Month: September 2007

Official Unlocked iPhones in Singapore? Sounds fishy

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Over at the hardwarezone forums, someone by the nick of mrxhub1 is claiming that a local distributor is bringing in unlocked versions of the iPhone, and that these are local sets with local warranty. He also claims that all the iPhones are approved for sale in Singapore by Apple Singapore, and that they are currently undergoing checks by IDA for approval right now.

If you ask me, this whole thing reeks of rotten sashimi, as many of his claims are possibly nothing but pure bull. Let’s just take 2 simple points for example;

1. He claims that the first country in Asia where the iPhone has been released unlocked is Thailand. So far what we have heard is that the iPhone is sold in Thailand, but those are hacked, and not official stuff.

2. He’s selling the 4GB iPhone?! Why the heck will Singapore get a discontinued product?

Here’s a pdf file of the first page and second page of the thread.

You can view the whole thread at
http://forums.hardwarezone.com/showthread.php?t=1738691&page=1&pp=15.

iLife@iShop event by MacNUS

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MacNUS held a closed-door hands-on seminar entitled iLife@iShop, just one week after their “Welcome to the Mac, Again” event, at iShop. This event was limited to a small number of participants and was given by Mr. Junior Tan of Apple Singapore.

Some images here. More on their flickr site.

iLife@iShop 07:08 - 002.JPG iLife@iShop 07:08 - 015.JPG

iLife@iShop 07:08 - 008.JPG iLife@iShop 07:08 - 009.JPG

Brand new Aluminium (silver and black!!) MacBooks in October!!!

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I am very very excited about this piece of news.

According to 9to5Mac, the same guys whom, with the help of their chinese spies, revealed to the world the shape of the new iPod Nano and the presence of the iPod Touch way before everyone else, Apple is preparing to ship brand new MacBooks in the 4th quarter of 2007, which starts in less than ten days!

The great points about these new MacBooks?

1. Aluminum Enclosure instead of the current Polycarbonate ones

2. 2 colours, Silver and Anodized Black Aluminum (Black Aluminum!!! This thing is going to be really beautiful!)

3. Priced AGGRESSIVELY (Which may mean even cheaper prices than today!!!)

4. Similar design to the current one, but with a smaller bezel and thus a smaller footprint

5. Considerably Thinner!!!

6. Lighter!!!

7. Special Touchpads!!!! (Multi Touch functions? Backlit Touchpads?)

As you can see, I have every single right to be damn hell excited about this piece of news. And according to 9to5Mac, their sources have already seen the MacBooks in physical form, which will indicate that production is already in progress, and that their sources are probably people working in the china factories.

The even more interesting thing here is, upon looking up some archives, there was a similar post by Cruchgear.com a few months back! They believed that the MacBooks are due for October. They were ready to ship them back in June together with Leopard, but now that Leopard is delayed, the MacBooks are delayed too.

So how accurate do I think this piece of news is? Extremely accurate. Looking by the products they have released in the past few months, it’s extremely clear that Apple is going to transit into using more aluminum for their production, as evident by the latest iPods and iMacs. And one does get the feeling that the iMac, the coming MacBooks and the iWork and iLife suites were actually planned to be released together with Leopard but did not managed to do so due to the delay of Leopard. iWork and iLife had to be released earlier, and to do that some code/library frameworks from Leopard actually has to be transferred into Tiger during OS X updates installation for them to actually work. Furthermore, the design focus of the recent iMac and iPod updates do prove that these new Aluminum MacBooks are coming. Remember the main points that Steve Jobs used to praise the new iPod Classics and the new iMacs (the MacBooks, iMacs, iPod always have the privilege of sharing the same design focus ever since the iMac G5 era)? “all-Aluminium construction” (okay for the iMac it was aluminum and glass, technically, but I guess you can agree with me that the glass was there to make the screen look glossy) and “they are thinner!”. Furthermore, the 2 colours of the iPod Classic fully explains the Silver and Anodized Black Aluminum colours of the new MacBooks!

Ahhh…. I can’t wait. This is so much more exciting than the iPod Touch. I totally forgot about that piece of iPhone wannabe crap already!

I should expect some of my friends will not be too pleased about the update since they have just purchased their MacBooks recently, but well, guess what? I think many girls will snap at the chance to buy what is possibly the last batch of lovely white polycarbonate MacBooks from Apple!

Life is great. And if you do remember, the first 30 years were really just the beginning. Welcome to 2007.

iPod Touch Screen Problems

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The recent big news about the iPod Touch is that a lot of the 16GB ones reportedly have a hardware display problem which renders them almost unviewable/usable. However, apparently the hardware problem has been fixed in the latest iPod Touches that are made in production week 38 and after, as many readers on macrumors.com have affirmed.

According to them, week 38 iPod Touches can be differentiated from the earlier iPod Touches by the boxes they come in.

Pre-week 38 iPod Touch’s box is below with the picture of Corinne Bailey Rae

The boxes that came with the latest problem-free iPod Touches have Macy Gray in Bailey Rae’s place

This posses a possible problem for us in Singapore. While those of you who have pre-ordered with the online Apple Store (I cancelled my pre-order by the way) will probably receive the Macy Gray box, the few resellers in Singapore who already have their stock in will probably be stuck with the Bailey Rae boxes. And apparently iShop is one of these resellers.

I guess everyone should exercise caution when purchasing an iPod Touch. Ask for one with the Macy Gray box.

Coming writeup on iPod Classic’s audio codec “problem”

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Seems that the iPod Classic’s been given the bashing by a lot of iPod lovers lately over Apple’s discussion to change suppliers for the audio codec from wolfson to cirrus logic, in order to maximise profits. I personally don’t think too much of the issue, but since it will be of interest to those who want one, I figured I can write about it.

First things first, anyone care to lend me one for testing?

New iPod Touch available in Singapore

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Finally, some reliable sources tell MacRyu.com that the iPod Touch will be on sale from tomorrow onwards, at iShop only! Who’s going down tomorrow to check the Touch out? ME!

Edit: Argh. Wrong info after all. iShop has the stock in already but they refuse to sell.

MacNUS Seminar Series No. 1 – Welcome to the Mac, Again

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So MacNUS, easily the biggest tertiary based Mac user group in Singapore, has started off the new academic year with the first of their traditional year-long seminar series. This one is entitled “Welcome to the Mac, Again” as opposed to last year’s “The Power of X”.

Last night’s event was split into 3 main sections, with one on the OS X environment, one on NUS’ various configurations and settings, and one on free OS X apps. Basically overall everything was more on the bare basics side of things, which obviously this seminar was targeted at, for the participants are all new Mac users.

Various announcement on future MacNUS offerings were also made at the seminar, and attendees were generally excited about them. In the end it turned out to be quite a great seminar overall for both MacNUS and the seminar attendees.

Welcome to the Mac Again - 043.jpg Welcome to the Mac Again - 041.jpg

Welcome to the Mac Again - 003.jpg Welcome to the Mac Again - 048.jpg

Pictures reproduced with permission from MacNUS. More available from their flickr page

Where is the iPod Touch?

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Shipping on 28th Sep, or so says the Apple Online Store. But according to here and many other sites, the iPod Touch has already hit many places in the United States! So where the hack are they? My Apple Online Store Order Status is still “Shipping on 28th Sept, deliver by 1st Oct”. ARGH!!!!

According to some very very reliable sources, at least one major Apple reseller in Singapore (guess who?) has the Touch in stock already, but apparently is not allowed to sell them until a specific date. WTH. What is this? Discrimination against countries other than the United States? Hell man. Now get me my Touch already! ARGH!!!

The new iPods

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Woah… So the Tomorrow.sg thingy finally cooled down. We’ll get on with the hot topic right now, which is obviously, the new iPods!

As we all (or rather, we, the Mac fanboys and fangers) know, the new iPods are looking like a pretty nice update from the previous line. As with the previous update in September 2006, I think we can safely say that the iPod updates are going to settle into an annual cycle as an September event, right before the end of the Back-to-School promotion. As we all know and understand, the annual Back-to-School promotion is really nothing more than a great chance for Apple to dump its existing stocks of iPods for cheap with a rebate given for every Mac purchase by a student. Since students returning to school from the holidays, entering college, will buy their laptops/computers during the June to September period, it is easy for Apple to bundle a rebate equalling the price of a 4GB iPod nano with every purchase of a Mac. This firstly bring up sales numbers for the remaining stocks of old iPods that are by then (in June), largely pretty dated. Secondly it might prompt people to spend a little more money to get a 8GB nano or a Video instead, therefore upping the profits as well. Which is no wonder why most of the remaining stocks of iPods are pretty much gone by late August, therefore making way for the new range of iPods, which came via a major event at Moscone West on September 5th this year. So how does the new range fare against the old ones?

First of all, the iPod Shuffle. Seriously, there is really probably no way they can improve upon this design. Therefore it was not surprising that the design had remained the same. However, I would appreciate if they could up the capacity to 2GB, after all the Shuffle knockoffs on the market, easily found in abundance in Sim Lim Square, have a 2GB option. And they could have easily cut the price as well. The price for the 1GB option for the Shuffle knockoffs is currently 49 dollars, as opposed to Apple’s 139 Singapore dollars for the real deal. So well, they didn’t change anything, except the colours. And introduced a product (red) version. So what does that mean?

Nothing I presume. The new colours are pretty nice, although everyone else I’ve talked to think that they suck. Hahz whatever. I will not be buying one of those anyway, not now nor in the future.

Oh lord! The FatPod arrives! So all those rumors and mockup pics were real! 9to5 Mac really had it spotted on. Seems that they have a chinese spy in the factories. Good for them, but I hope the spy will get caught soon. Don’t spoil the darn fun for us you idiots.

So is it ugly? or even fugly? On first sight, yes. The proportions are all pretty strange for an iPod, and seriously they do not look nice from the pictures at all.

However, things are not so simple. I went to iShop at cineleisure to try out the new nanos and the classics on tuesday, and boy am I amazed.

The FatPod is incredibly, freaking hell THIN! The screen is extremely sharp, and the new interface, while not as amazing as that of the iPhone and the Touch, is wonderful! You have to see and touch the thing real life to believe that it is totally different from what you perceive it to be from the pictures online! The scroll wheel is even smaller than the one on the second generation nano, and the screen, while smaller than that of the classic, looks beautiful. I tried watching various videos on the nanos, and don’t find myself straining my eyes at all. The new interface is just the icing on the cake. Furthermore, with the addition of the coverflow interface into the iPods, there is the possible problem of lagging when coverflow loads the album arts, but from what I have seen, there appears to be no such problem on the nanos. Games and videos load immediately thanks to the flash based storage, everything is nice! I have a 30GB 5.5Gen Video iPod, but I prefer watching videos on the new nano!

The new nano is the best new iPod (except the Touch) definitely.

And then we come to the classic. There is no longer the nice plastic top of the earlier iPods, instead in its place we have a new (or old) nano-style aluminum top. And then we have larger storage, 80GB and 160GB. So what’s new? The interface is the same as that of the new nano, but the screen is the old 2.5 inch one, which means the screen isn’t as sharp as that of the new nano. Furthermore, the coverflow interface lags when loading the album art. Seems like a lot of bad points? Not really actually. With the exception of the sharp edges at the part where the aluminum front meets the shiny metallic back, the behavior of the new classic is just like that of the old Video iPod, with all the cons of harddisk-based storage.

I’ll post something about the Touch when I actually hold it in my hands in a few weeks’ time.

Horrible mistake by NS Portal admins/writers

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Check out this page. Some idiot from the NS Portal actually used a picture of Steve Jobs in an article about Microsoft Powerpoint. This is totally absurb and unacceptable. So someone shot them an email. Here is the email replicated in its (almost) entirety.

“Dear in charge,

I refer to your article posted at http://……. in which Microsoft Powerpoint is being highlighted and discussed.

As representative of the No. 1 Mac-using tertiary institution in Singapore, I wish to point out that your picture of Steve Jobs, the CEO of Apple Inc, in the article, is not just inaccurate, but totally unacceptable as well. Steve Jobs never, never uses Microsoft Powerpoint in his presentations. He uses an Apple software called Keynote, which is many ways is much much better than Microsoft Powerpoint. The use of his picture in the article both reflects the inability of the article writer who obviously does not have the required knowledge to tell the difference between Keynote and Powerpoint, and makes us doubt the credibility of his article as well.

Such a mistake is totally unacceptable even if it is made in an environment, which, one can argue, is free from any knowledge of Mac software since the armed forces uses exclusively Microsoft software, instead of promoting open-source alternatives. However, usage of Apple software and hardware is now growing at an increasing pace, and Keynote was even used during PM Lee’s National Day Rally. As such, it is therefore unacceptable to have commit such a mistake, especially when you represent the Armed Forces.

I hereby request you to replace the picture as soon as possible. I believe I speak for all the Mac users in Singapore, as the following post in the Mac User Group Singapore’s forum at http://www.macusersg.org/forums/index.php?topic=42458.0 has indicated general displease with the article.

It is exactly mistakes like these that makes our Armed Forces a laughing stock in front of Singaporeans. I hope that you can quickly correct your mistake, and try to prevent something as humiliating as this from happening again.

Yours Sincerely,

XXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXX”

*Edit* Apparently the guy who posted the above msg (read: ME!!) didn’t realise that OpenOffice was in use since last year. Seriously, who will know? I personally saw Microsoft Office ’97 throughout the whole of my NS days 3 years back. And I have never heard of any plans to switch to OpenOffice then. Not everyone’s in Army or NS all the time. Apologise for the mistake though.

*Edit Again* The NSPortal Editor posted this reply;

“Hi all,

The article is a contribution that talks about the value of the command of a good presentation skill and the term ‘PowerPoint’ was used by the writer as a generic reference term due rather than as a product per se and Steve Job was an admirable international figure well known for making fantastic presentation and being featured to make a point and we regret any unintended misunderstanding.

NS Portal appreciates your readership and would like thank you guys for their feedback and support. We have advised the writer to make the necessary amendment to avoid future misunderstandings.

Warm Regards,
NS Portal Editor”

Edit again, and again: Apparently someone told me using Steve Jobs’ picture in the article itself is illegal. I think it might be true, especially for a high profile site like NSportal. Then again, will I know? I’m no lawyer.

Official Disclaimer: All my comments and posts posted in this site is made in my capacity as a Mac fan (or some say fanboy), and not in my capacity as President of the Mac User Group of NUS.