Lamy Safari is an entry level fountain pen and it is also the cheapest from this German Company.  The pen has a black chromium plated steel tip and the body was made of ABS (Acrylonitrile Butadiene Styrene) plastic.  In the middle of the body, there is a little window displaying the ink level and the pen cover has a gigantic clip.  At first glance, it is young, chic and colorful.  The pen screams our practicality rather than something that look nice on your pocket.  The pen comes in Blue, Black, Red, Yellow, Orange and recently in bright Pink as a special edition. 

The pen was very light, mainly because it was built of plastic.  I notice the light weight, but it did not bother me that much as I quickly adapted to it.  The pen comes with a pump calls the converter, well, it was actually a twisting pump.  After filling up the pen, I gave it a try on my notepad.  It was smooth and light to the touch.  I only had to touch the paper, and did not even need to put any pressure, and the pen sails smoothly across the paper. 

I take great pressure in using fountain pens on a daily basis, and take little care on them.  This is why I never purchase any expensive pens as I will either drop them or lost them.  I have lost one nice Shafer from my wife and have drop the last pen I use.  This is why I scout for entry range pens, because they are inexpensive and can be easily replaced without much heart ache.  One thing I have notice is that entry level pens are mostly poor in writing quality.  Mostly are scratchy, and a lot of them did not have in the tip size that I like, which is fine tip.  For some reason, most of the entry level pens that I see in the market are medium tip.  While scouting for a pen yesterday, I tested this Lamy Safari out comparing with others of similar range and price, and none of them came close, they were as I have said, scratchy and Lamy Safari was smooth.  I got it at a great price too, and extremely happy with it.  Now I can’t wait to put it go my daily abuse…

Checking out Maxis iPhone deal, I can’t help but felt turn off.  Instead of Maxis bundling the phone price into the rates and long term commitment, they pass the iphone cost to the consumer and they charge you a bom for your usage.  Lets look into the details.  All prices are in reference to 16Gb model.

Maxis iValue Plans

Commitment of RM100 a month for a year, and pay RM2290 for the phone. Or Pay RM375 a month for a year and pay RM1470.  Then, if you decide not to take the iValue plan, you can just take the 6 months commitment with a minimum of Value Plus 80 and take the phone home for RM2960.  If you break this 6 months commitment, you are only penalized RM100.  This means, the phone only cost RM3060.  And for RM100, you need to be tied to a minimum of Value Plus 80 for 6 months. 

Working along the same line, lets look back to the iValue Plans.  With a 12 month contract and monthly commitment of RM100, you pay RM2290 for the phone.  Which means maxis subsidize RM770 for this plan.  For this mere RM770 Maxis investment, they get to charge you RM0.30 per minute (to all network) and if you exceed 333 minutes, they will charge you RM0.15 per minute.  An existing Value Plus 50 only charge you RM0.10 on same network and RM0.18 to other network.  They get to make 60% more from your call charges.  Isn’t this a great deal for Maxis, and a horrible deal for the consumer. 

Now lets look at our neighbors Singapore and Thailand.  In Singapore, one can take the phone home for SGD 508 from Singtel with a monthly commitment of SBD56/Month.  With an exchange rate of 2.4 (conservative), that works out to be RM1219 to take the phone home and monthly commitment of RM134.  And if you take the premium, which is the most expensive package of SGD205/month, the phone is free.  This works out to be RM492 and the phone is free.  In Malaysia, you take the most expensive package of RM375/month and you still need to pay RM1470 for the phone for a one year contract and RM250 for a two years contract.

*Pst!, I heard can get unlock iphone in singapore for SGD1000, that’s RM2400.  Jailbreak ofcourse.  

In Thailand, you can take the phone home for 28,500 Baht without commitment, that’s about RM2925 (with today’s exchange rate from Google).   You can take the phone home for 27,075 Baht with 599 Baht monthly commitment for a year or 1,599Baht (RM164) for 24months and you can get the phone home for free. 

In Malaysia, one can take home a free iPhone, but with RM 375 commitment for two years and only the 8Gb model.  In Thailand a 2 year contract with commitment of RM164, you can get a 16Gb home and in Singapore with RM492 2 year contract. 

Thailand has the best deal in terms of iPhone cost, but the call charges may differ. 

This is why I am not jumping to get iPhone from Maxis just yet.  I am currently on Value Plus 50, and for me to get the phone, I need to change to iValue RM100 to take the phone home for RM2290.  RM50 more a month, and in a years time, that is RM600, so the phone to me is RM2890 (without the premium call charges with iValue plans, note the call charges is RM0.30/minute for first 333minutes to all network vs Value Plus 50 RM0.10/minute to Maxis and RM0.18/minute to other networks).  Or, I upgrade to Value Plus 80 for 6 months and get the phone for RM2960.  Which means I pay RM30 more every month for 6 months and that total up to RM3140 (RM2960 + RM180). 

Apple is rumor to announce new models in June/July this year.  A 32Gb maybe? And maybe this time, iPhone with MMS, one of the most basic phone feature this expensive brick does not have. 

*Prices are true during time of posting.

One of the most formidable rule of shopping is not to settle on the first price you see.  I was looking for a skin for my iPhone, and was browsing at one of the IT mall at Hua Qiang Bei.  As I was going up the escalator on the first floor, I spotted the item I wanted, it was RMB 35 for one, with a simple question,’can it be cheaper’, the price drop to RMB 30.  It was a little more than what I was willing to pay for a piece of rubber.  So I soldiered on to the 4th floor and came across another shop, with many more color choices and the price was RMB 15.  With much haggling, the price remained the same.  So I bought two, for the price that I would pay to get one on the first floor.  This is why, never settle for the first price you see.  You never, know, it might be much cheaper just a few floors up.  Oh, by the way, pink is for my wife, so don’t get any funny ideas.

Yes, you got it right, I bought this glamour phone for just a little over four hundred ringgit.  I bought it over at Hua Qiang Bei in Shenzhen and it got one year warranty.  I was amaze by the feature this little gadget pack and how it looks and works.  The photo viewing works fine with pinching zooming capability.  The music player goes to album view when the phone is tilted.  This is something that other models could not do.  The cheapest I’ve seen starts at RM3xx and all the way to this model RM4xx.  I found out on the web that this phone’s name was CiPhone and it was a fake that gets as close to the real thing as possible.  Just search for CiPhone at youtube and you can see a wealth of video about this phone.

Out of the box, the device came with a sleve, earphones, charger, usb cable and a user manual.  All looks like the real thing.  You can check out a video I made unpacking this thing.  There are so many “iPhone” models over at Hua Qiang Bei, All the model except this one supports dual sim card and they comes with two batteries.  However they are much thicker and the dimension are much bigger.  But they have much more functions, some could even change song when shake, like the sony handphones when it first introduced. 

There are a couple of things that might turn you off, first there seams to be a lag on this phone, you will notice it on my video.  Secondly, the phone battery indicator can go up and down, especially if we let the phone hibernate, the next time the phone wakes up, you will notice the battery indicator shifts up a little.  This phone only supports single sim card, while other models support dual cards. Lastly, there seams to be a problem with the phone where after some time, the music player would reset the phone whenever I click on the music player icon.  The shop guy first says it was virus, then he said the mp3 format not compatible, which is all loads of BS.  Somehow the Chinese Songs that came with the phone seams to be fine.  So there goes, want perfect working beautiful iPhone, stay away from fakes.  if you dont mind this, then, it is a cheap glamour phone for you. 

I have been in the company for almost 3 weeks now, and I have not seen a single techqie yet. I have seen quite a lot of fasionable people, but none that are hung up on gadgets nor computers. I was working with one of the manufacturing expert asking her if she has found the thumb scanner next to the laptop screen useful? And her response was like, eh, what’s that thing? When I explain what it was, I can see the amazement on her eyes that her 1 year old laptop has this feature. I have also notice that 50% of the population uses WinXP default theme and color scheme, and 50% of the population uses the windows classic look. I was surprise that they know how to use the window classic to speed up their computer. I was in a discussion with one of the program manager and I commented him on how smart he is to use windows classic to speed up the laptop. He noted that he was thought to do it by someone, but didn’t know the purpose. Anyway, his laptop was only a little over a year old, and didn’t need the speed boost anyway. Everyone seams to use the computer for its intention and none did any personalization. None has any sticker on their laptop as well. How boring. Well, this is going to change. I will be the first to have stickers and the minute I get my new laptop, I will pimp it up with OSx theme. Lets see if I manage to get some heads turn and poison them to modify the desktop like I did with my previous company.