My iPhone 3G S finally activated

After waiting for nearly 4 hours, my iPhone was not yet activated. I could not wait any longer, so I called AT&T customer service. And I was surprised. I had really good experience with them. The representative was truly professional and friendly. He only asked IMEI and ICCID numbers, which are located at the back of the box. Then he activated my iPhone in just a few minutes. If you are still waiting for activation, stop waiting and make a call!!!

Received iPhone 3G S, but activation delay....

My iPhone 3G S arrived today at 10:00AM. I tried to activate it via iTune, but I got a message says I may need to wait up to 48 hours due to large volume to activations. They will send an email once my activation is ready. Other than this, everything else seem to be good. Sync went smoothly. All contents in my original iPhone are now transfered to 3G S without a single glitch.

iPhone 3G S Shipment Update 2

Finally, UPS tracking is showing delivery date of 19th!!!!! So I am going to be getting it this morning.

iPhone 3G S Shipment Update

Initially, UPS tracking showed scheduled delivery date of today (17th). However, according to today's progress, Apple specified delivery date. As Apple stated, appears to be my iPhone will be delivered on 19th. I was hope I get it today, but oh well.... Package Progress
Location	Date	Local Time	Description
LOUISVILLE, KY, US	06/17/2009	5:36 A.M.	THE RECEIVER REQUESTED A HOLD FOR A FUTURE DELIVERY DATE. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON DATE REQUESTED
	06/17/2009	4:04 A.M.	THE PACKAGE IS BEING HELD FOR FUTURE DELIVERY. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON THE DATE REQUESTED
	06/17/2009	2:06 A.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
	06/17/2009	2:03 A.M.	THE RECEIVER REQUESTED A HOLD FOR A FUTURE DELIVERY DATE. UPS WILL ATTEMPT DELIVERY ON DATE REQUESTED
ANCHORAGE, AK, US	06/16/2009	6:52 P.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
	06/16/2009	1:48 P.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
CHEK LAP KOK, HK	06/16/2009	11:14 P.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
	06/16/2009	7:49 P.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
SHENZHEN, CN	06/16/2009	1:06 A.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
CN	06/16/2009	1:16 A.M.	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

My iPhone 3G S shipped

Last night I received shipment notification email from Apple. Looks like I'll be getting it on 19th.

Tracking Number: ---------------------
Type: Package
Status: In Transit
Shipped To: ---------------------
Shipped/Billed On: 06/16/2009
Product: WORLD EASE
Service: EXPRESS
Weight: .50 Kg

Package Progress
Location	Date	Local Time	Description
ANCHORAGE, AK, US	06/16/2009	1:48 P.M.	ARRIVAL SCAN
CHEK LAP KOK, HK	06/16/2009	11:14 P.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
	06/16/2009	7:49 P.M.	DEPARTURE SCAN
SHENZHEN, CN	06/16/2009	1:06 A.M.	ORIGIN SCAN
CN	06/16/2009	1:16 A.M.	BILLING INFORMATION RECEIVED

Preordered iPhone 3G S 32GB Black for $199

I preordered iPhone 3G S 32GB Black. I am currently still using original non-3G iPhone. This would be a huge upgrade for me. Too bad for current iPhone 3G owners, original iPhone owners can upgrade to 3G S at subsidized pricing. So my 3G S 32GB price is $299. 3G owners, not qualified for subsidized pricing, have to add additional $200 if they wish to upgrade before their contracts end; some may need to pay as much as $699. Fortunately, I still have not used $100 Apple Store credit from my original iPhone. I finally used this credit for this purchase. Therefore, what I paid for my 3G S 32GB is only $199 plus tax. My order status shows my new iPhone will be delivered on release date, June 19th (crossing my fingers). Anyway, I can't wait to get my new toy. I really do hope it will be here on 19th.

HAF 932 Gets Dusty Inside?

I purchased Cooler Master HAF 932 around this new year. I am not writing about its review since there are plenty already, but writing about whether or not it really gets dusty inside very quickly. I have read many opinions about dust because they assume that 4 big fans would move large amount of air with large amount of dust. After five months of using it, I have not had much problem with dust. I actually noticed there is not much difference in the amount of dust inside compare to my old case with one fan.

Picture of side fan.

Front fan.

As you can see in these pictures, side and front panels are collecting and help stopping duct from going inside. I also noticed that this case sucks in more air than it sucks out. That creates positive pressure inside which helps preventing dust build up inside. Of course this case won't make my PC dust free. I do still need to clean inside of my pc time to time. I clean inside every 2 month just as I did with my old case, and I yet to have any problem with too much dust built up.

WD My Book Studio Edition II 2TB Review

After my old Maxtor external hard drive died a while ago, I bought WD My Book Studio Edition II 2TB. So far, I am quite happy with it. It comes with 2 1TB or 1,000GB hard drives (total of 2TB or 2,000Gb), which you can configure it do RAID-0 or RAID-1. The connecting ports include USB, FireWire, and eSATA, but no ethernet port. It comes with generous 5-year warranty. By the end of 5 years, most people would buy a new external drive, so you can feel perfectly safe using it until you buy something new; unlike my old Maxtor came with only 1-year warranty.

There is one feature that I really love. You can open the cover to replace the broken hard drive. Most manufacturers won't let open the case in anyway. If you do, you will lose your warranty. WD allows you do to so without voiding a warranty. If one of hard drives fails, just pop the cover open, and simply remove the failed hard drive. This way, you won't have to send in the whole unit for repair. WD will send you a new hard drive.

Here is the picture of its back. It has power button, 2 firewires, 1 eSATA, and 1 USB. I am using eSATA for the best performance btw. WD included firewire and usb cables, but didn't include eSATA cable. I had to spend additional $15 to buy eSATA cable.

The performance is very good. I did not benchmark it but I have experiences using several external hard drives. I find this unit is among the fastest ones. Technically, eSATA is a lot faster than firewire. I noticed its eSATA is not much faster than firewire. I timed how long it takes to copy 3GB video file. The result was almost the same. eSATA was only a few seconds faster. I also times how long it takes to back my PC and I did not noticed much difference between the two. I am a bit disappointed that WD did not designed it to take much advange to eSATA.

My other favorite feature is auto on/off. If you leave the cable connected to the PC, it will turn itself on when you turn on the PC. It will also turn itself off automatically when you turn off the PC. Therefore, you never have to get up from chair to press the power button. Good news for lazy people like me.

After months of use, I discovered there are a few annoyances. One is its utility software. It comes with ultility software that allows your diagnose, format, and switch mode between Raid-0 and 1. The problem with this ultility software is not fully compatible with Vista. Under Vista, you won't be able to switch mode. My Book Studio comes with default setting of Raid-0 (Stripe). I want Raid-1 (Mirror) for safety. Fortunately, my PC has dual boot with XP. I booted into XP and switched the mode to Raid-1.

The other thing I don't like is after 15 minutes or so of idling, it goes into sleep mode. Under sleep mode, the hard drives stop spinning to save electricity. From sleep state, it takes about 7 to 10 seconds for it to become active again. It is no big deal for most people. Most would use it for backup and would not access it frequently. But I access it very often. Frequent 7 to 10 second waiting annoys me sometime.

I bet many of you have some concerns with noises from PC. Well, I do. When I build my PC, I always do every thing to make it as quite as possible. I just can't stand having jet taking off in my room constantly. When I bought My Book Studei Edtion II 2TB, I was worried that it would not be so quiet because it has 2 hard drives. After I turned it on for the first time, I was very surprised how quite it is. It is not 100% silent. There is still audible noise from hard drives. It is, however, quiet enough that does not disturb me at all.

Overall, this is very well balanced external hard drive. Fast, reliable, and reasonably priced. It is great for backups or video editing. I highly recommended it. Just make sure that you don't buy Maxtor. I never had good experience with that brand.

Pro:
-Very Fast
-Good quality
-5-year warranty
-Quiet

Con:
-No eSATA cable included
-Lack of full Vista support
-A bit slow on waking up from sleep mode
-eSATA is not much faster than firewire

Firmware 2.60 killed my PS3

My PS3 is Japanese 60GB model. The very first model released in Japan.

Here is what is wrong with my PS3:

My PS3 won't boot after firmware 2.60 update from 2.53. I updated via internet. It downloaded and copied the file to the hard drive. After the copying is done, it automatically restarted. From that point, normally it should boot and go into firmware installation. However, my PS3 does not boot and it never goes into the firmware installation. It just shows blank screen and nothing happens.

I have a spare 2.5" HDD, and tried replacing the original HDD with it. My PS3 booted and shows the message to format hard drive. After the format is done, it successfully boot into home screen of firmware 2.53. Games and movie still seem to work fine, but it lost internet connection. It does not recognize a connected LAN cable. I double checked the cables, routers, and modem; they are all fine. I tried reconfiguring the network setting, but I keep getting a message says connect LAN cable and error message: 80010201. I believe failed 2.60 update screwed up the Ethernet. The LEDs of Ethernet port are not even flashing. Also Wifi setting disappeared from network setting.

This time I tried installing via USB thumb drive, but I get the same result. I get blank screen after restart. It won't boot and start the installation. I reformatted this spare hard drive and my PS3 once again booted back into 2.53 without functional Ethernet or any internet connection. It still plays PS3, PS2, PS1 games, and Blu-Ray and DVD movie. Also card slots and USB ports seem to work properly. Next I tried the hidden recovery menu. I have tried all options in this menu, but nothing solved the problems. I also tried to update firmware from here, but I get an error: 8002F281 and a message say contact Sony Information Center.

Appears to be this failed firmware 2.60 installation totally messed up my PS3.

Sony America would not accept foreign PS3 for repair service, I would have to ship it back to Japan. That will cost me around $300 for 2-way shipping to and from Japan and whatever the price Sony Japan charges for repair. So I sent my PS3 to VideoGame911 for repair. Hopefully, my PS3 will be fully functional again. Otherwise, I would have to buy a new one.

Thank you so much Sony!!!!!