vB Easy Archive - Euro vs Jap Firmwares

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Euro vs Jap Firmwares
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Posted by: martindesu

My 903SH Euro takes a photo in photo mode - great.
Then, when I go to view it in 'my pictures' it is already in landscape mode (meaning it doesn't take up the full screen)... here...

Then, my Japanese FW will take a photo in the same mode, but the preview is not the same as on the Euro firmware - which is a bit of a pain as it makes previewing pictures a pain in the ***...

This isnt a big problem, I am just weighing up the pro's and the cons of having the Jap FW or the Euro. Being as I am actually in Europe... the Euro FW is hugely outweighing the Jap in terms of ease of use and connectivity.

The Euro allows full WAP, MMS, SMS and pop email. Quite good features, but I really wanted to be able to email in Japanese. This is not easy to do on the Jap firmware as I have to totally access an email app via WAP because the Java app is not supported over WAP.

Posted by: AL9999

Martin, I'm in the same boat as you, I want to have full functionality on my phone living in Australia, which means T9, proper MMS, WAP and email client services, while at the same time having the ability to send emails in Japanese because I have friends in Japan on mobile email addresses.

I'm about to switch to Three next week because they offer a keitai style email address, while Vodafone Australia only offers a WAP based one which doesn't support Japanese text at all.

The way I'm going to realise email is by using my template text input method to 'type' Japanese using Euro firmware. It's a bit of a pain, but all of Euro's features (especially MP3 music support and T9 predictive text) are more important than Japanese input so it's a compromise I'm willing to make.

My text template input method is described in this thread:

http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=873680

You might not like the hassle of adding characters this way but if you'd rather have Euro firmware, it's an option to allow Japanese input in the first place.

Posted by: martindesu

I did actually join three, but went back to Vodafone in a week after they beat the deal. At the moment, I guess that comes first. Yup, with 3 you get a personal email address, although I do have a vodafone one, but via WAP, it seems to completely balls up.

So, now, I guess I either swap the Red 903SH circuit board for the Euro or just pick up the black handset sat next to me and use that, and sell this red one.

This post could be full of "I wish" remarks.

I like the options and stability of the Euro, prefer the colour of the Red, but I can't actually soding use the Japanese input with anything - apart from sending MMS - which then means I get no way of receiving them. At least I can recieve them in Euro!

What's the best way of getting round this and being able to email Japanese phones? Would it be MMS via the Euro handset or POP client via Euro?

I tried all sorts of things with the Japanese FW - including installing Opera in Japanese. That was fun (considering I am still learning)!

Oh well.

Posted by: AL9999

POP client via Euro is the only way. MMS is useless because you can't receive email through MMS no matter what you do - it's not certified in the MMS specification (only sending of email is). Softbank customised the specification to their own liking to introduce receiving of email through MMS.

So anyway, that's why I'm using the text template method to use the POP client, as I've written in that linked thread above.

And also, Three has better deals in Australia than Vodafone, so that makes the swap easy. Only reason I stayed with them for so long was for Vodafone live access; until I checked last week with a Three prepaid USIM that all of Planet 3 worked with the 903, I didn't want to change. Plus, Vodafone Australia has been going downhill slowly for the last two years anyway. It also hasn't introduced ANY of the fancy features the Vodafones in Europe enjoy, such as Vodafone Passport.

So yeah, goodbye Vodafone.

Posted by: martindesu

Ah, ok!

Nice one. Enjoy the better deal! My Euro handsets are locked anyway. Who knows. I will give your text template a try - sounds impressive

I guess now I just need Euro FW on my Red 903SH and I will be 90% happy. haha.