Mezamashi Kanojo [J] (Morning Alarm Clock Girlfriend) by Biglobe is a smartphone(iPhone/iPad/Android) alarm clock application featuring Japanese girls.

The app has a simple alarm clock functionality. When it rings, a random photo of a girl hiding her face is shown. Until you tap, the girl’s photo will be shrinking.

If you wake up fast, you will be able to see the girl’s face in large photo.

Every morning, different girl wakes you up. Here is a movie which shows how it works,

Mezamashi Maid, maid costume version is also there

The Android deluxe version, 350 yen (US$4.3), has 50 girls chosen from vol.1 to 3.

If you set your Twitter account, alarm-setting and wake-up-ring will also tweet “good night” and “good morning” to your friends’ timeline. You see there are users who are doing this on Twitter Search.

Tags: Japan by Akky Akimoto
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Japan’s book market is said to be worth around $24 billion (it’s the world’s biggest and about 4x the size of the local video game industry), which means it’s not a big surprise that e-publishing is currently one of the “hot” trends in the country’s tech sector.

And yesterday, Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei reported that the local industry made quite an important decision: book publishers and electronics companies have agreed to adopt EPUB 3.0, an open e-book standard that’s currently common in the US, Europe and other places.

The Electronic Book Publishers Association of Japan was launched in summer 2010 and counts the country’s biggest publishers among its 43 members.

EPUB is supported by the Kindle and the iPad, among others. EPUB 3.0, the next version of the standard, will support text printed vertically (i.e. Japanese) starting May this year.

Update:
Sorry for the mistake: the Kindle does not support EPUB.

Tags: Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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Pac’n Twit for iPhone/iPad is a new free Twitter client by Bandai Namco, yes, the company made Pacman 31 years ago (Namco merged with Bandai in 2005).

Here is a screenshot of Twitter timeline,

It comes with Pac man themed design, has regular Twitter client features, tweet, reply, direct message, retweet, list, search, notification, post image.

Bandai Namco had already released i-Appli version of Pac’n Twit [J] for Docomo’s Japanese feature phone.

On settings, you can change themes from Pacman to Galaga’88, which is a special contents only for iPhone/iPad version.

Both i-Appli version and iPhone/iPad version are free. Although it says to support Japanese, English and French, it seems not available on US iTunes App Stores at now. Official Twitter account @pacntwit tweets only in Japanese, too.

Tags: Japan, New Service by Akky Akimoto
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iPad 2 is expected to be released soon, and here is a lucky man who received brand-new iPad from his daughter.

@harux tweeted that he wants an iPad. His daughter saw his tweet then made a handwritten iPad for his birthday present. He says she drew about 20 screens, and unveiled 4 of them.

Handwritten iPad [J]

Messages displayed on the home screen are , “Happy birthday. Paper iPad for 50.”

There is a screen for shopping and you can see there are lists of free menu and paid menu. You can also find an icon saying ‘Let’s lose weight until your 60 years old birthday’.

Tags: Japan by Hiroumi Mitani
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Japan’s No.1 mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, which saw No. 3 SoftBank winning the rights to distribute the iPad in Japan last year, is planning to launch a tablet on its own. Japan’s biggest business daily, The Nikkei, reported yesterday that Docomo commissioned LG Electronics to manufacture a device designed specifically for the Japanese market.

The yet to be named tablet will come with Android as the OS on board and will be offered through Docomo’s sales network by late March, if everything goes according to plan. Not too surprisingly, users will be able to go online via Docomo’s 3G network.

The Nikkei says the tablet will be sized between eight and nine inches. In other words, the new tablet will be smaller than the iPad (9.7 inches) and the Samsung Galaxy (7 inches), which in Japan is offered by Docomo.

Pricing, specs and other details are unknown at this point.

Tags: Japan, News by Serkan Toto
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