Mobile device use, WiFi, 4G and SIM cards in Japan
English: Photo of a SIM Card from a Japanese FOMA cellphone sold by NTT DoCoMo in March 2008 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This post will summarize a solution I’ve settled on for using a North American smartphone or mobile device for a short period of time in another country (doesn’t have to be as a tourist but for any stays less than the 1-3 year contracts the Telcos’d inevitably try to reel you into, even if you’re only in the country they operate in on a Student Visa). Specically this time its Japan, and the real trick, trying to do it without breaking the bank. While these instructions are pretty specific about travelling from Canada with a device from one of our country’s Telcos to Japan trying to get on their infamously exclusive yet impressively fast Mobile Data Networks, they should work with little modification to go from any country to any other (just ensure the portable mobile data device you use supports the data network type of the country you’re travelling to, some are still stuck on GSM, some only support 3G, some have killed off 1G-3G now only offering 4G/LTE, some are even testing 5G, so it varies greatly and you must get a basic understanding of the network types from your origin country and the destination country in the very least). See wikia’s landing page on Pre-paid SIM cards (and supported data networks) for a rough guide by country or try the WillMyPhoneWork brand/model/country lookup tool.
How I did it
For my setup I’ve relied on the use of a MiFi portable hotspot which I fortunately had already gone through a contract on at home in Canada. This type of device basically sets up a WiFi network wherever you’re going, using a Pre-Paid (or Pay-As-You-Go) SIM card to piggyback a connection off of the data network. Be sure to deactivate any data/voice roaming, cellular data, or voice network functionalities on your core device. On the iPhone6/iOS9 for instance, you can do this under Settings –> Cellular –> Cellular Data Options –> [Roaming Off] and flipping Cellular Data off and also going to Carrier and turning off Automatic setting which is likely set by default.
Hotspot Device
Brand: Novatel
Device: MiFi 2 (5792 model) 4G LTE mobile wireless hotspot
This device is offered by Bell & Bell-Aliant in Canada, and worked quite well for me when travelling in Japan:
http://www.nvtl.com/products/mobile-broadband-solutions/mifi-intelligent-mobile-hotspots/mifi-2-global-4g-lte-touchscreen-mobile-hotspot/
BCmoney MobileTV turns 1 YEAR OLD!!!
- Image via Wikipedia
Title: BCmoney MobileTV turns 1 YEAR OLD!!!
Location: Worldwide
Description: It is the 1-year anniversary of the Public Beta launch of BCmoney MobileTV.
Technically speaking, the official 1-year birthday of the founding of BCmoney as a business on December 17th, 2007 already passed; however the actual public beta launch of the BCmoney MobileTV service took place at MobileMonday Tokyo – Peer Awards this time last year. The Peer Awards are an annual Mobile Business Plan competition hosted in Tokyo, Japan.
Video of the event available here
Over the past year, BCmoney MobileTV has been through a number of transformations, added many features, and integrated with a number of other popular web services. Suffice to say, seeing the continued maturity of the web and constantly improving our technologies, we are getting closer and closer to our original goal of providing a Mobile and Personalized alternative to broadcaster-controlled one-way content services, repetitive and wasteful untargeted ads, and over-the-top deceptive marketing techniques designed to fool you into giving up your time and/or money.
We will continue to forge ahead into the digital frontier and want to take this time to thank all those who have helped along the way (you know who you are!)
Whether you are a user, contributor, fan, friend or supporter (perhaps one of the many friensd/supporters who put up or otherwise supported one main developer), the success of BCmoney so far would not have been possible without you!!!
Start Time: 00:00
Date: 2009-03-24
End Time: 23:59
Last but not least, some services we have our eye on in 2009 and onwards, as potential creative enablers of this crazy vision of our’s:
- Groupon
- Twine
- Freebase
- WolframAlpha
- AdMob
- ShareThis
- Apture
- TinyURL
- WhosAmongUS
- Kaywa (especially their QR code service blowing up in new markets)
Leaving Sony and Japan
Image via Wikipedia
It’s a bittersweet victory as I reach the end of my internship with Sony and thus complete this chapter of my Japan adventure.
I’ve really enjoyed my time here thoroughly though its gone entirely too fast; and while I’m eager to get home and see friends and family I’ve barely been able to keep in touch with, at the same time, I fully expect to experience the reverse culture shock that comes with returning to your home country after spending more than a year abroad. I’ll be holed up in Toronto for the first few weeks at least, to help me transition from big city life of Tokyo back to the quiet (yet drunken & rowdy some weekends) east coast lifestyle.
I’m happy to be on my way back to Canada, however I do have a sense of remorse or a slight feeling of leaving something behind unfulfilled. I feel like I’ll be back to Japan in the not too distant future, especially to pursue a business idea I have related to my thesis.
I’ve made some great friends and lasting memories here, so I’d like to thank IUJ, Niigata and the country of Japan! So to everyone I say not sayonara, just see you later!
ありがとうございます
Internship at SONY
Image via Wikipedia
Interesting news to report.
As a result of the good work my project team and I did on the “SONY 3-IT” project, we’ve all been offered Internship placements. Not to sound boastful, its important to note the excellent work by the runner-up Mobile Gaming team also earned them placements. In total, 8 people were offered an internship just because of the New Product Development course by Dr. Philip Sugai at IUJ; with more to potentially come. The positions will vary in time and location and NDAs are in place all around, so all I can mention is that each of us will essentially just be continuing our previous research projects and digging deeper towards actionable recommendations for SONY IT investment in Research & Design initiatives.
We’ve at least been told that our projects will be used for establishing the next roadmap for real SONY products. The game team likely affecting future generations of the Playstation and PSP lines and our IT team likely affecting future versions of TVs, Computers and Software Portals.
BC$ = Behavior, Content, Money
The goal of the BC$ project is to raise awareness and make changes with respect to the three pillars of information freedom - Behavior (pursuit of interests and passions), Content (sharing/exchanging ideas in various formats), Money (fairness and accessibility) - bringing to light the fact that:
1. We regularly hand over our browser histories, search histories and daily online activities to companies that want our money, or, to benefit from our use of their services with lucrative ad deals or sales of personal information.
2. We create and/or consume interesting content on their services, but we aren't adequately rewarded for our creative efforts or loyalty.
3. We pay money to be connected online (and possibly also over mobile), yet we lose both time and money by allowing companies to market to us with unsolicited advertisements, irrelevant product offers and unfairly structured service pricing plans.