vB Easy Archive - Can I reinstall Japanese on a flashed 703?

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Can I reinstall Japanese on a flashed 703?
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Posted by: aesculanus

If someone flashed a 703 to get rid of the japanese, can i flash it back and put it on a US network?

I'm asking because I'm looking at this phone on yes asia but it says english only, even the keys are clearly kana keys.

my wife has declared the 903 too fat for her tastes...

http://us.yesasia.com/en/PrdDept.as...pid-1004090473/

Posted by: ace587

ok dude, if u flash a 703 itll still work on a US network, also pay attention to the bands, its been talked all over here for a while now, yeah if u think the 903 is too fat, then u shudnt get a japanese phone in the first place, because theyre all fat

Posted by: aesculanus

Well she's Japanese and according to her there is such a thing as small Japanese phones. God she is so ****ing picky about this crap.

She just needs it to key Japanese. We live in NYC and Boston so I don't think bands are an issue.

Basically, if I have a "non-japanese" 703 with Japanese keys, I can reflash it with Japanese software, and get it to work on T-Mobile or AT&T. Is that the deal? I can handle the flash tech stuff, as long as I have the equipment and directions.

Posted by: aesculanus

Of course, my next question would be: Where do I get this flash and what do I need to run it?

And one more thing - this thing will roam in Japan off a US carrier, like the 903 right?

Posted by: ace587

most 703sh are flashed to euro/hk fw, either fw, itll still work

Posted by: aw614

just get a samsung 707sc, 706sc or any samsung on softbank that is unlocked

Posted by: aesculanus

yeah, it'll work as a phone, but it won't work for her - she needs the japanese. i heard something like the japanese fw isn't good because the ringtones suck or it can't play mp3s or something - she doesn't care. what she needs is that japanese, and i what i need to know is that if i buy one flashed to hk or eu or some other fw, i can flash it back to japanese.

Posted by: ace587

pics of her plz

Posted by: aw614

its from softbank uh what language you think its gonna have

Posted by: aesculanus

the samsung is ugly to her, and it's just as expensive as everything else, so that would be an absolute last resort

Posted by: ace587

pics!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by: aesculanus

sorry dude? look, she's coming back on the 17th, I'd like to have this set up for her before she's back. can you help me out here? i'm not some sharp phone expert here trying to be cute....

Quote:

Originally Posted by ace587

pics of her plz

Posted by: aw614

i dont think under 250usd is expensive

Posted by: ace587

ill say get a 703shf, its japanese only, it cost around 150 now, if u can find one then sweet

Posted by: aesculanus

what is the difference btwn the sh and shf? i also notice some have little loop for a strap on the corner, while others have it centered... is it the same phone???

Posted by: ace587

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesculanus

what is the difference btwn the sh and shf? i also notice some have little loop for a strap on the corner, while others have it centered... is it the same phone???

703shf loop is the middle, 703sh loop is on the corner, 703shf is only japanese, no uk/hk fw for it, best option if ur wife wants only pure japanese, plus it has a built in felica. but thing is its hard to find one now, i sold mine long time ago,yeah its the same size as the 703sh, the 703sh's f means it has felica, with themes, and better colors

Posted by: aesculanus

okay so shf is good, but now, if i can only find a non-japanese sh, can i flash it back to japanese myself? can you point to a manual of some sort that explains how to do it? thanks

Posted by: aesculanus

btw, what is "felica?" just some gui themes or something?

Posted by: yangj08

Felica is Japan's mobile contactless card system. It can be used for payments, public transportation, and some types of lock systems. Other countries use it too, but without the right IC-appli the phone won't work with them.

Posted by: AL9999

I've largely been keeping out of this conversation, but I think I need to give my opinion now. I've wanted to have Japanese input on a phone outside Japan that also happens to run all its features properly, but the fact of the matter is this just isn't possible. No company is interested in adding Japanese capability to phones sold outside Japan, and phones sold inside Japan are basically made only to work there and nowhere else.

There are a few things you can do though:

* Get a Nokia phone sold in Japan. Nokia phones sold in Japan are the exception to the rule. A couple of Nokia's phones sold in Japan (namely the E61 and 6630) come with Japanese support built in. They're also SIM-free (unlocked), which is rare to find. However they're rather ugly and not the kind of phones a lady would want to use.
* Talk to KDDI Mobile (www.kddimobile.com) - KDDI now has an American division that specialises in phones for Japanese people living in the US. They've upgraded Sanyo 6600 Katana phones with Japanese support, which work on Sprint's CDMA network. However these phones won't roam in Japan because KDDI's Japan CDMA network has been tweaked so as to be unique to the rest of the world's CDMA networks, preventing all but KDDI Japan phones from working on it. I'm also not sure if KDDI Mobile offers an email service Japan style; they don't say on their website. You'll need to ask them this, but I'd find it hard to believe they'd upgrade phones with Japanese support and not add an email service because you need one to communicate with phones in Japan.
* Get a Sharp (or Samsung) phone with Japanese firmware - such as the 703SH, 703SHf, 903SH etc as has been mentioned before. Problem with this method is that these phones won't be able to communicate to email addresses because of Softbank's MMS system being unique compared to the world's one. The phones also don't have POP or IMAP email clients with Japanese firmware, although with Euro/Hong Kong/Taiwan firmware they do (but these three firmwares don't have Japanese input support). This defeats the purpose of having them for Japanese messaging as all phones in Japan are email based and not SMS based (with the exception of DoCoMo FOMA phones and Softbank 3G phones, but nobody in Japan will want to communicate via SMS because it costs 50-100 yen per single message to a recipient outside Japan).

Incidentally the 703SH/SHf and 903 are almost as thick as each other. 703 is just a bit more compact length/width-wise.

So anyway, these are your solutions.

Posted by: aesculanus

When I was on att wireless a few years back we could text message to emails, and our email address was phonenumber@att.mobile.net or something like that. it's not real email - there's character limits and size issues, but was decent enough. couldn't this suffice for mailing to phones in japan if the mms system doesn't work?

Posted by: AL9999

It could. Really depends on whether AT&T's conversion process supports multi-byte characters (needed for Japanese). If not, the receiving end will get a message with garbled text. This is something you can't know without trying I'm afraid, because customer service usually don't know the answers to these questions.

Posted by: martindesu

I got garbage in the UK. Not only that, but more often than not, the email sent to Japan would be poop as well.

It's a real pickle - isn't it?

My computer can switch between Japanese and English at the drop of a hat (or 903sh)... why can't my phone?!!?!?!

Posted by: AL9999

I got garbage as well on Voda Australia, likely because they use the same system as Voda UK. Glad I'm on Three now, no encoding issues

Posted by: aesculanus

thanks for the input AL. I've just one more question now - do any of these phones (703shf, 903sh, toshiba 810t) support data tethering on ATT or tmobile? the data specs say they support wireless headsets, but how about bluetooth tethering?

Posted by: ace587

yes they do, ive used my jabra on it

Posted by: AL9999

The Sharps do, the Toshiba does not. The latest Toshiba 80x model phones (810T, 811T etc) don't have Bluetooth support for some weird reason.

Posted by: aesculanus

ace, i meant data tethering to your bluetooth laptop for internet access

Posted by: aesculanus

probably to boost sales of the 9xx line. i've actually grown quite fond of these phones while tracking down the 703shf for my wife (finally got it off yahoo japan's auction site).

if i could use the 910 for data tethering to my laptop, i'd buy one of those for myself while i was at it....

Quote:

Originally Posted by AL9999

The Sharps do, the Toshiba does not. The latest Toshiba 80x model phones (810T, 811T etc) don't have Bluetooth support for some weird reason.

Posted by: AL9999

Yeah Yahoo Japan Auctions is pretty much THE place to buy keitai. There's just the problem of nearly all auctions not shipping outside Japan, so you need an address in Japan to receive the phones...

The 910SH also supports Bluetooth with the profile for dial up internet access (well, packet-based 3G data access for your laptop to use, but you know what I mean). But as you know it's locked, which doesn't help...

Well Bluetooth isn't as necessary in Japan because it just hasn't taken off - they all still use infra-red for data transfer. The stupid thing is Toshiba actually repacked the 811T for Hong Kong and sold it as the TX80. It's quite silly because without Bluetooth it loses appeal for heaps of people...

Posted by: martindesu

Quote:

Originally Posted by AL9999

I got garbage as well on Voda Australia, likely because they use the same system as Voda UK. Glad I'm on Three now, no encoding issues

Having said that... my bill is now £15 a month (was £35 a month) and I get 500 anytime minutes, 500 texts and £2.50 data (enough for mail). I am pretty pleased about that. It's also only a 12 month contract.

I digress. Regarding the email situation - I seem to be doing just fine using the POP client. Sometimes I get a bit of garbage from an AU by KDDI handset, but softbank and Docomo seem* to be fine.

*so far

Posted by: otakki

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesculanus

probably to boost sales of the 9xx line. i've actually grown quite fond of these phones while tracking down the 703shf for my wife (finally got it off yahoo japan's auction site).

Too late to say this now, but try to get a pre-Dec 2005 model for easier unlocking (Got another 703shf off Yahoo Japan Auction earlier this year based on that). Anyway, you probably know that already. Again, I highly recommend Mr. Silbert of iUnlock.com at Boston.

Posted by: aw614

Quote:

Originally Posted by otakki

you have a lot of 703's lol

Posted by: Kevbodian

i like the 703sh better than the 703shf for 3 reasons:

better colours (orange, come on, its perfect)
cross flashable therefore:
no repro on japanese firmware with a special trick.

Posted by: aesculanus

"no repro on japanese firmware with a special trick."

please enlighten me... i need japanese fw on this phone, regardless or which model....

Posted by: Kevbodian

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesculanus

"no repro on japanese firmware with a special trick."

please enlighten me... i need japanese fw on this phone, regardless or which model....

the "special trick" is only doable by people with flashing equipment on hand. remote solutions wont do it.

in other words, you would have to send your phone and sim card to someone else.... or get the tools urself

Posted by: aesculanus

okay: you mean that i would be better off just buying an unlocked 703shf that already had this "special trick" performed? you mention flash equipment as though it's some sort of piece of hardware i would need as well...

i'm not quite following what the issue here even is

Posted by: Kevbodian

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesculanus

okay: you mean that i would be better off just buying an unlocked 703shf that already had this "special trick" performed? you mention flash equipment as though it's some sort of piece of hardware i would need as well...

i'm not quite following what the issue here even is

there is only 1 memeber on this board, or any board for that matter who managed to make a no-repro firmware without any trick (still not permanent though). he isnt really on the board though anymore.

as far as the 'special trick' goes... the 703shf wont work with the 'trick'... only the 703sh

Posted by: otakki

Quote:

Originally Posted by aesculanus

sorry dude? look, she's coming back on the 17th, I'd like to have this set up for her before she's back. can you help me out here? i'm not some sharp phone expert here trying to be cute....

To try it out, my wifey used her shf to send a message in kana/japanese to my shf. I was able to receive the message without any problems, without garbled message.

She also confirmed from other online bulletin board that others were able to do the same in USA, too. I am not sure what phones or carrier they were using, though.

Anyway, I have T-Mobile ToGo for both of our unlocked shf's with japanese firmware (it's the only one for shf anyway). Hope this helps.

Posted by: ace587

Quote:

Originally Posted by otakki

To try it out, my wifey used her shf to send a message in kana/japanese to my shf. I was able to receive the message without any problems, without garbled message.

I see youve been taking care of my 703shf

Posted by: AL9999

SMS is almost always no problem: SMS is usually unmolested by a carrier's servers and goes through untouched. MMS and email are more likely to be stuffed around with on the carrier end, breaking the encoding. MMS the most likely, whereas a proper POP3 or IMAP4 email server shouldn't mess around with email sent through it.

Posted by: otakki

Quote:

Originally Posted by aw614

you have a lot of 703's lol

Just less than half a year ago, I also had a white and a black sh in jpn and hk firmware, respectively...then they left via ebay since I figure I will not be opening a 703 museum.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ace587

I see youve been taking care of my 703shf

Yes, indeed!