Technology check

The main reason I ever went to Japan was to observe the local technology. The outlier has always been one of my favorite themes. 7 years ago, mobile phones - known as keitai in this part of the world - was the booming technology and it took the West 3 years to catch up with the 2005 state of the Japanese mobile technology. Also, Japan was offering cheaper deals. If I remember correctly, AU would let you send text messages (marketed as C-mails) for 1 yen. If you ever had to pay a France Telecom bill, it's the kind of detail that keeps you awake at night.

I was hence really curious to go back and see for myself what was going on there. Mobility is still the strongest theme - fueled no doubt by the fact that the West has finally caught up and is spawning tablets by the millions.

Sadly, conformism has made victims here too. Apple products are all-pervasive and Japan has mostly lost its unique hardware edge. A very disappointing sight indeed. Electronic shops in Akihabara are filled with iPhone accessories and the odd device is harder to find. Here's my meager catch.

The foldable keyboard

They are not specifically Japanese, yet they are very popular here. They come in different colors and confirm that the future of technology is definitely in the mobile world.

LTE to Wi-Fi bridge

By far the coolest sight. This is an LTE/4G receiver. Urban density in Japan has made it interesting to build a high speed wireless network. The problem is that mobile devices do not yet support LTE, so this device has been invented to bridge the gap between LTE and conventional Wi-Fi so that mobile phones can surf high-speed internet wherever you are.

Of course it's expensive. Of course the hardware is overheating so much that I couldn't keep it in my pocket. Of course battery life is a joke. Of course it drops connection more often than a space probe after a catastrophic landing. Of course it's the one thing you can not live without - especially in Japan where free Wi-Fi is nonexistent. Even in McDonalds' and Startbucks.

The portable label printer

This device lets you use a pen to write with the screen on the right and the printer on the left will print it. My Japanese wasn't good enough to understand the advantages over the archaic pen+paper method. Once again, if you ever find out let me know!