hi guys,


just got from singapore and showered, unpacked everything etc. will update my so called life changing experience later; need to get some rest first. a very complicated story but extremely worth listening (i hope? )


to cut things short, got myself the 8gb version (black version a.k.a. fingerprint magnet) for 1000 sing dollars (my dollar ringgit conversion was 2.4). a brand new unit, with a receipt tabulating the purchase date and a nice seller (who kept his promise). double checked the part numbers as well (found here) to confirm the origin of the unit too.


thanks a lot to louismhc (sorry for not being able to meet up as you were busy collecting your white baby as well) and stringfellow (before he boarded his flight to mumbai). oh yeah corvinux, when i got your text, i was actually passing the money to the seller


until next time, i'm off to la la to sleep now!


Full story added! View Part 1, 2 and 3 here

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Sep 10 2008, 12:04 AM

thanks TeK_KeN!

@ TeK_KeN


nope, i am still attempting to backup my first gen iphone first; planning to list it for sale later (when i wake up la)

@ TeK_KeN


sure thing mate. i am throwing in an extra genuine dock and also replacing the old earphones with a relatively new and unused unit.

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Sep 7 2008, 06:44 AM

eh no la. the additional dock is for the first generation of iphone. i wanted another handsfree set (i don't know why as well), so i bought the entire box from a dude who lost who his iphone like 2 days after purchasing it. i have then sold the box for rm50 (see my signature).

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Added on September 7, 2008, 12:41 pmyes, i was sleeping the entire time; just got up. might sleep again (too knackered)

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Added on September 7, 2008, 12:43 pmnothing much to show i reckon

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Sep 7 2008, 12:43 PM

@ the rest


will write up the story later once i'm a bit more awake and not in a daze. my hair looks like as if i have just transformed from san gokou's super saiyan

oh can it fit? i have always thought the the 3g back casing has slightly more curvature as compared to the first generation's flat surface.

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Sep 7 2008, 12:52 PM

updating to 2.0.2 now (without having to do anything extra)


the feeling is just priceless. ha ha

soon la. i do need the kb2 function urgently.

yes, most definitely. had the draft ready already.

but right, i'm still trying sort out my itunes songs as they are double (or even triple) duplicates.

i lost all my songs recently, and had to "rip" it out the hard way from the iphone and to restore them back.

@ rx330


cannot change la; against LYF net's policy =)

anyway, nokia has sentimental values as it was my first phone, acquired in 2003.

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Sep 7 2008, 02:47 PM

@ tinkerbel


yeah, tried, tested and tasted. doesn't fit unfortunately.


however if it does fit, i don't think that i will be giving away the extra dock anyway. ha ha

oh man,

this davidgary73 was like telling me as well. he said that Corvinux is getting an aifontrigi. i was like "HUH?" and why he didn't tell me punyer?

alright, here it goes guys.

part 1

the intention to travel down to singapore came after the thought of wanting to take a break after handing up three assignments back to back. started listing down feasible companion mate; started with my cousin who is skudai (but didn't want to push him as he is recovering from a traffic accident) and finally settled down on old university mate back in the uk. she hasn't been to singapore for the past 18 years and would love to see how much it has changed.

2 nights before departure, i posted up this thread requesting for one more interested party for my aifontrigi quest.

as expected a lot of PMs came flooding in and i requested for their contact numbers/messenger ids. but to my disappointment, i couldn't even pick one up after a couple of correspondents and i gave up entirely and proceeded to close the thread. some of which had the most downright way of expressing their dismays and reservations for example "what? SGD 1200-1400? why is it so expensive? this xxx only selling for this price", "har? i need to be online for the afternoon and make calls? why don't i just give you the correct amount and you just purchase it for me la" etc.

anyway the rational of my plan is essentially pretty simple and straightforward (though it might sound laborious initially). however, there is no such thing as a free lunch in the world. you cannot expect to scoop a bargain without having to work for it? come on, that isn't how the real world works. places like hardwarezone, ebay.com.sg and some singaporean based local community forums are excellent places to look for. believe it or not, the turnover rates for the aifontrigi are so great that, within minutes of being posted up, they get snapped up immediately.

hence, that is the only reason why i need another interested party to come aboard; i needed someone to keep refreshing these pages and try calling those prospective sellers up to negotiate an agreeable price. in another word, my partner-in-crime's job is essentially pretty simple and i'll doing most of the monkey running around job (and of course inspecting the goods, make sure that it is indeed a SingTel unit by comparing the part numbers and serial numbers)

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Added on September 7, 2008, 5:48 pmpart 2


the night before (thursday), i purchased two aeroline coach tickets from one utama, poised to depart from sunway lagoon at 11.30pm. they are pretty reliable as i have traveled with them twice prior to this.



on friday night itself (approximately 4 hours before departure), i have already sent numerous PMs to sellers who have just posted that day itself and explaining my situation to them and letting them know my estimated time of arrival alongside with my maxis contact number.

singaporeans are extremely courteous in a way that, despite selling their aifontrigis off, majority of them actually still texted me back to inform me that they have already been sold.

arrived in harbourfront centre at precisely 4.30am. headed straight to mcdonald's for a meal and rested there briefly until half past 6. louismhc has already informed me that there is currently a free wifi service (wireless@singapore) which encloses popular places around the island. hurriedly, i signed up for a free account account and begin surfing the net looking for more prospective sellers on my aifonej. tried bookmarking a couple of important landmarks on my google map as well. my traveling partner was obviously still lethargic and had to continue napping in mcdonald's and observe that the main entrance is still closed.




boarded the mrt and exchanged to another line straight to orchard road. bought a SingTel prepaid pack at a local 7-11 since i'm anticipating to make a lot of calls and sending a lot of texts. cost me SGD8 for 10 bucks worth of credit. FYI, they do need your passport first before activating your SIM card.



it was already quarter past seven by then and i tried calling louismhc but no answer. he was obviously busy with his charity work down in YMCA. started looking for more prospective numbers online (via the wireless@singapore network) as we were talking a scroll along orchard road and its adjacent roads. saved up a couple of numbers, but i didn't start calling until half 9 as i didn't wanna wake or piss them off and essentially ruin my chance.

the entire process repeated until 4pm with my companion mate who proceeded to look for things to shop and look at. and of course i took the liberty to ask most of the stores regarding their aifontrigi prices as we were moving from mall to more malls. FYI, the prices as quoted by louismhc are not cheap at all. the 16gbs range between SGD1500-1600 and offering to pay by cash, will probably decrease it by a couple of bucks only (they probably signed a deal with the banks). then i proceeded to ask more, asking if they were SingTel origin. to my horror, majority of them are not, even though they are of course officially unlocked (or illegally unlocked using the controversial hardware unlocked method, as i cannot be certain without checking the part numbers).

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Sep 8 2008, 01:47 AM

part 3 (finale)


by 5pm, i was indeed getting very desperate. as i was relatively slower without the help of a partner-in-crime; i constantly missed out those private sellers. FYI, private sellers are obviously cheaper as they bypass the need of having those shops to take a profit of you. either that, or the phones were used for a week or so (which i absolutely frown upon). anyway by sheer luck, i found two sellers (both with the 8gb units). the girl whom i spoke to had her iphone for slightly longer than the uncle (who essentially became my final seller). both of them have agreed to sell their units for SGD1000 to me and they are both from SingTel. there was added pressure on me, as the girl actually had a prospective buyer on the other line pushing her to complete the sale. hence i took the gamble and being greedy, i opted for the uncle's unit (as it was new)


without hesitating, i rushed to chinese garden via mrt to meet up with him. my heart was beating fast and i felt palpitations throughout my ride there, hoping that no monkey will offer him higher and the uncle will keep to his promise of a SGD1000 transaction. again, it was a little nerve wreaking as it took me almost 45 minutes to get from orchard road to chinese garden.


upon arrival, i quickly inspect the SingTel receipt (the date) and make sure it was as described and counterchecking the part numbers and of course the dreadful 88 serial number. so far so good!

the nightmare actually begun when i tried inserting my maxis SIM card inside the aifontrigi. it actually failed to load any network and there wasn't any service. it was extremely bizarre as the exact SIM card actually showed SingTel on my aifonej for the entire time. puzzled, i even tried to use my travel companion's maxis SIM card as well and it returned the same result. but we did try with 2 SingTel SIM cards (including my prepaid), it came back positive. things were not looking too well for me.

to add on my misery, the uncle told me that the SingTel personnel actually stipulated that all SingTel aifontrigis are locked to the network and cannot accept anything else. of course seasoned iphone users will know that this isn't true as the law prohibits such activities. rang up stringfellow (just before he boarded his mumbai flight) and seeked for his opinion. eventually. we shared the exact perspective that it should work as predicted.

in order to refute the reckless SingTel personnel's statement, i actually approached a group of people (who turned out to malaysians afterall) at the station and requested if i could try a StarHub SIM card on the aifontrigi. the network loaded in less than 3secs.

believing my intuition, i took another gamble and agreed to complete the transaction and handed him SGD1000. it was then that i received Corvinux's text, asking how was my new aifontrigi. what an added on stress! anyway the uncle assured me that if anything happens to the aifontrigi, he will assist me to claim the local warranty from SingTel as i have all his necessary details. FYI, i don't think that one can claim the local singapore warranty if he/she had purchased it from a shop. just my opinion of course.

of course, anxiously i headed straight for JB and tried my Maxis SIM card. it took the phone almost 2 minutes (the longest 2 minutes of my life) to register and finally i saw "MY MAXIS" running around my top left corner. made a couple of calls and i could finally confirm that my aifontrigi is alive!!!

FYI, the next time if you do encounter this problem, don't be as panicky as i did. but try to be as calm as possible and make sure that you have checked part numbers (important!).



thank you for reading my long-winded posts!

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Added on September 7, 2008, 6:23 pmFYI, despite all that incessant local calls/texts and a call to stringfellow in malaysia, i'm still left with SGD 2 plus credit. amazing isn't it?

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Nov 8 2008, 03:27 AM

the initial plan was indeed was supposed to be from a "lubang" but louismhc (he is just being a kind person, to help us to get them) reckons that the supplier is dodgy and decides to go against it to elevate himself from liabilities. personally, that method would be easier and much more less hassle.

coach fare alone was about rm120 to and back, but as i have reiterated previously; i needed to head to singapore to sort out some other personal issues apart from the iphone. but they were completed by 11am and i could focus entirely on finding the perfect seller. my travel companion and i loitered mostly in orchard road as our main priorities are there.

back in JB, i had the opportunity my cousin and yet another kill-two-birds-with-one-stone scenario.

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Added on September 7, 2008, 7:04 pmhmmm that one i am not too sure. anyone SingTel aifontrigi users here whom encountered the same thing here? please post your findings here and i will request for it to be pinned up.


SingTel gave it to him as he doesn't look like someone who would request for an iphone. furthermore, his tariff is relatively low (SGD 24/month only i reckon). hence he must be a loyal SingTel customer.

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Added on September 7, 2008, 7:06 pmno problem dude. i was trying to reach louismhc as well, but he was still too busy playing with his white baby


ha ha. i think that you better ask your bini for kebenaran dulu la

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Added on September 7, 2008, 7:08 pmIMHO, if your unit is officially unlocked, i don't think that you should be afraid at all.

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Sep 7 2008, 07:08 PM

@ jakesean


sorry to hear about that mate!

for the love of God, i went to do singapore to settle some other matters la. not just to purchase an aifontrigi.

This post has been edited by nokia2003: Sep 7 2008, 10:20 PM

yeah. whilst i was in the mrt station, we all waited for more than 10minutes and tried numerous methods but all the efforts were futile.

how la to restore in the mrt station?