Recent Comments:
Sony announces PSP Go!Cam for PAL regions {Engadget}
May 1st 2007 7:30PM Videos can be uploaded to YouTube directly using the PSP's integrated web browser:
http://www.psp-vault.com/Article791.psp
KDDI Mobile - KDDI to launch US MVNO, stop the presses! {Engadget}
Apr 8th 2007 5:44PM Jeff hit the nail on the head. KDDI Mobile certainly isn't offering phones here in the US that are up to Japanese standards -- a quick look at their homepage reveals they currently offer only two last-gen handsets... neither of which appear to support Japanese. The page does say that they'll be adding handsets with Japanese capabilities in the future.
It's evident that this isn't KDDI's "full-blown" entry into the US mobile market. As the article says, the phone service itself is being provided by Sprint/Nextel. There are a bunch of technical limitations that would prevent KDDI from offering virtually all of the additional features that are offered on au/EZweb in Japan.
But the homepage also says that international calls to landlines (not mobiles) in Japan are included in the service minutes. So it's not a bad deal if you don't mind
GDC 07: PSP won't get redesign; new colors coming soon? {PSP Fanboy}
Mar 9th 2007 7:19PM The PSP has enough difficulty competing with the DS Lite; no sense in adding other stuff that will just make it more expensive.
A word on thievery {PSP Fanboy}
Feb 27th 2007 11:55PM Unfortunately the hole goes much deeper. It's one thing to copy and paste an article on some forum that you visit. That poster probably isn't making any financial gain by copying and pasting the article. Obviously it's still a pretty bad thing to do...
But when you bring profit into the mix, it's pouring salt on an open wound. When another *website* plaigerizes content, it's extremely disturbing. When twenty websites plaigerize content, it makes you hate the internet itself. When you see someone selling an article you wrote as some "downloadable guide" on eBay for $5, you angrily unplug your computer from the wall and go down to the shooting range. 300 rounds later, you feel a bit better.
But ultimately there are really only a few things you can do:
-Be proactive about protecting content. Partial RSS feeds, watermarking images/video, and hiding text in articles are all steps that should be taken when you come up with original content. Note that I said ORIGINAL content; putting your own watermark on something that you DID NOT CREATE is terrible.
-Keep creating good content. When you're big, more people will notice when someone else decides to steal content.
-Bitch and moan about it, so you can be sure people are aware you know what's going on (like this article).
There is a whole spectrum of questionable practices on the internet. At one end would be people only using single-line quotes which accurately cite the source of the information, and at the other end is people blatantly plaigerizing content for financial gain. In the middle you find stuff like forum posters copying/pasting content (as described in this article), RSS blogs, people copying entire articles and just putting "via ___" at the bottom (why would someone want to visit when they just read the entire article?), and straight-up failing to cite their sources.
Add the circular nature of content (should someone link to the "original" content or the place where they discovered the content?) and virtually no regulation, and you end up the modern internet. WWW isn't an acronym for "World Wide Web," it's for "Wild Wild West."
Sony announces CompactFlash cards as hell freezes over {Engadget}
Jan 16th 2007 9:50AM I don't wish. Memory Stick Duo is a subset of the Memory Stick PRO format, and both have been around for years. Thanks to the PSP, MS Duo is now available for prices comparable, or even lower than, SD cards with equal capacities.
We don't need to get into comparing dimensions of CF cards, Memory Stick, and SD. The dimensions are such that CF isn't an acceptable solution in many cases; the cards are simply too big.
And SD? You mean SD, whose maximum capacity is 2GB? Please. Only with the very recent (and still hard to find) introduction of SDHC was the 2GB barrier broken for the format. MS Pro, the standard itself, goes up to 32GB without the need for hardware changes. And that was finalized in 2003. Look closely at PSP firmware update 2.81 and you'll notice "added support for Memory Sticks larger than 4GB." Gee whiz, I wonder how that happened. Even when Sony introduced Memory Stick "HG" the maximum capacity wasn't increased because it didn't need to be. Look at their press release: the only thing improved upon by "HG" is the transfer speeds. HG cards can even be used in standard MS Duo devices, albeit at lower transfer speeds.
SD simply didn't move quickly enough for Sony. It didn't even exist when they created Memory Stick in the first place -- their only options at the time were CompactFlash, MMC, and a few other random formats that have all died.
Japan: iPhone just looks like another phone to us {Engadget Mobile}
Jan 13th 2007 1:16PM That's precisely my point, MauiDude. Smartphones -- which believe it or not extend beyond "WinMo" -- offer functionality that's virtually worthless to the Japanese public. In my original post I said in regards to the iPhone feature list:
"you'll be reading a list of things that Japanese people have already had, don't really look for, or don't need in their mobile phones."
So I'm not sure who you're trying to disagree with.
Subscriber numbers have a DIRECT relationship with consumer demands. When Number Portability was recently introduced in Japan, thousands and thousands of people abandoned NTT DoCoMo for KDDI's au service. Why? Cheaper prices? Better functionality? Better coverage? Their company switched them over? Obviously there's a REASON they left, and every possible reason can be boiled down to the fulfillment of customer wants and needs. You saying that subscriber numbers have no relationship with demand is like me saying there's no relationship between the temperature outside and the number of people wearing jackets. KDDI had to literally stop accepting new contracts for a while because their systems were flooded with people switching over as a result of MNP. And you're going to try and say subscriber numbers have no relationship with demand?
As for expertise: living in Japan "half of the time" and marrying some Japanese person doesn't make you an "expert" either. Being Japanese doesn't make you an expert. I've had subscriptions with NTT DoCoMo, KDDI, and J-Phone, if it makes you feel any better. Either way, I never claimed to be an expert, so going off on me when you have no understanding of my qualifications is a bit childish.
Your "well I use a PocketPC" line is anecdotal evidence at best.
Japan: iPhone just looks like another phone to us {Engadget Mobile}
Jan 12th 2007 8:21PM Smartphones, which the iPhone qualifies as (depending on who you ask), aren't exactly popular in Japan. Plenty of companies offer smartphones in Japan: Sharp with the W-ZERO3 series, HTC with a few different models, and recently RIM with some BlackBerries.
But time and time again, smartphones fail to entice people to move lots of units. It's not that they're not good, it's that Japan doesn't really demand the functionality the provide.
Pushing IMAP email? Most people rely on existing mobile phone email services or SMS to communicate with one another. You've been able to access "computer-style" accounts and such for a number of years, but does anyone care? No.
Bluetooth, touchscreen, WiFi, voicemail... just go through the list of iPhone's "killer" features and you'll be reading a list of things that Japanese people have already had, don't really look for, or don't need in their mobile phones.
It's enticing service offerings that the Japanese have started demanding. The age of "Cram As Much Functionality As Possible Into Mobile Phones" has come to an end ove there, despite that it's still in full force in the USA. Nowadays people want better services, they're willing to sacrifice functionality for fashion, and they want to do it for a low cost. Just throwing a bunch of technology into a phone doesn't make it sell in Japan. Apparently the only network upgrades Cingular has to perform for offering the iPhone is for the "visual voicemail" service, so it's obvious that in terms of unique service offerings for the iPhone, you're left out to dry.
Compared to Japan, where network upgrades are performed with virtually every introduction of a new round of handsets. Handsets don't just launch "alone" -- handsets launch alongside new services that can only be used on those handsets.
If you want evidence of the trend, I encourage you to compare the subscriber numbers of the big 3 providers (KDDI, NTT DoCoMo, SoftBank) since 2005. You'll notice people increasingly jumping ship from NTT DoCoMo to au, who consistently provides more consumer-friendly and thoughtful services. DoCoMo almost always beats out KDDI on technology in their handsets, but the subscriber numbers are indicative of trends we may be seeing here in the USA in the near future.
I don't doubt that Apple will be able to move quite a few handsets because of the "Apple" name and popularity of the iPod in Japan. In fact, there is a small community of hardcore Japanese users who buy the latest smartphones and PDAs despite the fact that many can't even be used on Japanese providers' services. But the iPhone is far, far, far too technology-focused to actually claim a significant portion of market share in the country.
The LA Times article linked above goes into the cultural discrepancies, so it's certainly a good read too.
College student creates paper-based storage system (no, not that kind) {Engadget}
Nov 25th 2006 1:20PM I'm sure the seek times for these will be FANTASTIC.
