GW-146

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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. 146

Monday, May 31, 2004
(Long URLs may break across two lines, so copy to your browser.)

========================= EA Event ====================================
Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo's One Year Anniversary - June Seminar

Join the June 9th Panel Discussion to celebrate EA-Tokyo's One Year
Anniversary! Don稚 miss this great opportunity to hear: Tim Williams,
Founder and Chairman of ValueCommerce; Caroline Pover, President and
Founder of Alexandra Press, Being A Broad, and Go Girls; and Lance Lee,
President of IGC (Japan) Ltd, and the former President of the Amercian
Chamber of Commerce in Japan. The theme for the discussion will be,
"Creating Value for Customers and for Owners. What does it mean to
Create Value?・Please register early to reserve your seat.

Date/Time: Wednesday, June 9th at 7:00 pm City Club of Tokyo -
Maple Room (Canadian Embassy Complex)
Language: English http://www.ea-tokyo.com Email: info@ea-tokyo.com

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Name: Canon CanoScan 5200F
Category: Personal color image flat-head scanner
Price: 16,590 yen according to Bic Camera's Web site.
Release date in Japan: May 28

The Gist: The CanoScan 5200F is a successor to CanoScan 5000F, which is
popular for its cost performance. The CanoScan 5200F has a film scan
and other new features while keeping the price relatively low. It
contains "Canon's Hyper CCD II ex" enabling 2,400-dpi resolution,
giving clearer image to documents. The CanoScan 5200F can also scan
six 35-millimeter films in a row and has "FARE Level2," a function to
erase dust upon scanning. (FARE stands for Film Automatic Retouching
and Enhancement.) Canon accelerates scanning speed for the CanoScan
5200F. In the case of film scanning, the CanoScan 5200F is five times
as fast as conventional models. It can also combine several image
data into one PDF file.

More info:
http://cweb.canon.jp/newsrelease/2004-05/pr_cs5200f.html

========================== Tennis Lessons ==============================
FREE tennis lessons at Hilton Tokyo Hotel, Shinjuku! Want to play tennis
but don't know how to find a court in Tokyo? JINJI TENNIS CENTER provides
the ideal tennis environment for foreigners living in and around Tokyo.
For info on tournaments, specials For Kids, tennis equipment, et cetera.

click "English" for details.
http://WWW.JINJITENNIS.COM

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Name: Panasonic VIERA wide-screen TV series
Category: TVs compatible with satellite broadcastings and regular
channels.
Price: Open. (One of the 50-inch plasma TVs is priced at
890,4000 yen according to Bic Camera.)
Release date in Japan: June 1, 2004.

The Gist: Panasonic will release seven wide-screen TVs on June 1 and
another on July 1. Three are plasma TVs and five are LCD TVs. The eight
TVs are compatible with BS (Broadcasting Satellite), 110-degree CS
(Communication Satellite) digital high vision and regular channels.
Panasonic expects consumers to watch the Athens Olympic games with
wide-screen, high-visual-quality TVs. The new VIERA series provide the
greatest variety of colors in the world (3.62 billion different colors)
and the widest visibility in the world -- boasting a 176-degree angle
both horizontally and vertically. They also record onto and play from
SD memory cards, so they are compatible with many other Panasonic
products. The eight TVs have a screen size of 22 inches to 50 inches.

More info:

http://matsushita.co.jp/corp/news/official.data/data.dir/jn040510-7/
jn040510-7.html

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Name: Toshiba A5506T
Category: Camera-equipped mobile phone for au (KDDI)
Price: Open. (Toshiba and au declined to say.)
Release date in Japan: early June, 2004

The Gist: Users can take a photo of QR code (the trademark of Denso
Wave Inc) with a camera equipped with the A5506T, a handset compatible
with mobile phone service provided by au, Japan's second biggest mobile
phone operator. With the code stored, phone users can access Web sites
without typing URLs. The QR code is often found in magazines and
business cards. The A5506T is also compatible with "EZ NaviWalk," a
navigation service for pedestrians. Combining QR code and EZ NaviWalk,
A5506T can show the shortest way to restaurants, movie theaters and
other places on a map displayed on its LCD monitor, without requiring
users to type URLs. The camera takes photos of 1.3 megapixels. The
phone uses a 2.2-inch LCD, and has a slot for the miniSD memory card,
so users can put the card in a PC to look at photos on a bigger screen.
The phone also boasts a bilingual (Japanese and English) display function.
The A5506T measures 49 mm in width, 95 mm in height and 25 mm in thickness,
and weighs 114 grams with a battery. Users can talk for 180 consecutive
minutes before the battery runs out. Without talk, the battery lasts
210 hours. It takes 110 minutes to fully charge a battery.

More info:
http://www.toshiba.co.jp/about/press/2004_05/pr_j1701.htm

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Subscribers: 5,767 as of May 31, 2004

STAFF
Written by: Minoru Masutani
Edited by: J@pan Inc editors (editors@japaninc.com)

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