Sanwa Supply has something to help you download and play with all those apps as your iPhone's non-swappable battery runs out of juice. The "400-BT001" is a JPY4980, 50-g  lithium-ion polymer battery that recharges via your PC's USB port and then powers your iPhone via its dock connector. Powered up, the device will grant you another 3.5 hours of talking time, 7 hours of video watching, or 36 hours of audio listening.
http://direct.sanwa.co.jp/ItemPage/400-BT001 (Japanese)

The iPhone's big-name American rival is coming to the average Japanese user. Research In Motion's BlackBerry smart phone (also known as CrackBerry for its users' addiction to compulsive email checking) is already sold by DOCOMO to businesses in Japan; from August 1, "BlackBerry Internet Service" becomes available to individuals as well. DOCOMO has an English page with details on the service and the new BlackBerry 8707h model, also available from August 1.
http://smartphone.nttdocomo.co.jp/english/index.html (English)

Apple claims 1 million iPhone 3Gs sold worldwide in the first three days (a sales feat that took the first iPhone 74 days), along with over 10 million applications from the App Store. Not surprisingly, the gadget press in Japan this past week has been focused on the iPhone 3G, and applications from Japanese developers. Here are a few of the Japanese apps appearing in the news:

Rakuten Shoken's stock trading software "iSPEED" released its iPhone version on July 11. Use a couple of fingertips to zoom in and out of stock charts, just as you do with photos.
http://www.rakuten-sec.co.jp/ITS/ispeed/

For those going places, Navitime Japan's free "NAVITIME" application comes to the iPhone, dispensing street directions, train travel times, locations of WiFi hotspots and gasoline stands, and more. The company will later follow with more feature-packed paid versions.
http://corporate.navitime.co.jp/topics/20080711.html

Or choose "Ekitan Express iPhone/iPod touch", a native version of the popular Ekitan transportation info application. Check train and flight schedules, train transfers, up-to-date info on delays, and so on from wherever you are. It's free for now, though a paid service is under consideration. (Should Ekitan go all paid on you, try an iPhone-friendly web service like http://touch.jorudan.co.jp/ )  
http://ekitan.co.jp/news/press/2008/07/0711100739.html

Game developer Hudson Soft Co. wants to help iPhone owners kill time with "Bomberman Touch", "Aqua Forest" (JPY900 each), and "Sudoku" (JPY700) games. The company offers additional games for the device's Safari web browser.
http://corporate.navitime.co.jp/topics/20080711.html

SUNSOFT is offering "Puzzle Game Shanghai", a version of the classic tile-stacking game, for JPY1200. In the US, it's sold as "Mahjong Solitaire" for $9.99.
http://www.sun-denshi.co.jp/soft/iphone/

Were you looking for something a little more "exotic" from Japan's developers? How about this one: Asial Corporation Japan's free "Abacus" application. It turns your sideways iPhone/iPod touch into a clickety-clackety abacus you work with a fingertip. (The interface looks a little pokey to respond in the video, so you'll get beaten down in speed competitions by old shopkeepers with their real abacuses. But the way you reset the virtual abacus by shaking the iPhone is kind of neat.)   
http://www.asial.co.jp/pressrelease/238
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fq4mvenfn84

Other offerings with a Japan feel include a Golgo 13 comics reader, a postal code lookup utility, the "Gengou Free" conversion utility for Japanese/Western calendar years, and "The Wisdom" E/J dictionary. They're all easy to find inside the Japanese App Store, so have at it, iPhone fans.

Name: Niro Spherical Surround System NS-600
Category: home theater speakers
Price: JPY88,000
Release date in Japan: July 10, 2008

The new "Spherical Surround System NS-600" home theater speakers from niro1.com KK ("Niro") aren't spheres themselves, but they are indeed round. The system's components are a top speaker, bottom ("base") speaker, subwoofer, full digital surround amp, and remote control; no "left" and "right" speakers in this system. The 0.6-kg top speaker projects L/R channels to the rear, while the 1.4-kg base speaker projects L/R and center channels to the front.

Niro explains that conventional front-speaker surround systems project a flat "circle" of surround sound with limited vertical reach, while the NS-600's vertically-separated speakers envelop listeners in a "sphere" of "dramatic" ceiling-high surround sound. The sound cocoon fills a room as large as 60 square meters, says the company.

Buy the NS-600 now, and to celebrate its 10th anniversary Niro will drop a JPY9000 iTunes or Amazon gift certificate into your order.

More info: http://storejp.niro1.com/08shop/ns600/ (Japanese)

Name: Kairen Projector X Pro920
Category: portable projector
Price: JPY36,540
Release date in Japan: Early August, 2008

Saitama-based Kairen YK is about to release the smallest projector I've ever heard of. It's a mere 9 x 8 x 4.4 cm and weighs a scant 190 grams. Yet it's a real projector, designed for use with your iPod, DVD player, or other media player.

Input is via a mini AV jack for DVD players, or D-Sub15 pin connector for PCs. The sold-separately "VGA SMART" kit allows connection to smart phones, letting a phone with slideshow or PDF display capabilities run a full presentation for a (small) table of people.

At 10 lumens, the Pro920's LED light won't outshine the big models. In fact, it sounds downright dim. Kairen says the brightness is good for a 25-inch screen (presumably in a dark room), but you'd do well to confirm visibility yourself with a store display model before dropping the cash.

Maximum input resolution is 1024x768; output is via a VGA (640x480) 0.44-inch LCoS panel with 4:3 aspect ratio. Completing the low-rent theater experience is a 1W monaural speaker and manual focus.  

More info: http://www.kairen.co.jp/japanese/other/krpro920.html (Japanese)

So, did the iPhone 3G make its July 11 Japan debut with a bang? Yes, as you've already heard if you've listened to news at all. Several SoftBank Mobile sales outlets in Tokyo each faced queues of over a thousand shoppers; the Ometasando location had 1500 in line before SoftBank capped it with a "sold out" sign, after which the line just kept going with people lining up for the chance of a phone the next day. Throughout Japan, iPhones flew out the doors fast, to the tune of 25,000 units total the first two days.

Not surprisingly, the iPhone 3G was the top-selling phone that day, according to the BCN Ranking service: the 16GB model accounted for 36.8% of all mobile phone unit sales and the 8GB model for another 8.1%, totalling 44.9% - amazing performance in a market where any two-digit percentage is a rarity. The next day, though, numbers were more restrained (as was supply): a 10.3% share for the 16GB iPhone 3G and 5.6% for Casio's water-resistant W61CA from au, with the 8GB iPhone 3G coming in third after that.

Unit sales by carrier on July 11 broke down to 51.6% for Softbank Mobile, 26.4% for DOCOMO, and 19.6% for au/KDDI. On the 12th, though, SoftBank racked up only 27.7% of sales – again, says BCN, partly due to simply not having enough iPhones on hand to sustain the surge. For either day, the numbers represent a big reversal of the status quo: for the month of June, for example, unit sales share by carrier were 52.5% for DOCOMO, 32.8% for au, and only 13.8% for SoftBank.

As of today, many SoftBank shops around Japan continue telling eager would-be customers that they have no iPhones and don't know when the next shipment arrives. Can SoftBank stay on top of its momentarily massive market share? That will largely depend on the iPhone supply.

Name: SONY alpha DSLR-A300
Category: digital SLR
Price: Open price (about JPY70,000 for body, 80,000 for DSLR-A300K with DT-18-70mm lens)
Release date in Japan: July 17, 2008

Carrying on from its predecessors the A100 and A200, the new SONY DSLR-A300 employs a new trick called "Quick AF Live Preview". To explain in the company's own words: "In Live Preview mode, the camera bypasses the optical pentaprism mirror to create a live “eye-to-eye” view of loved ones, children, pets and fast-changing scenes."

To expand on that a bit: Typically, a SLR camera bounces the subject image off a mirror hiding the main image sensor, and up on into the viewfinder so you can frame the shot. When you snap the photo, the mirror lifts up to instead let the image strike the film or main image sensor. (In that instant, you no longer see anything through the viewfinder.)

Recently, some DSLR (digital SLR) cameras have added a "live preview" mode. Choose that option, and instead of reflecting the incoming scene to the viewfinder, the camera holds the mirror lifted to expose the main image sensor, which then relays the image to the camera's back-panel monitor so you can compose the shot there. In short, it lets you use the SLR camera like a little point-and-shoot digital camera.

But so far, live preview has had its drawbacks in DSLRs. Some models rely on that reflecting mirror being down for autofocus to work, meaning live preview and autofocus interfere with each other. The switch from live preview to actual shooting can involve a delay just long enough to annoy professional SLR photogs. Continuous use can also cause the main image sensor to heat up.

SONY's Quick AF Live Preview mode doesn't send the image to the main image sensor for previews; rather, it keeps the mirror in place and lets the image head for the viewfinder housing as usual. But from there, it subtly tilts a mirror in the viewfinder housing to send the image to a small second sensor sitting above the eyepiece. That sensor then generates the live preview, which, SONY says, shows a real-time image without the above drawbacks. The result: a DSLR that allows easy live previews like a point-and-shoot, but maintains the speed and responsiveness of a true SLR. (Another pro touch: choosing Live Preview mode completely closes the optical viewfinder, preventing stray light from entering it and affecting either the preview or the actual shooting.)

So, that's the headline technology in this camera. It also sports a 2.7" LCD monitor that tilts forward or back and even folds out like a camping table; with that and Quick AF Live Preview, you can compose shots with the camera held at just about any height or angle. Other features of note include 10.2-megapixel CCD sensor with Bionz image processor, ISO up to 3200, Super SteadyShot image stabilization, pop-up flash, and continuous shooting speeds of 3 frames per second (2 using Live View).  

More info:
http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/dslr/products/body/DSLR-A300/index.... (Japanese)
http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalo... (English)