GW-113

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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. 113
Thursday, September 4, 2003
(Long URLs may break across two lines, so copy to your browser.)

Name: Pixela PIX-MPTV/U4W
Category: TV
Price: 27,800 yen
Release date in Japan: September 6, 2003

The Gist: This is the smallest USB2.0-compatible TV capture unit in
the world. Yes! In the world! With dimensions of 107x103x20mm and
weighing just 200g, the dinky and, frankly, heartbreakingly lovely
PIX-MPTV/U4W will sit quietly and cutely in your hand like a little
newborn chick. At least that's what the Pixel people would like you to
believe. So you can sit (or stand, if you prefer) and stroke it to
your heart's content. Luckily, however, that isn't all the midget
PIX-MPTV/U4W can do. A veritable smorgasbord of electronic goodness,
the U4W has a TV tuner from Japan Media Electronics, an MPEG encoder
from Fujitsu and a "Ghost Reducer" from NEC, which, sadly, doesn't
actually eject scary phantom spirits from your house, but just aims to
make the picture sharper and clearer.

Capable of recording in both MPEG-2 and MPEG-1 formats (at a highest
resolution of 720ﾗ480 in MPEG-2), the U4W uses MPEG-1 Layer 2 audio
compression at a bit rate of up to 384kbps. Connections include ones
for S-video, composite and analog sound.

More info: http://www.pixela.co.jp/news/2003/0827.html

============================= EVENT ==================================
SECOND COST-CUTTING STRATEGIES SEMINAR FOR FOREIGN MANAGERS IN JAPAN

Date: Sept. 19, 2003
Location: JETRO BSC Hall, Akasaka Twin Tower Main Building
Organized by: LINC Media Inc., Japan Inc. Communications KK
(publisher of J@pan Inc magazine) and the Shizuoka
Prefectural Government. We are pleased to present the second
of our ongoing program of cost-cutting seminars for foreign
managers. Our keynote speaker is Mr. Andrew Fried, a
partner with IBM Business Consulting (previously PwC).

View complete Seminar information at: http://www.japan.com/shizuoka/
Registration fee: free of charge
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Name: San Disk "Ultra II" series
Category: Storage
Price: from 12,600 yen
Release date in Japan: end August 2003

The Gist: San Disk's brand new line of Compact Flash and SD Memory
Card storage media boasts rates of 9MB/sec for writing and 10MB/sec
for reading for its spanky new "Ultra II" range. Fifty percent faster
than the original Ultra series, the Ultra II cards are apparently
designed for use with digital cameras over the 4-megapixel mark. So
all you cheapskate sub-4-megapixel digicam owners are going to have to
grade up or shut up. There's a whole bunch of configurations in the
series, but the huge, 1-gig Compact Flash card will be here by
September (expected to sell for about 51,600 yen) and there'll be
512MB Smart Media cards by November.

More info: http://www.sandisk.com/about/press.asp

=========================== EVENT ==================================
GARTNER'S SYMPOSIUM/ITXPO 2003
Date: Nov. 19-21, 2003
Location: Le Meridien Grand Pacific (Odaiba, Tokyo)

Business today is all about reducing time, increasing speed, and
improving profits. Technology is the enabler.
Keeping up - and looking ahead - is your challenge and our strength.
Join over 2500 senior IT decision makers to hear Gartner's leading
global and Japanese analyst address technology issues that will
have the biggest impact on your enterprise over the next year.

View complete Symposium information at:
http://www.gartner.co.jp/symposium/eng/

SAVE 20% for delegates who register by August 29.
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Name: Sony KDL-L42HX2
Category: AV
Price: 1,300,000
Release date in Japan: October 20, 2003

The Gist: The Wega series of televisions is immensely popular, of
course, so no doubt this new range from Sony will be snapped up with
the fervor of bargain hunters on the first day of a sale at
Bloomingdales. The flagship model has a 42-inch LCD screen producing a
1,366x768-dot display, is compatible with 1,080i,720p,480p and 480i
formats, houses integral terrestrial, BS and CS digital tuners and an
analog terrestrial double tuner, and produces a lovely, bright image
rated at 500cd/m2. The "Super Wide Angle LCD Panel" has a viewing
angle of 170 degrees in both planes; the back light is said to last
60,000 hours, and the whole caboodle weighs a staggering 30kg. So,
even if you watch television 24/7, it'll be around seven years before
the bulb burns out. By which time you'll be having images beamed
directly into your optical nerve rather than watching TV, anyhow.

But if the KDL-L42HX2 is a little outside your budget, there are two
smaller versions of the LCD Wega, starting with the 28-inch version
(not shockingly dubbed the KDL-L28HX2) priced at a mere 600,000 yen.
And if it isn't expensive enough, can we recommend sir buys the
KDE-P61HX2N, an incredibly massive 61-inch plasma version of the Wega
available in November for a cool 2.5 million yen.

More info: http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200308/03-0828/

===============================EVENT =================================
The Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo - Our September seminar will
feature Caroline Pover founder of Alexandra Press, Being A Broad,
and Go Girls, and Yuriko Miyazaki founder of Krene Inc and vice
president of Go Girls. They will be sharing their experiences on
starting businesses in Japan and how they overcame the obstacles that
stood in their way.

Date: Tuesday September 9th, City Club of Tokyo Maple Room
(Canadian Embassy Complex) Language English
http://www.ea-tokyo.com E-mail: info@ea-tokyo.com
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STAFF
Written by: Max Everingham (max@everingham.net)
Edited by: J@pan Inc editors (editors@japaninc.com)

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