Received my Apple iPhone 3GS / 3G USB Desktop Sync & Charge Cradle from MobileFun yesterday. It is a good alternative to the Apple iPhone 3G Dock (£22) and Apple Universal Dock (£36) because it cost only £9.99 and it works exactly the same.

Box Contents

It comes with the cradle, the MiniUSB to USB cable and the charger head.

Charger Head

Cradle – Front View

Cradle – Back View

You can either charge and sync your iPhone 3G/3Gs with the cradle by connecting the USB cable to your computer or just choose to charge your iPhone 3G/3GS by connecting the charger head to a power outlet.

Cradle With iPhone 3GS – Front View

There is a blue LED light on the right side of the cradle to indicate that there is power coming to the cradle.

Cradle With iPhone 3GS – Side View

As you can see, my iPhone 3GS fits perfectly into the cradle and I like the plastic backing because it is pretty high and give the iPhone a pretty good back support. That is important to me because sometimes I type on my iPhone while it is still docked in the cradle.

Most of the stuff on my table are black, my monitor, my television, my keyboard and even my mouse. The only white colored things around is my table itself and my Apple’s Universal Dock. This black cradle is perfect for all black iPhone users because it blends well with your black iPhone 3G/3GS and even the devices/gadgets on your table.

You can get the Apple iPhone 3GS / 3G USB Desktop Sync & Charge Cradle for £9.99 (including taxes but excluding shipping).

For more iPhone accessories, Check out Mobile Fun’s iPhone Accessories.

Got to know this really cheap external battery charger for iPhone 3G from Hardware Zone Forums. The seller, free-4-flying, is based in Hong Kong. Once in a while he will have a sale on that. The cheapest I saw is USD$6.99 but unfortunately when I bought that time it is USD$8.48 (SGD$11.87). The price stated includes shipping which makes it real cheap!

I bought it on the 18th September 2009 and it was shipped on the next day on 19th September 2009. Took 17 days to reach me, arrived in my mailbox yesterday on the 6th October 2009. This is technically the first item I purchased from eBay. The very first item I bought is the Apple Care for my MacBook Pro =D

Description

• Light-weight, super-slim design to carry with your iPhone or iPod Conveniently charged via any USB ports
• High-capacity, rechargeable lithium-ion battery
• LED indicator for battery power level
• No memory effect, Li-ion battery built-in

Specifications

• Battery Type: Lithium-ion battery
• Capacity: 1900MAH
• Rated input: 5V 800mA
• Rated Output: 5V 500mA max
• Charge time: Around 2 hours
• Dimension: 67×62x15 (mm)
• Color: Black

Compatibility

• iPhone 3GS 16GB/32GB
• iPhone 3G 8GB/16GB
• iPhone 4GB 8GB 16GB
• iPod Touch
• iPod Nano
• iPod Classic
• iPod Video

Packaging – Front View

Packaging – backView

Front View

Back View

Input

Output

Before I start this tutorial, I would like to give full credits to crimsontwo from xSellize forums and joshua.menke from cocoaforge. I merely improve on crimsontwo’s work.

In the thread, Gmail + push on iPhone w/ Prowl on xSellize forums, crimsontwo gave instructions on how to run the Prowl python script on your iphone. The downside to it is that if your iPhone connection change from EDGE to 3G or 3G to Wifi or any vice versa, the script will be disconnected from Gmail. To solve this problem, he recommends you to upload the script to your own web server instead.

You need to have SSH access to your web server as well as Python installed in your web server which is not covered in this tutorial.

So here we go:

1. Get Prowl from App Store for USD$2.99
2. Register your Prowl account at http://prowl.weks.net/register.php
3. Once registered, click on Settings Tab
4. Under API key, click on Generate API Key Button and note copy down your generated API Key
5. Download the required files in a zip, called, Gmail With Push On iPhone Using Prowl
6. Using WinZip, extract the zip file which you have downloaded from Step 5
7. You should see a folder called gmail_and_prowl
8. Open the file main.py using NotePad or WordPad
9. You should see these lines on line 11 to 13:
   

   prowl_apikey = “your_prowl_api_key”
   IMAP_USERNAME = “your_gmail_username”
   IMAP_PASSWORD = “your_gmail_password”

10. Replace the text your_prowl_api_key, your_gmail_username and your_gmail_password accordingly and save it
11. Using your FTP, upload the folder gmail_and_prowl to your home directory in your webserver
12. Login using SSH and browse to the path where you uploaded gmail_and_prowl, for example, /home/username/gmail_and_prowl/
13. Type this command:

    nohup python main.py > /dev/null 2>&1 &

14. The PID of the process which is executing the script will be displayed. You may want to know that number down, just in case you need to kill the process.
15. You can now log out from the SSH and send a test email to your Gmail account

I was there last year at the Singtel iPhone 3G Launch queuing up for the iPhone 3G as a normal consumer. This year I was also there, but with a media pass. I was there pretty early at about 1.30pm because I have to go to Funan to run some errands. The media event started at about 3.30pm. We are brought around the Comcenter by Yuen Kuan Moon, the EVP of Consumer from Singtel. He explains to us the various part of the queue structure and how the customers will move about when queuing. Apart from that, Singtel announced a new service called Mio TV on Mobile. Customers can get to stream live tv stream from Channel 8, Channel News Asia, Bloomberg and a few others. It is not an iPhone App, but rather the streaming is done in Safari itself. It is pretty impressive as the quality is watchable and it doesn’t lag.

According to Kuan Moon, this year the response was much better than last year. He did not give an exact figure but he says in thousands. Last year the launch of iPhone 3G is basically register of interest and user still have to queue up. But this year, Singtel did a pre-order and require the customers to make a deposit of SGD$50 before queuing. There is also a separate queue for walk-in customers which closes at about 9pm due to the overwhelming response on the pre-order queue.

The event was not a midnight launch but rather only a 4 hour event from 8pm all the way to 12midnight. I have no idea whether they closes at 12midnight yesterday as from what I know at 9pm, the waiting time was 6 hours according to their website.

Similar to last year, the host this year was Glenn Ong from Class 95 as well. Mediacorp artists like Pierre Png, Joanna Peh, Felicia Chin was also there. Instead of the glass house which Singtel specially built for the iPhone 3G launch last year, this year they are using tentage. Also, there are tentage all over the queue area because some customers complained about being in the rain as last year when they are queuing up.

I used my Dad’s line and got my iPhone 3GS 32GB Black at SGD$678 on iFlexi Lite plan. I upgrade his Classic plan to iFlex Lite and got SGD$100 off, I got a SGD$120 Red Prestige voucher from my uncle and hence the iPhone 3GS price became SGD$678 – (SGD$100 + SGD$120) = SGD$458.

The only way to tell an iPhone 3G from iPhone 3GS is at the back. A1303 refers to iPhone 3GS and 32GB will definitely be a 3GS. Also the part the text it says iPhone is shiny for iPhone 3GS and white for iPhone 3G.

Facebook Gallery: Singtel iPhone 3GS Launch

Singtel has release their iPhone 3GS prices, for consumers the URL to go to is https://www.singtelshop.com/iPhone3GS/ and for business users, the URL to go to is https://business.singtelshop.com/business/iphone/index.html. As expected, the prices are pretty much the same as iPhone 3G when it was launch, you can check it out in my blog post at Singtel iPhone Price Plans.

It seems that Singtel has just screwed iPhone 3G users by imposing a penalty of SGD$600 if you only fulfilled between 6 to 12 months of contract and SGD$300 if you fulfilled between 12 months and 21 months of contract! Singtel should not forget that majority of the users that will purchase iPhone 3G will most likely purchase iPhone 3GS!

*Update* For early iPhone 3G Users adopters who got the iPhone 3G during August 2008, instead of paying SGD$600, Singtel will give you 50% off and you will just have to pay SGD$300 for the penalty instead of the usual SGD$600. This promotion is only applicable during the launch period on the 10th, 11th and 12 July 2009. If you get on the 13th July 2009 onwards, you are back to paying SGD$600 for the penalty.. This promotion has been extended till the end of July 2009.

*Update* Updated on 15th December 2009, SingTel increases the data usage of iFlexi plans to 12GB and decreases the iPhone 3GS prices.

iFlexi Plans

• iFlexi Lite – SGD$39
  • 12GB Data
  • 100 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$518
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$658
• iFlexi Value – SGD$56
  • 12GB Data
  • 200 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$248
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$398
• iFlexi Plus – SGD$95
  • 12GB Data
  • 500 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: Free
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$98
• iFlexi Premium – SGD$205
  • 30GB Data
  • 2,000 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 2,000 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: Free
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: Free

3G Flexi Plans

• 3G Flexi Lite – SGD$39.00
  • 500 MB
  • 100 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$548
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$678

• 3G Flexi – SGD$56.00
  • 1 GB
  • 200 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$348
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$508

• 3G Flexi Plus – SGD$95.01
  • 2 GB
  • 500 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$49
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$208

Voice Only Plans

• Classic – SGD$29.96
  • No Data
  • 150 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 360 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$568
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$728
• iOne Plus – SGD$25.68
  • No Data
  • 100 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$698
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$848
• iTwo Value – SGD$48.15
  • No Data *
  • 300 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$348
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$508
• iTwo Plus – SGD$82.93
  • No Data *
  • 700 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 500 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$49
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$208
• iThree Plus – SGD$192.60
  • No Data *
  • 2,000 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 2,000 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: Free
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: Free
• Premium 700 – SGD$94.16
  • No Data *
  • 700 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 360 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: SGD$49
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: SGD$208
• Premium 1500 – SGD$201.16
  • No Data *
  • 1,500 Mins Outgoing Voice
  • 360 SMS
  • iPhone 3GS 16GB Price: Free
  • iPhone 3GS 32GB Price: Free

Data Only Plans

• Broadband on Mobile Lite – SGD$3.50
  • Download Speed: 7.2Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 1.5Mbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 2 MB
• Broadband on Mobile Plus – SGD$19.90
  • Download Speed: 7.2Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 1.5Mbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 1 GB
• Broadband on Mobile Premium – SGD$29.90 (New)
  • Download Speed: 7.2Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 1.5Mbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 10 GB
• Broadband on Mobile Platinum – SGD$39.90 (New)
  • Download Speed: 7.2Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 1.5Mbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 30 GB
• Broadband on Mobile 1000 – SGD$22.42
  • Download Speed: 1Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 384kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 30 GB
• Broadband on Mobile Youth – SGD$29.00
  • Download Speed: 1.5Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 384kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 50 GB
  • For Students & NSFs Only
• Broadband on Mobile 2000 – SGD$37.00
  • Download Speed: 2Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 512kbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 50 GB
• Broadband on Mobile 4000 – SGD$51.00
  • Download Speed: 4Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 1Mbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 50 GB
• Broadband on Mobile 7200 – SGD$72.76
  • Download Speed: 7.2Mbps
  • Upload Speed: 1.5Mbps
  • Free Local Bundled Usage: 50 GB

Note

• Prices stated are including 7% GST.
• For iFlexi plans, the data connection has 7.2 Mbps downstream speed

Links

• View Singtel Shop: Singtel iPhone 3GS
• View Singtel Broadband on Mobile price plans
• View Singtel Postpaid Mobile price plans
• View Singtel iPhone price plans

Apple announced the new iPhone 3G S, S stands for speed. Basically, everything is the same as the iPhone 3G including the looks.

Here are the changes as compared to the iPhone 3G:

• Improved performance
• Improved battery (though not much difference)
• 7.2Mbps HSDPA (iPhone 3G was 3.6Mbps)
• Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR (iPhone 3G was 2.0)
• 3-megapixel autofocus camera with macro mode and auto white balance
• Video recording at 30fps VGA with on-device editing capability
• Voice control that allows you to dial and control your music
• Digital compass
• Headphones include an inline remote for music control
• 3D graphics support in hardware
• Nike + support built-in
• Supports accessibility features, like zooming on text, inverting video, and voice over when you touch whatever text is on screen.
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating screen

It will be available in Singapore by Singtel in July 2009. Just to let you know Singtel supports Internet Tethering as well as MMS for the iPhone OS 3. Seriously I think lots of Americans is hating AT&T right now because both Internet Tethering and MMS is not yet supported by AT&T.

iPhone OS 3 will be released on Wednesday, 17th June 2009 worldwide. With iPhone OS 3, I see no point in jailbreaking maybe besides the ability to change theme and SSH.

Keeping my fingers cross to see if Singtel allows last year iPhone 3G users to upgrade to iPhone 3G S.

Links

• Apple Singapore: iPhone
• Apple Singapore: iPhone 3G S
• Apple Singapore Store: iPhone

Apple announces iPhone OS 3.0, the iPhone OS that was supposed to be in iPhone in the first place.

Here are some of the features we can expect in iPhone OS 3.0:

• In-App Purchase
• Peer to peer connectivity
• Custom apps that talk directly to that hardware
• Turn by turn navigation
• Push notification
• Cut, copy, and paste
• Landscape mode for most core apps
• MMS
• Voice Memos
• CalDAV calendar and .ics subscription support
• Spotlight
• Note Sync
• Auto-fill
• YouTube accounts
• Stereo Bluetooth via A2DP
• WiFi autologin
• Tethering support

I think lots of paid jailbreak apps like SwirlyMMS and biteSMS might have to developed new apps. Say good bye to SwirlyMMS, biteSMS and QuickGold!

The iPhone OS 3.0 update will be available for free for iPhone and iPhone 3G users. MMS and Stereo Bluetooth will not be available for iPhone users due to hardware differences. For iPod Touch and iPod Touch 2nd Generation users, you will have to fork out USD$9.95 for it.

Links

• Apple: iPhone OS 3.0 Preview
• Gizmodo Live Blog
• Engadget: Live from Apple’s iPhone OS 3.0 preview event

Last Wednesday, Apple Store (Singapore) had a special one-day shopping event and are offering discounts in their online store. The discounts for Apple products is quite pathetic, imagine only SGD$20 off for iPod Nano only. If you are intending to buy it long ago, SGD$20 is definitely better than nothing but it will not attract you to buy. However the discounts for 3rd party products/software are quite good. I bought the Belkin Auto Charger For iPod And iPhone for SGD$30 (including delivery). The usual price is SGD$37. It is about 19% discount. Bought it on Wednesday and it got delivered to me on Friday.

Outer Box

Outer Box – Opened

Belkin Auto Charger – Box

Belkin Auto Charger – Contents

Belkin Auto Charger – Car Charger Head

And yes, IT WORKS on iPhone 3G.

Sugih’s Wedding

Went to Jakarta, Indonesia over the weekend to attend a Sugih’s wedding, 1 day to be precise. My Valuair flight is on the 9th January 2009 at 1:35pm and the returning flight is on the 10th January 2009 at 3:20pm.

His wedding took place on the 9th February at 7pm at Hotel Mulia Senayan and it was a 5 stars diamond hotel which translate to 6 stars in Singapore. It was grand. We stayed at Somerset Service Apartment with 3 room which is around the area as there are 3 groups of us. Pei Jun & boyfriend, Meiyi and myself.

I kinda like weddings in Indonesia, they start on time at 7pm and end by 9.30pm, chop chop!

The next day Sugih brought us around town and show us the biggest shopping center, Grand Indonesia, in Southeast Asia. It takes about 30 minutes to cover 1 level without going into any shops! Unfortunately, due to our rush flight, we just briefly walked around.

Seems to me that Sugih is doing very well, driving a Mercedes CL55 AMG at the age of 24 while I am still studying!

• Sugih Wedding Party – Part 1
• Sugih Wedding Party – Part 2
• Sugih Wedding Party – Part 3

Creative EP-630i Stereo Headset

On the way back, I got myself a Creative EP-630i Stereo Headset for my iPhone 3G at the duty free shop for SGD$73. The retail price is SGD$79. I was always skeptical about 3rd party headset on iPhone as I am afraid that the controls will not work on the music playback, but after checking it out in Hardware Zone’s forums, the control does works. Press the answer button 1 time to stop the song and 2 times to skip to the next track.

Let me repeat, Creative EP-630i Stereo Headset controls DOES WORKS on Music Playback as well.

Creative EP-630i Stereo Headset – Box

Creative EP-630i Stereo Headset – Contents

Creative EP-630i Stereo Headset – Closeup

Official Site: Creative EP-630i Stereo Headset

Here is a tutorial on how to configure your iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPod Touch or iPod Touch (2nd Gen) to connect to NUS Wireless network. We will be using NUS WLAN SSID “NUS” instead of “NUSOPEN”, as “NUS” is protected by PEAP and it is much faster.

*UPDATE* It is now working with iPhone OS 3.0.

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