電気製品 Electronics

The J-Cell

My favorite new gadget is my J cell phone. The thing has depths of complexity I may never reach. Let me begin with the coolest features. It works in at least 100 countries including the US, maybe more. Of course it has web-browsing which many in the states also have. Through this feature it can check train schedules and give routes and connection information in English. For you other gaijin trying to navigate the keitai this site is http://mb.jorudan.co.jp/jen/cgi/vext.cgi on the phone. It has lists of the first, next and last trains. There are four different translation functions. A Japanese (Kanji, etc.) to English, English to Japanese, Katakana (script used for foreign words) to English and an optical dictionary that takes pictures of English or the J scripts and translates. The last function is no doubt the most interesting and potentially useful for us, but unfortuanately it is not entirely effective. It has a similar function that actually works called a bar code reader. It is the new rage to have a square bar code (not like the rectangular barcodes on most packaging) on your buisiness card that a phone's optical reader can use to direct the inquirer to the right website. There is an infrared sensor used for transmitting information to nearby sources (?). The phone also has a GPS locator and map of wherever you are, and it uses satelites for this feature. It will give you oral and visual directions from A to B (in Japanese). It has a camera, voice, and video recorder so it can email pictures, sound bites, and videos. It has lots of different "manner" settings (the Japanese are into the manner settings) and all sorts of ways to have it ring. It has a voice recorder for little memos and a flashlight on the outside. All this in addition to the standard calender, voice mail, email, etc. The funny thing is that most of it is in Japanese so I don't know about half the functions, probably the deeper half.

This picture is a group of six school girls with keitai and the obligitory "charm" that is one of their few forms of individual expression visible in their attire.