[Nyororin]

In the end a cell phone camera is just going to be a cell phone camera. The lens and photo processor are crap, so no matter what the specs may be the photos still look pretty bad. I would definitely NOT want to rely on my phone as my sole camera. In fact, unless I am explicitly taking a photo to mail to someone via phone, I probably never use my cell phone`s camera at all.

I am going to second the bad stuff about Softbank. They are the kings of hidden charges and shady contracts. You sign up for a plan that says it is only so much a month, no matter what - but that "no matter what" doesn`t include every circumstance in which you would use the phone. I`ve heard of people signing up for the cheapest package plan with "everything" included and getting bills of 100,000yen the first month because they used something other than the "everything" and didn`t know it. Plus, their phones are crappy, their coverage sucks, and their reception in covered areas is iffy.
Docomo has the widest and most extensive coverage over the country, the largest network, the fastest reliable data transfer rate, etc etc. AU is second, but they have areas where the coverage is strong, and areas where they just don`t reach at all. Docomo in general covers the most.

As for phone spam - try setting up the spam filter. :P It`s there for a reason. On any of the services you can even set it up to accept only mail from addresses you have pre-approved. But in general, if you set up the basic filters spam is pretty rare. If you don`t bother, it`s kind of like setting up a free mail account and, well, keeping the spam filters all off.

I am personally pretty pleased with Docomo`s unlimited data packet plan - it is in three steps - if you use virtually no packets/data that month the base fee is 300 something yen (it includes 300 something yen worth of "free" packets). Between 300 and 4000 it charges by the packet - and once you hit 4000 the charges stop and you are basically unlimited.