episode 010 – WordCamp Kyoto 2009, mi-fi killer, WiMax, and Nico Nico Douga’s success show notes

In this episode, we started with a brief report on WordCamp Kyoto 2009 and discussed our favourite parts.  We joined as a sponsor/official video crew.

Hiro’s favourite part of the two-day event were the presentations given by Yuriko-san on her plugin Ktai Style that let’s WP sites be compatible with Japanese mobile phone browsers.  It covers fine details such as optimised navigation and comment viewing/moderation and she tests it with all 5 network carriers.  Mine was the presentation by Koga-san on GPL licensed Commerially supported themes.  Which provoked some lively discussion as well as my own blog post.
We also did some quick fire interviews during the party afterwards and you can see some of them at the end of the show.

Next up, we talk about the new device from EMobile called PocketWifi that kicks MiFi’s ass.  MiFi you might know is a mobile wifi hotspot and is mighty popular in the US.  PocketWifi is all the same but faster, operating on the 7.2Mbps Emobile network.  I also get in my usual joke about Hiro’s MBP battery.

If 7.2Mbps sounds fast for wireless net, emobile’s fastest speed is actually 21Mbps.  And if 21Mbps isn’t good enough how about 40Mbps of WiMax?  Hiro shares some news about the WiMax installation in our office building, that makes me want to go out and buy a Panasonic Let’s Note S Series.  16 Hours battery life, 2.53GHz Core2Duo, built in DVD writer, built in WiMax, and only 1.32Kg (3lbs)

We heard some good news from Asiajin who talked about the success of NicoNico Douga and their freemium model.  Can you guess how much this “Japanese YouTube” is making from subscribers?  We talk about the figures and also the philosophy they took to achieve them.

And as we mentioned earlier this episode ends with some interviews, featuring Toru, Mizuno-san, Asami and Naoko-san.