News tagged ‘Japan’

Manga Strip Poker is a game of Poker with two games inside: a draw poker for beginners and quite difficult hold’em poker for professionals. Beautiful opponents will give you pleasant gameplay. Each opponent girl has her own strategy and character. A dancer likes bluff. A volleyball girl likes courageous play. A nurse will never believe you. A smart business girl calculates possible hands. A VIP girl will make you sweat to win. The application is localized in English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Russian and Japanese.

The game is avaliable via AppStore for $1.99 (link).

Watch the video:

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The new version 1.2.7 of xgps is available in Cydia. Here is the list of changes:

• fixed problems with directions in Japanese,
• the speed is improved,
• awaiting between notification sound and voice guidance decreased,
• the voice of xgps now works even if the iPhone is in Silent mode,
• added new features that let you zoom with a double tap on the map (it does not work yet) and to zoom out with a triple tap on the screen (this should work),
• several bugs fixed,
• the display of the StatusBar is correced,
• displaying the wrong direction bug fixed,
• the interaction with the user interface is improved.

The new 1.2.5 xGPS version will appear in Cydia in a few hours. If you want to try it asap, you can manually download it here.

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Today Google launched a new Image Search results page for iPhone, iPod touch and Android in the US, the UK and Japan.

With the new Image Search results, you can easily scan up to 20 images on a single results page and get the details for images that interest you. From the details page, you can view a larger thumbnail, visit the web page containing the image, or view the image by itself in full size. The new results page also supports "search-by-style" filters, which allow you to restrict your search results to people's faces, clip art, line drawings, or photo content.

To try it yourself, go to google.com on your Android-powered device , iPhone, or iPod touch, and click on "Images" before doing your search.

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There are many iPhone applications, that alow you to play drums (f.e. real drums). However you should take a look at Kanon Drums, application from japanese developers. This app is fantastic. It works really good, you can play along with some famous riffs.

The app is free. Here is an AppStore link. Watch the video:

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Emoji, emoticons and pictorial characters popular in the Japanese instant messaging culture, were introduced to Japanese customers as part of the iPhone 2.2 Firmware update, but have required workarounds to be enabled for non-Japanese users. There are many solutins to turn Emiji Icons (Get Emoji Icons for free), but the easy one required jailbreaking. Recently Apple approved an application that simplifies this process. App is called EmotiFun and it is free (AppStore link).

Everything is simple: get app, run it, exit and go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable.

This is a new iPhone application which just debuted in Japan's App Store. Called "ServersMan@iPhone", the application allows your iPhone to appear just like any other web server on the internet.

Once the app is installed, PCs on the internet can access the iPhone to upload or download files through a browser or they can use the webDAV protocol. If the PC and the iPhone are on the same network, the PC can connect directly. If they are on separate networks, then FreeBit's VPN software will engage the connection.

At the moment, the ServersMan@iPhone is only available in the Japanese App Store, but an English version is coming in March. A port for Windows Mobile devices is also under development.

via readwriteweb

First of all these icons can be viewed on any iPhone with 2.2 firmware. But to be able to send these icons users need to perform additional actions. There are 4 ways to turn them on and 2 of them are free:

Solution N1 for $5.99:

In AppStore buy and install Touch Dial Emoji. Goto Settings -> Touch Dial -> Enable Smiley icon ON. Launch Touch Dial. Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."

Solution N2 for $0.99:

In AppStore buy and install FrostyPlace. Play with the app for a minute to activate, click on a story, etc. Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."

Solution N3 for Free:

Jailbreak your iPhone. Run Cydia and install Emoji application (iSpazio repository). Go to Settings -> General -> Keyboard -> International Keyboards -> Japanese and enable "Emoji."

This application adds boolean ‘true’ key KeyboardEmojiEverywhere edits in /User/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Preferences.plist. You can do it manually if you want.

Solution N3 for Free:

Step 1. Download the vcard.vcf here.
Step 2. Import it to your address book program. If you are using Windows, you may want to do it on iPhone directly. Send the vcard.vcf file to yourself. Open in on iPhone’s Email.app, click the vcf file and import all the contacts.
Step 3. Go into “Settings” > “General” > “Keyboard” > “Japanese Keyboard”. Enable the QWERTY keyboard.
Step 4. In notes or any other program you want. Type “emojia”, “emojii” or “emojiu” to select those icons.

I like Solution N3. It is free and simple. You do not need to play with contacts and etc. But you need to jailbreak an iPhone.

This robot is made in Japan. The main part is a jailbroken iPhone 3G running some Ruby code. Other parts include an Arduino CPU, a TA7291P motor, and 4 AA batteries. The robot is controlled via WiFi from a nearby computer.

More pictures:

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This is a translator. It uses free Google Translate API. Users can choose between many languages including Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hindi, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish and Vietnamese.

Application is free, here is a link to AppStore.

PS: It requires internet connection (WiFi, 3G, EDGE or regular GPRS).

Apple released firmware version 2.2 beta 1 a bit more than a week ago. Couple more features were hiden there.

First of all Apple has addressed one common request within the iPhone's Keyboard settings, allowing users to disable the iPhone's auto-correction.

The other feature is for Japanese market - Japanese emoji icons. The lack of emoji support has been blamed as part of the reason for slow iPhone adoption in Japan.

The third new feature is Street View. It allows users to view panoramic street level photographs in select cities within the Google Maps application.

Hopefully we will see more new features in this and next beta's of 2.2 firmware.

via macrumors

Related articles:

• Firmware 2.2 - new Safari interface
• Jailbreak on firmware 2.2 beta 1
• Auto-correction - solution to turn it off

There are many mobile-specific magazines. I haven't seen any that write only about iPhones. However in Japan many iPhone-specific magazines have been available for over a year. Taking into consideration that iPhone 3G is avaliable in Japan for a bit more than a month.. Very nice.

ThinkGeek began to sell stylus for iPhone/iPod Touch. It is supposed that users operate their devices using hands. However there are many people that just cannot do that (f.e. women with long nails). For such users the iPhone Japanese Touch Pen Stylus was created.

The iPhone Japanese Touch Pen Stylus emulates your finger and allows you to gain precise control while using your phone. This sleek metal stylus is imported from Japan and features an angled spring loaded tip for easier on-screen dragging. The removable cap on the back unscrews to reveal a SIM eject tool. It's perfect for those of you with long fingernails or simply oversized stubby man fingers. The price is $14.99.

More photos:

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NPD Group released the top leading music retailers for the first half of 2008. The list was based on purchases of CDs or digital music downloads.

1. iTunes
2. Wal-Mart (Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads)
3. Best Buy (Best Buy, Bestbuy.com, Best Buy Digital Music Store)
4. Amazon (Amazon.com, AmazonMP3.com)
5. Target (Target and Target.com)

Apple's iTunes remains number one among all retailers. Apple took the number one spot in April, overtaking Wal-Mart.

Here is a quick list of history events for iTunes:

• 28 April 2003 : start in the US.
• 5 May 2003 : one million is sold.
• 23 June 2003 : 5 million.
• 8 September 2003 : 10 million.
• 15 December 2003 : 25 million.
• 15 March 2004 : 50 million.
• 15 June 2004 : iTunes in France, UK, Germany.
• 12 July 2004 : 100 million!
• 26 October : in all European Union.
• 2 December : iTunes in Canada.
• 10 May 2005 : 400 million, open in Denmark, Norway, Sweden,  Switzerland.
• 17 July 2005 : 500 million!
• 4 August 2005 : Japan.
• 25 October 2005 : Australia.
• 23 February 2006 : first billion!
• 19 June 2008 : 5 billion!

via deepapple