Ignite Show: Lisa Katayama on Japanese Gadgets and Toys

Lisa Katayama is a tech journalist and an expert on Japanese culture. She combines the two in her Ignite talk this week where she demystifies Japanese gadgets and their society's fascination with them. You've probably read Lisa's writing before. She is the author of Urawaza: Secret Everyday Tips and Tricks from Japan (a fun book that I got for... http://ping.fm/dGa0N

Overheard: @andrewsavikas on DRM

There are a lot of things I come across in my day that are too long for twitter, and too short for a regular blog post. Inspired by Nat's "Four Short Links", I thought I'd occasionally share great tidbits I've read or overheard. Here's the first. In a discussion on the Reading 2.0 Mailing List, Andrew Savikas uttered this gem:... http://ping.fm/zsxDD

That Was Fast: Mapme.at Uses Latitude API

Yesterday location-sharing startup Mapme.at took advantage of the Latitude API (Radar post) to get their users' location. Now you can share your Latitude-enhanced location with your Mapme friends, track your location and update Yahoo's FireEagle (which in turn can update many other services). To use the new method Mapme users have to enable the Latitude blog badge and then... http://ping.fm/jJFad

Google's Sneaky Launch of Latitude's Location-Sharing API

Google has extended their location sharing service Latitude (Radar post) with the first set of Latitude Apps. One of them is a blog badge for sharing your location publicly on a website. The other updates your GTalk status for sharing your location to your IM network. Both have to be turned on explicitly and allow you to share your... http://ping.fm/1VOx4

NiN's Rob Sheridan on iPhone Application Rejection

In this interview with Rob Sheridan (@rob_sheridan), Nine Inch Nails' Artistic Director, Rob discusses the experience of getting the rejection letter from Apple, and what effect it has on the band's plans to build community applications on the iPhone platform. You'll hear Sheridan express an uneasiness that Apple can act as judge and jury without providing any transparency into the approval process. http://ping.fm/fdT4V

Swine Flu Tracker

Rhiza Labs has launched Flu Tracker to enable people to clearly track the progress of H1N1 Swine Flu. On the site you can see news stories about the flu and maps based on the data of Henry L Niman. The maps show the number of Suspected, Confirmed and Fatal Cases by country: They also show the data by state... http://ping.fm/N340Y

Four short links: 4 May 2009

Old Japanese Maps on Google Earth Unveil Secrets -- Google criticised for putting up map layers showing the towns where a discriminated-against class came from, because that class is still discriminated against and Google didn't put any "cultural context" around it. Google and their maps didn't make the underclass, Japanese society did. Because they're sensitive about having the problem,... http://tinyurl.com/dmq35a