japan on technabob...

If those disco or chrome cases for your Apple iPod are a bit too garish for your taste, check out these wooden cases from Japan.

The cases are made by wooden toymaker Asuka Koubou, out of three different shades of natural woods. They do look rather delicate, so I’m not sure how practical they are for protecting your iPod though…

Pioneer Japan is showing off this new music system that can send audio signals to remote speakers around your house. Rather than using more modern wireless technologies like Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, Pioneer opted to use power line signal transmission, to reduce the likelihood of over-the-air interference, and to simplify configuration…

From the company that brought you the original Tamagotchi “virtual pet,” comes a new gadget which takes that basic premise and injects your own personality into the equation. Bandai’s Human Player starts out by asking you fifty personal questions, then creates your own digital Mini-Me based on your personality traits…

I know this might seem a bit dated, but I just found this and thought it was too funny to ignore. This t-shirt speaks for itself, simply stating “This is how I roll.” alongside a graphic of the funky Japanese games’ protagonist pushing a big old Katamari.

There’s some controversy over where you can pick one of these up, though…

Bring out your inner Jack Bauer with this alarm clock import from Japan. Once the DangerBomb’s alarm goes off, you’ll need to quickly disconnect one of three color-coded wires to prevent the DangerBomb from “exploding.”

To keep you on your toes, the alarm will pick a random color coded wire that must be detached within a pre-set amount of time…

Kyocera’s new W51K takes on the mobile phone market with the philosophy that “more is better.” As a matter of fact, it’s almost like the phone is an afterthought.

The W51K crams in a plethora of multimedia functions including an MP3 player, video player, FM tuner, 2MP digital camera and even a TV tuner with an EPG program guide…

If you’re into platformers and you think you can beat them all, you’ve gotta check out this Flash-based game from Japan, Jineseiowata no Daibouken.

This game will kick you in the ass (twice), then serve it to you for dinner. It’s loaded with all sorts of fun tributes to classic platform games…

For those of you who can never get enough horsepower in your PC, you might want to check out some of the new Intel Core 2 Quad core CPU machines coming out this year. One such machine is the Sony Vaio R Master desktop PC.

The machine is the new bad boy on Sony’s block, featuring a quad core 2.4GHz Core 2 Quad Q6600 CPU…