ai sp@ce(pronounced “eye space”) is a newcoming Japanese virtual world service raised its curtain on 8th. ai sp@ce production committee formed by Dwango(cellularphone contents, parent company of Niwango, Niconico Douga), Headlock(online game), Bushiroad and three R-18 game companies, Visual Arts, Omega Vision and Circus, are targetting 2008 summer release. View of the virtual world is… Continue reading ai sp＠ce – Metaverse meets Otaku culture
Category: New Service
QR-Code Bot – Cutest Little 2D Generator Ever!
With the continual proliferation of QR Codes around the world (Robert Scoble recently wore a QR Code t-shirt at the NextWeb conference in Amsterdam), Japan continues to lead the way in the innovative ways of not only using the codes, but in creating them as well. Recently, Cross Borders Inc. in Japan came up with… Continue reading QR-Code Bot – Cutest Little 2D Generator Ever!
Getting new-old photos: Bakumatsu Koshashin Generator
April Fool’s 2008 in English had a photo service for future, whilst Japanese has less exciting but more and more useful new photo service from past. Bakumatsu Koshashin Generator. “Koshashin” means “old photo”. “Bakumatsu” is literally “end of feudal era”, the end of Edo shogunate era (circa 1860), when the whole country was facing to… Continue reading Getting new-old photos: Bakumatsu Koshashin Generator
Tokyo2point0 event: Kakaku’s Photohito and Press Army
The monthly Tokyo2point0 event took place for the 10th time in Harajuku last Tuesday. More info about the event and network can be found on the official Tokyo2point0 site, the Facebook group or on Mixi. This time, two presentations were held (in English and Japanese), leaving enough room for networking among the attendees (which is… Continue reading Tokyo2point0 event: Kakaku’s Photohito and Press Army
Hatena Haiku English version released
Hatena Inc., USA subsidiary of Hatena Corp, one of the web-geek community center in Japan, released its Hatena Haiku‘s English version today. It’s clearly influenced by microblogging platforms like twitter, but adds its own unique functionality. One is the drawing tool on comment forms, where users can post messages via handwriting. Another community oriented feature… Continue reading Hatena Haiku English version released
Favidle: seeking for flickr beauties
My friend omo created ‘Favidle‘, flickr variant of ‘hot or not’. Favidle obtains images from flickr with tags like ‘woman’, ‘girl’, etc… If user clicks a ‘Favor’, the image will be saved into their album and shared as a favidle. Here’s my fav album. Very simple site, yet quite appealing. See Also: (in English) An… Continue reading Favidle: seeking for flickr beauties
ALPSLAB Ryakuchizu: a sketch map generator
ALPSLAB Ryakuchizu (ALPSLAB 略地図) is a Flash powered sketch map generator. It generates a map which shows major crossings and guides to the objective while omitting unnecessary part from the original map. It is strictly a beta, and not provided for real use. Usually I doubt this kind of beta services which lack real business… Continue reading ALPSLAB Ryakuchizu: a sketch map generator
Kin-en-style: Smoke-free restaurants directory
Kin-en-style (禁煙スタイル, smoke-free style) is a restaurant listing site which only lists smoke-free places. Japan’s smoking regulation law is not as rigid as the USA or European countries. They can smoke at almost every bar, restaurant and cafe (except Starbucks). The Japanese smoking rate is 30.9%, a very large figure. Not everyone is happy with… Continue reading Kin-en-style: Smoke-free restaurants directory
eBay shakes hands with Yahoo! Japan
Yahoo! Japan, the Japan biggest portal, has partnered with eBay in online auction services. eBay Inc. once tried to open its popular auction service under its subsidiary eBay Japan established in 1999, retreated March 2002 without getting market share against “Yahoo! Auction” (so-called “Yafuoku”). Yahoo! Auction users will have translated eBay items listed by March… Continue reading eBay shakes hands with Yahoo! Japan