I have kindle Japan in my Google Alerts, and also the katakana for Amazon Kindle. If you read this blog, you may know that I very much want a kindle in Japan, but I’ve decided not to buy one until I have Japanese language support. So I’m waiting for the good news from Amazon (or…
I was originally planning to write this as a comment on Mashable’s recent post called When It Comes To Search, Yahoo is Big in Japan but it got too long as I read a few of the comments (some of whom were knowledgeable others did the pop-Japanology thing and generalized the whole country as “a…
**A little update: in 2009, Amazon began producing Kindle Wireless Reading Device (link goes to Amazon) that ship to countries outside of the United States, including Japan. One of my main reasons for wanting a Kindle in Japan (Japanese language books, full color manga) are still not offered. Also, if you live in a very…
The new Nintendo DSi is due out next month. Although some seem to think the iPhone is an issue, it seems like Nintendo’s attempt to catch up with the current leader, the Playstation Portable or PSP.
I’ll be brief with this because there’s no comparison. iTunes wins based on price, however there’s an article that takes an interesting if not twisted perspective on this. Lismo charges about 420 yen per download. iTunes Japan charges about 150 yen for the same download. AU makes it very hard for people to put music…
Today’s commentary is inspired by an article about use of Nintendo DS in eSchool News. The article talks about a Nintendo DS tie in to a textbook being used at Tokyo’s Joshi Gakuen (sic). Here is the story as presented by Reuters. Tokyo Joshi Gakuen should be commended for trying some new things, but the…
A poll done by Nepro Japan, a huge mobile products company, shows that 88% of people in Japan use their cell phones while in transit. Here is a link to the Japanese description of the poll (pdf). The sample of 4,614 people consisted of 41% male and 59% female respondents. 42% of the total were…
This according to an article in CNET Japan. There are three major mobile phone providers in Japan. AU KDDI, Docomo, and Softbank. Softbank is owned by Yahoo Japan. There were tons of rumors that the iPhone would come to Japan with Docomo. Softbank Mobile today announced that it would be releasing the iPhone within the…
Just today I’ve seen a commercial for “Google ‘ippatsu kensaku’” on Fujitsu cell phones about three times. Basically it’s the kind of search that automatically takes users to the top rated result for whatever they searched. The latest phone (the F906i) also features Google x Yoko-motion. Here’s a picture. Currently, most people in Japan have…
I reported before the tight relationship I think Google is developing with Japan’s mobile companies. More and more cell phones are using google as their default search. Spearheading this is AU which has tied it’s online email service directly to Gmail, currently offering 6GB of space. The new news states that all mail sent with…
I don’t know if the writer agrees with me completely, but in this article, “Warm Reception May Not Await iPhone in Japan“, a Japan Times journalists voices a lot of the sentiments I wrote about in my blog entry titled “The iPhone in Japan?” last year. I’m still using my trusty Toshiba W52T pictured below…
This just in on the Googlemania blog (a blog in Japanese about google products and services). They say you can send smileys or little pictures to Gmail and it will show up. They say the same can be done with Willcom. I just tested it out with my phone and gmail and it works fine!!!…