article About Before you upgrade your phone� - (all-vga-corner)

Evolution of Technology

Technology engulfs us both slowly and silently. We carry technology with us in our cell phone and sleep with it. Little do we know that this small piece of device is packed with many features that change our lifestyles. You know how to use a mobile phone but you just don't know how to make it works better for you.
Real life stories about expensive phone bills frighten many of us. To avoid paying more, many choose to terminate core features of the phone or disable these features to make sure they don't chalk up their bills. Essentially you just defeat the purpose of getting the latest phone in the market if your sole purpose is simply making voice calls and sending SMSs.
Some may argue that they "reserve" these features and will use them during critical moments. My question is how do you know if they are working during those moments and how much you know about using the application?
Many of my friends show off their new phones boosting many new features like GPS, WIFI, push mail, full QWERTY keys, LCD screen, vibrating touch and feel, 10M pixel camera, elegant look etc and etc� but they don't have a data plan. If you are happy driving a Ferrari in a congested car park, follow their footsteps. Many will laugh at you inside their heart if you notice the smile at the corner of their mouth.
So how can you avoid becoming the next clown?

Look into the eyes of Technology

If you confine yourself to making voice and sending SMS, Philips Xenium series is your best upgrade choice which boosts standby time of up to 30 days. It has no gimmicks like GPS, 3G or WIFI and squeezes its battery life to extend your calling time. So stop wasting time to shop around for other phones. Else, your 2G mobile is good enough till you are ready.
Now, if you are seriously wish to upgrade your phone and explore some new features, get ready to pay for data plan else read the earlier paragraph again. Many are tapping into data use and someone wrote about paying only US$23/month for iphone bill. So, the future is now.
I have earlier mentioned how to select a suitable mobile phone for broadband. Read about the technology and decide a phone which suits your lifestyle. Bear in mind the battery life and your budget in hand.
Next, do sign up for a suitable mobile broadband plan with your telco. You may wish to consider my earlier article on the BEST mobile broadband plan in Singapore. It is outdated but you may wish to read for your reference.

Myths on features in mobile phone

There are also many questions about the features which many are shy to ask around. I hope to disperse these myths which cloud your minds:

1. WIFI is chargeable
   WIFI is free if you connect to a network which is free. For example, when you are at home or when you have access to wireless@sg in McDonald etc. Many WIFI network are private which requires password authentication. For example, you are in a Malaysia hotel which they may charge you RM25/day for using WIFI. The limitation of WIFI is the range of up to 100m in open space and privacy related issues.
2. GPS is NOT FREE
   If you have a built-in GPS in your mobile phone, it is 100% FREE to use GPS above the sky and locate yourself anywhere in the world. You only need direct connection to the sky. If you wish to have more features such as navigation and locating friends, read my earlier post on installing a suitable GPS application on your mobile phone.
3. Data use is very expensive
   In the past, you are right to say so but with the revise of plans by telcos and the increasing amount of users, the charge is reasonable. For pure data users, you may wish to refer to my earlier post on the mobile broadband plans available in Singapore. In exhibition, you may enjoy 50% discount and pay only S$19.36/month for M1 V2 for unlimited data use. For data plan over your voice plan, the minimum is adding S$10 to your existing plan.

Will my monthly bill costs much more?

It depends on your lifestyle and the data plan you choose. In any case, you should not be charged more than S$37 for unlimited use in Singapore.
If you make frequent international calls, having a data plan may actually help you to save more. You can tap on into skype for voice calls, msn for messaging and push mail for email exchange. You buy time and accessibility with data plan while you are on-the-road. You need not rush back home or office to check email and you can reply messages via msn on the street.

5 critical considerations

1. If you are a business and serious user, select a 3.5G phone with 7.2Mbps instead of a 3G phone with only 0.384Mbps of transfer speed. 3G is nearly 20 times SLOWER than 3.5G. The latter usually come with S$0 plan catering for students and budget users. You just have to pay more for a 3.5G phone and S$0 phone expresses itself clearly on its price tag.
2. Next, get a phone with good battery life by comparing their standby and talk times. There is no point in having a phone with low juice unless you only wish to satisfy your ego by driving a Lamborghini for 10m.
3. You have to compare data plans offered by different operators as some are simply not suitable for you. Questions to ask yourself are: Are you able to afford unlimited data plan? What applications do I need in my new phone which requires data plan? For instance, real time push mail requires unlimited data plan for businessmen while normal user may stick to pop mail for a periodical mail download.
4. Bundled plan offers incentives for consumers. If most of your family members and friends are using M1, it makes sense to join M1 as you may enjoy 3 free call numbers. For starhub hubbers, you enjoy further discounts for your maxOnline, maxTV and mobile lines. For Singtel users, MIO may be attractive due to the overall package. No matter which plan you choose, there is a binding contract of 2 years else a heavy penalty will be imposed.
5. Lastly, omit those features that are not needed in a phone. For example, do you really need a 12M pixel camera phone? Get a Canon or Nixon DSLR camera at S$1,299 with tons of features to take great photos instead. After all, phone is for making call and not for photo shots. 3M or 5M pixel is good enough for an average Joe.

article About Which GPS software for my mobile phone? - (all-vga-corner)

Global Positioning System (GPS) is taking by storm into virtually all new mobile phones. New users may fully pay for their phone but unaware that their new mobile phone has a-GPS or GPS support. Simply, it is a case of ignorance or the constant fear of being charged extra for data traffic. I summarize the differences between GPS and a-GPS in below table.

GPS		A-GPS	Comments	Sample Phone
YES		YES	a-GPS can speed up and lock the location faster (Eg. 5 sec). If a-GPS is disabled, locking the position may take up to 5 mins.	Nokia N97
YES		NO	Older model like N95 need firmware upgrade to include the software a-GPS.	Older Nokia N95
NO		YES	a-GPS requires GPRS traffic and maybe costly	Nokia N81
NO		NO	GPS software is needed	Your old Nokia phone

When they realized that GPS is actually FREE OF CHARGE (FOC) and bear no data traffic, they will start hunting for GPS application suitable for their phone. The common GPS applications are listed below in alphabetical order.

Vendor	Program	Navigation	Data Traffic	Maps	POIs	Guide
Agis NAVFone	$	Free	Optional	$	Yes	Yes
AmAzeGPS	Free	Free	Yes	Free*	No	NA
Garmin Mobile XT	$	Free	Optional	Free	Yes	NA
Google Maps	Free	NA	Yes	Free*	No	NA
Mapking	$	Free	Optional	Free#	Yes	Yes
Nokia Maps	Free	$	Optional	Free	NA	$
Route66	$	Free	Optional	$	No	NA
TomTom NAVIGATOR	$	Free	Optional	$	NA	NA

* - Free maps with BBOM

# - Free maps with S'pore Land Authority

1. Agis NAVFone
   

   This is a local company which can provide unique yellow pages search and public transport route planner. Both program and maps are chargeable but local support is present. It is also the first company to launch postal code search.
   

2. AmAzeGPS
   

   The installation is swift. However, data traffic charges for map download maybe costly because it constantly download the map as you move. You can use tulip navigation to reduce the data charges and generally costs S$0.20 for a city navigation.
   

3. Garmin Mobile XT
   

   The selling point for this program is map can be downloaded from a 3^rd party (malfreemaps.com) where the map for Singapore and Malaysia is updated nearly every week. However, it beeps to warn but regretfully, cannot verbally tell you that there is a speed camera ahead!
   

4. Google Maps
   

   Everything is essentially free if you have broadband on mobile (bbom). It has 2 shortcomings. The first being no POIs customized for Singapore and the second being no real-time navigation.
   

5. MapKing
   

   Mapking claimed to be the number 1 seller in Singapore for GPS products with free download of map from malsingmaps.com (free version updated every quarter). The best selling point is the virtual reality look of the map that make the interface realistic.
   

6. Nokia Maps
   

   Both real-time navigation and guides are chargeable. It is ideal for casual users like tourists. Download of worldwide maps is available which is helpful if you are visiting other countries.
   

7. Route66
   

   Both program and maps are chargeable making it less popular in Singapore. Its market segment is mainly in mainland China and USA.
   

8. TomTom Navigator
   

   Tomtom is strong in Europe and USA but less popular in Asia.
   

So which GPS application should I choose?

1. FOR FREQUENT USERS IN SINGAPORE
   

   Being a frequent user, it is wise to invest in a good software for navigation purposes. My clear choice is Garmin Mobile XT with frequent updated map and Point-of-Interests (POIs). For those with bbom but unwilling to buy the program, you can settle for AmAzeGPS for direction navigation. Else, Google map or Nokia map are good enough for simple location tracking.
   

2. FOR FREQUENT USERS IN MALAYSIA
   

   For those who often drive into Malaysia for good food and cheap petrol, it is wise to equip with professional GPS device for driving navigation instead of depending on your small screen mobile device. You can explore more areas with ease and discover and share more good food locations via forum discussions. You enjoy faster speed in navigation, clearer graphic for viewing and better voice and power integration with your car. Some popular brands are Holux, TiBO and Garmin.
   

3. FOR CASUAL USERS
   

   If you are planning a trip to overseas, it is good to bring along your mobile with GPS and download the latest Nokia map. With the battery fully charged, you can be assured that you will not be lost in the Wonderland.
   

article About How to test the data speed of your mobile phone? - (all-vga-corner)

From the earlier posts, we consider both the mobile phone and the data plan for mobile broadband plan.

Now, how do you know the speed of your data transfer of your mobile phone? Does it matter?

Of course, there are many factors that affect the transfer speed. If the transfer speed is slow, then you have failed to select a good mobile phone or you have signed a rip-off data plan. So what are the factors?

1. Mobile Phone
   
   1. Can your mobile phone support high speed transfer? I hope you get the right phone from earlier post.
      
   2. What browser are you using? Different browsers may affect the transfer speed due to their efficiencies.
      
   3. Are you running too many applications while running the test? I would suggest you to close all applications before running the test.
      
   4. What test sites are involved? Read on�
      
2. Data plan
   
   1. What is the promised maximum download speed? Higher speed means higher price but do you really need the extra mileage?
      
   2. What is the promised maximum upload speed? This speed is usually slower than the download speed and most of the telcos match their competition.
      
   3. How much are you paying monthly? You have to make sure every penny you pay delivers the promised speed.
      
3. Environment
   
   1. Are you testing in peak hours?
      
   2. Are you getting a 3G or 3.5G network?
      

Before we can answer the above, let's run the tests on these 2 websites from your mobile phone.

1. DSL Report - mspeed (http://dslreports.com/mspeed)
   

   

   The user interface is simple and you can start selecting 100k to run the test. You should get this result: "unstable/too fast a result (0.324s) please choose a larger file ". You will keep trying until you select "1MB" because the smaller files are too fast to show any latency during transfer. Eventually, you should get messages like below showing the kbps, Latency/Sz, Domain (if any) and the User agent (browser):
   

   "875 0.191s (1024k)
   elisa-mobile.fiHTC_Touch_Pro_T7272 Opera/9.50 (Windows NT 5.1; U; en)" or
   

   "664 0.393s (1024k)
   tmodns.netMozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 1.5; en-us; HTC Hero Build/CUPCAKE) AppleWebKit/528.5+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.1.2 Mobile Safari/525.20.1"
   

   Using the same file size (1024k), we can see that HTC Touch Pro (875kbps) has a faster transfer speed than Android (664kbps).
   

   You may need to run the test a few times to get an average. Make sure the network is consistent at 3G or 3.5G during your tests else the results may differ.
   

2. Webs-TV (http://speedtest.webs-tv.net) (in Chinese recommended by OCworkbench.com)
   

   This website is straight forward. Once you enter the web address, it will start to run and generate a report. If the smiley face is smiling, you are in business.
   

   
   

   Else, consider changing this plan when the contract expires. The speed is written in red located on the left of the smiley face.
   

I hope you can try out these 2 test sites and post your results here. Your results will help others in selecting the best valued mobile broadband from telco.

article About Which mobile phone should I buy for mobile broadband? - (all-vga-corner)

Many have bought a brand new latest expensive mobile phone but never fully utilize its functions. Ask yourself, if you are just using it for voice communication, then a S$60 phone is good enough for you. You do not need camera function, radio function, 8GB memory card and HSCSD support... not to mention mbb plan. Instead, you should look at size, weight, appearances, large keypad, battery life, big characters for easy viewing and durability.

However, manufacturers are packing tons of features into the phone to make it the best selling models. To best utilize mobile broadband (mbb) plan, there are some fixed and variable factors to consider and I list them for your considerations.

Fixed factors - Must have for mbb plan

• 3.5G support � There are many standards of data transfer. We are concerned on the maximum speed as listed below:

Technology	Generation	Theoretical speed (Mbps)	Practical speed (Mbps)
GMS	2G	0.0144	0.002
GPRS	2G	0.1140	0.056
EDGE	3G	1.0000	0.300
HSDPA	3.5G	7.2000	2.500

For mbb plan, this is the critical criteria of selection � HSDPA. Forget about GPRS and EDGE which are older technologies and cannot be utilizing the full bandwidth of the mbb plan. Visit GSM Arena for the list of mobile phone with HSDPA. Please note that the practical speed maybe even slower than stated due to network traffic. Therefore, it is pointless to select a mobile phone without HSDPA support. It just cannot make the mark.

For example, why Nokia E71 and not Nokia E63? Both have identical outlook. The former is HSDPA (3.6Mbps) while the later is UMTS (0.384Mbps)�nearly 10 times speed difference. So E63 is a bad choice and that's why it is selling cheap or given away free.

• Long battery life � Running applications can be torturing for the battery. Without a long lasting battery, you have to run to charge it every now and then. I would recommend a battery with stand-by time of minimum 300 hours for 3G.

• Reasonable large screen � We prefer to have the largest screen size so the words are bigger for viewing. However, the larger the screen, the more power consumed. It is best to balance battery and screen size after comparing the specifications.

• Good Operating System (OS) � There are a handful of OS in the market dominating by few players. A good OS will minimize hanging issue that disrupts routine use of mobile phone.

Deciding factors � Deciding applications

Deciding factors are the 2^nd most important key in selecting your mobile phone for mbb. The more features you have, the more applications you can run with your mbb. Therefore, it is important to select as many factors as possible from the list below.

1. Wifi � VOIP calls and local connection thereby saving battery life
   
2. Global Positioning System (GPS) � Location based service
   
3. Internet Radio � Use of internet radio can save some battery life over conventional radio using antenna
   
4. Communication services � Support of emails, RSS, messaging services
   
5. Web browser � Use for browsing the web
   
6. Games � for leisure and in between work/study.
   

Optional factors � Desirable and good-to-have

Though are optional, they make the phone fun and complete.

1. Bluetooth � for transfer between phones
   
2. Video Camera � for video call
   
3. Memory card slot � for data storage
   
4. USB connection � for data transfer
   

Soft factors � personal preferences

1. Size and weight
   
2. Form factor (bar, flip, swivel or slide)
   
3. Colour
   
4. Touchscreen/QWERTY
   
5. MP3 ringtone
   

Lastly, I feel these features are of little significances � camera flash (drain battery life), infrared port (replace with Bluetooth), WAP (replace with standard html).

Generating the list

Apart of the clone and doubtful quality china-made phones, I run a list of my criteria above from HERE and below are the results:

Screening	Nokia	Sony Ericsson	HTC	Samsung	LG	O2	Apple	BlackBerry	Total
Fixed	20	34	15	27	7	4	2	1	110
Deciding	13	6	15	9	1	3	2	1	50

Namely,

Nokia: 5730 XpressMusic, 5800 XpressMusic, 6260 Slide, 6710 Navigator, E55, E71, E72, E90, N78, N79, N85, N86, N97

Sony Ericsson: Aino, C905, G705, W715, W995, XPERIA X1

HTC: Advantage X7500, Advantage X7510, Dream, Hero, Magic, P6500, S740, Touch Cruise, Touch Cruise 09, Touch Diamond2, Touch 3G, Touch HD, Touch Pro, Touch Pro2, TyTN II

Samsung: G810, i550, i7110, i780, i8510 INNOV8, i8910 Omnia HD, i900 Omnia, i907 Epix, S8000 Jet

LG: KM900 Arena

O2: XDA Orbit II, XDA Serra, XDA Stellar

Apple: iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS

BlueBerry: Bold 9000

From the above table, we can see that manufacturers made mobile phones but compromise on key features such as GPS and Wifi capabilities. Only 45.5% of the phones are qualified for our next round of review. A total of 50 mobiles phones qualified for mbb plan. Note that some of these may not be available in Singapore.

Narrowing the choices

The key to find the right phone likes in how much you are willing to pay for it. Older models are cheaper when new models are launched in the market. Out of these 50 sets, 4 are new models (Nokia E72, E55, 6710 Navigator and SE Aino) which have yet to be launched.

After considering the optional and soft factors, you will zoom in to a handful of models. For instance, if you further set below criteria:

1. Standby time - 400 hrs
   
2. With radio
   
3. Minimum 2.2 inch touchscreen
   
4. Form factor - slide
   

The final choices are Nokia N97, SE XPERIA X1, HTC Touch Pro or O2 XDA Serra. Happy shopping!

article About Singapore�s BEST 3.5G broadband for mobile phone Plan (Jul 09) - (all-vga-corner)

Time flies and prices just got cheaper and we are talking about 3.5G plan with more 3.5G phones readily available in the market.

Again, the conditions for comparison must be stated before we proceed further:

1. We aim to identify the BEST VALUE plan - broadband for mobile phone (not mobile device or notebook).
   
2. Monthly data transfer is UNLIMITED. Those plan not included in this review are purely rip off plans to slaughter so-called causal or low-end users.
   
3. Typical broadband mobile access speed of 3G and 3.5G phone are limited to 384 kbps and 3 Mbps (max) respectively.
   
4. The minimum download speed is fixed at 2Mbps to optimize the capability of 3.5G mobile phone.
   
5. Plan must support data and voice in the SAME sim card.
   
6. We are focusing on ONE (1) SIM card for voice and data to explore the full functionalities of 3G/3.5G mobile phone.
   

Someone mentioned that my table is too complicated to compare. So I have broken them into stages for your easy viewing.

STAGE 1 - 100 minutes free incoming plans

Let's look at what is available for mobile broadband + voice (both data and voice) for 100min free incoming plan. This target segment consists of low-end voice users.

Telco	Singtel	Starhub	M1		Singtel
100min plan	iOne Plus	Powervalue 100	Sun Saver		3G Flexilite
Free minutes	100	100	100		100
Basic charge	25.68	25.68	25.68		39.00
Unlimited data plan	37.00#	38.72	27.10		500MB^
100 min	62.68	64.40	52.78		39.00
150 min	70.46*	72.43	60.81		46.78
200 min	78.23*	80.45	68.83		54.55

*Singtel charges excess minute at S$0.204 (peak) and S$0.107 (off peak). For simplicity, we take the average at S$0.1555.

#Singtel offers 50GB limit for mobile bb plan. We presume there will not be any excess usage above the limit.

^This new plan is included for comparison but 500MB can easily be exceeded in view of the heavy traffic that the current applications are running.

On first look, there seems to be a conspiracy between the 3 telcos offering similar plan at the magic number of S$25.68. However, due to the cheaper mobile broadband (bb) rate offered, M1 becomes the best plan in our first stage selection for unlimited data use.

STAGE 2 � 300 minutes free incoming plans

For the mid-end users for voice, we compare more plans offered by the telcos.

Telco	Singtel	Starhub	M1
300min plan	iTwo Plus	Powervalue 300	Sun Saver Plus
Basic charge	48.15	48.15	48.15
Unlimited data plan	37.00#	38.72	27.10
300 min	85.15	86.87	75.25
500 min	116.25*	118.97	107.35
700 min	147.35*	151.07	139.45

#Singtel offers 50GB limit for mobile bb plan. We presume there will not be any excess usage above the limit.

Again, M1 offers the BEST value plan for Stage 2. For high-end users, you can see that it is also M1 who offered the best since it has the lowest mobile bb charges.

STAGE 3 � Other mobile broadband plans

Singtel has introduced new new plans to capture bb market. But are they worth the money? Definitely not, the plans launched are not competitive with M1 V2Mbps plan.

Telco	Singtel	Singtel	Singtel	M1
Plans	3G Flexi	3G Flexi Plus	Plus	V2Mbps
Free minutes	200	500	300	0
Basic charge	48.15	95.00	48.15	27.10
Data limit	50 GB	50 GB	1GB	Unlimited
100 min				35.10
200 min	56			43.10
300 min	70.10		62.08	51.10
500 min	101.20*	95.00*	93.18*	67.10
700 min	132.30*	188.30*	124.28*	83.10

STAGE 4 � Evaluation

In this evaluation stage, we take the best plans from the above and combine them into this table. They are all benchmarked against only 1 plan (M1 V2Mbps).

Free minutes	Telco	Plan	Data (GB)	Charges (S$)	Saving over the 2nd best plan
100	M1	Sun Saver	Unlimited	52.78
	Singtel	3G FlexiLite	0.5	39.00
	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	35.10	50.37%
200	Singtel	3G Flexi	50	56
	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	43.10	29.93%
300	M1	Sun Saver Plus	Unlimited	75.25
	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	51.10	47.26%
500	Singtel	3G Flexi Plus	50	95.00
	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	67.10	41.58%
700	Singtel	iTwo Plus	1	96.86
	M1	V2Mbps	Unlimited	83.10	16.56%

It is no surprise that M1 V2Mbps stands out as the clear winner in all categories from 100 to 700 min free incoming calls. Where is STARHUB in the final comparisons? No idea. They are totally not in the bb league.

STAGE 4 � Conclusions

Since M1 V2 plan beats all categories, is there any catch? Yes, there are. We list them below for your reference and consideration:

1. Why we are not including V4Mbps or V7.2Mbps? The answer is obvious. Most of the 3.5G mobile phones have a maximum download speed of only 3.6Mbps. So V2Mbps is the optimal plan in this selection.
   
2. SMS uses are not factored into our discussion. My question to you is - Why use SMS when you have MSN?
   
3. M1 V2 plan is a per minute billing and not per second billing.
   
4. There is no discount on 3.5G mobile phone as compared to regular sign-up for new mobile plan. A brand new 3.5G mobile phone may cost S$450 - S$1300. Do not get a 3G phone for mobile bb plan because the maximum download speed is limited to 0.384Mbps (for example Nokia E63).
   

Despite its shortcomings, we still consider M1 V2Mbps plan to be the BEST valued 3.5G mobile bb plan for a 3.5G mobile phone. So after selecting the plan, what 3.5G phone should be purchased and what are the applications to tap the full capabilities of the bb plan? We shall discuss next time.

References

• Singtel (voice)
  
• Singtel (mobile bb)
  
• Starhub (voice)
  
• Starhub (mobile bb)
  
• M1 (voice)
  
• M1 (mobile bb)