Hasta La Gadget!

Japan’s annual electronics expo is about to kick off in the Tokyo suburb of Chiba, and we’ve settled down for the week to deliver a peek inside Makuhari Messe, where local carriers will demonstrate their R&D wares, a fair share of robots are expected make their debut and component manufacturers will provide a hint of what’s to come. And, because the Tokyo Motor Show is held only once every two years, that winter exhibition will make a smaller appearance within these Chiba halls, with vehicle designers showing off their latest contributions to the automotive industry. The fun begins in just a few minutes, when dozens of diligent guards will lift the gates to the show. As always, you can follow along from home without spending a single yen. Just keep an eye on our homepage, or head over to the CEATEC 2012 tag for a complete roster of this year’s show coverage.

Filed under: Announcements

We’re live from CEATEC 2012 in Chiba, Japan! originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 20:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Japan’s unique language makes calls to other countries a challenge: locals often don’t have much choice but to brush up on someone else’s language or hope there’s a Japanese speaker on the other end of the line. If all goes well with NTT DoCoMo’s planned Hanashite Hon’yaku automatic translation service, international calls will be as comfortable as phoning a store in Nagano. As long as a subscriber has at least an Android 2.2 phone or tablet on the carrier’s moperaU or sp-mode plans, the service will automatically convert spoken Japanese to another language, and reverse the process for the reply, whether it’s through an outbound phone call or an in-person conversation. The service will bridge cultures starting from November 1st, when it will translate from Japanese to Chinese, English or Korean. Indonesian, Thai and five European languages are coming later that month. If you’re not that patient, NTT DoCoMo will provide a holdover on October 11th through Utsushite Hon’yaku, a free Word Lens-like augmented reality translator for Android 2.3 that can convert text to or from Japanese with a glance through a phone camera.

Continue reading NTT DoCoMo preps automatic translation from Japanese through Android, leaves no one an island

Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile

NTT DoCoMo preps automatic translation from Japanese through Android, leaves no one an island originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 11:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With Windows 8 finally launching in less than four weeks, it’s only a matter of time before the web is flooded with prices of upcoming PCs, the first among which this month hail from Sony VAIO’s Japan branch. Starting with the Duo 11 slider PC, it’s expected to go for about ¥150,000 ($1,930) when it launches in Japan on October 26th (alongside Windows 8), and it’ll come with a 1080p display, 1.7GHz Core i5-3317U, 128GB SSD, 4GB RAM and WiMAX. Then we have three flavors of the Tap 20 portable all-in-one which will range from about ¥140,000 ($1,800) up to about ¥180,000 ($2,310) come November 3rd, with the main differences being the CPU (1.8GHz Core i3-3217U, 1.7GHz Core i5-3317U or 1.9GHz Core i7-3517U) and the RAM (4GB or 8GB), but all three will feature the same 20-inch 1,600 x 900 display and 1TB hard drive.

Also announced at the Tokyo event are Japan prices for three more existing VAIO models that now feature a touchscreen: ¥130,000 ($1,670) for the T Series 13 Ultrabook with Core i5-3317U, ¥150,000 ($1,920) for the VAIO E Series 14P laptop with Core i5-3210M, and from ¥210,000 ($2,700) to ¥240,000 ($3,080) for the VAIO L Series 24-inch all-in-one with Core i7-3630QM and 1080p display. The two laptops will be available in Japan from October 26th, whereas the all-in-one will join in from November 3rd.

There’s no indication as to whether the US prices will match their Japanese counterparts (the former are usually a lot cheaper), but hey, stay tuned here and you’ll know as soon as we do.

Filed under: Laptops, Tablets, Sony

Sony reveals Japan prices for Windows 8 devices, adds touchscreen to VAIO L, E14P and T13 originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Oct 2012 02:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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How many times have you been at the airport and waited what seemed like an eternity for your bags to show up. Oftentimes, this is due to the long, slow process of unloading bags from the gate and driving them all the way to the baggage claim area. This new baggage conveyor system hopes to speed up that ponderous system and make it more efficient.

Daifuku’s Baggage Tray System can move bags at speeds up to 600 meters-per-minute. To put that in perspective, that’s a speedy 22 miles per hour. Sure, Usain Bolt can run faster, but probably not with a bag strapped to his back (though the Cheetah robot might be able to.) Anyhow, here’s a video of the system in action, showing off just how fast it truly is.

I certainly wouldn’t want to try and catch up to a bag moving around on the fast straightaway right behind the guy in the video.

The baggage trays in the conveyor have RFID tags on them so their location can be monitored, as well as the position of each individual bag placed on the trays. Daifuku also offers equipment to automatically load and unload the conveyor. In addition to being useful for airports, this system could be very handy for moving parts around quickly in large manufacturing operations.

[via DigInfo.TV]

I have nothing against the color black, but when it comes to my food, I’d prefer it to be not black. I don’t know what Burger King Japan was thinking when they rolled out their black-bunned Kuro Burger (JP), but it probably wasn’t about customers with my dining  preferences.

That said, I still think Kuro Burger will be a huge hit with Japanese fast food lovers, because it’s too unusual to pass up with its black buns and black sauce.

The dough of the buns have been mixed with bamboo charcoal to turn it deathly black, while the sauce is a mixture of squid ink and spices to give it that creepily zesty oomph.

Oh, and did I mention that Burger King came up with this black burger as part of its fifth anniversary in Japan? They probably thought black was a festive color that was fit for the occasion. Burger Kings all over Japan will begin serving these black burgers on September 28th. If you happen to be in the area, give it a try and tell us if its any good.

Funny thing is, this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a burger with a black bun – French chain Quick offered a special Darth Vader burger earlier this year with a similar look.

[via RocketNews24 via Obvious Winner]