MetroBatavia

Agnes Monica for BlueBerry phones!?

Why is an Indonesian superstar like Agnes Monica a testimonial for the cheap BlueBerry brand? Before we answer this question we have to start with the Indonesians affinity for BlackBerry. 

Upvalue: Indonesian artist & actress Agnes Monica - with a LV scarf - for cheap mobile phone brand BlueBerry

Yes, Indonesia is the BlackBerry nation number one in the world. That's why other manufacturer want a piece of this blackberry-cake, too. Malyasian company CSL (Commitment, Service, Loyality) is one of those who offer mobile phones - made in China - for the Indonesian market which look very very similar to the high end phones of BlackBerry or Nokia. Not only the designs are imitated - even the brand names. CSL offers a range that is called BlueBerry with a figurative mark that comes also very close to the one of BlackBerry. In European countries or the USA manufactures like RIM (BlackBerry) could sue imitators which use very similar designs, word or figurative marks. The question is - why not in Indonesia? Maybe they don't fear those low level competitors which offer phones - for 1/10 of their prices. The BlueBerry i6200 for example can be bought in Jakarta's tech malls for only 300.000 Rp (about 30 USD). However, the display, the menu, and the quality are far away from the original phones. 

csl-mobile.com

That was one aspect. The other incomprehensible fact is why an Indonesian superstar like Agnes Monica is a testimonial for cheap brand CSL / BlueBerry? Well, apparently  it is just about the $$$. But can you imagine Beyoncé as a testimonial for a low quality mobile phone brand? It doesn't fit to her superior image! Agnes Monica was one of the hosts of the American Music Awards. That's why she or her management should work together with originial brands. BlueBerry is just a me-too-brand, an imitation. We can't imagine Agnes Monica wants to be seen as the me-to-version of someone else...

Hacker attacks local Indonesian sites.

Various local Indonesian websites have been hacked lately. This time Indonesian owner are effected such as wedding photographer Freddy Wijaya, the Indonesian tech-related site wheeqo.web.id or tenda-jaya.com. 

What is the hacker's goal? We don't know who "w0LF Gh4m3d" / Abu Ryan is, but maybe he/she/they want(s) money for un-hacking the websites. 

The last time international companies like Sony became a target for hacker attacks.

Sony Music Indonesia hacked the 2nd time.

Last Monday the websites of Sony Music Greece and Sony Music Indonesia have been hacked. Sony Music Indonesia was hacked and defaced by k4LOng666. After 5 serial attackes on the website, it's 6th attack. You can see the deaface page below.

And today while writing this article we found a new deface (screenshot above). This time Sony Music Indonesia's website has been hacked by vYc0d. The hacker says "This is not about revenge, but I'm just to say. This is our world now... You may stop this Individual, but you can't stop us all... after all, we're all alike." The hacker also provides an email-address - vyc0d@hackermail.com and the deface mentions "M0slem Hax0r | Indonesian Coder | Malang Cyber Crew | Kill-9". It really seems like the hacker is from Malang, East Java - because this is vYc0d's website: http://vyc0d.blogspot.com. 

The attacks are the latest attacks in a series of security problems the company has had in the past month starting with a distributed denial-of-service attack by the loosely organized hacker group Anonymous in early April to protest Sony's taking PS3 hackers to court.

According a Sony spokeswoman (last week) "there was an online tweet that one page of Sony Music Indonesia's Web site was altered and Sony Music Indonesia shut down the access to such page and started investigation.“

 Screenshot: www.thehackernews.com

Indonesia's nuclear power plans – a good idea?

photo: greenpeace.org

The plans seem reckless: Indonesia strives for the nuclear age, while the country is hit repeatedly by natural disasters: earth quakes, volcanoes eruptions. Additionally, corruption also poses a risk of a sudden lack of money which causes the utilization of low quality materials.

But Indonesia's government wants nuclear power, even if the country is located in the sensitive area of ​​the tectonic Pacific ring of fire – like Japan. Still, the island nation is a developing country, but the economy is growing and the energy consumption is growing rapidly. Since late 2010, there is an agreement to build two nuclear power plants on Java: Muria 1 and 2 - at the foot of the sleeping volcano Mount Muria. Even after the disaster in Japan there has been no response from the Indonesian government, which indicates a change of plans.

Indonesia is hoping that soon the first South Korean construction of a nuclear reactor will be on line. The aim is to run four nuclear power plants in 2015. With nuclear power Indonesia will lose its dependence on fossil fuels and the emission of greenhouse gases. For the nuclear power plant construction, three possible sites are eligible: in addition to Muria there are Banten in West Java and Bangka, South Sumatra.

According to the World Nuclear Association, the government has a budget of eight billion dollars to run up four nuclear plants with a capacity of six gigawatts till 2025.

Indonesia already operates three research reactors: Bandung Triga in West Java, Kartini in Central Java and GA Siwabessy in West Java.

Find the best deals with Dskon.com.

Maybe you still remember dealkeren.com, the site which offers local deals for restaurants, shops etc. Today we would like to introduce something similar to you. It’s a kind of meta site where you find deals from various group buying sites like dealkeren.com, OgahRugi.com or disdus.com. The new group buying aggregator is called dskon.com. It’s available in Indonesia since the beginning of this year. The aim of dskon.com is to help you finding the best deals out of all the offers.

Suppose you want to look for discounts on restaurants Dskon gives you the possibility to search categories such as restaurants. Then Dskon will display all incoming bids in that category in one page with various information. Dskon also provides an explanation for each Indonesian group buying site such as method of payment, the city where the deals are available and other services. In addition you can also read and write reviews  and you can get connected with your friends on Facebook. Just "like" what you want and the offer will appear on Facebook.

The interesting fact about Dskon is that this site is just like Dealkeren not a local idea – it’s an offer from Germany. An Indonesian competitor in this segment of deal aggregation is SuperBestDeal.com.

DealKeren - new kind of social-shopping.

Now there is a new kind of internet shopping available in Indonesia: It’s DealKeren.com. DealKeren ("cool deal") is a site for "daily" deals. You just have to sign up and actually every day you’ll receive a hot offer via email. However, it seems DealKeren hasn't a lot of partners yet because one deal runs by far more than 24 hours! Usually you can save up to 50% plus on each deal. Daily offers range from meal vouchers to car wash discounts. Please be careful – don’t get addicted.

DealKeren is not an Indonesian idea. It belongs to Rebate-Networks from Berlin, Germany. Rebate-Networks runs daily deal sites in 29 countries worldwide. They invested US$1 million in KerenDeal.com.

The original idea of “limited daily deals” comes from Groupon, the global player. Groupon runs sites in various countries – but not in Indonesia. Recently, Google offered US$6 billion to take over Groupon. Groupon refused and now Google starts its own service “Google Offers”. Let’s see if Google will bring its service to Indonesia..

Read also: Get your epad on Berniaga.com

#JFW11 @ The Shorty Awards.

Hollywood has the Oscars – Twitter has the Shorty Awards – and Jakarta Fashion Week is right in the middle. The Shorty Awards honor the best people and organizations on Twitter and social media. There are official categories such as actor, gaming, tech, entertainment and charity and hundreds of community created categories.

Indonesia’s most promising nominee is Jakarta Fashion Week (13.000++ follower). JKTfashion is ranked 17th by today. In a Shorty Interview they unveiled interesting facts. E.g. JKTfashion doesn’t use the words “for, Indonesia, beauty” to shorten their tweets and their own created hashtag is #JFW11 which should be used by everyone.

Right now the nomination period is running. In the end of January 2011 the six users with the highest rank in each official category become finalists. An award ceremony will be hold in New York City to honor the winners.

From Scott Java to LG Bali.

This is a collection of Indonesian Island names on electronics around the world. Yes, big and small companies around the globe name their products after Indonesian Islands. This overview by MetroBatavia gives you an idea about favourite names. No wonder we find Bali on top. Major mobile phone manufacturer named models after the exotic island. Bali is well known, has a great image and consists of only 4 letters. (Island) Names like Kalimantan, Sumatra, or Sulawesi are rather connected with jungle and wildlife and consequently don’t really fit to “high end” electronics.

Motorola Bali.

Scott Sumba - iPod Sound Station.

LG Bali GM 360.

Scott Java.

HTC Bali (Fujitsu-Siemens pocket LOOX).

CROSS - phones for Ferrari driver.

Do you think this commercial represents Indonesia? For us it seems that CROSS mobile phones are only affordable for 0.01 % of all Indonesians – for a few people living in huge villas in Jakarta’s Pondok Indah. Or do you drive a Ferrari? In contrast and according to CROSS’ website the smartphones and regular phones are offered to the mass with cheaper prices than Blackberry or Nokia – but with a very similar design ;-) Thus, the whole nice looking TV spot looses authenticity. However, some people may think owning a CROSS feels like being in the upper 10.000.

Indonesia - The Social Network.

TNS launched a global poll about digital lifestyle with more then 50,000 people from 46 countries polled. We’d like to focus on some very interesting facts about Indonesia’s online behaviour. Many Indonesians are online – however due to differences in accessibility throughout the country the penetration rate is only 12.3%. In comparison Malaysia has a rate of 65%, the UK 83%. Most of the “onliners” in Indonesia are so-called “Aspires” (87%). Aspires are people who are looking to create a personal space online; who are new to the Internet and who access via mobile phones and internet cafes but mostly from home.

One of the most interesting facts is that Indonesia is one of the very few countries where social networking is much more important than emailing! 70% (!) of the internet users say that social networking (via Facebook, Twitter, etc) is most important. Only 7% say that emailing is important. In most of the other countries emailing is considered as most important (Japan 42%, Singapore 54%, USA 53%, Germany 68%). It seems Indonesians prefer networking on the go.

Well, what about the office workers? Does it mean that most employees communicate via Facebook or Twitter or share important files via social network tools instead of more “secure” email channels?

Get your ePad on Berniaga.com

Have you ever sold or bought things on ebay before? The principle is clear – the highest bid wins. But have you ever heard of a true internet marketplace in Indonesia? It’s all about trading between private persons and/or business people. This site is called berniaga.com. You’ll find everything from used goods to cars to property. We even found the ePad for 1.4 million Rp.

You can sell anything that you don’t need anymore. Using this site is for free. Well, the crux about this system could be trust. Making an online prepayment is not really common in Indonesia. Perhaps most users find their desired product on berniaga.com but buy it face-to-face. That’s why you should select your province or region when you enter the website.

Berniaga.com is no Indonesian invention. It belongs to a Swedish media company which runs the same site in countries like Malaysia (mudah.my), the Philippines (ayosdito.ph), Italy (subito.it) or Switzerland (tutti.ch).

Similar post: iPad available in September.

Wiigo - Indosat's Android BlackBerry.

Is it a real alternative in a BlackBerry dominated nation? Maybe. Indosat's new phone „Wiigo“ - Indonesia's 1st own Android phone - sounds like a Nintendo and looks like a BB, but is much cheaper. The normal price is 1.5 million Rupiah. The pre-order price is 1.4. In comparison: The new BlackBerry Bold costs about 4 million Rupiah. The phone really looks like a BB clone featuring a Qwerty keypad and a trackball. Btw, Android Wiigo has been developed by Simplimobile and Indosat.

iPad available in September.

In September Apple’s iPad will officially be available in Indonesia. That’s what a store manager at EMAX, Apple’s official retailer, said. If you want to get an iPad right now (at the grey market) you should be careful, because there is a dubious gadget called “iPed” around. The iPed seems like a Chinese duplicate of Apple’s iPad but runs with Googles Antroid. Well, who knows if it is conform to the necessary security requirements...