Peter Crookes - The Japan Times

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Aug 5, 2009

Bikes, VCR-DVD combos merge old into new

Green gadget: Sanyo is addressing the space issue in cities such as Tokyo with a new model of folding bicycle. The CY-SPJ220 is a rather small device with 20-inch tires. It folds in half for fitting into elevators and stowing in apartment foyers or on balconies. The bike weighs just 18 1/2 kg, making...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jul 29, 2009

Photographs are going to have an extra dimension soon

Revolutionary?: Watching 1950s Hollywood movies while wearing funny glasses was once the high tide of 3-D imagery. But in recent years, the cyclical fascination with 3-D has surged again, but the problem of needing those glasses has dogged the idea. Fujifilm claims to have freed 3-D imagery from spectacles...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jul 22, 2009

Long-lasting netbooks and deep snapping

Get a battery life: Mobile computers these days suffer from a lack of mobility thanks to combining huge power consumption habits with little way to satisfy this demand. Asus is trying to redress the shortcoming in netbooks with a newly released model in its Seashell series of thin and light mobiles,...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jul 8, 2009

Ecological lights, clear sound and a way to digitize cassettes

Let there be light: Sanyo's latest addition to its Eneloop world is a lamp that looks like a flower vase and does double duty as a flashlight. The ENL-Y1S runs on a pair of the company's AA-size Eneloop rechargeable batteries, which are acclaimed for being environmentally friendly. In lamp mode, it sits...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jul 1, 2009

Resilient fax machines, tinier computers, USBs

Think you know small?: Before netbooks, all the buzz was about the UMPC, or ultra mobile PC. These devices are smaller than netbooks, with 7-inch screens. They also outdo their more celebrated compatriots for innovation, as UMPCs come with touch screens. Despite the bid to do something different, the...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jun 24, 2009

A new camera that packs portable power

Phone book: Toshiba's new mobile phone, the Biblio, aims to capitalize on the e-book boom. The Biblio, which is a KDDI handset under its au brand, looks at first glance like an iPhone clone with its 3.5-inch touchscreen. However, the phone sports unusually good e-book reading credentials. In particular,...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jun 17, 2009

A new, faster generation of wireless Internet

Maximum range: WiMax is a form of wireless Internet that operates in much the same way as Wi-Fi, but offers greater range, in theory up to 40 km from a central transmitter, and faster speeds than its sibling. It is also just starting in Japan, whereas Wi-Fi is ubiquitous. As part of a concerted push...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jun 10, 2009

Sony sorts out the PSP; netbooks get a dose of speed

Small game: Technology companies have an easy way of dealing with mistakes — don't admit them, just quietly stop using the failed innovation. Sony sticks to this dogma with the latest version of its PlayStation Portable gaming devices. Previously, Sony has used universal media discs, a kind of miniature...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Jun 3, 2009

Tiny HD TVs, a jogger's dream and a tough camcorder

Small and defined: Sharp is looking to save on space with an innovative addition to its high-definition TV family. Sharp claims the Aquos DX, or LC-20DX1, is the world's first 20-inch LCD TV with a built-in Blu-ray burner. Apart from the basic function of showing high-definition television, the DX also...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

May 27, 2009

Matching beats, solar chats and tiny vids

Pace me with your rhythm stick: Yamaha is improving the connection between music and physical workouts with the release this month of the BF-1 BODiBEAT digital music player (¥29,800). The BODiBEAT chooses the songs in a playlist you upload to the device that go best with the pace of your workout. A...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

May 20, 2009

Aerial mice, speaker/stands and hi-def Macs

Wave your hands in the air: Wireless is just the headliner in the campaign to free computers from electric cords. While touch screens threaten to make the mouse extinct, some are trying to give traditional pointers a new lease on life. Filco has crafted the recently released BTLS900 Air Mouse (¥9,200),...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

May 13, 2009

Extra power for your netbook

More for your book: Japanese gadget innovator Century is offering a device for putting more muscle into netbooks in the form of its Netbook Stand, the CNBS-WT/ODD. While fundamentally a netbook cooler, the Century gadget also packs in a DVD burner. A fan is built into the left side and swivels up into...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

May 6, 2009

Shedding light with a green gadget

Innovation to monitor: Eizo Nanao is addressing the power-wastage produced by computer screens with the 20-inch EV2023W and 23-inch EV2303W FlexScan monitors, which incorporate its creative EcoView Sense feature. The essence of this innovation is that the monitors automatically switch to electricity-...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Apr 29, 2009

From dust-gathering tapes to the digital age

Walkman brand still standing: Sony's latest additions to the once-venerable Walkman brand, the NW-X1050 and NW-X1060 (released last week), base their appeal on a wide range of features for watching video and playing music. Each of the pair sports a 3-inch OLED touch-screen display, which has a 432×240-pixel...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Apr 22, 2009

Slimmed-down Hitachi TVs, another swing-screen Nikon and an MP3 player for the pool

It's not what you put in: If you want to build a thinner television, the trick is to take something out. So, Hitachi has slimmed down its latest LCD lineup by the simple expedient of taking out the TV tuner and supplying it as a separate, but included, wirelessly connected box. The result is its four...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Apr 15, 2009

Moving forward with speed and quality

Driving forward: The line that divided solid-state drives (SSDs) from hard disks has always been that the former have speed and toughness, while the traditional disks boast much greater capacity. This distinction is beginning to disappear, and PhotoFast erases more of the barrier with its G-Monster eSATA....

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Apr 8, 2009

New technology to transform old products

Ray of hope: Two new Blu-ray products by Sony are taking aim at the DVD and also undermining traditional television. Sony's new Blu-ray recorders, the 320-gigabyte BDZ-A750 and the larger 500-gigabyte BDZ-A950, work as both Blu-ray burners and hard-disk video recorders. The pair are designed for downloading...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Apr 1, 2009

Pictures, videos and talking without hands

For the record: Some of the most impressive camcorders being made at the moment are compact or pocket recorders. Tokyo-based Amadana, known for stylish contributions to more routine products such as hair dryers, has crafted a unique-looking camcorder with its new SAL. The SAL looks like an old digital...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Mar 25, 2009

A revolution in lighting, Japan's Kindle and an on-the-go theater

Light fantastic: The traditional light bulb in this period of global warming is seen as wasteful: It uses too much electricity and has too short a life span. Bulbs that use light-emitting diodes (LED) are seen as leading candidates to replace the incandescent bulb. Toshiba is promoting this technology...

LIFE / Digital / IGADGET

Mar 18, 2009

Clarity up for reading, dieting and television

Tuned in: The small fortunes people spend on television antennas or television sets can be a waste of money if both products are not of a similar quality. Panasonic looks to solve this problem with its new compact LCD high-definition TV, the 17-inch Viera TH-L17F1. The key to this innovative set is that...

author

Meta

Podcast

Longform

SUSTAINABLE JAPAN

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENTS

SUPPLEMENTS BINDER

In your social network

In your inbox

In your social network

In your inbox