Smile Though Your Day Is Crumbling...

Admittedly, it's not really easy to flash a smile when you're in the middle of a chaos, like working inside a train station. But for people in Japan, not smiling is almost a crime! And because of that (coupled with classic Japanese ingenuity), they created the Smile Scanner. I am betting it has the same principle/technology behind the Smile Shutter function of the newer Sony Ericsson mobile phones and Sony Cyber-shot digital cameras, wherein it actually looks for your smile. Only then will you be able to click.

So why is smiling a prerequisite in the Japanese train system?

The Freakonomics section of New York Times Online tells readers:

Japan’s Keihin Express Railway Co. has set up “smile scanners” at 15 of its stations, where railway employees have their smiles assessed by software in the hopes of perfecting a customer-friendly look.

However, BBC reports that it's not really a compulsory thing:

Some of the busiest train stations in the world have installed computerised 'smile scanners' to help employees deliver a better service.'

Well, forcing people to smile is really something. But if it's for the sake of achieving satisfactory customer feedback, then let's all hold a peace sign, smile, and say "kawaii!!!"

*Image aggregated from Destination360.

**Parts of news article courtesy of BBC and NYTimes.

An iPhone Lost Is A Life Lost...

This is just sad.

I can understand the strict security measures with new product releases. But I don't think it has to end this way:

SHENZHEN, China — When a closely guarded prototype of a new Apple iPhone went missing at a huge factory here two weeks ago, an internal investigation focused on a shy, 25-year-old employee named Sun Danyong.

Mr. Sun, a college graduate working in the logistics department, denied stealing the iPhone. But he later complained to friends that he had been beaten and humiliated by the factory’s security team. On the night he was questioned, he sent an anguished text message to his girlfriend.

“Dear, I’m sorry. Go back home tomorrow,” he wrote, according to a message she later posted online. “I ran into some problems. Don’t tell my family. Don’t contact me. I’m begging you for the first time. Please do it! I’m sorry.”

Soon after, in the early-morning hours of July 16, Mr. Sun apparently jumped to his death from the 12th floor of an apartment building in what his employer, Foxconn Technology, says was a suicide.

Apple and Foxconn, one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of consumer electronics and a major Apple supplier, issued statements last week expressing sorrow for the death. Foxconn said it suspended one security officer, pending a police investigation, and that the company was now considering counseling services for its employees.

Click here to read the rest of the story.

Parts of the article aggregated from NYTimes.com