GW-165

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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. 165
Monday October 18, 2004
(Long URLs may break across two lines, so copy to your browser.)
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========= Entrepreneur Association of Tokyo Seminar =========
This November, Kaori Sasaki, CEO & President of ewoman Inc & President
of UNICUL International will present, ewoman's Secret of Success. Don't
miss this great opportunity to hear from one of Japan's leading
entrepreneurs. For more information please visit the EA-Tokyo website.

Date/Time: Tuesday, November 2nd 7:00 pm
Location: City Club of Tokyo - Maple Room (Canadian Embassy Complex)
Language: English
Website: http://www.ea-tokyo.com
Email: info@ea-tokyo.com
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Name: Zaurus SL-C3000
Category: PDA
Price: Open Price; estimated around 80,000 yen
Release date in Japan: November 10th, 2004

The Gist: Added to Sharp's lineup of Zaurus PDA's this past week
was the impressive new "Zaurus SL-C3000." It sports a 3.7-inch
screen capable of displaying 640 x 480 dots, which like the previous
Zaurus models, can be folded around in what Sharp has named the
2Way Style. More important than the screen though, the new Zaurus
adds a hard drive to the world of PDAs -- it contains a 4GB hard
drive, 2.9GB of which are available for user to the consumer at
time of shipment. If you find yourself wanting more space, feel
free to delete the included "5th Edition Koujien" encyclopedia
and/or the "Juniors E/J J/E Dictionary."As you would expect with
a PDA of modern times, you will of course get your AV functionality
such as MPEG-4 video playback, MP3/WMA playback, and even video
output. Just in case you somehow fill up the hard drive, Sharp
also provides an SD Memory Card and CF Type II Card Slot. When
"used as a PDA," the C3000 lasts for about 7 hours using its internal
Lithium Ion battery. Go ahead and call this a mini-laptop, but be
careful -- Sharp still hasn't included any integrated wireless
LAN support. I personally suspect that Sharp wanted to give users
the option of wireless LAN or PHS cards (because PHS is still
quite popular for Zaurus users), so they decided to simply omit
the feature.

More info: http://www.sharp.co.jp/corporate/news/041015-a.html
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Name: Olympus m:robe Audio Players, MR-500i and MR-100
Category: Portable Audio
Price: Open Price; estimated at 60,000 yen for MR-500i,
30,000 yen for MR-100
Release date in Japan: Late November, 2004

The Gist: For some reason, Olympus went and unveiled two new
portable audio players on us. I initially couldn't help but roll
my eyes at yet another company's attempt at an "iPod-killer," because
it seems everyone wants to kill the iPod, but Olympus does seem to
have some impressive products lined up in their m:robe (as in,
enrobe in music) players.The first would be the MR-500i, which I at
first thought was like iRiver's new Portable Media Player offering.
In fact, I'd be close -- it does have nearly the same size, features a
640 x 480 color screen, and playback MP3s, but it does not have any video
capabilities. I guess in order for these players to somehow relate to
Olympus, the MR-500i also features a 1.22MP camera. Thankfully, you can
record photos to the device's hard drive; with its 20GB capacity, you'll
be taking quite a lot of photos before you have to worry about running
short of space.The next offering from Olympus doesn't have a digital
camera, but it does have a cool red-on-black color scheme. I'm a sucker
for red-on-black, and given that the 5GB MR-100 features a 1.7" STN LCD
display with red only, I am reminded of Nintendo's Virtual Boy. One other
aspect I like about MR-100 is the all-electronic controls -- in other
words, the face of the player goes into a lights off mode when off, and
all you can see is a black panel and the Olympus logo. Quite the opposite
of Apple's happy-go-lucky silver on white color scheme, meaning the design
of these players should appeal to an entirely different audience.
For our American readers, Olympus has announced that the MR-500i and
MR-100 will be released stateside for 500 and 250 dollars, respectively.

More info: http://www.olympus.co.jp/jp/news/2004b/nr041013mrobej.cfm
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Name: Sony EBR-S7MS, EBR-S8MS
Category: Electronic Dictionary
Price: Open Price; both estimated around 30,000 yen
Release date in Japan: November 6th, 2004

The Gist: Sony's new "business card case-sized" EBR-S7MS electronic
dictionary contains 16 English-language related contents. I normally
wouldn't make a big deal of any of this, but I think it's important
to point out that this is all done using Memory Stick ROM. That's
right -- 16 contents such as The Oxford Standard English-English/Synonym
Dictionary, and for the first time in the industry, Oxford English & America
Culture Encyclopedia. However, I don't suppose you'd be very interested
in the last item...or would you?

In total, the EBR-S7MS contains 28 contents.This is one less than
the total contents of the EBR-S8MS, which has a much more international
flavor. If you're in Japan and would like to pick up an international
electronic dictionary before you head out (assuming you are planning on it),
this just may be a good choice: the S8MS features Korean, Chinese,
German, French, Italian, Spanish,
English, and Japanese dictionaries.

More info: http://www.sony.jp/CorporateCruise/Press/200410/10-1013/
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STAFF
Written by: Liam McNulty
Edited by: Burritt Sabin (editors2@japaninc.com)

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