Hasta La Gadget!

Not wanting to be left behind by the AIO hordes, Acer has unveiled a trio of new options for your spick and span desktop. The higher-end AZ5 provides a 23-inch expanse of full HD, multi-touch glory, a minimum Core i3-2120 processor, 4GB of DDR3 memory and a 1TB HDD, all for the sum of $750. Next up is the AZ3, which saves you $100 by cutting the screen size to 21 inches, switching to an AMD dual-core A4 APU (along with a discreet Radeon HD6410) and slimming the HDD down to 500GB. Both models come with an adjustable stand, two side-mounted USB 3.0 ports (plus four USB 2.0 ports on the rear) and a built-in webcam and mic. Meanwhile, Acer’s new Veriton all-in-ones target enterprise users who are prepared to sacrifice those high-def media credentials in favor of better performance and a smaller, more office-friendly footprint — the 20-inch Z2620G, for instance, packs a Core i5-2400s quad-core processor and NVIDIA GeFore GT 520M GPU for $850. All the new models are available in densely populated areas as of right now, and you’ll find more details in the PR after the break.

Continue reading Acer outs AZ3, AZ5, Veriton Z Series all-in-ones, starting at $650

Acer outs AZ3, AZ5, Veriton Z Series all-in-ones, starting at $650 originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Nov 2011 00:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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mixi launches counter-offensive

In the last round-up we brought you some immediate data from survey research on Japanese corporate use of social media, rapidly on the increase in Japan. Some of it takes a highly Japanese form (virtually hosted J-pop concerts) and some of it is via imported platforms finally starting to see growth (Facebook).

mixi has long been the key local rival to Facebook and it is fighting to maintain its grip on the demographic. At the end of August it started offering a new “mixi Page” feature, allowing users to customize the design of their own free space within the site. Differing to regular individual mixi user pages, you do not have to be logged in to view a mixi Page, nor do you even have to be a member of mixi. In other words, it is meant to take the mixi aesthetic and community out of mixi itself, opening up the platform to non members.

The examples for how to use the “mixi Page” feature include making it a homepage for a shop, or a portal to communicate with fans of a celebrity, or for groups of friends. It is available via a computer, regular mobile phone or the dedicated smartphone browser, Mixi Touch.

Inside the page users can send messages similar to a tweet, as well as offer feedback and responses in a similar way to Facebook’s “like”. To be honest looking at the new service, it is obvious that the service is simply a copy of the Facebook Page feature.

The new service was quickly embraced and in early September there were already over 80,000 Pages. A savvy move has been to offer PC analytics tracking for account-holders, including stats on page views, unique users, followers, comments and “likes”. There is also a ranking of Pages: The current most popular by far is the Page for Kana Nishino, a singer.

Mixi have certainly upped the ante in the face of the American challenge, they even changed their logo! But they are going to have to pull out all the stops, it seems: Some data even puts Twitter and Facebook significantly ahead of mixi now.

DeNA expands into South America

While gaming sites Mobage and Gree may seem distinctly Japanese in many ways, the companies behind them are hoping to try their luck overseas.

However, rather than push into the American market DeNA (the makers of Mobage) at least have their eye on the growing South American market. They just bought Atakama Labs, a Chilean game developer, and who had previously been responsible for making global versions of Mobage games. DeNA is hoping to expand their development team to 1,000 (Japan plus international) in the near future.

iPhones go wider, Keitai get smaller

There was much hype surrounding the news that KDDI have now started to offer iPhones to its customers at last. Early estimates of iPhone4S pre-sales put it neck-and-neck with Softbank.

What may have gone under the radar is the new Strap Phone WX03A from Willcom, a funky miniature phone on sale from December. Advertised as the same size as a box of mints (e.g. a pack of Frisk) and weighs a mere 33g (1.2 oz), with a 1-inch display. Its makers have called it the world’s smallest and lightest phone.

Don’t expect many functions or special features except for infrared connectivity. The idea is that it connects like a strap to other phones and/or to a earphone/microphone piece (sold separately). Japanese consumers are already accustomed to carrying around more than one mobile device (e.g. a regular phone and a smartphone), so it’s not as unimaginable or unmarketable as it sounds.

This is the latest in a series of blogs based on newsletters provided by our local research partner, INterRIDe Inc.

Related Posts:
Japan Mobile Marketing: Smartphones
Japan Mobile Marketing Round-Up Part 5
Crowdsourced Cup Ramen Via Mixi SNS

This article was written on August 29, 2008 by CyberNet.

A new website launched the other day called Quarkbase, and its goal is to provide details about all kinds of different websites. It gives you details like who owns the site, ways to contact them, how many articles are on Digg, and so on. It’s a pretty cool service and all, but I’ll admit that I didn’t have any intention of writing about it.

Why the sudden change of heart? Several of our readers have obviously looked us up because we’ve received a half dozen emails regarding the details about who owns us. I have no idea how but it says that the owner of our site is “Microsoft Corporation,” and places to contact us are the Internet Explorer Developer Center, Engineering Windows 7 blog, and other Microsoft-owned sites:

(Click to Enlarge)

Wow! If Microsoft owns us they sure aren’t paying us very well. And where are my free lunches? Not to mention the fact that we’d probably be exiled from the Redmond campus by now since we’re MacBook Pro and iPhone owners.

Sure we’ve been called Microsoft fanboys in the past because we actually find Vista to be a decent operating system, but I have no idea how Quarkbase gathered that we’re owned by them. Guess they still have some quarks quirks they need to work out.

Thanks to everyone who sent this in. You can put the paper bag down because it won’t help with your hyperventilating. Just breathe slowly, and give your teddy bear a hug. CyberNet is the “mom and pop shop” that it’s always been.

Copyright © 2011 CyberNetNews.com

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As Autoblog Green points out, Australia’s Varley Electric Vehicles is known more for bulky industrial vehicles than high-end sports cars, but the company’s now looking to change that perception with its new all-electric evR450 supercar. While it’ll no doubt turn a few heads simply standing still, it also looks to measure up reasonably well under the hood, boasting a top speed of 200 kilometers per hour (or 124 MPH) and a zero to 100 km/h time of 3.8 seconds. The company’s also promising a range of 150 kilometers (or 93 miles) that can be doubled with an optional range-extension pack, although its not letting anyone actually drive the car just yet (or even look under the hood, for that matter). As for a price, Varley’s saying that the base package will come in “below” $200,000 Australian dollars (or about $213,000 US), and it says it could roll out “as early as January 2012.”

Varley’s evR450 all-electric supercar set to hit Australian roads next year originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Oct 2011 19:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Xbox Kinect is Microsoft’s big push into motion-controlled gaming. You don’t even need a controller to play. Just move your hands and feet with gestures that the Kinect understands, and — voilà! — you’re kicking footballs, competing in dance challenges, and shooting down bad guys.

But now, one year since its launch, the Kinect has gone way beyond video games. It could change our retail buying experiences, and reinvent the way we shop.

A commercial version of the Kinect software development kit will be made available in early 2012, Microsoft announced on Monday, opening the door for businesses to create new applications for the popular platform.

“With the Kinect for Windows commercial program, Microsoft hopes that visionaries all over the globe will continue to transform the way we do things with new Kinect-enabled tools,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Wired.com in a statement. Microsoft is currently running a pilot program with more than 200 businesses across more than 20 countries, including partners like Toyota, textbook publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, and digital advertising agency Razorfish.

If all goes as planned, we could see Kinect-based interactions show up at retailers, banks, automotive dealers and other commercial environments. Razorfish, for example, is looking at building kiosks in which customers’ bodies would be scanned in order to try on digital outfits without needing to take off any clothes — so said Razorfish VP of emerging tech Jonathan Hull in an interview with Kotaku. Other applications could include simpler tasks, such as waving one’s hands to navigate an ATM’s menu screens.

Microsoft previously released a non-commercial version of its Kinect SDK in June, encouraging hackers and open software enthusiasts to create off-beat, innovative applications that take advantage of the platform’s motion-sensing capabilities. From gimmicky motion controls for banking software to NSF grant-backed medical research, the non-commercial SDK spurred creative uses of the platform beyond what Microsoft expected.

Kinect first debuted in November of 2010 to much fanfare. The system eschews the traditional button-and-joystick controller scheme, and instead lets users navigate and play games via hands-free motion capture. The system was an instant hit, setting a Guinness World Record for the fastest-selling consumer device ever in the first few days after its release. In March, Microsoft announced it had sold more than 10 million Kinect devices.

Though the hands-free controller has been a fun novelty for gaming enthusiasts, the Kinect’s utility for hardware-modding enthusiasts has been more compelling. The Xbox peripheral is packed with a bevy of sophisticated motion-capturing instruments, including an infrared light emitter to capture the surfaces of items in a room, and a depth camera that builds a 3D model of all the objects captured by infrared.

The Kinect’s relatively low $150 price tag has been even more attractive for budding DIY-ers. Willow Garage — the Silicon Valley robotics outfit known for its robot control operating system — now offers a $500 open-source robotics kit that incorporates the Kinect. The company’s previous version (also pre-Kinect) cost $280,000.

The initial forays into Kinect modification began with the homebrew modding community, spurring a wave of creative software hacks that ranged from Street Fighter games to the intricacies of “boob physics.” (Yes, really.)

Instead of taking action against the hackers or trying to bar hardware nerds from further Kinect mods, Microsoft encouraged development, promising to eventually release SDKs to new segments of would-be Kinect hackers. “Kinect represents the first incarnation of the next big thing in computing — a world where computing is becoming more natural and intuitive,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Bloomberg Businessweek in a statement.

Kinect’s natural progression is to move into the commercial realm. Much like app developers for Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, the release of the commercial SDK allows third parties to use Microsoft’s technology in bolstering their own brands and services. Partners, however, would use Microsoft’s hardware to augment their own businesses — this rather than providing content to a centralized store. In return, Microsoft would open itself up to untold numbers of potential new hardware purchasing partners.

David Dennis, group program manager of Microsoft’s Xbox team, told Kotaku that Kinect devices could be sold in bulk numbers — the “tens of thousands” — to partner businesses.

Microsoft hasn’t released any hard details on the commercial SDK’s release date beyond “early next year.” So don’t expect to start waving on digital fashion accessories right away.