Although the number of Twitter users is increasing rapidly in Japan and reached 520 thousand in April 2009, it is quite small when compared to that in the U.S.
In the U.S., there were about 17 million Twitter users in April 2009, according to the survey conducted by NetRatings Japan Inc.
The survey result also shows that the average stay-time on Twitter per capita is 297 seconds in Japan and 1,053 seconds in the U.S.
And the male-female ratio of the users is 75:25 in Japan and 45:55 in the U.S.
NetRatings Japan concludes that public awareness of Twitter is still low in Japan.
Are you contributing to raising the awareness by sending a tweet every single minute and letting your friends in Facebook know that?
Sun May 31, 2009
More than 500 thousand Twitter users in Japan (2)--More potential for growth
Sat May 30, 2009
More than 500 thousand Twitter users in Japan (1)--Exponential growth
Are you addicted to Twitter? How many followers do you have?
NetRatings Japan Inc. said on Wednesday that about 520 thousand people are using Twitter in Japan as of April 2009 according to its survey.
The number is 2.6 times larger than it was in January 2009.
Fri May 29, 2009
USEN's music delivery service is available to K-Opticom's users
Has “Single Sign-On” lived up to the practical use for consumers yet?
USEN Corp. and K-Opticom Corp. announced Wednesday that they have made USEN's online music delivery service OnGen USEN MUSIC SERVER available to the members of K-Opticom's ID service eoID.
The delivery service is provided for the members on the Web site OnGen for eo.
The members can sign on the Web site using their ID and password that have been issued based on the eoID system.
The system is intended for managing the members so that they can utilize multiple services with one ID/password.
Is it worth trying to see if a practical Single Sign-On system has come to homes?
Thu May 28, 2009
Mercedes-Benz Japan gets on i-mode
Mercedes-Benz Japan Co., Ltd. has established its mobile web page in i-mode, NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s official mobile website service.
The mobile web page, Mercedes Benz, will allow you to read specifications of its cars, ask for a quotation of the car cost, search for its dealers, and so forth.
Mercedes-Benz Japan is also going to launch its official mobile web pages that are optimized for handheld devices from KDDI Corp. (au) and Softbank Mobile (SBM) Corp. before long.
Will the mobile pages lure you to Mercedes Benz dealers?
Wed May 27, 2009
New lineup of cellphones from au by KDDI in summer of 2009 (1)--E-book reader
KDDI Corp. and Okinawa Cellular Telephone Company released on Monday a new lineup of their cellphones which will hit the shelves this summer.
One of the cellphones, which is called biblio, features an e-book reader.
The biblio has a 480 x 980-pixel LCD screen and sports a 7 GB of storage that allows for up to 5,000 books.
Tue May 26, 2009
KDDI stops new subscriptions to CDMA 1X (2)--Promoting transition to WIN
Although KDDI Corp. and Okinawa Cellular Telephone Company have decided to discontinue receiving new subscription requests for their CDMA 1X services on August 9, they will continue doing for their CDMA 1X WIN services.
The subscribers to the CDMA 1X service totaled some 6.8 million, making up about 10% of the general subscription, as of April 2009.
KDDI and Okinawa Cellular are focusing their resources on their selected sectors.
Mon May 25, 2009
KDDI stops new subscriptions to CDMA 1X (1)--A- and C-series cellphones
KDDI Corp. and Okinawa Cellular Telephone Company said on May 20 that they will discontinue receiving new subscription requests for their CDMA 1X services on August 9 this year.
The services are now available on their A- and C-series cellphones.
Sun May 24, 2009
Online-sent scent (20)--Scent from magazine
As for placing scents on traditional media, how about fashion magazines?
For example, you could place on them some scents of cosmetics, shampoo, perfume, and so on.
Sat May 23, 2009
Android keitai from DoCoMo (2)--Touch-sensitive
The docomo PRO series HT-03A, NTT DoCoMo Inc.'s first Android-based cellphone due to come on Japan's market in June or July this year, has a 3.2-inch touch-screen display.
On the display, a software keyboard will appear to enter characters.
Fri May 22, 2009
Toshiba pulls plug on domestic production of cellphone
Toshiba Corp. announced Wednesday that it has decided to discontinue manufacturing its cellphone handsets in Japan to decrease the cost.
Toshiba will begin to commission overseas firms to manufacture them in October this year.
Toshiba's exiting resources for the manufacture will be applied to the other tasks including design and development of cellphone.
Note that its smartphones such as T-01A will continue to be manufactured in Zhejiang, China.
Thu May 21, 2009
Android keitai from DoCoMo (1)--Launch in June or July
NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced Tuesday that it will release an Android-based cellphone in June or July this year.
The cellphone docomo PRO series HT-03A, expected to cost ¥25,000-¥30,000 for the handset itself, will allow you to handle Google's services such as Gmail, Maps, and YouTube without difficulty and download your favorite applications from the Android Market.
Wed May 20, 2009
GPS-enabled cellphone prevents pandemic? (4)--Life log is controversial
The MIC's experiment on prevention of pandemic by using GPS-enabled cellphone will rely on the life logs captured by the GPS system.
However, do you have any inhibitions in being tracked by the system like this?
The life log is definitely a concern of privacy, so the MIC is going to examine the inhibitions of the GPS-enabled cellphone users tracked in the experiment.
Tue May 19, 2009
GPS-enabled cellphone prevents pandemic? (3)--Leveraging life log
In the experiment, due to start this fall under the supervision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC), the communications service providers such as mobile operators will invite some 2,000 monitors from the GPS-enabled mobile phone users.
The providers will store in their data bases the history of how all the monitors move around.
Then, one of the monitors will be assumed to acquire an infection.
And the providers will scrutinize the history of the monitors' move-around, pick up the ones who are considered to have had a close contact with the pseudo infected monitor in a bus, train, or other congested public places, and send an email message that informs them of the possibility of infection.
Mon May 18, 2009
GPS-enabled cellphone prevents pandemic? (2)--Two thousand monitors in experiment
The experiment, which the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) will begin to conduct in fall this year, on prevention of pandemic by means of the system of GPS-enabled cellphone is slated to involve about 2,000 people in total in both an urban and a rural area in Japan.
The MIC is going to verify how accurate and cost-effective GPS features of cellphone and the system will work.
Sun May 17, 2009
GPS-enabled cellphone prevents pandemic? (1)--MIC's experiment
This fall, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) is expected to begin conducting an experiment on how practically GPS-enabled cellphones will work to prevent a pandemic.
The MIC considers whether features of GPS-enabled cellphone that can locate the user will help stop flu from spreading.
Sat May 16, 2009
Is Google getting more privacy-conscious? (2)--Setting up a call center
As for Street View, Google Japan Inc. has set up a call center.
The call center receives requests from users by phone about deletion of the image on the Street View site.
Fri May 15, 2009
Is Google getting more privacy-conscious? (1)--Lowering Street View camera
Google Japan Inc. said Wednesday that it will improve one of its location-based services, Street View, for more secured privacy.
Google Japan claims that it has blurred almost all the car license plates showing up in the existing images of Street View and is going to retake street images with the camera 40 cm lowered to 205 cm on the car.
Can you protect your privacy from Google?
Thu May 14, 2009
Cellphone decrypts an encrypted document
Fujitsu Ltd. announced Tuesday that it has pioneered a technique of decrypting an encrypted and printed document into the original plain text by using a cellphone equipped with a camera.
Fujitsu touts this is the world's first technique on cellphone.
Translation Service
English-to-Japanese and Japanese-to-English translation services are provided by the blogger sam.
The translation fee will be charged as follows:
* Source language: English
(English-to-Japanese translation)
¥20 or more per English word
* Source language: Japanese
(Japanese-to-English translation)
¥6 or more per Japanese character
For details about the translation services,
feel free to contact sam.
Last updated: May 8, 2009
tag: Translation Service
Wed May 13, 2009
PTT to cease in September 2010 in Japan
NTT DoCoMo Inc. announced on May 8 that it will discontinue its PTT (push to talk) service on September 30, 2010.
The service, Push Talk, began to be provided in November 2005.
However, it has attracted fewer users than expected.
