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Getting lost in Tokyo's media immersion pods [update 1]
New York Times reporter Virginia Heffernan writes about her experience in a Shinjuku "media immersion pod," where an unlimited, nine-hour supply of comics, television programming, porn, movies, and (of course) video games are available for just $10. We were typing really fast, so we'll run that by you again, more slowly: ALL YOU CAN EAT MEDIA BUFFET: $10! Wow. And to think we paid $100 per night during our TGS visit for a hotel that had none of those amenities. (The pods actually look like office cubicles, not futuristic techno-wombs like the photo at right, just to be clear.) Too bad an establishment like this would never survive in NYC. Within a week of opening, nutjobs, drug addicts, drunkards, and thieves would completely wreck the place. We're looking forward to experiencing some of this media bliss at this year's Tokyo Games Show, where readers can expect blog posts to be filed from such a pod, if they'll admit Gaijin. [Image credit: www.technovelgy.com] [Update 1: made it clear that the photograph that accompanies this post is not a picture of the pods the NYT writes about.]
Tokyo train station gets facial scan payment systems
First they want to scan our brains for passwords, now they want to scan our faces as train passes? Privacy advocates, get on your tin foil hats facemasks, we've received report that Tokyo's Kasumigaseki Station will be shutting down their totally antiquated FeliCa RFID / NFC payment systems for an hour or two daily for a couple weeks, and switching on biometric cameras that snap faces, match them to train passes, and grant entry (or deny it if your train fare's depleted or late, or you, you know, are a terrorist). Despite lawyers calling it of questionable or outright dubious legality, it's gonna happen over there alright -- at least at Kasumigaseki Station -- so if you're in Tokyo and use this station, we have two suggestions: first is to wear a rubber mask of your pal so as to get on free and avoid detection. Second is to go to the next stop down the road in a show of protest for this system and in support of basic civil liberties and rights to privacy. You know, either works.[Via Smart Mobs]
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.
Tokyo's Xbox 360 lounge to remain open
Despite the tepid response Japanese consumers have given the 360, the Xbox 360 lounge, opened in Tokyo to promote Microsoft's system, will remain open until February 12th, past its scheduled shut-down date this month. It can't be said that Microsoft wasn't ready to spend enormous sums to promote this thing; look at the size of that building they just put up!
