Odd, it works fine here. Both to email and SMS.
Really? well it was with mail from an AU keitai. Am I the only one? do not forget that if you received email from a recent Docomo phone, there will be no problem since they embed the emoji as a GIF.
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3G iPhone in Japan?
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Really? well it was with mail from an AU keitai. Am I the only one? do not forget that if you received email from a recent Docomo phone, there will be no problem since they embed the emoji as a GIF.
Mine were from a SoftBank phone. But it doesn't surprise me in the least that the AU doesn't display correctly, as many of their phones don't even support UTF-8 - they can't display email sent from the iPhone (or from desktop clients like Mail.app, for that matter) ... Bunch of geniuses over there at AU, I tell ya.
Mine were from a SoftBank phone. But it doesn't surprise me in the least that the AU doesn't display correctly, as many of their phones don't even support UTF-8 - they can't display email sent from the iPhone (or from desktop clients like Mail.app, for that matter) ... Bunch of geniuses over there at AU, I tell ya.
Yeah, but the fact is that it was working before. So although I am happy to have upgraded to the 2.1, so like this I can write in decent speed and not affraid of doing a sync anymore, the fact that I have to check my email through safari (on gmail in my case) is a big drawback
Not sure if this is the correct place to asked but I have a 3G iPhone here in the U.S. I'll be transferring to Japan at the end of the year for 3 yrs and when I cancel my contract with AT&T my iPhone will not be working (according to the AT&T's representative)...my question is, will I still be able to use it in Japan or is my 3G iPhone be useless there now that I have canceled my contract?
Not sure if this is the correct place to asked but I have a 3G iPhone here in the U.S. I'll be transferring to Japan at the end of the year for 3 yrs and when I cancel my contract with AT&T my iPhone will not be working (according to the AT&T's representative)...my question is, will I still be able to use it in Japan or is my 3G iPhone be useless there now that I have canceled my contract?
As far as the phone goes, it will work fine in Japan... it's the same model the world over. I don't have experience with bringing my own handset to Softbank, however... not sure if you can sign up for service, but seems reasonable. You'll probably have to sign up for the two year rate/data plan contract and pay an activation fee.
This might be new territory for Softbank, as I believe all handsets were "locked" by carriers in the past.
That's an interesting point. Remember that 'common sense' does not enter into the equation at any time when dealing with these idiots, so it's very likely that they will insist he buy a new phone, simply because that's the only way they've ever done it. Employees at SoftBank are not empowered, they are not allowed to think outside the box; if it's not expressly spelled out in the manual, it won't happen. PERIOD.
Mine were from a SoftBank phone. But it doesn't surprise me in the least that the AU doesn't display correctly, as many of their phones don't even support UTF-8 - they can't display email sent from the iPhone (or from desktop clients like Mail.app, for that matter) ... Bunch of geniuses over there at AU, I tell ya.
AU phones can display email from the iPhone depending on what account you send from. I'm talking about Japanese characters since English displays fine on AU from every account I've ever used. Here's what I've found in my testing to my girlfriend's very old AU phone:
From iPhone: works perfectly from SoftBank account and MobileMe. Japanese emails sent through Yahoo get mangled and are unreadable on her phone.
Additionally, any account you have in Mac's Mail.app should work but you have to do an extra step since the default encoding is UTF-8. When I am emailing AU people from Mail.app, I open a new message, then go to the menu Message>Text Encoding and change to "Japanese (Shift JIS)". That is what AU phones use and your message in Japanese will remain intact and legible on AU phones.
Thanks ajmiyazaki and Mavis. So pretty much my phone is locked and will not be able to unlock over in Japan. F*CKED!!! Now I either have to sell it before I leave or keep it and try it in Japan. This blows man!
I have heard that Telus and Bell have gotten together and are going to be converting their network to GSM... Apparently they are going to have to set up GSM networks overtop of their existing CDMA network... and then slowly phase out the CDMA...
Thats going to be a technical nightmare, and confusing to customers... but if they get 'er done... iPhone competition, just might make some interesting rate plans for us Canadians... eh?
Want to want one but....
Hey all, I'm a long-time reader of the forum and today a first time poster. Lliving in Tokyo and being a long time Apple supporter, I thought I'd give my 30yen on the iPhone here.
I've had the Sharpe 920SH since last October and my house mate has had the iPhone 3G since launch day in Japan. Comparing them side by side often, I just can't justify giving up the stability and features of my Sharpe.
I won't go into all the features, but an example of something I can do on my Sharpe: I flick it to widescreen view, live digital TV and browse the OSD TV guide. There's nothing on I particularly want to see, so I play highlights from the Olympics which I had recorded previously. Whilst watching I receive a mail, so I flick to split-screen view. This give me live TV on the left, and my new message on the right of the screen - instantly. The message is in Japanese and there are 2 Kanji I don't know. So i select the passage and copy it. I then close the mail and switch to my internet bookmarks. I head to excite translator, paste the Kanji and translate it. I flick back to the mail, relpy and return to full-screen TV. All of this is pretty much instant, no lag, no TV break-up, full internet.
The iPhone's movie playback / screen, iPod player and App Store are all fantastic, but they're not yet enough for me to switch (down-grade). I love Apple and I want to have an iPhone, but it's simply not good enough in Japan yet. I'll get one when it has:
Copy and Paste,
Video Recording and full MMS,
Emoji's (for foreigners writing in Japanese these are almost essential to confirm emotions when using ambibous language),
a battery that will last 2 days even with reasonable use,
Yahoo! keitai functionality for weather, GPS maps, cinema times etc,
Faster Japanese text input (i beat my housemate EVERY-time here)
A real camera (over 3.2mps, auto focus, light)
For now, I think i'm going to get a new touch and wait for the 3rd gen - does anyone know why the new touch isn't in retail stores here yet?
Also I wanted to post this link, which breaks down more of the features lacking from the iPhone:
http://asiajin.com/blog/2008/07/08/f...se-cellphones/
Hey all, I'm a long-time reader of the forum and today a first time poster. Lliving in Tokyo and being a long time Apple supporter, I thought I'd give my 30yen on the iPhone here.
I've had the Sharpe 920SH since last October and my house mate has had the iPhone 3G since launch day in Japan. Comparing them side by side often, I just can't justify giving up the stability and features of my Sharpe.
I won't go into all the features, but an example of something I can do on my Sharpe: I flick it to widescreen view, live digital TV and browse the OSD TV guide. There's nothing on I particularly want to see, so I play highlights from the Olympics which I had recorded previously. Whilst watching I receive a mail, so I flick to split-screen view. This give me live TV on the left, and my new message on the right of the screen - instantly. The message is in Japanese and there are 2 Kanji I don't know. So i select the passage and copy it. I then close the mail and switch to my internet bookmarks. I head to excite translator, paste the Kanji and translate it. I flick back to the mail, relpy and return to full-screen TV. All of this is pretty much instant, no lag, no TV break-up, full internet.
The iPhone's movie playback / screen, iPod player and App Store are all fantastic, but they're not yet enough for me to switch (down-grade). I love Apple and I want to have an iPhone, but it's simply not good enough in Japan yet. I'll get one when it has:
Copy and Paste,
Video Recording and full MMS,
Emoji's (for foreigners writing in Japanese these are almost essential to confirm emotions when using ambibous language),
a battery that will last 2 days even with reasonable use,
Yahoo! keitai functionality for weather, GPS maps, cinema times etc,
Faster Japanese text input (i beat my housemate EVERY-time here)
A real camera (over 3.2mps, auto focus, light)
For now, I think i'm going to get a new touch and wait for the 3rd gen - does anyone know why the new touch isn't in retail stores here yet?
Also I wanted to post this link, which breaks down more of the features lacking from the iPhone:
http://asiajin.com/blog/2008/07/08/f...se-cellphones/
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.1 PWNed): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)
Great, so you like your Sharp (there's no "e" in Sharp, BTW) ... Thanks for sharing.
The iPhone is far from perfect. But it beats the living **** out of any cookie-cutter, disposable J-phone over here. One day you'll see the light.
Great, so you like your Sharp (there's no "e" in Sharp, BTW) ... Thanks for sharing.
The iPhone is far from perfect. But it beats the living **** out of any cookie-cutter, disposable J-phone over here. One day you'll see the light.
Wirelessly posted (iPhone 3G (16GB, 2.1 PWNed): Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 2_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/525.18.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.1 Mobile/5F136 Safari/525.20)
Great, so you like your Sharp (there's no "e" in Sharp, BTW) ... Thanks for sharing.
The iPhone is far from perfect. But it beats the living **** out of any cookie-cutter, disposable J-phone over here. One day you'll see the light.
Thanks, it isn't actually printed on the phone itself...
Anyway, not sure why I can sense animosity in your reply - I just thought I'd share my experience exposed to both models as I know lots of people here who are undecided on whether to change. Just trying to help!
I really do think I'll get the iPhone, maybe when the 32GB is released, but can I ask you if you speak Japanese? About 80% of my messages are in Japanese and my experience so far with the iPhone is this would take up about 3 times more of my time. Don't you agree?
No animosity, just sharing another point of view (as someone who currently owns both phones being discussed) ...
As for Japanese entry (kana conversion), I think you'll find it MUCH faster with the 2.1 upgrade - I know I did, and all my friends. It's almost real-time now.
No animosity, just sharing another point of view (as someone who currently owns both phones being discussed) ...
As for Japanese entry (kana conversion), I think you'll find it MUCH faster with the 2.1 upgrade - I know I did, and all my friends. It's almost real-time now.
Ahh OK, thanks for the info. I haven't tried the 2.1 input yet, so I'll give that a go tonight. I guess like anything you just have to get used to it.
My housemate (he's not tech savvy at all) is also having big problems sending and receiving to and from docomo addresses - is this an isolated issue or have you had similar problems?
He also frequently complains about GPS on Google Maps being really unuseful here - something to do with it not being able to draw routes, find exact locations or accept Romaji adresses?
Sorry for all the questions but you seem to know what you're talking about and I'm bored at work!
I wouldn't go so far as to say I know what I'm talking about, but I can pretend with the best of 'em.
The maps application is not as useful here as it is elsewhere in the world. You can't search for addresses in romaji, nor can you plot a course from A to B. That's a shortcoming on Google's part, not Apple's - but hopefully one they'll get around to addressing soon.
As for sending mail to DoCoMo (actually, it's "docomo" now, isn't it?) I think it's a matter of anti-spam settings. Many people's phones/accounts are set up to block mail not originating from mobile phones (shows how computer-illiterate the locals really are, doesn't it? Blocking email that originates from a computer, since getting an email from a PC is such a rare event. WTF.) ... His best bet would be to tell his friends to check their spam/filtering options. Finding the right sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-menu might be a little tricky though, and explaining it to the average technophobic J-girl will be even more fun.
The maps application is not as useful here as it is elsewhere in the world. You can't search for addresses in romaji, nor can you plot a course from A to B. That's a shortcoming on Google's part, not Apple's - but hopefully one they'll get around to addressing soon.
As for sending mail to DoCoMo (actually, it's "docomo" now, isn't it?) I think it's a matter of anti-spam settings. Many people's phones/accounts are set up to block mail not originating from mobile phones (shows how computer-illiterate the locals really are, doesn't it? Blocking email that originates from a computer, since getting an email from a PC is such a rare event. WTF.) ... His best bet would be to tell his friends to check their spam/filtering options. Finding the right sub-sub-sub-sub-sub-menu might be a little tricky though, and explaining it to the average technophobic J-girl will be even more fun.
If you are a mac user, there is no better experience than an iPhone
Thanks for your experience and comparisons. I am surprised you used downgrade in regards to the iPhone. It has certainly been a massive upgrade to me.
I have lived in Japan for 3 years now and for most of that time have used a Docomo Foma phone. I liked using it but it there were many things which annoyed me.
Moving onto the iPhone 3G, I can honestly say it has completely revolutionized my life. What I hated about the Docomo phone was a lack of communication with my mac. No software link to my music, movie and other important data -- only for PC. This is where iPhone truly shines. With all my data stored on the cloud via me.com, any info on my mac is instantly syncd to my phone (photos, contacts, emails, notes, music, movies, bookmarks, schedules, etc). I simply did not have this on my docomo phone.
Also, I love being able to rent the latest hollywood blockbusters, upload them onto my iPhone and watch them on the go -- and this is even before some of these movies have been released in a Japanese cinema! Plus the latest TV series like Stephen Kings N or Watchmen Animated Comics which are downloaded automatically when released in the US Store. Plus, being able to access the iTunes store for other goodies like applications simply has no match with Japanese keitais -- and this can only become better. To have a world-wide community of developers creating a diverse variety of useful (and not so useful!) apps is the key advantage of the iPhone vs. any other Japanese keitai.
I am not sure what the current experience is like browsing the net via Japanese keitais. I know my Docomo Foma phone was awful -- most html was unrendered which just churned out programming text. With the iPhone, everything is rendered beautifully and the pinch to re-size/zoom and then flick to scroll touch-interface is amazing. How do you do this with a keitai? Is it still using cursor buttons? I know that would drive me nuts now.
Japanese language learning for me have been revolutionized using the iPhone. My Japanese101 podcasts are automatically syncd. Japanese dictionary is one click away. Granted, I still need copy & paste on this thing, but I am sure that will come soon. I also use Omnifocus to store my Japanese vocab and phrases. I can email a Japanese list from anywhere and it would automatically appear in my OmniFocus app. I can review in here and flag anything I want to continue learning and delete what I have remembered.
When I go home from the office, I can sometimes leave my Powerbook because the iPhone can manage many of the tasks instead. It is basically a mini-computer rather than just a phone. Anything I do on the iPhone is updated onto my mac the next day via the cloud.
The only things I really missed from my Docomo phone is:
1. Video calling
2. A hole to put a dangly strap on (dropped my iPhone too many times now)
3. E-moji
Err, thats it. I cannot think of anything else. I just hated how much bloated stuff was on the Docomo that was unnecessary. The iPhone is just a more streamlined and elegant experience.
Oh, lastly, my Vaja Leather Case came recently. I took some photos, so you can have a look (with white iPhone) on my Flickr Photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26154011@N07/
Regards,
Tony
Thanks for your experience and comparisons. I am surprised you used downgrade in regards to the iPhone. It has certainly been a massive upgrade to me.
I have lived in Japan for 3 years now and for most of that time have used a Docomo Foma phone. I liked using it but it there were many things which annoyed me.
Moving onto the iPhone 3G, I can honestly say it has completely revolutionized my life. What I hated about the Docomo phone was a lack of communication with my mac. No software link to my music, movie and other important data -- only for PC. This is where iPhone truly shines. With all my data stored on the cloud via me.com, any info on my mac is instantly syncd to my phone (photos, contacts, emails, notes, music, movies, bookmarks, schedules, etc). I simply did not have this on my docomo phone.
Also, I love being able to rent the latest hollywood blockbusters, upload them onto my iPhone and watch them on the go -- and this is even before some of these movies have been released in a Japanese cinema! Plus the latest TV series like Stephen Kings N or Watchmen Animated Comics which are downloaded automatically when released in the US Store. Plus, being able to access the iTunes store for other goodies like applications simply has no match with Japanese keitais -- and this can only become better. To have a world-wide community of developers creating a diverse variety of useful (and not so useful!
) apps is the key advantage of the iPhone vs. any other Japanese keitai.I am not sure what the current experience is like browsing the net via Japanese keitais. I know my Docomo Foma phone was awful -- most html was unrendered which just churned out programming text. With the iPhone, everything is rendered beautifully and the pinch to re-size/zoom and then flick to scroll touch-interface is amazing. How do you do this with a keitai? Is it still using cursor buttons? I know that would drive me nuts now.
Japanese language learning for me have been revolutionized using the iPhone. My Japanese101 podcasts are automatically syncd. Japanese dictionary is one click away. Granted, I still need copy & paste on this thing, but I am sure that will come soon. I also use Omnifocus to store my Japanese vocab and phrases. I can email a Japanese list from anywhere and it would automatically appear in my OmniFocus app. I can review in here and flag anything I want to continue learning and delete what I have remembered.
When I go home from the office, I can sometimes leave my Powerbook because the iPhone can manage many of the tasks instead. It is basically a mini-computer rather than just a phone. Anything I do on the iPhone is updated onto my mac the next day via the cloud.
The only things I really missed from my Docomo phone is:
1. Video calling
2. A hole to put a dangly strap on (dropped my iPhone too many times now)
3. E-moji
Err, thats it. I cannot think of anything else. I just hated how much bloated stuff was on the Docomo that was unnecessary. The iPhone is just a more streamlined and elegant experience.
Oh, lastly, my Vaja Leather Case came recently. I took some photos, so you can have a look (with white iPhone) on my Flickr Photostream:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/26154011@N07/
Regards,
Tony
Thanks for your experience and comparisons. I am surprised you used downgrade in regards to the iPhone. It has certainly been a massive upgrade to me.
I have lived in Japan for 3 years now and for most of that time have used a Docomo Foma phone. I liked using it but it there were many things which annoyed me.
Moving onto the iPhone 3G, I can honestly say it has completely revolutionized my life. What I hated about the Docomo phone was a lack of communication with my mac. No software link to my music, movie and other important data -- only for PC. This is where iPhone truly shines. With all my data stored on the cloud via me.com, any info on my mac is instantly syncd to my phone (photos, contacts, emails, notes, music, movies, bookmarks, schedules, etc). I simply did not have this on my docomo phone.
Also, I love being able to rent the latest hollywood blockbusters, upload them onto my iPhone and watch them on the go -- and this is even before some of these movies have been released in a Japanese cinema! Plus the latest TV series like Stephen Kings N or Watchmen Animated Comics which are downloaded automatically when released in the US Store. Plus, being able to access the iTunes store for other goodies like applications simply has no match with Japanese keitais -- and this can only become better. To have a world-wide community of developers creating a diverse variety of useful (and not so useful!
Thanks for your insightful post!
I was wondering about which version of the Apple store you're connected to? I've noticed that the Japanese version is pretty much awful, with no movies, barely any music (Sony BMG aren't even incorporated) and very limited TV. I'm originally from the UK and my old UK account lets me get the UK service (over-priced, understocked) store, but it seems the US store is the place to be. Is that a problem to register for when living in Japan? I don't see why anyone wouldn't sign-up to the US store?!?
I appreciate the advantages of Mobile ME, but i've read a lot of very negative user experiences and it seems like this should really be a free service rather than one you need to pay for.
Anyway your post actually made me want the iPhone a little more, as did your great photos!
I wish MobileMe was a free service too, but to me it's absolutely worth it. Maybe I've been lucky (?) in that MMe has worked well for me so far, but I'll tell ya - it has been a real lifesaver for me! Just yesterday I had to restore my phone on a shared computer at work (jailbreaking gone wrong, don't ask!) as I was supposed to meet my wife on my way home and need my phone to be working. After restoring, I entered my MMe login info, and voila!! All of my contacts were instantly there, including my wife (whose phone number, I'm embarrassed to admit, I haven't memorized) ... Not only that, but the integration with my Mac is amazing - I've got multiple galleries and videos synced with my MMe gallery page (from iPhoto and iMovie) which my family back in the States really loves - also convenient is that I can instantly add photos taken with the iPhone, no matter where I am.
MobileMe is a great service - if you've got a Mac and an iPhone, it's a no-brainer (IMO) ...
Thats funny! I am originally from the UK too!
I am from Manchester.I have a Japanese iTunes account as well as a US one and probably a Uk one too. The only way you can purchase from the US store is if you buy US vouchers from fleabay. From this transaction they can give you info on how to get a US account.
As for mobile me, I am happy to pay for a service that, to me, has been problem-free and works as advertised. Plus Apple gave me a few extra months too. If it was free, then standards would decline and development would not be so fast. Anyway, why should it be free?
Thats funny! I am originally from the UK too!
I have a Japanese iTunes account as well as a US one and probably a Uk one too. The only way you can purchase from the US store is if you buy US vouchers from fleabay. From this transaction they can give you info on how to get a US account.
As for mobile me, I am happy to pay for a service that, to me, has been problem-free and works as advertised. Plus Apple gave me a few extra months too. If it was free, then standards would decline and development would not be so fast. Anyway, why should it be free?
Wooah Tony in Japan, thanks for that - a quick bootsalebay search and I can't believe how easy that is... I'm going to be switching to US store + ebay vouchers from now on, awesome
I wonder if I can pay for MobileME in the same way..?
I dont think you can. You cannot purchase mobile.me though the iTunes Store. You would need a credit card used through the online Japanese Apple Store. Oh, you can also buy a boxed mobile.me from the Apple Store itself and pay cash.
Does this mean you are getting an iPhone then?
paying a crazy amount for my iphone
I am sure that this has already been covered, but i bought my iPhone through softbank in july and i have received 2 bills since then, for my wife's and i's phones, for approx 230$ (23,000Y) at first i thought this would even out but after the second one i got worried.
We upgrade from the 920sharp to the iphones after 6months of having the sharps. So i called softbank yesterday and asked about these charges and was told that we are paying 800$(80,000Y) per iPhone over 24months AND we are still paying 35$(3,500Y) for the sharps.
When i went in and got our iPhones, even with the language barrier, i thought it was clear that we were upgrading our phones and that the girl told us that we were able to upgrade. so with the two phone payments +the service the bill comes out to a little above 200$(20,000Y). There is another couple that this same thing happened to as well. Any ideas on this?
O by the way the softbank lady said that after this month i would get a "special" discount of 1,000Y per iphone. That comes out to 240$(24,000Y) off each phone, which is still a total price of 560$(56,000Y) per iPhone.
I am sure that this has already been covered, but i bought my iPhone through softbank in july and i have received 2 bills since then, for my wife's and i's phones, for approx 230$ (23,000Y) at first i thought this would even out but after the second one i got worried.
We upgrade from the 920sharp to the iphones after 6months of having the sharps. So i called softbank yesterday and asked about these charges and was told that we are paying 800$(80,000Y) per iPhone over 24months AND we are still paying 35$(3,500Y) for the sharps.
When i went in and got our iPhones, even with the language barrier, i thought it was clear that we were upgrading our phones and that the girl told us that we were able to upgrade. so with the two phone payments +the service the bill comes out to a little above 200$(20,000Y). There is another couple that this same thing happened to as well. Any ideas on this?
O by the way the softbank lady said that after this month i would get a "special" discount of 1,000Y per iphone. That comes out to 240$(24,000Y) off each phone, which is still a total price of 560$(56,000Y) per iPhone.
Try eBay ... dirt cheap.
Awesome
Yep, I will be getting an iPhone, but I think I can hold out until the 32GB surfaces. I think it will be in January, but hoping Steve does a 'One more thing' at the likely mac refresh event on October 14th.
With the dropping sales of iPhone here, I'm also hoping the service plans get a bit more competetive!
If you were already on a contract, you have to finish paying off that phone. I opted to pay off mine in one lump sum ($400 or so) just like I'll have to do if Apple releases a newer and better iPhone next year and I want to buy it - since I've got a 26 month contract on this iPhone 3G, paying it off monthly, I'll have to complete those payments whether or not I'm actually still using this phone.I am sure that this has already been covered, but i bought my iPhone through softbank in july and i have received 2 bills since then, for my wife's and i's phones, for approx 230$ (23,000Y) at first i thought this would even out but after the second one i got worried.
We upgrade from the 920sharp to the iphones after 6months of having the sharps. So i called softbank yesterday and asked about these charges and was told that we are paying 800$(80,000Y) per iPhone over 24months AND we are still paying 35$(3,500Y) for the sharps.
When i went in and got our iPhones, even with the language barrier, i thought it was clear that we were upgrading our phones and that the girl told us that we were able to upgrade. so with the two phone payments +the service the bill comes out to a little above 200$(20,000Y). There is another couple that this same thing happened to as well. Any ideas on this?
O by the way the softbank lady said that after this month i would get a "special" discount of 1,000Y per iphone. That comes out to 240$(24,000Y) off each phone, which is still a total price of 560$(56,000Y) per iPhone.
It works a little differently here than in most other countries. We end up paying far more if we terminate our contract early (like you're experiencing now with your old phones) but far less up front - usually $0.00.