Category Archives: Other Stuff
Casio announced today that it is releasing a new model in the EDIFICE line of analog metal watches—the EFR-520RB—to celebrate its partnership with Red Bull Racing. The Casio EFR-520RB is a limited edition model that has been designed in collaboration with Red Bull Racing. It is based on the previously released EFR-520 model, which features a multilayered watchface and dynamic face design. A 1/20-second disk-shaped indicator situated at the 12 o’clock position rotates at high speed when in the stopwatch mode, ensuring precise time measurement. The watch reflects the Red Bull Racing brand featuring the team logo above the numbering on the face and the team colors in various places, with the side buttons and dial edge finished in blue, the small hand in yellow, and the second hand and outer edge of the disk hand finished in red.
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The Korean mobile carrier KT (Korea Telecom) is pulling out all the stops to make sure visitors to the Yeosu Expo have access to high-speed Internet anywhere they go during the three-month event. KT, chosen as the main telecommunications service provider, has implemented the 3W plus LTE strategy for the Expo. This refers to providing the fastest-ever wireless services in 3G WCDMA, WiBro ((Wireless Broadband) is a wireless broadband Internet technology developed by the South Korean telecoms industry) and WiFi as “3W,” as well as long-term evolution services.
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Mitsubishi Electric announced today it has developed a prototype forced-air-cooled three-phase 400V output inverter with all-silicon carbide (SiC) power modules that has a power density of 50kVA per liter. The inverter is expected to contribute to smaller and lighter power-electronics equipment in automotive and industrial applications, among others. The module, which is rated at 1,200V/300A, incorporates a SiC MOSFET (metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor) and SiC SBD (schottky barrier diode).
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Tokyo Sky Tree, the world’s tallest communications tower and second-highest building, opened to the public on Tuesday morning. The Tokyo Skytree, twice as tall as the Eiffel Tower situated in eastern Tokyo. The surrounding area, known as Tokyo Sky Tree Town, features an open air market lined with cherry blossom and red pine trees. The rest of the Sky Tree Town includes office buildings and more than 300 shops and restaurants, a planetarium and an aquarium. Tobu Railway Co, which operates Tokyo Sky Tree, is expecting hundreds of thousands of visitors per week. To control numbers, it said that admission will be by reserved ticket only until July 11.
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A pair of Yubari premium-grade melons, a famous delicacy from the central Hokkaido city of Yubari in Japan was sold for 1 million yen ($12452) in the first auction of this year’s harvest season. The Yubari melon is a cantaloupe cultivar farmed in greenhouses in Yūbari, Hokkaidō, a small town close to Sapporo in Japan. The 4-kilogram pair of Yubari premium-grade melons was bought by Toko Farm, a fruit and vegetable wholesaler based in Higashikawa, Hokkaido. Toko Farm is planning to serve the delicious fruit to customers in restaurants in Tokyo and Hokkaido’s Asahikawa for free.
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Panasonic today announced that tests carried out with air purifying technology using nano-sized electrostatic atomized water particles produced by applying high voltage to water have suggested that the technology can keep a dog’s skin and hair healthy. Japan is now in the midst of a pet boom. A public opinion survey in Japan shows that 34.2% of respondents have a pet, and other research shows that 72% of pet owners keep their pets indoors. Like humans, pets can suffer from allergy symptoms caused by house dust and other allergens. A questionnaire survey shows that skin disease, including allergic and atopic dermatitis, is the most common disease in dogs, making up about 40% of all cases.
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Toshiba today announced that it is establishing a Smart Community Center in Kawasaki, Japan, that will support, enhance and advance the continued global development and expansion of Toshiba Group’s highly promising smart community business. The 15-story building is scheduled to open in October, 2013, and will provide a business base for approximately 7,000 people. The new center will provide a unifying base for Toshiba’s organizations engaged in smart community businesses in Japan, including Toshiba Group companies and business divisions developing cloud solutions.
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Fujitsu today announced the development of Enetune, a cloud-based energy management system (EMS) service to be available starting at the end of June. The service collects energy data from all of a company’s business locations, including leased or rented buildings and retail locations. By consolidating and centrally managing this data in the cloud, businesses can bring integrated and cross-sectional clarity to their energy usage. In order to flexibly respond to a variety of changes in the power usage landscape in Japan, including an overburdened power supply, rising electricity costs and revised energy-conservation laws, businesses are increasingly facing a need to further enhance energy management with the aim of streamlining utilize of energy.
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The Niigata Prefectural Government on May 9 together with Suntory has succeeded in developing the world’s first blue lily using genetic recombination technology. The produced lilies are still a purplish color, so the researchers will continue working on development to make the color bluer and market the flowers. Because lilies do not hold genes for making themselves blue, researchers combined the blue-causing genes of Campanulas with pink lilies to reach their goal.
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Fujitsu today announced development of a special device that can be attached to a dog’s collar to monitor their level of activity and other data. In recent years, owners have been taking greater interest in maintaining the health of their pets as they have come to be recognized as members of the family. While pets are living longer lives, they also increasingly face the same kinds of lifestyle diseases as humans, including obesity and diabetes. To prevent illnesses in pets, it is important that their daily activities be monitored, as is the case for humans. In order to help dog owners manage the health of their pets using ICT, Fujitsu has leveraged its sensing technologies for humans gained in the development of the company’s mobile phones and other technologies, and has adapted them for a device that can monitor a dog’s activity levels. This new product will be employed in a cloud service that provides pet owners with assistance in managing the health of pets. 