Spending More Time In Akihabara

After I bought my Canon EOS Kiss X3 camera in Japan, I couldn’t just make one trip to Akihabara, Japan’s famous electronic district. I’m so crazy that,on this trip I went there five times! Even at that, I still didn’t see everything I wanted to. There was one store that stood out from all the rest ... Yodobashi. Its nine floors kept me there for almost an entire day and sucked up a good portion of my last paycheck. Ouch.

I always thought Fry’s Electronics was a cool store to visit when I fly to the Mainland. Although I still admire Fry’s, sorry, but it doesn’t even come close to Yodobashi. The mixture of stuff I found in the store was amazing - just about every computer, piece of software, TV, camera or little gadget/device on the planet was in this store. I even found a mouse-ear Mickey Mouse iPod charger for my Disney-crazy friend. Cell phones are a whole other story. They took up almost an entire floor - I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many in one place.


One thing for sure, the Japanese love their cell phones. But I was a little surprised to learn that the iPhone isn’t very popular there. So much so that Softbank Mobile, the exclusive carrier for the iPhone in Japan, is offering free 8GB iPhones with a two-year contract. Wow, what a deal! According to a poll I saw in a Japanese magazine, the most popular cell phone there is FOMA SH906i. From the outside, it looks like a “regular phone” I normally wouldn’t even look twice at. It still wouldn’t be my first choice, but I admit it does have some good features: a three-inch touch-screen display that supports TV, FM radio, 3G connectivity (3G is much faster in Japan than it is here), a barcode reader, music/video players and the usual e-mail/web capabilities.

I can’t wait to go back to Japan again. There’s so much to see and do, not to mention all the tech shopping!

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Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: Top Gun
One of my favorite movies from the 1980s is Top Gun. A couple of weeks ago, I found a Top Gun iPhone app - cool! Yes, it’s a little cheesy, but I love it! This game takes you back into the movie, but you’re a recruit under Maverick and Iceman, as they’re both now instructors at the Top Gun Academy.

Instead of flying the F-14 Tomcat as in the movie, you’re piloting the F-22 Raptor or B-2 Stealth Bomber as you hear the classic Danger Zone song playing in the background (along with other tracks so you don’t become tired of the same song). The plane types threw me off since you can’t land either of them on a carrier. But other than that, for a little iPhone, the graphics are excellent and definitely add to the game-play. If you’re used to playing flight simulators, Top Gun is a breeze. If you’re not used to flight sims, the gameplay might be a small challenge, since you have to learn how to navigate properly.

With how polished this Top Gun app is, I was surprised it only cost me $1.99 (during its first week of release). Unfortunately, the price went up to $3.99, but still a small price to pay for a good iPhone game. Find it at the iTunes App Store.

UH Engineering Team Wins Competition

Thanks to a robot micro-mouse named “Alfalfa,” two UH Manoa engineering students took first place in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers’ Region 6 Central Area Spring Meeting and Micromouse Competition, held a of couple months ago at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

Team members Alex Zamora and Tyson Seto-Mook built the winning micromouse, which completed the competition maze in one minute and 11:29 seconds - 2 minutes and 36 seconds ahead of another UH Manoa entry. From the nine mice entered, UH Manoa teams swept the top seven places in the maze competition, the top three positions in the packaging (construction and design) competition and first place in the student paper competition.

In the micromouse competition, student teams design and build an autonomous robot mouse that is controlled by a microprocessor and is no larger than 25 centimeters by 25 centimeters in size.

Each mouse is given 10 minutes to learn the fastest route though the maze from the starting point to the center square. Good job, guys!

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Honda Demonstrated Walking Assist Devices


Along similar lines, American Honda Motor Co. Inc. demonstrated its prototype walking assist devices for the first time in the U.S. at the 2009 Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) World Congress. These devices are intended to support walking for the elderly and are currently being tested in real-world conditions by individuals with weakened leg muscles.

Called the Stride Management Assist, it’s lightweight and wearable, designed for people with weak leg muscles who can still walk on their own. It obtains data about your walking motions from hip angle sensors. Based on the information collected, the CPU applies cooperative control and calculates the amount and timing of the assistance that needs to be provided. With the device’s help, your stride is lengthened and the walking pace regulated, making it easier to walk.


The Stride Management Assist’s compact design was achieved with flat, brushless motors and a control system developed by Honda. The belt worn around the hip and thigh was employed to help achieve its total light weight of about 6 pounds. As a result, it reduces the user’s load and can be fitted to different body shapes.

Also, the Bodyweight Support Assist is designed to help weakened leg muscles, but it also could be helpful during some physically demanding activities. It will support your bodyweight to reduce the load on your legs while going up and down stairs. The load on leg muscles and joints - hip, knees and ankles - is reduced. The device is built simply of a seat, frame and shoes. The contraption is easily attached to your body by putting on the special shoes and lifting the seat into position. A mechanism that directs the assisting force toward your center of gravity and the ability to control the assist force in concert with the movement of the legs make it able to provide natural assistance in various postures and motions.

Honda initially began research on walking devices in 1999. The cumulative study of human walking, along with research and development of technologies conducted for Honda’s advanced humanoid robot, ASIMO, made the current developments possible.

Canon’s New Rebel With HD Video

Here I am in Japan again, and I absolutely love it, especially because I’m able to find things that haven’t been released in our country yet. Case in point is my new Canon EOS Kiss X3, as they call it in Japan, aka the EOS Rebel T1i, which released last week in the U.S. After I spotted the X3, I instantly knew I had to buy it since I’ve been planning to buy the American T1i version for months.

Buying my new camera was a huge challenge as I had to wrestle with my credit card company. Even though I called to tell them I was traveling abroad (and spoke to five different customer service reps), they still decided to block my card multiple times, and I eventually just dished out the cash to buy my camera kit.

Lesson learned: Don’t always trust your credit card company, and it’s a good idea to carry cash or traveler’s checks as a backup if you know you’re going shopping. Needless to say, I’m canceling this credit card as soon as I get home.

All that aside, this camera is awesome! The very day I bought it my husband and I headed to Northern Japan for sakura to see the cherry blossoms. Snapping pictures of all those beautiful trees and the birds flying around was a perfect capability test. Plus, the big appeal for this camera is the fact that it can do HD video capture, and is the first in the Rebel line to have this capability.


The T1i incorporates the best from the EOS 50D and EOS 5D Mark II models along with a 15.1 megapixel CMOS sensor and DIGIC 4 Imaging Processor, considered to be the muscle in the camera. You can do continuous shooting at 3.4 frames per second (fps) for up to 170 large/fine JPEG images, or up to nine raw images with a single burst, if you have a larger memory card. This was well-demonstrated while I was taking shots of the hawks flying overhead. Using the burst function as well as the 200mm zoom lens that came with my kit, I took many phenomenal pictures of cherry blossoms as well as various birds. The HD video function came in handy as well. I’m more of a short-clip video type of person, so having it integrated into one is extremely helpful. All the videos I took came out sharp with good audio.

Additionally, the T1i gives you ISO speeds of 100 to 3,200. It’s extremely user-friendly with its 3.0-inch Clear View LCD (920,000 dots/VGA) monitor and an auto lighting optimizer, creative auto mode, and Canon’s Live View modes, the perfect mix for the average consumer to jump on the digital imaging bandwagon.

Canon’s EOS Rebel T1i Digital SLR camera retails for $799.99 or $899.99 for the kit with Canon’s EFS18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS zoom lens. Find it at Amazon (www.amazon.com) with free shipping.

Click Chick’s iPhone App of the Week: iNap@Work

Released a few weeks ago, iNap@Work has to be one of the funniest iPhone apps I’ve seen. I can think of several folks who could and would use this! This app simulates office sounds so you snooze while people around you think you’re working hard. Come on ... it’s better to take a 15-20 minute nap than to load up on caffeine. iNap@Work makes noises that you would normally hear coming from your work area: simulated mouse clicking, keyboard tapping, paper crumpling, pencil sharpening, stapler stapling, clearing throat sounds and sniffling. You can use the sliders to crank up or turn down the frequency of the noises. It all depends on whether or not you want to simulate a light or busy day.

I doubt someone can actually use this at work without getting fired, but this app is just too hilarious. Download it for 99 cents at the iTunes App Store.

Protecting Kids On The Net For Free

With the growing popularity of social networking and Internet predators lurking about, today’s parents rate Internet dangers higher on their list of concerns than drugs. According to the Norton Online Living Family Survey conducted in March, 56 percent of parents are concerned their keiki may come across Internet dangers, including online predators and cyber bullies, compared with drug-related threats at 44 percent.

To help parents with the electronic threat, Symantec, makers of Norton security software, is offering OnlineFamily.Norton for free.

“Online safety should be a top priority for every parent, but it can be a daunting task if they don’t have the resources they need to get started. That’s why we’re offering OnlineFamily.Norton to families for free this year,” says Janice Chaffin, group president of Symantec’s Consumer Business Unit. “OnlineFamily.Norton is truly unique because it was designed to foster more communication between parents and kids, which is essential for creating rules together and keeping safe.”

The setup is painless, simple and quick. After you establish a parent account, you can create a profile for each child you want to monitor (up to 15). Select a picture icon and enter their birth year. Symantec then automatically sets up age-appropriate house rules based on the birth year. You then need to download and install an application called Safety Minder on each machine your keiki use (up to 10) and designate the Windows or Mac user account with the specific machine. If the children share a machine, you’ll have to assign separate user accounts.

OnlineFamily.Norton is a little different from the traditional parental control products that focus on just blocking and monitoring your kids’ online activities. It goes a step further to help you manage the gray areas of the Internet with education and communication. You’re encouraged to sit down with your keiki to create the House Rules for online activity. They’ll be aware that the software is active on their computer and view the House Rules they established with you at any time.

The program monitors activity on social networks such as Facebook and MySpace, when they login and how often. You can start a chat/conversation with your child if you see them misbehaving online. He/she also can send information to you in real-time via the OnlineFamily.Norton site or through e-mail about the intention when attempting to visit a blocked site.

In addition, OnlineFamily.Norton provides you with clear reports with activities listed in chronological order. The website reporting eliminates all the extra URLs (i.e. media-heavy ads) and shows thumb-nails of the visited websites. These reports can be accessed online anywhere, and you can choose to receive e-mail reports. In addition, you can monitor instant messaging chats, control web content (up to 40 topic categories), and track, report and prevent personal information that they may inadvertently try to send via instant messaging, social networking or on a website.

OnlineFamily.Norton is free until Jan. 1, 2010 at http://onlinefamily.norton.com (no price commitment, but the service is valued at $60 for a one-year subscription). It’s compatible with either Windows XP/Vista or Mac OS X 10.5. Since it’ll be free for awhile, now is a good time to try it out so you can decide if this is a good solution for you and your keiki.