Gadget Ad: Docomo cell phones round up!

Docomo's phones in this ad:

• P906i
  
• SO906i
  
• SH906i
  
• F906i
  
• N906iu
  
• N906i
  
• N906iL
  
• SH906i (for previous coverage, click here)
  

Unboxing of Band Brothers DX for Nintendo DS

Here are the contents of the DS game - Daigasso! Band Brothers DX.

The top row from the left:

• Case of the game
  
• Instructions
  
• The game itself 
  
• Info about Wii's Band Brothers DX Speaker Channel, on the back of this sheet is a code to redeem it from your Wii
  

The bottom row from the left:

• Serial number to enter for points in Club Nintendo
  
• Notice about the recent recall of AC adapters for DS Lite
  
• Booklet about Nintendo wi-fi connection
  

A music game, songwriting tool, and karaoke all in one Nintendo DS Game: Daigasso! Band Brothers DX

Band Brothers DX, the latest in the Band Brothers series from Nintendo, was released last week in Japan. The latest installment has some new and significant features that the last game didn’t have.

New Modes
The are two new modes to the game:

Sing:

• This time the game utilizes the mic to let you karaoke.  It doesn't seem like you will be able to record your singing probably due to the memory. 
• The game comes with 30 songs, and you can download up to 100 more songs from the Internet using a wi-fi connection. 
  

Songwriting:

• Tools to let you create a melody 
  
• Auto arrangement / accompaniment features 
  
• You can also “give” songs to other people that have the game. The interesting thing is that you literally give the song away meaning you cannot keep a copy. It doesn’t really make sense and is limiting, but I guess it’s probably for copyright reasons. For example, if you replicated a copyrighted song, this stops the song from being copied and passed on. 
  
• If you did an arrangement for an existing copyrighted song, Nintendo allows you to submit it. If Nintendo likes it, the submitted version of the song will be available for others users to download. 
  

Connectivity with the Wii
As for the performance mode, the coolest enhancement has to be the ability to connect to the Wii. Band Brothers DX comes with a special code that lets you download a piece of software called “Daigasso! Band Brothers DX Speaker Channel” on your Wii. By using this software, the sound will be played through the speakers of your TV or stereo system connected to the Wii. In other words, it’s like the DS is channeling its sounds through the Wii. Up to 8 players can play together and have the performance be played back from your Wii’s sound set up. That’s pretty neat.

Stay tuned from unboxing pictures and videos when I get a copy of the game. 

Gadget Ad: Mobile Phones and Wireless Speakers

Here is an ad from KDDI promoting their line up of Bluetooth phones that can let you listen to music wirelessly.  

In the ad, you can find five gadgets (see picture below for a close up)

• Sanyo's W61SA (click here for previous coverage on this phone)
  
• Sony Ericsson W61S
  
• Toshiba's W61T
  
• Yamaha's NX-B02 Wireless Speaker
  
• Sony's SRS-BT100 Wireless Speaker
  

Does your TV have a memo function?

Last night when I was switching some cables on my Japanese Sony Wega TV, I accidentally pressed a button and stumbled upon a handy feature called the memo function. I also found the function on the TV remote as well.

When the memo function button is pushed, the current frame of the TV is paused, and a small picture-in-picture screen shows up in the lower left corner continuing to stream what’s on TV at that time (see picture below). By pressing the button again, the picture-in-picture goes away leaving the frozen frame on your TV. This is handy when there’s something to jot down from the TV show like an address, URL, or recipe.  

It’s a neat little feature. Maybe you have it on your TV as well =)

White USB 2.0 Multi-Card Reader from Muji

Here’s a multi-card reader from Muji of Japan for white gadget lovers. Even the USB cord is white.

The card reader supports SD cards and Memory Stick Pro, and costs 2,100 yen (around 20 dollars).

I saw the item on Muji’s Japanese online store, but couldn’t find it again.   I couldn’t find it on its international site either, so you might have to hunt for it in at Muji stores.

Read magazines on your iPhone and iPod Touch for free

Zinio is letting you browse its top-selling magazine titles for free on your iPhone and iPod Touch in “super high resolution.” Simply point your iPhone Safari Browser to this address: http://www.zinio.com/iphone

The page will only load on a iPhone and iPod Touch. If you attempt to load it on your computer, most likely you will see this page.

When I checked yesterday, here were some of the magazines you can browse through:

• U.S. News & World Report
  
• Playboy 
  
• Popular Mechanics
  
• PC Magazine
  
• Men’s Health
  
• Penthouse
  
• MacWorld UK
  
• Reader’s Digest
  

A pretty good selection, don’t you think? I tested it out on wi-fi, and it takes a bit of time to load each pages. But hey, it’s free, so I shouldn’t complain.

The service is called the Zinio Mobile Newsstand, and it’s under the Zinio Labs section. It looks like they’re testing the service, and I really hope they keep it.