Select "None" as a "Payment Method" section during the registration
I still think getting a US iTunes Account is still the best option as it is completely unrestricted. You can create a US account without a credit card, using the same method above but select US instead of Brunei. You will need to buy gift cards online though, and I have bought iTune gift cards from both PC Game Supply and Jerry Cards with good results so thus far. See which works best for you and join the ecosystem that has yet to be rivaled (especially outside the US).
This phone seems to be a phone I would buy, if I didn’t buy my LG Optimus One, as a great budget Android phone which seems to have the least compromises. Check out the video that I managed to get at Incomm as I played with the device.
Notable Specifications
Android 2.3 Gingerbread: the current major version of Android of phones
3" HVGA (320×480) screen: a bit small in size but good resolution that is widely supported by all apps
Slide out landscape QWERTY keyboard
1GHz Snapdragon CPU with Adreno 205 GPU
512MB RAM
400MB for apps (according to GSM Arena): a bit small but acceptable for a budget phone and sadly (for Arc users) it is the same amount as the Arc based on Sony’s specs which says up to 320MB (Arc vs Mini Pro)
5MP rear camera with autofocus, flash and 720p video recording (auto focus while recording video, recorded in mp4 encoded with h264, aac)
VGA front facing camera for video calls
Supports Adobe Flash
Plays 720p videos (mp4 encoded with h264,aac)
Can open PDFs and Microsoft Office documents (doc,docs,xls,xlsx,ppt,pptx)
I really like that this budget phone seems to have practically no compromises for a budget phone: there doesn’t seem to be any major show stoppers. Most budget phones will have no front facing cameras and won’t have cameras that can record 720p. A budget phone won’t have a keyboard nor a 1GHz CPU. The CPU couple with a GPU and sufficient RAM should ensure this device is smooth and usable for the regular user.
The main issue is the small 3" size of the screen (iPhone: 3.5", Optimus One & Wildfire S: 3.2", Galaxy Mini: 3.14"): a small size coupled with a high resolution may make some text small to read and will make using the onscreen keyboard a bit difficult. Thankfully there is a physical keyboard on the Xperia Mini that should help alleviate this (as long as the keyboard is good and usable). Also the smaller 1200mAh battery (vs 1500mAh of the Optimus One) may give it less battery life, but that also depends on the amount of work being done: with a better CPU, the same amount of work may require less energy from the Xperia Mini. I guess we’ll just have to wait for more in-depth reviews with battery life scores and this is the main unknown factor at the moment. Another compromise would possible be the UMTS frequency band support with it only being dual (900/2100) or triband (800/1900/2100) depending on where it is purchased but I don’t think this will affect many. Most of these issues/compromises are acceptable for a budget device.
With that said, I think I could tentatively highly recommend this phone to users but only after they take a look at it and try to use the keyboard and check to see if the text is too small on the device; and also after some battery life tests are published – all the features are of no use if the battery life is bad. From my use with it, the screen and text size seem fine but my fat thumbs did have a bit of an issue with typing. It could play 720p video, Flash video and even edit office documents. Overall a snappy device and I’m just very impressed at what Sony Ericsson managed to pack on this device hitting all the right check boxes giving the user minimal compromises. Great job Sony Ericsson, now improve your higher end devices!
Sample Photos (note front camera was covered with a thin plastic film):
It has finally happened, we have a Multi-SIM service here in Brunei thanks to B-Mobile (Read the Borneo Bulletin article at Brudirect). Multi-SIM basically allows you to clone your SIM card to put in another device. This is great for people with 3G enabled devices: e.g. iPad 3G, Galaxy Tab, etc and want to be able to make calls / use data on those devices without having to sign up for another phone number or resorting to the tedious task of switching SIM cards.
There is a monthly subscription fee of $8 per SIM card and there are 3 configurations of the service:
Multi IMSI i.e. primary SIM rings only;
Simultaneously i.e. both primary and secondary SIMS ring at the same time; and,
Orderly i.e. primary rings first. If rejected, busy, switched off or not answered, then the secondary will ring.
Sadly multi-SIM is not applicable for plans with unlimited data (e.g. Postpaid ZOOM $60 Unlimited & Post-paid Smart plan $65). There is no mention of OMNI users but since it’s an unlimited plan, I presume that it will not be supported either. I guess B-Mobile is worried that people will subscribe to the multi-SIM service and use the SIMs in an unlimited data fashion and thus would congest the network.
As an a subscriber to OMNI, I hope B-Mobile could consider another plan for users with unlimited data plans: single SIM get you unlimited data, multi-SIM gets a cap (of perhaps 200GB free beyond which they will pay per amount used as the non-unlimited data plans pay). This would at least give users with unlimited data plans an option to subscribe to this multi-SIM service and not be left out with the convenience that it brings.
So now with B-Mobile supporting this, I wonder if DST will follow
A ‘live’ / non-Skype Corner Geeks recording this week as I sat down with @mfirdaus as we discussed the Brunei Apple App Store while also passing him the InstallESD.dmg file for Lion. We hope that this is the start of more services being opened to Brunei and perhaps a legal way for people to get music, movies and TV shows in the future.
AV Electronics, the premium reseller of Apple products, says they aren’t currently selling Brunei iTunes gift cards
Registration without a credit card is possible with the same hack/work around to register a US account without a credit card (try download a free app in the App Store and create an account from there)
Brunei just has an App Store, not a full iTunes store with Music / Movies / TV Shows
Not all apps available in the iOS App Store: e.g. WhatsApp (could be developer’s setting when publishing app or some other unknown restrictions)
Prices shown in store are in US dollars
App ratings are reset meaning Brunei apps could make it to the recommended list
Sources for US gift cards: PC Game Supply / Jerry Cards (I have bought once from each of these sellers before and can verify that they work)
So a couple of weeks back we had the honour of live streaming of Ran8adidas (the 8th year anniversary celebrations of Ranoadidas.com) at the International Convention Center (ICC). We share with you how we managed to get mobile video in the field with the ability to add overlays and mix the audio source with any audio source while at the same time live streaming and recording it.
WebCamera for iOS (US$2.99) running on an iPod Touch or iPhone to act as video and audio sources out in the field
Mobiola WebCamera (free) on the streaming computer to retrieve video and audio from the iOS device (they show up as webcam video and microphone audio devices)
3G modem used as an Internet connection
OS X’s Internet sharing to ensure the iOS device and the computer are on the same network
MacBook Pro line-in port to receive sound from the mixer
A USB sound card to be used as audio out for monitoring
Soundflower was used as extra audio devices to aid the transfer of audio from audio sources to audio outputs
LadioCast (free) for audio mixer/switching between mixer and iOS device audio
uStream.tv (free) to stream and record the live video and audio
Other notes:
The video quality wasn’t great and it was a trade-off between faster frame rates vs better image quality and resolution which were limited factors of the WebCamera application (192×144 vs 480×360, but I’m not sure to measure the frame rate). We decided on better image quality as it would be made worse by the spotty 3G connection
We tried using uStream Producer (free) but it was inconsistent as it dropped after 30 seconds. I wonder if this could be due to the 3G reception.
If you have an Android device you can use IP WebCam (free) to stream the video and audio from the device to a computer. I used 2 different instances of VLC (free) to play the video and audio. The video could then be captured using CamTwist and the audio controlled with LadioCast
We experimented with PocketCam for iOS ($4.99) paried together with the PocketControl (free) client software but the delay in video and audio was too great, ~10 seconds.
I managed to stumble upon the Huawei IDEOS S7 at Yappe IT Store in Serusop selling for B$399 (cash price) and when recording the video below I noticed that quite a few of them have already been bought. Check out the video giving an overview of the device
Specifications
CPU: 750 MHz Qualcomm Snapdragon (source: UMPCportal as we forgot to check the processor but it seemed decent enough)
GPU: Adreno 200
7″ 800×480 (WVGA) Capactive Multi-Touch Screen
Android 2.2 with custom launcher
Front and Rear facing 2 megapixel cameras that record in CIF (352×288)
8GB storage (7.51GB available but 116MB for apps)
3G Enabled (standard SIM) with dialer (can make calls and text)
Can run Flash (installed from Market)
Upto 720p HD playback of mp4 (h264, aac), wmv files
Device seems rooted by default (Superuser was installed after factory reset)
Other hardware details: Kickstand, Removable battery, Optical trackpad
Pros
Budget price B$399: great budget device for a 7″ tablet and phone with calling ability
Able to run Flash for a fuller web experience (put settings as ‘On-Demand’ for better performance)
Android 2.2 thus you can do mobile tethering (share 3G via Wi-Fi)
Rooted
Cold boot / Restarts in about 1 minute
Decent Performance: it did not seem sluggish or noticeable slow but there were times where it took multiple touches to get the device to respond (could be also due to the plastic film on the device screen)
Cons
Only 116MB free for apps
A few default apps are landscape oriented and don’t rotate if device is in portrait mode
No Office software to read Word/Excel/Powerpoint files (doc/docx/xls/xlsx/ppt/pptx)
Battery life may be bad (based on Telstra T-Touch Tab reviews it only has 3-4 hours of typical use: CNET Australia, PC World Australia, Sydney Morning Herald. The T-Touch Tab is a rebranded Huawei S7 but has slightly different hardware)
I doubt this will get any future upgrades because it is an older model and Huawei is releasing an S7 Slim and also the recently announced Media Pad. The main issue with the device will be the battery life: having a removable battery aids it but then you will have to buy another battery and external charger to keep it running. I was contemplating on the device and using it as a mobile hotspot with my b-mobile Zoom! SIM card and using it as a tablet for reading and on the go computing. However with the possible battery life issues, the best bet for my use case is still the Samsung Galaxy Tab which will cost about B$250 more but you get better hardware and a better overall experience. But having said that, I believe this is the cheapest 3G and Flash enabled Android tablet in Brunei. If you’re looking for a budget all-in-one phone and tablet device, and don’t mind the possible battery life issues, this is a good deal.
Hello businesses, I’m an blogging to you in particularly today as I wish to convey a few thoughts I have about your online presence. I write this as a consumer who is would rather search for your company online rather than look your number up in a telephone directory. We live in a day and age where we are all connected and having an online presence is key in communicating to your customers and overall having better customer satisfaction.
Having an online presence can be as simple as having a Facebook / Twitter account to having a website with a full fledged shopping cart (or even more), but there are 3 main things that businesses need to communicate:
Information about your business
That you hear what your (potential) customers are talking about
That you care about your customers
Information
Information is the easiest part and is vital for anybody who wants to find something about your business: the main things is that people want to know what you provide (e.g. what products you sell, what services you provide) and if possible, at what cost. Business hours and contact numbers along with an address / map ensures customers know where to find you or how to contact you. This information can easily be put on a website or on Facebook. Twitter may not have the best answer here, but Twitter is more ideal for listening as detailed below. Remember, when giving out information, think of what the customer wants to know: if there is a new shipment of assorted bags: perhaps a snapshot of the bags to let customers have a feel of what they can expect.
Listening
As a business you want to know what people are saying about you: how was their last experience at premises, did they have any issues while being there? Twitter is the best bet for this as it is a more open platform compared to Facebook because Twitter is a more public space and people generally have their profile and tweets in the public for anybody to see. If you hear that a customer has had a bad experience or that they mention suggestions, respond to them. Let them know that you have read / heard what they have to say. This tells your customers that you hear them; that their voices don’t fall on completely deaf ears. Now if there are things that you, as a business owner, can change for the betterment of the customer it is then time to move to the last point of caring.
Caring
You have to care about your customers as they are the ones giving you their money and if they are not happy one way or another, they will take their money elsewhere. A customer complains about a bad experience with a waiter / waitress. What do you do? Get in touch with your customer: tell them that you are sorry for the bad experience, and to make things better offer them a discount the next time they come by. Do random acts of kindness such as giving a voucher to a random person who mentions your business as a sign of appreciation.
In order to carry out these 3 things, I shall focus on the 3 most relevant platforms: a website, a Twitter profile and Facebook page, and also give a few pointers and what you should do on each platform.
Website
A website does not need to be complex and graphically rich: the main point of a website is to give information. This information is likely not going to change very rapidly: e.g. contact number, address and location, business hours. These bits of information are mostly static (i.e. don’t really change) and will be something that you should know already: i.e. there is no real cost in time to generate this. A blog / news update can also be put on a website to let customers know of things happening e.g. new stock has arrived (this could also be be done on Twitter / Facebook as well). A website doesn’t have to be expensive and you can start by creating a free one at places like Blogger, WordPress or Tumblr (and many businesses do this). Now one thing I really feel that business miss out on is branding by not using their own domain name (i.e. the words you type in the browser in order to bring up a website). I see many businesses use Blogger and have their website as this-is-my-business.blogspot.com which is pretty tacky for a business. Buy a domain name: it can be as cheap as US$1 a year (but more typically ~US$20, but could be higher depending on the URL itself). Some domain registrars you may want to check out are: GoDaddy, Domain.com and Hover. Once you have a domain name, you can set up Google Apps for Domains to get company wide email, documents and more.
Twitter & Facebook
The 2 big guns in the social media realm, these are the first 2 places to go to in order to communicate with customers and potential customers. Please make sure your profile/page is public. It can be quite annoying to click a link to your profile/page, only to have to log into Facebook or send in a friend request in order to see the full post / information. In Twitter search and monitor keywords / hash tags which could be your business name or #brunei to see what people are saying about Brunei. One step further would be to follow / friend people in Brunei and see and monitor what they have to say on a daily basis: jump in where you can help / offer advice: i.e. be courteous, caring and genuine. Twitter is easy to set up with any email address but on Facebook you can create a Facebook page under an existing Facebook account or creating a Facebook profile (read why you should create a Facebook page instead of a profile). Whichever you pick, just makes sure it is visible to anybody without having to log into Facebook (yes I did mention this before, but it’s a pet peeve of mine when the information is not public).
Listed below are some notable businesses in Brunei that have recognized an importance in their online presence and are good candidates to look to emulate or learn a few pointers from. If you know any other great businesses in Brunei doing such, do list them down in the comments below.
For Brunei context music and videos / movies not available (yet?) for Google / Amazon offering without using complex work arounds. Easiest option is iTunes.
Possible Issues:
Will there be sharing? Or only to personal account?
Data caps / be sure not to use all your data quota and end up paying
Do we get offline backup?
All your data, are belong to fruit
5GB storage space (unsure which files are categorized in the 5GB, but music / photos not included in the quota)
Free, No ads
Available in the Fall (most likely September) but some features available now with iTunes update on Mac/PC or App Store update on iDevices
Geo-restirctions for apps in the Android Market is something you won’t hear many people talk about probably because they live in recognized countries where these apps are available. Basically what this means is that when you search for it in the Market app on your Android device, you will not find any results to install. If you use the Android market on the web you get the “This item cannot be installed in your device’s country” message when trying to select your device. This hugely detracts me from trying to recommend Android to users. While I guess many will search for the apk file online and install it, I must stress that this can be a very dangerous thing as it can be malware that you are installing on your device. You must trust your source of applications, if it is not the developer distributing the file, it could be a modified apk installer with malware installed in it.
Some notable apps that are absent from the Market here in Brunei are
As stated in their known issues under “Can’t find app” section, it states the following:
Some users are reporting that they can’t find specific apps on Market. If you can’t find an application, first try editing your search terms; the publisher may have changed the name in the application.
If you’re still experiencing this issue, please make sure that the following conditions do not apply to you:
Priced applications availability: Priced apps are only available to buyers in these countries. If you are not in a buyer-supported country, you will be unable to view priced applications.
Location: You may only view the version of Market for your country. For example, UK users may only view the UK version of Android Market from their devices. If a developer has not targeted his app to your home country, you may be unable to view it.
Mobile service provider: In addition to targeting for location, a developer may also target their application to specific mobile service providers. If a developer is not targeting your mobile service provider, you will not be able to view the application.
From time to time, applications will become unavailable. Publishers might remove their applications from Android Market, or applications may also be removed for policy violations.
I believe this stems from the following section when developers upload their app into the Market. If the developer does unchecks “All locations” (it is checked by default), the list of countries will be shown and the app will not be available for any country not listed below, i.e. Brunei and others.
What can Google do? They can make Brunei (among other countries) as a supported/recognized country and I presume that would require some business discussions with Brunei banks/mobile carrier/ISP. As a supported country we would probably get access to paid apps as well, but I feel that is unlikely at the moment. Alternatively they can put another check box for “Other Countries” in the listing above so that developers can choose to exclude certain countries but include others. What developers can do? Where possible make sure “All Locations” is checked, if not host their apk installers on their own site (something that WhatsApp! does)
For an Android fan I feel pretty annoyed about this restriction and is certainly an obstacle as I can’t fully recommend Android devices to people if they have to do ’round-about-things’ such as finding an unofficially distributed apk just to install Skype. Another big issue is with tablets that are able to run Flash but don’t include it out of the box: thus the tablet is neutered to iPad Flash-less status which is sad. I had a Flash apk and installed in on the Acer Iconia A500 but because it wasn’t the latest version it could not run the videos we tested. Also without a recognized country, you can’t even update apps that have been installed previously: we couldn’t update Flash via Market post-install.
There are workarounds as listed below but some aren’t pretty:
Workaround 1: Alternate Store
This is the easiest and I suggest to find a reputable app store such as Opera Mobile Store (I managed to download Skype from here, although it was an older version), but it doesn’t have all the apps I want and thus those need to be sourced from elsewhere. If you know of any other reputable stores that have apps like Skype, do let me know.
Workaround 2: Switch SIMs to a Supported Country
I’ve done this with a Australian Vodafone SIM, and I was able to download Skype. I may even use this to download apks and self-host them for all Android users (as long as I don’t get copyright take downs)
Workaround 3: Root and install Market Enabler Root your device and install Market Enabler which should allow you to access the apps. I presume this does in software what switching SIMs does in hardware.
Workaround 4: Buy an iPhone / iPod Touch
Yes, I said it. It is a sad but true state of affairs that it is easier on iOS if you register with a US iTunes Account. The hardest thing of registration is is just using the right US address (use Google’s address as there are no taxes in their state according to @mfirdaus). The biggest issue is getting iTune gift cards, something I am still trying to find out for a reasonable price (Places in Brunei that sell them: AV, Incomm & QQeStore). But once that is all setup, it’s all easy sailing.
So Google, I hope you can sort out this problem or Android users will be severely limited in countries that aren’t recognized/supported and would prevent them from recommending Android unless they want to start pirating apps. App developers, please show some love for Android users and host the apks yourself.
The Acer Iconia Tab A500 is the first Honeycomb tablet I’ve seen here in Brunei and is the first proper 10″ Android tablet. As with most Android tablets the specs are somewhat typical: 10″ (1280×800) with dual cameras running on the nVidia Tegra2. @mfirdaus and I managed to play around with the device for over an hour and below is the video overview we took of it. Below the video are further thoughts of the device and sample photos and videos from the device itself.
Full specifications (from Concepts and Acer specification pages)
Preloaded games (NFS Shift, Let’s Golf, Hero of Sparta)
Weight & Size
I have always thought 10″ tablets were a bit bigger than an iPad but in fact they are similar sizes: The A500 is longer and thicker but narrower than an iPad 2 (A500: 26cm x 17.7cm x 1.33cm, iPad2: 24.1cm x 18.6cm x 0.88cm). However the A500 is relatively heavy at 765g (iPad 2 is 601g), thus if you’re holding on the device it can get tiring.
Screen
The 10″ screen was responsive and we didn’t feel at real / noticeable / annoying lag or unresponsiveness. At a resolution of 1280×800, that is the same resolution as a lot of 13″ or 14″ laptops and is of higher resolution compared to an iPad: this means when browsing you should see more content. Speaking of browsing, with the great browser which has tabs and the ability to install Flash, this would make a great web browsing device.
Honeycomb and Apps
Refer to the previous post on A First Taste of Honeycomb (Android 3.0): in short there are not many apps optimized for Honeycomb and the large screen, but regular apps can still run.
Connectivity
The killer hardware features are the microSD card slot, full sized USB port and micro HDMI.
The microSD card slot enables you to add storage without buying a new device. If you’re on a budget, just buy the lowest capacity device and add microSD cards for your media (do note that microSD cards could be slower than internal storage on device, but is probably cheaper and can be transferred to other devices in the future).
The full sized USB port means you can connect a regular USB keyboard to the device and start typing straight away if you really need to type out of an email / do word processing. This will easily make the A500 into a productivity device with the proper applications. The USB port also means that you can copy files to and from a regular thumb drive like a regular computer which is a great feature. I’ve heard that USB card readers do not work, but I have no confirmation on this.
The micro HDMI port means you can connect the device to a projector / HDTV with display mirroring (display on both device and projector/TV). While this is a great option, I still think an iPad 2 trumps with the VGA dongle because VGA is still very widely used and HDMI is not. For people wishing to use the device for presentations, I would think an iPad 2 with the VGA dongle would be much easier to work with. I don’t believe there is an easy way to convert an HDMI signal to VGA without an external box, which means added cost and added items to bring.
Cameras
The front facing camera is a 2 megapixel while the rear camera is 5 megapixels (and also has a flash) however the picture and sound quality wasn’t stellar: samples below. Do note that the device was covered with clear plastic which would affect both the video and audio quality but I wouldn’t expect quality to be much better than what we got. Audio quality is pretty disappointing. Photos are stored in JPG format while videos in 3GP (H264/AAC).
Photos (jpg)
Rear: 5 megapixels (2592 × 1944)
Front: 2 megapixels (1600 × 1200)
Videos (3gp format with H264 video and AAC audio)
Rear: 720p (1280×720)
Front: VGA (640×480)
Battery Life
We could not take the device home to test the battery life of the device but below lists battery tests from other reviews but most reviews say you can easily get an full days worth without issue.
Price
At B$728, the 32GB A500 is priced cheaper than a 32GB iPad 2 (B$798), but do note that a 16GB iPad 2 is cheaper (B$668). IMHO Concepts should have brought in the 16GB version of the Iconia Tab to undercut all iPad 2 prices because with most Android tablets you can add expansion via microSD cards.
Summary
As a consumer device, this is a great device for web browsing, reading and watching movies. If you have TVs/monitors with HDMI input, this is a possible media center device with a purchase of a microHDMI to HDMI cable or a microHDMI to standard HDMI converter. As an office device, this is a viable option is you have HDMI monitors / projectors. The USB port option is great for using external keyboards and transferring of files. Overall Honeycomb is still maturing and is hard to convince people with an Android tablet unless there is a particular function that they need/want that is available on Android or a specific tablet as the iPad, with iOS, has the advantage of apps. Would I get one myself? I doubt so, as I’m looking more of a 7″ device with USB host, VGA out (highly unlikely thus maybe HDMI out) and possibly 3G to wirelessly tether via a wireless hotspot so I may even look out for the Iconia Tab A100 which is a 7″ version that is coming out in a couple of months.
This work is licensed under the 
