Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Man-e-faces]

If I buy an iphone or a touch, I have to set up an account with itunes to get the apps.
Now I don't want to sign up to the Korean itunes store, I want to use the UK (poss US) store. Is this possible?
If so, can I get some of the Korean apps (Seoul bus etc) from the UK store and they will work ok in Korea?
Will any apps I get from the UK (US) work over here?

Thanks to all for the info!

[tired of LA]

I got both the touch and then iphone in Korea and I used the US store with both of them. Everything works fine here in Korea. The only Korean apps that you can get are the ones that are sold in whichever store you sign up for. There are Korean apps in the US store, but I'm sure its no where near the number of Korean apps in the Korean store. Haven't seen a Seoul bus app, but I haven't looked for one either. I just have the Seoul subway map.

[Hova]

Has anyone looked at the Korean App store? I've just been using the one in the U.S. I assume you can't switch back and forth huh? Damn...

[Hova]

Ok so I just did some testing...

You can change your region if you go to to Store - View account. It will then give you an option to change your home region. I changed it to Korea and I was no able to view all the Korean apps. The top free apps were the Seoul Metro Bus and Seoul Metro Subway and some other ones. I tried to download it but it said that I was not allowed since my credit card did not match my selected region. So I changed my region back to U.S. and than searched for Seoul Metro Bus. The same app that was under the Korean section now showed up on itunes and I was able to download it. So I THINK, as long as you know the name of the Korean app, you can download it regardless of what region you are in.

Anyways, I hope that helps. I have yet to try to switch my credit card information to my Korean one. I don't see why it wouldn't work. The Korean bus application is confusing to use. It's free so give it a shot. I think once I understand how it works, it will be pretty useful. It picked up all bus stations near me and listed the name, distance, and location of where it goes. Pretty cool...

[kangnamdragun]

I think all the apps in the Korean store ARE in the US store. But, not all US apps are in the Korean store because games have to be approved by the government.

[orosee]

Some apps are available everywhere and some apps are available only in certain regional stores. I have to use the German store because I used a German VISA to register. This means I have hardly any access to English language audio books or apps related to services outside of Germany (news etc.). But most of what I need is available there as well.

I would much prefer to use my Korean VISA but by Apple's logic (which is, ironically, identical to Microsoft's logic in this case) I can only do so if I use the Korean store, and by Apple's logic (which is, ironically, again identical to Microsoft's logic here) using the Korean store means that I am supposed to read and speak Korean language - there is no option to switch the interface to international English. So much for globalisation.

Korean apps appear just fine. Some US games don't. If you search for "Korea" or "Hangul" you get lots of apps, and also a large amount of titty apps. There are some nice flashcard apps for learning Hangul or Korean, some of the free.

Using a Euro based store is not that great at the moment, since a USD 0.99 piece of music will cost EURO 0.99 or about 45% more. I wish the Korean store would sell music for KRW 0.99, I'd buy tens of thousands of titles

[rokgryphon]

This is the lowdown on iTunes, you can only buy from the country store from where your credit card is issued. However, most apps are not just approved for one country by Apple, but for the app store. This means that you can get apps from whatever country store you are attached to. The difference is music and movies, they are only released to certain country stores and if you aren't with that one, you can't buy it.

[orosee]