If an attractive girl with a Blackberry flirts with you, she might be selling something
Imagine, you’re walking down the street and out of nowhere this attractive girl walks up to you and starts talking to you. She then passes her Blackberry to you and asks you to take a couple of pictures with her. After that, she asks you to key in your phone number into her Blackberry and says that she might call you for drinks sometime.
Chances are, she’s probably not going to call you at all. Why? Because she’s probably being paid to flirt with you and she just wanted you to try out the new Blackberry.
Its all a part of a crafty yet ethically dubious promotional trick called stealth marketing that Blackberry is currently employing to create interest and awareness for its latest Pearl 3G smartphone.
This is all happening in the US and there are two camps on the ethics of stealh marketing, be it good or bad, it’s something that might catch on here in Malaysia.
We like the concept. It’s definitely going to get attention and there’s nothing wrong that. What about you?
Read up the full news report here.
Maxis offering the largest selection of Android phones in Malaysia
It turns out Maxis hearts Android more than DiGi.
Just announced via twitter, Maxis will be offering the country’s largest selection of Android phones ever.
Phones on offer include the HTC Legend (checkout our extensive review here), Motorola Milestone, SonyEricsson Xperia X10, Samsung Galaxy and LG GW620.
Sadly, the heavy hitters of the Android league is not here. Would be awesome if Maxis had included the Nexus One and the HTC Desire in the mix. Maybe later, we presume.
Maxis are offering subsudised pricing for the devices as well, with the entry level Galaxy going for a very attractive RM799 when you sign up for a 12 months data contract.
We’ll look into the details a little later but for now head on over to after the jump for the subsidised pricing of all the Android phones Maxis has to offer.
The phones will be available from Maxis starting Labour Day, May 1st.
Letterman gets an iPad and plays around with it. Simple yet hilarious.
He opens with, “you know what the iPad is? It’s an electronic device put out by Apple and they have things like the iPhone and the iPod and now the have the iPad…last night I peed.” Badabing!
And the laughs just keeps on comming after that. This one’s even funnier than the “Top 10 excuses from the guy whole lost the iPhone prototype” video.
You got to see it, seriously, head on over to after the jump.
Daily Show’s Jon Stewart telling it as it is. Calls Apple “Appholes”
After Letterman, it’s time for the Daily Show to take some pot shots at Apple and Jobs.
“Microsoft was supposed to be the evil one, but now Apple is busting down doors in Palo Alto while Bill Gates rids the world of mosquitoes. What the f**k is going on?” Asks Daily Show’s Jon Steward.
Has Apple gone too far with the whole iPhone HD/4G? Did they went “all Minority Report” on the Gizmodo guy?
Apple may have lost the plot but whatever it is, come Jun 7 when the new iPhone greets the world, everybody will probably want one ,
Check out the video after the jump. OMG it’s hilarious!
Skyfire 2.0 Web Browser for Android
Skyfire an alternative browser that was once popular for having built-in browser flash support for Windows Mobile is now available for the Android.
This is their first release for the Android platform and it joins Opera Mini and Fennec as a competitive choice for Android alternative web browsers.
More first screen shots and first impression after the jump.
Google introduces new Image Search for Android and iPhone
Google recently released a redesigned interface for Image Search on Android 2.1 devices and the iPhone 3.0+. The redesign eleminates the need for you to browse through numerous pages of search results. Instead the new interface focused on making lookign for images easy, allowing you to quickly see as many image thumbnails as possible.
Here are some of the details of the new image search on Android 2.1 and iPhone 3.0+:
- The thumbnails are square to maximize the number of images we can get on the screen at one time so you can scan them quickly
- You can swipe to see the next or previous page of results, or tap the large, stationary ‘Next’ and ‘Previous’ page buttons
- Image Search is now optimized for speed so that the images appear quickly when you browse
We really like the swipe feature, searching for images is now indeed so much more easier and faster. The response and loading is almost instantaneous. It’s like the whole WWW is your picture galery.
Head on over to www.google.com on your phone and tap on “Images” to try out the new enhacements in Image Search. It’s available in over 38 languages worldwide including Malaysia.
Check out the video after the jump.
By the way, did you know that you can now use Google Maps free turn-by-turn navigation in Malaysia? Details here.
Steve Jobs explains Apple’s stand on Flash support
Just couple of days back, Adobe officially announces that they have given up all hopes of Flash development for iPhone Apps. Steve Jobs obviously had made it clear that Flash is no go citing stability and HTML5 is the way forward.
To cement his stand, Steve Jobs released a press release on the matter that touches 6 points below:
- Not open standards – Flash being closed while HTML5 is more open
- Full web experience – Flash being old and missing out on full web experience
- Reliability and performance – Steve Jobs continue to bang on Flash being the main cause of crashes on Macs
- Battery Life – Flash being software dependent and takes a big chunk out of iPhone battery life
- Touch Interface – Flash being developed for mouse input and not suitable for touch
- Dependency on 3rd party – Any platform enhancements would require 3rd party tools to enhance their features as well which could take time to reach out to developers
Engadget has a nice summary of Steve Job’s statement and have some interesting debate points as well.
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C2 to complete the Nokia entry-level smartphone lineup?
It could still be early days but are we looking a yet another new Nokia smartphone?
The picture shown is apparently a new entry-level Nokia smartphone to completment the recently announced C3 and C6. Not sure if this is the real deal or not but its definitely sporting a unique form factor with its split QWERTY keypad and a 90 degree rotating screen.
We’ve seen the split keyboard configuration before on a number of Nokias but not the 90 degree rotating screen and it is still too early to tell if the C2 is in Nokia’s plans.
Real or not, here are some unconfirmed specs:
- 2MP camera with Carl Zeiss optics
- 320×240 display
Not much to work with, really.
[source]
HP buys Palm for US$1.2 billion. What does it mean for the smartphone industry?
There’s still hope left for Palm and webOS fans out there after all
Week’s of speculation have ended and as you’ve may have already heard, the world’s largest technology company, HP, has just announced that it will be buying Palm for US$1.2 billion. Generally people are happy for Palm as it lives to fight another day.
The brand that arguably ushered in the dawn of the modern age of PDA with its PalmPilot devices and Palm OS is also tremendously optimistic about HP’s acquisition.
But the announcement brought mix reactions from the mobile tech fratenity with some pondering on whether the smartphone pie is big enough for another OS to thrive. The size of the pie is one thing but can HP really compete in the hotly contested smartphone market? Remember the iPaq anyone?
Datuk at telco among those under probe by MACC
Producing a report from BERNAMA via TheStar Online in verbatim for your reading pleasure.
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KAJANG: A Datuk at a telecommunications company is among several corporate and business personalities under investigation by the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for corruption and misuse of power.
Federal Territory MACC director Mohamad Yusoff Akope said the Datuk, who is in his 50s, was being probed over irregularities pertaining to procurement of tenders and projects. He has not been detained, he added.
“I cannot elaborate because it can jeopardise our investigations,” Mohamad Yusoff told reporters here yesterday.
He said 203 reports had been lodged with the Kuala Lumpur MACC office so far this year and investigation papers had been opened on 24 of the reports.
“Fifteen people have been detained, among others, for bribing public servants.”
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The question is…who could it be?
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