Softbank iPhone 4S Sales Holding Firm Against au/KDDI Assault
From Asiajin:
BCN Ranking counted the carriers share only within iPhone 4S [J], Softbank took 51.7%, whilst KDDI au gained 48.3%.
BCN Ranking collected the number of sold units from shops, which it claims to cover 40% of Japanese retails. The retail shops do not include Apple Stores and carriers stores.
The metrics could surely use a little more accuracy, considering a great deal of phone purchases are done at carrier stores here in Japan.
Either way, this is an interesting picture being painted. au/KDDI did not have run-away sales like some thought they would. SoftBank does appear to be holding its own until the au/KDDI assault - for now.
I wonder how the landscape will change throughout year. SoftBank’s network, for better or worse, is already proven with the iPhone. The au/KDDI network, while offering far better coverage throughout Japan, has not had to deal with a huge amount of smartphone-based traffic. It will be important for au/KDDI’s network to withstand the exponential resource utilization they will see from iPhone users if the company expects to remain a player in the smartphone arena.
iPhone 4S Carrier Shootout: AU/KDDI vs. SoftBank Mobile
From SoftBank Sucks:
At best, in a residential area of Tokyo, SBM delivered a 2700 kbps download speed, which is less than 20% of the advertised 14.4 Mbps. At the same location, AU clocked in at only 1300 kbps. However, this is 40% of AU’s theoretical 3.1 Mbps maximum, which is actually quite good. Furthermore, at Shinjuku station, where the SBM iPhone averaged a usable but frustratingly slow 200 kbps, AU provided about 1350 kbps.
Lastly, he mentions two issues I immediately noticed, especially since my wife complained about emoji not working properly on her AU iPhone:
Basically, if you can’t live without emoji, you’ll need softbank until AU’s mail system catches up. the @ezweb.ne.jp mail address can be used but it will be an imap system that gets checked every 15 minutes, instead of being pushed to the phone instantly.
I expect AU will fix the emoji issue but doubt they will offer push email to the iPhone in the near future, if ever.
What I Learned by Being a Migrant Sex Worker in Japan
Rhacel Salazar Parrenas for Bloomberg (Part 1 and Part 2):
In the clubs, men bond over their ability to objectify hostesses with no admonishment. In the place where I worked, customers usually commented on the appearance of the hostess assigned to their table immediately after being introduced to her, expressing either approval or disapproval, and in some cases rejecting her, telling the club manager to replace her with someone more attractive. Sometimes customers would request a hostess with a specific physical feature, notably large breasts.
I often heard customers describe me as “futote,” meaning fat, and “kuroi,” meaning dark. I could not retort because customers patronize hostess clubs not only to avoid rejection but to experience male superiority. Hostesses can express only positive comments about clients. As one of my co-workers observed of our clients, “No one wants to listen to them. No one tells them they are good-looking. No one admires them. That is why they go to the club.” Hostesses try to generate sales by bolstering the masculinity of their customers.
There is no great secret here. The average male does not visit this type of establishment out of some underlying desire to objectify women. Rather, men are looking for attention they are unable to receive elsewhere.
These bars make it easy for a man to walk in and obtain immediate gratification through attention, something they would otherwise have to spend a great deal of effort on. It is almost like the fast-food equivalent to picking up chicks, except in this case the dream ceases once the man exits the premises.
The bottom line is that most men are merely looking for the idea of meeting a girl. It has nothing to do with objectification, feeling superior or anything evil. Instead, it is merely a way to have an enjoyable few hours with a companion who provides the attention otherwise unattainable elsewhere. In rare cases this involves sex, but mostly it involves social drinking and conversation. It is patently harmless for both the worker and the customer.
Like with everything else in life, the 99% are persecuted for the crimes and stupidity of the 1%.
At a Tokyo radiation hotspot, weirdness abounds
From BoingBoing:Officials were worried this week, when they discovered a radiation hotspot in Tokyo, kicking off readings as high as 3.35 microsieverts per hour. (For context, a dental x-ray is about 5 microsieverts. This wasn’t a massive amount of radiation, but it was concerning. The AP reports that readings of that level have been found in the Fukushima evacuation zone.)
The good news: This has nothing to do with Fukushima. It turned out to be an extremely localized hotspot, and officials found the real source nearby.
The bad news: The real source turned out to be something the AP is describing as “mystery bottles” stored under someone’s house. No. Really.
Now that is some really crazy shit. I know people are freaking big time about these weird localized hotspots. To find one not caused by Fukushima is pretty distressing. It should be interesting to see how the local government deals with this.
SoftBank Computer Glitch Halts iPhone 4S Sales and MNP
The Next Web Asia reporting on opening day iPhone 4S sales in Japan:The opening day of iPhone 4S sales in Japan did not start well for Softbank. According to the Wall Street Journal, the operator was forced to suspend the sale of all smartphones, including the new device from Apple, at 0200 GMT this morning after a computer glitch affected customer registrations.
The issue was fixed three hours later with the operator optimistic that it did not cause any loss of sales.
I was at au/KDDI from 0300 GMT to approximately 0700 GMT and I assure you the supposed computer glitch was not fixed three hours later. We left empty handed and were asked to wait for a call. We received that call at 8:30pm - four hours after leaving au/KDDI - and were asked to come back the following morning at 1000 when the shop opens.
When we arrived at au/KDDI we first had trouble obtaining a mobile number portability (MNP) reservation number from SoftBank’s automated system due to high demand. This took roughly 45 minutes before we were finally off and running. It was at this point that everything fell apart.
The au/KDDI shop clerk, who was very helpful, was having trouble with the MNP process. This part of the purchase requires au/KDDI to touch SoftBank’s computer systems, to validate the MNP reservation number and account holder’s name and number for accuracy. This entire process kept repeatedly failing. Unfortunately, the clerk was uncertain of the specific reason.
It was at this point that I decided to walk three blocks down the street to the SoftBank shop to find out what was going on. As usual, the SoftBank clerks were somewhat clueless. All the one clerk could tell me was that their system was down so she was unable to print my account information. As I was about to walk away, another clerk mentioned to a customer that their systems were down and she would not be able to deliver pre-ordered iPhone 4’s until tomorrow, when system restoration was expected.
Are you kidding me?
I walked back to au/KDDI and told the clerk. She decided to try a few more times just to see if she would be able to deliver our phone that day. While I was waiting I called SoftBank customer service and asked them what was happening. The kind lady on the other end of the phone told me the same thing - SoftBank was experiencing a catastrophic systems failure so new sales and MNP would be impossible until the next day.
I spent a little over four hours in au/KDDI trying to secure my wife’s iPhone 4S to no avail, all thanks to SoftBank and their not being prepared for the exodus to their rival.
I am unsure where TNW got their information but it sure does not match my experience. It is worth pointing out that existing au/KDDI customers upgrading their existing handsets to an iPhone 4S were unaffected. The only customers affected were existing SoftBank customers who were upgrading or trying to port their number to a different mobile carrier.
At least eight different kinds of computer virus including Trojan horse, which steals key information from infected computer hardware, were found at Mitsubishi Heavy’s main office or production sites, the Yomiuri said. It is the country’s biggest defense contractor, winning 215 deals worth 260 billion yen ($3.4 billion) from Japan’s Ministry of Defense in the year to last March, or nearly a quarter of the ministry’s spending that year.
Japan’s defence industry hit by its first cyber attack from Reuters.
I find the “first cyber attack” claim to be pretty dubious, especially considering it is 2011. These so-called “cyber attacks” happen every day. That Mitsubishi is finally capable of detecting and confirming an intrusion is terrifying. Hopefully the other defense contractors have a much better grasp on information technology and information assurance practices.
This situation is only going to get worse.
Lastly, I wish the article did not refer to what they found as a virus. It is better described as malware. Calling what was found a virus gives the impression that installing some form of anti-virus software would have detected the malicious activity.
Nothing could be further from reality.
Japan Earthquake: Six Months Later.
Stunning before and after photography. Most of the pictures were taken from the same exact spots as the originals, thus providing much better context. It is amazing how far Japan has come in such a short amount of time.
The Transportation Ministry said Saturday that the controller, who works at Haneda Airport in Tokyo, could face charges of leaking national secrets. Japanese officials appeared embarrassed by the breach, which also included the flight data of an American military reconnaissance drone.
Tokyo is apparently worried that the episode could raise new doubts in Washington about Japan’s ability to handle delicate information, after a scandal four years ago over the leak of American naval radar secrets. The newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported that Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda may personally apologize to President Obama for the breach during a meeting this month in New York.
Japan Investigates Online Posting of Obama Flight Plans by Martin Fackler of the NY Times.
The plans were originally posted online in November 2010. The only reason the government knows about the posting is because of an anonymous tip. It sure makes you wonder what the poster did - did he piss someone off? did he wrinkle the wrong shirt? - to cause someone to alert officials about his illegal post ten months after the fact.
This new found footage of the tsunami which struck Japan in March 2011 is terrifying. After watching videos like this I sure as hell am glad my family was nowhere near any of the destruction Mother Nature wielded on this country.
Nick Pratto singled with two outs and the bases loaded to give Huntington Beach, Calif., a 2-1 victory Sunday over Hamamatsu City, Japan, and win the Little League World Series.
How exactly does blood type personality theory work? According to Nomi’s book, the ABO blood type determines personality, temperament, and compatibility with other people. Specific blood types are characterized by representative traits that can be used to distinguish between different individuals.
What’s Your Blood Type? Very few things annoy me, but I completely despise the generalizations associated with blood typing. The various blood type traits are so generalized that they could be applied to the other types, depending on circumstances and context. The whole thing just reeks of people’s inability to think critically, needing some way to tag people to ostensibly associate their personality traits.
As far as I’m concerned, blood typing is just another way for people to demonstrate their prejudices so they can get away with some form of institutionalized - read: country wide - discrimination.
Mark Gurman of 9 to 5 Mac writes about a new iOS 5 earthquake warning feature available to Japanese iPhone users:
Following the devestating earthquake in Japan earlier this year, Apple has added a new early earthquake warning notification option to iOS 5. iOS 5 users in Japan can turn on early earthquake notifications at the very bottom of the iOS 5 Notification Center settings pane.
I have been using the iOS 5 betas since they were released and have yet to see this toggle appear in the notifications configuration section of iOS. It is possible the feature has been introduced in iOS 5 beta 6, which I have yet to install.
A better theory is that Softbank is toying with the idea of offering this feature, not Apple and not automatically included in iOS 5. I imagine this setting is being displayed similar to the provisioning configuration Softbank uses to “hide” the wifi personal hotspot option that was introduced in iOS 4.3. This feature is unavailable on Softbank here in Japan because their network is not prepared to handle the increased traffic offered by this feature.
Standard keitai’s have had the earthquake warning system available as an option for quite some time now. My son’s keitai regularly screams at us when an earthquake is imminent. That Softbank - or Apple - is just now considering introducing such a feature should be telling about the importance of being prepared for the next big one.
Those of us in Japan are living in constant fear of the next big earthquake. It is about time the iPhone has such an important feature “built-in.” (via Steve Nagata)
On Aug. 6, the American bomber Enola Gay dropped its payload on Hiroshima.…As Hasegawa writes in his book “Racing the Enemy,” the Japanese leadership reacted with concern, but not panic.…Very late the next night, however, something happened that did change the plan. The Soviet Union declared war and launched a broad surprise attack on Japanese forces in Manchuria. In that instant, Japan’s strategy was ruined. Stalin would not be extracting concessions from the Americans. And the approaching Red Army brought new concerns: The military position was more dire, and it was hard to imagine occupying communists allowing Japan’s traditional imperial system to continue. Better to surrender to Washington than to Moscow.
Why Did World War II End? Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, a Japanese historian, argues that it was not the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that were the catalysts for the Japanese surrender, but the Soviet Union attacking Japanese forces, ultimately destroying their strategy. While an interesting theory, trying to determine the cause and effect of these events, and which actually led to the end of WWII, is almost impossible at this juncture.
The speculation is absolutely intriguing, but unfortunately we will never know the true answer to why the war ended.
This Kick Ass Retro Toaster has got to be one of the coolest designed toasters I have ever seen. The retro look simply rocks. However, the price tag - $180 - is way out there simply for a toaster. Nonetheless, this is one of the coolest gadgets I’ve seen in a while.
Tsunami attacking in Minami-Sanriku is probably the scariest 3/11 Japan tsunami video floating around the internets. The horrified screams of those around the cameraman are scary enough, but watching the path of destruction left by the tsunami is absolutely unbelievable.
