Tag Archives: Japan

A note about the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

About 1 P.M. yesterday here in Laos, I was putting the finishing touches on an article when the first reports of the devastating Japanese earthquake and tsunami arrived. I watched the live footage of the debris-filled waters sweeping through Sendai with a strange sort of disbelief — sometimes you have no doubt about how real a thing is and, at the same time, you can’t believe what your eyes are seeing.

While events continue to develop in Japan, I think it’s best to wait a few days before continuing the content for the “Help In Your Own Way” Giveaway. We’ll try to pick things up on Monday or Tuesday and I’m extending the deadline until Friday, 18 March.

Many of my friends, their families, and Veritrope readers are Japanese — and it’s difficult for me to think about anything else but them now. I imagine many of you feel the same. My thoughts and best wishes are with them at this very difficult moment.

Tutorial Released In Ebook And Paperback, Japanese Interface for Evernote Improved.

If you are Japanese and an Evernote user, you’re certainly feeling the love this week!

Veritrope.com reader Synkuro sent me a message this morning that lifehacking.jp contributor and author Masatake E. Hori has launched his ebook tutorial for Evernote. Written with the help of co-authors Shogo Sasaki and Etsuo Ohashi, “Evernote Handbook” is a guide for people just getting started with Evernote — but also contains tips for more advanced users!

Although my ability to understand Japanese is limited to slowly sounding out Hiragana and then acting like a delighted child when I recognize a word/sound, a Google Translation of the website suggests that buyers will receive free updates to the ebook as they are made available.

And if you like your books in a more traditional format, a different book in paperback written by Masato Kogure and Masaki Ishitani is also available for pre-sale on Amazon.jp.

Phil Libin -- Getting The Rock Star Treatment!

The paperback appears to have at least one thing that the ebook doesn’t — a snazzy photo of Evernote CEO Phil Libin on the cover. According to Phil’s Twitter feed, the book is currently the 17th best-selling book on all of Amazon Japan which, if I were in his shoes, would engender a somewhat “Spinal Tap”-like feeling.

Yes — Japan loves Phil this week and, thankfully, it’s not just for his cover version of “Sex Farm”! The real reason is that Evernote just released version 1.70 of it’s Mac Client — with an improved Japanese translation of the program’s interface! (English-speaking computer users often forget just how spoiled we are to have most applications available primarily in our native language!). The release is a by-product of Evernote’s ongoing translation efforts — I really like their “crowd-sourcing” approach to this and hope that it becomes a trend in software development.

A Quick Reminder

A while ago, I added a social bookmarking button to Veritrope.com to let you send posts directly into your Evernote account — this is primarily for people who are on a work computer where they can’t install Evernote (or who are away from home). It is a tiny little thing, so I thought I’d call your attention to it in case you missed it….Clip away!!!