Point taken. But mail is a basic function that everybody can use (and the interface is pretty straight forward). But what I was trying to elude to was these more advanced features the parent mentioned - Wifi Sharing, trackpad emulation, facial recognition etc.. who uses those? It seems like features just to have a checkbox rather than actual features that people actually use.

What good are those features if you can't find (and thus can't use) them in the (mostly) horrible interface that make up Japanese cellphones?

I dunno, my old Docomo Foma F703i had a front face camera. Could use it to do video calls etc...and this was a few years ago. Didn't really use it that often though.

In typical slashdot fashion I have yet to RTFA before I comment, but I would assume that they want something where the local weather conditions are not collected by volunteers (although I totally dig their dedication to what they are doing).

I've got a 7.2Mb/384kbit wireless card as my main internet connection in Japan for about $50/month. I am a very heavy user (a few GB/day down is not unusual (all legal, no bit torrent etc.) and haven't noticed any problems except for the some latency issues when using facebook or what not. Note that it is still plenty fast to stream youtube/dailyshow etc.. without any major problems. It really depends on what unlimited means and the coverage in your area. Here unlimited seems to really mean unlimited. Thus at least for me, I think switching to a 3G connection as your main/only connection to the internet is completely viable.

I guess the difference is that in Japan, all phones have had push email accounts for years. Instead of being @mobileme or @yahoo.com they are @carrier.jp and are created when you purchase your phone. Instead of being charged per message, you are charged per packet. So if you like to write very long winded messages, they will end up costing you (marginally) more. In Japan, the push problem is solved without MMS. It just takes all the carriers to cooperate with each other for the benefit of everyone. And as a Tokyoite, I thank them.