Osaka
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NTT Communications bringing WiFi to Japanese bullet trains in 2009
Remember that Type N700 train that became Japan's fastest in mid-2007? Yeah, well it's about to get a lot more fun to ride. Starting next year, passengers on the ultra-quick bullet trains will be able to hit up their favorite blogs and banter about aimlessly via email / IM at 270 kilometers per hour (that's 167 miles per hour for you Yanks). The service will reportedly be an extension of NTT Communications' HotSpot service, and we're told that download speeds should reach around 2Mbps. As for cost, the fees will be at the usual HotSpot rate, which runs from ¥500 ($5.73) per day to ¥1,680 ($19.25) per month, or in other words, rates you'll totally pay to stay connected on the brisk runs from Osaka to Tokyo.
Sharp solar panels to be used in two Japanese mega plants
Sharp has certainly been an integral part of these solar installations before, but the latest endeavor by the city of Sakai and the Kansai Electric Power Company isn't anything to sneeze at. The initiative will see a pair of "mega solar plants" constructed, one of which will crank out around 10,000 kW while the other outputs 18,000 kW. Once the plants go online in 2011, expectations are that CO2 emissions will decrease on the order of 10,000 tons per year. Of course, a staggering ¥5.0 billion ($46.5 million) will be coughed up in order to make it happen, but you can bet Mother Earth will certainly see it as money well spent.[Via CrunchGear]
Video: Japan's oldest robot reanimated -- writes poetry, hits on your girlfriend
Japan's oldest "modern" robot -- the 10-foot, 6-inch GakuTenSoku -- has been awakened in Japan. Gone are the inflatable rubber tubes of the original 1928 android build by biologist Makoto Nishimura. The bot now tilts its head, moves his eyes, smiles, and puffs out his cheeks thanks to a $200,000, computer-controlled, pneumatic-servo makeover. While nothing compared to his modern offspring, GakuTenSoku still manages to creep us the hell out. On display at the renovated Osaka Science Museum starting July 18th. Video after the break.[Via Impress]
The Second Life Philip Linden/Gavin Newsom Fireside Chat, part 2
This is the second of two parts to the Fireside Chat between Second Life's Philip Rosedale (aka Philip Linden) and San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at the New Globe Theater, a meeting held and sponsored by Millions of Us, a metaverse development company (MDC), with Reuben Millionsofus as moderator. This is the mp3 and transcript of part two of the chat. You can hear and read part 1 here. Enjoy![Mp3] Download the MP3 directly[Thanks, Celebrity!]
The DS Life: A corner to play in
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handhelds and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com. This week's scene is taken from a winter afternoon in Osaka, Japan. The boy's parents are shopping for gifts for the holiday season, so he finds a secluded spot to wait while they wander the department store. He sits on the tiled floor, right next to the fire extinguisher stand, where no one will disturb or trip over him.Cold seeps through the window behind him, but the slight chill actually feels refreshing on the back of his neck. He flips open his GBA SP and continues where he left off during the subway ride here, too engrossed to look up at the people walking by, too rapt to even pause his game before reaching for a sip from his drink.
The DS Life: Holding handhelds in public
The DS Life is a weekly feature in which we scour the known world for narrative images of Nintendo's handheld and handheld gamers. If you have a photo and a story to match it with, send both to thedslife at dsfanboy dot com.Every July, over a million visitors flock to Osaka's Tenjin Matsuri, a thousand-year-old tradition and one of Japan's three biggest festivals. The city's streets are choked with wandering crowds, food vendors, and parading pageants; police officers struggle just to keep the flood of people in order. At the chaotic celebration's edges, though, quiet, romantic moments can still be found.
Japan to use picture messaging for calorie counting
Leave it to the Japanese to be at the forefront of having the latest bleeding edge service for their customers. In the United States, we're lucky to get a calorie count of our meal when we go to our favorite restaurants. In Japan, though, all they'll need to do is snap a picture message of their meal and send it the Public Health Offices in Osaka, and ta-da -- the calorie count is give to you. Albeit, it's three days after you ate. Not exactly real-time, but at least you'll how bad you were to your body a few days back.. [Via Slashphone]
Robo-tout solicits business in Osaka prefecture
Although robots haven't stolen sign-toting jobs from weather-braving Americans just yet, it looks like those street corner consignment gigs could be vanishing in Osaka. Due to a curious loophole in Japanese law, owners of adult entertainment clubs and information kiosks are now crafting robo-touts to solicit business from interested consumers, as it's illegal for a human to do the same. The handsome bots proudly hoist "Ask Me!" signs that attract passerbyers eyes, and apparently, direct any takers to the appropriate human source of information. Of course, these directing gurus could certainly branch out into less dodgy lines of work, but considering that the pictured servant underwent a ¥500,000 ($4,209) makeover just to look the part, these humanoids should probably be reserved for the most lucrative of chores.[Via PinkTentacle]
The Nintendo Museum: a video tour
During those short six days that one could just walk up to and check out the Nintendo Museum, given that this one individual lived in Osaka, Japan, one such lucky attendee took some video of his undoubtedly fun time spent within the museum. He even brushes shoulders (perhaps quite literally) with one of Nintendo's head honchos. We won't ruin who it is, because you really need to see this video for yourself.Check it out past the post break.
Atomic force microscope takes a closer look at individual atoms
Hot on the heels of Purdue's Mini 10 chemical analyzer comes a (somewhat) similar creature from the other side of the globe, as Osaka University's Yoshiaki Sugimoto and colleagues have "found a way to use the atomic force microscope to produce images that reveal the chemical identity of individual atoms on a surface." Essentially, this new discovery allows scientists to look at a mixed material and "pick out individual atoms of different elements on its surface, such as tin or silicon." The microscopes themselves are quite common in this realm, but until now, they have not been capable of distinguishing between atoms of different chemical elements. The atomic fingerprint, as it's so aptly named, is what the crew scrutinized in order to distinguish between varying atoms on a sample surface, as they witnessed that the relationship between force and distance is "slightly different for atoms of different elements." Of course, we have to look for the practical use in all this hubbub, and a non-participating scientist from the UK has insinuated that the discovery could be useful for nanotechnology researchers trying to design devices at the molecular level -- and who wouldn't be down a little nanotech garb or a snazzy new water-repelling umbrella?
Woman plummets onto subway tracks while carelessly texting
Granted, texting just might be bigger than Hollywood these days, but bigger than concern for one's own life? Apparently a Kawanishi woman was taking her well-being for granted during her daily route to work, as she collided with a man in a subway station whilst texting away at 8:30 in the morning. Subsequently, she plummeted a few feet down onto the subway tracks, only to be saved by a station worker who fearlessly hopped down to rescue her SMS-focused mind (and body, too) as the oncoming train screeched to a halt just 20 meters before running her over. Thankfully, the dame suffered just minor injuries in the fall, but an estimated 4,500 employees were blaming her for holding up their progress when clocking in late. Notably, there was no word on whether or not the phone was saved, or more importantly, whether or not the presumably urgent SMS ever got sent -- but considering this is the second case in a matter of days in which a human being nearly lost their life to a cellphone, we beg you: text responsibly, dear friends.[Via TokyoMango]
Shipping Wii to Japan: big boats, big business
Everything is made in China -- it's the world's biggest factory nation. Even Kyoto-based Nintendo's destined-for-Japan Wii consoles are imported (by Nintendo, in a weird game of Kyoto boomerang) from China. But hey, everyone's a winner, baby. According to a report by Osaka Customs, receipt of Wii consoles pushed toy imports across six regional prefectures to ¥25.3billion (US$213million) in November, which is a record high for any single month on record. Impressively, the Wii alone accounts for roughly 40% of all toy imports from China to Japan. Considering the volume of tat on sale across Japan (Doraemon plushes!), that's pretty significant. So significant, in fact, that an Osaka Customs guy confirmed to Japan's Yomiuri Shinbun that "No other video game console has had such a big effect on imports."The question is, when will China become a proper videogame market? When will China be able to keep, and legitimately sell, a good share of the consoles it produces? And how come big boats don't sink?
Japanese Wii enjoys painless birth; stores across Japan sell out
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Japanese_Wii_enjoys_painless_birth_stores_across_Japan_sell_out'; We were in Osaka this morning to see the delivery of Nintendo's Wii to the world's greatest DS fans. Stores across Japan received a total of 400,000 Wii consoles. In Osaka, Japan's second city, 2,800 units were allocated to the Umeda branch of Yodobashi Camera alone, while Bic Camera in Nipponbashi received 650 systems. Both locations were sold out within an hour of opening. Compared with last month's farcical PS3 launch, there were notably fewer auctioneers-in-the-making at today's Wii debut. Most people we met were genuinely looking forward to playing games with their new purchase. (There are Wii lots on Yahoo! Auctions, but the going rate is only marginally higher than the retail price: typically Y30,000 (US$260) via auction, compared with Y25,000 (US$217) in stores.) The Wii's software tie-in ratio, too, seems to be more encouraging than that of the PlayStation3. Most customers in line at Yodobashi Umeda bought Zelda, while significant numbers also went for Wii Sports and Hajimete no Wii. Numerous methods of retail were used to launch the Wii, and these varied from store to store. Yodobashi kept its customers camped overnight in a parking lot, distributing numbered tickets to determine the order of entrance, before opening its doors at 7am. Bic Camera also opened at 7am, although most of the 650 people in line there didn't arrive until the first trains of the morning began to run at around 5am. Famitsu reports that the Tokyo Ikebukuro branch of Bic Camera sold out if its allocation of 1,200 units, while the Tokyo Yuuraku-cho arm of Bic Camera declared the console "sold out" at 5.41am when the 1,500th person arrived in the queue there. Sales figures from around the country are still coming in, but we'll keep you informed of the final stats just as soon as we get them. In the meantime, enjoy our snaps of the Osaka Wii launch experience after the jump.
Streetcar GO! controller lets you drive your own Shinkansen
We're not exactly sure how compelling a train-controlling video game would be, particularly one that allows you to control the shinkansen (high-speed train) from Hakata Station to Osaka while rolling down the tracks at (virtual) speeds of up to 300km/h (186mph). But then again, we're not sure that the Japanese could come up with a video game that would surprise us anymore, particularly after "Cooking Mama." From what we can tell, our gaming friends in Japan have just released a special controller for this train simulation game, "Streetcar GO!" for ¥6,090 ($52) -- apparently the Wiimote just didn't cut it as a proxy for a train's gear shift.
Robot hospital: the doctor will 011100110110010101100101 you now
We've certainly seen our fair share of robotic surgeons, nursebots, and robopharmacists around here, but what happens when it's the robots themselves that need a little medical attention? Why you ship them off to Osaka, Japan's Akazawa Roboclinic, of course. Although some people might write off the recently-opened clinic-- which is run by Systec Akazawa, makers of the skateboarding, Bluetooth-controlled PLEN bot -- as little more than a repair shop, the employees apparently conduct themselves in a very professional manner, donning traditional hospital lab coats and dividing the space into examination, operating, and rehabilitation rooms. The hospital is currently staffed by just four "physicians" led by a Dr. Ohno, who says that the most common maladies they encounter are faulty motors, fractured frames, and severed wires. So before sending your malfunctioning Robosapien, decapitated Qrio, or rabid Aibo to that great mechatronic heaven in the sky (a.k.a. your local landfill), spend a few bucks on a long distance call to Akazawa -- they may just be able to fix up your beloved robotic companion and return him/her as good as new.[Via Robot Gossip and Loving the Machine]
Densha de GO! Hilarious train riding "game"
While the Japanese may not like Loco Roco, they love the Densha de GO! series. And who wouldn't? By looking at the trailer, it appears that the game simulates the experience of riding one of Japan's great train lines. Yes... you heard me correctly. There's nothing I like to do more on my daily commute on the train than to play a game pretending that I'm on a train. Exciting.If you want some hardcore train riding action, take your pick: there are multiple entries in this series, each focusing on a different train line. Gotta catch 'em all? You can buy either Osaka Kanjousen, Toukaidosen or Chuuousen Hen for $40 each. Or not.
Dell looking into flaming laptop incident
You've got to hand it to Dell; even though its laptops may burst into flames at the most inopportune moments, at least the company has the good sense to conduct a prompt and public investigation into the matter (although the worldwide coverage of those "inflammatory" photos probably helped speed things up just a bit). Apparently the charred remains from that fateful conference in Osaka, Japan have been beamed back up to the mother ship, where Dell engineers are furiously working to discover how their product turned into a pyrotechnics show that amused and frightened us all. As usual, everyone's looking to pin this incident on that easiest of scapegoats -- the malfunctioning battery -- but whatever the problem turns out to be, we're sure hoping it gets fixed before another notebook decides to disobey the "no smoking" sign and light up on an airplane.
8bit musicians announce world tour
Former cellmates Nullsleep and Bitshifter have announced plans to embark on a world tour, blasting their blend of bleeps, bloops, and blizzasts from Boston to Brussels and back again. If you're not an 8-bit believer yet, nothing will win you over except trying it out for yourself. To that end, here are links (1, 2, 3, 4) to some MP3s these torturers of Gameboys, Famicoms and other old-school video game consoles have kindly provided for downloading. If you like what you hear, check the tour page and maybe even drop a few dollars in the donation bucket to help make it happen.
