iPhone Hysteria

[Taro Toporific]

The IPod Touch with Modifications is where its at. No monthly plan

not too many hot spots outside tokyo, so to this board this idea is kinda useless........ and three month old news.

It's "old news" in several ways...
I use the a iTouch a WiFi keitai with both fring and Trufone workarounds for Skype. However, Skype has a beta version for iTouch coming out soon.

The important points that differ from the "old news" are:

1. A 3rd party dongle headphone mike is no longer necessary since the regular iPhone headphone-mike and the new Apple In-Ear Headphones with Remote and Mic work much better.
2. There's no reason to jailbreak an iTouch (or iPhone) just to get Skype functionality since "legal" fring and Trufone workarounds are available now and it will only be a a matter of a weeks/months before Skype releases an official version for iTouch.
3. Free WiFi connectivity is sporadic in Japan--It works fine for me here in Tokyo but Y.M.M.D.

[Kuang_Grade]

Maybe there is hope for a revival of J interest in the Iphone....what appears to be a pachinko game app
Sho Chiku Bai

Link to the free trial version, full version runs $5, although on sale for $3 at the moment.

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=302026518&mt=8

[Mulboyne]

Macnn: SoftBank offers free iPhones in Japan

SoftBank has announced a promotion that will allow customers in Japan to receive free 3G iPhones when signing up for a two-year contract. The 8GB version is available for free with a basic, premium or student plan. The 16GB variant costs \11,520 (~$120), but customers pay an additional \480 (~$5USD) per month on, across a two-year plan, instead of providing the lump sum up front. The "iPhone for Everybody Campaign" runs until the end of May. The carrier has also dropped the maximum price of the standard data plan to \4410 (~$45USD) from \5985 (~$62USD) to make the deal even more attractive.

[GuyJean]

Macnn: SoftBank offers free iPhones in Japan

That's pretty damn impressive.. I wonder what the catch is.

GJ

[CrankyBastard]

I've been putting off buying one of these since last year.
I'm an old codger and the AU gadget I have now, I got from my son about two years ago. It has all sorts of whistles and stuff that I don't use, like one seg TV but all the menus are in Japanese. Most of the time that isn't a problem, but after a night on the bevies, my kanji comprehension gets a bit screwed. All I really need is something to call the missus on to come rescue me when I'm falling down drunk at the station. Will the iphone be able to manage that?

[Taro Toporific]

... all the menus are in Japanese. Most of the time that isn't a problem, but after a night on the bevies, my kanji comprehension gets a bit screwed...Will the iphone be able to manage that?

Yep, that's the main idea for gaijin getting an iPhone.
All the menus can be set in English and all the obscenely obscure functions buried 20-menus deep in Kanji on Japanese keitai are easily accessed on an iPhone in English, Japanese, or Lithuanian.

[wuchan]

Yep, that's the main idea for gaijin getting an iPhone.
All the menus can be set in English and all the obscenely obscure functions buried 20-menus deep in Kanji on Japanese keitai are easily accessed on an iPhone in English, Japanese, or Lithuanian.

I have a P906i. Nothing is hidden. The ONLY thing that is a pain is the Osafu-keitai feature but I would never try to use my phone as a credit card, what happens if you lose it?.

[omae mona]

I have a P906i. Nothing is hidden. The ONLY thing that is a pain is the Osafu-keitai feature but I would never try to use my phone as a credit card, what happens if you lose it?.

If you lose it you just call your provider and they remotely shut it down. Somewhere I have the number for Docomo handy. They charge like 500 yen each time you use the service, which I believe shuts down use of your phone and also everything on the Felica chip. This is a hell of a lot better than losing a regular Suica or Pasmo card. You can't shut them down remotely!

Lack of osaifu-keitai is by far the main thing holding me back from switching to an iPhone. I use it for bus & train fare, and I am set up with electronic cash with an Edy account that I desperately need to buy my 2nd and 3rd rounds of happoshu, since the 1st round renders me unable to properly count physical cash and fish it out of my pocket. Also, being able to recharge my JR Suica via i-mode has meant I haven't had to walk up to a JR ticket vending machine in over 2 years. I recharge Edy via i-mode too. It's very convenient.

I haven't connected any credit cards to my osaifu-keitai though.

[wuchan]

If you lose it you just call your provider and they remotely shut it down. Somewhere I have the number for Docomo handy. They charge like 500 yen each time you use the service, which I believe shuts down use of your phone and also everything on the Felica chip. This is a hell of a lot better than losing a regular Suica or Pasmo card. You can't shut them down remotely!

Lack of osaifu-keitai is by far the main thing holding me back from switching to an iPhone. I use it for bus & train fare, and I am set up with electronic cash with an Edy account that I desperately need to buy my 2nd and 3rd rounds of happoshu, since the 1st round renders me unable to properly count physical cash and fish it out of my pocket. Also, being able to recharge my JR Suica via i-mode has meant I haven't had to walk up to a JR ticket vending machine in over 2 years. I recharge Edy via i-mode too. It's very convenient.

I haven't connected any credit cards to my osaifu-keitai though.

Suica charges you a one time 500en fee which is returnable when you return the original card. If you loose it they just issue you a new one with the same balance that you had when you lost it (they ask the time and day that you discovered that it was gone) not when you reported it lost. I have lost more than ten, never lost any money, never paid for a replacement beyond the original 500en charge. On the keitai services they only give you back the balance at the time that you report it, not the time you lost it. Suica can be shut down by calling the number on the back, if you took the time to write it down

[omae mona]

Suica charges you a one time 500en fee which is returnable when you return the original card. If you loose it they just issue you a new one with the same balance that you had when you lost it (they ask the time and day that you discovered that it was gone) not when you reported it lost. I have lost more than ten, never lost any money, never paid for a replacement beyond the original 500en charge. On the keitai services they only give you back the balance at the time that you report it, not the time you lost it. Suica can be shut down by calling the number on the back, if you took the time to write it down

If I'm not mistaken, from reading the JR pages, this 500 yen shutdown and replacement service is only if you have a View Card Suica (or possibly a teiki-ken Suica). It doesn't look like it can be done for regular Suica cards. Am I wrong? Anyway I like the idea of reporting "oops, lost my card a year ago and just noticed it now". This could be quite profitable

Back to the main point, osaifu-keitai adoption is high enough that I suspect it's one of the larger reasons iPhone sales are still so low. I am sure there are studies about this somewhere..

[wuchan]

[quote="omae mona"]If I'm not mistaken, from reading the JR pages, this 500 yen shutdown and replacement service is only if you have a View Card Suica (or possibly a teiki-ken Suica). It doesn't look like it can be done for regular Suica cards. Am I wrong? Anyway I like the idea of reporting "oops, lost my card a year ago and just noticed it now". This could be quite profitable ]
It also applies to monthly passes. I don't know about the charge as you go types.

As far as the iPhone.... no 1seg, confusing japanese input, weak keitai type web ability (Full web is good), no deco mail, no,no, no,.........
Most phones here have mp3 players, can play movies, can go on the internet, can do just about everything the iphone can. So why pay the same amount of money for an iphone that does less than the other phones available?

[james]

[Iraira]

and according to the bastion of truth, FoxNews,

Apple's iPhone is a hit everywhere in the world — except for Japan.

It turns out that Apple's video-playing, music-downloading, motion-sensing handset is just too, well, backward for the Japanese market.

In fact, the iPhone is such a flop in the Land of the Rising Sun that it's being given away free with a 2-year contract, Wired News reports.

Adding insult to injury is the fact that carrier charges are a lot cheaper in Japan than they are in the U.S., and Apple hasn't learned to compete.

Few Japanese want to pay $60 per month to use a phone that can't shoot video, receive TV signals or text-message photos.

"The pricing has been completely out of whack with market reality," one expert on the Japanese cell-phone market tells Wired News. "I think they [Apple and its partners overseas] are in the process of adjusting to local conditions."

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,501927,00.html

[Mulboyne]

One of the people quoted in the Wired piece, Nobi Hayashi, is angry that it took a quotation from an interview he gave back in 2007 and nothing from the lengthy email he sent to the journalist where he explained that he was cautiously optimistic about the iphone's chances in Japan. He has set the record straight on his English blog:
My view of how iPhone is doing in Japan by Nobi (Nobuyuki Hayashi)

[CrankyBastard]

Finally took the plunge and got an iPhone yesterday.
I'm very pleased with it.
(:inlove: The little cutie in the store was the deciding factor:inlove:)

[Mulboyne]

(:inlove: The little cutie in the store was the deciding factor:inlove:)

[YT]yWUzxJSJps0[/YT]

[Greji]

[YT]yWUzxJSJps0[/YT]

What every she's selling, I want two....

[Mulboyne]

One of the people quoted in the Wired piece, Nobi Hayashi, is angry that it took a quotation from an interview he gave back in 2007 and nothing from the lengthy email he sent to the journalist where he explained that he was cautiously optimistic about the iphone's chances in Japan. He has set the record straight on his English blog:
My view of how iPhone is doing in Japan by Nobi (Nobuyuki Hayashi)

Apple fans appear to be on the warpath now, claiming that the Wired piece is a hatchet job on the iphone. Here's Apple Insider on the affair.

I don't care either way but it seems to me that everyone is barking up the wrong tree. If you are planning to discuss whether the the iphone is a success or a failure then you really need some kind of benchmark. If Apple or Softbank had an initial sales target for Japan and they missed it or beat it then that would be one way of making a judgement. However, no-one appears to have any reliable figures. You could also decide for yourself, independently of any assumptions by Apple, what criteria would make the iphone a success and use those to judge. All these articles giving reasons why the ipod might succeed or fail are interesting to read but they don't advance the discussion in the slightest if they are divorced from hard data.

[GomiGirl]

Exactly right Mulby. There are no figures but it seems that it is the fashionable thing to be talking down iPhone in Japan. Personally I think they are talking through their arses. I have met lots of iPhones in the wild - see at least 1-2 people on each train carriage and AppSales from the iTunes J-store are sensational.

Most of the doom and gloom stories are beat -ups or perhaps it is just many international journos copying a few hatchet jobs as there is nothing else out there to copy.

[CrankyBastard]

I've been enjoying my new iPhone for a few days now.
I have no real complaints, it's a great li'l machine and much easier to use and understand than the au keitai I'd been struggling with before.
However, I have a small problem with the touch screen, I have to use the fingers on my left hand to open/access everything.
I'm a bit of a mahjong fanatic and over the years I've developed callouses on the tips of my right thumb and forefinger which seem to not register "clicks" easily on the screen of the device.

[Taro Toporific]

I've been enjoying my new iPhone for a few days now... it's a great li'l machine and much easier to use and understand than the au keitai I'd been struggling with before...

That's my option too as an on-an-off user of AU's infobar and penck. The iPhone is 10 times better than Japanese keitai interfaces and Nokia sucks too (only Blackberry and google's Android are even remotely usable).

[Mr Doricar]

How long does your iPhone battery last? Mine's shite. If I leave home at 9am with it plugged in all night upto the point of leaving the house, it's dead by 11pm after a bit of emailing, and a few short phone calls, and a bit of iPod'ing. Pretty shite I'd say

[wuchan]

How long does your iPhone battery last? Mine's shite. If I leave home at 9am with it plugged in all night upto the point of leaving the house, it's dead by 11pm after a bit of emailing, and a few short phone calls, and a bit of iPod'ing. Pretty shite I'd say

The problem with the iPhone is that it was designed for the GSM market and was adapted to the 3G market. Anyone with a j-phone (keitai) who travels a lot will tell you that a 3G phone eats battery when operating on a GSM network; fuck, mine lasts 4 days here but back in the US it dies in less than 16 hours. The same is true for GSM phones on a 3G network.

[Doctor Stop]

iPhone OS 3.0 is coming soon. The big question is will it support copy, cut, and paste, something that the Macintosh had 25 years ago.

[FG Lurker]

iPhone OS 3.0 is coming soon. The big question is will it support copy, cut, and paste, something that the Macintosh had 25 years ago.

The Apple II had cut&paste too.

Apparently the first major public display of OS 3 will be later this month but it seems that it will be awhile longer before it is actually available for us unwashed masses to use.

[GomiGirl]

Yes - we were trying to figure out what is likely to be included. Top picks were:

cut and paste
flash
multitasking - well better multitasking
better japanese handling
HWR

Perhaps these are just wish lists and Apple will do whatever the hell they want.

[FG Lurker]

Apple lets unfortunate logo slip
The Inquirer, March 17, 2009

AN UNFORTUNATE LOGO which has somehow made it onto the Apple App Store appears to be a Freudian slip.



[...]

However the logo that accompanies the product seems to be arranged in a way so that the letter 'o' is dropped.

Of course his must be an accident, after all Apple has made a big thing about how it does not allow swearing in its Iphone Apps.

(Full Story)

Ah yes, the iCunt... Should prove popular with the Charles and Takes of the world.

iCunt in the App Store

[American Oyaji]

BTW, what do you guys think of the issue where you can't watch HD content on "non approved" monitors?

So if I connect my MacBook Pro to an older monitor, I can't watch HD movies from the iTunes store on it.

[FG Lurker]

BTW, what do you guys think of the issue where you can't watch HD content on "non approved" monitors?

So if I connect my MacBook Pro to an older monitor, I can't watch HD movies from the iTunes store on it.

You can't watch Blue Ray movies either, or any other form of HD content that hasn't had the DRM removed.

Just another of the many reasons to hate DRM. I think we've had this discussion before... Perhaps you can see my point a bit more clearly now?

[American Oyaji]

[quote="FG Lurker"]You can't watch Blue Ray movies either, or any other form of HD content that hasn't had the DRM removed.

Just another of the many reasons to hate DRM. I think we've had this discussion before... Perhaps you can see my point a bit more clearly now? ]

I think DRM is necessary, but the implementation currently is stupid.