Had a great evening with Umihiko Namekawa (front and center), a translator who writes TechCrunch Japan and Serkan (sitting to my right), a grad student living in Japan who is working on a Web 2.0 project and reads and seems to enjoy CrunchGear and TC. We went to Jetee, a place in Tokyo’s former red light district. The place was about as big as a modern American bathroom but it’s… → Read More
Ready to power your iPod with clean, delicious hydrogen? I got a chance to see Horizon fuel cell technologies up close yesterday and I’m pleased to report that soon we all will be using our pent up atoms to power iPods, toy cars, and unmanned assault vehicles. Most of the cells are fairly bulky but they showed a small cell using a hydrogen canister the size of a AA battery that they designed… → Read More
This is totally gross. I was walking by the Fujitsu booth when I saw the vein-scanning PalmSecure mouse that uses the veins in your hand to log you into a PC. I figured it wouldn’t look that bad — like a fingerprint at worst — so I asked the guy to run the demo for me. He placed his hand over the mouse for a few seconds and then his vein scan popped up… → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf Sorry this video is a little long, but you get the drift. This little bastard can ride a rail all by himself and is designed to avoid cars and eventually marry your sister. Don’t ask me why, where, or how this came about, but it’s apparently a showcase for components maker MuRata. → Read More
A strange amalgam of Uhuru and Sulu Ever since the U.S. basically outlawed Booth Babes, I think our trade shows have become more serious, intelligent, and valuable. In unenlightened regions like Europa and Japanasia, however, their very presence is an insult to the strides women have made in the realms of commerce, education, medicine, and science and paint this proud people with the brush of… → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf Fujitsu’s MediaTop is kind of like Microsoft Surface but with blocks. You use a Bluetooth-enabled cube that lets you control on-screen action in three dimensions. When you place the cube near the screen you can turn it to control the UI or use it like a 3D mouse. They even have a plan to give kids huge blocks… → Read More
Can you guys see this? I ate four pieces of potentially bad sushi last night and now this thing has been following me around all morning asking for quarters. → Read More
Sony’s XEL-1 is pretty impressive. It’s only 27 inches wide and costs $1,500, so it’s not that impressive but if you want to be an early adopter and feel like your TV can get blown off the table with a strong gust of wind, this is your device. OLEDs use less power and are more eco-friendly than plasma or LCD screens. Does this mean you’ll have an OLED in your home next… → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf One thing CEATEC has a surfeit of is robots. They come in all sizes, from a twee bike-riding robot whose visage I cannot now find in my photo library to a set of guard robots that won’t do much guarding when you kick them over before they can alert the authorities. Then there was yesterday’s Sony Rolly… → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf Here’s a quick look at some of the huge Sharp screens. There was a really nice 102-inch model — you know, for oligarchs — the super-thin models, and some weird model that rises out like the Great Pumpkin. Not exciting, but cool enough. Check out the “52-inch” screen inside the 102-inch… → Read More
Check out Darth’s Platform Sith Boots …you start seeing Sith Lords and their entourage wandering the halls of a Japanese tech trade conference. BONUS – Click through to see me in 3D glasses praying for death. → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf Another concept device using a very cool system of see-through rollerballs and a back button to do just about anything. They had a few mock-ups and it really makes sense once you see how smoothly everything works with just a ball. Maybe the next iPod can get a scroll-ball? → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf This video of the Sony Rolly MP3 player sums up everything that is wrong with the former electronics giant — a lack of vision, the inability to produce products people want, and ham-handed attempts at fun that are quickly quashed by higher ups. Thats, said, just look at that little bastard roll! → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf I was wandering around the show floor when I came upon this little gem. It’s a gesture-based 3D system that lets you control your dashboard GPS/radio with a wave of your finger. It’s over at the Carrozzeria booth, which is an offshoot of Pioneer. The icons that pop up float in 3D and you wave and bat at… → Read More
http://progressive.playstream.com/playstream/progressive/flashplayers/FLVPlayer.swf I got a chance to circle the new ultra-slim sharp LCDs. They look amazing and they’re so damn thin it’s incredible. There’s one shot in there of an LCD sliding up out of some cabinet and it looks like a piece of paper popping up. These are truly flat screens. → Read More
I love the Qosmio line of Toshiba laptops and this collection of Gigabeats, phones, and cameras made me pee a little. Essentially the entire laptop line is very slick with unique touches like HDDVD playback and odd applications for music and photo viewing. → Read More
Our first stop was a huge announcement by Panasonic about their line of DIGA Blu-Ray/DVD recorders. The recorders — BW700/800/900 on the Blu-Ray side and XW200V/100/300 on the DVD side — include monstrous hard drives and we’ll probably never see them over here. The Blu-Ray series starts at 250GB and tops out at 1TB of internal storage. It records to DVD and Blu-Ray and includes… → Read More
Hello, true-believers. I just landed in Narita last night and I’m getting ready to wander the halls at CEATEC, one of the biggest CE and component shows in Asia. Not sure what I’ll see here but I’m sure it will be fabulous. Stay tuned and follow my travels here. If you emailed me about meeting up, I’ll get back to you this afternoon. If you’re in Japan and want to… → Read More
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