First of August news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Continued to (Part 2) Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Solve the encryption hidden in floor plan drawings and win a free rent of the luxury condos for a year Hakusuisha collects good recipes of soda cocktails using the… Continue reading August 2010 Japan IT Links (Part 1)
Google Maps Throws Off “Beta” In Japan On Its 5th Anniversary
Google Japan cerebrated the 5th anniversary of Google Maps with bloggers event and the special logo, which may be the first time custom logo for Google Maps. The event was held at the Roppongi Hills, to where Google Japan moved from Shibuya recently. At the event, Google Maps developers made presentations how Google Maps team… Continue reading Google Maps Throws Off “Beta” In Japan On Its 5th Anniversary
Daily Deal Service For Movie Watching To Be Launched Next Monday
Bluem[J], the Tokyo-based tech start-up which have been founded by the person who worked formerly with Japan’s second largest ad agency, expects to launch a Groupon-like daily deal service for cinemas next Monday, which is called Drepass[J]. First of all, a cinema puts a special programming notice on their website and broadcasts it on Twitter. … Continue reading Daily Deal Service For Movie Watching To Be Launched Next Monday
Vending Machines Get More Intelligent, They Recommend You What To Drink
Wherever you go in Japan, vending machines are serving drinks and beverages at every corner of the country. We’re experiencing the hottest summer for the first time in a long time, which devotes to almost 50% increase in beverage sales at vending machines compared to their average sales revenue. A subsidiary of a public transport… Continue reading Vending Machines Get More Intelligent, They Recommend You What To Drink
[Update 2] First Offline, Now Unstable: Japan’s No. 1 Social Network Mixi In Trouble
Update: August 12, 11.30am: Mixi just issued a press release saying the service is back up. Apparently, Mixi had serious Memcached server trouble. Update: Mixi seems to have serious problems. As of August 11, 7.15pm Japanese time, the site is still down after it was accessible again for a few hours (as reported below). Here’s… Continue reading [Update 2] First Offline, Now Unstable: Japan’s No. 1 Social Network Mixi In Trouble
Gree Releases Beta Version Of iPhone Page
Gree, a Japanese social network service competing the No.1 position with Mixi and Mobage-Town around 20-million-users-line, released its iPhone site as a beta version today. Their release tells that they developed iPhone version of Gree as “the new third version”, different from both PC and mobile(Japanese feature phones) version, especially for touch panel interface. The… Continue reading Gree Releases Beta Version Of iPhone Page
BREAKING: Facebook Rolls Out Special Mobile Version For Japanese Feature Phones
Facebook, which opened a Tokyo office back in February this year, has just pushed out the long-awaited “optimized” version for Japanese “feature phones”. Well, kind of, as the company itself isn’t too sure about the result and is quite cautious in the wording of the announcement (see screenshot below). The site can be accessed through… Continue reading BREAKING: Facebook Rolls Out Special Mobile Version For Japanese Feature Phones
SEO Of Love – Japanese Song and Game On SEO
“Koi no SEO”(SEO of Love) is a Japanese song by Kyoto-based SEO company Web Rider Inc.. Of course, this SEO means “Search Engine Optimization”. “Today I got my page ranked up, farewell to scroll-down”, “Now I noticed that tangled links. The important thing is to optimize our hearts.”, “Rhythm of Love is Algorithm” They also… Continue reading SEO Of Love – Japanese Song and Game On SEO
Mixi To Enter Asia, The US And Europe
Earlier this week, I read a quite interesting interview Fumiaki Koizumi, the CFO of Japan’s biggest social network Mixi, gave to the Nikkei (the country’s leading business daily). In the interview, Koizumi touches upon a few interesting points on how Mixi wants to internationalize after all these years. Here’s a summary: Mixi now has over… Continue reading Mixi To Enter Asia, The US And Europe
NICT Introduces iPhone App Interpreting What You Speak Or Type
NICT, Japan’s National Institute of Information and Communications Technology, introduced the iPhone app called VoiceTra which interprets what you speak. It allows voice input (original) in five languages of Japanese, English, Mandarin, Indonesian and Vietnamese, voice output (interpreted result) in these five languages and text output (interpreted result) in 16 languages of Arabic, Brazilian… Continue reading NICT Introduces iPhone App Interpreting What You Speak Or Type