Editor’s Note
Editor’s Note

Editor’s Note

Girls Mobile SNS to Farm for Boys

CyberAgent introduced an unusual mobile SNS platform last month, sensing spring was in the air, targeted at women shopping for a husband. The angle appears to be that ladies create an account, adding portrait profiles of all the guys they know, to share details within their ‘hopefully growing’ network of like-minded girl friends. The twist here – in cute icon loving land – is that the boys are represented as lambs, cows or horses depending on their flirty, lazy or agressive nature.. can you imagine! Any bets on how long until someone comes up with the jungle version of this dude ranch?

The Worlds Largest Cell Phone Strap!

SoftBank has introduced a summer campaign, targeted at attracting new users, offering coupons and gift certificates along with the largest keitai strap you’ve (n)ever seen! Their mascot, ‘Oto-san’ who is a hugely popular canine celebrity via the companies cheeky TV commercials, is available as a 30cm tall stuffed toy (see the video here) to the lucky few who can answer a set of skill-testing questions. As an added bonus if you squeeze his tail expect him to speak with one of ten – snarly albeit fatherly – different lines of advice. btw: this episode of the family dinner table discussion about going to Hawaii is just Classic! If you enjoy that, then see the entire TVCM video gallery Here.

PSP Mobile Phone Rumor Season

We’ve always wondered when, not if, the PSP would finally have voice functionality added and the rumors are heating up again as a result of a recent FT article quoting Sony Ericsson President Hideki Komiyama. While it would seem clear the company will roll out the PSP2 model – without the UMD drive – at E3 in LA next month, his comments were somewhat less clear “could happen” regarding the PlayStation mobile phone. We hope they make the splash here – Again – at TGS in September instead!

Nico Nico Douga App for iPhone

Nico Nico Douga, the popular Japanese video sharing site known it’s original interface where users can add comments on video in realtime, has finally released their iPhone app – for free! – according to this article on cNet Japan. The design was based on the companies mobile edition, which was done on Java, launched in 2007, however, Iphone apps need to be coded in C and this apparently caused some real challenges for coding the delivery of certain functions such as commenting.

GMAP Launches Find!Tokyo iPhone App

GMAP Launches Find!Tokyo iPhone AppWe knew they would do it finally eventually. GMAP, with Enfour, have launched a fantastic bi-lingual Tokyo map application on the iTunes App Store. Find!TOKYO is perhaps ‘the’ most comprehensive location tool available for the metropolis, featuring thousands of custom designed maps for the iPhone and iPod touch screen.

The application includes fully scalable Tokyo train/subway map, interior maps of major stations, area maps and a detailed directory with maps of hotels, cinemas, parks, temples, shrines, etc. Along with the maps, many locations are tagged with photos and relevant information for use as visual guides or to learn about the locations. The content is stored inside the application so there is no need to access the Internet; ideal for the iTouch and overeas iPhone users.

There is a 600 yen one-time fee for Find!TOKYO, which includes future version updates, so you’ll never get lost in Tokyo again.. a killer deal at twice the price!

MobiActions Gaming For Toshiba

The good folks at Mobiactions are in the news again with another exciting mobile interactive game campaign to promote Toshiba’s new Note PC’s in Japan. The Toshiba branded game uses the latest Mobiactions with Veeplayer mobile interactive video and voice response (IVVR) technology so users can dial in and immediately play a fun game that allows them to score points and win prizes.

Vertu Flag-Ship Store Opens on Ginza

As announced late last year, the premium Nokia brand has opened it’s doors in Tokyo. The Vertu Japan flagship store, naturally located in Ginza, is a three story affair with main floor devoted to display of the three models available – Signature, Ascent and Ferrari – while the second floor offers a private lounge and level three caters to customer service. As the news is not yet listed on the companies main site, see the photos with more details in Japanese Here. Apparently the actual handsets will be available on the dori sometime in Q2 2009.

MCN Wins EContent Top-100 Award

Tokyo-based MCN-Inc made the Top-100 list – smack between Microsoft and McGraw-Hill – under the Mobile Content and Search Engine Technology categories on EContents 8th annual most influential digital companies contest. According to the press release MCN’s recognition by a panel of 14 judges, who reviewed hundreds of candidates, comes at the conclusion of a remarkable year of global growth for the company. In 2008 MCN launched mobile content and commerce search services with more than 20 mobile operators and portals in Japan, Europe, and S. Asia and launched allwords(sm), the mobile Pay-per-Click (PPC) content promotion program and extended its subscriber reach to over 300,000,000 users worldwide.

KDDI Reports 1H Jump in Quartly Profits

KDDI Corp has reported a 27 percent jump in quarterly profit, attributed in part to lower handset subsidies, with operating profit at 138.5 billion yen ($1.38 billion) in the July-September quarter, against a 108.7 billion yen profit a year earlier. The company stuck to its profit forecast of 443 billion yen for the fiscal year ending March 2009.