Tokyo Edge: January's Greatest Gadgets

The new year is off to a quiet start in Japan, with only a few new products from the country's consumer electronics giants. But those products that have debuted point to another promising year for gadget lovers.

The coolest device of the month is without doubt Toshiba's tiny hard drive, less than an inch in size. Development is not yet complete, but Toshiba says the drive could start appearing in devices before the end of this year. If current price estimates are accurate, the drive will add several gigabytes of memory to portable devices for the same price as several hundred megabytes of memory today.

Also notable is Sony's Airboard television. Its base station can send local TV programs or images from a video recorder or satellite tuner across the Internet, letting you view the content anywhere with a broadband connection.

Sanyo Electric's TS-41 cell phone is also unique: It has a transducer that creates sound directly through vibrations in the bones of the user's skull, thereby making it easier to hear in noisy situations.

Small Size, Big Storage

The best way to get a handle on the size of Toshiba's 0.85-inch hard drive is to imagine a Secure Digital memory card that's a millimeter thicker--that's how small it is. The company already has a working prototype with 2GB capacity; it will be able to hold up to 4GB of data when brought to market later this year, Toshiba says.

Pricing hasn't been announced, but a company spokesperson indicates it will be priced to match the products it is aimed at. "We haven't finalized pricing, but the intent is by the end of the year for production to be between 200,000 to 300,000 [units] per month, so it's obviously not going to be $500," he says.

Cut the Cord

Sony has launched a new wireless television with a 12.1-inch TFT LCD screen, the Airboard LF-X1. Unlike other portable TVs, which receive broadcast signals, the Airboard receives a digital video signal sent across a wireless LAN link from a companion base station. The advantage to this setup is that the base station can be connected to an external antenna, cable TV, satellite tuner, or any other device, and the programs or images can then be watched on the Airboard TV.

Perhaps the system's most impressive feature is the ability to take the Airboard away from home and still connect to the base station and watch streaming video coming across a wired Internet connection. The company has previously launched three other Airboard wireless TVs, but each has failed to catch on, so it's no doubt hoping the fourth time's the charm for the product. It will go on sale in Japan on March 12 and will cost around $1385.

Save Your HDTV

While both hard-drive and DVD-based digital video recorders are becoming popular in Japan, they almost all have a common failing: the inability to record high-definition broadcasts at original quality. Two hard-drive recorders that Sharp will put on sale in Japan in February and March don't have such a restriction; they can record HDTV in all its glory.

The DV-HRD2 ($1680) and DV-HRD20 ($1860) differ in their hard drive capacity: 160GB on the former and 250GB on the latter. With a direct connection to a digital tuner, the DV-HRD2 can record up to 13 hours of broadcasts. The recording time grows as the video mode is reduced. Up to 37 hours is possible at a mode equivalent to DVD quality; this expands to 200 hours in a mode equivalent to the extended play mode found on VHS recorders.

Let the Music Play

Sony kicked off the month with an announcement that it will update the MiniDisc format to make it better suited to digital music. The new Hi-MD format couples new hardware with an upgraded disc and allows up to 1GB of data to be stored. The system is closely linked to Sony's Atrac 3-plus compression format, so users will have to re-encode music in other formats, such as MP3--although Sony's jukebox software will do the job without too much effort. Maximum compression works out to around 45 hours of music on one Hi-MD disc.

The company announced several new Walkmans for the format, including the MZ-NH1. This 3.4-ounce device can link with a computer via USB and is backwards compatible with existing MiniDiscs. It will go on sale in Japan and overseas in the second quarter for around $400.

More Music News

While Sony is busy pushing Hi-MD as its answer to digital music on the move, development of a hard-drive-based music player has been left to its Aiwa subsidiary. The first such product from Aiwa, the Giga Pavit, will go on sale worldwide in April and is based on a 2GB "storage element" drive from Cornice. The drive provides enough storage to accommodate around 500 songs. The device's USB 2.0 interface is able to transfer an hour's worth of CD-quality audio in about 18 seconds, according to Sony. It supports MP3 format files at fixed or variable bit rates.

Two versions of the player are available: the HZ-WS2000, which has an in-line remote control in the headphone cable; and the HZ-DS2000, in which all the components are built into the main case. The HZ-WS2000 measures 3.6 by 2.2 inches, or about the same size as a business card, and is slightly less than half an inch thick; the HZ-DS2000 is slightly taller and wider and a good deal thicker at 3.7 by 2.4 by 0.8 inches.

The player will cost around $327 in Japan. A PC running Microsoft Windows XP, 2000, or ME, with a USB interface, is required. The device won't work with Apple Macintosh computers, according to the company.

Leave the Hard Drive Behind

As part of its new range of USB audio products, Aiwa has come up with a digital audio player that uses a USB flash memory key in place of a conventional memory card. The company's own Pavit memory keys and Sony's GigaPocket/MicroVault memory cards are compatible with the players, which Aiwa plans to launch over the next few months in several international markets.

Because they are memory key devices, users just need to insert them into a computer's USB socket to transfer songs. The AZ-ES256 ($215) is the basic model. The AZ-RS256 ($243) adds a radio and digital display. Versions of the two round medallion devices are also available mounted in headphones for the same prices.

Hearing Aid

As first glance, there's nothing special about the TS-41 cellular telephone. The phone, produced by Sanyo for Japan's Tu-Ka Cellular, seems similar to most others on the market. The clamshell handset has a 2.1-inch main display and a smaller display on the outside of the case. It can be used for talking, wirelessly browsing the Internet, and sending and receiving e-mail.

What's special about this phone is what Tu-Ka Cellular calls the "sonic speaker." It's located inside the top half of the case towards the hinge and works by producing vibrations that travel along the user's facial bones to the ear. The advantage is that you can easily hear what people are saying in loud environments, according to the manufacturer. The phone is on sale now with an operator subsidy for around $90. It's compatible with Japan's PDC phone system only and won't work elsewhere.

Martyn Williams is Tokyo bureau chief for the IDG News Service, a consortium of IDG publications.