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Sony Finally Brings Its E-Readers To Japan, Has High Hopes

Posted: 26 Nov 2010 04:42 AM PST

Sony yesterday announced [JP] it’s ready to re-enter the Japanese market for e-books with the launch of two new e-readers – after having failed miserably between 2004 and 2007. In 2007, Sony pulled out of Japan and focused solely on markets outside Japan, especially the US. But according to the company, e-books will soon be the fourth pillar of its entertainment segment, next to music, movies, and video games.

The final goal is to gain a significant share in the Japanese e-book market, which has the potential to become the world’s second largest (following the US), according to Sony Electronics’ Senior Vice President Fujio Noguchi. The company will not only offer hardware but will take care of the content side itself, too, offering some 20,000 books in its Japanese Reader store from the get-go.

The plan is to launch a 5-inch-screen Pocket Edition ($240) and 6-inch Touch Edition ($300) reader on December 10. The readers weigh 155g and 215g respectively, can store around 1,400 books internally, feature 800×600 resolution, and can be used for about two weeks on one battery charge, according to Sony.

The company expects sales to hit 300,000 units by the end of 2011 and to capture 50% of the domestic market for e-readers one year later. The Kindle is not yet available directly through Amazon Japan (as in many other countries outside the US, a search leads to a link that directs potential buyers to the American site).

Sony also said they are now commanding 30% of the market in the US and operates its e-book business in a total of 13 countries worldwide.

Happy Thanksgiving From CrunchGear

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 12:59 PM PST


Those of our readers who are in the US will be joining us today in celebrating no historical event in particular by cooking up a huge turkey, sharing it with our family and friends, and generally taking our minds off things for a day. Yes, it’s Thanksgiving. We’re going to be taking it easy today, but we’ll leave you with a few of the things the crew here is thankful for. It was supposed to be gadgets we’re thankful for, but nobody followed my instructions so it’s just plain things. I’ll kick it off.

Devin: I’m thankful for all the old-school, century-old technology that lets us live life the way we do. It’s abominably cold here in Seattle and yet, in my 80-year-old apartment building, I have hot water, heat (also based on hot water), it’s reasonably warm, I could call someone if I had a phone, and the electricity works. I’m just thankful that so many of us can worry about our HSDPA+ speeds and Facebook stalkers because we’ve got our basic needs taken care of. I guess I’m thankful for civilization?

John: I’m thankful for our readers. I know it’s dopey to say, but when I started out as a journalist I didn’t have “readers” per se. Now we have millions of them and they keep pushing us to do better and write better. They call us out on unpopular positions and they make us laugh. So yeah, you guys aren’t a gadget but thanks anyway.

Greg: WiFi. I know that’s not technically a “gadget”, so I suppose I mean WiFi routers. Just imagine the world without it; there’d be Ethernet running everywhere, people would be strapped to their desks all day, and there wouldn’t be anything for crazy people to swear they were allergic to. Sure, people in coffee shops would actually talk to each other, but these are the sacrifices we make for a technology that is essentially magic.

Matt: I’m thankful for Bodum French Press. I get electronic gadgets nearly every day. Most make me shake my head in utter disappointment, or worse, cry a bit. My 8-cup Chambord French Press has never let me down and is truly the only thing that brings me joy some days. Put coffee beans in, fill with hot water, and after four minutes, a wonderful pot of coffee is made. There’s no electronic clock to mess up, no circuit board to burn out, nothing can go wrong with it. It’s one of my most prized processions and I look forward to using it everyday.

Nicholas: I’m thankful for sites like Rojadirecta.com that list streams of soccer games that I otherwise wouldn’t be able to watch. For whatever reason half of La Liga’s games this year are on ESPN Deportes, a channel that I do not have. What to do? Well, go to Rojadirecta, look up my game, then pray to God that my silly P2P streaming program works as advertised. The games are often broadcast in foreign languages, but I’m fine with watching games with Romanian commentary if I have to. Beggers can’t be choosers, etc.

Dave: Not surprisingly, I’m thankful for the digital camera, whether it’s a DSLR, a point and shoot, or even a camcorder. No matter what type of camera you use, odds are you’ve found a way to capture images of your friends, family, or favorite sporting event. No matter what you use a camera for (maybe you’re a scientist that studies bacteria), odds are you use an imaging device of some kind in your life.

Touching! How about you guys? Care to share?

Manufacture Royale Opera Time-Piece Watch

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 12:37 PM PST

Beat me with a stick! I just had to plod through Manufacture Royale's nine page long bloody press release - only to have reasserted what they mention in the first few lines; that they are "unashamedly elitist." Wipe my brow and hand me an ol' timey hallucinogenic absinthe, because I need to lay back in a hammock on a steamship and read some Jules Verne to appreciate this steampunk mechanaut.


Frank Mir v. Brock Lesnar III UFC Fight In Jeopardy: Will Twitter’s Destructive Influence Never End?

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 08:30 AM PST

I'm actually not here right now. I wrote this yesterday while listening to Kanye West's new album, which I'm still deciding if I like or not. I think my opinion right now is, "Meh, I can take it or leave it." (I think Big Boi's album is better, and I'll never say a bad word about The Roots.) Nicki Minaj's verse on "Monster" is pretty dope, but beyond that? Whatever. Maybe Kanye can go back in time and ask Eric B. and Rakim to teach him how to rap. That would be cool.

But on with the tech discussion!

UFC. A fine organization, and one that I support both monetarily, with the occasional PPV buy here and there, and with the constant attention I pay to it here on CG. Who could forget the time I interviewed Chuck Liddell and found out that he was among the first wave of iPad buyers? Those were special, special times for us all.

But this next story, man. Word on the street is that Dana White, the modern day Vince McMahon (in that he's a successful promoter—put down your pitchforks, Sherdog), may be letting his Twitter followers book fights for him. I'm pretty sure Joe Silva has done a good enough job of putting together fights without having to listen to all that #rabble.

In other words, because some of White's Twitter followers don't want to see the fight, the average person out there, the person who doesn't spend all day long on Sherdog but rather gets their UFC news from SportsCenter, has a potentially great (and exciting!) fight ruined for them. Thanks, guys.

And that is "UFC news," by the way. If you want any more evidence of how popular "MMA" is, just look at the sales of EA Sports MMA. No buys. (Shame, too, since the game is pretty good.) But the fact is, it's UFC that's popular today; nobody cares about "MMA."

The thing is that Brock Lesnar, who recently lost the heavyweight title to Cain Velasquez, needs an opponent. If you look at possible opponents—for the sake of argument, let's consider his possible opponents Mirko Cro Cop, Cheick Kongo, Frank Mir, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Ben Rothwell, and Brandon Schaub—the first, and only, that should even be considered is Frank Mir. That's probably an instant million plus buy event. And once Mir starts running his mouth? That's a million plus one, to be sure.

Why? Because Cro Cop is coming off a loss (to Frank Mir, as it were) and hasn't ever looked particularly good in UFC (of course, he was insane in his Pride days, but that's a few years ago at this point); because Kongo hasn't done much in the past year (and would you really offer him up Lesnar following his performance against Travis Browne?); because Nogueira is clearly past it, and if he wins, what, does that set up Nogueira vs. Velasquez II (provided Velasquez beats Junior Dos Santos, which is by no means a forgone conclusion), a sequel to a fight that didn’t too many PPV buys to begin with?; because nobody is going to buy a PPV headlined by Rothwell v. Lesnar; and because Schaub is still probably one or two wins away, against a “name” opponent, to be considered "in the mix."

I'd mention Shane Carwin and Roy Nelson, but Carwin just had back surgery so he'll be out for a while, and Nelson has some sort of contract situation with a rival organization that would seem to preclude him from being used by UFC for the foreseeable future.

So, it should be Frank Mir. Mir v. Lesnar II headlined UFC 100, the fourth biggest PPV event of any kind in history. Lots of people tuned in because of the Mir-Lesnar dynamic. Let's just say the two of them won't be fighting over the last drumstick at Thanksgiving dinner today.

Mir v. Lesnar has buys written all over it, but no. Because White's "Twitter" doesn't want the fight, the fight is in jeopardy.

Once again, Twitter has ruined everything. Lame.

And as if Twitter is indicative of anything of Planet Earth! We've seen time and time again this year that just because something is "trending" doesn't mean, oh, golly gee, people sure are talking about this.

No, the people on Twitter are talking. Think of Twitter like you'd think of a small town: word spreads fast there, but it's only spreading among the same dozen people over and over again. It's hardly something you'd base multi-million dollar business decisions on.

I wonder if some of these Twitter users are some of those same people who were against signing Lesnar in the first place, you know, because of his pro-wrestling background? Gotta keep MMA pure, right?

I guess these people forgot that Lesnar was also a Division I wrestling champion.

I don't know, I sincerely hope Dana White won't allow himself to be bullied, 140 characters at a time, by such a vocal minority.

The Human Jukebox: Good For Him, I Think

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 07:45 AM PST


So I guess the guy in the video above is going to swallow a little wireless receiver/speaker/cancer pill on Friday, November 26th. Why? He wants to. Of course the whole stunt will be livestreamed and there’s a handy countdown timer on the official site.

Bar Android: Tokyo Now Has A Drinking Place For Android Geeks

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 07:00 AM PST

Yesterday, we reported that Android is on the rise in some regions in Asia, but I believe not one of the countries the article refers to (Indonesia, South Korea, Singapore etc.) has what Japan has: a Bar Android. As the name suggests, it's a bar specifically geared towards fans of the Google OS. Read the rest on MobileCrunch.


Onkyo Announces Snoopy-Themed Windows Tablet

Posted: 25 Nov 2010 05:43 AM PST

I thought we’d get a Hello Kitty tablet before anything else, but today Onkyo Japan has announced a Snoopy-themed Windows tablet [JP, PDF] for the local market (Windows 7 Home Premium 32bit, to be more exact).

Buyers will get a rebranded Onkyo device with a Snoopy drawing on the back, a Snoopy stylus, and a special “Peanuts” case. Onkyo also throws in a set of special screensavers, Snoopy wallpapers, icons, a Snoopy calendar etc.

Technically, the tablet features a 10.1-inch LCD with 1,024×600 resolution, an Atom N450 CPU (1.66GHz), 1GB of RAM, a 160GB HDD, two USB slots, an SD card slot, IEEE 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, and a web cam.

The Snoopy tablet, which weighs 990g and has a battery life of about 4 hours, can be ordered now online [JP] and will be shipped in March next year (price: $960).

It’s Japan-only and a limited edition, which means non-Japanese Snoopy fans will have to contact specialized online services like Rinkya in order to get one.
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