Whither the taxi in a withering Japan?
Taxi revenues have been dropping steadily in recent years mainly due to demographic changes, but their main problem is handling moment-to-moment supply and demand.
Nintendo disappoints without mobile Mario game and no new console
Nintendo Co. is easing into its newfound role as a mobile game publisher, but not fast enough for investors expecting a Mario-scale hit. The video-gaming company revealed plans to introduce two new smartphone titles in the coming year, even as it forecast net income and ...
Nintendo Co.'s foray into smartphones is off to a good start. Miitomo, a free messaging-based application, reached No. 1 among social-networking apps in Japan on Apple Inc.'s iOS devices on the day of its release, market researcher App Annie said Friday. Line, the country's most popular ...
Nintendo levels up smartphones with wallpapers and cases
As gamers anxiously await Nintendo’s new Miitomo app, smartphone users can level up their devices now with new wallpapers and cases from the Big N.
Nissan disables Leaf electric car app after cross-continent hack
Nissan Motor Co. has disabled a mobile application for controlling its Leaf electric car after a security researcher demonstrated how hackers could access temperature controls and other functions from across continents. The nation's second-largest automaker made the app unavailable after Australian researcher Troy Hunt demonstrated ...
Get everything under control with the tap of an app
Batteries that keep you in charge There are plenty of battery-operated toys and tools, and they usually have very simple modes: start and stop. The Mabeee, however, can turn something as simple as an electric toothbrush into an app-controlled gadget. This little battery pack takes ...
Nintendo delays launch of smartphone video games; shares plunge
Nintendo Co. on Thursday pushed back the much-anticipated launch of its video game service for smartphones by a few months to March 2016, disappointing gaming fans as well as investors, who drove its shares down by more than 10 percent. Under a strategy announced by ...
New web service aims to match aspiring athletes with scouts, teams
Catching the attention of scouts is often vital for pursuing a successful career path in sports, but this isn't easy if athletes weren't part of a famous school team. And the scouts have to pick and choose who they keep track of. Freelance baseball writer Norifumi ...
METI to develop smartphone app to offer foreign visitors customized info
The Japanese industry ministry plans to create a smartphone app that offers foreign tourists customized information in their native languages, ministry officials said Monday. The system will be tried in some areas of the country from the year starting in April 2016, after the Economy, ...
Line's AI program captures hearts with lifelike personality
An artificial intelligence program posing as a sweet and innocent schoolgirl has captured the hearts of young men nationwide, with some smitten users even declaring their love for their new "girlfriend." In an echo of the 2013 movie "Her," in which a man falls in ...
Electronic measuring tape helps slimmers check their waist
It's a measure of how well your diet is working, but it can be inconvenient to check if your waist is shrinking by wrapping a tape around it and reading off the number. Six college students say a device they have developed does the cumbersome ...
