Archive for the ‘wireless broadband’ Category

« Older Entries

Maxis Mission:Possible

Friday, March 12th, 2010

Wow, looks like Maxis is releasing a number of new products/services lately.  Hot on the heels of its new Mobile Jukebox/Love Meter service, comes a Facebook interactive social game, called Maxis:Mission Possible.  As its name implies, this is a Facebook game in the veins of other games such as Farmville, etc.  More details in the press release below.  Maxis also recently launched a broadband package promotion offering a free USB modem, details below.

Maxis offers Something for Everyone on Facebook

Maxis launches interactive social game, celebrity interviews & an online forum

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia – 11 March 2010: Maxis Berhad (‘Maxis’), Malaysia’s leading communications provider, recently launched Maxis Mission: Possible, an interactive social game built for Facebook. Maxis Mission: Possible is an extension of the Maxis Broadband campaign, ‘Something for Everyone’, and incorporates the campaign characters – The Blogger, Traveller, Smart Shopper, Explorer, Online Buddies, Gamer and Entertainment Enthusiast.

It is a three episode adventure game that sets players on the hunt for stolen top secret data. As secret agents, players are jetted off to various locations to search for hidden items. Players can play as any of the seven different campaign characters, each with unique advantages and disadvantages.

Matthew Willsher, Maxis Chief Marketing Officer, said, “With mobile data usage growing rapidly in Malaysia, Maxis’ ‘Something for Everyone’ broadband campaign forms an important part of our wider efforts in facilitating seamless and affordable communication and information in the virtual space. The extension to Facebook is a natural move as there are now more than 5.2 million Malaysians on it. We are continuously exploring other engagement opportunities on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter.

“We are pleased to make this foray into Facebook to offer our customers a free, simple and fun game that reflects our conviction that mobile broadband has something to offer everyone. In Maxis Mission: Possible players can pick any one of the seven characters which they identify with, and explore the maps for hidden items. It’s a fun way of bringing the Maxis Broadband experience to life.”

Maxis Mission: Possible offers three different maps to players – The Music Festival, The Smugglers Island and The Airport. Players who are able to navigate the maps and find the hidden items in the shortest time will be rewarded with prizes which include a holiday for two to Gold Coast, Australia, iPhones, BlackBerry smartphones and cash prizes. The game is the first full-fledged Facebook application by Maxis, and was created in collaboration with Integricity Corporation Sdn Bhd and Mindshare. The Maxis Mission: Possible contest ends on 25 March 2010. Customers may visit http://www.facebook.com/maxis to begin their adventure and sign up to be Maxis fans.

Besides the game, the Maxis Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/maxis) will also be updated with fresh content in line with the ‘Something for Everyone’ campaign. Customers may sign up as fans to learn about the internet habits of Malaysia’s most popular personalities such as Sarah Lian, Radio DJ Ean, Daphne Iking and Dato’  Lee Chong Wei. The page also has a discussion forum, ‘Talkbox’, which encourages participants to share information including useful tips, reviews, and recommendations for shopping, blogging, entertainment and travelling.

In addition, Maxis recently launched a new broadband promotion which offers customers a FREE modem when they subscribe to the 1.5GB, 3GB and 6GB packages. These three packages come in a special promotional price from as low as RM48, RM68 and RM98 per month, respectively. Visit your nearest Maxis Store or maxis.com.my/broadband for more details. The promotion is valid until 30 April 2010.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Tags: , ,
Posted in telecomunications, wireless broadband | 3 Comments »

Get A Blackberry 9700 Bold 2 At RM 1,299!

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2010

A “crazy deal!” says DiGi, only I’m not too sure.  RM 700 off, they say.  Alas, you have to sign away 2 years of your life to DiGi, committing a minimum of RM 58 monthly (although you can get a small discount monthly for auto-debiting your credit card), for 24 months.  It seems that packages with long contract periods are slowly being pushed on to us by celcos in this country.  I’ve always been against this, unless it’s a darned good deal for the consumer (I’ve yet to come across one, by the way).

In this case, I don’t think the RM 700 discount warrants a 24 month contract – I foresee Blackberry Internet Services (BIS) fees, like all other telecommunication services fees, to fall over time, and if it does, your contract fees do not get revised as a result.  RM 700 rebate is not a lot; especially if you sign up and encounter poor service (not that I’m saying that DiGi’s BIS services are not up to par).  Coupled with the fact that we don’t keep our phones for very long, based on my anecdotal evidence, this may not be such a good deal if you think long and hard about it.

Click here for details.  The roadshow is ongoing in MidValley Megamall from today until this weekend.  There are shorter contracts as well, but obviously for a smaller rebate on the cost of the handset, whose recommended retail price is RM 1,999.

And can someone tell DiGi’s web team to update the main consumer Blackberry section to say that the 9700 aka Bold 2 is already available, since it’s on sale at the roadshow?  It still says “coming”…duh…

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted in h/w, mobile phone, promotion, telecomunications, wireless broadband | 9 Comments »

Wireless Broadband Variable Pricing By Celcom

Saturday, February 27th, 2010

Ah, now this is a new one – Celcom becomes the first cellular communications company in Malaysia to offer variable pricing for its wireless broadband product.  If you are not aware, there are essentially only two plans available from Celcom currently – the Broadband Basic plan, for RM 68, with speeds up to 3G/UMTS, aka 384kbps; and a Broadband Advance plan, for RM 98, for speeds up to 7.2mbps where it is supported, or in other words, HSDPA speed.  Both plans come with a fair usage policy of 5GB monthly, which means that your data consumed, which includes both upload and download must not exceed 5GB, otherwise your speed will be throttled down to 64/128kbps depending on your package.

Now, Celcom has introduced additional pricing options – if 5GB is not enough to download all that pr0n warez legal music purchase you’ve got queued up, you can “buy” additional bandwidth.  At the moment, on this page anyway, there are two options – an additional 1GB of bandwidth at RM 5 extra, monthly.  A bigger 5GB bandwidth will cost RM 20.  Now, whether one can actually suck down that much data on Celcom’s recently-crappy-network-performance or not is another question entirely, of course.  Caveat emptor, as they say and all that.  But at least you now have a choice, and we can up the whiners who keep bitching about insufficient bandwidth allowances.

What do you think – will you go for this?  Or is there a better way of throwing money down the drain? :P

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Tags: , ,
Posted in broadband, wireless broadband | 4 Comments »

Your SIM Card Is Now A Wireless Router

Sunday, February 14th, 2010

That is, if I’m reading this press release correctly.  In times when we are increasingly using our smartphones for internet access as the prices of 3G services fall to more affordable levels, we often find that using that service on one (small) device is limiting and tiring on the eyes.  So what if there was an easy way to share this 3G connection to multiple devices, such as your notebooks, netbooks and desktops which are WiFi equipped?  Yes, there are already devices out there called mobile broadband wireless routers, such as the D-Link DIR 412.  But these are wired, in the sense that they need to be plugged in to an electrical source.  Well, how about those things called the MiFis – for example, the Huawei E583X (which I have reviewed in this blog) – these are battery powered and are truly mobile?  Yes, but they’re still a separate device that you need to carry around.

The latest innovation comes in the form of putting a wireless router function on the SIM card itself – that small gold plated thingamajig that you slot into a smartphone or data device to get voice and wireless broadband service.  Sagem claims to be able to do just that – embed a wireless router function which can be configured using the phone’s menu system, allowing for an easy setup that doesn’t require an advanced degree in nuclear physics.  Sagem calls the product a “SIMFi“.

Not much details are available on this thing, so I guess we’ll have to wait till the Mobile World Congress (MWC) starts to hopefully see a demonstration of it in action.  Personally, I think if this sees the commercial light of day, it may be a huge success, soon.  The only problem is, celcos will hate devices such as this, as people can now share their wireless broadband rather than being “forced” to sign up for a new one for every new device they own.  Only time will tell if the celcos will embrace this technology.

Source.  Click here for the official press release.

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Tags: , ,
Posted in accessories, mobile phone, networking, wireless broadband | No Comments »

The ITG xpPhone Reviewed

Saturday, February 13th, 2010

No, not by me, silly.  Since when have I been so lucky to get evaluation phones from abroad for review?  ITG, the company that makes the xpPhone, pinged me today about a new package of promotional or marketing materials that they uploaded to a public folder today.  There are some new pictures to ogle at, as well as a review of the xpPhone, done by a Chinese website.  Click here to read the review.  What, don’t know Chinese?  :P  Don’t worry, if you’re like me, you’ll need the English version, which ITG kindly provided in the form of a Microsoft Word document.  And since the translated review is 21 pages long, I won’t copy and paste it here because I do not want to get cursed by my readers having to scroll through such a long article.

Instead, head on down here, where I have converted the Word file into an Adobe PDF file which you can read online, straight off my Google Docs filespace.  The short of the review is that the reviewer likes the phone.  He thinks it’s innovative and fresh.  The operating system used is an embedded version of Windows XP (it’s like XP, but not XP).  Battery life is rated at around 5.5 hours with some pretty intensive video playback.  The phone doesn’t look large at all – there’s a picture of it hanging out of the reviewers shirt pocket (although the shirt did sag a little due to the weight).  If you have one of those cargo pants, you can even stuff it in there.  If this thing does come to Malaysia at a reasonable price, I’d be most interested to try one!

Post to Twitter Tweet This Post

Tags: , , , ,
Posted in h/w, hardware, internet tablet, mobile internet device (MID), mobile phone, wireless broadband | No Comments »

« Older Entries