The 1st thing I thought to my self when I looked at the notice at Hotlink website is, “has the petrol price gone up?” Hehe, just joking Usually prices of other things may increase as well the moment petrol price goes up.

Anyway, in this case, I don’t think so. Looks like Maxis @ Hotlink already felt that being too competitive is not a very good idea. That’s why they have increased their inter-sms rate from 5 cents to 6 cents for their Hotlink Youth Club plan.

Anyway, it is not bad. They are still par with their competitors. Yes, Celcom & DiGi are also offering 6 cents for their UOX & D’Campus respectively.

Hopefully the other two don’t increase their price too

This time, I would like to share my experience related to the infamous commercial fitness centre, Celebrity Fitness. Previously I was a Fitness First member. Due to time constraint & of course, the price, I’ve decided to stop from there. It was a great place actually. Unfortunately it was just not convenient for me to go all the way to KLCC (nearest to me), look for a parking & so on.

After 2 years (if I am not mistaken), I’ve decided to join them again. When I inquire about their pricing, it was a whooping sum of RM175/per month for home membership (previously I was only paying about RM158, which was already very expensive for me). So I thought of going to other fitness centres.

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After 2 telcos, Maxis & Celcom has released the most awaited Blackberry model, Onyx or also called the Blackberry Bold 9700, it is now time for DiGi to join the league.

I just got to know from DiGi’s website that they will be launching this model this coming March (on the 1st week of March). It is partially good news. Good news is I finally have the option not to use the beginner model – Curve 8520. Bad news (which may not be), is I am afraid of the pricing. The reason being is, their Curve 8520 model is not the cheapest compared to other 2 telcos. Will this model have the same faith as well?

Let’s see how it goes. Below is the screenshot & link to the website. You may register yourself at the link below so that you will be notified once they have launched this model into the market.

Link : http://www.digi.com.my/blackberry/app.do

Hi everyone. You now have a change to grab the newly launched Storm 2 at only RM888. Remember recentlywhen Celcom launched the famous Blackberrry Bold 9700 at 50% discount? It is the same thing now for this new Blackberry Storm.

Anyway, the offer is only for today (5th Feb 2010) & limited to 150 units. Grab it now. Hey hey, before that, terms & conditions applies

To know more, visit http://www.celcom.com.my/celcomexec/promotions/bbstorm9520.php

Finally, I am now trying something else which is very new, after being sincere to Symbian for 5 years. My 1st phone was Nokia 6630 & that’s when I fell in love with Symbian’s quick response & their sms especially.

Over these years, I had a lot of good experience using Symbian phones. My interest to use Symbian phones increased after their 1st thumb-pad candybar phone – E61, was released. It was a fantastic experience using a 2.8″ screen. My last Symbian phone was Nokia E71. It is a great phone too, & was one of the bestseller for Nokia. After so many years using Symbian phones, I thought of trying something new. That’s when Blackberry caught my attention.

I am not a music lover. Neither a game lover I am. What made me use Nokia (especially E-Series) was the sms capability. It is fun to use. Just recently, I actually subscribed to DiGi 3G broadband RM48 (under promotional offer). I thought of making it a “blackberry” as I want to get connected to e-mails & instant messaging 24 hours. Well it actually worked well

Battery life was great (if I don’t use 3G). Switching the network to “GSM” worked very well as I still received my e-mails without any delays. Nokia’s latest software – Nokia Messaging is marvelous. It also had this “mail for exchange” software which helped me a lot on my work. There were few shortcomings though. Firstly, I was having a hard time chatting via instant messenger like Yahoo! IM & MSN Messenger. Be it Nimbuzz or Nokia Messaging Chat or anything, I had frequent disconnection. I only realised it after few hours & I have to manually connect again. Secondly, my message (via IM) is not delivered to the recipient. I will be waiting for thier reply so long & after that when I ask them again, they will reply that they have not received my previous message. Sometimes, they will send something but I will not receive it. I was not happy with it. Not sure what was the cause.

I also realised that under EDGE, I will not receive calls most of the time when I am active on the internet. For example, I will not receive calls when I am surfing internet or chatting or downloading something. I got to know about this problem after I had so many voice mails to check after I am done with my session. This is the flaw of EDGE technology (not only for Nokia, but all models will have same fate under EDGE).

Another sad thing is Nokia Messaging (e-mail). It is a great software but had some bugs. Firstly, the device itself doesn’t support numeric e-mail address,e.g. 1234@yahoo.com. It had some bug. Secondly, for E71, I can only use Nokia Messaging (e-mail) as a trial.

Those problems made me to switch to Blackberry instead. I heard a lot of good things about blackberry & I thought of giving a try instead. Well, not much of a good experience I would say. Definitely, it is the king of e-mail but I had some problems too.

What I loved in my blackberry is, everything is integrated, from contacts, e-mails, sms, facebook, instant messaging – EVERYTHING. That is fantastic. As for the instant messaging, the chats are almost instant. I didn’t have my friends complaining that they did not receive my messages. I don’t have any problem receiving their messages too. I am now connected 24 hours via IM but there is hardly any disconnection. My MSN messenger disconnects once or twice in a day & Yahoo! IM never had any disconnection so far.

The notifications for each & everything is great too. When I used nokia, I will not get things notified (no notification light) when somebody send me a chat message (although there will be a beep once). For blackberry, the notification light give an indication whenever I receive a chat message or even a Facebook notification. That is awesome.

Now, the bad thing about Blackberry. Not very bad but I wish it could be better. I am having problem with Mail for Exchange for my blackberry. Luckily I have a Outlook Web Access & I can still setup my company e-mail address. The thing is, I do not receive my e-mails instantly. It takes 5-10 minutes before I receive my e-mails in my Blackberry. When I used Nokia E71, I can receive e-mail at the same time with my Outlook. That is 1 thing that makes me quite disappointed with my Blackberry. Maybe I need to subscribe to BES service to receive company emails instantly but I don’t want to spend extra money for that

Secondly, Blackberry devices in Malaysia are whooping expensive compared to similar devices. The sad thing is, there are cheaper devices which has much more functions compared to Blackberry. I wish that I could grab a Bold 2 but it is RM2099 here. Finally have to get settled with Blackberry Curve 8520.

Thirdly, (don’t worry, this is the final one) most of Blackberry’s important apps are not free. You need to purchase them. I had tonnes of fantastic applications in my Nokia E71 for free but not for Blackberry.

Anyway, both devices are special in a way. Surfing net & getting connected online for e-mails & chat is a breeze in Blackberry. I am just waiting for more functional Blackberry phone at a more attractive price.

I just saw from DiGi’s website today. The word “prepaid” caught my attention. Not sure what exactly it is. I went further by clicking on their “more info” links but nothing was found there about the rates.

I’ve just taken a screen-shot from their website :

Any idea on their rates? If you have any information on the rates, please share it here. I would like to know too

UPDATE :

They have updated the website with the rates etc. Looks like it is a limited edition. Price is RM25 for 5 days, which is fine I guess. As for me, paying RM58 monthly for their other broadband plan is a better bet.

Here is the latest screenshot :

Here is the link – http://www.digi.com.my/internet/promo_limited_pre.html