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Evernote launches in Japan, updated for iOS 4.0
Mac & iPhone-friendly memory service Evernote has announced this morning that it's launching in Japan -- a new subsidiary called Evernote Japan will be headquartered in Tokyo. While a Japanese version of Evernote launched a while ago, it's become the company's second largest market, taking up fifteen percent of the daily traffic on the service. What this means for non-Japanese users is that the main app will now also support Japanese character recognition -- while handwritten characters still probably won't work with the service, we're told, printed Japanese characters can be read by the app from photographs and scans. Additionally, the iOS 4.0 version of Evernote already came out on the App Store, featuring multitasking support, as well as improved synchronization. Both the iPad and iPhone versions of Evernote are free, of course, and you can sign up for the service on their website. Sounds like things are growing in leaps and bounds for the folks over at Evernote.
Apple posts Japanese iPhone guided tour
With the release of the iPhone 3G, Apple will be in a completely new cell phone market in Japan. Apple recently posted a new iPhone 3G Guided Tour on the Japanese Apple website, undoubtedly to get the Japanese warmed up to the iPhone. While there are no new apparent features shown, Apple does show off the character recognition (which is really slick when you see it in action). It is still neat to watch, even if you don't understand Japnese. You can view this video on the Japanese iPhone website. [via MacRumors]
Sony Ericsson Z558i does pen input
At first glance, the new Sony Ericsson Z558 looks like nothing more than a rehash of the Z550 geared toward the Chinese market. By and large, that's an accurate assessment, save for one critical detail: the new model packs a touch screen and stylus for handwriting recognition -- a feature that seems like overkill for Latin characters, but thinking about Chinese puts things in an entirely different perspective. Much like the Nokia 6108 before it, the Z558 sports handwriting recognition for the sole purpose of making life a little easier on folks whose languages are composed of thousands of characters (though as you can see from the press photo, you can write in English too, if you're into that sort of thing). Other features include a 1.3-megapixel cam, 18MB of internal memory expandable to 1GB via Memory Stick Micro cards, and a 900 / 1800 / 1900MHz GSM radio with EDGE; look for it in Z558c and Z558i variants for mainland China and the rest of the world, respectively.[Via Slashphone]
