The boy has been using my iPhone has figured out how to use the intuitive "swiping" navigation technique for some time now. He also knows how to recognise familiar faces in photographs. So last week after enjoying a nice lunch at NYNY with a huge root beer float *sluurrpps!* :P, I decided to test if he is able to combine these 2 skills ...
Google Maps has finally done street view for Singapore.
Here are a few of my favourite scenes:
Kranji Dam
KPE Tunnel
Benjamin Sheares Bridge
Mandai Road
Old Upper Thomson Road (No feeding the monkeys!)
Changi Coast Road
Lim Chu Kang Road a.k.a. "40 Tiang" (Watch out for highway patrol!)
Yishun Dam
Airport Blvd
Telok Paku @ Changi Beach
Kg Wak Hassan
Who knows, if you are lucky, you may spot yourself in the street view scene!
I was looking around for a phone for some time since a couple of months ago. My main criteria was that the phone must allow me to enter data fairly quickly and have a large enough screen for surfing the net, so I narrowed it down to the Nokia N97 because it has an external keyboard.
In the end, curiosity about the new iPhone 3GS got the better of me, and now I am the owner of a 32GB 3GS ... and a SingTel contract.
I've been using the 3GS for nearly a month now. My phone is not "jailbroken" and is currently running on OS 3.1. This is what I think:
Likes:
- fast and smooth user friendly interface
- a whole lot of applications available
- Huge built-in memory for all kinds of stuff
- keyboard in landscape mode works better than a physical one (I can type almost as fast as if I am on a full sized keyboard now!)
- Location based services aplenty, and current location is determined quite accurately
- many accessories in the market
Dislikes:
- iTunes not exactly very zippy or user friendly. Not used to their "sync" concept.
- Battery power lasts about a day (less if you use Wifi and 3G data)
- Proprietary OS imposes restrictions on developer's apps (e.g. developer's applications are single threaded and not multi-threaded) I used to have a timer application running on my Nokia to remind me when to put my eyedrops. The iPhone has a similar app but requires it to run in the foreground. If you close it, it doesn't work anymore.
- A number of restrictions on the OS, most noticeable is the lack of Bluetooth file transfer (i.e. I cannot send files or pictures to someone else using Bluetooth)
- You cannot replace the built-in Calendar application with a better third party application
- There is no TASKS and TODO lists available on the iPhone
- The battery is part of the phone and not user replaceable.
I'm sure there's more but these are just the main ones which I can think about right now. Overall it is a good phone, but does it live up to it's hype? Well almost ...
After approximately 20 hours of flight time, I am back in San Diego. The familiar streets and food was comforting. I am back in the same hotel (and maybe even the same room!)
Anyway, the flight this time was pretty comfortable as I was armed with my new Panasonic RP HC-31 active noise cancelling earbuds. If you travel by air a lot, I would recommend one of these. I prefer these to the over-the-ear type simply because they are lighter, smaller (i.e. easier to carry around), and does not clamp onto the sides of your head or mess up your hair.
With the earbuds on, I managed to watch 3 movies comfortably and put in about 4-5 hours of continuous sleep (with the noise-cancellation on and no audio) which I normally would not be able to do.
Anyway, I am now waiting for breakfast after a night of Tacos, Tortilla Chips, a Margarita and a HUGE dessert. Don't think I will be able to eat much this morning ...
If you don't already know, Picasa 3 (non-beta release) is available for download. This new version has lots of cool features. Some of what I like (after playing around for a few minutes) are:
- viewer capability (can acts like a photo viewer)
- new fully customisable collage creator (can move, rotate, size and bring forward and backward photos in the pile)
- post entries straight to Blogger
Download your FREE copy today ... :-)
Have been using this "Rear View Mirror DVR" product now for about a month. I think it beats the el-cheapo "Drive Recorder" which I bought earlier this year.
Here are some general comments:
Pros:
- Overall package is quite nice
- Build quality is not too bad
- Wide angled adjustable camera
- Auto recording start upon ignition on
- Capture until last second upon ignition off
- Loops recorded video in first-in-first-out fashion (1GB can store approx. 100 minutes of video)
- The recorded files can be saved in 1 min, 3 min, 5 min or 10 min blocks
- There is also a feature where you can "lock" files to prevent them from being deleted / overwritten
- This thing can support 2 cameras. You can put a second camera for your car interior, or facing the rear. When there is power to this camera, the DVR and LCD will take this as the input. So by hooking up the reverse camera to the reverse lamp (for power), you can have a reverse camera view on your rear view mirror with DVR recording! You can do the same thing with the interior camera by hooking it up to the interior cabin lights (for power). That way, the interior is recorded everytime any of the car doors are open (great for taxi driver safety)!
- The unit captures audio too, not sure if this is a pro or con cos your conversation in the car will also be captured! (Good thing is that you can turn this feature off)
Cons:
- Mirror is quite big and bulky so may have a problem for those who like to use the sunshade, or those with small original mirrors which hang high
- Resolution too low (320x240), would have liked at least 640x480
- Prompts you to format SD card every 7 days, suspect it is to clean up any bad files that could have been created during ignition off
- There is date/time on the unit but somehow it cannot be captured in the video. It is used only for timestamping the recorded files
- The fast forward and rewind functions are buggy
- Price is not cheap
Although the video is not as hi-def as I would have liked, I think it would still come in handy as evidence should any accident occur through no fault of yours.
Anyway, have attached some interesting videos captured by the unit on YouTube. The quality is slightly better in the original file than what can be seen online. As you can see, both videos are of taxi drivers ...
1) Idiotic taxi who cuts into my lane, slows down, and then recklessly swerves into filter lane to avoid red light!!
2) Another taxi which abruptly cuts queue inside yellow box ...
Tuesday I took child care leave and brought Cayden to NUH for his second round of vaccination. The pediatrician seemed to be pleased with "little botak's" physical development. His comments were that he was about 2 months ahead. (i.e. He can now turn over, interact through voice, grab stuff and even stand supported for a few seconds). Obviously mummy and daddy were very happy to hear this.
Anyway, the vaccinations this time round included 1 oral (Rotavirus) and 2 injections (Pneumococcal and the 5-in-1). There was screaming but it was short.
After that, we brought him to Takashimaya to accompany us while we went to convert our broadband, home phone and wifeys' mobile phone to MIO plan. The process was so complicated that it took almost 2 hours! What came out of it was that I got a Nokia N78 (with the S$100 discount) for S$38 only.
The N78 is quite an amazing phone packed full of features and it was on offer for just S$138 with a price plan. Its got the works ... 3 megapixel Carl Zeiss with AF and LED flash, 3G, Quad Band, WiFi, A-GPS, Bluetooth, stereo speakers, FM radio, Internet Radio etc. etc.
Tested out all these features and they worked like a charm. Only thing is the GPS took quite some time to lock on to the Satellites (even with the A-GPS).
Sample shot taken with the 3MP Carl Zeiss below:
Unfortunately, my office "officially" does not allow the use of camera phones, so this N78 will either be a weekend phone or it will be used "discreetly" since I have an "offical" non-camera E51.
Oh yes, we also managed to finish a nice dinner at the Japanese restaurant at Takashimaya B2 today without any problems with the boy too!
Being in the technology business, I must say that I was "ashamed" not to know of the existence of the Nokia E51 non-camera phone. It is known as the E51-2. (The E51-1 is the camera version)
It was only recently that I saw the E51-2 for sale at a popular local shop (MobileSquare). The E51-2 was only available in Steel Silver at the shop. This gave the phone a very business/professional finish but also made it a fingerprint magnet.
The specifications were exactly what I wanted. 3.5G, WiFi, Bluetooth, Outlook Sync ... the works, and all in a slim and sleek body. The phone runs the latest S60 operating system and it is quite rare to find a phone with such features but without a camera. The lack of a QWERTY keyboard was not really an issue as I found that I have not lost my number pad thumbing skills.
Needless to say, I told wifey about and and the next day, we bought 2 of these phones. We particularly like the WiFi features as we could surf the net and download applications, themes, ringtones etc. for free both at home and outside. TomTom GPS navigation and MSN Live is also available for the E51. Apps such as iScoot and Gizmo also allows free VOIP calls and chats, neat!
This is another cool plugin if you are using FireFox. Makes blogging much more convenient and faster. However, it used DIV for formatting which I don't like because it is inconsistent with the rest of my pages.
(Published via ScribeFire plugin for Firefox 3.0, edited to remove DIV tags)
If you are always viewing images from Flickr, Google Image Search, Facebook photos or even YouTube videos, this is one of the coolest plugins to get!
Check it out at http://www.piclens.com
Finally got myself a used K10D body as some are selling theirs to upgrade to the newly launched K20D. Still getting used to the camera and don't have a digital lens yet. Some initial evening and night time sample shots below:
The following shots were taken with my 20 year-old Takumar 28-80mm film SLR lens.
:-)
Have you ever struggled with cleaning the rice cooker after every meal where you had to scrub and scrape all the burnt/stuck rice from the bottom of the container?
This happened to me, especially when the rice cooker gets older and the non-stick surface of the rice container degrades.
One tip which I like to share to solve this cleaning problem is to use ALUMINIUM FOIL.
What you can do is to put the uncooked rice and water onto an aluminium foil and place it into the container. Make sure the water in the aluminium foil does not leak out. In the space between the aluminium foil and container, add a little bit of extra water. This is to make sure the foil gets good contact with the container through the water and to allow the rice cooker to detect when cooking is done. (This works cos most rice cookers use a thermostat to determine when the rice is cooked i.e. when the water dries up, temperature goes > 100 degrees C)
Result: 100% Fluffy rice without s single grain getting burnt! Better yet, just rinse the rice container, no scraping or scrubbing!
BTW, for those who want to know how a rice cooker works, here's some interesting links:
How Stuff Works (Rice Cooker)
How a Rice Cooker Works (Some girl on YouTube)
My 7-year old Toshiba Quadro died on me 2 weeks ago. What this meant was that I needed to go to the IT Show 2008 to get a good deal on a new TV.
I decided on a Samsung LCD TV as I think their models look sleek and are quite affordable. With my existing TV cabinet, I can only go for at most a 40-inch panel. So eventually after doing some research, I decided to go for the Samsung LA40R81BX. This model is HD-READY, not FULL-HD. I figured saving $1000 makes better sense since I don't have any HD devices now and will unlikely have any in the future. Furthermore $1000 goes a long way for baby stuff ...
Anyway, its been a long time since I went for any IT/PC/Computer Show. When I went down last Friday late afternoon to Suntec where the show was held, I was promptly reminded why I usually don't go. Even before I stepped out of the car, I was greeted with signs saying "CARPARK FULL", a reminder of the potential crowd in Suntec.
Took me a while to find parking, after trying at least 4 carparks. (Suntec, Esplanade open-air, Esplanade basement, Shaw then finally Beach Centre) The show was quite huge with 2 levels full of stuff. Fortunately, I remained focused. Go-in, find Samsung, buy, go-out. Well, almost, with a short detour for other "snakey" gadgets, kekeke!
The TV will be here in 2 weeks. Will post a short review (maybe) after I get it.
Cool gadget, works like an aircraft black-box recorder, continuously recording the front view (or any view you choose depending on where you place the camera) in the vehicle. Can be used for recording accident evidence, dangerous/idiotic drivers etc.
Checked out the price and its approx. $650 including shipping from Japan to Singapore.
http://www.fujitsu-ten.co.jp/eclipse/product/drive/drec2000/index.html
After having my Nokia 6021 die on me in USA, I've decided to get a new phone with PDA functionality that is smaller than my current Siemens SX66 (2nd phone) and has no camera. The phone that fit the bill was the Sony Ericsson M600i. Yes, its a pretty old model, but then it means its latest firmware will have most of the bugs fixed and will be cheap.
Managed to get one at MobileSquare. The M600i is small, simple, cheap (SGD328) and can run navigation apps like TomTom 6 and other UIQ3 applications. Screen is crisp with QVGA resolution (320x240).
One of my CRT just went kaput a couple of days ago, so I am now the owner of a brand new Philips 22" widescreen (1680x1050) LCD! :-D
LCD prices are really dropping, I bought the 22" for almost the same price as my other 19" about half a year ago. 19" screens from well known brands such as ViewSonic, Philips, LG and Samsung can be had for under $400. The 22" can be as low as $419! (ViewSonic)
SingNet seems to be pretty generous with bandwidth as they sent me a mailer saying that they have upgraded my surfing speed from 1.5Mbps (mine is a 1.5Mbps plan) to 3Mbps for FREE after 31 May 2007. So to verify, I've conducted a speed test and here are the results.
This is tested with a Singapore server of course but the results seem to be pretty reasonable:
Download speeds from anywhere else in the world is still sucky, all less than 1Mbps.
The VW Golf (V) GT TSI, "only" 1.4 litres, 240Nm of torque at 1750RPM, 0-100km/h in 7.6 seconds ... WooHoo!!
