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I've got a US model first generation 3G iPad. From what I googled yesterday it's unlocked, but Japan locks theirs and Softbank doesn't like to give out SIMs for devices not sold by them. Has anyone found or know of a workaround for this, or should I just try and trade it + cash for a second gen Wifi only model to bring with me?
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Jul 14, 2011 16:18
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Sheep posted:Pretty much even the most basic phones are, at a minimum ~4 man for whatever reason. I guess it's because people will usually pay without asking questions. For reference, some of the brand new models at Softbank are more than 10 man. How they justify that, I simply do not understand. poo poo, knew I should have bought an iPhone 3Gs on Craigslist and unlocked it before I left  So, here's my situation: I kinda want an iPhone 5, but I'm going to have to buy my phone in the next week or so (just got to Japan), so that's out. I don't want to pay full price for an iPhone 4 when it's about to be replaced, and I already have an iPad (plus a 1G touch) anyways, so it's not like I'm hurting for iOS devices. Does Softbank or whoever sell refurb 3Gs's that I could later replace on contract (obviously, paying more) without having to break it/start a new one, or would I have to get a prepaid and wait it out if I wanted to go that route? Failing that (again, not married to the idea of getting an iPhone, just kinda like the idea of keeping it at one mobile platform), what's a phone available in Japan with a great camera? I'm pretty into photography, so that's actually more of a priority to me than just about any other feature. I wouldn't pay much more than a 1man premium over a midrange camera unless it was a huge leap in qualty (I have a pretty awesome little Sony NEX that I carry around in my bag when I have one, but it's not as ubiquitous in my life as a phone), but it's definitely a concern/selling point for me.
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Jul 25, 2011 12:33
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My friend's new Droid phone can create a Wifi hotspot, which I'd never heard of and is super badass. A guy at my Japanese class yesterday with a US iPhone 4 (which he can't get a SIM for) was saying the iPhone can do it too, and the guy with a Japanese iPhone 4 tried and couldn't find it in the menus. A quick Google just confirmed that the feature isn't available in Japan (unless you jailbreak). I was already thinking of getting one of those stand-alone docomo deals that creates a hotspot already so I could have internet on my personal computer/iPad at school, so now I'm leaning towards just getting a drat Droid after all. Why you so lovely, Apple products in Japan?
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Aug 16, 2011 00:18
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Been trying to find out (online) what a Galaxy S II at Docomo will set me back, but no luck. Planning on paying for it installments over 2 years, with an unlimited data plan. I heard they'll also come after you with the 1man+ data charge if you use your phone to suck down a bunch of data over the wifi tethering/personal hotspot thing, but don't care too much about email/light web browsing, anyone heard anything about this?
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Aug 20, 2011 10:22
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Thanks, I went out and got the Galaxy S II this morning, and am now posting from my tethered connection at home. This beats standing outside someone's house in my neighborhood and stealing Wifi, for sure. Rapes the hell out of the battery, although if I'm using it for my Macbook I can at least plug it in to the USB port to power the phone. For the record: it set me back a bit under 9,000/month with the phone payments spread out over 2 years, unlimited data, and a whopping 55 minutes of talk time per month. They threw in a free 16GB micro SD card as well. I got company coming today and just got a big package from home to unpack, so I'll probably wait until I'm on the train to Saga tomorrow evening to dick around with apps and stuff. Any suggestions?
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Aug 21, 2011 06:44
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Original_Z posted:Be aware that they might find out that you're tethering without permission and give you a huge bill. I had a friend who rooted his iPhone and did tons of tethering, ended up with an absurd bill from Softbank. I guess technically there's no way to tell, but when you're transferring that amount of data then they can get a good idea. He tried to fight it but made no progress and in the end just gave up and paid the fee. Never tried to tether again. Well yeah, that's Softbank and he jailbroke. They specifically lock that function out of the iPhone so that you can't tether. The tethering functionality is built in to the Galaxy.
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Aug 21, 2011 11:36
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Kenishi posted:Out of curiosity, does anybody else find that the galaxy s 2 charges reaaaaaally freaking slow if not at all, plugged into the computer? And only a little faster if plugged into the wall. I'm using a AC adapter with a USB port on it to charge my phone via USB and I'm just wondering if the USB to FOMA connectors might be faster or something. Mine seems to charge fine, although a lot of days at work it basically goes from charger at home to school, where it then gets plugged into the USB of my laptop all day while I tether. I really ought to buy a screen protector for mine, not terribly worried about the back. I'm thinking of maybe gluing some kind of homebrew mount to the camera so I can use filters/possibly attach an accessory lens. Vignette owns, it's the only Android App I've paid for yet. The camera on the S2 does a surprisingly decent job on its own though.  Dog Run by ethics_gradient, on Flickr  The Sea Dog by ethics_gradient, on Flickr  I'll say it "Good Day" when you include the requisite second "d". by ethics_gradient, on Flickr Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 01:23 on Sep 5, 2011 |
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Sep 5, 2011 01:13
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Can you opt out of the contract if they change the terms of it like that?
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Sep 16, 2011 07:06
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tarepanda posted:It's not a rumor anymore; Nikkei had an article about the iPhone 5 and how Softbank lost the exclusivity contract. Both au and Softbank will have the iPhone 5. My au-rocking friend was just talking about that today at lunch. I'm pretty curious what the next iPhone will bring, although I've got to say I'm really happy with my Galaxy S II. One of my JTE's just bought a Docomo Android smartphone, any recommendations for Japanese apps?
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Sep 30, 2011 06:11
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Ugh just take my money Docomo
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Oct 5, 2011 02:30
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tarepanda posted:Weird that they didn't mention how much the app is or what it's called. The demo phone is a GS2, so I could just grab it and try it out for kicks. I've got a GS2 as well and was googling trying to find any info on it, but all of the English language coverage I found was basically everyone paraphrasing the Engadget article. I think it's something under development and not necessarily out yet, but I'd love to give it a try as-is. The WWJDIC app I have has a "take a photo, get OCR/translation" function, but it just crashes the app whenever I try to use it.
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Oct 5, 2011 03:06
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tarepanda posted:I tried it out a few times and it's pretty lovely, which is why I'm not too hopeful about this app either. Awesome, thanks for that! I tried it out on a menu I found on GIS just on my screen and while it's not the greatest, it does give at least some help.
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Oct 5, 2011 03:40
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Original_Z posted:Hmm, the lack of OLED on iPhone4S is a big disappointment. Wondering if I should just get it or go for an Android phone now. I guess it terms of apps they're pretty equal, yea? My friend has an Android phone and it's constantly freezing up on her, are performance issues like that common? My friend got Docomo's cheapest Android handset (I'm pretty sure it was the cheapest, anyways) and it's given her similar issues. My Galaxy S II will have a hiccup every now and then, but I don't notice it being much worse than my iPod Touch as far as reliability.
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Oct 5, 2011 09:37
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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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What kind of roaming charges am I looking at for taking my docomo phone to the US? LimburgLimbo posted:Ah whoops, last time we were talking about iPhones, so I didn't notice that you said Docomo My friend is running an unlocked iPhone on docomo now (seems to be a pretty new thing, the employees at the store were clueless about it and were asking him to take out the battery when he was getting it set up  ), pretty sure he can tether. He got the 6,000 yen/7GB plan though, so I don't think he does it frequently.
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Feb 12, 2012 23:45
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Sheep posted:So just a follow up on my "finding affordable 3g internet access in Japan" adventure, I went to Costco today and got a b-mobile wifi 3g router (2man + 1 month/1 gigabyte included), and holy poo poo this owns. It even uses Docomo's network but it's literally half the price. One year of pakehoudai is only 6man which is about half of what Docomo would charge, and I don't have to rely on a lovely Android handset + PDAnet anymore. Whoa, nice! tarepanda posted:It would also be nice to be able to turn off that shutter sound so that people don't look at me like I'm a terrorist every time I take a picture somewhere. My friend has a US iPhone 4S on Docomo and he used the lack of shutter sound to brazenly take some photos of an unsuspecting yankee wearing a bedazzled Mickey Mouse shirt on the train. The guy was apparently hollering at his friends down the car about how he boned his girlfriend that weekend.
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Mar 15, 2012 04:05
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WDIIA posted:Update: So I went to the Docomo Store today. Even though my area (maybe the whole prefecture) doesn't have Xi, with any sort of tethering its cheaper to use the Xi plan. Are you doing the pakehoudai tethering? My S2 bill tops out around 1.8man if I max out the data (doesn't happen these days, usually just mark videos/graphic heavy sites as Read It Later and and read them when I get home). Nice gets, at any rate! Docomo has an "experimental" real-time menu translator app for Droid that uses the camera, OCR, and translation software... it's by no means great, but can sometimes give you a fighting chance if your kanji isn't up to par. Aside from that, for camera apps Vignette is worth the purchase (although haven't tried Instagram yet), and the Japan Trains app is pretty good. I used to use Hyperdia and liked the interface better, but it was super crashy so eventually wound up switching. I use Evernote... I think all docomo smartphones come with a year of premium included (plus when I lost my first phone, I got another year free from the replacement), so you may want to try out that. I also use Shazaam for identifying music I hear. A flashlight app also comes in handy. Never figured out how to get the TV to work, I wonder if it's something I have to activate and pay extra for. Pompous Rhombus fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Apr 18, 2012 |
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Apr 18, 2012 01:55
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I've got a friend who bought an unlocked iPhone 4S on Yahoo Auctions, then activated it on docomo. He does the 6GB/mo plan and is pretty happy with it, I think he wound up coming out ahead financially.
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Aug 22, 2012 11:29
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Pegnose Pete posted:I don't have my visa yet. I actually just assumed it would be one year and they would renew it if I decide to renew my contract. I think they were maybe changing it to five year, even? But yeah, definitely at least three.
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Jun 18, 2014 13:28
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MediumWellDone posted:So, I have an Japanese iPhone 5 from Softbank that I would like to use in Australia. But after some basic it searching it seems that Softbank won't unlock the phone? Does anyone know how I can get it unlocked? Haha, I just came here with that exact same question. My girlfriend left Japan for good without trying to get her iPhone 5 unlocked (just cancelled her contract at the store, was busy/stressed and didn't want to deal with anything else), despite me telling her to try. I assumed they would do it because I had no problems at docomo, but it appears to not be the case. I did a lot of Googling, and it seems like Softbank are indeed jerks about it (see very last comment at the bottom, was most definitive answer I could find), even if you've paid off your phone, which seems ridiculous to me. Docomo by contrast was more than happy to unlock my Galaxy SII when I left last year, although it voids your warranty with them (which is why I waited until I left), it cost ¥3,000. Joke was on me as I didn't look at the bands it used closely; it could use 2G in the USA but no data, womp womp. The Softbank iPhone 5 should be compatible with both Telstra and Optus's networks in Australia, however. I found a few sites online that offer unlocking (from what I understand, they basically pay someone on the inside at the carrier to add the phone's IMEI to Apple's global whitelist server, so that the next time you sync it with iTunes, it will unlock), but none cheaper than about US$100, which is pretty steep for an iPhone 5. I'm gonna have her try taking it to a mobile phone provider in the US and see if they can unlock it (maybe Sprint, since they're owned by Softbank now?), and an Apple store, but I don't have high hopes.
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Aug 2, 2015 06:13
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