It's time: Apple's iPhone 3G S debuts
Crowd lines up in New York to be the first to get new version of smartphone, as Apple tries to keep itself in the game.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Apple is hopeful that the new iPhone 3G S, which was launched Friday, will help it fend off the increasing competition in the smartphone world.
It worked the last time. After Apple released the iPhone 3G in July 2008, its share leapt from 7.4% in the second quarter of last year to 30.1% in the third quarter, according to IDC data.
But this time, the iPhone isn't the only new hot gadget around. The 3G S launch comes less than a week after rival Palm (PALM) unveiled its much ballyhooed Pre smartphone on the Sprint (S, Fortune 500) network, and RIM (RIMM) announced it will debut the new BlackBerry Tour on Sprint and Verizon (VZ, Fortune 500) in the coming months.
And indeed, stiff competition has eroded Apple's smartphone share down to just 19.5% in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 55.3% for RIM.
Still, Piper Jaffray's senior research analyst Gene Munster said he expects Apple to sell 500,000 iPhones over the weekend. That's half of what Apple sold during the 3G launch, though that phone launched in 21 countries compared to eight for the 3G S. But that's far more than the 50,000 Pres that analysts estimate Palm sold in the first two days of sales.
0:00 /4:44Apple's new iPhone
Lining up for the iPhone: Customers lined up at Apple Stores around the world to be among the first to own the new iPhone.
Apple (AAPL, Fortune 500) began its rolling release of the iPhone 3G S in the United States at 7 a.m. ET. It then debuted in successive time zones each hour. (For more on the iPhone 3G S launch, see the Apple 2.0 blog)OS 3
About 300 people stood outside the Apple Store on New York's 5th Avenue -- some of them since early Thursday -- waiting for the doors to open. Inside the store, employees were seen being briefed about the new phone's features before selling it to customers.
"I got on line at 2 a.m.," said Luis Palacios, 22, of New York, who was one of the first to emerge from the store with a new iPhone. "It was really early, but it was worth it for the video."
Though lines were long, they were shorter than anticipated -- the Apple Store put out many more yards of metal barriers than necessary. An Apple Store employee said it would likely take about three hours to sell iPhones to the customers who were lined up before the store opened. He said the line was longer during the last iPhone release in July.
0:00 /3:09All eyes on Steve Jobs
Joining the would-be buyers were lots of reporters looking to see if the new device, unveiled at the Apple developers' conference in San Francisco earlier this month, would attract the hubbub of previous iPhone versions.
The 3G S version comes equipped with a 3-megapixel camera with video capturing and editing capabilities, improved battery life with up to 12 hours of talk time and 30 hours of audio, voice-command control, and a built-in digital compass.
"The new iPhone is redefining what people can do on a phone," said Chad Evans, an app designer for mlb.com. "We're now able to live stream complete games on a handheld device."
The 16-gigabyte iPhone 3G S can be had for $199 with a new contract with exclusive carrier AT&T. The 32-gigabyte version costs $299 with a new activation.
Apple will also continue to sell a second-generation iPhone 3G with 8 gigabytes of memory for $99.
The new OS 3.0 operating system, which was launched last week, comes installed on the iPhone 3G S, and is available for free download on all existing iPhones. OS 3.0 enables users to cut, copy and paste for all applications, which iPhone users have long demanded. The operating system also features an undo gesture, which will undo the last action by shaking the phone.
First Published: June 19, 2009: 7:12 AM ET
- wong chee tat :)
Saturday, June 20, 2009
'Stay away' order
'Stay away' order
Schools take precautions ahead of the new term
By Leow Si Wan
SCHOOLS have been contacting students who travelled to flu-affected countries during the June break to remind them not to attend holiday classes and activities within a week of returning home.
At least one, Ping Yi Secondary School, has even cancelled non-essential activities, such as camps. It will also have its security guard check at the school entrance if students have been to any of the listed countries.
A check with 17 primary and secondary schools and junior colleges found them busy telephoning, e-mailing or sending text messages to staff and students who have been to countries with sustained community transmissions, such as Thailand, Canada and the United States.
'We have been SMS-ing these people and putting up notices on the school website to remind them not to come to school within seven days,' said a principal from a junior college.
Schools said they were carrying out a directive from the Education Ministry for students and staff who have travelled to affected countries to stay away from school for a week upon their return and to visit a doctor if they are unwell.
Last week, two students who did not know they were infected went back to school for remedial and holiday activities before being diagnosed.
Students' well-being is most important and a seven-day hiatus will prevent community spread, said a secondary school principal. Schools are pulling out all stops to make sure the directive is followed.
Ping Yi Secondary's principal, Madam Shanti Devi Thambusamy, added that the school has a mass SMS system which can be activated to contact parents and students when there is a need to share new information.
Nan Hua Primary School is also making plans for when school reopens.
The school principal, Mrs Lee Hui Feng, said that the school will not have assemblies for a week 'to minimise contact in large groups' and classrooms will be disinfected.
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
siwan@sph.com.sg
Additional reporting by Cheryl Ong & Corrie Tan
- wong chee tat :)
Schools take precautions ahead of the new term
By Leow Si Wan
SCHOOLS have been contacting students who travelled to flu-affected countries during the June break to remind them not to attend holiday classes and activities within a week of returning home.
At least one, Ping Yi Secondary School, has even cancelled non-essential activities, such as camps. It will also have its security guard check at the school entrance if students have been to any of the listed countries.
A check with 17 primary and secondary schools and junior colleges found them busy telephoning, e-mailing or sending text messages to staff and students who have been to countries with sustained community transmissions, such as Thailand, Canada and the United States.
'We have been SMS-ing these people and putting up notices on the school website to remind them not to come to school within seven days,' said a principal from a junior college.
Schools said they were carrying out a directive from the Education Ministry for students and staff who have travelled to affected countries to stay away from school for a week upon their return and to visit a doctor if they are unwell.
Last week, two students who did not know they were infected went back to school for remedial and holiday activities before being diagnosed.
Students' well-being is most important and a seven-day hiatus will prevent community spread, said a secondary school principal. Schools are pulling out all stops to make sure the directive is followed.
Ping Yi Secondary's principal, Madam Shanti Devi Thambusamy, added that the school has a mass SMS system which can be activated to contact parents and students when there is a need to share new information.
Nan Hua Primary School is also making plans for when school reopens.
The school principal, Mrs Lee Hui Feng, said that the school will not have assemblies for a week 'to minimise contact in large groups' and classrooms will be disinfected.
Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.
siwan@sph.com.sg
Additional reporting by Cheryl Ong & Corrie Tan
- wong chee tat :)
H1N1 flu death toll in US, Canada reaches 100
H1N1 flu death toll in US, Canada reaches 100
Posted: 20 June 2009 1301 hrs
WASHINGTON: Figures released Friday by US and Canadian health authorities show that the H1N1 flu pandemic has killed 100 people in Canada and the United States.
Eighty-seven people died from the disease in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control reported, adding that there were 21,449 confirmed cases.
The figures are a jump from the previous report on June 12, when 44 people were reported dead and 17,855 cases were confirmed.
In Canada, the world's third most affected country, health authorities reported a 13th death and 5,710 confirmed cases of A(H1N1) flu.
In Mexico, where the flu strain was first spotted, authorities reported 113 killed by the disease and the number of confirmed infections at more than 7,000.
The most recent World Health Organization data, out Thursday, showed that the H1N1 flu has infected nearly 40,000 people around the world in 89 countries and territories, causing 167 deaths since late March.
Some affected countries no longer keep track of all cases according to the UN health agency, while others do not report for each of the thrice-weekly bulletins.
- AFP/yb
The H1N1 is getting out of control!
- wong chee tat :)
Posted: 20 June 2009 1301 hrs
WASHINGTON: Figures released Friday by US and Canadian health authorities show that the H1N1 flu pandemic has killed 100 people in Canada and the United States.
Eighty-seven people died from the disease in the United States, the Centers for Disease Control reported, adding that there were 21,449 confirmed cases.
The figures are a jump from the previous report on June 12, when 44 people were reported dead and 17,855 cases were confirmed.
In Canada, the world's third most affected country, health authorities reported a 13th death and 5,710 confirmed cases of A(H1N1) flu.
In Mexico, where the flu strain was first spotted, authorities reported 113 killed by the disease and the number of confirmed infections at more than 7,000.
The most recent World Health Organization data, out Thursday, showed that the H1N1 flu has infected nearly 40,000 people around the world in 89 countries and territories, causing 167 deaths since late March.
Some affected countries no longer keep track of all cases according to the UN health agency, while others do not report for each of the thrice-weekly bulletins.
- AFP/yb
The H1N1 is getting out of control!
- wong chee tat :)
Printing Web Pages
I encountered some funny incident yesterday and would like to share it. The name and job scope is withheld.
An "IT specialist" encountered some printing problems when trying to print some documents and he wanted the resulting web address not to be printed on the paper. [The simple solution is shown below.]
He keep insisting that there is nothing wrong with the network printer because he had printed many many times before, and he keep faulting with the roaming profile that he is using and that joker demand to change. Further, he said that he knew the problem sometime ago.
Well, rather than arguing with such "talent", lets google and see if the roaming profile is causing the problem. The point is not to see who is correct in the field.
The simple solution is shown below.
- http://www.worldstart.com/tips/shared/printingwebpages.htm
- wong chee tat :)
An "IT specialist" encountered some printing problems when trying to print some documents and he wanted the resulting web address not to be printed on the paper. [The simple solution is shown below.]
He keep insisting that there is nothing wrong with the network printer because he had printed many many times before, and he keep faulting with the roaming profile that he is using and that joker demand to change. Further, he said that he knew the problem sometime ago.
Well, rather than arguing with such "talent", lets google and see if the roaming profile is causing the problem. The point is not to see who is correct in the field.
The simple solution is shown below.
Printing Web Pages
Do you print out web pages? If so, do you become annoyed at all the header and footer info that gets printed on each and every page? You know, the web address, title, etc? Well, with Internet Explorer, you can get that adjusted right out of there, or customize it. Here's how:
1. Click the File menu, Page Setup
2. Find the "Headers & Footers" area and remove all the gibberish in the respective fields. Hit OK and you have it.
Before:
After:
Now, that will keep the computer from printing all of your header and footer info, but what if you want some of it? Well, you can do that too, using the parameters below in the header and footer fields:
&w Window title
&u Page address (URL)
&d Date in short format (as specified by Regional Settings in Control
Panel)
&D Date in long format (as specified by Regional Settings in Control
Panel)
&t Time in the format specified by Regional Settings in Control Panel
&T Time in 24-hour format
&p Current page number
&P Total number of pages
&& A single ampersand (&)
&b The text immediately following these characters as centered.
&b&b The text immediately following the first "&b" as centered, and the text following the second "&b" as right-justified.
For example, if you want the header to have the window (page) title and the URL, you would type:
&w &u
If you wanted to make it so it also specified you were the one who printed it, you could put something like:
&w &u Printed by Steve on &d
The only thing you need to keep an eye on is the spacing. To get a single space between items (like &w&u) you need to hit the space bar twice. Experiment and you'll get it. Enjoy!
- http://www.worldstart.com/tips/shared/printingwebpages.htm
- wong chee tat :)
Public hospitals gearing up for possible H1N1 surge
Public hospitals gearing up for possible H1N1 surge
By Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 19 June 2009 2144 hrs
SINGAPORE: Public hospitals in Singapore are gearing up to take in H1N1 patients.
Currently, H1N1 cases are only seen at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the Communicable Disease Centre and the KK Women's and Children's Hospital's paediatric unit.
But if Singapore moves from the containment to mitigation stage, once there is sustained community transmission, it is very likely that restructured hospitals will have to be roped in to manage H1N1 cases.
The National University Hospital (NUH) told Channel NewsAsia that it has been preparing for a possible surge since the first alert from the Health Ministry about two months ago.
Its spokesperson said measures it has prepared to take include postponing non-urgent elective surgeries to create surge capacity, equipping and converting some beds to create more isolation rooms, expanding a fever facility at the Accident and Emergency department and deploying more staff.
More staff will be deployed to A&E to cope with the increased workload once the fever facility is expanded, for example, to perform nasal swabs and provide explanations to patients and their families.
Posters and materials to educate and remind staff, patients and visitors on the importance of hand hygiene and Personal Protection Equipment will also be put up.
Over at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), staff are also prepared to manage and treat H1N1 patients.
SGH said its response preparedness was ramped up and put in place since the initial stages of the global outbreak.
The hospital has also set aside adequate isolation and intensive care facilities to manage the increase in H1N1 cases, especially in light of potential community spread.
- CNA/i
- wong chee tat :)
By Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 19 June 2009 2144 hrs
SINGAPORE: Public hospitals in Singapore are gearing up to take in H1N1 patients.
Currently, H1N1 cases are only seen at Tan Tock Seng Hospital, the Communicable Disease Centre and the KK Women's and Children's Hospital's paediatric unit.
But if Singapore moves from the containment to mitigation stage, once there is sustained community transmission, it is very likely that restructured hospitals will have to be roped in to manage H1N1 cases.
The National University Hospital (NUH) told Channel NewsAsia that it has been preparing for a possible surge since the first alert from the Health Ministry about two months ago.
Its spokesperson said measures it has prepared to take include postponing non-urgent elective surgeries to create surge capacity, equipping and converting some beds to create more isolation rooms, expanding a fever facility at the Accident and Emergency department and deploying more staff.
More staff will be deployed to A&E to cope with the increased workload once the fever facility is expanded, for example, to perform nasal swabs and provide explanations to patients and their families.
Posters and materials to educate and remind staff, patients and visitors on the importance of hand hygiene and Personal Protection Equipment will also be put up.
Over at the Singapore General Hospital (SGH), staff are also prepared to manage and treat H1N1 patients.
SGH said its response preparedness was ramped up and put in place since the initial stages of the global outbreak.
The hospital has also set aside adequate isolation and intensive care facilities to manage the increase in H1N1 cases, especially in light of potential community spread.
- CNA/i
- wong chee tat :)
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