Aug
07

SingTel launching 3G iPhone on August 22

Science & Technology

According to Reuters, 3G iPhones would be out in Singapore on August 22.

SingTel to launch 3G iPhone in August-source

SINGAPORE, Aug 4 (Reuters) - Singapore Telecommunications Ltd, Southeast Asia’s largest telecoms firm, will launch Apple Inc’s third-generation iPhone in Singapore before the end of August, a source familiar with the matter told Reuters.

“SingTel should be launching the 3G iPhone in Singapore before the end of the month,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The company plans to launch it in 20 more countries on Aug. 22. It has set a target of selling 10 million iPhones this year.

Source: Reuters

Want to get one?

3

May
27

Japan man stalks toll-free line to hear woman’s voice

uncategorized

Well, today on odd world, there’s a Japanese man calling toll-free line to hear woman’s voice and yes it’s automated. Kinda sad in a way but it somehow suggests how easily contented this man can be. Just listening to a voice only?

Japan man stalks toll-free line to hear woman’s voice

TOKYO (Reuters) - A Japanese man was arrested for calling a food company’s toll-free number 500 times in 16 months because he wanted to hear the woman’s voice on the automated tape, police said on Monday.

The 38-year-old plumber, who was arrested on Sunday, made 3,100 hours worth of free calls to the company, costing it almost 4 million yen (19,500 pounds) in phone bills, a police spokesman in Takasaki, northwest of Tokyo, said.

“He gets excited by the woman’s voice on the guidance tape,” the spokesman said, adding that the voice sounded normal to the detective who was involved in the investigation.

The food company asked for its name to be withheld. The spokesman said police are investigating if the man placed an excessive number of calls to any other firms.

(Source: Reuters)

I hope he’s okay. He’s disruptive in a way, but he sure has patience. I keep pressing ‘0′ when I hear automated tapes on phones.

2

May
18

Samsung presents optical illusions in 2 minutes

Entertain Me

Samsung presents 10 optical illusions in 2 minutes to promote the new SOUL mobile phone.

10 optical illusions in 2 minutes

Can’t figure how this could be related to the new SOUL mobile phone actually.

0

May
12

SingTel secured iPhone distribution in four countries

uncategorized

iPhone’s coming to Singapore it appears. SingNet is also giving away Apple MacBook if you sign up for their 80+++ plans. Lots of Apple love going on.

SingTel ropes iPhone distro in Singapore, India, Australia, and Philippines

Singapore Telecommunications (aka SingTel) announced that it’s secured agreements to distribute the iPhone in Singapore (on SingTel Mobile) and its partly-owned subsidiaries in Australia (on Optus), India (on Bharti Group), and the Philippines (on Globe Telecom). Vodafone’s also distributing the iPhone in India and Australia though, so we’ll have to wait until later this year to find out who gets to shoot first.

Read more at Engadget.

0

Feb
16

The problem with outsourcing technical support

Uncategorized

Sometimes I get really annoyed when I make these support calls. There’s always a lag time of like 0.3 milliseconds and I could finish a biscuit in that amount of time. But what really pisses me off is the accent. The accent that make technical support a lot more technical than it supposed to be. Whatever happen to your friendly support people? They’re probably in a bloody call center in India. Anyway, here are some video clips of people’s experience with call centers that might just make you go what-the-ahem.

call center salesman goes insane (REAL RECORDING)

I can believable, like a little girl. As long as this doesn’t happen to me, he’s the funniest call center salesman. The salesman is in Panama.

Here’s one from Microsoft support center. I don’t know what he’s talking about.

Funny Microsoft support center call

The Microsoft support personnel is probably from India. Here’s a video of what call centers do in India.

Indian Call Centre

Well, if you have a computer problem, consider this - unplug it and plug it right back. Sometimes, you don’t really benefit from calling call centers. If you’re a novice computer user, you probably can’t convey your computer problem in the right terms and the support fellow from India tries to tell you to check if your power button is on. He probably is laughing with his colleagues after he puts down your phone call. Should you be an expert computer user, calling support lines is like teaching the call center support personnel something new.

So you know what - forget it. If you have a problem, go to your expert computer friend. Buy him or her lunch of something and ask them for help. No strange accent. No lag.

1

Dec
02

Don’t SMS me after 2 AM please?

Uncategorized

This week I had 4 text messages sent at my sleeping hours:

  1. 3:41 AM
  2. 4:05 AM
  3. 4:38 AM
  4. 4:43 AM

Erm… I am starting to wonder if people think I don’t sleep or something. Seriously, it’s quite inconsiderate to text me at those timings. I get awoken by my phone’s vibration, I didn’t set a ring tone even. I am all fine with people texting stuff that are important.

BUT all the four messages are sent by 3 different people request me to send this and that, a reminder to bring my camera to school to lend him, and 2 others to ask for phone numbers of other people. They’re asking for favors in the wee hours of the morning and none are particularly urgent. What are they thinking? Have they even considered I might have woke up just to entertain their messages.

I usually sleep at 2 AM, so be nice and don’t message me till morning. Ahh, like they would read my blog like that.

[On a side note: My friend was telling me that liver repair starts at 12 AM and stops at 3 AM in the morning. Any comments on how true that could be?]

0

Oct
03

Play a prank on telemarketers

Uncategorized

I find it rather irritating to receive calls from people I don’t know. Especially during times having to actually leave lecture halls just to answer a call.

Here’s how my thought process roughly go:

  1. Okay, here’s a call and I don’t know the number.
  2. Alright I don’t want to answer calls from people I don’t know.
  3. Hmmmp, what is someone I know is using another phone?
  4. Nah, don’t want to answer…
  5. Arrgh, this frigging phone refuse to stop ringing!
  6. What if it’s actually important?
  7. Okay, damn it. -leaves lecture room by squeezing through the seats-

“Hi, who’s this?” I asked.

“Hello, we are doing a survey regarding…”

Tom Mabe funny phone call

[via Digg]

I wish telemarketers would just SMS me or something. But then again, had they done so, I probably won’t read even the top half of the message.

2