The upcoming AGM of ICAP on 10 November 2012 will be crucial for all shareowners

Most of the shareowners of close-end fund iCapital.biz Bhd (ICAP, 5108) have been wondering why the AGM of this year comes so late.

It was 2 weeks after the announcement made on 18 October 2012 about its 8th AGM to be held on 10 November 2012, an Addendum to the 8th AGM notice has been dispatched through Bursa Malaysia's Company Announcements webpage, that a shareowner named Ms. Evelyn Ho is nominating 3 persons (including a foreigner who is the CEO of Laxey Partners) to enter the board of directors of ICAP. On the other hand, the present BOD is also nominating 2 more friendly partners to contest for the directors election.

As you might notice, the share price of ICAP has been trading at discount to its NAV since 2008, and the gap has widen to more than 20% from 2011 until today. This is a good investment opportunity for anyone who want to invest in ICAP with discounted price to its NAV. In addition, ICAP fund management has been performing well, with its NAV keeps rising despite the discount in its share price.

Then, we saw a foreign fund City of London Investment Management Company Ltd. emerged as substantial shareholder of ICAP since August 2011 and keeps on accumulating until holding about 7% of ICAP to date. Later, we also saw another foreign fund Laxey Partners Ltd. also emerged as substantial shareholder of ICAP since April 2012 and also keeps on accumulating until holding about 7% of ICAP to date. 

Laxey Partners Ltd. has many track records of accumulating the shares of close-end funds at discount, then getting into the BOD of the fund, replace the chairman/CEO and hostily take over the control of the fund. The sudden nomination of 3 persons apparently from Laxey Partners Ltd. to ICAP's BOD is definitely a threat to the existing BOD, and if the replacement of the directors does happened, it will affect the fund's future direction and hence affect the interest of all ICAP shareowners.

According to its 2012 Annual Report, ICAP has 3000+ shareowners, of which about 65.8% are held by about 2,000 minority holding 100-10,000 shares. CDAM, the fund manager, also holds about 0.5% of the shares.

In its Annual Report, ICAP reiterates that it "exists for one simple reason : to allow long-term shareholders or more aptly called share owners, to benefit from value investing. Investing in your Fund allows the power of compounding to work for you. If we succeed in achieving this, we would have also shown that serious long-term investing in Bursa Securities can offer superior returns." This is inline with its IPO Prospectus stating the investment strategy to be "intelligently eclectic".

If the existing shareowners want to maintain ICAP's investment philosophy and agree that the fund has been well managed and the present BOD has been taking care of the interest of all shareowners, they should show support to the existing BOD during the coming AGM.

Anyway, let's see what Laxey Partners going to propose, and what the existing BOD and the fund manager is working on to enhance the value to the shareowners. If City of London is on their own, we might see a triangular war, else, we'll see a cut-and-thrust war. The party who can convince the minority shareowners with 65.8% holding will be the winner, but the minority shareowners must be present to the AGM or appoint proxy the exercise their rights.

That's why, the upcoming AGM of ICAP is very crucial to the fate of ICAP.

Disclaimer: This article is intended for sharing of point of view only. It is not an advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of the mentioned stock counters. You should do your own homework before trading in Bursa Malaysia.

RON 97 petrol in Malaysia made historical high price @ RM3.00/litre

The RON 97 petrol price has silently risen to a historical high of RM3.00 per litre since Thursday 6 September 2012, a whopping 30 sen increase from its previous price of RM2.70.

In July, it was reported that the price of RON 97 was slashed by 20 sen from RM2.80 to RM2.60 per litre.

Then, the price silently increased by 10 sen in August to RM2.70 per litre without announcement.

Now, it increased again to historical high, without announcement too!

FBI seized Applanet.net, Appbucket.net and Snappzmarket.com for hosting pirated Android apps

The US government has shutdown 3 Android apps marketplace websites namely Applanet.net, Appbucket.net and Snappzmarket.com recently.

Those websites are known to host and distribute popular Android apps which are selling with a price in the official Google Play Store and/or Amazon Marketplace, etc.

Actually, most Android apps are selling at a low price, even lower than a cup of Starbucks coffee, and we just need to pay for once to download the apps and able to enjoy all future version updates/upgrades. Even when we changed to a new Android phone, the apps we purchased before will be automatically installed into the new phone.

Smartphone users should build the mentallity of paying for the apps that they find useful, which they like to keep in their phone for their use. Most of the time, the cost of the apps is less than 1% of the cost of their smartphone.

FBI seizure of these 3 piracy marketplaces is a meaningful move to somehow educate the users not to avoid paying for non-free apps. If the mobile developers are well rewarded by producing popular apps, that will encourage more and more fantastic apps to be produced.

Reference: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/376360/20120822/piracy-infringement-android-apps-download-applications.htm

RIP Dr. Stephen R. Covey, author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

News reported that Dr. Stephen Richard Covey (1932-2012), author of the best-selling motivational book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People (over 20 million copies sold worldwide), has just passed away due to residual effects of an April bicycle accident.

Covey is the founder of Covey Leadership Center, which in 1997 merged with Franklin Quest to form FranklinCovey Co. Today, FranklinCovey has offices in hundred over countries as global consulting and training center in the areas of strategy execution, leadership, customer loyalty, sales performance, school transformation and individual effectiveness. Covey is also a professor at the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University at the time of his death.

Beside The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Covey is also the author of the following best-selling books:

• The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Families
• The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness
• The Leader in Me
• The 3rd Alternative
• First Things First
• Principle-Centered Leadership

Below are the 7 habits of highly effective people as listed by Covey. Read his book for full detail:

• Be proactive
• Begin with the end in mind
• Put first things first
• Think win/win
• Seek first to understand, then to be understood
• Synergize
• Sharpen the saw

Updated HTC Incredible S from Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS)

Right after Google released the latest Android version 4.1 (Jelly Bean) last week, finally the last version of Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS) with Sense UI 3.6 is now rolled out to HTC Incredible S smartphones.

The OTA (Over-The-Air) 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS) with Sense UI 3.6 for HTC Incredible S smartphone has been made available to Malaysia yesterday (18 July 2012) morning, a few days after its roll out to European region.

You can manually check for the update now, or wait for the automated update alert appear on your HTC Incredible S smartphone sooner or later.
The download process with probably take half an hour or more, and the updating process will take another quarter hour or more.

After successful update, I manually restarted the phone 3 times, and it is now operating faster than before (while it was on Gingerbread), showing its improvement in this new version.

The following are observed in the Android ICS for HTC Incredible S:

• A new launch bar which you can put in 4 most commonly used app, and in the center is the "All apps" icon. This launch bar appears in every of the 7 Home Screens. The quick launch icons in the Lock Screen follows the 4 apps you put in this launch bar.
• The stock Camera app has been improved.
• Widget of some apps is now resizable, including Folder Organizer and Business Calendar that I use.
• Facebook for HTC Sense has been taken out. FriendStream now has to use the official Facebook app to access to my Facebook account.
• Network usage info (both mobile and Wi-Fi) can be displayed in Settings > Usage. This is in direct competition with some 3rd party apps like 3G Watchdog.
• The items in Quick Settings list is now lesser, and you can no longer find Wi-Fi and GPS toggle switch in the list. You will need one more step, to tap on the icon to the right of Additional Settings bar to reach the Wi-Fi toggle switch in another list. The GPS toggle is even deeper inside the Location setting.
• Memory usage is observed to be lesser compared with previous version of Android.
• Now can do screen capture by pressing the physical Power and Home buttons of the phone together.
• Calls is now accessable to People, Groups and Call History directly.
• Added many Developer Options inside the Settings.
• The buttons of stock Calculator app now has too big font size.
• The white background of stock Battery widget make its text hard to see.
• .....

This Android ICS for HTC Incredible S smartphone is really a major upgrade from Gingerbread. Have fun!

Yahoo website hacked, 450k+ user information exposed

A MySQL database in Yahoo Voice (formerly known as Associated Content before being purchased by Yahoo in 2010) was just hacked using SQL injection, and its MySQL variables, together with 450k+ user information in database dump, is exposed to Internet by someone claimed as D33Ds Company.

Soon, somebody has analysed the database dump using a tool called Pipal, and revealed the top 10 most commonly used passwords to be:

• 123456
• password
• welcome
• ninja
• abc123
• 123456789
• 12345678
• sunshine
• princess
• qwerty

The result of the findings is posted in Pastebin.

Nowadays, password is commonly used as credential to authenticate users accessing web-based and/or mobile-based services in the Internet. As a user, beside not using password that are easy go guess (by human or by computerized program), we also need to assume that the website might not be putting enough security measure in storing our information in their server. Therefore, it is advisable to use different password for different website. If one is compromised, at least the rest are not badly affected.

Welcome to the era of negative interest rates

Don't be surprised when one day, you realise that the bank will charge you interest (instead of paying you interest, in common sense) for the money you deposit with them.

This has already gone real in certain financial institution in the USA and in Europe. Even some new bonds recently issued by the government of some countries in those regions are having negative interest rate.

Well, when a financial institution impose a negative interest rate, it sends a clear message to its depositors to withdraw their money from that institution and deposit to other competitors who still offering normal positive interest rates, or to use the money for consumption or invest in other kind of investment instruments that might not be as safe as the money market but also provide higher potential of growth to the money, or to keep the money at home in your personal safe.

Why a financial institution wants to force you to withdraw your money from them? Probably because they have too much idle cash on hand, and the investment situation is really bad, and the interest rate is really low (in low interest situation, their profit margin to lend out the money is low).

No matter how, be prepared for the day to come to you.

Your smartphone will be your personal assistant: Apple Siri & Google Now

A few years ago, Apple acquired Siri, and this artificial intelligence (AI) product is now part of the iPhone 4S launched last October 2011. It includes functionalities to make it a virtual personal assistant that we always bring along.

Recently when Google announced the next version of Android, Jelly Bean, they promised us with  Google Now, which is a search-centric, voice-powered digital AI personal assistant to compete with Siri.

We can anticipate one more interesting function in our smartphone in near future, which is a personal assistant who knows about our time schedule and proactively alert/remind us on upcoming appointments, and knows our interest and hobby and provide useful suggestion/answer that match with our interest.

It will also learn the detail in the air-ticket that we purchased, and able to kept us updated with boarding information, latest departual/arrival time schedule, the weather at the destination, etc.

It will be able to remind us about the birthday and anniversary of our family members and close friends.

When we are on the road, it will alert us on possible traffic jam ahead, and suggest for alternative route.

Nowadays, a smartphone is already very much more than a phone that we use to make call and send SMS. The revolution will continue with more and more features and functionalities added in.

GoMobile 2012

The annual mobile lifestyle event GoMobile 2012 is around the corner now.

Date: 11-13 May 2012
Venue: KL Convention Centre

GoMobile is actually 3-events-in-1, namely the GoMobile Expo, the GoMobile Conference and the GoMobile inOvation Awards And Celebration Party.

Also, there will be a special dedicated zone called Appcity to showcase Malaysia homegrown mobile applications, content and services.

Talks and briefings have also been lined up with topics such as Build An Android App With Zero Programming Knowledge, Why HTML5, How to Market Apps, Building Android Apps, Building iOS Apps, Windows Phone 7 Programming and Augmented Reality Programming.

This event is anticipated to attract more than 150,000 visitors.

Generating free QR code with custom colour, background, design, etc.

I just discovered this website that enables us to generate QR code with custom colour, background, design, etc. for free.

Here is the QR code of my blog generated by that website. Pretty cool isn't it?

Currently it only support 5 types of QR code generation, which are:

• Text
• URL
• Phone number
• VCard / meCard contact detail
• WiFi Access

And supported customization includes:

• Round the edge of the pixels
• Change background colour
• Put an image as background
• Change foreground colour
• Change colour of certain pixels
• Put an image as foreground
• Paste an image in front of the QR code

This is the website I'm talking about: http://www.qrhacker.com/

The legendary Dato John Lim Tow Yong JP (1925-2012)

Singaporean Dato' John Lim Tow Yong JP (拿督林道荣局绅), born in Suatow (仙都乡), Jinshizhen (金石镇), Chao'An (潮安县), Chaozhou (潮州市), China and actived in South East Asia, has just passed away on 7 April 2012 at the age of 87. That was just a few days right after his biography book, The Legend of Dato' Lim Tow Yong JP -- Founder of Emporium Holdings (英保良二老板林道荣·新马汶百货巨子传奇) been published. His death and his legendary life was widely reported in newspapers in South East Asia.

Dato' Lim has a brother Lim Tow Seng (林道信) who reached Singapore in 1935 at the age of 15 and  worked as an apprentice in a trading company, 7 days a week, 14 hours a day, with a monthly salary of $4 only. 3 years later, he started up his own provision shop called Lim Seng Huat (S) Limited.

In 1940, Dato' Lim also reached Singapore, first worked at his uncle's pork shop, later joint his brother's provision shop as a saleman. The business of Lim Seng Huat grew after World War II by importing and distributing made-in-China products. From Singapore, they expanded to Malaysia and Hong Kong. They even became the sole distributor of German MontBlanc pens in Singapore, Malaysia and Brunei.

In 1961, the Lim brothers founded the Emporium Holdings Group, and 5 years later, they opened the 1st Chinese-managed emporium in Singapore namely Oriental Emporium on 1 December 1966, selling made-in-China products on the same street with British's Robinson that sell high-end Western goods.

In 1968, they opened another emporium in Singapore, selling local products as well as made-in-China products. They continued to expand, and by 1979, they opened 16 emporiums in Singapore. In 28 March 1980, they opened another 8 emporiums and 2 restaurants in the same day.

At the same time, they opened 22 emporiums during 1967-1979 in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Ipoh, Melaka, Seremban, Johor Bahru, Kuantan, Kulai, Kluang, etc. In December 1972, they registered Emporium Holdings (M) Bhd in Malaysia. Later in November 1973, they also registered Emporium (S) Pte. Ltd. in Singapore. Dato' Lim became the managing director of the Emporium Group.

Being a visionary boss, Dato' Lim paid attention to his employees' training. He sent his employees to Western countries to study the operations of large departmental stores there. He invited professor from Japan to give lecture to his employees.

He emphasized on team work and cultivated good inter-relationship among employees. He cared about employees' benefits and engagement of his employees. He brought in advanced management methodology and technology to improve productivity. He improved customer service to engage his customers. He led in the computerization of his operations way back in the 80's. At the same time, he established a mentoring system, breaking down his employees into 5-people groups with a leader, each group in charge of about 400 sqft in the departmental store, and awarded according to their sales contribution.

While the Emporium Group focused in selling oriental goods, Dato's Lim also established Klasse Departmental Sore to sell Western goods, and joint-venture with Kimisawa Departmental Store to sell Japanese goods.

In early 1985, at his peak, Dato' Lim made a Guiness World Record of having 113 companies around Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Hong Kong.

However, a recession in Singapore in 1985 also brought him down. In 31 July 1985, 500 employees were retrenched. In 23 October 1985, another 200 employees retrenched.

The Emporium Group gone into trouble, because they margined too much on bank loan for expansion, and they never close down branches that didn't make money. Besides, high inventory level also caused cashflow problem. Later, they tried to convert some departments into consignment basis, which eventually formed a norm in departmental store operations nowadays.

In 1987, the Emporium Group in Singapore was taken over by Malaysian tycoon Bill Ch’ng (庄宝), and Dato' Lim resigned from the empire he built.

Meanwhile, the Emporium Group in Malaysia was applying for public listing in KLSE at the same time, but failed. In November 1987, 31 emporiums was bought over by Natvest Sdn Bhd backed by the Lion Group, and were renamed Parkson.

In 1988, Dato' Lim was declared a bankrupt by Singapore high court at the age of 63. By that time, Dato' Lim was in Labuan, trying to make a come back with RM100k capital. Since his bankrupcy, Dato' Lim was trapped in Singapore for 2 years, until he met Dato Hapitz who helped him restarted his business as Milimewa in Brunei.

In 1992, Dato' Lim made a come back by expanding his business to Sabah. In 1999, he was finally discharged from bankruptcy at the age of 75. In 2003, he had 18 departmental stores in Sabah, and in 2004, he sold all of them to The Store and gained a few millions. He became a millionaire again!

In 2010, Dato' Lim had 8 departmental stores in Brunei. In 2011, he used back the Emporium brand for his departmental stores. He also planned to build a hotel in Labuan.

On 24 September 1996, while Dato' Lim was still in his bankruptcy, 700 of his ex-employees invited him to a dinner to thank him for fostering them while they were in Emporium Group.

10 years later on 20 December 2006, Dato' Lim invited back his ex-employees to a dinner, and attended by 1380 people from Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei and Hong Kong. That night, Dato' Lim spent over 300k to thank back his ex-employees.

On 30 March 2012, Dato' Lim invited his ex-employees again to his dinner, in conjunction with the launching of his new book. That dinner was attended by over thousand people. However, Dato' Lim didn't make it to the dinner, he was hospitalized, and later passed away in his glory. His funeral was attended by several hundreds of his present and past employees.

There are 2 things that we all admire Dato' Lim. One is his business skill in building his business empire recorded in Guiness Book of Records, and making him a millionaire once again after bankruptcy. Another is his leadership charisma in having over thousand of engaged employees, who still remember and feel thankful to him regardless he was in failure or success.

Garmin-Asus A10 Android smartphone stock clearance sale (RM5xx) - a good companion for smart tablet

Garmin-Asus A10 Android smartphone is on stock clearance sale nationwide now!

This Android smartphone with Garmin Nuvi 1690 GPS features used to sell above RM1200 for the standard package itself, and now you can get a complete set with all the following items at a price of RM5xx only:

• The standard package - the phone, indoor charger, USB cable, earphone and battery
• Car charger and windscreen suction mount cradle
• A10/M10 desktop battery charger and 1 additional battery
• A10 anti-fingerprint screen protector
• 2 years warranty from SiS

This is really a very good deal to buy it as a companion phone for Samsung Galaxy Tab or some other Android smart tablet or Apple iPad, although we know that Garmin and Asus had discontinued their deal in producing future Garmin-Asus smartphone, and the Android in Garmin Asus A10 remains as 2.1 (Éclair) only.

Why? Because firstly, the Garmin-Asus A10 has a built-in Garmin GPS with Nuvi 1690 features, with a very fast responding and good signal reception GPS chip inside (compared with other smartphones with GPS or a-GPS feature). This phone can locate your location within seconds once its GPS feature is turned on!

The "Where To?" and "Where Am I" app are commonly used GPS feature. Beside that, you can also install additional GPS app into the phone, such as Sygic.

Secondly, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is too troublesome to use as a phone. The A10 with small 3.2" screen is nice to carry in your pocket and work as a phone. It has nice speaker that make your ringtone louder than most Android smartphones too.

So, with this companion, you can:

• Use the A10 as your phone, GPS, calculator, and perhaps basic camera
• Use the Galaxy Tab for Internet, gaming, reading, and other smartphone functions

In fact, I have found out a way to tether the Internet access of your A10 to Galaxy Tab, so you just need one SIM card with data plan in the A10 for this companionship to work seamlessly.

The pros of A10:

• Small size, easy to carry in any pocket. Good companion for tablet
• Superb Garmin GPS function
• Garmin maps are popular and have worldwide coverage. Free unlimited map update available for MalSingMaps (MSM), MalFreeMaps (MFM), etc. Many custom POIs and travel guides can be downloaded from the Internet too.
• When attached to its car GPS cradle, incoming phone calls are handled by the loudspeaker on the cradle. You don't need bluetooth or wired headphone for hand-free phone conversation
• Long lasting 1500mAh battery (can last for more than 30 hours without charging if not using GPS)
• Built-in 4 GB internal memory, and support additional memory (up to 32 GB) with micro SDHC card
• Its phone casing and accessories are solid and of good quality, same material with Garmin GPS products. Better protection from scratch and drop.
• The current cost of RM5xx is competitive to standalone basic GPS device and entry level Android phone. With A10, you get both of them in a single device! In fact, its hardware spec is better than Samsung Galaxy Y S5360 and HTC Explorer.

The cons:

• The 3.2" screen size with only 320x480 resolution is good enough for GPS and general phone function, but is small for other smartphone functions which you can use the 7" and above Galaxy Tab to handle
• The 3.2" screen is a bit small when use as GPS in car, but the voice is loud and clear
• CPU speed at 600Mhz and 512 GB RAM is good enough for GPS and general phone function, but not powerful enough for many apps that need higher resource, which you can use the Galaxy Tab to handle
• Latest firmware is Android is 2.1 (Éclair) update-1, able to install and run most Android apps in the Market, but lack of new features in Android 2.2 (Froyo), 2.3 (Gingerbread) and above. You will need to root it and install Barnacle Wifi Tether as tethering is only built-in in Android 2.2 onwards

You can consider this phone if you are still using Galaxy Tab as your phone (make this a good companion) or you are considering entry level Android smartphone such as Samsung Galaxy Y S5360, HTC Explorer, etc. At almost the same price, this phone has better hardware specs, Garmin Nuvi 1690 GPS functions, and come together with a lot of accessories.

HTC Android smartphones to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update soon

HTC has just announced that they are planning to roll out Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update by March/April 2012 for at least the following models:

• Sensation
• Sensation 4G
• Sensation XE
• Sensation XL
• Rezound
• Vivid
• Amaze 4G
• EVO 3D
• EVO Design 4G
• Incredible S
• Desire S
• Desire HD

This is a good news for the users of above HTC Android smartphones.

Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 to get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update in February 2012

Source from AsusTek is saying that Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101, the predecessor of Asus Eee Pad Transformer Prime, equipped with Android 3.2 Honeycomb OS, will get its Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) update soon within February 2012.

This 10.1" Android tablet sets itself apart from other tablets on the market by featuring an optional docking station with full QWERTY keypad, touchpad, secondary battery, USB port, and SD card reader, making it convertible to netbook-like Android machine, has been selling very well since its launch in 2011.

With its new Android OS update, we can anticipate more fun and new experience in using this Transformer tablet.

Singapore ranked #1 in terms of smartphone penetration

According to recent smartphone penetration statistics from several sources including Netsize Guide, Informa, Google, Ipsos, and Go-Gulf.com, it is concluded that by December 2011, Singapore is the champion in terms of smartphone peneration, and also is the world's first country that have more smartphone than feature phone in used.

Singapore:
Population = 4.9 million
Mobile phone subscriptions = 8.1 million
(many people carries more than 1 phone!)
Feature phones = 3.7 million (45.68%)
Smartphones = 4.4 million (54.32%)

The top 10 countries in smartphone penetration as compiled by Go-Globe.com is as below:

How about Malaysia? Here is the data:

Population = 28.1 million
Mobile phone subscriptions = 36.6 million
(some people carries more than 1 phone!)
Feature phones = 31.4 million (85.79%)
Smartphones = 5.2 million (14.21%)

 

 

I think one reason for Singapore to achieve such a high smartphone penetration rate is that mobile operators in Singapore are offering smartphones bundled together with their data plan at very low price or even for free. In Malaysia, smartphone price is relatively high, and the discount offerred by mobile operators in their bundled data plan is not attractive enough.

 

 

Surprisingly, Korea (which Samsung is based in) is not in the top 10 list, yet. Here is the data:

Population = 48.6 million
Mobile phone subscriptions = 54 million
(some people carries more than 1 phone!)
Feature phones = 37.6 million (69.63%)
Smartphones = 16.4 million (30.37%)

 

 

And Japan:

Population = 126.9 million
Mobile phone subscriptions = 126.8 million
Feature phones = 108.7 million (85.73%)
Smartphones = 18.1 million (14.27%)

 

 

References:

• Smartphone Penetration Rates by Country! We Have Good Data (finally)
• Smartphone Usage Statistics 2012 [Infographic]

Security flaw in some HTC Android phones might expose WiFi password

It has been reported that a security flaw in some HTC Android phones might expose WiFi password stored in the phone to hackers.

This security bug was found by Chris Hessing and Bret Jordan back in September 2011, and they have posted the detail of the exploit in their blog recently.

Affected HTC Android smartphones include but not limited to: Glacier, Desire HD, Desire S, Droid Incredible, Thunderbolt 4G, Sensation, Sensation 4G, EVO 3D, EVO 4G, ...

HTC had been informed about this bug before it was published, and they have just announced that the fix has already been developed.

"Most phones have received this fix already through regular updates and upgrades.However, some phones will need to have the fix manually loaded. Please check back next week for more information about this fix and a manual download if you need to update your phone."

RM88 CNY offer package for SmartTAG + Touch n Go or PLUSMiles card

Currently, there is a Chinese New Year offer package for SmartTAG + Touch n Go or PLUSMiles card selling at RM88 (normal price: RM120 + RM10 = RM130).

Offer period: 21 Jan 2012 - 29 Jan 2012

Where to buy?

• Touch 'n Go Hub at Bangsar South, KL Sentral or Wisma Nufri
• Reload 'n Go counters at Seremban R&R, Sg. Buloh OBR and Temerloh R&R
• Touch 'n Go service centre along PLUS Highway and MTD Highway
• Touch 'n Go SPOT counters at:
• Shell, Hentian Sebelah Juru, Lebuhraya PLUS Arah Utara
• Esso, Hentian Sebelah Juru, Lebuhraya PLUS Arah Selatan
• Shell, R&R Tapah, Lebuhraya PLUS Arah Utara
• Shell, R&R Tapah, Lebuhraya PLUS Arah Selatan
• Petronas, Lebuhraya Sg Besi Arah Utara
• BHPetrol, Lebuhraya Sg Besi Arah Selatan
• Petronas, R&R Ayer Keroh, Lebuhraya PLUS Arah Utara
• Shell, R&R Pagoh, Lebuhraya PLUS Arah Utara
• Petronas, R&R Skudai, Lebuhraya PLUS
• Shell, Gombak, Lebuhraya MRR2, Arah Batu Caves
• Petronas, Lingkaran Karak, Lebuhraya MRR2

Click here for more information about RM88 CNY offer package for SmartTAG + Touch n Go or PLUSMiles card.

HTC rolled out Android 2.3.5 and Sense UI 3.0 update to Incredible S in Malaysia and Singapore

The OTA (Over-The-Air) Android 2.3.5 (Gingerbread) together with HTC Sense UI 3.0 of HTC Incredible S smartphone has been made available to Malaysia and Singapore yesterday (29 December 2011) morning.

You can manually check for the update now, or wait for the automated update alert appear on your HTC Incredible S smartphone sooner or later.

Although this update will not cause any data or setting lost to your smartphone, it is always a wise choice to perform a backup using tools such as MyBackup (or the paid MyBackupPro) or Titanium Backup (or the paid Titanium Backup Pro) prior to the update, just in case...
After the update, you will get a new lock screen as the one in HTC EVO 3D. You can customize this lock screen in Personalize > Lock screen. The background can be either your Wallpaper, Photo Album, Friend Stream, Weather, Stocks, or Clock display. You can also assign the apps linking to the 4 quick launch icons there.

Using the phone becomes more fun with the 3D effects of HTC Sense UI 3.0. However, it is harder to get the carousel effect when fast swiping the home screen than in HTC EVO 3D.

Malaysia Employment Outlook and Salary Guide 2011/12 from Kelly Services

Kelly Services has released their Malaysia Employment Outlook and Salary Guide 2011/12.

It is observed that employers are now focusing on employing graduates armed with knowledge of the profession and competency, who are critical thinkers and problem solvers with good communication skills within the sales and marketing functions. Most organizations offer these fresh graduates lower basic salary and higher performance based tiered incentives and commission.

Talent with a genuine ability to build long-term, successful, professional relationships with clients, in addition to selling a product or service are in great demand to keep the business moving forward.

With the rise in "cloud" technology, there will also be an increasing demand for ICT professionals with skills in networking, security and creative multimedia within the next 3 years. Other staffing
trends include rich Internet applications and mobile development arising from smart phones impact into the markets.

Click here to download the Kelly Services Malaysia Employment Outlook and Salary Guide 2011/12.

Citibank giving out 500 new Apple iPhone 4S 16GB in its contest

On the same day the new Apple iPhone 4S smartphone debut in Malaysia, Citibank has announced a new contest with 500 unit of Apple iPhone 4S as prize.

Residents of Malaysia who are existing or new Citibank cardholders (credit card, debit card or ATM card issued in Malaysia) can participate in this contest.

Contest period is from 16 December 2011 to 24 March 2012, spanning 100 days. There are 5 winners for each day, and each winner will be awarded one unit of Apple iPhone 4S.

You can gain contest entries by:

• Use credit card to swipe at least RM50 in single receipt locally
• Use credit card to swipe at least RM50 in single receipt, charged with foreign currency
• Sign up Citibank Online account
• Sign up to receive e-statements
• Successfully apply for Balance Transfer / Cash Advance / Dial For Cash / Card Protection Premier / Flexi Payment Plan / One Bill / Credit Shield Plus / Credit Shield Premier / HomeSafe / Cash Assure Plus 400
• Successfully upgrade your credit card
• Successfully apply for new credit card / debit card / ATM card
• Successfully apply for supplementary card
• Accept a Citibank initiated permanent increase of credit line

At the end of each day during the Contest Period, each Contest Entry received during the day will be given a serial number. The Contest Entries will then be arranged according to the serial numbers assigned to them. The total number of Contest Entries received for the day will be divided by 500. The result will then be rounded down to the closest whole number (“Multiple Number”). The first twenty (20) serial numbers which are multiples of the Multiple Number, beginning with that Multiple Number, will be selected as the shortlisted serial numbers.

Each of the Short-listed Participants will be contacted by Citibank or its appointed representatives up to 2 times at the latest telephone numbers furnished to Citibank as shown in Citibank’s records at any time during office hours (9.00am – 6.00pm) to answer a series of 5 questions. In the event Citibank or its appointed representative is unable to contact a Short-listed Participant after 2 attempts and/or the
Short-listed Participant withdraws its participation in the Contest upon being contacted by Citibank or its appointed representatives, the Short-listed Participant will be deemed disqualified from the Contest. Only the principal cardmembers will be contacted.

The five (5) out of the 20 Short-Listed Participants who answer the most number of questions correctly in the fastest time will be the Winners for that relevant day and will each win a Prize.

Click here to read the detail terms and conditions of Citibank's "Win 500 Apple iPhone 4S Contest".

Click here to participate in Citibank's "Win 500 Apple iPhone 4S Contest".