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November 24, 2024
 

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Peter Crookes
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 23, 2009
Audio-Technica helps block sound; Panasonic watches the door
Quiet please: Audio-Technica has come out with a pair of lightweight, folding headphones featuring noise-canceling technology. The company claims its newly released ATH-ANC1 QuietPoint can cut out background noise by 85 percent when its noise-canceling abilities are enacted. The extraneous-noise killer...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 16, 2009
Buffalo targets gamers with new USB stick
Game fiends: Buffalo is catering to Internet gamers with its new USB dongle, the WLI-UC-GNT. The simple and small white gadget plugs into a user's PC and allows them to connect gaming devices to the Internet without wires. In particular it is designed to work with Nintendo's DS and Wii, and Sony's PSP...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 9, 2009
Sony's finger on the pulse with vein reader
Security point: Sony's new FVA-U1 is a finger-vein reader that plugs into your computer via a USB. The device is meant to protect computers from unauthorized users, externally at least. The rising popularity of vein-reading technology in Japan as a better means of securing data is praiseworthy, but a...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 2, 2009
King Jim puts pen to screen; Phiaton turns red
Jot it down: While the typewriter has pretty much become extinct, the notebook and pen combination has shown greater resilience. This is mainly due to to their simplicity, something computers are not known for. But they can do color touchscreens, multimedia and other surplus features. In the form of...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 25, 2009
Hallods puts definition on its screen; Maxell turns volume up
Screen saver: Putting genuine high definition in portable-media players is a bit like trying to craft the perfect diamond. If you pull off the act it looks brilliant, but the difference between it and the normal article is nearly impossible for laypeople to actually see. Despite doubts over whether the...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 18, 2009
Ricoh snaps up a small first; Sharp's new mobile needs more memory
Snap shot: Despite photography's scope for creative flair, camera makers generally shy away from doing things different. Ricoh, however, has bucked the trend with its new GXR digital camera. The GXR is intended to compete with the so-called micro four-thirds cameras from Olympus and Panasonic as cameras...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 11, 2009
Sony-Ericsson phone ups its appeal; Bluedot treats the ladies
Going mobile: Sony, in the guise of its partnership with Swedish maker Ericsson, is combining the much-touted Android phone platform from Google with its traditional feature-rich offerings in the form of the Xperia X10. Sporting a larger than normal 4-inch, TFT-capacitive touch screen, the candybar-style...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 4, 2009
Dynario helps gadget-users on the move; Kyocera makes phone for kids
Charging ahead: The promise of fuel-cell technology has conjured visions of cars powered by hydrogen. This promise also offers the ability to "recharge" batteries in your gadgets without a power point. Toshiba is bringing this part of the dream to life with its new Dynario, a methanol fuel-cell recharger...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 28, 2009
JVC says looks aren't everything; Nikon readies for closeups
Not just a pretty face: Looks before substance may be an unfair slogan to pin on JVC's newest home-theater combination, but there is no denying the emphasis on looks. Pairing two speakers, the combination of the SP-FT and the AX-FT 4-channel amplifier is designed to match the latest breed of flat-screen...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 21, 2009
Sony, Fujitsu computer models embrace Windows touch
The digital touch: Windows 7 is entrusted with delivering the Microsoft vision that Vista spectacularly failed to conjure. One promise of the new operating system is to help take the touch interface of Apple's iPhone and iPod products to a bigger stage. Sony has joined the ranks of computer-makers offering...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 14, 2009
Panasonic rethinks iPod dock presentation
Clunky look, original concept: Panasonic ditches the traditional concept of an iPod dock in the form of its new MW-10.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 7, 2009
Gearing up for a Windows update
In the dock: Sony's new CMT-E350HD music system boasts a 160-gigabyte internal hard drive for storing digital music, enough to store a stack of audio libraries, and is the latest swipe in the company's rivalry with Apple. The CMT-E350HD has left out an iPod dock in preference for a WM-PORT, which in...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 30, 2009
Perks enhance Sony headphones; Epson pushes postcards
Sound investment: Sony may have long ago surrendered the portable music-player war to Apple, but it still wins in the battle over headphones.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 23, 2009
Sony scores with basic Walkman
Sony goes back to its roots: After trying to copy Apple's touch screen, Sony has gone back to basics with the latest addition to the A-Series Walkman line, the NW-A840 series. The new Walkmans don't do touch or the Internet. Instead the emphasis is on playing music and videos. They do this with a beautiful,...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 16, 2009
Creative gets touchy; Canon enters gray zone
Creative orientation: Survival in the gadget market can often come down to the smallest of tweaks in a product.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 9, 2009
Sharp puts faith in resurrection
Sharp faith: Belief in resurrection is not restricted to religion. Sharp has a real faith in the power of bringing gadget ideas back from the dead. Its new PC-Z1 looks like a reborn version of Sharp's Zaurus brand of PDAs. The PC-Z1, marketed under the NetWalker brand, is a clamshell device with a 5-inch...
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Sep 2, 2009
Kohjinsha monitors get moving; Sony hits Blu-ray potential
Now screening: Netbooks too often are like a range of cars. The varying bodywork makes them look deceptively different from each other, but turn the key and you find that where they count, under the hood, the differences are all but nonexistent. Maybe the engineers at Kohjinsha are into motorcycles....
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 26, 2009
Green House puts pen to screen; iPod docks into the TV
Mightier than the mouse: Historic, certainly; ideal means to facilitate communications between people and computers, less certain. Such is the likely verdict on the future role of the keyboard and mouse. Wacom has carved a market for itself by producing graphics tablets that provide the creative ability...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 19, 2009
Sharp rides the Blu-ray; iPhone catches up
More bang from the Blu-ray: Sharp aims to beat a storage restriction problem with its second-generation Aquos DX series of LCD televisions. Notable for combining a built-in Blu-ray recorder with an LCD TV, the key improvement for the new range is a 7× extended HD recording mode. Sharp claims that this...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Aug 12, 2009
Cameras that project pics; Apple ups its dominance
Projecting innovation: Up until this past year, imagination in the field of digital cameras was largely reserved for how you used them, not in the design of the devices themselves. But the threat from mobile phones with built-in cameras has triggered innovation. Nikon's Coolpix S1000pj, for example,...
U.S. aircraft carrier returns to Japan carrying navy’s ‘most capable fighter’
U.S. 7th Fleet Commander Vice Adm. Fred Kacher speaks to reporters shortly after the arrival of aircraft carrier USS George Washington at Yokosuka naval base in Kanagawa Prefecture on Friday.
After Shohei Ohtani bump, Iwate ironware maker sees brighter future
Kaito Kikuchi's decision to send superstar Shohei Ohtani one of his company's traditional ironware tea kettles has paid off with a surge of interest from general consumers.
Japan approves ¥21.9 trillion stimulus plan
The policy chiefs of the Democratic Party for the People, Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito — Makoto Hamaguchi (left), Itsunori Onodera (center) and Mitsunari Okamoto — shake hands after reaching an agreement on an economic stimulus package on Wednesday.
Woman dies after train collides with car in Tochigi
A Moka Railway train car
Japan will spend ¥325 million in government funds on Princess Yuriko's funeral
Princess Yuriko waves during the New Year's public greeting at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo in January 2019.
Shohei Ohtani wins National League MVP award
Shohei Ohtani celebrates after hitting a three-run home run against the Padres during the National League Division Series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles last month.
The slow-burn success of ‘A Samurai in Time’
A 19th-century warrior gets struck by lightning and wakes to find himself in 21st-century Kyoto in Junichi Yasuda’s surprise hit “A Samurai in Time.”
Around a quarter of Japan married couples in their 20s met through dating apps
A survey released by an organization promoting “Good Couples Day” shows that 24% of couples in their 20s met their marriage partner through a dating app.
'Tokyo Swindlers': Get deep into the minds of real estate con artists
In Ko Shinjo's "Tokyo Swindlers," a group of con artists manipulates real estate giants into falsified deals within the highly competitive, quick market.
Japan, U.K. and Italy discuss inviting more countries to joint fighter project
A new concept model of a next-generation fighter jet to be jointly developed by Japan, Britain and Italy is on display in Farnborough, Hampshire, in July.

Podcast

One of the many entrances to the Kabukicho neighborhood in Tokyo’s Shinjuku Ward.
Kabukicho: Tokyo’s ‘stadium of desire’

Longform

Construction takes place on the Takanawa Gateway Convention Center in Tokyo, slated to open in 2025.
A boom for business tourism in Japan?
By Kathryn Wortley

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