Taiwan iPhone 3G Unlocked Out-of-the-box

Chunghwa Telecom LogoWhen Apple made the iPhone 3G available on the little island, Taiwan, these phones sold through the official carrier partner, Chunghwa Telecom, are all carrier unlocked.

Just to remind readers that, ever since the availability of iPhone 3G back in June 2008, all iPhone sold here in Hong Kong, whether through the official carrier partner, Three (“3”), or through Apple Hong Kong’s Online Store, are also carrier unlocked.

The official price for iPhone 3G (8GB) and (16GB) from Apple HK Online Store are HKD5400.00 and HKD6200.00 respectively.

Review: Present Surprise

DinTaiFung

I was lucky to have the opportunity to visit the original “Ding Tai Fung” (???) restaurant in Taipei, Taiwan. This is located at No. 194 (corner of Yunkang Street), Xinyi Road Sec. 2, Taipei, Taiwan (+886.02.2321.8928). Its hours of operation are:

  • Mon ~ Fri 10:00~21:00
  • Sat & Public holiday 09:00~21:00

The specialty of this restaurant is Shanghainese food. There is one in Hong Kong: 3F Cailan Delicacy, Huangpu Garden, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, but even without comparing it to the original one in Taipei it is not one of the better Shanghainese restaurants in Hong Kong.

So I was delighted to find the food to be exceptional and the restaurant extremely efficient. When I arrived at 17:30 local time there was already a large crowd congregation outside the restaurant. Since I was looking forward to try the original restaurant I was willing to wait. The hostesses at the entrance greeting visitors were extremely friendly and professional at the same time. The kind you would expect at five stars hotels and definitely not from a busy restaurant. Definitely not the kind you find at any Hong Kong restaurants even five and six stars hotels.

The wait was reasonably short given the amount of people waiting and the continue arrival of tourist buses; dropping off 10 – 20 tourists at a time. All visitors are encouraged to choose from their menu while they wait outside. The hostesses would come around periodically to see if they can assist with orders and to collect completed orders.

When I was seated at one of table on the third floor among; just one of the four stores available, the process seems even more production-line like. Immediately the first dish arrives and then the subsequent dishes progressively arrive at the table. Within 33 minutes I was filled with great food, relaxed a bit and departed by paying the bill back on the ground floor.

The service throughout my 33 minutes was exceptional, with the servers anticipating my needs at every occasions while every tables on the floor was packed.

I absolutely did not expect the type of service I received and to top it off with great food, this is definitely a restaurant I recommend to anyone who visits Taipei, Taiwan.

Price: $$$
Taste: 4Stars

Technology Dependence

Yesterday, a major earthquake in Southwestern Taiwan caused sever damage to the fiber optics communication cables on the sea bed.

This interruption prevented me from accessing my emails and the backend applications for my online stores which are stored on the server located in the United States.

Fortunately, for part of the day yesterday I was able to access my backend applications and email server via an European proxy server. I managed to set up auto replies for two of my main email addresses. Informing my potential and existing customers the problem.

Unfortunately, this proxy server was turned off latter in the day, may be due to overload of traffic. I was unable to change the message on my website to inform potential customers of the situation.

This incident exposed our dependence on technologies. While it also emphasize the important of technologies in our daily lives. Without these technologies I will not be able to operate these online stores for the past 2+ years. Without these technologies I will not be able to manage and process orders from 4 different online stores.

We should not be questioning the level of dependence we have with technologies. As technologies are already part of our daily lives and will continue to be in the near and foreseeable future. Instead we should be questioning the people who manage our technologies and whether they are placing the same importance on these technologies as we do. Most importantly having the foresight to protect the access to these technologies in events like this.