N82 Dead & Alive

My N82 Nokia phone is about 1.5 years old. Few months back the battery started giving problem, it only last about 1 day after a full charge. So I replaced it with a new one. Unfortunately, the new battery did not extend its life. In fact, it died. I mean, totally no breathing...totally blank. So I just leave it in the book shelf, and got myself a new phone.

After so many months, I've almost forgot about it. Surprisingly, hubby "IM" me and told me he managed to save the phone and now it's back to normal. He tried to rescue the phone using several methods. He tried to connect the phone to the computer through USB cable and update the software. Unfortunately, it did not work, as the the computer can't detect the hand phone. Seriously, my phone was totally cannot on, how can the computer detect anything? After several failed attempts, finally hubby got an idea. He then tried hard reset + update software at the same time. In this way, he able to force the phone initiate for 1~2 second, just enough time for the computer to register the phone and proceed to update the software. So, the software update was successful, and my phone come back to life again!

Honestly, I like N82 more than my current N79. Most importantly, its camera perform better. Want to see the difference?

This photo is taken using N82. It's clear and sharp.

And this is from N79. With the exactly same setting, the photo came out a bit blur. Disappointing?

Thanks to hubby to safe my lovely Nokia N82. Some of my food blog photos will still rely on it. Welcome back!

A Simple Netbook ~ Acer Aspire One

Asus Eee PC 900

If you read from here, you'll know hubby sold off my old notebook Compaq Presario V3000 and got me a new "netbook" Asus Eee PC 900. Well, I didn't try it out until I read his product review. So, last Thursday night, I gave it a try to surf net (to check the speed), blogging (to practise typing using the keypad) and also to perform some simple tasks like downloading photos & editing photos. Well, I was quite disappointed with the performance. The speed is terribly as slow as a tortoise. Just wonder why Asus comes out with this lousy "netbook" but still get its pretty good response in Taiwan market.

I was in anger why hubby bought this lousy netbook for me. In fact my old laptop is much more better than this. I throw him the mission to do whatever he could to get me either one laptop or an upgraded "netbook". If not, I'll just grab over his current laptop Acer Aspire 2920. Sense how angry I was?

The next day, hubby went to the PC fair at PISA and pay the retailer a visit. The retail manager verified the purchase item vs the receipt, and confirmed the item hubby got was in fact another model (older one). How dare the sales person simply provide a model while Acer Eee PC 900 was out of stock? This is not fair to customer, right? However, hubby acted smart in the PC fair. He grabbed the opportunity to negotiate with the manager to exchange another model, by using some tactics like teasing some other customers not to buy the wrong model. So, he succeeded! Kudos to my dear! He came back with Acer Aspire One. Hurray! Besides, the manager gave hubby roughly 8 items as FREE gifts, hmm... to shut up hubby's mouth kua... haha... At least he acknowledge his staff made the mistake. Okay, not bad, at least we got 8GB thumb drive x2, laptop locker x2, ear phone x2, laptop cooling pad, screen protector and LCD cleaning set. What a fruitful purchase!

Acer Aspire One

Compared to Eee PC 900, this is a more powerful model. Of course the speed is faster. Lesson learn: As a customer, we got to feedback in case you find anything wrong with the product. Or else, you'll just get the unnecessary inconveniences as long as the item purchased is being used.

Panic Over The Technologies

Technology brings to us a comfortable living, but at the same time it brings danger to humankind. This is so called pros and cons.

Plastic container enable us to store food and drinks. Who knows plastic raisins that contain BPA is dangerous? As a "kia si" human being, I screened through all the plastic container at home. Those with #1, #3, #6 and #7 were thrown away. If can, I'll just use glass and clay container only.

Microwave oven is one of the most convenient kitchen helper in preparing meals. I heard of too many scary true stories. There are too many precautions need to be aware of. As such a lazy bug, I just keep it in the store room. I'll never use it.

Instant noodle, for instance, is one of the popular food among those who are lazy or too busy to prepare their food. I understand wax is used in the instant noodle manufacturing process. Wax is use to prevent the noodles stick to each other when it's cooked. Such a health freak, I would rather choose to use organic noodle. Recently I discover that angle hair spaghetti is so convenient to use in cooking my healthy and simple dish. I'm satisfied with it's texture. It's suitable for preparing a noodle in soup, home made sauce, wantan mee style, or mee goreng style.

With the recent Melamine scare, shall I stop any dairy product intake? Sigh...

On the other hand, I rely on internet technology very much. I can't imagine to live without it. I need to phone through Skype. I need to watch movies through PPLive. I want to blog through Blogger and I want to read news online..... I can't really live conveniently without internet.

I'm not going to give up the air conditioner too... Malaysia is definitely too hot without it.

Jesus phone arrive in our family

Finally, after all the hype from the press, and non-stop ogling at the iPhone, we finally get one ourselves! Yes, the one and only iPhone, THE Jesus phone.

The initial response when we got hold of the unit is, Wow! The phone is fantastic, fluid and really captivating. We couldn't take our eyes off the screen and almost danced around with it screaming hallelujah! We tried out every thing possible with the phone, and the more we tried the more we are attracted to it, this baby is really something!

We also try to use our big fat fingers to poke on the screen, and typing messages. Initially we face some difficulties with it, entering the wrong letters but as Steve Jobs said we should trust it...so after some practice and trusting it (try to ignore minor mistakes), the phone software corrected the words magically and we are able to compose an email and chatting away using the phone.

Apart from that, the jail-broken iPhone allow us to install application with ease, thanks to the Installer app. You can find many types of softwares to download using the Installer app and before you know it we already fill up more than 2 pages of menu worth of applications.

The iPod works as great as before and the safari web browser is a bliss. We can now check our blog and even write a post using the device.

Overall experience is great and no complaints so far. We hope that Apple will continue to churn out more innovative products in the future.

N-gage Reloaded

The latest N-gage goes live again after a long long time...till I've completely forgotten about it. Originally schedule to launch last December, Nokia delayed the launch indefinitely, promising users that it will soon be available. So loyal Nokia users like us wait, ah wait, wait until we forgot that our handsets do indeed have N-gage installed. Anyway, Nokia now officially launched N-gage mobile games service, starting with 6 games available for download. Among them Creatures of the Deep, FIFA 08, Asphalt 3, Brain Challenge, World Series Poker, and System Rush: Evolution. You can down free trials from the website http://www.n-gage.com/ngi/ngage/web/g0/en/showroom.html




I've tried Creatures of the Deep on my N82 and I think it is an entertaining game to try out when you have nothing better to do, and WiFi is out of reach. It is nothing compared to PSP, and will only serve some light entertainment for Nokia owners.

LCD TV Fiesta~

Recently we see a lot of advertisement in the newspaper and leaflets promoting LCD TV at very seductive prices. All the big brothers in the market...Samsung, LG, JVC, Sharp all dropping their prices below RM2,400, and I bet if you really look hard enough, you could get a branded LCD for less than RM2,200. With so many brands around throwing prices, it will be hard for consumers to choose one to replace their dinosaur TV at home. Yeah, the Mammoth TV(CRT) has been sitting at the living room long enough it has become the signature of your home.:P

But first, is it worth to buy LCD TV now? Or more importantly, why should we buy now or should we wait? And if we want to buy now, which brand should we choose? If you ask this question to ten people, you'll probably get ten different answers. So ended up better do own research before buying one.

The major differences between LCD TV and Mammoth TV is that the LCD aspect ratio ia 16:9, whereas the old tv is 4:3. Having a wider screen means you can see more things on a screen, and as most of your favourite DVDs come in wide screen format, you'll got to see a bigger picture. However, our one and only satellite TV ASTRO is broadcasting 4:3 at the moment, so if you watch it on LCD TV it will look stretched. But I think people will get used to it after a while and don't bother with the fat faces on the screen...hehe

Also, we can see a lot of features marketed by the branded ones like dynamic contrast ratio, response time, 100Hz and so forth, but having done some comparisons, you may notice some differences, but a lot of the features you'll probably won't use it for the rest of your life...or you'll probably don't have the High definition videos to enjoy benefits now anyway.

So the verdict? Go to the shops, look at it yourself and compare the picture. Pick one best to your liking as you'll probably stuck with it for another 10 years.