Be More Punctual And Smarter With NHK

On Thursday, Japan’s public broadcaster NHK released the iPhone/iPod app imitating its originally designed clock which used to be seen by almost all of Japanese people at the beginning of every evening’s news program. (This link will launch your iTunes to download the app.) As Japanese terrestrial TV broadcast switches into digital, broadcasters can no longer… Continue reading Be More Punctual And Smarter With NHK

Nico Nico Douga Introduces Its iPhone/iPod App

Niwango[J], the owner of Japan’s most popular video sharing site “Nico Nico Douga[J]“, released its iPhone/iPod appon Monday. The app is for free and available only at Japanese AppStore. With 3G or WiFi connectivity, the app allows you to search/play videos and leave your comment on Nico Nico Douga, however it does not cover the… Continue reading Nico Nico Douga Introduces Its iPhone/iPod App

Major Publishers Co-launch Non-UGC Encyclopedia Site

Asahi Newspaper, the Internet portal company EC Navi[J] and major publishers like Kodansha and Shogakukan jointly launched Thursday an online encyclopedia containing 430,000 words, which is called “Kotobank[J]“.   The service is provided for free, and the joint venture expects to earn USD1M in FY2009 from Overture[J] ads appeared on the result pages of Kotobank. The… Continue reading Major Publishers Co-launch Non-UGC Encyclopedia Site

Weather On Desktop: Expert Perspectives, Weather Blogger’s Eyes And Idol’s Loveliness In One App

The world’s largest meteorological company, Weathernews Inc., will launch next Monday its 24/7 live show channel, with its Adobe AIR-based client application, bringing weather updates to your PC desktop every minute. The new service is named “So LiVE 24[J]” (So-La is similar to So-Ra in Japanese pronunciation, meaning sky), eleven weather girls and meteorologists are… Continue reading Weather On Desktop: Expert Perspectives, Weather Blogger’s Eyes And Idol’s Loveliness In One App

Mixi Appli Conference 2009

Mixi [JP] (TSE:2121) held a conference to introduce their new service “Mixi Appli”. Mixi Appli provides an OpenSocial-based application platform for developers. Mixi Appli is one of the three services provided on “Mixi Platform”. Mixi Platform provides Mixi Appli, Mixi Connect (OAuth) and Mixi OpenID. CEO, Kenji Kasahara briefly introduced Mixi and Mixi Appli. And… Continue reading Mixi Appli Conference 2009

Another Way To Have Mobile Broadband, It’s Neither WiMax Nor HSDPA

Japan’s only PHS operator Willcom announced today it would start trial of new high-speed mobile data service next week, which is called XGP and enables logically 20Mbps Internet access not only in downstream but also in upstream. Starting on April 27th, the trial will be in operation until the end of coming September, and the… Continue reading Another Way To Have Mobile Broadband, It’s Neither WiMax Nor HSDPA

Fortune Telling Company Moves Up to TSE 1st Section

Zappallas, a Japanese Fortune Telling content company has moved up to Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section. Enlisted in Mothers section in 2000, Zappallas has managed to meet TSE requirements of moving to the First Section. Zappallas offer Furtune Telling content on Mobile Websites as well as normal web access. According to Zappallas financial reports, demand… Continue reading Fortune Telling Company Moves Up to TSE 1st Section

Tezuka Manga Works Come To Your Palm Every Week

Tokyo-based mobile app developer Yappa started distributing the manga works of Tezuka Osamu, with a content distribution technology that the company also used to develop the Sankei Newspaper’s iPhone/iPod app also uses (I mentioned the app a bit in this article). The company publishes a new issue online every week, and each issue takes a… Continue reading Tezuka Manga Works Come To Your Palm Every Week

Your Cellphone Helps Inducing A Coincidental Meet To Dating

The Tokyo-based mobile app start-up YouMind[J] launched last Friday the free mobile service called Hitomebo[J], which allows you to record where and when you have seen cute girls or handsome boys and fallen in love, just only with a GPS-compatible mobile phone. One of the the company’s directors experienced to see a cute girl in… Continue reading Your Cellphone Helps Inducing A Coincidental Meet To Dating

Ichitaro Inventor, Just Systems To Be Subsidiary of The Osaka-Based Sensor Company

The Japanese word processing software pioneer, Just Systems announced today it would increase the capital by allocating new shares to the Osaka-based sensor manufacturer Keyence Corporation.   Keyence plans to buy 43.96% stake in Just Systems, and it worths USD45M. After a full chase with the other word processing softwares like Microsoft Word, Just Systems’ money-making… Continue reading Ichitaro Inventor, Just Systems To Be Subsidiary of The Osaka-Based Sensor Company