On Friday, CNET Networks Japan[J] held this year’s award ceremony of its annual innovation contest called TechVenture 2009[J] in Omotesando, in association with Tokyo-based seven tech-oriented venture capital firms. Totally 15 companies and services are nominated for the prize awards. Let’s have a look at each of them and what they provide. Atlantis[J] (Service: AdLantis[J]) Atlantis… Continue reading CNET Japan Holds Its Annual Tech Innovation Awards Contest
Author: Masaru IKEDA
No Weather Update In Japan On Monday
Due to the technical fault that occurred Monday at the weather data distribution center of Japan’s meteorological agency, most of weather updates have been suspended nationwide throughout the day. The center has its primary system as well as the stand-by to avoid the service interruption, but the configuration file referred by both systems was corrupted accidentally, which… Continue reading No Weather Update In Japan On Monday
Will Mobile Medical Services Save Japan From The Global Economic Downturn?
Economists point out that expanding domestic demand and encouraging consumption are the highest priorities in getting us out of this economic downturn. IT Strategic Headquarters, the arm of Japan’s Cabinet which oversees which IT platforms will most benefit the country in the future, has suggested a three-year stimulus package including further deployment of broadband applications… Continue reading Will Mobile Medical Services Save Japan From The Global Economic Downturn?
NTT DoCoMo Halted Brand-New BlackBerry Sales, While Sankei Keeps Distributing Its 1st Newspaper App For The Phone
Japan’s largest mobile operator NTT DoCoMo started selling the brand-new smartphone BlackBerry Bold (BBB) from Research In Motion(RIM) recently, but the operator halted[J] sales after only a week since its introduction, because the handset has reportedly overheated while the battery is being recharged. By the way, we covered a couple of stories about newspaper apps… Continue reading NTT DoCoMo Halted Brand-New BlackBerry Sales, While Sankei Keeps Distributing Its 1st Newspaper App For The Phone
Run Virtually In Tokyo If You Lost The Draw To Attend The Real Marathon
This year’s Tokyo Marathon is scheduled to be held on March 22nd and marks its 3rd anniversary. The expected number of participating runners continues to increase every year. More than 250,000 people entered this year, but only 35,000 were lucky enough to win the draw to run. That means almost 85% of all the applicants will… Continue reading Run Virtually In Tokyo If You Lost The Draw To Attend The Real Marathon
Yahoo Japan Diggs Deeper Underground, While Google Covers More Narrow Streets Nationwide
Yahoo Japan[J] is planning to release its new underground mapping service on Thursday, which shows the details of underground shopping malls in 49 locations nationwide. Yahoo Japan’s map service[J] gets approximately 700 million page-views a month, and the new feature is expected to further increase that number. Similar to Google Maps Street View, by clicking… Continue reading Yahoo Japan Diggs Deeper Underground, While Google Covers More Narrow Streets Nationwide
Two Osaka Start-ups Bring Crime Prevention Apps To iPhone And Android Handsets
On Wednesday, Osaka-based start-up and iPhone developer Feedtailor[J] introduced a new iPhone app (clicking this link will launch iTunes), which allows you to see a map of street crimes in Osaka for the purpose of raising people’s attention and preventing further possible crimes. Feedtailor’s partner and Osaka-based tech start-up C-LIS[J] also released on Monday its… Continue reading Two Osaka Start-ups Bring Crime Prevention Apps To iPhone And Android Handsets
Three Newspapers’ App: Highly Ranked But Not Highly Rated
Regarding the three newspaper companies’ iPhone/iPod app “Allatanys” that was covered in my previous post, it is at the top of the free app section in the Japanese App Store. But it has attained only two stars in the five-star-rating system. Why is this? The App Store’s ranking list is based on the number… Continue reading Three Newspapers’ App: Highly Ranked But Not Highly Rated
Three Major Japanese Newspapers Collectively Introduce iPhone/iPod App
The three major Japanese newspaper companies in the Nikkei–Asahi–Yomiuri Internet Business Partnership introduced their free iPhone/iPod app on Wednesday, enabling news stories from these papers to be read side by side. The partnership was formed almost a year ago to launch a website bringing news stories from the three different papers together in one place.… Continue reading Three Major Japanese Newspapers Collectively Introduce iPhone/iPod App
Livedoor Launches An Open Source Showcase
On Monday, Livedoor Co., Ltd.[J] launched “EDGE src [J]“, a new website which showcases Livedoor’s software and source code which is being distributed to developers under its open-source policy. The company set up an internal team and a project called “EDGE [J]” to develop software and services on an experimental basis. Since its inception last… Continue reading Livedoor Launches An Open Source Showcase