Currently,some Maxis iPhone 5 users have received update for enabling 4G LTE service on Maxis network.It has been reported on MalaysianWireless in this morning.Since iPhone 5 is not supporting 2600Mhz 4G LTE network which is initially applied on Malaysia’s 4G LTE network,the current carrier update from Maxis implies that Maxis has been supporting 1800Mhz 4G LTE network from now on.
Up to now Maxis hasn’t yet released any official announcement for the coverage of 1800Mhz 4G LTE network.However,we may see the overall coverage map from OpenSignal map.
TM Streamyx recently adds a new 8Mbps plan for RM160 monthly into the existing product lines to give some choices to the users who want to get the faster speed,but haven’t covered by Unifi service.
The 8 Mbps BB Deal could be applied by new and existing users.However,due to the technical limitation,some applicants may not able to get that plan as the speed is hard to be reachable.You could check the availability of coverage here.
As a part of Budget 2013 and under the National Broadband Initiative,the Malaysian government announced that RM200 rebate will be given to the eligible people to buy some selected 3G smartphone.Recently,MCMC just published the details about this rebate:
Only applicable to Malaysians between 21 to 30 years old.
The gross monthly income no more than RM3000.
The selected 3G smartphone no more than RM500.
Existing mobile broadband/data users or new users.
One unit per person
The selected 3G smartphone(as at 26 Dec. 2012) are:
1) Alcatel 993D 2) Alcatel OneTouch Glory 2
3) Alcatel OneTouch Inspire 2 4) The Buzz Phone 5) HTC Wildfire 6) Huawei Ideos X3 7) LG Optimus L3 8) Ninetology Black Pearl II 9) Ninetology Palette 10) Nokia 2730 11) Nokia 7230 12) Nokia Asha 305 13) Nokia Asha 308 14) Nokia Asha 311 15) Nokia C2-03 16) Nokia Lumia 610 17) Samsung Galaxy Chat 18) Samsung Galaxy Mini 19) Samsung Galaxy Pocket 20) Samsung Galaxy Y 21) Sony Xperia Tipo 22) ZTE Acqua 23) ZTE V790
MCMC said that the government intends to help the youths in low income group,so they set RM500 limit for the smartphone.However,since there are a lot of noises about this,the latest news is the government may be reviewed the limit in the next cabinet meeting.From my opinion,I think the government could raise up the limit up to at least RM1000 to let the youths have a chance to get a mid-range smartphone instead of entry level one.
MCMC also said the service providers may update the list of smartphones from time to time to give more choices to eligible buyers.
Update:The cabinet finally heard the voice from the mass public and decided not to set the cap for the smartphone.That means the eligible people could buy any smartphones listed by selected service providers with RM200 rebate from now on.
For the eligible buyers,you could start to apply for the rebate from 1 January 2013 by registering online at http://nbi.skmm.gov.my/ .
As one of the most popular mobile phones in the world,Samsung Galaxy S III gets more attentions on the potential upgrade.Well,this time Samsung does not make the users upset.In the official blog of Samsung,two related posts are written to introduce the upcoming upgrade for Galaxy S III.
Contextual Awareness
(1) Page Buddy: Your phone will smartly predict what you intend to do according to your actions. For example, when you plug in your earphones, the device automatically opens up a page with the music player.
(2) Contextual Menu: When you list up apps, you can now choose to see the most frequently used ones first. Especially convenient when you’re looking through apps to find files to attach.
(3) Contextual Tag: When you take a picture on the phone, you can tag the weather, date, and place immediately.
Enhanced Features
(1) Multi Window: You can open two different apps at the same time into two different windows on the mobile screen.
(2) Auto Share Shot Pairing using NFC: By setting the camera to ‘Auto Share Shot’ mode, you can quickly share your photos and videos by simply tapping their GALAXY S III with other NFC and S-Beam enabled devices
(3) Reader Mode: You can easily control the size of the text on your browser! Also, you can just click the webpage to share it!
(4) Facebook Lock Ticker: The easiest way to see your Facebook News Feeds – set your phone to show it on your lock screen.
Powerful Multimedia
(1) Paper Artist: You can make a picture like a pop artist! Change the moods of your pictures whenever you want!
(2) Camera, Low Light Shot: It’s always tough to take pictures in dark places. So the GALAXY S III with Premium Suite has a Low-Light-Shot function. Get your hands on one and check out the difference!
(3) Camera, Best Face: The problem with group pictures? Somebody always, ALWAYS blinks. Well, Best Face is your solution to that. Best Face takes 5 consecutive pictures and lets you choose the best face for each person among those shots.
New Features & Better Accessibility
(1) Easy Mode: For first-time smartphone users and/or those who are really really, well, lazy. This function helps you set up the most five frequently used widgets on the home screen, so you don’t have to be tired of looking everywhere to find those apps.
(2) Sound Balance: You can adjust the balance of volume one each side of earphones.
(3) Setup Wizard: After turning on your cell phone, you can see the accessibility menu right away on the screen.
(4) Camera Easy Snap: With ‘talk back’ and ‘face detection’ on your settings menu, the GALAXY S III tells you how many faces it can detect on the camera preview.
They also shot 2 short films to let people see how the new functions work.
According to the past experience,the upgrade will start from country by country and it may take months when it reaches your phone.So if you don’t want to wait,you definitely could flash the firmware by yourself.However,it will break your warranty and may cause some irreversible damage to the phone.So,the safest way is ‘wait’.
The telecommunication industry regulator in Malaysia,MCMC(the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Comission) announced last night that they had assigned 2600MHz(2.6GHz) to 8 companies for deploying 4G LTE(Long Term Evolution) wireless technology.
The 8 companies are Celcom Axiata Bhd, DiGi Telecommunications Sdn Bhd, Maxis Broadband Sdn Bhd, Packet One Networks (M) Sdn Bhd, Puncak Semangat Sdn Bhd, REDtone Marketing Sdn Bhd, U Mobile Sdn Bhd and YTL Communications Sdn Bhd.
From the aforementioned list,you could find that Celcom.DiGi,Maxis and U Mobile are the existing mobile telcos;P1 and YTL Communications(YES 4G) are running Wimax networks;REDtone is a MVNO(Mobile Virtual Network Operator) player currenting riding on Celcom network;Puncak Semangat is a new face in the industry,but the boss is well-known local billionaire,the richest Bumiputra corporate figure – Tan Sri Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.
MCMC wants the existing telcos to take their experiences to build up reliable 4G networks while the new players may seek some innovative and create ways to compete with others.Well,the idea is good,but applying into Malaysia,I think it’s not good because Malaysia only has 28 million population.8 companies have to divide a small cake into tiny pieces and so perhaps no one could get full at last.
Anyway,they may go to consolidate the service later or share the infrastructures to improve the financial performance.At this moment,we could just wait for several months to see how they will make it done nicely.
After the hot sales around 2 weeks ago,Google finally sent out notifications telling that Nexus 4 will be ready to order on November 27 at 12:00 noon PST (U.S. only) at Google Play Store.
Nexus 4 is the latest product from Google Nexus family with the most powerful Quad core processor Qualcomm Sanpdragon S4 Pro with 2GB RAM and the latest Anroid 4.2 Jelly Bean.It was sold out in less than one hour last time in Google Play Store.
If you want to handle that cool toy in your hand,get ready to order it at the right time.Good luck!
As a part of Budget 2013 and under the National Broadband Initiative,the Malaysian government announced that RM200 rebate will be given to the eligible people to buy some selected 3G smartphone.Recently,
