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I have an Android application called MySpyPhone. I want to translate it to a meaningful Japanese name. The application takes pictures on a user defined schedule.

Any naming suggestions?

Thank you for your help.

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Ew, is it not illegal? A camera on a cell phone with no shutter sound is illegal in Japan at least... – Chocolate Jun 4 '12 at 5:08
This may be too localised for JLU since any info provided that's more specific than that in Flaw's link will likely be specific to your company and not useful to anyone else. Still, I have provided an answer as a kind of "case study" that may potentially aid others. – ジョン Jun 4 '12 at 10:07

closed as too localized by Flaw, cypher, jkerian♦, Dono, Dave♦ Jun 4 '12 at 10:40

This question is unlikely to help any future visitors; it is only relevant to a small geographic area, a specific moment in time, or an extraordinarily narrow situation that is not generally applicable to the worldwide audience of the internet. For help making this question more broadly applicable, see the FAQ.

1 Answer

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As far as I can tell, "MySpyPhone" as it stands would be understandable for most Japanese-speakers, because

  • "my" is "general knowledge" through school education or elsewhere,
  • "spy" is used as a borrowed word, and
  • "phone" is part of iPhone and other such famous brands.

A katakana transliteration like マイスパイフォン may also be an option, and may increase the likelihood of "spy" in particular being understood.

Unrelated to the language issue here, but as Chocolate said there are laws in Japan about photography from mobile devices, so you may want to check up on that if you plan on selling an app that will, for example, remove the shutter sound.

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I would write it as マイスパイフォン (without "ー") because we write "アイフォン" for "iPhone" – Chocolate Jun 5 '12 at 6:12
@Chocolate Oops, フォーン seems to translate to faun, ww! Thanks for the correction! – ジョン Jun 5 '12 at 14:19

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