beat that

Friends of ours from the US are coming to China. One actually is here
already, the husband; took a week of mixed Chinese language, music
and martial lessons. Now he's in Haikou. For those who went to the
Maui wedding, he was the bald guy who dropped a dumb bell on his foot
the night before the wedding. He and his wife adopted a Chinese
girl. The one who understands Italian. Anyway, his wife and daughter
will be thru Shanghai tomorrow on the way down to Haikou. The Ironman
race which all of us will be.

Last night, iron wife and I went to China Mobile to get another local
SIM for that wife whom we will meet tomorrow. What a service in China
Mobile. Pick a new number? You do it thru a machine, select what you
want then click "print". Then head to the service desk to pay for the
number. Showed my Macau ID and done. While we waited for the
activation, we noticed there was a promotion with the World Expo.
Mobile Wallet. For RMB 120.00, I got a replacement SIM card which had
RFID embedded including RMB 100 value.

Now I can swipe my iPhone 3GS at subway, taxi, Starbucks, to name a
few. I don't need money. Of course, this means my phone is a target
for thief. Care must be taken. Hence I prefer a jailbroken phone. I
can do so much to lock it down vs Apple's security of remote wipe.
Right.... If I were the person to do take someone's phone, first
thing I do is pop the SIM out. And just start hacking.

To top up this mobile wallet, I can do it via the web from China
Mobile: www.cmpay.com, personal appearance to a China Mobile shop, or
via SMS messages. I do the second. Not trusting any of the Internet
stuff if you know what I mean.

"Beat that" is meant for two things: 1) very convenient way to get a
mobile number. You pick the number first; a machine pops out the
number with the date and time expiry printed and get service. 2) the
RFID embedded with the SIM to have Mobile wallet. No extra service
charge, no extra billing....