Just received an SMS yesterday evening from my mobile service provider, Maxis, informing the launch of the official iPhone 3G in Malaysia.

Well, after about 2 years since its first launch in the US, the long-awaited iPhone has finally hit Malaysia… a little too late.

Last December, I wrote a post about the failure iPhone 3G suffered during its launch in India. Frankly, I would expect the same will happen in Malaysia.

Below are my top 8 reasons why official iPhone 3G would fail in Malaysia :-

• 1. The hype of iPhone is certainly over. What iPhone? It’s all about recession right now!
• 2. Many iPhone killer (mostly touchscreen mobile phones) are freely available with no string (the stupid subscription plan) attached.
• 3. One of iPhone rivals, Nokia XpressMusic 5800, is selling at less than half of the iPhone 3G’s price. Would you pay around RM3,000 for an iPhone 3G, while you can get a XpressMusic 5800 for only RM1,400?
• 4. Too costly, for a mobile phone with only 2MP camera, no MMS, lack of Bluetooth support, no Flash support, no cut&paste function, etc.
• 5. No unlimited data plan. The maximum data usage included is 3GB and you have no other choice to make it unlimited using their subscription plan.
• 6. Reading through the lengthy terms & conditions before signing up makes me dizzy. The killer is actually the last term saying “Other Terms and Conditions apply.“! o_O”
• 7. You can get unlocked smuggled iPhone 3G easily, at a much lower price. This is Malaysia, you know! You may then top it up with an unlimited data package for only RM120 RM99/month from the same provider (Maxis). LoL!
• 8. The real iPhone killer is launching soon! The price is about the same too.

I understand iPhone fans may not agree to any (if not all) of the reasons above. Anyway, tell me what do you think.

WordPress 2.7.1 was released as the first minor maintenance release since Coltrane (WordPress 2.7) was introduced 2 months ago.

This new release was just made today and it consists of 68 changes, including some fixed bugs and feature enhancements.

If you are currently using WordPress 2.7, the upgrade process is so effortless.
In your blog dashboard, go to Tools > Upgrade, then click Upgrade Automatically.
You may want to do a file & database backup before upgrading to be extra safe in case the upgrading process goes wrong.

I’ve just done my upgrade and you should do yours now too.
Cheers!

AMD team has successfully overclocked AMD Phenom II to 6.5GHz from its original 3.0GHz, and subsequently set the new world record of 45,474 for 3DMark05 benchmarking. This new world record was set in recent Consumer Electronics Show on January 10, 2009. On top of the new world record, this extreme text also broke a few incredible “first-ever” records :-

• First Quad Core x86 processor to break 6.5GHz processing speed
• Running below extreme temperature at -230 Celcious!

This incredible overclocked speed at 6.5GHz can only be achieved by using liquid helium, which is even colder than the conventional liquid nitrogen for extreme overclocking. Liquid helium is known to be colder than the vacuum of space in the universe.

Usually, a processor will exhibit a “cold bug”, a situation where the processor stops working, under certain extreme temperature. Even the latest Intel Core i7 won’t perform below -100 degree Celcious. AMD Phenom II didn’t even break the barrier but set a new world record as well!

Check out the video after the jump :-

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AMD Phenom II X4 Set New 3DMark05 World Record

First of all, Happy 2009!

It’s just the second week of 2009, Google is already giving us surprises.
Things that I’ve noticed so far are Google Pagerank update, change of their favicon (as you can see below) and the release of pre-beta version of Google Chrome 2.0.

Google Latest Favicon In 2009

Google Chrome 2.0

The speed of Google Chrome development is awesome, this is only the fourth month since it’s first release of Chrome 1.0. The version I just upgraded mine is pre-beta (Alpha release) Chrome 2.0, which is not available for public download.

A peak at pre-beta Google Chrome 2.0

This version is a developer preview version where latest features will be included for testing purposes. It could be very unstable at times and might require manual configuration too, but I just can’t stop myself from getting a peak at the features in its next release. On top of my own curiosity, I also feel like sharing this latest news with my readers as well.

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Get Ready For Google Chrome 2.0!

This is the first post in the year 2009, so it better be good right?
Well, it’s indeed a good one for me, at least. :p

Some of you probably have noticed there was a Google Pagerank update happened on New Year’s eve.
Even the famous Google guy, Matt Cutts confirmed that on his twitter. Haha.

2 of my websites gained, the rest stay the same.
I’m happy for the 2 because one of them is a new project that perhaps will pull in some extra income.
New year must have new resolutions and new targets. So, I take this update as a good start for this year.

Want to know your website Pagerank, you may use this Pagerank Checker.

Any changes to your website’s Pagerank?

Anyway, Happy New Year to my readers!

This time Microsoft is fast to release the security patch for a critical vulnerability recently found in Internet Explorer (IE). The patch was released early this morning so you should patch your IE now!

Who needs to patch?

Any user of Internet Explorer from IE 5 to IE 8 Beta 2. Basically, you’ll need to install the security patch if you are using WinXP or above.

Check the version of your IE : In IE > Click Help > About Internet Explorer

Why patch?

Without applying the patch, an attacker might take advantage of this IE vulnerability to gain control of your system when you visit a specially crafted web page using IE. The attacker could gain Administrative right to your system if you are logged on as Administrator, so it’s lethal.

How to patch?

Go to this Microsoft Security Bulletin page, click the link of your IE version and the download will start. Run the downloaded file and restart the PC after installing. That’s it.

What to do next?

Well, of course I would recommend you to use other web browsers, such as Firefox , Opera or Google Chrome.

Cheers!