Tech News and Reviews
Posts tagged Japan
PlayStation Vita launches in Japan, shifts 321,400 units in two days
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Kaz Hirai probably had a sleepless weekend as he and the team waited for the two-day sales figures for Sony’s PlayStation Vita. He can probably relax a little, knowing that 321,400 of the things were exchanged for cold, hard cash in the retail outlets of Japan. In comparison, Nintendo’s 3DS sold 50,000 more units but sales soon stalled — only to be rescued with a hefty price cut. Of course, now the company has to ensure that the performance issues that early-adopters have been facing are resolved — we’d hate to experience the same teething trouble when it arrives over here in February.
Nintendo bringing ‘Red Flare’ 3DS, new Wii package to Japan this summer
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Now that we’re all sitting on summer’s doorstep, Nintendo has decided to add a little heat to its 3DS lineup, with a new ‘Red Flare’ handheld, coming to Japan next month. Offering a sanguine alternative to the Aqua Blue and Cosmo Black variants, this little fireball will retail for ¥25,000 (about $312) when it hits Japanese stores on July 14th — just in time for the release of Star Fox 64 3D. The company is also planning to unleash a new Wii bundle on June 23rd, which will package two Wii Remote Plus controllers (one in black or white, one in blue) with Wii Sports Resort software, for ¥20,000 (around $250). No word yet on whether these offers will be coming Westward anytime soon, but you can find more information in the translated press release, after the break.
NEC MEDIAS WP N-06C announced in Japan, shows off slimness with waterproof body
0372 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
Seriously, why does Japan get all the fun toys? The leaked brochure of this crazy thin NEC MEDIAS N-06C already got us all giddy last month, and now we have a launch date: fans of NTT DoCoMo will be able to nab this device around June or July, meaning owners need not seal this waterproof phone in a plastic bag before heading out for a summer swim. In case you missed the details, here we have a 7.9mm-thick Android 2.3 phone, which easily beats the chubby Galaxy S II at 8.49mm in terms of slimness; though to be fair, the N-06C packs about 9.7mm around its 5 megapixel camera. Inside this tight package you’ll also find a 4-inch 854 x 480 LCD, a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255, 512MB RAM, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth, and microSDHC expansion. But enough with the specs — head over to Akihabara News for some wet hands-on pics.
Onkyo outs 3G Windows 7 tablet for Japan only
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Onkyo‘s outed a new Windows 7 tablet — seems to be all the rage these days — with KDDI 3G onboard. The 11.6-inch TW317A7 tablet (which is essentially a re-badge of the ExoPC Slate which we reviewed) boasts a 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU, 2GB of RAM, a 32GB SSD, plus Bluetooth and WiFi connectivity, a 1.3 megapixel webcam, card reader, two USB 2.0 ports, and stereo speakers. The 11.6-inch multitouch display has a 1366 x 768 resolution, and the tablet brings with it Onkyo’s new custom ExTOUCH software which is apparently designed to enhance finger input in the OS and boasts a dedicated app launcher. The TW317A7 will be available in Japan very soon — as in this week — but Onkyo has yet to announce pricing.
Panasonic says it will start selling Android-based smartphones in Japan next year, overseas in 2012
0553 days
by Arlene.L
in Cellphones
Panasonic may not be new to cellphones, but it has sat out of the smartphone explosion of recent years — an oversight that it’s now apparently looking to correct. Speaking at a news conference today, the head of Panasonic’s mobile division, Osamu Waki, said flatly that the compmany “misjudged the speed at which smartphones would be taken up in the Japanese market,” and that “with the rapid shift to Android, we want to catch up quickly.” Exact details on how it plans to catch up are expectedly still a bit light, but Panasonic’s phones will indeed be based on Android, and it apparently hopes to differentiate them by emphasizing their networking capabilities with other Panasonic products. As for when the first ones will roll out, Panasonic plans to kick off sales in Japan sometime next year, with overseas markets set to follow in 2012.
Sony pulls the plug on cassette Walkmans in Japan, makes epic mixtape
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A cassette Walkman may now be nothing more than a puzzling artifact to some, but for those of a certain age it was the gadget of the day. Alas, it has long since been surpassed by other, more portable audio players that have replaced the fine art of the mixtape with “playlists,” and it looks like even Sony has now accepted the inevitable. The company has reportedly ceased production of all cassette Walkmans and will stop selling them in Japan as soon as the current inventory runs out (expected to happen sometime in April). There will apparently still be Sony-branded Walkmans manufactured in China, however, although it’s not clear how widely available they’ll be. But let’s not worry about that right now — head on past the break for a brief look back at the Walkman in its heyday.
Mouse Computer brings the exciting and new LuvPad AD100 to Japan, Froyo and Tegra come aboard
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Android-loving Japanese readers, your day has come. Mouse Computer is kindly bringing you the so-called LuvPad AD100, a 10.1-inch, 1,024 x 600 tablet running Android 2.2 on NVIDIA Tegra 2 internals. As is the way of Android tablets it is naturally just a rebrand of someone else’s product, which we’ve earlier seen showing up with a Hannspree logo and, before that, an Interpad logo. There’s the typical 512MB of internal memory paired with microSD expansion (8GB included), and it can be yours in a few weeks if you get that pre-order in for ¥48,250 — about $575. Need to see more before committing? Check out our Spanish colleagues’ hands-on with the Interpad version.
World’s largest curved plasma display flows into Japan’s Kansai airport
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Sure, we’ve seen 125-inch and a 145-inch curved plasma displays, but there’s a new size champ in town: the international departure area at Japan’s Kansai Airport was just graced with this 200-inch waterfall of a curved plasma. That’s right around 13 feet by 10 feet, which is relatively insane — no word on whether Jerry Jones is going to show up and play Gears of War on it anytime soon.
Sony unveils 3DTV release dates and pricing for Japan
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Kicking off an expected repeat flood of 3DTV info over the next few days (Samsung and Panasonic both have events scheduled over the next couple of days) Sony has revealed pricing and shipping information for its new televisions and related accessories in Japan. The new sets share that sweet/ominous monolithic style of the already available NX800 series (also announced today in Japan, along with fellow 2D-only HX700 LCD and DVR-packing BX30H televisions,) with the edge-lit LED LX900 bringing the entire 3D package. With IR emitter built in and two pairs of RealD active shutter glasses, all you’ll need to add is a source to the 60-, 51-, 46- and 40-inch models, ranging in price from ¥580,000 ($6,444) to ¥290,000 ($3,222.) Even if the TDG-BR100 / TDG-BR50 3D glasses (also available as an accessory for ¥12,000 ($133) or so) aren’t on your face this WiFi-connected abyss of entertainment will look back into you, using face tracking to detect if someone is sitting too close and warn them to move back, as well as dimming and eventually turning off the screen if you leave the room or simply looked away from the TV for an extended period.
Nintendo DSi XL hands-on
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Sure, it’s been available in Japan for quite some time, but this is the first chance we’ve gotten to really sit down and play with Nintendo’s “more communal” (as we overheard one PR rep describe it, given it’s propensity for more eyes comfortably viewing the screens) portable gaming experience, the DSi XL. So let’s get the comparisons out of the way: obvious volumetric differences aside, the maximum brightness versus the DSi seems to be slightly higher, and the stylus is inexplicably a handful of millimeters longer — not a big deal, but you’ll definitely figure it out when trying to stuff it into an older model. We’re not really a fan of the top lid being glossy again — we rather like the matte DSi lid, and this one seems even more fingerprint-coveting than its DS Lite predecessor. So with all that said, is the extra screen size worth it? Admittedly we do appreciate the extra room, and it comes without a cost to the picture clarity. The inherent tradeoff, however, is a complete inability to stuff this in our pockets — we had better luck with the Mini 5, to be blunt. You’ll be able to decide for yourself soon enough, but in the meantime, there’s pictures below and video after the break!