Comments for from the inside, looking in

Comment on Toyota to sell solar panel equipped Prius by Japan

Japan — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 10:01:50 +0000

Excellent write up, very interesting read!

Comment on New Japanese photo sharing community site (Zorg.com) by kayann

kayann — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 05:20:36 +0000

Another great Japanese community is on zooomr.com. The founder Kristopher Tate actually moved to its headquarters to Japan to specialize in this market. Check it out.

Comment on The World’s Best? by Ken

Ken — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 08:10:03 +0000

I haven’t been to any either…but I’m surprised - nay, astounded, to not see anything from New Orleans on that list. From my brief time there, I think little compares to Brennan’s, The Red Fish Grill, Cuvee or the Commander’s Palace. An amazing place for food.

Comment on iPhone to be sold through Softbank Mobile in Japan by fukumimi

fukumimi — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:32:15 +0000

Copy of a private correspondance with a friend on this matter:

===

Regarding the release date, if you keep an eye out on http://www.jate.or.jp/index.html, they publish the list of certified devices once a fortnight (with at least a fortnight’s delay) , typically manufacturers get approval a couple of months before the product hits the shop shelves.

The latest list: http://www.jate.or.jp/jp/tanmatsu/20080501_20080515.shtml shows the Panasonic 824P approved 15th May, which is another SB phone which was officially announced by SB on 3rd June as going on sale early August.

Manufacturers can delay the certification process and build up inventory before submitting for approval, but clearly that could backfire if they need to make modifications……

===

All eyes on the JATE website which will be updated next on the 16th of the month.

Comment on iPhone to be sold through Softbank Mobile in Japan by Andrew Shuttleworth

Andrew Shuttleworth — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:46:00 +0000

Seems it will be released on July 11th

http://www.softbankmobile.co.jp/ja/news/press/2008/20080610_01/index.html

Comment on Some additional thoughts on the SB/iPhone news by kirai

kirai — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 05:08:30 +0000

yes, they agree that the input interface is going to be critical. Also the Apple’s kotoeri henkan is really bad, they should use ATOK at least.

If I were Softbank I would embed ATOK and give the option to type using a “keitai” layout keyboard in the iPhone.

Gen, I can use my iTouch with one hand…. but I have big hands and sometimes I press two keys with my finger. But for scrolling, with just one finger it’s just easy and the best way to read feeds for example.

Comment on Some additional thoughts on the SB/iPhone news by fukumimi

fukumimi — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 03:35:13 +0000

Gen,

I agree with your points.

It will be interesting to see what the default input interface will be. 10(ok, 12)-key layout is actually a pretty good fit with the Japanese “alphabet”, and for those who unlike us who grew up with the mobile phone (rather than the PC) as their first internet connected electronic device, QWERTY would be a step backword. How do you input gyaru-moji with a qwerty keyboard (for that matter, how do those girls type in gyaru-moji??? I can’t even read half of it…

The one-handed-ness is also a point that needs to be reinforced. I know Apple is on a thin is cool trend campaign right now, but from an ergonmics perspective, thinness in depth is overrated for a handheld device. Way more important is thinness in width. How does one balance that with maintaining screen size (and aspect ratio) is the critical question, of course.

Comment on Some additional thoughts on the SB/iPhone news by Gen Kanai

Gen Kanai — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 12:01:27 +0000

There are some core issues that are still open for me for the iPhone to succeed in Japan.

- not a one-handed device
- QWERTY keyboard as default ?

Plus, they say it will be thinner than the current model but it is clearly larger than almost all of the phones on the market in Japan today.

Comment on iPhone to be sold through Softbank Mobile in Japan by Marxy

Marxy — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 09:02:45 +0000

Thanks for breaking that news.

Comment on Nigerian 411 Scam, this time allegedly from Taiwan by Dave Morgan

Dave Morgan — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 09:52:57 +0000

From mr_shingli00@yahoo.com.hk Tue Jun 3 08:40:27 2008 Return-Path: Authentication-Results: mta152.mail.ukl.yahoo.com from=yahoo.com.hk; domainkeys=neutral (no sig) Received: from 195.49.216.7 (EHLO mail.yeditepe.edu.tr) (195 - did not match any documents.
Google search reveals origin of email as Ankara Turkey. There is a need to name and shame these parasites and put some pressure on the providers to ban them…….permanently