Why am I only blogging about it now? Come on~ between playing with the phone and writing a blog, isn't that a clear choice? OK. Finally I've decided to sit down and blog about the phone. Not that I'm bored playing with it, I just thought that blogging a fun phone would be fun as well. Hahaha... starting to sound a bit like Denis....

Part i: iFong's iPhone experiences in Malaysia

Using iPhone in the States

I got the phone when I was in the States. My friend was so kind to sign up the AT&T contract for me (THANKS so much~). I was using the phone with unlimited 3G data plan in the States, and let me tell you, it's really easy to understand why the phone is SO popular in the States. The infrastructure is so good that not only you get 3G signal that's faster than Streamyx everywhere, the information you get is so complete~! 1 instance, we were at Vegas and we were looking for a German restaurant. I launched Maps in the phone and searched for the restaurant. The phone not only told us the route to the restaurant, it also told us the phone number and the website. So within your finger tip, you could just call up the restaurant for a reservation, and go to the website and check out the menu. Isn't that convenient?

Unlocking the iPhone

Unlike the Hong Kong units, units from the States are locked by AT&T, i.e. cannot be used with other operators. So far the only way to unlock it is to use what the Internet refer as "Turbo Sim". I ordered a piece from eBay which costs me USD10.99.

The Turbo Sim is a thin chip that allows you to slot it in together with your Sim card into the phone, and trick the phone that it is using a legitimate Sim card. Now, I'm able to use it with my Maxis Sim card.

Using iPhone in Malaysia

Well, everybody knows how fantastic the iPhone is in terms of features, graphics, exteriors, browsing, user experiences, processing speed, video quality, sound quality, potentials etc etc & etc, so I'm not going to be an iPhone salesman or Denis here and tell you how great the phone is. I'm just gonna share something that you might wanna take note if you wanna use the phone in Malaysia with Turbo Sim.

:top: Turbo Sim :bottom: "MY" showing that the phone is on Maxis

Using the phone in Malaysia:

• GPS is not very accurate. In the States, the phone is able to locate exactly where you are with a pin. Here in Malaysia, the phone roughly tells you where you are, with a big circle...
• Have not tried 3G, but what the hell, the speed is not so well with other phones anyway...
• WIFI is not everywhere. If you wanna rely on it, good luck....
• No MMS... nope... no MMS....

Using Turbo Sim:

• No "Airplane Mode" for Turbo Sim. Yup. If you turn on Airplane Mode, you need to restart your phone in order for the Turbo Sim to work again. Yes, it sucks.
• No iTunes synchronization for Turbo Sim. YES! That's because iTunes tends to detect the operator that you are using, and if it doesn't recognize it, it won't allow you to synchronize. The only way is to turn on Airplane Mode before you plug it into your computer. But after that, yes you are right, you need to restart the phone. Yes, it sucks, this one harder...
• I'm experiencing this problem with EDGE where the signal keeps dropping, and I need to restart my phone in order for it to work. Suspect this to be the Turbo Sim problem, still investigating. If you know the cause, please let me know.

Conclusion

OK, despite of all that, I still like the phone very much, can't stop holding it and playing around with it because it is just... FUN!

Watch out this space again when I write other stuff about the phones, e.g. applications to be used etc. Of course, that's when I have time to write ;)