According to reporter Nobuyuki Hayashi, the camera of the iPhone 3G sold in Japan will make a shutter sound every time you take a photo, even if you put the telephone in silent mode. The reason: all those pervs taking photos up the skirts of unsuspected women in public places.
According to Hayahi, the problem of up-skirt photography is so bad in Japan that most new mobile phones have this feature (if you are a women) or bug (if you are a perv.) According to him, “some manufacturers have even put a louder shutter sound.” The Japanese edition of the iPhone, however, just makes the normal one.
I really don’t see the point of this measure however: the iPhone doesn’t have a physical photo button, which really makes extremely difficult to take a clear up-skirt shot.
I mean, I can only guess that’s the case.
Two things to Japanese pervs everywhere: fibre optics and video cameras.
Update: as readers have noticed, you can use Pwnage to jailbreak your iPhone and remove the sound. Why would you want to do this, I don’t know.
Joseph
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 9:00 AMI think all cell phone make the shutter sound when taking pictures. Because my RAZR cell phone makes that shutter sound. I am sure people all over the world have perverts who use their phones for such a purpose.
Alex
Tuesday, July 22, 2008 at 11:00 AMThe Nokia 6120 classic does the same thing it seems. No matter what mode it’s in, it still produces a shutter sound.
Seriously though, glad that laws like this are in place. If the best that some guys can do is go around taking photos up women’s skirts, then they’re pretty sad. Get a life. Life is more than a quick buzz or adrenaline rush, especially when it’s at the expense of another person’s privacy.
Jon
Wednesday, July 23, 2008 at 4:33 PMThis is not the case with my iPhone 3g. The shutter sound is not evident in silent mode.
bob smith
Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 8:39 PMI think it’s law that cell phone cameras have to make a sound in Japan. There was a huge problem a few years ago. Keep in mind that at Yokohama JR train station one police officer is employed to look for perverts year round, that’s just one of the train companies at just one station… multiply it by the 130 train lines and thousands of stations in the Tokyo area.
nobi
Saturday, August 2, 2008 at 4:01 AMBob,
I don’t want to get too nationalistic. But I think they have the police in Yokohama JR station because that is one of the most popular site for perverts. It doesn’t necessarily mean thousand of stations in Tokyo area have police officers although I wish they did; so there would be less problems with borrachos (drunken people), etc.
There are murders almost every minute in the US, but that doesn’t imply all (North) Americans are murderer.
I think that same logic applies to the theory that not all Japanese are pervert.
If you have sufficient imagination about how you would feel, if you are told that people of your nationality are all perverts, you shouldn’t be able to leave such comment.
Maybe all your Japanese friends happen to be perverts for some reason; there is a saying that ‘Birds of a feather flock together.’
But it doesn’t necessarily mean all 150 million Japanese are perverts.
If you are one of those international people who have ever lived outside your own country, you should be more careful about stereotyping.
Shin
Saturday, December 27, 2008 at 12:08 AMTo ‘Jesus Diaz the poster of this Topic’ and every one else.. Every single phone in Japan comes with the shutter noise perminent. It is nothing new.. it has been around for years! Why do you make out like it’s a new thing just with the iPhone? It is completely compulsary and nothing new at all!!