Strap-ya has these cute cell phone strap capsules that have little trees from different countries in them. Pictured here is the hose tree from Argentina. Also available are trees from South Africa, Mexico, and the US. The trees are actually alive, and if you water them properly (once or twice a month), they can live for up to six months in their little capsules. They could even grow to be real trees if you replant them in soil.
This funny-looking chrome machine is an automatic egg boiler with easy settings and attachments for breakfast made to order. It's easy to set up—on/off, 10 minutes for soft boiled, 15 for hard-boiled—and a special tray for making three perfect poached eggs. (Continue reading for a picture.)
Continue reading "Electric Boiler Makes Eggs to Order, 7 at a Time" »
Japanese cell phones already do stuff like play crazy ring tones and double as wallets, but now they're also going to be giving off signature scents.
The new phones by NTT DoCoMo will be equipped with fragrance cartridges that are accessed by IR when you download a fragrance playlist onto your handset. The company hopes to partner with mobile content providers so that you can pair a scent with your horoscope, the weather report, your favorite web video, or some romantical music.
Ever wonder what your future holds? This little gadget, called the Futurescope, will tell you. Released by Asovision last week, the machine crosses a detailed personality analysis test with a measurement of your biorhythm and then spits out predictions about love, finance, career, etc.
It's a similar concept to the Human Player, which creates a mini-digital you based on personality tests.
Check out these great little tin paraphernalia cases that look like Japanese cell phones. They're modeled after real existing handsets to scale, and when you open them up, there are two little compartments to put pencils, gum, coins, etc. in. The clamshell version even has a little compact mirror.
Continue reading "Pencil Case Looks Like A Japanese Cell Phone" »
This is Toshiba's new super fancy diamond-studded cell phone, called the Cosmic Shiner. It's $4000. There are only 1000 left, limited edition, and for some reason, purchase is by invitation only. It comes in a personalized, handmade lacquer box.
Softbank's coming out with a new line of handsets in April that will double as robot friends. These handsets have arms and legs that fold out, and screens that will make faces according to their moods.
The robot phone doesn't actually talk or move, but it'll tell you what it's thinking via text message. (He'll call you out if you're phone stalking somebody, for example.)
My brother and I saw this oxygen capsule at the Tokyo Int'l Gift Show. We asked the guy if we can go in, and he said yes. But then he told us it takes at least 40 minutes for one beautifying cycle to complete itself. The oxygen capsule works by slowly releasing oxygen at high pressures inside the tank. Apparently it has extreme health and beauty benefits.
I like to look pretty, but I can't be spending all day in an oxygen tank. My brother, well...he doesn't need to be any prettier.
Apparently, these are becoming increasingly popular in Japan. There's a photo of a sexy model in white boots in a similar one on Mainichi.
While I was hanging out with Stormtrooper in Akiba last week, I spotted this happy French guy selling these strange dolphin-shaped blow-up thingys that he claimed were useful for propping up laptops.He tried to sell me one, but I said no.
This funny-looking mouse transforms into a vacuum cleaner at the flick of a switch. Put it in mouse mode, and you can use it to navigate your desktop. Put it in vacuum mode, and you can start sweeping up bread crumbs and eraser dust off of your workspace. After you're done vacuuming, you can just open its butt and empty out the junk you swept up.
Product page (Japanese)
Japan's tech industry is abuzz with word of the thin-as-a-document MacBook Air. To find out whether what the TV commercials said were true, reporters at Daily Portal Z went to a crafts store and bought yellow and red leather so they could make a perfect replica of a standard A4 sized folder and see if the Air would fit.
Continue reading "Handmade MacBook Air Case Looks Like a Plain Brown Folder " »
If you thought Japanese nail art was over-the-top, check out these immaculate blinged out cell phone covers that I found in Odaiba last week. For just under $300, you can turn your handset into a diamond-studded American flag, or a happy place with rainbows and peace signs. The one in the bottom row with the cupcakes is kinda crazy.
I found this mysterious phallic gadget in the household goods section of the Tokyo International Gift Show. What could it be? My guess: a humidifier.
Are you a glamorous-at-heart game addict who wishes there was a little bit more flair to your console? I've seen people put fake diamond stickers all over their DS Lite, but this silver heart-shaped stylus takes fancy to a whole new level. You have to admit that the light blue box with the off-center heart and leather strap is reminiscent of a gift from Tiffany's.
This little cell phone strap from Strap-Ya is actually a small solar cell that can store energy and charge your phone. Smart! It can be charged up to 500 times--and if it's cloudy, three hours on an AC adapter will give you a backup battery anyway. Comes out Feb 9th.
Product Page (Japanese)
This tiny little wooden cube is more than just a cute cell phone accessory--it's a real working speaker that can hook up to any MP3 player, cell phone, or iPod. The sound quality, according to the product site, is surprisingly loud and clear. The design is simple—no buttons, no power source necessary—it just turns on when you plug it in.
Last week, cops broke up a schoolgirl prostitution ring in Saitama and Tokyo, arresting at least five junior high and high school girls who were selling sex online via their cell phones. One was a sixth grader. About 80% of the customers were pedophiles.
The amazing thing is that everything, including detailed ads soliciting customers, was written in code.
Take this piece of seemingly benign code, for example:
IkebLURV1700Yukichi2JC1
Ikeb = Ikebukuro. The neighborhood that the girl is in.
LURV = "I will have sex with you."
1700 = Time: 5PM
Yukichi2 = Yukichi Fukuzawa, the guy whose face is on the 10,000 yen note x 2 = I cost 20,000 yen
JC = Joshi Chugakusei (Junior high school girl. JS would be elementary school girl, JK would be high school girl)
1 = Grade 1. In Japan, 1st year of junior high = 7th grade.
Parents are being warned to look out for code like this on their kids' cell phones. It's a sure sign that they're involved in the sex trade, too.
Tiffany & Co. teamed up with Softbank Mobile to make this blinged out, diamond-studded handset, which will hit stores in February. It costs about $94K. And here I was wondering why the iPhone is so damn expensive.
The thing has 400 diamonds on it, which totals about 20 carats. I wonder if people are going to start giving engagement phones instead of rings.
P.S. If anyone in Japan sees people using this phone starting next months, please send me some pics. I want to see what these rich bitches look like!
Link
These individual coffee-makers are great for people who not only don't have time to drink coffee at home, but those who can't sit around for it to brew. The drip part is removable, so you can put it away once you're done with it.
Product page (Japanese, via Impress Watch)
If you're a hard core Gundam fan, then you have to have this cell phone. It's a special edition Gundam-themed handset chock full of Gundam ring tones, cool one-liners from the TV series that can sub for boring message notification noises, and mobile suit screen savers. The best part of it, though, is the Gundam Head dock that glows and moves while it charges your phone. From Softbank.
(Thanks, Bryan!)
Mizuno just announced this brand new, awesome piece of furniture that doubles as a living room recliner and a sit-up machine. It has a benign, black-and-taupe exterior and a sleek design, plus those rolly things that hold your legs in place while you strengthen your core...pretty awesome.
This goes on sale Feb 5.
Product page (via Impress Watch)
Sick of ordering Domino's? This new ceramic pizza oven from Hakuho makes perfect 10-inch pizzas in about twenty minutes. The finished product looks—and apparently tastes—almost like real Italian pizza fresh out of the brick oven. It's about $90.
Hakuho via Impress Watch (Japanese)
What's scarier than Mickey Mouse? A hot pink Mickey Mouse-shaped MP3 player with Swarovski crystals on it! Disney collaborated with iRiver Japan to create this cutehideous gadget, a limited edition released today in Japan. It actually comes in white, blue, silver, and black, too. The pink one is the Valentine edition. The hardware is the same as the previously released M player, with 1gb of memory, blah blah blah.
Link (Japanese)
Humidifiers are usually bulky and ugly and loud, but this bright yellow donut-shaped alien-like humidifier from Entrex promises to bring moisture and style to your home on dry winter days. It stands on four sleek silver legs, and emits steam out of a perfectly geometric silver cylinder that looks like a mouthpiece. Controls are simple and stylish too—a series of buttons lined up along the side turn it off and on, and tiny LED lights indicate status.
via Impress Watch (Japanese)
Remember the Air Pistol, one of the gazillion awesome gadgets from the future that came out of Doraemon the robotic cat's belly pocket? Just by saying "Bang!" you could make it fire a fake bullet. Now, Epoch has turned this idea into a real voice-activated remote control controller. Using embedded, pre-programmed IR signals, this "pistol" can tell up to four remotes in your home what to do. You just have to sync it with the respective controller and put it on your finger. Now you can turn on the TV, crank up the A/C, or mute the DVD player just by saying "bang!"
When it's not in use, the pistol rests on Doraemon's arm (see above).
Do you love your keyboard so much that you wish you could hang out with your Shift key all the time? This cell phone strap series from Strap-Ya features some of the most important keys on your computer--Shift, Enter, Esc. (I actually hardly ever use the Esc key anymore, come to think of it.) Anyway, they come in white or black, they're fun to push, and they're kinda cute.
Buy yours here.
If you're a construction worker or you work in a nightclub, you might want to get an e-mimi-kun, which is basically an earplug that has noise-canceling capabilities and a microphone that detects air vibrations in your ear canal. NS-ELEX developed the gadget using a chip made by Sanyo.
VideoClip, Takara Tomy's newest multimedia toy, lets you record segments from any TV show and play it back on this cute little handheld. It has really simple controls—pause, play, fast forward, rewind—and can store up to 8 hrs of video or 60 hrs of audio. For those who don't like baby pink or baby blue, there are other patterns you can download on the web site and stick onto the surface.
Product page (Japanese)
Since Japanese tourists love to take photos, especially with small point-and-shoot digicams and cell phones, this flexible tripod is indispensable on any overseas vacation. Stand it up on a table, wrap it around a tree, hang it off the balcony....the legs wrap around almost anything and the adjustable mount snaps onto most gadgets.
These pretty, stylish raindrop speakers are mist-proof so you can hang them from your bathroom ceiling. But the coolest thing about it is that you can put an iPod inside. From Tokyo Hands, available in the 3 colors shown above.
I bought a Pez for the first time in at least a decade the other day at a supermarket in Canada. It had Piglet's head on it, and Piglet kind of looks like my dog Ruby. Well, this Yoda pez is not only a yummy sugar candy dispenser, but it's also a cell phone strap. I'm actually not sure where you can buy it, but it comes with the R2D2 garbage can as a "omake" (freebie in Japanese).
Star Wars fans can now officially geek out to their trash cans, too. This R2D2 aluminum trash bin works like any other foot-pedal operated cylindrical bin--but it looks totally rad in your bedroom or kitchen. This bad boy's available in Japan from the end of March, and in the US this summer.
Product page (Japanese)
This sleek silver shift stick is actually a FM radio. All the functions--from volume settings to channel tuning--are controlled by shifting gears. Up and down to adjust the volume, shift right to scan through the channels, and left to reset. Even if you don't know how to drive stick, you'll probably be able to figure this thing out.
Product page (Japanese)
If you want to smoke in my house, you better ash in this. And then at some point over the evening I'll make Ruby poop and replace the poop-looking ashtray with real poop, and then you'll wish you'd never smoked in my house.
Product page (Japanese)
You never know when you're going to need to send warning signals from your desk...maybe there's a mass murderer hiding under your seat and he's threatening to chop off your legs before he slowly eats you from bottom up...so if you keep this emergency lamp thing on top of your monitor, all you gotta do is plug in the USB and the sirens will go off, alerting everyone that you're in trouble.
