Hasta La Gadget!

Nissan’s LEAF electric car has yet another function, other than to ferry you around, of course. We are looking at it ability to be able to be hooked up to a building in order to provide electricity to appliances in the building instead of having the building’s electrical system powering its battery. Engineers from Nissan are currently testing out this idea over in the Land of the Rising Sun, calling this particular technology “Vehicle to Building.”

In various parts of the world, there are electric power utilities that charge higher rates during peak hours compared to at night, as that is when demand is low. Nissan engineers decided to use the night time power tariff in order to power up the electric car’s batteries, which will in turn power everyday appliances during the day when energy is at its most expensive. During tests at Nissan’s Nissan Advanced Technology Center in Atsugi City, the engineers managed to lower their peak power draw by approximately 2.5%, which would be the equivalent of an annual savings of approximately $5,000 where the electric bill is concerned. The test involved half a dozen LEAF electric cars that have been hooked up to modified versions of the charging stations that will normally juice up a couple of cars. [Press Release]

Nissan Powers Building In Japan With Electric Cars original content from Ubergizmo.

In recent times Japan has seen a substantial shift from feature phones to smartphones powered by iOS, Android and other platforms. This obviously meant that users got access to a wide variety of applications that are available on each and every platform. The smartphone trend has caught on quite quickly in The Land of the Rising Sun, with Apple clearly dominating the local market. That said, app analytics firm App Annie has released a new report saying that Japan has overtook the U.S. based on sheer app revenue, spending 10 percent more than the U.S.

This is a significant improvement, considering the fact that just last year, Japan was spending 40 percent less on mobile apps as compared to the U.S. Two reasons are believed to be behind this increase, first the fact that smartphone adoption in the country has jumped from 28 percent to 42 percent in just one year and the second being interest in mobile games. GungHo Online and Sega, who are both game publishers, are said to be the biggest drivers of app sales in Japan. Moreover, given Android’s footprint in the country, Play Store sales were able to match App Store sales in the country. App Annie expects that smartphone sales in Japan will grow in the coming year as well, possibly reaching beyond 60 percent penetration in the entire cellphone market.

Japan Leads The U.S. In App Revenue original content from Ubergizmo.

There is big money to be made on games and other apps for mobile devices around the world. There has been a change at the top of the most profitable countries for apps with Japan taking the top spot. Previously, the top country for mobile app revenues was the US. Japanese consumers spent 10% more […]

To many people, the Earth’s moon is something of a mystery as it only shows itself once the sun sets and is responsible for the sea’s currents. But one Japanese company is looking to the moon to point a giant laser at our planet as a way to provide us with clean, renewable energy. (more…)

Japanese Company Wants To Send Robots To The Moon For Solar Energy Farming original content from Ubergizmo.

Renewable energy has proven itself to be a possible answer to the world’s seemingly insatiable appetite for energy, and Shimizu Corp. of Japan has also thought along similar lines. In fact, they have an idea that might sound crazy to many people – by developing a 250-mile wide belt of solar cells all across the moon’s equator. This particular “Luna Ring” will then gather all of the solar energy harvested, where it will be beamed down to the Earth’s surface in the form of laser beams and microwaves. (more…)

Luna Ring Harvest Solar Energy On Moon For Use On Earth original content from Ubergizmo.