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: George Williams Launches "The Music Revolution Starts Here"

By Mike in Tokyo Rogers


Besides being on of the hardest working and hottest media stars in Japan today, George Williams is a ground-breaking leader in new media in Japan. He blows away the others by simply getting off his rear, getting to it, and just plain "getting it!"

George Williams' "The Music Revolution Starts Here"

Today we have blogs, video blogs like U-Stream and Youtube; we also have tons of SNS and Social Media tools like Twitter, Pick, Facebook, Mixi (in Japan), Linkedin, etc. On top of this, Yahoo and Google keep coming out with new and fascinating ways to "wow!" us... (Not to mention Apple and their iPads and iPhones!) On top of all this... Just when you were thinking, "What are they going to do next to top this?" Along comes a guy out of nowhere and "wows!" the Internet with his own original and expressive ideas.

George Williams has single handedly raised the bar on Internet blogging, vlogging and internet multi- media with his new site called "The Music Revolution Starts Here" at wwwgeorgewilliams.jp.

Koji Kurumatani is a frequent guest at "The Music Revolution Starts Here"

You have just got to check this out!  "The Music Revolution Starts Here" and features George with many of his super star Japanese musician friends (like regular guest Koji Kurumatani or Yuhi from Hof Dylan, to name but a few) talking (and playing) music... Music that you cannot hear anywhere else in Japan.

Not only that, George's web site also has something for everybody! You want to learn how to cook? Sure! The site has that too (George's fans will know that George co-hosts a wildly popular cooking show with famous cookery writer Kurihara Harumi). George gives us a cooking lesson once a week.

Harumi Kurihara

How about free English lessons? Yep. Got that! George makes a weekly English lesson for you too! And, of course, there's tons of music videos to watch too!

But even if you miss the live broadcast of the music, cooking or English you can easily watch back issues with the mere click of a button! No need to record your favorite show! They record it for you!

The Music Revolution Starts Here was launched last night, July 19th, 2010 at 12 midnight, so it is still a work in progress, but looking at the site, you wouldn't know it. It looks like it's been running for a long time.

This sort of multi-media solution to Internet marketing, PR and promotion is being experimented with (on the fly) in the west, but, from my knowledge, George Williams is the very first person in Japan to delve head first into this exciting new media form...

I'm expecting even bigger and even more "Wow!" products and services from George Williams and his team in the future. But today, we George Williams and his The Music Revolution Starts Here and it is a gas!

...Of course, it's all FREE!

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For More on George Williams:

Go to George's: The Music Revolution Starts Here
Go to George's: Music On! TV "George's Garage"
Go to George's: NHK Your Japanese Kitchen
Go to George's: Tokyo FM "Docomo Love Family"
Go to George's: InterFM Bam!
George Williams on Wikipedia (Japanese / 日本語)

See George Williams' bio and contact here.

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Keywords:
Google, Tokyo FM, cooking, promotion, Harumi Kurihara, video blogs, music, InterFM, Internet, PR, Internet marketing, Youtube, Linkedin, blogs, SNS, George Williams, Bam!, The Music Revolution Starts Here, Hof Dylan, NHK Your Japanese Kitchen, Mixi, Social Media, Pick, iPhone, U-Stream, Japan, Music On! TV, Yahoo, Mike Rogers, Twitter, Apple, iPad, Docomo Love Family, English, Koji Kurumatani, Facebook, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, George's Garage, Yuhi, services, products

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