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Peter Crookes
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 11, 2009
Dust off your old records for one final play
Movie marvel: Just as the arrival of home video in the 1980s impacted heavily on the movie-theater industry, free-to-air TV is now being undermined by pay TV and movies delivered via the Internet. Television-set manufacturers are helping to widen channels for the new methods of movie distribution, and...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Mar 4, 2009
Top technology comes in small packages
Touch and go: Asus virtually created the burgeoning market for netbook computers with its groundbreaking Eee PC lineup. Whether it can give the demand for touch-screen desktop machines the same sort of boost is open for debate. But the Taiwanese maker is giving it a shot with its Eee Top 1602, due out...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Feb 25, 2009
Turn on, power up and relieve the pressure
On the big screen: Samsung has unveiled its latest response to the current challenge facing laptop-computer designers — how to get the smallest, lightest machines with the biggest, brightest screens possible. The truth is, getting both is not going to happen. Designers are overcoming this problem...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Feb 18, 2009
A bigger, better netbook — and not quite an iPod killer
Touched up: Korean innovator iriver is firing off both barrels with its latest personal media player, the P20, a model it hopes will take some market share away from Apple's iPod touch. The P20 is a chunky device with impressive hardware credentials. Released in Japan as an 80-gigabyte model, the PMP...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Feb 11, 2009
Clearing up digital photography
Look sharp: In digital photography, cameras that are small and easy to use tend not to take good pictures in low light and to have a crimped dynamic range. A camera's dynamic range defines how much detail it can capture in shadowy areas of the picture and brightly lit parts at the same time. The better...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jan 28, 2009
Sony's new headphones mean you will never get your wires crossed
Knot again: Just how headphone cords manage to tangle themselves up without any outside interference is one of life's minor mysteries. Bluetooth-enabled devices, however, offer a solution to this problem.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jan 21, 2009
Olympus gets tough with new cameras
Playing hard to break: Olympus is taking advantage of the delicate nature of modern cameras to craft a niche market. It has produced a range of compact cameras sold as much on their claims to toughness as their ability to create a pleasing image. The latest additions to the ranks are the μTough-8000...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jan 14, 2009
New cameras aim to make kids more than just a blur
Focused product: Gadgets can help transform the difficult into the routine and make the impossible possible. In the world of home movies, the current challenge is developing the technology that drives autofocus in video cameras. This is tougher than it seems, because the average camcorder user makes...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Jan 7, 2009
Hybrid storage to put new spin on netbook choices
Flash wonder: Netbook makers seem to be particularly keen to shatter the axiom that size always equals power. Their shrunken portables put a premium on being small and light, both in terms of bulk and price, for only a slight tradeoff on performance. Certainly they would also like people to stop describing...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 31, 2008
Puny netbook hard drives no problem for Logitec
Data box: Designing electronics these days is as much about deciding what to leave out as what features to include.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 24, 2008
Who says you can't buy a friend?
Your new chum: Gadgets are by definition small mechanical or electronic devices with a practical function that typically are thought of as novelties. Widgets, on the other hand, have until recently been merely hypothetical gadgets, handy for illustrating hypothetical examples.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 17, 2008
E-mail back if the Earth moved for you too
Call me: Fixed-line telephones used to be a lot like refrigerators: dull but essential. These days they are more akin to microwave ovens: more buttons than dials, and still useful, but not a must-have item. Marketing the humble phone is similar to promoting any commodity that consumers can live without...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 10, 2008
Sony brings home the convenience of FeliCa
Smart money: Japan's old-fashioned notions about money are evaporating one innovation at a time. Although people are getting used to carrying around cash that they can't see, managing those funds often involves a trip to a convenience store or a bank. Sony Corp. will relieve some of that hassle next...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Dec 3, 2008
Preholiday offerings speak of sensibility
Ahead to basics: Pentel is not ready to write the eulogy for the humble pen. Rather than killing off the ages-old device, it is intent on bringing it into the digital age. Its latest effort is the airpenMini digital pen.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 26, 2008
Yamaha makes a stand for television sound
Audiovisual support: It is surprising how TV-makers seem to deem sound- reproduction a secondary concern behind dressing up the features — much like makers of portable music players.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 19, 2008
Be a walking drive-in with mini projector
Marketing 101: Make use of a brand, even if it is not your own. Electronics pioneer Texas Instruments does so with its DLP Pico projector, the PK-101. Sold under the Optoma brand, the PK-101 is said to be the world's smallest and lightest projector. It goes on sale from Dec. 1 at the Apple Store in Japan...
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 12, 2008
iPhone accessory gives you TV on the go
iPhone TV: Apple's amazing iPhone does just about everything, right? Nope. It's come up short in Japan for various reasons, including its lack of the TV function available on the newest generation of mobile phones.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Nov 5, 2008
Bare-bones cube fancies itself as media center
Let's get small: Computer makers are pursuing a bloated form of minimalism. Stripped-down, shrunken machines such as the Asus Eee PC subnotebooks are the great new trend. Less is more and small is the new big.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 29, 2008
Bandai robot keeps eye on your home
I, robot: Bandai's robot designers must be fans of the iconic sci-fi movie "Forbidden Planet." While Sony has forsaken its line of Aibo robot dogs, it solidified the spirit that Japanese robots should have a high cuteness factor.
Japan Times
LIFE / Digital / IGADGET
Oct 22, 2008
Apple lightens, brightens lineup
Pick an Apple: Like a magician pulling a rabbit out of the hat, Apple Inc. always conjures up a buzz out of its product announcements. In its latest trick, the technology maestro has unveiled a much-anticipated lineup of new MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air notebook computers that are already triggering...
Cutting ties with JCP not easy for CDP despite Renho's defeat
When Renho (center) announced her candidacy for the Tokyo gubernatorial election on May 27, the head of the Japanese Communist Party's secretariat, Akira Koike (far left), was also in attendance.
Trump's VP pick signals stronger focus on China
Former U.S. President and 2024 Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks to his vice presidential pick, Sen. J.D. Vance, during the second day of the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Tuesday.
Japan’s minimum wage might not budge much if corporate fears prevail
Unionists hold a rally in Tokyo in April. Households' real cash earnings have been falling year on year for more than two years, with the weakening of the yen making the situation only more difficult as prices of imported goods increase rapidly.
Trump says Taiwan should pay for defense, sending TSMC stock down
Shares in Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., the world's largest contract chipmaker and a major Apple and Nvidia supplier, closed 2.4% lower on Wednesday.
Three novelists named for Akutagawa and Naoki awards
Naoki Prize winner Michi Ichiho (left), and Akutagawa Prize winners Sanzo K. Matsunaga (center) and Aki Asahina pose with their award-winning books at a news conference in Tokyo on Wednesday.
After Tokyo Olympic disappointment, Nadeshiko Japan look for redemption
Japan's Hikaru Kitagawa dribbles past a defender during an Olympic qualifying match against North Korea at National Stadium in Tokyo in February.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
How to beat Japan’s summer heat in ways better for the planet
Tenugui towels hang up to dry at a dyeing company in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture, on May 8. The durable and versatile tenugui, which many people have in their homes, can be used in many ways to cool one’s body.
After Trump shooting, U.S. presidential race might take a violent turn
United States Secret Service Counter Snipers stand guard on a rooftop during a campaign rally for U.S. President Donald Trump in Avoca, Pennsylvania, in 2020.
No AC this summer? No problem (for me).
Think air conditioning is a requirement for a Tokyo summer? Think again.

Podcast

You can often see generations of families enjoying performances together at Fuji Rock Festival.
Japan’s summer music festivals are feeling the heat in more ways than one

Longform

Akiko Trush says her experience with the neurological disorder dystonia left her feeling like she wanted to chop her own hand off.
The neurological disorder that 'kills culture'
By Tomoko Otake

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