July is not at particularly good time to be in Japan, at least not if yougrew up in Scandinavia and get uncomfortable once the thermometer risesabout 20 C. But I didn’t have much choice this time. The InternetEngineering Task Force (IETF) held its meeting in Yokohama from July 14 to19 and this was a perfect opportunity to check out the latest and greatestin “Geek Heaven”, also known as Akihabara, the section of Tokyo devotedentirely to electronics.
Ketai Fever
You can’t avoid the “ketai” or Japanese cell phone. Everyone has one andeveryone uses them for e-mail, Internet browsing, games and goodness knowswhat else. I have this deal with a friend who lives in Japan: he has a GSMphone on my account and I have a DoCoMo iMode phone on his account.Someone could start a business offering permanent world-wide cell phoneservice billed to your credit card, as it stands, you basically need tolive in country X to have a cell phone in that country — on a permanentbasis anyway. Pre-paid cards is another story altogether, but most of thecell phones in Japan do not have SIM cards. Anyway, it was time to upgrademy own ketai, and when I saw the Panasonic P504i, there was no question inmy mind that this was the phone I wanted. A quick trip to the localYokohama DoCoMo store took care of the rest: the old phone’s “brain”(stored numbers) was transferred to the new phone, and I was given twosets of manuals, one it English and one in Japanese. (All DoCoMo phonesare now bilingual, and apart from some amusing entries in the manual such as”oftener” the text is easy to read, and the phone behaves well.)You can see pictures of the P504i here.
PowerBook Protector
I found a nice protector for my TiBook. This protector is a sheet of metalthat attaches to the lid of the TiBook using something called “ProTac”, akind of double-sided tape that lets you remove the protector if needed. Ichose a bright red color, and, as you can see in the picture, have alreadyadorned it with various stickers. This is a nice way to both protect yourTiBook from impact and scratches, and at the same time, personalize it —a true Japanese tradition.
Short FireWire cables
If you’ve ever wished for a really short and flexible FireWire cable, hereis the answer: Tec Parts makes a 20 cm (0.2 m) 6-pin to 6-pin cable. It isperfect for charging (or updating) your iPod, and just as perfect for thatexternal FireWire drive you might take on the road. The picture shows thepackaging, front and back, as well as the cable itself.