TECHNOLOGY The world’s most sophisticated users of wireless technology may be unimpressed by Apple’s high-tech gadget. [BUSINESSWEEK]

TECHNOLOGY A mechanical arm that picks 120 items a minute from a conveyor belt won Japan’s Robot of the Year award Thursday, defeating a dozen other flashier finalists, including a walking humanoid, a firefighter robot and a transparent torso for simulating surgery. [MAINICHI]

TECHNOLOGY Electric appliance giants Matsushita, Canon and Hitachi will join forces to manufacture liquid crystal panels for flat-screen television sets, industry sources said Wednesday. [MAINICHI]

TECHNOLOGY The government plans to grant licenses for next-generation high-speed wireless communication services to a joint venture led by KDDI Corp. and personal handy-phone service provider Willcom Inc., sources said Tuesday. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

TECHNOLOGY Apple Inc is playing mobile operators NTT DoCoMo Inc and Softbank Corp against one another on selling the iPhone in Japan, where it would vie with some of the world’s most advanced phones. [REUTERS]

SCIENCE A team of Japanese and American researchers has identified a gene associated with Kawasaki disease, which begins with a high fever and skin rashes and can lead to coronary artery aneurysms if left untreated. [KYODO]

TECHNOLOGY Junior and senior high school students who surf the Internet or e-mail via cellphones do so for more than one hour per day, highlighting the spread of the Net among youths, according to a government survey released Sunday. [KYODO]

SCIENCE Leftover school lunches will not go to waste in a joint experiment to be held in a Tokyo ward to turn the food into biofuel. [YOMIURI]

TECHNOLOGY Relatively affordable at 31,290 yen (US$280) i-Sobot has 17 motors, can recognize spoken words and be controlled remotely, making the walking, somersaulting, karate-chopping robot as close to a humanoid as toys get. (1) [MAINICHI]

TECHNOLOGY An eco-friendly car powered by biodiesel oil that is set to be driven around the world was unveiled to the public in Tokyo. [MAINICHI]

SCIENCE Japanese researchers pitted young chimps against human adults in two tests of short-term memory, and overall, the chimps won. [MAINICHI]

TECHNOLOGY Japanese already use cell phones to shop, read novels, exchange e-mail, search for restaurants and take video clips. Now, they’re taking a university course. [MAINICHI]

TECHNOLOGY A robot math whiz breezes through a Rubik’s Cube, using metal hands to twist and turn the colorful toy. A panda robot uses sensors to detect when people are laughing, and joins in. [MAINICHI]

TECHNOLOGY The 2007 International Robot Exhibition, one of the world’s largest exhibitions focusing on robotics, is set to open Wednesday at the Tokyo International Exhibition Center in Ariake, also known as Tokyo Big Sight, for a four-day run through Saturday. [KYODO]

TECHNOLOGY Japanese representatives from the flourishing nanotechnology sector were in London on Tuesday to attend the second annual U.K. NanoForum — an international partnering event designed to unite companies from around the globe. [KYODO]

TECHNOLOGY NTT DoCoMo Inc. debuted a new 905i line of mobile phone handsets Monday, most of which are based on the world’s most popular GSM standard and can be used in about 154 countries. [THE JAPAN TIMES]

SCIENCE The German Cancer Research Center on Monday presented its annual Meyenburg German Cancer Award to Kyoto University professor Shinya Yamanaka, who has succeeded in reprogramming human skin cells to behave like embryonic stem cells. [KYODO]

TECHNOLOGY Japanese cars excelled in a survey of the most reliable used cars published Thursday in Britain’s ‘What Car?’ magazine, being awarded an impressive nine of the top 10 places. [KYODO]

SCIENCE Geophysicist Hiroo Kanamori, professor emeritus at the California Institute of Technology, has been awarded this year’s Kyoto Prize for his pioneering research into earthquakes throughout the world. [YOMIURI]

TECHNOLOGY Camera manufacturers are zooming in on mid- to top-range digital single-lens reflex models for the year-end shopping season. [ASAHI]