Japan’s Tweeting Banzai

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While certain Internet imports have had difficulty catching on in Japan, Twitter has managed to take off. The service (which translates as mumbling in Japanese) successfully launched a mobile version in October 2009, and brought itself to even more users in the mobile crazy nation.

A Tokyo bar is showing sporting events and even has screens showing tweets simultaneously. 16.3 percent of Japanese Internet users tweet, more than the 9.8 percent for Americans. Twitter even managed to surpass Japanese social site mixi with monthly visitors, according to Nielsen Online.

“Japan is enjoying the richest and most varied form of Twitter usage as a communication tool,” says Japanese writer Daisuke Tsuda. “It’s playing out as a rediscovery of the Internet.”

Part of the attraction for Japanese users is that it takes fewer characters to convey ideas than other languages, leading to more articulate tweets. Also, in contrast to the image of Japanese being reserved, many use the site as a public way to communicate and connect with others.

“Twitter is turning out to be like a cocktail party,” says Noriyuki Ikeda, CEO of Tribal Media House. “Japanese see how fun it is to network and casually connect with other people.”

Companies are also using Twitter as a way to reach out to customers. Retailer Tokyu Hands uses Twitter to answer questions from customers and clothing chain Uniqlo has used Twitter to setting up a virtual line in which people tweet with one another and get free stuff.

Motohiko Tokuriki, chief executive of consulting firm Agile Media Network, thinks Twitter could be the hit new word of the year, and honor in Japan. “It’s telling that Twitter was translated as ‘mumbling’ in Japanese,” he says. “They love the idea of talking to themselves.”

Source: Los Angeles Times

Vanquish Raving By Insomniac

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Employees of Insomniac Games (Resistance, Ratchet & Clank) had a grand old time trying out the latest and greatest at E3. One thing that was nearly universal among their opinions, though, was how high quality Shinji Mikami’s Vanquish is.

“My favorite game at E3 was Vanquish,” said Giac Veltri, Tools Programmer. “First, I had no idea it even existed. Second, it looked awesome. Third, the demo was a lot of fun – action-packed and full of spectacle. Plus, it’s in the sci-fi shooter genre, which is something that I’m always into. I also liked taking over one of the walking mechs (although I sucked at actually using it).”

“Vanquish: Guns, explosions, mechs to pilot, jet boots, giant transforming spider mech enemies,” said Joel Goodsell, Senior Designer. “Over-the-top action, hot anime librarian-looking chick giving me orders (oh, crap, inside voice, inside voice.)”

A brilliant technical showpiece from the creator of the original Resident Evil and the director of Resident Evil 4 my favorite game of all time. “It plays like Gears of War on crack and looks absolutely gorgeous,” said Paul Featherstone, Community Specialist. Platinum is knocking it out of the park after Bayonetta hopefully we will see more frequent high-quality releases from them in the next few years.

Source: InsomniacGames.com

AOL Sells ICQ

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AOL has sold the ICQ business to Digital Sky Technologies for $187.5 million. AOL agreed in April to sell the instant messaging service to the Russian Internet investor.

AOL purchased Mirabilis, the company responsible for ICQ, in 1998 back when it was still known as America Online. The ICQ messaging service is more popular outside of the U.S. where AOL’s presence isn’t as notable.

This comes shortly after AOL announced plans to sell Bebo to Criterion Capital Partners LLC. AOL purchased the social site two years ago for a sum of $850 million.

Source: Washington Post

PS3 3D Compatibility Update In September

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Sony Computer Entertainment Europe senior director Mike Hawking has indicated that the PS3 will soon get support for 3D YouTube videos as well as for 3D Blu-ray movies. This support will come in a firmware update in September.

Hawking indicates that the PS3 is capable of supported 3D video and games with its HDMI 1.4 connection. The PS3 hardware is capable of detecting the size and 3D hardware in any TV it s connected to, so it can support most new 3D technologies with various software or firmware updates.

Source: CVG

Sword Of The Stars II: The New Enemy

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Sword of the Stars was the latest game in the proud tradition of 4X Strategy, being enough of a hit to spawn three expansions. Now, the first trailer for Sword of the Stars II: Lords of Winter is out, showing that a whole new enemy has come upon the galaxy.

Making Lance Armstrong’s Helmet

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Lance Armstrong sponsor Giro Helmets figured out a new way to make a custom helmet for the cyclist. The company spent $15,000 to create a lifelike replica of the rider in his time trial position. You can check out the process of scanning Armstrong below.

This project was really driven by Giro, says Armstrong. They went way outside of cycling to look at different sports and concepts.

The company was able to better try out different helmets without Armstrong present. We made about a hundred different helmets and tried them on the model, Bullock says. We had five different wind tunnel sessions since the start of the year on this project.The advantage on drag could be minimal, but with a very competitive Tour de France this year, even a few seconds might make a difference. I have seen tremendous technology changes throughout my career, Armstrong says. There is demand all around to innovate and rapidly try and test new ideas and technologies.

 

Source: Wired

Toyota Working With Tesla On Prototype

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Toyota is working with Tesla to create a small battery-powered car for launch in 2012. The company would like to experiment with Tesla’s lithium-ion battery cells as an alternative to creating batteries on their own.

“We’re at the stage of working towards a prototype and once that’s completed and we’ve reached that milestone, I’d like to announce more about what we’re working on together,” said Toyota President Akio Toyoda, adding about the batteries, “We’ll see which better meets the needs of consumers. We’re taking a multifaceted approach.

Toyota Executive Vice President Shinichi Sasaki added that the company is open to partnerships, since alternative fuel engines could take off in the next few years. “It’s hard for a single company to take on environmental technology all alone because of the need for infrastructure. I think cooperation is going to be increasingly important,” Sasaki said.

Source: Reuters

3D Image Strain Caused By Visual Impairment, Says Research

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3D stereoscopic technology is coming back in vogue with a vengeance. Still, while certain 3D effects have an impressive visual effect, eyestrain is reported by some and it appears that it may be because of poor binocular vision, which the Eyecare Trust says affects six million British people.

3D technology relies on our eyes ability to work together as a co-ordinated team to achieve an accurate perception of depth, reads a release by the company. However, more than one in ten of us (12 percent) has a visual impairment that means our brains are unable to correctly process the individual images that are transmitted to it via our left and right eyes. This leads to an inconsistency in viewing the three spatial dimensions (height, width and depth) required to enjoy 3-D films in all their glory.

You may not have realized that you have poor binocular vision before because your brain will often try to compensate for any visual inadequacies, continues the release. If left untreated binocular disorders such as amblyopia can affect your ability to read well and result in a greater propensity to suffer from screen fatigue when working at a VDU or watching TV for long periods of time.

Binocular conditions can be detected during eye exams, and treatment is possible. The Eyecare Trust recommends everyone who hasn’t had a recent vision test to do so if they’re experiencing problems with 3D images.