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Ahead of Friday’s iPad launch in Japan and many other places, I took a look at a few protective cases and screens from a small local company that are well worth considering, especially if you’ve already tried Apple’s surprisingly poor official case.

When Sharp’s tiny Ubuntu-powered NetWalker hit the streets here in Japan a few weeks ago it was generally priced at the full whack of around ¥40,000 - an eye-watering $462 these days.

In spite of general ill-informed nay-saying about the hardware’s prospects in Japan, the Tokyo-specific iPhone apps keep rolling in thick, fast and creamy, with the latest being a gem from Enfour and Gmap.

Anyone traveling in Tokyo knows how confusing the subway can be even if you can read Japanese, which is why we’re eternally grateful for Presselite’s new Tokyo Metro iPhone or iPod touch app. Best of all, we’ve got ten copies to give away.

No biggie, this, but if you’re into netbooks with their sluggish performance , small screens and fiddly keyboards, but still crave a DVD writer, then here’s the answer.

By now, we all know that Sony is supposed to be hitting us with its first Vaio netbook PC at CES next month but, amid the various teases, leaks and rumors, how much is clear?

I’m not sure if turning the plain-Jane old mobile site into a fancy new version using Winksite counts as a facelift, but I can say that it looks absolutely splendid now.

Generally speaking, taking your laptop on a flight is a hassle, particularly if you’re in cattle class. Not only do you have to specially screen it through the x-ray machine, but all it does is take up space in the overhead compartment while you sit idly in your seat, wishing you could get some work done or at least watch the movies you picked.

Although much has been made of Sony’s recent resurgence under Sir Howard Stringer, the Tokyo monster may be surprised to learn that it has been toppled as the public’s favourite producer of quality electronics.

Laptop fans who aren’t mad keen on shelling out the best part of $1,800 for a MacBook Air might want to get themselves over to Japan for a slice of tasty subnote pie that’s every bit as sweet and just two-thirds the price.

Whatever your feelings on the MacBook Air – underpowered fancy Dan or a gorgeous lust bauble – it’s an undeniably superb feat of engineering. Or is it? A team of Japanese engineers has other ideas.

Next time you throw an old cellphone away, spare a thought for the engineers at Hokuto System in Japan, who have recycled their old handsets to make fully functional computers.

The latest piece of disaster recovery equipment to come out of Japan is an ingenious feat of engineering featuring one of the most unusual applications of solar technology that we’ve seen.

Uber nerdy Nissan fans in Japan are probably in moistest ecstasy right now after NEC announced that it is to sell a special edition laptop there done up to match the local equivalent of the car company’s Micra model.

Multicore CPUs are already ten-a-penny, but who woulda thunk they’d soon be appearing in cellphones, cars and HD TV players and that they could hold the key to eliminating computer viruses?

Toshiba has been showing off its new, powerful SpursEngine processor at the CEATEC 2007 electronics show just outside Tokyo and we were there to take a look.

Internet searches for more obscure topics can sometimes feel like the old needle-and-haystack conundrum - if what you want is out there at all, finding it can be a stretch, even for Google. Images and video present an even greater challenge - unless they’re tagged or labeled accurately, it’s often a matter of wading through thousands of possible matches.

It may have an unwieldy name but the Slate DT FeliCa from a consortium of firms in Japan could just be the key to getting the vast swathes of analogue holdouts online and into the brave new world of the internet.

Never mind that puffed-up gizmo Apple is about to unleash, June 29 also sees the launch of the rather attractive smartphone you see in the photograph, which is about to become one of Japan’s hottest gadgets.

Just a day after revealing the first rewritable HD DVD drive for laptop PCs, Toshiba Japan today unveiled a range of lightweight, rugged laptops that weigh as little as 768g, with a battery life as long as 12.5 hours and plenty more besides.

Sony’s Vaio PCs hit their tenth birthday this year and to celebrate the company is releasing anniversary special editions in Japan, with the flagship model being the Vaio VGN-TZ50B.

This is a first – a budget multi-format memory card reader that fits into the increasingly popular ExpressCard slot now found on many laptops.