Sharp to Introduce International Models Of E-book Reader Galapagos

Sharp announced recently they would introduce the e-book reader Galapagos[J], which was introduced in Japan last October, in U.S and several emerging countries such as Mainland China, India and Brazil.  The current models enable the company’s original e-book format of XMDF, and upcoming models to be sold outside Japan are expected to support e-Pub format… Continue reading Sharp to Introduce International Models Of E-book Reader Galapagos

Groupon Fails To Bring Happiness To Japanese New Year Holidays

In Japanese new year’s holidays, we enjoy having osechi-ryori or specially-prepared dishes to be eaten during the first three days of January.   Most dishes are cooked to be preserved for several days to a few weeks so housewives need not cook during the period.   The dishes have been traditionally cooked at home, but nowadays… Continue reading Groupon Fails To Bring Happiness To Japanese New Year Holidays

Samurai Incubate Holds Annual 1-Day Camp For Young CEOs

Samurai Incubate, a Tokyo-based seed accelerator aiming to bring up many tech start-ups, had the second edition[J] of their annual showcase event in late November, which is called Samurai Venture Summit (for short, SVS) and showed us their investing portfolios and pitch presentations by CEOs of tech start-ups.   It was an one-day event using a… Continue reading Samurai Incubate Holds Annual 1-Day Camp For Young CEOs

Chirpstory: Japan’s Best-known Service For Curating Tweets Goes International

Togetter[J], a web service for curating tweets by hashtags or containing keywords, has introduced its English version called Chirpstory on Thursday.   As well as Togetter (Japanese version), Chirpstory allows you to make a “story” curating all tweets about a specific topic only by drag and drop of several tweets for defining the topic.   It’s Twitter… Continue reading Chirpstory: Japan’s Best-known Service For Curating Tweets Goes International

Mashup Awards 6: Doting Father Develops Social Web For Recording His Daughter’s Growth

The award-presenting ceremony of the Mashup Awards 6[J], an annual web service development contest organized by a bunch of Japanese web companies, took place in Tokyo yesterday, where the venue was packed with hundreds of presenters and an audience.   This contest literally aims at letting participants compete their skills in developing a web service… Continue reading Mashup Awards 6: Doting Father Develops Social Web For Recording His Daughter’s Growth

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

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

Startups 2010: CyberAgent Ventures Announces To Invest In Five Tech Start-ups

CyberAgent Ventures[J], an invest arm of Tokyo’s web business conglomerate CyberAgent, previously known as CyberAgent Investment, announced today the result of Startups 2010[J] or their program digging up hidden tech start-ups from Japanese market.  Five teams were chosen to be financially and physically supported by CyberVentures in the program. Totally 108 teams have submitted their… Continue reading Startups 2010: CyberAgent Ventures Announces To Invest In Five Tech Start-ups

Conit Launches Easy-to-manage In-app Purchase Platform For Android App Developers

Tokyo-based tech start-up Conit launched an in-app purchase platform for the Android apps as well as the iPhone/iPad apps on Friday, in association with Japan’s largest ad agency Dentsu. The platform is named as Samurai Purchase[J], and allows smartphone app developer to manage all their in-app purchases that are made by users via the Android… Continue reading Conit Launches Easy-to-manage In-app Purchase Platform For Android App Developers

KDDI And Weathernews Introduce New Style Of Weather Updates For Cellphone

Japan’s second largest cellphone operator KDDI and the world’s largest meteorological company Weathernews jointly announced that they had launched a new weather update service by using Stevenson screens built on about 100 cellphone base stations in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, which is named Soratena after sora (meaning ‘sky’) and antenna.   The service is available… Continue reading KDDI And Weathernews Introduce New Style Of Weather Updates For Cellphone