Blog

Archive for the gadgets and electronics Category

Telkomsel’s Very “Useful” Website

Thursday, July 1, 2010

Last night, I stumbled upon Telkomsel’s website because I want to sign up for their electronic billing statement service (A service which signup link has yet to be found until now). I was already on my bed, and decided, hey, why don’t I just open the website from my iPhone and sign up from there. After all, Telkomsel is the exclusive provider for the iPhone, so they had to have a good mobile version of their website, right? Right? Right?

No.

Because here’s what showed up in my mobile Safari:

telkomsel-iphone.jpg

It is probably, by far, the ugliest mobile website I’ve ever seen from a mobile provider. It is badly designed (look at those jagged rounded corners of the icons), badly developed, and it doesn’t even give you any information other than referring you to mostly outdated apps in the App Store. Not to mention that most of those apps are not good looking either.

It also doesn’t give you the option to switch to the regular website, it needs you to explicitly enter “http://www.telkomsel.com/web/home” in the browser (luckily I bookmarked that one) so that it will give you this:

telkomsel-web.jpg

By the way, that screenshot was taken on a Mac, so in the iPhone, the main feature slideshow as you see there is not available, because it’s using Flash (while it’s easier to do that with jQuery, but hey, they’re technologically advanced people, right?).

But this is not the website’s feature that I want to talk about. If you look at the lower right section of the website, you’ll see a customer login. Everything there seems to be right (despite the ugliness of the website’s design). But when you look closer, you’ll get this:

telkomsel-web-forget.jpg

People, if you ever want to forget your Telkomsel login password for any reason at all, then worry no more! Telkomsel has that feature made for you.

PS: If someone can point me on how to signup for the electronic billing statement, it would be much appreciated. It seems that talking with their jackass customer service won’t do much good.

The Android iPad?

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

I stumbled upon this in the UPH alumni mailing list. Seriously, people, this is hilarious and the thread goes like this (bolded messages are posted by the seller, all messages have been stripped off of names and contacts):

Dear all,

Dijual ipod android BM, 3.500.000 nett. Jika bermasalah dalam 1×24 jam, barang diganti baru

emang ada ya ipod android?
bukannya ipod apple??

Sorry salah ketik.. Maksudnya ipad android, garansi 2 bulan dari toko

Not helping at all here… And it goes on:

Merk nya apa nih.
Spek WiFi aja atau juga udah incl. 3G HSDPA?

Hmm..itu setauku yang dr cina ya? Makany bisa android..

HP & Dell juga ngeluarin yg Ipad Android juga kok.

Hmm..kalo itu kan…
HP Slate (batal)
And Dell Streak….baru yang 5″

Tapi untuk android baru yang cina setau ogut ya..

Hehe..

Maap kalo salah

Ipad jg bukannya dr apple bro?
Bingung..

Namanya aja iPad , kalo ga dr apple asli ya palsunya dr china”, kalo dgr android brarti yg china krn iPad asli pake iOS, btw HP n Dell ga ngeluarin iPad CMIIW

BTW semua apple juga dari cina, mau asli ato palsu. hehehe.

Ipad android by apple

Speck sama saja, bs browse di internet,ini barang apple , hanya black market

Warna putih

Strike two!!! And it still goes on:

Dear all,

Ipad itu by apple with OS bukan Android.

Android itu by google, and saat ini di pakai ama perusahaan China buat ebook reader. Karena open source makanya di pakai oleh cina untuk produce saingan ipad.

Mengenai Android Ipad, saya jg terima tawaran dr supplier dr cina, mereka ksh harga di bawah 2.5 jt. Jadi wajar saja murah.

Android just an OS, dia bs di pakai di Mobile or device, asal kan interactive dengan konsep touch. Tp tidak se interactive konsep touch milik apple.

Waduh ini yg jualan coba kasi info yg lengkap donk, jgn sepotong2, kalo dr apple resmi coba kasi link productnya apple yg pake android??
Kalo apple2an ya fairnya mestinya dikasi tau donk. IMHO sih

Bukan gw yg jualan.. Spek sedang ditanyakan brother, orgnya belum dijawab, namanya black market kan ga teregister . Sama spt handphone , ad yg teregister , ad yg black market, tp merk nya sama. Contoh: blackberry

Anyway, kalau sudah ada gw info lg detail speknya.

mungkin iPadnya di jailbreak kali. Jadi bs dual os. Mungkin itu kali
maksudnya.. Just guessingg

Ipad saya juga uda di jailbreak tapi ga bs dual os…???

Kayanya harus hati2 deh kalau barang spt ini
Hrs jelas dulu
Ipad – apple
Apa android tablet?
Android tablet banyak jg c d pasaran tp fungsi tdk spt ipad

Anyway biar jelas aja si..
Peace peace..

All,

Klarifikasi, barangnya Android tablet

Boleh tanya, apakah mirip dengan yang ini?

http://www.androidtablets.net/forum/android-tablet-news/67-android-ipad.html

Sorry teman teman baru dapat data lengkapnya, ada 2 tipe yang dijual, 1. Android D9 . 2. Android D3. Android D9 harganya IDR 3.500.000 , sedangkan Android D3 harganya IDR 4.000.000. Barangnya masuk dari Singapore ke Batam. Black Market. Garansi 2 bulan, Garansi Toko, Kalo mengalami masalah dalam 1×24 jam, diganti dengan produk baru. Jika ingin liat gambarnya, please japri atau kontek 083890620222

Berikut spesifikasinya Android D9:

1. 8 inch Google Android OS, Ultra
Slim, 800×480 screen, E-Book reader, 720P MP4 Video Files Decoding Ability, a
powerful MP4

2. Built in WIFI, Surfing internet
conveniently

3. CPU: VIA 800MHz

4. Software: Google Android 1.6

5. Screen: 8 inch LCD, multi-touch
display with IPS technology, 800*480px

6. EBook: Built in iReader
software, support TXT, UMD, CHM, HTML, PDB etc. Enjoy the E-book format comics
freely!

7. Language: Czech, Danish, Dutch,
English, Spanish, French, German, Greek, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian,
Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Chinese

8. Memory: 128M, 2GB internal
space, support TF card up to 16GB extended

9. Multimedia codes: Support MP3, MP4, AVI, Word, Excel, Mail, EBook,
video online

10. Network support: Ethernet
10/100M, WIFI: 802.11B/G

11.High-fidelity stereo speaker
output :

*3.5-mm stereo headphone jack

* Microphone

* Dock connector port

12. USB slot

13. YouTube: Support

14. Other functions: WIFI, Alarm, Calendar, Contacts, Documents to go,
Email, iReader, Maps, Browser, Voice recorder, Gravity Sensor

15. Size: 221*180*15mm

16. Net Weight: 593g

17. Color: White

18. Battery:
2100MAh

Package including:

1x iPad D9 Android

1x Charger

1x USB data cable

Package Size: 35cm x 25cm x 10cm
Android D3:

1. Processor : VIA-VT8505(
ARM926EJC,600Mhz)

2. OS : Android Version 1.7

3. Memory : 128MB

4. HDD : 1GB(2GB\4GB) NAND Flash ,Can use external
160GB Portable HDD &16GB SD Card

5. Wifi : Support 2.4GHZ 802.11b/g

6. Loudspeaker : 2*Built-in Speaker 8?/1W

7. Microphone : Built-in Microphone

8. Screen Size : 7″ TFT High Clear
DigitalScreen

9. Screen Resolution : 800 x 480

10. Push Button : Top side button- Power button
+Volume control keys

11. Push Button : Positive primary key

12. Touchscreen : Full mirror face, HIGH sensitive
touch screen operation, Built-in touch panel, support USB port

13. Input / Output card :

* Audio Equipment – 3.5mm Standard Headset jack

* DC-IN port – DC Charging Interface 9V 2A

* USB Interface – 1*MINI 5PIN USB PORT

* Storage deck – Standard TF expansion slots,
maximum capacity of 16GB external storage

14. Power Equipment :

* Battery -
Polymer lithium-ion battery 1500mAh/7.4V

* Adapter – DC 9V 2A

15. Fittings : Adapter, User’s manual

16. New stock comes with preloaded :

* Documents to go

* iReader

* Picture Capture

* MSN Droid

* App Store

17. Dimension : 13.5 x 20.3 x 1 cm

All I can say is… GOBLOOOOOOOGGGGGGGG! :D

PS: This could be one hell of a story for Nguping Teknologi.

Telkomsel, the Irony

Saturday, June 12, 2010

Telkomsel proved to the Indonesian market today that they are probably the greatest irony that ever happened in the country. Here are the facts on why I came to this conclusion:

  • Telkomsel is the largest cellular provider in this country, and with the widest coverage.
  • Telkomsel is Apple’s exclusive partner that sells bundled iPhones in this country.
  • As far as I know, the iPad 3G is the only device available right now (including here, despite it’s not officially imported) that uses a micro SIM.

So given those facts, Telkomsel should be able to steal the competition by supplying micro SIMs for Indonesian iPad 3G owners, right? No. We have to cut them ourselves instead, AND, instead of them, XL is pioneering the move. Ironic? Yes. But then again, Telkomsel’s 3G coverage (or stability) is not entirely that spectacular anyway.

Now, let’s see how long would it take for them to bring the iPhone 4 here, and how long would it take for them to sell them appropriately or competitively. But the way I see it, Apple should’ve ditched the partnership from the beginning and sell factory-unlocked iPhones through Indonesian authorized resellers instead. I’m pretty sure that this would work better in terms of sales.

So maybe, by the time the iPhone 4 is here, and we ask Telkomsel on whether we can get an official micro SIM card or not, this is the reply that you would probably get: “Mohon informasikan nomor telepon dan lokasi, tim kami yang akan menindaklanjuti.”

Sorry, just had to let that out :)

Give an Idiot a Smartphone, You’ll Lose Sanity Right Away

Friday, April 9, 2010

blackberry-messenger-spam-serv.jpg

Photo from Moses Kurniawan.

Here’s what happened:

  1. Give an idiot a smartphone.
  2. Bait him/her with a classic old trick.
  3. Wait.
  4. Immense hoax delivery within minutes.

So, so-called smart and sophisticated smartphone user, if you are practically dumber than the least intelligent mammal on Earth, try not to buy phones that are potentially smarter than yourself. Here’s why:

  1. You will give nothing but trouble to others.
  2. You will only inflict rage to a massive crowd when this thing happens. Most of them would probably just wanted to kill you or decapitate you on site.
  3. For the love of God, why can’t you at least ask first if things like this are true? Or just fucking Google it, dammit.
  4. You are seriously dumber than a monkey. And this reason will just confirm itself when you got mad reading this because you don’t understand the reason why I think you’re seriously dumber than a monkey.

Now, give everyone a favor, sell your BlackBerry and trade it with this:

Tin Can Telephone

At least you will get ONLY yourself into trouble. Capiche?

Postpaid? Prepaid? I’ll Go with Postpaid

Saturday, March 20, 2010

“Why?”

That is probably the first question in hand, because in people’s eyes, having a postpaid cellular card could lead to unwanted bills, it’s inability to be limited, and so forth, and so forth. And using a prepaid number is cheaper and easier to the wallet. Well to a certain extent, that’s probably true, but I have good reasons why I chose to stick with a postpaid number.

Reason #1: Convenience
The first and foremost reason for me is convenience. No matter what you do (unless you limit your credits, certain telcos have this feature), you will still have the ability to make a phone call when you need to. Imagine having a low credit on a prepaid phone and you’re stuck in an emergency. Believe me, you don’t want to be caught in that situation. With postpaid numbers, I can also register that to my credit card for auto billing each month. It saves my time and I don’t have to worry that I forgot to pay my bills anymore.

Reason #2: It’s Actually Cheaper
Unless things have changed I didn’t realize, I found using a postpaid number to be a lot cheaper. Back in the days when I was still using a prepaid number, I usually shell out around 200-250k each month for my phone bill. After I switched to postpaid, it’s around 150k. Now, my bill is around 250-275k already with an internet subscription that costs 125k alone. One other thing that I find interesting is how you calculate your rates. Here’s an example of a postpaid rate:

rate-postpaid.jpg

And here’s an example of a prepaid rate:

rate-prepaid.jpg

It’s clear that postpaid numbers have much simpler rate calculations. Personally, I don’t want to waste my time on constantly calculating the best rate for my phone calls. It’s just dreadful, and not to mention unnecessary. Why do we have to have different rates at different times, and at different regions? It’s just simply pointless.

Reason #3: No Fear of Deactivation
While you can also be deactivated by your service provider when using a postpaid number, you don’t have to hassle with different active periods when using different top up vouchers with different nominals. Add that to the rate calculation you already have before, and you’ll have a lifetime’s worth of mathematical problems.

So if your concern is to save money, it’s not the case of whether you should choose prepaid numbers over postpaid numbers. It is a control that you have to achieve for yourself. It’s as simple as making phone calls, texting, or browsing as you need.

Note:
Rates were taken from Indosat. I found other telcos use methods that are more or less the same.