We’ve covered more than one electric bike over the years, but the so-called PAS Brace-L Yamaha introduced last year on the Japanese market is probably the nicest looking. And now the company announced [JP] an improved version of its flagship sports bike (which is, for some reason, also called PAS Brace-L).
The new model’s 8.1Ah/25.2V lithium-ion battery can be charged and discharged as often as 700-900 times, twice as often as the battery used in the 2010 model. It takes four hours for a full charge and provides an assisted travel range of 36km in standard mode, 31km in power mode and 47km in auto-eco mode. → Read More
Yamaha Motors announced [JP] they have made a small step in improving one of the weak points in e-bikes today: the batteries. The company’s newly developed 25.2V/8.1Ah lithium-ion battery doubles the number of discharge/charge cycles of the electric bicycles and has just been added to the Yamaha PAS series. → Read More
If you’ve ever been in a situation where discretion is important when speaking, then you may want some help from this guy. It’s the Yamaha VSP-1 and it is a little speaker device that plays sounds to cancel speech — up to 89% effective — allowing secret “deals” to be made while thwarting eavesdroppers. → Read More
Yamaha Japan announced [press release in English] the EC-03 today, an electric 50cc scooter that’s powered by a 50V/14Ah lithium ion battery. The vehicle has a driving range of 43km (at 30km/h on flat roads) per charge. A charge takes six hours, with Yamaha saying that a household electrical outlet (100V) is all you need. → Read More
We’ve covered plenty of electric bicycles from Japan in the past, but there’s a significant problem with most of them: usually they’re really ugly, for example this one or this model from Toshiba. But just today, Yamaha has announced [JP] the PAS Brace-L, a nice-looking electric bike that’s specifically towards the young and male part of the population. → Read More
While electric bikes are gaining more and more ground in Japan, the situation in the rest of the world (at least for highly advanced models) is quite different. These vehicles seem to have a hard time in America in particular, although there’s anecdotal evidence the concept does have the potential to catch on in the US as well – basically speaking.
But most of the makers of these bikes, powerhouses such as Panasonic or Sanyo, never tested waters outside Japan. Yamaha, another such company, now announced [JP] a total of five electric bikes over the weekend, all of which are likely to never find their way outside Japan. The new models are part of Yamaha’s series of PAS electric bikes. → Read More
Yamaha Japan today announced the YSP-5100 [JP], a digital sound projector for your home theater. Sized at 1,200×90×212mm and weighing 11kg, Yamaha says the device is suitable for 50-inch TVs or video projectors. It supports 7.1 surround sound and is compatible with dts-HD, dts ES and Dolby TruHD/Digital Plus/Digital/ Digital EX/Pro Logic and Pro LogicⅡ/x. → Read More
Augmented reality is all the new buzz, I guess. I don’t know, because I only have an iPhone 3G — mine’s missing that important “S” indicating it’s the new model on which augmented reality can actually execute. But at CEATEC today I saw some Sekai Camera examples in the real world. My experience wasn’t entirely positive: find out why. → Read More
In case you are an avid runner and don’t like to carry an iPod with you during your exercise, Yamaha Japan might have developed the right device for you. The so-called BODiBEAT (notice the small “i”) portable music player is specifically geared towards joggers. → Read More
It seems that electric bikes have gained significant momentum in the last few months on the market for “green” products, especially in Japan where Yamaha just announced a total of three new models [JP]. → Read More
I don’t get it. A ‘new’ $1,199 Blu-ray player that doesn’t support the latest Blu-ray standard. The player leaked out a few weeks ago, so there really isn’t anything here but some gadget pr0n. It might look nice, but without BD Live, who in their right mind will buy it? → Read More
The companies say they wanted to cross sound and light with the YST001 (“Koizumi-Yamaha Versus Project”). Placed next to a TV set, the light coming from the speakers is supposed to “soften” the TV picture during night time. The light speaker set is already available in Japan and costs $1,240. → Read More
[photopress:bbeat.jpg,full,center] I’m kind of weaning myself off of music while I run. It lets me concentrate a bit more on, say, finishing a race in less than 6 hours. However, the Bodibeat by Yamaha might be just what the doctor ordered. It is a music player that senses your current heart rate and changes the music depending on your effort level. Strolling casually away from a murder scene? NIN. Running from creditors? Black Sabbath. Sleeping? Maybe whale song. I doubt Yamaha will be able to sell this thing but it’s interesting to see them move into the music player market, however small a share of said market they currently own. Who knows? Maybe I’ll pick one up and, given my current state of health, rock out to “The Chicken Dance” while walking to to the fridge. It should be available in the next few months. Product Page [Warning: Horrible Flash Ahead] → Read More
THX Loudness Plus, an audio technology to be built into various AV receivers, including Yamaha’s upcoming RX-Z11 (more on that later), should help those of you who have to watch TV and movies *extra quiet* for whatever reason: baby in the next room, having a fight with the wife… The technology boosts bass, surround and ambient sounds so that you don’t have to turn the volume up of your entire rig. In other words, you’ll get surround sound, but without having to violate local noise ordinances. Speaking of that Yamaha… → Read More
With all the talk about screen resolutions on HDTV sets, people tend to forget about the other important part of the high-def experience: 5.1-channel surround sound. So if you’ve got yourself a sweet plasma, LCD, projector, or rear-projection HDTV and you’re rocking the built-in speakers (though we know there are some good ones out there) you’re doing you and your loved ones a serious disservice by using them. To help you out, ‘cause that’s how we do, we put together this run down of eight of our favorite home-theater-in-a-box systems (HTIB, pronounced “HTIB”). Are they as good as buying individual components to handle your media needs? No, probably not. True audiophiles and film freaks will probably want to go with individual specialized components, especially if you’re trying to fill a large room with mind-blowing, bone-rattling sound. Will they pump out satisfying surround sound for the average music-and-movie enthusiast? Absolutely. → Read More
