Augmented Reality in Shibuya: Allows Street Walkers To Tag Anything Around The Town

In association with Japan’s National Institute of Informatics, NEC and Tokyu Agency(ad agency), Tokyu Corporation, which operates major railway lines including Shibuya-Yokohama, started today the trial of an augmented reality service “Pin@clip[J]” (pronounced “Pina-Kuri”, and named after pins and clips) using iPhone for commuters and shoppers in the Shibuya area, which allows you to tag… Continue reading Augmented Reality in Shibuya: Allows Street Walkers To Tag Anything Around The Town

Yahoo! Japan Testing Office Version For Enterprise Workers

The dominant portal/search Yahoo! Japan is testing a customized portal for office workers. On Yahoo! Japan’s top page, which is the most viewed page in Japan by the way, a new button “Office Version” is showed up at the best position on the top banner menu. Once you clicked it, your Yahoo top page is… Continue reading Yahoo! Japan Testing Office Version For Enterprise Workers

Google Japan’s Winter Present – Free WiFi In 370 Coffeeshops

Like Google US offers free WiFi in 47 airports, Google Japan announced 30 minutes free WiFi gift everyday for mobile users, at three chainshops, Tully’s Coffee, Pronto coffee/bar and Lotteria hamburger in populated areas [J] from November 30th to February 28th. On this campaign [J] to promote Google services (you need to register with your… Continue reading Google Japan’s Winter Present – Free WiFi In 370 Coffeeshops

JIMS On The Plane: What They Learn From SV Tech Start-ups

On Friday, at Mobile Yakan Daigaku[J], a serial after-hours study session and meet-up event for the mobile industry people, a tech incubator’s director Mr. Ryo Umezawa[J] presented a wrap-up of the tour titled “JIMS on the Plane” that he and mobile entrepreneurs had organized and visited tech start-ups in Silicon Valley for information and opinion… Continue reading JIMS On The Plane: What They Learn From SV Tech Start-ups

Make Tokyo Meeting 04: Where You Can See Future, Magic And Junk In A Place

Last weekend at Ookayama Campus, Tokyo Institute of Technology, O’reilly Media‘s mechatronics magazine “Make” held the 4th meeting[J] and gave Japanese geeks the opportunities to present their gadgets to the public. Let’s have a look at some of remarkable and unique items which get us excited. Tokyo-based tech start-up (founded by graduates from the University… Continue reading Make Tokyo Meeting 04: Where You Can See Future, Magic And Junk In A Place

24 yo Woman Broadcasts Her Death Leap

Stickam Japan is a personal video streaming service, a Japanese version of US Stickam.com, which is said to be owned by Japanese. Today on Stickam Japan, a girl whose handle is _mextli attempted suicide by jumping off her balcony, the 4th floor of apartment, during her live videostream, some watchers wrote on 2 channel BBS.… Continue reading 24 yo Woman Broadcasts Her Death Leap

Exclusive Interview: How Does myGengo’s String Help Site Translation?

We’ve covered myGengo, web-based human translation service startup in Japan on our previous article on translation tools in June. Since then, while publishing Twitter account translations and an in-depth industry report, they’ve been busy working on a new feature called String. I got to talk with Matt Romaine and Rob Laing from the team about… Continue reading Exclusive Interview: How Does myGengo’s String Help Site Translation?

Virtual world Ameba Pigg to go English next spring in Americanized version

Tokyo-based (and listed) web juggernaut CyberAgent‘s virtual world Ameba Pigg [JP] has proven to be a veritable success here in Japan since its launch this February. The company says there are now 1.5 million members in the virtual community, with an undisclosed number of those coming from Non-Japanese-speaking countries (the service is Japanese only). But… Continue reading Virtual world Ameba Pigg to go English next spring in Americanized version