Asiajin

Japan’s largest social networking website Mixi[J] launched a social app service for cellphone users called “Mixi Appli Mobile” on Tuesday.

The app service’s PC edition called “Mixi Appli” was introduced last August, which allows any Mixi users to choose their favorites from a showcase of the apps and to enjoy playing with their social friends online.

Mixi App Mobile presented as much as 104 titles as of its service release, including Bokujo Monogatari (A Story of Ranch) developed by Liveware[J] and Machitsuku (Developing a town) by Unoh.

Mixi App developers need to get their works examined by Mixi prior to presenting them to the users.   Once the examination is passed, the state given for the app will turn from “under development” to “in service”.

According to Mr. Akinori Harada, the head of Mixi service operations and the company’s managing director, mobile access to Mixi’s web-based services share almost 70% of all usages.   Social apps are more compatible with cellphone handsets in terms of the user’s convenience, Harada says.

In order to motivate potential developers to introduce their apps, the company supports them to monetize apps by distributing in-app ads.    The app developer can earn JPY0.01 (USD0.0001) per one impression when presenting in-app ads to the users.   In-app transaction API is to be introduced in early November, and it will allow users to pay money in the app by using Mixi’s user point system.   Corresponding to the amount of the point paid to the app, its developer will be able to get cash after deducting Mixi’s 20% handling charge.

via CNET Japan[J]

See Also:

• Mixi’s Press Release:  App Mobile Launched[J]

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Oct. 29th Update:

Due to the system’s heavy load that the rush of many new users has caused, users have been in technical difficulties to log in to Mixi App Mobile service during the last two days.   Machitsuku, one of the game apps mentioned above, is now ranked the 1st in the number of the app users, and has earned more than 600,000 users in just two days since its release.

Tags: Cellular Phone, Company, New Service by Masaru IKEDA
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Livedoor Wiki has added a new notation [J] for gamers who want to share the game’s tips and tricks. If you write like this,

&pad(ps3){6,2,3,plus,shikaku}

then it will be displayed as this,

For convenience, a game command editor is provided so you may press those buttons to generate notations like above.

(all screenshots are from 941::blog [J], a Livedoor director Kushii’s blog)

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Japan’s no.2 cellphone carrier KDDI au announced to start the deployment of a new power control system to their cellphone base stations as to switch the power sources to three ways of solar power, battery and midnight power service.

Solar-powered stations used to be deployed only in the areas which have no access to commercial power supply, and batteries installed at the stations are prepared only for backup for power outage.

The company expects to cut CO2 emissions by 20% to 30% with this system in running a base station.   Some manufacturers have also introduced solar chargeable cellphone handsets.   This eco-friendly concept of tribrid powered stations and solar-powered handsets can contribute to avoiding global warming as well as providing us disaster-proof communication systems.

via: Maikomi Journal[J]

Tags: Cellular Phone, Company, Japan, News, Technology by Masaru IKEDA
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Mobile social gaming platform GREE’s CEO Yoshikazu Tanaka repeatedly said in the last weeks he wants every Japanese to use GREE eventually (yeah, right). He also said he wants to beat direct rival Mobage-town in terms of user base in six months, and Mixi in twelve months.

That was in September. And today, at the end of October, the Nikkei (Japan’s answer to the Wall Street Journal) reports Tanaka already reached the first goal. As of the end of September, GREE’s user base stood at 15.12 million after the mobile- and Japan-only social gaming platform added 750,000 new members in September.

In the same month, Mobage-town added just 190,000 new members but boosted its number of users to “just” 15.10 million.

So GREE’s aggressive marketing campaign in Japan works. The company has been advertising several games on billboards and on TV for the past couple of months (and spending $11 million per quarter in the process).

And GREE is aggressive in another field, too: Four weeks ago, it came to light that GREE is suing DeNA, the company behind Mobage-town, over copyrights related to a popular fishing game.

GREE also completely changed the concept of its PC offering, which isn’t really earth-shattering now but much, much better than before.

It will take a while to overtake Mixi, the Japan’s biggest social network (which sees about 60% of page views coming from mobile phones). Mixi last officially talked about its member base at the end of June, when it had 17.41 million people (at that point in time, GREE had just 12.6 million).

Via Nikkei [registration required, paid subsription]

Tags: Cellular Phone, Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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Researchers at IBM Research – Tokyo is working on a way to easily arrange the reading flow of screen readers and mobile devices.

With the visual editor technology they are developing, webmasters can drag-and-drop the connected arrows that will lead the screen reader in an arbrary order. You can even adjust the granularity of the reading order, giving you detailed control or flexiblity.

This new technology not only makes it easier for the visually impared to “listen to” web pages, but also improve the interaction with rich media and non-PC devices. IBM says you can apply this technology to enhance accessibilty and operability of a variety of contents such as PDFs, Flash movies, PowerPoint documents, and web pages on mobile devices.

Tags: Japan, Technology by Naoko McCracken
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