Finally a really useful USB gadget that will make Japanese Bento chefs  happy: the USB Lunch Bag that keeps your bento hot till you eat it!!! On sale on Thanko: The rare mono shop!
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Yesterday, I had a meeting in Tokyo Mid Town and so took a chance to visit dome forniture shops where I discovered this super cool Radio Controlled Table. I tough it was a creation of a DIY shop owner or something from the recent Tokyo Designers Week instead Google teached me that this is the Free Wheelin Franklin remote control table designed by JERSZY SEYMOUR  in 2000. The plastic table features a number so it's possible to race more table at once ^_^  and is named after a crazy character from the 60s cult comic The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers.  I'm an RC cars maniac so I love these tables and look foward to buy one and swap the cheap Chinese rc car with a nitro monster truck from my collection!

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Sputzkaizer, the same guy behing the Fate/Stay Night DS version has just released Touhou DS: a Nintendo port of one of the doujin games related to the legendary Touhou Universe created by a Japanese game maker ZUN who actually is in charge of all the graphics, music, and programming of these danmaku shooting games. Strange fact is that ZUN actually works for TAITO but it seems that the company that inveted the Shooting Games with Space Invaders was niot interested in this (super succesfull) project... 
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Datel (not my favourite brand after the useless Freeloader for PAL Game Cubes) announced the LITE BLUE TOOL a new tool battery that enable the service mode on both PSP 2000 and PSP 3000 models. Service mode means that you can downgrade the PSP and paly with your favourie "homebrews"... This special battery will let the user switch between service mode and normal mode, and also features a LED power gauge. On sale  on November 28th at around 25 euro. Sounds like the perfect Christmas presents for all videogame hackers...
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PlanKtroniks, during the recent Analog Synth Builders Summit 2008, showed a mini sequencer for the Gakken SX-150 analog synth. Finally he posted the schematic to build it. Plan K troniks is a really cool guy and as I discovered during the Synth Builders Summit he creates really interesting music machines...
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Sorry Engadget, but I think Japanese girls (both 2D and 3D) are better than techno gadgets (maybe this is just love for my new super sexy AV star girlfriend) so whenever I got the chance I post some sexy photos on the Italian website modellismo hobby media...
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Blasterhead (electronic musician and DJ famous for many eroge super hits) played a great DJ set yesterday at DENPA 8 party held in club Axciss in Shibuya. I had a really great time at the party with a mixed crowd of otaku, clubbers and super sexy cosplayers!

Tomorrow I'm going to the DENPA 8 party held in club Axciss in Shibuya (the same club that hosted the DS-10 expo few weeks ago). This great otaku electro party is organized in collaboration with the Japanese television SPACE SHOWER TV (my super favourite music channel in Japan)!!! I really look foward to hear the Blasterhead and DAX live shows!
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For the Italian readers of this blog I would like to remind that BAKUC 2008, the modelling contest organized by Hobby Media in collaboration with BANDAI, is about to finish so if you got some photos of your Gundam kits you should mail em asap to try to win a trip to Hong Kong or some Gundam kits offered by BANDAI. TIP:  Send as many photos as possible to get more chances to win!
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Meggy Jr RGB is a new Kit designed as a platform to develop handheld pixel games. MEggy looks like a Gameboy from the Seventies and got a super cool design! It's based around a fully addressable 8x8 RGB LED matrix display. The kit is driven by an ATmega168 microcontroller, and you can write your own games or or control it through the Arduino development environment. Prices range from $65 to $95 so it's a perfect Christmas present for all videogame hackers out there!
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This morning by Japanese provider was so kind to give me back my BB Internet connection. The first thing I checked was the new MotorStorm 2 promo video featuring "John Kaminari" (and old Italian friend who worked for my publishing company and now is working in Japan as actor). The video is simply ilarious and even tough made for the Japanese market is 99% in Italian language with Japanese subititles. Pure genious!!!!

Make magazine publisher a great how to mod your iPod Touch to use it for Voip! Basically how to turn your iPod Touch into a wifi mobile phone (that for me is even better than a real iPhone). The only thing that is needed is Apple like design for this mod but I'm pretty sure some chinese companies are already working on a "official version"...

What better than this flash game to celebrate to historical election of Barack Obama as new President of USA?!
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Few months ago I discovered this Google Maps page that points to real places featured in anime and videogames (basically eroge). This kind of reality mix started over 10 years ago and has been featured several times by the Japanese cult magazine GAME LABO but the use of Google Maps takes this on a totally different level!

Just click on this  Google Maps page to find where you can find real places of Suzumiya Haruhi or your favourire anime...

 

 

I'm sure this is old but living in Japan I'm impressed that on US Amazon is possible to buy these uber geek Nintendo GameCube retrogame candies!
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The Japanese porno powerhouse TMA will release an adult video parody of Idol M@ster videogame... This shameful DVD will be out in Japan on January 16th...
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Make Magazine, the DIY mag directed by my steampunk superhero Mark Frauenfelder (from Boing Boing fame), got a super cover  created by none other than MAD Magazine art director Sam Viviano!!
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Ok, now it's autumn but being Italian I love to eat icecream all year round so I headed to the arcade center in Shibuya , near Mandarake, to catch some ice cream from the ufo catcher released this summer... anyway, it's not so easy to catch your ince cream form these Crane machines so I think this is pefect for otaku on a diet (for me, after loosing at the game, I just went to a neat combeni to buy my ice cream fix)...

Matt from Liquidware Antipasto created an Open Source GameBoy using an Arduino:
"it's a little smaller than a game boy, but it's 1000% cooler (in my opinion) because it uses an Arduino as the "core", and a few modules and shields that already exist."
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A couple of days ago I spotted this huge ramen cup being builded in front of the legendary 109 (ichi-maru-kyu in Japanese). The company producing this cup is the very same company that is facing a huge scandal for food adulteration (they used adulterated/contaminated food from China)... Sooner or later I think Japanese and European governments will start to understand that they must check any kind of  product imported from China almost as much as they check the food produced in their own country... they can't blame China if they don't controll what is imported... cheap is not always the best choice when we talk about food...
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I just come back from a 6 hours Korg DS10 EXPO marathon. I had damn great Time and Asano DG has made a great job as MC of this show held in Shibuya! 

Ohayogozaimasu!! Today I woke up early since in a couple of hours I'm heading to KORG DS-10 EXPO 2008 in Shibuya. I'm a DS10 maniac and I hope that SANODG has produced some thsirts or ds10 gadgets to buy during the EXPO!
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(via Mixi) Next week I'm going to the Japanese Analog Synth Builders' Summit. This is a smaller event compared to Comiket or Wonfes but it's a great chance to keep in touch with the vulcanic Japanese home made synth scene!

During the Hobby Show Tamiya has showed a new educational model kit: The Solar Charger Set. Maybe I'm addicted to the two stars of the Shizuoka hobby Giant but I can't resist to any new robocraft or edu kit produced by Tamiya...
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NetTansorWeb, Bandai's new robot showed during Robot Japan 2008, can be controlled via WiFi and got a videocamera for surveillance. This robot can send you reports to your PC or mobile phone. What make's it really cool is that it can actually blog. The only problem is that after less than 3 hours yoru are away from home the NetTansorWeb is going to sleep since the battery dries out pretty fast...

Between 11 and 14 November the Italian city of Turin will host the 2008 edition of the VIEW Conference: an event focused on CG and interaction between movies and videogames... There will be speakers like Hiroyuki Kobayashi (producer of Resident Evil Degeneration and Devil May Cry), Will Wright and CG superstars like Paul Topolos who worked for Lucasfilm before joining Pixar (he will talk about his year spent producing the super succesfull Wall-E). Ops, I almost forgot that this event is co-hosted by my old friend Jaime D'Alessandro who is one of the most recognised technology/videogame Italian journalist (he writes for some of the best selling Italian newspapers and magazines).
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At the All Japan Radicon Plamodel Hobby Show I spotted this uber geek bicycle created by PedalMafia for Yamato Toys.
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During the Tokyo Hobby Show I spotted a really interesting booth with displayed hundreds of old model kits produced by Japanese companies since mid fifties!  My super favourite kits are the ones made by Nichimo (now this company releases only big scale warship model kits but back then it was a plamodel powerhouse). More photo on Hobby Media and the next issue of our magazine Xtreme RC Cars Italia.
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Legacy Engineering is producing an Atari USB Joystick compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux. it works with any emulator out there. It's a really cool controller and it costs just $14.99 !



http://www.legacyengineer.com/store.html

 Mother 3 Fan Translation Project finally released the patch for this cult videogame!!
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During the Tokyo Hobby Show 2008 Tamiya annouced the limited edition of the Mini4WD dedicated to the akiba idol Haruko Momomi. I think it's a nice attemp to please the otaku target but I feel that the Shizuoka plamodel Giant should work more since its the very only hobby company in Japan that is releasing ZERO moe/akiba kei product! How about a TT01 itasha version?! Gambare Tamiya!!

During the Tokyo Hobby Show 2008 (All Japan Radicon Plamodel Hobby Show) I spotted the latest model of the Aoshima Itasha  plastic kit model cars series: CLANNAD (eroge) and STRIKERS.

According to Kotaku muslim integralists are making Sony reacalling the only PS3 game because in a short piece of the OST ther seems to be some words of "Holy Quran" (I quote so muslim terrorists will not visit my home with their share of love): yes the very same game that seemed able to save the "super console" from facing the same 3DO fate...
after the RESISTANCE "scandal" Sony is facing again another monotheist super power... maybe they are not selling so many console anymore but they are starting to look cool again... Should we start to worry for a terror attack down here in Tokyo? Are Ginza's Sony building in danger?
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This is the backbone of the Tokyo Game Show network infrastrutture.  Maybe it's because 12 years ago I started to take photos to booth girls  when everyone else was just interested in games but this is my favourite sexy pic of this year TGS: hardware porno!! I remember when I just came back to the publishing company I was working for at the time and a stupid editor went berzek when I gave him a complete photo collection of every other sexy companion instead of photos of games. I think press kits are made to give us time to photograph the companions instead of wasting time to take photos of games, but this is another thread...

GhibliWorld  has posted the trailer of Ni no Kuni: The Another World. Seems that they put hand on one of the free DVDs handed out during the Tokyo Game Show in the Lvel 5 theater.
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This year I couldn't attend the Dreamparty (held on sunday 12 october) but miety posted these cool photos of an itasha with a very special steering wheel!

My favourite game at this year Tokyo Game Show is ARISU made by GeisyaTokyo Entertainment. This software is based on augment reality AR technology and features our very own virtual maid. To start to play with Alice you only need to have a PC with a webcam.

Chiptune meets circuit bending: this 4 Oscillator Opto-Theremin is built into a color Gameboy (yes the very first GameBoy that started the Nintendo succesfull trend of flooding the market with the same product in many different color variations). I love it!!

(via dentchu) Ok, now this would be a real DS killer... ^_^
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Comdyna GP-6 (via Matrixsynth) OK, I confess I'm a techno feticist and this analog computer spotted by Matrixsynth is the hardware porno pic of the year!!

"Each GP-6 is a self-contained unit capable of simulating linear and non-linear systems of up to four state variables. Over 2000 GP-6 analog computers have been installed in over 400 university, government and commercial research laboratories."

If you are a code junkie this is a PDF programmin guide for the G6:
USING THE COMDYNA GP-6 ANALOG COMPUTER, by Professor Ian Petersen, Department of Electrical Engineering, Australian Defense Force Academy, is an excellent presentation of programming and operating the GP-6.