This is part of our ‘On My Mobile’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in Japan use their smartphones.
As the third installment in our ‘On My Mobile’ series, let’s hear from Taro Hosotani, the co-founder and CEO of 3rdKind Inc.
Taro knows more than a little about the mobile space, as his company helps foreign companies localize, market, and develop apps for the Japanese market.
In the interactive graphic below, you can see a shot of Taro’s iPhone homescreen, and mouse-hover to get a peek at each application. He says that his favorite applications these days are Flipboard, Spotify, and Nike+ Running – certainly popular apps not only in Japan but around the world. Not surprisingly, his homescreen also includes some 3rdKind apps too!
We’ve had another fun week here at SD, doing our best to bring you interesting tech stories going down in Japan. But in case you missed any of it, here’s a wrap up below. If you’d like to get this weekly summary plus other bonus content, we hope you’ll check out our shiny new newsletter here. Features Can crowdsourcing startups change Japans employment landscape? 04/04 Shumito Club: DeNA’s social network for seniors in Japan 04/03 7 April Fools’ Day internet pranks from Japan 04/01 Business Co-work: A new corporate communication tool from Tokyo-based GaiaX 04/05 Japanese chat app Line is making a fortune from stamps – But who’s buying? 04/05 Tokyo Otaku Mode announces syndication deal with 13 news sites 04/04 Design Sega goes retro with a Dreamcast backpack for girls 04/07 Amazing LED bathtub from Japan cycles through 7 soothing colors 04/05 Ancient Japanese art finds an unlikely purpose in new Hello Kitty iPhone cover 04/05 Uniqlo drops a unique pop-up shop at Tokyo’s Shibuya station 04/01 Apps Line’s ‘Wind Runner’ game for iPhone tops App Store charts in Asia 04/04 How do you child-proof your smartphone? Japan’s Mimamorl app does the trick 04/02 KakaoTalk passes 10 million downloads…
We’ve had another fun week here at SD, doing our best to bring you interesting tech stories going down in Japan. But in case you missed any of it, here’s a wrap up below. If you’d like to get this weekly summary plus other bonus content, we hope you’ll check out our shiny new newsletter here.
Japanese game developer Sega recently launched a new licensing brand called SegaKawaii. Segakawaii will leverage the company’s legacy games and characters and redesign them to appeal to wider range of fans, especially girls. The very first project is set to kick off on April 25th with popular apparel brand Galaxxy. The Dreamcast Controller backpack sells for 13,860 yen (or about $142) may attract some geeky girl gamers. A kickoff exhibition will be held from April 25th to May 6th at Galaxxxy Hi-Fi store at Shiuya, Tokyo. For more information, Checkout the Segakawaii Facebook page for more updates.
Japanese game developer Sega recently launched a new licensing brand called SegaKawaii. Segakawaii will leverage the company’s legacy games and characters and redesign them to appeal to wider range of fans, especially girls.
The very first project is set to kick off on April 25th with popular apparel brand Galaxxy. The Dreamcast Controller backpack sells for 13,860 yen (or about $142) may attract some geeky girl gamers. A kickoff exhibition will be held from April 25th to May 6th at Galaxxxy Hi-Fi store at Shiuya, Tokyo.
Japan has always been a pretty great country in which to take a relaxing soak. But jacuzzi and bath company, Takeshita, gave the nation’s bath culture an extra special splash of color today with its new ‘Hotaru’ (or ‘Firefly’) LED bathtub. Incredibly this tub, which is composed of a special translucent resin, will cycle through a seven-color gradation of light, producing what the company hopes is a therapeutic, relaxing experience. The Firefly’s lights can be connected to your bathroom lights, so that when you illuminate the bathtub, your bathroom lights go off. The tub comes in a few varieties, a 350 liter model for 1,002,750 yen, and a 340 liter model for 892,500 yen. There’s also a ‘blower’ type for those of you who like bubble baths. If you live in Japan and think this is for you, the company can arrange for installations nationwide. Check out the video above for a quick demonstration of the Firefly in action! (Takeshita via Impress)
Japan has always been a pretty great country in which to take a relaxing soak. But jacuzzi and bath company, Takeshita, gave the nation’s bath culture an extra special splash of color today with its new ‘Hotaru’ (or ‘Firefly’) LED bathtub.
Incredibly this tub, which is composed of a special translucent resin, will cycle through a seven-color gradation of light, producing what the company hopes is a therapeutic, relaxing experience. The Firefly’s lights can be connected to your bathroom lights, so that when you illuminate the bathtub, your bathroom lights go off.
The tub comes in a few varieties, a 350 liter model for 1,002,750 yen, and a 340 liter model for 892,500 yen. There’s also a ‘blower’ type for those of you who like bubble baths. If you live in Japan and think this is for you, the company can arrange for installations nationwide.
Check out the video above for a quick demonstration of the Firefly in action!
See the original story in Japanese Tokyo-based web solution provider GaiaX has introduced a new tool called Co-work. It’s specifically designed for communication and knowledge sharing among colleagues at your company. GaiaX has been developing a social networking platform for specific purposes like following up with students before hiring, or keeping in touch with employees paternity or maternity-leaves. During this development process, the company recognized the need for a corporate communication platform that could improving operational efficiency in business. To sign up for an account with the new service, you’ll need a corporate email address. No free e-mail addresses are allowed. Its features are still very limited, with basic file sharing, as well as a mention feature that allows you to ask other colleagues if a requested task was completed. There’s also timeline feature called ‘company’ which allows you to check out what’s happening in other sections or departments. With this function, the app encourages you to share knowledge with colleagues beyond your immediate projects. The company’s communication manager Takashi Sabetto says that there’s still more room to develop in the ICT market, not only for startups but also for big companies. They are planning to add optimization for smartphone…
Tokyo-based web solution provider GaiaX has introduced a new tool called Co-work. It’s specifically designed for communication and knowledge sharing among colleagues at your company.
GaiaX has been developing a social networking platform for specific purposes like following up with students before hiring, or keeping in touch with employees paternity or maternity-leaves. During this development process, the company recognized the need for a corporate communication platform that could improving operational efficiency in business.
co-work.gaiax.com
To sign up for an account with the new service, you’ll need a corporate email address. No free e-mail addresses are allowed. Its features are still very limited, with basic file sharing, as well as a mention feature that allows you to ask other colleagues if a requested task was completed. There’s also timeline feature called ‘company’ which allows you to check out what’s happening in other sections or departments. With this function, the app encourages you to share knowledge with colleagues beyond your immediate projects.
The company’s communication manager Takashi Sabetto says that there’s still more room to develop in the ICT market, not only for startups but also for big companies. They are planning to add optimization for smartphone browsing, as well as Chinese and Korean versions. Currently Co-work is available in Japanese and English.
The corporate chat space is getting noisy
These days most of us are forced to use an assortment of communication channels like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or e-mail. It often troubles me to think which channel is the best way to get in touch with someone, or even worse is the dilemma of trying to recall which tools I’ve used in the past to exchange messages with someone. I hope this congested environment can sort itself out some day soon.
In addition to this the Co-work app, Osaka-based startup Chatwork has also developed a corporate communication tool. They have acquired more than 150,000 users and are now looking to expand to North America and other Asian regions. Cybozu Live, another key player in this space, has surpassed 3,000 corporate accounts. US-based project management tool Asana is also seeing good numbers in its business user acquisition in Japan.
The traditional Japanese style of lacquer art known as Maki-e goes back thousands of years, involving the use of metal powders or seashell material to create spectacular designs under a fine lacquer finish. And one company has brought this ancient tradition into the modern day by using it for the creation of intricate iPhone covers. This special smartphone cover, which goes on sale tomorrow, is the amazing Hello Kitty iPhone cover pictured above. It was created by Echizen Lacquerware Ltd, with planning from Principle Co Ltd, and of course licensed from the folks at Sanrio. As you can see in the video below, it’s a handcrafted product that requires great care, and the resulting cover doesn’t come cheap. The Hello Kitty case will go on sale tomorrow for the price of 18,000 yen, or about $200. It can be purchased at Kusuyama stores in Japan and around the world, and it can also be bought online. This is not the first time that we’ve seen an old-school Japanese art encasing Apple’s iPhone. Last month we looked at elegant ‘Musubi’ paper cases from Kyoto-based manufacturer Suzuki Shufudo.
The traditional Japanese style of lacquer art known as Maki-e goes back thousands of years, involving the use of metal powders or seashell material to create spectacular designs under a fine lacquer finish. And one company has brought this ancient tradition into the modern day by using it for the creation of intricate iPhone covers.
This special smartphone cover, which goes on sale tomorrow, is the amazing Hello Kitty iPhone cover pictured above. It was created by Echizen Lacquerware Ltd, with planning from Principle Co Ltd, and of course licensed from the folks at Sanrio.
As you can see in the video below, it’s a handcrafted product that requires great care, and the resulting cover doesn’t come cheap. The Hello Kitty case will go on sale tomorrow for the price of 18,000 yen, or about $200. It can be purchased at Kusuyama stores in Japan and around the world, and it can also be bought online.
This is not the first time that we’ve seen an old-school Japanese art encasing Apple’s iPhone. Last month we looked at elegant ‘Musubi’ paper cases from Kyoto-based manufacturer Suzuki Shufudo.
Rick Martin
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Shintaro Eguchi
