If you're a gadget freak like me (though I like to revel in them at a distance, rather than buying most of them), Japan's dottocomu will fill a much needed newsgap - reports on the latest new tech toys and trends fresh from the source. The unusual name is apparently a Japan-ization of the term "dot-com" (much like the anglicized Japanese words miruku, kohi, hanbaga, and orenjusu - "milk," "coffee," "hamburger," and "orange juice" respectively). Dottocomu doesn't have links to older, archived pages, but if you know what you're looking for you can use the search box; which can be a bit harder than you'd think, considering you've never heard of most of the items discussed.

It's a somewhat minimalist, underappreciated blog - no one seems to comment or trackback to writer aragoto's posts, for the most part - but it's apparently a labor of love. Dottocomu avoids the pitfall of many "gadget junkie" websites that try to incorporate too many gadgets and subjects on each page - it's a clean, lean, informative site where you'll learn about many products that never quite make it to the U.S.A., like a Linux-powered CD-ROM PDA from NEC Personal, a phone-powered DoCoMo 3G FOMA appliance controller (eh?), and incongruous watches that look like old fashioned rotary-dial telephones.

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