Asiajin

Real time speech translation is the hot topic in last few days because of Google’s speech-to-speech translation development news and our reported Japanese government experiment. However, translation among human languages seems far behind Canis language translation, you can tell if you are a native dog language speaker (unfortunately I am not).

BowLingual, Dog-to-human language translator which got The 2002 Ig Nobel Peace Prize, is planned to be released for iPhone in summer 2010, Tokyo-based Index Corporation announced [J].

The latest BowLingual will have Twitter support, by which dog owners can send what their puppy says to the world directly on iPhone. The owner can also send dog’s photo and their comments, which is supposed to make dog owners networking.

BowLingual was bundled to one model of Vodaphone cellphone in 2003 (Ketai Watch) [J], but did not go on another Japanese cellphones at that time.

Tags: Japan, Joke by Akky Akimoto
4 Comments »

Yahoo Japan released 16 free iPhone Apps simultaneously at Japanese iTunes Store. By locating each app on the screen correctly, like solving a number slider puzzle, you can depict a face of the most famous character in Japan, Doraemon.

Each app icon is designed to be a part of the face of this character. Usually, iPhone app icons have a unique gradation effect  common to all, but icons of those apps don’t have such kind of effect on them.

These apps were released as a part of the campaign to promote the animation movie of Doraemon. Apps are comprised by 11 comic book  apps, a battery level checker app, mini-game apps and etc.

Currently, 16 apps are all ranked in the top 20 free apps in Japanese iTunes App store.

Tags: Japan, Joke, Software by Hiroumi Mitani
1 Comment »

China’s largest e-commerce company Alibaba.com seems to have a good sense of humour and doing viral marketing there in the secret Chinese web.

Chinese film creator Hu Ge(胡戈) makes a parody movie of the former US president Bush’s dodging thrown shoes at a press conference in Iraq.

In the movie the president was less patient than Bush and throws back his shoes, then…

English audio, Simplified Chinese subtitled, enjoy,

YouTube seems to blocked in China so this movie should be copied for attendees of the academic conference in Sapporo, Japan.

via Media Pub [J]

Tags: China, Joke, USA by Akky Akimoto
No Comments »

On the first day of this new year, Kanagawa-headquartered funny web app developer Kayac launched a new service which allows you to decorate your Twitter icon with sushi items.

The service, which is named Twitter Sushi, works in conjunction with Twitter, you are allowed to choose a sushi from varieties such as a chunky omelet piece, natto (fermented soybeans), salmon, tuna, shrimp, sea bream and salmon roe.   Large fatty tuna can be chosen by the Twitter users who have more than 100 followers.

You may feel as though you had a seat at a revolving sushi restaurant.   In commemoration with the service, for those who apply for recruit from January 1st through 3rd, the company will kindly treat to sushi.

Tags: Japan, Joke, New Service by Masaru IKEDA
No Comments »

Gazou-wo-purupuru-ni-suru-soft (A software to make image puddingy) is a tentative tool developed in C++ language by a Nico Nico Douga user YNW. You see how it works here, (you may turn off Japanese comments by the bottom-right button)

# I cannot watch the movie above from Taipei hotel now but should be okay. If your browser doesn’t go you need to go to the original page which requires Nico Nico Douga registration.

On the tool, you direct regions to move and give parameters how much it bound with area around, how it is bounced. Then dragging the image will make natural(?) movement physically calculated.

See Also:

The tool download page [J] – you need a password written on the original Nico Nico Douga page’s description

Asiajin: iPhone Breast Enhancer: Better Than Plastic Surgery To Be Sexy?

Asiajin: paiTouch – Virtual Boob Simulator comes to iPhone

Tags: Japan, Joke by Akky Akimoto
No Comments »