There's some new threeeeeeeeeeeee-dimensional wood molding technology from Olympus that takes Japanese Cyprus wood and compresses it so it's harder than industrial plastic. Add a nice finish and you get wood that's moldable for manufacturing yet hard enough to be used as casing for standard consumer electronics. Obviously Olympus's immediate plans include using the new technology on their digital cameras.



Olympus has an English press release with more details here:
http://www.olympus.co.jp/en/news/2006b/nr060925woode.cfm?ote=1&nr=1

Similar to the Logitec USB One-Seg TV tuner we posted last week is the "Choi Tele (DH-ONE/U2)" from Buffalo.

It seems Buffalo's offering is a bit more meaty. It offers decoding for resolutions as high as 320 x 180, can handle iEPG, and includes a handy-dandy 3 meter extension cable. Best of all? It's cheaper -- Logitec's offering was slated for 14,000 yen, but Buffalo's offering is 12,075 yen.

The included viewing/recording software is called "PCastTV for One-Seg."



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060921/buffalo.htm

Press Release:
http://buffalo.jp/products/new/2006/000270.html

Evergreen will be releasing two new low-cost mice on their "Shanghai Donya."

The first is the DN-UM2B, which features an integrated 2-port USB hub on the mouse's USB connector. Also, there's a cable winder. It's an optical mouse that uses USB 2.0, and it'll go for 999 yen.

The second is the DN-UM3K, which provides the same 2-port USB hub, but also adds an integrated microphone.



Inspired by:
http://plusd.itmedia.co.jp/pcuser/articles/0609/21/news051.html

Product Information (DN-UM2B):
http://donya.jp/everg/7.1/4547479501684/

Product Information (DN-UM3K):
http://donya.jp/everg/7.1/4547479501691/

Elecom is geared up to release the "TK-U09FG" keyboards in late October that feature the company's new "Gear Drive" mechanism. Slated to cost about 5,040 yen, the new keyboards use a system of gears underneath the keys so that when pressed on even a corner, the key

will be depressed evenly. This is said to prevent "miss-types," which I suspect are caused by keypresses not registering correctly if they're not made in the exact middle of the key. I can't really say I've had that problem, but perhaps I do and don't even realize it. Either way, the keyboard is a Japanese 109-key layout, and will be available in silver, white, and black models.



Inspired by:
http://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/2006/0919/elecom.htm

Press Release:
http://www.elecom.co.jp/news/200609/tk_u09fg/

NTT DoCoMo has announced they'll be releasing the "BlackBerry 8707h" to corporate customers on September 26th. The 8707h is a "Global Model" of the BlackBerry 8707, offering support for W-CDMA and GSM/GPRS, so it can be used outside of Japan as well. It seems to be some sort of adaptation of the 8707v available for Vodafone (whoops) in the UK. Specifications include a 320 x 240 color screen, Bluetooth, 64MB of memory.

Specs-wise, the 8707h does not support Japanese. However, the device does support Namimail, a Japanese reading/input solution offered by NTT DoCoMo USA. Namimail can be used on most modern Blackberry devices, even those on carriers in the USA, so this might be one of the first and only times in history that a handset in the states actually has the same capabilities of a handset in Japan.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/31076.html

Press Release:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060919b.html

Access is ready to release the "NetFront LocationFree Player for PocketPC" later this month.

You may be familiar with Sony's LocationFree product, since we've covered it a couple times here at TechJapan. If you're not familiar, LocationFree is a product that allows you to transmit your TV programs to a client over the internet. Hook the LocationFree box up to your cable and your wireless internet, then use your LocationFree client to access the box. The result is realtime TV anywhere you have a wireless internet connection.

LocationFree has a number of clients available: PC, Mac, the LocationFree LCD, and Sony's PSP. It looks like you can add PocketPC devices to that list.

By the end of this month, Access will release a PocketPC client for LocationFree. The client will be going for 2,079 yen on Vector and other online software stores. You'll need Microsoft Pocket PC 2003 or Windows Mobile 2003 or above.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060915/access.htm

Press Release:
http://www.access.co.jp/press/060915_02.html

NTT DoCoMo held an announcement event today in Japan for their new iAppli games for the 903i series.

These new games take advantage of the enhanced capabilities offered by "Mega iAppli." Mega iAppli vastly expand upon the capabilities of iAppli for DoCoMo's 900i series, by offering 10 times the amount of program space: 1MB. Furthermore, it is now possible to store these Mega iAppli on external memory, where they have no limitation for size -- it would be possible for a company to distribute a 10MB game, for example.

Such changes enable content publishers to create games of much higher quality. Coupled with the polygon rendering capabilities of the new 903i series handsets, these so-called "Mega Games" offer what I guess is the highest quality gaming experience found on any mobile phone in the world. Major content publishers were on hand at the announcement event to show off their new Mega Games. Bandai Networks showed "Mobile Suit Gundam SEED" with full 3D rendering, Bandai Namco Games showed Tekken 2, which featured the same polygon count as the original PlayStation version. Other games include Street Fighter ZERO (Alpha), Biohazard (Resident Evil), Dirge of Cerebus Lost Episode -Final Fantasy VII-, Monster Hunter, Mobile Pawapuro Baseball MEGA, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, and so on, all of which take advantage of the enhanced iAppli features.

Both Impress Watch and ITmedia have coverage of the event, with plenty of pictures to go around. Click on the pictures below to be taken to their coverage.

Evergreen is releasing the "Edifier E1100" speakers today, which remind me like the heads of one of the creatures in Aliens. Anyway, these 2.1ch speakers are made by Edifier, have a maximum output of 4.5W apiece, and look pretty cool.



Inspired by:
http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/av/docs/20060914/everg.htm

Product Information:
http://donya.jp/everg/7.1/4547479506191/

Version 4.0.2080 of Google Earth is out, and it adds several new capabilities. The primary new capability is official support for Japanese navigation -- some areas were previously supported, but this new version offers official support. Likewise, several new Japan-centric features have been added, such as vastly improved maps for Japan, including 3D display capabilities for Tokyo, Osaka, other major cities, and even 3D display capabilities for people's houses. Apparently the ability to display 3D houses is not available for other countries yet. Hit up this page to download it.

DoCoMo is geared up to release their bone-conduction receiver microphone, the "Sound Leaf," on the 15th. The Sound Leaf plugs into the earphone/mic port of DoCoMo's FOMA handset and uses bone conduction technology to deliver sound. Bone conduction is a technology were sound travels through a person's skull to be delivered to their ear, rather than through the air canal, enabling the Sound Leaf to be used "even in places where a lot of noise makes it difficult to hear." The Sound Leaf officially works only with FOMA handsets.



Inspired by:
http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/cda/article/news_toppage/30996.html

Product Information:
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/info/news_release/page/20060912.html