There are lots of iPhone covers out there, but most of them protect everything except your homescreen button. But never fear, as toy manufacturer Bandai has the answer. It’s called Smart Pants, the world’s first underwear for your smartphone.
The product first became available in March as a sort of plastic ball prize (or gashapon) in vending machines. It got lots of buzz online and the company plans to sell more this coming June. The Gashapon balls are sold for 200 yen (or about $2) each.
These Smart Pants are made out of silicon, and are available in eight different designs including men’s briefs, leopard print thongs, and strawberry-patterned panties. One Japanese blogger has written a post showing his iPhone modeling all the different looks, if you’d like to see more.
Gashapon is where the social games mechanic ‘Kompu Gacha’ comes from, which was famously regulated by the Japanese govenment last May. Kompu comes from the word ‘complete,’ referring to the act of completing a set of items. Bandai’s Gashapon vending machine was first released way back in 1977, and it is still popular among young children — although almost all Japanese adults are familiar with the game.
There are over 40,000 Gashapon vending machines throughout Japan, so if you’re lucky you might be able to finally find some underwear in one of them for your mobile phone.
Smart Pants is another “weird Japan” idea. But weird or not, it’s always refreshing to see this kind of creativity, even if it’s a little on the strange side.
This is part of our series of articles (RSS) where we share some of our favorite technology tools. Like you, we’re pretty enthusiastic about new ways to geek out, and we hope to share some of that here. Let us know what you think. If you live here in Japan, you probably know what it’s like to be standing on a crowded train. Most of us spend that time with some mobile games, or messaging with friends. But you can get a lot of work done too if you try, and I’m finding lately that there are more apps available than ever before that can enable you to write on a mobile with ease. Since my work is primarily writing and editing, this is a wonderful thing! Many of these apps use a text format called Markdown. If you’re not familiar with it, don’t worry. It is just a plain text markup language that is easily converted to HTML. But trust me when I say that if you write for the web (i.e. if your final output is HTML), you should be writing in Markdown. It’s far more readable, and from an editor’s point of view that’s invaluable. It’s also…
This is part of our series of articles (RSS) where we share some of our favorite technology tools. Like you, we’re pretty enthusiastic about new ways to geek out, and we hope to share some of that here. Let us know what you think.
If you live here in Japan, you probably know what it’s like to be standing on a crowded train. Most of us spend that time with some mobile games, or messaging with friends. But you can get a lot of work done too if you try, and I’m finding lately that there are more apps available than ever before that can enable you to write on a mobile with ease. Since my work is primarily writing and editing, this is a wonderful thing!
Many of these apps use a text format called Markdown. If you’re not familiar with it, don’t worry. It is just a plain text markup language that is easilyconvertedto HTML. But trust me when I say that if you write for the web (i.e. if your final output is HTML), you should be writing in Markdown. It’s far more readable, and from an editor’s point of view that’s invaluable. It’s also really great if you happen to be writing on a mobile device. Have a look at the two documents below. HTML is on the right and the Markdown equivalent is on the left. Which is easier to read/write/edit? Which would be easier to read/write/edit on a mobile device?
Markdown vs HTML
I’m going to give an overview of some of my favorite mobile writing tools here. They all cost a couple of dollars each, but when I consider the benefits they have for work, they’re well worth it. Plus, it’s always fun to learn new tools!
As you can see in the picture above, even though Markdown is far simpler to type than HTML, it could still be made a little easier. In iOS for example, getting at the “[“ and ”]” keys can be awkward. TextExpander Touch (as well as TextExpander for Mac allows you to get around this in many ways. The app can be used for any kind of text expansion, but here are just a few of the ways in which I use it [1]:
Create tag links for common keyword on our blog
Create a regular Markdown links from a URL on the clipboard
Make a blockquote with an ID and permalink
Add an abbreviation tag with help/hover text for things like Japanese words
Check my video demo below to see how these work. If you want the snippet bundle used here, you can download it and mod it for your own purposes. But there are lots freely available out on the interwebs, and you can always whip up your own too!
I actually used Drafts to write this post, so naturally it is going to make my list (and it’s also the editor you see in the demo video above). Drafts is a useful text editor when you need to write something quick. Just open it up and there’s a blank page just waiting for input.
Once you’re finished writing, you can send your note to just about any destination you wish: Facebook, Twitter, Email, Evernote, Dropbox, or a different text editor. I often use this last option, but there is a wide range of Draft Actions that you can perform on your text. You can even write your own, as I did for my recent ‘data diet’ hack. This app might be my favorite on this entire list because it is so versatile.
Another powerful text editing tool is Nebulous Notes. I first discovered the power of what Nebulous could do be watching what Federico Viticci has done with it. Among my favorite features is the app’s ability to create a custom macros, which can be added as new keys on your software keyboard. Want a single button that will type you name? Can do. But there are functions far better than that of course, such as undo and redo, find text, and select text assist functions. Naturally, I use the macros functions to assist with Markdown input, but really you can use it however you wish.
Check out my video demo below for a quick and dirty overview.
While Text Expander, Drafts, and Nebulous are your workhorse text editors, sometimes you just want to feel pretty. Byword is for just those times. This app is available for both iOS and Mac, and syncs them both up using iCloud or Dropbox – so if you are the type who spends time on both desktop and mobile, Byword is a great way to make sure you have the same work everywhere.
The beauty if Byword for Mac lies in its Markdown syntax highlighting, which darkens elements like your headings or bold text, and lightens/hides things like URLs in Markdown links (see below). And while that syntax highlighting doesn’t display on an iPhone or iPod Touch, Byword is still an essential mobile tool for me, since I use the Mac version so frequently. If you haven’t written on Byword in full screen yet, you simply haven’t lived. Ok perhaps I’m exaggerating a little, but it’s pretty damn nice.
For anyone who publishes with WordPress, as we do here on SD, you’re probably aware that it’s not the friendliest system to work with on a mobile device. But invariably I’ll need to access our site from mobile, sometimes to edit a post when I’m on the train or maybe just to make a late night edit when my MacBook isn’t nearby.
Poster is a great interface to WordPress, and it accepts Markdown input too which is pretty great. But I really just like it mostly because of its clean layout and design. Of course having access to custom fields is a big help too, as is the ability to add tags, categories, edit the permalink, and save as draft rather than publish live.
I think this is a must if you use WordPress, but there’s a made-in-Japan alternative called PressSync Pro that does much the same thing. It’s also a quality app, in my view.
You can also use it for things as simple as canned email templates, which is especially helpful on mobile. I even use it for live blogging events to automatically insert linked time stamps. Note that Text Expander Touch 2.0’s fill in feature is not yet supported by all text editors. But Drafts supports it, which is a good reason to get it. ↩
See the original story in Japanese. Gyao, a broadband video distribution company and a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689), and Japanese social gaming giant GREE (TYO:3632) announced today that they have established a company to invest in animation content development. The team-up was first announced back in February with a tentative company name. Making the most of IT and information systems, the new company will be called AnimatiC (which they say is a combo of animation and systematic) and its goal will be to develop fresh new animation films and content that audiences have never seen before. AnimatiC’s portfolio films will be distributed via video distribution platforms including Gyao, and it is expected that business will extend beyond developing social gaming apps or collectible card game products derivative from anime. Accordingly, for film producers, if you receive investment from the fund, you can easily get a distribution channel for your film, and have an easy access to related businesses. On a bit of a side note, Japanese smash-hit mobile gaming app Puzzle & Dragons has recently partnered with animated film series Evangelion to offered a limited time promotion where users can win character items from the series. Similarly, a film…
Gyao, a broadband video distribution company and a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan (TYO:4689), and Japanese social gaming giant GREE (TYO:3632) announced today that they have established a company to invest in animation content development. The team-up was first announced back in February with a tentative company name.
Making the most of IT and information systems, the new company will be called AnimatiC (which they say is a combo of animation and systematic) and its goal will be to develop fresh new animation films and content that audiences have never seen before.
AnimatiC’s portfolio films will be distributed via video distribution platforms including Gyao, and it is expected that business will extend beyond developing social gaming apps or collectible card game products derivative from anime. Accordingly, for film producers, if you receive investment from the fund, you can easily get a distribution channel for your film, and have an easy access to related businesses.
On a bit of a side note, Japanese smash-hit mobile gaming app Puzzle & Dragons has recently partnered with animated film series Evangelion to offered a limited time promotion where users can win character items from the series. Similarly, a film distributor planning to release the anime Time of Eve with English subtitles on Blu-ray raised more than 7 million dollars in about four weeks on crowdsourcing platform Kickstarter. These results indicate there is much potential in anime content distribution over the internet.
I believe it is possible to empower many anime creators using IT and information systems. As seen in the recently launch of anime-focused crowdfunding site Anipopo, this space is the focus of very high expectations from the market.
See the original story in Japanese. As more and more data tracking technology is developed, the advantages of keeping of a Personal Health Record, or PHR for short, become all the more apparent. The growing use of Bluetooth-enabled health care devices helps people easily track information, and visualize and manage it. Tokyo-based startup Practechs has introduced an Android app that allows you to easily collect and review your various health-related data. The app is called Health Player, and it is available for free. The app can act as a pedometer, counting your steps as well as your calories burned in a given day. You can input data manually or by connecting with other measuring instruments, recording things like body fat percentage, base body temperature, your menstrual cycle, blood pressure, and pulse. The app can leverage Felica-based NFC or Bluetooth communications, transferring collected data from various third party health care devices. The startup expects to introduce an iOS app in late June. They plan to add more functions later on, like personalized content recommendations based on the collected metrics, reward systems that motivate users to keep exercising, or social content. Around Asia, there are many players in this health space including…
As more and more data tracking technology is developed, the advantages of keeping of a Personal Health Record, or PHR for short, become all the more apparent. The growing use of Bluetooth-enabled health care devices helps people easily track information, and visualize and manage it.
Tokyo-based startup Practechs has introduced an Android app that allows you to easily collect and review your various health-related data. The app is called Health Player, and it is available for free.
The app can act as a pedometer, counting your steps as well as your calories burned in a given day. You can input data manually or by connecting with other measuring instruments, recording things like body fat percentage, base body temperature, your menstrual cycle, blood pressure, and pulse. The app can leverage Felica-based NFC or Bluetooth communications, transferring collected data from various third party health care devices.
The startup expects to introduce an iOS app in late June. They plan to add more functions later on, like personalized content recommendations based on the collected metrics, reward systems that motivate users to keep exercising, or social content.
Around Asia, there are many players in this health space including DocDoc (health management), Doctorpage (for medical appointments), CompareClinic (online community focused medical topics) , Silverline (health and safety for the elderly in Singapore), MeetDoctor (improving healthcare though user interaction), or Dokter Gratis (doctor consultation through an app).
For those of you who would like to experiment a DIY data monitoring system, you could even try something spreadsheet-based like the so-called ‘data diet‘ which my colleague recently wrote about.
This is part of our cute Japanese apps series (RSS), examining a trend of ‘kawaii’ success stories emerging from Japan’s mobile space. If look at many of the popular mobile services used by Japanese girls, there is often some sort of customization feature. On the popular girls mobile blogging platform Decolog, which has a whopping 6.5 billion monthly page views, lets users customize their blogs using original photos or illustrations. This very flexible customization feature is one of the reasons for the service’s big success. Of course, these days the mobile homescreen is another area where girls want customization. Here is a list of five apps from Japan that allow users to do this in a very cute way. CocoPPa ¶ CocoPPa is a collaborative mobile customization platform that lets users all over the world create and collaborate on app icons and wallpapers, with many of its existing designs falling into the cute category. CocoPPa was released last July and since then it has been downloaded over 7.5 million times about half of that coming from the US. Readers may recall that the startup gave a pitch at the recent Infinity Ventures Summit in Sapporo. CocoPPa is availabe on iOS…
This is part of our cute Japanese apps series (RSS), examining a trend of ‘kawaii’ success stories emerging from Japan’s mobile space.
If look at many of the popular mobile services used by Japanese girls, there is often some sort of customization feature. On the popular girls mobile blogging platform Decolog, which has a whopping 6.5 billion monthly page views, lets users customize their blogs using original photos or illustrations. This very flexible customization feature is one of the reasons for the service’s big success. Of course, these days the mobile homescreen is another area where girls want customization. Here is a list of five apps from Japan that allow users to do this in a very cute way.
CocoPPa is a collaborative mobile customization platform that lets users all over the world create and collaborate on app icons and wallpapers, with many of its existing designs falling into the cute category. CocoPPa was released last July and since then it has been downloaded over 7.5 million times about half of that coming from the US. Readers may recall that the startup gave a pitch at the recent Infinity Ventures Summit in Sapporo.
CocoPPa is availabe on iOS and Andoird, and on the web.
Touch Icon Creator is a very simple app that allows users to create original app icons using pictures in their photo library. So for example, you can create app icons with a photo of friends or family. I can also imagine this being useful for people who read celebrity blogs on the major blogging platform Ameblo. Mainstream users may not read online news media very often, but I think many read blogs by friends and celebrities. Users can create shortcuts on their homescreen and set customized photos that appropriately match the blog.
Icon Whip provides over 30 varieties of cute, original icons such as Hello Kitty or cookie shaped icons. The icons all have a sort of hand-drawn style, and that makes your homescreen look very unique. Some icons can be unlocked by sharing them Twitter or Facebook, and over on the Deco Market, there are premium icons that can be bought.
+Icon is for those who really wants to unleash their creativity. The app offers things like frames and symbols so that you can create your own icon very easily. There are also designs provided in collaboration with popular apparel brands like X-girl and Milkfed.
This one is for all the cat lovers out there. Nuko Shortcut Icon allows you to change your homescreen icons to Japanese-style cats illustrations. Nuko apparently means ‘cats’ (Neco in Japanese) in the internet world, although I had to look this up.
The app is available on Android with both free and paid versions. There are over 41 icons provided in the paid version.
If you have spent any time reading tech blogs today, you’ve likely stumbled across Mary Meeker’s/KPCB’s annual report on internet trends. It’s packed with lots of great info, and I encourage you to check it out. Or if you don’t have time for 117 slides check out this summary over on AllThingsD. But looking a little closer, I was curious to find that Meeker released another report today entitled Immigration in America and the Growing Shortage of High Skilled Workers (see the full slide deck here). I thought perhaps this might be of greater interest to readers here on SD Japan, as many of the problems faced by the US are faced by other countries too, including Japan. Readers may recall that at last week’s Infinity Ventures Summit, we heard Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani say: The Japanese market is shrinking, and you have to go compete in the international market. But because Japan’s system is so closed, many talented engineers leave Japan. In the US there are over 200,000 or 300,000 engineers. We are lacking in volume, and could bring engineers from overseas. But then there are visa issues to handle. ¶ Regarding this latter labor issue, Meeker provides a…
Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani has noted that Japan could bring more engineers from abroad
If you have spent any time reading tech blogs today, you’ve likely stumbled across Mary Meeker’s/KPCB’s annual report on internet trends. It’s packed with lots of great info, and I encourage you to check it out. Or if you don’t have time for 117 slides check out this summary over on AllThingsD.
But looking a little closer, I was curious to find that Meeker released another report today entitled Immigration in America and the Growing Shortage of High Skilled Workers (see the full slide deck here). I thought perhaps this might be of greater interest to readers here on SD Japan, as many of the problems faced by the US are faced by other countries too, including Japan.
Readers may recall that at last week’s Infinity Ventures Summit, we heard Rakuten’s CEO Hiroshi Mikitani say:
The Japanese market is shrinking, and you have to go compete in the international market. But because Japan’s system is so closed, many talented engineers leave Japan. In the US there are over 200,000 or 300,000 engineers. We are lacking in volume, and could bring engineers from overseas. But then there are visa issues to handle. ¶
Regarding this latter labor issue, Meeker provides a chart that clearly projects Japan’s shrinking labor force (in green). Of course while many other countries will experience this problem too, Japan with its famously aging population is the first country where the labor force is already on a serious downslide. And as such, it will be urgently pressed to find a solution long before other nations have to. But on the other hand, given how slowly regulations change, there’s no guarantee that Japan will react any quicker than other countries.
Meeker’s report outlines the problem of American immigration policies, as well as the growing discrepancy between visas issued to foreign students and H–1B employment visas issued. While foreign student visas are on the rise, employment visa are not – meaning that skilled foreign workers who could contribute to the American economy are often sent back to their home country, and aren’t given a chance to contribute to the US economy. Likewise, American tech companies cannot hire the skilled workers they need to stay competitive, largely because if the cap on H–1B visas. The report notes that only 85,000 are issued annually, but there is a demand for about 150,000 each year. As a result, US companies are often forced to move overseas and hire there. Mark Pincus of Zynga is quoted a saying:
The denial of US visas has forced us to routinely apply for visas in Canada or Ireland … We prefer that talented workers be able to work in our American offices as it would be best for our company, the people and the economy. ¶
If I think about many of the entrepreneurs I’ve met here in Japan, I think many of them still see Silicon Valley as the place to be – and indeed a few standouts with global ambitions have made the jump to Silicon Valley (see recent admissions into 500 Startups App Socially and Whill for starters) or other markets. Of course the vast majority of entrepreneurs remain here in Japan, but even for the ones who do that, a global outlook is needed. As I referenced in the Mikitani quote in my opening remarks, the Japanese market is shrinking, and companies need to look for customers and users abroad. We have already highlighted some Japanese companies who are doing this well.
To emphasize this point, lets look back to Meeker’s report to a slide on the top ten global Internet companies (see below). While 8 of the top ten are American, 81 percent of the users for those services are outside the US. It shows that if you want to be a big player, you need to think beyond your own borders. So for example, Line has the right approach with its global ambitions, while companies like Mixi have suffered because they didn’t look beyond the domestic market.
This is something that even (traditionally) insular Chinese companies like Baidu and Tencent are coming to realize. But unlike China, Japan (and Japanese companies) has a cultural, societal, and environmental advantages when it comes to attracting workers, in my view [1]. It’s an attractive destination for entrepreneurs, and many companies – particularly mobile ones – are trying to set up shop here. We know this because many of them come speak to us.
If more entrepreneurs and skilled workers were able to come here, not only would it contribute directly to the economy, but it would result in a richer, more diverse tech ecosystem, where people of many different backgrounds could learn from one another. While there is not yet any kind of visa for entrepreneurs, there is one for highly skilled workers. Governments have established some special economic zones that offer tax breaks for startups (Tokyo, Osaka, and Fukuoka are progressing), but changes will need to be quick and drastic if Japan hopes to overcome this issue.
I say this as someone who has lived and worked about five years in China and almost five years in Japan. Japan is still seen as a cool, clean, futuristic place, one that despite its failings is still far more culturally open. But regrettably regulations are still not changing as fast as they should. China on the other hand is a place that many people go to, but very few stay long term. ↩
Yukari Mitsuhashi
Photo via LikeCool
Rick Martin
Junya Mori
The app can act as a pedometer, counting your steps as well as your calories burned in a given day. You can input data manually or by connecting with other measuring instruments, recording things like body fat percentage, base body temperature, your menstrual cycle, blood pressure, and pulse. The app can leverage Felica-based NFC or Bluetooth communications, transferring collected data from various third party health care devices.
