Posts Tagged ‘apple’

iPhone 4S Network Speed Test: Softbank vs. AU

Softbank’s monopoly on the iPhone is finally over. The iPhone 4s is now available for both Softbank and AU mobile networks.

For years, Japanese iPhone users have complained about how Softbank’s network coverage and speed sucks. Now that another carrier offers the exact same phone, one can conduct a proper side-by-side test to see if the complaints about speed were justified.

Here is a video uploaded by Gizmoto Japan. It shows a real-time speed test of two AU iPhones vs. two Softbank iPhones:

The test was conducted in Shibuya, an area of downtown Tokyo that should theoretically have better mobile coverage than almost anywhere.

The AU phones measured speeds of 1.68Mbps and 1.26Mbps. The Softbank phones scored 82.13kbps and 88.3kbps. Softbank’s speeds were laughably terrible.

Bonus video: Here’s a guy who is desperately trying to make Siri understand his grammatically incorrect English.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

iRun Social Media Studio

Joseph Tame shows off the “World’s Most Advanced Mobile Social Media Studio” – the iRun – a device he will be wearing as he runs in the 2011 Tokyo Marathon:

The iRun features four iPhones on rotatable mounts, an iPad, and Android handset, three mobile Wi Fi routers, a four-in-one atmospheric monitor and a heart monitor – all to record his route round the 26-mile circuit.

A post on Tame’s website states: ‘This technology will allow me to broadcast live video on two cameras (using either skype or FaceTime to a local studio for re-broadcast), send live location/pace/heart rate data via Runkeeperon the iPhone, transmit temperature, COx/humidity/noise levels via a custom-made Android app – and do all of this while looking incredibly cool.’

Tame has admitted some of the features, such as the ‘wind turbine’, really a children’s fan, and ‘satellite dish’ on his helmet, actually a plastic bird-feeding dish, are just for decoration, but the rest of the equipment on the iRun is being used to good effect.

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• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

Edible iPhones – Cool Cookies in Japan

The Asahi Shimbun reports about how a cafe in Tokushima prefecture became famous across Japan after Twitter users discovered its iPhone cookies:

Kudo said the idea for the biscuits came from one of her customers, who asked her to make a look-a-like of the iPod touch media player for her husband’s birthday gift in October 2008.

Kudo mistook the gadget for the very similar iPhone, which had just appeared on the market, but the customer was delighted by the end product.

News of Kudo’s creation did not spread widely until a message on the Internet micro-blogging site Twitter in January by the well-known economic critic Kazuyo Katsuma.

[...]

When Kudo was invited to an event held by Softbank Corp. in March, she handed President Masayoshi Son one of biscuits, who had earlier posted his own Twitter message saying: “I want one!” Son was overjoyed: “I’m so happy. I cannot possibly eat this,” he said.

Kudo, who makes all her own cakes and biscuits, says she can create no more than 20 iPhone cookies a day. One biscuit is priced at 2,730 yen ($33), including tax.

[via J-Cast/Senobido]

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• Dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)

iPhone selling far less than expected in Japan

According to market-research firm MM Research Institute, Apple sold about 200,000 phones in Japan in the first two months. Since then, however, demand has been falling steadily, and analysts now widely believe sales are unlikely to reach a total of 500,000 units. That is half the one million units that they previously thought Apple could sell. One big challenge is that Japanese users already have access to some of the most advanced mobile-phone technologies in the world. Models currently sold by Japanese cellphone makers typically contain a high-end color display, digital TV-viewing capability, satellite navigation service, music player and digital camera. Many models also include chips that let owners use their phones as debit cards or train passes. Noriko Tanaka, a 34-year-old Softbank customer in Tokyo, said she likes the iPhone’s touch screen, but would prefer a phone with digital television capability. “The touch screen looks fun, but I’m not sure I could get used to it,” said Ms. Tanaka.

Another challenge for Softbank is that Apple’s marketing for the new iPhone has touted the devices compatibility with 3G wireless networks, which give users faster access to the Internet. While this is a relatively new service in the U.S., 3G access has been a standard feature on Japanese phones for years.

Video: Tokyo waits for the iPhone

The iPhone will be released in Japan tomorrow, and in some areas of Tokyo lines have already formed outside of Softbank Mobile stores. Here’s a video of the line in Harajuku today:

And a quote from AFP‘s coverage of the iPhone anticipation:

“I am a huge Apple an and I’m excited to buy the iPhone, which I find is far better than any other cellphone,” said 25-year-old graduate student Hiroyuki Sano who was first in line.

Wearing an Apple T-shirt, Sano arrived early Tuesday morning from the central city of Nagoya and sat for a day-and-a-half in his foldable chair, eating food from a nearby convenience store.

The 199-dollar iPhone 3G, which Apple is billing as twice as fast and half as expensive as the debut model, will roll out in cities from Tokyo to Sydney on Friday.

Softbank Mobile, Japan’s number three mobile cellphone operator, said it would initially limit its sale to one per customer.

The operator is presently the only one to offer iPhone in Japan, although its contract is not exclusive as other companies are working to clinch deals with Apple.

“The iPhone 3G is very useful for people like myself who carry at all times a personal computer, an iPod, a cellphone and a games console,” said Tomohiko Sataki, who was second in line.

“The iPhone will have all these in one, and it’s much lighter than other cellphones. Although Japanese cellphones have advanced interfaces, they have become much heavier and bulkier,” he added.

Update: Be sure to check out What Japan Thinks’ article translating a survey about Why the iPhone is not wanted in Japan!

Update 2: NTV’s report on the sale of iPhones this morning in Omotesando was conducted via iPhone. Here’s the terribly choppy video with poor sound quality:

[hat tip to Kristopher]

The MacBook Air: Wastefully Expensive

The headline of this post sums up what a group of Japanese engineers had to say after taking apart and examining a MacBook Air:

“Can we say that the MacBook Air has a perfect, sophisticated external appearance, but its insides are full of waste?” asked Mayuko Uno, a squad member, as if speaking for the engineers that had finished the teardown process.

[...]

“The total number of screws in the MacBook Air was several times the number used in a PC we make,” one of the engineers said.

Looking at the hinges connecting the upper and bottom units of the PC and at the inside surface of external components, the engineers pointed out the possibility of additional cutting work.

All of the engineers found the structure hard to comprehend. The screws that attached the keyboard might also prevent the keyboard from bending when being pressed, but it seems like there must have been a better solution.

“If I proposed such a design, our company would never approve it,” said one of the engineers. “I can’t find anything that is technically superior. We can make the same computer at a lower cost,” said another. Did the MacBook Air’s internal structure represent the immaturity of Apple’s design skill?

[hat tip to Akihabara News]