Hasta La Gadget!

Even if you don’t know his name or story, chances are you’ve probably seen Domo-kun’s face. Which is also his body. And once you’ve seen him, it doesn’t matter if he’s the mascot of Japanese TV station NHK or a holy servant who kills baby animals. The undeniable fact is that he’s adorable. So would you turn down a chance to turn normal bread into Domo-kun? Hell no!

Watch this officially-licensed monster factory in action:

Flickr user zippythesimshead also has a picture of Domo-fied bread if you need more convincing. Otherwise head to Amazon and order the Domo Toaster for $40 (USD).

[via TechEBlog]

While I love the convenience of credit cards, the interest fees and late charges can really throw you for a loop if you don’t pay them off every month. But I might just have to add one more card to my wallet just so I can have the Darth Vader Visa Card.

This awesome Star Wars credit card appears to be available only in Japan, so I’m betting they won’t approve my application – especially since I can’t even fill it out.

It’s probably for the best, anyhow. I can only imagine what would happen if I ever was one minute late with my payment on this card. The Dark Lord himself would probably force choke me (and my wife… and my cat… and my dog) until I paid up – double. Or maybe he’d send an army of clones to my front doorstep to threaten me with their blasters.

You saw what they did to Uncle Owen and Aunt Baru, right? That’s because they were 30 days past-due.

LTE’s frequent gotcha has been indoor coverage: as it often relies on high frequency ranges outside of the US, the signal can drop off quickly at home or in the mall. There have been LTE femtocells before to fill in the gaps, but NTT DoCoMo claims to have the first mini cell site that would cover our needs much more thoroughly. The Japanese carrier’s new base station run simultaneous 112.Mbps LTE and 14.4Mbps HSDPA (sorry, no HSUPA upload speeds) on the 2GHz band to keep 3G data and voice working side-by-side with 4G, piping both through a wired broadband connection; there’s no need to sacrifice the basics or legacy support just for a better LTE signal. NTT DoCoMo plans to sell the dual-mode femtocell to local homeowners, offices and stores in December. Sadly, there’s no immediate word of plans for femtocells that support networks abroad, although the technology’s existence gives us hope that we’ll see it spread to other providers — and that black holes in cellular coverage will be distant memories.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo readies first dual-mode HSDPA, LTE femtocell for December

Filed under: Cellphones, Wireless, Networking, Mobile

NTT DoCoMo readies first dual-mode HSDPA, LTE femtocell for December originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:54:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Japanese consumer electronics industry continues to feel the squeeze in the economy, with mass layoffs of workers representing one of the more painful effects. In the latest development, Panasonic Corp. says it will reduce its workforce by 10,000 employees by the end of this fiscal year, which completes in March 2013. The company had already warned that it will post losses of $10 billion for the full year, because of write-offs in its mobile, solar panel and lithium battery businesses.

The mobile business in particular has been seeing some tough times, with Panasonic Mobile reportedly preparing to pull out of the European market altogether, leaving it covering only Asia going forward.

While Panasonic has yet to make an official statement about the 10,000 layoffs, CFO Hideaki Kawai made the plans public in an interview with Reuters. They are part of a wider strategy to reach operating profits of $2.52 billion (¥200 billion) in the next three years. At the moment a fifth of its 100 business units are losing money, and there are plans for some of these to also be sold off.

Panasonic, along with other Japanese consumer electronics giants, have been between a rock and a hard place for a while now: on the one hand, there is the global economic downturn that has seen reduced consumer spending; on the other, the rise of Chinese and Korean, and other Asian companies making similar goods for significantly cheaper prices — or simply better quality, more desirable goods — has impacted these companies’ margins. Panasonic is a grandaddy of Japanese consumer electronics — it was founded in 1918 and remains Japan’s biggest employer — but in the last five years, it has posted four annual net losses.

The 10,000 cuts come on the heels of 36,000 layoffs at Panasonic last year. Several other Japanese consumer electronics giants have also faced mass layoffs. These include 11,000 workers reportedly getting the chop at Sharp (made public in September), and Sony announcing redundancies of a further 2,800 workers in October, part of its plan to cut 10,000 in total.

As cool as their displays look, there are just some modern watches that will just leave people staring blankly at the watch face – kind of like the new Tokyoflash Kisai Maru. However, it’s really not that tricky once you get the hang of it.

The time is displayed along a simple curved path, with the dots mimicking the positions of traditional watch hands. The watch is LCD, and comes with an EL backlight. The inner-facing hand points to the hour while the outer-facing hand points to the minutes.

The display idea for the watch originated from Sam, a fan who submitted a pocket watch design to Tokyoflash last year. It is the eighth watch that was fan-submitted and produced by the Japanese watchmaker. The Kisai Maru is made from high-grade aluminum, making the watch quite lightweight. It weighs only 80 grams. It’s also water-resistant.

It’s available now for $149(USD) in black, silver and sienna colors over at Tokyoflash. And no, it’s not named after the rotund internet cat video star of the same name.