Marvin Lee Dot Net

It has been more than a month since I tried TM’s new project – iTalk WHOA!, and there’s more than a month since I landed myself in the USA.

Over this time of more than a month, I have used iTalk WHOA! so many times to call home, back to Malaysia and I can say it’s the best choice for international calls as far as cost is concerned.

Read on to learn why, and click on the images to view them in original size.

I still have a credit balance of over RM7 after using more than a month with a starting credit of RM 25. I don’t make calls everyday, but maybe once a week, with length as long as half and hour to one hour?

You don’t really need a guide to learn how to use iTalk WHOA! The interface is simple and Phone is the button that I used most often.

Just select the country you want to dial, enter your phone number and hit Dial.

You of course, need a computer with speakers and a microphone to make the call, it isn’t magic.
I would suggest you to use a dedicated earphone/mic if your computer/laptop has a built in speaker or mic. This is because the sound you make or the party at the other end might get ‘cycled’ and ruin the conversation.

The recipient of the call will be seeing a random general calling number, which I assumed is assigned by TM.
Quality of the call depend on your internet connectivity and also on the iTalk WHOA servers.
There are times when my voice was delayed for a second or so and I can hear my voice coming back. Bear in mind this is a call to a landline and not to a computer.

The second most used function for me is SMS. It only costs 10 sen to send one sms.
I wish though it could have a status report as I remembered correctly, there were a couple of instances where sms were not delivered.
The sms sending feature is just like Google Voice SMS. Google Voice failed to send some of my sms too.

But all in all, it was operational and worked to my satisfaction, slightly above expectation.
The best of this is its cost which is my concern, and of which I highlighted earlier.

COST SAVER
If you have roamed with your mobile, you know that it’s costly to send SMS.
RM 1 for a 140 char or less delivered to somebody on another mobile phone is….. 24 hour robbery!

Yes, that’s my own mobile phone bill. SMS from Singapore, Japan and USA are all charged at RM1 each.

How about phone calls?
I think the last I checked before I fly, the operator told me the usual charge for US calls to Malaysia is RM10 per minute. I wonder why a 29 second call and a 5 second call is charged RM10.35 each!

Ok, if you’re from Maxis or the operator, hold your horses. I DO know about this *120* feature you have.
But it doesn’t apply to picking up the phone doesn’t it?
So I picked up a phone, listened for 3 seconds, and I pay you RM5.50.
Business? Donation? Robbery?

If you’re a Maxis subscriber like me, Maxis have this feature they call ROAM *120* where you actually make a call prefixing it with *120*, sort of like a callback function and you get savings around 40 percent or more.

Check their calculator to see what’s the rate for the list of countries available.

So with the savings, it will still costs RM6 per minute to call with your mobile phone from US to Malaysia.

Another option, would be to use Skype. Check the list of rates here.
Malaysians are fortunate that the country is one of those charged for 2.4 cents per minute for landlines(which is a pretty good deal, in fact the best for landlines) and 6.7 cents for mobile numbers.
The foreign exchange rate will still set them to 7 sen and 22 sen per minute for landlines and mobile respectively.
To purchase credit, you need to have PayPal or a credit card, so you might subject yourself to bank charges as well.

One more option that I got to know, is OneSuite that provides international calling service. 3.5 cents to Malaysia, around RM 1.15 per minute.

And iTalk WHOA! ?
Fixed Lines & Mobile Calls: 18 sen/min FLAT, credit with iTalk prepaid card.
Check out the rate here.

I believe this is the best rate for Malaysians calling home.
Do let me know if you think otherwise, or best if you know anything better!
It’ll definitely be handy to me.

Internet, Internet Marketing, Malaysia, Review, Software #italkwhoa!, IDD, international calling, iTalk, iTalk WHOA!, Maxis, MSW SkyJump, OneSuite, ROAM 120, TM

First and foremost, I’d like to make it clear that I support local projects.

So when I first got to know about this Project 500 on Twitter, I sort of immediately sign up to join their beta testers.

Project 500 has since evolved to be Weave.

It was finally made known to the public that the party behind it is Digi.

Weave is just like friendfeed, a social network aggregators, where you will be able to link all your social networks in a single website and view them or update them in a single place.

Most of the social networks are available for integration, but I still have not find myself the compelling reason to actively use it.

First of all, I have doubt this insecurity of giving my login credentials of a website to a third party.

Well, that was fixed for Facebook, as it now uses Facebook connect.

However, there are other services that are not.

Besides, an aggregator mostly do not have all the functions available from the original service. How do you retweet for twitter for instance, or whatever new features that are being released?

I think Weeave will or should think about how this project should be compelling enough to be used by the users.
Maybe it could utilize the infrastructure of Digi for additional functions, rather than just pure sms commands.
Besides, the sms commands only acts as revenue for Digi and doesn’t really bring advantage to users.

Think about it.

Internet, Review, Software DiGi, Facebook, Project 500, Weeave

I always have this question in mind, what would my Facebook profile looks like when viewed by others? Or instead, a specific person? Like Mark Zuckerberg?

Of course, Mark Zuckerberg can view any Facebook profile he wants, even if you set privacy to Yourself Only. He’s the owner of Facebook!

Well, I found that testing the viewing of your profile can be done with using a specific user that you want.

For a start, let’s go through how you’d like to customize your profile settings :

From the menu on the top right, select Account -> Privacy Settings

Select Friends, Tags and Connections:

Double check your privacy settings, or if you’re not changing anything, look for the Preview My Profile… button :
Note that the hyperlink will go to : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?viewas=100000686899395

Going to that page actually shows how your profile GENERALLY looks to most people on Facebook.

Because that user is a test user, so like anybody else which is not your friend, they will see very limited information.

Now say you want to know what will your profile display to a particular user?
Get the user profile id, or user name, works both ways, and replace the test user id (100000686899395) in : http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?viewas=100000686899395 with the user id you want to see.

For example, any one of this:
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?viewas=markzuckerberg

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?viewas=68310606562

Should I customize a bit and let him see MORE of me?
Guess not.

Cheatsheet, Good To Know, Internet data p, Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, Privacy