Japan

Our surprise guest today is Bristol Palin, daughter of would-be VP Sarah Palin! We regrettably rescind our drooling over yesterday's picture of the Governess--it's fake! Today's show is chock full of Google goodness, atom smashing, motherfrakkers, and a tried and true geekout on the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie! Special bonus: Senor Space Beer returns to The 404!

And now for a subject near and dear to my heart. After releasing a positively craptastic CGI effort, the folks over at Playmate Toys unofficially announced that the sequel will be a back-to-basics live-action movie! To me, this … Read more

Wilson can't make it to the show again because of his ongoing illness, so everyone send us a voice mail wishing our buddy well wishes and a speedy return back to The 404! Dan the Mantern takes time out of his busy schedule of doughnut runs and paper stapling to fill in and give us some laughs on this overcast Monday. We recap our weekend adventures, talk about the dangers of kidnapping a virtual lion, send our condolences to the hungry worker bees at Google, protect ourselves from exploding iPods, and perform reveal the first ever sushi DNA test!… Read more

This story has been corrected. The VRD-MC10 will not replace the existing VRD-MC5 model, as stated in a previous version of this blog. Both models will co-exist.

Sony Japan will "soon" release its all-new VRD-MC10 DVD recorder, a device that allows for playing and recording video footage from Handycam camcorders and other sources directly onto a DVD without using a computer.

The VRD-MC10 DVD is a step above Sony's Handycam-to-DVD VRD-MC5 recorder series, which does the same but with limited support for other sources and functionality.

The VRD-MC10 extends its support to more sources, including CompactFlash, Memory … Read more

Glam Media has continued its international expansion, appointing former DoubleClick and Excite executive Yukihiro Yamamura as CEO of its Glam Japan division. Glam Japan hasn't actually launched yet, but is slated to go live later this year.

Yamamura had been head of DoubleClick Japan previously, and before that he had been CEO of Excite Japan since 1999.

"The appointment of Yukihiro Yamamura is a strategic addition to the Glam team as we continue to leverage the fragmentation of the Web globally," Glam CEO Samir Arora said in a release Monday. "With an accomplished background in online … Read more

Good thing the Shouting Vase wasn't around back when news anchor Howard Beale urged viewers to open their windows and shout, "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore." That famous scene from the movie Network would have really lost its punch with this thing.

The plastic jug, which weighs less than half a pound, is all about muffling your screams, not broadcasting them. Reportedly popular in Japan, a culture widely known for discretion, it's designed to fit over the contours of your mouth and absorb your shouts, emitting a … Read more

Does Google know judo? Maybe. Google Street View has pulled a sutemi--a judo throw in which you launch yourself at the ground, risking disadvantage, to topple your opponent--on the entire Floating Kingdom. Even though Japan knew that the controversial Google Street View was coming to Japan, the tech savvy country was caught off-guard by Google's willingness to involve itself in yet another privacy imbroglio.

The pattern is familiar. Cars mounted with the Google Street View cameras scoot through a neighborhood, taking 360-degree shots of all they surveil. When the feature finally goes live, amused Netizens find images of people … Read more

File this one under things a self-conscious teenage girl should probably never get her hands on. Utilizing the Nintendo DS camera, an upcoming game called Project Beauty aims at prettying up its player.

After scanning your face, the software uses a preset list of parameters to judge if your look is "cool," "active," "cute," or "feminine."

Luckily, unattractive didn't make the cut. But no matter which category your face ends up falling into, the game will tell you how to improve your visage with makeup--or as the picture on the right … Read more

Street View, the driver's-eye view on Google Maps, made its debut in the United States, but it's now available in Australia and Japan, too.

The Street View service has raised privacy hackles in some quarters, but it's helped me navigate in areas I've never visited: What does the house I'm visiting look like? Or the street corner where I'm supposed to get off the bus? Or where exactly is that big-box retailer?

Google also is extending Street View to Europe, and in the process is gathering data that will let it create 3D models … Read more

An advertising kiosk equipped with a 42-inch LCD screen has been wafting out supposedly enticing smells to passers-by in the underground mall of Tokyo Station. A company called Recruit Co Ltd. is marketing the Scent-emitting LCD Display System developed by NTT Communications.

The hope is that people will be attracted by the scent, stop to watch a commercial, and then pick up a coupon book to use for the real version of the supposed deliciousness their nostrils had just encountered.

NTT Communications has been searching for real-world business applications for this technology, testing it in stores, hotels, and cinemas. In … Read more