In the ongoing effort to provide an increasingly immersive experience at the movie theater that cannot be mirrored at home, select Japanese theaters will be screening Iron Man 3 in what is dubbed the new 4DX format. It takes the concept of Smell-O-Vision and raises it the next level by adding in moving seats that roll, pitch and yaw in time with the onscreen action like how you get with those rides at Universal Studios. You also get strobe lighting and “jets of air and water” that blast into the faces of the patrons in the theater… again, like some of those theme park rides.

As far as the olfactory experience goes, the 4DX-equipped theaters are apparently capable of producing 1,000 different scents. I wonder if it can replicate the wonderful smell of fresh shawarma after a long day’s work. And of course, there’s 3D included in that package too. The 4DX format comes at a premium, naturally, tacking on an extra $13 for the 3D experience and about $10 for the 2D version.

Even if you can’t make your way over to a Japanese theater for Iron Man 3, you’ll soon be able to indulge in the smelly, rocky, spraying 4DX experience in the United States later this year.

[Source]

The post 4DX Japanese Theaters Let You Smell Tony Stark in Iron Man 3 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

The guess is that the NT stands for New Type, as the upgraded Kid’s Walker NT comes with several improvements over the original. First, there is a chest plate that flips up to protect the pilot, which is pretty important when you find yourself in the heat of battle. They’ve also added into two new attachments for the arms: there’s a drill and a gripper. You can probably figure out what those do.

Before you get all excited about sending your 7-year-old into the mech-infested warzone, you should know that the Kid’s Walker NT mech suit can’t actually go anywhere. There are some “leg movements” for realism, but the suit doesn’t walk. So, you’re just a sitting duck with a gripper and a (presumably not-too-sharp) drill. At least little Sally will look the part. The 1.6 meter robot suit retails for $21,000 and weighs in at 180 kg. It’s also available for rental in Japan.

[Source]

The post Video: Kid’s Walker NT Mech Suit for Kids with Upgraded Drill and Gripper appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Our wait for hover cars may finally be coming to an end thanks to reasearchers at the Japanese Aoyama Gakuin University. A breakthrough has been made in realtime control over magnetically levitated disks by using only light. The team recently disclosed study results that show the motion of a graphite disk being controlled by the use of a laser.

And now for the science:  The changing temperature of the disk using the light influences how it reacts to the magnetic field. If you raise the temperature, the disk will lower, adversely if you lower the temperature the disk raises. Also by moving the light beam around the disk, it manipulates its movement. See the video below:

The researchers discovered that this also works with sunlight and can even be used to make the disk spin at up to 200 RPM. The potential for this is endless in the way of turbines and solar conversion systems.

So maybe this won’t lead to an immediate release of hovering vehicles and other transportation, but the potential is still there, and the applications of such technology is exciting.

[ source ]

The post Hover Cars Possible? New Magnets Can be Controlled by Light appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Central Japan Railway Co (JR Tokai), the company behind Maglev (Magnetic Levitation), has revealed their new Series L0 prototype. The train is based on magnetic levitation technology and a long aerodynamic nose.

Magnetic Levitation works by varying simultaneous magnetic fields that attract and repel the magnets in the train. Furthermore, due to the opposing magnetic fields, the train levitates a very small amount above the guide. Thus, maglev trains do not depend on friction for acceleration.

At 311 mph, the Series L0 train will go from Shinagawa Station to Nagoya in 40 minutes. On the other hand, it takes 90 minutes for a normal bullet train to make the same trip. With 16 cars in total, the prototype will hold about 1,000 commuters.

Even though magnetic levitation has been in development since the beginning of the 20th century, the Series L0 train is set to go into use in 2027. Additionally, the tracks are set to be extended from Tokyo to Osaka by 2045.

What do you think of Magnetic Levitation-based train technology? Is it the wave of future, or will something even better eventually come along?

[ Source ]

The post New Japanese Maglev Train to Reach 311 mph appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Continuing with the extra large superphone trend that led to phablets like the Galaxy Note II and LG Intuition, the HTC J Butterfly also has more to offer than just its super-sized Super LCD 3 display. Under the hood is a quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro processor (1.5GHz), a full two gigs of RAM, 16GB internal storage, microSD expansion, 2020mAh battery, Wi-Fi tethering for up to 8 devices, NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, HDMI out, and BEATS audio. It also ships with Android 4.1 Jelly Bean right out of the box, overlaid with HTC Sense 4+.

The camera on the back looks like it’s going to be really good too, following in the footsteps of the flagship HTC One X superphone. There’s an 8MP CMOS shooter back there with a wide F2.0 aperture for better low-light performance. There’s also a front-facing 2MP camera for video chats and self portraits. All of this is housed in a phablet that’s just 9.1mm thick and 140 grams.

That’s all good news, except it comes with one giant caveat. It appears that the J Butterfly is being offered exclusively in Japan via KDDI. It’ll use their 4G LTE network that is capable of download speeds of up to 75Mbps. HTC might offer a variant to other markets eventually, but the Japanese model will ship in early December in your choice of black, white or red.

[Source]

The post HTC J Butterfly 5-Inch Android Phablet Rocks 1080p Display appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Let’s face it, some pretty crazy stuff comes out of Japan, but this has to be the weirdest thing we’ve heard in a while. Scientists at the University of Tokyo Sony computer science labs have created a Happiness Counter that measures your smile. Okay, it doesn’t sound THAT crazy. The science behind it is that the more you smile the better you fill, which has at least a little merit to it.

That being said… the video released for it is nothing sort of creepy. Apparently the smile counter will force you to smile or it won’t let you eat. The counter can be attached to a normal refrigerator and forces a person to smile. Depending on the level of smile, the door to get to your snacks and food will either be easy – for a good smile – or very hard, those that refuse to comply with a decent smile.

The smile counter dings if you smile and also display an LED smiley face. If you look sad around it, it isn’t happy either and it frowns. Yep, computers can make you do things. This is how the robot invasion starts after all. I swore it would be the cheetah robots that did us in— but this is scarier.

In theory, cool idea, even if a bit odd. Still, I can’t see this really being used. Who would pay for this? Maybe physcologists could use this by giving it to patients with depression?

Anyhow, check out the video below and let us know what you think.

[ source ]

The post Want Food From The Fridge? You Have to Smile First appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Yes, there are already 3D-capable smartphones out there like the LG Optimus 3D, but this is a fun little gadget that can transform your iPhone into a personal big-screen 3D TV. It’s designed to work with the stereoscopic 3D videos on YouTube, but it could presumably work with any 3D image that is displayed in side-by-side form as shown here.

I know Sanwa for for arcade stick parts, but I guess they venture into other areas too. The bad news is that the Sanwa Stereoscopic is only available for iPhone users in Japan at the moment, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try importing it.

[Source]

The post ViewMaster Lives Again with Sanwa Stereoscopic 3D Viewer appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Leica holds a very special place in the hearts of photographers all around the world. The Leica M8 and M9 are constantly touted as being among the best rangefinders on the planet, but what if you want something even more special? What if you want to stand out even further?

While companies like Apple are known to charge about a $100 premium for a new paint job, Leica is going much further with the white version of the Leica M9-P. While the regular black version sells for “just” $7,995, the white version is reportedly going to cost you $31,695. No, that’s not a typo. A swapping of the paint comes in at $23,700 extra. Aside from the paint job, the white version appears to be identical to its black cousin.

Even if you happen to have an extra thirty grand kicking around in your budget for a camera, you probably won’t be able to buy one of these. That’s because Leica is limiting production to just 50 units, meaning that the actual street price could end up being much, much more when it is officially released in July. Some Leica stores in Tokyo reportedly already have it on display, drumming up interest among the wealthiest of photography enthusiasts.

[Source]

The post The $32,000 White Leica M9-P appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Most of the setup looks like a regular electronic keyboard, but there are some extra buttons along the left side that correspond to certain sounds in Japanese. By combining those buttons with the regular keys on the keyboard, a person is able to sound out just about any word in Japanese, combining them with the notes and chords on the keyboard to achieve the sound they’d like. The net result is an incredibly creepy robot-like singer.

To make sure that the musician is getting the words he or she desires, there is an electronic display on the keyboard that shows the generated words in katakana. I imagine this could be translated into other languages, but Yamaha’s Vocaloid Keyboard is currently only available in Japanese… and when I say “available,” I mean not available, because Yamaha has no intention of launching this as a commercial product just yet.

[Source]

The post Yamaha Vocaloid Keyboard “Plays” Vocals (Video) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Now, replace your car and its gas tank with your iPhone and its battery pack. That’s exactly what seems to be happening with the iOS 5.1 update to some users in Japan. The battery reading on the iPhone has become wildly unreliable, making huge jumps in percentage in a matter of moments.

The guys at Rocket News did a test where they topped up the iPhone to 100% and proceeded to play a saved video without stopping. After letting the video play for about an hour and a half (1:15pm to 2:43pm), the iPhone showed it still had 93% battery life. That would be impressive, except that the battery reading then proceeded to flip to 50% mere moments later.

Considering how much we’ve come to rely on our smartphones, having a fairly reliable reading of the remaining battery life is pretty paramount. After all, it doesn’t matter that Siri can speak Japanese if she unexpectedly becomes unavailable because of a dead battery.

[Source]

The post Upgrade to iOS 5.1 and Never Know Your Real Battery Life Again? appeared first on Mobile Magazine.