theVooner spent this Christmas in Tokyo being in awe of the place he once called home. As usual, the gadgets and devices there totally left me a drooling, bumbling geek.

In the end, as I’ll explain, I left nearly empty handed because I couldn’t decide what to buy. Seeing all the different choices available left me more confused than ever. What happened to the days when you just decide between blue or black?

The Trends

The dominant theme in Japan continued to be wireless. Japanese mobile phones in particular were just amazing. The best one was the Sanyo Leje, which, besides featuring a stunning model (not the one on the website though) with the strange yet alluring headline "Feel H", had an amazing color display, played music, and hosted a whole bunch of other neat features. Of course the phone doesn’t work anywhere but in Japan so I didn’t get one, though I was tempted. This is the kind of technology that I wish would hurry up and get to the rest of the world. Instead, we are confined to waiting for the so called age of 3G mobile telephony, which is still going to take several more years before it finally becomes a reality.

Size, as always, featured prominently in all the devices. The products found the perfect blend of the extremes, as TV screens for example, seemed to be getting bigger, while at the same time are much thinner (and hence "smaller") in size given the proliferation of plasma screens and LCDs. The new Sharp LCD’s were really cool and almost made me want to give up my Sony Wega. The Sharp Aquos TV has amazing picture quality in addition to its incredible design. I’ll be looking forward to the multi-system version they will hopefully port over to Hong Kong.

Combining these two elements (wireless and size considerations) was my favorite gadget -- the Sony Airboard IDT-LF1. This device is a WIRELESS 10.4" touch-screen, LCD that connects to the TV, an input source like a VCR/DVD player, and the Internet. You can carry the screen around with you or just display it anywhere you want. It also comes with a Memory Stick slot and can be a digital photo frame if you want it to be. Costing 128,000 yen (or about US$1140), its not much more than the Digital Photo Frame (PHD-A55) that Sony sells. This amazing device was just so neat. I was walking all over the Sony Building with the thing, and it was able to switch flawlessly from the Internet to TV to Video. Unfortunately, I was held back by the likely incompatibility of the 1) TV system, 2) the Internet connection (it’s not PC based, it uses Sony’s own ISP service in Japan) and 3) there were some other major configuration issues with taking it out of Japan. Still, I may just buy it one day anyway.

There were also a number of personal music devices that caught my eye. In addition to the usual loads of walkmans/CD players in all sorts of shapes, colors and sizes, there were also lots of new MP3 players and new MD players featuring the latest format, MDLP (we’ll save discussion on this format for another time). As I’ve mentioned in past articles, Sony also introduced a new line-up of Network Walkmans featuring both built-in memory and Memory Stick players. I’m still deciding which format to choose, but I have to admit I’m leaning towards MDLP (we’ll get more into this later).

The stereos were amazing as always and after seeing all the new models, I’ve decided to buy a new one for myself. I didn’t buy it in Tokyo because it was too difficult to carry back as it came in too many boxes. My first choice is the Sharp Auvi SD-NX10, which just looks awesome. It might be too big for my small apartment, but it’s just too nice not to get. Sharp has never been known for its sound quality, but I had the store pump up Hitomi’s latest CD and it sounded pretty good to me. Maybe those years of blasting my Walkman/CD/MD has muted my ability to determine good acoustics. [Aside: this stereo is now available in Hong Kong as a "parallel" import. It only took about 2 weeks for Hong Kong to get it after I saw it in Tokyo.] The Pioneer NS1 was my other choice. It’s sort of cheaper version of the elegant B&O Beosound 3000. The main difference with the overpriced B&O is that you can add a MD and/or a CDRW to the Pioneer stereo so it has all the important elements that you need. I’m leaning hard towards the Sharp and I might get it in the next few weeks.

One neat little stereo I saw at the Sony Building, although I doubt I will ever buy it, is the new Sony NHS-MS10. It’s a stereo designed specifically to play music from Memory Sticks. That’s right, the same music you carry around with you on your MS Walkman is now available for playing on a stereo. As I said before, if you crank up the ATRAC3 compression loud enough (I like to listen to my stereos loud!), you get lots of distortion. That and the fact that 64MB is still the MS maximum means this will still be a niche product for some time. I like the idea though and I wonder how long it will be before we see compact flash and smart media stereos -- at least as an add-on to CD/MD.

Accessories

One great thing I really love about Tokyo is all the additional "accessories" you can buy for the stuff you already own. In addition to the lovely Hello Kitty/Ultraman bags, covers, straps, etc. you can buy for just about anything, there are lots of goodies here that you just can’t find anywhere else. I got a new case for my Sony PC5 DV camera (though I soon found it in Hong Kong when I returned). I also bought these exclusive Nikon straps for my Coolpix 880. I bought all sorts of different bags to put all the wires and stuff that comes with my gadget. There was also some neat silly stuff like a winding telephone cord for my laptop’s modem. The list goes on and on.

The coolest thing I did buy though was this custom designed bag for my Picturebook made by this famous Japanese brand, Porter. It is a nice grey/blue (Vaio-esque) and features a ton of padding, lots of zippers/pockets and a really small Vaio sign at the side of the bag. It’s so neat, I’ve decided to do a full review of it later.

Overall

In the end, there were just so many neat things to look at that I was completely baffled during my decision-making process. Which stereo to choose? Which color? MDLP vs. Network Walkman, Airboard vs. LCD TV? The choices were endless. In the past, I’ve been too impulsive and I’ve now accumulated lots of obsolete and outdated junk. So I’m going to hang in there and wait just a little while longer before I buy some new toys. Nevertheless, you can be sure that new acquisitions are on the horizon.