US iPod and Japanese text
 

Do iPods sold in the US have language support for Japanese?

In other words, will I be able to see titles written in Japanese with an American iPod?

I put my Ipod in japanese.
Everything will be in japanese.
but song titles, videos and etc will not

So you are saying if the file name is in Japanese characters, they will not appear on the screen in Japanese? What do they look like?

Song titles that appear in Japanese on my computer maintain their names on my ipod in most cases.

The iPod has Japanese as a language option under settings (at least on my 5th gen. video), so I'm assuming it would.

Your ipod will display in any language that is written in your MP3's properties. If the properties artists and title fields are empty, then your ipod (or any other MP3 player) will display the files name.

Edit: Don't really know if the same goes for video formats.

All Apple products come with Japanese support. However, when using a PC to transfer files, the UTF-8 may become garbled. MacOS X + iPod guarantees your UTF-8 encoded filenames remain able to be read.

I don't know which iPod you're talking about, my but 1st Gen iPod Touch has Japanese support, and a full Japanese keyboard.

And what few Japanese songs I DO have on it, it does display the actual characters perfectly.

Japanese Apps also work 100%. But in order to get some Japanese apps that are sold on Japan's App Store, you must create a Japanese account. An American account limits you to the North American App Store only.

Hope this helped.

I am thinking about a Nano....but am not sure yet.

Thanks for the replies.

The iPod does support Japanese, and has for quite a long time. One we bought in the US long long ago (3rd of 4th gen) even handled it with no trouble.

However... Allow me to be completely honest and say that having owned several different players and several different iPods, the iPod surcharge has never seemed worth it. Maybe if you want to have video support, but video support on something with such a tiny tiny screen seems, well, pointless to me.

My husband currently uses a nice little player (I forget the model and he is off on a business trip so no quick checking possible) that cost 6980, holds 12GB, has a color screen, and has yet to fail from being accidentally dropped while riding a bicycle - something that managed to kill all the iPods on first or second drop. And even after a year of daily use it still only needs to be charged once every few days.

Not meaning to discourage an iPod purchase, but these days it is at least worth considering the other players out there.

Good information, Nyororin... if you remember the name let me know.

this may be a stupid question, but does the iStore only support Apple products, or can I load iTunes songs onto any device?

I hope you don`t mind - I moved your edit down into your post. :D

As far as I know, Apple is pretty strict when it comes to that so I am quite sure it`s a no. But we still buy from iTunes anyway - just burn a copy and then import it for the other devices. We have to burn a CD anyway in order to import it into the car system (it will only import from audio cds and won`t allow us to copy ready-made mp3s or the like to it) so usually burn the CD, import it again to the PC, then take it out to the car. You can only make so many copies, if I recall correctly, but I have yet to need to make more than one.
In the past, I have burned virtual copies on a virtual drive from inside iTunes and then imported that to avoid wasting a CD.

I agree with Nyororin. There are other players that better than iPod. I have a friend who's a fan of iPod's and for the past 2 years he broke two after simple drop on the ground and his third one doesn't look like it will last long.
So, if you want a player that'll last longer than it's guaranty, then iPod isn't a best choice.

Care to share any suggestions?

I was mistaken about the 12GB - turns out that he went with an 8GB version that was 2000 cheaper. This; [ Welcome to cowon.com ]
Apparently you can find it now for around 6000 yen in shops.

He also swears by the Gigabeat U408 and still uses it pretty regularly. Apparently the Cowon one is great for using as a USB drive, so it gets that duty more than that of a music player.

With both of them the battery lasts forever. The Toshiba he uses it daily but only charges maybe once a week. He has dropped it countless times, and even once walked his bicycle over it by accident - but there is no real damage other than some scratches. He prefers to use it while on his bicycle because it`s already scratched.
He hasn`t dropped the Cowon much, but when he forgot the Toshiba charger on a trip to Tokyo he used it for 2 weeks without charging and was still able to listen to it on the trip home.

Pretty much directly from my husband;
iPodの容量が多くていいと思って使ってたけど、実際入� �てみると音楽そんなに持ってないし、落とせばすぐに� �れてしまう。しかも高い。電池すぐわるくなるし、電� �交換もありえないぐらいお金取られる･･･もう買う� �はないでしょう～

The HD Zune is sick. My old high school friend had one, and I messed with it a lot. However, Apple's App Store rapes Zune's.


I still think the iPod Touch is the best.

Yes, ipods do support several types of text including japanese, korean, and others.

But ipod does suck, as far as suggestions, no offense but F the zune. cowon iaudio players.

iTunes is a program, not an audio file format. So by "can I load iTunes songs onto any device" do you mean "can I use iTunes to load songs onto any device", or do you mean "can I load songs bought on the iStore onto any device"?

If it's the former, I have no idea.

If it's the latter, the answer is "yes", but it might take some work.

Songs from Apple's iStore is in a format called AAC. SOME media players support this format, some do not. So if yours does not, you would need to convert it to a format your media player understands. There are tons of programs that do this.

Even more complicated, Apple used to encrypt their AAC files in a format called FairPlay. No other media player besides Apple's can (legally) play these. For these, you can either use (illegal in the USA, not sure about Japan) software to break the encryption, or you can burn the file to a CD and then rip it to your favorite format (e.g. mp3, ogg, ACC, whatever).

One more note. Most digital audio file format supports the ability to include text within the audio file. [Note the title or the song name, but arbitrary text.] iPods are able to display this text. I can confirm that US iPods can display Chinese text, I haven't tried Japanese, but I assume it could.

Thanks for the help.

So what I am hearing is that iPods are not that great, but are the easiest way to listen to music purchased at the iTunes store.

Yes. If you only purchase music from the iTunes store and only listen to it on the iPod or through a device capable of coupling with the iPod (using official iPod cables or connector) - then it is indeed the easiest way to do things. If this is what you will be doing, the iPod will be the easiest route.

I personally prefer to be able to hook up a device by USB anywhere and access the music inside to play (if you do not have iTunes you cannot do this with the iPod). We have found the iPod to be quite fragile if there is any chance of dropping it, and we have found the battery replacement simply outrageous. Especially when at about 2 hours of play a day, the battery capacity drops very quickly and soon it doesn`t last through half the commute. Of the four iPods we have owned only one still works through some miracle... All the other music players are still alive and happy - one even after being put through the wash. The Toshiba one I linked to has been in use for 2 years now and still retains about 80% of it`s original battery capacity. After 2 years my iPod would only stay on for 20 minutes on a full charge.

What we do is this;
Buy an album on iTunes.
Burn an audio CD from within iTunes.
Import the audio CD as MP3 in iTunes or something else.
Put MP3s in device.

(Additionally - play the CD other places in the house or in the car, etc.)

It isn`t really THAT difficult and as I would be burning a CD of it anyway, it is really only the extra step of importing.

Didn't theJapanese make iPods?


No seriously, did they?

No.

-----------------

I'd go for Nyororin's suggestion. iAudio 7 is a good choice and as far as I know is has the longest playback (60 hours) compared with other mp3 players in out there in the market. But if you want a player that plays more than audio, then I might suggest COWON D2. It's also has a good video and audio playback. The downside of the two players is that they don't support the ACC format, so you'll be stuck with converting songs, you buy in iTunes.

Designed in California (by Apple), built in Shenzhen (China), in a factory owned by a Taiwanese company (Foxconn).

Ah, globalism, gotta love it!

XD Ah, I see, Americavs love their music, so we make alot of new gadgets for it.

I unfourtanetly seem to have the issue of stereyotyping all technology to be made by Nihon. I'll work on that . . .

Insomia stinks. I've been up since 3:30! Hopefully this is the only night . . .

i'm sorry.. but....
o.o'
how they bloody hell do you manage to drop several players while on a bike... AND... have one go through a wash?????? >.<'''

I own a iPod Tough 2nd Gen. (bought in US)

It supports Japanese and other languages as well. Normal words (for example "calender") for the application will be displayed in Katakana. The apps you download will appear in whatever language the app supports.

Songs and files will be in whatever language you edit the file to have.

~for ipod touch~

Husband, riding with a player in his suit jacket pocket or shirt breast pocket on a twice daily 40~45 minute bike ride. Go over a bump or something and have to lean forward at just the right angle that another bump sends the player out of the suit pocket. Or catch the earphone cable on something (hand, handle) and the player goes flying off. (The more common one)

It`s only been about 5~6 times over 4 or 5 years. It isn`t like this is a daily event. But it does happen.

As for the wash, left the disconnected player in his shirt pocket and tossed it into the washing machine. Only once in 4 or 5 years.

The most common dropping is getting off the bike and catching the cable when he gets his bag out of the basket. But this isn`t when the bike is moving so it usually doesn`t break a player.

I`ve never dropped a player myself, but then again I don`t ride a bicycle for about 90 minutes every day.

On my regular mp3 player if the song title is in romanji then while playing, the title will appear in kanji.

Wait a minute. You are saying your mp3 player can convert the song title to kanji from romaji. What is it called?

Its fairly old and I forgot the model name but I do know its a coby. Sorry I cant be more help.

If it can convert romaji to kanji, I am guessing it is from the future.

I have no complaints about the ipod. My first one burned up when I accidentally got it wet, but the other 2 I've had are still going strong. The ipod will display whatever language the song is downloaded in, American CDs are in English, Japanese CDs are in Japanese. Songs downloaded from US and Japan Itunes stores will be in the language of whichever store.

One bad thing about Japan Itunes is that is doesn't have nearly as many titles available as the America version, and you can't purchase movies through Itunes Japan.

I haven't gotten around to buying an ipod touch yet, but probably will as my current ipod is couple years old now. My GF has the touch, and she loves the different applications available for it, especially being able to stream American (and other) radio stations via the internet and wifi.

Quote: I'm guessing it's from the future.



Maybe HE'S from the future. o.O

My guess - only the title is in romaji. There is MP3 data attached to the file containing the proper song and artist names. That is what is being displayed when being played.

That`s normal. Thinking it is converting romaji to kanji is not. :)

I was going to answer the question but looks like it's been mostly answered already -- so I'll just say that the statement about iPods being made in Japan is kind of correct, only kind of.

If you take iPod to mean mp3 player, which a lot of people do...
Toshiba's GIGABEAT was the first mainstream mp3 player, both in Japan and in the US.

I have a couple mp3 players, but they are not iPods. Do people call non-Apple music players "iPods"?

Possibly, depending on how you use the term.

Basically saying an iPod is close enough to right in most cases for you to call what you have that, and people know what you're basically talking about in casual terms, like saying "Oh, we're listening to Demi's iPod"

Although when you're talking about specific types of players, you'll actually say something other than iPod, unless that's what you technically have, like people have been doing here.

In the same way that people used to call all portable cassette players "walkmen", even though strictly speaking only those made by Sony were really "Walkmen". Same with facial tissue vs Kleenex, adhesive bandages vs Band-aid, etc.