The iPhone app Instagram is doing wonders for the amateur photographer – so why not have those creations printed and hung in your walls?

Here’s a company we’re sure to see cloned in Hong Kong soon enough: CanvasPop prints your Instagram photos onto canvas so you can hang them in your home for instant cool interior design ideas without having to buy crazy expensive stuff from Lane Crawford Home.

It sounds a lot like how we made our own custom iPhone cases: upload your photo to the CanvasPop site, adjust the photos and then they print and send to you. We’re going to assume that the shipping is going to cost a pretty penny based on the size, but you’ll get some custom-made photos to hang or give away as gifts this Christmas.

More on their site here and here’s a video on behind-the-scenes at CanvasPop:

Apple is really trying to take away any and all friction from getting you your iPhone 4S.

Despite the Day 1 craziness Apple have opened this page here for you to reserve a SIM-free or a contract-based iPhone 4S so that you can just walk-in and pick it up without waiting in any lines.

Apple employee’s will help you set it up, copy the data from your old iPhone and show you how to use it as well as sign you up for free workshops on how to get the most out of your iPhone.

Small snafu: when trying the site today it seemed to be down due to heavy traffic and it’ll be hard to actually iReserve one online if you don’t hit it at the right time. Keep trying and let us know when you get through.

Reserve your iPhone 4S here.

Face front true-believers: the iPhone 4S is finally here.

Doors were thrown open this morning at 7:00 am and the first customers emerged just a few minutes later, iPhones in hand and smiles on faces. The process indoors was smooth and efficient, with people waiting only a few minutes once inside the store for the clerks to sort out their orders.

Apple had a large number of iPhones available in all sizes and colors. Large plastic storage ‘bins’ of phones were being wheeled around on the second floor to multiple cashiers who were selling phones to actual customers. Groups of about 20 were escorted from the lines outdoors into the line inside where they were met by cheering Apple staff as they walked up the glass staircase overlooking the Hong Kong skyline. Many had waited all night for a chance to get the newest offering from Apple.

So will you be heading over to get one today? Check our photos and video below:

Apple is not releasing the total availability of phones in the store, but each customer can purchase unto 5 phones each. The Apple Store will also be open for ‘normal’ business at 9:00 am today to handle buyers of iPads and Macs. iPhone buyers will be segregated as long as there is a line and stock remaining.

At noon, we went back to check the Apple Store and they have sold out – press reports said the line was capped at 1,250 people and doing some basic math with Apple limiting purchases at 5 per person if everyone bought 5 then they sold about 6000 iPhone 4S’s today.

The lines were handled very effectively and orderly as you can see in the video below. We’re sure Apple will be stocking daily so don’t lose hope if you missed out today.

While most people had to queue up for several days in advance outside the Apple Store to be amongst the first people in Hong Kong to get the much coveted iPhone 4S; a few local mobile companies held special midnight sales for their loyal customers. Three and CSL held garish parties at their flagship stores with eager customers lined up outside waiting for the stroke of midnight; while celebrities and wannabe socialites mingled amongst themselves with tech reporters somewhat boringly entertained as they waited for the midnight countdown.

At the same time 1010 Hong Kong held a lovely catered event at their flagship store located on Wellington Street in Central. The event was a modest yet classy affair with very little “pomp and circumstance” that usually sees pseudo models and B-list celebrities poorly reciting egregiously written scripts touting the wonders of the new device and services of its mobile provider.

The party which started off at 11pm saw around 50 or more of 1010’s clients cheerfully sipping wine and dining on quaint petite hors d’oeuvres. At midnight we were gathered on the first floor to watch Mr. Mark Liversidge, CMO of CSL 1O1O present to the very first prestigious 1O1O customer, Professor Frederick Ma, the first 1010 iPhone 4S. Afterwards Mr. Liversidge handed iPhone 4S handsets to Dorian Ho, a well-known Hong Kong fashion designer, luxury watch industry leading light Christine Wo, and local entertainment artist Anna Yau.

Customers who pre-registered for last night’s 1010 iPhone launch not only got an iPhone 4S but was also immediately able to use them thanks to the mobile operators concierge like service; where new owners were sat down and shown the new amazing features of the Apple device in the stores posh surroundings.

1O1O has announced it will offer the iPhone 4S beginning today (Friday, November 11). The iPhone 4S will be available starting from $0 with select 24-month service plans from 1O1O stores. Beginning today, 1O1O will also offer the iPhone 4 8GB model from $0 with select 24-month service plans.

For those who wish to get their iPhone 4S in style they should visit 1010’s flagship store at Ground Floor, 52-54 Wellington Street, Central. Tel.:2918 1010 Fax.:2869 8808

Business hours:
Monday – Saturday: 9am to 9pm
Sundays and public holidays: 10:30am to 9pm

Open the pod bay doors Siri, the iPhone 4S is coming!

The latest and greatest iPhone from Apple is a mere 48 hours away from being made officially available in Hong Kong and we were able to get our hands on one so we could get one to give you our initial thoughts.

The biggest thing people say is that the 4S doesn’t look any different from the iPhone 4 – which is absolutely true; but who cares? The iPhone 4 design is pure, sleek sophistication, and should be enjoyed as long as possible – so while the physical similarities are minuscule everything “under the hood” is different and makes it a must buy for power iPhone users (i.e. anyone with more than 3 pages of apps).

If you are thinking of upgrading from iPhone 4 (older iPhone users MUST upgrade) the 3 key upgrades that will make you want to get a 4S are:

1. Speed
2. Camera
3. Siri

Speed

If you’ve used an iPad 2 then you know how fast an iOS device can be, while the iPhone 4S chip is not as fast it’s still a dual-core A5 chip and that means everything zips around faster – if you’ve ever waited 10 seconds for an app to open (yes, we know) especially system apps – then you will see a massive upswing in response time especially when opening things like the built-in camera.

As power users ourselves who rotate between social networking apps like Twitter, Facebook and Sina Weibo as well as having our iTunes playing and camera being fired up while having push notifications on our email and playing graphic-heavy games like Infinity Blade the bump in speed is a godsend and its noticeable if you are used to a 4 or anything lower.

Your reaction to the 4S speed performance if you are on a 3GS or lower will no doubt shock you. It’s a definite recommended upgrade if you are using anything under an iPhone 4 – if you are not a power user then the speed difference might not affect you as much since the 4 is still fast and efficient.

Camera

OMG! When Apple announced the 4S had an 8 megapixel camera our eyes glazed over…

BUT, but, but…

This is Apple, and they never just do anything for the sake of doing it. So, yes its 8 megapixels – but there is something better about the lens glass inside the phone as the photos come out stunning. We compared them with our Panasonic Lumix camera which is not DSLR but its not point-and-shoot either and the results were comparable.

Of course the Lumix has more settings and lens options because its primary function is taking photos – but the iPhone 4S camera is in another universe when compared to all the iOS device cameras. The 4S camera is so good you might not buy another P-N-S ever again.

Thanks Apple, you just put another industry out to pasture.

So, get ready to see a huge improvement in the still photos you take – and will still look great if you run them through photo filters in apps like Instagram or Camera+, and the 1080p video camera also takes away the use of those point-and-shoot video cameras as wel. Sure, most people don’t need 1080p video right now when they post to Facebook but when you want to show that vacation video to your friends on your giant HD TV…then you’ll be blown away!

Siri

You’ve all seen the videos of Siri and we’re here to tell you it works just like you see – we wouldn’t expect any less from Apple! You speak a command and Siri (a female in American English or dudes in British and Australian English) schedules meetings, writes text messages and answers philosophical questions for you in seconds.

So the big sticking point is that a lot of the location-based functions of Siri don’t work in Hong Kong. Once of the biggest things we wanted to do was use Siri to locate the closest Starbucks to us or the nearest Dim Sum restaurant – oops, because we don’t have Yelp in Hong Kong (which is what is integrated into Siri in the US) Siri cannot find these things for you.

All Siri can do in Hong Kong are the basics – which are still pretty impressive – like “Siri, reminder – call mom tomorrow at 10am” and like that its in your Reminders app and your iPhone will beep you at 10am – and not only one on your iPhone 4S but it will also show up on any other iOS5 devices you have using the same user account like your iPad.

Yes, we’re all getting lazier, but it’s a great tool.

OK, so what is the downside? This will be a huge debate once it propagates into the Hong Kong market – most likely if you do not have a clear North American English accent Siri will not understand you the first time around. We tried our 4S with some friends with a Hong Kong English accent and this gave Siri a bit of a runaround. Even certain British accents too, get misinterpreted.

The cool thing is that Siri learns – every voice command you send goes back to Apple’s servers to define accents, speech patterns and even context so that Siri can get smarter. So while we’ve had no problems (outside of loud Yum Cha restaurants) Siri may not work 100% for you just yet; and it definitely does not support Cantonese or Mandarin just yet.

But when in our office – it’s just so easy to hold the home button, and tell Siri to book lunch appointments for us than to launch iCal. All the “open the pod bay doors” questions Siri answers is just added fun – and apparently the public has yet to find them all yet.

4 vs 4S Face-Off

Being in Hong Kong and China, having an iPhone is a status symbol, and while Apple doesn’t really care about that – we know it’s an issue here and also why there was a lot of disappointment when the iPhone 4S was announced a month ago with no visible difference.

And to be honest, there really isn’t anyway to tell the 4S is a 4S apart unless you look at the top of the phone to see that the antenna lines have moved around. The back of the phone doesn’t even say 4S. So if you’re looking for some cosmetic change to show-off at your next poker game; you ain’t going to find it in the 4S – but what you do with it, will improve greatly over any past generation iPhone.

Another sticking point – some iPhone 4 cases will NOT fit on the 4S. The sound control buttons on the left side have moved DOWN a bit thus making SOME cases not fit properly – but we’re guessing that means it’s a good time to buy a new case since Hong Kong will no doubt have millions of new ones next week to choose from.

Also we must make a note of the battery life – which is terrible, probably the worst battery life we’ve ever seen on any iOS device. Apple has admitted there is a problem and have already released a patch to developers to fix it, so we’re happy that its a software fix and not a hardware glitch. But again this is a major problem across all smartphones and again only impacts you if you are a heavy user of web services which again you probably are since you are using an iPhone. So look to buy an external battery pack or recharging case when you get your iPhone 4S as it will always come in handy

iPhone 4S Round-Up

So, to summarize if you are a heavy iPhone user and do everything on it like we do, then the iPhone 4S is a must buy – the speed, the camera and Siri are all worth the upgrade. If you just use it for making calls and checking email then probably not – but then again, why are you using an iPhone anyways?

With the recent released iOS5 you get so many new features that you it already makes you feel like you have a new phone, but we’re guessing throughout the year Apple’s upgrades will make the extra punch of the 4S invaluable to playing those graphic heavy games and multi-tasking even better.

The iPhone 4S goes on sale on Friday, November 11 in Hong Kong. 

If you missed the batch online, here’s your second chance.

Apple has informed us that they will be opening the IFC Mall Apple store at 7am on November 11th to sell iPhone 4S without contracts.

This means if you missed pre-ordering online last week you will have another chance to get a contract-free iPhone 4S on Friday morning IF you line up early. We’re obviously talking about camping out early.

We don’t know the maximum number of 4S’s you can buy but online it was capped at 10 per person – meaning you will be competing against the Chinese smugglers and probably other office buying pools.

So get ready to rumble Hong Kong! Prices are:

Pre-orders begin THIS Friday.

The wait for Siri is over Hong Kong!

Apple has announced that the iPhone 4S is finally heading to our shores a lot sooner than expected – NEXT WEEK!

Some other countries are getting it too, like South Korea, but who cares about them. The prices are the same as in the US$199/US$299/US$399 HK$5088/HK$5888/$6688 for the 16GB/32GB/64GB black and white models.

So these are the prices direct from the Apple store with no contract data plan, and you can pre-order on November 4th. We have no information on any carrier deals right now – but for those prices, and the fact you are probably just beginning your second plan year you might as well just buy it outright and be free to choose a new carrier when the iPhone 5 comes out.

UPDATE: As you probably know via SMS your favorite carrier now has iPhone 4S for pre-order with many doing the same midnight availability on the 11th as they did for the iPhone 4. Seems Apple played fair and spread out the stock in HK to the carriers and some for their store. There will still be another option to buy we hear, so check back next week.

While you’re waiting for Friday, check out all the funny things you can ask Siri here.

Peter Buffet came to town to play his very first Apple Store! The son of the famous investor Warren Buffet, he put on an interesting music concert mixed with interactive talk piece in Hong Kong this past Tuesday.

Buffet spoke to us about how Apple helps him create music digitally (on a Mac Pro tower with Qbase) and how he uses his iPhone (3GS!) to jot down notes and use as a scratchpad. His book Life Is What You Make It: Find Your Own Path to Fulfillment has been translated into 14 languages and is available in Traditional and Simplified Chinese.

Having gone to Stanford with Apple’s former VP of Retail, Ron Johnson, Peter was invited to perform here at the Hong Kong Apple store much to the delight of journalists and the evening shoppers at the IFC Mall.

He told us his father encouraged him to do what he loves and not necessarily follow him into finance and to do what his passion was. And it seems in those terms, father and son are in the exact same line of business.

For the latest Hong Kong Apple Store events stay tuned to this page at the official Apple site. More on Peter Buffet at his site here.

Whether you still like bound blocks of dead trees or want to use “an app for that,” there is a version of the Steve Jobs biography written by Walter Isaacson waiting for you in Hong Kong.

If you didn’t pre-order it already you can grab it online in 5-seconds with a 1-click purchase at Amazon or you can haul yourself down to a Page One and pick up the 650+ page hardcopy there.

If you’re already into the book – let us know what you think in the comments below.

UPDATE: We found out our friends at Beecrazy.com have quite a deal on the book in English (HK$149) and the Chinese edition (HK$99) click here to check it out.

The wall that was started last night at the iVigil has grown even bigger today.

Besides leaving flowers and taking a cue from what other Apple fans were doing in the US, Apple fans were leaving messages for Steve Jobs on Post-It notes and sticking them to the windows of Apple Stores around the world.

A group of Apple fans here in Hong Kong started it off last night at the IFC Mall Apple Store and today its grown even bigger. Here is a selection of the most interesting ones – and as you can see from the image above Steve Jobs affected everyone, no matter how young and even if the iPhone 1 was their very first Apple product.

Photo by Edward Chui. (@Chiseen)

All photos taken at the IFC Mall Apple Store:

Photos by Andrew Leyden. (@penguinsix)

Read about the beginning of the iVigil here and the event as it grew here.

UPDATE: October 9, 2011:
We dropped by the Apple store today and shot a bunch more photos to show how big the wall has gotten:

More coverage from around the web:
CNN
Apple Daily
CNN Newstream
21CB

And if you haven’t seen Steve Wozniak’s video on his feelings of losing his Apple co-founder – here it is: