Viewing items with Tag: "gadgets"

I am SO funny, as you will soon see... I cleverly took a topic and manipulated it in to an amusing yet to the point heading for this article! The fact being that Arigatou Co Ltd. have launched a range of peanut business cards, that you can eat! See what I did? nuts... peanuts... you're crazy... kind of thing! Ill give you a couple of minutes to contain yourself and wipe the tears of laughter out of your eyes before I continue...

...

and we're back.

"TaberuMe" (or Eat Me) peanuts are the latest of a range of foods which Arigatou Co print names on using their high grade CO2 laser engraver, which can print clear readable text on non-flat surfaces as small as a grain of rice!



Edu at PinkTentacle also made a valid attempt at humour in finishing off his article... mere peanuts, classic! but I think you'll agree my headline has him beat

Regardless, a set of 150 Taberu Me cards costs 5,800 yen (around $50), which is mere peanuts considering the lasting impression you will make on your new counterparts.

Another funny one from Mr. Tsumeyama (Tokoyama?) at Gizmodo, whos name translates to "Eternal mountain of great physical strength", quite possibly the best name ive ever heard...

ちなみに、商品名の「タベルメ」は「Taberu Me」＝「私を食べる」から来ているようです。初対面で「さあ！ 俺を食え」って…。（常山剛）

By the way, "taberume" is "eat me" in English, so imagine your first meeting with a new client... "Ok, lets kick things off, eat me!"

The Arigatou Co website describes the product as 食べれる名刺, "meishi you can eat", and they have stuck to Japanese tradition of being really creative with product names and cut off half of "eat" and "business card" to make タベルメ. I personally think "businuts" is a better name! Damn, gotta stop myself, just too funny! (think you can do better? challenge me in the comments!)

Amazing the products coming out these days... I mean whats next?
Chocolate beer? Chocolate sushi? Edible squid flavoured post cards?!

Mattonabike from ShigaJet found this article which mentions DoCoMo's most recent "look in to the future", via a small video presentation displaying what the near future holds for technology.

Some pretty cool things like GPS built in to glasses and lots of other star-trek-esque gadgets worth having a look at in the video.

Despite not mentioning exactly when this near future is that they are so optimistic about, we have to give them credit as a previous DoCoMo look in to the future video revealed video conferencing on mobile devices, something which was laughed off at the time as unrealistic, which we can find in the majority of Japanese mobile phones these days...

Also, if you have some spare time and are interested:

If you happen to be in Japan, you can arrange a tour to Docomo's R&D Center, in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture. we haven't been there ourselves but they have an exhibit called WHARF (Wealth, Human Activity and Revolution for the Future) that looks interesting. We guess the name says it all.

Japan's biggest wireless operator, on Monday unveiled a new mobile phone equipped with a motion sensor that lets users play games like the popular Nintendo Wii console.

With DoCoMo's D904i, made by Mitsubishi Electric Corp, users can swing the handset like a tennis racket or wield it like sword to control game play, instead of punching on the keypad.

I fail to see how this will work since you have to be looking at the tiny screen in order to play these games, and 'swinging like a tennis racket' with both my head and hand is not something I want to be doing on the train...



I had a look at the Specification on the DoCoMo Japanese site, and it does look pretty cool though, although 'not quite' Wii-like just yet. But it appears to have other features, like turning the phone on its side and the display will also switch to a widescreen display automatically.

It also shows off some of the motion sensing game capabilities here. Mitsubishi are also introducing a couple of other phones which have games that take advantage of the built-in camera, I guess much like the PS2 eye-toy.

The phones were just announced, and are set to be on sale in May 2007, just a couple of weeks away. I also love this final quote from Yahoo News, absolute quality:

Earlier this year, DoCoMo, which caters to 54 percent of Japan's mobile phone users, introduced a phone that features a touch-sensitive screen and a model that gives off a relaxing scent.

You know when someone thinks of something something really cool, yet still really simple and not too difficult to pull off, and makes you think "damn, why didnt I think of that"? Well this is one of them. Flipbook style advertising in Tokyo subway tunnels, using the moving train as the 'page flicker' and the window as your viewport. via Japundit.

JapanToday.com reports that as of yesterday Apple had sold its 100 millionth ipod which debuted back in 2001. Conversely, Yahoo has just launched the new Sansa Connect, a wireless MP3 player intended to intimidate their nearly omnipotent rival.

Consumer demand clearly shows that if the quality is right the customers will come...and line up 10 days before the release date, weather and hygiene be dammed. Feeding this endless hunger for music, message boards, and microchips is a detriment to society. Social interaction is being plugged up behind earphones and the awareness of our surroundings is being narrowed to the size of a hand held screen.

When was the last time you went outside and took in the world around you without an artificial soundtrack? Who can sit and think for more than 10 minutes without being interrupted by a cell phone? Was your last meaningful conversation typed or spoken? Yes, I see the irony of my medium, but it does not devalue my message: Get out there and physically connect with the world.

Save your electronic cocoons for the winter.
Happy spring!

Kikko: Honeycomb Pencil



From a 90's art exhibition with carvings by Mizuta Tasogare and Kato Jado.


Ball-joint Pencil



Sidewards Pencil



The info's kind of in Engrish, but there are more pencil designs at JAD Project.

A Video of the HAL-5 Robot Suit "HAL 5: Hybrid Assistive Limb 5".



This group started the HAL project at Tsukuba University. Their site isn't so hot, but check it out at Cyberdyne. And just for the sake of comparison, the BEAR suit by a guy with a mustache.

Does your neck hurt from too much gaming? Are you tired of those useless things called muscles getting in the way of your time spent pressing buttons? Do you miss the contact with other human beings you used to know before this hardcore gaming lifestyle took you by the balls (and/ or/ (and) breasts)?

Well, look no further, as "Game Dutch", from Japanese company Lofty is here to help. This "chest pillow" is designed to allow you the comfort of sleep while still being plugged in to your own virtual world. And it solves the problem of human contact by giving you something to hug whenever the occasional pangs of lonliness manage to creep through the constant battling of otherworldly creatures. Now thats what I call a chest pillow. If they could only make one that gives hea.... uh... back massages.



read full article here
http://www.tokyomango.com/tokyo_mango/2007/01/game_dutch_for_.html .

This chair folds out accordian-style into a sofa, circular seat, park bench... whatever you want. It's made out of recycled materials and can seat 16 people weighing up to 1,920 kgs.



The Taiwanese designer, Chishen Chiu, sells FlexibleLove on his website.

(via neatorama)