Serkan Toto

au BOX: KDDI, Motorola and Opera intro new multimedia terminal in Japan

Yesterday KDDI, one of Japan’s many telecommunications powerhouses, held a press conference in Tokyo to present the so-called “au BOX” to the general public for the first time. “au” is KDDI’s cell phone brand and the reason why the company can call itself Japan’s second biggest cell phone carrier. Based on the Motorola VIP1830 IP,… Continue reading au BOX: KDDI, Motorola and Opera intro new multimedia terminal in Japan

Zozoresort: Japan’s virtual fashion town for young people

Japanese people who want a (window-)shopping experience don’t really need brick and mortar businesses, at least not in the fashion realm. They can simply access Zozo, a shopping web site that boasts over 1 million registered users (in other words: potential buyers), half of whom are male. What sets Zozo apart from other shopping portals… Continue reading Zozoresort: Japan’s virtual fashion town for young people

English guide for Nico Nico Douga, part 2: How to use

UPDATE 31/12/2010: We wrote a completely new English guide on how to use Nico Nico Douga (click here), so please ignore the version below! We also offer a new English guide on how to register for Nico Nico Douga (click here). The following screenshots explain how to get around on Japanese video site Nico Nico… Continue reading English guide for Nico Nico Douga, part 2: How to use

English guide for Nico Nico Douga, part 1: How to register

UPDATE 31/12/2010: We wrote a completely new English guide on how to register for Nico Nico Douga (click here), so please ignore the version below. We also offer a new English guide on how to get around on the site (click here). Japanese uber video portal Nico Nico Douga (all posts on Asiajin) recently launched… Continue reading English guide for Nico Nico Douga, part 1: How to register

From TechCrunch50 in San Francisco: Gazopa delivers a great presentation on their image search engine

As Japan’s third company, Gazopa, a Hitachi-backed search engine for images, presented at TechCrunch50 today (the final day). Hideki Kobayashi, project leader at Gazopa, did a great job explaining the service, which makes it possible to look for images on the web similar to images you can upload to Gazopa or right-click on (on any… Continue reading From TechCrunch50 in San Francisco: Gazopa delivers a great presentation on their image search engine

From TechCrunch50 in San Francisco: Sekai Camera provides social tagging for the iPhone, delivers strange presentation

Tonchidot, a Tokyo-based start-up, was the second Japanese party presenting at this year’s TechCrunch50 conference that currently takes place in San Francisco. Their presentation today was probably the most talked about of day 2 (tomorrow is the last day of the conference) but in my view, this is because of the wrong reasons. As stated… Continue reading From TechCrunch50 in San Francisco: Sekai Camera provides social tagging for the iPhone, delivers strange presentation

From TechCrunch50 in San Francisco: Japanese company Rinen presents Opentrace

I am at the TechCrunch 50 conference in San Francisco right now (you might know I am a writer for the TechCrunch network). The Wifi was off so my report is a little late, sorry: Yesterday, a start-up from Tokyo called Rinen presented their product, Opentrace, to the 1,700-people crowd. Rinen has neither a company… Continue reading From TechCrunch50 in San Francisco: Japanese company Rinen presents Opentrace

Japan’s national TV station NHK makes a leap forward in mobile broadcasting

Japan’s national TV station NHK is not just a broadcaster but also quite active in technology development. For example, the organization is driving forward the Ultra-HDTV format (7680 x 4320 pixels, also known as Super Vision), which is to be deployed in Japan 2015. On the web, NHK first expanded to Youtube and starting today,… Continue reading Japan’s national TV station NHK makes a leap forward in mobile broadcasting

Oshaberi TV: Like Nico Nico Douga (almost) for digital TV programs

After 2 years of development, a new communication service called Oshaberi TV went into Public Beta this month (Oshaberi means talkative in Japanese). Oshaberi TV is not a TV station or program but a mix of a new technology reminiscent of Nico Nico Douga‘s super-successful “chat over video feed” function and community/forum. Essentially, Oshaberi enables… Continue reading Oshaberi TV: Like Nico Nico Douga (almost) for digital TV programs