3G iPhone in Japan?

[Zer0]

The funny thing is my Japanese wife said “normally even a Japanese person would have kept your iPhone since it is still such a techno-lust item!” Not sure if she was joking or being serious though.

I think she was joking.... chances of getting back lost stuff are very high in Japan! I once had my wallet fall off as I was running to make it in time for my morning train, only for the lady who was behind me to pick it up, overtake me and promptly hand it over!!!

I went for a haircut the other day and had to bring out my iPhone to show a photo of myself to explain what kind of haircut I wanted.

I do that too

 

[sushi]

I went for a haircut the other day and had to bring out my iPhone to show a photo of myself to explain what kind of haircut I wanted.

Now that's convenience.

 

[ajmiyazaki]

Nice to hear!

Well, I nearly lost my iPhone last night...

I was in PARCO (department store) with my wife and ‘rascal’ daughter who was running around all over the place. As we were leaving a book store a Japanese couple came up to my wife and handed a very familiar brown leathercase to her. GEEZ, IT WAS MY IPHONE!!

Good for you Tony! Although we probably have a better chance of having things returned to us here in Japan as opposed to "back home", I think it still depends where you are a the time! It would be interesting to hear where you guys were at the time of the incident! But we digress...!

I finally received my iPhone 3G XyloT3 Case from ivyskin this week! I had to order it from their website, wait for production, shipping to Japan and after a month, it has finally arrived. It's a full body, clear plastic case and so far I'm pretty happy with it. Some people are reporting issues with touch screen sensitivity, but I think the protection outweighs this. I wish I could've picked it up in Japan though... Shipping was almost ¥1500!

I don't know what the situation is like in Tokyo and other big cities, but accessory selection in Miyazaki seems pretty crappy. Can anyone recommend a good place in Japan for iPhone accessories?

 

[keirnna]

Good for you Tony! Although we probably have Shipping was almost ¥1500!

Wow, I just paid $300 to have a seat shipped to me and I thought that was a bargain. I had quotes from $750-$1600 before I finally found someone who could get it here for $300.


So 2.0.2 seems to have sped up the IME a bit as it is not near as laggy as it was yesterday.

 

[sushi]

Wow, I just paid $300 to have a seat shipped to me and I thought that was a bargain. I had quotes from $750-$1600 before I finally found someone who could get it here for $300.

You couldn't find anything similar locally?

 

[keirnna]

You couldn't find anything similar locally?

Nope.

 

[sushi]

Nope.

Bummer.

You mind posting a picture of the chair/seat?

 

[keirnna]

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I'll post some up when it comes in a few weeks.

 

[tony-in-japan]

I don't know what the situation is like in Tokyo and other big cities, but accessory selection in Miyazaki seems pretty crappy. Can anyone recommend a good place in Japan for iPhone accessories?

iPhone accessories are pretty scarce at the moment. I had a look in BicCamera in Tokyo (Ikebukuro) today and there is only one stand for iPhone accessories. Compare that to the multi-rows of iTouch/iPod/Nano accessories on another floor and there is alot of catching up to do for the iPhone.

Accessories wise, what I need is a dock and a mic/remote that allows me to plug in my own earphones. I know Griffin does something like this but not sure if any Japanese companies do one.

As for a dock, I was going to get the official white dock but then I like to use my iPhone in landscape (browsing and watching movies) and the dock only allows portrait. I did notice there was a dock called iMac which is like a little iMac that allows you to dock your iPhone and twist it in either direction. Just had a search on the net and found these pics. Pretty funky, but not so cheap. I think it is around $45.

 

[raziiq]

is there anyone who has jailbroken iPhone 3g Provided by Softbank in Japan?
Any success in this regard??

 

[macwall]

iPhone accessories are pretty scarce at the moment. I had a look in BicCamera in Tokyo (Ikebukuro) today and there is only one stand for iPhone accessories. Compare that to the multi-rows of iTouch/iPod/Nano accessories on another floor and there is alot of catching up to do for the iPhone.

Accessories wise, what I need is a dock and a mic/remote that allows me to plug in my own earphones. I know Griffin does something like this but not sure if any Japanese companies do one.

As for a dock, I was going to get the official white dock but then I like to use my iPhone in landscape (browsing and watching movies) and the dock only allows portrait. I did notice there was a dock called iMac which is like a little iMac that allows you to dock your iPhone and twist it in either direction. Just had a search on the net and found these pics. Pretty funky, but not so cheap. I think it is around $45.

that's actually really really cool, i want one!

 

[tony-in-japan]

Read some of the previous posts...

is there anyone who has jailbroken iPhone 3g Provided by Softbank in Japan?
Any success in this regard??

If you read some of the previous posts, a 3G user jailbroke their phone and bricked it when updating to one of the updates. I think he got a new phone but had to wait until they got stock again.

You should contact that guy for more advice/experience. From what I know, he needed to jailbrake his phone for work purposes, so had no other option; otherwise, he said he would not have done it.

 

[macdigger]

is there anyone who has jailbroken iPhone 3g Provided by Softbank in Japan?
Any success in this regard??

I am a guy who jailbroke my Softbank's iPhone, as tony-in-japan said previously. Did it because I needed some stuff which was not available on iPhone at that time (SSH access application was a must).

I jailbroke version 2.0 of iPhone, but bricked the device when trying to update it to 2.0.1 directly in iTunes. Got my iPhone replaced though (I never told Apple that problems were related to jailbraking of course).

If you really want to jailbrake, be ready to end up with bricked iPhone if you're not careful enough. Search for Pwnage tool on Google for more details on jailbraking.
One thing to be very careful about - once jailbroken, NEVER EVER update your iPhone's software directly in iTunes. First, wait for the updated version of Pwnage tool, then download software update WITHOUT installing it, apply the Pwnage tool patch, and restore the modified disk image onto iPhone.

Myself, I recently unjailbroke my iPhone, as the most critical application for me came out for iPhone and available in Japanese AppStore (TouchTerm). I still miss better notifications, but I am really tired of restoring iPhone from the scratch without ability to transfer applications' saved data every time a new firmware update comes out or something goes wrong (somehow backups from restore didn't work once for me on jailbroken iPhones) - so I just set ringer volume to max when I go to bed, so I won't miss important mid-night emais . Having cracked games running on my iPhone was nice, but I never really used them. The few once I like, I just bought. So well, at current stage, jailbraking is not essential for me anymore...

 

[mavis]

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is there anyone who has jailbroken iPhone 3g Provided by Softbank in Japan?
Any success in this regard??

I've been running a jailbroken 2.0.1 and now 2.0.2 iPhone 3G for nearly two weeks now, and it has been an amazing experience. I haven't had to restore once due to an ALoD that whole time (thanks to OpenSSH) ...

 

[SaSaSushi]

I've been running a jailbroken 2.0.1 and now 2.0.2 iPhone 3G for nearly two weeks now, and it has been an amazing experience. I haven't had to restore once due to an ALoD that whole time (thanks to OpenSSH) ...

What is an ALoD? Where did you get that nice iPhone image you're superimposing your screenshots on? Oh, and why does the carrier on your iPhone say "docomo"?

 

[mavis]

What is an ALoD? Where did you get that nice iPhone image you're superimposing your screenshots on? Oh, and why does the carrier on your iPhone say "docomo"?

ALoD means Apple Logo of Death, and it's a problem that can affect ANYONE running iPhone/iPod 2.0 software. I've just posted a fairly detailed description of not only the cause but the solution, here.

As for the iPhone image, I think it was a render of an iPhone 3G I got from DeviantART - I simply resized the iPhone so that the display area was 480x320 and then added a matching highlight overlay for the top right corner of the screen (to match the gloss on the render) ...

Finally, I changed the carrier text to "docomo" just for the hell of it - I was kind of wondering if anyone would notice it - so far, you're the first. hehe

 

[Bucci44]

Directions for "Directions" in Japan

First time post. I have found some of the Japan-specific information here useful; but have not seen much on GPS directions. Has anyone had any success with getting directions from Point A to Point B here is Japan? If so, some pointers would be appreciated. (GPS location locator works fine, search works fine).

Thanks!

 

[keirnna]

First time post. I have found some of the Japan-specific information here useful; but have not seen much on GPS directions. Has anyone had any success with getting directions from Point A to Point B here is Japan? If so, some pointers would be appreciated. (GPS location locator works fine, search works fine).

Thanks!

I've never been able to get the directions working.

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.0.2 JB'd): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5C1 Safari/525.20)

First time post. I have found some of the Japan-specific information here useful; but have not seen much on GPS directions. Has anyone had any success with getting directions from Point A to Point B here is Japan? If so, some pointers would be appreciated. (GPS location locator works fine, search works fine).

Thanks!

I've never been able to get the directions working.

Yup. Doesn't work here, and never has (since last year on the iPod touch) ...

 

[Bucci44]

MiPhone is almost perfect...

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Yup. Doesn't work here, and never has (since last year on the iPod touch) ...

Thank you for confirming that I am not alone.

@mavis
Are you aware of any official Apple position on this VERY large oversight? To me, this lack of functionality is on par with the lack of "cut and paste". One of the reasons I bought the iPhone was to have onboard navigation for my motorcycle when I tour

Otherwise, the iPhone (jailbroken of course) is a (near) dream-come-true!

Thanks again gentlemen.

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.0.2 JB'd): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5C1 Safari/525.20)

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.0.2 JB'd): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5C1 Safari/525.20)



Yup. Doesn't work here, and never has (since last year on the iPod touch) ...

Thank you for confirming that I am not alone.

@mavis
Are you aware of any official Apple position on this VERY large oversight? To me, this lack of functionality is on par with the lack of "cut and paste". One of the reasons I bought the iPhone was to have onboard navigation for my motorcycle when I tour

Otherwise, the iPhone (jailbroken of course) is a (near) dream-come-true!

Thanks again gentlemen.

I'm not 100% certain, but I'm pretty sure it's just a matter if Japanese streets being such a ****ing mess, they're impossible to navigate.

I kid. Seriously though, it's because Google hasn't mapped things out here like they have in other countries. Hopefully that'll change in the future.

 

[keirnna]

Japanese Flip is out: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=289263209&mt=8

 

[SaSaSushi]

It looks like the Wisdom Japanese-English Dictionary is back again on the iTunes Store as well. However, after the nightmare stories about this one I'm not sure I'm ready to risk the $23.99 just yet.

Mavis, have you given this newly listed version a try yet? I can only assume it's reappearance means they've worked out the bugs that were leading to iPhone restores in the prior versions but some actual confirmation would be great.

 

[mavis]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.0.2 JB'd): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_0_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5C1 Safari/525.20)

It looks like the Wisdom Japanese-English Dictionary is back again on the iTunes Store as well. However, after the nightmare stories about this one I'm not sure I'm ready to risk the $23.99 just yet.

Mavis, have you given this newly listed version a try yet? I can only assume it's reappearance means they've worked out the bugs that were leading to iPhone restores in the prior versions but some actual confirmation would be great.

The new one works fine! Marginally faster, and more importantly, doesn't cause ALoDs anymore.

 

[DonSqueak]

Have searched this thread, but nothing came up, so I'm going to post (sorry if it's already been discussed):

If I somehow manage to get my German phone unlocked, or just get a Belgian one (free for all carriers), and bring it with me to Japan, would I be eligible for a SoftBank contract, say, a one-year plan?
I. e., do they give me a Sim-Card, or do they give away contracts only if you get a phone at the same time?

Cheers, dsq.