Keen.:

Japanese beer maker Asahi plans to give away 5000 personal bartending bots, each of which can store up to six cans of beer in a refrigerated compartment within its belly. At the push of a button the simple robots will open a can and pour the chilled contents into a glass for a thirsty owner.

To win one of the beer-bots, in a promotion for the company’s new low malt beer, contestants must collect 36 tokens found on the specially marked beers. But the competition, starting in February, is only open to those in Japan.

Some robotics experts see the promotion as a fun way to promote a wider interest in robotics. Others, however, say it is a gimmick that distracts from genuine robot research.

(Via Boing Boing)

Technorati Tags: asia, japan, northeast asia, beer, robots

Ouch.

(Via CDT)

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, google, media, northeast asia, yahoo

Miss Singapore recently paid a visit to the People’s Republic. Like everyone else in Singapore, she blogs. Her photo album is here.

This is one of the few photos without the sash.

Technorati Tags: asia, china, east asia, northeast asia, singapore, southeast asia

AsiaPundit is critical of Google’s decision to launch a censored China portal, though not predominantly because of the censorship issue. As long as the company continues to provide access to its uncensored site and simplified Chinese searches, it really isn’t that big a deal that it has launched an emasculated Chinese version.

However, Google has made a joke of both its mission statement and its corporate motto. It has undermined its highly valuable brand to enter a market that simply isn’t worth that much money.

They probably could have done this a year ago without causing much of a fuss, but the company has seriously misread the current zeitgeist. After the Yahoo! and MSN incidents, and the upcoming congressional hearings, Google should have run a few dozen more focus groups to see how this would be seen in the US.

Instead, they’ve left themselves open for this.:

(Via Glutter)

Technorati Tags: asia, censorship, china, east asia, google, northeast asia