iPhone 3G finally lands in South Korea

Written by admin on November 28, 2009 – 3:17 pm -

korea-iphone

South Koreans finally get their grubby little hands on Apple’s iPhone, after months of waiting and speculating the iPhone has had a fairly successful launch in The ROK.

I wonder if the fanfare will last though, I suppose someone has to localize it heavily such as CyWorld apps (Korean version of facebook) and have some sort of device that could use the dock connector to allow DMB. DMB or Digital Mobile Broadcasting allows South Koreans to watch TV on their mobiles, GPS navigators and computers. Also curious as to what data plans KT has to offer for the iPhone.

Historically, the smartphone market has not taken off in Korea as in other countries, most of the so called advances in mobile technology as far as South Korea is concerned relates to camera resolution, video and mobile television.


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Posted in Seoul, South Korea, Tech, Telecoms / Internet | No Comments »

Vodafone India – Happy To Help???? go suck eggs!

Written by admin on November 22, 2009 – 3:36 pm -

vodafone-logo

You’d think that a global brand would have the same kind of customer service you’re used to… well think again.

When I first arrived in India, I didn’t think twice about choosing Vodafone as my mobile provider simply because I was really satisfied with them during my stint in New Zealand.

What can I say about Vodafone India? Stay away, far far away… in the event that you require any customer support, I can assure you that you will be met with frustration and grief just dealing with them. Don’t be fooled by their robotic incantations and politeness. The lot of them are mindless drones answering phones constantly putting you on hold to try to resolve issues by asking someone else down the help pipeline.

I’ve recently requested that my iPhone data plan be activated, for starters I should be able to do this by simply sending a text message activating my data plan since I’m on a post paid account. Upon calling customer support, guess what I can’t even do it over the phone. The person tells me I have to personally go to a Vodafone Store to do it. The very next day I go to one near my place and guess what, the customer rep asks me what plan I want and after a few minutes off tapping away at his terminal he tells me it’ll be active after 4 hours. So what gives??? The guy doesn’t ask me for any additional documents. What I don’t understand is why the inconvenience of personally showing up at the store when I could have activated via SMS or over their toll-free line? Strike one for Vodafone.

After 4 hours I restart my phone and also taking out the SIM as instructed by the customer rep. Surprise! it ain’t working. So I call Customer service and I’m greeted by the usual Happy To Help yada yada yada…. on their top level menu you will not find any option to talk to a real person so here’s a little tip. Select 1, then press 1 again for billing, then 9 to speak to a customer rep. Long story short… it’s been two days and my GPRS still isn’t working. The last time I spoke to a customer rep I was promised another 4 hrs before it would be activated.

If a Vodafone exec reads this, at least have a customer ticket number for technical problems, its tiring, frustrating and downright annoying having to repeat the same information and explain a problem over and over again when a new rep picks up that help line.

If you’re thinking about going with Vodafone here in India I suggest you pick another carrier like Airtel.


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Posted in India, Tech, Telecoms / Internet | No Comments »

iPod Touch Google Maps app

Written by admin on September 1, 2009 – 1:34 pm -

The iPod touch has a default application or app called Maps. I’ve always considered this application a novelty for us who live outside North America, Europe or even Australia as no street level data or maps were provided with it. Google by the way is the company that provides the data for this app and since there is no data provided one could only use the satellite view which could not be used for navigation.

I posted an article some time ago about Google being aggressive in the Korean market by developing their maps in Korea. Well it seems like that seems to be bearing some fruit now, if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, try firing up the Maps app and you’ll be pleasantly surprised that one can now perform some rudimentary form of navigation.

I tried this by entering locating myself on the map, since the iPod touch does not have any sort of GPS as the iPhone, it locates itself via WiFi using Skyhoook. The results have been fairly accurate and Skyhook has pinpointed my location all the time. A neat surprise is that Google or some third party developer has integrated the Seoul Metropolitan Bus routes into the app and you can now see what bus numbers are available to get to particular place including time intervals and an estimate of how low it will take to get there. Pretty neat eh!

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Posted in Seoul, South Korea, Tech | No Comments »

iPhone 3G / 3GS

Written by admin on June 24, 2009 – 4:29 pm -

Again yet another news tidbit about Apple’s iPhone surfaces on the Korea Times. According to the report the iPhone 3G has passed the Korean Communications Commission (KCC) testing and the device is certified for use in Korea. Normally mobile providers such as SKT or KTF apply for this but in this case Apple submitted the device for testing. This is by no means a guarantee that it will reach Korean shores as the networks themselves have to do what is called network interoperability tests which takes months as well. Nevertheless its a welcome piece of news that takes the iPhone closer to Korea.

iphone-3gs


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Posted in South Korea, Tech | No Comments »

No joy for foreign mobile phones

Written by admin on June 20, 2009 – 2:13 pm -

nokia-e611

You might be wondering why you’re looking at a pretty old Nokia E61. Well I’m not here to do a review on it, in fact I’ve lost all interest in smartphones for now. Why? Because most of Korea’s offerings in the smartphone market are Windows Mobile 6. Being a Mac fan, Windows would be a last choice for me but its a given that you can’t change the language on a WM6 device short of reflashing the ROM, which is something I’m not prepared to do, especially after shelling out close to KWN800,000 for an Xperia or T-Omnia.

So what options are left for us waegook gadget freaks? Nothing much… I tried bringing my trusty 3 year old Nokia E61 to an SKT outlet. I had my Globe Prepaid SIM in there and had selected SKT as my network, I did this to show that rep that my E61 was a 3G (WCDMA) phone and it worked on their network, albeit it was on roaming. I inquired wether it was possible for me to just buy a sim card and have it work on my phone. The rep took my phone and examined the model number and after a few minutes of staring blankly at it said that it was not possible, unless Nokia Korea started selling it locally.

Now that completely sucks!!! Especially since the iPhone 3G or 3GS won’t be sold here in the near future.

I learned that SKT and KTF lock other phones out of the network by their IMEI numbers. The IMEI is sort of a serial number that is unique to your mobile. If your phone’s IMEI is not in SKT or KTF’s database then there is no way your phone can get on the network with a local SIM card.

I’m going to start venting here since this has been a long time frustration for me over the past 10 years. When South Korea decided to pick WCDMA as its 3G standard I was stoked because I thought I finally would have choices when it comes to a true smartphone. Seems like I was mistaken.

UPDATE : Don’t hold your breath for the iPhone 3G or 3GS, it ain’t coming to Korea in the near future, and you thought WIPI was a stumbling block, it seems like one of the bone of contentions in the distribution of content. Apple has their iTunes Music Store and it seems that KTF want their own brand of App store, I don’t think Apple is going to let that happen. Oh what the he@#$ that’s what I get for living in the hermit kingdom.


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Posted in South Korea, Tech | 17 Comments »
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