News: You’re a Bad, Bad Owner

By | November 24, 2011
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 From the This Gadget May Well Tell More Than I Really Want To Know About My Pet Dept, a Japanese company that produced the world’s first dog translator is working on a similar device for cats. An article at ComputerWorld’s website says that Japan’s Takara Co. Ltd. is working on a the Meowlingual, that “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”.
 
 
There will also be body-language analysis and medical-analysis functions, a new feline fortune telling function and other features that are still under development, said Takara on Wednesday. It is due to go on sale in November this year and will cost ¥8,800 (US$75). Bowlingual, which went on sale in Japan in September 2002, has sold around 300,000 units and an English version is due out in the U.S. in August. Here’s a company that’s already selling it.

News: Man Beats Donkey

By | November 24, 2011
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 From the It Was a Silly Game But I Loved It Too Dept, Associated Press reports that a guy called Steve Wiebe has become the first player to get a million points on Donkey Kong Junior, the sequel to the original game.
 
 
Last week, the 32 year-old broke an 879,200-point record set last year by a New York man, which edged past one set nearly 20 years ago by Billy Mitchell, a Florida man generally consider the Don of the Arcade Game. The record was big enough news to video-game enthusiasts that they crashed the organization’s Web site, said Robert Mruczek, chief referee at Twin Galaxies.
 
And this is what I didn’t know: Donkey Kong means ‘stubborn monkey’ in Japanese according to Nintendo, who make the thing.
 

News: Blog Maps and the Art of Gathering

By | November 24, 2011
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 Further to my posting about Friendster, here’s more on how the net seems to be bringing people together physically. Brian Montopoli of Slate wrote earlier this month about ‘blog maps’, where “some industrious blogger posts a subway map of his or her city… and then organizes the city’s blogs by the stop to which they are closest”. These not only “help bloggers find each other, exchange e-mails, meet up for drinks, and then generally do the same things as neighbors who stumble upon each other in the real world” but also provide “an alternative city guide that enables a little point-and-click sightseeing”.
 
Interesting.

Update: Consider Changing Your Email Software

By | November 24, 2011
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 A few weeks back I reported on the revival of Calypso, an excellent email program, by the folks at Rose City Software. Their rechristened Courier does everything Calypso did, but it’s got one or two features that may help tip the balance for those of you not sure it’s worth the hassle switching. My favourite feature is its integration with POPFile, which, coincidentally, is my spam filter of choice (and now 99.18% accurate, I’m glad to report.) Anyway, this is the neat bit: Courier allows you to reclassify email that POPFile may have got wrong — marking it as spam, for example, instead of legit email) just be rightclicking on the email in question. Superb.
 
One gripe for Rose City: Can we have better icons? I can’t see the yellow envelope in the system tray, especially after a couple of beers.

Hardware: Sony Blurs The Boundaries

By | November 24, 2011
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 Not sure whether this is a PDA or a notebook or what. PalmInfoCenter says that Sony Japan is expected to officially announce its new Clie PEG-UX50, its first with a mini laptop like design, swivel screen and built in keyboard. The device has a integrated in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless as well as a digital camera.
 
 
More details and an official US announcement are expected later today when Sony’s handheld President, Masanobu Yoshida, holds a press conference in San Francisco. The UX50 will be available in Japan around August 9th, pricing and worldwide availability is not yet known.