Gerhard Fasol wrote about the disadvantages of the B/W NM502i:
> So if you are addicted to animations of
> Pikachu and Hello-Kitty and hamsters you better get
> a model with a color screen.
--- WAP my hamster.---
Unavailable: C309H color AU (WAP) phone in English
The Hitachi C309H was the first color WAP/AU phone on the market when it
was released recently. Yesterday I went to at my local AU store to
purchase the C309H and was told they did not have any in stock. They
told me do the Hamster Dance to look for the C309H featuring the color
"Hamster Paradise" main menu at other retail outlets in the New Town,
Yokohama area:
http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/vims/mobilephone/c309h/funny/index.html
My AU store had 90 persons on the waiting list for the color C309H
without any scheduled date for an additional supply to become available.
[I bet there are plenty of stores in other areas hoarding an excess
inventory of C309Hs.] All the stores I called only had a waiting list
and quoted the straight retail price of 11,000 yen for the C309H that
features an 8-bit 120x143, 256-color screen, and absolutely NO support
for English or multilingual menus.
http://www.hitachi.co.jp/Prod/vims/mobilephone/
---- Let's International! ------
Also unavailable: international AU roaming in English
While at the AU store I also learned more about the Sanyo cdmaOne C111SA
which is the only AU cellphone that supports international roaming in
the USA, Korea, Australia Hong Kong. HOWEVER, to quote my local AU
store there are, "no plans to release this international phone with an
English interface or menus." (?!)
With "GLOBAL PASSPORT", AU subscribers can use the same handset and the
same telephone number even when they outside Japan, provided they are in
the cdmaOne service area of a partner carrier. At the Sidney Olympics,
Verizon Wireless will provide GLOBAL PASSPORT service.
http://www.cdg.org/cdg/teams/AsiaPac/071800_global_passport.html
Oh well. I gave up on getting the WAP hamster C309H and I bought a
Panasonic C308P (AU) with a "Bash the Mole" game. The grayscale C308P
has rather extensive English documentation and screen menus.
L8r.....
<!-- calvino <calvin-lash@hitachi-cs.co.jp>
Hitachi Communication Systems Inc., TPS
-- translation/localization since 1961 -->
Received on Mon Sep 4 05:26:50 2000