StarHub to offer the iPhone – finally!
StarHub has reached an agreement with Apple to bring in the iPhone to StarHub customers later this year – just like M1, with a range of tailored service plans. “More information on pricing, tariffs and availability dates will be released in due course.” Great news for consumers. More choice, more competition and lower prices!
M1 iPhone available soon!
M1 finally announced on October 13th that they have reached an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to M1 customers in Singapore later this year. M1 also hinted at ‘tailored’ service plans for iPhone customers. More details will be revealed in ‘due course’.
Way to go M1! Welcome to the party, better one year late then never.
Snow Leopard Launched!
The hype has been building up for Apple’s new operating system; and Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard is now available at Apple Authorized Resellers and Apple’s online store as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users for just S$48! – My personal experience with the OS in the past few weeks has been a sheer productive and intuitive experience, pretty amazing for someone who switched from using PC’s almost his whole life. “Once you go Mac, you’ll never go back!”
Reviews of the new OS have been positive, with many in-depth articles. Here are some links to the flood of reviews.
[ Engadget] [ Gizmodo ] [ Macworld ] [ CNET ]
Apple's WWDC 2009
Apple is holding it’s 14th Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8th to 12th 2009. The event brings together apple engineers and developers as well as fans and enthusiasts interested in the latest developments in Apple. Apple also releases news on upcoming products as well as uses the event to launch new products. Here’s a summary of the announcements made during the June 8th keynote.
New MacBook Pro Lineup
Apple® updated the aluminum unibody MacBook® Pro line to include 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models featuring Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to 40 percent longer battery life. Each MacBook Pro includes an LED-backlit display, the innovative glass Multi-Touch™ trackpad, an illuminated keyboard, an SD card or ExpressCard slot, a FireWire® 800 port and state of the art NVIDIA graphics.
The interesting thing about this update is that Apple managed to bump the specs of the notebooks, and in the case of the MacBook Pro 13-inch, the new price was lower than the MacBook it replaced. Another noteworthy tidbit is that on the 13-inch Macbook Pro, there is only one audio jack, which is user selectable for either line in or line out with one exception – it supports the Apple Headset with Microphone – The same one which comes with the iPhone!
Snow Leopard’s September Release
Apple® also unveiled Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™, an even more powerful and refined version of Apple’s Leopard operating system. Snow Leopard builds on OSX innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies, out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009 for USD$29.
There’s way too many features in Snow Leopard to go into detail here, but here’s 2 groundbreaking features.
64 Bit System - The OS has a 64 bit core, with nearly all system applications rewritten in 64 bits. This enchances the performance as well as future proofs the OS for “whatever computing enhancements might arrive in the future“
Grand Central Dispatch – This built-in technology allows full use of every core in multi core systems to be used by applications. This offloads thread management from the application to the OS, resulting in more responsive apps as well as full utilisation of modern CPUs.
iPhone 3G S
Last but not least, Apple® introduced the new iPhone™ 3G S, their fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, with improved speed and performance, longer battery life,a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, video recording and hands free voice control.
There is no news on Singtel’s apple-inspired site as of today on any informatioon regarding the new iPhone, possibly hitting the region in July. It would be interesting to see if current iPhone users get any upgrade options, and most importantly, at what price.
Images Courtesy of Apple. For more details, do check out the Apple® Website or you can catch the WWDC Keynote posted online as well.
Goodbye iShop by Club 21
In solemn grey lettering on the iShop’s Website, – “Sadly it’s time for us to go”, iShop announced it’s planned closure on 30th June 2009, leaving Mac users with less retail choices. Dubbed as the largest Apple reseller in Asia, with 10,000 sq feet of retail space, it will be missed by the local Mac community as well as fans of it’s style, brand and service quality.
Edit : MacRyu.com has an insightful article on the closure of iShop linked here.
Software POWERUP!
The Internets are buzzing with updates from Apple and Microsoft.
Apple – Safari 4 Beta is out – Argumentatively the current fastest browser available mainstream.
Some of the reported 150 new features include Full-Page Zoom, a improved JavaScript engine (part of the webkit), pin-top sites, web page cover flow and full featured RSS reading capability.
Microsoft – Internet Explorer 8 RC1 is also out for Microsoft fans and includes features such as a Web Slices (with subscription options), improved JavaScript and Ajax processing, automatic Crash Recovery 
and Private browsing.
Apple – iPhone OS 3.0‘s features are finally out of the bag, due to for a Summer 09 relase and will have long awaited features such as Cut, Copy & Paste, A2DP Bluetooth, P2P Connectivity over Bluetooth, Landscape Typing in all the core apps, MMS, Spotlight Search and Phishing protection.
iPhone 3G Launched in Singapore – Finally!
Launch Event :
Singtel finally launched the iPhone 3G at midnight, August 22nd (as predicted) with much fanfare, putting up a good attempt in comparison to worldwide launches. Crowds started packing Singtel’s Comcenter with the first in line at noon. Local IT enthusiasts has noticed Singtel building a “cube like” structure, akin to Apple’s famous Fifth Avenue Store design, albeit much smaller.
The crowd control was very well done, almost to the point of being too extreme with batches led from one waiting area to another as the night progressed. Customers were treated to live music, blasting music as well as free drinks and snacks provided by various sponsors. Also present were a host of foreign and local media as well. The launch itself was brought to a climax with a textbook countdown and fireworks as the first in line made his way into the “Singtel Cube” amid staff applause (lifted from Apple’s textbook) and cheers, as the next 50 were ushered in. (50 slots were set up inside the miniature 2 storey cube)
Activation did take a while as the customer service personnel were new and hired specifically for the iPhone 3G lanuch. The person attending to me did not know that the sim card should be placed without the plastic which came as a place holder, nor did she know where the sim card removal tool was in the package. But in hindsight, the staff were extremely helpful and courteous; it was obvious that effort was put into customer satisfaction.
Afterthoughts :
Overall, the atmosphere was very carnival like and crowd control was well done (not that singapore has crowd issues). I will end this post with some tips for fellow iPhone 3G users in Singapore.
1. APN Issues
3G Data users, if your APN settings were not set properly, you can set them up yourself using the information on the screenshot above, found in the iPhone’s Settings –> General –> Network –> Cellular Data Network
2. Data Usage Record
Singtel’s Data Usage Record Page might report your information as invalid, this is because it takes up to 3 days for new Braoadband on Mobile customers’ details to be available in the online system. (Information from Singtel Mobile Hotline)
3. Visual Voicemail
Currently there is no suport for the “Visual Voicemail” feature in Singapore. The “Voicemail” button will redirect you to Singtel’s voicemail number.
4. iTunes Store
As Singapore does not have an iTunes store, users with a US iTunes Account can get your iPhone to connect to the US iTunes Store after your first sync with your PC.
5. Data Plan Importance
Getting an iPhone without a Data Plan has its dangers. Full Article Here (courtesy of MacRyu!)
6. FAQ
Lastly, Singtel has put up a FAQ which answers the most common iPhone 3G questions.
Singapore iPhone 3G Pricing Released!
Finally, the iPhone plans are about to be announced. Lets hope we dont see another Canadian Rogers local episode. Here’s the link.
Sneaky software strikes again… again!
Apple’s done it again! No, this isn’t usual Apple fanboy news. – If you have installed the latest version of iTunes ( Windows ) via their convenient update service, chances are, you have the “MobileMe Preferences” control panel installed without any warning whatsoever! Bad news folks, such activity is going to be commonplace until something really bad happens.
iTunes Store Available in 40 over countries including Singapore!
Apple’s iTunes Store has finally come to Singapore and 40 over countries. unfortunately, at this time, it is only for iPhone apps, aka the Apps Store. Looks like Apple is keeping to their style of doing things their own way, after the recent launch of the iPhone 3G, with iFixit.com already posting disassembly pictures online!
The iTunes store list now include Argentina, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Czech Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Hong Kong, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Israel, Korea, Kuwait, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, and Vietnam.
As for MobileMe, Apple’s replacement for .Mac – There seems to be some delays:
The MobileMe transition is underway but is taking longer than expected. Please refer to the official System Status to the right for current information on the availability of MobileMe services. We apologize for any inconvenience. – Apple Support