Japanese -- Engadget

japanese posts

Hallods F43 MP4 player packs a 4.3-inch 720p screen, outed in Japan

by Richard Lai posted Nov 14th 2009 at 8:10PM

Looks like the wait for a real HD PMP is finally over: Hallods of Japan has just released their F43 MP4 player featuring a 4.3-inch 1280x720 screen, easily beating other sub-5-inch, 480p screens found on big names like the Archos 5 and Viewsonic's VPD400. Under that sharp screen is 8GB of internal storage and a hot-swappable microSD slot, along with a battery life of about four hours and ten hours for video and music, respectively. Like many PMPs out there the F43 supports videos encoded in MPEG4, FLV, RMVB and DivX-WVGA. Sure, there's the ironic lack of HDMI output, but for ¥16,800 ($188) this is still a pretty good deal. Let's just hope Hallods will send them over to the US soon.

[Via i4u]

Fuji Heavy Industries outs friendless, autonomous farming robot

by Laura June posted Oct 29th 2009 at 1:17PM

Fuji Heavy Industries in Japan has announced what it's calling 'the first' autonomous farming robot. This bot, which is about six and a half feet long and runs on gas, sends and receives laser signals to orient itself by way of reflective plates placed every 30 feet, using them to judge distances. This bad boy can grow fruits and veggies all by its lonesome, and can even operate in a greenhouse. The farming robot -- which is expected early next year -- will run about $100,000, but we'd suggest you buy two so he can have a buddy.

ICANN set to allow non-Latin characters in domain names, half the world rejoices

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 29th 2009 at 6:49AM

In the name of cultural and linguistic diversity, our loyal comrades over at the ICANN are about to approve availability of domain names in non-Latin alphabets. That's right, Chinese and Japanese folks will finally be able to address their websites in their native tongue, as will fans of Arabic, Cyrillic, Greek or Hindi scripts. Basically, linguists of every type are finally invited to the interwebs party, a move described by ICANN chairman Peter Thrush as "the biggest change technically to the internet since it was invented." This follows an extensive two-year testing period for a translation engine that can convert your lazy Latin scribblings into the refined hieroglyphics of modern Cantonese. Pending approval this Friday, the first new domain names will start coming out in 2010, when we can expect a whole new wave of internet land grabbing.

[Via Switched]

Windows 7 Whopper claims its first victim (video)

by Joseph L. Flatley posted Oct 23rd 2009 at 9:09AM

Few brave souls will even attempt to consume the Windows 7 Whopper, and fewer still will achieve that first dyspepsic bite -- as you can plainly see in this video. Indeed, we were sure that this was some sort of promotional stunt for Microsoft in Japan, but now reports are filtering in that these have been available in Texas for years now. Of course, in the Lone Star State it's not called the Windows 7 Whopper, it's called "lunch."

[Via Pocket-lint]

Continue reading Windows 7 Whopper claims its first victim (video)

Burger King selling a Windows 7 Whopper in Japan

by Vladislav Savov posted Oct 22nd 2009 at 8:22AM

Confirming our belief that Japan is at once among the coolest and craziest places on this planet we all call home is Burger King's exclusive Windows 7 Whopper. Seven stacked beef patties extend your usual Whopper to over five inches in height and the whole thing costs an appropriate ¥777 (or $8.55). It'll be available for one week only -- or seven days, get it? Join us past the break to see the full towering size of this meaty monstrosity.

[Via Electronista]

Update: Andy Yang, our Engadget Chinese editor, has read the smallprint and noted that in fact only the first 30 customers each day will get the Win 7 Whopper at ¥777, with the rest shelling out a cool ¥1,450 ($17.10) for the privilege. Way to break with the number 7 theme, guys.

Continue reading Burger King selling a Windows 7 Whopper in Japan

Heat diodes give thermal computing a fighting chance

by Darren Murph posted Oct 19th 2009 at 9:57AM

Anyone who has tried their hand at overclocking recognizes just how evil waste heat is, and we're guessing that one Wataru Kobayashi at Waseda University in Japan understands explicitly. He, along with a few colleagues, has recently devised a new diode that allows heat current to travel in one direction but not in the other. The breakthrough essentially paves the way for thermal computing to actually take off, with obvious applications including heat sinks for microprocessors. Kobayashi, who may or may not be able to eat a dozen hot dogs per minute in his spare time, also hopes that his discovery will lead to a thermal transistor, thermal logic gates and a thermal memory. The future's yours, friend.

Video: PS3 Slim's Japanese commercials likely to cause fear, distress, and confusion

by Ross Miller posted Aug 24th 2009 at 7:34PM

The folks at Palm may think they've learned how to make some creepy commercials, but let's face it, they've got nothing on Sony. The Japanese company has a long history of discomforting, unexplainable advertising that rivals a David Lynch movie -- in fact, Lynch even directed his own television spot back in the PlayStation 2 days, itself reminiscent of UNKLE's "Rabbit in Your Headlights" music video from years before. This latest set of videos for the PS3 Slim in Japan is no exception. Turn off all the lights, raise the volume of your speakers, and bow down before the masters of unnerving gadget promotion just after the break -- we included the Lynch ad, too, in case you were interested.

Continue reading Video: PS3 Slim's Japanese commercials likely to cause fear, distress, and confusion

Sharp's JD-7C1CL/CW pairs a home phone and digiframe in fine fashion

by Darren Murph posted Aug 19th 2009 at 10:26AM

Hey, remember that OpenFrame touchscreen home telephone that we first peeked way back in August of 2008? Seems like O2 and Verizon weren't the only ones looking to jump on that bandwagon, as Sharp has now issued a phone / frame tandem that looks eerily similar. The JD-7C1CL/CW is available in black and white to match the motifs present in 99 percent of pristine suburban domiciles, with the frame packing a 7-inch touch panel (800 x 480) that acts as a status indicator, calendar, clock, address book and (gasp!) photo frame. The phone itself doesn't look to be anything special, though the frame does include a whopping 128MB of internal memory. No word on a price or release date, but really, you shouldn't be considering a "home phone" in 2009 under any circumstances.

[Via Akihabara News]

I-O Data's SEG Clip brings 1seg mobile TV to iPhone and PC

by Darren Murph posted Aug 10th 2009 at 4:18AM

Softbank's own 1seg tuner / battery charger was a novel idea, but leave it to trained assassins at I-O Data to really expound upon the concept and concoct something nearly worthy of relocating to Tokyo for. The new GV-SC310 SEG Clip is a relatively vanilla USB 1seg TV tuner that plugs into one's PC in order to pull down some of Japan's finest OTA programming. Once captured, users with an iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS or iPod touch can download a TVPlayer app (shown after the break) that enables them to wirelessly watch whatever content they've stored. Think of it as TiVo for your iPhone, but only for those lucky enough to live in the Land of the Rising Sun. Not too shabby for ¥6,615 ($68), huh?

[Via Akihabara News]

Read - I-O Data press release
Read - Hands-on

Continue reading I-O Data's SEG Clip brings 1seg mobile TV to iPhone and PC

Kondo bot battles rage in Japan, vision of humanity's imminent destruction crystallize

by Joshua Topolsky posted May 10th 2009 at 4:16PM

You may be familiar with the modular line of Kondo robots sold in Japan -- but are you aware that a "Kondo Battle" exists where the bots duke it out to the death (or until they fall over)? Well, now you know... which is half the battle. You can pretty much see where this is headed -- life-size (or larger) Gundams going totally crazy on cityscapes across the globe. A picture says a thousand words, and video says billions and billions, so feast your eyes on the IDG News clip after the break, and to sweeten the deal, we've included a few videos of the actual fights as well.

Continue reading Kondo bot battles rage in Japan, vision of humanity's imminent destruction crystallize

Movie Cowboy iPod media streamer goes heroic with DC branding

by Darren Murph posted Apr 24th 2009 at 9:06AM

We won't front -- our heart goes into overdrive each time Japan's own Digital Cowboy births a new product, and we're especially jazzed about its latest Movie Cowboy. Known for introducing markedly outré home entertainment gear, the company's freshest piece is an iPod-friendly HDD-based media streamer that inexplicably boasts branding from DC Comics. So far as we know, the DC-MC35ULI doesn't come loaded with a director's cut of Watchmen, but it does provide room for a single 3.5-inch hard drive along with an Ethernet jack, USB 2.0 sockets, coaxial / optical digital audio outputs, HDMI, a few composite hookups, iPod streaming and charging capabilities and support for an array of file formats. Still, for ¥24,800 ($255), we'd definitely expect some built-in storage... or the promise of eternal invisibility, one.

[Via Impress]

Gallery: Movie Cowboy iPod media streamer goes heroic with DC branding

Takashi Murakami and Louis Vuitton make QR codes fun again

by Joshua Topolsky posted Apr 23rd 2009 at 9:44AM

Bland, black and white QR codes got you down? Well leave it to artist Takashi Murakami to shake things up. Creative agency SET has laced the psychedelic-anime expert's playful, colorful imagery into versions of the machine-readable code for Louis Vuitton that -- amazingly -- still work. The company has also done similar work for Coca-Cola, though nothing quite as luxuriously squeezable as this multi-colored panda. Now, if someone could just dress up those drab bar codes...

[Via DVICE]

Fujitsu's 10.1-inch LOOX M netbook looks good, positively average

by Darren Murph posted Apr 21st 2009 at 4:22AM

Not that Fujitsu's totally new to the netbook arena or anything, but we've got to hand it to the outfit's design team on this one. The newfangled LOOX M netbook is definitely handsome, even though the innards contain a list of hardware components that we could rattle off in our sleep. Ready? Here goes. A 1.6GHz Atom N270 CPU, 1GB of DDR2 RAM, a 160GB hard drive (yawning yet?), WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, three USB 2.0 sockets and a multicard reader. If you're suddenly overcome with déjà vu, you're definitely not alone -- 'tis a shame Fujitsu has the nerve to charge ¥59,800 ($611) for something that's no more advanced than the original line of Eee PCs.

[Via Engadget Japanese]

Sharp's Mebius PC-NJ70A packs LCD trackpad for the whiz-bang crowd

by Darren Murph posted Apr 21st 2009 at 1:38AM

And you thought Apple's button-less "glass trackpad" was hot stuff. Sharp has just let loose details on its thoroughly Japanese Mebius PC-NJ70A, which sadly packs an exceptionally boring list of internal components but manages to stay interesting with a decidedly unorthodox trackpad. As you can see in the image above, Sharp has actually tossed an 854 x 480 resolution LCD right onto the palm rest, which automatically adjusts brightness based on surrounding light and can likely act as a secondary display for things like adjusting an equalizer with your digits. Beyond that, the netbook is downright drab, sporting just a 10.1-inch display (1,024 x 600), 1.6GHz Atom N270 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, three USB 2.0 ports, Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR and a multicard reader. There's no set price as of yet, but word on the street puts it right around ¥80,000 ($817). Glamor shot after the break.

Continue reading Sharp's Mebius PC-NJ70A packs LCD trackpad for the whiz-bang crowd

Japan sending biped robots to conquer moon by 2020

by Ross Miller posted Apr 4th 2009 at 2:52AM

Remember back in 2006 when we told you about Japan's goal to colonize the moon with robots? Some dreams don't seem to die, and the country's Strategic Headquarters for Space Development said recently that they expect a two-legged droid traversing the satellite's surface by 2020. Should that prove successful, it'll be followed later by a joint mission with humans -- that is, if the robots don't find a way to take over before then and deny the spacemen their planetary visas.