Spotted elsewhere in the news:

1) SONY's Sountina concept speaker has been given the green light for production. The blue, amber, and purple lights, actually. Sountina is a glass tube atop a metal base, looking for all the world like a 1.84-meter light saber. Its "vertical drive technology" sends sound in every direction from the omnidirectional glass tweeter (as well as a 7-cm mid-range speaker and 13-cm woofer); SONY says the technology produces evenness of both sound quality and sound volume over an unusually long distance. The art-like tube glows in the above shifting colors to further set the mood. Sountina is ideal for spacious hotel lobbies, wedding halls, and the like - but if you've got an extra JPY1,000,000 from June 20, then it's made for you too.
http://www.sony.jp/products/Consumer/AV-HiFi/sountina/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xySelsxODjo

2) Since its introduction over a year ago, Microsoft's Windows Vista has enjoyed a global reception about as warm as yesterday's roadkill. Amidst consumers' demands that computer makers keep offering the older Windows XP, and countless web sites detailing the process for uninstalling Vista, Tokyo-based Magnolia offers a compromise solution: "Back to XP", a software package that leaves Vista lurking inside your PC but disguises it as XP. Back to XP brings back lost menus, turns off the reviled UAC feature, restores the old look of the Start menu and desktop icons, and otherwise takes Vista a step forward. Or backward. Whichever. Available from July 4 for JPY1980 (package) or JPY980 (download).
http://www.magnolia.co.jp/products/utility/back02/index.htm (Japanese)

3) The PRADA phone by LG isn't new, having already sold over 800,000 units in 44 countries since last year, but it's new to DoCoMo and Japan this month. The fashion-conscious black unit combines LG's mobile phone innards with a shell, interface, stylus/strap, and leather case by famed Italian brand designers PRADA. The 3-inch QVGA (240x400) touchpad display works with a finger or a stylus. In Japan, the phone works with DoCoMo's 3.5G "FOMA High Speed" service. At 2 megapixels, its camera isn't raising the bar for resolution, but does feature a Schneider Kreuznach lens from Germany. Yours for about JPY100,000.
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/concept_model/l852i/ (Japanese)

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