Japanese sports newspaper Nikkan Sports reported [J] on December 4th, Saturday morning that Tokyo Yakult Swallows, one of 12 professional baseball team in Japan’s top league Nippon Professional Baseball(NPB), is planning to sell itself to web service company CyberAgent (Asiajin), which runs Ameba blog, Pigu(Japan)/Pico(US), etc. Yakult, a beverage company who owns and has been… Continue reading CyberAgent Rumored To Buy Off Tokyo-Based Baseball Team Yakult Swallows
Month: December 2010
Docomo To Unveil Feature Phone-Only App Store On Monday
Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei is reporting that the country’s leading mobile carrier, NTT Docomo, is to unveil a a new app store of sorts on Monday, December 6. The portal will offer 1,200 apps from the get-go, in addition to 1 million music titles and a total of 30,000 e-books – exclusively for… Continue reading Docomo To Unveil Feature Phone-Only App Store On Monday
Yahoo! Japan Begins Its Own Application Platform YAP
Yahoo! Japan announced [J] their entering application platform competition with new Yahoo! Application Platform (Yahoo! Appli). The release was done on November 25th and it launched on the same day with 10 third-party applications. You might already know that Yahoo! Japan, No.1 website in Japan, is not really identical with U.S. Yahoo!, who has been… Continue reading Yahoo! Japan Begins Its Own Application Platform YAP
First Social Game Magazine Appli-Style On Sale
On December 2nd, Japan’s first (maybe the world first? do you know?) cellphone social game application magazine “Appli Style” has been released in Japan. The magazine, costs 680 yen (US$8), published by a publisher Eastpress, are sold at bookstores and convenience stores around the nation. (->
Tokyo Taxis Become WiFi-Enabled
In association with NTT DoCoMo, Tokyo Musen[J], an alliance of taxi operators in Tokyo, started today providing in-car WiFi Internet access for free for taxi users on 820 cars travelling within Tokyo Prefecture. 100 of the 820 cars carry PSP Go (PlayStation Portable) as well, taxi users are allowed to playing games with it,… Continue reading Tokyo Taxis Become WiFi-Enabled
Yahoo! Japan’s Search Engine All Switched To Google’s Confirmed By Y!J President Inoue
According to Jiji, Yahoo! Japan president Masahiro Inoue confirmed that their backend search engine switch had finished on December 1st. Japan Fair Trade Commission yesterday declared that the coalition between Yahoo! Japan and Google around search technology is not an unfair monopoly. He also said that another big switch to Google’s technology, ads network system… Continue reading Yahoo! Japan’s Search Engine All Switched To Google’s Confirmed By Y!J President Inoue
Family Mart Debuts New Rice Balls Suggested By Twitter Users
Following the cooperation between soft drink company Calpis and noodle maker Acecook with Mixi in 2008, we have yet another case of social media integration into product development in Japan. Major convenience store chain Family Mart is concluding its campaign [J] where they release new rice ball flavors according to the suggestions of Twitter users… Continue reading Family Mart Debuts New Rice Balls Suggested By Twitter Users
Track The International Space Station(ISS) From PC, Facebook And Smartphone
SightSpaceStation by Tokyo-based Tori Ningen [J] is a site gives you full experience and knowledge on the International Space Station(ISS) watch. The English/Japanese/Spanish-trilingual web site tells you that the earliest date and time when you will be able to watch the ISS flies over your town next time. Google Maps, Google Street View and Google… Continue reading Track The International Space Station(ISS) From PC, Facebook And Smartphone
Make Tokyo Meeting 06: Where You Can See Future, Magic And Junk In A Place
Picture above: “Hyper knit creator” Saki Chikaraishi[J] (@hypersaku) wearing the iPhone-like sweater she has knit. Last weekend, at Ookayama Campus, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O’reilly Media‘s mechatronics magazine “Make” held the 6th meeting[J] and a bunch of unique gadgets were presented. Let’s have a look at some of remarkable items. – – – – – – – –… Continue reading Make Tokyo Meeting 06: Where You Can See Future, Magic And Junk In A Place
Mixi Gives Up New “Search Friends By E-mail Address” Feature After Harsh Rejection
On November 30th, Mixi, Japanese counterpart of Facebook, one of the three biggest Japanese social network service, introduced a new feature [J, requires Mixi log-in], which allows you to search your friend on Mixi from his/her e-mail address, which makes Mixi step into real life networks side. Before the change, you could invite your friend… Continue reading Mixi Gives Up New “Search Friends By E-mail Address” Feature After Harsh Rejection