AppleInsider claims that Apple is planning on incorporating support for the new faster 802.11ac Wi-Fi specification into products this year. The new 802.11ac standard achieves much faster wireless networking speeds than the existing 802.11n specification (in use on the latest Mac, AirPort and iOS devices) by using 2 to 4 times the frequency bandwidth (from 80 to 160MHz), more efficient data transfers through sophisticated modulation, and more antennas (up to 8; existing standards support up to 4, while Apple's Macs currently use up to 3). This "Gigabit WiFi" offers speeds 3 times as fast as existing 802.11n wireless networks can with speeds of over 1 Gigabit per second.

Apple Stores in Japan have continued the fukubukuro or "mystery bag" tradition, where sealed bags of merchandise are offered on New Year's Day at a hefty discount. If you're extremely lucky, you'll come away with a piece of coveted merchandise.

NTT DoCoMo, KDDI and SoftBank have created the “Japan Mobile NFC Consortium,” which will help the three carriers coordinate and adopt an international NFC standard. Currently, all three operators offer an NFC service dubbed Osaifu-Keitai (wallet phone) which uses a contactless-IC smartcard that’s called FeliCa. Unfortunately, the technology doesn’t work overseas where other carriers use Type A or Type B NFC standards, which means Osaifu-Ketai won’t function properly for NTT DoCoMo, KDDI or SoftBank customers hoping to use their phones for mobile payments overseas

Sony’s PlayStation Vita portable gaming system made its debut in Japan on Saturday

It's hard to believe that just seven months ago Japan was rocked with an earthquake and tsunami .