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I was thinking about getting the N504iS (links are in English) but decided against it for a couple reasons. First of all, this phone is really nice. It's a clamshell style phone, like pretty much all the phones have become in Japan. It can already control most of the major brands of televisions here too. It also has a camera capable of taking 640x480 res pix. I believe the screen is also capable of display 256K colors, but I don't remember for sure. There's also a color screen on the outside of the clamshell so when you get a mail or phone call, you can have it display a picture so you know who's calling.

However, even with all it's goodness, I was annoyed that the "OK/Confirm" button was above the circular "cursor" keys. I like that button being in the middle. In addition, the N504iS has Disney characters advertising it, so I didn't even want to go there. :p Finally, when I went to get a phone, the N504iS was recalled for some reason and I would have had to go on a waiting list for it. It's out now, but it was only re-released a month after I got my current phone... which is the F504iS.

The F504iS has 2 cameras (which I don't need) and is able to record video at 15fps max. But the real reason I got it was because of the "OK" button and cursor layout and the nice outside display. It's really easy to read and only displays what I want it to which is the time, battery life, signal strength, and if I have any mails.

- David

According to the investor relations PDF here (in Japanese!), HSPDA was released in March 2002 as part of the FOMA initiative.

It also says the maximum data transfer rate is 14Mbps. Which is not the same as throughput.

Well I mean at this moment in time I got a mobile which does already have most of those nifty features. I do video conference, video mail, surf the web, record video (mind you with a 128MB flash rom I do 2 hours worth) and got many other new features. Only thing that is missing is a mp3 player in it, then I could get rid of the one I got now and just use the mobile :)

If you look at the picture on http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/new/contents/03/whatnew 0326.html, its really not that big! In fact, its not that big at all really! I want one!

Monkey...

Sorry about that, here is the working link for the 3D phone: DoCoMo SH251iS

Broadband via cable TV is available, but cable modems are a fairly new thing over there and many apartments don't have the cable lines anyway. (Take a look at any apartment building in Japan and you'll see dozens of those mini satellite dishes perched on the balconies.) However, if you want cable TV and broadband Internet, you can get a pretty good deal by combining the two -- about 80 USD/month. You might need a local friend to help you, though, because most cable providers don't have English-speaking customer service.

If you just want the Internet access, a better option is ADSL, which has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years. Before ordering, you first need to decide whether you want land-line (as opposed to cellular) phone service. If you want a land line, get ADSL Type I, which includes phone service and Internet access. If you plan to get a cell phone in Japan, choose ADSL Type II, which provides Internet access only, but for a lower price.

The cheapest ADSL service is probably Yahoo! Japan BB, but they don't provide any English support, not even for sales. You're better off going with a company that has a dedicated English-speaking support line such as Global OnLine or eAccess. Unfortunately, these providers usually serve only the larger metropolitan areas, so if you're in a suburb or a smaller town, your only choice might be good old NTT. All you have to do is call the English-speaking sales line for NTT (the number depends on whether you live in the east or in the west) and tell them you want ADSL Type II. They'll be happy to hook you up for about 25 USD/month, and you can rent an ADSL modem from them for another 5 USD/month. Important tip: NTT will send you a CD-ROM containing PPPoE drivers that only work with the Japanese version of Windows, so you should download the freeware program RASPPPOE before you go and bring it along with you. It's compatible with NTT's ADSL modems.

There's another catch: Because NTT only provides the physical ADSL connection, you'll need to find an ISP that supports ADSL. I got mine through OCN for about 20 USD/month. They offer sales and support in English.

The Macintosh has about the same percentage of market share in Japan as in the U.S. (in other words, not much), so you can expect the same level of support and availability over there that you'll find here. I expect it's entirely possible to hook up your Mac to a Japanese ADSL modem, but don't expect much technical support if things go wrong. (I had no trouble connecting through my Linux laptop once I got the Roaring Penguin configuration set up right.) As for 802.11b, coverage is almost non-existent, although just about everyone over there does email wirelessly through their cell phone. Text messaging and services like DoCoMo are far more popular than the Internet in Japan, at least for now.

You should visit the ISP Japan FAQ for more details. You might also want to check out my Japan page for tips on living and working in Japan.

I would have to concure. I live in Japan, where there is actually email as well as SMS. SMS is rarely used since email is more flexible. In the year I have had my phone, I've only had one incident where someone asked why I didn't reply to a message that I never received. Although, knowing the person, it was entirely possible they were a bit $h!7-faced and sent it to someone else.

Also, 10 cents per SMS??? I'd have to write a damned long email on my phone to get charged like that.

Check out DoCoMo's English Site to see what your missing.

quick rundown: video-enabled cellphone / dictionary / evenything including the kitchen sink / etc, etc, etc...

too bad only in japan.

quick rundown: video-enabled cellphone / dictionary / evenything including the kitchen sink / etc, etc, etc...

too bad only in japan.

actually you CAN download new applications onto your cellphone.

here is a website with some info on Docomo, by NTT. (the only cellphone provider with english info, AFAIK

The 504i series does what's called "iAppli" (nevermind the silly names for a sec) - but they do let you download software.

And hopefully you can see that the input / email capabilities is no worse than any Zaurus / palm / Sony keypad (it's cool looking at young people franticly thumb in emails on the train).

and the camera actually do better than you think. Imagine web-cam quality color pictures. be sarcastic all you want, but it's pretty neat feature (albeit one I will never use - my ugly mug will probabbly shock the phone system into some fratic emergency mode), and many people uses it.

the only thing you are halfly on-the-mark is the cost... but then, when you think about it, a cell phone that costs 180 bux or so (cheaper yet if you buy older model / longer contract) - that weights like 3 oz. compared to your palm for about 500... and if you are conservative on yapping, the monthly fee is no worse than US plans i have seen. - and considering that you recieve calls for free, it might be cheaper.

and the screen area is not even that much different : cellphones here have resolution as high as 176x216... it's tiny (like everything else) - but again, for the money and convenience and all that... not to quote anybody, but fsck palm... fsck palm in the ear.

I prefer my computing devices to have full-sized keyboards so that I can touch type on them. I prefer my cameras to take high quality pictures. This product wasn't designed for people like me. I still, however, think the picturebooks are spiffy.

On the other hand, Sony didn't really design the picturebook for people like me. This design originated in Japan with Japanese people in mind. In case you didn't know, the Japanese are absolutely crazy about little electronic devices, especially if they take pictures. The size and style are more important than the sheer power and functionality.

I'd estimate that nearly 20% (conservative estimate)of all new cell phones in Japan have high-res color screens and cameras built into them. I'm most curious to see how the picturebook fares against competition from these phones, which are even smaller and more stylish.

NTT Docomo foma stuff pics

Then there's J-phone's video sha-mail which is more like animated-gif mail... but hey.

AU/KDDI's A5301T Toshiba brand video yay.

Costs five bajillion gazillion jillion yen... monthly as Dr. Evil-san and those companies know.

NTT Docomo foma stuff pics

Then there's J-phone's video sha-mail which is more like animated-gif mail... but hey.

AU/KDDI's A5301T Toshiba brand video yay.

Costs five bajillion gazillion jillion yen... monthly as Dr. Evil-san and those companies know.

Japan's mobile phones are generations ahead of anything coming out of Europe, let alone the US. That's one of the reasons why Motorolla and Nokia haven't been able to penetrate the Japanese market at all. (The other reason is that they don't want to invest in network compability).

J-phone started selling phones with video cameras years before the Sony Ericsson T68. The latest lineup from Sony Ericsson seriously puts the T68 to shame. You can hardly find monochrome phones anymore - nearly every new phone in the market has a color screen. All those cool features that are being promised in 5 years from 3G (video conferencing, multi-player games, streaming music, Java, etc.) were available yesterday by au, j-phone , and DoCoMo.

Now I don't want to write Apple off just yet - Apple has a great brand in Japan for product innovation and design. But to think that Apple will come out with a phone that can beat the Japanese in cool factor (see the Keitai Gallery for the newest and coolest) is pushing it.

from Microsoft with lots of pretty colors. Nevermind I guess we don't have it yet. And SourceForge ads... they don't have enough of those in Japan. And they imitate movies... see... its clever. At least the first few hundred times i saw it I thought it was clever.

And the real reason the japanese phones are so popular is because they have all these spiffy picture characters you can use.

The Freeplay link is not really a good link... :-/

As for cell phones, I've got myself a Docomo F211i. It weighs practically nothing and I can use it without charging for about a week.

When will the US get their act together and stop relying on those massive bricks?

I believe NTT DoCoMo has a 3G FOMA card that does a maximum data download rate of 384 kbps and a data upload rate of 64 kbps.

It may disappoint you to hear it, but Japan is a good way ahead of many other markets (yes, even *gasp* Atlanta) when it comes to mobile data services.

Yea, wouldn't it be cool?

japanese stocks do not split like american stocks

Corrections and Extra Info

What they are actually referring to is "CDMA 2000-1XEV". The "EV" stands for "Enhanced Voice".

VZW is rolling 1xRTT, 1xEVxx stands for EVolutionary

WCDMA: Wideband CDMA. It wil start to appear in Europe and some US networks later this year (IIRC). It will have a maximum data rate of 384Kbps (IIRC). However, it uses almost 5MHz of the spectrum (~2.5 forward link + ~2.5 on the reverse link)

Maximum data rate is NOT 384 kbps, this is just what the Japanese early FOMA adopters are limited to. The 5MHz is NOT split forward/reverse. Bandwidth and chip rate (3.84 Mcps) is same in BOTH directions.

1xEV-DO stands for EVolutionary Data Only

For those with even a slight interest in the actual facts and standards, there are two standards groups looking after the two 3G streams. The 3G Paternership Project is responsible for the GSM migration path aka WCDMA. The 3G Partnership Project 2 covers the Qualcomm migration to cdma2000 (1xRTT, 3x, etc) etc.

..they already have a 3G PCMCIA card available.

Yakuza and Sony and DoCoMo and Anime. What a strange future...

In Japan you can already play games on your mobile phone

And you can plug both your Gameboy Color and the Color Wonderswan into your cell phone for net gaming.

In Japan you can already play games on your mobile phone

And you can plug both your Gameboy Color and the Color Wonderswan into your cell phone for net gaming.

NTT DoCoMo's phones are (a) Color, (b) networked, (c) programmable, (d) play pacman, space invaders, tetris, chu-chu rocket and many other games. See here for screenshots and movies.

On top of that there is already a wireless game machine in Japan. It's called the Color Wonderswan and it connects to your cell phone for networked games. For example Gumpey Ex and Digimon

It's also got a way cool programmable robot (Note: this page is in English ;-)

I wish the lamer moderators would post my damn article submissions. I've been submitting this stuff for months but it never gets posted. Instead this crappy stuff from Motorola with short battery life (compared to the Japanese phones), black and white lo-res displays, and very arguably not 1/10th as cool as what is CURRENTLY available else where. You guys should be demanding better than that crap.

On top of NTT having broadcast net TV over their cell system AND broadcast audio channels they are releasing a new i-Mode standard in a few days with downloadable apps including for example Space Invaders, Pacman, Chu Chu Rocket, Tetris and others. There are pictures and quicktime movies here

The newest keitai I bought is J-Phone J-SH04. This keitai has lens and can email JPEG images! I also have very lightweight (only 69g) DoCoMo P502i.

This stuff has been out in Japan for over a year. Is this an anti-asian bias? If it's not from Europe it must not exist? Here's the current big push in Japan. This one has been out since last year 12/1999. And for those that don't want to buy a new phone they have things like this.

Ugly? Yes.
In production? Probably not... yet.
No such models exist? Er... excuse me?

I'm not just picking at this post - I see many people continually say something to the extent of, "It's not like this stuff really exists, technologically." Er... excuse me? Look at the phones from just one company that they have in production now and tell me what concepts they're missing? Japan has had phones with PDA's, GPS's, large-screen, color screeen, e-mail, web capability, etc... since I was last there in January of 1999! Now yes, video is a recently installed technology there, so only one or two models have the feature.

Still, I guess I just wanted to, in a non-flaming way, point out that a lot of you underestimate the insane amount of technology the Japanese have in their phones.

Do I bring this up to boast about them? Heck no - I just want to make sure everyone else sees this, and sees what they're missing out on. I'm quite sick and tired of every other friend of mine showing me their "top-of-the-line" Nokia with ooooh, a built-in calculator. Cm'on folks, there's better stuff out there!

Disclaimer: Yes, I realize there is a difference in economy, customer retention rate, model recycle rate, antenna output, etc... between the U.S. and Japan. My point is that too many people have the mentality of "This stuff is impossible." Check again.

I don't think I'd want to put months of effort into supporting a specialized protocol meant for low-bandwidth networks.

This is not the color version which is mentioned in the article. (still, impressive monochrome graphics). Here are links to color versions:

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/i/l ineup/d502i/d502i.html
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/i/l ineup/f502i/f502i.html

It has most of the feature that Nokia 6162 has (memo, calender, etc). In addition, you can customize it: ringer tone, mail receive tone, background picture during stand-by mode, etc. You can download songs off the net, or exchange those data via IR port.

Typing is bit hard, but I guess people get used to it. More and more people are not talking on the phone, but typing email on these little toy! That's amazing.

Joy stick that allows you to move between menu is another plus. It only took me few seconds to learn how navigation worked. Much more intuitive than Nokia's.

This is not the color version which is mentioned in the article. (still, impressive monochrome graphics). Here are links to color versions:

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/i/l ineup/d502i/d502i.html
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/i/l ineup/f502i/f502i.html

It has most of the feature that Nokia 6162 has (memo, calender, etc). In addition, you can customize it: ringer tone, mail receive tone, background picture during stand-by mode, etc. You can download songs off the net, or exchange those data via IR port.

Typing is bit hard, but I guess people get used to it. More and more people are not talking on the phone, but typing email on these little toy! That's amazing.

Joy stick that allows you to move between menu is another plus. It only took me few seconds to learn how navigation worked. Much more intuitive than Nokia's.

http://www.geocities.com/keitaishashin/

Quick Spec:

• Model: Digital Mover P502i HYPER
• Height: 130mm
• Width: 46mm
• Thickness: 16mm
• Weight: 69g
• Battery Charge Time (AC adapter): 95min
• Battery Charge Time (DC adapter): 95min
• Contiunous Talk Time: 125min
• Continuous Stand-by Time: 300hours

I want one!