It was a strange sight: A group of geeks seated at a coffeeshop round table, shouting/speaking at their phones, rather than through their phones.

My friends and I were testing out SingTel’s free deF!ND mobile app over coffee the last weekend. The directory concierge app, which supports voice recognition, was just released about a week ago on both the iOS and Android platforms.

Voice recognition software has long been available in the market, but it took Steve Job’s recently released iPhone 4S and Siri to make it popular. Reams have been written about Siri, and it has spawned brilliant caricatures and even a copycat Android version called Iris.

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Couch potatoes in Singapore will find it easier to switch pay-TV operators come March 2012, when new rules unveiled today kick in to prevent operators from locking in users with long-term or punitive subscription plans.

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Higher launch prices notwithstanding, hundreds of iPhone fans queued up late Thursday night to be among the first people in Singapore to own Apple’s latest gizmo – the iPhone 4S.

Although the launch time stated by all telcos was Friday 12 midnight, some began queuing as early as 8.30am on Thursday to ensure that they get a place in the queue.

Take Melva Yip, a 21-year-old student at Nanyang Polytechnic. He and his friend agreed to work in shifts and started their quest from 8.30am on Thursday. His reward: the first M1 customer to own an iPhone 4S.

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The iPhone 4S might have disappointed many fans, and validated others of their move to Android, but it’s still a highly awaited smartphone to many people.

As the local launch dates draws near, both SingTel and M1 have already unveiled their plans and pricing for the new iPhone.

StarHub, on the other hand, is keeping mum over its plans for the device, and already some fans are speculating whether the green telco has failed to secure an agreement with Apple in time for the launch.

But let’s work with the numbers we already have. Based on the cheapest plan from both SingTel and M1, the new iPhone will cost you anywhere from $498 to $798.

M1 offers a lower monthly subscription and lower iPhone prices (with the exception of the 16GB version), but bundles 50 less SMS than SingTel.

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Think of Singapore’s latest efforts to turn everyone’s phone into a mobile wallet to pay for taxi rides, burgers and groceries, and the phrase deja vu may not be far from your mind.

As the city-state’s infocomm regulator and its industry partners embark on an ambitious S$40 million project, unveiled today, to let mobile phone users here tap and pay with their phones at some 20,000 payment points by next year, they could perhaps remember a lesson or two from the past.

If they succeed, users will be able to trot out their smartphones to pay for a burger at McDonald’s instead of using an ez-link card by mid-2012. A year later, in 2013, commuters may also be able to tap their phones at train station gantries to pay for their rides – if the transport authorities and companies get their act together.

But Singapore has seen numerous such trials over the years, even as places like Japan and Hong Kong have raced ahead with more advanced payment options. …

SingTel says it is restoring connections to its 3G services this evening, after a “software glitch” made it difficult for many users to make calls, send SMSes and surf the Web on their phones today.

The Singapore telecom operator posted on its Facebook page, an hour ago, that the issues were intermittent and services were being turned back on progressively. It said:

Hi everyone. The cause of the intermittent issues faced by some of our 3G customers has been traced to a software glitch. Our engineers are restoring services progressively this evening. Again, we apologise for the inconvenience and thank you for your patience.

Throughout the day, many SingTel users had taken to Facebook and Twitter to complain about being unable to log on to the network, and receiving only weak or unstable signals. According to one report by ZDNetAsia, the disruption for some users has been ongoing for two days. …

The followup to one of the most popular Android phones last year is proving to be a good one for Samsung, as the Galaxy SII was sold out in Singapore over the weekend.

No numbers from Samsung Singapore folks yet, but they must be beaming with smiles at the “unexpected” sales at launch, while waiting for more stocks to arrive “in the next few days”.

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I’ll be honest I wasn’t the most excited when I headed to HTC’s launch of the ChaCha Facebook phone today. How would it hold a candle to the dual-core-powered phones boasting large screens that are coming out just about now, I had asked.

Well, the answer is the interface, ease of use and most importantly, value to first-time smartphone users. …

Singapore broadband users will be looking at a brand new range of broadband services this week, when SingTel starts rolling out mobile broadband plans that promise “typical speeds” along with a “priority lane” for users on pricier plans to surf on the cyber highway. …

UNWIRED, Singapore’s first and only independent wireless and mobile conference, returned for a second run last Thursday, and saw the attendance of top-level executives from the relevant industries from across Southeast Asia.

Opened by the Infocomm Development Authority’s assistance chief executive Khoong Hock Yun, it featured half a day’s discussion on hot topics affecting the industry and its users.

From Singapore’s expected move to next generation mobile broadband (4G/LTE) to the rise of mobile computing and winning features of a mobile operating system, the conference was packed with fresh insights from a who’s who list of the country’s industry experts, who fielded a number of questions from the audience. …