developed a film for the polarizing plates of LCD screens that boosts picture contrast by more than an order of magnitude. The company is already selling films for those plates to LCD TV makers like Samsung whose screens are based on vertical alignment technology. It produces films for OLED screens, too. Zeon's new, so-called phase difference film, however, is made from Cyclo Olefin Polymer, which makes it suitable for LCD TVs based on in-plane-switching (IPS) technology. Makers relying on IPS technology are Panasonic or Hitachi, for example. The new Zeon film inhibits the diffusion of light from the backlight. As a result, viewers get to see clearer pictures.

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  • iHeart: “Jewelry Box” speaker and dock for your iPhone/iPod

    iHeart: “Jewelry Box” speaker and dock for your iPhone/iPod

    Posted on January 22, 2010 | No Comments
    This one is for the the ladies: A cute, heart-shaped active speaker box for the iPhone or iPod that doubles as a dock and also offers a mirror that pops up when you open it. Aptly named iHeart [JP], the "Jewelry Box Speaker" is the brain child of a Japanese company called Marubeni Infotec.

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  • Who needs Blu-ray? Japan gets “This Is It” on SD card and USB stick

    Who needs Blu-ray? Japan gets “This Is It” on SD card and USB stick

    Posted on January 6, 2010 | No Comments
    The special Michael Jackson PS3 bundle (PS3 plus "This Is It", a documentary–concert film, on Blu-ray ) unveiled today by Sony Japan wasn't the only relevant product announcement for Japanese Jacko fans today. Nagoya-based Hagiwara-Sys Com is to release the film on two very unique media [JP], namely on a USB flash memory and an SD card.

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