The Hunt For Mocca E90

While people in New York and San Francisco were queueing to get their hands on the "Jesus phone", I was on a hunt for a gadget that was due to be launched at 9 am on the very last day of June in Singapore. I've waited eagerly for this device to arrive since it was announced and by hook or crook, I was going to get my hands on one on launch day!

Not having had much sleep since I worked the night before, I woke up bright and early (out of excitement and anticipation) to grab my "Moses" phone. Why "Moses" phone? You'll find out soon enough.

After visiting the temple, something my wife and I do every Saturday, we made our way down to one of the major mobile phone outlets in Orchard Road to pick up the Nokia E90 (Mocca - colour). By the time we got there in the early part of the afternoon, there was already a crowd. "They're probably getting the regular phones. Not many will go for such a high-end business phone, dear", my wife comforted me after noticing the nervous look on my face. We got to the customer service counter and the minute I opened my mouth and said "E90", "Sold out this morning already! New stocks in 2 weeks only!", came the reply. My heart sank dragging my smile and spirit down with it.

"Lets try the other outlets around here. There's a Nokia retailer across the road", my wife tried to cheer me up. We made our way across to the other shopping centre via the underpass. Of course, it was "sold out" when we got there! I couldn't believe my luck, or the lack of.

"We're going to United Square later to get some toys for Dev, right? Lets try the shops there", my wife said, trying to remain positive. But no matter how hard she tried, even she was losing hope. Anyway, I called a shop there that I knew. "Yes, sir. We have stock.". That missing smile returned to my face.

Not wanting to waste anymore time in Orchard Road, we got to our car and I did what is equivalent to a Formula One type lap to United Square - some 20 odd minutes away. I could just imagine that tech-filled gadget being in the palm of my hand in just a few short minutes away. I stepped into the shop and proudly ask "I would like to buy the E90". "Just sold out, sir!", came the shop assistant's response. My mind screamed "Why God, why?"

So, I officially gave up. No E90 today, I guess. We went to get Dev's toys at a Toys 'R' Us sale and decided to head to do some grocery shopping at a shopping mall just a 5 minute walk from our home.

When we got there, we headed straight to the supermarket but just before entering, my wife remembered a shop selling mobile phones upstairs. "I'll bet you $100 they don't have stock of the E90", I told my wife. She smiled weakly without saying a word. I think she was drained from the Amazing Race like island-wide hunt for this elusive device.

We walked into the crowded shop close to 7 pm and approached a nervous looking sales promoter standing at the doorway. I asked limply "Do you happen to have stock of the new E90?". "Yes, sir. Stocks just in!" My head turned quickly to my wife in disbelief. She was smiling widely. So, I didn't hear him wrongly! I went over to the counter and asked again nervously, afraid that this young man might have mistaken the model I was asking for. "Yes, let me get it for you." Like a new alkaline battery just popped in, I sprung back to life.

The salesman opened an insignificant looking cupboard in the corner and he turned to ask "Red or Mocca?". "Mocca!", I shouted back, giving him a concurrent thumbs-up as I caught a whiff of what coincidently appeared to be brewed coffee coming from the coffee outlet one floor down. Out from that cupboard came a cling-wrapped box with white bold letters that said "Nokia E90 Communicator".




Twenty minutes and slightly over a thousand Singapore dollars later, I was the proud owner of the E90. As I write this, it is sitting beside me like an anxious little puppy waiting to show off what it can do. Needless to say, I was already impressed with its specifications when Nokia announced it was making the device.

Despite the possibility and eventual reality of the huge expenditure on the part of her gadget-obsessed husband, my wife was very supportive of what was important to me. That meant more to me than actually getting the device. Thank you, dear!

And the "Moses" reference? Notice how the device parts in the middle? *wink*

Hope you had as much fun over the weekend as I did.

Customer Service Kudos

Customer Service Officers are unsung heroes of many organisations, large and small.

Being a Supervisor for my company's Information Technology Helpdesk, I know how my staff are sometimes verbally abused for faults and problems that are just part and parcel of high-technology. If something malfunctions, callers would insist that it be fixed immediately, as though we were bored out of our minds and decided to take down the system just for fun.

People forget that it takes time to troubleshoot and fix problems. Has anyone who was ill gone to see a doctor and insisted on being cured immediately? I digress.

Last Saturday, as a result of losing her phone, my wife and I headed down to our mobile service provider to shop for a new phone. While she was browsing for a suitable replacement for her lost Treo 650, I was observing people, as I often do. No, not oogling - just observing.

While at the counter waiting for a representative to check on the availibility of a phone my wife had picked out (ok ok, I convinced her to buy!), a Customer Service Officer was busy greeting people, asking them how she could help and taking an appropriate queue number for them if she couldn't. Here's one conversation that irked me.

Customer Service Officer : Good afternoon sir, how may I help you today?

Male Customer (irritated) : Its a long story! Can you help me? If you can, I'll tell you the whole story. If you can't, I'm not going to waste my time. Just give me a queue number and let me speak to someone who can actually help.

Customer Service Officer (crestfallen) : Here's a queue number, sir.

I fumed at the attitude the CSO had to deal with. Then came this lady....

Customer Service Officer : Good afternoon ma'am, how may I help you today?

Lady Customer (in one breath) : I have a Blackberry but my Blackberry doesn't work now. I have taken my Blackberry to the Blackberry service centre but the people at Blackberry said that they could repair my Blackberry. So, I have come to buy a new Blackberry.

Customer Service Officer (with a straight face) : Here's a queue number, ma'am.

Premster : *giggling*

I know for a fact that I could never do the job of a Customer Service Officer based on my lousy temper and my practically non-existent tolerance for nonsense.

So, to all the people who have to go to their Customer Service jobs daily and have to deal with such people, I take my hat off to you.

An Apple A Day?

To start off, I apologise to all visitors (that's all 5 of you!) regarding the recent spate of Apple related posts (see this, this and this) turning this blog into what some might just call a fruit basket. I'll try to keep these to a minimum but before I sign off on this almost impossible task, here's a heads-up....

Apple will be having a one day only sale on its products on 9 February. That's tomorrow!! I am not sure how attractive the discounts will be but I am definitely looking forward to checking them out. And as much as I wish I could share "the love" with everyone, the sale appears to be for Singapore-based customers only.

You can count on me being online from midnight.

Update (9/2/07 1:55 am) : Sale has not started yet. Geez...

Baby Proof

Last night, while trying to steer (pardon the pun) a conversation with my wife towards cool new cars on the road, my wife, looking down at our little boy sleeping in her arms, suddenly smiled and said "I can't believe we have a son!". "Nice way of dodging the topic", I teased.

I know she didn't mean to detour from the subject (which inevitably would lead to talk about getting a new ride) but a sudden revelation had overcome her. I knew what she meant because I could definitely relate. When I am at work, everything seems like pre-fatherhood days but when I suddenly remember that I am now a father to baby boy, everything feels different. I feel I have to work harder, prove I am a very important cog in my company's wheel and present myself with utmost dignity. Not that I was ever sloppy but the need to do everything better was overwhelming.

If it sounds like I am complaining, I'm not. In fact, it makes me feel good.

Today, my wife and I were out plant shopping. A fengshui expert earlier said we should have a Money Plant to welcome good fortune into our home. And since we needed all the good fortune we could get, we set out looking for one at a nursery. While there, we scouted for a nice glass vase to put it into and have it perched on one of my ridiculously expensive speakers. My rationale was if it truly brought fortune, I could upgrade my speaker system if the plant ruined it. *pat on back*

Anyway, our conversation from that point on went like this :

Wife : Is it ok to place it on the speakers?

Me : Its ok. We'll just need to put some tabs below the vase to protect the speaker's surface. But what about Captain Crib?

Wife : Hmmm... He's starting to turn on his side and he'll soon be crawling.

Me : He might pull on the speaker wire and the whole vase might come tumbling down.

Wife : (wincing) You're right. No glass vases. Lets get a light plastic one instead.

And so we did.

The discussion came very naturally - like we were seasoned parents. Long story short, I think parenthood has just permanently hit home. And I guess we've just embarked on Step One of baby-proofing our abode.

Our joyride with our son is just about to shift to a higher gear. Time for everyone to "buckle up". *smile*

Bulb Technology

First and foremost, a disclaimer. I am not taking shots at women or implying that men are smarter. On the contrary, I think the reverse is true. However, our encounter with a sales girl last weekend left my wife and I perplexed. It was very reminiscent of a beauty pageant on TV some years ago when, during a question and answer segment, the host asked a contestant if she'd rather have her makeup kit or her mobile phone with her if she was stranded in a jungle. "Mobile phone!", came her smart answer. "Why?", the host prodded. "Because I can take it apart and send out radiation so that the rescuers can find me", she said with a confident smile. I guess dialling for help was far too difficult under those conditions.

Anyway, back to our encounter....

We chanced upon a table-top water feature (a fountain, basically) while out shopping and my wife thought it would look fabulous in our study room. So, we decided to spring for it. The petite girl who attended to us was unable to get the new fountain out of its box for us to inspect. Seeing her struggle, I told her not to trouble herself and if it was faulty, we would bring it back. I then studied the same unit they had on display to see if there was any assembly required. The following was our conversation.

Me : The bulb looks unique. Is it readily available?
Sales Girl : Not sure but we can order for you also.
Me : That means I'd have to come all the way back here just for a bulb?
Sales Girl : Well sir, you don't have to worry. The bulb uses electricity so you don't have to replace it at all.
Wife (whispering to me) : Was she a beauty pageant contestant?

*sigh*

Shop Till You...Smile!

Last weekend, my wife had a few of her friends over and needless to say, a house filled with women is really not a place for a guy like me to be. I had a couple of errands to run and took that opportunity to skip out to town.

While shopping at one of our gadget malls, I texted an old friend from school and coincidently, he was nearby. We met for a cup of tea to chat about the good ol' days as well as to talk about what we love most - gadgets. It was a pity he was rushing off to see his mom, who was not well, or we would have chatted till the cows came home. And just as he was leaving, I ran into a close relative of mine. Without going into details, the meeting saddened me a great deal even though I was glad to see him. Anyway, I wish him well even though the path he is on in life is very worrying.

I still had a lot of errands to run and one of which was to get a birthday gift for a former colleague / good friend. Shopping for him was tough. "What do you get for a man who has everything?", was the question of the day. On top of that, the chance meeting with my relative was weighing heavily on my mind. So, for a long while, I was roaming the malls aimlessly until I came across a small, thumb-drive looking device in the window. It was labelled "Sony" and that was enough to peak my curiousity. I walked in and was told that it was an MP3 player. I asked to see it. "No big deal. Apple has the iPod Shuffle so Sony is just a copy-cat", the smart-aleck voice in my head went - until it was demo'ed to me.

This little thing, no bigger than my thumb (disclaimer : I have a big thumb!) played MP3 and AAC files, stored data, had a built-in radio, a sports timer for running or cycling and even supported playlists. It had a OLED display which was crisp and showed you clearly what was playing or the radio station it was on. And if all this was not enough, a 3 minute charge on this baby allowed you to run it for a full 3 hours! My unwavering integrity was quickly relocating to a new camp. "Beat that, Apple!", went that voice in my head.

I suddenly found myself smiling at this little device. I knew that my friend would love it as much as I did. So, I got it - two of it, to be precise.

Well, it made me smile, didn't it?