“Koe-tan”, A Free iPhone Voice Search App For Public Transit In Tokyo

Tokyo-based Internet ad agency Traffic Gate[J] and U.K.- and Silicon Valley-based speech recognition technology developer Novauris Technology jointly released an iPhone/iPod touch app allowing you to find the best route on Tokyo’s public transit using your voice, which is named “Koe-Tan” and available for free at AppStore.   If you are holding with bags and an… Continue reading “Koe-tan”, A Free iPhone Voice Search App For Public Transit In Tokyo

KDDI Running Out of Motorola’s au BOX

KDDI au, Japan’s 2nd largest cellphone carrier, announced that from October 31’st  it will stop accepting new contracts for the au BOX. The official reason given is “we will soon sell the allotted number of units for our au BOX service”. While new contracts are denied, existing customers will be able to continue using the… Continue reading KDDI Running Out of Motorola’s au BOX

Softbank To Cap iPhone Bandwidth

Japan’s exclusive iPhone provider Softbank, the 3rd largest carrier, announced [J] that they will introduce bandwidth limit for heavy users of their data plan from December, to keep network quality and fairness of network usage. In case of using the Packet-Teigaku(fixed rate)-Full plan [J], which Japanese iPhone users usually depends on, if your monthly usage… Continue reading Softbank To Cap iPhone Bandwidth

Two AR iPhone Apps Come To Our Hands This Week

Tokyo-based tech start-up led by Takahito Iguchi(@iguchi), a self-styled Willy Wonka who made an unique presentation at last year’s edition of TechCrunch 50, Tonchidot finally released an augmented reality (AR) iPhone app Sekai Camera on Thursday, it’s now available at AppStore for free of charge. In time with the release of the app, Mr. Iguchi… Continue reading Two AR iPhone Apps Come To Our Hands This Week

Google Japan’s In-Train Ads Asks Cellphone Users To Search By “Google”

In Tokyo Metro train, I noticed small ads by Google Japan. The ads are for Google Mobile Search promotion. This one suggests to search Google by “Shibuya Movie” when you want to know if the film “Taken” can be watched from now in your location (Shibuya). So Google Japan wants more cellphone users to use… Continue reading Google Japan’s In-Train Ads Asks Cellphone Users To Search By “Google”

Japanese Comics Target The World’s Second Most Populated Market

An NTT group company in mobile content development, NTT Solmare, and Kyoto-based mobile content developer Zero-Sum started distributing Japanese comic titles for cellphone users in India last Friday. The service is provided to the users of the country’s 6th ranked mobile carrier Tata Teleservices, and is also expected to start for the country’s 3rd ranked… Continue reading Japanese Comics Target The World’s Second Most Populated Market

Japanese Cellphone Manual Goes In Manga Comic

Different from other countries where cartoon are mostly for kids, in Japan, manga (Japanese style comic) nation, many grown-up keep reading manga through their lives and eventually almost all kind of things, which are covered in type texts books in other culture, are provided in manga. (for example, last Manga I read was a biograph… Continue reading Japanese Cellphone Manual Goes In Manga Comic

Japan’s DeNA brings its mobile social gaming platform MobaMingle to India

Tokyo-based mobile social gaming giant DeNA takes the international version of its super-successful gaming platform Mobage-town [JP, PC version], Mobamingle, to India (find some detailed background info on MobaMingle here and here). According to a report in the Nikkei, the service will be made available to Indian users in English as early as at the… Continue reading Japan’s DeNA brings its mobile social gaming platform MobaMingle to India

If The Shoguns Were Alive Today, Which Would Be Their Favorites?

Softbank Mobile released new five line-ups of luxury-textured and japan-lacquered covercase for iPhone 3GS/3G, which imitate an “inro” or a feudal pillbox used in Japan’s turbulent age.  The list price is JPY 99,800 for each, which is approximately USD 1,050. The line-ups were designed on the concept of what kind of iPhone case the five… Continue reading If The Shoguns Were Alive Today, Which Would Be Their Favorites?

ReTweeter! – Measure The Popularity Of Your Tweets

Takako Kansai, a developer working at User Local,Inc.[J] has released a service to measure the popularity of tweets. Takako Kansai’s blog[J] The service named ReTweeter!, shows how many users could have read your tweets from number of your followers and ReTweets. ReTweeter! Features of ReTweeter! are; You can check how many users can read your… Continue reading ReTweeter! – Measure The Popularity Of Your Tweets