Entries Tagged as 'Service'

Android App Karelog Lets You Spy On Your Boyfriend Remotely [Update: Pulled]


Are you a woman? Are you easily getting jealous? Does your boyfriend own an Android cell phone? If you answered all of these questions with "yes", then a new Android app called "Karelog" [JP] (Boyfriend Log) might be the right thing for you. In a nutshell, it's a piece of "spyware" that you secretly install on your boyfriend's Android handset and that runs in the background.

The way it works is that after downloading, you install the app on your boyfriend's cell phone and provide an ID and password. After you're done, you can track your boyfriend's whereabouts via a website you can access with the ID and password you provided during the installation process, as seen below:

Karelog itself can be downloaded and used for free for 3 days. After that, membership costs between costs 525 Yen a month (or 840 Yen for 3 months or 1,980 Yen for a year). For that money, you can not only track a person's location via GPS but also check the battery status of the Android phone they use.

Platinum members (1,980Yen/month, 4,980 Yen/3 months or 8,980 Yen/1 year) can also check their boyfriend's call log and what kind of apps he has downloaded (to uncover dating or erotic apps, for example).

Needless to say, Karelog can not only be used to control boyfriends but any kind of Android user (you need Android 2.2 and up by the way). As such, the Japanese blogosphere isn't only abuzz with the appearance of the app itself currently but also sees some users discussing privacy issues (example).

I myself wouldn't be too surprised to see the app getting the axe rather sooner than later.

Update September 2, 2011:
The maker of the app apologizes over privacy problems the app may cause and pulls the app to "redesign" it.

Zaim: The Socialized Cashbook App Helps You Find Better Ways To Save Daily Expenses


Takako Kansai[J] (@kansai_takako), a full-time engineer at Tokyo's web service start-up and also the best known tech geek girl in this country, just released her first iPhone app called Zaim on Tuesday.

Zaim, meaning "financial affairs" in the Japanese pronunciation, makes you possible to easily note where you have bought something, what you have bought, and how much you have paid for it, on the iPhone app. You are allowed to share your expense records with other users, that's why the app is subtitled as the social account book, compare the characteristics of using money with those who have a similar demographic profile with you, and find a better way to save your money.


Pic: Mrs. Kansai pitches Zaim at Tokyo's monthly start-up showcase event, Startup Dating[J] (June 2011).

She lives in Yokohama, a Tokyo's adjacent city, and she has been developing the app in her one-hour home-office daily commute, and spent three months to complete it, TechCrunch Japan reports. She has enhanced its functionality that allows users to handle up to 19 currency units both in English and Japanese, and expects it gain user traction from the world.

Mrs. Kansai is currently working with UserLocal[J] (See these stories for more about it), which is known for their visualized website access analysis solutions, and also represents a weekend/after-hours web development group called Tinymonks. She is now working on a third-party API for the app, which is expected to be published later this month, and her group mate is working on the Android app for the service.

Facebook Spot Information Is Jacked By A Giant Japanese Coupon Business Player


Facebook Spot Information is becoming popular in Japan after Facebook had started Check-in Coupon (Check-in Deals) in Japan.

Facebook Japan Holds An New Coupon Service Launch Event In Shibuya

The problem arouse when Recruit[E], Japan's largest coupon business player, registered spot information of restaurants on behalf of restaurant owners without enough notification.

Hitoshi Nakamura(twitter id: hitoshi[J]) , one of the most famous restaurant owner who has a deep knowledge on social marketing, reported on his blog that  Recruit registered spot information of his restaurant without getting agreement from him.

He noticed this when his customer requested to use a deal posted by Recruit on Facebook spot information.

( This photo was uploaded by Hitoshi.)

Recruit is operating a service known as Hot Pepper[J], a free paper media distributed in town like "am New York" [En] or "metro [En]" but only includes coupons of restaurants and beauty salons instead of articles. There is also an web site to search restaurants and coupons on Hot Pepper. Shop owners pay fixed fee per month to get their coupons printed on this media.

With those data of restaurants and coupons, Recruit, instead of restaurant owners, started registering spot information with coupon. Recruit sent this announcement to 40,000 restaurants and registered information of restaurants except those replied to not register. That means when there was no response, Recruit also registered shop information, took an opt-out process.

As a result, duplicated shop information had registered for some restaurants already have their shop information on Facebook. Recruit says, they checked restaurant names to prevent to register another shop information for those who already registered them on Facebook. But if there is a slight change on the name of restaurants, spell, big letter or small letter, with or without hyphen , etc., spot information had registered in additional to the original one.

This had caused troubles. Restaurant owners with original spot information could not publish Check-in coupon since Recruit had already published coupons for another spot information with the name of same restaurant, and Facebook judged it as a break of service agreement. So Recruit jacked the spot information and the right to publish coupon.

Recruit de-registered shop information for those requested to do so but not only restaurants, Recruit also had  registered spot information of hotels on their hotel reservation site, Jalan[J].

This case implies that anyone can register shop information to get more exposure on Facebook Check-in. Yelp, Expedia, or any other player can do similar thing. Although they can not connect directly to their services at least you can get more awareness for your service.

So how Facebook will respond?

Is this going to be another battle field to get a better position on the list of web page like we do for Google search results?

Snapeee: Can Teen Taste Snapshot Sharing Win Hearts Of The Young In Asia?


Tokyo-based tech start-up Mind Palette[J], who was chosen as one of the five projects that Cyber Agent support in their incubation program, released the iPhone app called Snapeee this week.   It is a picture-based social network platform that has a feature of decorating user's snapshots, that is deeply inspired by the Japanese subculture fashion that teenage girls would prefer to get their own snapshots decorated with glitter and animated clip arts.

The company's CEO and founder Yuji Kobayashi says, they're expecting to engage potential users not only in Japan but in the world.  The app became available as short as several days ago, but it is getting large endorsements from the web community in Hong Kong and Taiwan, where the J-pop culture attracts the younger generation.

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Kayac Introduces FB-integrated VoIP App For The iPhone


Kanagawa-based funny app developer Kayac introduced Reengo, a VoIP app for the iPhone that allows you to place a call to your Facebook friend without dialing the number.   According to TechCrunch Japan[J], the company chose Facebook from available options as an integration platform because they would like to spread the app out globally.

As of this writing, the app is available only on the Japanese AppStore, however, it will be released internationally as soon as their server-side environment stands by for possible heavy load.   That will be happening in a couple of days, they say.   They're planning to introduce the app for the Android handsets in late-May.