The Neonpunch.com Review of the Third-Generation iPad #NewiPad

Our first weekend with the newest Apple device.

We’ve had a good couple of days playing with the new iPad from Apple and even though our review seems to match a lot of the other ones we’re going to tell you what we thought anyways because you want a Hong Kong perspective, right?

We gave you some of our immediate reactions in Friday’s post, so we’re going to expand on it here:

Retina Display

From the very first time you turn on the new iPad you will notice the amazing clarity in the screen. In comparison, looking at the iPad 2 is like looking at a movie on VCD and one on Blu-ray. Once you get used to the new retina display you can never look at the iPad 2 again. It’s amazingly clear – your email, webpages and photos all POP out like crazy. Probably the same feeling you had when you first saw a Blu-ray movie too.

The problem with this is that it’s too hard to show you images of what it looks like. Our camera cannot capture the difference either – you just have to see it to believe it. You can click here to see a lock screen we are using of a HD image of the Avengers movie poster – it clocks in a 6MB for the 2048 x 1536 pixel screen capture – it’s so clear you can count all the hair in Tony Stark’s beard.

Continue reading »

Apple’s New iPad Now Available in Hong Kong

HK’s first Apple day-and-date launch is here!

It’s here Hong Kong – in all it’s retina display glory: Apple’s NEW (unnumbered) iPad.

Today’s iPad launch went off with a much more organized kick-off then what you might have expected given the chaos surrounding the iPhone 4S launch and the photos we tweeted earlier this week as scalpers started queuing at the IFC Mall Apple Store as early as Tuesday morning.

Apple turned on their iReserve webpage to ensure no lines this morning – and it worked like a charm. As of 9pm last night you were alerted by email if you were chosen to come and pick up your new iPad at the Apple Store or wait for the next day’s shipment.

Continue reading »

The 25 Billionth iOS App was Downloaded by an iPhone in Qingdao

No more free apps for this iPhanatic!

Apple just recently hit their 25 BILLIONTH app download worldwide!

Truly an amazing number to hit – it covers all iPhone, iPod, iPad apps free and paid from users all over the world ( in context the App Store offers more than 550,000 apps to iPhone, iPad and iPod touch users in 123 countries around the world, with more than 170,000 native iPad apps available) and the lucky person to download the free app Where’s the Water was Chunli Fu in Qingdao, China who won a US$10,000 iTunes gift card! No more free apps for her and now we know some people in China actually use the App Store and not only some jailbreak version.

In other interesting China iPhone news – it was revealed today that China Mobile has 15 million iPhones on their network (60 million more projected by 2013) which is amazing for 2 reasons:

1. China Mobile isn’t even officially an iPhone carrier.
2. Sprint in the U.S. just made it to 1 MILLION iPhone users.

Sure we can make jokes that all those iPhone’s are from the IFC Mall Apple Store, but it’s truly astounding when you look at this story posted 24 months ago.

And lastly, tomorrow night Hong Kong time Apple will be introducing the new version of their iPad (rumored to be the iPad HD) and a new Apple TV plus something else – we hope Tim Cook continues the “One More Thing” tradition too! See you back here tomorrow for a rundown of the new Apple goodies.

Register Now for Neonpunch presents “iPhanatics: Top 10 Social Media Apps for iPhone” at the Apple Store

Social Media Week 2012 is here again!

Social Media Week returns to Hong Kong for the second year and we at Neonpunch.com are presenting a very special iPhanatics talk that will be presented at the Apple Store in IFC Mall on February 15th at 7pm.

Keeping in theme with the global event, Neonpunch.com Editorial Director Casey Lau will be showcasing his favorite social media apps available on the iPhone. Over the course of the 60-minute talk he will try and demo as many social media apps as he can that can help you get more into the exciting world of social media like Hootsuite, Instagram, Weico, GetGlue, Foodspotting, Soundcloud, Tiny Review, Viddy, LinkedIn and so many more.

Continue reading »

Use Apple’s iReserve Website to Get Your iPhone 4S for In-Store Pickup

Book it online and you can walk in and get it – no lines, no hassle.

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.