Hand-powered personal fan promises to be big in Japan this summer
TYO:7867
Summer in Japan can be very humid and uncomfortable. Paper fans and parasols are what people usually use to beat the heat, but there might be a better solution. This coming summer, people can try out a battery-free portable fan called Kuru-Kuru Eco Fan, developed by Takaratomy. The first version of this eco-fan was released in April of last year with over 120,000 items shipped. The original fan required the user to turn the handle, but this reworked version is powered when you squeeze the handle which then triggers the fan blade to turn (see picture above). With one squeeze, the fan turns more than 50 times. Suited for both adults and children, the fan's handle is only 5.5 cm wide (in the open position), and weighs just 51 grams. The three fan blades are made of soft material making it safe for children to use. All it takes is a squeeze of the handle and you can enjoy a nice breeze. Your other hand is, of course, free to use your smartphone. Kuru-Kuru Eco Fan is priced at just 787 yen, or about $8. It comes with a strap to hold it around your neck, and extra design patterns…
Summer in Japan can be very humid and uncomfortable. Paper fans and parasols are what people usually use to beat the heat, but there might be a better solution. This coming summer, people can try out a battery-free portable fan called Kuru-Kuru Eco Fan, developed by Takaratomy.
The first version of this eco-fan was released in April of last year with over 120,000 items shipped. The original fan required the user to turn the handle, but this reworked version is powered when you squeeze the handle which then triggers the fan blade to turn (see picture above). With one squeeze, the fan turns more than 50 times.
Suited for both adults and children, the fan's handle is only 5.5 cm wide (in the open position), and weighs just 51 grams. The three fan blades are made of soft material making it safe for children to use. All it takes is a squeeze of the handle and you can enjoy a nice breeze. Your other hand is, of course, free to use your smartphone.
Kuru-Kuru Eco Fan is priced at just 787 yen, or about $8. It comes with a strap to hold it around your neck, and extra design patterns which you can use to dress it up a bit. The fan is part of Takaratomy's Eco Toy initiative, aimed to create toys that are friendly to the enviroment.
Speaking of summer, character goods merchandiser called Runat released a silicon ice cube tray called Manga Gori, or Manga Ice. The tray makes ice cubes that are shaped like onmatopoeic words often seen in manga. The clever ice cube tray is available on Amazon for 1029 yen, or about $10.
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Line Town
Last week we had a chance to hear Line Corporation's Akira Morikawa talk about his company's fast and furious global strategy to promote their Line chat application. But it looks like the next few months will see the company quite active marketing to its home market of Japan as well, with a new 'Line Town' toy series to be released next month in cooperation with Takaratomy. Line Town, as you may know, is the animation series of the same name that broadcasts on Tokyo TV. Headlining its repertoire of toys will be a sort of imitation smartphone for kids called 'Line Town MyTouch.' With the goal of letting kids enjoy Line characters too, this pretend smartphone has a color LCD as well as sliding touch motion designed to look like smartphone interfacing. While there's not actually a phone function, it looks like this toy handset will use an NFC function to let kids exchange stamps and some messages when one phone contacts another. It will also feature some mini games like picture matching, janken (or rock-paper-scissors), and brain training. The toy phone will be released on August 8, and will be priced at 6825 yen (or about $70). It will…
Last week we had a chance to hear Line Corporation's Akira Morikawa talk about his company's fast and furious global strategy to promote their Line chat application. But it looks like the next few months will see the company quite active marketing to its home market of Japan as well, with a new 'Line Town' toy series to be released next month in cooperation with Takaratomy. Line Town, as you may know, is the animation series of the same name that broadcasts on Tokyo TV. Headlining its repertoire of toys will be a sort of imitation smartphone for kids called 'Line Town MyTouch.'
With the goal of letting kids enjoy Line characters too, this pretend smartphone has a color LCD as well as sliding touch motion designed to look like smartphone interfacing. While there's not actually a phone function, it looks like this toy handset will use an NFC function to let kids exchange stamps and some messages when one phone contacts another. It will also feature some mini games like picture matching, janken (or rock-paper-scissors), and brain training.
The toy phone will be released on August 8, and will be priced at 6825 yen (or about $70). It will be available in three colors: pink, green, and blue. Surely Line Corporation is hoping that if they can promote the Line brand to kids at a young age, that they'll stick with the brand as they get older and buy real smartphones.
Line Corporation will be releasing a number of other toys as a part of its cooperation with Takaratomy, including a character branded version of the Automee-S smartphone and tablet cleaner that we featured back in February. There will also be a Line Town Message Seal Maker, Line Town figures, a 'tobisau' pop-up toy, and Line stamps as well (yes, actual stamps). See the pictures below, or Takaratomy's website for more information. [Via Impress]
For more information on the growth of Line, please check out our interactive Line Timeline which chronicles its growth from its launch back in 2011 up until the present day.
Line message seal maker
Line Automee-S
Line stamps
Line pop-up toy
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Is your iPhone dirty? Japan has a miniature zamboni robot that'll clean it!
automee-s
In a recent survey, 88% of smartphone users responded that they are often bothered by finger prints and other marks on their screens. And since not everyone has a piece of microfiber readily on hand, this is clearly a first world problem that absolutely must be solved. And fittingly, we have an equally first world solution. Use Automee-S, a tiny robotic cleaner that was just announced by TOMY Company, Ltd. Home cleaning robots like the Roomba are pretty popular in Japan. And TOMY applied the same concept to smartphones and tablets. In fact, it was way back in 1985 when they built their first cleaning robot named the SO-G (which means "cleaning" in Japanese) which uses brooms to clean. The company describes the Automee as an invention that combines practicality and playfulness. When you turn it on, it is propelled by three wheels on the bottom, and cleaning paper wipes off all fingerprints and oil on the screen. This toy is smart enough to detect the edge of whatever device it is cleaning and turns itself around to avoid from falling off. In this way, the Automee covers the entire surface, making sure everything is nice and clean. If you'd…
A zamboni for your iPad or iPhone!
In a recent survey, 88% of smartphone users responded that they are often bothered by finger prints and other marks on their screens. And since not everyone has a piece of microfiber readily on hand, this is clearly a first world problem that absolutely must be solved. And fittingly, we have an equally first world solution.
Use Automee-S, a tiny robotic cleaner that was just announced by TOMY Company, Ltd. Home cleaning robots like the Roomba are pretty popular in Japan. And TOMY applied the same concept to smartphones and tablets. In fact, it was way back in 1985 when they built their first cleaning robot named the SO-G (which means "cleaning" in Japanese) which uses brooms to clean.
The company describes the Automee as an invention that combines practicality and playfulness. When you turn it on, it is propelled by three wheels on the bottom, and cleaning paper wipes off all fingerprints and oil on the screen. This toy is smart enough to detect the edge of whatever device it is cleaning and turns itself around to avoid from falling off. In this way, the Automee covers the entire surface, making sure everything is nice and clean. If you'd like to see it in action, there's a video over on the company's website.
The approximate cleaning time is four minutes for smartphones (12cm x 6cm) and eight minutes for tablets (24cm x 19cm). Automee itself is about 7 cm in width and weighs 82g. It comes in four color variations: orange, blue, pink, and white. The two circles in front of the robot intended to mimic eyes, giving it a pet-like feel. The company is even planning to release other kinds in the future such as trains, cars, and animals.
Automee-S will be sold in a range of retail stores all over Japan, as well as online. It costs 1,575 yen (or about $17) and goes on sale on March 28 [1].
For those who read the headline and wondered what a 'zamboni' is, here you go. ↩
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