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It’s a reasonable bet that most people who drop a new iPhone into a steaming bowl of ramen will head straight to the store for a replacement, but not Fukuoka-based Ken Yokota. Instead of crying over spilled tonkotsu broth, he went and designed a completely new way of attaching a Japanese-style strap to the slippery hunk of metal and glass.

Our creative friends from Simplism have been in touch with a couple of case/protector suggestions for those of us unwilling to go bareback with Apple’s glassy beauty.

If you recall that we launched a new PR service specializing in mobile and, particularly, iPhone, iPad and iPod apps earlier this year, you may be interested to learn that the move to help local devs has been so successful, we’re already on stage two - helping Western developers break the Japan market.

Most of us long-time Japan hands probably catch a few zeds on any train ride over about ten minutes, but what about that age-old problem of knowing where to get off? Solo iPhone programmer (by night, financial recruiter by day) Warwick Pearmund has a techy solution in the shape of his new GPS-based Wake Me Shake Train Alarm app.

If you’re an iPhone app developer or know someone who is, then stay tuned for some exciting news…

Although it’s not exactly our remit on Digital World Tokyo to cover iPhone cases, the latest high-end protector from Europe is so exceptional, it’s clearly worth a quick rundown.

It’s been described as the ‘must-have’’ accessory for your iPod or iPhone and - although it’s not on direct sale here in Japan - SendStation’s PocketDock adapter packs so much at such a low cost, it’s hard not to crave one.

If we ever needed proof that the iPhone is becoming a serious gaming platform, then look no further than Namco Bandai and its introduction of the classic Dr Kawashima mental-agility games for the Apple hardware.

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.

The iPhone is many things to many people, but we bet few of them ever imagined it becoming a web server all by itself.

Samsung has more phones in its roster that there are stars in the heavens, whereas Apple – for example – has just one. Quite why, therefore, the Korean firm’s latest smartphone is being touted as an iPhone killer is neither here nor there.

We’ve known about it for a while now, but it’s always good to hear when yet another ‘iPhone killer’ looks like turning up in stores a little early, like Nokia’s new N97 handset, which could hit early next year.

In yet another one of those tech surveys that says close to nothing while appearing to contain something of substance, a Japanese probe has found that – shock! – some people here are interested in buying an iPhone.

Everybody knows the 3G iPhone will hit Japan later this year on the crap-tastic Softbank network, but I don’t believe anyone else was able to get NTT DoCoMo to admit it had been in the race too.

A seemingly insignificant press release from a Japanese company we’ve never even heard of has suddenly set tongues wagging about everyone’s favorite rumor – the fabled 3G iPhone.

Apple’s Multi-touch technology, as seen in the iPhone and iPod touch, are pretty good, but don’t you think they’re just a little bit, well, yesterday? If you don’t already, you will when you see what Sharp has in store.

The Japanese cellphone market is pretty much a closed-membership club, in which most phones are sold by the networks and can never be unlocked - in other words, if the phone you want isn’t available from the carrier you choose, then you’re out of luck. Forget even thinking about importing something cool from abroad too.

As if Apple’s iPhone didn’t already have enough geek appeal, a Japanese company has announced a deal to bring manga comics to the tedious wonderphone later this year.

Sure, it’s still speculation, but we give some credence to suggestions of an iPhone launch in Japan when it comes straight from the horse’s mouth. The horse in this case is an Apple Japan account exec looking to place an ad in a particular Tokyo-published magazine.