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Ganguro King posted:This is all anecdotal, but I've heard that bringing outside phones to a Japanese network is either impossible, or such a huge pain in the rear end that it isn't worth it. They are dirt cheap, but actually I'm not sure about that. I bought an iPhone 4 from a friend for real cheap, went to softbank and they gave me a new simcard for it. Granted I already had an iPhone 3GS paid off with them so I already had an account and the iPhone 4 was Japanese but making a simple softbank account is easy enough and I don't think they can really tell if its Japanese or not, unless its by IMEI number...
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Oct 20, 2011 02:11
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I thought the Softbank iPhones weren't "free" or "cheap" -- it's just that you don't pay up-front and it's built into your monthly fee. So at the end, you've paid for the phone and if you break contract, you still have to pay for what's left on the phone?
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Oct 20, 2011 02:22
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tarepanda posted:I thought the Softbank iPhones weren't "free" or "cheap" -- it's just that you don't pay up-front and it's built into your monthly fee. So at the end, you've paid for the phone and if you break contract, you still have to pay for what's left on the phone? Well, its true you're locked into a 2 year contract but a 16gb is literally free. There is no phone cost you are paying every month (unless you include the fact you've got a phone contract for 2 years as 'paying'). 32gb has a phone cost of 440 yen a month, 64gb is 840 yen a month. Handset cost without contract starts at 47,000 yen a month. They divide this by 25 months (works out at like 1920 yen a month) and then offer you a discount every month of 1920 yen a month as long as you don't break the 25 month contract. If you cancel the discount is invalid and you have to pay the rest of the handset cost. If you don't, you've just paid the standard phone cost you would have to pay every month anyway (white plan, packet houdai) and got a free 16gb iPhone out of it. Taking into consideration that in general American data/voice plans are more expensive than softbanks plans(unless you call a lot - America has a lot of free minutes, Japan has fairly unlimited data plans) and that in America you need to pay $199 upfront for a 16gb iPhone 4S plus monthly plan, the iPhone is obviously cheaper here. Rekka fucked around with this message at 02:34 on Oct 20, 2011 |
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Oct 20, 2011 02:32
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Any impressions of the 4s on AU? Not many people have been talking about whether or not the reception is more reliable. It's really what I'm waiting on before I make the change.
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Oct 20, 2011 03:06
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Rekka posted:They are dirt cheap, but actually I'm not sure about that. I bought an iPhone 4 from a friend for real cheap, went to softbank and they gave me a new simcard for it. Granted I already had an iPhone 3GS paid off with them so I already had an account and the iPhone 4 was Japanese but making a simple softbank account is easy enough and I don't think they can really tell if its Japanese or not, unless its by IMEI number... So, it's possible to sell a Softbank iPhone 3GS/4 to someone and they can just go into Softbank and get a new sim card and sign up for service? Has anyone else done this?
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Oct 20, 2011 04:14
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I don't have any experience with this, but I've heard from several sources that they'll let you upgrade your iPhone through outside sources if you already have a contract, but won't let you use another phone if you're just signing up from scratch.
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Oct 20, 2011 04:54
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As I understand it the second-hand market has identity verification on both ends, both when you sell (you need to show ID) and again for the new contract when you take the phone into the Docomo/KDDI/Softbank store. Of course if you're just going 3G->3G within the same carrier, just take your current SIM and drop it in the new phone, presto. All of the big three will be glad to sell you just a SIM card, as far as I know. Docomo even offers microSIMs now specifically for people that have unlocked iPhones. Original_z posted:Any impressions of the 4s on AU? Not many people have been talking about whether or not the reception is more reliable. It's really what I'm waiting on before I make the change. Gonna try and get one this weekend. Already spent my Softbank points on chargers/docks for the iPhone. The always unbiased "Softbank Sucks" posted an article citing a Nikkei speed tests, finding the au 4S had far less latency. So while the theoretical maximums of data may be slower, a) in actuality the throughput is the same and b) au establishes data connections much faster. Never really heard anything other than anecdotal evidence myself. When I go snowboarding I do notice that my friends with Docomo/au have reception while nobody with Softbank does. Keitai Watch has a quick review up: http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/docs/review/20111014_483887.html They basically reach the same conclusion -- no big change in data throughput (despite theoretical maximums), but latency is definitely better on KDDI. Worth noting that he compared au iPhone 4S with Softbank iPhone 4 so it wasn't 1:1. Not sure it matters. KDDI isn't 100% up to speed with the iPhone though. No iMessage support, no FaceTime, no visual voicemail, MMS support sucks (only checks @ezweb.ne.jp every 15 minutes), no au Wifi support. From a cost-to-user perspective they REALLY need to prioritize iMessage support. Since sending inter-carrier SMS costs 3.15yen/message in Japan, and MMS support basically sucks on the KDDI side, there could be a lot of au<>SoftBank iPhone users sending SMS without even realizing it costs them each time. The sooner they launch iMessage, the sooner all iPhone users can text each other for free regardless of carrier.
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Oct 20, 2011 05:37
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zmcnulty posted:From a cost-to-user perspective they REALLY need to prioritize iMessage support. Since sending inter-carrier SMS costs 3.15yen/message in Japan, and MMS support basically sucks on the KDDI side, there could be a lot of au<>SoftBank iPhone users sending SMS without even realizing it costs them each time. The sooner they launch iMessage, the sooner all iPhone users can text each other for free regardless of carrier. Sounds like they need to deprioritize iMessage and earn some sweet profits.
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Oct 20, 2011 05:53
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Luckily there are some au plans that include free minutes that can also cover SMS charges. I think there's only the White Plan(i) on Softbank for iPhone, and that doesn't include any, right?
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Oct 20, 2011 06:29
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zmcnulty posted:Keitai Watch has a quick review up: 4 vs 4s defeats the purpose of the 4s having its magic antennas and being twice as fast on GSM. Also I can't believe AU launched a half assed iOS device. SoftBank doesn't do visual voicemail unless you pay extra but everything else works fine. Glad to hear your finally upgrading. ProTip: if your cool like carfax, dtb, or me and have both and iPhone and iPad set your iMessages caller ID to your email so you can get messages pushed across all devices. Otherwise iPads don't get messages sent to phone numbers. They need to unify devices belonging to one person with the next update so the phone number goes to everything I own too.
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Oct 20, 2011 06:51
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Huh, the lack of AU's preparedness for the iPhone is somewhat concerning, although those numbers of speed are pretty promising. It'll be up to SB's standards around January, yea? I can probably suffer for a few months. I don't understand why SB doesn't just invest in some infrastructure. It's well-known to be the weakest of the 3, hell, I know several people who have both an iPhone and a second keitai from another carrier due to how unreliable SB is. If they actually got their coverage and speeds up to the other carriers, I think that they would be a lot more successful. Anyway, that softbank sucks website says something interesting about Docomo, "from 10/1/2012, Docomo will introduce the 7 GB cap." I wonder how long it'll take for the other carriers to join in, but reading poo poo like that makes me not want to ever sign on with Docomo. If either AU or SB can stick to their guns and keep the unlimited data, I think they can steal a lot of Docomo's business. In all honesty, I think that AU is more likely to cap data than SB, I just hope that it won't affect current contracts.
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Oct 20, 2011 08:49
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Madd0g11 posted:4 vs 4s defeats the purpose of the 4s having its magic antennas and being twice as fast on GSM. Also I can't believe AU launched a half assed iOS device. SoftBank doesn't do visual voicemail unless you pay extra but everything else works fine. I added my @softbank.ne.jp address to my Apple ID and now people in the U.S. can send me iMessages. It might have worked without that step but still, brilliant.
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Oct 20, 2011 09:47
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Will au unlock their iPhones? I'm like 90% sure Softbank flat out refuses to do so, at any rate.
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Oct 20, 2011 10:36
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All right, I made the switch yesterday but Softbank's servers are down or whatever, so they can't port my number. Hopefully it'll be resolved soon, although it's not like I'm in any rush to change. Had no problems with the whole thing, didn't have the issue that others do with having to buy the phone right away. They initially asked if I had a credit card but I just told them that I preferred to have it taken out of my bank account and they were fairly willing to accommodate me. At least I do have a Japanese card that I could have used if things didn't go so well, but I'm glad I don't have to worry about it, I did make a point to say that my SB and other bills are automatically taken out of my account. Felt kind of strange leaving SB, I've been with them since the Vodafone days and they've been pretty good to me. Having to sign a new 2-year contract was the thing that was the most jarring, almost like it forces me to stay in this country for at least another 2 years. Ah well, I guess it wouldn't be a problem paying the fees if worst came to worst.
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Oct 22, 2011 01:54
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Just got back from Akiba Yodobashi, waltzed in there this morning right when they opened and got a 16GB 4S. As you mentioned SB seemed to be having some server problems because MNP took about an hour longer than they expected. But overall no major issues. In fact they gave me the thing despite not actually successfully registering a payment method (apparently there was an "error" with my debit card), joke would be on them if I left Japan right now.
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Oct 22, 2011 05:54
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Sheep posted:Will au unlock their iPhones? I'm like 90% sure Softbank flat out refuses to do so, at any rate. Somebody will be selling unlocked phones from November, not sure which carrier though (you can probably Google it to find out, I'm just going by what the first year guy still holding out with no phone said).
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Oct 24, 2011 01:08
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With the way the exchange rates are now you could just get an unlocked one from the US. 99% sure that will be cheaper than when/if they are released in Japan. That's sort of counter-intuitive though, considering that Japan's (locked) 4S are like the cheapest in the world.
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Oct 24, 2011 03:00
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zmcnulty posted:considering that Japan's (locked) 4S are like the cheapest in the world. That's only if you sign a two year contract though, right? Edit: I'm going to America next week. What steps would I need to take to get a 4S there, bring it back to Japan, and use it in place of my current Softbank iPhone 4? Sheep fucked around with this message at 10:03 on Oct 24, 2011 |
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Oct 24, 2011 09:52
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Should be able to just take the microSIM for your current iPhone 4 and drop it in the new one 4S. I don't think SB is doing any kind of IMEI registration, evidenced by the fact that there's a market in Japan for used (and locked) keitais. These guys say it works fine too: http://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/K0000117998/SortID=13034243/ zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 10:21 on Oct 24, 2011 |
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Oct 24, 2011 10:19
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Better hope they mean the beginning of November:
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Oct 24, 2011 10:31
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Anyone heard anything about mojibake on the iPhone? I've been getting it a lot and was wondering if there's any truth to this: http://bbs.kakaku.com/bbs/K0000295027/SortID=13643887/?Reload=%8C%9F%8D%F5&SearchWord=%95%B6%8E%9A%89%BB%82%AF Put an emoji anywhere in the message, really? zmcnulty fucked around with this message at 02:03 on Oct 25, 2011 |
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Oct 25, 2011 01:49
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I had problems with mojibake on my iPod touch before the iPhone came out in Japan, but since they released the iPhone I've only had trouble a few times. It's also always been the other way around ie people on ancient J-Phone phones can't display my email when I reply to a message of theirs that had Emoji in it. Starting a new thread has always fixed it for me so far though. Meanwhile, this type of writing is the kind that makes me want to slit throats: 迷いますね… 当方、iPhone4sを1台持ちで考えてまして、仕事でのメールのやり取りもありますから、文字化けがあると、トラブルの原因になりかねません。 買ってからでは遅いので、お返事を参考にしながら考えます。 Do you use emoji in your work emails? If so, you have no chance of succeeding in life anyways, so it's really a moot point for this guy.
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Oct 27, 2011 13:08
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dtb posted:Do you use emoji in your work emails? If so, you have no chance of succeeding in life anyways, so it's really a moot point for this guy.
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Oct 27, 2011 18:24
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Does anyone have any good recommendations of Japan-specific iPhone applications?
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Oct 30, 2011 01:47
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Could I get some confirmation that this campaign means what I think it means: http://mb.softbank.jp/mb/special/are_kore_sore/another_one/ I'm a little poo poo at Japanese but it seems this campaign applies even to existing iPhone 4 customers, and that it basically discounts the monthly cost of an iPad2 16GB Wifi/3G from your bill? Is there a catch, like is it refreshing my iPhone contract for another 2 years or something? I already have a 3G iPad1 that I bought outright and am paying the パケ放題 for, so it seems to me that switching to this plan would see me paying the same amount per month but having an iPad2 instead (and I guess I could sell my iPad1 to offset the fee for early contract termination or whatever).
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Nov 2, 2011 13:35
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[edit] ^^^^ I *think* it's a monthly payment to buy the 16 gig iPad, and the data charges start at free but go up quickly, and I *think* it requires you to re-up your Softbank contract for two more years. Original_Z posted:Does anyone have any good recommendations of Japan-specific iPhone applications? for the language, for getting around Tokyo, for trains, for staring at idol singers of questionable age? Gonna have to clarify the question a bit more. It'd be like asking for good British or American apps, it's a bit broad.
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Nov 2, 2011 14:40
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harperdc posted:[edit] ^^^^ I *think* it's a monthly payment to buy the 16 gig iPad, and the data charges start at free but go up quickly, and I *think* it requires you to re-up your Softbank contract for two more years. There's a question worth asking (in my opinion): is Navitime (or equivalents) available for Windows Phone 7? I recall reading that a monthly subscription is required for Navitime Android.
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Nov 2, 2011 14:45
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Navitime iPhone requires a subscription fee. I've been using 駅すぱあと (ekisupato) for my train needs, seems to do the job. No idea about Windows Phone 7 applications. Navitime has a bicycle route thing which has a fee to download but no subscription. I haven't found it to be terribly useful in finding the best route, although it does have some good data and gives you a reasonably accurate timeframe for travel. For the Softbank thing, you have to commit to a 2 year data contract for the iPad2, doing that subsidizes the cost of the actual unit. You have to get at least a 100MB/month plan which will satisfy very few people, but you can upgrade it to an unlimited one (the plan will also automatically upgrade if you hit a packet ceiling when you go over 100MB). Your iPhone data plan can't be combined with the iPad one, so you'd be paying for two plans. If you already have a data contract for your current iPad, this deal is pretty good since you can more or less upgrade to an iPad2 for free. You can also pay a bit more to upgrade to a bigger capacity iPad2. harperdc posted:for the language, for getting around Tokyo, for trains, for staring at idol singers of questionable age? Gonna have to clarify the question a bit more. It'd be like asking for good British or American apps, it's a bit broad. Just things that would be useful to people living in Japan. I've downloaded things like Tabelog, McDonalds, E-plus, Bookwalker, Nicovideo, etc. Can be any type of app that you like, things that have been useful to you while living in Japan.
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Nov 3, 2011 12:56
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Is there somewhere on the My Softbank page to see what my MMS settings should be? I absolutely hated the way my SB iphone performed so I just unlocked my old stateside phone and put the SIM in there. Everything works now except for the MMS part.
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Nov 14, 2011 16:35
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I'm relocating to Japan at the end of December and contemplating picking up an unlocked iPhone 4s to use over there. I'd be signing up with softbank. Am I going to be losing any discounts on service by not buying the phone from them?
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Nov 15, 2011 08:34
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Mr. Fix It posted:I'm relocating to Japan at the end of December and contemplating picking up an unlocked iPhone 4s to use over there. I'd be signing up with softbank. Am I going to be losing any discounts on service by not buying the phone from them? No, save for maybe the cost of the phone itself.
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Nov 15, 2011 10:22
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Original_Z posted:Just things that would be useful to people living in Japan. I've downloaded things like Tabelog, McDonalds, E-plus, Bookwalker, Nicovideo, etc. Can be any type of app that you like, things that have been useful to you while living in Japan. on iPhone, I use Kotoba all the time as a dictionary (and have learned looking up kanji by SKIP to make use of that for unfamiliar characters) and then added an iPhone Safari bookmark to Hyperdia's English site on to my front page to check train times. But I'm in the inaka and all we have is JR lines - Hyperdia went to hell for me when I was in Tokyo - so your mileage may vary. Really that's....it. The other fantastic thing is iMessage in the iOS 5 update since I can now message my friends with iPhones overseas. For free. It's awesome (at least for me, if your entire family has iPhones then you might like it as much).
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Nov 15, 2011 15:08
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harperdc posted:on iPhone, I use Kotoba all the time as a dictionary (and have learned looking up kanji by SKIP to make use of that for unfamiliar characters) and then added an iPhone Safari bookmark to Hyperdia's English site on to my front page to check train times. But I'm in the inaka and all we have is JR lines - Hyperdia went to hell for me when I was in Tokyo - so your mileage may vary. 乗換案内 is what I use for trains
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Nov 15, 2011 15:48
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That Galaposbrowser thing that someone mentioned before is absolutely worthless. None of the sites that I want to visit work, and half of them just display the normal browser instead of switching to the keitai version. I even went into the options and had it emulate the exact phone model that I was using before, no dice.
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Nov 16, 2011 01:38
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http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20111205_495932.html?ref=rss Toei and Tokyo Metro announced you'll be able to use phones between stops on subways in Tokyo. Won't lose reception in tunnels between subway stops anymore. Should be fully done by end of 2012. I'm guessing it's safety-related; they probably got a ton of complaints from people trapped, unable to use their phones, between stations when trains stop during earthquakes.
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Dec 5, 2011 06:25
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I was looking forward to getting a Nexus, then I realized that the Optimus LTE is better in a bunch of ways (most noticeably, microSD support), and but then I realized that neither actually has a decent camera, or even one better than my S2. So now I'm kind of bummed out. I guess I should start looking into the domestic smartphones to see if there's one with a nice HD screen, ICS, and a good camera.
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Dec 5, 2011 07:03
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zmcnulty posted:http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20111205_495932.html?ref=rss My reaction: Great! The reaction of my female co-workers: Oh no, now people will talk on the phone in the subway.
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Dec 5, 2011 07:13
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zmcnulty posted:http://k-tai.impress.co.jp/docs/news/20111205_495932.html?ref=rss FINALLY. It says they'll support both voice and data - honestly, I would've been happy with just data.
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Dec 5, 2011 09:05
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tarepanda posted:I was looking forward to getting a Nexus, then I realized that the Optimus LTE is better in a bunch of ways (most noticeably, microSD support), and but then I realized that neither actually has a decent camera, or even one better than my S2. So now I'm kind of bummed out. Just got my Galaxy Nexus today So far two complaints: 1) Email pushes faster to my iPhone. I can open and read an email on my iPhone before it arrives on the Nexus 2) I would like a visual notification in standbye for email like on my iPhone so that I can just look at the screen when an email comes rather then unlock and open the GMail app But all around it is a very solid device. The lack of additional storage is a non-issue since we will soon have data in the subway; stream all your music. I do it already on my iPhone: iCloud baby.
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Dec 5, 2011 09:42
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dtb posted:1) Email pushes faster to my iPhone. I can open and read an email on my iPhone before it arrives on the Nexus How much would you attribute to the network? Have you tried Boxcar? That's what I've been using since I got that weird au/iPhone/Gmail/Push mojibake bug.
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Dec 5, 2011 10:08
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