L5 remote ユニバーサルリモートコントロール iPhoneがリモコンに

Make your iPhone a TV and appliance remote control!

iPhone, iPad, iPod touchに取付 TVやエアコンのリモコン操作が簡単に！

L5は、売り切れ続出　

アメリカで大人気の赤外線リモコンアダプターです。

テレビ、ケーブルテレビ、DVD,オーディオ及びそのほかのデバイスを制御します。

App Storeから無料のアプリケーションをダウンロードして使います。

今だけの超お買い得！自宅のリモコンが沢山あってごちゃごちゃしている方、すべてをこれ１つで統一してはいかがでしょうか？1個のお値段です。

アマゾンの値段：￥４１８９

こちらは：￥２８８０！！！

操作確認済みです。

詳しく：　http://bit.ly/YaYSLF

Using iPad's Instead of Waitresses Taking Orders With Old Fashioned Menus is Often a VERY Bad Idea!

On the last day of 2011, the family went to our favorite sushi restaurant located in Isehara. Isehara is an hour away from our home by car so we get to go to this restaurant about twice a year when visiting my wife's parents. The place is delicious.

Even though this sushi-ya easily sits about 150 people, it is almost always packed. If you go there for dinner, as we often do, you'd better get there before 5:15 or you can expect to have to wait for an hour or more to be seated. After 6:30 pm until 9 pm? Don't even bother. We did that once. Never again. 


We get there early or we don't go.


On New Year's Eve, we arrived just at opening time and comfortably sat down. I expected a massive rush of folks to enter the restaurant soon after; like has happened every year for the past 5 or 6 years. But it didn't happen. In fact, when we left the restaurant there were several empty tables and no one was waiting to be seated.


"What happened?" I thought. "What has changed?" The food was just as delicious and just as reasonably priced as before, but something was different. 


I thought about it. It was readily recognizable upon entry to the restaurant. It seemed the place had lost some of its zip, "freshness" and vitality... It wasn't the same talkative and friendly shop as before.


Why? How could that have happened? The staff were all the same so management didn't change. What could it be?


After thinking about it for a moment, I concluded that it was point-of-sale iPad devices on all the tables for the purpose of allowing customers to place their own orders. I think this was the key (and a huge mistake) in destroying atmosphere and the good feeling one gets when experiencing a restaurant that relies heavily on human interaction like a sushi shop does.

With the rise of the Internet and the bursting on the scene of the iPad and few years ago and the copy-cats that have all followed, many businesses look to this sort of technology to save them in times of an aching economy. I think far too many businesses are making a huge mistake and looking for love in all the wrong places.

If you are considering using an iPad or like technology to increase your businesses profitability then I strongly suggest that you first always consider this point: It's awful hard to beat a pencil and paper. Is using technology going to be faster and more beneficial to your business?

I think, in many cases I've seen, it is actually a detriment. 

In many cases, far too many to be sure, using an iPad to allow customers input their own orders, especially in the case of better restaurants is a very bad idea. Here's why....

Think about this: is your restaurant the type of business that is highly dependent on communicating with customers? If it is, then iPad point of sale software is not for you.

Fujimaru in Isehara. Food is great. Ordering system not.

Here's a good example: Take a Denny's-type of restaurant. It is cheap and the menu doesn't, nor is it expected to, change often. People often go to Denny's to burn up time, read a book or to drink coffee while completing some work. They are not there to talk with the waitress. Compare that with a good sushi restaurant whose menu might change daily depending on the catch of the day or one that has a friendly chef who knows the value of talking to customers and communicating. How valuable is it when a customer can ask, "What do you recommend?" The sushi chef smiles and replies....

Also, as I mentioned, is communication important between your restaurant staff and customers? If you have a bar-type of establishment where people, often alone by themselves, come up to the bar to sit and order, then this type of iPad ordering is definitely not for you. Whenever I go this type of establishment, I go there for fun, conversation and comfort. I want to talk to the bartender (or sushi chef or head waiter) who I probably know and have a friendly relationship with (in the case of drinkers this would be called, a "brotherhood" or "confidant"). 

Think about that. Drinks are basically the same from one establishment to another. What makes one bar better than the other? (They used to call sushi restaurants "sushi bars"). In the example of drinks, the difference is ambiance and the bartender and staff. In the case of sushi, I might want to ask the sushi chef what he recommends as the freshest for the day.

The use of an iPad sort of device for customers to place their own orders at a restaurant must definitely serve to better the user/customer experience at the restaurant. It must also speed the process up, not slow it down. Think about that also, at a fine French or Italian restaurant, would you think the customer would be happy with tapping on an iPad to order? What about showing off to the friend or girlfriend that this customer is a regular and knows the staff by name? Using a iPad for ordering at a Denny's or McDonald's? Probably a resounding, "Yes!" Cordon Bleu or a "Top 50 restaurant in New York City?" Absolutely Not!  

No matter how much I love iPad, they would never enhance the experience at a top class restaurant. Also, the utter idea that people can play games online while waiting for their dish to come to their table is absurd, unless, of course, as I said, you are targeting a lower income (and single) audience. I seriously doubt that if I were on a date, I'd take a girl to a place where, while waiting for drinks or food, we'd be playing some online games.

What a awful date and terrible experience that would be.  

Communicating with a sushi chef is fun. Why degrade the experience?

That's the key word here: Experience. If the placement of iPad point of sale menu ordering device does nothing to damage the experience, then I think they might be a good idea (I said, 'might') but when a service organization (keyword: service) implements this sort of device and makes their 'service' less personal and colder, they are making a big mistake.


Finally, as I thought about all these things as we were about to get up from the table to leave the sushi restaurant, I (like I usually do) thought, "I'd like to have just one more sushi for the road." I looked at the iPad and thought, "Forget it. Too much trouble." Think about this one too. The sushi chef is standing five feet away from me on my left. If I say, "Maguro kudasai!" (Tuna, please!) that takes about 0.5 seconds. If I have to use the iPad for ordering (which he asked me to do) I have to pick it up; tap food menu; find sushi; rolls or nigiri? Then I have to tap the order... By the way, I like extra wasabi, but can't find where that is located on the iPad? I've spent 6 seconds tapping and trying to find what I want to order. Do I order the last one for the road? Nope.


I'll bet many people have thought the same thing. How much money in sales did that establishment lose from people just like me who thought the same thing?..."I want an extra order, but the hassle isn't worth it for one. Forget it." And I even own an iPad and am pretty well versed in using one. But that doesn't matter, it's not the iPod exactly that's the problem, it's the software too and a huge menu that Christopher Columbus couldn't find on a map!!! Think about that! Especially at a restaurant (like a fine restaurant or sushi shop) that is not cheap and has a large portion of their customers near 55-years-old or older... An audience who has the disposable money to spend on some of the finer things... Older people of which most have never touched an iPad in their life. Will they make that last minute compulsive/impulsive order? I don't think so... Heck, it's a hassle and they can't figure out how to do it. 


It takes 0.5 seconds to make a verbal order. Using the iPad takes time (and patience)... Not a pleasant experience. It's a hassle.


You've got a serious problem if people think ordering your product is a hassle.


As an aside, nearly 10% of the US population has compulsive buying complex Oniomania (for better or worse). I'm sure the Japanese are just as bad if not worse... If you are a business owner (and not a psychiatrist) then you need all the sales you can get. Using devices that suppress compulsive or impulse buying or ordering (especially when people are drinking and having fun) seems foolish to me. But, like I said, there might be good applications, it's just that I am not intelligent enough to see them, I suppose.


Here's how I calculate it: If one plate of sushi costs $3; And some part timer gets paid $8 an hour; and the restaurant has 150 seats and turns them over once every 1.5 hours; and, say, 15 (10%) of those people might have impulsively bought one last plate of sushi, then I don't see how utilizing this iPad ordering device saves me any money in lowering labor costs. I just lost $37 every 1.5 hours. Of course, this is a very rough estimate but I think estimates and judgements like this are very important.


As I walked out the door and looked at the empty tables, I wondered if the customers who used to come to this restaurant went to another shop? Another shop where they can talk and interact the old fashioned way (when it comes to food when is the "old fashioned way" not the best way?) better with someone who smiles at them and communicates with them so that they don't have to feel so lonely; they can have more and fun... Conversation with a waiter or waitress or chef can also be a very fun and beneficial thing.


What's the price tag on warmth, communication and laughter? Of course, with the iPad ordering, at this shop, there are still waiters and chefs and you can talk to them. But when I wanted to order, they hurried by and said,


"Please place your order using the ordering device on the table." What's the cost of that?


Thanks, but no thanks. I noticed that I felt a little betrayed and uncared for. Here we knew these sushi chefs and waiters, for years, yet they told us every time to order using the iPads....  I did talk with one of the waiters who knows us well and even he alluded to much staff dissatisfaction with the new rules on ordering.


In my case, the experience was lowered. My wife concurred. In the case of my in-laws (in their 70's) they didn't like it at all. My eight year old son thought it was cool... Too bad he is not the one who pays for the food. 

Romantic? Good atmosphere? Stylish? You be the judge

I think, in the case of a sushi shop, if they are going to use this type of device to take orders for sushi, then they might as well have robots making the sushi too.


Remember that it is hard to beat a pencil and paper for speed and human communication is priceless and irreplaceable. iPads are awesome devices when used for what they were designed for. I can't see how using an iPad for ordering at a restaurant that has a constantly changing menu or several dozen (even one hundred) items on the menu can enhance the user (customer) experience. If there are many items on the menu, it makes navigating the menu difficult. Imagine what it does to a first time customer? I think it makes sure they are not repeat customers.


I might be able to see the benefits if the restaurant only has a dozen or two items on the menu... But, then again, if the restaurant only has a few dozen items to order, why bother?


I think restaurateurs need to think long and hard about putting this kind of technology in their restaurants. Generally speaking, I can't see how it cuts costs or increases profits.


Placing a square peg in a round hole has never been a good idea. Use the right tools for the right job.

TV Really Going Down the Drain in Japan

I've written extensively on the fall of television in Japan. In July of 2011, all terrestrial television stations in Japan stopped analogue broadcasting and switched to digital. That cost all the stations 20% of their viewership. Japanese major TV stations were losing money before the switch to digital, how shall they make money when they spent a cumulative $5 billion dollars on the switchover and then lost 20% of their audience?

I can't figure that out no matter the size of my abacus.


While on vacation to Guam the other day, I saw a sign along the road that made me chuckle. In Guam, there are a very many people who are quite a bit overweight... No! Make that quite obese. The sign along the road said,


"You need more fiber in your diet and less cable TV"

Yep. Sitting around and watching TV while munching on chips and junk has seriously fallen out of favor with the active and young crowd.


Another sign that TV viewership is collapsing in Japan is the fact that, after initial fanfare and many years of positive spin on poor sales, Sony has decided to get out of flat TV manufacturing. The sales projections do not make up for poor sales ( and high manufacturing costs) which have lead to wide price dumping across the board. 


Bloomberg reports:

Sony Corp. sold its stake in the venture with Samsung Electronics Co. to make liquid-crystal displays to the South Korean company after predicting an eighth consecutive year of losses from TVs amid sluggish demand.

Samsung will pay 1.08 trillion won ($935 million) in cash for Sony’s stake in S-LCD Corp., a venture formed in 2004, the Suwon, South Korea-based company said in a statement today. Sony, which invested 1.65 trillion won in the venture, will take a charge of about 66 billion yen ($846 million) in the quarter ending Dec. 31 after the deal, Japan’s biggest consumer- electronics exporter said in its statement.

The stake sale enables Sony Chief Executive Officer Howard Stringer, 69, to shed the responsibility of panel manufacturing amid losses in the TV business, where Samsung is the world’s biggest. To turn around Sony, which has forecast a fourth consecutive annual loss this year, Stringer has teamed up with partners to announce acquisitions worth a combined $8.4 billion in 2011. The purchases are designed to bolster the profitable phones and music divisions and introduced tablet computers to challenge Apple Inc.’s iPad.

Catch that? It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what Sony has figured out: There's no future in TV sales; they're best off investing in the future of hand-held devices... Hand-held devices and tablet computers are generally not used to watch TV.

Tissue Time was a famous Japanese TV show in the mid-80's... No more.

How much clearer could the writing on the wall be? 

Six-Dollar iPod? Yes. It's Real and It's Here!

Remember a while back when I showed you a team of Tokyo University student's who had invented an iPad clone for $7! They sold them out within hours. See that story here with photo's: The $7 dollar iPad Look-a-Like Made in Japan.

 $7 dollar iPad Look-a-Like

This morning, I stumbled upon this extremely interesting video about a guy who has come up with an idea that he calls, "The Poor Man's iPod." Regular iPods cost anywhere between ¥4,200 ~ ¥20,900 (about $54.00 USD ~ $270.00 USD)... This Poor Man's iPod (the smallest ones) can hold about 15 songs for $5... 


His idea uses a Thumb Drive to store songs to play on your car stereo. Since Thumb Drives have gotten so cheap these days (and are getting even more  inexpensive soon) this seems to have potential... Perhaps back to the old days when we had cassettes with our fave artists in a box? One Thumb Drive for your favorite Rock artist, one for dance, one for ?

The Poor Man's iPod

Interesting, no?


Many have said that Apple could be in trouble because Steve Jobs is gone and Steve's replacement is a clone (meaning no new ideas or initiative). Maybe so.


Perhaps this isn't a earth-shaking new idea or even profitable, but it is a new idea and it shows that this guy is thinking... 


See more at: http://johnu78.blogspot.com

The $7 Dollar iPad Look-a-Like Made in Japan....

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

It's called the Padnote and it looks like an iPad. Basically, what it is is a notebook that is useful for drawing and such.

iPad lookalike for $7.00!!!!

From the Mainichi Daily News:

The notebook with gridlines is designed to facilitate drawing. In collaboration with a printing firm near the college, they have managed to imitate the exterior appearance of the iPad, including its texture and control buttons.

The product went on sale online in May, and gained unexpected popularity for its unique design and cheap price of only 735 yen apiece.

The notebook has been available at Tokyu Hands Department stores (wasn't there when I went to buy!) but, if you want one, you can inquire here: info@coccojapan.com

Marketing Japan: Apple Not Perfect? Impossible!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

I hope the title of this blog grabbed your attention. I mean, Apple is god. Welcome to my Saturday blog.

Well, first up, Apple CEO Steve Jobs admits that, as far as Apple is concerned, "We're not perfect." What!? That's impossible! As far as I am concerned (and millions upon tens of millions of Apple product users too) Apple is perfect. And, make no mistake, I am not one of those frothing at the mouth Apple lovers that you see running around.

I am cool and collected when it comes to Apple products. I don't drool and lust over them like most of my foolish friends do. Yes, I admit that I have two Apple computers and two iPhones, but haven't yet been rabid enough to buy an iPad. I am considering that purchase as any responsible adult should.

But frankly speaking, Apple is nothing like Microsoft. Microsoft ships us out a crap product that doesn't work properly even before it is shipped (OK, so this time iPhone has a bug); Apple offers us service and after care; not like Microsoft where, if you have a problem, good luck getting any human interaction to help you and answer your questions; and Apple is an innovator. Microsoft seems to have lost that "zeal," that lust it once had.

Microsoft is turning into a company like 3M... They will always be around. They will always make money... But, like Scotch Tape, their products do not capture the imagination... Especially of the young.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs dropped my jaw when he admitted something at a press conference that I thought I'd never hear him say, "We're not perfect..." He added "Phones aren't perfect."  

Apple not perfect!? APPLE NOT PERFECT!? APPLE NOT PERFECT!!!??? Kill me now, God, for I am ready to die!

Then Jobs adds fuel to the fire by saying something stupid like the president of Toyota would say, "We're not feeling right now that we have a giant problem we need to fix. This has been blown so out of proportion that it's incredible."


No! No! NO! Jobs! You just have to say "We're very sorry. We guarantee that we will make our customers happy. Everyone will be satisfied with our solution. We will fix the iPhones or replace them. We will be the best. Why? Because we are Apple." 


Mr. Jobs, you are Apple. This is what people are expecting to hear. Not wimpy excuses.... We don't want to hear this poncy hairdresser stuff coming from your mouth. ....


Oh, wait, what's that? He does, later on, say what needs to be said?


"We're going to do whatever it takes to make them happy and if we can't make them happy we're going to give them a full refund and say we're really sorry we inconvenienced you, and we're going to do better next time,"  


Very well done, Mr. Jobs. That's what we wanted to hear. That's what Apple does. On the other hand, Microsoft would have offered to send out a patch (that didn't work) and then another patch after that to fix the first patch, and then so on and so on... (If the patches don't work you get to call someone in Bombay.... Good luck with that!)


Great! So Apple is back to being Apple. Now, how to get my wife to give me the money for that iPad that I have been lusting after?... I could sneak the money out of her purse when she's not looking, or....


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Keywords: Apple, iPhone, Steve Jobs, Microsoft, Mike Rogers, iPad,

Google Announces Google Caffeine! Amazing Search Speed and Results!

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers

Last month Google announced their newest web search index and it's called Caffeine and it is just fantastic! If you write or blog as often as you should, then you are always looking for ways to brush up what you do to give your readers information that they want as quickly as you can...

After all that's what the Internet is good at and what Google is excellent at!

Whether you are using any sort of Social Media for marketing, business or pleasure, Google's new Caffeine is just like what it is called, "A wake up jolt!"

Take heed all bloggers, video bloggers, U-Stream or Youtube users, Facebook, Mixi, Linkedin, Pick or Twitter users because when you upload any sort for information to your SNS site or on the Internet in general, Google Caffeine is tracking you and allowing the people who are looking for your information to find you quickly and easily.  

Recently, I had been wondering how it was possible when I had an article published on, say www.lewrockwell.com, that a Google search who show my article in the results within 2 hours of publishing, but that's exactly the super-high speed performance that Google Caffeine offers. It is simply incredible.

From Google's press release about Google Caffeine:

Caffeine lets us index web pages on an enormous scale. In fact, every second Caffeine processes hundreds of thousands of pages in parallel. If this were a pile of paper it would grow three miles taller every second. Caffeine takes up nearly 100 million gigabytes of storage in one database and adds new information at a rate of hundreds of thousands of gigabytes per day. You would need 625,000 of the largest iPods to store that much information; if these were stacked end-to-end they would go for more than 40 miles.

Wow! That's a fair share of information processing in the blink of an eye, I'd say.

This makes it critical for those of you who are blogging to effectively use your keywords and tags so that a search on Google using Google Caffeine can find you. It also makes it even more important for folks who are video blogging or using Youtube or U-stream to make sure that they input the correct information on the description of their videos and tag them as much as possible...

Of course, then, it also stands to reason that when you do upload a new blog or vlog, then you will announce it on you SNS network (Facebook, Mixi, Twitter, or Pick) and those, too, will be analyzed by Google Caffeine and get you even better results for your efforts.

Hats off to Google for Google Caffeine. Just how does Google keep this torrid pace of great ideas and products up?

I think Yahoo is in trouble even though Yahoo Japan is doing pretty well.

By the way, just as a side note, I spoke to George Williams on the telephone this morning and he mentioned something to me that I thought was very interesting and a sign of  the times. He said, "You know, it used to be that young people were interested in working at companies like Sony or a big record label. Not anymore. Young people today are only interested in two companies; Apple or Google."

Absolutely. And with products coming out like iPad and Google Caffeine who can blame them?

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Keywords:  

Google, Twitter, Yahoo Japan, Linkedin, iPad, Mixi, Yahoo, video bloggers, bloggers, Social Media, Google Caffeine, Google's new Caffeine, Youtube, Mixi, Twitter, U-Stream, Facebook, Business, Sony, Apple, Pick, Google, SNS, blog