Hi everyone,
Had a blast in Akihabara -- sound like a tourist, eh? ;-)
Dropped by the Sony building in the Ginza as well.
As usual, there is never enough time. I was showing a co-worker around.
The first time for him.
Comments/Observations:
- I need more memory for my digital camera. My 256MB CF card was not
enough! :-(
- The bowels of Akihabara were the same. Lot's of cool gadgets and the
like. I could get lost in there for days. :-)
- Played around with X on Apple's 22 inch Cinema display. For the first
time, I can see the coolness of the new Finder. Prior to this, it hasn't
excited me. The added screen real estate let's it shine.
- Plenty of iPods for sale now, it seems. Or at least I saw them on the
shelf in various places.
- Apple store displays seem more robust than before. Also, it seemed
that there were more assistants awaiting in the wings to help.
- The Palm Shop no longer carries the Handera 330. Workers were somewhat
mum as to why. The most I got out of them was that it was a store
decision, and not Handera's. Don't know of anywhere else where Handera's
are displayed. It seems that their other offerings were somewhat less as
well.
- Other shops seemed to be carrying more PDA devices. Usually you will
always see the Zaurus family and a few others. Now, just about all
models are easy to find. BTW, the new HP Jornada is very nice hardware
wise. Now if they would just put the Palm OS on it! ;-)
- Sony's new Clie is cool. IMHO, much nicer than the Visor Edge --
almost as thin. Now if Sony would only make a soft silkscreen like the
Handera 330 has. Currently the Clie display is 320x320 in the same space
as the Palm's 160x160. I figure that they would easily have a 480x320
(same as the Newt 2K) screen if they would do this. They have a GPS and
Camera add on via a Sony Memory Stick interface.
- There were too many new Notebook computers to comment on them. Really
cool new ones from Sony, Sharp, NEC. Most will be Japan only I'm afraid.
- My co-worker was interested in the Sanyo iDshot digital camera. I'd
seen it before, but took a closer look. Interesting blend of a digital
and video camera. It uses the iD Photo disk (about the same size as a
MD, but different format). The iD Photo disk holds 730MB. It can take
video at 30fps at 640x480 for 8 minutes continuous. It also can take
video at 320x240, 30fps, for 20 minutes. And Internet video at 160x120,
30fps, for 60 minutes. Video can be done at 15fps for each of these
resolutions and the resulting recorded time will be twice as long. On
the digital still side, it can take 640x480, 1024x768 and 1360x1024.
Pretty decent. I am looking forward to seeing what other cameras come
out from the other manufacturers, if any, using the iD Photo disk.
Definitely a nice concept.
- Saw a MAC SE for sale at 19,800 yen. Still looks cool. Worth more
than my Quadra 840av! :-o
- Electronic fish -- first time I saw them. Pretty cool. One item that
you see in various offices is an aquarium with a TV built in. They show
an endless loop video (LD system) of fish and other aquatic life. Looks
pretty good -- and from a short distance, like the real thing. Well,
this time, I saw actual electronic fish. They don't look real, but have
the basic components of a fish. They had a little propeller at the fin
end. All the fins moved as well for propulsion and guidance. They would
move around the aquarium with ease. There were turtle and jellyfish
models as well. Fascinating.
- One cool hobby shop was closed due to fire damage from a building next
door that had been destroyed by fire. They have the world's smallest
true jet turbine engine. Cost is around 680,000 yen. Really cool.
- For you Audiophiles, the cost has come down a bit. The last time I
priced a system, it would have cost you around 25,000,000 yen for a good
stereo. Now it seems like you can get a good deal for well less than
20,000,000 yen! :-) I have to admit, the sound was pretty darn nice.
The tube amplifiers do look nice.
Well, that's all for now...
Sushi
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This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.2 : Fri Feb 01 2002 - 16:01:58 EST