November 2008
Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
« Oct   Dec »
 12
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930

Month November 2008

Entries 10 Total

iPhone App Review: iAnki

Nov 29, ’08 3:05 PM


iPhone-owning students of Japanese (or of anything else that require memorisation) may be familiar with Anki, but perhaps may not be so familiar with iAnki, the mobile version.

As with Anki itself, iAnki is a work in progress, and prospective users shouldn’t expect an all-singing all-dancing iPhone App. What there is though is pretty solid, and does what it needs to do.

iAnki is not a traditional stand-alone iPhone App. Rather than installing it via iTunes, it works through Safari. Installation is pretty simple: having opened Anki on your computer start up the plugin “iAnki server” on your computer; this can be accessed over local wifi networks (i.e. your home wifi network) by local devices (such as your iPhone). Next, simply connect your device to that server by browsing to the IP address given, typically 192.168.0.1:8000 – then click on Sync.

I must admit to have had a few teething troubles to get it to sync, but once it’s done it once, it seems to work fine. You now have a copy of your iAnki cards on you iPhone (or other mobile device) – perfect for when riding the subway and unable to access Anki’s web-based version.

I’m looking forward to seeing future incarnations of iAnki – someone throw some money at the developer!

Comments (0)

iPhone EveryTrail Mini-Review

Nov 29, ’08 2:39 PM

This post is an expanded version of that featured on my other blog, The Daily Mumble. Whilst not strictly Japan related I thought I’d post it anyway!

As of today, I’m offering Mumblers the opportunity to join me on my morning jog. Yes, you too can come to Komozawa Koen, enjoy the sights of the running track, go faster, go slower, go uphill, go downhill …and all without breaking a sweat. Courtesy of (what else but) the iPhone.

Courtesy of this amazing gadget and a new app, my runs (that’s different from ‘the runs’…) are now added to the social networking site EveryTrail. If I take any photos along my route, they are magically uploaded to the Google map in the correct location – I really don’t have to do much to create the little show other than press ‘Start’ when I leave the house and ‘Stop’ when I get home (and ‘Take Photo’ when I want to).

This also shows speed, altitude, and the amount of sweat soaking my T-shirt.

This morning I was out of the house by 7am, inspired by *Twinkle* who had left at 6.15am to attend a (free) morning business seminar run by the owner of a famous izakaya (Japanese bar) in Shibuya.

It was a great run, really enjoyed it!
(Click here to view the following morning jog in full or click on the map or photos)

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Up until now I’ve been using RunKeeper. Unfortunately RunKeeper has consistently let me down, with it losing the GPS signal mid-run and thus producing incorrect statistics. RunKeeper had problems maintaining the GPS signal even in areas where GoogleMaps was working fine.

I’ve only used EveryTrail a couple of times, but I must say, I’ve been mightily impressed. It’s been totally reliable, accurate, and sexy. It also integrates with Facebook took, allowing one to easily post trips to one’s profile.

That’s what we like – a bit of social networking to get up out of the house!

Definitely gets my vote.

Download it now!

Comments (0)

No More Nokia in Japan

Nov 29, ’08 1:19 PM

Nokia just announced that it would stop selling phones altogether and end all marketing activities in Japan.

Continue Reading… Comments (1)

HTC Shift – a Small PC That Exceeded My Expectations

Nov 24, ’08 9:30 PM

I was lucky enough to be loaned a HTC Shift for a few weeks giving me chance to take it for a thorough test drive. Here’s a report on my experience.

Continue Reading… Comments (0)

iPhone 2.2 – Emoji Come to the iPhone

Nov 22, ’08 6:04 PM

Can you hear the angels singing? Been wondering why 0.0001% of the Japanese population is going round with huge grins on their faces?

Oh yes, Friday 21st November 2008 was the day that eMoji came to the iPhone in Japan.

Well, sort of.

It turns out that emoji support is only available for a) sms sent to other Softbank users (whom I know very few of and b) emails sent from a softbank email address to another softbank email address.

According to Apple:

  • If another [non-softbank] email account is used to view a message that contains Emoji, you may see “=” instead of Emoji characters.
  • If iPhone OS 2.1 or earlier is used to view a message that contains Emoji, you may see squares instead of Emoji characters.
  • The ability to send or receive Emoji is server dependent and could be inactive at different times due to the need to update the SoftBank and other service provider’s servers simultaneously.

As the emoji keyboard only appears when you compose a message with the outgoing server set to softbank

So basically, it’s a bit pants. I don’t use a softbank email address, instead preferring to use Gmail with its superb spam filter, web access, bells and whistles. (I do however have a copy of every mail sent to my mobile Gmail address forwarded to my softbank account in order to get a silent alert that I have email) (the incredibly non-useful silent email alert being something else I was hoping would have been addressed in this update).

I have actually found a way to send emoji from a non-softbank address, but it’s not really worth the trouble. In order to do this, first compose an email (including your cutey little emojis) using your softbank account, then change the server before sending. Whether it displays ok or not on the recipients phone is another matter…

I find it odd that with such advanced phones in Japan, simple services such as cross-provider SMS are not available. If we have that, I’d be going emoji crazy. As it is, the only chance I’m going to get to use them is when bugging my iPhone-enabled friend in Osaka. Poor chap.

Let’s hope that the next update to iPhone sees some of these limitations lifted. I have to remember, it’s still early days here in Japan.

The only other significant update was to Google Maps, with the introduction of StreetView. Now that, I must say, is mightily sexy, and I can see it being a fantastic tool in the ‘convert your friends to the iPhone’ toolkit. It is so smooth, just incredible.

Comments (0)

Nokia to Offer Vertu Luxury Handsets and Own Carrier Service in Japan From 2009

Nov 22, ’08 6:00 PM

Vertu to be sold in Japan next year.

Continue Reading… Comments (0)

iPhone Replaced by Apple Following Lock-Out

Nov 22, ’08 9:50 AM

Two nights ago my iPhone suddenly had an emergency breakdown. Somehow the OS became corrupted, and the only way to fix it was to connect it to my mac and let iTunes try its best counselling skills.

The only problem was, iTunes couldn’t connect with it – just kept on asking me to enter the phone’s passcode …which I couldn’t do as the phone wouldn’t let me do anything except make emergency calls. Catch 22.

(For google reference, the error message read:

“iTunes could not connect to the iPhone “*” because it is locked with a passcode. You must enter your passcode on the iPhone before it can be used with iTunes”

This all happened when I was actually in the Apple Store on unrelated business (looking at new macbooks!), but they were so busy I had no chance of seeing the Geniuses (they’re the people who fix stuff), and the sales staff didn’t know what to do. I made an appointment for the following night, and using their in-store wifi started scouring the Apple forums.

Eventually I found out how to force the iPhone into recovery mode (connect to computer, open iTunes, press both buttons until Apple logo appears, then only release the top button, hole the bottom one until iTunes recognises it as being in recovery mode and restores it to factory settings). However, after it rebooted it just came up with another error, “The iPhone “*” cannot be used with iTunes because the information required for activation could not be obtained from the iPhone”. There was nothing I could do but wait until the following night’s appointment.

This being Japan, I was kind of expecting it to take a long time to sort out. Everything here seems to involve endless form-filling – you even have to provide a notarised copy of your birth certificate in order to buy a loaf of bread. (OK, slight exaggeration, maybe.) One problem I saw was the fact that the phone is registered to *Twinkle*, and she was unable to come to the store.

What happened then really surprised me. The chap listened to my story, quickly tested the SIM card in another iPhone (it was fine) …and then reached into the drawer behind him, pulled out a brand new iPhone and handed it to me.

“Is that OK?” he asked.

“Erm, yes!” I said, with a big grin on my face.

“Oh, if you could just sign this receipt to say that Apple will pay that’ll be it”.

And that was it.

Having left the store, it was simply a case of plugging the new phone into my Macbook and leaving it for 30 mins as it restored all my settings (and 15GB of emails, contacts, photos music and apps), resulting in a brand new phone that was identical in content & settings to my old one.

Now THAT is what customer service of the future should be like. It was even accompanied by the happiest music one could hope to hear, wafting up the stairs from the live concert on the ground floor.

Of course, there are reasons why this all happened so quickly and without any fuss. For a start, they were incredibly busy, and the guy was desperate to get through the queue. For a second thing, they already had all my details to hand, as when I made my appointment I’d logged in with my Apple ID.

Still, I thought it was all bloomin marvellous, Yet another excuse to give my money to Apple.

Comments (0)

Runkeeper iPhone GPS Tracking

Nov 22, ’08 9:48 AM

What’s going on in the currency markets? It’s absolutely mental!

During my Year Abroad, £1 equalled 233yen.

Today (45 minutes ago), £1 equals 162yen.

I was just doing the sums – my salary here is is worth £7000 more than it would have been worth a year ago (if sent back home).

This is great news for me, as it now means that, whilst I only have an average salary, I can pay back my debts at a rate of £1000 a month, something which until now I never would have thought possible.

I’m now in the process of resuscitating my long-neglected GoLloyds account, whereby I can deposit cash in any appropriate ATM here in Japan and have it show up in my British bank a few days later (minus fees of course).

In other news, I was up at 7am today for the first of my thrice-weekly jogs. I’m find it interesting how this time round, with the goal of a mini-marathon to aim for, I’m far more motivated when it comes to getting out of bed and heading down the road to the park. It’s not a chore, it’s FUN!

But I know that there may be some mornings when it’s not quite so sunny, or I’m not feeling so enthusiastic about heading out into the cold, and for that reason I’m looking for as many ways as possible to keep me going. Timing my laps was a start, but I knew I needed something more than that…

…enter RunKeeper for the iPhone.

Basically, this app uses satellite navigation to track you as jog your course. From the GPS co-ordinates it can then of course work out your distance and speed. It also makes a note of elevation too.

The results are initially displayed on the iPhone as a bar chart, each bar (where height = speed) being one minute of movement.

That’s all very well and good, but it’s still a bit disconnected from reality. Where it really comes into its own is where you finish your run and tap on Save. Two things happen: it saves your run to your iPhone’s history for later reference, and it then sends that data to the RunKeeper website, which places your route and stats on Google Maps.

How sexy is that?!

(Unfortunately I neglected to restart it after a pause for shoelace-tying up so the data on this screenshot is incorrect (I went further and faster!))

These are the kinds of uses of hardware, software and networks that I find really exciting. They can have a real positive impact upon my lifestyle, playing on some of my weaknesses (love of tech) to overcome other weaknesses (lack of extended dedication?).

Now all I need is an app that will sync with my camera to location-tag all my photos, then I think my life will be complete!

Comments (0)

iPhone Little Runners

Nov 22, ’08 9:47 AM

kitanomura children playing_0348

kitanomura children playing_0355

I was sitting in Kitanomura park at lunchtime, eating my carrot and daikon salad, whilst watching the children play.

I wondered what the view from my bench might look like at other times of year, so I tapped the screen of my iPhone once, and a few seconds later was presented with a whole collection of photos taken within metres of where I sat, including one of the very bench I was sitting on. Someone else was sitting on it.

It felt a bit funny.

The wonders of modern technology.

Comments (2)

iPhone Tops Customer Satisfaction Among Business Types, Beats Blackberry

Nov 20, ’08 2:19 PM

The iPhone ranks highest in customer satisfaction among business types.

Continue Reading… Comments (0)