Re: [tlug] First Android Phone in Japan release date announced

["J. Maurice" <j@example.com>]

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 10:58 PM, Dave M G<dave@example.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the explanations of jailbreaking. Sounds like an issue for
> those who are more willing to mess with their phones than I am.

It's actually quite easy and only takes about 5 minutes to load a
rooted OS onto your phone.

> I'll be happy to poke and prod it a bit if people want to know anything
> about it. But I'm not going to do anything that might brick it, because
> I do need to use it as my primary phone.

You're fine as long as you don't touch the SPL / baseband / radio /
bootloader. As long as the bootloader is intact, you can copy any new
OS onto the phone without any risk of bricking it. However, I strongly
recommend you make a backup of your original OS before loading a
rooted one. Anything you want from the original docomo OS will need to
be extracted... otherwise you won't be able to use their flat-rate
data plans, type using Japanese IME, etc. - it will be the same as an
HTC Magic from USA.

http://my.opera.com/wiz/blog/2009/06/14/homebrew-os-on-htc-magic

> This is the most fan-boy-esque I've been about purchasing a device in a
> long time. Yesterday I was at the DoCoMo shop where they have display
> models, but the staff don't yet know the details of service plans or cost.

You can use the standard biz hodai plans for the HTC Magic, so it'll
be around 5700 yen/month for the full flat-rate plan in addition to
whatever voice plan you get (required):
http://www.nttdocomo.co.jp/charge/discount/biz_hodai/

> At the very least I confirmed that in the hand it looks and feels every
> bit as nice as an iPhone. If I had to judge on design, I have to admit,
> the iPhone would get the win. Apple has a great design team. But it's a
> close call. The HT-03A is sexy, especially in white.

The HTC Magic has the same resolution screen as the iphone, but it's a
smaller LCD. Typing on the soft keyboard is so-so. While the Android
OS blows away the iPhone OS in fundamental areas like multitasking,
they've obviously polished the UI much more and their soft keyboard is
quite good. Be a man, carry both phones =)

J