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Day 0: Apple iPhone Arrives in Malaysia
It was weird noticing many not talking about the Apple iPhone in Malaysia. Hence, the first article I wrote; Why Malaysia is Not Talking about the iPhone? Then approximately 2 months later at a recent Apple event, Steve Jobs announced the new line of iPod Nano together with the iPod Touch.
In less than a week, I got wind many who were reselling Apple iPhone in Malaysia. Some were doing it through the Low Yat forum while others ordered through blogs like iPhones Unlocked. And thanks to Shiew from iPhones Unlocked, I’ve a 7-day (or longer) ownership of my very own Apple iPhone in Malaysia.
I collected the Apple iPhone from Shiew at Centrepoint around 10am. To my surprise, I never did realize how thin the Apple iPhone would really be. Upon delivery, he helped me activate the Apple iPhone and showed me what was needed to be done if I needed to activate another sim card.
Just in case many do not know, the Apple iPhone can be used in Malaysia with DiGi and Celcom networks. However, you will have a problem receiving incoming calls on a Maxis account. Because of this, I’ve went out of the way to purchase myself a DiGi starter pack.
The activation of the sim card on my Apple iPhone was relatively easy. The wireless worked great as well while at Starbucks with Shiew. He even proved to me the YouTube function now works with the firmware; 1.0.1. The newest firmware is 1.1.1 but the folks of iphonesimfree and iPhones Unlocked are working out the kinks before an official release.
After the collection of my Apple iPhone I headed home and fiddle with my new found toy. As usual coming from Apple, the packaging is top notch and the contents are placed very tightly and neatly in the box. In the package, you will receive a pair of earphones, a dock (which contributes the weight), a wall plug (though American standard) and a USB sync cable. Inside a thin black package, you’ve got a quick iPhone tutorial leafleft, an iPhone terms and conditions and a cleaning cloth. Trust me, by the end of the day you would be anal about cleaning the Apple iPhone. Especially with all the oily food we eat in Malaysia.
Once I was done inspecting the Apple iPhone, I tried setting up the Apple iPhone to my wireless network. The bad news here is after fiddling with the configurations for 20-30 minutes, I couldn’t get my Apple iPhone to connect. In conclusion of the time wasted, the Apple iPhone doesn’t support ‘all’ routers. I’m currently using a PLANET LAN router together with a PCI wireless router. I tried setting up both DHCP and Static settings on my Apple iPhone but still failed.
Wireless networks aside, it was time to setup my Apple iPhone for calls. Due to Maxis not enabling me to receive calls, Shiew suggested me to use my Maxis in my Apple iPhone then use my DiGi number in my old phone. What will happen is if a call tries to connect to my Apple iPhone, I’ll forward it to my DiGi line to answer. Therefore, unless you’re already on DiGi then you won’t have such a tedious time with your Apple iPhone.
Once everything was set up, it was time to sync my Apple iPhone with my Windows PC for the first time. Once connected, the iTunes popped up and detected my Apple iPhone device. Here, it took to a very simple wizard asking how I wanted to sync my contact, my calendar, my internet browser bookmarks, music, podcasts and videos. The syncing of data was very fast and photos I took with the Apple iPhone were transfered unexpectedly very fast as well.
Now, the Apple iPhone camera may not be a 3 Megapixel or 10 Megapixel to brag about but I have to admit this camera is one heck of a capture tool. Pictures taken in good light seem to look clear on the Apple iPhone screen and makes you doubt if it is that clear. And I have to admit it, the pictures were really that clear. Phone cameras in low light have never been expected to produce top notch camera quality so the Apple iPhone is about the same here.
As the day ended and I flashed the Apple iPhone to a coupe of friend in Malaysia, it was time to see if my Bluetooth handsfree could be detected with the device. Before I tell you how that went, here’s some additional information about the Apple iPhone. You can’t transfer files to friends via Bluetooth. According to Shiew, he said this is to prevent the ability to hack your Apple iPhone later. Anyway, the connection of my iTech Bluetooth headset didn’t prove successful. So I’m assuming that’s another strike for universal compatibility of the Apple iPhone.
Tomorrow, I hope to tryout the iPod and video functionality of the Apple iPhone. Hopefully as well, I could get Hotlink to answer to my query on how do I forward calls using my account. So that’s that for now on the Apple iPhone in Malaysia from me. Please feel free to click on the images and view them at a larger state.
1 comment:
Thanks for highlighting my full entry here. :)
The iPhone rox but the setback now is the battery life due to different firmwares. Weird but true.
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