Trip to Hong Kong: Survey of iPhone scene in the East

I recently took a vacation in Hong Kong with my family and I was pretty excited to check out the iPhone scene over there. There were several Chinese-language magazines that covered only iPhone and iPad related stuff, but what caught my eye was this magazine called ‘iPhone’. I bought the magazine and snapped a photo of the cover here.

If you were wondering, like me, how the lady sitting on the sports car could be related to the iPhone scene, I can tell you: “Plenty!”.

First of all, she introduced the readers to all the possible ways to mount and charge an iPhone or iPad in your car – you know, for those days when you desperately needed to charge your iPhone or iPad in your car, and I’m guessing it’s for that drive from Kowloon to Hong Kong island.

Then, she appeared in the centrefold to let us know the various apps she could use in Hong Kong to (going clockwise): navigate in Hong Kong or Macau, find a parking lot, locate the nearest gas station, check out traffic conditions, sell her car, and find the nearest servicing center.

I was also quite amazed how versatile the iPhone could be. IK Multimedia has managed to develop a system where you could plug in a microphone into the audio jack and karaoke to the tune that is playing on the iPhone!

The game-changer in this app-accessory package, called the iRig Mic, has to be in its ability to recognise the song on your iTunes and display the correct lyrics with the prompter.  The package requires users to download the iRig Recorder app or AmpliTube.  It is selling for HKD$599 (and I was informed that it is currently retailing in the US for $59). Their website is over here.