Smartphones and phone accessories, from carrier price plans to screen protectors and the newest launches.
The earliest Christmas party goes to Nokia! At their media party at Serenity, VivoCity, I won a Nokia E72 White Edition in the lucky draw, since most journalists left early, leaving about fifteen of us competing for ten prizes.
SingTel is the first and, for now, only operator to bring in the Nokia N8, available from 5th November 2010. To celebrate, with Sony Music they flew in David Archuleta, runner-up of the seventh season of American Idol.
I was seeded the Nokia N8 through the Nokia Rangers program. The build and hardware are fantastic and the camera amazing, but Symbian^3 kills it. The OS can't exploit the hardware, like running Windows 98 on a Core i7.
Five minutes after Microsoft's press release launching Windows Phone 7 in Singapore, I got SingTel's, titled SingTel brings Windows Phone 7 to Singapore. It's long, so in short: the phones go on sale from 21st October 2010 onwards.
I wish Apple would, like Microsoft, make Singapore a first launch market. Per the press release, the much-anticipated Windows Phone 7 reaches the public here on Thursday, 21st October, as SingTel, StarHub and M1 join 60 operators across 30 countries.
This is SingTel's third iPhone launch after the 3G and 3GS, and they finally got it right. Instead of the usual ComCentre, it was at Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre Hall F, a huge, fully air-conditioned, proper convention venue.
Here is SingTel's official word on the iPhone 4 launch tonight and over the weekend. They've chosen a bigger venue, Marina Bay Sands Convention Centre, selling the phones at one centralised location so customers with appointments can collect conveniently.
SingTel has released its iPhone 4 prices for the iFlexi plans, with the phone launching soon. This post also links to my pricing write-ups for the later iPhone 4S, 5, 5c/5s, 6/6 Plus and 6s/6s Plus on SingTel.
Wow, far cheaper than I expected; I thought the 16GB would exceed S$1,000. Without contract, the iPhone 4 is S$888 for 16GB and S$1,048 for 32GB. Apple says it arrives in 17 more countries this Friday, 30th July, featuring FaceTime.
It looks like the iPhone 4 reaches Singapore on Friday, 30th July 2010, alongside 16 other countries including Australia, Hong Kong, Canada and much of Europe. Both black and white versions should be available at launch.
No idea why SingTel released this after office hours! You can now register your interest in the iPhone 4 with SingTel. The site is Flash, but viewing it on an iPhone redirects to a friendly pre-registration page.
There's little detail on the page, but SingTel say they're in final talks with Apple to bring the iPhone 4 to customers. They plan to make the new iPhone as affordable and compelling as possible. Fingers crossed it lands soon.
SingTel sent me the Motorola BackFlip to review last month, but my busy schedule delayed it, sorry. I'll cover only the physical design, since its OS and software closely match the Motorola Dext I reviewed five months ago.
Apple officially announced the iPhone 4 yesterday at WWDC 2010. I followed it live on gdgt, faster than Engadget, while Gizmodo merely aggregated, probably absent over the leak. Notably, the phone now uses a MicroSIM instead of the regular size.
Samsung has partnered SingTel to launch the Galaxy S in Singapore, making SingTel the first operator worldwide to carry it. The Galaxy S runs Android 2.1 with a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, less reflective yet vivid, and a 1GHz processor.
I was invited to my first ever Sony Ericsson event, their Backstage blogger session. We were introduced to Sony's tagline, make.believe, where the dot matters by separating make believe into make and believe, before being shown five new products.
Apparently Apple's next-generation iPhone, dubbed iPhone HD, was lost in a bar by software engineer Grey Powell. Gizmodo reportedly paid US$5,000 for the prototype and dissected it, though the unit had been remotely bricked and wouldn't boot.
Sorry for the late news, from Hong Kong: the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has launched in Singapore, with SingTel customers first to get it at S$1,088 without contract. Now I hope they bring in the iPad next!
Attended the Nokia N900 blogger preview at Segafredo in Chinasquare Plaza, Telok Ayer Street. The N900 launches in Singapore at the end of March 2010, with no local pricing yet, though elsewhere it's around US$649, roughly S$911.
The Motorola DEXT with MOTOBLUR is Motorola's social phone and another SingTel exclusive, much like INQ's Mini 3G and Chat 3G. Motorola took a fresh approach with its own MOTOBLUR service, essentially their take on Apple's MobileMe.
Some media reports note 3G connectivity issues with the Nexus One on M1 and StarHub in Singapore. SingTel customers shouldn't be affected, as the phone auto-connects to their network, perhaps hinting that SingTel may officially bring in the Nexus One.
Google has launched its own phone, the Nexus One, though it leaked relentlessly beforehand, with photos, videos, specs and even the official site appearing early, arguably the most leaked phone of 2009. It's priced at US$529 without contract.