Category: advice

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Wisely Using Twitter

Twitter LogoTwitter has been around now for over 3 years and along the way there had been many 3rd party applications and web services. At the beginning years these 3rd party applications and web services had required the Twitter users to provide their Twitter credentials to use the service.

This requirement of providing a 3rd party with my credentials of another service had never sit well with me. So I did not use any 3rd party web services that requires my Twitter credentials. This decision was frustrating to me, as during this time Facebook, FriendFeed and others had authentication services that does not require their users to provide their respective credentials to the 3rd parties. As a result I joined the 100s of others who requested Twitter adopt OAuth or alike technology for their site.

Continue reading “Wisely Using Twitter”

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3 HK Underhanded Tactics & Ridiculous Info to Customers

3 HK LogoIn the past several days I had been trying to trouble shoot why a follower (“Ms. iPhone”) on Twitter cannot get to iTunes Store from her iPhone. This was the iPhone 3G model on the 3 HK, Apple’s carrier partner in Hong Kong, network.

Ms. iPhone finally complaint to 3 HK Customer Service, and today she tells me what 3 HK Customer Service has told her:

All iPhones purchased in Hong Kong cannot access iTunes Store. The only iPhones that can access the iTunes Store are iPhones purchased outside of Hong Kong and hacked for used in Hong Kong.

What a ridiculous statement.

As many of you know Ms. iPhone’s problem with her iPhone not having access to iTunes Store (music and movies) via the iTunes application on her iPhone is not because she bought her iPhone in Hong Kong. Ms. iPhone problem is that her iTunes Store account is with iTunes Store Hong Kong and iTunes Store HK does not have a music and movie section.

Continue reading “3 HK Underhanded Tactics & Ridiculous Info to Customers”

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Smartone-Vodafone & iPhone in Hong Kong

Smartone-Vodafone logoLast Friday I reported that I was stuck at a Starbucks that did not have a reliable WiFi connection, so I decided to give the iPhone tethering a try. That trial ended up lasting 4 hours of work on my Mac.

When I decided to use it, I was not 100% certain how Smartone-Vodafone was going to bill me. I have one of their IOM (Internet on Mobile) plan that has since been discontinued, but very similar to the current “IOM Value Pack” except without a contract.

This plan comes with a HKD15.00/15MB rate for any HSDPA traffic outside of their “Internet Browsing” traffic. So I concluded that Smartone-Vodafone cannot tell the difference between regular local data traffic and tethered traffic from my Mac. Therefore and tethered traffic will be charged based on the HKD15.00/15MB rate (with a price cap of HKD298.00).

Continue reading “Smartone-Vodafone & iPhone in Hong Kong”

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Mobil Carriers Differences in HK

Smartone-Vodafone logoBefore you jump into a mobile tariff contract (for 2 years or 15 months) with your new iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS you need to understand that not all 3G (HSDPA) network are the same. This is especially important if you are going to buy a new iPhone 3GS.

3 HK LogoThe reason is because, unlike the iPhone 3G, the iPhone 3GS is capable of supporting 7.2 Mbps downlink and 5 Mbps uplink speeds. At the moment as far as I know the 3 HK HSDPA network is capable of supporting 3.6 Mbps downlink speed at most locations and 7.2 Mbps at certain locations. Where as Smartone-Vodafone’s HSDPA network is already capable of supporting 14 Mbps downlink at every location.

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To iPhone 3GS or Not?

iPhone 3G imageThe question that many are asking themselves after Apple’s keynote announcement on Monday (June 8th, 10:00 US EDT) is, “should I upgrade to the new Apple iPhone 3GS?”

This is a reasonable question to ask as rumors of the cost of the new iPhone models are in the USD600 and USD700 range without a new 2-year contract with the respective carrier.

Many of you know, Apple also made available the “Golden Master” version of the iPhone firmware 3.0 to its developers for testing. This software when released will be free to all existing iPhone and iPhone 3G users.

Continue reading “To iPhone 3GS or Not?”

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Do Not Install Safari 4 [Updated]

Safari LogoIf you rely on 1Password daily and does not want to use beta class software, I would NOT recommend installing the final release of Safari that Apple released last night (HKT).

The Safari 4.0 final version broke the 1Password plugin for Safari and the previous hack does not work.

The 1Password veresion that works with this version of Safari is the latest 2.9.19 beta 2 (build 7499), which according to the developers is a “final candidate”. So if you’re not the type who is comfortable using beta software, then you should not have too long to wait before 1Password 2.9.19 final is released.

[Update: June 9, 11:27 HKT]
Just received an update from Agile Web Solutions, they had finalized 2.9.19 and brought it out of Beta status. So it is now safe to upgrade to Safari 4.0 even if you use 1Password.

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How-to: Apply OS X Update 10.5.7

Everyone who are new and seasoned users of the Macintosh. Seeing that Apple had finally released the long anticipated OS 10.5.7 update. I want to once again reiterate the steps I normally take for applying OS X updates.

Before you start, if you’re using a notebook Mac, you should ensure the power adapter is plugged in (of course to the wall also).

Here are the steps I recommend my friends to follow:

  1. Ensure all your Apple applications; the ones that came with your Mac, are in their original locations, within the Applications and Utilities folders respectively.
  2. Start the Disk Utility application found in your Utilities folder, and perform the Repair Disk Permissions operation on your startup disk (aka. Boot Up drive); Continue reading “How-to: Apply OS X Update 10.5.7”
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How-to: Apply OS X Update 10.5.7

Everyone who are new and seasoned users of the Macintosh. Seeing that Apple had finally released the long anticipated OS 10.5.7 update. I want to once again reiterate the steps I normally take for applying OS X updates.
Before you start, if you’re using a notebook Mac, you should ensure the power adapter is plugged in (of course to the wall also).

Here are the steps I recommend my friends to follow:

  1. Ensure all your Apple applications; the ones that came with your Mac, are in their original locations, within the Applications and Utilities folders respectively.
  2. Start the Disk Utility application found in your Utilities folder, and perform the Repair Disk Permissions operation on your startup disk (aka. Boot Up drive); Continue reading “How-to: Apply OS X Update 10.5.7”
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7 Things You Love to Ask About iPhone Unlocking

Pwnage Tool logoOver the past year and a half I had assisted many people with the unlocking of their iPhones. Many more people ask me about unlocking.

So instead of answering each of these people over and over again, I thought I post an article in my blog, which I can refer them to for more details.

  1. What Does iPhone Unlock mean?
    Many carriers around the world will “carrier lock” a cell phone that they had subsidized for their customers. To ensure the purchaser of the cell phone stays as a customer of the carrier after the purchase, the carrier will normally do two things:

    • Make the purchaser commit to a contract that bounds them to the carrier for a number of years (2 years is common). Of course the purchaser can break the contract, but there is usually a penalty to compensate the carrier for the subsidizing the cell phone.
    • Carrier Lock the cell phone to the carrier’s network, meaning the cell phone cannot be used on any other cellular network in the world.

      • Continue reading “7 Things You Love to Ask About iPhone Unlocking”

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Is Smartone-Vodafone’s IOM Value Pack Right for iPhone?

Smartone-Vodafone logoOver a month ago I decided to switch to the Smartone-Vodafone “IOM Value Pack“. You can read why I make this move in my previous post, New Tariff Plan from Smartone-Vodafone for iPhone.

I had shared my experience here on my blog with my experience of using the iPhone in Hong Kong since June 2007. You can follow all of these posts by using the iPhone category.

Today is the last day of my bill cycle at Smartone-Vodafone, so I am now able to report if this “IOM Value Pack” is suitable for iPhone users in Hong Kong.

First I will provide some statistics on my iPhone voice and data usage in the past 30 days.

Internet Browsing as they called it = 27.378MB
Data Usage = 4.373MB
RSS Usage = 13.579MB
POP Usage = 0.340MB

As the IOM Value Pack at HKD136/month includes 600MB/month (20MB/day) Internet Browsing, I am within the limit. The Data Usage, which is most likely the result of IMAP email and other application usage. The POP usage is from one of my email account that I grab mail from, and the RSS reader, these all total 18.292MB, Since the IOM Value Pack charges HKD15/15MB, the extra usage resulted in an additional charge of HKD30.00, giving me a final total of:

HKD136.00
HKD30.00 (extra data usage)
HKD12.00 (MTR fees)

Total = HKD178.00

This is still cheaper than what I was paying prior to switching to the IOM Value Pack.