Top 5 iPhone Application for Malaysians

iPhone 3Gs has hit Malaysia’s shore for more than a month now. More and more people are buying iPhone due to the uniqueness of the phone as well as the price which is cheaper than the normal standard smartphones or PDA phones, the likes of htc or blackberry. You can get it from RM1,200 depending on the length of contract and data package that you subscribe compared to an htc diamond which costs in the region of RM2k-RM2.5k. HTC Hero phones which are expected to be available in Malaysia soon are also predicted to be priced above iphone. I got my iPhone a few weeks back and so far it has been a very wonderful toy. It’s seamless connection with home wifi is unbelievable. Despite the long waiting time at maxis, it’s a well worth it phone.

The first that you when you get iphone besides getting it protected with some screen cover to avoid it from getting a scrath is to download the apps from the Apps Store. Mind you they have different selection of softwares for different countries. Although we are living in Malaysia, you can always opt for the U.S. store provide you have an address in the U.S. After registering your credit card details, you are allowed to download as many applications as you want depending the storage capacity of your phone. In today’s post, I provide a review of the top 5 iPhone applications for Malaysians:

Hitz.fm/Era.fm Apps

Although iPhone does not come with radio function like some Nokia phones, you can listen to your favourite radio stations through internet streaming. Amazingly, the streaming is smooth enough that you can listen to it like listening to a real radio. There is no need to worry with the entanglement with earphone wires as you don’t need them to get a clear signal. It’s all through 3G network or wifi network bro!

THE APPLICATION WAS JUST LAUNCHED AND IT’S FREE

THERE ARE FOUR CHANNELS AVAILABLE, TAPPING ONE OF THE CHANNELS WILL GIVE YOU THE RADIO BROADCAST

HERE’S THE SCREEN WHEN YOU TAP ON HITZ.FM

AZNIL NAWAWI AND DIN BERAMBOI AS THE WALLPAPER WHEN YOU TAP ON ERA.FM RADIO

Malay News

Malay News aggregates news from various newspaper sources at one place. It has a simple navigation and cleaner interface with no ads. As strange as it sounds, but  it does not offer just Malay News, but also news from New Straits Times etc. A tap on the RSS feed will open up Safari.

The newspapers include:

- Star Online
- The Malaysian Insider
- Sin Chew Daily
- Business Times
- New Straits Times

Sadly this is just limited to a few newspapers. Alternatively you can always use an application called xFeed which is free to pull all the RSS from your favourite newspapers and blogs instead of paying to get this apps.

Maybank2u Map

Whether you are in Singapore or Malaysia, you can now use the new M2U Map Version 2.0 on your iPhone or iPod Touch to locate the nearest Maybank ATMs, Branches or Maybank Cards dining tr’eats (Singapore) or Maybankard (Malaysia) Dining Treats outlets. The new M2U Map Version 2.0 now comes with built-in maps for both Singapore and Malaysia, giving you instant convenience on the go! M2U Map is a free application available in the App Store.

FEATURES:

• Find the Maybank ATMs and Branches closest to where you are
• See the distances to your nearest Maybank ATMs and Branches
• Navigate to an ATM or Branch location using the built-in maps
• Locate the nearest outlets offering Maybank Cards (Singapore) dining treats or Maybankard (Malaysia) Dining Treats*
• Find Maybank Cards (Singapore) dining treats or Maybankard (Malaysia) Dining Treats outlets nearest to the ATM or Branch* you’re at

* need to have BuUuk application installed (which is available for free) before you can use these functions.

BuuK Restaurant – Food and Drink Guide

Looking for food and drink in Australia, New Zealand, Tokyo, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, India, Israel, Abu Dhabi or Dubai? buUuk will find it for you. The built-in GPS in iphone allows you to find a good restaurant nearby, or use the search engine to find a location where you’re going to be. Vote and comment on restaurants and read other users comments in real time. You can also include photos in your reviews of the restaurant. I recently commented on D’Tandoor Restaurant, Jalan Ampang. Good thing about this application is that it provides you with the phone number of the restaurant and you can direct dial the number from the application. Neat isn’t it. Especially when you are trying to find the best place for berbuka puasa.

The restaurant data is being constantly updated. Keep your eye on the “Offers” section to get free and discounted food and drink and the “New” section for the latest openings. The system is integrated with Maybank Treats, so you can also find out the restaurant with Maybank Treats discount.

iPrayer Pro

For those who are always on the go and living a jet set life, perhaps you should get daily prayer/salat timings for your local city. If you travel to some overseas country such as UK or the States, you can always set the city to London or Massachusetts for example and get the prayer timings for these cities along with Qibla direction. Other functionalities given by these app are as follows:

Qibla Compass: Get exact direction of Qibla on the 3GS as the Qibla view now utilizes the built-in magnetic compass. A new GPS based Map view also allows you to view the exact direction for the current location.

• Favorite Cities: Save unlimited cities to switch between for solat timings as you travel
• Several customizable themes
• Hijri Date Adjustment
• Adjust individual prayer times
• Automatic Location Detection using iPhone GPS technology.
• Numerous Azans with PUSH notifications (only the first part of the Azan is heard as sound length is limited on PUSH)
• Islamic Events (in calendar)
• Five Standard Prayer Calculation Methods
• Custom Prayer Calculation Method
• Email prayer timings for the day or the month to others (shake from main view)
• Unique All-in-one Display

Other useful applications that I don’t include here are:

• Collins Gem Malay ? English Dictionary
• Fund Watch – to track your unit trusts performance, be it those managed by CIMB Wealth Advisors or Public Mutual
• Kereta.com – Malaysia’s listing of new and used car
• Kuala Lumpur Maps (offline)
• Kuching Travel Guide
• Penang Bridge ViewCam
• Metro Maps (train maps for more than 50 cities in the world including Malaysia and Singapore)
• Bollyhood – news from Bollywood..nie utk sesiapa minat Shah Rukh Khan..