Buynov

Globul kept their promise and released iPhone 3GS for sale today, on Jul 31st.
The prices are quite applealing. You can take the new iPhone 3GS (with 16 GB of flash memory) for about 300 EUR, if you are willing to pay about 40 EUR per month. Or you can take it for less than 500 EUR even with the lowest subscription plan, which requires about 7.50 EUR monthly fee. For comparison, the iPhone 3GS is now sold for about 800 EUR without contract.

There are two new subscription plans, which were not available for the previous iPhone 3G. They are more expensive than the old ones, about 25 or 40 EUR per month respectively, and they include more traffic, more call minutes, more SMS messages and even some free MMS messages (unfortunately only in the Globul network).In my opinion, the subscription plan for about 12.50 EUR per month remains the best option.

Another novelty is the option to buy an iPhone with a prepaid (b-connect) card, without contract. The prices for the new iPhone 3GS here are above 500 EUR, but there are no contract restrictions and the offerings for iPhone 3GS without contract (for about 800 EUR) become completely useless. Another good thing about this option is, that you can add data traffic the same way you add minutes – with a vaucher.

Overall the offerings seem pretty good to me.

I wrote recently, that iPhone 3GS should be available in Bulgaria on Jul 09. I sent Globul an inquiry yesterday in regard for this matter, and they pointed out what I was missing. If you look closely to the slide I was referring to (from the official iPhone 3GS introduction), you will notice that it’s not about Jul 09, but rather Jul 2009 (note the apostrophe before the 09).

So, the news today, published on the official Globul site is, that iPhone 3GS will be on sale in Bulgaria from Jul 31. Prices are not clear yet.

There will be a new iPhone and its name is iPhone 3GS. Many of the rumors came out to be true. Facts in brief:

• The S at the end comes from Speed – the new iPhone is faster than the old one (iPhone 3G)
• There is a 3 MP camera with autofocus and video recording capabilities (VGA, 30 fps with audio)
• iPhone OS 3.0 will be localized in 30 different languages – alas, not in Bulgarian
• There will be voice commands
• There will be digital compass
• There will be a better battery
• It will be offered in white and black
• It will be available in the States on June 19, in Bulgaria on July 09

Congratulations to all iPhone fans – I might even get one, as well :)

The entire presentation with the latest and greatest from Apple can be seen here from Gizmodo.

I bought a wireless router, Linksys WRT54GL. I looked around, asked several salesmen and they all recommended this particular one. Once I saw a section called “Open Source” on the box, I was hooked :). It’s more expensive than other routers in the same category, but since people are recommending it …

There is a CD with a setup wizard in the box, and it looks very easy – connect the router to the network card of the computer, run the CD on the computer, follow the steps, provide the necessary information and there you are! I had a problem, however. After I inputted all fields and being at one of the last steps of the wizard, where the settings were to be saved on the device, an error occurred. Four-five times in a row. It was not possible to save the settings on the router! I guess the problem was with the firmware of my new gadget, because after I downloaded the latest version from here and upgraded the device (it is very easy, when you login through the web interface on 192.168.1.1, with no username and password “admin”), everything went Ok.

At this stage, a second problem occurred. I called my ISP to change the MAC address for my connection. They told me, that the MAC address of the router should be written on a sticker on the bottom of the device. Yes, it was there, but as they suggested, it was wrong :). You should know, that in some cases the MAC address on the sticker on the bottom of the router is for the local network, not for the internet connection. When I got the device to work it turned out to be different and the ISP support had to change it.

Overall I am happy with the router, because after I got it to work I had no other problems. And I don’t have to switch on my home computer to be able to connect to the internet on my laptop and on my smartphone anymore :).

Finally, if you happen to buy such router and you have problems with its setup, download and install the latest firmware, and keep in mind you might have to double check the MAC address :).