Continued from (Part 1). Middle part of February news which we did not write as a dedicated article. Continued to (Part 3) Referred pages are all in Japanese, unless otherwise stated. Webstagram – Instagram Web Browser Viewer Using Official API 14 Letters-Limit Twitter Clone Chutter Seemed Stopped in Sep 2010 Twitter Japan monthly users is… Continue reading February 2011 Japan IT Links (Part 2)
Japan’s Online Music Market Shrank For First Time Ever Last Year
Bad news for the Japanese music industry: the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) yesterday released [information in English] the sales figures of digital delivery in 2010 and said that the market for online music shrank for the first time last year. Online music sales contracted by 5% year-on-year to 85.99 billion yen/$1.05 billion from… Continue reading Japan’s Online Music Market Shrank For First Time Ever Last Year
Cheating With Japanese Yahoo! Answers Happens At Kyoto Univ Entrance Exam
Today, 26th February in afternoon, one question around Japanese translation to English on Yahoo! Chiebukuro [J], one of Japan’s most popular Q and A service run by Yahoo! Japan, was mentioned on giant bulletin board 2-channel [J] by an anonymous Japanese web users. The following comments (all anonymous) pointed out that the question is identical… Continue reading Cheating With Japanese Yahoo! Answers Happens At Kyoto Univ Entrance Exam
Uncer: Japan Now Has Kind Of A Quora Clone
One of Silicon Valley’s hottest startups, Q&A site Quora (of which I am a big fan), now has a Japanese clone of sorts. Dubbed Uncer (short for “uncertain”), the site is probably Quora’s first clone in Asia (as Zhihu, the inevitable Chinese counterpart, still is in closed beta). Uncer is apparently run by just two… Continue reading Uncer: Japan Now Has Kind Of A Quora Clone
Galaxy Tab Tissue On Tokyo Street
Giving away free tissue (so-called pocket tissue) is a promotion method widely run in Japan, and is not so common in other countries. Shibuya’s local Docomo reseller advertised Samsung’s Galaxy Tab by handing a package of tissue to people walking on street.
Japanese Virtual Diva Hatsune Miku Themed Tram Appears In Sapporo
Sapporo City Tram in Hokkaido introduced trains with full of Hatsune Miku, a popular virtual singing instrument application Vocaloid’s character. The train body is painted with Hatsune Miku, Ads by Hatsune Miku’s vendor Crypton Future Media [J] and others, and recorded announcements are spoken by a voice actress whose voice was sampled when Hatsune Miku… Continue reading Japanese Virtual Diva Hatsune Miku Themed Tram Appears In Sapporo
Mezamashi Kanojo – iPhone/Android Morning Alarm Motivates You By Girls Photo
Mezamashi Kanojo [J] (Morning Alarm Clock Girlfriend) by Biglobe is a smartphone(iPhone/iPad/Android) alarm clock application featuring Japanese girls. The app has a simple alarm clock functionality. When it rings, a random photo of a girl hiding her face is shown. Until you tap, the girl’s photo will be shrinking. If you wake up fast, you… Continue reading Mezamashi Kanojo – iPhone/Android Morning Alarm Motivates You By Girls Photo
Rakuten Goes To UK And/Or Germany By The End Of This Year, CEO Said
According to Mainichi [J], Rakuten CEO Hiroshi Mikitani reportedly told that they will open their e-mall business either or both of UK and Germany this year. Rakuten is planning to move into 4 new countries by the end of 2011, UK and Germany are big markets that they are interested in Europe. Indonesia will come… Continue reading Rakuten Goes To UK And/Or Germany By The End Of This Year, CEO Said
Follow Up: myGengo Announces First Round of API Lab Winners
Following up our previous coverage of human translation company myGengo’s API Lab, the company has announced its first round of winners for plug-ins created using the myGengo API. So far 6 developers have won cash prizes for their 18 plug-ins that will allow thousands of users to order human translation services from within mobile, browser,… Continue reading Follow Up: myGengo Announces First Round of API Lab Winners
Japan’s Book Publishers Decide To Go With EPUB Standard
Japan’s book market is said to be worth around $24 billion (it’s the world’s biggest and about 4x the size of the local video game industry), which means it’s not a big surprise that e-publishing is currently one of the “hot” trends in the country’s tech sector. And yesterday, Japan’s biggest business daily The Nikkei… Continue reading Japan’s Book Publishers Decide To Go With EPUB Standard