Sorry, stole that headline from elsewhere… but it’s exactly how i feel:

“Iphone is next gen? It has been around and remain pretty much unchanged for very long! And 3G? I ask you, how many of you are using non-3G phone? Even my M600i that is no longer in production (a very very very old phone) is 3G enabled. Apple is slow in putting out a 3G Iphone. The newspaper should be have the headline, “Apple releases 3G Iphone… finally!”

Source: Weikiat.net.

We’ve been led to believe that SingTel will be “first” to have the iPhone for months now, in a deal that would make the hyped up gizmo at least exclusive to it for a while.

But in today’s news, you’ll read that M1 and StarHub are also confident of getting the gadget in by the end of the year.

Now is already June, so how many months exclusive does that give SingTel on the iPhone?

Worse, Apple seems to say in its SEC filings that it has not signed exclusive deals in many countries coz they are “generally not exclusive with a specific carrier”.

Apple has signed multi-year agreements with carriers authorizing them to distribute and provide network services for iPhones in over 70 countries. These agreements are generally not exclusive with a specific carrier, except in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Ireland, and certain other countries.

Source: http://www.secinfo.com/d141Nx.t14nr.htm
(thanks to yc for that!)

Does “certain other countries” include Singapore? That’s the mystery.

But for users out there, it’s clear: There’s no need to rush for it. And no need to change operators (via number port) for it! Just wait for your operator to bring it in. Or the friendly ahbeng shop to bring it in without contract.

Finally, full mobile number portability comes to Singapore on this Friday 13th. This means you can switch cellphone operators without changing your old phone number, ie one number for life.

So what’s the best plan and is it time to switch?

From looking at the 3 operators offerings, prices haven’t changed much.. basically, there’re 3 popular plans that people will be interested in (yeah, there’re some less popular ones on the fringes). All 3 operators offer similar plans:

I call them:

1. the lite plan:
-$25 a month
-100 min of talk time, 500 SMSes and of course, free incoming calls.
-who should sign up: students, aunties and people who don’t call much.

2. the “middle” plan
-$48 a month
-300 min talk time, 500 SMSes and free incoming calls
-who should sign up: most of us who worry about exceeding the 100min talktime that the “lite” plan offers. this “middle” plan offers the best balance of price and usage for most people.

3. the “high” plan
-$82 a month
-700 min talk time, 500 SMSes and free incoming calls
-who should sign up: real estate agents, busy execs, towkays and anyone who is a heavy user and needs to contact clients on the road.

There are cheaper plans (SingTel has one for under $20) and more talktime plans (SingTel has a $192 plan), but if you are a mainstream user, you’d likely settle for one of these 3 “common”plans which operators offer the same rates for.

So, which operator? It comes down to more than the cellphone service for many people.

1. Bundle deals with bb and pay-TV
For example, if you are on SingTel or StarHub bb, you can choose a bundle with their services, which can give you up to 15 per cent off.

2. Services
One key feature that is becoming more important is content. Football fans do note: StarHub has EPL live on their mobiles for free if you are a Sports Group subscriber on their pay-TV service. SingTel plans to beam their Champions League on mobile next year too.

3. Sharing plans
All three offer plans which let you roll over unused minutes to your family members. M1 now leads the way with its SunShare plan, which lets you add a number for $12 a month and share unused minutes from a main line. You can do this with 4 additional numbers.

StarHub and SingTel both have similar offerings, but offer deals with fewer family members. SingTel gives parent and child calls for free- up to $160 worth a month, while StarHub lets users share with up to two familar members.

So, in the end, what do you choose depends more than just the price alone. In fact, the prices are very similar for most users. It’s gonna be down to the bundles and the extras like content. Make your choice wisely, before signing up for a 2 year deal!

After some quiet for a while, AMD and Nvidia seem to be finally at it again.

Already purported beta drivers are out for Nvidia’s new GT260 and GT280 graphics cards (Source: TC Magazine). These cards have been said to promise much faster performance (30fps for Crysis on Very High settings, according to some reports).

AMD is also readying much faster 4850 and 4870 cards this month, so it’s gonna be a slugfest that users have not seen since ATI’s long marriage with AMD.

More updates can be had regularly at Singapore’s excellent overclocking/hardware site www.vr-zone.com.

I am no rabid fan of Apple’s “I am so cool” iPhone. I think it is a cleverly designed phone, but so is my Sony Ericsson W880i. Why all the nauseous hype given to it? It’s probably not the phone for me since I need a real and tactile keypad to cater to my clumsy fingers and long-sighted eyes. But Apple’s announcement today (should be yesterday by the time I finish this post) is cool for one thing: its price. US$199 is cheap, cheap. Well, at least for a smartphone, that’s pretty cheap. And it will hopefully force the others to slash prices, like how HTC did yesterday. Yay! Price wars please!