P1: 1st WiMax operator to hit Malaysia Northern region

If you travel to Alor Star these few weeks you will notice there is something really new to us. P1 Wimax banner and streamer are all over the city. Is it another hypermarket? Or is it another tech fair? No. It's the latest technology that hit our country. P1 pioneer WiMax operator has just broaden their coverage area to Alor Star & Sungai Petani, Kedah.

What is WiMax?
WiMAX, meaning 'Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access', is a telecommunications technology that provides wireless transmission of data using a variety of transmission modes, from point-to-point links to portable internet access. The technology provides up to 75 Mb/s symmetric broadband speed without the need for cables. The technology is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard (also called Broadband Wireless Access). The name "WiMAX" was created by the WiMAX Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the standard. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL".

WiMAX is a term coined to describe standard, interoperable implementations of IEEE 802.16 wireless networks, similar to the way the term Wi-Fi is used for interoperable implementations of the IEEE 802.11 Wireless LAN standard. However, WiMAX is very different from Wi-Fi in the way it works.

How does it works?

We can say that WiMax is something like Wi-Fi, but WiMax at higher connection speed and also cover more nearly 50km radius from its base station.

Below are the flow of how it works

1: From the operator to the base stations

2:The modem,

3: All connection flow

How fast is this connection?

This is what we can expect from WiMax. I hope by mid 2009, Perlis will be in the coverage area. A few more operator will join in soon. This will make the internet segment in Malaysia will flourished. So, there will be no more single player.

What are the packages that P1 offers us?

Well, sadly enough it will not be available soon for us in Perlis. But below are the shots of package that I manage to grab from P1 homepage.

Standard package for home user:
Standard package for business user:

The hot package for now, special offer for home user:

Utara Hati is looking foward to be one of P1 Authorised Reseller.

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Xperia X1: SE's 1st try with Windows, iPhone rival?

When it was announced many months ago, the Sony Xperia X1 looked like Windows Mobile’s answer to the Apple iPhone, with its cool-looking animated custom screens and icons. What got everyone to sit up and listen was a promotional video that Sony Ericsson uploaded online. The video showed an incredibly fancy interface, with icons that zoom in and out and flip around — in essence, the promise of a flashy interface over the normally staid Windows Mobile menus. So now that it’s here, does it fulfil Sony Ericsson’s promise of a better smartphone?
Before we get to the nitty-gritty, we will take a look at just what you expected to get after paying for the Xperia X1.

Apart from the handset itself, you get a charger, a pair of headphones with built-in microphone and, of course, the usual plethora of manuals, setup CD and quick start guides.
The X1 charges via its USB miniport and the bundled sync cable actually plugs into the AC adaptor to charge the device. Of course, you can also charge when the X1 is synchronising with the PC so you don’t really need to plug the device into the AC adaptor if you sync with your PC a few times a day and keep the power topped up.
The X1 itself feels quite good in the hands — it’s not the thinnest nor smallest ­smartphone around, but it’s narrow enough that it fits in the hand nicely.
On the front, the phone has the usual Windows Mobile buttons arranged in a sort of double-X pattern on either side of the ­ directional pad.
Here the X1 reveals the first of its hidden secrets — while the directional pad functions as you would expect, where you navigate by pressing the up, down, left, right and centre buttons, it actually functions like a notebook’s touchpad as well, allowing you to scroll by just running your finger along the surface.
While it is pretty cool to do this, there’s really not much difference between using this method to scroll compared with using the directional pad.
Turn on the X1 and you’ll be presented with a gorgeous screen — the display is a ­really high-resolution 800 x 480pixel screen, one of the highest currently available on any smartphone. Thanks to its high-resolution and relatively small size, the screen looks silky smooth with pixels that are really invisible to the naked eye — I can’t stress just how nice the X1’s screen is.
The same can’t be said for the X1’s slide out keyboard, as the keys on the Qwerty keyboard are just too flat and shaped wrong to type with the ball of your thumb or with the fingernail without hitting the keys next to the one you want.
I have said it before and I’ll say it again the Windows Mobile interface seriously needs a makeover. Like HTC’s Touch series, the Xperia X1 has a go at changing the staid Windows Mobile menus with its own flashier interface.
For a start, the X1 mimics the iPhone’s “flick-to-scroll” feature and allows you to scroll through the entire interface by just flicking your finger on the screen. On top of that, Sony Ericsson has included a few applications of its own including a replacement Today screen with a large analogue clock on the front and shortcuts to the messaging application and wireless settings.
There’s also a flashy X Panel application that gives you a list of animated shortcuts to a number of applications, including the custom Xperia Today screen, the built-in radio and the multimedia player, amongst others. However, while it certainly looks cool, the X Panel is of limited practical use — for one thing, it only allows you to add shortcuts to only a limited number of applications instead of letting you add a shortcut to any program you want. For another, all the flashy animation (giving you either a tiled view or a an animated fan view) slows down the machine and doesn’t actually make accessing your programs any faster.
Beyond that, the X1 doesn’t go far enough to get you away from the Windows Mobile interface and you will still have to resort to the clunky Windows Mobile messaging ­ application for all your e-mail and SMS/MMS needs.
While it’s not bad, for example Windows Mobile 6.1 adds a threaded SMS interface, it still requires a lot of navigating in menus to send a message.
The software bundle that comes flashed into the ROM include Google Maps that works together with the built-in GPS in the X1 and best of all, the very latest Opera 9.5 browser for Windows Mobile. Opera 9.5 is a very solid browser and much better, smoother and faster than Internet Explorer Mobile, allowing you to view ­webpages and zoom in and out of columns much like Safari does on the iPhone.
Oh yes, while Office Mobile is common in all Windows Mobile smartphones now, the version that comes bundled with Windows Mobile 6.1 allows you to open and save ­ documents in Microsoft’s latest Office 2007.
As for games, Sony Ericsson has added a couple on top of the Windows Mobile’s default Bubble Breaker and Solitaire, namely Astraware’s Sudokuand Bejeweled 2 — nice, but strangely the games only work in ­landscape mode.
The 3.2-megapixel digital camera with autofocus produces pretty good photos especially when shooting in bright daylight.
Having the Sony brand name attached to this phone means that you get a music and media player that looks better than plain old Windows Media Player Mobile as well as a nice radio tuner application that works with the built-in FM tuner.
One thing I really liked is that the X1 comes with a regular 3.5mm stereo jack input so you can use third party earphones if you so desire, although the supplied earphones were good enough for me and comes with a built-in microphone for answering calls.
Battery life on the Xperia X1 is just average — you can get about a day and a half if you don’t use WiFi at all. If you do a little surfing via WiFi for an hour or two, however, expect to have to charge the X1 at the end of the day.
We also experienced a few problems with our review unit, as the X1 would crash a few times during the day, and the problems persisted even after we hard reset the device and started from scratch. To be fair, a little sticker on the side of the X1’s packaging indicated that the device is a “trial unit /prototype” so perhaps the stability problems were due to firmware that’s not fully baked yet.
Hopefully this will be fixed in the retail version.
In terms of size and shape, the Xperia X1 is really not bad at all.
Unfortunately, the thing that really lets down the X1 seems to be the Windows Mobile operating system itself, as Sony Ericsson just doesn’t go far enough with its customisations to minimise the problems with the operating system.
My verdict? The hardware is nice, but for the price, Sony Ericsson really needs to look at where HTC is now with its latest Touch ­handhelds and really bring the X1 up to speed both in terms of performance and cost.
Pros: Nice design; fits well in the hand; beautiful high-resolution screen.
Cons: Interface still needs work; stability issues; thumb keyboard too flat and closely spaced.

Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 Specifications :

Operating System: Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional
Camera: 3.2-megapixels with autofocus
Display: 3in (800 x 480pixels)
Messaging: MMS, SMS, e-mail, instant messaging
Connectivity: WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0, HSDPA
Phone memory: 512MB ROM (400MB available for storage), 256MB RAM
Expansion slot: MicroSD
Battery type: Li-ion 1500mAh
Standby/talk time: 833/10 hours
Other features: FM radio, Windows Media Player, Microsoft Office Mobile, GPS, Java applications
Weight: 145g
Dimensions (w x d x h):11.0 x 5.3 x 1.7cm

Review courtersy of Hardware Tech Review

SonyEricsson Xperia X1 also available at all Utara Hati outlet. Price is subjected to promotion. Please ask our sales assistants for best price.

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LG Revealed Touch phone: LG KP500 Cookie

We just received word that the affordable touch handset LG KP500 is getting a pet-name - the LG Cookie. Despite the perky name, the latest LG handset offers a modern feature set that seems pretty enough.

You can easily spot the family relation to the LG Renoir in the design of the LG KP500 Cookie. The Cookie uses the latest reincarnation of the proprietary LG Flash-based UI, which now is even more interactive and user-friendly. The interface is still thumb-optimized, but a stylus tucked in the body also assists handwriting recognition. The built-in accelerometer of the LG Cookie allows for even more fun - it adds a physical dimension to the gaming experience, there is auto screen rotation for images, video and documents and finally, there’s the landscape onscreen QWERTY keypad.

The other fun stuff to use your accelerometer for is aligning your home screen widgest - just shake the phone and you’re done.

The LG KP500 Cookie is only 11.9mm thick, which presumably makes it the thinnest phone around with a tucked in stylus. The LG Cookie sports a 3-inch TFT touchscreen display and a 3 megapixel fixed focus camera. It doesn’t have 3G support, but you have EDGE and quad-band GSM at your disposal. The other new thing we just found out about the LG Cookie is that the video recording won’t be as exciting as that of some other LG cameraphones. Here you’ll have only QVGA video at 12fps. Video playback is not stunning either - the LG Cookie won’t support DivX or XviD - instead you’d have to do with only MPEG4 video at 24fps (up to 240 x 400 pixel resolution). Nevertheless, the LG KP500 is indeed going to have a really attractive price point as promised. We duly expect this baby in our office for a review spin.
Full Touch Screen Handsets are No Longer Untouchable LG Electronics (LG), a worldwide technology and design leader in mobile communications, announces the launch of LG KP500 with an affordable introduction price never offered before. This attractively-priced full touch screen handset is complete with the latest touch technology and features found in the existing high-end full touch screen handsets currently available on the market. “The feedback we receive from consumers around the world indicate that there’s more people who wish to try the latest touch screen phones,” said Dr. Skott Ahn, President and CEO of LG Electronics Mobile Communications Company. “We want to reach out to this group and LG KP500 is our answer to deliver a high quality full touch screen phone that is easy to use and much easier to afford. Within reach of many consumers, we hope that more people will experience the joy of using the latest touch screen technology with LG KP500.”

Since the first full touch screen phone, the PRADA Phone by LG arrived on the market, LG has been advancing touch screen technology in new models of phones that suit different consumer needs such as the LG Viewty, the top-selling 5 mega-pixel camera phone with full touch screen providing a complete new viewing enjoyment. With continuous advances in touch screen technology, the LG KP500 has LG’s latest precision refinements for when the human touch meets the vivid digital screen. From LG’s experience in producing stylish and sophisticated handsets, the LG KP500 also receives the same attention to the finer details. Slim-profiled and lightweight, the LG KP500 comes in black, Vandyke brown, Anodizing silver, and Elegant gold, giving consumers more choices for their personal tastes. As a slim and stylish handset, the LG KP500 is a GSM phone which can operate in four frequency bands, giving it a far-reaching reception range, and upon its global release, the LG KP500 can be used in 39 languages. But no matter what language one speaks, the vivid and intuitive user interface of the LG KP500 is simple for anyone to understand with vivid icons on the wide 3 inch screen. Keeping in touch with friends has never been easier as the LG KP500 has the latest UI that allows the user to attach a friend’s photo for the speed dial feature and then page through the portraits and touch the friend to be called. "We optimized the user interface to keep the tactile operations smooth and simple which is necessary when you’re opening up a new technology to a wide group of people," said Skott Ahn. With such ease of use, LG expects to broaden the base of touch screen handset consumers around the world. The LG KP500 has an embedded stylus pen concealed in the base that can be easily removed for the advanced handwriting recognition program that allows the user to write memos and text messages, and also edit photo images by touching the screen with the pen tip. The QWERTY onscreen keyboard slides into view when the LG-KP500 is held horizontally, and the auto rotating display always shifts images or documents for proper viewing no matter which way the handset is turned. Also packed into the LG KP500 are motion sensor games that are played by turning, flipping, and shifting the handset for a more active and fun gaming experience. The LG KP500 will be available at the end of October 2008 in Europe and then on to the rest of the world. The price of the LG KP500 will be announced during the launch.

Review courtersy of GSM-Arena & Arvindgaba.com

LG KP500 Cookie also available at all Utara Hati outlet. Price is subjected to promotion. Please ask our sales assistants for best price.

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