Gundam turns 30; robot will live on, creator says

July 12, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

TOKYO — Japan’s most popular robot animation, Gundam, turns 30 this year, and the creator of the anime series says the times have caught up with the futuristic show launched in the late 1970s.

“Gundam has presented many propositions that we face today in the real world,” said Yoshiyuki Tomino, the TV show’s executive director. “It will certainly live on for many years to come, perhaps another 50 years.”

The animated sci-fi series “Mobile Suit Gundam” first aired in 1979. It was set 100 years in the future amid a space war between the Earth Federation and hostile space colonies. The show’s popularity quickly skyrocketed and further Gundam series, comic books, video games and films were spun off.

“Gundam reminded viewers and fans of the potential power of humans and encouraged them not to lose hope,” Tomino said.

To mark the 30th anniversary of Gundam’s launch, a massive replica of the robot is being erected at Tokyo’s Odaiba seaside park. It was to be unveiled Saturday and can be viewed until Aug. 31 — part of Gundam’s birthday celebrations.

Tomino, speaking at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo recently, said he was initially against the idea of building a 60-foot high Gundam because he thought it would look cheap. But he later agreed with its construction.

Gmail drops ‘beta’ label to woo business customers

NEW YORK — After more than five years officially in testing mode, Gmail is graduating from “beta.”

Google Inc. says its e-mail service and three other applications in the Google Apps suite for businesses are now finished products in name as well as function.

But that doesn’t mean Google is finished improving upon them. Nor were the extra features announced recently cause for dropping the label.

In fact, getting rid of beta doesn’t mean a whole lot.

So why drop it?

Google concedes the move is aimed more at wooing business customers than marking any real developmental milestone.

The premier edition Apps suite sells for $50 per user to business customers, who get added features including offline access and 24/7 customer support. The “beta” label was scaring businesses off.

“Many of the companies that have looked in depth at the apps have seen that they are feature complete,” Rajen Sheth, a Google senior product manager, said in an interview. “But there is a kind of perception thing, and in many cases that stops companies in their tracks from even looking at it.”

Google Calendar, Google Docs and Google Talk are out of beta mode. Google Sites and Google Video have already dropped the label.

Associated Press