Featured Stories
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DOMK Receives Confirmation That 1st “SolaPad” Units Are Being Prepared for Shipment
25 May 2012 12:30 PM | No Commentsvar AdBrite_Title_Color = '0000FF'; var AdBrite_Text_Color = '000000'; var AdBrite_Background_Color = 'FFFFFF'; var AdBrite_Border_Color = 'CCCCCC'; var AdBrite_URL_Color = '008000'; try{var AdBrite_Iframe=window.top!=window.self?2:1;var AdBrite_Referrer=document.referrer==''?document.location:document.referrer;AdBrite_Referrer=encodeURIComponent(AdBrite_Referrer);}catch(e){var AdBrite_Iframe='';var AdBrite_Referrer='';} document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,83,67,82,73,80,84));document.write(' src="http://ads.adbrite.com/mb/text_group.php?sid=2053203&zs=3436385f3630&ifr='+AdBrite_Iframe+'&ref='+AdBrite_Referrer+'" type="text/javascript">');document.write(String.fromCharCode(60,47,83,67,82,73,80,84,62)); LONGWOOD, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–DoMark International Inc. (OTCBB: DOMK) announced today that management of its wholly-owned subsidiary, SolaWerks, has...
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New Autodesk SketchBook Ink App Delivers Stunning Creative Tools for iPad
24 May 2012 12:59 PM | No CommentsSAN RAFAEL, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Autodesk, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADSK) launched Autodesk SketchBook Ink for iPad paint and drawing app, the latest release from the company’s popular SketchBook...
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Vegas Tech Start Up Questionable LLC Launches Questionable Friends iPhone App
23 May 2012 4:53 PM | No CommentsLAS VEGAS–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Questionable™ today introduced Questionable Friends™ for iPhone®. Questionable Friends lets you send questions to your contacts and provides instant feedback as questions are answered. Answers can be ...
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Sidecar Revolutionizes Phone Calls by Bringing “Smart Calling” to Smartphones
22 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsSAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Launching today, Sidecar (www.sidecar.me) is a new mobile app that brings Smart Calling to smartphones. Smart Calling allows people to share live See What I See video, brilliant ...
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TransCore Launches Mobile iPad App for TransSuite Traffic Management System
21 May 2012 12:00 PM | No CommentsWASHINGTON–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intelligent Transportation Society of America Annual Meeting – TransCore brings the ease of mobile computing to its TransSuite® advanced traffic management system (ATMS), launching its iPad® ...
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Nippon Archive
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The black Wii gets a price and official release date
Posted on May 3, 2010 | No Comments
We've been following the black Wii saga since Nintendo released the dark side gaming console in Nippon. It's been a long and exciting story, but gamers on this side of the Pacific Rim will be able to snag the Wii MotionPlus + Wii Sports Resort bundle on May 9th for $199. Even better, the $199 price point also applies to the white Wii, signalling a slight price drop.
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Separate Keitai: Meet Japan’s sexiest new handset (videos)
Posted on February 5, 2010 | No CommentsFor years, Japan was the innovation leader in the cell phone industry, until South Korea and the US started catching up rapidly. If you look back at what Nippon's mighty carriers have released in the past few months, you mainly see super-powerful handsets with large OLED screens, 12MP cameras, Blu-ray recorder connectivity, double digital TV tuners, etc. But the form factor never really changes, as the majority of Japanese consumers still demands clamshell phones with jog dials enabling them to conveniently thumb-text emails. But if a country churns out 100 different handsets per year, there have to be some exceptions. And the most notable exception (that now has been priced and dated) is Fujitsu's F-04B featuring the world's first separable two-module body.
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Nissan’s “Smiling Vehicle” shows emotions (video)
Posted on January 11, 2010 | No Comments
It seems the car industry doesn't have any problems left that need to be solved. Or what else can explain Nissan's shot at designing a car that can "show emotions"? The so-called Smiling Vehicle was jointly developed by the Hara Design Institute Nippon Design Center and the automaker. And yes, the mini vehicle, based on the Nissan Cube, does look friendly.
The concept car is covered with a substance called ROICA, a polyurethane elastomer fiber from major chemical company Asahi Kasei. ROICA has the ability to deform by up to 900% and is normally used for producing shoes, clothes or car seats. Combine the material with Animatronics, and you get a car grill that can actually "smile".
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Cork USB stick and light bulb USB stick
Posted on January 7, 2010 | No Comments
I don't know what it is about Japan and USB, but Nippon just keeps on churning out USB-powered crap gadgets. Thanko is one of the Tokyo-based companies responsible for this phenomenon, the other is Greenhouse. And Greenhouse announced not one but two silly USB gadgets, memory sticks to be more exact in the last 48 hours: One is shaped like a cork [JP], the other like a mini light bulb [JP].
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Meet Nippon Institute of Technology’s cool humanoid (video)
Posted on December 22, 2009 | No Comments
It's another humanoid from Japan, it doesn't have an official name yet, but it's pretty cool: This new robot [JP] is the result of a collaboration between various Japanese companies and institutions, namely the Nippon Institute of Technology, Harada Vehicle Design [JP], ZMP and ZNUG Design. Based technically on ZMP's Nuvo robot, it stands 1.26m tall and weighs 15kg.
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Feeling lonely? Bizarre Japanese CD lets 600 different girls say “I love you” to you
Posted on December 3, 2009 | No Comments
Does anybody remember the DVD I blogged that was supposed to cure shyness in geeks by letting them look at 50 different girls over a time span of 96 minutes? The girls would just sit there, not saying or doing anything. The idea was to make you get used to looking at pretty girls on the TV to overcome your shyness in real life.
That was last year. And now we have the Hougen CD [JP], which is more or less trying to do the same thing - but this time not with video but audio. In my view this CD, a real product you can buy, is even dumber than aforementioned DVD: What you get is a CD on which 600 different Japanese girls say "Daisuki!" or "Meccha Daisukiyanen!", which means "I love you!" in Japanese.
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Japan gets awesome Space Battleship Yamato model
Posted on November 24, 2009 | No Comments
Space Battleship Yamato is the name of a (rather short-lived) Japanese science fiction anime series that was aired on TV in countries other than Nippon some 20 to 30 years ago (outside Japan the anime and the movie versions are also known as Star Blazers or Space Cruiser Yamato). And now, the series' very cool, eponymous spaceship gets a very pretty model version [JP].
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Luxury wine vending machine
Posted on October 15, 2009 | 1 CommentIt's not really a secret: Japan loves vending machines. So it's not really surprising this newest (and quite unique) model is made in Nippon, too: A vending machine that lets you buy luxury wines through a pre-paid card. The machine is supposed to soften the negative effects the current recession has for wine lovers.
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Tokyo Game Show: Resident Evil – Darkside Chronicles (official trailer with gameplay footage)
Posted on September 25, 2009 | No Comments
Resident Evil (Biohazard in Japan) - The Darkside Chronicles is an on-rails shooter that comes out in Nippon for the Wii on January 14. Instead of torturing you with the crappy video I took at the Capcom booth at the Tokyo Game Show, I give you the official trailer the fine people over at the Famitsu secured. It contains cut scenes, gameplay sequences and a few spoilers - you've been warned.
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Japanese researchers use nanotechnology to fight fake money
Posted on September 10, 2009 | No Comments
A group of researchers from Tokyo-based Dai Nippon Printing (DNP) and the University of Tokyo has developed a new technology [JP] that makes it harder for criminals to counterfeit paper money or other valuables made of paper, i.e. coupons or vouchers. It can also be used to make credit cards more secure, too.
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Taxan to roll out new DLP projector
Posted on August 31, 2009 | No Comments
It seems it's projector day today in Nippon. Here's the ninth model that's just been announced for the Japanese market: The Taxan KG-PH1004XS [JP], which looks like a DLP projector with decent specs.
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Japanese iPhone users can buy $1,000 cases from today
Posted on August 14, 2009 | No CommentsDespite being able to choose between an enormous number of super-advanced cell phones for years now, the Japanese have come to embrace the iPhone. The number of iPhones in circulation is estimated to have topped the 1 million mark quite some time ago, which triggered SoftBank BB (a sister company of Japan-exclusive iPhone provider SoftBank Mobile) to start offering something very Japanese and unique today: handmade iPhone cases [JP] priced at $1,000 each.
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More electric vehicles: Japan wants mass adoption of “green” cars
Posted on August 6, 2009 | No CommentsIf there is one country that really believes in the future of electric (battery-powered) vehicles (cars, bikes and even trains), then it's Japan. And now the country decided it's time to remove a major barrier to mass adoption: The lack of a large-scale infrastructure with highly standardized norms.
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Sanyo presents world’s first carbon fiber electric bike (and a foldable model)
Posted on July 24, 2009 | No Comments
Sanyo landed a huge hit with its eneloop brand that includes a number of "green" products, such as lamps, batteries or even Wii controllers. In the past few months, the company also introduced electric bikes that featured eneloop technology, one of which it wanted to sell outside Japan as well.
Now Nippon gets another two eneloop-branded bikes [JP], a carbon fiber model and a foldable bicycle. The way both models work is the same: Every time you drive downhill or decelerate, the electric motor switches to a dynamo, allowing for regenerative charging. Both bikes are pretty cool but have one disadvantage: The hefty price tag.
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Turntable+CD recorder+cassette recorder+radio: Teac Japan’s new all-in-one device
Posted on July 15, 2009 | No Comments
Teac Japan announced the LP-R550 today [JP], a kind of Swiss Army knife for audio freaks. Buyers get a turntable, a cassette player/recorder, a CD player/recorder and a PLL synthesized AM/FM stereo tuner. Teac released a similar device on the Japanese market just a few months ago.