Aim! Shoot!! Duck!!!

The iPhone is not something new, but it’s now being offered by another telco in Malaysia, DiGi, breaking the monopoly of Maxis. Kind of excited but not because of the iPhone, but because it’s DiGi. I’ve been a DiGi user ever since I got a mobile phone back in 2001, so yeah I’m biased but then again, they are the ones that always bring new perks to prepaid plans that the other two telcos conveniently copies & modifies. Also, DiGi advertisements are a blast to watch, darn creative & funny. Ok, back to the topic. DiGi is still hashing out their iPhone plan rates but they have already launched their pre-order page for the iPhone. Now would I have enough blind faith in DiGi to pre-order the phone without having seen their plan rates yet? Oh yes I would! DiGi even just recently posted on Twitter asking what bugs us most about current iPhone packages & what we want most from the new DiGi iPhone plans. Love how they embrace the social community.

DiGi iPhone Pre-order

Digi Twitter Post

Then there’s the Nokia N900. The Nokia superphone. This is a phone I’ve been waiting to see, not to buy, but to test. I really like what I’ve seen with the Maemo OS though & now finally we can pre-order this phone too. Price of the phone is RM2280, where I was expecting it to be. The first 300 ppl to pre-order will get a free “Nokia Extra Power DC-11? worth RM278. Kind of like a charged up battery you can use to charge your other mobile devices. Would I get this phone instead of the iPhone? Yes I would to be honest! Unfortunately, my current financial status doesn’t allow it. So I’ll settle for testing it only, for now. 

N900 Pre-order

Unfortunately it seems that at current time & date, 15th Mar 2010 11.20pm, the N900 pre-order site is down. Overwhelming response maybe? I’ll update this when the situation changes.

So what will it be for me then? iPhone? N900? What do you guys/gals say?

UPDATE 17/03/2010: Ok the Nokia N900 pre-order page is back in business! So anyone who’s interested, go fill up the form & cross your fingers!

Some interesting developments have popped up in the mobile world recently that raised my curiosity flag. First is the official announcement of Symbian ^3, with the OS feature complete by end of Q1 2010, in devices by Q3 2010. Now I know some people HATE Symbian with a passion, even though they are still using a phone running it, but as I’ve always clarified, Symbian as a phone OS that fits phones from low to medium end is actually a great OS. Just that, it’s UI is way too outdated & it’s dated codebase is also getting long in the tooth. So with Symbian now fully open sourced, fully rewritten from ground up, this should clear most of the nagging issues people have with it now. The new OS shows very little of the old Symbian & seems to have finally caught up to the current level & quality expected of current generation touch screen OS. It seems to have all the usual stuff covered now like multiple homescreens, single tap UI manipulation, multitouch (pinch to zoom) & a very nice visual multitasking switcher, no doubt Maemo inspired. Looks great too! See for yourself below.

Next up is Windows Phone 7 Series. Yes that is what it’s going to be called now. It’s no longer Windows Mobile. In fact, that’s a good thing since this new OS have nothing to do with the old Windows Mobile we have all come to love & hate. It’s a completely new OS, based on the OS & UI that runs on the Zune HD. It’s also a brave departure from how normal phone UI seems to be done, a rethink so to speak. Will this work out better or worse? We’ll have to wait till end of the year for any devices to use this interesting OS before passing any kind of judgement. Though I have to say, I’m actually interested! This coming from a guy that hates Microsoft. Check it out below.

Finally, an interesting merger of different mobile OS into a more formidable OS, coming from Intel & Nokia. The merging of Moblin (Intel) & Maemo (Nokia) to become MeeGo. Yes, funny name + funny name = MORE weird funny name. But nonetheless, this could prove interesting. This is an OS meant to power devices ranging from smartphones to tablets & netbooks. So it’s not just a phone OS, it is still completely open sourced like it’s predecessors it’s being merged from. Honestly, I’m not very sure where to put this but Maemo on Nokia N900 has impressed me enough that I’m sure when this thing is up & running, it will kick some major butt as well. No devices has been announced using this OS but the OS is due out in Q2 2010 with devices to follow very soon after. Guess for this, we’ll just have to wait & see as well. No video demo of the new upcoming OS, but I’ll leave you with what Maemo looks like on a Nokia N900.

At the beginning of the month, I blogged about Avatar’s amazing performance. I made an assumption that Avatar might beat Titanic by Feb 2010 if it’s current pace is maintained. But that’s of course too optimistic in the real world. Well, looking at the figures now, it seems like that might happen! In fact, if I remember the numbers correctly from last week, Avatar grossed 300 million in just one week alone to this week. That means by end of next week, it should be passing Titanic as the highest grossing film of all time. Just shy of Feb 2010. But I did notice one weird thing, the numbers for Titanic seem to have gone done around 100 million, I’m not sure for what reason there was an adjustment but even if you take the orignal gross amount from Jan 5 which is 1.94 billion, Avatar can surely beat that with it’s current 1.69 billion tally by next week. So give or take, by Feb 2010, Avatar should be the highest grossing movie of all time, for now.

People might argue that ticket prices now cost more so it’s easier to gross more. That is true but then again, isn’t the world going through an economic crisis? So why is this movie earning so much in such a ridiculous pace? Boggles the mind doesn’t it? According to Titanic’s Wikipedia page, I quote ” Brandon Gray, president of Box Office Mojo, said that while Avatar may beat Titanic’s revenue record, the film is unlikely to surpass Titanic in attendance. “Ticket prices were about $3 cheaper in the late 1990s.” “. So there’s a record that Titanic can still be proud of. How many people you know have seen Titanic more than once? I’m sure most of you would say yes.

There’s another twist though, according to the same page, Titanic is due to be re-released in 2011, in 3D format! So if those sales are tallied in Titanic might just grab back it’s crown next year! I guess the fat lady hasn’t sung yet! Encore!!!

UPDATE 26/01/2010: It’s official, Avatar has raced past Titanic & for now, is the KING. It still trails Titanic in terms of gross domestic earnings in USA but it’s only $49 million short, something that can be eclipsed in a very short time.  Hats off to James Cameron, only he can topple his own Mt Everest.