I've been following Gizmodo's live blog this morning about the 3G iPhone. It's coming out in Japan and the US on July 11. It has a great Japanese input system designed by the same dude who invented T9 for Japanese cell phones—which is a huge big deal, since most Japanese can type better on their cell phone handsets than their keyboards, even now. I met him once, down by Apple campus.
So anyway, wow. It's gonna be like Japanese geeks gone wild. Maybe. (Don't know if it will be as hyped up in the US, since we already had our first iPhone madness last year. Back then I did ridiculous shit like start a wave in the iPhone line with James Lee. But I didn't buy one because I didn't want to sign a 2-year contract with ATT.)
Anyway...the new iPhone has GPS, Typepad, and a Japanese keyboard. Which means I can update TokyoMango from anywhere and still find my way home. If only they could make a single handset work in Japan and the US, that would be awesome.
Actually, it should work fine in Japan. The thing is, unless AT&T allows you to unlock the phone, so you could use different carrier SIM cards, you're stuck using AT&T and whatever their rates are for International voice/data.
My HTC/AT&T Tilt works fine in Japan using my AT&T SIM card or the Softbank SIM rental card. The freq's are the same (I think), so you're good to go...sort of. (There are pro's/cons)
I don't quite understand how this is an "upgrade" with tech that was available a year ago. Those that did wait to get this phone are the fortunate ones.
The Xperia X1 keeps looking better and better, but my Tilt is still working fine.
Posted by: vagrant | June 09, 2008 at 08:34 PM
Yah the Japanese keyboard is a nice feature. It'll be interesting to see how multi-touch holds up to Japanese word entry.
Posted by: Rabido | June 13, 2008 at 08:44 AM