Countdown Clock from Sega Toys and other “study aids”

Just as soon as we posted about a few products targeting students studying for entrance exams, a whole flood of press releases for other examples came in. Most notable of the bunch is the “Countdown Clock” from Sega Toys. As the name suggests this little digital clock displays not only the current date and time but also the number of days (or minutes) until the BIG DAY. While the clock can obviously be used for other big days (a wedding, birth of a child etc), the current marketing is aimed at students anticipating entry exam day.

Case in point, on December 25th, when the clock officially goes on sale, the Countdown Clock website will feature “designer” covers created by a popular instructor at the Yoyogi Seminar (a well-known prep school) and students at Tokyo University (argued to be Japan’s best).

Other products intended to encourage or bring luck to students that we’ve noticed include: sakura (cherry blossom) scented laundry detergent (for luck) from Nissan Soap and a “tonkatsu” (fried pork cutlet) sauce from Bulldog called “Prayer for school success sesame ton-katsu”—“katsu” is a play on words as it means both “cutlet” and “to win,” and the character for the latter is used in the name. Bulldog is also quick to point out that pork contains vitamins B1 and B12, purported to defend against stress. Actually these two are probably for worked up mothers who feel they need to do more than make sure their kids study an extra five hours a day.

Meanwhile Glico’s Pocky snack has an interesting campaign called “Choose your fortune by Pocky.” Inside each box (marked with cherry blossoms) is a card with a QR code that, when read by a mobile phone, produces a fortune (hopefully for good luck). And Tirol Chocolate weighs in with “sakura mochi” flavored chocolates and another variety in packaging featuring the five yen coin (both symbols of good luck).

Of course the current recession means that fewer graduates will land choice jobs—all the more reason to study hard to get into a top university to better your chances. But no pressure or anything kids! Just grab a handful of those chocolates…

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[CES Countdown] PowerMat Charges Gadgets, No Plugs Required

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”PowerMat.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/PowerMat.jpg” width=”583″ height=”328″ class=”mt-image-right” style=”float: right; margin: 0 0 20px 20px;” //span/p pCES is just around the corner and there will undoubtedly be some pretty exciting revelations for 2009. /p pOne of the most intriguing of these is the Power Mat, which offers much sought after wireless charging of your gadgets and gizmos, though sadly it’s not quite advanced enough to send it over the airwaves./pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a98484/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=[CES Countdown] PowerMat Charges Gadgets, No Plugs Requiredlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2009/01/01/ces_countdown_powermat_charges.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=[CES Countdown] PowerMat Charges Gadgets, No Plugs Requiredlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2009/01/01/ces_countdown_powermat_charges.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588759938/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44663940/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588759938/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44663940/a2.img” border=”0″//a

VIDEO: The R2-D2 Dance Troupe [Life After Star Wars]

pobject width=”425″ height=”344″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/weGTZ5VXR4scolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcfhl=enfeature=player_embeddedfs=1″/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/weGTZ5VXR4scolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcfhl=enfeature=player_embeddedfs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″/embed/object/p pHey, it’s New Year’s Day [Happy New Year Gadgetheads] and you probably feel like roadkill right now. /p pWe know that we do so what better way to ease your way into a doom and gloom shadowed 2009 than something that will only tax about 0.01% of your brain. And, might make you smile – however briefly – through the waves of nausea from your New Year’s Eve induced hangover. /p pMeet the R2-D2 Dance Troupe – something you get when a whole bunch of R2-D2s meet. It seems not all robots are out to destroy humanity after all. /p pStill, don’t trust ’em. One minute they’re dancing for the kids, the next they’re melting your neighbourhood with frickin’ lasers dude.-Martin Lynch/p pa href=”http://technorati.com/tag/robots” rel=”tag”robots/a a href=”http://technorati.com/tag/star wars” rel=”tag”star wars/a a href=”http://technorati.com/tag/dancing” rel=”tag”dancing/a/pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a96462/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=VIDEO: The R2-D2 Dance Troupe [Life After Star Wars]link=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2009/01/01/video_the_r2d2_dance_troupe_li.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=VIDEO: The R2-D2 Dance Troupe [Life After Star Wars]link=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2009/01/01/video_the_r2d2_dance_troupe_li.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588755993/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44655714/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588755993/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44655714/a2.img” border=”0″//a

Road Mice For Some ‘Vroom-Vroom’ In The Office

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”road mice.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/road%20mice.jpg” width=”588″ height=”160″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //spanI once got given a mouse shaped as Mickey Mouse’s head, complete with clickable ears and stupid grin. It was, without any doubt, the worse mouse I ever had to use, apart from the fact that I had to hide it with embarrassment whenever anyone walked in. /p pNow, the latest in themed mice are aimed at petrol heads that like a little horsepower mixed with their rodent. Road Mice are licensed sports versions of popular American muscle cars. /p pThese are 800dpi wireless mice, suitable for Macs or PCs, and the cars on offer include the Dodge Charger SRT-8, Dodge Charger – Police Car, Chevy Z06 Corvette, Ford Mustang GT, Chevy Camaro, Ford GT, and Dodge Viper SRT10 among others. /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a94ec8/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Road Mice For Some ‘Vroom-Vroom’ In The Officelink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2009/01/01/road_mice_for_some_vroomvroom.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Road Mice For Some ‘Vroom-Vroom’ In The Officelink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2009/01/01/road_mice_for_some_vroomvroom.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588754207/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44650184/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588754207/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44650184/a2.img” border=”0″//a

London’s Mayor Boris Johnson Swells To 200-ft Tonight

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”boris johnson.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/boris%20johnson.jpg” width=”300″ height=”407″ class=”mt-image-left” style=”float: left; margin: 0 20px 20px 0;” //span/p pClownish Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, is expected to get a lot bigger tonight as he counts in the New Year in London. /p pAbout 194-feet bigger actually thanks to some projection technology that will see everyone’s favourite political buffoon grow to 200-feet on the side of the Shell building thanks to some projection technology from LG Electronics. /p pIf a 200-foot tall Boris is too scary to contemplate, he will be joined by em”a star studded list of international personalities sharing their message of goodwill in the countdown to 2009″/em. ‘Who’ remains a mystery./pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a8323d/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=London’s Mayor Boris Johnson Swells To 200-ft Tonightlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/londons_mayor_boris_johnson_sw.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=London’s Mayor Boris Johnson Swells To 200-ft Tonightlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/londons_mayor_boris_johnson_sw.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588733783/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44577341/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588733783/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44577341/a2.img” border=”0″//a

[CES Countdown] Wear The Latest LG Phone: The 3G Touch Watch

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”lgs 3g touch water phone.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/lgs%203g%20touch%20water%20phone.jpg” width=”588″ height=”391″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //span/p pThere’ was a lot of excitement when we covered the first a href=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/2007/10/25/video_of_worlds_first_phone_wa.html”wearable mobile phone watch/a. James Bond wannabes [us included] drooled happily over the device but it lacked any mainstream support./p pNow, LG is entering the phone-watch space with its 3G Touch Watch device, which it will be teasing folk with at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2009 in Las Vegas next week. /p pIt’s 13.9mm thick and crams in most of what you’d get on a regular 3G phone along with an in-built camera and video telephony support. /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a7f055/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=[CES Countdown] Wear The Latest LG Phone: The 3G Touch Watchlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/ces_countdown_wear_the_latest.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=[CES Countdown] Wear The Latest LG Phone: The 3G Touch Watchlink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/31/ces_countdown_wear_the_latest.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588729477/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44560469/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588729477/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44560469/a2.img” border=”0″//a

Amazon Announces Record Sales This Christmas

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”AmazonBoxes.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/AmazonBoxes.jpg” width=”400″ height=”404″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //span/p pAmazon didn’t exactly cover itself in glory when details of its a href=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/15/amazon_workers_getting_flogged.html”staffing policies/a were revealed before Christmas, but it certainly knows how to make a quick buck and has announced record sales over the festive period./p pThe 15th of December was its busiest day, during which it shipped 6.3 million items worldwide, which equates to a stunning (and apparently record-breaking) 72.9 per second. /p pbr / /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a6e4bd/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Amazon Announces Record Sales This Christmaslink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/30/amazon_announces_record_sales_1.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Amazon Announces Record Sales This Christmaslink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/30/amazon_announces_record_sales_1.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588701228/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44491965/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588701228/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44491965/a2.img” border=”0″//a

‘Shooting Clock’ Aims To Train Gaming Muscles

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”ShootingClock.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/ShootingClock.jpg” width=”395″ height=”237″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //span/p pWe’re not sure whether this is utterly ridiculous or whether it might actually work, but if you want to train your ‘gaming muscles’ and aren’t giving your fingers enough of a workout already by mashing the keys on a console controller, the Shooting Watch is here to help./p pbr / /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a6b2b4/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=’Shooting Clock’ Aims To Train Gaming Muscleslink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/30/shooting_clock_aims_to_train_g.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=’Shooting Clock’ Aims To Train Gaming Muscleslink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/30/shooting_clock_aims_to_train_g.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588695841/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44479156/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588695841/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44479156/a2.img” border=”0″//a

Amazon’s Top Sellers In 2008

pspan class=”mt-enclosure mt-enclosure-image” style=”display: inline;”img alt=”wii store.jpg” src=”http://uk.gizmodo.com/wii%20store.jpg” width=”588″ height=”238″ class=”mt-image-none” style=”” //spanAmazon is not the only etailer out there but it’s big enough so that when it lists the top products bought by Amazon shoppers in 2008, you get a general idea of what was hot to trot./p pThere aren’t too many surprises, which is why the Wii and Wii Fit dominated in all of the lists [from Units Sold to Wishlists] throughout 2008./p pOther electronic goodies topping the lists in terms of units sold [or wanted badly] during 2008 included the Acer Aspire netbook, the Amazon Kindle ebook reader, Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007 in the software section, Wall-E single-disc DVD, and – one of our festive faves – the Oster 4207 electric wine opener, for when twisting becomes a chore. /pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a66fdb/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Amazon’s Top Sellers In 2008link=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/30/amazons_top_sellers_in_2008.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Amazon’s Top Sellers In 2008link=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/30/amazons_top_sellers_in_2008.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588688693/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44462043/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588688693/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44462043/a2.img” border=”0″//a

John Lennon Flogs OLPC Laptops From The Grave

pobject width=”425″ height=”344″param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/4b4GkGMiBDQcolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcfhl=enfeature=player_embeddedfs=1″/paramparam name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”/paramembed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/4b4GkGMiBDQcolor1=0xb1b1b1color2=0xcfcfcfhl=enfeature=player_embeddedfs=1″ type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”425″ height=”344″/embed/object/p pYes, it’s true, Liverpool’s fave musician, John Lennon, has taken a break from being dead to help the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Foundation drum up business for the worthy XO laptop./p pThe former Beatle and peace protester has been drafted from beyond the grave, thanks to the permission of Yoko Ono and digital wizardry, to appear in a new advert promoting the advantages the XO can give to kids in developing nations. /p pIn the ad, his voice is heard saying: /p pem”Imagine every child no matter where in the world they were could access a universe of knowledge. They would have a chance to learn, to dream, to achieve anything they want. I tried to do it through my music, but now you can do it in a very different way.”/em/p pAt the end, he appears on an XO’s screen, saying – despite the deliberate pixilation distorting his actual mouth movements: /p pem”You can give a child a laptop and more than imagine. You can change the world.”br / /em/pimg width=’1′ height=’1′ src=’http://feeds.uk.gizmodo.com/c/552/f/9581/s/2a6485d/mf.gif’ border=’0’/div class=’mf-viral’table border=’0’trtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=John Lennon Flogs OLPC Laptops From The Gravelink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/30/john_lennon_flogs_olpc_laptops.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif” border=”0″ //a/tdtd valign=’middle’a href=”http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=John Lennon Flogs OLPC Laptops From The Gravelink=http://uk.gizmodo.com/2008/12/30/john_lennon_flogs_olpc_laptops.html” target=”_blank”img src=”http://rss.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif” border=”0″ //a/td/tr/table/divbr/br/a href=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588685110/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44451933/a2.htm”img src=”http://da.feedsportal.com/r/27588685110/u/0/f/9581/c/552/s/44451933/a2.img” border=”0″//a