Taxi-pooling Service Meets The Best Known LBS iPhone App And Map Portal

Probably it’s common in any city around the world that not more female geeks are appeared than males at tech industry scenes.   Except some activities that encourage more females to join this exciting community, such as U.S.-based “Girls in Tech” and Tokyo Girl Geeks[J], it is mere that we see a female entrepreneur who runs… Continue reading Taxi-pooling Service Meets The Best Known LBS iPhone App And Map Portal

Japan’s CyberAgent Sets Up $22.7 Million Fund For Startups In East Asia

The more you talk with Japanese VCs and entrepreneurs these days, the more you hear “China” as the next target for investing money or establishing a subsidiary. Now Japanese web behemoth CyberAgent (listed at the Tokyo Stock Exchange) says it has set up a fund exclusively focused on web startups in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan… Continue reading Japan’s CyberAgent Sets Up $22.7 Million Fund For Startups In East Asia

A New Japanese Twitter Clone Ameba-Now Front Loaded To PC Web

Cyber Agent, known by one of the most successful blog hosting Ameblo boasting thousand celebrities users, who started a new mobile microblog service Ameba Now, accelerated to launch its PC version 3 days later, today 11th, which was originally planned on 16th. Ameba Now’s top page (without login) shows featured celebrities messages. Different from cellphone… Continue reading A New Japanese Twitter Clone Ameba-Now Front Loaded To PC Web

Hatena Bookmark for iPhone: Simply Rotate Yours To Share Your Favorites

Kyoto-based tech start-up running Japan’s largest social bookmarking service Hatena[J] (meaning a question mark in Japanese) set up a new entrance specifically designed for the iPhone/iPod touch[J] today. Hatena Bookmark has a Digg-like feature allowing you to record the links of the websites that you have browsed and to share them with the other users.  … Continue reading Hatena Bookmark for iPhone: Simply Rotate Yours To Share Your Favorites

CyberAgent Launches Twitter Clone Called “Ameba Now!”

Shibuya-based social media service company Cyber Agent launched a Twitter-like micro message service called “Ameba Now[J]” today.   As a Japanese Internet slang, “now” is frequently used in a Twitter message telling other Twitterers where you are, such as “Shibuya Now!” and “Akihabara Now!”.   That company’s new service name comes from it. As Serkan Toto mentioned… Continue reading CyberAgent Launches Twitter Clone Called “Ameba Now!”

NTT Docomo And DeNA To Launch Joint Mobile UGC Site

Japan’s largest cellphone carrier NTT Docomo and The 3rd biggest social network Mobage-Town’s DeNA announced a joint venture worth 1.6 billion yen (17.7 million USD), which will run an User Generated Content site on cellphone since the first half of 2010. DeNA’s mobile social network Mobage-Town has a user posting sections for novels, music and… Continue reading NTT Docomo And DeNA To Launch Joint Mobile UGC Site

Hatena Testing Reconstructed Microblog Service Haiku2

Hatena, Kyoto-based web startup known by their geek users, the most popular social bookmark service Hatena Bookmark, and recent collaboration with Nintendo DS on Ugomemo Hatena (Flipnote Hatena for oversea), announces that they are running closed-beta test of their microblog service Hatena Haiku’s new version Hatena Haiku2 [J] (currently shows error page). Initially 1,000, currently… Continue reading Hatena Testing Reconstructed Microblog Service Haiku2

Japanese Government Opens Hatomimi.com For Informants

Japanese Governmental Gyosei Sasshin Kaigi(Regeneration of Administration Committee) [J] announced that they open “Hatomimi.com (or .jp)” from December 2nd for government workers, and in January 2010 for citizens, to receive opinions/requests/suggestions for cutting waste, absurdity, injustice and unfairness in government offices, to realize more efficient government operations. You may send information not only on the… Continue reading Japanese Government Opens Hatomimi.com For Informants

MA5: Mashing Up A Variety Of APIs Makes A Lot Of Fun

Tokyo-based publication and human resources company Recruit held a presentation and ceremony event introducing the fifth edition’s prize winners of the Mash-up Awards[J] contest last weekend. More than 50 tech companies sponsored the event and their founders and directors served as the juries to evaluate nominees. An applicant for the contest must use one or… Continue reading MA5: Mashing Up A Variety Of APIs Makes A Lot Of Fun

Japanese Kaomoji Stamp

Kaoiro by Ginghami is a classic stationery stamper which does not mark year-month-date but Japanese net emoticons Kaomoji(Facial Ascii Art), matches with your “:-)”, “X-D”, “;-P”, etc. # Kaomoji is different from Emoji, every single of which is a single letter like “A” and “1” and being suggested to be included in Unicode. You may… Continue reading Japanese Kaomoji Stamp