Headed to Hong Kong tomorrow, advice on Pleco please...

[Paul Duke]

Hi, I'm headed out to HK and China for a month tomorrow. I'm going to use this occasion to finally upgrade myself to an iPhone and the latest version of Pleco from the Palm Pilot version I got back in 2003...

Any issues I need to worry about? I plan to buy an iPhone in HK and use it with rechargeable SIM cards in HK and China... Do I absolutely need to buy Pleco here in the US before I go, or can I buy it using iTunes in HK? Any potential problems with a HK iPhone and a US purchase of Pleco?

Thanks in advance,

Paul Duke

 

[mikelove]

Hi, I'm headed out to HK and China for a month tomorrow. I'm going to use this occasion to finally upgrade myself to an iPhone and the latest version of Pleco from the Palm Pilot version I got back in 2003...

Congratulations! Lovely time of year to be in HK from what I can remember.

Any issues I need to worry about? I plan to buy an iPhone in HK and use it with rechargeable SIM cards in HK and China... Do I absolutely need to buy Pleco here in the US before I go, or can I buy it using iTunes in HK? Any potential problems with a HK iPhone and a US purchase of Pleco?

I don't think the phone would be a problem, but the location might be - iTunes has a habit of rejecting US credit cards being used outside of the US. (though FWIW I was just in China and HK recently and didn't have problems making app purchases with my US credit card in either place) So if possible I'd recommend buying an iTunes gift card in the US before you go and using that to pay for Pleco, the odds of success should be much better that way and you might even save a few dollars if you buy the card from a the right place (some shops actually offer them at a 5 or 10% discount off of the face value, all of which appears to come out of Apple's share of the app sale).

 

[Paul Duke]

Hi, interesting suggestion, thanks! Great trick to get around the credit card problem. Yeah, I realize that what prompted my question is that sometimes I think I have tried to buy songs from other countries' iTunes stores while I'm in the US and iTunes wouldn't let me... or maybe vice versa.

I'm assuming I could buy those gift cards in Hong Kong too, no? So theoretically that should solve my problem as well...

Will keep that in mind and I'll see what happens later this week.

Can't wait to get the latest edition of Pleco!

thanks again,

Paul D.

 

[mikelove]

I'm assuming I could buy those gift cards in Hong Kong too, no? So theoretically that should solve my problem as well...

I think they may be limited to only work in the Hong Kong app store, though - I'm not sure if gift cards are universal.

Can't wait to get the latest edition of Pleco!

Great, thanks!

 

[Paul Duke]

I guess what I'm thinking is, the iPhone is going to recognize I'm connecting from HK, right? So I'm thinking HK cards would make sense.

We're getting way beyond my understanding of the App Store, because I've never owned an iPhone.

Well, worse comes to worst, I can call back to the US and get a friend to buy a gift card for me and give me the number.

Thanks again! 多谢！

 

[mikelove]

I guess what I'm thinking is, the iPhone is going to recognize I'm connecting from HK, right? So I'm thinking HK cards would make sense.

It will, but then you'll be stuck with an account at the HK iTunes store instead of in the US one - iTunes accounts are region-specific. Which means that to purchase additional Pleco add-ons / restore your purchase on a new device you'd have to log into the HK iTunes store again. So you're probably better off signing up for a US iTunes account and getting around the regional credit card restriction with gift cards or a VPN (or just hoping it works and emailing Apple if it doesn't).

 

[gato]

From what I hear, iPhone 4's are out of stock in HK (due to the high demand from mainlanders traveling to HK). And to purchase an iPhone 4 at the Apple store in either Shanghai or Beijing, Apple requires a reservation at the online Apple store first to cut down on scalping.

You might be able to find HK iPhone 4's at unauthorized dealers in either HK or mainland. But you'll have to be more careful about whom to buy it from, and the price is likely to be above retail. I hear that HK iPhone 4's (16GB) are going for RMB 6000 right now in Shanghai. When I bought mine, the gray market price was still about the same as the Apple store price (RMB 4999), but since then, the gray market price has gone up due to the high demand.

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jsp ... &tstart=60
iPhone 4 from Apple Store in Hong Kong
Posted: Nov 20, 2010 7:21 AM in response to: robapp
First the facts - all OFFICIAL sources of iPhones are sold out. - All unofficial sources have iphones for higher prices - at least 120 to 200€ more.

 

[Paul Duke]

Wow! Thanks for the tips and the info. Doesn't look good for my plan... Maybe I should buy an iPod touch here in the US. Ugh, I'll be carrying so many devices... And I wanted to be able to use the OCR function...

 

[gato]

iPod can't do OCR because of lack of auto-focus.

You could check the gray market shops in Hong Kong. Most are in the Mong Kok district.

What cities are you going to be in the mainland? If you are going to be in Shanghai, I can recommend the gray market shop where I bought my iPhone. The going price might be around RMB 6000 now because authorized retainers are out of stock.

Another factor to consider is that iPhone will come out on Verizon in January or February. That may or may not be a factor for you.

 

[Paul Duke]

Meaning the Verizon phone is GSM and will work in the US and in China? That may be my best bet.

 

[mikelove]

Meaning the Verizon phone is GSM and will work in the US and in China? That may be my best bet.

Probably not - it may support both GSM and CDMA, a few other phones do that, but most likely it'll be CDMA-only; Verizon's GSM-based 4G network isn't nearly widespread enough to release a phone that relies on it.

 

[pfduke]

Okay, so here's an update. I may need some help.

I'm in Hong Kong, just bought an iPod Touch at an official Apple reseller. The friendly folks set up the Touch for me and let me get on their wireless.

First thing that happened with the iPod touch is that it asked me to sign in to my Apple ID. When I did so, it said I was linked to a US iTunes account and it would take me to the US iTunes store.

Went to iTunes, was able to download the Pleco demo. Was also able to download the whole demo for the professional bundle, which is what I want to buy.

Here's the roadblock: when I tap on the dollar sign in Pleco to purchase the thing I first get a confirmation pop up. "Do you want to buy one Pleco..." etc. I click on buy and I get "Purchase Error, Cannot connect to iTunes Store". Have tried 10 or 15 times, same response each time.

Saw a thread in another board here about issues with purchasing in China... I'm assuming this is related to that.

I know one suggestion is to buy an iTunes gift card back in the US. (Probably I could get a friend to do that and give me the code via email.) However, if I keep getting the "Purchase Error" message it appears I'll never get the chance to enter any gift code, no matter where it's from.

Caveat: the wireless at this HK Apple reseller is the only network I've tried this on so far. That's where I'm writing this from. [I had to create a new user ID because for some reason I was not able to log on with the previous one. However I am the same person as the above messages. ;-) ]

Tonight at the house of the friend I'm staying with I will try on his network...

Sorry this is my first Touch/iPhone so I am really unfamiliar with the App store. I assume there is no way to purchase the App in iTunes itself on my laptop. I bought some music on my laptop in iTunes this morning so I know I am able to do that here...

Off to Malaysia Wednesday, to Beijing on the 20th... Hope I can get this worked out.

Thanks much. New App looks awesome (in the demo/free version).

Secondary question: is the full screen handwriting recognition in the professional bundle? I don't see it listed in "downloaded but not paid for".

PD

 

[Paul Duke]

Got back to friend's place in HK and facing the same issue. When I try to purchase on the iPod Touch I get "Purchase Error, Cannot connect to iTunes Store"...

I find this really weird... the point of an iPhone or iPod Touch is that it's a very mobile computer.... Travel information and guides and maps and so forth has to be potentially a huge market for the iTunes store. But I really can't buy something unless my iPod is physically in the US??? Not Pleco's fault I know, but I find this weird.

Any point to calling iTunes customer service and asking them to unblock???

thanks

Paul D.

 

[mikelove]

Got back to friend's place in HK and facing the same issue. When I try to purchase on the iPod Touch I get "Purchase Error, Cannot connect to iTunes Store"...

I find this really weird... the point of an iPhone or iPod Touch is that it's a very mobile computer.... Travel information and guides and maps and so forth has to be potentially a huge market for the iTunes store. But I really can't buy something unless my iPod is physically in the US??? Not Pleco's fault I know, but I find this weird.

Any point to calling iTunes customer service and asking them to unblock???

That purchase error actually doesn't mean your account is blocked, it means your iPod can't get a connection to iTunes in general - if you open up "App Store" does that give you an error too or does that work correctly? What about if you try to go to Pleco's website in Safari in your iPod?

If you get a credit card rejection error ("payment method declined") that would mean there was a block on your account from Apple, and in that case writing iTunes support should resolve it.

 

[Paul Duke]

Yes, I can get to the App Store no problem and download apps. In fact, I was able to download the professional bundle demo so I assume the whole thing is already sitting on my Touch, just waiting for me to get the activation key through iTunes...

Still getting the "Purchase Error". I will try writing to iTunes store help. Thanks...

Thought it might be related to not having (as of yesterday) connected to my computer and registered and such. But I've done that now and I'm still getting the error...

Thanks for the reply...

PD

 

[mikelove]

Still getting the "Purchase Error". I will try writing to iTunes store help. Thanks...

Thought it might be related to not having (as of yesterday) connected to my computer and registered and such. But I've done that now and I'm still getting the error...

Does sound like it's something wrong with iTunes, then, yes - if it's downloading add-ons correctly then it's not having any problem connecting to our server. Are the prices showing up in the add-on catalog? That would mean that it's successfully connecting to iTunes' in-app purchasing system too, since it fetches the prices from that.

 

[Paul Duke]

Have written to iTunes support now... Thanks for the tip.

Yes, I can get to the Pleco website on Safari...

 

[gato]

Can you go to the "Settings" app, then "Store" and sign out of the App Store and then sign back in?

Someone on another site said the problem might occur on in-app purchase due to new user agreements.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1717 ... unes-store
I had the same error that seemed to pop up out of nowhere (was working fine one day, but then the next day it was giving me these errors about 2 out of every 3 times I tried testing my in-app purchase).

Then I visited the App Store (when trying to make another real purchase), and realized that they had a new user agreement that they wanted me to verify. After I did that, when I went back to my own app and tried out the test purchase again, it was working fine and have had no errors since. So I suspect I was getting the error because they wanted me to verify the new user agreement.

Now the only thing I wonder is if there is a way for my in-app purchase to forward that prompt to my users instead of giving them a mysterious error?

 

[Paul Duke]

Thanks. Tried the signing out and signing in. Still no go. Still waiting on any response from Apple...

Mike Love, since I owned Pleco for Palm before, purchased around 2003, does it make sense for me to enter a registration number as a previous user? Will that give me any benefits until I can sort out this problem? Thanks.

 

[mikelove]

Thanks. Tried the signing out and signing in. Still no go. Still waiting on any response from Apple...

Have you tried deleting and re-downloading Pleco directly via your iPhone yet? Or just downloading another random free iPhone app? It could be that the agreement prompt will only come up when you actually try to download something from App Store.

Mike Love, since I owned Pleco for Palm before, purchased around 2003, does it make sense for me to enter a registration number as a previous user? Will that give me any benefits until I can sort out this problem? Thanks.

Won't give you much - just flashcards and the document reader, nothing else from your old Palm purchase is transferrable (we don't have a license for the Oxford dictionary on iPhone yet, and the handwriting recognizer engine we used on Palm was discontinued years ago and never made it to iPhone either).