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We waited so long: Hot-girl-gadget Bijin Dokei gets an iPhone app

bijin_tokei_logo

My personal favorite web concept of 2009, the Bijin Dokei (Hot Girl Clock) gadget, which I was happy to introduce in March, gets an iPhone app (App store link). Finally. The clever people from PHIRIA Design offer the gadget worldwide for $2.99/2.39 Euros (they even provide a German description in the German App Store).

Similar to the web gadget, you get 1,440 pictures of cute Japanese girls fading in and out each minute. Each of the girls holds up a sign that displays the time your iPhone shows. Pure genius.

Needless to say, it's also possible to zoom in on the girls via double click or pinching and save the really good pictures in the photo album. The app also works with your iPhone alarm settings.

Look at the screenshots below for a teaser before downloading.

bijin_dokei_3

bijin_dokei_iphone_2

bijin_dokei_iphone

Via App Bank [JP]

Make Your Blog Catchier With Yellow Paper’s Know-How

Kayac's Logo Toh-Spo's Logo

Kayac[J], a funny web app developer based in Tokyo's suburb, and Tokyo Sports[J] (a.k.a. Toh-spo), a daily sports newspaper company,  jointly introduced a blodget[J] on Wednesday, which may make your blog much catchier.

Toh-spo covers sports and show biz news everyday, and it is an yellow paper having a large circulation.   Tokyo businessmen love the paper because of its catchy and unique headlines.   When you put a mouse cursor over the blodget, a catchy headline generated from the content on your blog will be appeared as the paper's cover page alike.   It has three lines of news ticker which keep you update with a number of "real" and interesting Japanese showbiz news.

The two companies are planning three web-based services starting with the blodget.    Kayac released 77 web services in 2007, and 88 services in 2008.   The company is stretching itself to make a new record in the number of services released by the end of this year.

Newsstand at Shibuya
Toh-spo is being sold here and there in Tokyo, and the catchy headlines attract passers-by.
(The picture above is a news stand at Hachiko Square, Shibuya Station.)

This Weekend’s Three Tech Events You Must See

On this weekend, here we can get a chance to witness three great tech events in a row.

TEDxTokyo's Logo

As first of all, a Tokyo-based social entrepreneur Todd Porter, the co-founder of Tokyo International School Patrick Newell and their companions will have the first event of TedxTokyo on this coming Friday at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, called Miraikan, which is located in Tokyo's waterfront.  The event's official site is here.   And for those who have no chance to attend, the organizers will bring you a livecast streaming here.   The livecast will probably start in Friday morning in J.S.T., meaning around Friday midnight in U.T.C.

Infinity Ventures Summit 2009 Spring

Secondary, an independent venture capital unit founded by three Japanese tech-finance experts, Infinity Venture Partners[J] intends to have a bi-annual presentation event for Japanese tech start-ups, which is titled Infinity Ventures Summit (IVS) 2009 Spring, in Japan's nothern city of Sapporo, Hokkaido.   We have not confirmed if they bring a livestream on the event.    (Basically the event is opened only for invited attendees, and not all the event scenes have been disclosed for the previous editions.)

Make Tokyo's Logo

Thirdly, O'reilly Japan[J] will hold Make: Tokyo 03[J] on this coming Saturday and Sunday in association with Tama Art University, Digital Hollywood University and Tokyo Polytechnic University.   Many gadget developers and inventors come together in a place and use this opportunity to proudly exhibit their works to the public.

Following Japanese mobile carriers' presentations on their brand new products and services for summer 2009, a number of tech events are scheduled in this season, which may make us a little bit busier.   But we Asiajin will try out best to cover these events as much as possible.   Don't miss it.

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May 26th update:

Serkan Toto, who is an Asiajin contributor as well as a TechCrunch writer, covered  Infinity Ventures Summit 2009 Spring on his blog post on TechCrunch.   Here for Day1, and here for Day 2.

Joker Racer – “Truly-Remote” Control Car Over The Internet

jokerracerlogo

A team of Joker Racer, a project by Tokyo-based Jokerworks Corp. to make remote control cars (and possibly real cars) controlled over the internet to provide virtual-but-real driving experience by using on-car linux and web cam, is visiting the Silicon Valley for their demonstration trip including O'Reilly Where 2.0 and Ignite + Launch Pad.

Yoski Akamatsu, a project leader of the Joker Racer, is known by his web company SideFeed Inc. and its RSS feed related services [J], some of which are also provided in English.

joker-racer-world-map-screenshot

Joker Racer is also presented at the last Tokyo2point0 in bilingual (Japanese/English).

National Anthem of Japan is Short Enough for Domain Name

The world shortest national anthem lyrics, which became an official national song 10 years ago and still provoking public controversy, seems to be taken as a Germany domain (.de) by someone with using the maximum allowed number of letters (63, according to RFC 1034).

kimigayo-domain-screenshot

As you see, to make the lyrics properly end, it needs to be on ".de" top level domain.

http://kimigayowachiyoniyachiyonisazare-ishinoiwaotonaritekokenomusuma.de/

Whether the dash in the middle is really required or not has room for argument, but the government website has the same Roman alphabet notation.