Hasta La Gadget!

There are now over 1,348 approved apps for the iPad. That’s on top of the 150,000 iPad-compatible iPhone programs already available in the App Store. When Apple’s tablet PC launches, just hours from now, it will have a software library greater than that of any handheld in history — not counting the occasional UMPC. That said, the vast majority of even those 1,348 iPad apps are not original. They were designed for the iPhone, a device with a comparatively pokey processor and a tiny screen, and most have just been tweaked slightly, upped in price and given an “HD” suffix — as if that somehow justified the increased cost.

Besides, we’ve seen the amazing potential programs have on iPhone, Android, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and webOS when given access to a touchscreen, always-on data connection, GPS, cloud storage and WiFi — but where are the apps that truly define iPad? What will take advantage of its extra headroom, new UI paradigms and multitouch real estate? Caught between netbook and smartphone, what does the iPad do that the iPhone cannot? After spending hours digging through the web and new iPad section of the App Store, we believe we have a number of reasonably compelling answers.

Update: Now includes Wormhole Remote, TweetDeck, SkyGrid, Touchgrind HD, GoToMeeting, SplitBrowser, iDisplay, Geometry Wars and Drawing Pad.

Continue reading iPad apps: defining experiences from the first wave

iPad apps: defining experiences from the first wave originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Apr 2010 15:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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In the narrow confines of the International Space Station, every cubic inch counts, but that won’t necessarily keep NASA from building a rec room. When the Leonardo Pressurized Multipurpose Module (PMM) launches in September 2010, NASA is considering turning it into a internet-connected “man cave” isolated and quiet enough for astronauts to tweet in privacy. The connection’s nothing special — science officer T.J. Creamer compared it to that of a 14.4K modem capable of only tweets, text articles and basic browsing — but Universe Today reports that they will also have a robotic servant, the Robonaut 2, to play with. Imagine a cramped world without fresh water or YouTube, but where you can program a state-of-the-art robot to perform monotonous tasks… We think that’s a fair tradeoff, don’t you?

[Thanks, Robert P.]

International Space Station gets ‘Man Cave,’ Robonaut 2 originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 28 Mar 2010 09:50:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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While we’ve seen no shortage of smartphone–powered robots in the past, the Nokia camp has been sadly under-represented. But, there’s a new one coming to balance things out, a machine called Niko that has Lego Mindstorm NXT 2.0 components for a body and an N900 for a brain. The bot has been under construction for a few weeks but it has just made its YouTube debut with the short video posted after the break, showing it roving around and taking a photo whenever it bumps into something. When all systems are go and the machine is set free Niko will be posting messages and pictures to Twitter describing its every move in thrilling detail. We can’t wait for it to start picking fights with @CourtneyLoveUK.

Continue reading Niko, the N900-powered Lego robot, looks poised to take over Twitter (video)

Niko, the N900-powered Lego robot, looks poised to take over Twitter (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Mar 2010 12:01:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Kobe Shimbun recently reported on a “boom” happening among drinkers in their twenties and thirties: online nomikai.

As we know, Japanese nomikai often have a lot of ritual and social tension, especially when it’s with colleagues: where you sit is important to your rank in the office, and of course you have to be nice to your boss, pour his drink, and generally show lots of 遠慮 (enryo or “consideration”).

One way to get around this but still enjoy drinking in groups is to go online. Apparently net nomikai are gaining in popularity, according to reports by J-Cast and others. All you need is a web cam, Skype and a pair of headphones and mic. There is no boss, no seating arrangements — and even no geographical limitations! Obviously it’s a lot cheaper than boozing in an izakaya too, which might appeal to the recession-minded younger drinkers who can’t rely on company expenses.

Some might argue that drinking in front of a camera, even though at home, is not private enough. The same Kobe newspaper reported that single customers going to sing and drink in private karaoke booths (ヒトカラ or “solo karaoke”) are increasing.

Drinking alone sounds a bit, well, lonely, right? Not necessarily. It can become a whole product concept. Suntory in fact last year ran a campaign promoting its 3% low alcohol Chu-Hi Horoyoi (”tipsy”) as a drink for the young consumers to enjoy just by him or herself. It also started a community site to encourage people to go online and interact with each other. Horoyoi.com, did not, though, use a web cam, but instead provided you with a drinking avatar and customizable profile: importantly, drinking through a web campaign like this became a way simultaneously both to express and re-make yourself.

Scheduled to end on March 15, the site has only been a moderate success (70,000 registered users, 60% of whom are in their twenties). Suntory is hoping to keep building up word-of-mouth marketing through collecting tweets on a new Horoyoi site, Horotter.com. Though it doesn’t start till March 9, you can already see similarities. Again you get a cheerful avatar, through whom you post your tweets about Horoyoi drinking.

Actually nomikai-related tweeting has already been taking off too, it seems. Check out the tag #twinomi for what’s happening now.

While we can’t find any numbers to support this “boom”, it is interesting to see how drink companies are working with online and viral resources to try to generate young consumer- and recession-friendly trends.

Everyone seems to rave about Twitter but they are not the only kids on the block anymore.

Back in December, Ameba, a Japanese blog service with seven million users, launched a free new micro-blogging service for its members, Ameba Now (Ameba なう). Just like tweeting, you have 140 characters to tell the world what you are doing, and can also upload images.

Significantly, though, Ameba has integrated its trademark cute emoji into the messages that users can post. Given that Twitter doesn’t have this function so beloved by Japanese users, could it give Ameba Now the edge over its American rival? It was also launched first as a mobile site, then onto PCs a few days after. (Twitter did not have a mobile version until a year after its launch.) Ameba Now, like Ameba itself, has attracted a good contingent of popular Japanese geinoujin and celebrities (below is the account for model Yuka Hiura), bringing with them fans and publicity.

February 24 saw the news that there had been a million unique users on Ameba Now in January alone, and that 54% of them were female. Twitter is said to have 4.7 million users, so it probably won’t lose much sleep just yet. However, the balance of tweeters in Japan is weighted towards male users, with 64% of the share. The number of visits in January per person was not dissimilar either: 3.3 (Ameba Now) versus 3.9 (Twitter), though users were on Twitter for much longer (a total of over 25 minutes versus just under 7 minutes for Ameba Now).

Before we reject Twitter as a foreign upstart and past its prime, let’s remember there is more to these micro-blogging services than just celebrities or personal messages.

The Nikkei Marketing Journal reported recently about sushi chain restaurants using Twitter to harness word-of-mouth marketing and build up their consumer base. At the beginning of February Sushi Tokoro Saisho had a promotion rewarding customers who tweeted their visit to the restaurant, with the discount calculated at one yen off per Twitter follower (i.e. a 100 JPY [US$1.1] discount if you have 100 followers). Apparently this led to over 1000 tweets about the restaurant.

Toy store Sugorokuya also did a similar campaign from late January to early February, and saw the number of customers visiting increase by 30-40%.

Twitter may not have the emoji or the female users, but for marketing it is perhaps still winning this minor micro-blog war.