Home cinema system are bought together. This kit consists of a bundled 3D animated movie ‘Monsters and Aliens’ and two pairs of 3D specs that, on their own, are set to cost a whopping $350!

Selected Samsung 3D TV’s are available stateside right now. Sadly Samsung won’t be selling these sets in Japan, but we will wait and see hope that Japan-based consumers see similar incentives as the 3D revolution moves steadily forward…

More info here.



[Source: Akihabara News]

I believe that I reported last year that these packs were $250,000 each, but that was actually wrong. One of the people on the Martin Jetpack team sent me a comment that the jetpacks were actually 100,000 USD. There is a video after the jump if you want to see more about it.

I believe that only ten jetpacks were produced last year, and I can only imagine that celebrities who have more money than they should could be the only ones that could afford them. A recent update by the Telegraph has revealed that the Martin Aircraft Company is teaming up with an unnamed international aircraft company to make 500 jetpacks a year, for a lower cost of $75,000 each.

So, with 10 jetpacks last year, 500 in the next year, that means Martin has increased its jetpack inventory by 50 times. If it keeps this up, it will take four years to have 3,125,000,000 jet packs, which is enough for about half the planet. So are we looking at an era where everyone will be flying around in a jetpack soon? One can only hope.

Honda is suspected of stealing a capybara (worth 150,000 yen) from Fukuoka’s Uninonakamichi Seaside Park on Nov 1 last year and a squirrel monkey (also worth 150,000 yen) from Nagasaki Bio Park on Jan 18.

According to police, after stealing the capybara, he kept it until December, when it died. The squirrel monkey was sold to someone in Yokohama.

 

It’ll make sure that you’re never stuck with a dead battery, plus it has a couple of small gadgets built into it.

It has a built-in flashlight as well as a laser pointer.  Sure, you can get a flashlight app for your iPhone, but your iPhone doesn’t have a laser pointer.  On it is a retractable USB charger, a dual-port USB charger and even the usual AC wall charger.  It’s capable of reaching a full charger after 5 hours of being plugged in.  There are 3 LED lights that will help you keep track of the charge status of the battery.  If you do plug in the battery, you can also plug your iPhone into the battery and charge them both at the same time.  You can purchase one of these for $69.95.

Which of these beautiful babes won your heart this weekend?

Thanks again to F.B for his selection.



Let’s check last week’s winner: With 3,467 participants, the winner is the cute little babe Yang Bing Yang a.k.a. Ayawawa (Left) with 56% of the votes.

[Source: Akihabara News]
 

This is probably what I would have said if I was at CeBIT 2010 and passed by this display of the Berlin Brain-Computer Interface. As it turns out, this man is playing this game of pinball with his brain. I’m not saying that he’s really getting his head into the game, but his head is playing the game.

You can watch a video of the setup of this person in action after the jump. I really have no idea if this man is just some visitor to CeBIT or someone who works for the company, but you can watch him as they set him up to play pinball on this Addams Family themed pinball machine. Yeah, I would have chosen a different theme, but the multiple flippers does make it interesting.

Unfortunately, there isn’t really an explanation about how this works on the video, which has absolutely no voiceover narration. I have no idea if you have to think: “Left flipper, right flipper” to get it to work. I notice that this user has to manually start the ball rolling, and I’m guessing that mentally tilting is not an option.

I suppose we are probably looking at an age where arcade games make a comeback, and the players are jacked into them mentally. That, or come up with a console version of this mental controls. I suppose that this could be the next version of Project Natal.



[Source: Coolest Gadgets]
 

More and more people are making use of machines such as one installed at a pet supermarket called Joyful Honda in the suburbs of Tokyo.

It washes and blow dries dogs and cats* for the equivalent of just £3.50 – a massive saving on the costs of pet stylists who charge more than £20 for a full wash and blow-dry.

Naka Honda said he did not think the machine was cruel – but admitted it had taken his Yorkshire Terrier, Benji, a while to get used to it.

Benji particularly “hated” the dryer, he said, but would put up with it so long as his owner stood outside the glass where he could see him.

A brief explanation of the machine in Japanese can be found here. There is also a Joyfull Honda blog post about a human employee trying it out. A few Japanese bloggers have also written about putting their dogs in the machine. Some dogs are scared, some look dazed or unhappy, and others are pretty calm about it. There are also a few videos of it, which I have embedded below.

If shes your cuppa tea then check out the following trusted online retailers.
http://www.1999.co.jp/eng/
http://toylet.net
http://hlj.com
http://archonia.com
http://www.amiami.com/shop?set=english
http://hobbystock.jp
http://kidnemo.com
http://jlist.com

photo credit: St Stev

The Hina matsuri originates from an ancient Chinese tradition: Through a magical rite, the evil spirits were transfered into a doll that was placed on a boat and cast away on a river.

The custom was initially known in Japan as the Hina nagashi  - floating dolls. Let’s watch a recording from the Shimogamo Shrine in Kyoto:

At the beginning of the Edo period, a new custom appeared, to display inside the house a set of dolls dressed in Heian period clothing.

photo credit: St Stev

The full set of Hina Matsuri dolls (hina-ningyo) consists in 15 dolls, the most important being the Emperor (Odairi-sama) and the Empress (Ohina-sama), placed on the uppermost step of the stand…

 
photo credit: alainkun

[Source: Muza Chan]

Japanese trains are the most punctual in the world and they are also the most safe. One of the reasons why they are so punctual is that the same systematic protocols are accurately performed each time a train arrives to a station. Train drivers are trained to be able to stop a train within error margins of 10 cm in respect to the platform and 5 seconds in respect to the moment they are supposed to stop.
 

Some time ago in a Odakyu line platform I found this poster which explains that to become a train driver you need to spend 800 hours studying and training. I don’t know how much training is required in western countries to become a train driver, but 800 hours seem like a lot of hours to me.



In the poster they also explain how train drivers are trained to drive in a safe way. One of the biggest concerns of Japanese people is that if rail companies are too strict with their drivers, accidents may happen because the drivers are under stress, something that happened in Amagasaki some years ago when a driver was behind official schedule, took a curve too fast and caused the derailing of the train and the death more than 100 people. If the train had arrived late, the driver would have been strongly scolded.

Those interested in how the experiment was set up can watch the making of clip here.



[Source: Japan Probe]
 

This is Skinput, a conceptual technology that can recognize a user’s taps of a finger on the skin, but it seems to be limited to the hand and the rest of the arm.

This tech is under development from Carnegie Mellon University and Microsoft, and requires that the user wear a certain armband with “piezoelectric cantilevers, or sensors that measure pressure, acceleration and force”. Click on the video after the jump to see this technology in action, and a most unusual method of controlling Tetris.



Skinput also uses a pico-projector to create images like menus on the user’s arm. With a tap on the skin above or below the menu, the user has a very unusual form of navigation.

You have to admit that this technology could have all sorts of applications for the mobile world. Just picture selecting your tunes on your arm instead of your iPod, or dialing your phone on your palm instead of your mobile device.

Still, I can’t help but this tech will lead to an age when we are all comfortable with integrating technology with our flesh. Then our cyborg teachers will say that it all began with Skinput.

[Source: Coolest Gadgets]
 

Finally Apple, through their infinite graces, has bestowed upon man the ability to shoot video with the iPhone... and there was much rejoicing. But of course man has a way of being dissatisfied and people grouched about inferior lenses and a mic that's always pointed towards the floor. Now the OWLE iPhone Video/Rig solves that problem using anodized billet aluminum, a mini boom-mic and a wide angle lens.
 

Simply nestle your iPod inside the metal and silicone case of the OWLE and get ready to shoot the best iPhone video you've ever seen. Still shots turn out great as well. The shoe mount on the top and screw mounts on the corners of the OWLE let you do things with the iPhone Apple never planned on.  

Product Features

• Anodized aluminum case improves iPhone camera with upgraded lens and boom mic
• Improves video or still shots
• Works with iPhone 3G or 3GS (However 3G requires additional app to shoot video and the quality is poor)
• iPhone fits inside included silicone case, then mounts inside the aluminum housing for full protection
• Constructed from a solid block of milled aluminum
• Shoe mount on top allows you to add camera accessories (flash will not work, since there is no way to sync it to the iPhone camera shutter)
• Four screw mounts on the corners of the case enable you to mount to a tripod
• Comes standard with 37mm lens threading, as w

A little more information on Fushimi Castle:

Fushimi Castle, also known as Momoyama Castle, was originally built in 1592-94 as a luxurious retirement home for warlord and unifier Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Some 20,000 to 30,000 workers contributed to the construction effort. Hideyoshi planned to meet with Ming Dynasty diplomats at Fushimi to negotiate the end of his disastrous seven-year invasion of Korea.

Two years after the castle was completed, an earthquake leveled the building. Hideyoshi had it rebuilt, and plum trees were planted all around the castle, giving it the name Momoyama (“Plum Mountain”).

The castle is more of a warlord’s luxury resort than a defensive fortification. The tea ceremony room, which was completely covered in gold leaf, is particularly well-known.

In 1600, the castle was destroyed after an eleven-day-long siege by the 40,000-strong army of Ishida Mitsunari, one of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s generals. The samurai Torii Mototada, who served Tokugawa Ieyasu, refused to surrender the castle. He finally committed seppuku with the castle burning all around him. Torii’s sacrifice allowed his master enough time to escape. Thus, his defense of Fushimi Castle changed Japanese history. Ieyasu would go on to found the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled Japan until the Meiji Restoration of 1868.

What was left of the castle was dismantled in 1623. Different parts were incorporated in other buildings; for example, Nishi Honganji Temple’s Karamon Gate originally was part of Fushimi Castle. The blood-stained floor where Torii Mototada committed suicide became a ceiling panel at Yogen-in Temple in Kyoto.

When the Meiji Emperor died in 1912, he was buried at the original site of Fushimi Castle. In 1964, a replica of the building was constructed out of concrete at a site close to the tomb. It was called a “Castle Entertainment Park,” and contained a museum of Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s life.

The concrete replica/museum was closed to the public in 2003. Tourists can still walk through the grounds, however, and take pictures of the authentic-looking exterior.

The three huge groups of Kpop - 2PM, Big Bang, and 2NE1- show off their English to get more subscribers on Youtube!
 

 This is pretty self-explanatory so just watch and see the artists in Engrish English action on My Youtube! Could this possibly a sign that the artists might plan on making a debut in the American market sometime soon? Who knows.







LOL not bad, not bad ;) So what did you think? Which group was speaking English *ahem*Engrish*ahem* the best?

[Source: Ningin]
 

1. Bjørn Einar Romøren (Ski Jump – Norway)
2. Johnny Weir? (Figure Skating – U.S.)
3. Jan Schmid (Nordic Combined – Norway)
4. Evan Lysacek (Figure Skating – U.S.)
5. Henrik Lundqvist (Ice Hockey – Sweden)

Honorable mention: Mike Kohn (Bobsledding – U.S.)

One of her better recent songs entitled “Eternity” was released back in early 2009. The song only peaked at number 8 on the Japanese charts, but I feel it deserved more. Not only was there great dancing (which BoA made look absolutely effortless), but the vocals were also very well done. Have a listen if you haven’t already.



[Source: Ningin]
 

Well you’ve gotten yourself an iPhone and now you have the tricky business of picking out a case that’s just as awesome as your iPhone.  Thankfully Nugo Designs has just the solution out there for you.  It’s not just your average silicone case that protects your iPhone or iPod Touch from scratches.  It actually morphs your iPhone into an action figure.  What more could you ask for in a case?!
 

Usually the only way a case stands out is by being able to protect your iPhone from harsh conditions.  Which really isn’t actually necessary if you’re not a great outdoors man or anything.  Sure this Robotector won’t waterproof it or prevent it from being damaged when you drop it off of a cliff.  It’s still awesome though, because now your iPod Touch has arms, legs and even a face.  These are currently being featured at the Toy Fair, but I haven’t seen any info on pricing.

[Source: Coolest Gadgets]