Kanji on US cellphones

[yakinoumiso]

I apologize if this is either a taboo subject or a retread...

I've decided to decline the offer my company made and move back to the US in January. I rather like the keitai mail experience and would like to be able to continue using it to keep in touch with my non-English speaking friends after I get back. So my question is this: Is there a practical way to send and receive Japanese SMS or mail on a US cellphone?

None of the US carriers has a ready solution. I've thought about taking back my CDMA/GSM-USIM keitai and trying to use it; although, I don't know what pieces I need, what handset has the best shot at working, or even what carrier is the best choice.

Any suggestions or experience would be most helpful.

[GomiGirl]

So my question is this: Is there a practical way to send and receive Japanese SMS or mail on a US cellphone?

No. Short answer. But the only way you are going to display Japanese that doesn't have the character set installed is to have your friends convert all of the text into graphics (ie using a transcoder) and send the text as a picture. But then you cannot get a transcoder to work on your phone so you would have to send them back answers in romaji. Not practical at all.

However... please check out the latest offering from Nokia. The 3G 6630. This is available from Vodafone with a contract and thus a locked SIM and you will be stung with roaming fees on a daily basis so not a practical financial solution... HOWEVER.. very soon, this phone will be available in Nokia Japanese stores in its generic form (ie without a locked SIM.) The upfront cost of the handset will be high, but you will be able to use your own carrier in the US or even a pre-paid SIM card.

Alternatively, what is wrong with sending emails to their phone from your computer? Why do you have to send SMS's from your phone? They will be able to reply to your computer and you can read and write Japanese using the appropriate language pack which is much more global than the keitai language packs.

[maraboutslim]

Sending from your computer is the best option. But for what it's worth, I could change the OS of my old Nokia cell phones I used in California to Japanese or Chinese so I don't see why they wouldn't handle Japanese text messages as long as the cell company was set up to avoid mangling the text coming and going).

edit: i just sent myself a japanese email to my seimens phone, on the at&t system and it came out all moji bake. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

[gkanai]

GG, do you have any preference for the new crop of Vodafones? I'm thinking of upgrading this time (been about 18 months) and I'm not sure which one to choose.

http://www.v3g.jp/v3g/main2.html

[yakinoumiso]

No. Short answer. However... please check out the latest offering from Nokia. The 3G 6630. This is available from Vodafone with a contract and thus a locked SIM and you will be stung with roaming fees on a daily basis so not a practical financial solution... HOWEVER.. very soon, this phone will be available in Nokia Japanese stores in its generic form (ie without a locked SIM.) The upfront cost of the handset will be high, but you will be able to use your own carrier in the US or even a pre-paid SIM card.

Thanks for the heads up regarding the Nokia handset becoming available in a generic form. That might be the best solution for me...Actually, in principle I think any of Vodafone's 3G series of world phones "should" work if and when they are available without a locked SIM. T-Mobile and Cingular are both welcome to the idea...but they mentioned that an unlocked SIM card would probably be necessary as well.

I've thought about roaming with a Japanese handset...maybe it wouldn't be too terribly expensive. But I agree with you that it's not the practical solution, especially if I only turn it on to check my email.

Alternatively, what is wrong with sending emails to their phone from your computer? Why do you have to send SMS's from your phone? They will be able to reply to your computer and you can read and write Japanese using the appropriate language pack which is much more global than the keitai language packs.

Well, nothing really. And I'm sure that I'll do that too--more if I have no other choice. I simply like the style of communication that comes with the keitai and so I'm looking at how to have that option. Using the computer, on the otherhand, is no problem. Both my mac and PC switch from English to Japanese much more gracefully than me.

So, what happens if I use the V801SH (for instance) GSM/GPRS phone I bought from Vodafone, and a SIM card from T-Mobile (for instance)? Can the handset recognize double-byte characters? Honestly, I'm not really clear on which functions come with the handset and which the SIM card. My assumption is that the communications packet handling information comes from the SIM card, and so having a handset that can read double byte characters is in itself not a solution.

Sending from your computer is the best option. But for what it's worth, I could change the OS of my old Nokia cell phones I used in California to Japanese or Chinese so I don't see why they wouldn't handle Japanese text messages as long as the cell company was set up to avoid mangling the text coming and going).

edit: i just sent myself a japanese email to my seimens phone, on the at&t system and it came out all moji bake. Oh well, it was worth a shot.

Thanks for trying.

Yeah. The PC is easier for sure. I'm just a bit thick-skulled is all. I don't know about changing the OS, but I think that both Cingular (ATT's old network) and T-Mobile's can handle double-byte characters. At least I'm pretty sure that's what the Vodafone rep told me when I was talking to them about this. (Natch. they want to put me on a roaming package.) I think the bigger issue is how the handset communicates with the station, like I said above.

As for Vodafone's handsets. The 801SH is okay. I think the 802SH or 902 SH will be even better. The forthcoming 902SE looks quite swank to me. And the 801SA is garbage. If I were waiting around I'd probably hold out for a new Toshiba handset, but that's not really an option for me right now.

[GomiGirl]

GG, do you have any preference for the new crop of Vodafones? I'm thinking of upgrading this time (been about 18 months) and I'm not sure which one to choose.

http://www.v3g.jp/v3g/main2.html

The only one I know really well is the Nokia. It is symbian series 60 etc and is Nokia's first real offering in Japan since the old i-mode NH502i. It is an awesome phone. I would wait until the next SW release as it is a known issue with all first releases they can be a bit buggy. But reflashing or upgrades have never been a problem if you are techy enough.

I haven't played with the others but I have it on very good authority (nudge nudge wink wink) that the Motorola ones have awesome fonts but otherwise I don't know any more.

My plan in the next week or so is to get all of them into the office and run them up side by side so I will be able to let you know more then.

Or I just may hang out in the Shibuya Vodafone store and for a few hours and play... I love that place.. it is my idea of heaven.. (I am such a keitai geek)

It also depends on what you want.. music, TV, good camera, good screen, big buttons, clamshell, flat, SD card, MMC card, cheap packets. They are all different for different needs.

Remember that the coverage of 3G is still not quite as good as the PDC but it will only get better and you can use these new handsets globally. Given how much you travel Gen, that can only be a good thing.

[GomiGirl]

So, what happens if I use the V801SH (for instance) GSM/GPRS phone I bought from Vodafone, and a SIM card from T-Mobile (for instance)? Can the handset recognize double-byte characters? Honestly, I'm not really clear on which functions come with the handset and which the SIM card. My assumption is that the communications packet handling information comes from the SIM card, and so having a handset that can read double byte characters is in itself not a solution.

I am fairly sure that the V801SH from Vodafone KK cannot be used with another carrier's SIM card. ie it is locked and if you put another SIM card into it, it will not work. (That said, we have put a FOMA SIM card in a Vodafone phone and it worked for voice but as we didn't have the access point for FOMA we could't use any data) Am not really up with the rules of the SIM cards from various carriers as I am a software girl.

The character set is part of the software. So a Japanese handset will have the Japanese fonts and IME included within the ROM build. I always find it interesting that the same phones use different English fonts for the Asian language variants when compared to the Euro variants.

My advice with roaming contracts etc. is to have your account with a carrier in the country where you reside and spend most of your time. Roaming is still quite new and so still not as competitive. The carriers are enjoying high margins on their roaming fees. This will change as more people roam with their phones but for the moment, expect to get gouged when out of your home country. But if your company is paying for your phone bills, get them to work out where is the best contract that suits your needs.

[yakinoumiso]

Am not really up with the rules of the SIM cards from various carriers as I am a software girl.

Thanks. It was very helpful, though I had hope that there was some obvious solution that I would never have thought of. Besides, a 'software girl' is a heck of a lot more knowlegable on this subject than a medicinal chemist, don'cha think.

My advice with roaming contracts etc....

Yeah, I've already ruled out roaming. I'm keen for the technology, but not that keen.

But if your company is paying for your phone bills...

Don't I wish.

Thanks again.

[Kuang_Grade]

I'm no expert in this, but you might want to investigate to see if you might have some options with a US phone/data device, such a Treo or a Sidekick....you may be able to load up Japanese characters on th Treo via the Palm OS

[yakinoumiso]

I'm no expert in this, but you might want to investigate to see if you might have some options with a US phone/data device, such a Treo or a Sidekick....you may be able to load up Japanese characters on th Treo via the Palm OS

I was told by the nice person at T-Moblie that the Sidekick doesn't do doublebyte. So, it's right out, I guess. A smartphone might work if I use a POP or IMAP account...Though, I have no idea how to input japanese characters on my current Treo. The Jdict software I have on my current Treo doesn't actually input kana...Maybe MS has a language pack for CE devices. I'll look into that.

[GomiGirl]

Thanks. It was very helpful, though I had hope that there was some obvious solution that I would never have thought of. Besides, a 'software girl' is a heck of a lot more knowlegable on this subject than a medicinal chemist, don'cha think.

I dunno about that..

Useless trivia for the day..I used to be a (bio)chemist back in Aus.. my fave job was training the meatworkers on how to collect and prepare FBS (sometimes called FCS). That was a fun job but so different to what I do now. I think that between Taro, Dr Stevie B.. and myself, we have done every job in the history of the world..