The iPhone Virgin Blog

Recently, I found myself listening so much to Lady Gaga. Too bad her Monster Ball tour does not include Singapore. I wished I had the money to go UK and watch her perform in February and March. For those of you who are there, you might want to check out these Lady Gaga tickets before they are all sold out.

I love most of Lady Gaga’s songs, and “Bad Romance” is my new favourite. I also decided to make it my new ringtone! I never really played with the ringtone function of my iPhone for the past year, so I have no idea how to customize it. I found out that I can’t go to the iPod function and select one of the songs as my ringtone (which I could do so in my previous phone).

I searched around and discovered an awesome application that allows me to edit part of a digital track that I like into a 30-second ringtone clip. Thanks to “iPhoneRingtoneMaker” (you can download it free, just google it), I made my very first “Bad Romance” ringtone and I am very happy with it so far. It’s really easy for anyone to use! You can make a ringtone, send it to iTunes, sync with your iPhone and get a customized ringtone in a few minutes! But this trial version only allows access to making three ringtones, so if you are the type to switch ringtones every week, you might want to pay for the full version.

Now my iPhone is going gaga too. And I’m loving it everytime it rings. Haha.

I can’t hide my excitement!!  The rumored iPad has finally been unveiled by Steve Jobs. Read this report by Yahoo below.

Apple chief executive Steve Jobs on Wednesday revealed the culture-changing company’s latest must-have device, a touchscreen tablet computer annointed the “iPad.”

“We want to kick off 2010 by introducing a truly magical and revolutionary product,” said Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant last year and was making just his second public appearance since September.

The long-awaited iPad has a 9.7-inch (24.6-centimeter) color screen and resembles an oversized iPhone. It is 0.5 inches (1.3 cms) thick, weighs 1.5 pounds (0.7 kgs) and comes with 16, 32, or 64 gigabytes of flash memory.

The cheapest iPad model, with Wi-Fi connectivity and 16GB of memory, is 499 dollars while the most expensive — which includes 3G connectivity and 64GB of memory — costs 829 dollars.

“I think it’s a home run,” said Gartner analyst Van Baker. “It becomes a viable alternative to a netbook and I get the 140,000 applications in the App Store. It is a pretty compelling value.”

Apple said it would start shipping the iPad, which has a virtual keyboard but can also be hooked up to an external keyboard, within 60 days, making them available worldwide in late March.

The 3G version will reach the market in late April.

Dressed in his trademark blue jeans, black turtleneck and sneakers, Jobs appeared on stage at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts Theater to unveil a product that had been the subject of months of speculation.

Walking around the stage or sitting on a couch, he showed off iPad features which include browsing the Internet, doing email, working with spreadsheets and charts, playing videogames, listening to music or watching video.

Jobs, who appeared thin but healthy, said Apple was launching an online “iBookstore” for the iPad and touted its abilities as an electronic reader of books, newspapers and magazines.

“You can have black-and-white, color, video in your books — whatever the author wants,” he said. “We think the iPad is going to make a terrific e-book reader, not just for popular books but for textbooks as well.

“Amazon has done a great job of pioneering this functionality with the Kindle,” Jobs said. “We are going to stand on their shoulders.”

The legendary Apple CEO said the iPad has support from five of the biggest publishers in the world and that Apple will “open the floodgates for the rest of the publishers starting this afternoon.”

Some technology analysts expect the iPad to pose a challenge to other e-readers while a number of publishers are counting on the device to sell digital versions of their publications.

The New York Times, Time magazine and National Geographic were among the partners whose content was displayed on the device on Wednesday.

Apple said that besides serving as an e-reader, the iPad runs all of the applications available through the Apple App Store for the iPod and iPhone.

“If you are thinking about buying a Kindle, you are probably reconsidering that decision. If you are a developer, you have one more reason to develop applications for Apple,” said Interpret analyst Michael Gartenberg.

Apple simultaneiously released a kit for software developers to tailor applications for the iPad.

Jobs said he expected the device to carve out a place between the laptop computer and the smartphone.

“Do we have what it takes to establish a third category of products in between a laptop and a smartphone?” he asked. “We think we’ve done it.”

If you have enjoyed using the iPhone, you will surely find iPad so much easier on the eyes and with the same functionalities, it’s a product that will serve most of your surfing and entertainment needs.

Well, my hubby says I am going crazy. I have one laptop, one mini notebook and an iPhone and I am now eyeing on the iPad? Where do I have the time to use them all?  Haha. But maybe he should bear some responsibility. I got addicted to Apple products ever since he gave me an iPod Nano in 2007.  And its now bleeding his pocket. Sorry, hubby!

I love this battle…competition = savings for consumers like us…agree? 

The competition for the iPhone market in Singapore is getting keener, with all the three telcos now offering the device.

The competition started on Tuesday night with SingTel tweaking its iPhone plans to make them more attractive.

On Wednesday, M1 announced that it will offer a 12—gigabyte data bundle for two of its lower—end iPhone plans, which previously offered 10GB. The data charges are also now capped at a lower S$30.

It was a response to StarHub’s announcement earlier in the day of a S$30 cap to its data charges.

Both StarHub and M1 started selling the iPhone on Wednesday, ending the nearly 18—month monopoly which SingTel had over the sale of iPhones in Singapore.

With the latest development, the iPhone mania returned with a vengeance.

At two of M1’s collection points, the queue started on Tuesday night, hours before the phone became available at midnight.

Some 1,500 customers formed long lines at Paragon and Westmall, as those who had pre—ordered the phone had to join walk—in customers in the same queue.

When MediaCorp visited the Paragon Orchard outlet around noon on Wednesday, about 100 people were still waiting to be served.

Lawyer Ramesh Tiwary, who has been eyeing to sign up after his contract expired two months ago, did not mind the long wait.

“Over the last couple of days, the plans have been getting better and better, so I think now is the right time to get it. Now, it’s really good because over a few nights, things have become a lot better,” he said.

Over at the StarHub’s Plaza Singapura collection point, queues were not as long because only customers who had pre—ordered their iPhones get to collect them.

Walk—in customers need to place their orders and are alerted to return to one of 20 collection points that is nearest to them. A StarHub spokesperson said this arrangement saves customers from waiting in line.

Still, customers like Aces Lim waited two hours before finally receiving her prized gadget.

For customer Michelle Tok, who was only browsing, she is hoping that more tempting offers will be dished out.

She said: “Prices are all very competitive, it’s not really a major issue right now. There’s a cap to how low they can go also. Of course, I would love to get it free, but it’s not going to happen.

“I think it’s the perks and also the after—service and feedback that I get from my friends that will affect my decision.”

And here’s good news for Channel NewsAsia fans.

The Channel NewsAsia iPhone app is now available via SMS download by dialling 75500 with the message “app”, so not just SingTel, but also M1 and Starhub subscribers can enjoy the free news app.

The news app is available at the iTunes store or via the channelnewsasia.com’s app page as a free download.

Source:  Yahoo News/ CNA

For those of you who prefer to sticking to Starhub and M1, your time is finally here.  Now you can buy the iPhone without having to switch service providers!

I just read this from Yahoo News:

StarHub will make available the iPhone to its subscribers from Wednesday.

It will also offer a range of new 3G mobile plans to meet the different needs of iPhone customers for voice, SMS and data usage.

iPhone 3GS and iPhone 3G models will be available for free on the 3G SmartSurf Unlimited plan with a two—year contract. Altogether, four new 3G SmartSurf price plans will be introduced.

Local data usage charges are capped at S$48 monthly. Customers who have pre—registered for the iPhone will be given priority.

Hours after StarHub revealed plans to rollout its iPhones, M1 announced it will do the same this Wednesday.There will be four new iPhone plans offered by M1.

M1 said its iPhone customers will also enjoy call benefits of unlimited free calls to three M1 numbers, per second billing and discounts of up to 35 per cent on subscription fees with the multi—line saver programme.

Local data usage charges are capped at S$36.38, slightly below StarHub’s rates.

In July, SingTel was the first operator to launch the new iPhone 3GS.

Are you rejoicing yet?

At least now there is no monopoly and I bet prices are going to be more competitive in future.  I am still holding on to my iPhone 3G, and do not see a need to upgrade it yet to iPhone 3GS.  Well, let’s see if there will be greater discounts that may tempt me next year.

And yes just to rant, I am really peeved at the multi-sim service I am getting.  There was a day last month where my phone cannot be used at all for 8 hours, from 1 pm to 9 pm!  I can’t use the SMS service as well.  No calls and text messages can be sent outgoing and received incoming, can you believe it?  I was totally cut off from the outside world, nobody could reach me and I didn’t have an extra sim card.  This is the worst experience I have in my 10++ years of using a mobile phone!

When I called the customer service (which took me at least 20 minutes to get through), all they can say is “Network problem” and they suggested that I hard-reset my iPhone again and again.  It was of no help at all and I called a second time (another 20 minutes gone!) to have someone who have totally no idea how he could help me except to wait for the problem to resolve itself.

I am paying extra for this service because I need to surf on my laptop as well, if not I would have scrapped it!  I hope I never have to experience this again.  *touch wood*  Haha.

Guess what?

Here’s a tidbit that’s sure to irk Flickr’s elitist photographers: The iPhone has just topped Canon’s high-performance Digital Rebel XTi as the most popular camera on Yahoo’s popular image-sharing site.

The iPhone, with its bare-bones, two-megapixel camera, has been battling for the No. 2  spot for months in a tight race with two other Canon cameras and the Nikon D80, according to a graph plotting the overall user percentages of each model on Flickr’s Camera Finder.

But recently, the iPhone shot up to No. 1.

The newest iPhone 3GS added much-improved photo-taking quality, with features such as video, auto-focus and white balance. Still, its lack of a zoom lens and a flash put it at a major technical disadvantage compared to dedicated point-and-shooters like the 10- to 12-megapixel Canon Rebels.

Flickr has long been a popular spot for professionals to dump their hundreds of digital stills. The website is an ideal place for …

… pros to display their work to the world and for long-term cloud storage (as long as they’ve paid for a pro account, to remove the 200-picture restriction).

But the Rebel’s dethroning doesn’t seem to indicate a major consumer shift away from professional-quality cameras. Rather, it’s more of a shift in the battle among cellphone cameras, in favor of the iPhone, as well as a change in how people share digital photos. Apple’s smart phone has outpaced the share of user uploads compared to other camera phones. The Nokia N95 holds a distant second, followed by a couple of BlackBerry models.

IPhone users are notoriously heavy consumers of mobile Internet — in some cases, surpassing the amount of time they spend surfing the Web on their computers. That could mean they’re apt to share the photos they take on more websites, rather than suggest that the phone’s camera is supplanting more powerful devices.

We’ve been tracking the Apple-Canon race on Flickr for months. Strangely, this isn’t the first time that the iPhone has jumped past the Rebel — even though the graph doesn’t show it. Hours after iPhone took the lead, the leap had been inexplicably stricken from the record.

Source:  http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/08/iphone-flickr.html

Because I own an iPhone 3G, I never really liked to take photos with it due to the pathetic 2MB low resolution.  It is also a challenge to take a sharp photo because any movements (be it my shaky hand or my “unstill” objects of interest) will blur the picture in an instant.  I guess 3GS may be a notch higher, but I probably won’t change my iPhone till it gets better than 3MB.  Well, it doesn’t affect someone like me who rarely “cam-whores”.  Haha.

Good news and bad news about this, at least for me!

Discovery Communications has released a Discovery Channel application on the iTunes App Store, bringing heaps of video content produced by the popular non-fiction media company to the iPhone and iPod Touch. In addition to video clips, the app also boasts a collection of quizzes, photo galleries, programming schedules and updates from Discovery News. Furthermore, you can use the app to share content via e-mail and save to favorites for your re-watching pleasure.

Evidently, full episodes for Discovery’s top programming (Shark Week, Man vs. Wild, MythBusters, etc.) are not available through the free yet ad-supported application, but it does come with links to the iTunes Store where the media company offers a selection of full episodes for purchase.

Source:  http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/18/not-a-myth-to-bust-discovery-channel-hits-the-app-store/

I am an avid fan of Discovery channel, so this is great news.  I caught every episode of Man Vs Wild and now I am chasing every Monday’s Treasure Quest.

But just as I got too happy, I realised this is only available to US users.  I couldn’t find it on Singapore iTunes Store at all.  What a dampener.  Ha. 

Ever since I started using the iPhone, I was secretly hoping Apple will come up with a larger version that can serve as a netbook.  I can imagine how cool it is going to look with its large portable touch screen interface.  It is also going to be more pleasant for the eyes as we do not have to zoom in and out to read.  But is this apple tablet surfacing soon?  After reading this article (http://gizmodo.com/5335942), I certainly hope so.

I never fully believed the Apple tablet was real beyond dreams, until I heard these words over my phone: “Hey, it’s [redacted]. I may or may not have sat in some Apple meetings for the tablet.”I was driving, and swerved a little bit, even though both hands were on the wheel. Someone honked at me.

“What was that?”

They repeated themselves.

I switched on Bluetooth and pulled over to the side of the road to hear the story. You see, earlier in the day I’d given my phone number out to someone who sent me a cryptic email wanting to talk Apple. This must have been them. (Later on I verified to a high level of certainty that they were in the position to have access to the information and after talking to them for over an hour, I believe them to the same level of certainty.)

“The device, which I’ve held mock ups of, is going to have a 10 inch screen, and when I saw it looked just like a giant iPhone, with a black back— although that design could change at any time” they said, “with the same black resin back, and the familiar home button.” That’s obvious.

“But it will come in two editions, one with a webcam and one for educational use.”

Educational use?

They continued to explain the device as something that would sit between an iPod/iPhone and a MacBook, and would cost $700 to $900—”More than twice as much as a netbook,” they said.

To make up for that cost and make the device more than just a big iPod there was, this person claimed, there was talk of making the device act as a secondary screen/touchpad for iMacs and MacBooks, much like a few of the USB screens that have come out in recent months from Chinese companies. Very interesting.

This certainly sounds like something to look forward to in the next few months.  Going to ditch my plans to buy a typical netbook, I have decided to put my money in this.    Hurry up, Apple, Christmas can’t wait!  LOL.

Facebook has submitted v. 3.0 of their iPhone application to Apple, Joe Hewitt says via Twitter: “Just uploaded Facebook for iPhone 3.0 to the App Store for review. ”

Hewitt also says he’ll post screen shots and more details on this Facebook page for the iPhone app next week, and that he’s looking forward to getting started on v. 3.1 tomorrow.

It’s likely Apple will approve this app in short order. Not only are they trying to avoid high profile app problems, there’s also not very much in the Facebook app that they or AT&T would take exception to.

Facebook addicts, are you excited?

Source:  http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/08/16/facebook-30-for-iphone-submitted-now-lets-count-the-days-until-available/

How satisfied are you with your iPhone 3G/ 3GS?  I guess I belong to the 99% group.  Haha.

A total of 99 percent of 200 respondents to a RBC/IQ ChangeWave survey in August said they are satisfied with their iPhone 3GS, with 82 percent of those “Very Satisfied.” That’s an improvement from the already-stellar statistics on the last two iterations of the iPhone, of which 73 percent of customers gave a superior ranking. Similarly, 94 percent of iPhone 3GS buyers said the product met or exceeded their expectations.

But the iPhone’s U.S. carrier, AT&T, was seen as the product’s biggest pitfall. When iPhone 3GS owners were asked to rank what they dislike about the product, 55 percent chose the AT&T network. That was followed by the 41 percent who felt the device’s battery life is too short, and 8 percent who said their company’s IT department doesn’t support the product.

The data was released Friday as part of a new report from RBC Capital Markets. Citing customer satisfaction, analyst Mike Abramsky reiterates the company’s “outperform” rating for AAPL stock, and maintains a price target of $190.

As for the phone’s most-liked features, the touchscreen interface took top honors with 45 percent, followed by ease of use and faster Web browsing. It’s likely most who bought the iPhone 3GS knew exactly what they were getting: 41 percent of respondents were migrating from an older version of the product. Switchers from other devices mostly came from Motorola (18 percent), followed in order by Nokia (11 percent), RIM (9 percent), Sanyo (8 percent), and Palm (6 percent).

“iPhone 3GS owners are a highly satisfied group, strongly loyal to Apple, and that Apple innovation (touchscreen, software UI, applications) is what continues to lure new buyers to its smartphones,” the report reads. “The benefits to Apple for achieving this premium customer satisfaction include: strong pricing power, high customer lifetime value, powerful, inexpensive viral marketing (recommend to others), increased carrier channel leverage, indirect benefits to Apple’s other businesses (e.g. Macs).”

Source:  http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/08/14/apples_iphone_3gs_has_99_percent_satisfaction_rate.html

What do you think of this?

College students could soon be able to ditch their backpacks and put their textbooks into their shirt pockets thanks to a new program that will let them read their books using iPhones or iPod Touch devices.

CourseSmart of San Mateo, California, already makes more than 7000 college textbooks from 12 publishers available to its subscribers online via their computers, but now the company has added “eTextbooks for the iPhone,” allowing students to free themselves from even having to lug around their heavy laptop computers.

There are a couple drawbacks — you have to be connected to the Internet to view the books you can access with your CourseSmart subscription on your iPhone or iPod Touch, and the first version of the new app doesn’t allow users to add notes in the margins.

The app itself is free from Apple’s App Store; and it appears that most of the textbooks CourseSmart sells in digital form cost about 60 to 75 percent of the price of their dead tree versions.

This is a cool idea in general, and I can certainly see the benefits — textbooks sure have gotten bigger and heavier over the years and carrying them around all over your campus is not fun at all — but miniaturizing your textbooks and being able to take them anywhere also could introduce some problems.

First, we’re talking about reading a large textbook on a small iPhone or iPod Touch screen. It may be neat to imagine, but it may not be so easy to use, especially when you are looking for information and you just can’t seem to locate it on the device’s small screen. How likely is it that students will actually want to do this and will find it as productive as reading a traditional paper book? And what happens when your Internet connection is down and you can’t access your books? Believe me, this will happen sometimes.

Then there’s the potential for cheating at exam time when students can stealthily view their iPod to get information from an e-textbook to answer a tough exam question. Hey, it could happen. Maybe you’ll have to leave your iPhones and iPod Touches at the door as you enter the exam room to prevent cheating. Could we eventually see students being patted down by hand for their iPhones or iPod Touches at exam time as they enter the room?

What about incoming text messages while you are reading your books on your iPhone? Now, that would be distracting because they’d be hard to avoid. At least if you are not using your iPhone as an e-book reader, then you can tuck it away or turn it off so you’re not distracted while reading. This would be a new challenge for students.

Well, I am long past the age for college , but no matter how much I love my iPhone, I guess I would still prefer to scribble on my textbooks.  Haha, yeah, and doodling with my different colored pens and highlighters on the dog-eared pages.

Source:  http://www.pcworld.com/article/170075/college_textbooks_hit_iphone_ipod_touch.html?tk=rss_main