Category: Apple Inc.

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Purchasing Apple Products from Overseas?

Many people are tempted by the low cost of Apple products in Hong Kong compared to all other countries around the world, including USA. They are most attracted to the factory SIM-unlocked iPhones sold through official Apple resellers and Apple HK store online.

So they are tempted to purchase one or more of these products while they are travelling to Hong Kong. Making a purchasing decision like this should not be taken lightly. Aside from the cost, for any electronic product there should also be consideration of warrantee.

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Smartone-Vodafone Doing the Right Thing [Updated]

Has Smartone-Vodafone (SMV) finally listened to my reader’s and my call in my Open Letter to Smartone-Vodafone?

Along with the different tariff plans SMV releases for the iPad they have also released a “Tag-On Micro-SIM for iPad” plan for existing SMV subscribers. For an additional HKD128/month use of any voice and data plans with unlimited data can share the data usage with their iPad. It also includes unlimited free access to WiFi hotspots in HK. For anyone without unlimited data plans they can add an additional HKD88/month for the privilege.

This is definitely a step in the right direction. Please keep it up.

[Updated: July 23, 2010, 16:59]
Well I may be a bit too hasty to compliment SMV. It has been confirmed via Smartone-Vodafone Facebook page that this new iPad plans do not include their X-Power service, which includes that ability to playback Flash and YouTube videos while the iPad is on the SMV 3G network. Not good!

[Updated: July 30, 2010, 11:59]
I just confirmed with SMV that X-Power cannot be added to any of the iPad tariff plans for $48/month as previously thought.

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Review: Twitepad for iPad

Over the past 4 years there had been many Twitter clients created for the iPhone, Blackberry, OS X and Windows platforms. With the arrival of the Apple iPad, a new class of Twitter clients arrived.

Some recycled what they had done on the iPhone; like TweetDeck, some simply recompiled their iPhone app to run on the iPad. Then there are ones like Infoxenter, a Hong Kong developer, who decides to rethink the iPad platform and tries to utilize the full dimension of the iPad’s 9.7″ touch screen display. Infoxenter released Twitepad [iTunes App Store link] as its attempt to create a Twitter client for the iPad. Was it successful? I will try to explain below.

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Micro-SIM Availability in Hong Kong

Recently you may have just purchased one of Apple’s latest gadgets, the iPad WiFi+3G, from the 9 countries officially selling them, or plans to get one of the iPhone 4 from either Canada, France and UK. This is because all iPad WiFi+3G (except the ones sold in Japan) and iPhone 4 sold in Canada, France, UK and Hong Kong are SIM-unlocked. Meaning they will not be locked to a particular GSM carrier, therefore users can choose to put GSM SIM cards from any carriers into these devices and they will work.

That’s true with a small exception, these GSM SIM must be the micro-SIM format rather than the more commonly used “mini-SIM” among GSM carriers around the world.

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iTunes 9.2 Now Available


Last night Apple made available Mac OS 10.6.4 Update, now the version of iTunes that supports iOS 4 and all its functions is now available from Apple’s Downloads page or from Software Update on your Mac.

Unless you are using iTunes on Windows platform or that you have an iOS supported device running iOS 4, there is no rush to update your iTunes to this version. For the former type users there are 3 security issues that this version of iTunes fixes as documented in the Knowledge Base article, About the security content of iTunes 9.2.

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Choosing a 3G Tariff Plan in Hong Kong for iPad

With the pending iPad official release by Apple Hong Kong some time in July, mobile carriers in Hong Kong have begin to release tariff plans designed specifically to target iPad owners.

Among them only 3 HK currently has a data plan that comes with either a regular mini-SIM or the new micro-SIM. The rest of the carriers are offering data only 3G tariff plans that includes a free USB 3G modem. All of the plans also come with free WiFi network.

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iPad Officially Announced by Apple for Hong Kong

Apple finally announced an official release date for the original nine named countries: Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, to receive the iPad. Residences of these countries will be able to buy the iPad from Apple Stores and authorized resellers on May 28. Apple will begin pre-orders for these countries on May 10 (respective local time).

At the time of writing, official pricing for each of these countries are yet to be announced. The most exciting part of this press release for myself and fellow Hong Kong residences, is that Apple will added nine additional countries to receive the iPad in July 2010. They are: Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand and Singapore. The exact availability date and pricing will also be announced by Apple at a late date.

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US iPad WiFi+3G on Hong Kong 3G Networks

Now that the iPad WiFi+3G version is available and reviews of the device starting to fill the Internet. It appears that the iPad is not locked to the AT&T network.

The information about how to activate the AT&T 3G tariff plan on the iPad is a bit unclear. Screen shots of the Cellular Data Account screen and the process after the required information is entered are shown by iLounge, but how these information are validated and how some people are able to activate the iPad on T-Mobile data network is unknown.

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