Nakasuga Lab., the University of Tokyo, introduced a bot account tweeting the real-time state of a satellite which is located in the earth low orbit.   The tweet(@XI-V) keeps us update with parameters like the satellite's surface temperature, battery voltage and where it is located over of the planet and also shows us still images shooting the planet from the satellite in the space.

XI-V (pronounced as "Sai-Five") is an ultra-mini sized 10-centimeter (approx four inches) cubic satellite.   It was developed by students of the university's graduate school for studying the intelligent space systems and launched from Plesetsk Cosmodrome[R], Russia in 2005.

Tags: Japan, News, Technology by Masaru IKEDA
4 Comments »

As I reported on Monday, NTT comrades - #1 cellphone carrier NTT Docomo and Japanese portal Goo owner NTT Resonant - tried to get back search initiative in Japanese mobile web by switching their i-mode iMenu mobile web search from Google on April 30th, but failed with (I guess by too much traffic) trouble and postponed the change. That trouble must be embarrassing and there should be huge number of poor engineers ought to work during national Golden Week holidays.

Today at 6:20 a.m. (Japan Standard Time) May 7th, NTT Resonant updated their first press release [J] and the iMenu default search gives you Mobile Goo search results for all mobile websites. Now Google mobile search is put out from the largest mobile official portal to pasture in Japan (you may still choose Google from bunch of non-default search engines list). NTT Docomo apologized [J] the technical glitch without mentioning Goo or Google.

The third category, PC web search stays the same one by Google's. As Goo does not have PC web search engine since they decided to abandon their own and borrowed Google's in 2003. But many cellphone web users do not care PC version websites, so most site owners and SEO companies are now working hard on how to raise their site rank on the mobile search results of Goo's engine, which they almost ignored until now.

NTT Resonant runs two different web crawlers, one is Wakame (seaweed) and the other one is Ichiro. The crawlers info is here [J] for case if you run mobile websites in Japan.

What NTT Docomo did with Google in 2008 was similar with that US Yahoo did in 2000 on PC search. US Yahoo understated search engine's importance and switched Google's solution, and took long time to resume their own by Yahoo Search Technology. I really could not see what motivation Docomo had at that point. Google's benefit was obvious to get more brand recognition to chase mighty Yahoo! Japan, which somewhat worked.

Oh, by the way, if you feel the brand name Goo sounds fishy, Goo existed before Google was established.

Tags: Cellular Phone, Japan by Akky Akimoto
1 Comment »

Another case of Amazon envy from Rakuten, Japan's biggest online shopping "mall"? It seems so.

According to various reports, Rakuten is currently pondering the development of a barcode scanner. One of the reason for Rakuten to get into the hardware business - according to a company representative quoted by The Nikkei ("Japan's Wall Street Journal") - is that "Amazon has the Kindle, and Apple has the iPhone".

That's a quite interesting view on things. The device, if it really comes out, will scan bar codes printed on products to automatically find the lowest price on Rakuten's gigantic site for the item in question (after connecting it to a computer, obviously). That means the reader, which will be the first piece of hardware manufactured by Rakuten itself, won't be usable anywhere else.

Rakuten says it sees the device being used mainly for products people use on a daily basis, for example tissues and such. A first test run for the reader with 1,000 Rakuten members is scheduled to begin this fall. The company aims at making the reader as compact and cheap as possible (even distributing the device for free is apparently under discussion).

Tags: Japan, News, Technology by Serkan Toto
6 Comments »

The birth rate keeps lower number in Japan, which causes more elementary and junior high schools to be shut down across the nation.   Especially in the highly populated areas, these ex-school buildings turned to be used for artist's studios, SOHO for tech entrepreneurs and coffee shops filling the lessee's stomachs with great meals.

In mid-May, at 3331 Arts Chiyoda[J] which used to be a junior high school in Akihabara and has been renovated, there will be "The Soldering Cafe (Handazuke Cafe) [J]" where people can enjoy  their e-craft kitting and communicate with another companions having the same interest.  In the future, the cafe's founder and e-kit online retailer Switch Science[J] (frequently witnessed at O'reilly's Make: events) expects to provide tools like a 3D printer and a laser cutter which are too expensive to be owned by individuals.   It is expected anyone is allowed to use the facility by paying the admission fee for as little as a buck.

The cafe has not yet been opened, but a CCTV camera installed there is already Ustreamed 24 hours a day. (probably for preventing on prowlers and sneak thieves.)

Author's note:  The Soldering Cafe introduced above can be considered as a place for kit assemblers in Akihabara.  In Tokyo, there's another place for more general purposes in the stylish district of Shirokane, which is called Tokyo Hackerspace where a number of tech and social events are being held mainly by Western people and multi-lingual Japanese.

Tags: Community, Japan by Masaru IKEDA
2 Comments »

As we reported last month, one of only 6 Google presidents Koichiro Tsujino left Google Japan at the end of April.

This leave is confirmed both on the Google's executive list, on which no more Google Japan president exists, and Tsujino's tweet [J],

On that tweet, he said that the day (30th April, Sunday) was his last day at Google, thanked to followers and people had made business with him. He also wrote that his twitter account had been opened as an individual so he would keep using it.

Apart from the first Nikkei's report, there are almost no news talking about this leave and abolishing of Google Japan's president position. There seem no company release on that. Search on "Google" News gives me no results besides two Google's release under Tsujino's name during April [J]. So Google Japan's removing local president title is not a news at all.

Google Japan's official blog also does not tell anything. The article on the April 30th is to introduce their improved local movie search. When comparing with US companies, it is true that Japanese presidents silently leave, no last greetings on company website and/or blog. But this is too silent even in Japan.

By the way, on last month, I counted 6 president title holders on the Google's list, but now there are only 3. Two co-founders and the president of Enterprise Dave Girouard. I guess another disappeared one is Google.org's president, but cannot remember what was the 6th one.

Anyway, Google's management seem to become even flatter now.

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
No Comments »