Life : 2020 Recap

Life in 2020 is very different from previous years. It is not applicable only to myself but many others in the world. Everybody knows, it is because of Covid-19! The normal life only applicable to the first 3 months of the year, where I went to work as usual, did travelling for my photography hobby which all is done in February, Singapore (group photo travel), Morotai Island (solo travel), and Anyer (group photo travel with Fuji-X friends). Those were during the early period of covid-19 pandemic, especially in Singapore where some cases already happened there, not so many visitors in Singapore already but we didn't want to miss the Lunar New Year's event there, especially the River Hongbao Festival with its fireworks. The travel to far northern part of Indonesia to Morotai Island was next, quite adventure trip there.

March was the start of the covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia, started with first case in Depok, greater Jakarta area. Life suddenly changed, from the full freedom of life where you can go anywhere without worry, then become so restricted and, even most of the year, home is the safest place in the world. Communication is also change, from face-to-face to over the internet, communication applications are all in demand. The way we work also changed, most of the time Work From Home instead of work in office. Work From Home, something that most of the companies reluctant to apply due to doubt in its effectiveness, suddenly becomes the main part of working process and proves that it can be as effectively as working in office. Even after this pandemic over, the trend of working remotely will still become something normal and office space requirement might not be as much as now anymore.

2020 is also become the year where you do most of your activities online, buy things online, order food online, working online, and do many banking transactions online. Fortunately the digital transformation and internet infrastructure have reach level that almost mature so most of our things can be done online. I can't imagine if in this pandemic situation, I have to go here and there to do things, how risky it is...

Being at home most the time, will become so deadly boring if you have little things to do. But thanks to the robust internet connection and maturity of streaming technology, almost all the entertainment content can be found over the internet to fill your day. Since I am the fans of Korean Drama for the past 20 years, many months of stay at home during this pandemic I can enjoy it by watching several new Korean Dramas since almost everyday they have new episodes. Among those Korean Dramas, herewith my favorite of the year: Crash Landing On You (surely because of Son Ye-Jin, ha ha...), The World of Married, It's Okay to Not Be Okay, Hospital Playlist, Flower Evil, Once Again (a very nice long drama of family life story), and Start-Up.

In matter of hours, 2020 will be over, and we welcome 2021. Covid-19 pandemic still be there in 2021, but hopefully will start fading away due to vaccination that building the herd community... and we can back to normal life as we did before this pandemic. Amin.

Japanese Drama : Tokyo Love Story (2020)

When watching TV Drama serial, my main interest in the story about life, real life. Japanese drama quite off about drama with this kind of story for quite many years, that is why I prefer watching Korean Drama instead. This year, spotted this Japanese Drama "Tokyo Love Story (2020)", a remake of its 1991 original version. Well, I haven't watch the 1991 version, but for sure the story line must be similar but with adaption to current condition and lifestyle. And, in my view, have interesting and catching story.

The story started when Nagao Kanji (role played by Ito Kentaro) moved to Tokyo, met his hometown friends, Sekiguchi Satomi (role played by Ishii Anna) and Mikami Kenichi (role played by Kiyohara Sho) for reunion but also joined Kanji office colleague Akana Rika (role played by Ishibashi Shizuka). So the story began. Kanji has feeling for Satomi and seems reciprocal but strangely Satomi fell for Kenichi instead. Rika who is very straightforward and has free and open thinking about love and  relationship, hit Kanji with “Kanchi, shall we kiss?” (yes, she always call him Kanchi instead of Kanji). Short story, Kanji has relationship with Rika, but in the end it didn't last, due to Rika's distinct character and her free thinking and also their long distance relationship when Rika left the company and moved to New York for another job. So as Satomi and Kenichi relationship due to Kenichi's character as well that reluctant tied in a relationship and having another relationship with fellow doctor Nagasaki Naoko (role played by Takada Riho). Well, in the end Kanji and Satomi back to their "original' love, while Rika cast away with her child (not Kenji's, but someone's else).

The real story is actually about the characteristic of each individual, both Kanji and Satomi represents the more "traditional" values of love and relationship, while Rika and Kenichi have more "modern" and 'loose" values and "commitment" issues. The interactions between these characters, flow of emotions, and clashes way of thinking, makes the story interesting. In real world, especially in modern and big city of Tokyo, that might exist.

Lastly, I love its OST, very nice song and beautiful scenery of Tokyo:

If you love real life story drama, this Japanese Drama "Tokyo Love Story (2020)" is recommended to watch.

Life: Re-Activate My Blog

It has been almost 4 years this blog in "hibernate" state. Well, surely a lot had happened in life and also a lot had happened in the world. Like nowadays, the covid-19 pandemic is happening as it is spreading across the globe and has changed the way we used to live, do, and work. Even after this pandemic is over, the changes will still remain and we have to live and adjust to it.

For the last 3 months, like many others, I spent almost of my time at home. It is to prevent the spread of the covid-19, everybody must contribute to that effort by staying at home. With this much spare time available at home, one of the activity that I will start to do again is updating this Blog regularly.

So, please do stay tune and wait for my posting again from now on :-)

Games: Pokemon Go

Last time, when Pokemon was mentioned, it is identical with children's game and identical with its iconic character, Pikachu. With the release of Pokemon Go, that kind of relation change tremendously. Pokemon Go is a phenomenal new game which based on Augmented Reality (AR) concept, it requires the Gamers to walk to the PokeStop and PokeGym and read the map to locate such places. The Gamers' profile suddenly change, from mostly children to young adults till adults, even elderly! What a great surprise! And it change people's behaviour, from lazily playing games at home, to walk more and visit places to catch Pokemons!

I am one of the Pokemon Go's gamers, or trainer in Pokemon's term. Last time, I was very seldom playing games, now play Pokemon Go every day. It is quite fun, whether it is to collect many kind of Pokemons, or train the Pokemons at PokeGym. I also realized that Pokemon not only Pikachu, so many other kind of Pokemons actually... he he.

Since Pikachu is very identical as Pokemon, it is the most searched and wanted when playing this game. It is very rare appear at every places, only some places that has its appearance quite often, but not as often as some others.

This Pokemon Go game is still happening and hot now, you can still see so many people with this game on their smartphone's screen when you go places. I will share some experiences playing this game in some next articles in this blog, so stay tune! :-)

By the way, these are my current favourite Pokemons:

Sure, firstly is Pikachu! :-)

Cute Eevee, it has three names: Rainer (evolves into Vaporeon), Sparky (evolves into Jolteon), and Pyro (evolves into Flareon)

Funny Meowth... especially its angry expression and sound when you try to catch it!

Growlithe

Digital World: Drone Anyone?

Drone technology, especially for consumer side, has getting more matured since it started captured interest of many people roughly two years ago.

Talking about drone, DJI Phantom easily recalled from people's mind due to its reliability and quality of product, they are considered market leader nowadays. Serious air photography and video most likely choose DJI Phantom as their preferred equipment. They are be able to maintain considered premium price for drone until now since not much competitor in this particular market. Sure quite many China's unknown drone brand play in cheap price drone market but they are considered 'toys' instead of for serious usage of drone.

The immediate competitor just enter the market, who else... it's from Xiaomi who is well-known for their affordable but great smartphone products. It called Mi Drone, with its 4K capability, it priced half price of comparable DJI Phantom. It still need to see how the market will react to this, quite interesting to follow.

I did have some interest on this drone, but not at that serious level to get something like DJI Phantom or Mi Drone. Their build is quite big and not something that you will bring during travel unless you are really want to take some serious documentation of your travel. For me, I need drone that can easily bring for travelling but capable enough to do good documentation, and affordable!

Well, there surely some alternatives. One of them, that lately in news due to its getting quite big additional funding for development, is drone namely Hover Camera that being developed by Zero Zero Robotics. The company claims users can “grab, throw, and catch” the drone without damaging it. It hovers when released from grip, and by a connection to an app the drone will follow you around as you walk or move indoors and out. Simple in its function but not its creation, the Hover takes 4K video, panorama, and 13-megapixel still images. Its safety, portability, and new kind of form factor make it unique. It will be made of fibre carbon frame and measures about 7 inches square and 1 inch thick, weighing about 8 ounces (227 grams). When not in use, the drone folds to roughly the size of a VHS video cassette.

Honestly, I myself very interested to this drone since it covers what I need, the only issue is the price which said it might cost around $600 which is not cheap. Well, let's see when it officially enter the market. Watch the video below, I believe you will interested as well... 

Hover Camera - Introducing the self-flying camera anyone can use 

Digital World: Redmi Note 3

Finally, I have decided to upgrade by old Redmi Note 4G (4G version of Redmi Note) to Redmi Note 3. I skipped Redmi Note 2 because it doesn't offer much improvement compare to Redmi Note 4G. The main reason to upgrade now is that after two years of using, the internal storage started to reach minimum available space, even after moving the contents to MicroSD, this make updating apps quite troublesome because need to clear space every time need to update. Thanks so far to great temp file and cache cleaner apps from Mi Tools.

Redmi Note 3 that I bought has 3GB RAM and 32GB internal storage and running Android version 5, and it supports dual simcard. It has no dedicated MicroSD card slot, but one of the simcard tray has dual functions, can be used as MicroSD card slot, but off course by doing that, you can only use single simcard. So, either you use two simcard or one simcard + MicroSD. Not sure what the reason, probably to comply with latest Xiaomi policy to get rid of MicroSD card which according to them will slowdown mobile phone performance. Probably to save some space also to make it slimmer and lighter. Yes, Redmi Note 3 is slimmer and lighter.

Redmi Note 3 has fingerprint support, so it becomes much more easier to unlock the phone. Used to use the pattern unlock, but now I love this fingerprint unlock feature.

Its 4050mAh battery size makes it lasts for the full day normal usage. It's only that due to metal body, the battery is now built-in, not changeable.

It also has improved screen quality (5.5" Full HD) and camera quality (16MP f/2, 0.1s Phase Detection Autofocus). For taking selfie with front camera, the fingerprint sensor functions as shutter.

Ah yes, one more, it has InfraRed sensor and Remote Control apps respectively, so throw away your collections of remote control, with just one smartphone you can control you TV, AC, etc. Cool additional feature.

Lastly, Xiaomi still be able to maintain its much affordable great quality smartphone. Its existence has given great lift up of China cheap product image. Cheap not necessary low quality. Kudos to the effort!

iOSApps: Steller

Steller is an apps to combine photos, videos, and text into stories. Steller is initially an iOS-based Apps, but now already has its Android-based apps as well but only running on Android 5 and above.

Steller becomes trending at the moment among Instagram users to also using Steller to create stories based on their photos portfolio. I am among those Instagram users who also hooked by Steller.

Creating a story is quite simple in Steller. Choose photos and videos to be included into the story, then choose which template to be used, then add the text into it to tell the audience about the picture or video. For each page, there are several alternatives of layout to be used. After all done, you can preview it first before publish it.

Here is an example from my Steller account. It can be embed into websites page. Loading might take a while.

Life: NatGeo Channel

One of my favourite TV channel is National Geographic Channel, and its website respectively. It always my dream to be able to travel to the amazing beauty places is every each corner of the world, but, I am not a billionaire who can forget about the money problem to fund the travel... he he he...

By watching the channel and/or visiting its website, I can enjoy the efforts of the contributors capturing the great moments of nature and animals behaviour. Imagine how much time spent and hard work done in even sometimes in bad climate or dangerous environment, just to be able to produce a short movie or some great photos.

I have list of places that I wish that I be able to visit in my life and capture their beauty with my own camera... among those are: Mount Fuji taken from various places in Japan, Yosemite National Park, New Zealand landscape, every inch of Iceland, Northern Light and landscape in Norway, Pokhara Nepal, and of course, China...

Herewith some videos from NatGeo websites which I just browse and watch...

Six Photographers Reveal Yellowstone Like You’ve Never Seen It

Photographer Captures Stunning Arctic Wildlife

Time-Lapse: Lose Yourself in the Night Sky

Brilliant Time-Lapse of Alaska’s Northern Lights

 Spellbinding Time-Lapses of an African Desert

Digital World: Time Lapse Video using Yi Camera

Having photography as a hobby, not all photographers has interest in time lapse which is part of the photography itself. What is time lapse? Time lapse is the photographic technique of taking a sequence of frames at set intervals to record changes that take place slowly over time. When the frames are shown at normal speed the action seems much faster.

Basically, besides needs to have quite good photography knowledge, time lapse also needs patience because of the amount of time needed to taking the pictures and then compile them together into time lapse. As for the equipment itself, it will really "burn it out" with the constant capturing the images for a quite long period of time, from just hours up to days. For high quality time lapse plus for night scenery, it will take long exposure shot per frame that make it even harder work to do for the camera.

Yi Camera

Well, for just hobby purpose and for documentation purpose only which the quality not that important, the small action camera like Yi Camera, is more that enough to produce acceptable result. It small, light, and can produce time lapse video directly from the device using its latest firmware update. Initially no such video time lapse feature, so need to capture frame by frame then compile the using software, such as GoPro Studio which can be download for free, just need to make sure the file names are in sequence. But, it is become much easier after having the time lapse feature in its latest firmwares. All you need is to set the interval, which I always use 2 seconds, then just start capturing, as simple as that.

Yi Camera Video Time-Lapse feature

The quality of the video for day capture is good, but for night, not that good (noise) due to high ISO limitation. But, overall is acceptable for such device.

Whenever I am doing photography travelling, I always do video time lapse documentation of sunrise and/or sunset using this Yi Camera. Using gorilla pod is advisable because you can attach Yi Camera in any place easily, such as fences, poles, and tree branches.

Herewith some time lapses that I have produced using Yi Camera when it still need to be captured frame by frame then compiled them using GoPro Studio. 

For the complete time lapse, please go to my YouTube channel: KS TimeLapse.

Digital World: My Xiaomi Gadgets

Since it's international expansion about two years ago, Xiaomi has become one of the world well known smartphone manufacturer. It well design and built smartphones with much cheaper price from other established manufacturers, very well accepted in the market. The bad reputation of cheap China smartphone gets major fix by the existence of Xiaomi smartphones... a good quality smartphones not necessary expensive.

I was one of the customers that jump into the frenzy buying Xiaomi smartphones when it was officially sold online in Singapore. So excited waiting for the online buy launching of Redmi Note and so happy when be able to get it purchased which many others don't get it.

My first Xiaomi smartphone was 1st generation Redmi Note with dual SIMcard and only support 3G network. That time, tandem with my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 as my main smartphone, I use it only when travelling overseas and used local SIMcard which that time still majority in normal size. Then, when my Samsung Galaxy Note 2 got sudden death, I decided to replace it with Redmi Note 4G which support 4G network but only single SIMcard for the model sold internationally. After two years of usage, I still quite happy using them eventhough the limitation of 8GB internal storage starts kicking the roof, so quite limited apps can be installed and need regular maintenance to release some space or otherwise I not be able to do apps update. Lucky the latest MIUI provides good tools (App Name: Security, feature: Cleaner) to clear apps cache and temporary files, plus diligently move images and videos (from apps usually) from internal storage to micro sdcard, both smartphones still works fine, eventhough some performance lagging might happens which is quite normal since the build up of apps data, limited storage and RAM. Two next generations of Redmi Note already in the market (2 and 3), but I still OK using the current Redmi Notes for another year, maybe.

The second Xiaomi product that I purchased was Mi Powerbank 10000mAh, another excellent quality product with very cheap price. I can be used to charge my iPad Mini as well. 

The third product was MiBand, which I used it for about 1 year before the strap spoilt and I stop using it. Anyway, I got replacement when Singapore Steps Challenge provides free devices for early participants.

The fourth product was Yi Camera, another great product from Xiaomi. The quality of image and video not much different compare to GoPro with much much cheaper price. Very useful when travelling for documentation, to do selfie photos and videos, and more importantly recording timelapse of sunrise and sunset moments. The only annoying issue is sometimes the wifi connection to the camera very lagging when downloading the images/videos to smartphone. I always keep the firmware updated, but it still happens till now. Not a major issue for me though... 

The latest product that I purchased last week was Mi Powerbank 20000mAh, which is not as cheap as its lower capacity powerbank (in term of price/mAh ratio). I really need it as power backup for my MacBook during travelling. Not any powerbank can be used to charge MacBook which needs more powerful charging. This powerbank, using the provided charge cable plus its original MicroUSB - USB-C converter, works excellently charging my MacBook. According to Xiaomi, it should be able to charge the MacBook 1.2 times. Fair enough!

Eventhough lately Xiaomi starts facing tough competition from others china smartphone manufacturers, I still believe it will still exist many more years to come as long as it be able to persistently develop new innovated products with very affordable price.

Hmm... finally, what Xiaomi product will I buy next?? MiDrone probably... ha ha...

Digital World: Free Web and Email Hosting

You might be already purchased domain name for your own purpose but still thinking of the cheapest way to get a web and email hosting for your domain. There was one time that Google Apps for Domain provided for free, it was when the service just started in 2006, where you can subscribe for free for enough amount of email addresses that you can create, enough storage size, and homepage that you can develop. As early users, you can request for more email addresses quota. Now, Google Apps for Domain is no more for free, too bad.

So, what is alternative available out there now?

After done some searching through Google, this is recommended alternative that you can consider to use. For web hosting, 5GBFree provides 5GB storage space absolutely free and ad-free, but off course, there are two limitations: 20GB bandwidth and no email hosting provided. The first limitation should be OK for non-high traffic website, for personal website it should be sufficient enough. But, no email hosting provided is quite troublesome. Don't worry, there is another solution of free email hosting, subscribe to Zoho Mail which is totally free for 25 email addresses, 5GB mailbox storage each.

If you have done create account for both services, what you need to do is to keep using your current domain park NameServers (Don't use 5GBFree NameServers because it has no MX records), you just need to pointing the necessary A Records to 5GBFree IP Address. Then pointing MX Records to Zoho Mail. Refer to the setup guide from each service for detail.

That's it! You get your absolutely free web and email hosting! 

FYI, for web developing purpose, you can use either of two most popular CMS tools out there: Joomla or Wordpress, that you can easily install into 5GBFree hosting through its cPanel.

FYI: Bear, Lion, and Tiger Friendship

Source: Daily Mail, UK

It might not be seen in the jungle for sure, but the friendship between three deadly predators in the wild, a bear (named Baloo), a lion (named Leon), and a tiger (named Shere Khan) really something quite amazing. They were rescued 15-years years ago during a police drugs raid in Atlanta, Georgia, the little family were only cubs at the time at barely two months old.

Leon the Lion, Baloo the Bear, and Shere Khan the Tiger

For us, it is something to show that no matter how different we are to each other, a spirit of friendship from innocently childhood and away from those selfishness and hateful of the world, we can live in peace side by side.

Japanese Drama: Love That Makes You Cry

Honestly, for the pass 2 years, I was very seldom watching Japanese Drama, the main reason is very lack of kind of drama that showing the real life story, most of the are fantasy story adopting from manga, that I quite lazy to watch.

For the past few weeks, I am watching a drama called "Love That Makes You Cry" (Itsuka Kono Koi wo Omoidashite Kitto Naite Shimau), a nice story about real life that I always be able to enjoy of Japanese Drama. 

Synopsis:

"Love That Makes You Cry" follows the story of love, friendship and growth of six young men and women who move from countryside to the big city of Tokyo, each with their own dreams and aspirations. Among them is Sugihara Oto and Soda Ren. After her mother died, Oto was raised by adoptive parents in Hokkaido. Although she has given up on having any high hopes or big dreams for her future, she still remains positive and faces life with optimistic attitude. One day, she finds out the fact that her adoptive parents are planning to marry her to the wealthy man in town in order to solve their financial debt. Soda Ren was raised by his grandfather in Fukushima. Ren works hard on one job after another in order to earn the money to buy back his grandfather's land so that they can start farming again. By chance, Oto and Ren meet in Hokkaido and they decide to move to Tokyo to find new life to change their fate and future. However, as soon as they arrive Tokyo, they get separated in the crowds... -- Fuji TV

The drama still going on as I wrote this blog, so I don't know yet what will be the ending. Beside the story itself, the theme song is a very nice song. Below is the MV of the theme song "Ashita E No Tegami" by Aoi Teshima.

Aoi Teshima - Ashita E No Tegami (2016 Ver.) (2016)

The main actress is Arimura Kasumi, a young actress, which I believe might become one of the well-known Japanese actress years to come. She is cute and pretty. As usual, herewith some pictures of her that I selected from internet.

Korean Drama: Sung Yu-ri (member of Fin.K.L)

Sung Yu-ri is one of my favourite Korean artist. She was a member of the now-defunct K-pop group Fin.K.L. Among the Fin.K.L members, she is the only one who considered quite successful being an actress. Just realise that her last drama was "The Secret of Birth" in 2013, none after that except one movie "Summer Snow" in 2015. But, seems she is going to have new drama in 2016, I will surely wait for that.

Talking about Fin.K.L, their song "True Love" is the main theme song of the very first Korean Drama that I ever watched, "All About Eve". For nostalgic purpose, herewith the Music Video that I can find in YouTube.

Fin.K.L. - True Love MV (All About Eve - 이브 의 모든것)

And, below is one of Fin.K.L MV of their most favourite song, "Forever Love". I love this song, they are still very young, and Sung Yu-ri sooooo damn cute! ha ha...

Fin.K.L. - Forever Love MV (영원한 사랑)

Well, enough about Fin.K.L., now herewith some selected Sung Yu-ri photos those I can find in internet, hope you like it... :-)

If you a fans of her, you can follow her official Facebook account or Instagram account.

Life: My Photography Hobby

I have long interest of photography, started when digital camera gained popularity. My first digital camera was Sony DSC-T300, a compact camera. Then Olympus C-750UZ, an ultra zoom camera, followed by Canon SX30-IS, and finally Fujifilm X10. It was then just a simple hobby, just point and shot photography without thinking of that complicated setting available in the camera, just use Auto mode all the time... he he he.

Sony DSC-T300

Olympus C-750 UZ

Canon SX30-IS

Fujifilm X10

It was only 4 years ago that I started getting serious with this photography hobby. Nikon D7000 was my choice. It is a mid level DSLR camera with APS-C sensor. A very good camera for nature landscape photography which is my main interest. Then my photography travel started and Bali is the first place to visit. I use this DSLR camera for about 2 years and learn about photography more seriously, learn about the basic of photography that I have ignored previously. Well, photography is something that you need to learn from time to time in order for you to be able to take better and better photos.

Nikon D7000

Finally, after gaining more knowledge of photography technics and also more experience by intensive practising, I move to full frame DSLR about two year ago. Still using Nikon brand, it is the entry level full frame, Nikon D610. With two lenses, AF-S NIKKOR 16-35mm f/4G ED VR and AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, it is enough for my photography interest, Nature Landscape and Travel Photography.

Nikon D610

The main issue of DSLR is its weight. Bring along the camera, the lenses, filters, and tripod is quite challenging due to their weight. Travelling with that heavy equipment surely not that convenience, but the experience of seeing the beauty of nature and the satisfaction of capturing nice photos, surely eliminates that concern.

Mirrorless camera technology is getting matured, they have evolved in a rapid pace to challenge the traditional DSLR camera. In 2 or 3 years down the road, mirrorless will gain even more momentum, especially if full frame sensor has perfectly fit in into mirrorless body and the price getting cheaper. Its lighter weight is one of the main advantage.

It was only last year, I decided to jump into mirrorless camera as well. The release of Fujifilm X-T10, a younger brother of the widely well recognised Fujifilm X-T1, one of the best in its class. I use this camera also as pocket camera to replace my Fujifilm X10.

Fujifilm X-T10

In my next blogs, I will also write about photography related content, some photography basic knowledge, technics, and also photography travels. Stay tuned then... :-)

Life: Let's Start Blogging Again

Well... it has been 2 years since my last blog. Busy with life must be a valid reason, ha ha...

Now, I am starting blogging again. This is the first in 2016, promise that there will be more blogs posted throughout the year and in future... :-)

There so much changes in the past 2 years, technology evolving fast, life has been conquered digitally, can't imagine now living without smartphone, instant messaging, and social media. WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram is our daily close friends nowadays. Smartphone has become the most power tool, almost everything can be done, find, explore, process using this small equipment. E-Commerce is everywhere now, online shopping has become daily activity, even in third world countries. I still consider myself lucky be able to experience it all in my life... and I might still witness much more advancement in digital technology in years to come.

That's it for now... I am still warming up... see you in next blogs.

Life: My Gadget Experience for the past One Year

It has been almost one year since I posted my last blog, which I wrote about my experience with combination of Galaxy Note 2, iPad Mini, and BlackBerry Bold 9700.

Since, I have completely retired my BlackBerry Bold 9700 with simple reason... the BBM for Android & iOS has been launched and I can use BBM in my Galaxy Note 2 and even in my iPad Mini as well, so there is no more reason to keep the BlackBerry handset. But then I added the cheap China non-branded smartphone, namely Android Note S7189 (Quad Core CPU, just SGD179 in price) which has dual SIM card feature for also a simple reason, to be used as my mobile broadband wifi hotspot when I was overseas. Since most of the prepaid SIM Card still using normal size, this China smartphone serve me right, no need to keep SIM Card converter.

Android Note S7189

After successfully 'fight' online purchase (for 5000 units which always sold out in less than 1 minute), just two days ago, I received Xiaomi RedMi Note, this is to replace the Android Note S7189. It has much better specs (Octa-core 1.66 GHz Cortex-A7, 2GB RAM, 8GB storage, 720 x 1280 pixels, 5.5" IPS LCD Capatitive) and support Dual SIM card as well. With just SGD199 price, it is surely a killer to other established branded smartphone. Now, I realized how much I overpaid for my Galaxy Note 2 for so many features that I very seldom, and even never, use. I haven't played around much with this new gadget so I can't write much about it. I will write about it separately after have more experience in using it.

Xiaomi RedMi Note

So happy with the combination (Galaxy Note 2, iPad Mini, and Redmi Note) so far. So, what next? Maybe upgrade my iPad Mini... with bigger storage and the one has retina display since I edit my photo to be uploaded to Instagram using iPad Mini most of the time. Maybe, I will wait for iPad Mini 2 then... come on Apple, when??

Life: Gadget Experience after One Year from Last Post

It has been one year since I posted my last blog, which I wrote about my experience with combination of iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and BlackBerry Bold 9700.

It was in December 2012 that I decided to change the combination to Galaxy Note 2 and iPad Mini (wifi only), and keep BlackBerry Bold 9700. The reason is simple... I need a smartphone with bigger screen, so I changed my smartphone to Galaxy Note 2 which has 5.5" screen (and some additional nice features). As consequence, I changed my tablet to iPad Mini, so I still can experiencing both great OS... AndroidOS and iOS. I bought iPad Mini wifi model only, the cellular model price has quite significant difference in price (SGD170 for 16GB model) that I think it is better buy another small and cheap android smartphone (I bought HTC Desire C) and just tethering it, iPad Mini then still can connect to internet anywhere... and, the small smartphone with normal SIM Card size can be used when I go to overseas and use prepaid SIM Card which still commonly use normal SIM Card size. Quite logical decision, right? :-)

Why iPad Mini and not the normal iPad? Well, I feel that iPad is a way too big and heavy if you thinking of bring it everywhere you go. iPad Mini is just nice, 7.9" screen size, and light. Eventhough its screen is not Retina display, it is still good enough for me, since I use it to browse internet and read news, and some social network apps most of the time. Playing games is just once and a while, not a game addict :-) The battery last quite long, around 10 hours, for my usual usage. And, I have updated it iOS to iOS 7 several days ago. Quite nice and refresh. Its iPhone apps compatibility also improves, with default to 2x zoom (in iOS 6, has 1x and 2x zoom), and the quality of graphics display is much better, so even for Instagram which has no iPad version, the photo display is quite nice already.

As for BlackBerry Bold 9700, it just a matter of time to retire it... especially if BBM for Android can run seamlessly already after last week launching disaster by BlackBerry!!

So far... I am happy with this combination of gadget.

Life: iOS, AndroidOS, BlackBerryOS... One year after...

It is almost one year since I posted my latest blog, wrote about my new Galaxy Tab. So, it almost one year I am experiencing the perfect 3 world of smartphones, iPhone 4S which is running iOS5, Galaxy Tab which is running Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread), and BlackBerry Bold 9700 which is running BlackBerry OS6.

It looks like I was so gadget freak... well, actually not that so. Upgraded my old iPhone 3GS to iPhone 4S is just natural (I skipped iPhone 4), Galaxy Tab that I am using still the 1st generation of Galaxy Tab, and BlackBerry Bold 9700 considered quite old already since there are already newer model which has touchscreen capability. Those gadgets has different purpose which I will explain next, together with my experiences using them. Please take note that those experience and opinion might be specific to the hardware that I owned, it might be different to other users experience. I just want to share.

My main line is iPhone 4S which is used to make calls and sending SMS. iOS interface is the best in term of ease of use, memory management, and system backup (iCloud). I almost having no problem using iPhone 4S, the 'forced' reboot is very very seldom. Its memory management is the best, probably because it still not a pure multitasking Operating System. The apps is running one at one time, even you have opened several apps, the ones not in focus is in suspend mode until you use it again. Yes, you can jailbreak your iOS to have this multitasking capability, but I would prefer not to do that.

iPhone 4S camera (8 megapixel) is considered very good for a smartphone. The quality of photos are generally satisfactory. So, I use my iPhone 4S to shoot photos, process them, and upload them to Instagram (ID: @k_sty). Just using this iPhone 4S, you can become a quite serious amateur photographer! There even new term called "iPhonography" to describe the art of creating photo using iPhone. There are many apps for photo editing available in Apple App Store, so basically you have all necessary tools inside your iPhone. In future posting, I will write about this photo-related topic.

Apple's iCloud works perfectly in keeping the backup of your system. It makes it easier to restore the your existing iPhone content when you have new iPhone, you won't loose your data if you activate this iCloud backup faeture.

iPhone 4S battery is considered poor, with my usage pattern, it can't last even half day. It last roughly in less than 6 hours, especially when works on 3G network. I might ended up charge it 2-3 times per day.

iPhone sound quality also considered so so, nothing special. Its external speaker not even stereo, such a shame for an expensive gadget! Even in iPhone 5 recently launch, its external speaker still mono! OMG!

The tablet that I am currently using is considered the first generation of Android-based tablet. I mainly use it for reading news, social network, listen to songs, and watch videos. Not like iOS strict apps-rule, Android-based apps more loose, so there are many apps that enable you to download media (song, movie, drama serial, music video) from internet. It's additional SDCard slot makes the storage is not an issue. I am very seldom using its camera because, don't know why - maybe because of too many apps installed, its performance is very lagging, so it really inconvenient taking picture with Galaxy Tab. With its considered limited hardware power, I would prefer not playing games in my Galaxy Tab.

One of the useful feature of Android-based smartphone, is internet tethering. You can share existing internet connection and connect your other gadget to this device. I used this feature when I went overseas, I just bought a local SIM card with daily dataplan, use that in my Galaxy Tab, then tethering it, so my iPhone and BlackBerry can surf internet without changing its SIM Card and no need to pay that expensive data roaming. As for BlackBerry, using my existing BBM subscription, I can use it over the WiFi using this tethering, no need to check whether the place where you were has free WiFi or not!

My Galaxy Tab WiFi have a bit problem also, sometimes when you off it then turn it on again, it won't work and fired up, needs to restart the Tab. And, yes, I need to restart my Tab considered quite often, most of the time because its RAM is almost full and Tab starts lagging, even hang! Its memory management is not good.

As for sound quality, not like iPhone, its external speaker is stereo and the quality of sound is quite good compared to iPhone 4S.

BlackBerry usage is strictly for its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM)! BBM still a powerful tool to communicate with my overseas friends since most of them are using it! One limitation of BlackBerry is its small application storage, my Bold 9700 model, after I upgraded to OS6, has only less than 50MB application storage left, no room for any other apps. At least once a week need to be restarted to clear this app storage because the messages and temp files using this application storage. Then, once it left only less that 10MB, BlackBerry performance starts lagging and "hang" indicated by the hourglass pop up very often, because it tries to clear some unused application storage. 

I don't feel an urgency to update my BlackBerry. As long as its BBM works, then it just fine and good enough! :-)

Well, that's what I can share for now after this one year experience using these three gadgets.

I am waiting for iPad Mini... if it really exists, it will change my gadget combination! he he he...

Life: Me and My Samsung Galaxy Tab

I've been using my Samsung Galaxy Tab for almost 2 months now and I would like to share my experience of using it.

But, before that, let me share the reason why I bought Samsung Galaxy Tab, instead of iPad 2 which is more popular in Singapore.

There are 3 main reasons:

First, I already have a BlackBerry 9700 as my phone and I like its BlackBerry Messenger (BBM) feature the most, an iPhone 3GS with its fantastic iOS operating system which is very user friendly and smooth interface, so a desire to have an Android-based gadget is a natural feeling that I can't resist. Need to experience the 3 main operating systems in smartphone and tablet world (... sorry for Microsoft, your Windows Phone 7 OS is out of my radar).

Second, the price is just right for me. Under my existing SingTel contract, with no additional subscription cost, I can get Samsung Galaxy Tab at S$198 + S$100 penalty (due to recontract after 1 year). At S$298, for a 3G + WiFi model, it is value for money.

Third, I simply like the design (see picture below), its white back color is nice, and the 7" size and 380 g weight is just right to hold in one hand (especially during travelling using public transport) or put it into my trouser's front pocket (just make sure your trouser is not the stretch or tight model... he he he).

OK. Not let's talk about my experience of using it.

My Samsung Galaxy Tab comes with Android 2.3.3. The touch interface is quite nice and smooth, eventhough it is not at iOS level yet. Different from iOS, the icons on the screen actually a shortcut of items in Applications list and not the application itself, so basically you can place more that one shortcut of an application in the same of any page of the screen. But, so far, I can't move a shortcut from one page to another... I need to delete it and then scroll to another page and create another shortcut. But, it's OK, not big deal.

I am not a serious game player, so I mainly use my Samsung Galaxy Tab for browsing internet, read news (Twitter, by following some news providers), email, watch videos, and social network (Facebook, WhatsApp). With its support of Adobe Flash, it has no problem displaying the websites, but I would prefer to use option to activate the Adobe Flash player only when I need it by touching the part of the website which need Adobe Flash to be played, since it will make website loading faster, and also save battery. With that activities, usually the battery will last about 8 hours before it needs to be charged. If you use it for playing games, the battery will drained faster. And, with its single core 1 GHz processor and 512MB RAM, it is not really meant for serious game players.

Since I only use my mobile internet 3G SIM Card, I haven't use my Samsung Galaxy Tab as a phone yet, so I have no review on its phone feature. But for sure you either need to use hands free kit (which is part of the package) or bluetooth headset, can't use your Samsung Galaxy Tab the way you use your normal phone to make a call... he he he...

Samsung Galaxy Tab's RAM size of 512MB might be considered too little. You will have problem if you install many application with has some background process, services, and tasks. In my case, the free memory is between 150MB at max to only 30-40MB at peak usage. Simply not enough, since it will compromise the performance and also cause the Samsung Galaxy Tab unresponsive, freeze, or even hang completely... I did need to force restart my Samsung Galaxy Tab quite numbers of times already, at least couple of times in a week. Android memory management, in this case, is not that good compares to iOS.

The last is Samsung Galaxy Tab's camera. Since Samsung Omnia smartphone, the quality of image captured using Samsung camera is considered quite good, at least in my eyes. It is quite sharp and acceptable. What you can expect more from a smartphone's camera :).

Here are some sample of pictures taken using my Samsung Galaxy Tab.

The very first picture:

Under the bright day:

Close up, the food:

A Cloudy Morning Sky:

An Afternoon Sky:

An Evening Scene:

An Exhibition:

Indoor Colorful Objects:

Another Indoor Objects:

Using Camera Fun Apps:

FYI: Adobe Flash in Tablets, Does It Really Necessary?

When iPad was initially launched, many people wonder why it doesn't support Adobe Flash... is it simply because of our dear Mr Jobs doesn't like it?? While most of the website heavily use Adobe Flash animation to enrich user experience accessing the website, more dynamic, more interactive... and more fun with those online games... even Facebook becomes so much more fun because of Flash-based games!!

Since I am getting so excited with those Facebook games... I do initially feel that Flash is a necessary animal in tablets, I want to be able to play my favorite games while I am away, while I am waiting somewhere out there, while I am travelling by bus or MRT...

But... yes but!... after window shopping and trying some Android-based tablets (gingerbread and honeycomb) which support Adobe Flash... I guess I started to share Mr Jobs' sentiment... Adobe Flash is not for tablets (at least for several years to come), simply because it is too slow loading it in tablets (even using Wifi, let alone 3G) which processor and memory is 'slow' and 'limited', furthermore it drains battery faster... We should get back to the concept of the tablet itself and for what purpose it exists... even game console was not build using Adobe Flash, it is using its own Operating System and Programming Language!

The answer is out there... there are million of iPad owners can live without Adobe Flash in their iPad!! There are million people still willing to pay premium buying iPad which is without Adobe Flash...

While the existence of Adobe Flash in Android-based tablets still considered a plus, it doesn't give that much value... it just something necessary but not a must. So, iPad2 is now in my horizon... but still considering... still calculating value for money... still back to the basic question, do I really need it? will I use it extensively and for what purpose? so far, my iPhone still be able to serve me well... Arrrgghh!! why our dear Mr 'Genius' Jobs be able to make such attractive product which make our eyes so hungry... guess I need to count the leaves in the garden downstairs to make decision... buy... no buy... buy... no buy... he he he...

FYI: BlackBerry Bold 9700 and OS 6

BlackBerry OS 6 is advertised as "Experience the Revolutionary" in BlackBerry website, and it features many improvement and enhancement, such as "Fast, rich web browsing", "Universal search", "Engaging multimedia", "Social feeds and views", and "Intuitive, fluid design". So, when I was offered to upgrade this OS from my BlackBerry Desktop Manager... I accepted it with all my heart!

It took almost 1 hour to run through all the upgrade process of my BlackBerry Bold 9700. Then... tada... I had it upgraded! And, I have BlackBerry Bold 9700 with OS 6 installed! Yes, it is very intuitive and nice to have. There are quite number of enhancements which I believe meant for the touch user interface in BlackBerry Torch. I was happily played around with it and explore the new interface and functionalities.

Well... then here comes the setback... in just a couple days, I was facing with the persistence hour glass, which means it became unresponsive because it did its background process... and finally realized that my BlackBerry Bold 9700 (Memory: 256MB) is facing Low Apps Memory... I have quite number of third party apps installed which consumed memory (before upgrade, it left only around 20MB free apps memory, but it still ran quite smoothly). So, I have no choice than started uninstalling those apps one-by-one until it left with only some essentials apps. But, unfortunately, that memory-hungry OS 6, gradually still "eat" the limited memory and when it gets worse, I have to restart my BlackBerry. Well, seems something beautiful and nice, really came with "cost". No turning back, so I just have to live with it... :(

Finally, my two cents advice, if you have BlackBerry which has memory 256MB and below, DON'T upgrade to OS 6, unless you don't really have/need third party apps at all in your BlackBerry, because it will be painful to have your BlackBerry performance keeps lagging, freezing, and need frequent restarting.

This OS 6 works seamlessly in models with 512MB memory and above.

Korean Drama: Kim Tae Hee

It's been quite long that I haven't write any actress from Korean Drama, last time was some time in 2009. But after last 4-days marathon watching My Princess, I decided to write this topic once again in this blog.

First time saw her in Stairway To Heaven acted as an Antagonist main character in 2003, then as main actress in Love Story in Harvard in 2004. This young Korean Actress, Kim Tae Hee, has been in a long journey in her career before landed at her highest level as main actress in IRIS (2009) and the latest, My Princess (2010).

What I can remember is her cute face, and beautiful-bright-and-big eyes in Stairway To Heaven (especially when she is angry or showing her evil character... he he he), then cheerful character in Love Story In Harvard, then serious character in IRIS. But still, her beautiful-bright-and-big eyes which eye-catching the most!

From tons of her pictures those can be found in internet (just google it!), here are some pictures of Kim Tae Hee that I like most: