Great news! Poken Pulse is now available at the following Bic Camera stores:

• Shibuya East - 渋谷東口店
• Tachikawa - 立川店
• Namba - なんば店
• Yurakucho - 有楽町店
• Sapporo - 札幌店
• Shinjuku West - 新宿西口店
• Nagoya Station West - 名古屋駅西店
• Omiya West Exit Sogo - 大宮西口そごう店
• Kashiwa - 柏店
• Fujisawa - 藤沢店
• Lazona Kawasaki - ラゾーナ川崎店
• Takatsuki - 高槻商品センター
• Okayama - 岡山店
• Hiroshima - 広島店
• Shin-Yokohama - 新横浜店
• Yokohama - 浜松店
• Niigata - ビックカメラ新潟店
• New Ikebukuro Pasokon shop - パソコン館池袋新本店
• Tenjin - 天神１号館

You can find both Poken Pulse and Poken Spark in the PC Peripheral section.
A big thanks to our partner Focal Point Computer.

Go check it out!

The first customized Poken Pulse was presented today!

KDDI Web Communications, in partnership with Google Japan, announced at a press conference on January 13 that their server hosting service CPI is expanding its lineup of services. From today on they offer a Hybrid Hosting solution linking their standard web servers to Google’s “Google Apps Premier Edition” service.

All attendees at the press conference received an original Poken Pulse with the KDDI and CPI logos imprinted.

Details of the service can be found here (Japanese only).

Follow the CPI team on Twitter: cpiadjp

Poken Pulse was used not simply as a give-away gadget. Inside the Pulse’s 2GB of USB memory the attendees could find the press release, logo files, and other useful documentation. On top of that everyone received a little card which allows them to win several very nice prizes.

Being one of the leading companies riding the Social Media wave, the KDDI Web Communications PR people invited everyone to tweet during the press conference using hashtag #kwc. It was awesome to see the real-time stream of messages that followed.

For more information regarding the Poken Spark and Pulse customization options you can contact us here

More examples can be found on the Poken customization overview page.

A new year’s card from the Poken Japan team…

As mentioned in our previous blog post the [ EU Gateway Programme - ICT Trade Fair was held on December 2-3. Place to be was the splendid Hilton Hotel in Shinjuku.

We’re happy to announce that the trade fair went very well and we would like to thank everyone who visited us. We really hope you had a chance to meet with interesting companies and who knows sometime in the not too distant future we’ll see several of these companies enter the Japanese market with their products and services.

Of course, we offered our pokens with an original EU-Gateway cap, not only to the visitors but also to all participating companies and staff members. Just a great way for everyone to meet in real life, connect and stay in touch online through the power of Poken.

Representatives from 34 Small and Medium-sized European ICT companies are visiting Tokyo the week of Nov 30 - Dec 4 as part of the EU Gateway programme. They will be bringing a broad range of technologies and looking for opportunities to export their products and services to Japan.

The trade fair on December 2-3 is a unique opportunity for them to meet with people from leading companies and potential business partners here in Japan.

On both days 125 visitors will receive an original EU Gateway poken for free!

An excellent opportunity to hi-four, connect and stay in touch with the representatives at the 34 trade fair booths.

Date: 2009/12/02 (Wed) 11:00-18:00, 12/3 (Thu) 11:00-17:00
Place: Hilton Hotel, Shinjuku [access]
Address: 6-2 Nishi-Shinjuku 6-chome, Shinjuku-Ku
* A shuttle bus leaves from Shinjuku station every 20 mins
Entrance: free after pre-registration (required)

For more information: EU Gateway programme

Ten more days and you can meet Herman, a limited edition TUJ Poken…

For many months we have been working secretly with the team at Temple University to create an original cap. A big thanks to Alex Sanson, Herman’s designer!

Yes, also you can get your hands on this unique poken cap by attending the party on Saturday, November 21.

Saturday, November 21, 2009
7:30 pm — 11:00 pm
Stellato [www.stellato.com]
3F 4-19-17 Shirokanedai,Minato-ku, Tokyo 108-0071

Ticket price: ¥ 6,000
(limited edition Herman poken included)

RSVP by midnight November 13: reunion-rsvp@tuj.ac.jp.
Include name, guests’ names, e-mail, and method of payment: bank transfer or at the door.

This is an exclusive event and RSVP is required.
Call 03-5441-9800 ext 633 for more info.

Download the e-vite.

We hope to see you there!

Check out the new members of our Poken family…

A few weeks ago we officially introduced a stylish Poken Pulse featuring 2 GB of memory. Today we are welcoming the Urban Pop collection: 4 new, cool-looking designs made by Dutch artist GabyGaby

So, who’s this GabyGaby guy?

GABY (407): obviously a new name in the art world. Originally from The Hague but now living in Bussum he surprised a lot of people in the contemporary art world and beyond with his unusual style. Gaby makes art the unconventional way: he uses colors, he Photoshops, he glues, he stitches, he paints and draws (and mixes it), literally outside the old conventions…
He works with all kinds of material (paint, felt-tips, sugar, coke, tape) in different ways (stapling, painting, gluing)
on different backgrounds. It outreaches beyond the common canvas, he uses everything he thinks is possible: on ripped cardboard, sneakers, clothes, action figures, et cetera.

…and now, for a limited time, his canvas is Poken Pulse.

Find out more about GabyGaby at his website and follow him on Twitter.

Poken Pulse City Pool

Poken Pulse New Colors

Poken Pulse Stripe City

Poken Pulse Stripy Colors

Sure, from the outside they look like the standard, stylish Poken Pulse. But when you remove the cap you’ll discover some real, slightly eccentric art!

We are proud to announce our next official Poken Meetup: a rakugo evening with Koshira Tatekawa!

We would like to invite both the die-hard rakugo fans as well as people who would like to experience their first rakugo evening.

Event details:
Date: November 16 (Monday)
Doors open: 19:30
Start： 20:00
Place: The Pink Cow, Shibuya
Entrance fee: 2,000 yen (covers one drink, light tapas-style meal, rakugo performance)

Please come join us and bring along all your friends!

As we need to make reservations for the food we’d love to hear from you by Thursday November 12 using Twitter: send a Direct Message to our Twitter account @PokenJapan or contact us with the hash tag #PokenRakugo.

Already the last week of October… Yes, that means Halloween is coming up soon!

Until October 31 we’re running a special Halloween campaign with the following 6 character designs being offered at only 2,000 yen: Voodoo, Mad K, Franky, Ghost, Vampire, Dragon.

Have you been thinking about buying one for yourself or perhaps a small gift for your friends? Here’s your chance!

Organizing a Poken Meetup with your friends and colleagues? Please check out our
free battery-replacement campaign (Japanese)

Check out page 36 of the November issue of Famima Plus to win a pair of pokens!

Famima Plus is the free magazine of convenience store chain Family Mart and you can find it in each of their 7,600 stores throughout Japan.

You can also enter the contest via the website http://famima.com.

Writer Sandra Baron published an article featuring Poken on Japan-i.

Ken Lee, an engineering grad student from Malaysia at Keio University, carries the three-eyed martian in his messenger bag “all the time” and uses it at networking events. He agrees that it’s a good icebreaker. “It’s easy to go up to someone and say ‘Let’s Poken!’” he says.

She briefly mentions the Japan-collection which is one of the little things we are working on

Stay tuned!

• Poken: a high-tech way for exchanging contact info, Part 1
• Poken: a high-tech way for exchanging contact info, Part 2
• Poken: a high-tech way for exchanging contact info, Part 3

While the Poken Pulse went on sale only a few days ago our original Poken Spark family is also expanding…

We are hereby introducing the super-special , limited edition “East London Collection”.

The East London Collection has been designed by ustwo, a design house in London.

Aside from the original design all 12 characters also have a rather unique name:
From miki over Danson、Laffers、Slater、Dragon Magio、Duke、Bobby、Noche de sangre、El mano gigante、Monstruo mario to Mills and Curren.

You can find them on our Amazon online:

A few days earlier than previously announced, shipping of the Poken Pulse has started!
Check out the sleek and stylish design of the newest member of our Poken family.

Apart from the new design, the Poken Pulse brings several other important changes:

* USB Memory
2GB of built in memory so ideal to store the music/video and other files you need while on the road.

* Battery life
While the original poken’s battery lasts for about 6 months, our new Poken Pulse uses far less energy so the battery will last 8 to 12 months.

Dimensions：56mm x 21mm x 10mm
Weight： about 20g

Order your Poken Pulse today through our Official Online Shop on Amazon and get a lanyard for free:

Japan’s Number 1 English magazine METROPOLIS is featuring Poken in it’s September 25 issue.

You can find this free magazine in many places throughout the Kanto area: （Where to Find Metropolis)

A quick note to let everyone know that we’ll organize our next meetup on August 11 (Tuesday) at The Smallest Bar in the World.

http://www.thesmallestbarintheworld.com/

It’s certainly a quite unique bar as only 4 people can site inside. Luckily there’s a nice bench outside so let’s hope it will not rain that day.

Oh yeah, and there’s a challenge: Malik from trainspot (the guys behind the Smallest Bar) has promised to do something special if we can fit 20 people inside the bar, so please bring as many friends as possible. We’ll make sure to take lots of pictures and post these on this blog as proof.

It would be great if you could DM us @PokenJapan to confirm your attendance, with the number of people you’ll bring along.

For anyone who would like to go check out the bar on another day: please take your poken along because you’ll get your 3rd beer for free if you poken with Jonathan, the bar tender.

We are happy to annouce our Poken official meet up schedule/detail below!

At the party…
- Poken on sale with special price
- Top designs which passed our preliminary selection will be announced!
(Plz see the Poken design contest detail here)
- Live chat with Sapporo Meet up?

Date/time:
Saturday, June 13th
Door open: 17:00 -
Party: 17:30 - 20:00

Place:
Co-Net
http://www.web-conet.com/

Access:
Daiken building 8F,
18-4 Nihonbashikoami-cho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo
Map: http://www.web-conet.com/page3/page3.html

5 min walk from Tokyo Metro Ginza-line “MItsukoshi-mae”
5 min walk from Toei Asakusa-line “Ningyo-cho”
7 min walk from Tokyo Metro Tozai-line “Nihonbashi”

Entrance fee:
2,000en at the door
Food, snack and drink(alcohol & softdrinks) are included.

Sign up:
RSVP
Please let us know via
- send direct messega to PokenJapan twirter account or
- send e-mail to meetup@poken.jp

Looking forward to seeing you!
Let’s Poken!