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Ancient Japanese art finds an unlikely purpose in new Hello Kitty iPhone cover

Rick Martin 2013.04.05

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.

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Line’s ‘Wind Runner’ game for iPhone tops App Store charts in Asia

Rick Martin 2013.04.04

Line Corporation pushed an update to its Wind Runner iPhone game on Tuesday, and since then the title has been top free iOS app many countries around Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and its home market of Japan. The game is a side scrolling platform which was well received upon its release back in mid-February [1]. You can check out our video demo below to get a better idea of how the game plays. The game is promoted through the company’s popular Line chat application, which is the main reason why it has seen this sort of success. To date, the application has 130 million+ downloads, the majority of which are in the Asia region. Wind Runner is also doing reasonably well on Android, ranked as the number two app overall in Taiwan and Singapore, and number four overall in Thailand and Japan. It looks as though Line Corporation’s strategy of releasing television commercials in local markets is working really well. The company recently surpassed 10 million downloads in Spain, and it has been running a commercial there too. As you might expect, Wind Runner is doing well there also, ranked as the sixth most popular free…

Line Corporation pushed an update to its Wind Runner iPhone game on Tuesday, and since then the title has been top free iOS app many countries around Asia, including Taiwan, Hong Kong, Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand, and its home market of Japan. The game is a side scrolling platform which was well received upon its release back in mid-February [1]. You can check out our video demo below to get a better idea of how the game plays.

The game is promoted through the company’s popular Line chat application, which is the main reason why it has seen this sort of success. To date, the application has 130 million+ downloads, the majority of which are in the Asia region. Wind Runner is also doing reasonably well on Android, ranked as the number two app overall in Taiwan and Singapore, and number four overall in Thailand and Japan.

It looks as though Line Corporation’s strategy of releasing television commercials in local markets is working really well. The company recently surpassed 10 million downloads in Spain, and it has been running a commercial there too. As you might expect, Wind Runner is doing well there also, ranked as the sixth most popular free iOS app. Spain the first market outside of Asia where Line Corporation has seen significant success. But you can expect more countries to follow, particularly the US market later this year.

One country where Wind Runner hasn’t really succeeded yet is South Korea, where rival chat platform Kakaotalk dominates in place of Line. Interestingly, Kakaotalk has been winning some ground in Japan, passing the 10 million downloads mark back on March 24.

For more information on the growth of Line and its vast repertoire of apps, including Wind Runner, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.

Note that NHN Japan recently rebranded itself as ‘Line Corporation.’ ↩

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Japanese icon Domo-kun reborn as iPhone case with accompanying app

Rick Martin 2013.04.02

Here’s a fun new item from the folks over at NHK. The broadcaster’s popular mascot, Domo-kun, is the model for a soon-to-be-released smartphone case. The case itself is rather large, measuring in at over 25 centimeters from his furry head to his furry toes. He comes with bendy arms, and a handy strap loop on top which you can tie into. There’s also a clever pocket around the rear into which you can slip your transit card (pictured below), assuming you plan to ride the train with Domo-kun. Your iPhone screen will display in landscape mode through Domo-kun’s famous toothy grin. And there will be an accompanying app for the case that provides a number of functions, including an alarm clock, a jukebox, touch-to-talk, and a Twitter timeline. This unusual case, created by NHK Enterprise, is going to be released in at the end of April for the price of 4,800 yen (or about $50).

Here’s a fun new item from the folks over at NHK. The broadcaster’s popular mascot, Domo-kun, is the model for a soon-to-be-released smartphone case.

The case itself is rather large, measuring in at over 25 centimeters from his furry head to his furry toes. He comes with bendy arms, and a handy strap loop on top which you can tie into. There’s also a clever pocket around the rear into which you can slip your transit card (pictured below), assuming you plan to ride the train with Domo-kun.

Your iPhone screen will display in landscape mode through Domo-kun’s famous toothy grin. And there will be an accompanying app for the case that provides a number of functions, including an alarm clock, a jukebox, touch-to-talk, and a Twitter timeline.

This unusual case, created by NHK Enterprise, is going to be released in at the end of April for the price of 4,800 yen (or about $50).

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Awesome Japanese iPhone app serves up surprise centaur photobombs

Rick Martin 2013.03.20

Over the past month or so, I’ve been seeing this unusual photo app here and there on the Japanese interwebs. It’s called Kenstagram, and it claims to be ‘the number one centaur camera’ (that’s actually part of the app’s name) — although I expect that’s a pretty niche space. Like Instagram, Kenstagram has a number of filters, and after choosing one you can snap off your picture. Once you’re satisfied with how it looks, that’s when the centaur sweeps in from the edge of the screen, typically ruining your perfectly good photo. It’s really, really bizarre. So far Kenstagram hasn’t seen too much traction, although I expect if it can move up in the photo app rankings, then that could change. It’s totally a novelty app, and not something that you’re likely to use for a long time. But it’s still really fun, and that counts for a lot. Kenstagram was developed by Nanameue, a team that has done some photo apps for the likes of Line and WeChat. If you’d like to check it out, you can get it for free over on iTunes.

Over the past month or so, I’ve been seeing this unusual photo app here and there on the Japanese interwebs. It’s called Kenstagram, and it claims to be ‘the number one centaur camera’ (that’s actually part of the app’s name) — although I expect that’s a pretty niche space.

Like Instagram, Kenstagram has a number of filters, and after choosing one you can snap off your picture. Once you’re satisfied with how it looks, that’s when the centaur sweeps in from the edge of the screen, typically ruining your perfectly good photo.

It’s really, really bizarre.

So far Kenstagram hasn’t seen too much traction, although I expect if it can move up in the photo app rankings, then that could change. It’s totally a novelty app, and not something that you’re likely to use for a long time. But it’s still really fun, and that counts for a lot.

Kenstagram was developed by Nanameue, a team that has done some photo apps for the likes of Line and WeChat.

If you’d like to check it out, you can get it for free over on iTunes.

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This iPhone app from Japan might be the sexiest calculator ever [Video]

Rick Martin 2013.03.15

Here’s a light app feature to close out the week on a light note. A friend of mine recently pointed out this fun Japanese iPhone application, Mihiro Calculator, which is just a simple calculator with with a stimulating twist. When you press the buttons, famous porn actress Mihiro (I’ve never heard of her, but I’m told she’s famous) speaks out the numbers. She speaks each button press in a number of different voices, normal, sweet, and sad mode — all of which are innocent enough. But if you press the icon in the top left corner, the app switches to another three voices — night, relax, and angry modes. As you might expect, night mode is the sexiest of them all, and I don’t recommend you try it out at your place of work. Unless you work in a porn studio. Then maybe it’s fine. As off the wall as this app is, it’s a great example of how a normal app can be completely reinvented by adding just a little something special. It’s ad-supported, so ostensibly the developer is making some decent money from it. Mihiro Calculator has been around for quite a while now, but to my knowledge…

Here’s a light app feature to close out the week on a light note. A friend of mine recently pointed out this fun Japanese iPhone application, Mihiro Calculator, which is just a simple calculator with with a stimulating twist. When you press the buttons, famous porn actress Mihiro (I’ve never heard of her, but I’m told she’s famous) speaks out the numbers.

She speaks each button press in a number of different voices, normal, sweet, and sad mode — all of which are innocent enough. But if you press the icon in the top left corner, the app switches to another three voices — night, relax, and angry modes. As you might expect, night mode is the sexiest of them all, and I don’t recommend you try it out at your place of work. Unless you work in a porn studio. Then maybe it’s fine.

As off the wall as this app is, it’s a great example of how a normal app can be completely reinvented by adding just a little something special. It’s ad-supported, so ostensibly the developer is making some decent money from it. Mihiro Calculator has been around for quite a while now, but to my knowledge it hasn’t been mentioned outside of the Japanese press. So yeah, you’re welcome!

If you’d like to give all six voices a listen, you can check out the app on iTunes or view our demo video above. Night mode starts at about the 1 minute mark.

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On My Mobile: Kayac’s Kayo Matsubara

Rick Martin 2013.03.12

This is part of our ‘On My Mobile’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in Japan use their smartphones. We recently featured the very fun Domino’s x Hatsune Miku smartphone application, which imposes an amazing augmented reality musical performance from a virtual pop star over top of your pizza. The folks behind that app are none other than Kamakura-based development studio Kayac, the same crew behind fun ideas like the Voice Driver Cup. I thought it might be interesting to see how some people at Kayac use their own mobile phones, and Kayo Matsubara was kind enough to oblige. As you can see, she’s a big fan of Facebook (as many Japanese people are these days). She tells me she’s also using the Withings Health Mate app a lot these days too, as well as the Moves app to track her physical activity. She also points to the Japanese service Sumally as one she enjoys very much. This is a unique encyclopedia of things (as my colleague Yukari describes) — comparable to Gdgt.com in some ways. Below you can see an interactive view of her iPhone’s homescreen, and you can mousehover to get a peek at…

This is part of our ‘On My Mobile’ series (RSS), a modest attempt to better understand how folks in Japan use their smartphones.

We recently featured the very fun Domino’s x Hatsune Miku smartphone application, which imposes an amazing augmented reality musical performance from a virtual pop star over top of your pizza. The folks behind that app are none other than Kamakura-based development studio Kayac, the same crew behind fun ideas like the Voice Driver Cup.

I thought it might be interesting to see how some people at Kayac use their own mobile phones, and Kayo Matsubara was kind enough to oblige. As you can see, she’s a big fan of Facebook (as many Japanese people are these days). She tells me she’s also using the Withings Health Mate app a lot these days too, as well as the Moves app to track her physical activity. She also points to the Japanese service Sumally as one she enjoys very much. This is a unique encyclopedia of things (as my colleague Yukari describes) — comparable to Gdgt.com in some ways.

Below you can see an interactive view of her iPhone’s homescreen, and you can mousehover to get a peek at the individual applications. Enjoy!

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Discover an old world aesthetic with Kyoto Camera for iPhone

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.06

Kyoto Camera is a new iPhone photo app that recently joined the already very saturated photo app market. This application is somewhat unique however in that it isn’t about enhancing photos with filters, sharing with friends, or decorating photos with cute stamps. Interestingly, it simply focuses on discovering the colors we traditionally associate with the city of Kyoto in your everyday surroundings. By placing the white dot at the center of your photo preview, the app detects the object in the screen and displays name of the traditional color, and a corresponding color swatch is shown next to your shot, acting as a sort of stylish border flanking to the right in a polaroid-style snapshot (see above). Photos can then be saved to the camera roll. You can point to anything in your surroundings such as a convenience store, your shoes, a painting, or even Tokyo Tower. The app is sort of similar to Color Hunter except that it can be used for things in the real world. Kyoto Camera might come in handy for people who are looking to redo their walls in the style of old Kyoto. Or better yet, if you happen to be visiting Kyoto anytime…

Kyoto Camera is a new iPhone photo app that recently joined the already very saturated photo app market. This application is somewhat unique however in that it isn’t about enhancing photos with filters, sharing with friends, or decorating photos with cute stamps. Interestingly, it simply focuses on discovering the colors we traditionally associate with the city of Kyoto in your everyday surroundings.

By placing the white dot at the center of your photo preview, the app detects the object in the screen and displays name of the traditional color, and a corresponding color swatch is shown next to your shot, acting as a sort of stylish border flanking to the right in a polaroid-style snapshot (see above). Photos can then be saved to the camera roll.

You can point to anything in your surroundings such as a convenience store, your shoes, a painting, or even Tokyo Tower. The app is sort of similar to Color Hunter except that it can be used for things in the real world. Kyoto Camera might come in handy for people who are looking to redo their walls in the style of old Kyoto. Or better yet, if you happen to be visiting Kyoto anytime soon, you might use this app to snap off some pictures of key landmarks while you are there.

The city of Kyoto is filled with traditional buildings of beautiful colors. You can even find a brown McDonald’s there, which avoids its usual red so as to not disturb the surrounding landscape. If you’d like to try it out, the app is availabe over on the App Store for 85 yen (or about 90 cents).

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In Japan, new iPhone apps help you remember the deceased

Masaru Ikeda 2013.03.06

How do you pay your respects to a loved one who has recently passed away? You might go to a nearby church, or pay a visit to the cemetery. In Japan, many people used to have a Buddhist altar at home, but this is less common these days. Nagoya-based smartphone app developer Hanbunko has introduced another way, with a series of iPhone apps dedicated to a sort of digital remembrance. Users can simply pray for someone by looking at his or her portrait on their phone, while listening to appropriate music or chanting a sutra. The app has a sutra version and a sort of ‘nursery song’ version, and the both can store up to 10 portraits. The apps are available for free on the iTunes app store, but you will be charged if you wish to eliminate an in-app ad (85 yen). For the ‘nursery song’ version, the app has several tunes performed by Hiroko Scott, who has been writing music for the harp and piano in Australia. The startup expects to add more songs later on. You can check out the video demo below to learn more about how these apps work. Hanbunko is also well known for…

How do you pay your respects to a loved one who has recently passed away? You might go to a nearby church, or pay a visit to the cemetery. In Japan, many people used to have a Buddhist altar at home, but this is less common these days.

Nagoya-based smartphone app developer Hanbunko has introduced another way, with a series of iPhone apps dedicated to a sort of digital remembrance. Users can simply pray for someone by looking at his or her portrait on their phone, while listening to appropriate music or chanting a sutra. The app has a sutra version and a sort of ‘nursery song’ version, and the both can store up to 10 portraits. The apps are available for free on the iTunes app store, but you will be charged if you wish to eliminate an in-app ad (85 yen).

For the ‘nursery song’ version, the app has several tunes performed by Hiroko Scott, who has been writing music for the harp and piano in Australia. The startup expects to add more songs later on.

You can check out the video demo below to learn more about how these apps work.

Hanbunko is also well known for having developed an iOS app that helps people suffering from certain verbal impediments or challenges to communicate with others selection certain options within the app (available in English and Japanese).

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Japan really likes ‘Like Me’ avatar apps

Rick Martin 2013.03.05

A while back when I reported that Ponus’s awesome tower defense game Battle Cats had made it to the top spot in the Japanese App Store, the game was soon after bumped off by a strange looking app called Like Me! Let’s make a portrait – Doodle version [1]. I didn’t make too much of it at the time, as I’m personally not such a fan of these dinky avatar-making applications. But it looks like lots of people in Japan like it, because Like Me (Doodle) has been hanging around as one of the top 5 free iOS apps ever since. It turns out that the developer, PDC Okinawa, has two other apps in its ‘Like Me’ series, including one that lets you do anime style avatars, and another one called ‘yurukawa’, which creates portraits in a sort of loose, unrefined style [2]. All three are doing respectably well in the entertainment category, with Doodle in the top spot, Anime at number eight, and Yurukawa at number 25 (see rankings above). I gave it a quick run run-through and found that creating your avatar is pretty simple. You can create your face using a wide selection of face parts, and…

like-me-apps — Japan app store ‘entertainment’ category, Mar 5, 2013

A while back when I reported that Ponus’s awesome tower defense game Battle Cats had made it to the top spot in the Japanese App Store, the game was soon after bumped off by a strange looking app called Like Me! Let’s make a portrait – Doodle version [1]. I didn’t make too much of it at the time, as I’m personally not such a fan of these dinky avatar-making applications. But it looks like lots of people in Japan like it, because Like Me (Doodle) has been hanging around as one of the top 5 free iOS apps ever since.

It turns out that the developer, PDC Okinawa, has two other apps in its ‘Like Me’ series, including one that lets you do anime style avatars, and another one called ‘yurukawa’, which creates portraits in a sort of loose, unrefined style [2]. All three are doing respectably well in the entertainment category, with Doodle in the top spot, Anime at number eight, and Yurukawa at number 25 (see rankings above).

I gave it a quick run run-through and found that creating your avatar is pretty simple. You can create your face using a wide selection of face parts, and there are also special items that you can buy in-app if you’d like to make your avatar look extra special. Like Me Doodle is also doing respectably well in the top grossing charts, so apparently that virtual item strategy is working to some extent.

I’m not certain if their current popularity is entirely organic or due to some special campaign. There’s at least some cross promotion between apps. But for now, Japan appears to really like this Like Me series of apps. While the applications are in English, and could potentially grab some popularity abroad, I don’t expect PDC to try to market them outside Japan — although it would be nice to see it try.

For a closer look, check out their promo video for Like Me Doodle below.

Catchy name, right? ↩
Technically, the company’s refers to itself as ‘pdc okinawa’ with no caps. Go figure. ↩

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Japanese iPhone security solution lets women keep an eye on doorstep stalkers

Yukari Mitsuhashi 2013.03.05

Japan is considered one of the safest countries in the world, and it usually feels safe enough even for most women to walk home late at night. Each year, approximately just one murder is commited for every two hundered thousand people. But that doesn’t mean that Japanese people are all fearless about their own safety, and occasionally some women might find themselves harassed by stalkers. The total number of stalking complaints in Japan were 752 as of June 2012 which is still very low, but nevertheless is a 60% increase compared to the same time the year before. For women who wish to enhance their security at home, Magrex has invented a wireless door monitoring hardware called Kowagirlie (“Kowa” means scared in Japanese). All you do is place the required hardware on top of your door and download the dedicated app which is available for both iOS and Android. Kowagirlie transfers what’s displayed on the monitor over wi-fi so you can then see who’s at the entrance simply by looking at your smartphone, with no need to approach the door. Kowagirlie records video as well, and users can not only monitor live video but also save images and videos on…

Japan is considered one of the safest countries in the world, and it usually feels safe enough even for most women to walk home late at night. Each year, approximately just one murder is commited for every two hundered thousand people. But that doesn’t mean that Japanese people are all fearless about their own safety, and occasionally some women might find themselves harassed by stalkers. The total number of stalking complaints in Japan were 752 as of June 2012 which is still very low, but nevertheless is a 60% increase compared to the same time the year before.

For women who wish to enhance their security at home, Magrex has invented a wireless door monitoring hardware called Kowagirlie (“Kowa” means scared in Japanese). All you do is place the required hardware on top of your door and download the dedicated app which is available for both iOS and Android. Kowagirlie transfers what’s displayed on the monitor over wi-fi so you can then see who’s at the entrance simply by looking at your smartphone, with no need to approach the door.

Kowagirlie records video as well, and users can not only monitor live video but also save images and videos on their smartphone. Kowagirlie is 14,800 yen (about $158), and is currently available on Amazon. You can check out the device in action in the video below. (Via weekly.ascii.jp)

iphone

Ancient Japanese art finds an unlikely purpose in new Hello Kitty iPhone cover

Line’s ‘Wind Runner’ game for iPhone tops App Store charts in Asia

Japanese icon Domo-kun reborn as iPhone case with accompanying app

Awesome Japanese iPhone app serves up surprise centaur photobombs

This iPhone app from Japan might be the sexiest calculator ever [Video]

On My Mobile: Kayac’s Kayo Matsubara

Discover an old world aesthetic with Kyoto Camera for iPhone

In Japan, new iPhone apps help you remember the deceased

Japan really likes ‘Like Me’ avatar apps

Japanese iPhone security solution lets women keep an eye on doorstep stalkers

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