Let me just introduce the demo videos of “PlaceEngine for iPod touch". The client app for the service is still under development, but the system already works fine, and IMO it looks really nice.

FYI:
According to the explanation on it "About" page, PlaceEngine is "... a service that makes it possible for users to easily estimate current location by utilizing Wi-Fi devices, so that they can find out more about their surroundings and gain access to local information. Any device equipped with Wi-Fi can easily estimate its location without utilizing GPS.

PlaceEngine uses Wi-Fi information sent from Wi-Fi access points, enabling a device to determine its location even indoors or underground, where it might normally not be possible with GPS."

Of course, you can already use Google Map on iPod touch in Japan, too. But I'm not satisfied with it yet, since you can not locate where you are with that combination.

So, that made me think how wonderful it would be if PlaceEngine could be accessed via iPod touch... Now I found that the experiment has already been started.

Already it looks that “PlaceEngine x iPod touch” works at various places like cross-road, downtowns, subways, inside the train. Amazing thing is that PlaceEngine could distinct 2F from 8F... what a feat!

According to the press release by Koozyt, the startup that develops PlaceEngine, the client app for iPod touch is still development phase, and it's not clear when it would be available to the public.

“DECA SPORTA”, a video game for Nitendo Wii, will soon be released.

According to the description of its official web site, the following ten sports games are included in the tilte:

- Beach Volleyball
- Soccer?
- Badminton
- Basket Ball
- Archery
- Curling
- Snowboard cross
- Figure skating
- Supercross
- Kart Race

uuuuuh, it looks so much fun…!

My favorites would be the soccer game and kart race game.... And I wonder how to play the figure skating?

As for the soccer game, it is possible to play against the opponent by using the controllers and the nunchaku stick.

It looks great for a party time, since you can competing with other players in supercross, kart race, and snowboard-cross as well.

Also, with its curling game, you can play with/against up to three other players simultaneously... can you imagine how you cooperate with other guys to play curling on a video game?

(original post on March 12, 2008)

DECA SPORTA for Nintendo Wii

From an article titled "AKIRA to be morphed into a Hollywood movie".

AKIRA, one of the animated 'manga' that triggered the worldwide boom of Japanese 'ANIME", is going to be re-produced in Hollywood with human actors.

Leonardo DiCaprio and others would back the production.

AKIRA is a very well-know manga created by Katsuhiro Otomo. It was originally appeared on YOUNG MAGAZINE (a weekly manga mag) during 1982-1990, and in 1988 an aminated version was produced with the cost of 10 billion yen (about USD 10 million).

Now, after the 20years, it becomes a Hollywood movie with real actors. The date of the launce is scheduled as summer 2009.

(original post on Feb. 25, 2008)

Akira (Part1)

AKIRA DVD SPECIAL EDITION

From an article titled "AMN released 'Blog Rader' that automatically selects out the hot topics in the Japanese blogsphere."

Agile Media Network (AMN) on 21 February launched ’Blog Radar', a news aggrigation site that automatically picks up the hot topics in the Japanese blogsphere.

Blog Radar is the first service offered on the Bloglabs, the collaborative project between AMN and SAKURA Internet.

It creates the white list of blogs, and then lists up the popular topics from its linked articles. Due to this mechanism, it could reduce the possibility of any spam entry be picked up and got high on the list.

Also, since the Blog Radar shows the blog entries that refers to the hot articles, you can follow the path to see how and why the topic became popular.

According to AMN, Blog Radar could be something equivalent of Techmeme - the popular service covering the English news and blog site - in the Japanese blogsphere.

It seems that the topics on the top page have not changed much for the last time I saw it a week ago… I'm wondering if it means they are still being hot topic? It would be nice if we could know the crawl frequency as well...

(original post)

From an article titled "Softbank declares war against Google [jp]":

At the briefing on their financial results held on February 7th, Softbank president Masayoshi Son "declared war" against Google, the world’s biggest internet search company. Mr. Son has been known for his talent in coming up with grand concepts, but this time, his rival seems to be formidable. Does he have any chance of winning the war?

Mr. Son named Google as their rival at their result briefing. "Google will be our important competitor in the future" said the president. "In the past, Google was a mere subcontractor for Yahoo!, but somehow they outgrew considerably. I warned them (Yahoo! U.S.) once, but it was too late."

He is right. Google was once Yahoo's outsourced partner.

At first, I could not understand why Google would become Softbank's rival.

Recently, Google has been focusing on developing software for mobile phones and announced deals with NTT DoCoMo and KDDI (au), both of them are the rivals of Softbank. Google is now becoming a thereat to Softbank.

I see. Softbank thinks that Google might have a great influence on their mobile phone business.
According to the article, Mr. Son also said that "Those who win China and the mobile Internet market will be the ultimate winner".

(original post)

You might remember my entry on PLEO which I wrote at the end of last year. PLEO is a robotic dinosaur. I wanted to have one but kind of gave up because of the price (it comes with a price tag of 50,000 yen).

But, guess what, PLEO came to my home!

I received an invitation for their press event just after I uploaded the entry. I could not attend it for some reasons, but they kindly offered me an opportunity to try a sample. I happily accepted the offer.

Here's a quick review of what PLEO is:

(1) A new breed of robotic creatures and a Life Form. It was designed by the creator of Furby, and took three years to develop.

(2)The LIFE OS controls 38 sensors and 14 servo motors concealed in the body, seeming as if it has a life of its own.

(3) Modeled after a week-old baby Camarasaurus, it learns the way to communicate and grows up

There were two reasons I wanted to have PLEO. First, CHONAN (our eldest son) is really into dinosaurs now. Second, we want to have some pet animal but think it is a bit too early. So PLEO seems to be an ideal place to start. I am also curious how JINAN (our second boy) would react to it.

Well, shall we open the box?

The package.

The top cover is open.

Go further. (Quick Start instructions）

Instructions in Japanese.

Accessories.

Wow！

Hi, PLEO!

A charger (bottom left), a battery (right above), a training leaf to feed PLEO (bottom right), and an AC adapter in a box.

And...

Grrrrrrrrr!!

... no, not yet. We need to wait for a few hours until the battery is charged before we can hear it says something.

My first impression on PLEO is "adorable".

It is very sort in my arms, and makes me believe that if I had a chance to see a real baby dinosaur, it should be like this.

We named it "Midori-chan".

Welcome to a life with a dinosaur.

(original post)

*PLEO

Ishitani-san was highly praising the wake-up call service by AXE in his blog ("Wake-up Call of the Near Future grabs boys' heart[jp]"). So, I made a try.

It's basically a service that let you set a wake-up call on the web. Then you will receive a call on the time you set.

Type in the number of your mobile phone to which you want to receive the wake-up call.

Hold the mobile phone in your hand.

Make a call to the instructed number and enter the security code.

This is to prevent a prank call.

Then, a girl shows up on the screen and answers your phone!

TV phone!

Marvelous.

"Anri" is the name of the girl who is going to make a wake-up call for me. I'm anxious to receive her call tomorrow morning.

By the way, AXE is a cosmetic brand for men, and after you finish the process of setting up the wake-up call, you will see a message like this:

It says "Spray your AXE with a refreshing smile". This is pretty nice and favorable way of communicating your message to consumers.

"The service reminds me of the movie Matrix. The phone, you know" says Shike-san in his blog [jp].

Seeing is believing. I recommend you to try it.

(original post)

In January, Softbank released new models for the spring 2008 sales season, and one of them was the "Internet Machine" 922SH with a QWERTY keyboard.

I was watching a live broadcast of the press event. During the event, what caught my eye was 922SH, the Internet Machine.

I do not think the name is very good, but that kind of easy-to-understand name plays well to the crowd, I guess.

922SH has large screen with which users can watch 1seg broadcast and browse the web (see below).

Wow. That should improve the TV watching experience on a mobile phone.

According to a detailed article by ITmedia:

And users can make a call using a sub display and a touch censor equipped on the back of the body without opening the handset and push keys.

The OS was not mentioned, but users can receive PC mails with the handset. 922SH does not have numerical keypads which I find quite inconvenient.

922SH is attractive, but has many concerns in terms of practicality.

For example, users need to open a keyboard every time they send a mobile mail. It has neither GPS nor mobile wallet capabilities. All things considered, I don't see a clear benefit to abandon my ADOESU (Advanced/W-ZERO3 [es]) for 922SH.

What impressed me most when using iPhone was the exceptional browsing experience using a Safari browser. The dynamic and elegant browsing with the "pinch" function has just grabbed my heart.

I will wait for iPhone to come. I know it has neither GPS nor mobile wallet capabilities nor 1seg functions, but so what?

(original post)

I visited livedoor with Ichiru-san of Kotori-piyopiyo after visiting Cybozu Labs. Ichiru-san had an appointment with Mr. Sasaki of livedoor.

Mr. Sasaki is the person who is in charge of the RSS reader "livedoor reader" which I have been a user. Thank you always, Mr. Sasaki.

Cybozu Labs and livedoor are both located in Akasaka Twin Tower (main tower and east tower). So they are kind of neighbors.

We went down the stairs to the ground floor where Mr. Sasaki was waiting for us. He led us to their floor.

"Could you wait for me here for a second? I go and see if my boss is available" said Mr. Sasaki. "He said OK. Please come in."

We were ushered into their office and guess who were greeting us. President!

Mr. Idesawa, the president, has his desk in a corner of the office (it's nothing like a "President’s Office").

We exchanged business cards. I was kind of upset because I had no expectation of meeting the president. I hope I was not behaving strangely (I need some time to prepare my mind, you know.)

I got permission to take some pictures. Here's one.

From left to right: Mr. Sasaki, Mr. Idesawa, President, and Mr. Tabata, Media division.

According to Mr. Sasaki, they are focusing on the "livedoor blog" this year. It seems they are very serious about it.

Actually, their blog business has been going well. As reported in the Nikkei Business Daily:

- Their blog business turned profitable for the first time in August 2007 on a monthly basis.
- Their blog business recorded operating loss in 2007, but they are expecting the business to turn profitable in 2008.

As you see, their blog business is now making profit. I guess their steady efforts to increase user-base are paid off. Fee-based plans are also contributing to the revenue growth.

I am looking forward to seeing the future projects that Mr. Sasaki has to offer.

(original post)

Baidu.jp held a meeting for Japanese bloggers in January in time for their formal service launch in Japan. I attended the meeting and here's the report.

PCs were provided on each desk so that every participant can try Baidu freely.

In the first half of the meeting, a presentation was given by their CEO, Robin Li, and Jun Masuda, Director of Baidu,Inc., explained their services.

Baidu has about 70 percent of market share in the Chinese search market. According to Mr. Li, Baidu is a technology-based media company and their main source of revenue is advertisement.
As for the reason why they chose Japan as their second target after the success in China, they pointed out several factors:

- Japan is the second largest economic market in the world
- The penetration rate of search engines are high in Japan.
- The search market in Japan has more space to grow(UK has smaller GDP than Japan, but has the larger search market)
- Their expertise with double byte characters can well be applied to Japanese searches.

What was striking for me was that they emphasized "User Experience" again and again during the meeting.

Mr. Masuda said that their strategic goal is to become the "second search engine" in Japan, i.e. the alternative choice to Yahoo! or Google.

According to a research, 60 percent of Japanese are using several search engines. They are aiming to establish a firm position in Japan as a "second search engine".

The top page of Baidu.jp is designed specifically for the Japanese market, they said (BTW, I found that the footprint is that of Panda).

The latter half of the meeting was reserved for discussion, but we did not have much time left since the first part took more than they thought.

I couldn't make a remark at the meeting, so I caught Mr. Masuda after the session and made a simple request.

I asked him to disclose a part of their algorithm, the general mechanism behind Baidu.

To be honest, I don't think their search engine is very sophisticated yet, but I can refine search results if I know how they are generating them.

I forgot to tell them, but I think it would be also great if they could provide content match advertising. I think it's a good thing to have more advertising options and I assume that there are still some spaces left for that kind of advertising in Japan.

Several participants commented that they could not see strong differentiation factors in Baidu. I agree them on that point.

It's impossible to attract and retain many users unless they can clearly state the benefits and advantages of using Baidu.

Mr. Li said at the end of the meeting: "I'd like to be prepared to tell you at least two reasons why you should use Baidu by the next time I see you again". I think they should.

Anyway, it's a new service, and I am expecting much of their future.

PS: Mr. Mizuno, who has just moved to Baidu from Hatena, was at the meeting, and I was surprised to know that Mr. Seki, a.k.a. "tetsu-jin of search (winner of a search skill contest)" has joined Baidu as well. It seems they are really serious about the Japanese market.

"stitch 2" is a new service that let you design original knit caps online.

I found this site through an entry posted on "hbkr"[jp]. Thank you, ONEDARI PINK 2nd.

I’ve introduced a service called "stich" that let you design a T-shirt-like widget [jp] before, but this time, you can design a knit cap and even purchase it online.

The price is...

JPY6090 ($57). It's expensive as a knit cap, but if you think about the cap is only one in the world, it might not be too far expensive.

The design process starts from putting dots on a canvas.

Here's my design.

What a rare thing!

You can either choose "submit the design" or "submit the design and get the cap".

You get a widget to put on your blog, too.

Maybe fun for those with a good sense of design.

AMN, a blog network which Netafull is a member of, and SAKURA Internet, a dedicated and rental server provider, have teamed up and launched a website named "bloglabs [jp]".

The surge in the number of blogs has not only caused the proliferation of "spam blogs", but also made it difficult for Internet users to find blogs which they are looking for, calling for a service or tool that would solve these new kind of problems.

The aim of "bloglabs is to "build a platform that supports the development of blog-related services such as the one that would activate the Japanese blog scene and the one that would help the search of useful blogs".

Under the partnership, SAKURA Internet is going to provide server spaces for innovative services which AMN will develop or support.

They are planning to launch two services: BLOG RADAR and blog chart (coming soon).

Online Englsih leaning service "iKnow!" has just released a viral movie for BrainSpeed, a web game focused on language memorization.

The story seems to be continuing! I know it's silly, but can't wait for the next issue...

As announced on this blog, “Video People Japan 2008” was held on January 26.

Tatsuo-san has created and uploaded an extremely short digest of the event -- about 30 seconds long.

I read many blog posts penned by my friends who had visited the site.

It seems the event was a great success and quite fun.

A presentation by JET was received well, too.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend it because JINAN (my son) had a fever.

From an article titled “Mobile Gmail users now can send emails with pictograms. Regular Gmail users also can receive emails with pictograms [jp]”:

Google announced on January 28th that Mobile Gmail, Google’s Web mail service for mobile devices, supported pictograms (emoji) of major mobile phone providers in Japan. Pictogram functions were also added to the regular Gmail service.

Mobile Gmail users are now able to send and receive emails that contain pictograms. And from February, regular Gmail users can also see pictograms on their PC screen and send emails with pictograms. That sounds great.

This news is reported on Google Japan Blog [jp]:

Since pictograms are widely used among mobile phone users in Japan, we wanted to allow Mobile Gmail users to use pictograms for their communication. This project was started following a strong request from us to make Mobile Gmail “pictogram-ready”.

As it reveals, it was originally an idea of Google Japan.

I read a blog entry titled “A guy who is handmaking mobile phones and phone jackets for W-SIM by WILLCOM [jp]”:

I found a guy who is making phone jackets for W-SIM, a general-purpose PHS module developed by WILLCOM! “Handmade jacket", literally. It comes with a display, type keys, and even a jog dial!!!

Aaaaaaawesome.

The guy is handmaking a phone jacket with a W-SIM card that actually works as a phone. The whole process is documented in his blog “Craft and Experiment Diary using Microcontroller [jp]”.

* Remaining battery checker
* Backlight LED control
* Battery capabilities

Can’t believe it works? Check the video on YouTube:

Audio output from W-SIM

Receiving a call

"Mostly Phone"

He is making the most of W-SIM, I guess.

*Hacoa Ki-board Kit Walnut H901K-W

Hacoa released a DIY kit for a wooden keyboard. The kit contains keys, a base, and all other parts to build a keyboard. What you need to do is just to cut them out, sand them up, and assemble them on the base.

Anybody would try? Unfortunately, I am too rough to use such a keyboard (actually I have already replaced several keys of my MacBook). Great as an interior accent, though.

The DIY kit comes with typing keys and a base all made from wood. The purpose of handing out the last step of the production process to users, the maker explains, is to allow users to get the pleasure and satisfaction of making something of their own. In the age of mass consumption, this rare and classic “Ki-board (wooden keyboard)” might be a great addition to your work room.

*Hacoa Ki-board Kit Maple H901K-M

I tried a new online English learning service called “iKnow!”, which Ishitani-san was giving a rave review in his blog.

It is a SNS service. Ishitani-san says in the post that “if you live in an English-speaking country, your English skill naturally improves. Likewise, if you join an English SNS, your English skill should improve”.

It sounds logical, but to ordinary Japanese, joining an English SNS is too challenging. I am not motivated to do so, either. I wanted to know how iKnow were overcoming these problems because Ishitani-san described this service as “The Ultimate Web2.0 Service -- iKnow”!

For those who do not want to subscribe as a full member yet, a trial version is provided.

Wow... the contents are good and I can even hear the pronunciation of native speakers. I do not know why they are offering this service for free.…

The trial version was exciting enough so I decided to subscribe as a full member.

All you need is to provide some information about yourself and click the URL indicated in an e-mail which is sent to you after filling out the subscription page.

The page looks like that of a normal SNS.

I uploaded my photo and moved on to a session.

iKnow provides 6 channels:

1. Core Channel: Beginner's English
2. TOEIC Channel
3. Tono’s Corpus Channel
4. Travel Channel
5. Business English Channel
6. MBA/Study-abroad Channel

Without a doubt, I should be choosing Channel 1, or maybe 4.

I have wondered around America for about 2 months before, so I decided to challenge Channel 4 even though the site says this channel is for intermediate-level learners.

In the first half of the session, I learnt several words and sample sentences for traveling in a quiz format. The latter half of the session was more practical and I was asked to type in words I learnt.

The session took only a few minutes. At the end of the session, a summery page was displayed.

I could hear pronunciations of native speakers, too. Each session is short and simple, so I might try it once a day whenever I like to get used to English.

I am going to have an American step-brother soon, so I was thinking about studying English in order to communicate with him.

iKnow is free and it’s great. Welcome to the era of “desktop learning”!

Why such a well-made service is offered for free?

I found the answer in the FAQ page. They are planning to offer “more valuable optional services for premium members” which require some fees. But the current basic services are continued to be provided for free after these fee-based services are offered. iKnow has services for corporate users as well.

I was further impressed to know that they were providing value commerce affiliate programs.

If you are interested in learning English, iKnow might be worth trying.

INTERNET Watch picked up my comment on their feature story "Internet Industry Forecast 2008 by the Influential Bloggers [jp]:":

On the whole, a variety of opinions were presented by the bloggers, but they seemed to be interested in not so much a particular service or technology but rather in a larger category.

The article mentioned Nico Nico Douga and Ustream.tv as the services that "attracted small but significant number of votes" from the bloggers. Actually, I named both as remarkable services.

Being a user myself, I think those services that connect people are really interesting. No matter how many new services popping up, I would not forget them.

Considering the number and variety of services we have today, it is very important to be "unforgettable". Just think about how many times we say "Yeah, I know that service, but cannot come up with the name..."

From the article “The number of corporate bankruptcies amounted to 10,959 in 2007, the highest number in the 21st century [jp]”:

On January 17, private research firm Teikoku Databank released data on Japanese corporate bankruptcies in 2007 (involving debts of 10 million yen or more). According to the data, the number of bankruptcies in 2007 was 10,959, up 17.2% from the previous year and reached the highest level in the past 7 years.

17.2% increasing rate and 10,959 bankruptcies! It was the worst record since 2001 and 60 percent of those were the collapse of small/micro businesses.

The largest bankruptcies in 2007 in debts were the collapse of Azabu Buildings Co. with the debt of 564.8 billion yen, Nova with 85.5 billion yen, and consumer finance company Credia Co. with 75.7 billion yen.

Soaring oil and food prices and the revision of the Construction Standard Act are considered to be the major contributing factor to the bankruptcies in 2007.

Since the rise in raw material prices seems to continue for this year, many companies might be forced to raise the product prices. The number of bankruptcies will probably keep rising in 2008.