Thứ Năm, 6 tháng 10, 2016
Animators and industry watchers have been pretty excited for the past few months about Saya, an incredibly realistic CGI Japanese teenager. Created by Tokyo-based husband and wife duo Teruyuki and Yuka Ishikawa, Saya's gone through several improvements with minute details, such as little hairs at the top of her head and the translucent appearance of her skin, mimicking that of a real-life girl of her age. Now, they've produced the first video of Saya in motion at the CEATEC trade show in Japan. For now, Saya seems a little stiff, especially in the way the fabric of her dress moves. But given the obsessive nature of her creators' methods, Saya might look a lot different in future renderings. Here's one of the latest looks for Saya produced by the Ishikawas. They've said in previous interviews that all of their characters' textures are hand-painted and don't replicate photographs. Sayaの2016verです(•̀ᴗ•́)。去年の発表から色々な皆さんの反応を頂きつつコツコツと改良を重ねてきました。既に動きのシステムも稼動していて秋の展示会へのお披露目に向けて制作中です、詳細は今後アナウンス予定です。 pic.twitter.com/kOGcMx96co — Telyuka＠CEATECで動画 (@mojeyuka) September 9, 2016 Saya went viral a year ago when her creators showed off some very photorealistic renderings of the character. 日本人の若い女の子は特に造形部分で非常にハードルが高かったのですが、湿度を含んだ柔らかい感触、この年代のもつ透明感、日本女子の柔らかく優しい感じなどを目標に作成 HPもアップしました http://t.co/Ft7KgSxFG9 pic.twitter.com/uGDkYZrSfZ — Telyuka＠CEATECで動画 (@mojeyuka) October 13, 2015 Valentine’s Day pic.twitter.com/yBevku3MTm — Telyuka＠CEATECで動画 (@mojeyuka) February 14, 2016 Feast your eyes on the detail in some of the Ishikawas' earlier work, too. Image: telyuka Image: TELYUKA
Thứ Năm, 4 tháng 8, 2016
Messaging app Line is chalking up karma points with their latest sticker release. On Tuesday, the Japanese company released a new set of Pokémon-themed stickers, with all proceeds going towards the charity, Chance for Children. The organisation was set up in 2011 to help Japanese children affected by the country's natural disasters. There are a total of 40 stickers featuring Pikachu saying "Thank you" in different Japanese dialects. The stickers were designed by people from all over the country who submitted their illustrations to Line's Creators Market. According to Line, there were more than 180 submissions, but the selections were whittled down to 40 by Junichi Masuda, general manager of game developer, Game Freak. The company is behind the Pokémon role-playing video games. Image: Japanese nintendo It's been five years since a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off Japan's northeastern shore, killing 16,000 people and displacing thousands of Japanese. While Japan is slowly but surely getting back on its feet, many children remain affected by the disaster — the worst ever recorded in Japan's history. The special edition Pokémon Thank You stickers are only available for download from Line Japan's app stores, and cost 120 yen ($1.20). [H/T: Rocketnews24]
Thứ Sáu, 8 tháng 7, 2016
SINGAPORE — They're cute and cheery, but are also packed with some of the advanced auto technology we may not be aware of. This team of 10 robot cheerleaders from Japanese electronics maker Murata was on show here on Thursday. Each robot balances freely on a ball and is able to roll around in formation with the others while staying upright. Koichi Yoshikawa, the spokesperson for Murata's development team, told Mashable that the cheerleaders each contain three gyro sensors working at a rate of 1,000 calculations per second to keep their bodies upright on the balls and move them in the right direction. The robots communicate with two panels equipped with ultrasonic and infrared sensors (similar to what the Xbox Kinect uses) that recognize them and synchronize them with the computer program. "This prevents them from colliding," said Yoshikawa. An engineer sets each cheerleader on its ball. Image: victoria ho/mashable The Japanese electronics firm has recently been trotting out similar humanoid creations including a bicycle-riding robot in an effort to explain its products and mission to more people. Murata makes these sensors and other components for a variety of industrial clients, including car manufacturers, that use the gyro sensors for electronic stability control. Yoshikawa said that the sensors are used to steady camera lenses through vibrations. He said that the firm's sales to the automotive industry have of late been increasing 10 percent year-over-year and that it expects to continue aggressively courting carmakers. But for now, automotive electronics make up just 12.7 percent of Murata's 1,207 billion yen (US$12 billion) in annual revenue. The bulk of revenue, 60 percent, comes from communications components sold to smartphone, laptop and tablet makers. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Thứ Sáu, 1 tháng 7, 2016
Who out there is excited for a new Windows 10 Mobile phone? Did your eyes just light up and your heart skip a beat? You're in the very small minority that cares about Windows 10 Mobile then. For some reason, the Japanese company NuAns is kickstarting a Windows 10 Mobile phone. It would be a great idea if Windows 10 Mobile was relevant at all, but it's not. With only 0.7% of the worldwide smartphone marketshare as of Q1 2016 (that's worse than the 1.7% ending Q3 2015), according to Gartner, the mobile platform is as a good as dead. SEE ALSO: Windows Phone is as good as dead Even Microsoft knows it, which is why we're seeing the company pivot towards providing its excellent apps and services on iOS and Android instead. With so little marketshare and more importantly, such a puny selection of apps, you have to wonder who will buy this phone. The dream of carrying just your Windows 10 phone and using Continuum and a dock to transform it into a desktop PC was an idealistic pursuit, but ultimately one nobody cared for. Each of us is a multiple device person with each device serving a different purpose. With so little marketshare, and more importantly, such a puny selection of apps, you have to wonder what NuAns is thinking with its campaign for the NEO phone. The company's asking for $725,000 to produce its phone, but who the heck is going to buy it? The niche guy you say! Well, of course, Windows 10 Mobile is a niche — not by choice, but by Microsoft's own failure. Like a thick old Nokia Lumia smartphone, the NEO isn't competing with the ultra-thin flagship iPhones and Android phones on the market. Image: nuans As a phone, the NEO is decidedly midrange. It has a 5-inch HD display (1,280 x 720), Qualcomm Snapdragon 617 processor, 2GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage (expandable up to 128GB via microSD card), and a 3,350 mAh battery. On the back is a 13-megapixel f/2.0 aperture camera and on the front is a 5-megapixel f/2.4 aperture camera. Yeah...not exciting. But at least it has a reversible USB-C port! Instead of performance, NuAns is banking on customizability. The NEO has two back cover panels that are interchangeable and the company hopes to sell a variety of different materials for each cover (i.e. wood, plastic, leather, etc.). There's even a cover with a slot for storing cash or credit cards. Image: NUANS Don't want to buy their cover panels? No problem. The company's planning to make the designs available for users to 3D print for themselves. Not to totally poo-poo over NuAns — I applaud them for taking this risk — but they are almost certainly destined for failure. Windows 10 doesn't have a snowball's chance in hell of gaining popularity and catching up to iOS and Android. The NEO phone is something Windows phone fans needed years ago. And even if it had launched then, it's questionable if it would have found any success at all seeing as Windows Phone 7 and 8 were flops as well. To NuAns, I say good luck. There are still 38 days left to the NEO phone's campaign and the company's already received more than $37,000 in crowdfunding at the time of this writing. Who knows, maybe the phone will get funded and the few people who backed it for $399.99 (early bird special) will be able to enjoy a device that has swappable panels. Have something to add to this story? Share it in the comments.
Thứ Ba, 26 tháng 4, 2016
China just beat Japan to take second position for global revenue from iPhone and iPad apps, a new report says. The U.S. is still the king of iOS app revenue generation in Q1 2016, according to App Annie (PDF link). However, China’s snapping at its heels, with a 2.2 times growth year-on-year that made it move up a notch since January. In terms of the sheer number of app downloads, China took the top spot last year, overtaking the U.S. That’s thanks to China’s huge number of smartphone owners as well as Apple’s big screen iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, say the App Annie analysts. But as any startup will tell you, getting people to download apps and making money off them are two different things. In the first quarter of 2016, despite China getting close to “peak smartphone,” the rate of revenue growth accelerated year over year — up from 2 times growth in Q1 2015. But all of that is still not enough to match in-app spending in the United States, which maintains a 30 percent lead on China for total iOS App Store revenue. This is because more users are willing to pay for app services like Netflix and Spotify as well as making other in-app purchases. App Annie expects worldwide app store downloads across all OSes to grow 33 percent to 147.3 billion in 2016, driven largely by smartphone adoption in emerging markets. In the first quarter, Vietnam experienced the fastest year-over-year percentage growth (1.7 times) in Android app downloads from Google Play from Q1 2015. It also ranked second in market share growth, the report said. Games contributed to half of the growth of Google Play downloads in the country. Argentina and Egypt followed, with 1.4 times growth each. However, India led global trends on overall year-on-year market share growth for Google Play, outstripping Vietnam. This article originally published at Tech in Asia here Android trends
