Get your own WALL-E Roomba!

In Japan, right now you can get a limited WALL-E model of iRobot Roomba 53082. Basically it’s a Roomba with a paint job of WALL-E.

With the extra WALL-E paint job, you can get one of these limited models in Japan for about 800 dollars. You can check it out in Amazon Japan.


This has got to be the closest thing to a WALL-E that cleans your room.  Of course, you can always buy a low end model for about 300 dollars and  create your own sticker or paint job to save some money =)

Gadget Ad: I-O Data Mac Gadgets

Here is a Japanese ad featuring some Mac products from I-O Data. These include:

• Seg Clip - lets you watch Japanese mobile terrestrial digital broadcast
  
• GV-1394GV/M3 - TV tuner for the Mac
  
• LanDisk - 2TB iTunes media server
  
• Hard drives
  
• RAM
  

Gadget ad: ScanSnap Color Image Scanner for Mac

Here is a Japanese ad for Fujitsu's Scan Snap Color Image Scanner for Mac.  

I use to have a flatbed scanner by HP, but using it to scan a lot of documents just takes too long.  After hearing positive things about the ScanSnap, I bought a S300M a few months ago.  So far, it's been great.  It's compact and has a nice design, and it's great for scanning small amounts of paper like notes, receipts, and business cards.  However, since it doesn't have a very big tray when compared to the S510M, I sometimes get paper jams when trying to scan a lot of pages all at once.  So if you're trying to digitize all your paper documents in your cabinets, the S510M might be a better option.  As for notes, receipts, business cards, and pamphlets, the S300M should be good enough.  It is much more efficient than flatbeds and takes up less space.

VAIO type L – Sony VAIO’s answer to iMac

The VAIO type L is a shiny white all-in-one computer currently on sale in Japan. There are two models – 20.1 inch and 24 inch.

What’s special?

• Built-in TV tuner that supports HDTV – It’s capable of recording two channels simultaneously and comes with basic DVR features. 
  
• Comes with a Blu-ray Disc Recorder 
  
• You can connect a PS3 to it with an HDMI cable
  

In a nutshell, with this VAIO type L, you can:

• Watch and record TV (comes with a remote)
  
• Use the monitor to play with your PS3
  
• Watch and record Blu-ray discs
  
• And of course, use it as a PC
  

Take that iMac!

The 24 inch starts at around 180,000 yen (around 1,800 dollars) in Japan.


Source: Sony type L (24 inch wide / 20 inch wide models)

iPhone / iPod touch Tip: Protect your sensitive data with a passcode lock

I use the iPod touch and iPhone as a PDA for work. As a result, there can be a lot of sensitive information like images of business cards and emails.

In the event that I lose my wonderful Apple devices, to prevent others from seeing what’s inside, the iPhone/touch lets me set a passcode in Settings.

What can you do with the passcode lock?
Once you enter your passcode, there are several neat options you can do to configure the passcode lock.

• You can configure the amount of idle time that has to pass before iPhone/touch requires a passcode. So for example, if you set it to after 4 hours, it will prompt you for a passcode after 4 hours since you last used it. This way, you will not be asked for one every time you attempt to use your iPhone/touch. 
  
  
• You are also to configure your phone to erase all data after 10 failed passcode attempts. 
  

Thanks for reading!

Did you know your MacBook has a motion sensor?

Recent Apple notebooks have a motion sensor to protect your hard drive if you accidentally dropped your computer.

The motion sensor can also be used in some entertaining ways such as turning your MacBook saber. You can find the app here, and below is a video.

More things you can do with the motion sensor.

At Maxthemac.com, you can find a list of other things you can do with the motion sensor.



Thanks for reading!

Tip: Resuming watching a video on your iPhone and iPod touch on your computer

If you started to watch a video on your iPhone or iPod touch and didn’t finish, you can resume watching on your computer. Once you get home and back to your computer,  sync your iPhone / touch in iTunes. Select and play the video you were watching in iTunes, and you will see that it’ll start playing where you left off.

I'm guessing this should work with other iPods that a video playback as well.  

Apple Mighty Mouse

One of my favorite shiny white gadget is Apple’s wireless Mighty Mouse. The mouse is wirelss and connects via Bluetooth.

So what’s cool and about it?

• It can be powered from one or two AA batteries. That means this mouse does not require two batteries to operate. Just pop in one AA battery and it’ll work. Plus, it’ll make your mouse lighter, which is great for traveling. 
  
  
• 360-degree scroll ball – Yes, you can not just scroll horizontal and vertically, but 360-degrees!
  
  
• It looks like it has only one button, but it actually works as a two-button mouse. Although it feels like you’re clicking on one button, the touch-sensitive technology distinguishes your right and lift clicks. 
  

What’s could be improved?
The mouse has side buttons so that when you squeeze the mouse, you can launch a shortcut like Dashboard. However, I feel like I literally have to squeeze it very hard to get it to work.

The wireless Mighty Mouse is available on Apple for $69.00.

Top 10 Blog Posts of SWG for November

The top 10 blog posts of Shiny White Gadgets for November are, drum roll please....

1. iPod touch 1G vs. iPod touch 2G: To upgrade or not?
   
   
2. iPod touch 2G vs. iPhone 3G: Which one to buy?
   
   
3. Trying to make iPod touch 2G into an iPhone using CradlePoint’s PHS300
   
   
4. iPod touch 2G can be a phone with fring
   
   
5. SH906i: Sharp’s Answer to iPhone?
   
   
6. iPod Touch Tip: How to take screenshots with iPod Touch
   
   
7. Free 24 CTU ringtone for your iPhone
   
   
8. Mac: Spring cleaning my MacBook + Using iMovie ’08 with an external hard drive
   
   
9. A white charging station with a classic touch
   
   
10. Review: Yamaha NX-U02 – USB Powered Stereo Speaker

Seems like iPod touch and iPhone related posts take the majority of the top ten.  After using the iPhone for a month or so now, I'm now putting together a blog post about a more in depth comparison between the iPhone 3G vs. iPod touch 1G, which I used almost for a year.  Stay tuned, and thanks for reading!

24: Redemption on iTunes

I was really excited to find that 24 Redemption was on iTunes except I went to iTunes and I found out it costs $14.99!!!

$14.99 for one TV show that's 1 hour and 42 to minutes long!  (For those that don't buy shows on iTunes, a regular episode of TV show costs $1.99 on iTunes.)

Being in Japan right now, I can't watch it on Hulu or Fox's website.  I guess if I really want to watch it now, I have to buy it for $14.99... urgh!!!

A white manila MacBook Air case

This case is from avenue-d and comes in a variety of colors. It’s made mostly from cotton, and has a 2mm layer cushion. In addition, the inner layer surface is made from micro-fibers to protect the MacBook Air. The buttons are made from leather.

It is sold in Amazon Japan for 4,980 yen (around $50).



Nice. I’d like to get one. Except, I don’t have a MacBook Air… Dang.

Sony S-Frame – A white digital photo frame

I saw this yesterday while shopping in Kichijyo-ji in Tokyo. The Sony S-Frame is a digital photo frame.

There are 3 lines:

• V900 – The top of the line. Nine-inch screen with a bunch of functions.
  
• V700 - Has a smaller seven-inch screen and basically shared the same functions as V900.
  
• D70 – The low end of the line. Seven-inch screen with less memory and functions. 
  

I’m going to focus on the V900 for this post. Here are the basics:

• The V900 is available in black and white.
  
• It comes with 512 MB of internal storage. 
  
• Supports a wide variety of memory cards, which is a nice touch by Sony. This means you’re not confined to Sony’s memory stick. 
  

What’s cool?

• It has an auto orientation sensor and will always display your photo in the correct orientation. 
  
• HDMI output – Though I have personally never showed or shared photos on TV, but I guess it could be nice for some. 
  
• In addition to displaying photos and slide shows, this frame can show calendars and display the time. It also allows you to show photos with a clock or calendar. 
  
  
  
  

What other functions does it have?

• You can connect a separate sold Bluetooh USB adapter and transfer photos to the frame via Bluetooth. This should really be built in.
  

What’s missing?

• The ability to connect to wi-fi and send photos over wifi or subscribe to photo fees from a photo sharing sites like Flickr.
  

How much does it cost to have in on for a month?
They estimate about 58 yen (around 60 cents) of electricity costs to have the frame on for an entire month.


Pricing and Availability

The top of the line V900 can be found in Tokyo from around $250. It’s also available in the US at Sony Style for $299.99.

It’s stylish and elegant, but ff you ask me, I’d still prefer a Chumby.

Source:

Sony Japan - S-Frame (Japanese)

Gadget Ad: new line up of au mobile phones

This ad features some of the new phones for au in Japan: Sharp's W64SH, Toshiba's W65T, Casio's W63CA, Sony Ericsson's re, and Hitachi's W63H.

Bringing my music collection to my living room wirelessly with the shiny white trio: Mac mini, AirPort Express, and iPhone with Remote app

Using my Mac mini primarily as a music streaming server
I have a Mac mini 1.42 GHz PowerPC G4 with 1 GB of RAM. Up till now, I used it as a media center, but just realized that it didn’t have enough power to handle videos very well. So I have decided to let it mainly do the following tasks:

1. Stream my music collection
   
2. Record TV shows – I have a very old TV tuner (I-O Data GV-1394) that I bought in Japan. 
   
3. Move mail from Gmail to MobileMe account– Since the mini is on 24-7, I could have it move incoming mail from Gmail account to my MobileMe account. This way, on my iPhone, I can see my Gmail and MobileMe mail in one place. 
   

Taking advantage of AirTunes with the AirPort Express
I never really used my AirPort Express with AirTunes, so I thought I give it a try. I relocated my AirPort Express to the living room and connected it to the stereo system.

So having everything wired up, I went to iTunes, and found a pull down menu on the right bottom corner. The default item is “Computer.” I clicked on it, and the configured AirPort Express is in the list. Selected that, and I got the music streaming to my living room speakers. That was easy. If you have more than one AirPort Express, you can configure to stream to the ones you like, or all of them at the same time. My place in Tokyo is not that big, so I won’t be needing to stream to multiple speakers, but that is a really cool option if you living in a big house or your house is more than one story high. Neat.

iPhone / iPod touch with the Remote app
I loaded up my iPhone and iPod touch with the Remote app. After setting everything up,  I can browse by playlists, artists, and albums. I can even search. The cover art also gets displayed. It’s too bad we can’t use cover flow to browse, but that’s understandable as it’ll probably take some time to get all the album art to the iPhone.

Overall, I’m having a blast with this setup. In the past I rarely listen to music in the living room (because I don’t have any CDs, and I’m just too lazy to insert CDs), but now I’m putting my stereo system to good use.


Links:
Remote App 
AirPort Express 

iRobot Roomba 530 – Your shiny white vacuum cleaning robot

I always wanted one of these. When will these things become affordable and widespread?

The Roomba 530 is a white vacuum cleaning robot. It is smart enough to actually return to its charging station itself and will detect stairs so it doesn’t fall over. It even comes with a sensor to assess the cleanness of a certain area. The Roomba will continue to clean the specific area until it’s clean. It also claims that it costs 1 yen (about 1 cent) in electricity costs per hour of cleaning.

You can get it for $329.99 at the iRobot website.

It’d be nice if you could rent this and give it a try before a purchase to see how well this works. It's certain a cool gadget though!

Source:
Roomba 500 series pamphlet (Japanese)
Roomba website

NEC’s N-03A Vanilla White– The cell phone for vanilla lovers

NEC has gotten together with Pierre Hermé, who is often referred to as the Picasso of pastry, to produce their new model N-03A, which is to be released in on the 20th of this month in Japan.

Lots of different colors!
The photo above is the Vanilla White version of the phone. It is also available in Macaron Pink, Apricot Orange, Chocolate Brown, and Cassis Blue.

What’s special?
In addition to the regular slate of cell phone features in Japan such as 1seg TV and e-wallet, the N-03A comes with pastry themes and wallpapers to satisfy sweets lovers.  See below for a sample of the themes.


The N-03A will be available on November 20th in Japan.  Please visit its website for more photos.  Thanks for reading!


Source:
NEC Mobile

Transforming the iPhone to an Ocarina with Smule

I don’t really buy iPhone apps, but this one is $0.99 for a limited time, and as a Zelda fan, I just couldn’t pass it up.

Smule is basically an Ocarina application created for the iPhone. There are a lot of music instrument applications on iPhone, but its developer claims that it is “the first true musical instrument created for the iPhone.” And unlike “other musical applications, there are no pre-compiled riffs so musicians will find unlimited opportunities for self-expression.” Smule does sound dynamic as it seems to produce dynamic sounds according to how the user is playing the Ocarin. See the following demo video for a better idea.




Source:
BabyGotMac
Smule

PURCHASE: Smartwrap

Since the iPhone functions as a phone unlike my previous iPod touch, I can't wrap my earphones around the iPhone itself.   So I bought this so I can wrap my earphones.  This way, I can stop trying to untangle the cords every time I pull it out of my pocket.  

Of course, I got the white one.  Let's hope it stays white for some time =)

Upgrading iPod touch 1g with iBlock Speakers

I plunged down around 20 dollars to get these iBlock speakers for my iPod touch 1g the other day at an electronics store here in Tokyo.

Now my iPod touch 1g has speakers too!

What’s good about these speakers:

• They plug right into the dock connector port and the speakers stay centered with the touch. 
  
  
• This actually may be good or bad – it draws power from you iPod touch and doesn’t require batteries.
  
  
• I can’t say too much about the quality (it claims to have an active bass system), but at max volume, it’s loud enough though I should try it in a crowded place.
  
  
• The volume controls are disguised as you can see in the following picture.
  
  
  

With the speakers, I realized for the first time that there are sounds when you get a new mail and when you send a mail with the touch.  And it’s cool to know that the sounds are the same as the Mac OS X Mail application.  These speakers also have enough volume to share video and music  when I'm at a friend's house.  Lastly, now I don’t have to wear earphones to hear the music in the games like Super Monkey Ball.

I got a white one, but it seems like the black one might look better with the touch. Urgh!!!  Well, at least it's a shiny white gadget.  

Anyway, below is a picture of the packaging, and thanks for reading!

Another new iPhone commerical in Japan from SoftBank and Apple

See for yourself below:

Unboxing SwitchEasy Colors iPhone 3G Case

For now, I'm going with the SwitchEasy Colors iPhone 3G Case (my previous blog post about it is here).  I was originally going to get the white one, but many people complained that it got dirty easily and yellows rather quickly.  Instead, I settled for orange, which is the theme color of the online songwriting tool project I'm working on.  

I bought it for around 15 dollars here in Japan.  It came with 2 protective films for the screen and even covers for earphones.  So far it's doing what it's suppose to do, and does a nice job of protecting the entire phone.  The protruding home button may get in the way when pressing the space button, which is right above the button.  It isn't really a big issue and I haven't accidentally press the home button yet (plus, it'll take more then a tap to actually press the button).  You might want to be careful if you have big thumbs though =)

And here are some pics:

iPhone 3G Unbox Pics

The bag and the iPhone.

The iPhone 3G... let's get you out of there!

Wooo...

The cables and stuff.  A new USB adapter will be sent to me because the one in the box was recalled.  

And yes! The SIM card eject tool...

Another look at the iPhone 3G

And a look at its shiny white back side!

Good bye Nokia ;-) , and HELLO iPhone :-)

OMG!!! My iPhone data transfer fees are 192,123 yen ($1,900)!!!

Ok. That’s how much I’d have to pay if I didn’t have an unlimited data plan. I sure got worried and surprised when I first saw it.

Apparently, this is the number before the unlimited data plan is applied. I guess that’s SoftBank’s way of saying – look! That’s how much you saved!

Free 24 CTU ringtone for your iPhone

While looking for a ringtone for my iPhone, I came across a free 24 CTU ringtone for the iPhone here via TUAW.  

UPDATE: A reader pointed out another one at CTU24-Ringtone.com.  Thanks!

SoftBank iPhone Announcement: Free Wifi, watch TV with iPhone, and emoticons in Japan by the end of 2008

In the announcement of SoftBank regarding the new line up of cell phones for winter, they also made some exciting ones for Japanese iPhone users. Here are the announcmenets.

1. Free wifi for iPhone users at about 3,500 locations (McDonald’s, train stations, airport, and etc.)
   
   
2. An external unit that serves as a mobile digital TV receiver and battery. This is seen in the following image. As you can see, the design is surely inspired by the iPhone itself, but it’s not availble in white! 
   
   
   
   What’s neat is that if you just want to watch TV, you do not need to hook the device to the iPhone. The unit pairs up with the iPhone, and transfers the TV contents via wifi to a TV app, which will be provided by SoftBank for free.
   
   This will be available in December for about 10,000 yen (about $100). I personally need the battery over the TV function, but it’s nice to have the TV function just in case. 
   
   This is definitely a creative way to enable watching TV on iPhone.  I think we're going to see other TV tuner products like this soon in other countries using a similar concept.  
   
   
3. As rumors have already circulated, within this year, the iPhone will support emoji (the Japanese word for emoticons). 

It seems SoftBank is definitely listening to its consumers in Japan.   Well, I'll probably get the the TV / Battery pack.  

Stay tuned and thanks for reading!

Source:
IT Media (Japanese) - You can also see actual photos of the TV / Battery pack itself. 

iPhone vs. Japanese cell phones: 15 Features that iPhone doesn’t have for the Japanese market

In Japan one of the things SoftBank make sure you understand when you buy an iPhone is the features that the iPhone doesn’t have or cannot use. Below is an image of that section from the paper work.

Explanation and translations corresponding to the numbers in the image are:

1. S! Addressbook Back-up – Basically it’s a service to back up and sync your contacts to a server. A nice feature included in the service is birthday notification via SMS. To learn more about this service, see here – it’s in English =)
   
   
2. S! Friend’s Status – It’s a service that lets you set your status and mood. You can also check up on your friends’ status. See here for more info.
   
   
3. S! Info Channel – News and weather info are delivered to your cell. What’s cool is that supporting cellphones well display the current weather conditions on your default home screen.
   
   
4. Remote lock – In the case you lose your cellphone, you can remotely lock your cell phone.
   
   
5. Yahoo! Kids – Basically this service blocks the kids from accessing inappropriate sites.
   
   
6. Web Access Restrictions – This blocks users from visiting sites such as matching sites for teenagers.
   
   
7. Ichi Navi – It’s basically a service for parents to know where their children are via GPS. See here for more info.
   
   
8. Voice Mail Plus – An upgraded voice mail service with more message capacity for other SoftBank cell phones.
   
   
9. S! Felica – Basically an e-wallet and electronic train pass. See here for more info.
   
   
10. E-Comics – Basically new phones can download a special comic viewer that lets them buy digital copies of comics.
    
    
11. Video services
    
    
12. Infrared functions
    
    
13. 1 seg – function for digital audio / video services
    
    
14. bar code reader
    
    
15. cell phone ring tones – Since iPhone users can only buy ring tones from iTunes, they won’t be able to buy anything from the mass selection of ring tones provided by the carrier. Bummer.

So there you have it. Features and services that the iPhone does not have in the Japanese market.  It's interesting that they didn't mention that you can't use emoticons on the iPhone.   Well, at least until the next version of iPhone OS as reported by MacRumors.  Maybe, SoftBank knew the feature was coming... 

Deciphering how and what to pay for an iPhone in Japan

How much and how do you pay?
The way you pay for an iPhone in Japan is a little bit unconventional, perhaps hard to understand would not be an overstatement. I will use the 16GB model as the main example.

Basically you have two options:

1. Pay up front the full price of 16GB - 87,840 yen (about $878)
   
2. Pay in 24 installments - 87,840/12 = 3660 yen per month (about $37)
   

Now when you enter in to a 2 year "New Super Bonus" contract, every month you get a discount of 1,920 yen (about $19). If you accumulate all the discounts, it becomes 46,080 yen (about $460). So if you subtract that from the regular price (87840 - 46080), which is 41760 yen (around $418). This would be the actual price you're paying for the iPhone 3G 16GB.

If you went with option 1, and terminate the contract, you basically just don't get the discounts.  If you went with option 2, and you terminate your contract, you just have to pay the remaining installments.  Of course, you won't receive the discounts either.  

Urgh!!! A crack on my white MacBook!!!

Is this fixable?  I guess I have to drop by the Apple Store.  Or maybe this is a sign telling me to get a new MacBook Pro?

Transform your iPhone 3G into a mini iMac with iClooly

I posted about iClooly for the iPod Touch back in June. Apparently, it’s now also available for the iPhone 3G as well.

What’s cool with the iClooly is that it swivels so you can have your iPhone / touch in either lanscape or portrait view. The only problem is it wouldn’t work if your iPhone / touch has a case.

The iClooly for iPhone is available on iClooly.com for $47.00.

Buying an iPhone in Japan

I have a confession to make. I finally took the plunge and bought an iPhone 3G.

Stay tuned for unbox photos and an in-depth post on iPod touch vs. iPhone where I’ll detail the changes I experienced upgrading from the touch to the iPhone.

For this post, I’ll talk about my experience getting an iPhone in Japan.

Preparing to go
As a foreigner, sometimes getting a phone can be a nightmare. So I made sure I had my passport, credit cards, and alien registration card with me before I head to my local SoftBank store.

At the store
The process went rather smooth.  I had been using a Nokia 6680 phone with SoftBank for about two years. It seems like changing phones is a breeze for foreigners. All I had was to show my alien registration card.   

Of course, I picked the white 16GB model. I had to fill in some paper work and listen to explanations about the data plan and mainly how iPhone is different from the typical Japanese cell phones. Then the clerk took out an iPhone and activated it. It was a rather fast process – about 20 minutes in total.

At home

Once I got home, I hooked the iPhone up to my Mac to finish setting up. In particular, it was nice to give me the option to set it up as a new iPhone or restore from the backup of my iPod Touch. I decided to set it up as a new iPhone because there are some apps on my touch I don’t want on my iPhone.



Anyway, the setup was a breeze. After that, I set up my email accounts and MobileMe accounts. There were some hiccups with MobileMe. For some reason, my Address Book on Mac suddenly had duplicate entries of everything while the iPhone didn’t. I restored my Address Book using Time Machine, and re-synced everything again.  Everything seems to be working fine for now.  


That’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

The Sanctuary: Beautiful and modern charging station for your iPod touch / iPhone / and everything else (almost)

Came across this from an email newsletter from AssistOn (a Japanese store that sells designer items).

The Sanctuary is a stylish charging station from Bluelounge. According to their website, users can “charge their cell phone, PDA, Blackberry, iPod, MP3 player, and Bluetooth headset simultaneously in one location.”

It is available on Bluelounge website for $129.95. It comes in white and black. The inner tray is reversible with two colors black and tan.  The tan color would work well with wooden surfaces and Muji-style interior. More info and details are on their website.

This one is on my wishlist…


Thanks for reading!

Looking for an iPhone case – SwitchEasy Colors maybe?

I am on the edge of getting an iPhone, but I haven’t plunged yet. I thought, what case would I get if I did buy an iPhone.

So I looked at the reviews as iLounge.   The highest rating was SwitchEasy Colors, which got an A. SwitchEasy Colors is a silicone case, and has several color variations including white. But after reading some reviews, the white color one doesn’t seem to stay white for too long. If I were to go with SwitchEasy Colors, I’d probably go with orange simply because it’s the theme color of the current company I’m working in.

But it would hide the shiny white of the white iPhone 3G! I guess I need to find a clear hard case…

Just got Wii Music!

Just got a package from Amazon in Japan. It's Wii Music!!! Unfortunately, I won't be able to get to it as I'm swamped with work. But I'll try to play it and have impressions soon. Meanwhile, here are some unboxing pics.

Yay!  It's Wii Music!

Here's another shot with the cover slid off. 

Tip: How to watch videos on your iPod touch in portrait mode

This is a nifty feature I stumbled upon yesterday when I loaded a video podcast in from the Music app instead of the Videos app from the iPod touch. The cover art used to be displayed, but instead, surprisingly, I found the video playing vertically. If you turn the touch horizontally, it’ll switch to landscape mode. I hope this will probably make it to the video mode in the future.

So to recap, to watch a video podcast in portrait mode:

1. Go to the Music app
   
2. Go to Podcasts
   
3. Choose a video podcast
   
4. Choose a episode
   

How about TV shows, movies, and other videos?
Since this feature is only in the Music app, the only way I know to get it to work is to create playlists with video, and play the video from playlists. So here’s how you get videos to play on the touch in portrait mode:

1. Go to the Music app
   
2. Go to Playlists
   
3. Choose the playlist that has videos 
   
4. Choose a video, and voila!
   

Thanks for reading!

Requested feature for MobileMe and iPhone 3G / iPod touch: iDisk access please

Now that the iPhone and touch can view Office and iWork files, it’d be very very nice to be able to access files in my iDisk.

iDisk is a feature of MobileMe that, according to apple, allows you to easily “store, access, and share files online.” It’s “accessible from any web browser, Mac or PC at Me.com,” but it’s not accessible from an iPhone or touch…

So hope they address that soon in future updates. If you really want to access files in the clouds, you might want to try DropBox. They have a web app for iPhone / touch so you can access your files that are stored on DropBox.  

The $999 MacBook White

What does the Apple Notebook keynote event mean for Shiny White Gadget lovers?
Apple announced new MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and new Cinema Displays today. TUAW has coverage of the event and you can see the event on Apple’s website. Everything seems to be glass, black, or aluminum in the announcement, so what does it mean for the shiny white gadget lovers?

The MacBook White
Luckily, the original white MacBooks are not going to be discontinued. They are renamed to MacBook White on Apple’s website, and are now available for $999.

The basic specs are:

• 2.1 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
  
• 1GB DDR2 Memory
  
• 120GB hard drive
  
• Intel GMA X3100 graphics
  

You can find more info and details are Apple's website.  One thing I like the MacBook White over the new MacBooks is that it has a FireWire 400 port.

If you always wanted that white MacBook, it’s now $999 on Apple's online store.

Gadget Ad: WILLCOM 9 - Another white cellphone in Japan

The WILLCOM 9 a Japanese cellphone that has a supposedly high performance CPU of ARM 11 comes in black and white.  You can learn more about the WILLCOM 9 in the English press release here.  

Softbank’s iPhone 3G TV Commercial in Japan

Softbank recently started to air a new commercial that is revolved around the iPhone. This series of commercials from Softbank is quite strange. The dad of this family is a white dog, and basically he got a new phone, which is the iPhone.  He’s trying to hide it from the family, but the family finds out.  Then family plays around with the iPhone by flicking through a Japanese comic strip app (I think).  See for yourself below.

Piccadilly @ Shinjuku, Tokyo – The Shiny White Movie Theater

Piccadilly, a new cinema complex that opened in July this year in Tokyo, ought to keep shiny white gadget lovers happy. According to its brochure, the design concept was a “pure white theater.” The “white” was chosen to symbolize a blank canvas that movie creators paint on.

If you’re in Tokyo, you can check it out in Shinjuku 3 Cho-me 15-15. It is close to the Isetan and Kinokuniya bookstore from the east exit of the train station.

Here are some photos from its website below. For more photos, you can check out their website (Japanese).










Thanks for reading!