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We are what we think & my blog entries reflect how I think. Have a sip of the poison of my mind.. It's not always lethal.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

I'm Now A Droid



Have you checked out that beautiful device shown in the pic above? It's the pebble blue Samsung Galaxy S3 and this new beast of a mobile gadget is now mine, Mine, MINE :)

Pardon my excitement there but I'd be lying through my teeth here if I told you I wasn't the least bit thrilled. If you read up on the specs of the S3, I'm sure you'll see why, if you haven't done so already.

Actually, I almost bought the Galaxy Note last night when I've just finished work and found myself standing outside this M1 mobile shop in Bukit Panjang Plaza. I was just standing there till almost closing time, deciding if I should get the Note instead since the shop ran out of the S3. Thing was, the nearby Singtel shop on the same level carried both the marble white and pebble blue S3.

Before I went there, I was at Jurong Point and got myself on the line with M1's customer service, checking out which outlet carried the marble white S3 phone. My plan was to compare it with the Galaxy Note, so I needed an outlet with stocks for both. I was told that only Clementi Mall, Change Alley and Changi Point had the stock in very limited quantity. Yup, my original plan was to get the marble white S3 should I choose it over the Note.

Bummer, it was getting late and I still had to visit Bukit Panjang for my work before I could call it a day, so I summoned what endurance I've had left to fight mobile GAS and proceeded to Bukit Panjang. I also had to fight off the temptation to go over to Clementi Mall to try my luck in getting the white S3.

The customer service officer actually offered me the option of delivering a marble white S3 straight to my house today around 14:30pm but I declined, since I had to work, amongst other reasons like what if they only deliver a single piece of white S3 and it had defects on it?

So I was considering the Note at Bukit Panjang Plaza last night and I browsed the Web for news regarding the release date of the more advanced Galaxy Note 2. Web speculations tell me that if there is no delay, Samsung ought to roll the device out some time during October, which probably means November or December by the time it gets here. So in the end, I decided it wouldn't be very prudent to get the current edition of the Note now.

On the other hand, the S3 is supposedly the most advanced phone at the moment. I figured if I get the S3 now, its technology should be able to last me for the next 2 years till my recontract with my Telco expires. So yeah, I then decided to go get the S3 the next day, which is today. Had to grit my teeth and fight off the remaining GAS and endure further as I made my way home. It was quite a torture.

My Lioness reminded me that I've just jailbroken my iPhone 4 on iOS 5.1.1 like less than 2 weeks ago. She was kinda perplexed since getting a new phone that soon after going through the hassle of jailbreaking seemed like a waste of effort. Well, it is, but I've been watching lots and lots of videos on YouTube lately that compare the Android platform with iOS and I've made up my mind that Android will be able to cater to my mobile needs much better and I was hyped up enough to make the change.

So I've been losing sleep over all these lately. The following 5 parts video was really the nail in the coffin that made me make up my mind for an ASAP switch regarding the whole matter:


So this morning, I called up M1's customer service again and was told that the same 3 outlets mentioned yesterday were still the M1 outlets left with stocks for the marble white S3. They couldn't reveal the actual stock quantity but the customer service personnel was kind enough to let me know that the outlet at Change Alley had the most number of white S3s left, albeit at very limited quantity. It was kinda cute how they had to emphasise the words 'Very Limited Quantity' yesterday and today to the point that I pictured their spoken words in Bold.


So I headed to Change Alley as quickly as I could in the morning. The plan was to grab the phone and proceed with my work starting from the same area since I happen to have customers there. While making my way there inside the train, I tweeted the following for memory's sake


Yup, my iPhone has served me well all these while, but when it's time for a needed change, it's time for a needed change. Still, I'm gonna miss the good and productive times we've had together, as well as the adventures and misadventures. My iPhone was my very first proper Smart Phone, so it felt like a breakup with your first love or something.

When I reached the outlet at Change Alley, I was told the marble white S3s have all been sold out. WTF? That soon? I was expecting the marble white to still be available, considering it was still morning when everyone else was stuck in their offices and thus, too busy to sneak over here to grab phones. Apparently not, there was still a small line of customers.

My next option was to go to Changi Point instead but after comparing the marble white and pebble blue S3 display sets (placed side-by-side for easy comparison, thank common sense) at the outlet, I decided to settle for the pebble blue instead because of 2 reasons (one of them a stupid reason):

1) Perhaps it's just me but the plastic back of the marble white seemed kinda cheapo as compared to the pebble blue. This is of course a subjective issue. Also, I spotted some stains on the marble white - not serious but they were there.

2) The screen of the pebble blue somehow seemed bigger to me. This is the stupid reason which is of course, just psychological on a perception level. But heck, psychological or not, it did seem so to me. Perhaps it's the difference in colour of the screen borders. It's stupid, I know, but if my eyes perceive it that way, I might as well go for the one that pleases me more visually.

So I got the pebble blue on the spot. After getting my S3, I tried sending a message to my Lioness but discovered that my SIM card wasn't inserted. I was just a tad pissed that the CSO didn't switch the SIM over for me and so, I went back to her and requested that she open up the SIM slot of my iPhone for me, after which I sat down at the couch at the waiting area and switched the SIM card over to my S3 myself.

Honestly, that should have been part of the service. Who would choose to get a new phone without switching the existing or a new SIM card over to the new phone immediately so that you can start using it? I wouldn't have minded if the iPhone wasn't that proprietary to the point that I couldn't open its SIM card slot myself because I didn't have the appropriate tool to do so. Anyway, she probably forgot to make the switch since she's only human.

And by the way, I did not do a trade-in with my iPhone 4 since I was advised that I can get a better price for it if I sell it to the market instead, which was what I've decided to do. Current trade-in price at the time of this blog entry is $250.

And just to have a proper follow-up and conclusion, what happened next on my Twitter was inevitable but appropriate, I trust



- De Lion Speaks

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