Japanese gadget makers revel in summer

TOKYO – The sun is supposed to be shining as I complete this round-up of gadgets and gizmos launched in Japan during July but the weather is yet to cooperate this year. It’s partly a blessing in disguise — Tokyo’s summers are hot and humid — but nonetheless people are getting impatient to see the sun.

None of this has stopped Japan’s electronics makers churning out electronic tools, or toys, depending on your view. This month Sony gave a redesign to its Clié PDA and we saw one of the first gadgets intended to make it easier to print out photos taken with camera phones.

Sony Clié PEG-UX50

Just when you were beginning to think all Palm PDAs looked the same, along come Sony with its latest Clié model. The new Clié looks something like a shrunken notebook computer and consists of two slabs, one with a display and the other with a keyboard, hinged together lengthwise. The upper slab, which houses the 3.2-inch (8-centimeter) TFT (thin file transistor) display, can be swiveled around through 180 degrees and folded back down to cover the keyboard so it faces outwards. There’s also a new processor, the Sony Handheld Engine, which was designed and developed in-house for use in Clié PDAs. Features include a built-in VGA resolution camera and Bluetooth and Wi-Fi (802.11b) networking. The PEG-UX50 will go on sale in Japan on Aug. 9 and is expected to be priced around ¥70,000 ($593) with overseas sales following. https://www.sony.jp/clie(Japanese)

Sanyo J-SA06 Cellphone

Don’t you just hate it when you misplace your cellphone and the phone is set to vibration mode? You can’t call it and follow the sound of the ringer because the phone is silent so you are left to picking up cushions and checking coat pockets to see where you might have left it. The latest handset from Sanyo Electric for Japan’s J-Phone gets around this problem. It works like this: Call the phone from a registered number for a registered number of times and the phone drops its silent mode and starts ringing. You can set up to five registered numbers in the phone’s memory and determine the number of calls from each before the ringer begins sounding. The phone is now available and its price varies. It cannot be used outside of Japan. http://www.j-phone.com(Japanese)

Takara Meowlingual

Takara, the people that brought the world the Bowlingual dog translator, have unveiled plans for a cat translator. The Meowlingual is still under development and few details are available. However, Tokyo-based Takara says it will have some of the same functions as the company’s Bowlingual translator including the ability to “translate” cat calls into one of around 200 phrases that are displayed on a built-in LCD (liquid crystal display). Unlike the Bowlingual it will be a single unit — a neck-worn microphone judged impractical for cats. It is due to go on sale in November this year and will cost ¥8,800. http://www.takaratoys.co.jp(Japanese)

Sharp LCD PC/TV Monitor

Sharp has combined a LCD television with an LCD monitor to come up with a pair of what it calls multimedia monitors. One has a 15-inch standard aspect ratio panel with XGA resolution (1,024 by 768 pixels) and the other has a 17-inch wide screen panel with WXGA resolution (1,280 by 768 pixels). In addition to an internal TV tuner, there is a standard 15-pin mini D-sub socket for connecting to a computer and component video, S video and, on the 17-inch model, a D1 digital video input. And to make sure you don’t spend too much time concentrating on your work, there is a picture-in-picture function that allow for monitoring of the video signal while in PC mode. The 17-inch model will be available first, from Aug. 11 and priced around ¥90,000, followed by the 15-inch model, from Sep. 29 and priced around ¥55,000. Sharp did not disclose plans to sell the monitors overseas. https://www.sharp.co.jp/crisia(Japanese)

Panasonic HDD/DVD Video Recorder

Matsushita Electric Industrial, better known as Panasonic, has added a couple of models to its recently launched range of DVD video recorders. Both the DMR-E100H and DMR-E200H have hard-disk drives in addition to support for DVD-R and DVD-RAM. The 120G-byte drive in the E100H translates into up to 160 hours recording time while the E200H can store up to 212 hours of video. One function is the ability to record video in MPEG2 and MPEG4 at the same time. The latter format can be transferred to a memory card, inserted either into the SD Card slot or via a adapter into the PC Card slot, for viewing on a mobile device. If you want to save recorded video to DVD, transfer takes place via a 24X actual video speed from the hard disk to a DVD-R and 12X video speed to a DVD-RAM disc. The E100H will be available from Aug. 1 and the E200H from Sep. 1 at prices of around ¥130,000 and ¥200,000 respectively. Details of overseas launch plans were not available.  https://panasonic.jp/dvd(Japanese)

Nikon D2H

Nikon’s latest professional digital SLR (single lens reflex) still camera, the D2H, will certainly get the blood pumping in any serious photographer. The resolution of the camera is nothing special, at 4 megapixels, however other functions leave many consumer cameras in the dust. It can shoot up to eight continuous frames at full resolution in JPEG or RAW mode and shutter lag — the time between pressing the shutter button and the shutter firing — is given as 37 milliseconds. Other functions, all with the time-conscious nature of news and sports photography in mind, include the ability to use the camera as soon as it is switched on and there is an optional wireless LAN adapter that can transmit photos directly from the camera via an access point to a server. The camera will be available from late October and cost ¥490,000 for the body minus any lenses. http://www.nikon-image.com (Japanese)

FujiFilm Cellphone Printer NP-1

With the resolution of cameras in cellular telephones becoming better and better it seems only natural that consumers will more and more want to print out photographs taken with their cameras. Fuji Photo Film has answered this call with a photo printer designed for use with telephones. Users transmit their images via infrared to the NP-1 for printing, which is at 254 dpi (dots per inch). The unit measures around 11 centimeters by 10 centimeters by 4 centimeters, making it portable, and two AA-batteries provide enough power for printing around 100 photos, said the company. FujiFilm has yet to decide on a launch date and price. http://www.fujifilm.co.jp(Japanese)

Toshiba Allegretto M700

The latest member of Toshiba’s Allegretto series of digital still cameras is difficult to miss thanks to its 10X optical zoom lens that, when fully extended, sticks out of the front of the camera a la Pinocchio. Behind the lens is a 3.2-megapixel CCD (charge coupled device) image pickup which can deliver pictures of up to 2,048 pixels by 1,536 pixels. Like other Toshiba cameras the M700 stores images on an SD (Secure Digital) card. A 2.5-inch polysilicon TFT (thin film transistor) LCD (liquid crystal display) on the back allows for review of photos or video taken using the camera’s video mode, which records at 320 pixel by 240 pixel resolution and 15 frames per second. The camera will be available in Japan from mid-August for around ¥50,000. Overseas launch plans have not been announced. https://www.toshiba.co.jp/mobileav/camera/allegretto/(Japanese)