One of the new au W41 handsets introduced yesterday, Toshiba's W41T, is becoming even more accessorized. Yamaha announced a new speaker cube called the "NX-A01" which was developed with the W41T in mind -- not only does it support Bluetooth with its matching receiver, it handles the MPEG-4 AAC HE codec used in au's new "au LISTEN MOBILE SERVICE (LISMO)." Long story short, you can wirelessly download CD-quality tracks using the new service (onto your phone's 4GB hard drive), and you can play them on your speaker cube without messing around with cables. Of course the NX-A01 isn't free; the speaker itself costs 13,000 yen, and the Bluetooth module 14,000 yen, bringing your total to about $234 USD. If you're looking for something cheaper, Kaga Electronics is slated to release Bluetooth headphones with MPEG-4 AAC HE support for about 10,000 yen (~$86 USD).

Looks like reports have surfaced that AU will introduce a new phone with a 4GB hard drive for music called the "W41T" (1337 5P33k unintended, assuredly). Judging by the spy-style shots of the literature, it will go by the name "MUSIC-HDD" (wonder what they could be referring to?) and is made by Toshiba. This should come as no surprise, though, considering the company's history with the 0.85-inch hard drive. Other specs include a 2.4-inch LCD, 3.2 megapixel camera, and Bluetooth. There's also word on other phones from the W41 series, too; of note would be the "W41K," (Kyocera?) which will supposedly have a subwoofer. Expect official announcement of these handsets before March.

[Via 2ch]

It was over a year ago that we first saw JVC's "J4" Bluetooth-controlled robot. The company busted it out once again for a demonstration over in Japan, and a few more details have been revealed about what makes it tick. Besides Bluetooth, it can be controlled by voice or mobile phone (over the phone network). On its head are two CMOS cameras that record video in MotionJPEG, and an internal lithium ion battery gives it a life of about 90 minutes. Of course it also does other normal "Japanese robot things" like sing, dance, and act like it can understand what you're saying. JVC said that although they currently don't have plans to make the robot available to consumers, this latest demonstration is to help them get a feel for what consumers think of the robot. Well JVC, you already know our response.

Engadget Japanese brings us some hands-on impressions of Sharp's W-ZERO3 for Willcom in Japan. Opera v8.5 (with an improved rendering engine) is available for the unit, and it is the first version of Opera designed specifically for Windows Mobile 5.0. The W-ZERO3 also takes advantage of Willcom's new W-SIM technology. The browser offers a pleasurable experience with tabs and smooth operation even while loading pages, yet the keyboard takes some getting used to. And there's still no Bluetooth. Click on for the rest of our impressions.

Japan's Pegaso has announced the latest in "bone conduction" technology with the "GBD-01 Audiobone." Bone conduction technology involves sending vibrations into the skull of a person, transmitting audio directly to the auditory nerve. The process bypasses most uses of the ear, so it is frequently used in hearing aids. Anyway, a few creative souls down at Pegaso decided to load their latest headphones up with bone conduction technology, and they run for roughly 14,490 yen (~$123 USD). We've seen a couple headphone units that incorporate bone conduction technology in the past, but these new ones are the first that do not require an amplifier. This means you can easily plug them into your portable audio player for ear-free listening of your favorite tracks.

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It doesn't take long to conjure images of lonely men in tiny apartments when we think of Japan, and projects like NTT's latest development don't help. At the recent "NTT Group Communications EXPO," the company demonstrated a technology called "Virtual Humanoid," where a human-shaped figure appears to be nothing but green to the naked eye, but a (creepy) woman's features appear to be on the figure when the viewer is equipped with a special Head-Mounted Display unit, . The possibilities are endless -- NTT looks to bring robotics into the formula so the figure can move and interact even further. Right, move and interact. NTT's final goal for the project is to enable people to have a game of baseball with Ichiro, so it looks like they'll be at this one for a while.

The Vodafone V502T from Toshiba comes after the V501T, known for its variety of cheesy covers. The new model may lose the covers but it does incorporate a number of usability enhancements such as "Simple Mode3" that displays commonly used features in larger menu text than less used features, "Limit Mode" that allows you set limitations for when certain functions can and can't be used, and a portable audio player with AAC playback capabilities. The screen seems to be the same 2.4-inch 240 x 320 dot beauty we've come to expect of Japanese handsets, but the camera is a drab 1.3MP. Expect to see it in late January 2006.

Add a bit of Maria Sharapova to Motorola, and this is some of what you end up with. The one you see above is Maria's personal Motorola M1000 (released for NTT DoCoMo in Japan) that she used while on her recent tour in the country, and it went up on Yahoo! Japan Auctions yesterday. The final selling price was to the tune of 905,000 yen, or some $7,534 USD. Is that really all Maria is worth to the entirety of Japan? Oh well; the proceeds of the auction will go to benefit charities.

Japan's been going bananas for the word "ubiquitous" for the entirety of 2005, and it doesn't look like they'll let up for the new year. NTT DoCoMo announced the "FOMA Ubiquitous Module," a small cellular module designed to be put in pretty much any machine that could take advantage of a cellular connection. Of course the wild imaginations at DoCoMo take that to mean "basically anything that has electricity going through it," and they gave the examples of slapping it in vending machines, taxis, inventory control, and information terminals so they can connect to the internet. Just plug this module into any device that supports it, and it can be connected to the internet in a jiffy. DoCoMo will also be announcing some service plans specifically for the new module, such as "Ubiquitous Plan S" for 840 yen (~$7 USD) that furnishes about 800 packets per month. We know we'd pay $7 per month to connect our microwaves to the internet, wouldn't you?

Golden Emporer International may have made it, but it takes a company like SolidAlliance to call their new USB memory "hella fast." Or at least that's what we've translated it as; they were careful to avoid the standard Japanese word "very," so it made sense to us. After all, there aren't many things you can do these days to make your company's USB memory stand out, given how flooded the market already is of these things. Anyway, the memory is named "GeIL DAVID 100," and the product line goes from 512MB to 2GB versions. The dual-channel approach allows for a read speed of 30MB per second and a write speed of 20MB per second, so filling even the 2GB drive shouldn't take more than 2 minutes. It also has aluminum casing and a slide-out USB connector. The 2GB model will go for 29,800 yen, which works out to roughly $250 USD.

A well-known Japanese musician named Masaharu Fukuyama is receiving some rather odd star treatment: a company called "GINZA TANAKA" will release a solid gold replica of his DVD box set to celebrate the 15th anniversary of his debut. Only one replica will be made, but we completely understand why; measuring about 5.7 inches all around, the 24-karat gold cube weighs a cool 33 pounds. You could be the lucky owner of this conversation piece for a mere ~$415,000 USD. It doesn't even come with any actual DVDs, but if you're such a fan to spend so much on a solid gold cube of a DVD box set, we suppose you already own the real deal.

Only Thanko would combine a Japanese lantern with a speaker and a slap a USB port on it for audio and powering the light. That's really all there is to the "Japanese Lantern Speaker," besides a price: around $35.

NEC has debuted some ultra-thin and flexible quick charging batteries named ORB, for Organic Radical Battery. We're having a hard time deciding what is the coolest part about these; their 0.3mm thickness that allows them to be flexible, or the fact that they can be recharged in about 30 seconds. The organic radical materials inside the battery are in an "electrolyte-permeated gel state," which is supposedly about halfway between a solid and a liquid. This helps ions make a smooth move (no, the other one), reducing resistance, allowing the batteries to charge faster. 1 square centimeter will give you about 1 miliwatt hour. That's not enough to power your laptop, but according to NEC, one recharge of this battery allows an active RFID tag to transmit tens of thousands of signals. NEC plans on further developing the technology so it can one day be used in IC cards, RFID tags, electronic paper, wearable computers, and other such technologies stepping up to the plate in the coming decade.

We know using organic EL screens instead of LCDs in a head mounted display has been done before, but we'll still let you know about the "i-Visor FX601" from Korea's Daeyang E&C. They're being sold in Japan by a company called Mikimoto Corporation from the 12th of this month for the low low price of 376,500 yen (~$3,000 USD). On second thought, we really have no idea how much these things should be selling for; we'll let you decide on value. Specifications-wise, they offer a nice resolution of 800 x 600, and simulate a 60-inch screen at a distance of 6.5 feet. They have integrated speakers and get power via USB, but still only take video signals via standard analog RGB. Of course, since there are two screens inside, you can use them with whatever 3D display software you have handy. We keep waiting for these things to come down in price, but we don't think it will be happening anytime soon.

It seems Lenovo has taken home two "Red Dot" design awards from a German design institute called the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen. The first award is "Best of the Best for Highest Design Quality," and it was won by the company's "Yoga" concept, which consists of a laptop with an LCD that can be twisted all the way around such that the notebook stands up like an a-frame. The other award for "High Design Quality" was won by their "Sundial" concept, involving a slimline all-in-one PC on a stick that has some kind of whacky 3D scroller interface. We were pretty suspicious when we saw the "Red Dot" awards considering the color of the trackpoint on many IBM/Lenovo notebooks out there these days, but it appears to be a just coincidence. Maybe.

The "Snap Lab" is a new digital photo printer from Sony for commercial use, but if you can afford the ~$1,650 price tag, be our guest and pick one up for the wife and kids. The LCD you see there is no joke; it's an 8-inch touchscreen with a 640 x 480 dot resolution. It takes rolls of photo paper instead of sheets, so it can print as many as 300 pictures in one go, at a rate of 13 seconds per photo. Sounds fine to us. JPEG, TIFF, and BMP images up to 6400 x 4800 (that's what, like 30MP?) are supported, and the Snap Lab features integrated Memory Stick, CompactFlash, SD, SmartMedia, xD, and USB slots. Now let's all guess how much a replacement ink ribbon costs.

Panasonic has announced they've begun "pilot production" of dual layer, 50GB Blu-ray discs out in their Torrance, California factory. This dual layer disc is apparently the first of many capacity enhancements that Blu-ray may see throughout the years by just slapping on more and more data layers; we know from a while back that Sony is working on octuple layer discs with a 200GB capacity. Panasonic seems confident in their production capabilities, too, because they're saying they will ship sample discs out by the end of the month. Expect to hear plenty more about these particular discs at CES 2006 in January of next year, since that's when this whole HD DVD vs. Blu-ray thing is supposed to kick off for consumers in the US.

[Via HDBeat]

The "smartCharge" from Heavy Moon is an adapter that allows your iPod shuffle to be plugged directly into your car's cigarette lighter socket, so it can recharge while you're on the road. We'll also mention that it is equipped with a 3.5mm audio jack for getting sound to your car stereo, and is also compatible with 4G, Photo, and mini iPods when you use a USB cable. The price is 3,864 yen (~$32), so at least it's cheaper than similar offerings we've seen in the past for the iPod mini.

If you're reading Engadget, you probaby have a mobile phone. You probably also have a computer.

...see any connection? Quixun did. For 1,980 yen (about $16), you can pick up their "lipii Beam Station," a small USB device that accepts infrared signals from your mobile phone. Using a special iAppli on the phone, which is currently supported by pretty much all FOMA handsets, you're able to control various functions of your PC by using only the phone's keypad. Move the mouse, type up a term paper, skip to the next porn music video, control your browser, and so on. Mac and Linux users are out of luck; only Windows is supported for now. Oh well, infrared isn't exactly a common feature for phones outside of Japan anyway.

A few more details about that E Ink wristwatch from Seiko Epson are coming in from Japan. The watch will be called the "Seiko Spectrum," and it's set to be released on January 27, 2006 in Japan. Save your money for this one — pricing is set at 262,500 yen, or around $2,200 USD. Or just, you know, wait until they get cheaper. At least it's a step in the right direction; there's not really much room to argue against the advantages electronic ink provides over conventional displays for these kinds of applications. By the way, if you do want one of these watches, get moving: only 500 will be produced.