<div dir="ltr">This week's Gadget Watch zooms in on the Vitiny digital<br>microscope, jams with the TASCAM GT-R1 recorder, and jumps onto<br>the TOYOTA Winglet personal transporter. <br>--------------------------------------------------------<br>
Japan Inc Magazine Presents:<br>G A D G E T W A T C H<br><br>READ GADGETWATCH ONLINE AT:<br><a href="http://www.japaninc.com">www.japaninc.com</a><br>The Hottest Gadgets and Gizmos from Japan<br>-----------------------------------------------------------<br>
Issue No. 309 Friday August 07, 2008<br>Subscribers: 9467<br>SUBSCRIBE AND UNSUBSCRIBE TO GADGET WATCH:<br><a href="http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/free_sign_up">http://www.japaninc.com/newsletters/free_sign_up</a><br>
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<br>========================================================<br><br>Pocket-sized 'Vitiny' makes mountains out of molehills<br><br>Name: 3R-VT101 'Vitiny' Digital Microscope <br>Category: digital imaging device <br>
Price: JPY29800 <br>Release date in Japan: Late August, 2008<br><br>The 3R-VT101 (aka 'Vitiny') is a pocket-sized digital microscope<br>from Fukuoka-based 3R Systems, offering zoom magnification from<br>7x to 108x. With its flat body and embedded screen, it looks a<br>
bit like a compact digital scanner, which in effect it is. The<br>70-gram Vitiny lights up its tiny subjects with a white LED<br>lamp, reads the image with a 300,000-pixel CMOS sensor, and<br>displays the output on a 1.8-inch TFT screen. Built-in effects,<br>
such as negatives, greyscale, embossed edges, and side-by-side<br>image comparisons, help reveal fine details as needed. There's<br>2MB of built-in flash memory for saving up to 60 images, which<br>can be downloaded to a PC via USB. The unit runs on power from<br>
three AAA batteries or via USB (PC or wall adapter). <br><br>Who would use this pocket digital microscope? Its modest<br>magnification isn't for microbiologists, but might aid in<br>student research projects, quality control inspections,<br>
counterfeit detection, beauty clinic skin analysis, and other<br>investigative work. Order from one of 3R's several online shops<br>(such as <a href="http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/3r-shop/index.html">http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/3r-shop/index.html</a> )<br>
from late August.<br><br>More info: <a href="http://cf.3rrr.co.jp/products/vitiny/vitiny.cfm">http://cf.3rrr.co.jp/products/vitiny/vitiny.cfm</a><br>(Japanese)<br><br>========================================================<br>
<br>TASCAM GT-R1 IC lets musicians record on the run<br><br>Name: TASCAM GT-R1 <br>Category: portable digital recorder <br>Price: about JPY35,000 <br>Release date in Japan: August 26, 2008<br><br>Here's one for the musicians. TEAC, the Tama city-based maker of<br>
recording gear, offers the new 208-gram GT-R1 IC recorder and<br>effects box for music makers on the go. <br><br>While aimed primarily at recording guitar and bass via direct<br>line input, the GT-R1's stereo microphones will capture acoustic<br>
guitar - or your whole band - at better-than-CD 48kHz/24bit<br>quality. (Or capture your sales meeting instead, should you want<br>to request such mundane tasks of the device.) Record your riffs<br>for later output to another device, or lay a new track on top of<br>
a saved recording. Also built in are a 55-effect multi effector,<br>which you can add either during recording or during playback;<br>rhythm presets to give your session a beat; and a chromatic<br>tuner. Playback options include such niceties as speed control<br>
and interval looping.<br><br>The GT-R1 saves to WAV or MP3 format on SD/SDHC external memory.<br>The included 1GB SD card will record about 100 minutes of audio<br>in WAV format, or over 18 hours in MP3 format. <br><br>Look for the device at music and electronic shops throughout<br>
Japan from late August. <br><br>More info:<br><a href="http://www.tascam.jp/list.php?mode=99&mm=9&c2code=01&c3code=02&">http://www.tascam.jp/list.php?mode=99&mm=9&c2code=01&c3code=02&</a><br>
scode=091GTR1G05 (Japanese)<br><br>========================================================<br><br>TOYOTA takes on the Segway?<br><br>Name: Winglet <br>Category: Personal transportation device <br>Price: ? <br>Release date in Japan: 2010?<br>
<br>Look out, Segway. Someone's trying to do you one better, and<br>it's none less than transportation powerhouse TOYOTA. <br><br>The Segway two-wheeled personal transporter made waves when<br>released in late 2001, though it hasn't yet revolutionized urban<br>
transportation anywhere near the way that some predicted. Still,<br>there's a lot of potential in energy-thrifty people carriers<br>that don't take up much more space than a person alone does.<br>Gazing toward that future, on August 1 TOYOTA revealed three<br>
configurations of its variation on the Segway concept, the<br>Winglet. <br><br>A 'next-generation mobility tool', the Winglet falls under the<br>TOYOTA Personal Robot division, which a year ago absorbed Sony's<br>
unprofitable robotics business. The device isn't too coy about<br>borrowing from the Segway: there's a similar two-wheeled<br>platform to stand on, internal gyroscopes that make the device<br>self-balancing, and sensors that read the user's body position<br>
to steer the vehicle. From there, the Winglet takes some<br>interesting departures. Light weight and small size are at<br>Winglet's core, with its A3 paper-sized footprint (about the<br>size of two pieces of standard office paper side by side), and<br>
its tiny wheels (watch out for obstacles over 2-cm high). Unlike<br>the Segway and its hands-on steering column, Winglet steering is<br>dependent upon body position only; two of the three concept<br>models are entirely hands-free.<br>
<br>The squat Type S weighs only 9.9 kg, achieves a range of 5 km,<br>and has a legs-only 'steering column' that doesn't even reach<br>the knees. The larger Type M boosts the steering column to knee<br>height, while the similar-sized Type L offers a full-height<br>
column for resting the hands (presumably to aid stability). Both<br>M and L weigh 12.3 kg and have a 10-km range. <br><br>The Winglet travels at no faster than 6 km/hour, less than a<br>third the Segway's top speed, and the above ranges are far less<br>
than the maximum 40 km claimed for a Segway i-series. On the<br>other hand, the Winglet is far lighter than a 48-kg Segway, and<br>recharges in only 1 hour compared to about 10 for the Segway. <br><br>Low-speed, convenient, short-distance zipping through crowded<br>
streets - that's what TOYOTA appears to have in mind. The<br>Winglet may not have the potential shown by the Segway for<br>police, postal, and other serious work, but with its low speed<br>and small size, might find better regulatory acceptance as safe,<br>
practical sidewalk transportation. (While the Segway is<br>undergoing testing programs in Japan, actual street use<br>currently categorizes the Segway as a small motorcycle, which<br>would require a license plate and the addition of signal lights<br>
and brakes.) It's practical for hilly areas too, says TOYOTA,<br>able to climb 20-degree slopes.<br><br>From here out, TOYOTA plans user tests for the Winglet,<br>including evaluation programs at Chubu International Airport and<br>
a marine resort from this fall. Commercialization by 2010 is the<br>goal, so stay tuned to see whether TOYOTA makes the move from<br>Japan's streets to its sidewalks and parks.<br><br>More info: <a href="http://www.toyota.co.jp/jp/news/08/Aug/nt08_045.html">http://www.toyota.co.jp/jp/news/08/Aug/nt08_045.html</a><br>
(Japanese)<br>Winglet in action: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VqV2z7dq3M">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2VqV2z7dq3M</a><br>Segway: <a href="http://www.segway.com/">http://www.segway.com/</a><br><br>========================================================<br>
<br>Short items<br><br>Spotted elsewhere in the news:<br><br>1) GREEN HOUSE introduces two tiny lenses for the serious mobile<br>phone photographer. The DN-MCL30 (JPY1799) is a 2x telephoto<br>lens that weighs a scant 6.6 grams. The DN-MCL40 (JPY1999) is a<br>
170-degree fish-eye lens weighing 10.8 grams. Both lenses make<br>use of a steel ring that you attach around your camera's pinhole<br>lens with double-sided tape; the lenses then attach to the ring<br>magnetically. <br>
<a href="http://www.donya.jp/item/6409.html">http://www.donya.jp/item/6409.html</a><br><a href="http://www.donya.jp/item/6410.html">http://www.donya.jp/item/6410.html</a><br><br>2) iPhone 3G users in Japan: SoftBank Mobile just unilaterally<br>
made your monthly data fee cheaper. Maybe. The company is<br>revising its monthly JPY5985 all-you-can-eat 'Packet Flat-rate<br>Full' data plan, required for all iPhone 3G contracts, to a cost<br>of JPY0.084 per packet. The new minimum fee drops to only<br>
JPY1695 for up to 20,175 packets; the fee rises with usage from<br>there, up to a maximum of the old cost of JPY5985 for 71,250<br>packets or more. <br><br>In other words: it's still all-you-can-eat, but light users can<br>
now shave some coin from their bill. At the same time, SoftBank<br>Mobile is strengthening its E-mail (i) service for iPhone 3G to<br>store users' mail indefinitely with no scheduled deletion,<br>though a mail data limit of 200MB or 5000 messages will still<br>
apply.<br><a href="http://www.softbankmobile.co.jp/en/news/press/2008/20080805_02/">http://www.softbankmobile.co.jp/en/news/press/2008/20080805_02/</a><br>index.html (English)<br><br>3) How cheap is storage these days? Price watchers in Japan<br>
report that the retail price of a 1TB internal hard drive has<br>marched relentlessly downward, breaking JPY20,000 around March,<br>and dropping to around JPY12,000 currently. Some retailers are<br>blowing out name-brand 1TB drives for as little as JPY9800;<br>
check low-price shops like T-ZONE or TSUKUMO for bargains. <br><br>It won't be long before talk of 'deleting stuff to make room on<br>the hard drive' becomes a delightfully quaint thing of the past.<br><a href="http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20080802/etc_hdd">http://www.watch.impress.co.jp/akiba/hotline/20080802/etc_hdd</a>.<br>
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