‘Paramore Live in Kuala Lumpur 2010’ is presented by Tune Talk, the country’s fastest growing prepaid mobile service. Tune Tones (formerly known as Tune Entertainment), another member of Tune Group of Companies, has come on board as co-organiser while AirAsiaRedTix is the official ticketing agent.

According to Tune Talk CEO Jason Lo: “We are stoked. Paramore is one of the biggest rock bands in the world at the moment and it’s awesome that Tune Talk will present them to not only their Malaysian fans but also fans from across the region who have easy access to Kuala Lumpur via AirAsia and AirAsia X’s extensive regional network. Tune Talk has constantly been supporting musical talents – both locally and internationally. By presenting ‘Paramore Live in Kuala Lumpur 2010’ we really hope to deliver what Malaysian youth has been calling for – more concerts in Malaysia (and of course, the lowest prepaid rate in the market). Our subscribers and even new subscribers will also enjoy a whopping 20% rebate in Tune Talk airtime, we will also be giving out over 1,000 complimentary tickets for the rock zone, which is right in front of the stage. This is an awesome band to see up close!”

Hailed from from Franklin, Tennessee, Paramore was nominated for a Grammy Award in 2008 for “Best New Artist” through their 2007 album RIOT! that has sold over two million copies worldwide. Even their CD/DVD The Final Riot has gone gold.

Paramore’s new album Brand New Eyes, co-produced by the band and Rob Cavello (Green Day, My Chemical Romance), whom they also worked with on the track “Decode” from the double-platinum soundtrack from the movie Twilight the album is also the first disc to officially feature new guitarist Taylor York. This album also showcases the band’s versatility driving fast anthems like “Ignorance” and also ballads such as “Misguided Ghosts”.

‘Paramore Live in Kuala Lumpur 2010’ is open to all ages and ticketed at RM358 for Rock Zone free standing category and RM268, RM168 & RM98 each for Free Seating category (inclusive of ticket handling fee). Early birds will enjoy a 10% discount on all ticket categories purchased from 1^st September – 15^th September 2010! Doors will open at 7.00pm and show starts at 8.30pm. Find out for more details at www.rockthisjoint.com.my.

Tickets are available online from AirAsiaRedTix at www.airasiaredtix.com and TicketPro at www.ticketpro.com.my, as well as over the counter at Rock Corner and TicketPro outlets.

Paramore are:

Hayley Williams – Lead vocalist

Josh Farro – Lead guitarist

Jeremy Davis – Bassist

Zac Farro – Drummer

Taylor York – Rhythm guitarist

For more information on Paramore, head on to www.paramore.net.

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Nokia World brings to life our vision of a world where connecting everyone to what matters helps them make the most of every moment.

The way in which we connect people is at the heart of Nokia. And at Nokia World, the Nokia community comes together to explore new opportunities as the convergence of telecoms, computing and the internet accelerates.

Operators, developers, media, retailers, service providers, music and content houses, games publishers, technology companies, analysts and bloggers talk about how innovation and openness can make great things happen.

What I’m looking forward to:

• new product (phone) announcements and showcase.  It could be the N8-01, or the N9, or whatever Nokia chooses to call its next generation of smartphones.  I would be particularly interested in hearing about a new MeeGo smartphone, and how Nokia plans to bring it to market (remember that Microsoft is reportedly spending up to half a billion US dollars to “buy” the market for Windows Phone 7 when it launches later this year).  Having a healthy collection of developers as well as basic, must-have applications, such as social networking, office productivity, in my opinion, is a pre-requisite for success in this ferocious market with so many formidable competitors.
• new product announcements – other hardware such as netbooks, notebooks, tablets, etc.  The Booklet 3G was generally well received by industry commentators, save for the slow Atom processor.  With MeeGo, Nokia can use it on a variety of other devices and not just on smartphones.
• product roadmap for the foreseeable future – what we can look forward to in the next 6-12 months as far as hardware offerings go.  How the various smartphones are expected to be segmentised, if there is any change in focus, or strategy.
• services update – how the re-branding of the various Ovi services are coming along.  What or where is the focus going forward?  Ovi Files is now scheduled to be shut down come October this year, and I’d be interested to know the reasons behind this, and whether there will be a replacement.
• business update – revenue, growth, outlook data.  Market share.  Globally as well as regionally, and Malaysia, in particular.

I will try to do some live-blogging for the event, using a service called CoverItLive, but I don’t know if there will be sufficient bandwidth at the venue or not to do this.  I have prepared by purchasing a Vodafone prepaid data/mobile broadband SIM so if I fail, it won’t be for lack of trying!  I will also try to shoot some videos and take lots of photos of devices (and yes, babes, if any!).

If you have some burning questions you’d like me to ask, let me know.  Reasonable questions, please.  Also, while I am there, there is unlikely to be much updates on this blog, unless you want me to post UK IT related stuff such as wired/wireless broadband speeds, gadgets I come across, etc.  That is, if you don’t mind feeling depressed after you read the posts!  I will be away for around 10 days, taking a personal break after the event.  If you also want me to post pictures and commentaries of my travels, say so and I will try my best to accommodate.

While I am away, please feel free to submit stories that you think are worth mentioning; heck, if you want to submit properly written stories, feel free to do so and I will post them on this blog, with full credits to you  ;-)

And finally, a great big thanks to Nokia Malaysia for sponsoring this trip!  If you’re curious about what gear I’m bringing, here they are:

• Nokia E5 for voice calls, SMS and occasional tweeting using Gravity
• Viliv S7 with Windows XP with built-in 3G
• Sony NEX-5 dSLR compact interchangeable lens camera
• Huawei E5830 MiFi portable 3G hotspot (+ 3 batteries!)
• Apple iPad 3G
• Apple iPhone 4
• TBD point-and-shoot camera

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Citrix OpenCloud Raises the Bar in Cloud Interoperability, Scalability and Self-Service with Addition of New Technologies and Acquisition of VMLogix

San Francisco, CA,September 1, 2010— Citrix Systems today announced several key additions to its Citrix OpenCloud™ infrastructure platform for cloud providers. The new enhancements raise the bar in cloud interoperability, scalability and self-service – further extending the company’s leadership position as the most widely deployed provider of virtualization and networking solutions for the open cloud.

To further accelerate its OpenCloud strategy, Citrix also announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire VMLogix, a leading provider of virtualization management for private and public clouds.

The acquisition of VMLogix is expected to close in the third quarter of 2010, subject to the satisfaction of closing conditions.  It will add key lifecycle management capabilities to the Citrix OpenCloud platform, making it easy for cloud providers to offer infrastructure services that extend from pre-production and quality assurance, to staging, deployment and business continuity.

The acquisition will also allow Citrix to add an intuitive, self-service interface to its popular XenServer® virtualization platform – a key component of the OpenCloud framework – enabling end users to access and manage their own virtual computing resources in on-premise private cloud environments, much like they set up virtual services in large public clouds like Amazon or Rackspace today.

Citrix also announced plans to expand its OpenCloud platform to include enhanced networking and interoperability capabilities. These new additions will include the ability for customers to seamlessly manage a mix of public and private cloud workloads from a single management console, even if they span across a variety of different cloud providers.  All of these enhancements will be available to the more than 600 service providers worldwide who are now certified to deliver services based on the Citrix OpenCloud platform.

Facts and Highlights:

New additions to the Citrix OpenCloud infrastructure platform include:

·      Open Lifecycle Management – The VMLogix acquisition will add open virtual lifecycle automation and self-service capabilities that support all leading virtualization platforms.  These capabilities will make it easier for IT teams to build, share and deploy production-like environments on-demand in both private and public clouds, and migrate virtual workloads between production stages with a single mouse click – even across different hypervisors.  By giving users self-service access to a single pool of computing resources, cloud providers can help customers reduce capital expenses and improve flexibility, even across diverse  virtualization and cloud environments.

·       Open Cloud Interoperability – To accelerate cloud interoperability, Citrix will also be integrating the Citrix OpenCloud infrastructure platform with OpenStack, the open-source orchestration and management technology it is co-developing with Rackspace, NASA, Dell, and more than 20 other leading technology and cloud service providers.  The OpenStack orchestration capabilities perfectly complement the Citrix OpenCloud platform by adding key cloud management functions and enabling cloud providers to give customers open integration as well as a more consistent view of both private and public cloud workloads.  In booth #1219 at this week’s VMworld conference, Citrix will be demonstrating the ability to manage workloads across XenServer virtual machines running in an on-premise private cloud, and VMs running in a public-cloud environment using OpenStack – all from a single management console.

·    Open Cloud Networking – The Citrix OpenCloud platform will also be adding powerful new virtual switching capabilities that leverage the Open vSwitch project, and support the OpenFlow protocol, an emerging industry standard that pools the resources of per-host virtual switches to create a dynamic, distributed, policy-controlled cloud fabric.  These new capabilities will make it easier for cloud providers using the Citrix OpenCloud platform to create isolated, multi-tenant cloud environments, while offering dynamic, per-flow control, and per virtual-interface policies.  They will also enable rich packet processing capabilities at the network edge, including the ability to leverage advanced application networking capabilities in Citrix® NetScaler®, another key component of the OpenCloud platform.

Availability

The new Citrix OpenCloud capabilities will be demonstrated at the Citrix booth (#1219) at this week’s VMworld conference.  Several of the new OpenCloud capabilities, including the new self-service and virtual switching technology, will also be included in the next release of the free Citrix XenServer virtualization platform at no charge to enterprise or cloud customers.

Quotes

Klaus Oestermann, Group VP and GM, Networking and Cloud Product Group, Citrix

“At Citrix, we believe in providing choice as a fundamental driver for enterprises and cloud providers to truly drive cloud economics.  This isn’t about giving customers the ability to buy the same offering from multiple sources – it’s about providing them the opportunity to choose from a wide variety of cloud services designed around an open framework that encourages both innovation and interoperability while optimizing cost. With the expanded capabilities of the OpenCloud platform for lifecycle management, cloud interoperability and cloud networking, we are further delivering on our core belief to provide true choice for our customers.”

Jim Curry, General Manager, OpenStack

“By embracing OpenStack cloud software, Citrix is demonstrating a great testament to the power of the open model.  Citrix has shown tremendous support for that model by contributing development resources to ensure XenServer compatibility with OpenStack.  We are excited to see an OpenStack-powered solution for enterprises integrated with the XenCenter management console.  We think this is just the start of many advances that will be built on OpenStack and we welcome Citrix and the rest of the tech world to use this powerful model to advance the world of cloud computing.”

About Citrix
Citrix Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ:CTXS) is a leading provider of virtual computing solutions that help companies deliver IT as an on-demand service. Founded in 1989, Citrix combines virtualization, networking, and cloud computing technologies into a full portfolio of products that enable virtual workstyles for users and virtual datacenters for IT. More than 230,000 organizations worldwide rely on Citrix to help them build simpler and more cost-effective IT environments. Citrix partners with over 10,000 companies in more than 100 countries. Annual revenue in 2009 was $1.61 billion.

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1. iOS 4.1 announced and will be arriving on iPod Touches and iPhones next week.  4.1 fixes some bugs reported such as proximity sensor, etc.  It will also feature a new picture taking feature called High Dynamic Range (HDR) which will result in much better looking photos.  There is a Game Center where players can share achievements, and look for friends/strangers to play games against.
2. iOS 4.2 will arrive in November for the iPod Touch, iPhone and iPad.  It primarily brings all the goodies in 4.1 to the iPad.
3. iTunes 10 with a new logo sans CD was unveiled.  It has a new social music networking feature called Ping, which will allow users to share their musical tastes with others, post updates, etc – but mostly focusing on music and photos rather than covering everything under the sun as is the case with other social networking websites.
4. a new range of iPods were announced.  The Shuffle remains tiny in size, with the click wheel.  It comes in 5 colours with 2GB of storage capacity.  It costs RM 179.  The iPod Nano now has a multi touch touchscreen but no more click wheel.  It is tiny, and comes in 8/16GB capacities, costing RM 549 and RM 679 respectively and comes in 7 colours with one colour exclusive to the online Apple Store.  The iPod Touch is now thinner.  It has a retina display, identical to the iPhone 4.  It also has an Apple A4 processor, same as the one in the iPhone 4, and is capable of taking HD videos.  It supports FaceTime, not only between iPod Touches but also between iPod Touches and iPhone 4s.  It comes in 8/32/64GB capacities, in well…one colour!  Prices are RM 829/RM1,079/RM1,399 respectively.  The iPod Classic was  not updated.
5. the new Apple TV was unveiled.  It is a quarter of the size of its predecessor.  There is no storage, no syncing or content nor any content to buy – everything is on a rental basis, from Hollywood’s latest movies to TV series.  First run HD movies will cost US$4.99, with TV shows from the initial two participating TV studios costing US$0.99 to stream and rent.  It costs US$99, and I reckon it may kill off all those portable media players, at least in the US, at this pricing.  It has WiFi N built in, as well as a LAN port, an HDMI port in addition to the power port.  It will begin shipping in 4 weeks.

I think that’s about it.  The iPod Nano looks really cool, my fingers are really itching to press the order button now!  Someone stop me!

Did I miss anything?

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1. availability across the Asian region is early next year and not November as previously reported.  There is as yet no confirmed launch date for Malaysia, nor any other country.
2. the indicative pricing reported earlier is indicative and is in no way confirmed.
3. the Streak continues to be shipped with Android Donut aka version 1.6.  It will be upgradeable to 2.1 aka Eclair, and 2.2 aka FroYo “soon”.  In fact, I’ve seen reports that O2 (a UK operator) users will receive their Eclair updates today.

My suspicion is that Dell is delaying the Streak’s launch in Asia so that it launches with at least Eclair, or even FroYo, and that it is using the US and UK markets as test beds.  All in all, not good news for fans who are waiting for this MIDphone, and with a number of large screened Android smartphones due to be released before the end of this year, does not look good for Dell’s ambitions to build up its smartphone market share, methinks.

I will update as I get more information.  Stay tuned.

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Starting from 1st October 2010 TM will begin charging a one-time fee of RM200 for UniFi installation. This installation charge is across the board; covering the UniFi VIP5, VIP10 and VIP 20 triple-play consumer packages as well as the BIZ5, BIZ10 and BIZ20 business packages. For convenience, the UniFi installation charge will be spread in instalments over a period of 5-months at RM40 per month and will be reflected in the customer’s monthly bills.

Equipment such as the fibre modem, etc are still free – TM says that they are worth RM 800.  Errr…OK.  I believe you are still required to sign up for 24 months.

If you ask me, I’d say unless you are a hardcore downloader, don’t subscribe, because of the long contract.  I’ve never liked contracts, and despise long term ones.  This is because six months down the road, the UniFi service may be cheaper, but yet you are still contracted to pay the higher rate.  I’d rather pay for a reasonable installation charge, and reasonable pricing for equipment which can be returned to TM in the event of service cancellation, assuming the equipment is in working order, and not have to be forced into signing up for a long term contract.

If you can still find a contract-free 4mbps Streamyx package, I think this is a better deal as you can cancel anytime.

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TM now has 4,800 UniFi customers as at 30^th June 2010 with total orders exceeding 12,000 – now that’s a lot of backlog to clear!  TM says that to improve quality of service:

Towards this end, TM is committed to spend at least 5.0% of revenue this year on customers’ quality improvement initiatives.

Errr, OK…what does that mean, exactly?  Isn’t customer satisfaction directly related to the quality of service, for example, bandwidth that they enjoy, in the case of internet customers?  Shouldn’t this be the focus of customer satisfaction improvement initiatives, rather than spending on “customers’ quality improvement initiatives” which means nothing much really?

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With the pricing of the 3GS 8GB, I think we can have a rough guess as to the selling price of the iPhone 4 in Malaysia.  My guess is that the RRP for the 16GB will be RM 2,390, while the 32GB will sell for RM 2,790.  As for the plans, I don’t foresee any changes from the current iValue or iData plans.  And I think it’s unlikely that the iPhone 4 will be available on the prepaid or contract-free plan; even if it was, there should be some sort of “bonding” if you want to go prepaid, perhaps in the form of monthly rebates or something.

My advice for people who are still interested in getting the 3GS – get it on prepaid – all you need to do is buy a Hotlink prepaid starter pack at RM 8.80 which comes with RM 5 credit.  You also get 500MB of free data monthly for one entire year, worth RM 600 (using the pricing for the iData 2 package as a benchmark).

The 3GS 8GB is only available at the following Maxis Centres:

Meanwhile, DiGi is still sleeping on the job; there’s nothing yet on the 3GS 8GB on their iPhone page.

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• Shareholders were rewarded with a second interim dividend of 8 sen per share.
• Strong quarterly revenues at RM2.2 billion with a 2.8% underlying growth over quarter one, and industry-best EBITDA of RM1028 million and Profit after Tax (PAT) of RM532 million.
• Net subscriber additions of 280 thousand, with an impressive 47% cumulative market share of net additions over the last four quarters amongst Malaysia’s three major operators, and the first to touch 13 million subscribers shortly after the quarter.
• Record non-voice revenues of 36.6% of mobile revenues
• Highest wireless broadband net additions for the industry in the quarter at 135 thousand, at a market share of net additions of 53% amongst three major operators and quarter on quarter revenue growth of 32%.

Basically, the data segment of the business is continuing to grow – both 3G and mobile wireless broadband services, which is not surprising, given how the internet has grown in popularity in this country.  And almost everyone focusing on the provision of mobile or wireless broadband, hopefully the fierce competition will drive prices down for consumers.  Non data revenues now account for 36.6% of total revenues, up from 34.8% in the first quarter.

Maxis is now reported to have 448,000 wireless broadband subscribers, a growth of 43% over the first quarter, in contrast to P1 who has a customer base of 196,000 at the end of the second quarter.  I presume the Maxis numbers do not include their customers who access the internet on their mobile phones using the 3G service.  I guess these numbers give you an idea of the ferocity of the competition in the area of wireless broadband.

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Please note that this is the full map, with road PoIs and business PoIs,but no Chinese POIs included.  Extract the .img file from the archive and place it in the “garmin” folder for GMXT or the “GarminMobilePC” folder for Garmin Mobile PC (GMPC).

Download the Lite version here or here.

If you want to download the Mapsource installer to generate whatever map file yourself, you can download it here or here.

Credits as usual, go to malfreemaps. Please go to their site to contribute to make it a better map!   Contribute feedback for this map here.

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