Here is the daily roundup from Japanese consumer tech and tech business websites for November 24, 2014.

KDDI opens new au flagship store at Shinjuku
au KDDI has just opened a new flagship store at Tokyo’s Shinjuku district, the au Shinjuku. The company is currently holding an opening celebration campaign for the store’s first 5,000 customers.

NTT now offers new telepresence system packages
NTT West will now be offering various telepresence system packages for small to medium business enterprises in Japan. The system will be able to connect at least four different areas/offices/branches for long distance conferences and meetings.

Hitachi initiates contract for Singapore’s railways
Hitachi opens a development contract with Singapore’s Sentosa Development Corporation, to create a wireless communication and long distance control system for the country’s rail transport network. The system will include communications hardware, as well as two new monorail units. The company expects the new system to be in operation as early as 2017.

Tokyo University develops ‘slap-on’ bioelectric pads
Researchers at the University of Tokyo announced their development of a flexible IC that can generate energy by sticking or applying it on a person’s skin. This new bio electric pad is made from silicon gum and hydrogel, and uses the body’s enzyme reactions as its energy source.

Mitsubishi Electric launches new IC for PV systems
Mitsubishi Electric Corporation unveils its new hybrid SiC transfer-mold dual in-line package intelligent power module (DIPIPM). The new module is designed to reduce the size and energy consumption of future PV inverters. It is slated for a commercial release by the end of November.

Sharp strengthens solar PV business with new panel
Sharp had just announced its new upcoming Black Solar monocrystalline solar panels. The new panels offer a 3.5% direct improvement over current monocrystalline panels, and hold a maximum conversion efficiency of 18.2%.

The post au Shinjuku, Bioelectric Pads, Black Solar: The Headlines in Tokyo for November 24 appeared first on VR World.

Okay, the introduction is probably a bit exaggerated, but au KDDI did announce the development of a new rice cooker that apparently does a lot more than just cook rice. This “New Era Rice Cooker” is expected to be a master invention that will feature what we can simply describe as “cooker selfies”.

It all started with a harmless joke article that was recently published on Kyokou Newspaper, a Japanese news website that features fictitious articles for comedic entertainment. The fake article mentioned that the INFOJAR, as it is named, is supposed to be a rice cooker developed by au KDDI that is installed with Android 4.4 and will have 4G LTE connectivity. The rice cooker will have a 7-inch full HD screen on it and will have some rather odd features. For example, it will be capable of sending Twitter notifications about its rice cooking, as well as streaming videos of it as it cooks rice.

On November 13 however, au KDDI’s Future Research website suddenly surprised everyone, with an announcement that they are going to develop the exact same gadget that Kyokou Newspaper previously “featured”. In a press release titled “We shall attempt to create the New Era Rice Cooker INFOJAR“, the company expressed its jovial interest in creating such an appliance, even going as far as to implement almost all of the features that the article has mentioned.

So yeah, we’re about to see the birth of a rice cooker that cooks rice, all the while letting the world see minute by minute how it cooks, and allowing its user to surf the net all the way.

Of course, as it is just an announcement for now, a working prototype is still yet to be developed. However, with au KDDI already leaving its official word about it, we can probably say an early goodbye now to our trusty, but obsolete, rice cookers.

The post Behold: The Rice Cooker Of The Future appeared first on VR World.