GW-102

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J@pan Inc Magazine Presents:
G A D G E T W A T C H
The Hottest Gadgets and Gizmos from Japan
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Issue No. 102
Thursday, June 5, 2003
(Long URLs may break across two lines, so copy to your browser.)

Name: Sharp Zaurus SL-C760
Category: PDA
Price: Open
Release date in Japan: May 24, 2003

The Gist: Apparently launched in an attempt to pacify certain
criticisms of its C700 predecessor, the latest PDAs in the Zaurus line
have an "easy-to-use" keyboard and a much improved CG (Continuous
Grain) LCD display. They've also had a paint job, going to glossy
black on the upper cover and all nice and shiny silver when you
open it up (well, the C750 has at least -- the C760 is still all
silver). A lot of other stuff is pretty much the same, but the newer
machines have differences where it counts -- increasing the CPU speed
and use of memory, making them far faster and slicker-feeling units.
Both models now house a 400MHz Intel Xscale PXA255 processor, with
either 64 or 128 MB of Flash memory onboard.

Sharp has retained the useful swiveling function of the screen, but
it's now far clearer and easier to read than before and it will synch
with big-hitter applications such as Microsoft Word, Outlook and
Excel. Both the C750 and C760 also accommodate SD and Compact Flash
storage cards, and if you stump up the cash for the more expensive
model, it should last you for eight and a half hours before it needs
to go bye bye.

More info: http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/030516.html

========================== ONLINE EVENT ==============================
FREE INTEGRATED AUDIO AND WEB CONFERENCING ...
CREATING THE VIRTUAL AND AGILE ENTERPRISE

Today's Enterprise Needs To Be Agile, Virtual And Resilient.
We will explore the impact of audio and web conferencing on
productivity and business communications budgets.

Speaker: Yoshitaka Fujiwara, President/ M-Stone Inc. Publisher/
TeleConNews

Premiere Conferencing is a global leader in unattended and operator
assisted audio and web conferencing.
Registration: Free to Attend,
Date: 12 June 2003
11.00am - 12.00pm,
Tel: +81 3 4560 9610,
Contact - Ayumi Gonno, info@premconf.co.jp
http://www.conferencing.com.au/productevent/productevent-japaninc.asp
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Name: Mitsubishi Electric digital handheld TV
Category: Digital TV
Price: TBA
Release date in Japan: TBA

The Gist: At a recent NHK Science and Technical Research Laboratories
exhibition, the whiz kids from the research arm of Japan's giant
public broadcaster showed off a few tantalizing device prototypes
sporting an "NHK film LCD" display. These displays are as thin and as
flexible as paper. Very cool. They also had a neat terrestrial digital
TV unit on show; it's shaped like a clamshell PDA and has a
360x240-dot wide-screen LCD display capable of producing a hi-vision
image. The unit, manufactured by Mitsubishi, boasted a real time
JPEG2000 encoder/decoder and was able to pick up an exhilarating
digital broadcast of a, er, OK, it was a political address and not
that exciting at all. But hey, the technology worked.

More info: http://www.nhk.or.jp/strl/index.html

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The latest issue of J@pan Inc magazine is now available online!
Click here for the lowdown: http://www.japaninc.com/contents.php?issueID=49

Subscribers can access our hot-off-the-press features, including:

- Whaling and Japan
As Japan renews its quest for whaling rights on the eve of this
month's International Whaling Commission meeting in Berlin, Debbi
Gardiner asks why the nation is singled-out for blame by anti-whaling
forces -- and why it remains relentless.

- Game Over?
Game giant Nintendo is best known for being clever and cute. But, as
Leo Lewis discovers, the company is now struggling to survive fierce
competition. Can it match the needs of mature gamers? In London,
Lewis meets the company's creative genius, Shigeru Miyamoto, to find
out.

J@pan Inc: www.japaninc.com
Subscribe at: http://www.japaninc.com/mag/subs.html
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Name: Matsushita TH-42PA20
Category: AV
Price: 630,000 yen
Release date in Japan: June 1, 2003

The Gist: It's a 42-inch plasma TV from Panasonic and it's only about
$5,300 in real money. How good is that? The TH-42PA20 comes with a
regular-looking TV stand, is only 99mm thick (that's craziness!) and
produces a lovely 852x480 dot image for your money. The high-tech TV
also has a stellar contrast ratio of 4000:1, incorporates "new real
gamma" technology (I think this means it goes green and gets really
big when it's angry) and can produce billions of colors on screen.
Literally. (OK, 1,070,000,000, which is over a billion and -- wait for
it -- a world's first!) The new television also includes what Panny is
calling "two dimensional enhancer" technology (which it claims reduces
noise and sharpens up the picture), "digital ghost reduction" and
"deep black" filters. All of which means that you're not going to
believe your eyes when you check it out in the store, then go home on
your knees to the wife to beg permission to buy it.

More info:
http://matsushita.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/jn030522-1/jn03...

============================= EVENT ==================================
Empire www.empire.net.nz - Property Investment Exhibition
Quality Development by Sanctuary Group

Venue: Tokyo American Club, Azabudai, Tokyo
Date: 28th - 29th June 2003
Time: Saturday & Sunday 11:00am - 7:00pm
Contact: Towry Law International (Japan) Ltd -
Ivan Doherty 03-5210-5503 or ipd@towrylaw.co.jp

If you're looking for success in investment property in Auckland,
New Zealand - this is an opportunity not to be missed.
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Name: Matsushita RP-SPC300-S
Category: PC peripheral
Price: 6,300 yen
Release date in Japan: June 25, 2003

The Gist: The RP-SPC300-S has a crap name but is saved by its shiny
looks. It is, in fact, a pair of speakers for your PC, active for your
listening pleasure, with the amp knocking out 2.5W into two channels.
The housing hides 30mm titanium domes with a frequency range of 90Hz
to 30kHz. The volume control and stereo mini-plug can be found on the
right-hand speaker and, for convenience and extra-stupid people,
Matsushita has even written "Left" and "Right" on them for you. More
importantly, the pair of speakers look the part and will go very
nicely with your brand new, chrome-plated customized PC rig.

More info:
http://matsushita.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/jn030521-1/jn03...

===========================ADVERTISEMENT==============================
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Japan - invites you to participate in a "MARKET RESEARCH COMPANIES"
special ad section scheduled for the AUGUST 2003 issue.

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Name: Nikon Coolscope
Category: PC
Price: 1.5 million yen
Release date in Japan: June 2, 2003

The Gist: Ever thought: "Dang! I just wish my digital microscope was
actually incorporated into my PC along with a digital camera! It would
just make my life soooo much easier!" Of course you have, and now
Nikon has come to your rescue. The Nikon Coolscope is a PC, digital
microscope and digital camera all wrapped into one, with a SXGA LCD
monitor to view it all on (oh hang on, that'll cost you extra), just
like in your wildest dreams. The Coolscan employs a two-thirds of an
inch, 5 million-pixel CCD to capture the microscopic images, allowing
the recording of 2,560x1,920-dot maximum resolution bitmap or JPEG
images. There are macro- and micro-display functions, manual or full
auto focus and built-in network capability, in the form of
10/100Base-TX Ethernet. There's even a Compact Flash slot, so you can
share your microscopic findings with your pals.

More info:
http://www.nikon.co.jp/main/jpn/whatsnew/2003/coolscope_03.htm

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Subscribers: 3,582 as of June 5, 2003

STAFF
Written by: Max Everingham (max@everingham.net)
Edited by: J@pan Inc editors (editors@japaninc.com)

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