Filed under: Video Games

We’ve always wanted to try yanking a tablecloth off a table without destroying all of the fancy place settings. Leave it to our experimental friends from the east to tap into our strangest wants. According to Arcade Heroes, a new Japanese arcade game called ‘The Tablecloth Hour’ requires players to pull an actual piece of fabric, which yanks a virtual tablecloth from an onscreen table. Naturally, the object is to pull the cloth with just the right amount of touch and quickness so that the virtual dishes don’t crash to the floor. If you make your way over to Taito Station in Shibuya, Japan to test the console out, feel free to shout, “TA-DA!” for us. [From: Arcade Heroes, via: Oh Gizmo!]

Japanese ‘Tablecloth Hour’ Brings Virtual Yanking to the Arcade (Finally?) originally appeared on Switched on Wed, 18 Aug 2010 12:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Filed under: Cell Phones, Computers

We’ve all lost a high-tech gadget or two to that most low-tech of the natural elements: water. (Or, in the recent case of this writer’s laptop, coffee.) Always miles ahead of us stateside folk, who have alternately used hair dryers and bowls of quick rice to dry out our devices, the Japanese have implemented the Dryer Box, a sort of clothes dryer for drowned gadgets.

The copy-machine-sized boxes have found homes in several of Tokyo’s Yodobashi Camera retail outlets, and promise that, if they don’t resurrect, they don’t collect. If your phone is among the lucky ones (which will have to do with whether or not the electronics have shorted), you’ll owe 1,000 yen (around $12). And that, dear readers, is a small price to pay when you can avoid telling your friends that you totally forgot your phone was in your pocket when you jumped in the lake. [From: Dryer Box and Wired]

Japan Introduces Gadget Dryer For Soggy Phones, Clumsy Bloggers Rejoice originally appeared on Switched on Fri, 13 Aug 2010 07:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments