Hasta La Gadget!

Folks living in the Land of the Rising Sun would be pleased to hear that Apple has just launched (finally, some say!) in Japan, where it will boast of titles from major and independent publishers, where among them include a great selection of books from Kodansha, KADOKAWA, Bungeishunju, Gakken and Gentosha. The iBookstore for the Japanese clientele will feature a wide selection of emerging and established authors, and you will find the likes of Shyotaro Ikenami, Jiro Akagawa, Atsuko Asano and Ryu Murakami there as well.

If you happen to own an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch, those would be ideal tools for you to browse, purchase and read books from the iBookstore. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services, said, “We’re excited to launch the iBookstore in Japan with a wide selection of Japanese publishers and authors. We think customers are going to love how engaging and interactive the books are to read, and how beautiful they look on iPad.” [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Android 4.x Finally Overtakes Android 2.3 Gingerbread, Best Buy Accidentally Promotes Jailbreaking In Deal Of The Day Promo,

While Apple’s iBookstore is available in numerous countries, readers who sit outside of a certain privileged zone have had to make do with public domain e-books at best. The Japanese won’t have to settle as of today: a low-key iBookstore expansion gives them access to paid content, including manga and other more localized material. Accordingly, there’s an iBooks 3.1 app update rolling out that both unlocks “hundreds of thousands” of titles in the Japanese store and improves support for Asian languages as a whole. Residents who’ve been looking for the most official means of reading JoJolion on their iPads just need to grab the refreshed iBooks at the source.

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Apple

Comments

Source: App Store

If you’re too busy in the kitchen to pay attention to the contents of your boiling pot, then perhaps this Japanese self-stirring pot might be of interest to you. Dubbed the Kurukuru Nabe, this pot was developed by Hideki Watanabe, a dentist from Tobe, Ehime Prefecture. Interestingly despite the title of a self-stirring pot, there isn’t any high-tech wizardry going on behind the scenes. Nope. It seems that all it requires is a grooved insert that allows the contents of the pot when boiling to move in a circular motion, similar to a whirlpool in water.

Not only will this pot help prevent the contents of the pot from boiling over, but it seems that it will be able to accumulate the dirt from vegetables/meat in the middle of the pot, allowing you the chef to fish it out, as opposed to having to scour the entire pot to remove the dirt. The pot launched in Japan in January early this year and has been met with huge success, success that Watanabe never dreamed of. It measures 7” across and is designed for use on gas stoves and is priced around $105. If you want to see the Kurukuru Nabe pot in action, check it out in the video above.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Time Warner Cable Doesn’t Believe Gigabit Internet Is In Demand, Huawei MediaQ M31 Media Streamer Introduced As Samsung Homesync Rival,

You know that Japan is a rather quirky country on its own by some measure, and here is a prime example just in case you were wondering – the SmartPants. Just because the name is “SmartPants”, this does not mean it has anything to do with electronic circuit boards sewn into the hems of your pants. No sir, the SmartPants is something for your smartphone, and if you were to look at the image closely, it functions as “underwear” for your smartphone, although there really isn’t any need to cover up the handset in the first place.

This is more of a prank than anything else, where it will come in different designs such as boxers, thongs, and panties among others. Retailing for around $2.14 each after conversion, the SmartPants was made possible thanks to toy manufacturer Bandai. It would really cause plenty of people to ask you questions as to why you decide to deck out your smartphone in a pair of underpants, well, I don’t really know what kind of answer that you can give.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: More Samsung Galaxy S4 Images Leaked, Verizon’s Lucid 2 Could Be LG Optimus F5,

Sushi, tempura and teriyaki were the trailblazers of Japanese cuisine around the world.
However, it is now ramen, and other Japanese noodles like soba and udon, that are gaining in international interest.
Like Colonel Sanders’ fried chicken recipe or Coke’s secret formula, the ingredients of the soup and the know-how for making ramen are closely-guarded secrets among Japan’s Ramen restaurants.
It is said that you need to go through a long period of training to get to know the …