PS3 Officially Launches in Malaysia, on Sept 20th.

Its finally here, Sony Malaysia have announced that PS3 will be officially sold in Malaysia. It will be launched 10am on Sept 20th at 1U at Ground Floor Highstreet New Wing (that's a popular mall in PJ, locals will know how to get there) and there is even a 24hours Soul Calibur IV tournament before the launch day.

For the launch, Sony Malaysia will be selling a special launch bundle:

80GB PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) Bundle Early Birds Promotion

1 x 80GB PS3™ (CECHK06)
1 x DUALSHOCK 3® Wireless Controller
1 x Soul Calibur IV™ game
1 x Selected PS3™ game (Resistance, Ratchet and Clank Future, Ninja Gaiden Sigma, Assassin's Creed)
1 x Custom made PS3™ Tote bag
1 x Soul Calibur IV™ CD holder
Price: RM 1,799

To sweeten the bundle further, Sony Malaysia have generously added special gifts for the first 120 buyers of the PS3 Malaysian bundle, as detailed below:-

1st - 3rd customer - RM 1,000 Sony Cash Voucher
4th - 21st customer - RM 500 Sony Cash Voucher
22nd - 50th customer - RM 300 Sony Cash Voucher
51st - 120th customer - RM 100 Sony Cash Voucher

To facilate for those who wants to be 1st in line, the queue line will be opened at 8am, so plan your day/night well.

And not forgetting those of you who don't ever leave the house, Sony Malaysia have generously made the same PS3 Malaysian bundle available as an online pre-order purchase. The first 20 online buyers will get a bonus Blu-ray movie thrown in. However, details on the online purchase, delivery method and the free Blu-ray movie are not included.

All these details (except for the online pre-order deal) are available from here (http://corp.sony.com.my/3/main.asp).

What this means is that Malaysia will join HK, Singapore and Taiwan as the 4th country to officially have the PS3 (Japan is a whole region as far as PS3 distribution, and its not Asian region). All these while, the PS3s in MY stores are simply parallel imports (usually from Singapore) and the warranty is from the country of origin only. With the launch, Malaysian PS3s can be repaired by Sony service centres in Malaysia itself.

Hopefully, this will lead Sony Malaysia to bring in PS3 games directly as well as any PS3 peripherals and accessories, and that the prices will be cheaper than the parallel imports.

3G enabled iPhone goes official, available in 22 countries on July 11, 2008.

The highly leaked but much anticipated iPhone 3G is official, revealed yesterday during Apple's WWDC 2008.


iPhone 3G will be available in 2 flavors, 8GB at US$199 (RM700) and 16GB at US$299 (RM1000), in the US via AT&T in a 2 year contract, beginning July 11. 2008.


In a strange move, the new iPhone 3G will not be available from Apple's online store nor can you activate it yourself from home. You will now have to walk into an AT&T store to buy and activate it in-store while you are there. AT&T have said that activation can be done in a few minutes, but its still a departure on how Apple traditionally sells its stuff.

Packed with new features are: 3G (duh), Firmware 2.0, GPS (A-GPS that uses cellular signals to complement satellite signals), Wi-Fi (still at 802.11a/g, no N support), new dock (to fit the new shape), 300 hours standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio, 3.5mm flushed headphone jack, and the back is completely in black plastic. Better still, it is also available in full WHITE, way cool!

Pic from Laptogmag.com.

It will be available in 22 countries by next month July 11, 2008. These countries are Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US.

Another 48 countries have been identified to receive the iPhone 3G "later this year": Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, Cameroon, C. African Republic, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Guatemala, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, India, Ivory Coast, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Macau, Madagascar, Mali, Malta, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Niger, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Senegal, Singapore, Qatar, Slovakia, South Africa, Turkey, Uruguay.


You will notice that Malaysia is not listed, damn! Look like I'll have to wait for the unlocked version then.

Wii Fit (US) is available at selective MY stores

Wii Fit (US) is here. Its not as widely available as other games so you will need to do some walking to find one. It's retail price here is much cheaper than in Singapore, so get it here if you can find one (if you are wanting to get one).


It was here several months ago in the Japanese version, but as I dont read Japanese, I have not bought that version. I will be collecting one unit soon and looking forward to testing the unit out.

Playstation Store revamp starts today.

The above is the new re-designed Playstation Store layout and look. To facilitate the revamp, Sony will not be updating the PSN Store with new content for two weeks with effect from today. Users will still be able to access to existing contents while the revamp goes on.

The new revamped Playstation Store is expected to be go live "mid April" in all regions. The redesign will not affect existing PSN accounts or their virtual wallets.

Dualshock 3 finally reaching US shores, Sixaxis phased out.

Sony announced that the Dualshock3 will hit US next week, one whole week earlier than the April 15 2008 expected release date. In the same announcement, they have released a list of PS3 titles that are compatible with the Dualshock3, click here to check the list.

This will also mean that future PS3s will be shipped Dualshock3 in the package, which will be very good news for future PS3 purchasers.

With Dualshock3 already available in Japan and Asia, it is not shocking news that Sony is plasing out of Sixaxis. Existing stocks is estimated to be cleared by summer 08, so buy now if you wish to have rumble-less controllers for the PS3 in the future.

Belkin's 2 - 1 HDMI switch avaiable in US & Canada now.

With limited HDMI inputs in LCD/Plasma TVs, there is a growing need for HDMI switches. Belkin have rolled out their own recently, and while the box are similarly spec-ed as others (HDMI powered, 1080P compatible, IR remote control for switching, housed in a box), its the price that sets Belkin's offering apart.

Retailing for USD$49.90 (RM175), its relatively cheaper than the other options in stores. Available now in the US and Canada, while Europe, Asia, and Australia gets it in March 2008.

Wii Fit out in Japan.

Wii Fit is out in Japan as of Dec 1, 2007. Nintendo of Japan's idea of getting their customers healthy via a console game is shipped with a new peripheral, the Balance Board. The Balance Board is wireless with its own sensors, and connects to the Wii effortlessly powered by 4AA batteries, and weighs slightly more that Wii itself.

Players, or rather users, loads up the game and steps on the Balance Board. Data such as age, height and clothing that you are wearing (it does affect your weight) needs to be entered, and Wii Fit will do the rest. It will give you your weight, BMI (Body Mass Index) and spells out your ideal BMI.

You can then choose to set your target BMI and planned duration to achieve it, and Wii Fit will help you work out towards your target. There are 4 main groups of exercises to be had: Yoga, Balance Training, Cardiovascular Workout, and Muscle Training. Each type has 9 to 15 exercises, and you unlocked new ones with points earned based on the amount of time you've spent working out.

Wii Fit allows up to 8 users with individual password access to secure your data and progress. Retailing at 8300Yen or USD$80 (RM280), the whole package consists of a Wii Fit disc (can call it a game?), Balance Board with wireless sensors and 4AA batteries. US will get Wii Fit sometime in January 2008.

iPhone available in MY, but don't work with Maxis.

Local handphone shops have the unlocked iPhones! Prices range from RM2000++ for the 4GB version and RM3000++ for the 8GB version.

While the stop sales reps are unsure of the iPhone firmware version, I am pretty sure its the V1.02 Sim unlocked with the tools available from the internet. Be warned that if you upgrade the firmware to V1.1.1, you are guaranteed to brick your new toy.

Contrary to earlier reports, these sim unlocked iPhone will not work well with Maxis where you can only make outgoing calls and not receive incoming calls (defeats the purpose of having a handphone, doesn't it??). Its report that this is apparently a Maxis internal problem and its not native to the iPhone itself. This was confirmed by several readers as well.

These sim unlocked iPhone works well with Celcom and DiGi, so if you are a subscriber and have deep pockets, get your paws on one today from the local shops.

US wont get Slim PSP S-Video cables.

Sony US have announced that they will not be retailing the Slim PSP's S-video cable. They will only sell the standard composite and high def component cables for TV out. Both will retail for USD$19.99.

For US PS3 owners who still prefers and uses S-Video, you can always import the cables as they will work too.

Microsoft's new Zune 80, Zune 8 and Zune 4 sometime in November.

Microsoft have announced their new Zune line up, which will be available in November. These new Zunes will be known as Zune 80 (80GB Hard drive version), Zune 8 and Zune 4 (8GB and 4GB Flash version respectively). They will be retailing at USD$250, USD$200 and USD$150 respectively.

The older 30GB Hard drive Zune will simply be known as Zune 30, and Microsoft will be giving it a system update to match the new Zune's interface and abilities such as Media Center PC sync, additional h.264 and MPEG-4 video codec instead of only WMV, WiFi sync and more.

As November is still far off, we shall see when the actual units are available for review.

Note: Pic from Engadget.

Amazon MP3 for DRM-free MP3 downloads.

Amazon MP3 public beta is now live. Amazon's new music download portal is offering two million songs from 180,000 artists and 20,000 labels including EMI and Universal tracks, in DRM-free 256Kbps MP3 format. All "top 100" songs on the site be sold at the lower USD$0.89, while others will be at USD$0.99 each. Whole albums will cost from $5.99 to $9.99, with best selling albums at $8.99.

The best news is the songs on Amazon MP3 will be DRM-free, so you can transfer and copy it to all your MP3 players in your collection, or even burn to CDs, all you want after you pay for it. How's that for a challenge to iTunes?

Samsung's Armani phone revealed in Milan.

Samsung's collaboration with Armani to roll out a couture phone has resulted in the above pictured product, the Samsung Armani phone. Similar to LG Prada phone, the phone is designed for the fashion conscious market.

Samsung Armani phone features: Tri-band 900/1800/1900 GSM, 3 megapixel camera, 2.6-inch 262K color QVGA touchscreen LCD, Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP support, 50MB onboard memory, microSD expansion, full Internet browser, and support for H.263, AAC/MP3/WMA audio and MPEG-4 video. Dimensionally, its 87.5 x 54.5 x 10.5-mm and weighs 85-grams.

It will also feature haptic feedback user interface, meaning it gives out small vibration cues when the icons on the touchscreen are touched, confirming that your action was recognised. This is a very important feedback for many touchscreen user, with Motorola Razr2 V8 using similar haptic feedback too.

No news on the availability outside Europe, where it will be available in November 2007 for rumored 400 Euros (RM2000).

Rumor Commentary: 40GB PS3 soon?

The internet as well as traditional media have been abuzz with the rumored 40GB PS3. Many industry watchers are suggesting that Sony could be announcing the 40GB PS3 sometime next week, in a bid to steal some of Halo 3's street release date.

There are more rumbles in the hardware industry players, with some unamed "electronic manufactuing news source" have revealed that Sony have enlisted FoxConn (Taiwan based company that currently produces the Playstation 2) to produce 40GB PS3. Rumors have even planted the 40GB PS3 with a USD$399.90 price level, but fully expecting other lesser specs (no bluetooth, no card readers, no WiFi?) at that price level.

Personally, although I am taking this rumor with a pinch of salt, there are several advantages for Sony to do so.

1) USD$399 price point is seen by industry player as the ceiling price consumers will buy for electronics goods.
2) At USD$399, it makes the (40GB) PS3 a very cheap blu-ray movie player with HD gaming capabilities, as the cheapest HD-DVD standalone players from rival camp Toshiba will be retailing at USD299.
3) With more total PS3 sold, this will also increase the total numbers of consumers of blu-ray movie discs.
4) With Sony deep entrenched in the blu-ray camp, increasing PS3 and blu-ray consumers makes perfect business sense as they will stand to earn from license of blu-ray players, movie deals (they do own several studios) and they dont want a repeat lost of technology format (remember Sony's betamax videotape lost the format war against JVC's VHS format).

As Sony is eager to win the next gen DVD format, by push more PS3 into homes with a cheaper USD$399 entry level 40GB PS3 makes perfect business sense to me. We will see if this turns out to the truth in the next few weeks.

Wii Zapper box and Link's Crossbow Training details.

Nintendo have revealed the packing box art for Wii Zapper, with some details of bundled game. Link's Crossbow Training uses the engine of Zelda: Twilight Princess and will features 3 modes with a grand total 27 shooting games.

Target Shooting is for you to hit targets moving on screen, Defender have you shooting enemies charging at you, while you are able to aim off screen to turn directions, while Ranger mode will have you moving Link by the analog stick while on shooting and exploring missions.

Apple's "The beat goes on" event today!

Apple's event to reveal their fall / winter gadgets line up will be held in US today, 5th September 2007. With the tagline "The beat goes on", this highly anticipated event has the internet buzzing with rumors of the "next generation iPod", "touchscreen iPod" and even "nano fatty".

Cant wait to see what gadgets Apple have lined up to show the world, will post them here as I hear them.