Last Updated: 13-02-2013 - Patch version 6.1



Just last week when Maxis announced that they would be releasing the new iPhone 5 (new by so-called Malaysian standards), I was ecstatic and I quickly signed up my interest on their website. What I didn't expect that the sign-up rate was so great (30,000 sign ups) that Maxis closed it down the following day.

When I was confirmed that I would be eligible to get the iPhone 5, I was quite happy to state that I would line up for the first time in my life to get the iPhone 5 on the launch night. This meant that I would need to start queuing up at night and await for the official launch at 12 midnight 15th December. I guess another excuse I wanted was to get interviewed by my friend Melissa who was a TV presenter at NTV7. Talk about ulterior motives.

The night arrived and I was extremely excited. I was definitely lacking sleep as I had to wake up early for an 8am teleconference call, run around KL for meetings and then finally back to PJ to collect my car from the service center. After taking a short nap from 8pm-9pm, I headed to CAPSQUARE and started queuing at 10pm. That was a bad idea because I was already greeted by hundreds of other people.



It was a good thing that Maxis gave out free donuts and apples as well as hot milo, white coffee and water to the folks queuing up. After queueing for about 2 hours, I managed to get my few seconds of fame on NTV7. After watching it, I think I sounded like a crazed geek (prior to my interview, they also interviewed the guy who was first in queue who had started lining up since 10am that day and it was also his birthday).



So to cut the long story short, it took me over 4 hours to queue up and get my phone and finally back at home into bed.

Now after having lived with the iPhone 5 for the past couple of days, here are some of the things I loved about it as well as the things that I hate about it.

Love:

• It's beautiful form factor


• How light the phone is (comparing with my current iPhone 4)


• How fast it is and how apps respond  so quickly


• The extra space on the screen (being able to see more icons on the 1st screen)

Hate:

• Battery life. In short, it sucks! Sucks battery juice that is. I have to charge it at least up to twice a day. Lots of complaints about it here at the Apple forums (here, here, here and here). With the iOS 6.1 update as well as trying out several tips such as deleting general settings and network settings, the battery life has improved but I still have to charge my iPhone twice a day (pre 6.1 I used to charge around 1pm and post 6.1, I usually charge around 4pm).


• Maps, still always an issue and I know Apple is in the midst of getting it fixed. Until they do, it still sucks.


• Having to use the new lightning connector (the cable is RM69 whilst the adapter is >RM100). Now I have two set of cables lying around and to carry around, one for my iPad and one for the iPhone.

There were some issues regarding the phone as well but it seemed more from a carrier perspective. Here are some of the issues that has been reported.

• Able to make calls but not able to receive them (Maxis issue which has now been resolved)


• Showing wrong data usage and data available for each user (affecting iValue 2 users)


• Losing 3G, Edge and GPRS signal and not recovering back from it again. Post iOS 6.1 patch, this issue seemed to have started up again. Several folks mentioned it was a Maxis problem but it does occur for other networks as well. A tip which I followed was to reset my iPhone's Network Settings and it did manage to resolve it. 

I will definitely update this post as I go along. At the time of writing, these love hate relationship points were based on the iPhone 5 running on iOS 6.0.1. There is a new patch that was just released but I haven't tried it out yet.

If you know of any other issues, do post it here in the comments section and I shall add it up.

Updates - 13-02-2013 (iOS 6.1)

• Battery life has improved a little bit (lasts around 2-3 hours longer)


• Dropping of 3G signal seem to have reappeared but now it doesn't happen anymore. Some people have reported that Maxis was upgrading their network hence the cause of it but I followed a tip which was to reset the phone's network settings and it did seem to work.

Updates - 21-12-2012 (iOS 6.0.2)

• Cases have been reported that the new patch does indeed drain the iPhone 5's battery life. Read in a couple of forums including the Apple Support forums and found that one of the solutions is to reset your phone settings, Settings>General>Reset> Reset All Settings


• This does not wipe out your media and data 


• Currently testing this method now and so far, after almost 2 hours, I have only used 6% of battery. This is with service locations on for certain apps, mails set to fetch, wifi and bluetooth on.

 

First of all I would like to wish everyone out there a fantastic happy new year. 2009 went by in a blaze for me and I really do look forward to 2010 because I want to put 2009 behind me and look forward to a brighter and better future ahead. I blogged about my new year resolutions and starting later today, I will be tackling them one at a time. I foresee 2010 to be a tough year where I will be facing a lot of changes and challenges but I am very determined not to live like how I lived 2009 and slowly change and improve.

In my post about Weng Jou and Yvonne's portrait shoot, I mentioned a little teaser at the end of the post. Well, its now the 1st of January 2010 and I would like to also announce the launch of Stories! Want to know what Stories is about?

It’s finally here! After weeks of hard work, we are launching Stories by Integricity Visuals. Most of you would know that the team at Stories originated from the brand Wedding Story. In 2009, our photography services at Wedding Story has grown by leaps and bounds. It is with much excitement that we announce to you a specialized boutique wedding & portrait photography service from Stories.

With this new launch, we are pleased to give away special treats to couples who are interested to make a booking for 2010. We will give away gifts worth up to RM1,500 for the first 5 couples who confirms a booking with us!

Call us for a consultation to find out more details. Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year!

That's right, I have been shooting together with Grace and the WeddingStory team and now I am pleased to announce the launch of Stories.

Thanks to Vincent, I was invited to be part of the launching of a new store at the Pavillion, Ted Baker. Ted Baker is a store which sells clothes catering mainly working adults, both male and female. From the crowd which attended the launch, I was sure that their range of female clothing were suited for women in the range of their thirties or so.

As much as I would like to not admit it, it was my first experience attending a store launch and from what Vincent told me, I was expecting a huge bash with loads of food, drinks, and of course people. Instead, when I arrived there with Vincent, this was what I encountered.


Hrmmm....nice sign

Well we were a little early and the "crowd" that I was expecting was most probably going to be fashionably late. The event meant to start at 7pm was only half full at around 7.30pm and by then I was busy munching away at the finger food served as people walked about the store and checked out what was on sale at that time (30%) discount!


Mind you, most of them are workers of the shop!

Anyway by the time the real event started, there were a few speeches by a few people whom I can't really remember their names but someone big from the Royal Sporting House (which brought the brand Ted Baker into Malaysia).



While everyone was busy mingling about, I had to make my way through plenty of photographers (mainly from magazines and a few newspapers) to take some photos of the surrounding area with my trusty IXUS 70 which did the job well enough for me.



Then there was the introduction by one of the Ted Baker representatives from the UK whom Vincent said had a very strong Manchunian accent (no, not from Manchuria but about 7000 miles west at Manchester). I figured out he would say that since is a lousy Man Utd fan.



At least I learned that the store was themed after Alice in Wonderland's tea party where you would see many different tea pots and cups ladened around the store with plastic cakes as decoration. It took me a while before I started understanding what she meant about the theme as I slowly explained to Vincent whom I think missed out on his childhood stories with stories about the great Man Utd instead.

After an hour of sipping wine and munching on some cucumber sandwiches, there was a street magician going about showing card tricks. To be frank, he was rather horrible and the mood was spoilt by his not-so-amazing performance.



By that time, most of the crowd were gone and I was wondering where would people go? I mean, there was free wine, free food, free snacks and a 30% store-wide discount on any items. Where could they be?

It seems that another store was having their launch as well.


There were more food, booze and drinks available and there were models. I even spied some of the people I saw at the Ted Baker shop squeezing their way forward to get close-up shots of the model.



But of course, if you had a long lens like these guys, you wouldn't need to fight your way forward. Looks like its Espirit 1, Ted Baker 0.