All Blog Posts Tagged 'Japan' (15)

About 15 seconds into this video you'll hear an alarm from an iOS app called Yurekuru, which is a Japanese word that translates to a shake or sway is…

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I was sitting at my desk on the 6th floor with a fresh cup of coffee that I bought from Tully's downstairs. They're a bit pricey, but they smelled and tasted so good I could never resist. I usually got a hot cup of the daily special and did so that day.

Took a few sips and started a discussion with a colleague about the project that we were on.

The desk I was assigned to was in the corner with a window overlooking a major street and I could see down it all the way to Shimbashi…

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Recently I visited Japan.  The last time I visited was in 2010.  Japan has always been known for it’s electronics and technology so I was looking forward to seeing how it’s changed in four years and how it differs from the U.S.  These are just my personal observations so they may not be indicative of actual trends or market share figures.

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I took a short trip to Tokyo in October to visit family and friends. I've lived there for over eight years, so every time I go back I notice what's changed. And since I'm on the geekier side, I notice tech-related changes.

QR Codes to Search Boxes

When I moved to Tokyo in 2003 there was a trend to switch to camera phones. All the…

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Our Night Out with Heroku Japan & Friends

During our trip to Japan last month we got to enjoy an evening out with the Heroku team. We've enjoyed using their platform for years across many projects, so it was good…

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Normally when we discuss user experience design on TechHui we are talking about web or mobile apps, but UX design is a much broader field. Wikipedia defines UXD as, "Creation of the architecture and interaction models that affect user experience of a device or system."

During my time in Japan over the past two weeks I've been struck by how much attention is paid to UX for everyday things ranging from…

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After initial failures in the Japanese market, Facebook and LinkedIn may have caught their second wind



For years US based social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn have had very poor penetration in Japan despite having more features and better UX design than local competitors. Homegrown networks such as Mixi and Gree dwarf the Japanese localized versions…

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I just returned from a business trip to Tokyo. Its always fun to see whats happening in Japan's tech mecca. Every year the vending machines and mobile phones seem to move closer to sentience. In case they are already self aware and are reading this newsletter, I want you to know I welcome our new vendoketai skynet overlords.



Tokyo is the most wired city in the world. If you've ever seen the Simpson's episode where Homer gets restaurant recommendations from his hotel toilet - well,… Continue

One of Japan's largest cellphone carriers, Softbank Mobile just announced a new iPhone campaign called 'iPhone for Everyone'. With this new offer valid until late May, you can get an 8gb iPhone for

free (yup, 0 yen) or a 16gb iPhone for about $100 with a 2 year contract. The iPhone was released in Japan in July of 2008 and although it generated a ton of buzz, shortly after its release I started reading about …

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Despite having done hundreds of developer phone screens over the past few years the amount of BS found in today's resumes continues to astound me. The problem is particularly acute in the US for reasons that could be the subject of a very long post. Many of the resumes we review amount to little more than marketing material dressed up by overly enthusiastic… Continue

One of the challenges presented by the joint US/Japan/China debut we are planning for ooi is the necessity of keeping our eye on three rapidly evolving markets. Although its time intensive, it is fascinating to observe the differences in each country. As Scott observed in the …

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Apparently there has been some hasty Babel Fish translation going on in China in preparation for the Olympics. The Chinese characters pictured mean "restaurant". The sign looks rather expensive! :-)

(from Geekologie) Having worked in the… Continue

Yesterday Softbank Mobile announced that they will start iPhone service in Japan this year. With 18 million customers, Softbank is the third largest carrier in the country after Docomo and KDDI. The Japanese iPhone will be the 3G (WCMDA) version. A lot of people speculated that Docomo would be the carrier for iPhone, but Docomo simply thought Apple was asking for too much in the revenue share agreement. Apple has been playing Docomo and Softbank off… Continue

Google handles 65% of all web searches in the US and 86% of all searches in the UK. Its advertising revenue for 2007 was twice that of its three closest competitors combined, up 44% over 2006. Google has 79% of the pay-per-click ad market and controls 40% of all online advertising. This dominance has largely translated to success in Western Europe and South America, but not Russia or Asia. Why?

Google is having a rough time in… Continue

Salama Folks! We are just back from a long trip that took us to Thailand, Madagascar, Maritius and Japan. Although it was an amazing trip and I would love to post here about all our great experiences, I don't want to get too far off topic. If you are interested in pics and stories please check out our Makinet ning site.



It was interesting to note the level of iPhone adoption in each country. I met two people with iPhones in Antananarivo,… Continue