$9.90 for an 8G unlocked iPhone comes with free shipping worldwide

Guess what! IPmart.com is now having the Crazy Deal for the Apple iPhone. Believe it or not? iPmart is offering the 8GB unlocked iPhone for ONLY US$9.90 on the 12th December 2007 and it comes with free shipping worldwide.

I know its kinda hard to believe, an original Apple iPhone sell for only about 10 bucks plus it’s unlocked and free shipping some more. The offer is real and true but of course, there will be only 3 units available and it is based on first come, first served. This deal only occurs on December 12, 2007, 7.00 PM (GMT +08:00). Click here to find out more.

Nokia No.1, Samsung No.2, Motorola dropped to No.3

Motorola lost its second spot in the global mobile handset market to Samsung in the third quarter, according to data released on Tuesday, as the US company focused on returning to profit instead of market share.

Motorola’s share of the global mobile phone market fell to 13.15% in the three months to the end of September, compared with 20.7 per cent a year ago and 14.6% in the second quarter of 2007, according to figures from Gartner, the research firm. Meanwhile, Korea’s Samsung edged up to 14.5% from 12.2% last year and 13.4% in the previous quarter.

Finland’s Nokia continued to underline its global dominance, increasing its share by 3 percentage points to 38.1% year-on-year – its highest quarterly share to date – and up from 36.9 per cent in the second quarter.

Motorola was in a commanding No.2 position in 2005 and 2006 thanks to its ultra-slim Razr phone, which sold more than 50m units, but has struggled to find new products with the same popularity. The latest version of Motorola’s best-seller, the Razr2, has been well received and sold 900,000 units in the quarter, but Motorola needs a wider portfolio of products to compete with its rivals. At this current rate, Sony Ericsson should overtake Motorola's No.3 position next year. With its current strategy, its unlikely Motorola will make much impact in the mobile industry for years to come.

Nokia’s strong volume growth means it is close to reaching its stated goal of 40% market share by the end of 2008.

The Finnish handset maker also continues to dominate in the smartphone segment of the market, with 57% market share, compared with less than 10 per cent for its nearest rival, Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry.

Apple, which entered the smartphone segment with its sexy iPhone in June, sold 1.4 million units in the US in the third quarter. Total global smartphone sales reached 27.4 million in the same period. Apple has targeted 10m iPhone sales in 2008, which is likely to make a clear number two in the segment behind Nokia.

Dirty Hotel Bed Sheets

How do you know that the bed at the hotel you are sleeping on is dirty? If you travel alot like me, i suggest that you watch this clip and find out whether the bed you are sleeping on is clean or not. It will only take you seconds to perform the test.


EXPOSED! - Dirty Hotel Bed Sheets - The best video clips are here

An Ocean of people at a Job Fair in China

What does this look like?

Its an ocean of people at a Job Fair in China. Despite the rapid economic growth, unemployment in China is still too high to accomodate all those eager to work. Its hard to believe that a country, which is the fastest growing economy in the world and who’s stock markets are making new highs every year, has its citizens desperately flocking to such job fair. Regardless of the economic signal, it’s eye opener to see such a huge crowd.

I m a Nokia N95, I m an iPhone

Take from the format of "I'm a Mac and I'm a PC" commercials, BBC News Online's Darren Waters and Technology Correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones compare rival phones.

Two months of Stand-by battery power on your Mobile phone

Wouldnt that be great if we have such long stand-by power on our phones? We dont need to carry anymore extra backup batt, no more charger and rarely do we even need to charge our phones. Philips new Xenium 9@9 cell phone claims to offer two months of battery-life on standby time - a far cry from the 48 hours most batteries last for - and a continuous talk-time of 17 hours. The worst bit of the phone is when it quits on you when you needed it most. No word on pricing and availability, but it ought to remain an Asia-only phone.

New Japanese Boxing

The Japs are at it again, this time creating their own version of boxing but with a twist. The objective is to cross the bridge and punch your opponent off into the scalding hot water below. The white stuff that they later dived into is ice which will cool them off after the horrors of the pit! You got to love this. Its so funny.

How easy is texting on iPhone?

A usability study confirms what many iPhone users already know: the touch-screen keypad is harder to use than a QWERTY keypad on a Blackberry or Treo type of phone. I tried it myself and i must admit that i found it initially to be difficult but after a while it gets better and through time i should reckon that its no different than texting on my Nokia N95. I think its all about practice and getting use to it. Just check out this video clip below and you will see that texting or typing on the iPhone screen can be just as easy.

Nokia N95 vs N82 on imaging

Taken from the NokiaBlog, where Mark Guim demonstrated the xenon flash on the new N82 and compare that with the powerful N95 and as you may had guessed it correctly, the N82 is far more superior in imaging with the new xenon flash. Check out the video clip below to see the real difference. Thanks for the clip Mark.

Most Creative and Perverse Adult Video Games made in Japan (NSFW)

Battle Raper is a 3D fighting game in which the objective is to strip, grope, and sometimes actively rape the female characters, including a special move by only the male fighter where the female opponent is forced to perform oral sex as the camera zooms in.

Like in most Hentai games, however, the penis is rendered invisible or transparent. There is also a feature in the game which allows the player to have sex with the female characters.

You will only find such games released in Japan, can you imagine what would happen if a game like this is released in the US or China?

I must say the Japanese has a special taste and flavors for everything and certainly one of the most creative people when comes to games development and check out the video clip below to prove my point....

US Mobile Subscribers surpass 250 million

A Quarter-Billion Americans Now Using Mobile

The Wireless Association® announced today that the total estimated mobile subscribers in the US had officially passed the 250 million mark, reaching an all-time national high. Growth in subscribers has more than quadrupled over the past ten years from just over 55 million at year-end 1997 to more than 250 million today—an increase of 352%.

Kuwait building the World Tallest Tower 1 km to the edge of the sky

Kuwait just announced its plans to build the Burj Mubarak Al-Kabir to attain a height of 1,001 meters (3,284 ft). The Burj Dubai is supposed to top out at over 800 meters but they are in mid-construction; and maybe they will now figure out how to top up another few hundred meters to stay ahead as the world tallest. These Gulf States are getting crazy over their mega-projects each wanting to be ahead.

Madinat Al-Hareer is an $86 billion dollar project that will include not only the skyscraper but an airport and an expansive desert preserve. Check out the video clip below.

Wonder what monster projects will we hear next from the land of Black Gold.....

New Apple PR Lady Ad

A new ad from Apple taking a jab at Microsoft....

Beware of what you post on Facebook

A bank intern got busted on Facebook. Kevin Colvin, got busted by his boss when he tried to skive off work, by sending in an email citing a ‘family emergency’. Unfortunately his boss checked out his facebook page and spotted him having fun at a Halloween party.

I guess Kevin will be looking for a new job soon unless if he has a darn good reason. The power of social networking can work for and against you too so be tactful of what you post.

The best bit of the story is the response of Kevin’s boss, Paul Davis which included the incriminating picture:

Over Over, calling from Mount Everest

The world's highest mobile phone base station built at an altitude of 6,500 meters has been launched by China Mobile on Mount Everest allowing mountaineers to make and receive calls. So the next time you are on Mount Everest, all you need to stay communicated is bring along your mobile GSM phone.

iPhone coming to China

China Mobile is in talks with Apple to sell the iPhone in China, the company's CEO said on Tuesday. But China Mobile isnt keen on the type of revenue-sharing model that Apple has insisted on elsewhere in the world. Not sure how the deal with be cut eventually as China Mobile has extensive bargaining power. I dont reckon Steve Jobs would want to pass on a deal with China Mobile afterall it is the world's largest mobile operator, boasting almost 350 million subscribers at the end of September.

But Apple would also need to be careful having signed exclusive deals with operators to sell its iPhone, including O2 in the U.K. and AT&T in the U.S. As part of the deal, Apple requires the operators to pay it a portion of their iPhone subscriber revenue. I m sure they will have some comments if Apple just ended up selling devices in China.

Whatever the arrangements maybe, I m confident iPhone will hit the market big time in China and I dont see how it wont do well. Most of the people that i know in China cant wait to get their hands on one. I can only keep my fingers cross and hope that it will be made available in China soon.

Source : IDG

Mobile devices are more important than PCs in Japan

A very interesting article about the role of the PC diminishing in Japan, in favor of personal gadgets such as mobile devices.

The same will happen in the US, China, India and other parts of the world. In many parts of the world, cellphones already provide the needed connectivity to the Internet. Overtime all the daily (connected) functions such as email, downloading music, collaboration, and so on will be available on the handset to most of the people, and cheaper and more convenient than using a PC; it is clear why the role of PCs will diminish. And PC manufacturers must take notice of this, and adapt.

Read the complete article PCs being pushed aside in Japan (Yahoo! News)

Chinese Are World's Most Active Texters

Move over Philippines, here comes China. Of China’s wired citizens, nearly 70 percent are regularly using text messaging compared to just 56 percent using e-mail. Compare that to the US where 91 percent are using e-mail and just 39 percent are actively texting. 33 billion short messages a month are being sent by China’s 530 million cell phone users. That’s about more than 6 messages sent for every person on the planet.

How to handle annoying bluetooth guys

Happy Birthday Nokia

15 years ago today Nokia launched the 1011 (the model number coming from the launch date: 10 November 1992). It was their first mass produced handset and at the time was a technological revolution. Here are the specifications of the device that won the hearts and minds of the people more than a decade ago:

• 2 line display
• 475 grams
• 195 x 60 x 45mm
• Enough storage to hold 99 phone numbers
• 90 minutes of talk time
• 12 hours standby time
• 900 MHz

There was no colour, no camera, no Bluetooth, no memory card slot and the handset had to have an extendible antenna. But it did introduce one innovation that phone owners now use without a second thought: text messaging.

Vodafone opens its door to Nokia's Ovi

The "world's largest mobile operator by revenue" and the world's largest handset manufacturer have agreed to launch an integrated suite of Vodafone services combined with Nokia Ovi services. Nokia will provide some of its top-end models, which allow access to 3G, high speed broadband networks, exclusively to Vodafone.

Customers will get faster and easier access to all of Vodafone's Internet and entertainment services as well as all of Ovi from Nokia services on a wide range of handsets. Vodafone customers will be able to access the widest and most attractive choice of Internet services.

This is an evolution that has seen operators' desire for all out control of the content value chain lessening as they move away from an operator controlled walled garden.

A great milestone for Nokia as this partnership will Vodafone will certainly open up a world of opportunities for Nokia to be working with many other mobile operators worldwide as this is an indication that Vendor-led portal like Ovi may not necessarily be hostile to mobile operators.

"We're pleased do be working with Nokia in leading the industry to bring customers a complete suite of Vodafone communications, browsing, content and Internet services," said Frank Rovekamp, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Vodafone Group. "This is a logical step for Vodafone to make, further improving our customer experience with many of the services already launched with leading Internet partners."

Alibaba - Largest Internet IPO in Asia and 2nd largest in the World

China's B2B e-commerce company Alibaba.com Limited started trading today in Hong Kong's Stock Exchange.

Its share price closed at HK$39.50 (US$5.09), 192.6% higher than the Offer Price of HK$13.50 ($.174). The offering raised HK$13.1 billion $1.69 billion) in gross proceeds, making it the largest Internet IPO in Asia and the second largest globally.

An impressive list of investors who had pariticipated including Yahoo! Inc., AIG Global Investment Corporation (Asia) Limited, Foxconn (Far East) Limited, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited, Cisco International B.V., and entities affiliated with Peter Kwong Ching Woo (Chairman of The Wharf (Holdings) Limited), the Kwok family (controlling shareholders of Sun Hung Kai Properties Limited) and Mr. Kuok Hock Nien.

China has almost taken all the major crowns from the biggest country in the world, the largest mobile subscribers in the world, PetroChina, the largest and 1st trillion company in the world, Alibaba, the largest IPO in Asia and 2nd in the world, and soon to be ready tallest building in the world in Shanghai, and many world record breaking feats to come. And this is only the beginning of the new China.

Google launches Android

So Google had finally launched its mobile platform and its afterall not a mobile phone. Android is what Google calls it and its an open source software stack that allows developers and device manufacturers to build applications and powerful devices.

Google has announced a large list of partners who are working with the company. Taking part are Motorola, Samsung, Texas Instruments, Intel, Broadcom, T-Mobile, Sprint, China Mobile, NTT DoCoMo just to name a few of them.

Andy Rubin who is spearheading the project expects the 1st Android based devices to be ready in 2nd half of 2008.

What is Android?
A fully integrated mobile “software stack” that consists of an operating system, middleware, user-friendly interface and applications. The open source platform will allow mobile operators and device manufacturers significant freedom and flexibility to design products.

My personal take away is while it still remains to be seen whether such openness will transform the industry, one thing for sure the initiative will drive down cost of the devices due to lower costs in licensing for the software allowing developers and manufacturers to focus more on hardware features.

Google and the Open Handset Alliance, can they really change? Anything is possible; the mobile and internet landscape is changing rapidly. But Google ain’t Apple. Time will tell..... and lets see how the whole story will unfold.

PetroChina - the World's First US$1 trillion company

PetroChina became the world's largest company by market value after its mainland debut today. That closing price helped the company become the world's first company to be valued at $1 trillion, larger than the combined value of Exxon Mobil Corp. and General Electric Co, according to Bloomberg News. Who could had imagined 20 years ago that companies from China will take center stage, not only did they take center stage, they even became the world's largest and the first one on earth to reach the 1 trillion at record speed.

Its Shanghai initial public offering of 4 billion shares raised $8.94 billion — a record for a mainland bourse. The country's biggest oil company opened at 48.60 yuan ($6.52), nearly tripling the issue price of 16.70 yuan ($2.24), before easing slightly to end the session at 43.96 yuan ($5.90).

Another milestone for China setting up new standard for others to beat. Well done to China.

Nokia E90 Communicator AKA Made in China

Chinese mobile cloners are once again at their best and this time the victim is the popular Nokia's flagship N90 Communicator.

Just like the original device, the Chinese “version” has two screens and the QWERTY keyboard. It looks like the N90 at first glance. The specs include 2.4″ QVGA external and 2.8″ QVGA internal screen, stereo speakers, 1.3 MP camera, stereo Bluetooth and microSD expansion slot. In terms of pre-installed software, there’s some office documents viewer as well as Nintendo emulator that can double up as a dedicated-gaming device.

Original Nokia E90

E90 Clone

E90 Clone (Gaming Emulator)

Nokia Music Store goes live

Nokia Music Store had just gone live this week. People in the UK, who use Windows and Internet Explorer will be able to use it. I wonder why it works on Internet Explorer and not on Firefox. I hope the Music Store team will have this rectified soon.

I have to recommend you to watch this clip below to get an better taste of what the music store looks like on a mobile phone. This is the work of James at Nokia Creative:

Apple iPhone is ‘Invention of the Year' - TIME Mag

TIME magazine has named the iPhone "Invention of the Year."

You can love it or hate it, but the fact stays that Apple’s handset made other handset makers “think differently.” We saw such players as Nokia and Sony Ericsson unveiling their plans for the future, which are in many ways inspired by the iPhone. Hence, its no surprise Time Magazine gave the iPhone a prestigious “Invention of the year” title.

Outlined reasons are: it’s pretty, it’s touchy-feely, it will make other phones better, it’s not a phone - it’s a platform, and it is but the ghost of iPhones yet to come.

Last year's winning invention was the online video site YouTube.

Understanding the Chinese People under 1 minute

Liu Yang, a Chinese Nationality educated in Germany had created these simple pictorials below to explain the difference between the Germans and the Chinese. Its perhaps the most simplest way to understand the Chinese

Blue - German
Red - Chinese

Opinion


Way of Life

Punctuality

Contacts

Anger

Queue while waiting

ME

Sundays on the Road

Party

In the restaurant

Stomach Ache

Traveling

Beauty

Managing Problems

Three meals a day

Transportation

Elderly's day to day life

Shower Time

Moods and Weather

The Boss

What's Trendy

The Child

Perception of each other