A little while ago Emily and I were shocked at how much we pay for our mobile phones here in Japan. She had a mobile on the AU network with a bunch of plans and stuff so she could call her parents and me without worrying about the costs sky rocketing, but the plans themselves weren’t cheap. Then my own phone was the basic model on the Softbank network, which allows calls and mobile mail within the network for free, but the cross network calls and mails to Emiri added a bit to the monthly costs. So we decided to get Emiri a new softbank phone and drop her AU down to the basic, cheapest plan. Softbank would also allow her parents to call her for free on their broadband phone.
Now recently Softbank have had a deal on the iPhone, the basic plan, so called flat rate data, plus iPhone 3G actually works out at the same price as a regular phone, maybe even a little cheaper. However Emily didn’t really want an iPhone, she would rather have a phone that was more like the one she already had… So I thought I could take the chance I had missed before and get me a nice shiny iPhone.
The iPhone has many advantages to life in Japan, first up it has a nice English interface, not the afterthought most Japanese phones have. This is particularly good in regards to input, Japanese phones usually don’t have the predictive text and even the regular input method takes way too many button presses to use English. But then they aren’t designed for english users. The iPhone can switch easily from Japanese to English and a multitude of other languages if the fancy takes. Not to mention the apps, the music etc etc etc
But the rub with the iPhone in Japan comes with data. In other places it is a completely flat rate deal, but Softbank’s “flat rate” data service isn’t really flat rate. But rather it is cheap if you don’t use it, but if you do it rises, and then hits a ceiling after a little while. But the ceiling isn’t overly low, it’s not outrageously expensive either, but its a good bit higher than I would pay for the same service in the UK, and it would take a big chunk out of the savings we were hoping to make by getting Emily a Softbank phone. Now this is ok, I can be careful etc and try to use Wifi as much as possible, I have it at home and at school after all. But this is harder on an iPhone than you might think. And it might also mean me taking a step down in terms of convenience… Let me explain…
I have a lovely 1st generation 32Gb iPod Touch that the lovely folk at GCD Tech gave me when I left working with them to come to Japan. And I would carry both it and my mobile all the time when I was out and about. It is/was my Japanese dictionary, notepad, calendar, iPod (duh) and more. It syncs automatically with my Gmail, contacts and Google calendar. I could spend a trip on the train writing short emails or catching up with things I hadn’t read yet…
Now all of this is iPhone territory right? It can do all of this, and more! And it will do it over wifi just like the iPod! But the issue is that it doesn’t [i]just[/i] do it over wifi… It does it over 3G as well. If I have everything automatically updating on the iPod, it could only do it with wifi, so while I was at home or school it would update away, go on the road and it would sit there, not updating. But the iPhone won’t do that, inder wifi it’s fine, but go on the road it it will use 3G to do it’s updating. Fine if it’s a prepaid limit, but with Softbank costs rise…
So lets try and keep it low. Contacts is easy now as I can sync with Google contacts through iTunes. But email and calendar won’t sync without Outlook, and I don’t have Outlook, I use thunderbird… So I have to sync the calendar and mail over the air, but trying to control it and keep it to wifi. So I can go into settings and set them to manual sync. That should do it right? Manual sync on the iPhone doesn’t mean you push a sync button. Rather it means when you open the calendar or email, it will then sync to keep it up to date. That sounds ok, but it means if I am out and about and need to check to see if I am free on Friday evening or Monday afternoon or something, the calendar will sync via 3G as soon as I open it up to look.
Email is even a step more irritating. If I set up Gmail as an email account on the phone set to manual, and the Softbank email account as well. Now if someone sends an email to my Softbank account, I get a bleep and it says “You’ve got a mail” (it says this even if there are a lot of them) and I can open it up and see what the mail says. But when I open the mail app to see the email, it downloads whatever Gmail is waiting for me on the server along with it, the opening of the app being the trigger for a “manual” sync.
I have also lost the ability to write emails on the train to be sent when I get home, I have to download any emails that are waiting in order to have the opportunity to reply to old ones or even write a new one from scratch… And I have to remember to open the mail app when under wifi to make sure they get sent and new ones downloaded…
So I feel like getting an iPhone has downgraded my flexibility, unless someone knows a way to get it to sync some things only over wifi and still let me make phone calls and get mobile mail… It seems either I take the convenience hit, or I take the financial hit…. Any thoughts? Another option is to carry both iPod and iPhone…. And another is to give Emily the iPhone and go back to my keitai/iPod combo, she won’t really use the internet, sync or anything, but I do like the ease of English!
