GW-125

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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. 125

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

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This season, stay at the Cerulean Tower Tokyu Hotel
Located in the trendy area of Shibuya, right in the middle of TOKYO
And pay 50% of the regular price!!

This limited offer is only available on Japan.com
http://www.japan.com/special
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========================= READY FOR 2004? ============================
At J@pan Inc, we bring you far more than just THIS newsletter.

CHECK OUT:
>> Award-winning journalists each month in our flagship print
publication: J@pan Inc magazine
>> Daily updates on our comprehensive, Japan-specific News, Business,
Entertainment, Travel and Culture Web Portal: http://www.Japan.com
>> Up-to-the-minute announcements, analyses and market insights --
plus prodigious article archives! -- on our massive user-friendly
homepage: http://www.JapanInc.com
>> 6 ADDITIONAL newsletters, with the very latest on Business,
Wireless Entertainment, Currencies and Markets, Politics -- and next
week's Hottest Gadgets.

WE ARE ready for 2004. Are you?

* Custom-made packages available for mid-sized businesses. HURRY and
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For more information, please call Fabien Brogard Cipriani
- Sales Manager at J@pan Inc:
TEL: 03-3499-2175 ext. 1709
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Name: Sony PSX
Category: Gaming
Price: (DESR-7000) 99,800 yen/(DESR-5000)79,800 yen
Release date in Japan: December 13, 2003

The Gist: Sony has already updated the PSX. The PS2 in angel's
clothing (incorporating the game machine, a DVD recorder and a hard
disk) has, despite the fact that it hasn't even been released yet
(it's out on December 13), been changed. And not for the better, from
what we can tell. Before this "update," we would have said that if you
don't have a game machine yet and have been thinking of buying one,
this would be a good time. The altered specs are:
- Dubbing speed from the hard drive to DVD has fallen from 24x to 12x.
- DVD+RW, CD-R, MP3, TIFF and GIF playback are now no longer possible.
- You can now no longer play back Cybershot movies.
- It's now compatible with the upgrade via PlayStation BB Internet
service.
- It's gotten heavier, so now the 250GB DESR-7000 is 5.8kg, and the
DESR-5000 is now 5.7kg (both up from 5.6kg).

Well, it would have been the time to pick up a PS2 if Sony hadn't
decided to drop all these features. Apparently, the Sony men in white
coats couldn't squeeze the above-mentioned elements into the PSX in
time for launch, but, they say they may be able to provide the MIA
features by way of a future software update. No guarantees, though,
which is a bit weak, no?

More info: http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200311/03-1127/

============================ IT PROGRAM ==============================
Temple University Japan presents "The Temple IT Program".
Certification in two key IT areas: Computer Programming and Software
Systems Development.
Study to get a great job in IT, retrain to improve your career in IT,
assess and raise IT staff technical skills. Courses based on
leading-edge course content from iCarnegie (Carnegie Mellon
University).
More info: http://www.tuj.ac.jp/itp/newsad.html
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Name: Kyocera Finecam SL300R T
Category: Digital camera
Price: Open (but approx. 55,000 yen)
Release date in Japan: early December 2003

The Gist: The SL300R T is not, as you may at first think, a sporty new
car from Mercedes, but instead a digicam with a swiveling Carl Zeiss
Vario-Tessar T lens and a three-times optical zoom. Which is not to be
sniffed at. Put simply, Carl Zeiss lenses rock -- at least Sony, which
has been putting them in its Cybershot series of digital cameras for
years, seems to think so. The SL300R T has an old-fashioned look,
given the titanium and black die-cast magnesium casing (look at the
pics of it, and you'll see what we mean) and, more importantly, a
3,170,000-pixel CCD, giving maximum resolution shots of 2,048x1,536
dots and 640x480 movies at 15fps (this will go up to a less
eye-juddering 30 fps if you drop the resolution to 320x240). That
lovely Carl Zeiss lens has a focal range of 5.8 to 17.4mm (equivalent
to 38x115mm on a 35mm camera, for all you Luddites out there) and
brightness of F2.8 to 4.7. The new Finecam also has an SD/MMC card
slot and is pretty standard in all other respects, but that Zeiss lens
is worth the entry price alone.

More info: http://www.kyocera.co.jp/news/2003/1106.html

**********************************************************************
Incubator space available
(Just 60,000 yen per month)

LINC Media, a company with a successful track record of incubating and
helping startups get into business, has desks and cubicles available
for long and short-term rent at its office in Minami-Aoyama. A
spacious cubicle and desk, and Internet connection are available for
just 60,000 yen per month, with discounts offered for three or more
people. Copier, fax, shredder, phone and laser printer also available
at a small additional charge. All enquiries in either English or
Japanese to erika.kobayashi@biosjp.com.
**********************************************************************

Name: Intel Pentium 4 Extreme Edition 3.2 GHz
Category: PC
Price: 109,799 yen
Release date in Japan: Now

The Gist: It's a bit of a slow gadget news week this week (unless LCD
panels do something for you), but this just in from Akihabara will
ensure that all you PC freaks out there (I mean this in a kindly way)
will be trotting off down there to spend some cash. The new "Pentium 4
Extreme Edition" CPU, now on store shelves, will take your PC into the
stratosphere. Good thing there are no speed cameras on the information
superhighway・ar har・Anyhow, the new 3.2GHz processor has a massive
2MB of cache memory, a Socket 478 interface, an 800MHz FSB (Front Side
Bus) compatible with Hyper-Threading Technology and is only 109,799
yen. And if you understood any of that stuff I just wrote, you'll know
that's a very good thing. There are other concoctions to be had
(smaller buses, slower CPUs, a Celeron or Athlon chip in place of a
Pentium and so on) but why would you want those? You wouldn't! Get
with the GW program!

More info: http://www.intel.co.jp/

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with the Small School Philosophy(ISS)

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http://www.isstokyo.com
http://homepage.mac.com/intsecschool/
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Subscribers: 4,714 as of December 4, 2003

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

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