Amazon Japan's ready to get in on that iPhone action. Just head to http://www.amazon.co.jp/ on your iPhone, and you'll find a new site layout custom-made for your handheld. It's not all products and "buy" links; while not all full-sized Amazon features are there, bestseller lists, reviews, recommendations, photo close-ups, and more will keep you busy inside the World's Largest Bookstore while you ride the Chuo Line. Works with iPod touch over WiFi too, of course.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) - itself behind more than a few gadgets, like the KAGUYA lunar explorer orbiting the moon and the KIBO International Space Station module launching June 1st - announced the JAXA COSMODE PROJECT logo progam for consumer-oriented products developed with JAXA involvement. From May, products qualifying for the mark will fall under one of three categories, each tied to an existing cooperative program:

1) Collaboration: Products developed in collaboration with JAXA under its Space Open Laboratory (a JAXA program to coordinate projects with academia and industry, not a physical laboratory)
2) Spin-off: Products using JAXA patents or technology, under its Intellectual Assets Use Program
3) Space Certified: Products certified by JAXA for space mission use, under the Space Japanese Food Certification Program and a similar proposed program for non-food items. (11 food makers already produce 28 food products for ISS mission use.)

Like any good logo, the COSMODE design has some meaning behind it. It represents a total solar eclipse, revealing a letter C formed by infinite stars – that is, the infinite products that space exploration will birth. Keep an eye out for COSMODE-branded products at stores near you. (My bet: the first time you'll see the logo in the wild will be on instant ramen.)

More info: http://aerospacebiz.jaxa.jp/cosmode.html (Japanese)
Space food pictures: http://iss.jaxa.jp/spacefood/index.html