Apple Hong Kong’s Chinese New Year ’11 One Day Deal

In the past Apple online store had held one day sales event for “Black Friday” (aka “Boxing Day”, the day after Christmas). Usually any other times Apple products are rarely discounted; unless it is through the Corporate or Education sites or refurbished items.

So it is a bit surprising to receive a Sale event announcement from Apple Hong Kong this morning. Let along a one day sale event from Apple HK. The email announcement detailed their first ever Chinese New Year 2011 one day sale event to be held on Friday, January 14th in their online store.

There are currently no additional details about the deals, discounts or products included in the one-day-sale event. Visiting the page on Apple HK online store right now, one will see a message asking visitors to return on Friday for details.

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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How I Became a SSD User

I like to share with my readers the process in which I became a SSD (“Sold State Drive”) user.

The price of SSD drive is still way more expensive than a regular HDD, especially when you compared the cost per GB (Gigabyte).

In Hong Kong on average one can find a reasonably fast 7200rpm 1TB (Terabyte) 3.5″ internal drive for about HKD790.00. Even if you purchase a USB capable external enclosure that is only an additional HKD120.00. Giving you a cost per GB of HKD0.91/GB.

On the other hand the Intel SSD X25-M 160GB cost me HKD3770 at the beginning of January, giving me the cost per GB of HK23.56/GB. This means using a SSD cost 24.89 times more.

How I come to decide on purchasing the Intel SSD X25-M? Partially it is because of the reviews and information gather from AnandTech’s web site, plus the feedback from various people about Intel and OCZ SSD.

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Quick Summary of Macworld 2009 Keynote

Apple logoBefore heading to bed, I thought I give everyone a quick summary of the keynote at Macworld 2009.

Apple announced three new things: iLife ’09, iWork ’09 and a new MacBook Pro 17″ plus two iTunes Store updates. The latter being the immediate availability of 8 million DRM-free tracks on iTunes Store worldwide and OTA (Over-the-air) iTunes Store purchase on the iPhone.

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My Views on the New Late 2008 MacBooks


MacBook

MacBook Air

MacBook Pro
2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR3 Memory
160GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
Super Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M video card
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR3 Memory
250GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
Super Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M video
1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR3 Memory
120GB 4200rpm Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M video card
1.86GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR3 Memory
128GB SSD Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M video card
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
2GB DDR3 Memory
Super Drive
250GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 256MB video card
2.53GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB DDR3 Memory
320GB 5400rpm Hard Drive
Super Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB video card
$10,200.00 $12,500.00 $13,900.00 $19,200.00 $15,400.00 $19,200.00

* All currency in HKD

This new line of Macintosh notebooks cause me to be indecisive about my justification to upgrade my current MacBook Pro (October 2006, Glossy Screen), 2GB of RAM, 2Hz Intel Core Duo, 100GB 7200 rpm Hard Drive. Let me get into the details so you can decide whether you have the same issues.

These new MacBooks have many technical advancement in terms of manufacturing and user interface. There are hardware in the Mac that the upcoming Mac OS X (10.6) will be able to take advantage and make these efficiencies available to all applications running on the new Mac OS X.

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Apple’s 2008.10.14 Event

This morning at 10:00 (PDT) in Cupertino, CA, USA, Apple held an event to announce the new MacBook Pro, MacBook and speed bumped the MacBook Air.

The entire line of MacBook, MacBook Pro and MacBook Air are now using the same construction method, where the case is created from a single block of Aluminum. Making the case much more rigid.

Apple has also removed the button from the TrackPad, and introduced a new multi-touch TrackPad with a 4th gesture; 4-fingers gesture.

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Apple Event on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 10:00 PDT

It is confirmed that there will indeed be an Apple event at Apple’s Cupertino HQ, 1 Infinite Loop, titled “The Spotlight Turns to Notebooks“.

I hope they will announce and make available a new MacBook that meets my needs. Most of all will be available this year.

I love to buy a MacBook that is:

  • Has a Core 2 Duo or faster processor
  • Has a maximum RAM capacity of greater than 4GB
  • Built-in Ethernet port
  • ExpressCard 34 or 54 slot
  • Removable battery
  • Has a real-life battery capacity of more than 4 hours.

The rest are not that important. The screen size can be anywhere between 13″ – 15″.

What is the ideal MacBook you hope Apple announce next week? Please do share here in the comments.

Not Necessary Believable News

As the saying goes, “bad news sells newspapers”.

Being true to this saying the traditional media (CNN, New York Times, etc.) are again reporting the Mac rumors as fact. Even with a recent example of how irresponsible these traditional media were; CNN iReport incident.

You can see from Dow Jones Newswires article Apple Sets Oct 14 Event: “Spotlight On Notebooks” they are referring to all the rumors about what Apple may announce as facts. They even went as far as suggesting that Apple is using this event on October 14, 2008, 09:30 (PST) as a tactic to recover the falling price of Apple’s stock (AAPL).

This Dow Jones Newswires’ Ben Charny has such high regards for Apple, that he is basically suggesting that Apple has such a great foresight, as to predict the collapse of the US economy and the global financial market. So they planned approximately 2 years ahead of time to have an event on exactly October 14, 2008; several days after Apple’s stock price broke its 52-weeks low a few times, to make announcements that will recover the price of their stock. That is utterly ridiculous.

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