Tokyo’s Akihabara district is a never-ending electronics-geek carnival, drawing in tech enthusiasts to check out stores brimming with both vintage and cutting-edge electronics. All manner of otaku come to purchase anime, manga, and other items to feed their nerd obsessions, and hordes of tourists come to raze duty-free shops and gawk at cosplayers.
But Akihabara—the geek-culture center of Japan, if not the world—hasn’t always been such a tourist draw, nor an otaku enclave. Since its origin as a black market for radio parts in postwar Japan to its current incarnation, the shopping district has always reinvented itself. Most recently, a push to sanitize the area has done much to change the feel of the neighborhood, leaving many to wonder if corporate interests and a freewheeling vibe can coexist.
Japan's Brother Industries recently showcased a head-mounted transparent display, called AiRScouter, which projects images directly onto the retina, conjuring up a rather “mysterious effect” – that of watching a display hanging in air about one meter in front of the eyes. The head-mounted display, based on the company's propriety Retinal Imaging Display (RID), made its maiden public appearance in 2008. However, it wasn't going to have a proper name until an year later when Brother unveiled a more advanced prototype.
"Firstly, we expect this display will be used in industrial applications. Using the AirScouter, it's possible to look at a manual or the like while working on site. The advantage of this is, it reduces the time lost in moving around. Also, a camera can be attached, so pictures of the work site can be sent to head office. This makes it possible to work in collaboration, while receiving instructions from experts in the office,” the company said in a release.
“Apart from industrial applications, this display could be used in AR technology, combining the real and virtual worlds. In the future, it'll be possible to connect a smartphone to the AiRScouter, so the display of the smartphone can be seen on the head-mounted display.”
Brother plans to begin shipping the AirScouter before the end of fiscal 2010.
Steve Jobs is always trying to stay a cut above his competitors with magical and revolutionary moves they can not possibly previse being their run-of-the-mill selves. These magical and revolutionary tools of Steve Jobs' one-upmanship are, often, not only too arcane for his rivals but also for security officials at Japanese airports, who reportedly confiscated the Apple CEO's shurikens (also known as Ninja Stars) when he was about to board his private plane at Kansai International Airport on his way back home from a family vacation in Japan in July, 2010.
According to the latest issue of Japan's SPA! magazine, Jobs was found carrying Ninja throwing stars in his carry-on luggage by security officials at the airport. The story goes that he was barred from boarding his own plane with the shurikens, even though he tried to impress upon the officials that he was unlikely to gain anything from hijacking his own plane. According to the report, he finally left Japan without the magical and revolutionary shurikens, vowing never to return.
But an Apple spokesperson, while confirming the visit, described the incidents mentioned in the report as “pure fiction.” He further added, “Steve had a great time and hopes to visit Japan again soon.”
Japanese electronics giant Sharp might be the leading mobile phone maker in its country of origin but it has struggled to replicate that success elsewhere. It plans to change all that later this year when it launches a 3D smartphone, according to a Reuters report. The phone in all likelihood will feature the 3D parallax barrier display (developed for the upcoming Nintendo 3DS) the company unveiled back in April. The company is also considering adding a 3D camera to the phone, which will become available around the world before the end of 2010.
Sharp today introduced two new Aquos Blu-Ray disc recorders -- BD-HDW700 and BD-HDW70 -- into the Japanese market, both of which support the new BDXL format.
The BDXL format allows for far greater storage than with regular Blu-ray discs, up to 100GB on triple-layer discs (compared to 50GB), and up to 128GB on quadruple-layer discs.
Sharp's drives are the first in the world to support both recording and playback of BDXL media, and also come with 1TB (HDW70) and 2TB (HDW700) of hard drive capacity. Both drives will be available in Japan on July 30, 2010, with no word on when the company plans to ship these stateside.
"Construction of the new fab reflects expectations for increasing demand for NAND flash memory for existing and emerging applications, such as smartphones and solid-state drives," the companies said in a statement. Fab 5 will be ready for action midway through next year.
The facility is part of a Toshiba plan to spend 500 billion Japanese yen (US$5.65 billion) on new factories and equipment during the next three years.
There has been quite a bit of speculation about a batch of new PS3 models -- CECH-2501 series -- that popped up in the FCC's database, and it appears we now have our answer. According to a press release put out by Sony Japan, the two new models consist of the 160GB "Classic White" and 320GB "Charcoal Black" consoles.
Both are molded from Sony's PS3 Slim form factor, and both are planned for release in Japan on Thursday, July 29. The Classic White unit will sell for 29,980 yen (about $342 USD), while the 320GB Charcoal Black will sell for 34,980 yen (about $400 USD).
In addition to the Classic White console, Sony said it plans to release a matching Dualshock 3 Wireless Controller and stand.
No word on when Sony plans to release any of these in the U.S. market.
During a recent press meeting, the Tokyo Institute of Technology talked up details of its Tsubame 2.0 project, a next-gen supercomputer slated to start crunching numbers in the fall of 2010.
"It will be the first petaflops computer in Japan," said Satoshi Matsuoka, professor at the Global Scientific Information and Computer Center (GSIC) of the University. "And it will be the world-class supercomputer system for our university."
At full bore, Tsubame 2.0 will be capable of computing 2.39 PFLOPS, making it the second most powerful supercomputer in the world. It will also be one of the greenest supercomputers on the planet, helped in large part by 173.9TB of SSD storage.
"By using them to input and output local data (that are not shared by other nodes), the performance of the entire system can be enhanced," Matsuoka added.
Japan's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy has begun funding a field test of electric vehicles (EVs) with replaceable batteries. The test consists of three EVs, each one used as a taxi, which can putter into a battery replacement station built in Tokyo and have its battery replaced in about 60 seconds.
"It is much faster than charging a battery," Better Place Japan said. "So, it will drastically improve the convenience of electric vehicles."
All three taxis are stationed in Roppongi Hills in Tokyo and are operated by Nihon Kotsu Co Ltd. Powering the taxis are rechargeable lithium-ion (Li-ion) batteries made by A123 systems, each with a capacity of 17kWh. According to Better Place Japan, the batteries have enough juice in them for taxis to run about 70km to 80km (about 43.5 miles to 49.7 miles).
"The convenience of battery-replaceable EVs is very high," said Ichiro Fukue, vice president of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which is cooperating with Better Place Japan in the development of a battery replacement system. "If it is recognized by the public, they are highly likely to become common."
The new Core i5 and Core i7 mobile CPUs are already finding their way into some products. Panasonic has announced that the Japanese version of the Toughbook laptops, known there as Lets Note, will be getting some speedy new Nehalem-based processors. The new rugged (and a little ugly) offerings will come in four flavors.
The S9, N9, and F9 will have a Core i5-520M CPU. Screen sizes range from 12.1 inches (S9 and F9) up to the 14.1 inch screen on the F9. This screen will probably look quite nice with a resolution of 1440 x 900. The real gem here is the R9 model which will have a Core i7-620M, 250GB HDD, and 2GB of DDR3 RAM crammed into a chassis the size of a netbook. A 10.1 inch screen with that kind of power makes for a desirable ultraportable computer.
A Japanese launch is scheduled for February 17th. No word on if these PCs will find their way here. If you were able to get one of these, what would you pay for it?
maximumpc: @admkbldwn Well to be fair the Hasell igp is pretty good.32 min 54 sec ago
maximumpc: McAfee is back in the news, as his Belize house has been burned to the ground. He suspects foul play: http://t.co/cZbloCX2Df50 min 55 sec ago
maximumpc: Youtube turns 8 years old today - happy birthday and thanks for surprised kitty, among others. http://t.co/dORoob9mS92 hours 26 min ago
Tokyo’s Akihabara district is a never-ending electronics-geek carnival, drawing in tech enthusiasts to check out stores brimming with both vintage and cutting-edge electronics. All manner of otaku come to purchase anime, manga, and other items to feed their nerd obsessions, and hordes of tourists come to raze duty-free shops and gawk at cosplayers.
