Which one is the fairest one of them all? If you want video and iPod then today is your day. Apple’s iPod Touch is available today in Hong Kong. At the Hong Kong Apple Store – the 8GB model is HK$2400 and the 16GB model is HK$3200. They are saying they deliver in 8-10 days so you might want to try retailers like Fortress or head over to the Windsor House Computer Mall or check this list of authorized Apple resellers in Hong Kong.
It’s hard to argue that there isn’t beauty in simplicity, especially when it comes to consumer electronics. But there’s such thing as too simple — and sometimes too simple can turn into crippled. Most of our complaints about the touch have to do with what it lacks — not in general, but when compared its big brother, the iPhone. Had the iPod touch come out first, the lack of a hardware volume switch, integrated speaker, and all those apps might have been perfectly passable, but now the expectations have been set, and we can’t see how taking things away from users can possibly add value. Everyone in this industry is trying to give their customers more, but with the iPod touch Apple gave its customers less in what should have been the best iPhone alternative on the market. This time around, in Apple’s obsession to edit, they managed to leave some of the best stuff on the cutting room floor.
That’s great but that doesn’t help us in Hong Kong who want a legit iPhone.
We made a few calls this morning to various shops and some have already sold out, some are waiting for more stock and some are already charging above the Apple Shop Hong Kong price. So good luck finding one this long weekend.
The first act of 1408 was great and really set up a great, spooky concept – a haunted house book writer goes to refute the claims of Room 1408 (with no 13th floor marked in the elevator, this is essential 1308) in a New York City hotel of being haunted. Everyone who has ever stayed in this room has died since the hotel’s inception. The hotel manager played by Sam Jackson really adds to this Shining-like premise and we were hoping for a semi-return to the Overlook Hotel.
Didn’t happen.
What happens after John Cusack closes the door to room 1408, starts great but then twirls into the “typical” scary movie idea. When the technicolor ghosts showed up re-enacting their suicides we were already thrown out of the movie.
Unfortunately, its hard to review a scary movie without giving away too much of the plot while telling you what’s wrong with it. So we’ll just have to stick to the C+ review that we are giving it, as something fun to watch if you are by yourself at home this Hallowe’en but definitely nothing new in the haunted hotel genre, but might be fun to watch with a very vocal and paranoid audience.
Even with attendance down, that’s not a photo of Hong Kong Disneyland on a typical Friday night above. It’s already that time of year again, Hong Kong Disneyland is getting into the Hallowe’en action right now to scare you from now till October 31st, with new attractions like Main Street Haunted Hotel, Glow in the Park Parade and what they call “hordes of sinister characters” which I guess means Jack Skellington and maybe a really mad-looking Mickey Mouse.
Go from 6:30-11pm and tickets are only HK$198 per head. Check out more information here.
But the real scary Disney stuff is having Pluto chase you or your kid down Main Street like in the video below (oh, you know this post was done just to segue into this video):
CSL Steps into the mobile broadband ring with their much publicized launch of the exclusive-to-them HTC TyTN II phone which gives users 3.6 Mbps speed on Windows Mobile in Hong Kong.
Their ad campaign isn’t too alluring though as they tell you the 7 things you can do with the phone – like edit spreadsheets on the MTR and get stock quotes while you wait for a meeting. Sounds like they are selling this to your BOSS and you’ll get stuck with it.
But the deal is pretty standard now unless you love the phone: HK$2980, if you buy it with your Hang Seng Credit card – otherwise its $3680 if you sign up for the unlimited transfer package at $538 a month. So that is pretty much in line with every other service in Hong Kong. We still believe that early next year the data fee plans will drop in price to entice more people outside of the early adopters and the business people to get on board. Watch this video that outlines what you should know already about mobile broadband.
As for the HTC TyTN II, it sounds like its the real deal for business users:
The HTC TyTN II is probably one of the most anticipated Windows Mobile devices to ever be released. Does it live up to the hype? In short — yes! Talk about a tech lover’s dream, this thing has everything. From a quad-band EDGE/tri-band UMTS/HSDPA radio, to integrated GPS, 3 megapixel camera with auto-focus, 400MHz processor, full QWERTY keyboard, tilting slide out screen, Bluetooth, WiFi; the list goes on and on. In our opinion, this Windows Mobile device is a masterpiece. It’s comfortable to use and hold, extremely fast, and offers as much as we could want and have come to expect in a WinMo device at this time.
See the great photos of the unboxing of this phone here.
Today is the Mid-Autumn Festival holiday, so alot of people have already fled Hong Kong this week. And good for them – how is it that we have a typhoon coming at the end of September?
Master Chief arrives in Hong Kong and thousands call in sick.
We hate to ask our readers if they have been living under a rock for the past month, but you must have at least been lost in Cheung Chau if you didn’t already know that the highly-anticipated HALO 3 is on XBOX 360 today. Lucky tomorrow is a holiday.
From this day till the end of the year, Microsoft’s XBOX 360 game line-up is at the top of its “game” – and will no doubt steal away tons of market share from Nintendo and Sony as the big Christmas slaughter has begun. If you colleagues don’t make it into work over the next week or so you’ll know where they are.
Authorities in the UK they expect this game to create more havoc than Harry Potter.
The storyline itself is very good, although it definitely helps to know what happened in the first two games. That said, the game’s very accessible and spells out what’s going on just enough to make it entertaining for even casual fans. The writers did an excellent job weaving together the story elements into a cohesive whole, expertly blending action, adventure, horror, humor, and even romance to make this an engaging experience. The single-player campaign will likely give you just about everything you could want from the last chapter in a trilogy, though we have to admit its hard not to want more.
This game kicks off a slew of awesome games for the Xbox coming out, if you are contemplating to see which system to buy yourself/kid/nephew/boyfriend/ninja then, we think you are pretty safe on getting the 360 at Toys R Us right now for HK$3299 for the Halo 3 stylized model.
In other video game news, the Tokyo Game Show completed on Sunday and you won’t have far to go to see information on that show like here. But if you want a video snippet watch what our friends at AkihabaraNews have thrown together:
Tickets are only HK$70-$80 each so get online and book it now. This is the second blockbuster to play here since IMAX opened with Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix which has been playing sold out shows since it opened in July. Since it’s been so delayed to play here in Hong Kong, and its such a limited run, does that mean we’ll get the IMAX Transformers as well? We’ll keep you updated.
Loading ...
