Untangle My Life....Simple...Bluetooth

Got some videos from Ripplevox and to be honest I am not ready to see some of the videos. Some are really lame, one is extreme disgusting and 2 that are really out of this world. If you are scared of mice, better not watch it.


Version Animals



This I got to say, really would get those people from SPCA that jitters and I am not really keen to see the cat doing what it is doing...although it is a trick of the eye...it is just plain disgusting. The mice version is better.

National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets

We are briefed!

I don't think I am cut out for this!

Joanna: Doing her Interview Thingie

Carry the torch! (By the way did not see Nicky carrying this torch at all!)

After growing up watching Indiana Jones, and viewing countless adventure/treasure hunting movie such as Lara Croft in Tomb Raider and Davinci Code...one thing is for sure, I miss Indy A LOT. I guess Mr Ford in his old creaky body should not reprise the role of the swash buckling role and should leave it to the younger generation.

That's where Nicky Cage comes in...slightly younger and a hairdo in the movie that is close to disastrous. Not exactly a hair style that one would sport if you are an adventurer. As you can see I am practically distracted by Nick's Character Mr B. J. Cage just because of his hair style.

But at least I can say that the whole movie is just one hell of a ride: car chase, problem solving, breaking in and squeezing through holes full of cobwebs...and of course solving the mandatory ancient traps that surrounds the treasure. It is so fast, you would never try to understand how one clue leads to another. And (spoiler alert) the whole movie has actually TWO book of secrets, one that has a clue and the other (named after this show) is held by the President.

Now this book of secrets, people would love to have it because for me, I would really want to know how many babes did Mr JFK really have other than Marilyn Monroe. Of course it would be nice to know who really killed him. As the show has gone forth, the characters really do not have much time to look through the book.

Anyway, like I said if you are looking for some thinking, guessing and solving movie like thrillers then this is one movie you should not have to watch. It is basically action all the way, not much brain juice is needed. Even if one do use the brain to trace the clues to the final solution, it just does not make sense at all!

So how is this movie? I guess the first movie is much better because it is up against Davinci Code and so the clue solving is much more 'intelligent'. As for the 2nd version, Nicky just act as though he is thinking really hard, which of course he isn't and it shows. The whole show is entertaining but not to the point that will prompt me to say that it is a must watch.

But the show stealer has to be Helen Mirren because she does a really good job in captivating me as an audience when she has to do a verbal sparring with Nicky's dad, helmed by Jon Voight (aka Jolie's dad...the lips cannot be mistaken). There's another good actor in Ed Harris who acted as the bad guy who acted good so that he can be bad...come again?

To sum it all up my wife says the darnest thing, "I don't understand the whole movie".

Gosh..when will the next Indy Movie be up?

Other than the show, there's this thing about doing some interview for MTV Asia and we have a blast doing it (although I did not do it, I have fun taking pictures of the interview). We did a review for MTV as well! Fun Fun Fun....

Samsung T10: Review Post 2

Although the post supposed to be on the T10, the main character here is the Samsung's Bluetooth headset SBH 500, an accessory for the T10.

Nothing out of the ordinary though and out of the box the headset is extremely comfortable but those who wear spectacles have to take it out first, put on the headset and then replace the spectacles. The SBH 500 out of the box.

Initial impressions of the Bluetooth headset is quite good. Pairing it off with my Nokia 6300, Dopod HTC U1000 and the Samsung T10 (more on that in the later posts) did not encounter any problems.

Sound wise, the SBH500 perform well with good base, mid and treble response. Calls made through it was clear and audible to the recipients despite being in a noisy and busy place.

What endears me to it was that it is not flashy (pun intended). I do have a Jabra BT headset as well but it likes to 'shout' its presence because it flashes a ring of blue light whenever it is on. Although I did not do the flashing, people kept staring at me thinking that I am wearing something that is obviously too 'bling bling' for me.

I also do appreciate the simple 'on-off' button that is absent from most BT receivers.

Still there are 2 things I do not really like. I would very much appreciate that the play and phone buttons to be separated as it took me time to find the play button and accidentally click the phone button instead. The other thing I do not really like is the lack of a USB charger and bringing this headset for trips would mean an extra charger in my bag.

All in, the SBH 500 is still a very practical and user friendly headset.

Samsung T10: Review Post 1

Ripplevox passed me this MP3 player called the Samsung T10 and asked me to cough...i mean... blog about it. So here I am blogging this MP3 player like it will be my dream girlfriend, while i slowly undress it to my heart's content.

The T10 sounds like one of those killer robots in the Terminator shows that have Arnie says "I'll be back!" and "Hasta La Vista...(pause)...baby". Damn...it is not as sexy as T2000, the babe chick terminator that I am willing to let her 'kill me softly with her words'.

Ok...enough of those sexual innuendos. T10 no doubt has done something that most MP3 players do not have, the ability not to stick on to your like those sticky girlfriends like a wired earphones. There you got it: wireless and I am ready to divorce my wires away.

Drum roll please...the T10 in boxed glory~!!



Give it a good look around and for those who are lazy to hunt it down via Google, this is what it says behind the box

"Animation GUI
Video (WMV, MPEG4), Music(MP3, WMA, Ogg), Photo Slideshow(JPEG), FM Radio, Text Viewer, Voice Recording, Bluetooth 2.0"

First impression is that if I am not a IT geek, I would not have known Samsung T10 can help you divorce your wife...err...your wire. As a red-blooded guys go, we see the face, the 'love pillows' and then the shape...(dun act blur...guys do look as girls do). So the cover did not say anything about being wireless at the front and a good selling point has thus being muted.

Next is the opening ceremony.

Everything do look easy from the word get go and my confidence was up when I saw a tag to 'pull'.... and it did not work. After a frustrating minute or so I forgot that I need to treat this as woman of my dreams. There has got to be a way to make her come out from her shell and since she can't take one liners, then i have to push the right buttons.


And with the right buttons...everything just spills.



Introducing the Samsung T10 (clap clap clap)....at last it comes out.



Now to charge her up and see what joy and ecstasy she can bring me.

Shucks....have to bring her to buy some clothes tomorrow (not even an underwear in the box!).

Logitech MX Air

• S$ 279

• Available from major IT Retailers

User interface norm has been turning on its head since the arrival of the Wii controller. For those who loves the Wii controller and wish that it could be used along with the Windows XP Media Center Edition PC sitting in the living room, the Logitech MX Air is the perfect answer to the prayer.

The wireless MX Air comes in elegant black and silver that oozes style from every angle. The design would not look out of place in the Zen inspired living room with flush buttons, flowing design with no sharp edges; just like a smooth stone.

First and foremost the MX Air is a mouse for the common desktop. Armed with a laser tracking system, the feedback on mouse position is more precise and faster. Thus it performs really well for First Person Shooting (FPS) games that is reliant on precise aiming such as Battlefield 2142. The accompanied Logitech Setpoint software can also sense that a game is starting up and will configure the mouse for games so that users need not to change their mouse sensitivity level for games and work.

Scrolling through the web pages with the MX Air is also very different as it does not come with a scroll wheel. What replaces it is the cool touch sensitive scroll panel that can sense the touch of the finger and scroll the page effortlessly.

Unlike the Wii Controller that makes use of the sensor bar to sense its position relative to the TV screen, Logitech's Freespace technology allows users to just pick up the mouse and control the cursor on the screen without any other devices except for a USB plug to connect the mouse to the PC. A welcome relief for users whose TV console is filled to the brim.

What caught me by surprise is the relative ease of pointing the cursor, controlling volume and skipping tracks just by using hand gestures. For example, when lowering the volume, I just need to hold the volume key, wait for the volume bar to appear and then swing the mouse to the left. How about forwarding a track? Simple. Just hold the 'play' button, draw a clockwise circle in the air and the next music track is played.

For all its beauty in form and function, the MX Air is a fingerprint magnet that requires constant cleaning if one's hand is sweaty. And to maintain its pebble like form, it may not have the same comfort level as those ergonomically designed mouse. For someone that scroll pages quite frequently, the scroll panel may also see more wear and tear and thus tarnish the smooth facade.

At $279 the MX Air is an expensive mouse that may not appeal to most desktop bound PC users except for those who has hooked up a PC to the living room's Flat screen TV. It is really indispensable once you get the hang of it. A truly innovative product.

Samsung Ultra II 9.6 SGH-U300

Sleekness seems to be the order of the day for the latest iteration of Sumsung's line of slim phone. This time round the Ultra Edition II 9.6 clam shell phone is carrying the torch for no frills phone for the Korean chaebo.

As the model number suggest this thin, slim calling machine is just a mere 9.6 mm thick and it is easy to slot it into pockets and handbags. Size wise, the phone measured 100 by 51 mm is also easy to hold and more so when the phone is flipped up. Access to the buttons and keys is easy enough so no dramas there.

Samsung phone's brilliant 2.2" TFT-LCD makes reading and looking at text, graphics and pictures that much enjoyable thanks to its 262K colour screen. It also comes with a secondary OLED screen on the cover for a quick check whenever there's a call.

As mentioned, since this is a no frills phone, the SGH-U300 does not have 3G connectivity. This phone will be perfect for those who do not need to access the Internet frequently.

For such a thin phone, the Samsung is armed with a 3.2 mega pixel camera on the cover. The picture quality is quite good even for its lack of flash and lens thanks to the phone's good control of image noise.

The most talked about feature of the phone should be its cool metallic keypad. What distinguished it from other phones, most notably the Motorola Razr, is the seamless keypad that has no apparent demarcation for individual buttons as it is presented as one piece of metal sheet. That adds the cool factor to the phone.

That said, what irks most was the lack of sensitivity of the buttons as some strength has to be utilised when pressing the button for the phone to register the key press. The inability to feel individual keys also hinders fast SMS messaging.

There are also other kinks to its sleek armour no thanks to its non-changeable batteries, lack of and the lack of a memory slot to increase its meagre 70 megabyte built-in memory. The use of a proprietary data cum power cable did not endear itself to frequent business travellers either as power adaptor and data cable has to be brought along.

ACER: Windows Vista Did Nothing for the PC Industry

Ha! Never in the history of the PC industry has put so much hope into something that has taken so long to grow and yet did nothing for anything useful for the PC user.

Face it! HP/Dell/ACER + other brands of PC not mentioned here. The PC companies are starting to become white good producers. No amount of Operating System power can change the fact that the pinnacle of what PC can do has somehow shown in the windows XP...perhaps even, I dare do say, Windows 98 SE if not for FAT32.

Windows XP as I have said when Windows ME came along a long time ago that a consumer based OS that uses the NTFS would prove to be much more robust and the prediction is a dead ringer as I have experienced much lesser problems for the PC and 5 years later it is going strong.

Now back to Windows Vista. For all it is worth mentioning countless times, it is the numerous versions that kills the cash cow. Honestly why deprive so many consumers from getting the best of vista especially the hard disk encryption? Ultimate version is still the best but it costs a bomb...and the best is not necessary what people need. This is more acute when applied to a Singaporean mind: If I want to spend, might as well get the best.

Pity that the best is expensive and gives nothing more than 'better' security and eye candy; when comparing with the reliability of XP that works well with virtually anything thrown at it, it is really a no brainer to choose XP that is cheaper robust and has lesser problems when one get the service pack and the necessary FREE software to plug security holes.

All in all, the collective effort plus cost in putting up Windows XP is much much lower than using Vista. Need I say about the countless complains about Vista incompatibility issues?

And I do have another analogy. Imagine your car is the Operating System and windows XP is a everyday japanese sedan car that is light yet zippy and Vista is one of those continental cars that is sturdy but much heavier. So the engine is the processor. I guess I need not to go deeper into which scenario will give better mileage.

So I put my Core2Duo with 2GB RAM with my Windows XP. Yes the RAM would not be fully utilised that I myself would know well. But at least I am using an OS that will be running the computer at full speed with a lot of resources to spare. The same rig would no doubt cut the performance down. To me it is a no brainer.

Right now MS says they are coming with OS 7 or SEVEN. I wonder what is up their sleeves but if they are going to use AERO as the selling point again, it ain't going anywhere.

Let me tell you what is the selling point I want to see: Hassle free, crash free and junk free PC with easy parts installation with out the installation process. Sounds tough? Yes it is but the lesser the user has to be asked to install something the simpler. That would be the OS to look for....oh yeah...it already existed....in a MAC.

Better buck up...Apple is doing everything right at the moment.