Have you ever felt ashamed by leaning on to person sitting next to you constantly while on train falling asleep?  Sure, I have.  Often.

LION[J], as a promotion for energy drink Gronsan[J],  released mobile alarm app[J] that could keep you away from this common situation you may find on commuting trains in Japan.

The app is claimed to vibrate and wake you before such situation occurs by detecting your body movement utilizing smartphone's gyroscopic sensor.  Wonder why such app is wanted?  Well, Japanese businessmen including me fall alseep on train so often (average 4.2 times per week!!) that they may welcome and appreciate such app for waking them up beforehand(survey done by LION[J], businesswomen not included).

This app also comes with wake-up call feature which generates "fake" incoming-call from gravure idols and, on answering such fake call, plays wake-up messages by them.

So if you ever encoutered such situation on train or wanted to be woken up by gravure idols, don't forget to give it a try and tell us how it works.

The iPhone app is in Japanese only.  Android version is to be released soon and other unique features should follow.

See also:

App Store - Otsukaresan Alarm[J]

Tags: Android, Company, iOS, Japan by Haruo Nakayama
No Comments »

HONDA [J] has released “face game book” [J],  an old school “game book” style puzzle solving game application for facebook.

“face game book” [J] is a promotional game application for their new model “FREED,” and was originally developed in cooperation with the “mystery” event group “SCRAP,” who have until now been frequently making “Real Dasshutsu Games” (Real Escape Games).  In the game, the user becomes a great detective who lives in the world of Facebook Town, which has lost its “chodoii” (just right).  In order to take back the lost “chodoii,” the player finds out the three chodoii clues: △, □ and 〇, and solves the mystery.  By lottery, one person among the applicants who have solved the riddle and cleared the game will be presented with the actual “FREED Hybrid Just Selection.”

Translation by VSMedia

Tags: News, Social game by Chiho Komoriya
No Comments »

“AmebaPico,” the overseas 2D virtual space managed by CyberAgent, has acquired 4 million users.  This was brought to light from their English version Twitter account.

“Ameba Pico” is this company’s overseas English version of their Japanese virtual space Ameba Pigg [J], offered as a Facebook application.  Like ameba Pigg, you create your own avatar, customize your clothing and make your room, and users enjoy communication with others.  However the space adjoining with foreign users and the item design as well as the system has been arranged.  This service opened in March of 2010 and since then has done well picking up users.

Translation authorized by VSMedia

Tags: News, Social game, USA by Chiho Komoriya
No Comments »

Indonesia is just getting started on the Internet, but interest is rapidly growing in this massive market of 240 million people. The country is on the map especially in the tech industry in Japan and (to a lesser extent) Silicon Valley, which is why a new conference called BOOST is trying to connect these three regions.

The inaugural event describes itself as a "non-profit conference that helps local Indonesian startups grow into scalable companies" and will have some A-list entrepreneurs and venture capitalists from Japan and the US as speakers (see below).

Entrepreneurs who want to have a chance to take part in "small group mentoring sessions" with the speakers and other BOOST attendees, can apply here (deadline: December 19, 2011).

General attendees can get tickets here.

Here are the BOOST conference details:
Date: January 17-18, 2012
Venue: Intercontinental Jakarta Midplaza
Registration
Event homepage
Twitter
Facebook

As you can see above, the line-up of speakers planned for the event is pretty impressive. It includes Dave McClure (founder of 500 Startups), Jia Shen (co-founder of Rock You), Hiro Maeda (co-founder of Open Network Lab), Jameson Hsu (co-founder of Mochi Media), Brent Hurley (founding team member of YouTube), Akimitsu Sano (CEO of Cookpad), Steven Goh (CEO of mig 33), legendary game creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and others.

Tags: Indonesia by Serkan Toto
No Comments »

AR 3kyoudai(=three brothers) is a Japanese technological unit known by its AR-related projects. Now AR 3kyoudai's project is to replace a static ad-board on the building wall with video ad.

(The regular ad on the right will be viewed as a video ad on the left when you watch via smartphone.)

With smartphone and the app, your town will look like a big town like Shibuya or Shinjyuku, where gigantic screens are playing video on corners.

Mitsubishi Jisho Residence released "The Parkhouse AR Viewer" for iOS/Android, which displays [J] its building new apartment building in Shinjyuku on screen, though the building itself is still under construction.

The construction site has huge markers on its walls and the potential customers can check how the building will be seen after finished.

The app also realizes 3D models over its brochure.

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
1 Comment »