Matthew Skyrm’s .Plan in Japan

I got an iPhone and it is by far the best smart phone I’ve ever used (and I’ve used my share of Nokia N-series, Palm Treo, Windows Mobile, etc.) I’d say it is roughly 2-3 generations ahead of anything else out there with some unique Apple stuff that may not be duplicated for many years to come.

I don’t quite get why the Mac OS X integration is so abnormal. Synchronization only in iTunes? A checkbox for Y! Address Book synchronization in iTunes? No Bluetooth integration with Address Book? No way to use the iPhone as a modem to get on the EDGE network with your Mac?

iTunes with iPhone on the left. iSync with no iPhone on the right.

This preference is in iTunes and nowhere else. Certainly I understand this for Windows, but Mac?

Here’s Address Book. That handy Bluetooth button does exactly nothing with the iPhone.

I must admit, I truly love to read Apple rumors. Now I’m going to start my own rumor.

Apple to release new Cinema Displays with built-in iSight cameras that work on Mac and Windows out of the box!

Let me explain…

The other day I was checking out Apple’s Leopard site and came across something interesting on the Photo Booth page….

Let’s look closely at the text:

USB Camera eh? Apple doesn’t sell those! Well, let’s remember in the Mac OS X 10.4.9 release notes some months back there was mention of “…iChat support for USB Video Class webcams.” While Yahoo! Messenger and Skype have had support for non-Apple USB webcams on the Mac for ages, iChat has always been basically an iSight-only affair (let’s not count the other Firewire cameras…)

So the iSight standalone firewire camera has not been sold since last year. Obviously Mac Mini and Mac Pro owners need something… So which USB camera is Apple talking about?

Let’s dig a little deeper…

Apple is now supporting “USB Video Class” or UVC cameras in iChat and Photo Booth. This is a big deal because in order to receive the full Windows Vista logo on the box, USB webcams have to support UVC and that basically means all new webcams will be UVC. That means Windows XP sp2, Vista, Linux, and now Mac OS X support right out of the box with no driver necessary for all new webcams!

So, will Apple start selling cameras from Creative Labs and Logitech at their stores? I doubt it. They just don’t aesthetically fit.

I believe Apple has gone through this trouble so that when the Cinema Displays with iSight come out, the built-in iSight will be UVC and thus will work right-out-of-the-box-plug-and-play-no-drivers-necessary with Mac OS X, Windows Vista, Windows XP sp2, and Linux!

Japan’s mobile phone carriers do not use GSM. While Vodafone offers a few mobile phones that additionally support GSM, all of the phones are locked and I’ve only found one that can be easily unlocked, the Sony Ericsson V802SE. Unfortunately, Vodafone’s 3G network coverage isn’t very good right now. So, if I were to buy it, I would end up with a phone that works well outside Japan, but poorly inside Japan. This really stinks because the V802SE also includes gaijin-friendly English T9 text input and Mac-friendly iSync bluetooth support without any special software or cables.

Sony Ericsson V802SE

So, I continue to keep a second mobile phone for when I travel outside of Japan. It’s an older Sony Ericsson T68i. I’ve got a T-Mobile prepaid SIM card for the US, and since I got it unlocked back in San Francisco, I’m able to use any SIM cards from any carrier I like in any country that supports GSM 1800/1900/900. Most countries do. The T68i also includes bluetooth support and works quite well with Apple’s iSync.

Sony Ericsson T68i and T-Mobile SIM Card

Last month my wife and I vacationed in Turkey for two weeks and I was able to buy a Turkcell prepaid SIM card at the airport upon arrival for about US$50 that included enough credit for my entire trip, including several short calls to the United States. I wanted to have my phone working shortly after landing in Istanbul so I could more easily meet up with my friend who was picking us up at the Bodrum airport after another connecting flight. I wasn’t sure if there would be a shop at the airport and even considered buying one in advance and having it shipped to Japan before I left. Unfortunately, the service needed to be activated and while I had the activation code, the instructions were spoken only in Turkish. Even so, it was so incredibly convenient and inexpensive to have my own telephone number and mobile phone for the entire trip.
Next time, I want to figure out if the prepaid card supports GPRS Internet connectivity and give it a try.

Turkcell SIM Card

Now, I’m just waiting for KDDI’s AU line-up to include a phone with everything their current 3G line-up supports, plus English T9 text input, iSync over bluetooth, unlocked GSM 1800/1900/900, and a form factor that doesn’t create too large a bulge in my pocket. Something tells me I’ll be holding onto my little T68i for a long time.

I have noticed quite a few of my friends who haven’t been to Tokyo believe that Akihabara is some kind of haven for DVD movie and video piracy. That really couldn’t be further from the truth. After spending many, many weekends going through every little corner of “Akitown”, I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve seen anything related to piracy. I have seen a few guys on the street selling video game ROMs for absurd amounts of money (¥30,000 or about $300 for one disc full of Neo Geo game roms) and cable TV decoder boxes, but that is about it.

However, Dragon Computer is a physical shop that carries mod chips for both the Xbox and PS2. That’s not to say I believe the only reason to buy a mod chip is for piracy purposes (legit uses include playing personal game backups or running homebrew software) but usually pirated games and tools that enable piracy (i.e. mod chips) can be found in the same place. Dragon Computer doesn’t appear to be selling any games, just chips. I haven’t bought anything from Dragon Computer and can’t vouch for them in any way.