There are many who do not think the iPhone will succeed in Japan. This could be due to a number of factors that we in the west do not understand about the culture that is the land of the rising sun. However, Aoyama Gakuin University is taking hold by supplying iPhones to those who study social informatics. According to DVICE:
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Softbank in Japan has just released a new add-on for the iPhone which allows you to charge your iPhone and at the same time have a TV tuner. The product is only for Japan at this time as they expect TV tuners in their phones and the iPhone did not deliver. It would be great to have such an add-on here in the U.S. and pick up HD broadcasts on our phones, but for now we’ll have to wait or import the tuner.
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Palm has had a long following and most thought a new update was never to be seen. Today a new OS from Palm has broken cover and comes from Access of which previously bought PalmSource after the .com crash. ACCESS Linux Platform is the generic name of the OS and offers a lot of potential and hopefully it lives up to it. The question is, is this too little too late. The platform may be coming to Japan this year, but don’t hold your breathe as this has been a long time coming.
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The new iPhone firmware is not out for the public yet, but is in the hands of developers who have found some interesting features aside from the framework of the firmware itself.
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Japan may have a lot of gadgets, but the one thing the majority lacks is the smartphone. Apple has its first corporate contract in Japan with Softbank Mobile which will give analysts and workers across the country, 1,000 iPhones for its management and consultancy, BearingPoint.
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Nintendo announced early this morning, or late at night depending on your time zone, the new DS. The DS i has a bigger screen at 3.25 inches, internal memory for downloads and a built in camera. The other announcement includes Punch Out for Wii as well as a few others. Nintendo also announced a memory solution for the Wii in the form of 1GB sandisk SD cards. The DSi is available in Japan on November 1st for approximately $180.
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Apple is offering a recall on the Ultracompact USB power adapters. The problem that is noted is the metal prongs can break off into the electrical outlet. They are exchanging these free of charge and affects the adapters that come with the iPhone 3G and the one you can purchase separately. The affected countries are the USA, Japan, Canada, Mexico, and Several Latin American Countries. The new adapter has a green dot to indicate the difference. You can also see the prongs have changed a little.
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A Few days ago Microsoft announced it would be cutting the price of the Xbox 360 in Japan, now the discount comes to America. Microsoft is trying to hit the sweet spot of under $200. According to Microsoft, previous consoles, a la PS2 have shown that the $199 price accounts for 75 percent of console sales.
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Microsoft has had its ups and down with the Xbox in Japan. For the first time the Xbox has been selling better than the PS3. The trend started in August and Microsoft wants to keep the sales in Japan going strong. Traditionally it has been very difficult for an American game console to take hold in Japan and the Xbox 360 has so far continues to prove this correct.
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The worls smllest functional PC has been making its way thru Japan for awhile now. Posted today is a picture of the PC. It is a 2 inch by 2 inch square with a "300MHz NEC VR5701 processor, 64MB of RAM, a 1GB CompactFlash card, and a special version of Red Hat Linux, along with a single USB port, VGA out, built-in Ethernet and, most importantly for its target market, a SpaceWire port, which is used by the likes of NASA and the European Space Agency/" The initial price is $325 but could be as much as $2700.
Read MoreThe many different reports of bad reception and loading issues may be due more to the carrier than the phone itself. This is mostly true when it comes to the different download speeds people are experiencing. "In the US, iPhone 3G users with AT&T have reported average download speeds of about 990 Kbps, the same as for Softbank in Japan and Telia in Sweden.
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