japan

What do a Japanese notebook maker and toy manufacturer have in common? Nothing until recently, when Kohjinsha and Bandai teamed up to ride the Netbook popularity wave that's seen almost every major laptop vendor sport one in their stable.

The Gachapin & Mukku Netbook has one interesting twist. It's a limited edition, and it's aimed at kids using cartoon characters (a dinosaur and a bigfoot) that Japanese tots are familiar with. Slated for a March rollout at 79,800 yen ($878), this is no toy, however. In fact, the pricing hardly falls into the Netbook comfort zone. … Read more

Count on the Japanese to tote up something like the Consolation Money Calculator. Despite its rather Toy "R" Us design, toy maker Wiz Inc's 2,415 yen ($30) offering has a sinister mode. Besides being a conventional calculator, it also tallies up the net worth, in yen, of any emotional anguish incurred.

Just enter your profile information and choose the relation of the perpetrator of your anguish from a list that includes boss or boyfriend. Fill in a few more details relating to your earlier selections, and hit the "mental damage" button to calculate the … Read more

Brace yourself for a cute overload. Hello Kitty, purveyors of all things pink and pretty, now offers this ultrathin keyboard for your typing pleasure.

I probably wouldn't think this product worthy of a blog post if I didn't personally know a handful of adult women who will squeal with delight at the idea of hunting and pecking on Japan's favorite feline's face adorned across the white keys.

The keyboard is imprinted with Japanese QWERTY characters, but I'm sure you can reroute the 108 keys to work with the English alphabet.

Like all things Hello Kitty, … Read more

Nintendo announced in December that it was working with Japan's Dentsu to bring video to the Wii video game console. And not just any video, but cartoons and original programming. Strategically, this a great move--trying to get the Wii to become the center of the digital living room.

The Times Online reports "the Wiinoma channel is expected to deliver a family- oriented blizzard of cartoons, "brain-training" quizzes, cookery, educational and other lifestyle shows: all of it original content produced exclusively for Nintendo."

News of Nintendo's move into broadcasting is likely to fill executives of … Read more

Some of you may have heard of a thing called the Apple iPod. Today, an apple farmer out of Japan brings you the iPod Apple. By placing hand-cut stickers of the Apple logo or a silhouette of an iPod on the fruit, the farmer gives these special apples "tan lines" that show love for his favorite consumer electronics brand.

I've been accused of being an Apple fanboy many times before (and, more recently, a Zune fanboy), but even I wouldn't go so far as to Apple-ize my food.

And being that the crown jewel of Cupertino … Read more

Japan's Ministry of the Environment announced a program on Tuesday to test electric vehicles and a network of charging stations, some supplied by auto start-up Better Place.

The electric vehicle feasibility study will give local governments access to 50 electric cars for several months. Cars included are Mitsubishi Motors' iMiev, the Plug-in Stella from Subaru, the Honda Clarity fuel-cell vehicle, and the Erezo electric motorbike under development.

Better Place will install battery exchange stations in the trial. The deal in Japan is similar to those made recently with several countries, the city of San Francisco, and the state of … Read more

SanDisk is evaluating a production halt over the holidays at its manufacturing facilities in Japan, reflecting an overall slowdown in the flash memory chip industry.

"The joint venture is evaluating plans for operations over the holiday season, including a possible stoppage of some production lines," a SanDisk spokesman said Friday. "We constantly consider manufacturing schedules in light of market requirements and this is particularly true during the holiday season," he added.

Milpitas, Calif.-based SanDisk and Toshiba have joint production lines for NAND flash chip manufacturing in Japan.

This follows a Bloomberg report that said Toshiba … Read more

U.S. personnel stationed at Yokota Air Base in Japan are getting a time-shifting server system that will broadcast U.S. television programs at the right time of day--meaning that prime-time shows will be on at the appropriate hour, despite the time difference.

The hardware and software acts as a computerized container, holding a show for nine hours before it's rebroadcast. One is required for each of the 33 channels available on the base.

"The time-shift servers work much like a very large TiVo," Keith Southard, chief executive of San Jose, Calif.-based Allied Telesis Capital, wrote … Read more

The 404 had an all-around scattered Turkey Weekend that ended with Wilson getting Justin's deadly disease. With the show once again missing a host, we deflect the quantum of solace and invite MTI to chat it up about free flip flops, depressing holidays, Black Friday, and Japan's largest pseudo-orgy.

Straight up, I had a crappy Thanksgiving. What started off as a healthy month ended with a virus compounded by a upper respiratory tract infection and canceled dinner plans. Instead, I spent the holiday in a random E. Vill. diner with a friend, blowing snot into a trash bag full of tissues and generally wallowing in my own filth. But I'm not one to complain; actually, it was a lot of fun and best of all: no post-cookery dishes to wash! Sometimes things work out for the best, but we want to hear about your spoiled holiday plans. If you can top my depressing Thanksgiving story, leave us a voicemail @ 1866-404-CNET or e-mail it to us @ the404{[at]}cnet[dot]com. If we crown yours the saddest of all, we'll send you a copy of Shaun White Snowboarding signed by the man himself to make up for it! Good luck!