Posts Tagged ‘iphone’

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.

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• 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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• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• 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.

Would you pay $33 for a cookie?

• yes
• no

View Results

[via J-Cast/Senobido]

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

Google Android vs. Apple iPhone (in Japan)

Living in Japan and wondering whether you should get an iPhone through Softbank or a Google phone through DoCoMo? The Softbank Sucks blog* has a post up comparing the features and contract requirements for the iPhone and the new Android HT-03. Here is a short excerpt:

The credit check/”examination” (審査) of DoCoMo is less strict and more transparent than Softbank’s procedure. Softbank’s network sucks. DoCoMo’s doesn’t. DoCoMo allows apps to be downloaded over the 3G network. Softbank doesn’t. The Softbank “iPhone for everybody campaign has been extended until January 31, 2010, so the iPhone data plan is about ¥1,500 cheaper per month.

Read the full details and check out the comparison charts here.

*Note: As the name of the “Softbank Sucks” blog suggests, it was started by someone frustrated by the severe restrictions placed on some foreign customers who try to sign up for the plans Softbank advertises. Don’t expect much praise for the Softbank in its blog posts.

[hat tip to Steve]

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

iPhone Trooper

Blogger Danny Choo showed up to the iPhone launch in Omotesando in Stormtrooper attire, producing the following music video:

I can only imagine how uncomfortable it must have been dancing around wearing that costume on a hot and humid summer day in Tokyo!

Foreigners who want an iPhone face severe limitations

Live in Japan and want an iPhone? If you’re a foreigner, you’ll probably have to pay a huge sum of money. Blogger w00kie has translated the terms on Softbank’s website (Update: Some have said that they were able to get phones using a Japanese drivers’ license/health insurance ID, but others claim to have been turned down because of visa status. The situation could depend on the helpfulness of staff members at individual Softbank store locations.):

1. Bring your Gaikokujin Torokusho (Alien Card) + Passport. It seems they now require the passport too.
2. Check your visa expiration date, the following rules apply:

1. If you’re on a 90 days tourist visa, no soup (or iPhone) for you!
2. If you have less than 15 months left on your visa, you wont be able to make a contract, but they’ll sell the phone to you without a plan for ￥80.000
3. Between 15 and 27 months left on your visa, you can either pay it cash for ￥80.000 or negotiate take a 12 months contract (instead of the normal 24) possibly at the discounted ￥20.000 price-tag, but whether the discount applies or not is not clear in the document
4. Over 27 months and you’re clear, you can buy the phone like any native

Japan’s other major mobile phone service companies do not have similar rules for foreigners that sign up for higher end phone plans.

Update: A revision from Ponta:

It might be a good idea that this blog will inform foreigners of the appropriate procedure to apply for iphone.
If you have Japanese driver’s license, all you need as ID is to present it. If you are asked more ID by any chance , tell them you have seen the SoftBank’s website and tell the staff to call the headquarter etc＊.

I’ve called the Soft Bank now, and it confirmed that you don’t need to show Alien Card and passport if you bring Japanese Driver’s license or insurance certificate plus required documents.
I recommended Soft Bank to ask foreigners if they have other IDs, she complied. And I asked if the above procedure（＊) is right, she confirmed it.

If you’d like to contact Softbank and complain:

Corporate Public relations:
pr@softbank.co.jp

SoftBank Customer Center (only within Japan)
(General Information) Business hours: 9:00-20:00
From SoftBank handset: 157(toll-free) – press “8″ for English support
From fixed-line phone: 0088-21-2000(toll-free) – press “8″ for English support

SoftBank Global Call Center
From your host country: +81-3-5351-3491(charged)

And Apple’s public relations representative in Japan, Takashi Takebayashi, can be contacted at:

takashi.takebayashi@asia.apple.com

Update: While we’re on the topic of foreigners and iPhones, what’s the deal with the headline on Nikkei’s Trendy Net referring to the iPhone as being similar to a foreigner that speaks really good Japanese?
[hat tip to Darin]