Gareth Edwards
Articles by Gareth Edwards
Wireless hard-disk media player from Sony?
It's not clear when, if ever, this prototype exhibited by Sony at CEATEC will hit shelves, but apparently it's a hard-disk audio/video player with some sort of wireless connection (and a decent-looking screen), which we gather from the placard behind it (see larger image) is able to stream content wirelessly from a home server and also beam stuff on its hard disk to other devices. Another bonus is that it conforms to the interoperability standard that a consortium of consumer electronics manufacturers are working up, so you shouldn't have to have a suite of Sony stuff to get it working.
Roland's digital accordion
The accordion isn't an instrument you might think would lend itself to the digital realm, but Roland has worked on developing a system of air-pressure sensors (they call it Physical Behavior Modeling, which sounds like something else entirely, but never mind) to allow the same type of play as the real thing, and have modelled the reeds within the instrument that are usually a pain to adjust. You also get the ability to play a range of non-accordion sounds and (using a footpedal) connect to sequencers and other stuff via MIDI.
Old electronics hacked into noiseboxes
Performance artist Tim Kaiser has a terrific line in guitar effects, synthesisers and other noiseboxes that he builds into the chunky metal cases that used to house oscilloscopes and other gadgetry. Neat touches abound, like an ex-Geiger counter with a needle that swings over to the "DANGER" zone when you switch the effect on. Best of all, he'll build you one to order if you're that way inclined.
Nintendo DS to function as a game server
Nintendo today held a touch-and-feel event for its forthcoming DS handheld in Tokyo. One of the interesting tidbits revealed by president Satoru Iwata is that not only will it be possible for multiple users to play together wirelessly, you'll also only need one copy of the game—whichever machine has it installed will act as a server and beam it to the other players. Also, in addition to distributing extra content wirelessly at cinemas showing the next Pokemon movie, they're planning to have game retailers beam out demos from their stores in the same way. They were also showing off several playable games (which should cost the equivalent of $35-$45 in Japan), leaving an impression of confidence that's in contrast to the uncertainty surrounding Sony's PSP.
Rolling with the Roller Walker
The name may sound like something you'd use to help infants get around, but the Tokyo Institute of Technology's Roller Walker is a distinctly kiddy-unfriendly metallic hunk of speedskating meanness. It doesn't look much in the photo and we suspect it'll be fairly clunky when walking, but it redeems itself when it's slinking around in high-speed mode with the wheels on its feet flipped out (watch video). We're not sure what speed it maxes out at, but it does look like they're reining it in to avoid taking out bystanders. Anyway, bottom line is we want to see a bigger, meatier version of this chasing Will Smith around if they ever make I, Robot II.
Mobile digital broadcasts launch October 20 in Japan
After a lot of delays it seems that Mobile Broadcasting, Japan's first provider of digital terrestrial TV for mobile devices, is finally launching their service on October 20. They've already stuffed journalists into buses for mammoth TV-watching roadtrips to prove that the reception is OK; now, it's time to see what the gadgets are like. On the evidence at their launch event, we're a little lukewarm; the Sharp and Toshiba TVs that'll be available initially will cost Y60,000-Y70,000 ($540-$630), and though they're pitched as "AV players" recording is to SD memory card rather than hard disk, which puts something of a crimp in the amount of video you'll be able to carry around. Cellphones with TV receivers, for which prototypes are beginning to surface, should show up around 2006. (More products at the company site.) Mobile Broadcasting's next step is expansion from Japan to the rest of Southeast Asia and thence to America, which, given that they have the backing of seemingly every major Japanese corporation, may not be out of the question. We'd suggest they think up a different service name than "MobaHO!" before they get to that point, however.
Sony's U-50 hacked into a joystick
Seen at the Tokyo Plastic Model and Radio Control Show, the folks from Futaba are the latest to get into the bipedal-robot thing with their 802.11b-controlled Speesys (a pun on "species" if you say it in Japanese). The robot falls a little short of competitors such as JVC's J4 in terms of looks, but the joystick is the item of coolness pictured right, built around the already cool (if shortly to become extinct) Sony U-50.
Sanyo's digital terrestrial TV phone
Digital terrestrial broadcasting to mobile devices is supposed to be starting in Japan this October (though the wires have been awful quiet recently), and right on cue, Sanyo hits us with a prototype cellphone that will receive broadcasts in the H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format that Japan has adopted. There's enough battery life for two hours of viewing, it'll record and play back programs to a miniSD card, and it also supports data broadcasts to allow all sorts of funky interactiveness while you view, though on a screen that size we cynically suspect that the level of funk may be more uncle-in-bellbottoms than Marvin Gaye.
Sony ditches copy-control CDs
Seems Sony is going through something of a change of heart recently: following its decision to support MP3 in its audio players comes news that, in Japan at least, Sony Music Entertainment is ditching copy-control CDs from November. They claim the reason is "an increase in awareness by music consumers", which we assume is supposed to mean that they've succeeded in educating everyone that copying CDs is a bad thing. Dare we suggest that the truth is simply that they're starting to see the light?
Kubotek's man-sized speakers
Spotted at Tokyo's Hi-End Show, a showcase for preposterously expensive audio gear, were these speakers from Kubotek. Aside from having a shape that suggests the result of a warped mind playing with a Donald Duck head, a jumbo pot of varnish and a mirror, they stand 174 cm tall, which is, well, bigger than the guy in the black t-shirt. When these come out in spring 2005 a pair of them will set you back Y7.35 mn ($66,000), which is probably about what it'll cost to put a down payment on the massive, soundproofed apartment you'll need to put them in. [Via Impress AV Watch (Japanese)]
Vodafone drops tons of new 3G phones on us
With an appalling lack of restraint, Vodafone Japan has just announced seven new 3G phones for release this winter. A quick skim of the specs shows that most seem to be dual-band W-CDMA/GSM units with megapixel cameras and Bluetooth; details beyond that are a bit scarce, though we'll go out on a limb and say it doesn't look like there's anything really revolutionary hiding among this lot (alright, maybe we're getting jaded).
Matsushita's new D-snaps
Matsushita Electric Industrial (Panasonic to you) has announced a couple of successors to its D-snap SV-AS10, a slim, low-budget still and video camera/music player/voice recorder. The SV-AS30 (pictured above) loses a little weight and gains some battery life, but looks more or less like its predecessor; the SV-AS3 goes for a boxier look and longer-lasting battery (36 hours of audio playback), and loses the AS30's speaker. Otherwise, specs are similar—cameras get a bump up to 3.2 megapixels from the AS10's 2.0, the video format changes to MPEG-4 from Motion JPEG, and the maximum frame rate jumps to 30fps from 15fps. The SV-AS30 should be out end-October for about Y34,000 ($310), with the AS3 following at the end of November for Y28,000 ($255).
KDDI's oval phone from Kyocera
One of the lone bright spots of news on a sluggish post-bank-holiday Tuesday in Japan comes in the form of Kyocera's A1403K (we wish they'd dropped the numbers and just called it the Blob or something). As are most experiments at "reducing the distance between human and machine", it's round and clearly wants to be your friend. Unsurprisingly, it sounds like KDDI is pitching it at higher age brackets, with a user interface that makes key features easier to access, and the ability to have it read out email or your call history aloud. By no means should older users take this as implying that all of them have bad eyesight and are not to be left alone with objects that have corners.
The Ubiquitous Communicator
Japan's second attempt this week to prove that the PDA is still with us comes from the Ubiquitous Networking Laboratory, part of the T-Engine Forum that develops the TRON OS. The Ubiquitous Communicator packs in a lot of goodies: RFID reader, fingerprint sensor, Bluetooth, WiFi, 2-megapixel camera on the back and another 300,000-pixel unit on the front for videophone calls, mic and speaker for VoIP calls, and so forth. There's a catch, as you might expect; the first production run models will cost something above Y300,000 ($2,700), though the second run should see that come down to about the same price as a high-end digital camera, which should help the quest for, er, ubiquity. [Via ITmedia (Japanese)]
Sony's Clie PEG-VZ90--the world's most expensive Palm?
This may be the exception that proves the rule, but Sony shows that the PDA isn't quite dead yet (at least not in Japan) with their latest, the multimedia PEG-VZ90. The biggest news is that it's the first Palm with an OLED screen, but besides that it also plays back MPEG-4 video and both ATRAC3 and MP3 audio (hallelujah!), includes 802.11b wireless, and has a CF card slot that will take both communications and memory cards, plus the usual MemoryStick slot. The multimedia angle is further emphasized by losing the keyboard (and camera) of the PEG-UX50 in favour of a slide-out console of multimedia controls, and it looks like the preferred use for this one will be to slam in a CF card or Microdrive loaded with video, though you need to encode with the proprietary software (sound familiar?). Also, the pricing point is an awkward (OK, wallet-destroying) ¥95,000 ($870 US), which puts it way above the hard-disk video players coming onto the market.
NEC's next FOMA phone heads for the US
Nikkei BP took their sweet time getting us this news, but it seems NEC's 900iG, the dual W-CDMA/GSM/GPRS phone that's the latest in DoCoMo's FOMA range, has gained government approval. It'll also be sold through Wind Telecom in Italy, in line with previous rumours we'd heard. The real news, though, is that it's apparently also been approved by the FCC, so we presume that it's headed Stateside sometime soon. Also approved in Japan (no news from the FCC so far) are two dual-mode phones from Sharp, the 902SH and 802SH, about which we're shorter on details at the moment, though the article does reveal that all three models have Bluetooth.
Your favourite cellphone in toy form
Those feeling sorry for their big lonely Japanese phone will be pleased to know that Mytan has come up with a range of miniature "phone figures" that replicate some of DoCoMo's recent faves. Everyone, including Big D and the phone manufacturers, seems to be happy about this, and future series are planned that will feature both later and earlier models. ¥294 each, if you happen to be near a Japanese convenience store in the near future. [Via Keitai Watch (Japanese)]
Japan's answer to the Segway? Meet the Sweeper
The System Sensing and Control Lab at Hokkaido University has come up with the Sweeper, a broomlike gadget that they envisage as an alternative to the bicycle (like the bicycle, unfortunately, it doesn't fly). It's basically a pole attached to a wheel-and-motor arrangement that'll drive you forward at 10 km/h provided you remember to put on some skates first. Speed is controlled by the angle of the pole, and it'll run for about 30 minutes on a single charge. We're sure we've seen one of these before somewhere, though. (MPEG video of the Sweeper in action here)
Hello Kitty speakers
Celebrations for the 30th birthday of the world's favourite mouthless feline continue apace in Japan; the Kitty Ex exhibition that's currently touring the country features Kitty-themed pieces of all shapes and sizes contributed by designers from around the globe. You'd probably have to be a touch deranged to really want these, but David Ellis has come up with some cat-shaped speakers that we suspect could start looking rather scary depending on what music you played through them.
Handsfree bone-conduction headset mike
It clearly is open season on cellphone headsets in Japan now that the November ban on cellphoning while driving is approaching. Among the bunch is the slightly unusual tel-tel-bone (Japanese product law states that all consumer goods must have a pun somewhere in their names, if you were wondering), a bone-conduction headest mike. The selling point is that since you don't have anything covering your ears it's still possible to hear what's going on around while you drive, though we suspect that the risk of people pointing and laughing at the boxlike protrusions stuck to the side of your head still exists.