Gadgety News

At the moment it seems that Nintendo’s Wii can do no wrong.

What could possibly be the next step for it?

Well, if you remember, Japanese Wii owners are already getting the food delivery service - but they also seem to be getting a full-blown television channel, delivered to the Wii via the interweb in Spring.

Called Wiinoma, The Times reports that Nintendo is planning to use the on-demand channel to deliver mostly free and original programming, produced exclusively for the service.

Brain-training quizzes, original cartoons, educational shows, even cookery and lifestyle programming, are all reported to be on the agenda.

It’s definitely a step up from the current on-demand content such as game info, weather and news.

The new channel would offer full shows and not just clips and trailers, adding to the other content available to the Wii from BBC’s iPlayer service.

The stumbling block could be the lack of hard-drive.

The likes of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 both have internal hard disks to store downloaded content and the Wii doesn’t.

This means that the content would have to be streamed to the console unless the Wii hard drive becomes more than a rumour this time around.

As this service is only being released in Japan at the moment I’m guessing that if it takes off it would be spread throughout the globe - possibly hitting these shores late in the year.

But with that comes a number of other issues.

All that content would have to be remade in English and other languages and also the regional channels would have to get advertisers in that area.

Personally I vote for dubbed Japanese content!  I very much doubt that UK made content would be so crazy and entertaining

Crave

So, you dutifully check your BMI and age on Wii Fit and things are going the right way (apart from that little speed bump that is Christmas).

You’re looking forward to some more challanges in Wii Fit 2?

Well, at least it’ll be easier to stay away from fast food in the UK than it will be in Japan!

Starting in spring, Nintendo will introduce the Food Delivery Channel in Japan.

Much like how TiVo users can order Pizza Hut, Wii users will be able to place orders to Demae-can.com (which offers everything from sushi to hamburgers).

So, between Yoga and Downhill Slalom you can get a quarter pounder with cheese - the food of champions! 

Oh, but this is the Wii, folks. You don’t just order food. You order food and the Wii will set the mood with correlating music - Or it will pick a meal and have it sent to you at random.

You know, for those times when you just can’t decide what’s for dinner so you let a machine that knows nothing of your tastes or allergies choose for you.

IT Media via Kotaku

If you fancy yourself as a bit of a James Bond type and love the chunkiness featured in 70s digital watches you are going to love Thanko’s MP4 watch.

At first it looks like a typically retro digital time-piece with a decent sized face but when you discover that it’s packing a camera that’s able to shoot video in 352×288 and take stills at 640×480 then the geekahol starts to flow!

That’s not all people!

The MP4 also doubles up as a wrist-based entertainment centre able to dish out MP3/WMA audio playback, AVI video and a photo/text file viewer.

Ok, so it’s not exactly going to be kind to your peepers when trying to watch the video playback or read those text files - but it is more than likely going to impress the lads down the pub.

The watch is out in Japan for £108 and, lets face it, Thanko’s wares usually hit the UK eventually.

So, OO8 - Q will be in touch soon
 

Update:  This is now available at Brando’s webstore for $129.oo!!

Thanko via Akihabara News

If you’re getting bored of searching the regular dealers of geekahol but still want to treat your gadget hungry friend/family member to something shiny for Christmas; how’s about a Sega Homestar Pro, a Rocobo Robot pet or a USB cupholder in the shape of a heart?

Well shoppers - your wish has been granted! Thanks to GizMine :)

They have an extensive range of Japanese weirdness and state that they’ll ship to anywhere from their base in Tokyo.

I’ve spent a few minutes browsing their site and still want to keep looking.

Righty - I haven’t checked the luggage section yet…………

Check it out Gadgety-fiends! 

Wakamaru is soon to become household name rather than a household servant.

The domestic droid designed and built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industry stands 3 feet tall, and weighs about 30kg. It was released in 2005 and costs around £9,000.  It can greet guests and provide information like weather forecasts but soon will be tredding rolling the boards.

Tuesday marked the theatrical debut for the bot, which appeared onstage alongside really-real actors in a play that’s being billed as the first robot-human artistic collaboration.

Hataraku Watashi (”I, Worker”), by playwright Oriza Hirata, focuses on a couple who own two housekeeping robots, one of which loses its motivation to work.

The 20 minute production took place at Japan’s Osaka University (c’mon - where else?) where Hirata is also a visiting professor at the Centre of the Study of Communication-Design.

The performance was played in front of the media ahead of a possible full-scale public run in the next year or so.

Hirata and the rest of the project team wrote special software that lets the robots move and deliver the right lines.

The robot is primarily meant as a companion for seniors and the disabled. Using a combo of a laser and cameras it’s able to track and identify people, and recognises approximately 10,000 words necessary for daily life and now possibly an acting career.

If you happen to be a designer of mobile phones you’re pretty much cornered into a number of ‘must haves’:

1. They have to be pocketable
2. They must look cool when shoved up against your face
3. Even though its small it somehow must have a great display that can hold a bunch of icons and be able to display video

So, how can you shove what in essence has to be the desktop viewing experience into a device small enough to fit the skinniest jeans?

Entree Samsung’s new concept phone that’s being shown off at the FPD International show in Yokohama.

It opens like a book to reveal a flexible OLED big enough to handle all those video flicks that you carry around with you.

Calm yourselves though.  There’s no word on when we’ll actually see such a beast hit production.

Until then - check out this video

Via Engadget

Marketing is not really known for being up front in its way of making you part with your hard earned.

Market research is generally carried out via focus groups, analysing market trends and those people that pounce on you in the street with their clipboards at the ready.

It is the 21st century and research firm Nielson and California-based NeuroFocus have launched a service in Japan that scans the brain waves of potential customers to help companies improve marketing.

Not quite brain washing……

They say that they can measure how much certain ads grab the attention and tug at the emotional heartstrings of the people they’re targeting. 

This could do away with those 10 page research forms and multiple choice questionnaires.

lnstead of relying on someone ticking the box for “needs more naked flesh” the operators will be able to check the graphs and by looking at how your brain spasms they’ll be able to tell just how much nudity is required, when it appears and how blatent it needs to be for a guy to by an 8 bladed razor.

Japan Today

Pic Cred

Yo! Check it bruv.

Dis ere is my dawg; G-Dog yo!

Ahem………..

Sorry but for some reason this robo-mut makes me wanna spit gangsta style.

Perhaps it has something to do with this robo-mut being called G-Dog.

Japanese robot maker HPI will start selling this robotic dog, the above named later this month.

The mainly aluminium pooch-droid is powered by a 7.2V nickel metal hydride battery and features a total of nine servomotors. It measures 75×135×190mm and weighs 570g. Good doggy.

Users will be able to control the G-Dog wirelessly via a Playstation-like joypad. The robot is able to sit up and beg, crawl and roll over to its side.

You never know - this canny canine may even get the chance to mark its territory outside of Japan for a change.

CrunchGear

When I read something about a new Soundgarden I instantly thought that the band had got back together - but you can blame that on me being of an age and being an 80’s rocker.

Whilst it isn’t news about the Seattle band’s reformation it is the fact that JVC has gone all eco-friendly with its latest speaker concept - the Sound Garden, or rather the Kirikabu, speaker.

This combines a plant pot with multi-directional speakers consisting of a woofer, and left and right channel stereo speakers powered by an internal amplifier.

See, you didn’t realise you needed this did you?

The manufacturer showed off the concept in Tokyo at the Designer’s Week exhibition.

I’m still slightly confused.

Softbank has just come up with this rather interesting mobile TV add-on for Japanese iPhone and iPod owners.

it’s a separate unit with tuner and aerial that retransmits the signal over Wi-fi to the phone.

The rechargeable device will give about three hours of TV eye-candy and connects to a special iPhone app that’ll be distributed free when the device hits the streets in mid December!

It’ll cost somewhere around the $100 mark but also doubles as an iPhone battery top-up when you link it via the dock connector.

Just gotta wait for it to be adapted and shipped over here.

AVWatch

The Sony Rolly has always been an enigma to me.

Ok, it’s cute - It’s probably one of the cutest small speakers around.

But.

It’s a portable, trundling, dancing speaker - but the sound isn’t great for £250.

It’s a music player able to stream via A2DP Bluetooth or play from its internal flash but there’s no place to shove your 3.5mm lead.

 Sony are now updating it - and it will be controlled by YOU!! MWAHAHAHAHH!!!

Ahem.  Next month, Japanese Rolly buyers will be able to get the new SEP-50BT version complete with Bluetooth controls thus allowing them to make Rolly dance and spin like a performing monkey-bot all directed via their mobile phones.

I can imagine the high jinks and thoroughly wicked japes to be had through controlling the egg-shaped dancing speaker under somones chair and then unleashing a choice cut from ‘Cannibal Corpse’ as the little mp3 player starts its own circle pit :) 

The new system will actually give you control of up to seven of the little blighters at the same time using a mobile phone or laptop.

I reckon it’s time for some synchronised dancing……….

Gizmodo

Fancy yourself a butler/maid/skivvy but can’t afford the wages?

Well, a one off payment of around $10,00 could score you the “Home Assistant Robot”.

The housproud bot is the product of joint research between Toyota and the University of Tokyo.  It stands 5-foot tall on its practical wheels and weighs in at 286lb.

The HAR uses five cameras and six lasers to map and navigate round your home and has fairly free movement - the neck alone can be moved in three directions while the arms move seven!

The helpful HAR can open and close doors, tidy up rooms, mop floors, do your laundry and put away dishes - all this without a marriage certificate :P  ~ducks out of the way of flying frying pans~

What impresses me is that mechanical home-help is clever enough to move furniture out of the way to clean floors and such and then place it back in its original position when the chore is done.

I’m not exactly sure how the robot learns from its mistakes but the programming seems to operate on simple “Magic Eye”-type principals distinguishing what’s different about a room from its original room image and correcting the differences accordingly.

You can get between 30 to 60 minutes of graft per charge and can be expected to arrive at homes in the next decade.

So, save a grand a year…………..

Asahi via CrunchGear

To be filed safely under - “nothing special but too cute to ignore”.

These headphones from Greenhouse are for all of us that like the idea of having a mini Angel and Devil shoved into our lugholes.

They’ll rock out an average sounding 5mW output, 20Hz to 20kHz response and are unleashed in Japan in five different color combos for about $10.

Not sure if that stand does anything apart from give you somewhere to sit the little fellas and ask them “should I stick toffee on the dogs back teeth again?”……………

NewLaunches

Well, the age of people like me is slowly coming to an end.

Bandai corp unveiled the  at the Japan Robo Fair.

NetTansorWeb is made for home use and is controlled remotely via WiFi and comes equipped with cameras and motion sensors to avoid obstacles.

It can be used for surveillance and it can even send the video to a cell phone. So far we’ve heard this all before.

Apart from all that though, it’s able to read RSS feeds, update your blog with certain filters and process reviews (which includes answering simple questions from readers).

So, If someone writes a comment in which they desire to see a certain part of a picture posted in an article more clearly, the robot will parse the text and react accordingly.

The NetTansorWeb has a battery life of 2.5 hours and is sized at 190×160×160mm. Bandai plans to sell the Japan-only robot in December for $500.

Thankfully it can’t play bass………

………………yet.

Crunchgear

This is a concept phone that ranks high on the cool-o-meter!

The Fujitsu device shown at CEATEC lets you to separate your screen and touchscreen keypad in whatever configuration you like.

This means that they can be used separately (one bit in each of your ultra-skinny jeans front pockets) or stuck together by magnets, and where you stick the screen on the keypad determines what the touchscreen shows. Fantastic!

The screen bit contains software functions, including video recording and games, while the keyboard is responsible for the comms side of things.  Stuff like 3G and radio.

This could stop all that quandry of soap bar or flip or slider…………

This is one concept that I’m hoping will:

• Get released
• …and not only in Japan

What do you reckon?

Akihabara News

According to Japan’s Nikkei newspaper (kind of Japans’ Wall Street Journal) they report that Nintendo will launch a new version of the DS later this year.

Now I’ve already talked about this but this is where the Nikkei article gets interesting:  They say that this new DS is coming loaded with a built-in camera, music playback and a more powerful wireless to boot!

The camera will be used for new types of games - given what they’ve created with the Wii there’s no telling what this could lead to - though I’m sure it would involve taking pictures of yourself at some point…….

Of course, it’ll reportedly launch in Japan before it hits overseas, where it’ll sell for under 20,000 yen (Kotaku notes the current DS is 16,800 yen).

If true, it looks to be another iteration of the current DS, not the dual widescreen jobby I mentioned before - expect it in April or May 2009.

Nikkei via Kotaku

Check out this extremely cool bit of tech my fellow gadget lovers!

It is able to sling and record real-time data for objects via the iPhone and has been named the Sekai Camera (or “world camera” in Japanese).

Developed by Tokyo-based Tonchidot, the software allows users to geotag any real world location and add info.

So, when someone wanders into a tagged location and looks through the ‘Sekai Camera’ on their iPhone various bits of information will show up on their screen giving them the full low-down via their camera lens.

No release date or price have been announced, but you can see the software in action here.

Via Dvice

Sony Ericsson has a ‘mines better than yours’ concept to blow raspberries at the other camera phones.

It would become your mobile phone, still-camera, video recorder, PDA and music player.

This concept phone has a bit of a twist to it.  Literally!

To lock it or use it you have to twist the movable base.  As well as this novelty it packs a 5 MP camera and has dual mode - You can either use the simple keypad or a stylus for inputs.

Wi-fi and music/video broadcasting capabilities complete the package along with handwriting recognition.

Enet

First thing that has caught my eye is this tiny puter.

I do have a soft-spot for the little micros that you can hide away and still are usable if you’d prefer a desktop when at home.

This two-inch-square Space Cube computer has apparently been making the rounds in Japan for quite a while but PC Pro have finally managed to sneak one into the UK!

The little stow-away is packing a 300MHz NEC VR5701 processor, 64MB of RAM, a 1GB CompactFlash card, and a special version of Red Hat Linux, along with a single USB port, VGA out, built-in Ethernet and, most importantly for its target market, a SpaceWire port, which is used by the likes of NASA and the European Space Agency.

The bad news is that the initial price was quite a reasonable $325 looks as though it may be heading more to the region of £1,500 (or over $2,700)!

Slashdot

Styrofoam homes.

Now, that’s not bringing to me visions of a safe habitiat for me and mine.

Japan Dome House Co., Ltd. thinks they’re the future!

Constructed of 7-inch-thick 100% expanded polystyrene foam modules, the company says that they don’t have the maintenance problems of wood or metal structures, and they are “highly resistant” to earthquakes, fires, and typhoons.

Gotta admit tho; there’s a definite Mos Eisley vibe about the 480 domes at Aso Farm Land resort village in Kyushu.

They do, however, look quite comfy and roomy inside :0)

Pink Tentacle