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Thought saw a promo for 6 month free Tidal service for Sprint but unsure of specifics. How did Tidal lose so much money e.g. $28M in 2015 just streaming? If Tidal had 1M paying subs at ave (haphazard guess) $100/year then spent $128M? Streaming infrastructure very expensive or paying For content &/or marketing above what they can sell? Brightstar goodwill impairment (-JPY 30.3bn) https://cdn.softbank.jp/en/cor...

I believe they have named themselves after the idea of a "bank of software" very much in the popular sense of the word, which refers to a bank of money. At least that's what they claim on their own website.

SoftBank Group Corp. started out in 1981 as a distributor of computer software. As software is called “soft” in Japanese, the name “SoftBank” literally means “a bank of software.” We chose the word “bank” based on our grand aspiration to be a key source of infrastructure for the information society.

from http://www.softbank.jp/en/corp...

SoftBank revealed its plans for increased U.S. investment using a fund backed by Saudi Arabia in October — before Trump won the White House

Here's the Softbank announcement on the establishment of the fund. Perhaps you could point out where in the document the details of a US investment of $50 billion dollars and 50,000 US jobs appears?

Well, you can't because the details were only hammered out when Son met Trump in Dec.

They've had those for years.
EX:
http://www.sharp.co.jp/products/sh002/
http://www.au.kddi.com/seihin/archive/kishu_archive.html?id=sh007
http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/product/3G/936sh/

The thing is just how long do you leave your cell phone out in the sun every day?

When I was in Japan, I could choose between AU KDDI, Softbank, and DoCoMo. And you know what? They all had awesome service.

Here, check out this $3/mo student plan on Softbank this year. Oh, and no fees for 3 years. Also, plans in Japan always have a "maximum overage charge," so maybe if you go over your allotted data it'll be something like $5/x megabytes, but it's a maximum of $40, or so, for any given month.
http://mb.softbank.jp/en/price_plans/student_family.html

Why is it that us Western countries are incapable of providing good service if a company grows too large? Why can't we use leverage the strength of that largeness to dramatically increase efficiencies, and lower cost due to economies of scale like the Asians can? /American here //If I could get for even $50/mo what I got in Japan for $13/mo, I'd be thrilled

Exactly! I recently moved back to Japan, looked for a new cellphone, and noticed the extremely limited choices of smartphones (about 5 out of 100 available phones).

There are 2 main phone carriers (Softbank and Docomo) and 1 less popular but still large option (AU). These links go directly to their current phone lineups (in English), so you can go to the source and see what they're selling today.

Softbank offers the iPhone and a Window's mobile phone. Docomo offers a Blackberry, a Google phone, and a Window's mobile phone. Other than that, I don't think any of those other phones are considered "smartphones".

When I was in Japan, I got my first mobile phone. SMS messages were always free. Free to send, free to receive. If I were sending messages to a phone on the same service as myself, I could send larger messages (250 characters, I think). On other services, I was limited to 80 characters or so. Still, free free free, and if I needed to say more, I could send two messages, or compose a longer e-mail (but the e-mail wasn't free). This was on that $9/month plan.

That's still how I think of SMS messaging.

But then I returned to America. 15 cents a message? 15 cents for each RECEIVED message? I don't have any control over that! It's BULLSHIT.

I heard (from a Korean) it was released in Korea before iPod (was released there?)...

(Note, the Techeblog site fracks with my Mozilla Firefox browser in that it DELAYS my getting off their page and back into my Slashdot tab... I suspect some fracked up ad code, cookies/java/other code interrupting my keyboard and mouse...)

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Samsung-Introduces-an--iPhone-Killer-/story.xhtml?story_id=0210017RZFZR

http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/09/14/samsung.croix.for.vodafone/

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/samsungs-iphone-killer-f700

Now, on the techeblog site, someone remarked that the phone was not touchscreen capable.... Their comments were in February.

The MacNN site has commentary that it is touchscreen.

The NewsFactor site article is also in Feb 07. See "Features Galore" section.

But, as for regular phones, check out things that kick the pants off US-market phones (tho I realize most of the cell phones here ARE from Japan or Korea):

http://au.kddi.com/english/product/index.html

http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/

http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/815t/index.html

I used to have a Vodafone phone that had a multicolor strobe emitting from the camera flash. It was independently activated.

http://www.sharp.co.jp/products/v402sh/

When I lost it I wanted to DIE.

I heard (from a Korean) it was released in Korea before iPod (was released there?)...

(Note, the Techeblog site fracks with my Mozilla Firefox browser in that it DELAYS my getting off their page and back into my Slashdot tab... I suspect some fracked up ad code, cookies/java/other code interrupting my keyboard and mouse...)

http://www.newsfactor.com/news/Samsung-Introduces-an--iPhone-Killer-/story.xhtml?story_id=0210017RZFZR

http://www.macnn.com/articles/07/09/14/samsung.croix.for.vodafone/

http://www.techeblog.com/index.php/tech-gadget/samsungs-iphone-killer-f700

Now, on the techeblog site, someone remarked that the phone was not touchscreen capable.... Their comments were in February.

The MacNN site has commentary that it is touchscreen.

The NewsFactor site article is also in Feb 07. See "Features Galore" section.

But, as for regular phones, check out things that kick the pants off US-market phones (tho I realize most of the cell phones here ARE from Japan or Korea):

http://au.kddi.com/english/product/index.html

http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/

http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/815t/index.html

I used to have a Vodafone phone that had a multicolor strobe emitting from the camera flash. It was independently activated.

http://www.sharp.co.jp/products/v402sh/

When I lost it I wanted to DIE.

I've been looking at prepaid for a while. It's probably what I'll eventually go with, since I will have a landline (not paid for by me). I won't be living on my mobile.

$51/month.... (whistles). In Japan I was on the White Plan. What is that now, $9/month? Less?

http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/708sc/index .html

This phone is REALLY small, has 3G+GSM+Bluetooth, and the battery life is not bad at all. Granted it doesn't have a large screen or fast CPU, but the fact that they can put all that (and TWO cameras, the front one being for video calls) into this tiny form factor and still have good battery life prety much disproves the power excuse...

My Vodafone/SoftBank v603sh had this over a year ago, and it was a 1 yen phone! Motion Sensor for Golf and some Sega FPS, Microphone for Singstar Clone, Analog TV/FM with flip screen for widescreen, 2MP camera with Optical Zoom...ahhh loved that little phone.. pity I moved back to NZ ;) You could even record off TV to the SD card on the phone - it supported EPG over data so it had Tivo-esque functionality! http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/product/2G/model/v_603sh/

We've had waterproof phones in Japan for quite some time now. Here's a recent model that's advertised as "if it gets dirty, just wash it."

http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/product/foma/703i/f703i /index.html

And there's a fair amount of consideration given to the keypad tactile feel, given the popularity of text messaging. For example, this model has a contoured key surface for easier touch-typing:

http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/en/product/3g/812sh/index .html

Sorry to say, but Canadians like you really ought to put pressure on the government for allowing nasty oligopolies like Rogers/Telus/Bell to stifle mobile innovation in Canada.

Just 100 minutes for US$60? What about SoftBank? Free calls and mail within the SoftBank network for a little less than $30 (gack, missed the fine print- only 200 minutes allowed at night, but unlimited during the day, but "mail" means picture mail too). Heck, they even throw in 2 months (data usage and basic charge) free! See for yourself, if I'm not getting everything- sounds a lot better than you described it.