I had mentioned I purchased a new ketai (mobile phone) in my previous post. The one I had been using for the past three years was cool for its time, but its relatively bulky construct - compared to that of most JP models as of late - was grating on my nerves. Worse yet, the thing was not able to keep a signal at all. Thanks Dad, for letting me inherit that weird magnetic field thing. So I ended up purchasing the new Sony W62s.
I love this phone. It’s thin, extremely light, has a better camera than my previous phone, has an easy to use GPS system (which I can use to geo-tag pictures), and is even GSM. (Now I have an excuse to travel!) The best thing is, it actually keeps a really strong signal for me, so I can, you know, actually talk to people on it. But seeing as how I am in Japan, I guess I will have to stick to texting. But another cool thing about this model is that it has predictive typing… in English! This is the first time I have found this in a JP phone. And it seems to be adapting its results according to the types of sentences I write. (eg - “Kidney” seems to be the first word that appears when I hit the K key. Imagine that.)
I also like that in the more reflective metallic area on the top of the front faceplate that a small light up display will not only tell you the time, but also display the first few lines of any incoming emails - all followed by an animation which I set to a cat doing cute things. Awwwwww… And it only cost me around $100 after using the points I have accrued from my service provider. Wicked.
Now the reason why I posted the Metal Gear Solid related title is because this specific phone will be used by characters in the game. At least this sort of product placement seems a bit more feasible than the perfectly-aligned-logo-on-the-cola-bottle shots we see on TV shows, or the oddly placed billboards in some first-person-shooters. And seeing as how MGS4 is a pretty big deal for the PS3 (ie - Sony) they have released a rather replete UI modification system for the phone which has 8 bit style graphics of the characters, but typically focuses on the main character as if he were working a regular 9 to 5 job, albeit in his futuristic espionage gear. The interface also changes many times a day to reflect typical activities that people engage in at the corresponding time of day - at times with random scenarios thrown in for comic effect. Most of it is (not surprisingly) aimed more for MGS players, but it’s also still inane enough in some situations that even people like my mother-in-law got laughs out of it.
Metal Gear Solid 4 comes out on June 21st, and it looks to be completely awesome. MGS3 earned a record-breaking review from me, and given all that seems to be in store for the next instalment, I am expecting that I may draft something to put Dostoevsky to shame. (It might also be equally effective at putting people to sleep as his material, too!) I’m really champing at the bit for this one, so I guess I’ll just have to settle with some silly animations with the characters on my über cool new ketai for the time being.
And Momoko already said that if the iPhone comes out here soon she would be willing to take this phone off of me, so I can get the Apple goods without worrying about “wasting” money. Woohoo!