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Posts tagged malaysia
DiGi to Offer the Apple iPhone
Mar 1st
Just when you thought Maxis will be the only network operator to sell authorized Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS sets in Malaysia, DiGi came out with a breaking news announcing that they will be offering the Apple iPhone 3G and 3GS by Q1 2010 which would probably be somewhere in the month of April.
This three years agreement will be a great boost to DiGi’s sales especially when network operators these days are focusing on selling their data plan as mobile Internet is becoming a need in most mobile phone users. With the Apple iPhone, the users’ Internet browsing experience will be much different especially with the ever attractive touchscreen capabilities. The price is still not known yet but you can register your interest here so that you’ll be informed of any updates. A history check will definitely be able to speculate that the pricing will be very competitive to have the extra edge of Maxis.
Are you ready for this? 
A Storm is Coming
Feb 24th
I’ve been a BlackBerry lover ever since I bought the BlackBerry Curve 8520 months ago during the launch by Celcom Xpax. A BlackBerry may seem to be a boring device to most people but once you’ve get the hang of it, your perception to it will change once and for all. Recently Celcom launched the brand new BlackBerry Storm2 9520 in Chinoz KLCC, not long after the launch of the latest BlackBerry Bold 9700.
The new Storm by BlackBerry is in short an improvement over the first generation Storm whereby there were some flaws in it that brought the attention of RIM. One of the notable improvements is of course the better touchscreen experience whereby it was not very responsive in the first generation Storm. With the launch of the further improved Storm model, no doubt it will strengthen BlackBerry’s position in the touchscreen field lining up against many other tough competitors such as the Apple iPhone.
I myself as a current BlackBerry Curve 8520 user will definitely want to get my hands on the new Storm simply because its really one of the coolest gadgets to own. A BlackBerry is really a helpful gadget in a sense that it brings a whole new level of communication to the owner. Features like push e-mail and instant messaging is already a very good explanation if you ask me “Why BlackBerry and not others?”
Why I would like to own the BlackBerry Storm2 9520 is because of the sleek design it has compared to the first generation ones. Nothing counters the desire of falling in love with a phone when you come across a sleek looking phone. After all, we live in the year of 2010 now where the latest in design and size matters. 
The organizer features of a BlackBerry is also truly amazing. Long time ago, most people who require a mobile yet interactive organizer will get themselves a PDA (personal digital assistant) device to help keep all appointments and to-do list in an organized manner. These days, a smartphone is all we ever need. With a BlackBerry, I’ll be able to keep track on all my to-do list effectively, so no more forgetting any appointments!
A BlackBerry is also unique for its state-of-the-art connectivity to the Internet world. With the BIS (BlackBerry Internet Service), all data that passes through the server will be compressed significantly so if you’re a heavy mobile Internet user, with the BIS I’m sure you’ll see a significant drop in the data usage not because of less usage, its just the compression. I would definitely love to have mobile Internet as it can come in handy at times when I’m in need of an Internet connection. Facebook and Twitter addicts will surely benefit from a BlackBerry too!
Celcom would be the best Storm-tastic place to get this gadget because Celcom is now offering the BlackBerry Storm2 9520 from as low as RM216 monthly or RM1,588 with the CEP50 together with a BlackBerry Advance plan but sadly as a student, I’ve yet to earn my income so the best I could do is dream on and look at the website as well as the advertisements that comes out in newspapers. Why would Celcom be so cruel to offer such irresistable offers?
Another reason why Celcom would be the best place to get it from is simply because of Celcom’s widest network coverage and one of the fastest network throughout Malaysia. I don’t have to worry about not getting any reception in many places with Celcom all thanks to their wide network coverage area. Moreover, with the fast network, I will be able to take advantage of the HSDPA features of the BlackBerry Storm2 9520. How about blazing fast speed on-the-go?
In short, a BlackBerry Storm2 9520 on Celcom’s network will definitely cause a massive storm in Malaysia!
TM HSBB – How About Speeding?
Feb 23rd
If you’re a tech savvy person especially in the communication field, I’m sure you have probably heard about TM’s plan to roll out their HSBB (High Speed Broadband) service in the Klang Valley throughout this whole year. I know that most existing Streamyx users will just wonder what’s so great about it since they can’t even provide a stable broadband service with their Streamyx most of the time but HSBB incorporates the use of fibre optics and I believe it will be the next step to further improve the broadband service here in Malaysia.
So what exactly is this TM HSBB? It is also known as high speed broadband with speeds of up to 20mbps (might be higher when it is officially launched) allowing the users to download files in just “a blink of an eye”. With HSBB, your downloading experience will never be the same again. Just imagine downloading a movie at speeds higher than 10mbps, I think hard disk drives will be selling like hot cakes by then. Besides having blazing fast download speed, the latency/ping to local servers will also be drastically reduced, it will be capable to get below 5ms and it’ll almost be like playing LAN games for gamers all thanks to the fibre optics technology.
If you ever come across the white/beige small box with a TM FTTH sticker on the box attached to any of the telephone poles in your housing area just as it is in the above photo, be prepared as your housing area is already ready for the TM HSBB service.
Even any sight of a green box that looks similar to a really nice looking rubbish bin is already a sign of TM HSBB in your housing area. If you have not been paying attention to any of it then maybe you should starting from the point you read this post.
In the above photo is the modem provided by TM in order to get connected with their HSBB service. For the current beta testers, they were also given a D-Link DIR-615 wireless router which had the configuration to connect and the beta testers were advised not to do a hard reset on the router or else they would lose the configurations causing them to be unable to connect. To those of you who thought that you will also need the router provided by them to connect, its not, the truth is that TM did not openly reveal the configurations so you wouldn’t know what parameters to use for your own router.
Above are some bandwidth test results via speedtest.net conducted by one of the HSBB beta testers. If you look at the connectivity to the local server, it is a whopping near 20mbps for both downstream and upstream with only 2ms ping, if we have more local content in the future then HSBB will definitely benefit a lot of the users since everything will be speedy. International connectivity for most of the servers are not even 50% of 20mbps and it is disappointing but since its still in the beta testing stage, it is still a bit early to judge the whole HSBB service. However, if the existing international pipes don’t get an upgrade, it will be difficult to achieve even 10mbps to an international server.
The pricing for the service is still not known until today but there are rumours speculating that it could be somewhere around RM150 for the lowest package believed to be a 5mbps package. The packages are yet to be revealed so if you have any insider information, share it via the comments!
While the HSBB service by TM definitely sounds convincing, the test results by the beta testers have yet to show the public the worth and what HSBB can do. I am still awaiting for the full potential to be unleashed, I hope it will. If you’re one of the beta testers, do not hesitate to leave a comment and share your opinion on the service. If you’re not a beta tester, you too can share your opinion and will you subscribe to it when it reaches your place?
*Credits to dr3nchippo and mytechnews.info for the photos
PropWall vs. iProperty
Sep 28th
Property and real estate sites are slowly emerging in Malaysia. However, among the sites, which would be the better site for this purpose? Today, we’ll take a look at two property and real estate sites which are PropWall and iProperty. Note that this review is done purely based on my point of view.
First up would be PropWall. This site in my opinion is pretty clean and simple, as soon as the homepage loads, first word that comes to my mind is simple. There are very minimal images and I would say 90% of the page is actually texts. With the dull colour combination used in this website, it doesn’t really please my eyes. Speaking of user-friendly, I would say yes it is because you won’t need to spend time finding for a certain section and such as the different sections are all shown at the top near the header. Well, from the looks of the logo, it is still in beta stage so hopefully it’ll improve in the near future.
Next we have iProperty. A quick background check on iProperty showed that they are not new and they have quite a network as iProperty is available in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, India and Philippines. The experience does play a role as iProperty site is what I prefer over PropWall. Take a look at this site, some bright colours which won’t look too dull and you’ll see that this site is quite complicated on first glance but isn’t more information displayed better? This site is neat in another way that it packs information in and not junk. There are some quite handy features in this site as well like when you’re looking at a property, it would also match other property that meets similar criteria.
Conclusion, if you have been reading the comparison, you’ll know which site is the better for me based on my point of view. PropWall needs to revamp their site to make it more alive if you get what I mean. I don’t know about others but for me, I wouldn’t enjoy browsing a dull looking site if you were to make me compared PropWall and iProperty. In short, yes iProperty stands out in this case.
ServerFreak Premium Hosting Solutions
Sep 24th
Planning to make the switch to a self-hosted blog? Are you puzzled with which web hosting to choose? I’m sure you’ve heard about big shots in the web hosting industry such as Exabytes and Shinjiru but the price is slightly higher compared to the rest. If you’re looking for a reliable web hosting at a much affordable price, look no further than ServerFreak.
ServerFreak started operations back in the year 2003 and has since then became one of the fastest growing hosting provider in Malaysia. Their web servers are located in a first class data centers with multiple backbone providers. The data centers have been engineered to avoid any single point of failure in connectivity, power, heating, ventilation and air conditioning.
Above is the pricing for a shared Linux cPanel web hosting with Fantastico. A value for money plan is definitely their Prime package at only RM60 yearly. Not everyone will be willing to pay above RM100 yearly for a web hosting so even a small one like this is more than enough to cater for a blog. Yes I know some of you might think that 500MB of disk space is really small but if you are just going to be using it for your blog and some static websites, 500MB is more than enough. My blog and a static website only takes up 20MB of space currently. It would take really long to use up the 500MB. Another great deal with this package is the 10GB monthly bandwidth which I don’t see often with any hosting providers for an affordable package like this. For a better deal, just pay for 2 years in advance and it is only RM100 for 2 years.
My experience with ServerFreak had been great, fast response from the team and their server is also top notch for the price you’ll be paying. I’d definitely would recommend ServerFreak to anyone looking for a cheaper and reliable web hosting solution. Join ServerFreak today!
