Mon premier article en anglais! Je prenais des notes, betements, et puis ca a commencé a prendre forme. Maintenant j'ai la flemme de traduire -_- Avec un peu de chance ca elargira mon public!

My phone is 2G. The 2G network is going to be abandoned by Japanese carriers from April 2010. That means I need to get a new phone sometime within the next 6 months. Incidentally, there's a Softbank special offer for a 2 year contract, not only reducing the internet access fee but also offering an iPhone 3G 8GB for free (extra charge for 3G 16GB or 3GS). It would cost about 5.000 yen per month (30 euros) if I don't use internet much, up to 7.000 (50 euros) with unlimited internet access. It's several times what I pay right now, but it also has a lot more functionalities. Plus replacing my current phone would cost at least 10.000 for the new phone... Thus raises the question of whether I should take the step and move into mainstream phone services, or stay in the shady narrow streets of prepaid services.

PART 1: It's Cool.


Things my current phone can do:Things the iPhone can do:
Cost1500 per month (10.000 for renewal)Costing 5000 to 7000 per month
Looking like a broke foreigner-
Stop paying anytime-
Being usable longer than 6 months-
Games-
Free games-
Tower defense games-
Music games (e.g. piano simulation)-
Music-
Watching movies-
Internet-
Adding applications-
Maps/GPS/Compass-
Unlimited use of network-
Taking pictures that don't look like a foggy mirror-
eceiving images by email-
Having the same phone as everyone else-
Being advertised as >>>!!!FREE!!!<<< by the carrier-

PART 2: It's Horrible!

And that's when I started hearing about the dark side. There are many reasons to NOT buy an iPhone, both technical and ethical reasons. Apple is deliberately restricting the technical opportunities of the users. Apple is deliberately abusing its users, AND developers for money and/or commercial agreements.

I'm tired of literal redaction, so please bear with this plain list for the rest of the section.

Objectionable policies:

  • Crappy application policy (rejecting apps based on commercial agreements, censoring dictionaries)
  • Crappy application development system, pricey, blocking free content and small companies
  • Some applications spy on user activity
  • Purposefully unnecessarily closed architecture all around (closed source, no custom code)
  • Combined application policy and closeness: no trustworthy network diagnostic tool
  • EDIT: Supporting DRM
  • EDIT: Forcing the user to install iTunes on their computer, disregarding non Windows/Mac users

Deliberate limitations:

  • No multi-tasking
  • No external memory (e.g. micro SD, takes no space and doubles available memory)
  • No creating account without credit card.

Sources:

  • Apple and Google (and ATT): http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/21/atandt-tells-the-fcc-it-had-no-role-in-removing-google-voice-fro/
  • Apple and the stock exchange: http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/40169-apple-iphone-espionnage-widgets-bourse.htm
  • etc: http://formats-ouverts.org/blog/2007/12/05/1420-ces-formats-qui-ne-montrent-pas-tout-un-nouveau-cas-l-iphone
  • etc: http://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/5-reasons-to-avoid-iphone-3g
  • etc: http://www.presence-pc.com/tests/iphone-3G-22802/
  • etc: http://daringfireball.net/2009/08/ninjawords

PART 3: Everything is horrible.

Anyone learning about all this would think they would never consider getting an iPhone if there was a better alternative. But that's exactly the thing: When I started looking at alternatives, how exactly do I know they're any better? Phones are notoriously closed. For good reasons at first, less good reasons by now, people were never allowed inside their phones. And Japan is certainly not the country of transparency. Technical restrictions for commercial reasons are all over the place. Just look at the phone I have right now!

In Japan, phones are ALWAYS limited to a single carrier. They are always VERY closed: the _wallpaper_ files for my phone are encrypted and it's not even possible to change the background image without paying extra. My prepaid phone has the same buttons/ROM as anyone else, however being prepaid it cannot: browse the internet, receive files in emails, send files in emails, see recipients of emails, see subjects of emails, download applications, and a bunch of other things. I have one of the very few phones in Japan not able to access the internet.

So what now? Open Source to the rescue! Google's new open source operating system, Android, is getting increasingly popular. Sounds good right? If it's open source everyone can see what's happening inside, and anyone can improve or correct things that don't work as expected. That's the theory. But that's not the reality. Open Source is just a pretty word stuck on the Android. The operating system provided with your phone might or might not be the same code, might or might not have added "features". Replacing the operating system with a trustworthy home-compiled version is no easier than jail-breaking an iPhone (although maybe less frowned upon).

On top of that, people don't get to code operating system related software. The normal development for Android software is java code, safely run on the Android virtual machine.

And to top it all, there is a total of 1 (one) Android phone available in Japan at the time, in only one carrier, with very dissuasive hardware.

Sources:

  • Palm and Google collect regular GPS data from users of a specific device: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/08/palm-pre-phones-secretly-use-gps-to-report-users-locations-to-company.html
  • Android OS hacking: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/13/t-mobiles-mytouch-3g-gets-rooted-questlove-unavailable-for-com/

PART 4: It's useful...

So that's where I was. Then I saw the broken Palm I've been learning kanji with a while back. It's bulky, stupid, loses it's memory every other day, and yet it taught me hundreds of kanji. If it can, the iPhone can. I looked for such applications, and sure enough, I found some for kanji, some for vocabulary, some dictionaries... None offered the exact same as the one I used before (namely quizzing the kanji line order), but that might yet come, and many have features the one I used doesn't. If a phone can help me improve my Japanese, it's most likely worth it.

And then I unexpectedly ran across a SSH client application! If only there was a SSH server to go with it ^^

Sources:

  • Japanese apps: http://www.mrbass.org/iphone/japanese/

PART NaN: Afterword

Japanese spirit: cost=value. High cost=high value. Even for a piece of crap. Money is mostly irrelevant. "Sports" shops will sell overpriced shiny fragile fashion clothes that will not survive doing actual sports. It's OK for phones to have extreme limitations provided they advertise (and maybe sometimes actually offer) fancy features. Since marketing is everything, successful Japanese carriers have long stopped trying to improve their products, and focus on re-selling the same product over and over again in a different shell. This industry that was admired and envied throughout the world for years is now below average. The best selling phone in Japan is the iPhone, a foreign phone designed for demanding foreigners. Milking the cow, and NOT raising the standard which would make everyone work harder, might be the reason the Android phones are hardly available in Japan.

Sources:

  • iPhone most popular phone in Japan: http://www.engadget.com/2009/08/17/plucky-little-iphone-3gs-counfounds-expectations-tops-japanese/

And I have until September 30th to make a decision.