Liam McNulty

Smartphones By Liam McNulty

Toshiba's upcoming W41T "MUSIC-HDD"

Looks like reports have surfaced that AU will introduce a new phone with a 4GB hard drive for music called the "W41T" (1337 5P33k unintended, assuredly). Judging by the spy-style shots of the literature, it will go by the name "MUSIC-HDD" (wonder what they could be referring to?) and is made by Toshiba. This should come as no surprise, though, considering the company's history with the 0.85-inch hard drive. Other specs include a 2.4-inch LCD, 3.2 megapixel camera, and Bluetooth. There's also word on other phones from the W41 series, too; of note would be the "W41K," (Kyocera?) which will supposedly have a subwoofer. Expect official announcement of these handsets before March.[Via 2ch]

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Robotics

Robotics By Liam McNulty

JVC reveals more J4 robot details

It was over a year ago that we first saw JVC's "J4" Bluetooth-controlled robot. The company busted it out once again for a demonstration over in Japan, and a few more details have been revealed about what makes it tick. Besides Bluetooth, it can be controlled by voice or mobile phone (over the phone network). On its head are two CMOS cameras that record video in MotionJPEG, and an internal lithium ion battery gives it a life of about 90 minutes. Of course it also does other normal "Japanese robot things" like sing, dance, and act like it can understand what you're saying. JVC said that although they currently don't have plans to make the robot available to consumers, this latest demonstration is to help them get a feel for what consumers think of the robot. Well JVC, you already know our response.

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Reviews

Reviews By Liam McNulty

Sharp W-ZERO3 mini-review

Engadget Japanese brings us some hands-on impressions of Sharp's W-ZERO3 for Willcom in Japan. Opera v8.5 (with an improved rendering engine) is available for the unit, and it is the first version of Opera designed specifically for Windows Mobile 5.0. The W-ZERO3 also takes advantage of Willcom's new W-SIM technology. The browser offers a pleasurable experience with tabs and smooth operation even while loading pages, yet the keyboard takes some getting used to. And there's still no Bluetooth. Click on for the rest of our impressions.

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Wearables

Wearables By Liam McNulty

Audiobones, bone conduction earphones

Japan's Pegaso has announced the latest in "bone conduction" technology with the "GBD-01 Audiobone." Bone conduction technology involves sending vibrations into the skull of a person, transmitting audio directly to the auditory nerve. The process bypasses most uses of the ear, so it is frequently used in hearing aids. Anyway, a few creative souls down at Pegaso decided to load their latest headphones up with bone conduction technology, and they run for roughly 14,490 yen (~$123 USD). We've seen a couple headphone units that incorporate bone conduction technology in the past, but these new ones are the first that do not require an amplifier. This means you can easily plug them into your portable audio player for ear-free listening of your favorite tracks.Read

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Robotics

Robotics By Liam McNulty

NTT's Virtual Humanoid Project

It doesn't take long to conjure images of lonely men in tiny apartments when we think of Japan, and projects like NTT's latest development don't help. At the recent "NTT Group Communications EXPO," the company demonstrated a technology called "Virtual Humanoid," where a human-shaped figure appears to be nothing but green to the naked eye, but a (creepy) woman's features appear to be on the figure when the viewer is equipped with a special Head-Mounted Display unit, . The possibilities are endless -- NTT looks to bring robotics into the formula so the figure can move and interact even further. Right, move and interact. NTT's final goal for the project is to enable people to have a game of baseball with Ichiro, so it looks like they'll be at this one for a while.

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Smartphones By Liam McNulty

Toshiba's V502T for Vodafone in Japan

The Vodafone V502T from Toshiba comes after the V501T, known for its variety of cheesy covers. The new model may lose the covers but it does incorporate a number of usability enhancements such as "Simple Mode3" that displays commonly used features in larger menu text than less used features, "Limit Mode" that allows you set limitations for when certain functions can and can't be used, and a portable audio player with AAC playback capabilities. The screen seems to be the same 2.4-inch 240 x 320 dot beauty we've come to expect of Japanese handsets, but the camera is a drab 1.3MP. Expect to see it in late January 2006.

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Smartphones By Liam McNulty

Maria Sharapova's Motorola M1000 sold for $7,500 USD

Add a bit of Maria Sharapova to Motorola, and this is some of what you end up with. The one you see above is Maria's personal Motorola M1000 (released for NTT DoCoMo in Japan) that she used while on her recent tour in the country, and it went up on Yahoo! Japan Auctions yesterday. The final selling price was to the tune of 905,000 yen, or some $7,534 USD. Is that really all Maria is worth to the entirety of Japan? Oh well; the proceeds of the auction will go to benefit charities.

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Mobile

Mobile By Liam McNulty

DoCoMo's FOMA Ubiquitous Module

Japan's been going bananas for the word "ubiquitous" for the entirety of 2005, and it doesn't look like they'll let up for the new year. NTT DoCoMo announced the "FOMA Ubiquitous Module," a small cellular module designed to be put in pretty much any machine that could take advantage of a cellular connection. Of course the wild imaginations at DoCoMo take that to mean "basically anything that has electricity going through it," and they gave the examples of slapping it in vending machines, taxis, inventory control, and information terminals so they can connect to the internet. Just plug this module into any device that supports it, and it can be connected to the internet in a jiffy. DoCoMo will also be announcing some service plans specifically for the new module, such as "Ubiquitous Plan S" for 840 yen (~$7 USD) that furnishes about 800 packets per month. We know we'd pay $7 per month to connect our microwaves to the internet, wouldn't you?

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Accessories By Liam McNulty

"Hella fast" USB memory from SolidAlliance

Golden Emporer International may have made it, but it takes a company like SolidAlliance to call their new USB memory "hella fast." Or at least that's what we've translated it as; they were careful to avoid the standard Japanese word "very," so it made sense to us. After all, there aren't many things you can do these days to make your company's USB memory stand out, given how flooded the market already is of these things. Anyway, the memory is named "GeIL DAVID 100," and the product line goes from 512MB to 2GB versions. The dual-channel approach allows for a read speed of 30MB per second and a write speed of 20MB per second, so filling even the 2GB drive shouldn't take more than 2 minutes. It also has aluminum casing and a slide-out USB connector. The 2GB model will go for 29,800 yen, which works out to roughly $250 USD.

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TV & Movies

TV & Movies By Liam McNulty

The $415,000 DVD box set

A well-known Japanese musician named Masaharu Fukuyama is receiving some rather odd star treatment: a company called "GINZA TANAKA" will release a solid gold replica of his DVD box set to celebrate the 15th anniversary of his debut. Only one replica will be made, but we completely understand why; measuring about 5.7 inches all around, the 24-karat gold cube weighs a cool 33 pounds. You could be the lucky owner of this conversation piece for a mere ~$415,000 USD. It doesn't even come with any actual DVDs, but if you're such a fan to spend so much on a solid gold cube of a DVD box set, we suppose you already own the real deal.

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Accessories By Liam McNulty

USB Japanese lantern/speaker

Only Thanko would combine a Japanese lantern with a speaker and a slap a USB port on it for audio and powering the light. That's really all there is to the "Japanese Lantern Speaker," besides a price: around $35.

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News

News By Liam McNulty

NEC's paper thin, rapid recharge batteries, "ORB"

NEC has debuted some ultra-thin and flexible quick charging batteries named ORB, for Organic Radical Battery. We're having a hard time deciding what is the coolest part about these; their 0.3mm thickness that allows them to be flexible, or the fact that they can be recharged in about 30 seconds. The organic radical materials inside the battery are in an "electrolyte-permeated gel state," which is supposedly about halfway between a solid and a liquid. This helps ions make a smooth move (no, the other one), reducing resistance, allowing the batteries to charge faster. 1 square centimeter will give you about 1 miliwatt hour. That's not enough to power your laptop, but according to NEC, one recharge of this battery allows an active RFID tag to transmit tens of thousands of signals. NEC plans on further developing the technology so it can one day be used in IC cards, RFID tags, electronic paper, wearable computers, and other such technologies stepping up to the plate in the coming decade.

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Wearables

Wearables By Liam McNulty

Head mounted display with OLEDs

We know using organic EL screens instead of LCDs in a head mounted display has been done before, but we'll still let you know about the "i-Visor FX601" from Korea's Daeyang E&C. They're being sold in Japan by a company called Mikimoto Corporation from the 12th of this month for the low low price of 376,500 yen (~$3,000 USD). On second thought, we really have no idea how much these things should be selling for; we'll let you decide on value. Specifications-wise, they offer a nice resolution of 800 x 600, and simulate a 60-inch screen at a distance of 6.5 feet. They have integrated speakers and get power via USB, but still only take video signals via standard analog RGB. Of course, since there are two screens inside, you can use them with whatever 3D display software you have handy. We keep waiting for these things to come down in price, but we don't think it will be happening anytime soon.

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Computing

Computing By Liam McNulty

Lenovo wins design awards for concept PCs

It seems Lenovo has taken home two "Red Dot" design awards from a German design institute called the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. The first award is "Best of the Best for Highest Design Quality," and it was won by the company's "Yoga" concept, which consists of a laptop with an LCD that can be twisted all the way around such that the notebook stands up like an a-frame. The other award for "High Design Quality" was won by their "Sundial" concept, involving a slimline all-in-one PC on a stick that has some kind of whacky 3D scroller interface. We were pretty suspicious when we saw the "Red Dot" awards considering the color of the trackpoint on many IBM/Lenovo notebooks out there these days, but it appears to be a just coincidence. Maybe.

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Accessories By Liam McNulty

Sony's Snap Lab commercial photo printer

The "Snap Lab" is a new digital photo printer from Sony for commercial use, but if you can afford the ~$1,650 price tag, be our guest and pick one up for the wife and kids. The LCD you see there is no joke; it's an 8-inch touchscreen with a 640 x 480 dot resolution. It takes rolls of photo paper instead of sheets, so it can print as many as 300 pictures in one go, at a rate of 13 seconds per photo. Sounds fine to us. JPEG, TIFF, and BMP images up to 6400 x 4800 (that's what, like 30MP?) are supported, and the Snap Lab features integrated Memory Stick, CompactFlash, SD, SmartMedia, xD, and USB slots. Now let's all guess how much a replacement ink ribbon costs.

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Computing

Computing By Liam McNulty

Panasonic kicks off 50GB Blu-ray production

Panasonic has announced they've begun "pilot production" of dual layer, 50GB Blu-ray discs out in their Torrance, California factory. This dual layer disc is apparently the first of many capacity enhancements that Blu-ray may see throughout the years by just slapping on more and more data layers; we know from a while back that Sony is working on octuple layer discs with a 200GB capacity. Panasonic seems confident in their production capabilities, too, because they're saying they will ship sample discs out by the end of the month. Expect to hear plenty more about these particular discs at CES 2006 in January of next year, since that's when this whole HD DVD vs. Blu-ray thing is supposed to kick off for consumers in the US. [Via HDBeat]

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Accessories By Liam McNulty

smartCharge lighter socket to iPod shuffle adapter

The "smartCharge" from Heavy Moon is an adapter that allows your iPod shuffle to be plugged directly into your car's cigarette lighter socket, so it can recharge while you're on the road. We'll also mention that it is equipped with a 3.5mm audio jack for getting sound to your car stereo, and is also compatible with 4G, Photo, and mini iPods when you use a USB cable. The price is 3,864 yen (~$32), so at least it's cheaper than similar offerings we've seen in the past for the iPod mini.

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Accessories By Liam McNulty

lipii Beam Station turns mobile phone into mouse

If you're reading Engadget, you probaby have a mobile phone. You probably also have a computer. ...see any connection? Quixun did. For 1,980 yen (about $16), you can pick up their "lipii Beam Station," a small USB device that accepts infrared signals from your mobile phone. Using a special iAppli on the phone, which is currently supported by pretty much all FOMA handsets, you're able to control various functions of your PC by using only the phone's keypad. Move the mouse, type up a term paper, skip to the next porn music video, control your browser, and so on. Mac and Linux users are out of luck; only Windows is supported for now. Oh well, infrared isn't exactly a common feature for phones outside of Japan anyway.

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Wearables

Wearables By Liam McNulty

Seiko Spectrum, first watch with e-ink technology

A few more details about that E Ink wristwatch from Seiko Epson are coming in from Japan. The watch will be called the "Seiko Spectrum," and it's set to be released on January 27, 2006 in Japan. Save your money for this one — pricing is set at 262,500 yen, or around $2,200 USD. Or just, you know, wait until they get cheaper. At least it's a step in the right direction; there's not really much room to argue against the advantages electronic ink provides over conventional displays for these kinds of applications. By the way, if you do want one of these watches, get moving: only 500 will be produced.

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Computing

Computing By Liam McNulty

Buffalo debuts 2TB model of TeraStation NAS

Buffalo has introduced a 2TB model to their "TeraStation" line of Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices. The product code on this one is "TS-2.0TGL/R5," where the R5 refers to the device's RAID-5 support. It is set to be released in late December in Japan for what equates to about $2,036 USD. You'll find an ethernet interface with 10Base-T, 100Base-T, and 1000Base-T support alongside two USB 2.0 ports. Just to give you an idea, on a network of 10 computers, 2TB would allow each user to have just over 200GB of storage space (MATH). Not too shabby if you ask us, but given Buffalo's track record with the TeraStation line, you may want to hold off until a review or two comes in.

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News

News By Liam McNulty

Nagase TRANSGEAR HMP-100 features local Gracenote DB

Say hello to the TRANSGEAR HMP-100, a portable audio player from a Japanese company called Nagase Industrial Corporation. It comes stocked with Gracenote's "MusicID" database — a database of song, genre, artist, and other information for roughly 3.5 million songs. Users connect their audio source to the player via analog audio input, and the player compares 15 seconds of waveform data with its internal "FingerPrints" database, matching the song up with its corresponding information from MusicID. Pretty slick if you ask us. But the fun doesn't stop; the player even interfaces with a mobile phone so it can connect directly to the entire Gracenote database of 40 million songs, and retrieve information that doesn't appear in its internal database. The player supports direct MP3 encoding at up to 192kbps, has a 6GB hard drive, 1.8-inch monochrome screen, and a rapid recharging battery that gets to 80% capacity in an hour and a half. Nagase plans to license this technology to other companies, so don't be surprised if you see it turn up in someone else's player.

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PlayStation

PlayStation By Liam McNulty

PSP's 2.60 firmware does 480 x 270 video

It seemed as though Sony glossed over any sort of new video functionality with 2.60 firmware for the PSP, but it turns out that's not entirely true. In addition to the Podcast and Windows Media Audio support that was added, Sony threw in compatibility for "Copyright-protected video data provided by a content provider or other services." Now it's been cleared up, and we've got an explanation for you after the jump.

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Laptops

Laptops By Liam McNulty

Hitachi first to offer laptop with vein recognition

We've already heard of Hitachi putting vein-recognition technology in handles, so the next logical step is obviously (?) laptops. The company announced the "FLORA Se210," a Windows XP Embedded system with no hard drive (for security purposes, we take it), 600MHz Celeron processor, 256MB of RAM, and otherwise normal specifications. Set at around $1,625, the system will launch on December 1st and is apparently the first notebook in the world to feature vein-recognition technology, which is touted as being both faster and harder to falsify versus traditional fingerprint recognition. LEDs shine into your finger, and depending on how the light is diffused by the veins in your finger, a certain pattern will be returned to the sensor. If that pattern doesn't match what is stored on the "KeyMobile" USB key included with the system, you'll be unable to access its data. Since the machine has no hard drive, Hitachi is marketing it as a enterprise-level terminal.

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Big Tech

Big Tech By Liam McNulty

Sony don't play DAT

Sony has laid to rest one of the many formats put out by the company in the late 80s: DAT, or "Digital Audio Tape." The first DAT deck was released in Japan in March of 1987, and the final product to be released was the TCD-D100 in July of 1997. Sony announced that the final shipments of the TCD-D100 (right) will be going out in December of this year. They will, however, continue to offer repairs to units and sell DAT tapes. DAT was somewhat attractive because it offered high sampling rates for the time. Nowadays, we have things like Hi-MD and the PCM-D1 that achieve similar tasks more efficiently, and the latter does so at higher sampling rates. Seeing as how Sony only ever shipped 660,000 recorders in Japan during this 18 year period, we won't be shedding any tears over this one.

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Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity By Liam McNulty

IO Data Device drives come with free Trojan

This isn't the first time we've heard of viruses preloaded on hard drives as they make their way out the factory door — but IO Data Device Corporation has announced that certain models in their "HDP-U" line of portable hard drives somehow escaped loaded with the "W32/Tompai-A" trojan. What might be even worse is how IO Data Device handled the problem; they didn't release the serial numbers of infected drives until some 14 hours after the announcement of the infection. We realize that even a good six sigma program won't pick up every defect, but this kind of muck up should really never occur — and IO Data isn't even offering a removal tool (yet). Apparently they expect you to use your own software or download a 30 day trial of Trend Micro's software; thanks for the help, IO Data!

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