You can’t use this device as a tumbler and I’m not even sure it makes sense functionality-wise, but Sony Japan announced [JP] the SOUND MUG yesterday, a speaker that’s shaped like a tumbler. To be more exact, the portable device is being marketed by Sony as a dock speaker specifically designed for their Walkmans.

Buyers also get a cigarette lighter socket (12V) so they can use the SOUND MUG in the car as well (see picture above). The 16W speaker can also be controlled with a mini remote Sony will throw into the package. The dock weighs 540g and stands 216mm tall.

The SOUND MUG will be available in orange or black when it hits Japanese stores on April 24 (price: $220). No word from Sony yet regarding a release outside Japan.

Here’s Sony Japan’s promo video:

Via AV Watch [JP]

If you still needed evidence Japan is the country churning out the most realistic androids out there, here’s another hint for you. Meet Geminoid-F, the newest robot from one of Japan’s most famous robot makers, Hiroshi Ishiguro. Ishiguro-san’s invention is as realistic as it is creepy, but also very cool.

The android you see on the picture above is a doppelganger of the human model on the right. It mimics the facial movements of human beings through twelve pneumatic actuators, for example by smiling or frowning. The system works via a camera that detects facial expressions coming from the human and sends the data to the robot whose head (based on that data) starts moving like the original.

Professor Ishiguro is planning to commercialize the doppelganger robots, estimating each unit will set you back $110,000.

Here’s a video (in Japanese) showing Geminoid-F in action:

Via Gizmodo via IEEE Spectrum

Nintendo started offering a video distribution service for Japanese Wii owners this May, attracting about 800,000 customers by late September in this country. In the same month, Nintendo promised their free channel will be made available to Non-Japanese Wii owners next year, at the same time announcing they’ll start offering paid content (in Japan) very soon. And since the weekend, we have that fee-based streaming video service [JP] over here.

A lot of the content is still free, but the new service makes it possible to view popular TV programs and some Wii-exclusive content on your console. Wii users can now watch Disney and Pokemon anime, Sesame Street, movies, soccer games and other content. Wii-exclusive content includes a bunch of educational programs.

Nintendo initially managed to gather 15 content providers, for example Warner Entertainment and Disney, that will deliver about 250 different programs by next month. By next year, Wii owners are supposed to be able to choose between a total of 1,000 titles. Prices vary heavily, with titles costing between $0.11 and $11 (10 yen and 1,000 yen).

It’s not yet clear whether Nintendo will offer those paid services outside Japan next year as well.

While I would totally go out with Princess Peach (provided all the parts are really there, and they must be because those Mario Brothers have been after her for years), I find this story to be quite disturbing. A Japanese man married Nene Anegasaki in a church in Guam and is going to be streaming their honeymoon live.

Now this is either a media hoax or proof that Japan’s birth rate will soon drop precipitously but either way I do not want to see this boy’s DS after the consummates the marriage.

via Technabob