Vinko's Thoughts On... - Latest Comments

Re: Apple’s New iMac Hidden Feature Plus More!

StephenPickering — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 06:32:54 -0000

Are those i5 and i7s the Nehalem Architecture from Intel? I think @leolaporte mentioned its worth waiting for those. I guess they'll be out next month. Wow, the display looks fantastic, but alas, I just got my iMac a year and a half ago, so my next Apple purchase will have to be a MacBook Pro. Great article, great summary. The video on the Apple site is tantalizing too.

Re: Smartone-Vodafone HSDPA Network Test Results

vlcchan — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 16:34:59 -0000

anyone with CSL mobile network? it would be nice to also compare CSL with smartone and 3

Re: Smartone-Vodafone & iPhone in Hong Kong

vinko — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 02:01:42 -0000

That post of mine you commented on is when I was still using firmware 3.0. Although the revised hack for firmware 3.1 is suppose to be available very soon. Stay tuned here on my blog for more details when it becomes available.

Re: Smartone-Vodafone & iPhone in Hong Kong

TY — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 01:42:03 -0000

How do you get Tethering without jail breaking on the firmware 3.1? I'm on an official unlocked Apple-store HK iPhone.

Re: Movie Review: 500 Days of Summer

vinko — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:04:19 -0000

Glad you like the movie and particularly happy that you share your opinions here.

BTW: it was Saturday that I watched the movie, but my system published the post on Sunday. Sorry for the confusion

Re: Movie Review: 500 Days of Summer

twitter-15277451 — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 12:41:20 -0000

Such a coincidence that went this afternoon to watch the movie in the same location like you. It was quite entertaining and as you mentioned the music match good with the movie, some parts seemed a bit slow but with good sense of humor and laughs.

A good way to enjoy the rainy sunday afternoon of today :)

Re: Smartone-Vodafone HSDPA Network Speed Tested

Birdie Golf — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:33:50 -0000

switched to Smartone using 3GS and find that downloading email attachments and sending emails are much faster. The latter used to take a long time on 3. As you pointed out, Smartone seems to be more stable, whereas 3 was kind of hit and miss. Even though SpeedTest figures were somewhat similar with two networks - around 2.5Mbps.

Re: First Impression of HTC Hero

vinko — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:17:43 -0000

Really appreciate your real user experience. I hope you will return to share more.

I too agree that the HTC Sense UI is a very good layer above Android from the little amount of time I've spent on it. I also agree that the Android Marketplace will get better.

Re: First Impression of HTC Hero

twitter-15277451 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:04:04 -0000

I got the Hero about 2 weeks ago and til now I cannot regret about my decission. I was between 3G S, Hero and other device, but quite happy how it works the interface and the market, not comparable to Apple Store, but sure will grow in the next months :)

Re: Movie Review: Overheard《竊聽風雲》

vinko — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 11:28:13 -0000

Would love to hear your detailed opinions in the form of comments to this post.

Re: Movie Review: Overheard《竊聽風雲》

Eric Wu — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 09:56:23 -0000

This movie was the best Hong Kong movie I have seen in years. Absolutely awesome!

Re: iPhone 3G S in Hong Kong

vinko — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:29:33 -0000

Yes, as long as you purchase the iPhone 3GS from an Authorized Apple Reseller.

Note that there are many telephone stores in Hong Kong selling non-HK versions, those are not "officially unlocked" by Apple.

Re: iPhone 3G S in Hong Kong

nona — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 03:26:03 -0000

is iphone really offically unlocked if i buy iphone 3gs from hongkong from apple online store???

Re: iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared

vinko — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:14:15 -0000

Yes, I had been speaking to Smartone-Vodafone's Lam Pink, the past several days. He also told me that their technical team claims that "network maintenances" were being performed at each of the locations and at the times I was doing my test.

I had express my concerns with this explanation from their technical teams. As you had said, performing maintenance at one location may be believed but al 3 different locations at many different days and time is very hard to believe. Unless they are referring to their main or proxy services.

In either case, they want to perform the same tests I did at the three locations, I agree to do so. Although, I did tell him that if they want to do comparison test with an iPhone on the 3 HK network, they will have to contact you also.

Re: Review: Hong Kong Weather on iPhone

vinko — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 07:08:48 -0000

Thanks for the referral, I will give iWeather HK a try.

Re: iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared

Stephen — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 04:39:31 -0000

Well I got a call from Smartone-Vodafone today and they explained to me that at the time of testing, there was maintenance going on with their network at Cityplaza where the test was performed. I was a little sceptical of this response, but I did go and test with my colleague again and it seems that the speed of our phones is now Smartone better or similar to his 3HK phone.

I do feel that browsing in other areas of HK has improved so I hope this means that with the influx of people using their unlimited data plans, they have upgraded their internet browsing network. For the moment, I am happy with the network performance.

Re: Review: Hong Kong Weather on iPhone

Phate — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 02:16:04 -0000

You might also want to have alook at I-weather HK which is also available for free.

Re: iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared

Ken — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:42:01 -0000

Here are the websites I used, and another app I downloaded called Xtremelas Speedtest.
www.mobilespeedtest.com
m.mobilemultimedia.be
As you can guess, I'm not very technical

Re: iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared

vinko — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:22:45 -0000

A consistent web site to test is a local (HK) web site that neither belongs to 3 HK or Smartone-Vodafone. Something that reasonable amount of graphics, Javascript and HTML. For that I would suggest CathayPacific.com

Ken, how are you determining the downlink speed? I presume you are referring to the downlink speed.

Re: iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared

Ken — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 10:12:34 -0000

is there a good "internet test" website? I've used 3 different sites to test smartone's hspda speed on my htc hero and i'm getting 0.5Mbps to 3+Mbps depending on the website. I do notice that webpage loading seems slower on my hero compared to my friend's iphone on 3.

I got the 3+Mbps at HK Int'l airport.

Re: iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared

vinko — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:45:34 -0000

I received a note from SMV today. It said that their "Engineering team is investigating the data..." I had provided them from SpeedTest iPhone application.

They will be contacting me directly when they have finished their investigations.

This is the type of customer service ones should expect from any service oriented companies. Many other companies would have state that the company did not have the same results as we had and simply dismissed our findings as invalid.

For this I compliment Smartone-Vodafone for their continue desire to deliver the best possible service to its customers.

Re: Smartone-Vodafone Unlimited Plan for iPhone

vinko — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:19:54 -0000

Indeed a good analysis of what are offered from the various carriers in Hong Kong.

The speed of 3G network on all carriers have a downlink speed of 3.6 Mbps except for Smartone-Vodafone and PCCW. Although, both of these carriers are reserving the faster 7.2 Mbps downlink speed for their HSDPA USB Modem plans. At the moment very few mobile phones currently has the capabilities of supporting the faster 7.2 Mbps downlink speed.

Smartone-Vodafone claims that all locations where 3G coverage is available, their network is capable of up to 14.4 Mbps downlink speed.

Re: Smartone-Vodafone Unlimited Plan for iPhone

twitter-29655396 — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 04:54:20 -0000

You may find this useful, sets out the unlimited data plans around in HK: http://browngeek.blogspot.com/2009/09/which-is-...

Re: iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared

vinko — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 08:23:58 -0000

I had provided SMV the test results from SpeedTest on the iPhone for the months of June, July and August; including Geo-coordinates, time, dates, downlink, uplink and latency for each test. This was when I was still in Seoul. I had asked them to respond to those results and discuss the details on my return to HK.

So far I had not heard back from them.

Re: iPhones on Two Different 3G Networks Compared

Stephen — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 03:30:55 -0000

I received a call from SMV late last week and they said they are still looking into this for me. They asked me questions about whether both phones were on same firmware, jailbroken etc. They said they may want to come to my office in Tai Koo Shing to check it out - but honestly I don't want them to bother with this as I don't think it will result in anything.

Incidentally, although I haven't done another direct comparison, it seems that my browsing performance on SMV has improved in the last week. Anyone else experienced the same?