ceatec 2007

Meet Umihiko Namekawa, TechCrunch Translator

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 proj

The Infobar 2: Like the Infobar 1, only infobarrier plus BONUS RANT!

I’m going to take this opportunity to say something that has been bothering me all week here at CEATEC: Japan is no longer the home of innovation. Sure, they kicked our asses for years in terms

Hands on with Horizon fuel cells

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

Hands on with Fujitsu's vein-scanning mouse

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

MuRata Boy!

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

CEATEC Booth Babe Bonanzarama

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 Europ

Fujitsu MediaTop: The cube's the thing

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 le

The Daily WTF

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.

Sony's OLED TV: Awful small

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 o

The Robots of Chiba

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 ca

Sharp cavalcade of LCDs

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

You know you're jet-lagged when…

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

Hitachi Rollerball Interface Concept

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 anythi

Sony Rolly: MP3-playing robot or glistening, ambulatory Aibo turd?

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

Amazing 3D gesture-based Pioneer GPS system

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 le

Crazy, uber-skinny Sharp HDTVs

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

Toshiba Booth Tour

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 pl

Panasonic's DIGA Blu-Ray/DVD Recorders: 18 hours on one BR disk

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 — i

CEATEC 2007: The sky over the Chiba Bridge was the color of a TV set tuned to no channel

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 her