New gadget, perhaps?

I have been known to my friends as someone who changes mobile phones every year. Well those were very long time ago.

My current phone is Galaxy Note which was released 2 years ago. When I first used that, friends were smirking or laughing seeing me holding such a big phone to my ear. They would make jokes that I looked funny holding an iron to my face.

Then bigger screens phablets came along (ex: Galaxy Note 8.0) which some people still use them as a phone without the bluetooth headset. So putting my Galaxy Note to the ear no longer looks ridiculous as big screens have become a norm.

Recently Samsung launched their products for 2013 lineup. I am tempted again by one of them. This will be my new gadget, perhaps?

Mini Android Collectible

After hacking my HTC HD2 to try on Android ROMs, I have become a fan of Android. This operating system is so much fun as compared to Windows Mobile 6.5 that HTC HD2 originally came with!

So naturally as a fan, I got excited when I came across this site selling Android collectible figurines. However the problem is they are located in US and either do not ship elsewhere or the shipping costs is more expensive that the collectibles themselves. Oh... and they are always out of stock!

Recently when I found out that there is a local reseller called takenshop, I got very excited and straightaway placed my order online to get one of these cute Android figurines. The local reseller does not have as many varieties but I believe it is a start. It cost me RM28.80 for the figurine + RM5 for shipping. 2 days after that, I received my Mini Android Collectible!! It is soooo cute and I foresee this is a start of a new hobby.

What is happening to Dell?

My current laptop, Dell Inspiron 6400 is already more than 3 years old. I bought it via Dell online and I remember the order processing was done very promptly and I got it within a week. I felt that this was very impressive and so, I always have this confidence with Dell's services ... until now.

You see, to make use of the tax relief for computer's purchase (every 3 years), I decided to get a new laptop. Initially wanted to go for a netbook but after getting feedbacks from some people who use them, I deduced that a netbook may not be suitable for me. So I was thinking of smaller screen laptops (13.3 inch). After searching for a while, I decided to go with Dell again based on the pleasant experience I had with them. My eyes were on the Inspiron 13z.



I placed my order online on the 29-Oct and was really excited anticipating for my new toy. Unfortunately that was as far as the excitement go.

After 3 days, I checked my online order status and it was "Order Received". I was supposed to know the delivery date by then, but that wasn't available.
The next day I checked again, and the same screen greeted me. Then again and again.



As you see, there are quite a few processes to go before it's finally delivered to me... and I am not a very patient guy when it comes to my toys. Doesn't help when the status is still stuck at the first process!

What the hell is going on? I am thinking if there is any glitches with my payment of something, they would have called or emailed me, right? So far no news from them and my status is still the same!

I tried calling the Customer Service one working day at 4pm and was told their office hours were closed. I specifically saw this information before:

If you wish to speak to a Customer Care representative for any non-technical matters, please find our contact details and hours of business below.

Singapore : 1800-394-7423 Monday - Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm

Malaysia : 1800-88-0990 Monday - Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm

Australia: 1 333 55 Monday - Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm EST

New Zealand: 0800 775 771 Monday - Friday, 9:00am – 5:00pm EST

Is Dell running like our government offices nowadays???

What is happening to Dell? I thought they have the reputation of providing good services before and after the sale. Apparently that has been going downhill.

This is really disappointing. All this frustration in waiting is really killing my excitement.

To netbook or not to netbook

Last Friday during lunch with my colleagues, our conversation came to the topic about laptops. A colleague said that he's thinking of getting a laptop as there will be tax relief for the purchase of computers.

That got me thinking. I already have a laptop which is more than 3 years old but still in working condition. So I don't think I want to get another one.

Then I thought, hmm... perhaps I should get a netbook instead. A netbook is like a scaled down version of a laptop, with smaller screens, keyboards and processing power. Well, the price is very much scaled down too! That thought actually got me feeling very excited as I am this semi-gadget crazy kind of person. I kept telling myself that on top of getting a new toy, I will get tax relief too!

So for dinner, I made plans to meet a friend around Ikano Power Station so that I could do some survey at the Harvey Norman store there. The average price of these netbooks are less than RM1.5K... and they are really cute and mobile. There is a 0% installment plan at Harvey Norman as well!

Based on my survey so far from Harvey Norman and websites, I have my eyes set on these 2 models:

1) HP Mini 1000 - ~RM1.3K from Harvey Norman



2) Dell Mini 10v - ~RM1.4K from Dell Store



Both these models have very similar specs except that in Dell, it's a 6 cell battery (last about 6 hours) whereas in HP, it's a 3 cell battery (last about 3 hours).

So will I get one of them? I really do not know. I have this emotional side which kept telling how much I want it (new toy mah!) and at the same time, the rational side kept saying that I do not need it.

Time will tell...

Apple for Christmas

I got my first apple this Christmas. This apple la!

Yeah... I have never owned an Apple product before, not even an iPod Shuffle which is the cheapest among the iPods. The mp3 player than I have been using was this.

This is the Creative Zen V Plus 4GB which I bought from Singapore. I don't think it's still in the market now. It has served me well although it is just a mp3 player.

Anyhow when iPod Touch came out, I was really excited. It's like the inferior and cheaper sibling of the iPhone minus the phone features, Bluetooth and camera. Most of the other cool features are there though. I tried playing with it before at those Mac shops and I really loved it. Surfing the net using iPod Touch's Safari feels so great as compared to surfing the net using my PDA phone. Serious! It is really fast and easy.

Besides that, it comes with an accelerometer which aligns the screen display accordingly when the device is rotated. This accelerometer also allows many motion related games to be played.

Oh, and it looks really nice too... just like iPhone. So I only dreamed of owning one as I couldn't get myself to pay for it.

My dream came true this Christmas when I got a 8G iPod Touch 2nd Generation from Hong Kong as a gift! I was so ecstatic although initially I thought it's an iPhone, hehe.

This iPod has kept me very busy throughout the Christmas holidays. I was busy copying my music albums from my laptop to it; busy downloading all those free applications and games; and busy converting some of my favourite movies to iPod format. Also getting used to the iTunes took up a lot of my time.

I really love surfing the net through its Safari, as well as checking my mails using its Mail application. The music sounded much better than my previous mp3 player and the games are incredible... many are free some more! No wonder it's called the funnest iPod.

Hmm... now that I have an Apple product, can I consider myself as one of the cool guys??

Christmas Cookie, Anyone?

I am never into cookies but this one certainly got my attention - the LG Cookie or also known as LG KP500. It's a touchscreen phone that runs on LG's proprietary operating system. I haven't seen the real thing yet but it certainly looks delicious in pictures and videos.

The most interesting "feature" of all is its price! I read that it's priced at RM899. RM899 for a touchscreen phone leh! That's a damn good deal! Well, the downside of it is no 3G and no Wifi la. Other than that, it seems okay to me. Full specs here.

Nah... I wouldn't trade this with my beloved LG KS20. However I do think it can make a good and affordable Christmas gift for that someone special who doesn't expect a phone to do everything.

Can't wait to be touched

HTC Corporation announced their 3 new models of Touch yesterday - Touch Viva, Touch 3G and Touch HD.

They looked super gorgeous!!! I especially have my eyes on Touch HD with its big screen (the screen is bigger than Iphone's!)

Touch Viva and Touch 3G will be available in early Oct 2008; while Touch HD will be available in Europe in Q4 2008 and other markets shortly after that. No information on how the prices are going to be yet. Ohhh...can't wait to be touched!

Their specs (info from HTC website) are as below:

(Click for bigger image)

Diamond is a guy's best friend

Oh...diamonds are no longer just a girl's best friend. See this and you will know what I mean.



Drool....drool....

This jewel has not reached Asia but it will, sometime soon. Rumour has it that it will be in June this year.

Anyhow, I will just admire its beauty from afar... :-(

Check out the official site for more info.

Update, 29th May 08
Read from In-Tech that this beauty will be available in Malaysia next month with RRP RM2,799.

Goodbye my old friend

Firstly just to clarify, nobody died...
Please read on...

My dear friend,

We have been together for a while now... and all I could remember was all the good times we had, and how you have never failed me through these years.

I am so sorry I had to make this move. As any normal human being, I succumbed to temptation, I... I.... I fell in love with "someone" else and the name is Kam Sing.

Initially I thought of keeping both of you. You can be my beck and call in case Kam Sing decided to throw tantrums. However I wasn't sure I could afford both of you. So I advertised you on a PDA forum. I thought that if no one was interested, I would get the reason to keep you.... but unfortunately, your beauty has enticed other people.

As I was packing your stuff up just now, I felt a slight ache in my heart. I hope your new owner will take care of you as well as I did. We have 2 more days to be with each other. Lets cherish the remaining moments...

Lovingly,
Fishman


Pictures of my old friend:

LG KS20

I did it!!! I couldn't control myself any longer and I did it!!

Last Sunday I went to Lowyat and bought this beauty that I have been ogling at from websites and brochures.

Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to my new love - LG KS20!

Since then I have been spending much more time at home playing around with my new phone, customising it and hunt the net for nice softwares to install. This is actually a good thing as I am too broke now to frolic outside.

There are some glitches here and there; some which I managed to troubleshoot, some still outstanding. I tell you, the feeling when you finally get the problem solved was ecstasy... like the time when I finally figured out how to pair my new baby with my bluetooth handsfree.

This is my first 3G phone and having my first video call was like... again ecstasy. I did check on the charges though.. for Maxis to Maxis or Maxis to other network, it's charged like your usual voice call rate. That's a good deal right? I just have to find more friends who have 3G phones to video call with.

However I am having problems sending MMS although receiving is okay. I called Maxis CSR a few times but they could not help me as this is a very new model and they don't have the settings yet. They asked me to go to any Maxis Center so that the people there can set them up manually.
** Update: Found out the root cause and it's nothing to do with my MMS settings. My contact numbers have a space between the country prefix and the number (+xx xxxxxxxxx). This is automatically set by Outlook for contacts and when synched, I got that in my phone too. When I remove the space and send the MMS, it worked!

The camera is really good! Although it's only 2 megapixels like my old phone, the quality and shutter speed are so much better. Somemore auto focus leh...

Old (HP rx6828) vs New (LG KS20)

Like any Windows product, I did get a few "hanged" moments but after resetting, it is working fine again. The "hanging" part happened when I was installing some softwares... guess some of them were just not compatible... you know, like some people with some people.

At the moment, some of the outstanding issues I hope to find solutions to are:
- Problem logging into Skype through this device. Connected via WIFI. Kept keeping the error message "Cannot connect to Skype. Please check your connection".
**Update: Oh I managed to get this working. After installing or uninstalling the programs, it's good to do a soft reset. I did it and my Skype can connect now. Problem is I can't use it to make VOIP call. The voice quality is very badly chopped up. This apparently is due to Skype not compatible with the Qualcomm chipset in KS20.
- Setting up Activesync to my device via bluetooth. Well...I never had this luck with my previous phone too.

For professional review of this phone, you can go here and here.

I have an itch

Oh dear... I am getting the itch again.

I met an ex-colleague at a wedding dinner recently and he told me about this new PDA phone. That devil him!!... you see.. I have this weakness for PDA phones.

Anyway I started to look this phone up in the internet to learn more. I finally understood why my ex-colleague is so into it.

Take a look:

It's a LG KS20 (Specs)

Yes I know. It's a LG phone. When I told this to my friends, they were like.. "What?!! You want a LG phone?". Hmm..does LG have a bad reputation or something? When I hunt around at the phone shops in Digital Mall, I can say that 99% of them did not have any LG phones to offer. Apparently LG phones are not in demand. I was shocked as from what I read in the forums, LG's Prada and Viewty are very popular in other parts of the world.

Anyway back to that beauty. I was told that it was launched in Malaysia a few weeks ago but so far, I have had no luck in seeing and feeling one upclose and personal. The price tag is around RM1,888.

Gosh..the itch... should I scratch it??

My new darling?

HP iPAQ 600 Series Business Navigator

• Microsoft Windows Mobile 6 Professional
• Marvell PXA270 Processor 520 MHz
• TFT 65,000 color 240 x 320 pixel touch panel display with LED backlight
• 128 MB SDRAM main memory, 256 MB flash ROM
• 117 x 60.3 x 17.5mm, 145g
• Bluetooth, USB 2.0 client for sync/data/charge
• 3G, HSDPA and Quad-band
• Integrated WiFi 802.11 b/g with WPA2 security
• GPS navigation
• 3 Megapixel camera, 4X digital zoom
• Smart Touch wheel and three-way thumb wheel

Click here for more info

When will it be available here?

Can I afford to woo this beauty?

Ravishing Beauty

Recently a new beauty came to town. My heart pounded so fast when I saw her on the newspaper and websites. OH BABY....COME TO DADDY!!!!!

The beauty I was talking about is the HTC Touch PDA phone. It is so so so so so so so so so ravishing that I couldn't help thinking about it for a few days after seeing it (on print though!). Wonder how it looks and feels like in real (:-~ drool).

This phone is on Windows Mobile 6 and has this new TouchFlo technology screen. You can basically use your finger and swipe it on the screen to navigate around. Sounds very much like the Iphone although I read that it's not even close. Anyhow, it is here now.....whereabout is Iphone?? "Batang hidung pun tak nampak".

For more info on the HTC Touch, please go http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_htctouch.htm.

If I am not mistaken, the price of getting this ravishing beauty is about RM2,099. Hmm...guess I have to include this in my "Things to buy - when I strike a lottery" list.

Oh baby....if I could hold you tonight.....