Gizmodo: softbank

Mind-Bending Quentin Tarantino Commercial May—May—Be Selling Speakers

Jack Loftus — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:30:00 EST

Say I told you I have a commercial with Quentin Tarantino selling Softbank products as Uncle Tara-chan while a talking dog opines and a woman answers a dog phone. Would you believe me? This is Japan. Of course you would.

With these two ads, Tarantino joins a long line of U.S. celebrities who have flown across the Pacific to do zany Japanese commercials. If you'll recall, Brad Pitt did a few Softbank spots not too long ago too. This one though, by far, is the most bat shit insane of them all. [CNET]

Who Pays $1,000 For a Damn iPhone Case?

Adrian Covert — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:50:00 EDT

Apparently, the Japanese do. Because that's exactly where the Japan Texture cases from SoftBank BB are going on sale. But really, this is ridiculous—these things don't even have diamonds on them.

The Japan Texture line of cases are all handcrafted and have referential nods to significant moments and concepts in Japanese history and culture. That's wonderful. But no moment in any nation's history on an iPhone case is worth a $1000 friggin' dollars. Except maybe when James Brown sung Living in Rocky. [Softbank via Crunchgear]

In Japan, Brad Pitt Is But a Sumo's Butler

Mark Wilson — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:40:00 EDT

The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.Celebrities often cash in on commercials overseas, and Brad Pitt, a speechless spokesperson for cellphone company Softbank, is no exception.

In America, Brad Pitt's cool enough to dump gorgeous stars like Jennifer Aniston and walk away to a small pile of babies. In Japan, he's just sumo champion Musashimaru's butler.

But we must admit, Pitt does a pretty good job as a butler. If the whole movie star thing doesn't work out, we could use someone to hold our cellphone while cradling us tenderly. [via MobileCrunch]

Japan's Bullet Trains to Get Wi-Fi

Mark Wilson — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 16:40:00 EDT

Starting this week, Japan's Shinkansen bullet trains will feature wireless LAN from Tokyo to Osaka.

A project including the joint efforts of NTT, KDDI and SoftBank, Japan's big three wireless carriers, data lines were actually run aside the entire track and use periodic wireless transmitters to connect to passengers.

From inside the train, users should enjoy speeds of 2Mbps even through tunnels, while those waiting at station concourses will be blessed with speeds up to 54Mbps (which happens to be the peak speed of wireless n routers, or about 6 times the speed of the only DSL service to offer wiring in my apartment building). [CrunchGear and Getty]

Ed note: Technically this shot is from China, but shhh, I just liked it.

Softbank's Speeek iPhone App Translates Spoken Japanese to English On the Fly

John Mahoney — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 11:15:00 EST

Speeek is an app that can recognize up to 1,500 spoken Japanese phrases and translate them into either English or Chinese. Pocket Babel Fish? Yes please.

This is, of course, only for Japanese speakers, and it only covers basic hello/goodbye/where is the bathroom type phrases, but this doesn't seem like too far of a leap for Google's voice search app, which would be pretty exciting. Even if it didn't read the words back to you—seeing your jibber jabber translated in close to real time into any one of Google Translate's 34 languages, well, sign me up. The app costs around $20 in Japan, and the English and Chinese versions are separate. [BBSS (translated) via DVICE]

Brad Pitt Putts Around France, Snaps N00dz in Japanese Softbank Cellphone Ad

Elaine Chow — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 01:15:00 EST

Here's an unlikely combination brought to you by the Japanese ad industry: Hipster director Wes Anderson, sexy third-world-kid-adoptothoner Brad Pitt, topless French ladies and... Japan's Softbank cellphones.

The ad, for Softbank's winter line, is a remake of the 1953 French film Les Vacances de Monseieur Hulot. Pitt looks over some fruit, helps push a stalled car, nearly gets run over by bikers and then snaps some nudie pics with his cellphone. Sacré bleu, Pitt-san! [ via Defamer]

Aquos Fulltouch: The Highest Resolution Cellphone of All Time

Mark Wilson — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 13:45:00 EDT

It's not available in the US, but Softbank customers will be able to snag the Aquos Fulltouch 931SH. It may look a lot like the iPhone, but this phone packs slide-out QWERTY along with a 3.8-inch touchscreen running at a crazy 1024x480 resolution. Not only is that as sharp as the HTC Touch HD—it's super wide screen, ready for 16x9 content. Of course the 931SH packs all sorts of other goodies, including a 1seg tuner and 5MP camera. But why should we tempt you more over something you cannot buy? [Softbank]

Japanese iPhones Getting TV

Kit Eaton — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 05:31:55 EDT

Softbank's just stumped-up with this interesting mobile TV add-on for Japanese iPhone users: it's a separate unit with tuner and aerial that retransmits the signal over Wi-fi to the phone. The rechargeable device will give about three hours of TV oggling, and connects to a special iPhone app that'll be distributed free when the device hits the streets in mid December for a suggested price of around $100. Better still, the receiver unit doubles as an iPhone battery top-up when you link it via the dock connector, for double the utility. And just maybe it'll pave the way for similar non-1seg devices this side of the Pacific. [AVWatch]

iPhone 3G to Sell Out in Japan Within Hours

Jesus Diaz — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 08:30:00 EDT

According to Softbank's founder, Masayoshi Son, the iPhone 3G will sell out completely within hours of its debut in Japan, despite its contract-binding $214 (8GB) and $316 (16GB) price. I wonder if it will be the same in the rest of the world. Apparently, the rumors are that the iPhone 3G will start selling first thing in the morning in the UK and the US, although there are no official times yet. [Impress via Tokyomango, BGR]

EMobile's Japanese Ad Equates Obama with a Monkey to Sell Phones

Adam Frucci — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 17:39:11 EDT

In this Japanese EMobile ad, a monkey politician stands before a crowd chanting and holding up signs calling for change. Yes, that's right, a fucking monkey standing in for Obama is selling phones in Japan. I guess it's to be expected coming from a country that thinks blackface is hilarious, but seriously — this is pretty ridiculous. [Animal NY via Boing Boing Gadgets]

Question of the Day: Will the iPhone Win Over Japan?

Mark Wilson — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:40:00 EDT

It's official: the iPhone is heading to the land of the rising sun. But will it win the hearts of Japan? After all, Japan is pretty much the ultimate testing ground for phones. No one takes their cells more seriously than the Japanese. These are the people who not only text message with the best of them, but watch TV and even write novels on their mobiles. It's almost like they enjoy the restriction of accomplishing so much on a punishing, oversized handheld. Then again, the iPod is quite popular in Japan, the iPhone has a unique UI and brands carry a lot of weight in the country.

Interestingly enough, SoftBank, the telecom carrier offering the iPhone, is a second-tier brand in Japan. They don't have nearly the dominance of Docomo or au, and the company falls back on heavy celebrity endorsements (like Cameron Diaz) to interest the public in their service. Described to us as "the darkhorse" by Japan-native Gawker writer Brian Ashcraft, he added that landing the iPhone is "a major coup" for the company. Do you agree?

iPhone Finally Coming to Japan Courtesy of Softbank

AddyDugdale — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 04:45:00 EDT

Softbank is to bring the iPhone to the Japanese market later this year. With no release date, no price, and certainly no word on whether the deal is an exclusive one, or whether Japan's other carriers can get on the act, this is going to be a short post. [Impress]

Toshiba 815T PB: Transformers-Like Cellphone of Geeky dreams

Kit Eaton — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 03:22:20 EST

Toshiba's new Softbank 815T PB is the robot/cellphone hybrid I would've dreamed of if cellphones had been around when I was a kid. It's made for an upcoming Japanese TV drama called Ketai Sousakan 7 and it really does transform, Transformers-like, into a robot toy complete with tiny bunched fists. Even the display-face is part of the robot effect, and the phone comes with games with the same theme. It's in silver and black, has a QVGA screen, 3.2 megapixel camera and is a 3G phone, so it might venture outside Japanese shores. We don't know much else other than an April release date, but we'll keep you posted. [Gizmodo Japan]

Sharp's Full Face 2 Cellphone Brings iNevitable Comparisons

Haroon Malik — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 05:36:19 EST

The Full Face 2 reminds me of another phone but, in my humble opinion, Sharp's slim cell looks better from the front than the iPhone does. Beyond its appealing looks, however, it doesn't heat up the competition all that much. The display is a 3.2-inch multi-touch-less LCD (480 x 854), it has a 3.2MP camera, micro SDHC support, totes HSDPA, a 1Seg TV tuner that will be all but useless in the States, and will be available in either black, soft pink, champagne gold, white or ice blue. The Full Face 2 is a Japan-only release—I can't believe I got to put the words "full," "face" and "release" in the same sentence without making it naughty. Bravo, Sharp. [Akihabara News]

Disney Mobile Resurrected—In Japan

Matt Buchanan — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 03:30:54 EST

Almost two months after announcing that it'd be shutting down in the US at the end of the year, Disney Mobile's finding new life across the sea. Disney's latest MVNO—Japan's first, according to Reuters—will run off of Softbank's network and sell its phones at Softbank's stores. With two dead MVNOs under its belt, going for round three in one of the tightest markets in the world seems insane, but the level of Disney love in Japan might give them a shot at actually making money this time. [Reuters]

Japan Gets a Zaku 2-Style Helmet Phone from Sharp and Softbank

AddyDugdale — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 07:58:50 EDT

This must be the only cell phone I can think of whose charger is larger than the phone itself. Sharp and Softbank's charmingly-titled 913SH Full Face is a slider (closed, its looks give more than a nod to the iPhone, IMHO) which comes with an enormous Zaku 2 helmet that you stand the phone on to admire, charge, admire and charge. We thought you might like a gallery to brighten up your Monday.

The 913SH Full Face homepage takes a bit of time to launch, and there's only about seven seconds of explosive phone action, but it's worth a look. [Softbank via Gizmodo Japan]

Touching Dozens of Beautiful Japanese Cellphones

Brian Lam — Thu, 28 Dec 2006 11:39:11 EST

I'm in Tokyo, and I've been avoiding gadgets. After all, I'm supposed to be on vacation. But today Lisa took me to Akiba, and I ended up running through a dozen stores, groping over 50 handsets. I've written about some, like the incredibly simple Wilcom R9, glowing Sony Ericsson w43s and walkman-like w42s. But gripping the alien tech live was unexpectedly incredible. Here's a video of the most gorgeous handsets I could find. –Brian Lam

Japan [Gizmodo]

Hot Blond and Flat Rates Overload Cellphone Company's Computers

Brian Lam — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 15:11:01 EST

Whass happening, hotstuff?!

Japanese cellphone company Softbank simultaneously ran a lost-in-translation like commercial of Cameron Diaz strutting her blonde ambition, while dropping Japan's first flat rate calling plan. Since most bills are still per minute and the whole of Japan is perverted, the response was insane.

The new business from those horny for both unlimited rate minutes and foreign lady-friend overwhelmed their computer systems, and they had to shut down for the weekend.

America: We get crap cars, and cellphones. But we have cheap gas, cheap cellphone plans, and spirited women. Who wins?

Jump to see the commercial.

–Brian Lam

Softbank Commercial Causes System Crash [Tokyo Mango]

Softbank Denies iPhone Rumor, World Weeps

Travis Hudson — Mon, 15 May 2006 11:45:22 EDT

If you recall, last Friday we heard news about a collaboration between Softbank and Apple for the iPod Phone. Unfortunately, Softbank released a statement today more or less saying that the iPhone news was more rumor and speculation. Oh well, at least we still have Tang. Yummm, Tang.

Translated Press Release [SoftBank]

Japan to Get TV Via Internet

tgrumet — Tue, 20 Dec 2005 08:57:17 EST

If you've got it, flaunt it. That's one mantra that hasn't eluded the Japanese when it comes to technology. And because the country has the cheapest high-speed Internet in the world, as well as one of the best broadband markets, it's nice to see everyone working together to bring people streaming TV on their Internet connections. Softbank and Yahoo Japan are the two companies in charge of this new streaming video service and plan to form a company that will operate it. Called "Yahoo!Doga," it is aiming to be a portal site for about 100,000 different programs. Best of all, the companies plan to work with all the different broadcasters, rather than just a few. A trial is in the works as we speak and the service should be available by March 2006.

Softbank, Yahoo Japan start Internet TV service [Reuters]