iPhone Malaysia Blog

We are changing our header GREEN for 1 week in support of Himpunan Hijau 2.0

admin — Sat, 25 Feb 2012 12:26:52 +0000

Today(26th February 2012) will be a historic day in Malaysia as people from many places in Malaysia as well as overseas will be holding a protest against the LYNAS LAMP plant in Malaysia. This rally is called Himpunan Hijau 2.0. Below is the schedule of Himpunan Hijau 2.0:-

We, at iPhoneMalaysiaBlog.com are fully supportive of Himpunan Hijau 2.o and are strongly against the move by the Malaysian government to allow the production of Rare Earth in Malaysia especially looking at the damages that have been done by the Asian Rare Earth in Bukit Merah. We have written an article on this dated back on 3rd August, 2011 titled Save Malaysia Stop Lynas. We are more determined that ever to put a stop to this nonsense especially after the Atomic Energy Licensing Board(AELB) has recently approved a temporary operating license(TOL) to Lynas to operate the plant on 30th January 2012. The biggest joke is that the approval for the TOL was given 4 days after probably more than a thousand comments have been submitted by the public to voice their concern about this project.

How can AELB suddenly become so “efficient” to go thru all the points and comments from the member of the public(in a matter of days) and eventually come to the conclusion to award the TOL to Lynas? Or is it that the decision has been made even with or without consideration of the views of the members of the public?

In addition to that, there are a couple more points that are highly inconsistent in our opinion that we would like to highlight here:-

1. In the report, Lynas is to provide a plan if they can properly recycle the waste or in the worst case scenario find a Permanent Disposal Facility(PDF). If Lynas does not even have a detailed plan for this or identified the PDF, why is AELB so “hasty” to approve the TOL to them. We are talking about highly toxic waste here that can harm many industries and the people that are living around or at the vicinity of the plant. Even if we were to give them the benefit of doubt that they do put up a proper PDF(which we highly doubt). Have we ever considered the dangers of natural disasters like tsunamis or earthquakes that could still happen in the future. If high tech country like Japan which has taken supposedly very high standards of precautions is not able to contain the radioactive leakages from their nuclear power plants due to natural disasters like tsunamis and earthquakes, who are we to rule this point out in Malaysia.

2. Lynas will have to pay the first installment of the US$50 Million deposit to the government as well as pay for the appointment of an independent 3rd party assessor appointed by AELB to check on Lynas. Let us bring back a case in history of the Asian Rare Earth plant in Bukit Merah as a comparison. The plant was closed down because of having many complaints about the high birth defect rates and cases of Leukemia for the residents around the place. And do we know what is the total clean up cost…..US$100Million and that was in 1994(according to the chronology of events posted at Consumer.org.my). That was about 18 years ago and factoring in the “real” inflation rate in Malaysia what can this US$50 Million deposit to the government really do considering the Lynas plant is going to be 10 times bigger than the Asian Rare Earth plant in Bukit Merah. Let us do some simple calculations here using the future value of money with compounding interest to find out how much should US$100 Million in 1994 worth today using the formula below.

FV – Future Value

PV – Present Value (Should be US$100Million since this is the reference which we have for Asian Rare Earth)

i – Interest ( This should really be the inflation rate. Say we take a very conservative figure of 5% inflation rate per year for the purpose of this calculation)

t – Compounding period in years (This is the period of time from 1994 to 2012 which is approximately 18 years)

So, using the formula, US$100Million in 1994 has the same value as US$240.66 Million today based on an inflation rate of only 5% per annum. Since Lynas plant is about 10 times the size of the Asian Rare Earth Plant in Bukit Merah, shouldn’t the deposit be at least 10 times as well? Meaning the reasonable deposit should be a whopping US$2.4Billion.

The above is just for illustration purpose only. The true fact is even if Lynas puts up US$2.4Billion, is it really enough for the people who may potentially suffer from cancer, birth defects etc from the exposure to the hazards posed by this plant? Can our lives and the lives of our family and friends be equated to just dollars and cents.

That is why this is really a no brainer for all Malaysians. Malaysians are not stupid and we will stand up and be united against Lynas until Lynas leave Malaysia. The message is crystal clear. There is simply no other alternative to this. Together we can fight this battle and win. United we stand and we urge all our fellow Malaysians to join in this quest.

As the bloggers of iPhoneMalaysiaBlog.com, we will change our header GREEN for 1 week in support of Himpunan Hijau 2.0 in our quest to fight against Lynas. This is the very least we can do. To the Himpunan Hijau 2.0 committee and Save Malaysia Stop Lynas team and the many other Stop Lynas alliances who have been very hardworking and putting in tremendous efforts, our hats off to you folks! Thank You for leading the fight against Lynas! Thank You for making a difference to the future generations of Malaysia. We really appreciate it!

Sneak Peak inside Foxconn – the company that manufactures the iPhone, iPad and other Apple products

admin — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 12:05:39 +0000

Have you ever wondered what actually goes on inside the factory that manufactures the iPhone, iPad and many other Apple’s product for Apple computers? Well, you need not wonder anymore as recently ABC news Nightline was given a tour inside the manufacturing facility of Foxconn. Foxconn is currently the largest contract manufacturer in the world and with over 1 million employees. With 1 million workers working at Foxconn, its population is bigger than more than 82 countries around the world. It is no wonder that you need to have a buggy to move from one facility to another. Apart from Apple, Foxconn is also the main manufacturer for Intel, Dell, Nintendo and many other big names in the industry.

This specially hosted private tour for the ABC Nightline news is an attempt by Foxconn to shed the lights on the working conditions within the company after news about the suicide of many of its employees began surfacing in the news. Below are some of the cases that were published on the internet.

Upon reviewing the video, one will actually find quite a different scenario for the people working there. Despite the number of suicides that have been reported in the past, it was still below the national average considering the large number of workforce working there. In addition to that, every Monday there will be thousands of people lining up at the Foxconn’s office to seek employment with the company and many are eager to wait patiently to be employed by the company. This is a huge work culture difference between the Chinese and maybe most parts of the the world. With a starting salary of US$1.78 per hour, many of them need to work overtime to have enough to money for savings.

Well this is indeed an eye opener for myself and i hope you will enjoy this video as well.

Sneak Peak inside Foxconn - manufacturer for Apple products

Maxis launches iPhone 4S to a huge crowd at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 05:01:32 +0000

At the stroke of midnight on the 15th December, 2011 Maxis unveiled the latest Apple device i.e. the iPhone 4S to a large crowd of eagerly awaiting customers at their launch event at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Some of the customers have actually waited as long as 12 hours to be the first few to own the iPhone 4S gadget from Apple. The first person in line to own this device is Leonard Chan, a 16 year old from Cheras who has queued for about 12 hours to be the first person to buy the iPhone 4S in Malaysia. Leonard is no stranger to the Apple devices having owned the iPod Shuffle 2 years ago.

Maxis First iPhone 4S customer

With this launch of iPhone 4S, Maxis will be selling this device concurrently in other parts of Malaysia e.g. Johor Baru, Penang, Kuantan, Kota Kinabalu and Kuching.

The new iPhone 4S will be available at all Maxis Centres and Maxis Exclusive Partners nationwide from the 16th December 2011 onwards.

Among some of the new enhancements to Maxis’ iValue plans are increased data quota and the added free WiFi connection of 4GB per month in all Maxis hot spots.

With the added free bundled WiFi connection, customers can now enjoy full mobile data experience on Maxis mobile network. To check out Maxis’ WiFi hot spost, customers can download the Maxis WiFi App from the App store at no charge.

Below are the packages offered by Maxis for the iPhone 4S package:-

Mona Simpson’s (Steve Jobs’ sister) eulogy for Steve Jobs

admin — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 04:38:08 +0000

Mona Simpson is Steve Jobs’ biological sister that he has never met until she was 25 years old. She is a novelist and won the Whiting Prize for her first novel titled “Anywhere but Here” in 1986.

Steven Jobs is known for being a visionary with a strong passion and desire to drive others to create superior products. He is also often known to be harsh, rude and obnoxious in many situations.

Mona Simpson’s eulogy for Steve Jobs revealed the lesser known personality of the great technology icon. In her eulogy, she uncovered the softer side of Steve as a family man, romantic husband, caring father, charming brother and his philosophy of live, his illness and his passing on.

If you have not read about Steve Jobs’ sister’s eulogy for her brother, you may head over to the New York Times article below. i would strongly recommend that you read it if you have not done so to understand this iconic legend a little better. This is something that is not revealed even in his book.

According to the eulogy, the iconic legend’s last words were “Oh wow! Oh wow! Oh wow!”

This is what a person normally utters when he achieves something and we believe Steve has indeed achieved much even with his death.

Below is the link to the New York Times article of Mona Simpson’s eulogy for Steve Jobs:-

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/30/opinion/mona-simpsons-eulogy-for-steve-jobs.html?pagewanted=all

Beware of Mobile phone scam known as “Macau Scam” involving “bank officers”

admin — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 03:21:51 +0000

The mobile phone scams are on the rise in Malaysia with the recent uncertainty in the global market and many scammers looking for a quick buck by “scaring” victims into transferring their money from their bank accounts into another “safe” third party account. Many businessmen were already “conned” by these highly skillful conmen which acted as “bank officers” or “policemen”.

Apparently, this syndicate has siphoned more than RM18 Million from 811 victims according to NST Malaysia.

The modus operandi of this “Macau Scam” group is to obtain as much details about the prospective victim’s personal data and someone from the group will act as either a “bank officer” or “policeman” to verify the personal details with the prospective victim. Once these details are verified and the prospective victim begins to trust them a little more, they will use “fear” to scare these prospective victims into revealing even more details and to take certain actions like “transferring their money” to another “safe” account in order to protect their money.

One of the frequently used “fear tactics” that this group of syndicate is using is to inform their prospective victims that their credit cards or bank account had been hacked by a third party. In some cases, the victims were informed that their credit cards have been fraudulently used abroad and Federal Police like the Federal Bureau of Investigation(FBI) or the Hong Kong Police are involved.

“The syndicate has also used the prestige and name of Bank Negara to impress upon the victims about the seriousness of the issue. The more well-known the reputation, the higher the chance of the victim acting first and thinking later.”

The main objective of the call is to get their victims to act quickly and think later.

iPhoneMalaysiaBloggers have reported this in an earlier blogpost but compelled to re-write about this as these scammers and fraudsters are highly skilled and very good at what they are doing. To date, they have already “tricked” 811 victims of more than RM18 Million.

Below is our earlier blog post which details how these scammers use “Bukit Aman Police Station” and “Hong Kong Police” to trick their prospective victims:-

http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/news/mobile-phone-scam-in-malaysia

Please continue to share these with your family and friends so that more and more people are aware about what these group of “Macau Scam” syndicate is doing and how we can equip ourselves with knowledge to spot these scammers and not add into the statistics.

iPhone 4S review

admin — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 05:24:44 +0000

Today we will be bringing to you a review of the iPhone 4S so that you can make your own decision as to make the switch to this new iPhone or not when it hit our Malaysian shores.

The news about the release of the iPhone 4S instead of the iPhone 5 was received with much disappointment from the die-hard Apple fans worldwide. Even with the disappointment, Apple has managed to sell 4 Million units of the iPhone 4S in the first 3 days of its launch. This is a new record for Apple in terms of iPhone sales. However, even with such impressive sales of the iPhone 4S, it still comes below the expectations of the Analyst which has sent its share price lower last week.

So, what is new in the iPhone 4S you may ask……

From the look and feel perspective, there is hardly any changes except for the left-hand side of the phone which now spots a line. i believe Apple has re-designed the antenna to a dual band aerial design to solve the embarrassing antenna-gate issue encountered in their previous version. With this new antenna design, the iPhone 4S can now intelligently and instantly switch between those exterior antennas, in real-time, even while you’re in the middle of a call and hence minimizing the drop calls. Also, the top one of the rounded keys on the left hand side of the iPhone 4 also acts as the camera shutter button now to make it easier to snap photos with the new iPhone 4S. That is about all the hardware changes there is to the iPhone 4S.

Below are the specifications comparisons of the iPhone 4S vs iPhone 4 vs iPhone 3GS:-

So, most of the changes of the iPhone 4S comes from the inside instead of the external. One most significant change is the use of the new A5 processor which has a dual-core A5 CPU. This is the same processor used in iPad2. The processor is clocked at 800MHz and has a 512 MB of internal RAM. With this processing power, you now have an iPhone that has equivalent processing power as a tablet PC i.e. the iPad 2.

The next major change is in its wireless network support, the phone has a dual-mode quadband UMTS / HSDPA / HSUPA (850, 900, 1,900, 2,100MHz) and quad-band GSM / EDGE (850, 900, 1,800, 1,900MHZ) , Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n, and Bluetooth 4.0 enabled. In layman’s term, all these means that you will likely have access to almost all of the different 3G data network around the world when you are roaming.

There is also some improvement in the back camera. The new iPhone 4S now spots a 8 megapixel back camera with improved optics which is able to shoot better quality photos as claimed by Apple. It can also handle the 1080pixel video. The front-facing camera however remains unchanged from the iPhone 4.

The biggest differentiator of the iPhone 4S compared to the iPhone 4 has to be in the sofware. One of which is the new Siri software which is the built in intelligent assistant that helps you get things done. Now you can command your iPhone 4S to do things with your voice instead of typing. So far, we have been hearing very good reviews about Siri. Not too sure how well it can “understand” our Malaysia slang or English though. If this really works well, this is a major game-changer in the smartphone technology where a smartphone is “smart” enough to understand your verbal commands and executes them without flaw.

For the video review of the iPhone 4S, you may want to watch the video below:-

All in all, the iPhone 4S is hailed as another one of Apple’s greatest product launch. Since when is Apple not doing that. Every new product launch seems to outdo the previous ones.

So, is there anyone out there who is planning to queue up for their iPhone 4S when the device hits our shores…..

With that in mind, i am now eagerly waiting for the next iPhone 5 to come out. It is not rumoured to be launched only in the middle of next year!

Apple’s Earnings Announcement for FYQ4 2011

admin — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:16:41 +0000

Last night after market’s close, Apple’s CEO Tim Cook hosted the first ever quarterly report after Steve Jobs demise on the 5th October, 2011. In remembrance of the visionary Steve Jobs and his former boss, Cook started with a remark that, “The world has lost a visionary, a creative genius and an amazing human being. Steve was a great leader and mentor and inspired everyone at Apple to do extraordinary things. His spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple and we are dedicated to turn using the amazing work that he loved so much.” Cook then expressed gratitude for the long list of condolences that poured into the company on Jobs’s passing away.

Apple’s Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer informed shareholders and investors that Apple has achieved a record sales of 4.89 million Mac units. This represent the highest shipment of Macs and is an increase of 750,000 units compared to last year’s figure. Apple’s Asia-Pacific region saw an increase of 61% in the sales of Macs. Even in a market that is barely growing at all, Japan’s Mac sales has jumped 48% compared to last year’s figure.

Apple’s iTunes recorded a revenue of almost $1.5 billion in the quarter, Oppenheimer said.

Apple’s iPhone sales has increased 21% to 17.1 million units was better than what Apple has expected and ia a new record for the September quarter in Apple’s history. This figure is however, short of what the analysts have expected which is in the range of between 18 million to 20 million units. Apple’s CFO Oppenheimer remarked that the Apple iPhone’s sales in the Asia-Pacific region was “particularly strong”. Apple originally thought that the sales of the iPhone would drop in this quarter due to some not so favourable comments from fans about the iPhone 4S launch. Many of the die-hard Apple fans were actually waiting for the launch of the iPhone 5 but were disappointed. All in all, the iPhone’s revenue has increased by 24% to $11billion in this quarter.

“We’ve gotten off to a great start with the 4S,” said Tim Cook.

“We’ve sold over 4 million in just three days after launch and so we’re thrilled with the start that we have. We’re confident that we will have a large supply but I don’t want to predict when supply and demand might balance because the demand is obviously extremely high right now, but I’m confident that we will set an all-time record for iPhone this quarter.”

Cook said the goal with the iPhone is to “eat into” the 1.5 billion handsets sold each year, not just the 400 million smartphone units sold each year.

Apple has also toyed with the idea of reducing the iPhone 3GS by giving it out for free with a 2-year’s contract commitment plan with some carriers to test out the take up rate in the market. It has certainly not being practiced here in Malaysia though.

Apple’s CFO noted that Apple continues to be “thrilled” with the take up rate of its iPad. Apple has sold 11.1 million units of iPad this year compared to 4.2 million units sold last year. This figure is about 3 times the iPads sold last year.

Apple’s retail stores recorded a revenue of $3.6 billion, which is an increase of 1% compared to last year. The number of Macs sold through the retail stores increased by 25% to 1.1 million units. Apple has also increased their total store count to 357 as of the end of this quarter. It has added 30 new stores, of which 21 stores are outside of the US. Apple is planning to open another 40 new stores in 2012. Out of which 30 will be located outside of the US.

Oppenheimer said the company sees gross margin being about the same this quarter as last quarter’s 40.3%. Even though component costs are coming down, which is good, that will be offset to some extent by “the impact of higher cost structures and reduced price points for the recently introduced iPhones and iPods, as well as the stronger U.S. dollar.”

During the earnings call, the big question that analysts and investors have for Tim Cook was what he intends to do with the huge amount of cash that the company has generated through the sales of its products. Apple is currently sitting on about $82billion in cash and investments. Tim Cook has replied that “The cash is always a topic and will always include to do what we think is in Apple’s best interest and I think we’ve done that so far and if you look at where we’ve spent it, I think you would agree.”

All in all i would think the results were not “bad”. However, this results were lower than what the Analysts have expected and the AAPL stock has been beaten down by more than 6.4% in its after hours trading to $395.12 at the point of this writing which is down by $27.12 compared to the market closing of $422.24 before the earnings call.

Will Steve Jobs be re-incarnated?

admin — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 12:23:45 +0000

The news of Steve Jobs’ death has made headlines in most of the news portals and many die-hard fans of the iconic legend feels sad with his passing on. Many would like to have him leave a little longer so that we can enjoy more of his innovative and creative products. Somewhere in Penang on the beautiful island of Pulau Jerejak, about 40 people have gathered and took part in a ritual to bring back Steve Jobs through re-incarnation. This news was reported by Sin Chew Daily, a local chinese newspaper.

This ritual was performed last Sunday by a Medium from Rawang, Selangor. This ceremony has drawn many criticism from various groups including the Federation of Taoist Associations Malaysia and several Buddhist associations. Many had called it “ridiculous” and “superstitious”.

According to the daily, followers were asked to take a bite from an apple and observe three minutes of silence before throwing the fruit into the sea but some had finished half of the fruit before doing so as it was very sweet.

According to the report, most of the followers do not even know who Steve Jobs were and they were doing it to enjoy a day trip in Penang as well as to pray for good fortune. The followers also had to pay between RM50 and RM75 to take part in the ceremony.

iPhone 4S sales as great as ever despite disappointing new features

admin — Mon, 17 Oct 2011 02:13:44 +0000

Apple’s latest iPhone 4S went on sale last Friday to an eager crowd many of whom queued overnight around city blocks to purchase the last iPhone device that are unveiled during Steve Jobs’ life. This news is enough to send the Shares of Apple, AAPL to skyrocket to $422 last Friday. Up $13.57 or 3.32% last Friday. Some fans that were interviewed last Friday have quoted that they wanted something to remember Steve Jobs. This is truly a legendary remark and achievement for the late Steve Jobs. Even after he has passed on, his Product sensation has lived on!

After we have done some analyzing, we found that the launch of the iPhone 4S is indeed the right move for Apple for the below reasons:-

1. The iPhone 4S is not meant to replace the iPhone 4. The reason for this is because there is not much enhancement of the the iPhone 4S compared to the iPhone 4 model except for the faster speed. In addition to that, the users of the iPhone 4 will likely still be under contract if they have purchased the iPhone last year. With a 2 year contract period, it is not easy for these users to upgrade to the iPhone 4S. Hence, for users who are having the iPhone 4, they will probably not dump their iPhone 4 to upgrade their unit to the iPhone 4S for the little added benefits of the latest device. iPhoneMalaysiaBloggers believe that the iPhone 5 will likely only be released sometime Summer of 2012 which is in June 2012. The reason why we predict this date is because this is about 2 years after the the initial launch of the iPhone 4 which means that all iPhone 4 users will be off contract by then and it would be a great group to target for the upgrades.

2. The real target for the iPhone 4S device is actually for the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, current Android users and new smartphone users. For the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users, their contract when the purchased the device would probably be over by now and it is definitely a great time to upgrade their current device instead of waiting until maybe mid of next year for the iPhone 5 to be released. This group is big enough to make the iPhone 4S launch a big success as what we have seen last Friday. In addition to that, the iPhone 4S will also likely attract a lot of converts from the Android loyal camp to the iPhone camp. This is the key group that Apple would be very interested and happy to acquire as this is an acquisition from their main competitor. Last but not least, another group that is an easy target is the new smartphone users. New reports have shown that this group is huge and with more and more people moving from a traditional phone to a smart phone, the ability to capture this group of subscribers is key to the success in this competitive landscape.

Another fact that you should know is that The iPhone product range which is the gold standard for smartphones is actually Apple’s highest margin product and accounts for 40 percent of its annual revenue. If Apple were to launch the iPhone 5 last week, they would probably have done much better compared to the iPhone 4S but they would have missed out on a huge opportunity in the future to launch another successful iPhone 5.

Apple’s Chairman and co-founder Steve Jobs dead at 56

admin — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 00:10:09 +0000

This is indeed a truly shocking news for all Apple and Steve Jobs fans around the world. This iconic figure who has steered Apple from the brink of a bankruptcy is announced dead on Wednesday at age 56. Steve Jobs will be clearly missed and remembered as one of the greatest CEO of all time. He has been battling with pancreatic cancer for sometime and handed the company’s top post to Tim Cook in August this year. Steve Jobs has been the heart and soul of Apple’s incredible and dynamic climb to be the most valuable company in the world.

As a true fan of Steve Jobs ourselves, we truly respect and miss all the guidance that this iconic person can provide and will be missed by everyone who has been following his progress.

A Heartiest Condolence to the person that we truly admire and may he rest in peace!

http://www.iphonemalaysiablog.com/news/news-steve-jobs-resigned-as-ceo

news: Apple unveils the iPhone 4S instead of the iPhone 5

admin — Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:23:35 +0000

Apple yesterday unveiled a new iPhone, the iPhone 4S instead of the much anticipated iPhone 5 to a much disappointed crowd of Apple fans. After the announcement, the shares of Apple(AAPL) actually dropped over 5% before going back up and close at $372.50(down $2.10 for the day).

Many fans and diehard supporters of the Apple iPhone has been talking about the “Let’s Talk iPhone” event and was eagerly waiting for the new iPhone 5 to be revealed. This news was revealed by Apple’s new CEO Tim Cook who replaced Steve Jobs as the new CEO in August this year. Tim Cook provided some statistics on how Apple in particular the iPhone was doing in the first part of the presentation.

Among the highlights were the following:-

** Apple has sold more iPhone 4 than all the other iPhones combined in the history of iPhone sales.

** About 93% of all the Fortune 500 companies are either already using or testing the iPhone.

** The Apple iPhones now account for about 5% of all mobile phone sales worldwide.

And unlike Steve Jobs who usually has lots of surprises for the Apple fans, Cook did not manage to pull out any rabbits out of his hat this time.

So, what is new with the iPhone 4S?

Firstly, the S in the iPhone 4S stands for “Speed”. In terms of the look and feel, there is not much difference from its immediate predecessor iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S will run on the A5 chipset which is used in the iPad 2. This gives it the same computing power of a laptop in a mobile device. The iPhone 4S will retail at $199 for the 16GB, $299 for the 32GB, and $399 for the 64GB with a two-year service contract with AT&T (T), Verizon (VZ), or Sprint (S). Not too sure how much this phone will cost when it is offered in Malaysia though.

So, what are the other improvements?

1. New wireless system – with this new wireless system it can intelligently switch between 2 antennas when transmitting and receiving calls and data which will result in better call quality and higher download speeds respectively. The new iPhone 4S offers up to 5.8MBps upload and 14.4MBps download speed.

2. Camera improvements – The iPhone 4S comes with 8Megapixel(3264 x 2448 resolution) camera module compared to the iPhone 4 which has 5Megapixels(2592 x 1936 resolution). It also has a new sensor, state-of-the-art CMOS backside illumination sensor and a Hybrid IR filter for better color accuracy. In layman’s term, the new camera allows you to take clearer photos at a faster speed as well as shoot high definition 1080p videos.

3. Voice control – This is the key feature of the iPhone 4S according to Apple senior vice president of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller. The feature is called “Siri”. This new feature is based on the voice activated application that Apple bought in 2010. Siri doesn’t just listen—it also speaks. To trigger Siri, you press and hold on the Home button, the same way Voice Control works on older iPhones today. This is going to be the app to check out as it is said to be “your intelligent assistant that helps you get things done just by asking.”

4. AirPlay – This is a feature that is applicable in the iPad2 and being ported over to the iPhone 4S. This feature allows users to stream wirelessly to your Apple TV. If you don’t have an Apple TV, you may use an HDMI cable to mirror over the wire, too.

news: Steve Jobs resigned as CEO

admin — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 03:21:16 +0000

Apple made an announcement yesterday afternoon that Steve Jobs has resigned as the CEO of Apple Computers. He will remain as Chairman of the company and he will be succeeded by Apple’s Chief Operating Officer, Tim Cooks. Tim Cook is probably the best person to take over the role of CEO as he has been overseeing the company’s operation since Steve took a leave of absence due to his illness earlier this year. We believe Apple will be in good hands although the market has reacted by shedding more than 5% to $357.10 right after the announcement is made. Apple shares closed at $376.18 the previous day.

Steve Jobs has been the key person that has caused the major turnaround of the fortunes of the Apple Computers from the then ailing company. As a tribute to the great and outstanding person, the iPhoneMalaysiaBloggers would like to write a brief history about Steve Jobs, the man with the Midas touch.

The Story of the Great Legend, Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs was born on the 24th February, 1955 in San Francisco, California. His unwed mother actually was expecting a baby girl and hence decided to give him up for adoption. His mother has called up Paul and Clara Jobs in the middle of the night and asked if they would want to adopt her baby.

His mother’s wish is that Steve will be able to one day graduate from college. When she found out the Steve’s future parents were not college graduates themselves, she has refused to sign on the adoption documents. She later agreed to sign on it after Steve’s future parents gave her the assurance that they will send Steve to college.

Steve completed his high school in 1972 and attended Reed College in Portland, Oregon. He has decided to drop out from college because it was too expensive. Steve later joined a group called the Homebrew Computer Club in 1975. There, he met with Steve Wozniak who was trying to build a small computer. They later decided to form a computer company in 1976 which they called the Apple Computer Company. To raise the funds necessary to kick-start the company, they have sold their personal belongings to finance the initial start-up. The Apple Computer Company’s sales quickly grew to US$200Million in the first 3 years – a really amazing achievement for a start-up company!

Steve launched the highly user friendly Macintosh computer in 1984. Despite some of the great ease of use features that comes with the Macintosh, it did not do as well compared to their biggest competitor at that time, IBM. IBM computers are packed with more features for commercial use. This has also signaled the downfall of his career at Apple. After some disagreements over the vision and direction of the company with the board of directors of Apple, Steve Jobs was pressured to resigned as the CEO of the company that he has co-founded in 1985.

After leaving Apple, Steve has hired some of his ex-employees to start-up another company called NEXT in 1985. A year later, Steve has bought a small company called Pixar from George Lucas. Pixar is a computer animation company. 9 years after it was acquired by Steve, Pixar went on to launch a mega box office hit, Toy Story. Since then, Pixar has produced many more box office hits including A bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monster Inc, Finding Nemo, The Incredibles, Cars, Ratatouille, Toy Story 3, Up and many more.

Steve Jobs later sold the company Pixar to Disney and became one of the largest shareholder in Disney as well as a member of their board in 2006. In December 2006, Steve returned to Apple after Apple acquired Next Software. He then became the part time consultant to their CEO. In September 2007, he was named the interim CEO of Apple. In year 2000, the word “interim” was officially removed from his title.

Since returning to Apple, Steve has launched the highly successful iPod, iMac, iTunes Store, iPhone, Macbook, iPad and many more.

Some of the major Milestones or Achievements that Apple has gained after his return are:-

1. Becoming the largest seller of Music via its iTunes Store

2. Becoming the largest Application seller via its iTunes AppStore

3. Becoming one of the largest smartphone seller via its highly popular iPhone. Apple became the largest smartphone seller after it sold 20.34 million iPhones in the 2nd Quarter of 2011. For more details, the report here at Reuters.com

All these are certainly no small feat. He has also revolutionized the Tablet PC when he introduced the iPad. Many companies have launched the Tablet PC but failed in the past. But not Steve Jobs…..the iPads are one of the most successful Tablet PC launch after many failures. Now, everyone seems to be going into the Tablet PC market.

For all that he has done, we believe that he really deserves the title of Fortune Magazine’s “CEO of the Decade”.

Before we sign off, we would like to share one of the most interesting speech that Steve Jobs has shared at the Stanford University Graduation Ceremony in 2005 where he shared about his life, his career and his battle with cancer. There are many lessons to be learnt from this Marketing Genius….. enjoy.

http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/steve-jobs-life-career-illness-love-001119381.html