Hell has begun to freeze. AT&T is finally allowing customers who are out of contract to SIM unlock their iPhones.
Prior to April 9th, if you were a sucker customer with AT&T and you were out of contract, you could unlock any phone, except for the iPhone. All sorts of tap dancing resulted with AT&T blaming Apple and Apple (correctly) blaming AT&T for not being able to SIM unlock your property.
Some of the stories the AT&T CSRs defending this policy were beyond outrageous. “Why unlock? You can roam on AT&T internationally”. “Apple doesn’t unlock iPhones”. And the best one, “There’s no such thing as an unlocked iPhone”.
Of course, I fired back, telling the CSR about being in Singapore and Hong Kong, where there is an abundance of unlocked iPhones. In Singapore’s case, they’re sold that way because it’s illegal to SIM lock a cell phone.
Now we are beginning to emerge out of the GSM dark ages here in the States; you can finally unlock your iPhone without having to deal with the hassle of jailbreak and hacks. Yay!
After close to 10 years using the Movable Type platform, I finally took the plunge and converted the site to WordPress. Why? A few things. First off, it’s easier to customize using themes than MT was, resulting in a more visually interesting site. Second, the tools provided by WP for controlling comment spam works very well and is easier on the servers than MT was. Third, there are all sorts of interesting add ons to control your WP blog, including an iOS app. Overall, a much more user centric package that doesn’t require knowledge of code to work.
Interview
Inputting photos is easier too. See photo above of Congressman Darryl Issa (R-Vista) and Amber Lee, KTVU reporter working at a recent event here in San Francisco.
Back in November, one of my friends got comps to visit Ku De Ta, the rooftop bar at the Marina Bay Sands in Singapore. Since that meant “view” and “adult beverages”, how could I refuse?
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We arrived just before sunset (see photo on the left). After a few drinks and one bump that nearly sent my camera plummeting into Marina Bay, the sun went down and the lights came on (the other photo on the right). Amazing!
The crowd is a bit d-baggy, the drinks are very overpriced and on most nights and weekends, there’s a cover and a queue. Definitely come here after work and watch the sun sink into the west. If you can find a quiet spot on the deck.
For the second year in a row, I found myself in Tokyo for New Year’s. Unlike most of the world, where New Year’s Eve is another excuse to get smashed and celebrate loudly, New Year’s in Japan is pretty much the exact opposite of that, with family time taking priority over debauchery. As a result, many people in Japan “go home” and stay in over New Year’s, filling family obligations before connecting with friends and visitors. Most restaurants and businesses close early (by 1600) if they’re open at all. A lot of businesses take several days off during the New Year’s holiday, so if you’re doing your first Japan visit during this time, you will find that a lot of businesses and attractions will be closed.
NYE schedule for the Oedo Line
New Year’s is also unique in that this is the only day of the year when the trains (JR, Eidan and Toei) run all night. Granted it’s a abbreviated schedule, but at least they’re running. If you find yourself out that evening, take a picture of the schedule that’s posted so you don’t come back to the station and have to wait for an hour for the next train back.
One tradition that visitors can partake in is hatsumode (初詣), the first shrine visit of the new year. The way to think about the new year is that it’s an opportunity to wipe the slate clean. Pay your debts and make amends for the past year and make wishes and pray for a good new year. Many of the major shrines in Tokyo get slammed over the first days of the new year as practically everyone is off work. Meiji-Jingu in Shibuya which is probably the best known shrine had over 3 million people visit over the first three days of the year. Many choose to visit on New Year’s Eve night, as I’ve done the past couple of years.
During my New Year’s visits, I stayed at the Hyatt Regency Tokyo (Shinjuku). Even though it’s overshadowed by it’s glam cousins, the Park Hyatt and the Grand Hyatt (Roppongi), the Hyatt Regency Tokyo has a good location, the club rooms are very nice and best of all, there’s a 7-11 in the basement AND has direct underground access to Tochōmae Station on the Toei Oedo Line. The hotel had a small New Year’s celebration in the lobby with singers and free champagne to toast at the stroke at midnight. The entire shindig ended just short of 0030. When I visited the Meiji Shrine last New Year’s, my friends and I arrived at the shrine close to 0100 and wound up queuing with 400,000 others to pay our respects. That took just about 3.5 hours. So, I thought, if I leave later, perhaps the queues won’t be as thick and I won’t be outside so long in the cold. At 0200, I made my way to the subway and 20 minutes later, I was at the Meiji Shrine. Where there was a slightly shorter queue. The wait was only two hours before I made it to the front.
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Due to the lateness (or earlyness) of the hour, after I made my offering, I purchased new omamori and recycled my old ones and hightailed it back to the hotel where my warm bed and room awaited me. Usually there’s food stands and amakaze just outside the shrine area for snacking and fun but many of the booths were closed due to the late late hour.
All Nippon Airways has emerged as my preferred carrier if I have to sit in steerage on transpacific routes, displacing UA as my default carrier (unless there are SWUs involved).
Why choose NH over UA? For about the same price, NH gives you better food, seatback AVOD, excellent service and a choice of arrival times and if you plan it right, a brief stopover as you change airports for the connection to SIN.
And since I brought up SIN, why not fly SQ instead of NH? If you’re flying economy, you need to select a slightly more expensive economy ticket in order to get miles. Seeing that the price difference is usually about US$60, it’s not a big deal. What IS a big deal is that on NH, as a UA Mileage Plus elite, you will get elite bonus for your redeemable miles earned on their transpacific flights. SQ gives you miles flown and that’s all IF you have a qualifying fare.
NH also has a very active FB presence with lots of photos and contests you can enter via Twitter. I won this luggage tag by answering the question of the month via Twitter and linking my accounts. It’s a nice looking tag. Not sure if I want it to get all scuffed up…
…and I’m not going!! Looks like fun and since Cathay Pacific is a sponsor, figure they’d make a silly commercial.
So this beeyoutiful team in Red stymies the All Blacks. I think they play dirty; the team in Red, that is. I mean, who brings a beverage cart onto the field? And the tripping foul is negated by the pillow and blankie I guess. Heh. Click through for the commercial.
This is the Japanese Maple Tree from the neighbor’s yard that creeps over the fenceline of my yard to say “hi”. Two weeks ago, it was barren and now it’s all spring like. I think it’s a reminder to start the backyard renovation project. Meh.
Taken from the Park Hyatt at the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center. That’s the Jin Mao Tower in the foreground and the Oriental Pearl Tower in the back. The fog rolled in so thick that night that flights out of PVG were delayed for hours the next day. I know, because I spent six hours at the FM lounge waiting for my flight back to Singapore.
China Mobile is the world’s largest cell service provider and there are lots of locations to get top ups and such. As a tourist however, you should visit a shop in an area where there are a lot of laowais.
It just gets easier and easier to do things in Mainland China. During my last trip, I broke down and purchased a China Mobile prepaid SIM for use during my visit. It makes things a lot easier when you’re out there.
It was a lot simpler to buy a SIM card than it was before. Here’s what you need to do:
1. Find a China Mobile (they have better coverage) store.
2. Walk inside and ask if someone can help you in english (对不起，你会说英文吗?).
3. Bring Passport and unlocked GSM phone; the former to register your SIM card and the latter so the staff can test it out for you.
It really was that easy. Here’s a site with more detailed information. It’s a couple of years old, but the information is still valid.
I ran the SIM card on my unlocked Nexus One. Phone calls and SMSes went through fine. I was able to purchase a data bucket to run Google Maps, the internet, Foursquare and most importantly, Google Translate! For standard GSM phones however, you will be running on EDGE. If you’re wanting 3G speed, I’ve read conflicting reports that China Unicom has a prepaid 3G service. Unlike most prepaid service in Asia, you can’t punch in a USSD code to pull up your balance or to purchase services. You need to call 10086 and press 2. Service is 24 hours and their English speaking staff is pretty good.
One more thing; Boingo Mobile works with a lot of the pay-hot spots around Shanghai. So if you have that service, you can always save your data by logging onto Wi-Fi.
So, the moral of the story is: be adventurous and ask! Usually people will be nice enough to be helpful, especially if you try to speak Putonghua. Which I can’t.
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