Recently in Geeks and gadgets Category

I was invited to the launch of the new HP Pavilion dv2 Series Entertainment Notebook PC at Supperclub. Make that two notebooks actually, one in black and one in white. Which do you prefer?

White.

Black.

Backlit keyboard.

Separate Blu-Ray DVD recorder - just like the MacBook Air.

Lots of cool HP software. You can now write Chinese characters and some other Asian scripts and manage your media files, wherever they’re stored. I feel that because Apple included its iLife software with its operating system, it raised the bar and Microsoft took a while to fill the gap.

You can also manage your photos. Looks like HP’s answer to Apple’s iPhoto.

More details on the website.

As a business student who’s learnt some things about customer segmentation, I’d like to see if more girls buy the white model and more guys buy the black model. Of course, the hardcore guy gamers will want a more powerful notebook.

I actually think this will be popular among female students, because it is slim, not too heavy, and parents won’t complain about the extremely affordable price. Especially in difficult economic times like this.

Can you guess how much this costs? (don’t peek… scroll down if you want the answer)

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In the middle of class today (yes, I had full day class on a Sunday), I took out my MacBook Pro. Soon after that, a Taiwanese classmate sitting at my table extended her hand and shook mine, enthusiastically. She thanked me for supporting Taiwanese components as I had so many gadgets (I had an iPhone and a camera beside me). She also told me that she had been responsible for this particular screen component in my MacBook Pro.

I told her that I bought this particular MacBook Pro for its screen. I had in fact requested for the glossy screen model but the Apple Store had given me the matte one by mistake, and I had gone back just to return it for the glossy one.

Later I showed her this photo, just to give her an idea of how much I supported the industry over the years:

I love making people happy.

In any case, R made me happy too. Another classmate thought my screen was dirty. That’s because I put a rubber protector over my keyboard and whenever I closed the MacBook Pro, it would smear my glossy screen. I gave up rubbing away the smear marks because the next time I closed the MacBook Pro, the screen would be blurred up again. However, since someone noticed my smudgy screen, I decided to give it a wipe tonight. But the screen cloths I bought previously were not very effective and I would spend a lot of energy and time rubbing the rubber marks away.

Then I met R for dinner and he gave me a gift. A ducky that wipes screens. See exhibit below. I’m now looking into a super shiny, glossy and very clean screen as I’m typing this post.

R makes me happy :)

Somehow, in less than a year I’ve managed to fill up my MacBook Pro’s 250 GB hard drive. In a relatively short period of time I’ve accumulated a lot of photos and videos, and as a student I’ve saved lots of notes onto my hard drive. My MacBook Pro got sluggish a few months ago and I realised it was running out of space. I deleted some files and upgraded the RAM to 4GB. That helped.

Then I was tempted by a classmate to install Windows 7 beta on my Mac. This exacerbated the disk space shortage when I installed VMWare Fusion which partitioned 40GB of space by default (somehow I couldn’t change the settings to a lower allocation).

Importing even more photos and videos left me with only a few hundred megabytes of space tonight, which wasn’t enough for Windows 7 to launch. In which case I might as well uninstall Windows 7 until I upgrade my hard disk or transfer some non-essential files out of my MacBook Pro. I’m inspired by Kevin’s hard disk upgrade though I have to put it off until the holidays at least. Can’t afford to mess up my computer with deadlines to meet and exams coming up in 3 weeks.

I may even upload all my photos to Flickr and delete them off my hard drive. I do have portable hard disks but their space is limited and I prefer using them solely for backup purposes.

So, upgrading the hard drive is a new item on my growing to-do list…

Thanks to a fellow techy classmate, I was tempted to install Windows 7 beta, which is free for now, on my MacBook Pro. Earlier I would not have done this. It would be sacrilege! Macs are self-sufficient!

But then I learnt that:

1) I could not run regressions using Excel macros, which are no longer supported. 2) I cannot have full access to administering mailing lists using Entourage - the IT folks told me I needed Outlook on a PC 3) I cannot run my MarkStrat software, which is a simulation developed for marketing students at INSEAD. And may I add that this software simulation directly accounts for 40% of my grades??

I’ve been resorting to using other people’s PCs, or the shared computer terminals in school, but still there’s nothing like doing your experiments on your own laptop.

Still I think it’s not the fault of the Mac OS … it’s the tyranny of the majority :P Then again, Windows must have had dominant market share for good reason.

And surely Microsoft can’t screw up so badly twice.

So I’ve installed a trial of VMWare Fusion, which I’ve heard some good things about, and the Windows 7 beta, so technically this has been free for me (until both trials expire).

Installation was rocky. Microsoft makes it almost impossible for a Mac using Firefox to download the beta, as you can imagine - no ActiveX means the download tool can’t work. So I had to use the family PC to do it. And being 3GB it took the whole afternoon to download. Fortunately VMWare’s installation was a cinch - it was just installing Windows 7 beta that required a few retries. I think my partitioning did the trick. I hope.

TO BE CONTINUED…

This is a belated post on the Sony VAIO launch this Thursday. I think other bloggers have covered the main specs of the new Z, FW and SR laptops and talked about how VAIO is being redefined, so I won’t repeat the same. In the same spirit as my earlier post on HP versus Mac, I will write from a more comparative point of view.

Before the event, we were asked to select a personality type for a more customised experience. Being an MBA student I chose to be ‘driven’. So I got to see the new Sony ultraportable Z series. I can see this as a challenge to HP’s Mini-note PC and Lenovo’s ultraportable ThinkPad range.

All the new Sony VAIO models have a keyboard similar to Apple’s MacBook. Somehow I felt that the MacBook keys were more firmly fitted in while there are gaps in the Sony keys. However I was assured by the Sony folks that the keyboard was very sturdy and that each key was firmly screwed in.

It was a good idea to display a Z-series laptop that was taken apart, so we could see the 12-layered motherboard which allowed the laptop to be more compact in size. The photo above is a ‘before’ and ‘after’ to show the improvement made with the new model.

Another good idea for all 3 models was to move the battery to the spine, so that there would be more space for other components. I thought it was cool to have your battery in the form of a cylinder, like a baton.

A Sony employee also explained why there were so many holes on some of the components, like the keyboard. It was to reduce the overall weight of the laptop. However they also didn’t blatantly drill holes in other components if it led to further steps in the production process. It is good to hear about these little anecdotes which don’t get included in the press releases.

The new VAIO series offers more than hardware. Sony also wrote its own software to allow video editing. I assume this is partly because Windows Movie Maker is definitely no challenge to iMovie, and Sony also wanted to showcase its Blu-ray and HD technologies. However Sony’s software is differentiated from iMovie in that it allows you to choose simultaneous video footage at various angles.

Interestingly, HP also had to write its own software for the TouchSmart, which sits on top of the Windows Vista platform. Both companies’ actions indicate to me that Microsoft isn’t doing enough to match Apple in terms of providing user-friendly personal software, and so its partners have to rise to the task.

The graphics on this Sony flatscreen monitor, connected to the VAIO laptop below, were sharper than any I’ve seen before.

One product that did not get the press releases and fanfare, but was something I’d definitely want to have, is Sony’s CP digital photo frame. I have seem so many types of photo frames but not one that looked so good and also could download RSS feeds via wi-fi! Great idea.

I was most impressed with the VAIO boss who came from Tokyo, who spoke good English and knew his products inside out. I met him after the presentation and complimented him. He introduced the formula DESIGN = STYLE + FUNCTION which I agree with. No point having something nice to look at that is useless. And if you design something that’s just functional, it becomes a commodity product and not a differentiating factor. Also, we were reminded that Sony’s background was in audio and visual products and thus it was also a key feature in their VAIO series.

Among the PC laptop manufacturers, Sony is definitely leading the pack for looks combined with functionality. Being primarily a Mac user now, I expect form and function combined. I know a formerly hardcore Mac designer friend who fell in love with Sony after a while. Having said that, I am still quite happy with my MacBook Pro.

Thank you to Ben Koe of Hill & Knowlton for inviting me to this event!

At last count, it’s three.

(Who cares about passports and money? :P)

One geek to collect all our laptops and put them in the safe.

Two geeks to take photos of our laptops in the safe.

And back to the first geek to take photos of the other two geeks taking photos of our laptops in the safe :)

I and many other journalists and bloggers have the chance to get up close and personal with this forthcoming iPaq Business Messenger model…

If all goes well I will attempt to take photos and blog using this little baby at this morning’s press conference.

My iPhone need not get jealous… yet. (I’d use the analogy of ‘wife’ versus ‘concubine’ in Biblical terms if that was appropriate, heheh)

As the world’s press (at least, those not covering WWDC!) starts filing stories, I think one great angle to cover is how HP’s new superslim laptop, the Voodoo Envy 133, compares with Apple’s MacBook Pro for form factor.

Is it a MacBook Air killer, or just a pretender to the throne? Or do they simply rule different kingdoms? Here’s my 2 cents’ worth.

Betting on black

The Envy133’s shiny black exterior and interior should appeal to the design-conscious. The only downside is that fingerprints show up more obviously on this than on a MacBook Air/Pro or other laptops with a metal finishing. We have yet to scratch an Envy 133.

Slimmer than Air

While the Envy133 has an all-round rectangular design, it is evenly thin at 0.7 inches. The MacBook Air is still indisputably the thinnest at the sides, but at its thickest is 0.76 inches. So who’s the slimmest of them all?

Different tracks

Perhaps we can say that the two notebooks are on different tracks, at least for finger-pointing devices. The Envy 133 has an unusual trackpad. It isn’t a flat surface but a rectangular patch of dots, almost making me wonder if it was some kind of inverse Braille. However it did work like a normal trackpad, as you can see in this video.

Same, same but different

For hard drives, both the Envy and MacBook Air have 64GB (solid state drive) and 80GB (hard disk drive).

For processors, the MacBook Air uses 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processors. The Envy uses 1.6GHz and 1.8GHz Intel Centrino processors.

In terms of price, the Envy 133’s US$2,099 price tag is more expensive than the basic MacBook Air which uses a hard drive (not solid state).

Both have 13.3” widescreen displays and backlit keyboards with ambient light sensors.

Keeping you up all night

On paper, the MacBook Air gives 5 hours of battery life while the Envy 133 gives 3h 45min, “depending on usage”.

Getting connected

Along with power and processing, another challenge for ultra portable laptops is the number of ports that can be fit into them. HP moved the ethernet port to the power adapter, which makes sense to me - if you’re at your desk you’d use the power cable + adapter, which becomes more like a mobile dock. If you’re on the go you’d use wireless internet connection anyway (which is become more ubiquitous). The MacBook Air does away with this.

I would like to see: A side-by-side comparison of the MacBook Air and the Envy 133. Apparently a journalist here is walking about with one. Someone please grab him and do a story on this. [Update: Found him, he’s a blogger and he’s already posted a comparison between the two, in French]

I am not too clear on the market positioning for this, as I thought Voodoo series was meant for gaming (as a rival to Dell’s Alienware) but we’ve been told this model is more for mobile users.

So in the end, which is better, Envy or Air? If you’re a personal PC user who wants a mobile laptop, you’d want to give the Envy a second look. If you’re a hardcore Machead, you’d never get a PC anyway. For those of us who are comfortable with both PCs and Macs, like myself, I would look beyond the form factor, since both machines are lovely to behold, and see which runs faster and whose battery lasts longer. Benchmark tests should do the trick.

Updates CNN Money/Fortune Mag also discusses whether this can be a MacBook Air killer. Their answer: Not really.

Here’s the link to the infamous pic of a guy cutting his birthday cake with a friend’s MacBook Air. Gives a whole new meaning to ‘cutting edge’ technologies. To add more spice to the story, this guy is Rahul Sood who’s the founder of VoodooPC (under HP).

HP aims to change personal computing with their new TouchSmart PC, with a completely touch-sensitive monitor and sleek user interface. Official press release Just added to HP’s website: Interactive guide to the TouchSmart PC.

Here are the VERY FIRST photos from the global launch. Stay tuned!!!

Check out this YouTube video I shot of the launch. It may still be processing as it just got uploaded, so just wait a while.

Photos:

Superslim keyboard:

Just logged in. Check this post often for updates, or watch my Twitter updates.

Great fanfare as HP heralds its achievements in an opening movie (will post clips later).

Eric Cador (HP Europe) is giving the opening address, on the importance of touch. We still don’t know what the new products are, but it’s definitely got to do with touch. Any guesses?

Berlin news presenter on stage, saying that HP and Berlin have a lot in common, both having significant growth in the past few years.

He says “Definitely by far, it is the biggest and most innovative” thing they have done, with a “unique personality, unique spirit”.

HP Executive Vice President Todd Bradley emphasises how big HP is now. HP spends US$3.5 billion on R&D, more than any other competitor. They are enjoying significant growth in China and Southeast Asia, among other places.

Bradley says the youth market is important to HP, mentioning Jay-Z and Serena Williams (not sure - were they brand ambassadors? cos I haven’t heard of them endorsing HP products). He says he wants to connect the world.

Finally - new HP products! HP Pavilion notebooks - I see 13 or 14 notebooks on stage. Talking about the new metallic finishing on a notebook. Widescreen display. If you drop a notebook it will automatically save and shut down the hard disk. Useful, but other brands have done it already.

The Elitebook seems promising for business - it also has an unscratchable exterior (anyone want to give it a scratch?), biometric fingerprint reader and GSM/CDMA connectivity for Europe and USA respectively.

ENVY¹³³ is HP’s new kickass gaming notebook. Only 0.7 inches thin with an even slimmer removable battery that looks just like a thick plastic sheet!! 13” screen (I think). As it is so slim, the ethernet connectivity has been added to the power adapter instead. (Will confirm these facts later, am typing/photographing/videoing/Twittering all at once!)

It has an ambient light sensor and they’ve done a one-up on Apple for this. When you move your hands AWAY from the screen, the backlit keyboard will dim. When you move your hands back, the keyboard will light up again. Fwah!!

The Envy doesn’t have tapered edges like the MacBook Air but it is so slim, black and shiny that we’re all staring at it. The global news media is taking lots of photos, lights flashing everywhere.

Looks like HP is aiming at Apple (MacBook Air) for looks and Dell (Alienware) for power at the same time with this baby. It is SOOO beautiful and only costs US$2099 - a fair price for a superslim notebook. I actually want one.

HP Dreamcolor is a new monitor aimed at Hollywood Studios. Apparently Shrek and Kung-fu Panda were made with HP products. (But aren’t the processing systems still dominated by Apple?)

Bah, big things happen when I’m travelling about and not online. No surprises about Apple’s 3G iPhone, though the low price is a nice welcome. I’m on the other side of the fence, quite literally - in Berlin right now, about to cover HP’s own global product launch.

Can it possibly be more exciting than an Apple launch? That is a hard act to follow but since the iPhone upgrade was expected it had less impact than when the iPhone was first launched. Let’s see if HP can wow those of us present…

TO BE CONTINUED

Asus has its Eee PC. Apple has its MacBook Air. And now, HP has its very own subnotebook, the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. (hmm, comparatively speaking, it’s a mouthful!)

Yesterday evening, Walter, Ivan, Lucian and I met for dinner and drinks at Brussels Sprouts, a place I’ve been wanting to try for a while.

In the midst of our conversations, I whipped out my iPhone and demonstrated all the things I could do with it, like taking photos, checking emails, strumming a guitar and recording music on a keyboard (which Ivan liked).

Lucian then unsheathed his MacBook Air. We ooh-ed and ahh-ed…

… and within two seconds (or thereabouts), a pretty waitress appeared beside him and asked him about it. “Is that the…?” “How much does it cost?” and so forth.

After the damsel was furnished with his expert answers, she gave an excited squirm which I interpreted as “Ooh!!! I wish I had one too!!”, and went back to waitressing other tables.

Lucian’s blog has been a magnet for some of my friends in the past, who swooned over the love messages he wrote for his then-fiancee, now his wife. Now it appears that the knight may have a new piece of shining armour in his arsenal.

Luminescent, indeed ;-)

Blogging by iPhone is killing my eyes. And I nearly lost my previous post on Teens cos I pressed the wrong button on my iPhone.

So I’m now using a black new notebook. Well actually it’s a spare Moleskine from Sarah T. At least it won’t crash or get hacked into.

Being a geek at SXSW without a laptop is like living without an arm. I wanted to video blog and do other cool things like having video conferences with my Media Socialist buddies. Now I can’t even talk to them on Skype.

Anyway I just ordered a MacBook Pro and really hope it will arrive before I leave Austin back to Singapore. I paid extra for a speedy delivery. Thanks to the weak US dollar I should have pretty good cost savings.

I have to give two talks right after coming back, and planned to prepare for them on my laptop. Now it’s incapacitated, I’m starting to worry even though I’ve got it thought out in my head. We’ll see how it goes in the next few days.

Come on, MacBook Pro… I’m waiting for ya!

OK, at the time of writing I haven’t bought one yet. But I’ll do so in the morning. I’ve already got a couple of Apple Stores I’m gonna visit, and hopefully a new stock of 16GB iPhones will be there and I’ll finally get my hands on one.

I will update this post when the deed is done! Stay tuned!

[Note to self: Now that you’ve gone and blogged this, you really better get the iPhone or you’re gonna look like a loser. Then again, the Americans have already seen the iPhone for the past year, and the hardcore Singapore geeks would already have cracked their own, so this is really meant for every other reader who is somewhat interested but not so interested that they’ve already gone one.]

I haven’t been to Geek Terminal in a while, but Melvin had cleverly suggested revisiting it with our newly-returned Wilson Tan, of Dell Blog fame.

When I arrived, the two guys were chatting to Danny, the owner. We had dinner together. He recommended the soft shell chilli crab pasta, which we all ordered, and we also had a bottle of Spanish red wine.

He let us try the Italian Muscato, a sweet white wine, which was most refreshing.

We also had the chef’s salad and sampled the chicken pie which was very wholesome.

Danny told us all about his coffee exploits and we were really moved by his passion for the subject. In the end, Wilson and I tried his coffee. It was the smoothest coffee we’ve ever tasted.

Me about to sip my coffee, with Danny behind.

[I shot a video of Danny explaining how to make the perfect cup of coffee, but it needs editing]

It was a fantastic dinner with great company and stimulating conversation, ranging from PR and marketing ideas to the F&B industry and my passion for search engine optimisation. We decided we could all be ‘geeks’ as long as we had a passion for something.

It was definitely a night to remember! Thanks guys.

[Update: To Derrick who commented on this post - Danny saw your feedback and would like to invite you over - coffee’s on him.]

I was driving out of the Sheraton Towers car park last evening and it took a while for the system to deduct the fee from my In-Vehicle Unit (IU). [To those not from Singapore, this is a device used in our Electronic Road Pricing which is installed in vehicles so that money can be deducted when entering town during busy periods.]

Finally, when the amount was deducted, the IU made a loud, high-pitched beeping sound and displayed the word 'Error'. There was an icon that looked like an empty battery.

Checking the One Motoring website, it appears that I have to send it to a service centre for repairs. Argh. My schedule is full this week, how to make time to go for servicing??

And I hope I can get into the office car park this morning, despite a wonky IU - I'm a season parker.

It's that time of the year again, when I'm firming up my travel plans for SXSW. This time, I'm not leaving right after the Interactive conference is over - I'm staying a few more days to enjoy the music!

It's with a tinge of sadness that I've decided this will be my last SXSW in a while. My priorities are changing and I won't be able to afford the time to travel next year for leisure. Also, some veterans have felt that it's no longer the SXSW it used to be. It's become larger and more 'dumbed down' to suit beginners. However it's still different from most of the conferences we get in Singapore, where we talk more about IT (notice how that word's seldom used at SXSW) and corporatise a lot of things, endeavouring to meet our KPIs (key performance indicators).

Frankly put, if you want to learn more about technology or web standards there are better specialist conferences to attend, such as eTech, Future of Web Apps and An Event Apart. However if you want the big picture, I'd still say this would be a suitable place to start. At least folks like The Digital Movement is playing a big part in sowing the seeds for a more Web 2.0/entrepreneural mindset in Singapore. And hopefully we'll have another PodCamp and more BarCamps for geeks.

I am quite sure of the following this March, though:

There will be more Singaporeans at SXSW08. Me and Sarah, Jamie and Divya and Ming Yeow. I doubt we will only hang out in our group and hanker for local food. We will rock this place.

. In 2006 I took the company Fujitsu laptop, as none of us had portable computers at the time. In 2007 I brought the Dell laptop. This year, I will hopefully be wielding a new MacBook Pro, assuming that the rumours are true and there will be processor and touchpad upgrades in the next few weeks.

I will meet familiar faces and renew friendships. It will be exciting to see old SXSW mates like Ralph, Pat, Elaine, David, Aaron and others. I also hope to catch up with Jeremiah Owyang and Zeldman and will probably catch a glimpse of Robert Scoble, who's responsible for getting many of us hooked on Twitter last year. I will definitely catch the panel on Teens this year, cos Danah Boyd and company rock. I am happy to see Kathy Sierra blogging and giving talks again, after receiving death threats soon after SXSW07. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg will be a keynote speaker this year. We'll see if he gets asked about Beacon, among other things.

Coming to think of it, I'm at SXSW not just for the knowledge but to renew the friendships I've made over the past couple of years and to meet more like-minded people.

Last but definitely not least, I am really looking forward to seeing little Alexander (since he eluded me last year by being born right after I left the US) and catch up with Mark and Kristen. Austin is a really lovely city, definitely one of the nicer places to live in. I hope my last trip here will be a memorable one.

Technorati tags: SXSW, SXSW08, Austin, geek

Update: This post was linked on Jeremiah's blog. Yay!

This is the update on my 1TB Maxtor external hard drive. I sent it to a local data recovery company for a free evaluation and this was the prognosis:

Our data recovery specialist had done an evaluation of your hard disk. The harddisk has files structure damage and multiple read write errors. The read/write head electrically damaged, causing file read write access errors. Scratches can also be found on the platter due to misaligned head scratching its surface. We will need to procure another identical Maxtor One Touch III drive to perform parts change to recover the data and also perform a firmware reloading. Platter needs to be refurbished in a clean room environment. After which, a laborious and tedious bit by bit cloning procedure will be performed, which is very time consuming but a necessary and important step to attempt the recovery of your data.

Due to the complexity of your data recovery job, we would require around 15 working days to complete it.

The bill will come to S$2,700 if they successfully recover the data. It’s 7 years worth of photos, videos and music. I’m going for it.

My other IT expert friends have told me that data recovery is expensive because it truly is tedious. I can’t do it myself and even if I didn’t use the whole of the 1TB space, there were still a lot of files in there. Still, it is a good learning experience, albeit painful, and I will ensure that there’s enough space on my computer’s hard drive in future to store all my files. The backup system will remain as a backup.

My Maxtor OneTouch III Turbo external hard disk served me well for nearly a year until it started having hiccups last week. After several attempts to revive it, it seems brain dead. The power supply and fans is still working, but the hard disk is making clicking sounds.

A lot of bad things have happened to my Mac since I upgraded to Leopard. The Maxtor dying may or may not be related to the fact that I was backing up my Mac's files regularly using Time Machine, which was a very useful tool and much easier to use than Maxtor's own software. I wonder if it wore out the hard disk especially as I had a lot of files to back up.

The worse thing is that I didn't just use the Maxtor as a backup system - I had truly run out of space on my 160GB Mac, and moved my Photos and Videos over. Next, I let my kid sister (aspiring filmmaker) install Final Cut Studio on my system. The only catch was that we had to upgrade to Leopard. The upgrade itself was easy, but a subsequent update killed my Airport connection (Internet) and my Missing Sync (synchronisation software for my Windows Mobile phone) service. My M-Audio sound and MIDI card lost its MIDI-OUT capabilities and I later learnt that was because M-Audio products were not yet compatible with Leopard.

Also, to install her software, I needed to create some file space for her, so I moved more files out of my Mac's hard disk. I copied all my iTunes music to the Maxtor. So yep, you guessed it - I've lost all my Music as well as my Photos and Videos! (RIP - in their honour they will all have Capital letters) The only consolation is that my better pics are all on Flickr, and I've quickly switched my iPods to Manual Mode so that music files aren't deleted during syncing.

Thank God I still felt like keeping my Logic files (the most important stuff - all my compositions) on my Mac's hard disk instead. It was like a premonition. Ironically, after over 3 years the Mac's hard disk is still working fine, TOUCH WOOD. I really like my Mac and I don't want to cause any more problems for it. Data and connectivity losses are bad enough already.

Worse, the Maxtor/Seagate support site did not help me address the clicking sound problem and I am sure they will not think of paying for my data recovery bill. I've written in to two Singapore data recovery companies for quotes and will see how it goes.

The worst is Googling for my Maxtor's model name and learning that it got terrible reviews on CNet and even worse reviews on Amazon.com - mostly 1 star. If I had known that at the time of purchase, I'd never have bought it. At least I know I'm not the only one out there suffering; misery loves company.

Even if I can return the Maxtor, I wonder if I'd dare to use another hard disk from this company... Now I am wondering if adding a second hard drive to my Mac will work out better.

After making whirring sounds for a few weeks, my Dell laptop's hard disk breathed its last. To be precise, I simply couldn't start Windows. I kept being asked if I wanted to start in various forms of Safe Mode. However, no matter what I selected, a blue screen would flash on and off, and I'd be taken back to the first screen again.

My little Ixus 50 was purchased just over 2 years ago, as recorded on this blog. It served its purpose well. Its diminuitive size and fast startup time allowed it to take numerous candid shots that I would not have been able to capture with a conspicious, clunky SLR.

The little Ixus took thousands of photographs until it was haplessly drowned in a bowl of Chinese tea last Friday, in Tuscany.

It did not give up that easily. It rested in intensive care by the window sill for two days. I hoped that the water inside would dry up by then. After a few attempts to turn it on, the camera lens responded and the screen was lit, but the controls were stuck. I turned it off then tried to turn it back on to make the lens retract. It did not respond, even with a second battery inserted into it.

You can say it died with its eye wide open. The least I could do, after all the abuse I subjected it to for the past 2 years, such as shoving it into my pants pockets, was to give it a proper funeral.

Rest in peace, little fella.

Update: I bought his successor at Changi Airport. It's a Panasonic Lumix DMC FX-55. It feels different but it's pretty intelligent. Hope I'll love using it as much as my little Ixus.

Tried out another virtual world just now - There.com.

It felt easier to install than Second Life, and there didn’t seem to be as great a lag either.

However the target audience is teens, and very obviously so. If you like the way the Sims look, you may like There. However, if you already play the Sims Online, why would you move over to There?

Also, the graphics are cheerful, but not that hot. I guess there must be a payoff. If you want things to load fast, don’t expect beautiful rendering. Overall I still like Second Life more, even though the user interface is much more intimidating. There.com gave me the impression that things were under simplified and under control.

While it’s free to be There, there’s also premium membership at the rate of US$9.95 per month. Would the target audience be willing to fork out that amount? I can imagine they’d rather spend it on an iTunes album, if they’re not downloading stuff illegally.

I’m also curious as to how many Singaporean youngsters are aware of There. I know some are in Second Life but most probably prefer MMORPG like DOTA. That’s what my boy cousins are raving about whenever they meet.

Maybe There.com’s CEO can tell me more when I meet him at State of Play today.

ps. I don’t like how we have to use Internet Explorer instead of Firefox to access There.com services.

I bought a new 2GB CompactFlash II card so I could take lots of National Day Parade photos using my dad's Nikon D70 SLR camera. I thought it would be good to get a high-speed card so that large files could be saved quickly, which would make it ideal for taking fast-moving objects and fireworks.

In summary, NDP 2007 rocked, and I took over 500 photographs :) However, when it came to downloading them into my computer, I lost several photos as they seemed to be corrupted.

The thing is, the photos looked fine when previewed on the camera itself. But my old SanDisk 6-in-1 card reader failed to recognise the CompactFlash II card when connected to my Mac. Another card reader which I purchased last year, just prior to SXSW in March, also couldn't read the CompactFlash II card.

My last hope was a relatively new PC we purchased last year, which has a built-in card reader. This time, the photos in the CompactFlash II card could be viewed. Well, most of them. I lost the first few shots and the very last shot. Even their file names looked truncated. What I did next was transfer the photos from this CompactFlash II card, into a 2GB SD card. Using this second card, I transferred all the photos into my Mac.

During this second transfer, I lost another 2 photos. One photo looked like its top half got cut and pasted to the bottom. Another photo simply couldn't be viewed at all.

It was getting worrying, like soldiers moving from location to location in a battle and a few getting killed at each point. And these are relatively new memory cards! Both were high-speed. Do any of you know if high-speed cards cause more problems? Cos if so, I'm switching back to normal speed cards.

Finally, a new podcast episode from yours truly! This is specifically about podcasting gear with reference to yesterday's Podcamp demo. I'm just crazy about the different types of gear that can be used for podcasting.

As podcasts can sound naked without music, I just composed and produced a track in about an hour. I don't use any loops or samples, so this is entirely original. Hope it has a bit of what everyone likes listening to, with my own style in it as well.

Also I wanted to show that if you have an iPod, you can get a really decent microphone. I didn't enhance my voice in the podcast, so this is the quality you can get with portable devices. The possibilities are mind-blowing. The gap between professionals and amateurs is nearing to zero.

And if you've been listening, this is the (healthy) food podcast I mentioned. New episodes coming out, hopefully in a month's time. I'm working on it...

Podcamp was fun! You can say we became happy campers, though I was kinda sad it had to end. This morning, Mitch took us through the basics of social media. My fellow media socialists would probably have heard of most of the websites and tools mentioned (e.g. Google, Technorati, RSS), so I won't go into details. What was interesting for me was when Mitch showed off his podcast gear. You can say we were getting the 'Pod' in 'Podcamp'!

It is interesting how so many different combinations of hardware and software can be used to make podcasts. For instance, Mitch uses CastBlaster, a podcast-specific program which only works on PC, while I use Logic Pro, which runs only on Mac. For mobile recording, Mitch uses M-Audio's MicroTrack (US$499) which can save audio directly into MP3 format. Since I have an iPod, I use the Micromemo (US59). Both devices sync with their respective computers. In my home studio, I sometimes use a Shure microphone which goes through a preamp. Sometimes I combine different recordings.

Still, there are even more possible combinations! For our work podcasts, we usually hire professionals. Even more heavy duty equipment and software may be used, such as Pro Tools. I just sit in the studio and wish it was all mine.

The most important thing however, is still content. We need to have something that our audience finds useful and (hopefully) entertaining. I have more to say about podcasting, in my forthcoming podcast!

I like attending informal conferences where power influence lies not in the suit one is wearing but in the ideas one exchanges with others. Singapore's very first Podcamp was just that. Read on for a summary and photos.

I will be at Podcamp this Mon and Tue. Hope to see some of you there, too! I've heard a lot of good things about Mitch Joel. Thanks in advance to Michael Netzley for organising this and to Ben for the heads up. Also looking forward to hearing Melvin speak.

Note: I will not be live blogging this event. My Dell laptop displayed a blue screen a couple weeks ago, and now the battery light's flickering rapidly which, according to the user guide, indicates a problem. The laptop can't be turned on if its power cable is not attached, i.e. it can't run on its battery anymore. It won't survive the conference. I have to send it for repairs.

In the meantime, I will use a really small and sleek subnotebook. It's black in colour and has been back in fashion over the last few years. It will never crash or run out of juice. It is cheaper than the laptops used by children in Third World countries, and even better - it doesn't serve porn.

My new notebook is called a Moleskine.

My HTC Touch has started to annoy me.

Yesterday I set all alarms to ring at 8am - my standard alarm clock, my iPod (which sits in my Bose Soundock), and my HTC Touch. It was very important that I wasn't late for my operation, but I also wanted to maximise the amount of sleep I could get before this.

Re-enactment of how alarm was setThe silly HTC Touch rang at 7.15am instead, which was the original setting I use on working days. But I had changed the alarm time to 8am!! There was no setting anywhere in my alarm or Calendar modes that directed it to ring at 7.15am anymore. The alarm clock and iPod sounded dutifully at 8am but I was already semi awake, no thanks to that new phone of mine. Grr!

Today, I went for my LASIK post-operation checkup and the last girl who attended to me said all was well and I could go back home. So I did. However that was the wrong instructions as I was supposed to collect more items at the counter. The staff tried to call me back but my handphone was apparently off. In the end they called my home and a family member got the impression that I was simply ignoring people's calls.

Re-enactment of how the phone signal
looked like, when it was actually off!

I was quite baffled as my HTC Touch was with me all this while, and it showed that it had 2-3 bars of phone signal strength. Typically, when the phone's turned off, there's a cross on top of the phone icon, and no bars at all.

I called my mobile number using my land line, and was told that I was unavailable, ie my phone function was really off! I did turn the phone off during my surgery yesterday, but it switched back to phone mode later. (I can't recall if I had re-activated the phone feature, or I had rebooted the whole device and it went back to receiving calls)

If the HTC Touch didn't look so good, I'd be really pissed off with it. Right now I'd compare it to a dumb blonde. Something you can parade about, with its sleek looks and TouchFLO technology which is only skin deep, while ignoring the fact that it's got a slower processor and a growing number of quirks that could cause misunderstandings, like what just happened this morning.

I want a phone that tells me that it is off when it is really off. And when it says it is on, it is really on. Is that too difficult to ask for?

If I could talk to it, it would go like this...

Me: HTC Touch, you were supposed to wake me yesterday at 8am, not at the usual 7.15am.
Dumb blonde: Ooh! I forgot! I'm so used to the routine...
Me: Mr Alarm Clock and Mr iPod didn't forget the new instructions.
Dumb blonde: Oops! Teehee, anyway I still look slim and shiny, so please forgive me.

Me: HTC Touch, I turned your phone off during my operation but later you said the phone feature was back on again. When someone tried to reach me urgently this morning, you refused to respond!
Dumb blonde: Ooh, er, was I on? Oh yeah I was! Well it looked like I was, anyway -
Me: Now my mum thinks I am a tao queen! Never pick up my handphone!
Dumb blonde: Ooh! You're a queen? That's so nice. I think I'm a queen too. Maybe I should marry Mr iPhone, people say he's the King ...
Me: Darn well he should be!

So far, there haven't been many wholly favourable reviews of the iPhone. There's a list of things that it should have had, and a few more pros and cons. Engineers may be able to understand this Federal connectivity assessment. I don't.

Having said that, the iPhone is pretty durable as it endured a comprehensive scratch and drop test (thanks to Miccheng for the link). Somehow I'm not so excited about it anymore. I'm sure a better model will arrive in Asia in 2008 with 3G and many of its bugs fixed, with some new features added.

In the meantime, I'm quite happy with my HTC touch.

I've had a love-hate relationship with PDA phones. Ever since my first O2 mini, which crashed frequently, to the HP iPaq which I later lost, and finally to my Dopod 818 Pro which compared suitably to its predecessor.

Since the revered iPhone isn't coming to Asia anytime soon, I had to get something else to tide me by. However, most other PDA phones were pretty standard. Either they were full-screen alone, or came with a slide-out keyboard which added bulk, or had lots of buttons all over the front. I wanted something that could blow my mind.

Then I heard of the HTC Touch. Its photos looked pretty good, but the video demo sold me. It also runs Windows Mobile 6.0 which is one version ahead of my Dopod, which has otherwise been pretty reliable, if unglamorous and bulky.

This Thursday, I'll be at Paulaner Bräuhaus having drinks with some of you together with our distinguished speakers, including Jeremiah Owyang whom I first met at the SXSW Web Awards this March. I will probably get there a bit later, after my church website presentation.

See you again soon, my fellow "New Medialists"!

Microsoft has a new high-tech product coming up, using surface computing or multi-touch technology similar to Apple's iPhone. There is lots of potential for managing photos and viewing maps. Could ubiquitous computing, or Everyware, start becoming mainstream?

This video was so impressive, I have to show it here. If you're using IE you may not be able to see this because I refuse to use 'embed' tags anymore. View it on the original page instead.

[I need help making my embedded videos compliant and preferably accessible. If you know how to do this, tell me!]

Credit: Popularmechanics.com and to my Dad, who sent this link to me.

Kevin's giving a talk titled “Youtube and beyond: What you want to know but never knew who to ask” at the Central Lending Library this coming Tuesday evening. Ivan has more details on this. I'm considering going, if I can tear myself away from work. I'll be one of those latecomers who will be welcomed :)

If you've met Kevin and his 101 gadgets or read his blog, you'll know he's the expert on this topic. It should be an entertaining and informative session.

Anyone else interested in going?

Update: It was a pretty filled up room with lively debates. If you've missed it, you can catch it on video, true to the spirit of the talk. Good to have seen everyone again.

Just a few days ago, I blogged about buying a new Microsoft Wireless keyboard and mouse set. Alas, within a couple of days strange things started happening to them. First, the mouse kept turning off. Then the keyboard's F11 button, which looks ever so slightly more depressed than the other keys, kept on getting activated.

Most likely there's something wrong with the circuitry, causing the slightest vibration to activate the F11 command.

I had a real HEADACHE reading off my web browsers, both IE and Firefox. Imagine you're looking at some text... and suddenly, the window expands to full screen mode. Then before you know it, it goes back to normal.

Then it expands again!!

And if reading from that screen can give a headache, try TYPING on it, or clicking on items in your list of emails. I kept opening the wrong emails because just as I poised my mouse over the right link, the browser would expand and I would click on the wrong email. Bah!

I got so fed up that I'm taking it back to South Asia Computer on Monday evening. I will update everyone on how well they handle returned goods.

To prove my case to them, I also shot this video.

[I'll correct my own English: In the heat of the moment, I said the F11 key was 'spoilt' - as a glass of milk would be, but certainly not hardware. Let's settle for 'not working properly'.]

[Update: I was putting the keyboard back into its original packaging when I realised the receipt said that all goods sold are not returnable or exchangeable. I'll give the computer store a call first to confirm this. I really dread calling a Microsoft service centre for help.]

[Update #2: This sucks. I go to Microsoft Singapore. I click on "All Products" on the left nav bar, and get redirected to this error page. What the... I'm bracing myself that the store won't help me, and neither will Microsoft Singapore.]

Our home Acer PC's wireless mouse was giving trouble for the last few months. Even a battery change didn't improve its erratic performance. Last night, I removed the casing to check on the batteries again, and was surprised to find that the inside of the mouse was wet!

I discovered that one of the batteries had leaked. And the mouse was designed in such a way that there was a hole directly underneath that battery, large enough for liquid to seep through to the circuit board. In short, the mouse was damaged. The Acer wireless keyboard was also getting erratic - and we've had this PC for less than a year.

So I went shopping for a new Microsoft wireless keyboard and mouse, and settled for the entry-level Optical Desktop 700. I bought it at South Asia Computer and it came with free flat panel speakers!

At the same time, I bought myself an 8GB Flash (thumb) drive. Initially I had gone upstairs to Challenger to view their product range and prices. They had a beautiful, shiny Sony 8GB thumb drive that was going for about $260. However, as I wasn't a member, I wouldn't get any discount.

So instead, I bought an 8GB Imation Pro 2 Flash (thumb) drive for $159. It doesn't look as pretty, but it is smaller and comes with its own partitioning software.

I also picked up a SanDisk 6-in-1 PC card adapter. It is to be inserted into my Dell laptop. When you're at an event and want to upload photos immediately, things are much easier with a built-in reader - rather than a device that's sticking out of a USB port or dangling on a wire.

Small, functional gadgets, but I did get a sense of catharsis today.

I'm at Nexus 2007, in the NTUC Business Centre at One Marina Boulevard.

The turnout has been pretty good. We started a bit late as the registration booths were flooded. Similar to SXSW 2007, the organisers are getting us to join them on Twitter. In addition there is also a live Campfire chat among participants. Photos can be viewed on Flickr as well.

I have two invitations to try Joost. Anyone interested? Let me know soon.

[Update: The first invite's been sent to Rohan since he was the first to ask. For all invites, I need your First name AND Last name as well as email address (sorry, just realised that as I was filling up the form). If you haven't given me your last name, please do so within the next 12 hours... Or it'll go to the next guy who gave the required contact details. Thanks!]

I am going through the vast range of SXSW Interactive Panels.

Already, for the Saturday morning period I'm torn between a CSS panel with well-known coders, and another panel on 'Emerging Social and Technology Trends' from the folks at Yahoo!, Wired, Engadget.

See, my affiliations with the Web Standards Group Singapore and the Social Media group are already at a conflict :P

At a glance, this year there is more focus on video and gaming, whereas last year it was more on audio podcasting with some traces of blogging. Of course, the topic of Web 2.0 hasn't gone out of fashion. But I'm mildly curious about the Lonelygirl15 case study too.

The Sunday 10am slot is also tearing me apart. Should I go for Convergent Devices (iPhone! iPhone), or Accessibility from the Trenches? Or even RSS marketing since I'm working on such a project at the moment.

The Metaverse isn't ignored either. At 11.30am, the panel on Avatar-based marketing sounds futuristic enough to make me want to check it out. But speaking of virtual characters, what about the http://2007.sxsw.com/interactive/programming/panels/?action=show&id=IAP060184? Hmm.

OK enough! It's time to sleep. I'll see if I can continue blogging at the airport.

While waiting to watch a French movie at Orchard Cineleisure earlier this evening, I popped by the iShop run by Club 21, and picked up two accessories: A silicone cover for my new wired Apple keyboard, and the Griffin iKaraoke.

The clear XSKN cover was a real pain to extricate from its tightly sealed, hard plastic casing. However, the moment my hand made contact with the product, I realised the actual 'skin' was very, very soft. It fit perfectly onto my keyboard and I'm able to type on it. I'm doing it now in this blog post, in fact.

Only thing is I wished the silicone cover had markings representing each key, as its opacity makes the markings on my keyboard harder to make out. Apparently their newer 'Pro' models, which are also more expensive, have markings on each key. Costs nearly double the price, in fact.

I have yet to try the iKaraoke... that alone will deserve an entry on its own ;-)

My Dell laptop has been behaving better the past week. However, one thing which has constantly annoyed me, has been the fact that as I type, my hand sweeps against the trackpad, accidentally selecting a body of text, and then wiping it out with my next keystroke.

For most applications this can be easily remedied by clicking 'undo'. However, for Lotus Notes (version 6.5 at least), it only has one level of 'undo'. I do send a lot of emails using Lotus Notes. I'm sure many other enterprise users do, too.

Being a post-Grade 8 pianist who has played vigorous pieces like Dave Brubeck's Blue Rondo, I type rather fast. Which means that I hit several keys within 1 or 2 seconds. Which means that the 'undo' button in Lotus Notes is almost useless, because I would have erased my previous paragraph several keystrokes before that.

Another distraction is the fact that as I'm typing on a web page that has many fields (such as this Movable Type powered blog), and the mouse cursor is hovering over another section of the page, any heavier pressure from the base of my palm on the trackpad, results in a shift from one field to another (where the cursor is). Or, if the mouse cursor is hovering above a blank portion of the page, the last several keys I've hit, don't get registered anywhere.

All this happens because the trackpad cannot be deactivated - even if I plug in a mouse. I couldn't find the command to disable the trackpad, so I Googled for help and found a few links. One site advised me to look for the company producing that trackpad component, and download the driver which would allow me to customise my trackpad settings. I was pointed back to the Dell Support website which had specific info on each laptop model.

For my laptop, the Dell Latitude D620, I learnt that the trackpad and stickpointer were manufactured by a company called Alps. Happily, the enhancement coming with the driver read as follows:

"Adds the feature where the touchpad/stick is disabled when a USB mouse is plugged in. This feature is disabled by default but can be enabled via a checkbox on the Devices tab in the Touchpad. When a USB mouse is plugged in a pop up message informs the user that a USB mouse has been detected and that the touchpad/stick has been disabled. A red 'X' appears over the touchpad icon in the systray when it is disabled."

Brilliant. Just what I want. Updates to follow...

[Update: It works! Woo hoo. Now when my mouse is plugged in, the trackpad will be disabled. No more accidental erasures.]

Technorati Tags: Dell, trackpad

My G5 PowerMac's been going on strong despite some hiccups. I can't say the same for its peripherals.

As the PowerMac sits in my little music studio at home, I bought the Apple Wireless Keyboard and Mouse to cut down on wire tangle (they run on Bluetooth). The mouse required more frequent battery changes and I eventually replaced it with a Microsoft mouse which has been running more efficiently.

The keyboard fared much better. It was running fine until last month, when it kept on dying. I figured my super-heavy-duty Energizer e2 batteries had finally died after 2.5 years, so I replaced them. I didn't have the same powerful batteries to spare, so I put in some cheap ones. The keyboard worked for a while but kept on dying. At least there was a bit of light in the indicator switch.

I swopped the batteries for rechargeable ones. I made sure they were fully charged before inserting them into the keyboard. No response - not a flicker of light. I thought maybe the dirt got to the keyboard. I shook the keyboard, knocked out the dirt and gave it a good wipe.

The keyboard remained as lifeless as Optimus Prime after his epic battle with Megatron.

I finally bought the same special batteries that cost several times more than normal ones, in the faint hope that the Wireless Keyboard was a fussy eater and that by some miracle it would resurrect itself. However, the new batteries had no effect whatsoever on it. I thereby pronounced it clinically dead.

Then I checked the Apple Forums to see what people said about the product. Darn! Pretty mixed reviews and those who were unhappy, were REALLY unhappy. Well I've become one of them. Previously I'd have rated the keyboard 4 out of 5... now that it's died on me I can't say much about its durability.

I made a mistake when I went to Mustafa's department store and bought a keyboard which claimed to be Mac compatible. Firstly, it had the 'Windows' icon not the 'Apple' icon on its keys. Secondly, it wasn't even a USB keyboard! And my G5 doesn't have oldish serial ports! How could I have missed that!

So it really looks like I have to buy a proper Mac keyboard. And it's probably going to be the wired one.

Here are 10 reasons not to get Vista.

Here's a rebuttal with 10 reasons to get Vista (frankly they don't sound like very strong reasons to me).

And finally (?), here's a rebuttal to the rebuttal.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Vista

I think I'm going to like speaking to the HP Alumni this Friday.

It started with my glorious Dell laptop hanging twice yesterday morning at work, while I was in a meeting. Nothing was being downloaded or installed and I wasn't running any heavy-duty programs but my email, web browser and word processor.

Fortunately, I won't have to use the Dell for my presentation anymore. Because HP has kindly loaned me a brand new Compaq nx6320! Thank you HP! Muah! (psst, Apple - do you need me to give a presentation? ;-)

I might as well take the opportunity, in true geek fashion, to review this new toy that's been loaned to me temporarily.

Firstly, I really like HP products. If no Macs existed in this world, my computer would be a HP. If not for the iPhone, my favourite 'smart' phone would be an iPaq.

This is how the laptop looked when it arrived - box and bag.

I slotted the battery in, powered the cables and turned it on. On startup, it ran some HP software. A notice read "Your computer includes a new system recovery feature that does not require CDs or DVDs." Neat! However, recovery discs are still needed for serious system failure or instability.

The screen is a regular-sized 15", not wide-screen, but for presentation purposes it will do fine. Because of the big screen, this is one of the larger models.

The next feature I really liked was the memory card slot. Yes I'm so deprived. I just like the idea of being able to go to a conference, take photos and upload them straight away without having to attach a clunky card reader to the laptop.

This model also comes with a fingerprint reader. However, as I will only be using this baby until Friday evening, I don't want to make things complicated by locking the computer with my finger. Who knows - the computer could get locked and by some freak accident I may cut my finger, rendering it unrecognisable...?

The next thing I did was to log on to the Internet, and check for HP software updates as well as Windows updates.

The NEXT thing I did ... was to open Internet Explorer, and immediately head to the Mozilla website to download Firefox! Yeah baby!

Overall, as long as the laptop's stable, it will serve its purpose during the presentation.

More reviews at CNet. HP's official specs are here.

Technorati Tags: HP, Compaq, nx6320

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Listen to this podcast episode of me talking about my latest gadget acquisition, XTreme Mac's Micromemo for 5th generation iPods. This episode was recorded, naturally, on the Micromemo, then downloaded to my Mac and converted to mp3 (128kbps).

Apart from compression, no editing was done, so please excuse my 'ums' as it was 2am and I was nearly brain-dead trying to remember what I had to say without a script. I'll work on my speaking technique.

Tell me what you think of the recording quality, the podcast itself, whether you've tried other gadgets, and so forth.

(Background info: In a previous post, I contemplated choosing between this model and other models by rival brands Belkin and Griffin.)

My new red iPod nano has arrived! The packaging was lurvely. Here are some shots:

Installation was a snap. Didn't need to install extra iPod software - all I needed was iTunes. My old 4G iPod died recently because I had connected it to a laptop which only had iTunes. Good that Apple is cutting down on extra steps for its users.

The nano is easy to handle and the click wheel is responsive - more 'clicky' than older models. My nano came fully charged (yay!) and nicely engraved. The earphones that come with the package seem to be a new model as they look a bit different from those that came with my older iPods'.

However I was not happy with the quality of the sound - then again, most of my files were MP3s though I was using better-quality earphones. However when I switched to my Sennheiser studio headphones the quality was great. So it's also the other gear that affects the listening experience. Ha, my headphones are several times larger and heavier than the nano and I feel imbalanced at the moment!

VanPod IV died last week and this time I must admit the fault was entirely mine. I plugged it into my new laptop, forgetting that while iTunes was installed, the iPod software was not. Now VanPod displays a folder with an exclamation mark, and I think my warranty has finally expired.

In any case, I had my eye on the red iPod nano - the one where part of the proceeds goes to fight AIDS in Africa. Now I'm involved with AIDS at work and it is a topic I feel more deeply inclined to doing something about. So I was very happy when I logged onto the Apple Singapore website in the morning to see the red Nano on the home page! And even better, it comes in 4GB and 8GB versions.

Taken from the website:

...a portion of each sale from every iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED sold goes directly to the Global Fund to fight AIDS in Africa. Which means your iPod nano (PRODUCT) RED sounds good and does good at the same time.

The red Nano would sync with my Nike+ shoes... which would in turn help me keep track of the calories I burn. An all-in-one health package for socially-conscious geeks!

Along with the new Nano I am thinking of getting a new microphone. Either the Belkin TuneTalk™ Stereo or the Griffin iTalk Pro. I have the previous generation of microphones by both brands and the Griffin iTalk was much better in terms of quality and design. I am wondering if the same goes for the latest models. Any ideas?

[Update: iLounge has a review of the iTalk Pro with photos of the iTalk Pro attached to a video iPod as well as a red Nano! After reading the other review on the TuneTalk™ Stereo, it appears that the latter is slightly better. However, it's a third product, the Xtreme Mac MicroMemo that gets the highest rating so far.]

Of course, a 8GB Nano will not do justice to my huge music collection. So I also intend to get the heavy duty 80GB video iPod. I had nearly run out of space on my old 60GB photo iPod.

That leads to the next gadget on my list: A hard drive backup/storage system. As previously reported, I'm nearly reaching the limits on my 160GB hard drive, on my G5 PowerMac.

There are also plans to get a high-definition camcorder - preferably in time for the Lexus Cup next weekend, which I will be attending.

And if time (and money) permits, I may finally upgrade my room's hi-fi system, which currently comprises a first-generation CD player. The whole system is very 1980's, still running but needs to be knocked and jiggled about for the connection to work.

But for now I'll be happy with the iPods. No plans to get a MacBook Pro this year if my G5's going to get more disk space. In any case, I'd like to see the rumoured 12" MacBook Pro first. And also, I won't upgrade until OS10.5 comes out.

Since I am using a Dell now, I thought I should visit Dell Island in Second Life. Its virtual presence was reported in ABC News and CNet. I logged into Second Life, tried searching for "Dell Island" but couldn't find it. However I managed to locate the original press release which provided the slurl to Dell Island.

When you arrive at Dell Island you see lots of flora. The 'Changing your appearance' tutorial that all new arrivals see at Help Island, is also available here. I flew directly to what looked like the centre of the island.

There was a newsagent's, but when I clicked on the newspapers nothing happened. It would be better if these newspapers contained the latest news about Dell.

The souvenir shop next door, however, did have a Dell backpack freebie. Again, more objects could have been interactive. I walked through the back door and came across a signpost. Hmm, Michael Dell's dorm room, where he founded the company! OK I'll check that out.

I got a bit lost after that. Everything looked futuristic. Who'd have expected his dorm room to be in this building?

His dorm room wasn't too bad. I sat on his toilet bowl. However my legs kind of went through the ceramic. No, there wasn't any script that activated any 'toilet business' activities in my Avatar. No shit.

The bathtub was filled with computer parts. (And if that was really the case in real life, how exactly did Michael Dell take a bath?)

Nice big bedroom! Having said that, it was a room for four people.

Feedback: the chair is way too low. I clicked on the computer and it generated this ball on the left. I was supposed to sit on it and it would transport me somewhere. The thing is, it didn't say exactly where...

I shot through some pretty cool 'tunnels' but ended up in limbo. Er, what exactly am I supposed to do up here? Eventually I clicked 'stand up' and fell to a metal platform.

Hmm, in real life I couldn't possibly walk on this platform in these sandals!

I walked through giant fans and touched a heat sync. I realised this was actually a tour of the inside of a computer. I bumped into another Resident during this tour. However we both ended up in an 'infinite loop' - we kept landing up in the same place. I said Dell needed to work on the navigation. The other Resident teleported himself out.

I figured the way out and flew off to another part of the island.

This was more interesting. It looked like a Dell workshop. I clicked on a Dell monkey and was given one. Awesome. My first stuffed toy in Second Life!

I liked this part. "Build my Dell". I chose the most powerful components. After that, I was taken to the Dell online store (web page). What was the price of my custom laptop? Over US$5,000! Oof. I'll just save up for a MacBook Pro.

I sat down at a nearby booth and found it had the same "Build my Dell" feature. Seems like they are marketing the XPS 710 model aggressively. But I'm not complaining - they gave me a free, virtual version of it.

It would have been even cooler if the the laptop was scripted in a way that whenever I typed something, it would appear. I tried attaching it to various locations on my arms but looked a bit ridiculous. I've used other virtual keyboards and laptops which appear only when I type. Here's a shot of me using my Squirreltech laptop. It appears only when I type something.

Back in the city centre, I tried to teleport myself to the auditorium, but ended up high in the air. When I floated down to the ground, it was where I was previously standing. Didn't see any auditorium. Some kinks need to be worked out.

Bookmarking this location was a problem. Apparently the 'owner of the land doesn't allow it'. Why not? You wouldn't prevent a visitor from bookmarking your website! I moved away to the bridge and was able to bookmark my location there.

Overall, Dell has made a commendable foray into Second Life, although the navigation needs to be improved, and some areas were still under construction. More interactive content needs to be developed. In time I suppose this will happen.

Technorati Tags: Dell, Second Life

Flickr camera finder. This is so clever. Since Flickr has all the data in each photo uploaded, why not keep a database on the most popular cameras used?

(Thanks to Lucian for sending me the link.)

Lucian writes about the problem he's experienced with Dell.

We're having similar problems with our new Dell laptops. First, we discovered that the Bluetooth cards we had opted for, were not installed in our laptops. We notified them about this.

Then, after 2 days of usage, my hard drive started making loud noises and I was faced with the blue screen of death. This noise persisted over the weekend. The hard drive had to be replaced.

Dell sent a replacement hard drive to our office. Actually, they somehow managed to send us two hard drives. (Incidentally, the packages were addressed to two colleagues but both their names were misspelt.) So they needed to collect one hard drive back.

The Dell guy came over to replace my hard drive. However, he was not the same guy who was supposed to install our Bluetooth cards. Huh? They send different people for different parts?

It has been a couple more weeks since my hard drive's been replaced, and we have yet to see the guy who's supposed to install our Bluetooth cards. We're going to send them another reminder.

We would not have chosen Dell if their quotation hadn't been the cheapest by a mile. We had a premonition about it, but what can we say? "Even though Dell's price is cheaper, we still don't want it. No, we want to spend a couple thousand more bucks just for the quality assurance and higher standards of service that another brand has a reputation for." We can't. It's not our own money we're spending and we shouldn't be doing anything wasteful.

I would have loved using a Dell in the late 90's, and maybe even the early 2000's, but not now. Their reputation has gone downhill and I get the impression that they don't really care about their customers. Now at least I can speak from first-hand experience.

Technorati tags: Dell, customer service

Ivan noted a Business Times report (IBM accelerates push into 3D virtual worlds, 13 Nov 2006) on how IBM is making use of Second Life to conduct business meetings. IBM's CEO is making a visit to this virtual world today, in fact. Of course this was already reported a couple weeks earlier on Reuters' Secondlife blog. But I am glad to see that a respected local newspaper bothered to write about it.

IBM has a blog, Eightbar, which keeps track of everything they're doing in Second Life. Very cool.

Hmm, let me pop over to IBM land and see if I can see anything going on!

Updates:

My Avatar-spy tells me that this 14 November meeting could be held in a SL location called 'Beijing Townhall'. Unfortunately, I could not join this guest list.

Technorati Tags: IBM, Second Life

My G5 PowerMac, boasting a 160GB hard disk, has only 20GB of space left after nearly 2.5 years of usage. It's been going strong, but the fan can get noisy and I sometimes wonder what would happen if something blew.

Today at work, I discovered I only had a couple hundred MB of space left in my documents drive. It's partly due to the partitioning, over which I have no control, the overall 40GB size and the fact that a good part of my work still involves multimedia.

But this has made me start to think about how to optimise my file space for both systems and set up a proper backup system for my Mac.

I have a 60GB iPod which I'm using to back up my Logic files. I would cry if I lost all my music productions because my Mac went kaputz. Everything else isn't so important.

Most of my recent photos are in Flickr. Most of my videos are NOT in Youtube (yet!) but many are not worth uploading anyway. Some of my documents have been uploaded to Writely (now Google Docs). Most of my software is in boxes and the ones that were in download-only version have been backed up on discs.

I might be in a spot with Macromedia Studio and Microsoft Office though, because they require product activation and it will be tricky re-installing them on a new system when the software manufacturers think you still have an active licence on another computer. Darn, the same probably goes with my recently acquired Adobe Photoshop licence.

So I'm considering getting a system that can back up my hard disk with the push of a button. Something easy to use, so that I will actually use it! The Seagate models look good. Anyone know other good brands? Any tips on backing up hard disks (especially for Macs)?

Technorati Tags: backup, Mac

I received a new laptop last week.

Naturally, I've been trying out all the features and software...

would you believe I've hardly had to do any typing ? Almost everything in this blog post was written using Microsoft's speech recognition software.

the only problem is , speech recognition is limited to Microsoft software. So I am blogging this in Internet explorer seven .

It's not perfect , but I'm impressed . It seems unable to recognize the word blow block blog. let's see if it can recognize other terms like fire folks Firefox. Nope.

how about web standards ? [all right]

how about global global local Google? Nope ...

the other thing is , punctuation is a little tricky . You can't say , "full stop" because this is American . You have to say PERIOD (this is typed). however , I was pretty impressed with the double quotation marks recognition .

in any case it gets most of the woods corrects. In time the software will the many rice familiarize itself with my voice after frequent use . Then it will find you find to you and fine [tune] itself and hopefully there will be less strike throughs.

OK, I've started typing again. Interesting, eh? Didn't know there was such software in Windows Maybe it was because I just downloaded an Office 2003 trial.

[Update: I've just discovered an option that allows you to apply speech
recognition to non MS software. I'm now updating this post using
Performancing for five oaks your folks Firefox, with a combination of typing and speech recognition. overall this is cool. yahoo! ]

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, speech recognition

Collected it today. Not bad... buy one iPod and get two free replacements. 

It's now sitting in its white dock, slurping 34GB of music files into its hard drive.

The tech support guy told me that if I want my iPod's hard drive to be readable on PC and Mac, I must first format it on a PC. So I did that. Let's see if his advice works. Then at least I can back up my files as well.

I got to see the difference between the old and new video iPods. The new model has a brighter screen. "Won't that suck up battery power?" I asked. No, the new model also has a more powerful battery that can be charged more quickly.

Very tempting, but I am going to hold out just in case that full-screen video iPod proves to be more than a rumour.

["Videos!" roar the protestors in Van-land. "We want videos!"]


Technorati Tags: iPod, Apple

I relied on software like Feedreader (PC), Netnewswire Lite (Mac) and most recently, the powerful Omea (PC) for reading feeds on my computers.

On the move, I used Bloglines, which was comprehensive but just too slow. There haven't been any major improvements to the interface in quite some time. Kinja was pleasant to look at, but simply too lightweight for me. Rojo was my favourite, for reading news rated by other people. Then Six Apart bought it and things haven't been the same since - it's been confusing and buggy.

So what's a feed-crazy person like me going to do?

I heard Google Reader vastly improved its usability, so I took a look. It was really much more powerful than the previous, simplistic version. Yet it was fast and easy to use. It could contain all my feeds just like Bloglines could (except Google Reader still doesn't have search capabilties though that's probably just a matter of time).

See the Google Reader blog's latest post - they've tweaked it even more.

Maybe my OPML's here to stay ...

Technorati Tags: Google Reader, Netnewswire, Bloglines, Kinja, Rojo, Omea, newsfeed readers

The history of the VanPod royal family has been a tumultuous one.

The first VanPod was established in 2004. Its reign lasted over a year until it died, of premature old age. A detailed autopsy was performed and captured in photographs.

Its successor VanPod II had the extra ability to display photographs. However, this didn't mean a thing after a scandal in the Hardware Ministry, which rendered the entire Administration useless. The perpetrators were unable to be identified, even after a thorough AppleCentre Orchard inquiry. VanPod II was duly returned to its Maker while a search for a new leader took place.

After a few weeks of political uncertainty, a replacement, VanPod III, was installed. It contained the same characteristics as its immediate predecessor. It performed its duties faithfully, until September 2006 when it started to display signs of mental instability - namely, an unhappy face.

As news broke in the kingdom, citizens questioned the ability of VanPod III to perform its duties. Members of the main opposition party proposed a new leader for election - a broader-minded model with the magical ability to display moving images with sound. Its supporters said it also had 'more drive' and thus had a greater capacity for ruling the kingdom.

The second largest opposition party nominated a more slight candidate who could appear in costumes of various colours, namely silver, pink, blue, green and black.

As debate raged hotly among Parliament members, VanPod III underwent medical treatment by the royal family doctor and was cured. Snap elections were held, and VanPod III was restored to power.

All was well until this October morning, when VanPod kept skipping tracks without producing any sounds. The unhappy demeanour was once again displayed, and this time the illness could not be cured by the royal family doctor, who declared that VanPod III was no longer tractable. Listening to VanPod III's heart, a small, regular thudding sound was heard. Its heart was alive, but its brain was dead.

VanPod III was rushed to AppleCentre Orchard for treatment this afternoon. Attempts to revive its unhappy body were futile. The diagnosis? Another failure in the Hardware Ministry.

However, as VanPod III was still covered by life insurance, the Centre was obliged to provide a replacement. As news broke, a bloodless coup took place as army generals stormed the VanPod family palace and dissolved Parliament. Citizens, already used to the frequent political instability, posed for photographs beside uniformed guards.

The two main opposition parties continued the clamour for a brand new leader which was not directly descended from the makes of VanPod II and III, as they seemed to display "genetic deficiencies".

The parties have been organising protest marches, chanting statements such as "Videos!" and "Colours!" respectively. Even with the arrival of VanPod III's direct successor, which is estimated in the next 2-3 weeks, there are questions as to whether the new King's reign will be short-lived as well.

Meanwhile, compact discs have returned to fashion in the kingdom of Van.

New Segway models - the i2 and the x2.

New Nikon D80 digital SLR camera. A 10.2 megapixel CCD can be very tempting.

Sony launches mylo, a 'new pocket-sized communicator'. Hmm doesn't that sound like a nice cup of hot chocolate?

Good news: Apple launches Mighty Mouse without a tail. Nice!

Not so good news: I'm currently in a software and hardware quandary.

My Dopod needs a ROM upgrade, or else it will randomly reboot when I least expect it to, and it often fails to detect my SD card even when it is properly inserted.

However, when I do the ROM upgrade, it will wipe out all the programs I installed, and my Calendar, Tasks and Contacts.

I cannot back these up on my Mac, because I am running OS 10.3.9 with the Missing Sync Software. The Missing Sync has just released version 2.5 which works with Windows Mobile 5.0, which the Dopod is running. However, The Missing Sync 2.5 only works with OS10.4.

I would like to back up my Dopod's data on my dad's PC laptop, which I'm already using to install programs via ActiveSync. However, to back up Calendar, Tasks and Contacts, I need Microsoft Outlook. Yep, you've guessed it - we don't have Outlook on that laptop. It doesn't work with Outlook Express.

So it looks like I should just upgrade my own Mac's operating system. But as WWDC is round the corner, I don't think it's worth paying a few hundred bucks to upgrade to OS10.4+ now.

So either I tolerate my Dopod's eccentric behaviour for a couple more weeks, or manually copy all the new items i've added to my Dopod for the past few days, into iCal and Address Book.

Gahhh....

Technorati Tags: Dopod, apple, Missing Sync, Windows Mobile 5.0, OS10.5

Fellow geeks! Lend me your ears and eyes. If you see a secondhand HP iPaq rw6828 being sold on its own without most other accessories, do me a big favour and ask what the serial number is.

If the serial number is CNI6230BN1, it is my phone and it was taken from my office building. Please tell the shopkeeper that the serial number has been lodged with the police.

Yes, I just filed a police report after my attempts to locate my missing phone went in vain for the past several days.

I won't display my full police statement here, as some details involve company information, but this extract should suffice:

I appeal to the police to note the serial number of the phone, in case the person who kept my phone is trying to sell it at a secondhand shop. Its sale can probably fetch several hundred dollars.

My phone has a 1GB mini SD memory card, protective case, screen protector and stylus. The person will be trying to sell the phone without its charger, adaptors, box, software, handsfree set and manual.

Oh well I hope the police are able to send some word out - though I know they're awfully busy and probably have more life-threatening things to attend to.

My Dopod inside a Piel Frama case on top of a Tumi bag.

Just bought the case from a store at Funan Digitalife Mall, called Edpol (#04-23, tel 3399822). It has all sorts of custom cases and accessories for PDA phones, including Palm and Blackberry. Actually all I had intended to get was a protective screen cover for my new Dopod, but when I saw the lovely leather cases I had to make my Dopod try one on. Since it looked pretty good in its 'little red dress' I decided to buy it.

The service was also very good and there were all sorts of customers coming in, asking for cases for their PDAs.

I bought the Tumi bag from Harrod's in London (this June), as my existing bag wasn't big and well-designed enough to carry all my travel stuff.

I was telling a couple of friends that I felt like I was a widower. I had bought a pretty, young 'wife' that was desired by many, had the time of my life for 3 weeks, and suddenly she was taken away from me, right under my nose.

After 2 days of mourning I reunited with an old flame and decided to acquire her instead. That old flame in question is actually a friend's Dopod 818 Pro. His wife won it in a lucky draw but as both of them are not geeks, they preferred to sell it to someone else.

I contemplated the Dopod but decided on the HP due to the better brand and support service. However now that my HP is gone, I did not want to pay the full price for a brand new PDA phone. The new Dopod was sold to me at less than half its retail price and so far I'm not complaining.

I've re-installed Laridian Pocket Bible and Newsbreak feedreader software. I'm also trying out SPC Pocket Plus, a popular enhancement for Windows Mobile.

The Dopod is wider but I think it's thinner than the iPaq 6828.

Plus points:

• Handwriting detection has been less problematic so far (but that may be because my iPaq had a protective screen cover. When I get one for my Dopod I can make a fairer comparison).
• Hardware buttons are more intuitive. Also, easier to press. There is a Windows Start button and an OK button tastefully incorporated right below the 'Call begin' and 'Call end' buttons. This means you can control your Dopod's basic functions with one hand, without needing a stylus.
• Stylus is easier to remove (but that's because the iPaq had an extra protective cover on top of it)
• Wireless speed is faster - 802.11g instead of 802.11b. I can feel the difference. Data gets downloaded faster on my home 802.11g wireless network.
• The Dopod feels better in your hand as the casing is smoother and one consistent colour. However you can get a skin for your iPaq.

Minus points:

• Dopod software isn't as good as HP's. HP's extra software e.g. photo management is better ... and free.
• The iPaq comes with extra charger adapters (for US sockets) and more stylus pens.
• The Dopod's brightness levels are rudimentary whereas for the iPaq it can be fine-tuned.
• Dopod seems to run a bit slower. It hung last night and this morning already. Had to reboot it. Wonder if all my extra software and trials are screwing it up.
• Dopod keeps rebooting. I discover that it's a ROM problem and to upgrade my ROM I will lose all my existing data. Oh, great.
• Lousy-looking Dopodasia.com website with bare support. It's so crap, if you type in http://dopodasia.com withouth the 'www', the site doesn't work!!! [Update: They gave a free Mozart wallpaper and ringtone theme which is so cheesy they shouldn't have offered it in the first place. ]

I think I'm suffering enough already.

Last evening, I went to the ladies' toilet near the main lift lobby in my office. As always, I removed my iPaq case which is clipped to the top of my trousers, and placed it on the toilet paper rack. This is so that my phone doesn't accidentally fall into the toilet bowl.

Since I bought the phone, I've constantly reminded myself (while in the loo) to hook the case back onto my trousers. Last evening, I forgot. I know I was engrossed in thought, but that's no excuse to leave something so valuable behind.

I went back to my desk, worked for another hour, saw an email from my boss about a meeting date, reached for my iPaq to key the data in ... and realised the case wasn't at my hip.

I dashed back into the toilet but the iPaq was gone. (That was the last place I brought it to. I had brought it to a meeting before that, but walked out of the meeting using my phone, and popped by another colleague's cubicle before going back to my own. I remember I was still carrying it.)

I notified all my colleagues and called Security. Nobody had turned the iPaq in. We called my number but it was 'not available'. I thought it was engaged and someone was using it ... alternatively the person had chucked my SIM card and was already using her own, with my iPaq.

[ Ironically when I Googled for 'hp ipaq 6828', planning to attach a photo of my phone in my email to colleagues, guess which site came up first? My own! *slap in the face* I never even took a photograph of it myself. ]

This morning I spoke to our cleaning attendant and she hadn't seen a thing. She does the morning shift. I called the supervisor but she had not received any reports from her staff. I waited until the afternoon shift and asked the second attendant. She too had not seen anything. I trust the two old ladies - they're such dears and we're always nice to each other.

Besides, when my colleague misplaced her phone last week, it was found and returned to her.

However, that was a normal phone, not an iPaq.

Here's an experiment: If you see a shop selling a second-hand HP iPaq 6828 without box and charger, let me know. Mine had a 1GB miniSD card and a screen protector, with the black HP case.

The battery should have died out by now.

My mother asked, "Didn't you have valuable software inside it?"

I replied, "Yes, it has my PocketBible software. I think whoever's taken my phone, needs it!"

I will also miss my iPaq for its wireless internet connection and newsfeed reader (shareware I installed).

I still needed a phone. As punishment, I went to Mustafa Centre and bought a simple Nokia 6030 which doesn't even have Bluetooth. I now wonder if I should have forked out another hundred bucks for the Motorola Slvr but don't tempt me now ... this is to tide me by until the next iPaq model comes out.

Next time, I'll tattoo my name on it and sew the pouch into my skin.

After a few days of using Internet Explorer on my HP iPaq 6828, I decided enough was enough.

First, I installed Opera 8.60, which felt more responsive. However, apart from the ability to open new pages in tabs, Opera's user interface was less intuitive than IE's!

*shock*

IE in Windows Mobile 5.0 keeps things simple, with visible back and forward buttons which I can tap with my stylus or press on my phone's keybad, whereas in Opera I need to tap on a dropdown (actually, 'dropup') menu to do that.

Also, when accessing websites that use CSS properly, like Wired.com, I saw a statement that my browser (Opera) was not fully supporting standards! *more surprise*

Never fear, I thought. Minimo is here! That's Mozilla's answer to mobile web browsing. I was happy that they let me download and install the .cab file directly inside my iPaq, meaning I didn't have to borrow my dad's Windows laptop to install the software via ActiveSync. (Opera has this version too, though for some reason their .cab file couldn't install on my iPaq.)

However, Minimo took a rather, um, 'maximo' time to load. After a while there's only so long you can stare at a splash screen of the Mozilla monster. It reminded me of Netscape's early days. For the first time, my iPaq was sluggish, even after quitting other programs.

I tried accessing a URL ('m.yahoo.com') which turned out to be nonexistent. While Opera at least told me there was no such page, Minimo gave me the impression that it was still trying to load the page. I waited for minutes and nothing happened.

A quick Google indicated that many other users are also complaining about Minimo's sluggishness. I was also warned that the version they provided was meant for an older version, Windows CE. My recommendation: Don't install this until they reduce the 8MB+ file size and speed up the load time. I might try moving this into my storage card and if it's still slow, Minimo has to go.

*sticks baby finger into side of mouth, a la Doctor Evil*

And sadly, when my 30-day Opera trial expires, I may not find it worthwhile to pay US$24 for the licensed version. I might very well go back to using IE for now, because it's the most intuitive of the lot.

[One consolation is discovering the Opera Platform which allows AJAX on mobile phones. Now that is something I am really looking forward to trying out!]

The title says it all. I'm so glad that this version of Windows mobile and Internet explorer allows me to enter text in Movable type. My old O2 mini was unable to do this properly.

Having said that, the touch Screen is more sensitive & I have to lift up my Stylus more often when writing. If not, it adds extra strokes in between characters and Words which Confounds the handwriting recognition.

Also, it capitalises words in the middle of a sentence, as you can see in my previous sentence!

I am now the proud owner of a HP iPaq 6828.

The first site I checked out, after configuring the wireless connection, was my own site. Looked fine!

Am now tapping through my Gmail which is optimised for mobile viewing. See what you can do with stylesheets?

However, my Missing Sync 2.0+ doesn't recognise my new PDA phone, so I tried installing the 2.5 beta which works with Windows Mobile 5.0, though it doesn't state compatibility with this particular model.

Then I found out that I need OS10.4 to run the 2.5 beta. So that didn't work out. Bah. Perhaps other software might work with it. But I'm willing to hang in there for a short while.

More updates:

I connected via a PC laptop using ActiveSync, re-installed Laridian PocketBible and DailyReader and added various bibles, commentaries and dictionaries. Running fine.

I also re-installed NewsBreak RSS software. It's already downloaded a few hundred news headlines. Yay!

Just changed the desktop theme to red-hot. Currently adding some mp3/aac files to test out the speakers.

I switched my music player to Winamp skin mode, to bring back some nostalgic pre-iTunes feelings. You can even adjust the equaliser and increase bass/treble.

Just connected to my free gift - a Jaber Bluetooth headset. Charged it up and connected it almost at once to my iPaq. Tried calling the Singtel helpline just to see if the headset worked. It did. Excellent.

[ Update: Someone took my iPaq and I have now bought a second-hand Dopod 818 Pro. I have written a brief comparison between the two. ]

I just tested out my grandma's new iMac and it's running Windows XP smoothly. The only thing is that the resolution is set to 800x600 (large enough for her to see), so things look a little pixelated and stretched. But yeah, apart from that it's very much like a PC, if you can get used to hearing the Windows startup tune and default wallpaper framed by the pristine whiteness of a new iMac.

I wasn't around when my cousin(s) ran Boot Camp but they said the procedure was smooth. This is coming from people who don't use Macs at home. When you boot up the iMac, it automatically runs Windows XP. However if you want to start in OS X, then hold the 'ALT' key when booting up. It's that simple.

In any case, my 76-year-old grandmother has been playing computer games (not the free games that came with Windows but something a bit more like role-playing). And we got her a Yahoo! email address (Gmail was our first choice, but it kept asking her for an existing email address, which she naturally didn't have).

It's so exciting when you wire old folks up. To be precise, it's wireless but you know what I mean.

Cost of 15" Macbook Pro: S$4588

Upgrade to 2.16Ghz Intel Core Duo: S$535.50

Upgrade from 100MB to 120MB hard disk: S$178.50

Total cost: S$5302.

Cost of 17" Macbook Pro at 2.16GHz Intel Core Duo with 120MB hard disk: S$4988.

It has Firewire 800, which the 15" model doesn't have, 8x double-layer SuperDrive (as opposed to 4x) and an extra USB port.

Go figure. Is it simply a case of paying less for more bulk? Will there be a price drop for the 15" model?

Whatever the case, I think I'll hold out until OS 10.5 arrives.

For the second time since I bought it 11 months ago, my O2 hung so badly that it couldn't be rebooted the usual way (by poking a hole at the base of the device). This time the warning message I got, shortly before it hung, was along the lines of 'Out of memory'.

After numerous attempts in vain, I had to do a hard reboot, resulting in my phone data being lost. Fortunately I was at home and managed to install the latest Windows Mobile patch (in the hope that it's more stable), and re-install my Bible software. Fortunately, all the data in my memory card was fine.

The first time it happened to me, though, it was more scary. I was on the road, heading towards a colleague's home for dinner. The O2 mini was lying peacefully in my car's cup-holder. I can't remember exactly when it happened, but I noticed the screen didn't look right anymore. I touched it with my fingers and it didn't respond. Rebooting didn't help.

Naturally I didn't have the O2 manual with me, and I really needed to get it working again. I did a hard reboot and then realised that all my contact data was wiped out. How was I to find my colleague's place now? I couldn't even call for help. Fortunately, I remembered the road she stayed on, and found the right condo. (Note: Prayer does help!!)

But it was a harrowing experience. No phone I've used before, has hung so badly on me. At worst, my Nokia phones would just get slower and slower. But even when they hung, I could restart them without problems. I noticed however that Windows Mobile doesn't totally close apps after you've exited them. So after a while a lot of RAM is being used, but when you check, no programs are running in the background. The only option left (as far as I know) is to reboot the Mini.

That's the most serious flaw in my Mini so far. The user interface sucks for SMS too - why is the numpad so small and pushed to the side? And if you meet an old friend on the street and he rattles off his mobile number to you, you can't just key in his number, then 'Save as new contact'. You must go into the address book, create new contact, then scroll down to the mobile phone field, and enter the number.

Having said all that, it's cool to view my PDFs, Powerpoint slideshows (yes, all one of them) and keep Excel spreadsheets on my little Mini. But these are all just NICE to have. I'd very much like a phone lets me SMS quickly without fumbling with my fingers / using a stylus. A phone that lets me call people from my address book with minimal scrolling and searching, and won't hang on me again.

Calling Mac users and experts - I need help with making a decision! I was at Apple Centre Orchard this afternoon and noticed an offer for all three MacBook Pro models (1.83, 2.0 and 2.16GHz dual Intel processors).

That was surprising, considering that they should be in hot demand (according to the salesman) so there'd be no need to throw in any freebies. Anyway, let me know if you think this is a good deal or not:

• Buying either a 1.83GHz or 2.0GHz model gets you a S$150 voucher and Microsoft Office 2004. When I queried further, the salesman said it was the Student/Teacher edition of Office, which would give it a S$269 value. This part's a bit confusing as the Office logo they used was grey so it looked like the Office Standard version. Hmm.
• Buying the latest 2.16GHz model gets you a free 1GB RAM upgrade (which they claim is S$599), as well as the same Microsoft Office 2004. When I asked, "Can't we just buy the extra RAM cheaper from another shop?", they told me we can't use 'older' RAM on this new machine. (Mac experts, is this true??) I was thinking of buying my RAM from SGL at Sim Lim Square, actually, since some of you dear readers had recommended this value-for-money store to me earlier and they had indeed saved me a bundle on RAM for my PowerMac.

The store's educational discount doesn't apply to the MacBook Pro offers, but the salesman assured me that the freebies thrown in, were worth more than the discount. Hmm...

I left the shop tempted to buy a MacBook Pro, despite warning RamblingLibrarian to resist it a little longer. But after considering my own needs, I realised I don't need the Microsoft Office freebie because I still have one licence to spare at home (we bought the Edu licence which gives three serial numbers).

Also, the thought of 1GB of RAM costing S$599 sounded outrageous - even though the salesman seemed absolutely certain that was the standard price.

The other question was, should I buy the model with the 2.0GHz or 2.16GHz dual processors? The latter seemed like a steep price to pay for so little extra power (which could be spent on more RAM, no?). However, I am a Logic Pro 7 user who is in the midst of forming a new band (more on that later) which may require live recordings or at least some mixing and effects processing. Also, I've got Reason 3 and occasionally edit and render videos using iMovie. I'd hate to watch a brand-new MacBook Pro take a longer time to process files than my 2-year-old PowerMac. It would feel like I had just downgraded myself.

I read in MacWorld Magazine that the new processors aren't four times faster as claimed. That means I need - no, I just want - the fastest thing on the block to compensate for it. But that's being whimsical and silly. Arggggh.

So now I'm thinking I should continue to wait, because I don't really need a laptop yet - it's just nice to have. I wonder if any faster chips are coming out. Also, maybe I should wait until OS10.5 comes out at the end of this year.

What do you think?

What's been going through my mind the past couple of months, and especially so, now.

Temptor (in my mind): Go on, get it.
Me: I can't. It's too expensive.
Temptor: It's OK. Your travel expenses are now covered. So you can use your own savings to buy a shiny new laptop!
Me: But it's still too expensive. I already have a PowerMac at home.
Temptor: But it's not portable. Wouldn't it be cool to sit there in your hotel/conference hall, surfing wirelessly on a MacBook Pro? It'll be such a conversation piece!
Me: (thinking, yeah right, not in SXSW ... Apple notebooks are probably almost as common as iPod Nanos and other thingamageeks).
Temptor: Imagine, you can give daily updates on your blog about SXSW and make your readers think you're really cool.
Me: Yeah, like they read my blog every day. And like it's worth spending over S$3K for several days of 'cool'.
Temptor: But I know you've always wanted a laptop in your own room - just like in the good ol' Uni days when you discovered the Internet. Why, you got your first job based on what you learnt on your laptop!
Me: (fights off fond memories of old, now deceased, laptop) No! I can still surf the net on the family iMac! And my PowerMac! I ... don't need a MacBook Pro now... maybe next year when everything stabilises ...
Temptor: You'll regret waiting. It's now or never.
Me: I'll ... upgrade my O2 mini so I can do wireless surfing!
Temptor: Ha! On that tiny little screen?
Me: Er, I'll buy a Bluetooth keyboard so I can type on it too! Then it'll be like a mini laptop for only a few hundred bucks!
Temptor: Waste of money! You know your O2 mini's Bluetooth can't even connect to a single DAMN device. The Sim Lim salesman was just tempting you... it won't work. You need a shiiiiiny newwwww laaaptoppp!!!
Me: (covers ears) Not listening! Not listening!

< < FOCUS, Vanessa. You have to book a hotel in Austin. Stop looking at the Apple website! >>

Drool over Apple's first Intel-powered MacBook Pro. With dual processors.

[Update: Kevin Lim took a video of a MacBook Pro demonstration. Get as close as you can, to the real thing!]

As if I didn't have enough Macs at home already - I want to get an Apple Powerbook with Intel Inside. Check out the rumours. And hmm, possibilities of a new OS 10.5 Leopard as well!

Come Jan 9, we'll just have to wait and see. Link to Macworld Expo site and Macworld Magazine's coverage of the event.

Just realised I've posted my 1000th entry (below). Hurrah.

Anyway, VanPod II went brain dead on Monday, when iTunes hung while attempting to add my gazillion new Christmas photos. I rebooted the computer, and VanPod II displayed a sad icon with a link to the support site:

Read the MacRumors.com report. Arghhh... why couldn't VanPod have died a little later. Or, why couldn't I have waited a little longer?

Oh well... I've never been a big watcher of TV or movies, so I won't die without video capabilities. But a thinner iPod would definitely have been nice.

Also, I wonder if Apple will consider switching to a harder type of plastic so that iPods won't scratch so easily.

It isn't a tragedy of Nano proportions (oxymoron intended), but VanPod II already has superficial scratches. The one that bugs me the most is the single hairline scratch, shaped like an eyelash, at the top left corner of my display. Yes, why couldn't it have been anywhere else BUT the display. Strangely, rubbing at it with my fingers, seems to have made it better. Or maybe it's just obscured by finger grease.

I have no idea how that odd scratch occured, because VanPod II resides almost exclusively inside a pouch which I took home as a wedding favour at my friends' recent dinner. However, the pouch was meant to carry a normal-sized mobile phone, meaning it was a bit of a tight squeeze fitting in a 60gb iPod. There are now more, very fine vertical lines all over the iPod. So fine, you wouldn't notice them unless I told you. But I know they're there, and that makes me sulky.

I am also slightly annoyed with the AppleCentre Orchard salesman who assured me that my old 40gb iPod was the same thickness as the new 60gb photo iPod I was planning to purchase (I thought the 60gb model was thicker, but thought that Apple salesmen would know better). Thus, he said I could re-use my old dock instead of purchasing a new one. That meant that I would also be able to use the new iPod with my Bose SoundDock, which did not come with a 60gb 4th-generation iPod slot (the largest slot provided was the 40gb 3rd-generation one).

Hence, believing that VanPod II could fit, I pushed it into both docks. At first, I didn't see any scratches around VanPod II's base (front and back). However, after a few days of usage, somehow it did get scratched. Bah. I should be less forceful when synchronising VanPod II. I have also decided to REMOVE my old iPod dock - VanPod II shall now connect to my Mac directly by cable, resting on its pouch.

[Update: Bose's Singapore agent, Atlas Hi-Fi, has informed me that I can collect a complimentary 60gb iPod slot, upon presenting my receipt to them. I am very pleased to hear that. Do pass the word around to your friends who also own SoundDocks and are planning to get new iPods. ps: AppleCentre staff, take a few pointers and give this tip to your customers next time, so they don't force-feed their SoundDocks. ]

And speaking of pouch, it's time to start looking for a proper-fitting one. Or a protective film. Aw heck, maybe both.

VanPod II needs clothes.

[Update 2: Bose's complimentary 60gb iPod slot works fine. A bit loose though - but shouldn't be a problem. View pics of iPod in its new slot. ]

[I've decided to use this post to add further insights and external links related to Mighty Mouse.]

The Mighty Mouse feels great! I did expect a more robust grip for the 4-directional wheel, something like the rubber scrollers you get on other mice. However, Apple is Apple and they've leapfrogged over the competition in design and functionality.

Ironically, having two wide-screen Macs means that I will seldom have the opportunity of using horizontal scrolling.

Externals

Steermouse - Shareware that tweaks your Mighty Mouse so it can do more things than Apple taught it to.

Cons

Bummer, I realised there was an Apple software CD for Mighty Mouse, so I popped it in and was told that additional functionalities could only be installed on Tiger. Geeze.

After one night without VanPod's music, and half a day of working in silence, I went out and bought the 4th generation 60gb iPod (Photo).

And the new Apple mouse.

I needed to console myself.

And you probably don't believe that.

To Mac users out there - have you ever had third-party USB devices causing your whole system to hang?

I seem to be having lots of problem with my Sandisk 6-in-1 reader. I found similar problems posted in this discussion group. I can select a few files in my SD card (using Finder), and then suddenly Finder quits totally. The icons on my Desktop disappear, and appear again (like being refreshed). Then I try to do the same thing again, select the same files, and everything disappears once more.

It's really bizarre and I'm tired of rebooting my system continuously. Any solutions?

Apple launched this behind our backs. But I don't mind being surprised. This is beautiful. (Goodbye, iPod mini.)

And iTunes 5 should be promising. Let's see how the folders in Playlists work out.

Tribeca Hotel offers a package called the iStudio, which is basically Apple heaven for guests.

Your hotel room comes furnished with a 20-inch iMac, with "film, photo and sound-editing software" (that sounds suspiciously like iMovie, iDVD, iPhoto and Garageband), iSight cameras, an iPod and a Bose Sounddock.

You get this package for roughly the price of an iPod (per day).

In the meantime, I think I'll enjoy the very same things - at home.

So Apple's finally launched their latest mouse. I've always liked the design of Apple mice (since the transparent look went into fashion). However I've never found them particularly practical, especially after being used to the multi-function capabilities of their Microsoft and Logitech counterparts.

Instead of right-clicking on a typical PC mouse to view Properties, for instance, you either had to click and hold on an icon, or press CTRL while clicking on the icon. A slight inconvenience.

But perhaps this may change. A 360 degree scroller is an awesome idea, especially for people editing large images, close-up. And somehow Apple have managed to keep the clean, neat look. No need for ugly lines dividing the left and right buttons - the mouse will detect it.

The only thing is, if I ever use it, I would expect the side buttons to take me back and forward in a browser or Finder window (that's Explorer to Windows users).

[BTW, I wonder if the cartoon character Mighty Mouse will have anything to say about Apple's latest product. ]

Update: Russell Beattie reviews his new Apple mouse. Photos included. He says, 'When using Firefox, moving the scroll ball left and right is the equivalent to going back and forward. This is a neat feature, but the ball can be touchy, so I may end up turning this off.'

I bought a new compact camera on Saturday. The main reason that I bought a compact, was because I needed something small and elegant enough to fit into a dinner bag. Imagine me saying that a few years ago - I would have said that dainty cameras were for wussies!

Maybe it's me just being sentimental. After attending several gatherings without taking any photos, I realised it wasn't a good thing to not have any pics of me with my friends! My Olympus C5050 is too bulky to bring to nice dinners, and it acts up sometimes.

So I was standing inside the camera shop, holding a Canon Ixus 50 in one hand, and a Canon Ixus 700 in the other. Thanks to having read a few psychology books (Christian and general), I started analysing my desires.

Why, for instance, did I want to get an Ixus 700 all this while, when I hardly ever print my photos? At most, all I needed was 4R. The Ixus 50 would do fine, because it was cheaper and smaller.

Then I realised I wanted the bigger 700 because there was the security of having more megapixels, in the very unlikely event that I would them. And also, I would have bragging rights with any friends who owned less advanced cameras (gasp!). It was a disturbing realisation.

But if I really wanted an advanced camera, I'd get an SLR instead! Getting the 700 would be neither here nor there for me. And I'd pay $150 more.

After some deep deliberation, I settled for the smaller and slightly older 50, because I knew that was all I really needed. It was more difficult making this decision, than expected. It was actually humbling.

I've been happy so far with the Ixus 50. I will post some sample pics on Flickr soon, once it turns August back in the US and I get more bandwidth to burn.

[BTW, those using Flickr Pro accounts - is it really worthwhile? I'm wondering if I should upgrade to one because there's no way I can find a more user-friendly system to install on my own server.]

I just installed the Konfabulator and now enjoy a host of widgets, minus the price of upgrading to Tiger. You see, it's now free. And it looks good:

The great thing is, after this I managed to configure the Weather widget to show Singapore weather. I also managed to display Singapore stocks prices instead of US ones.

All in all, it's pretty nifty.

[Folks, I realised it's been just over a year since I switched to a Mac. I've had a lot of fun with it, making music, making new Mac friends and seeing the cyberworld a little differently (nicer fonts, at least). Cheers!]

Thanks to your advice, I finally made the trip to Sim Lim Square today, and picked up two x 1GB RAM from SGL at S$200 each. To think I nearly bought 1GB of RAM at S$599, from AppleCentre Orchard! That's nearly three times the price. And I've got lifetime warranty on my new RAM.

After I'd paid up, the lady at SGL asked me how I heard of them. I said I blogged about it and other customers wrote in to recommend this store. At this point, the only other customer stopped talking to the other lady manning the store, and looked at me. I thought he might have been a reader, but it seems he just perked up at the word 'blog'. Of course, if you happen to have been that reader, just drop a note to let me know, because I'm curious.

Anyway I told them I was glad I found this store. The lady told me they were around long before AppleCentres came along. They had contemplated jumping on the AppleCentre bandwagon, but decided against it. They don't have to worry about renting a larger space and renovating the place, and their prices are lower. Which is great, because I don't mind picking up a new 20GB iPod for S$500 (instead of S$528) or a 60GB iPod for $700 (instead of S$728).

However, since it is rumoured that iPod video is coming out, I shall wait. Not that I watch many videos, but you know what I mean.

In other news, VanPod held out for an hour this morning when I didn't skip tracks. Which is another reason why I think I can hold out a little longer :)

Being confined to rest (mostly) at home today, I upgraded both the iMac and PowerMac to iTunes 4.9, and entered the world of Podcasting. So far so good, the only thing limiting me is download speed and VanPod's capacity.

VanPod, in the meantime, threw a tantrum and rebooted constantly while docked. This was after it took eons to complete a self-scan (CD/magnifying glass icon). Checking an iPodlounge forum thread, I ran Disk Utility and put an end to the madness ... for now.

Those new colour iPods sure look good. Mmm. *Wishes VanPod died, again*

But there are other gadgets higher up in priority. Like my PowerMac's RAM upgrade. The family package upgrade licence to Tiger (OK, I just want the widgets and bragging rights). The compact Ixus 7 megapixel camera (because it is not glamorous lugging around a black bulky prosumer Olympus C5050 while wearing an evening gown and heels at a posh wedding dinner). A whimsical upgrade to Reason 3.0 which sounds really kickass. After all these things, comes the colour iPod.

VanPod had the closest thing to a heart attack just now - multiple times. I docked it to my PowerMac and it kept on restarting. Which is exactly what happened to my sister's 15GB iPod which I bought for her. 2 AppleCentres quoted a high price to fix the problem, which was apparently quite serious. (She ditched it for a new iPod instead)

VanPod is back to normal now - I managed to eject it without problems. But it's made me wonder, is it something we've both done to our iPods, that made them behave this way? Is it a setting in our power supply?

:-(

I've decided to stave off my perturbing desire for a new iPod, because my PowerMac needs more RAM. To borrow the tone from my previous post on this, "I've decided not to take on another mistress because the children are starving."

It's so exciting that I'm finally using Logic for more serious stuff (apart from making chipmunk sounds).

The thing is, my usual AppleCentre is offering S$599 for 1GB of RAM and a lifetime warranty. That's like buying a brand new iPod! Currently I have 512MB of RAM and I'm thinking I can get by with adding 2X512MB slots. That's 1.5GB of RAM in total. I'll be doing sound productions most of the time, and the occasional home video for family members, e.g. Mother's Day.

Questions for the more experienced Mac gurus out there: Is it more worthwhile going to Sim Lim and buying the RAM instead? And if so, what sort of RAM do I need for a PowerMac G5?

[Update: Thank you so much everyone. This is the first time I've heard of SGL Marketing but I am definitely going to check it out. Just did some Googling and found out exactly how to find the shop. ]

Dear VanPod,

You've been married to my ears for over a year now. I don't know why, it feels like I've owned you for 2 years. Maybe this just isn't working out.

Truth is, I sometimes wish you were dead. Kaput. I mean, I loved the size of your mammaries - I mean, memory. That's a big reason why I chose you in the first place, let's be upfront about it. And whenever we synced, be it on the old PC or the PowerMac or the iMac ... no matter where we did it, we could just 'connect'. Or, as Singaporeans like to say, we 'clicked'. Sure, there were problems, but we always got through the hard times, for better or for worse.

I knew where to go, what to do, and depending on my mood you whispered and cried out the things that I wanted to hear.

I bought you lots of pretty things you could wear out to dinner. They looked really good on you.

I introduced you to my other best friend. You both got along splendidly, though eventually you found being with him physically draining.

Now, when I look into your eyes - I mean, your reflection of me - things aren't so clear anymore. Mostly due to my neglect. And the way I left my finger marks all over you. Why does your back bruise so easily?

Lately, after we connect, I can't even eja - I mean, eject you. That didn't happen during our honeymoon.

When the new models came out, I swore not to be tempted by their allure. I recently laughed at the iPod Photo, thinking it was too fat for me. I held out for a long time, really.

There were times I cheated on you in my heart. Once, like Hugh Grant, I even wondered what it would be like to be with a black model. Some respite was found through other friends' happiness - those who had yet to find a soulmate were introduced by me to slimmer, younger versions of you.

Some liked them more petite and nubile - I mean, mobile. They liked them dressed in pink and blue and silver and green. It wasn't pimping really - so far everyone I've matchmade is happily married. And that's how I wanted to be with you, really.

However, your behaviour has been erratic. I've been faithfully replenishing your energy whenever you've felt depleted. But, darling, being charged for several hours and only lasting minutes, sometimes even seconds, is embarassing. I can no longer take you out in public and show you to my friends, because I never know when you're going to fall asleep as we connect. (Yes, I like them to watch.)

I hear there are some operations for old models like you. Plastic surgery: Some chemicals applied to your exterior to remove your light scars. Or, some fancy new skins we could wrap over you. You could also get your, um, stamina replaced.

But the fact is, some new models are on sale now and I must confess, I may be visiting them soon. I hear some of them can last 15 hours per session!

If I do make the decision to take on a new partner, be assured you will still be my first love (though never my last), and for alimony you will get to reside in the Bose SoundDock for the rest of your (possibly short) lifetime.

I hope you understand.

I don't have much time to say this, because I am totally engrossed and distracted by my brand new 02 Mini. (Am I not a staunch Arsenal supporter and geek?)

In brief: Sync software of choice was the Missing Sync. After reading about how difficult it is to totally uninstall PocketMac, and how the support wasn't as good, I chose the former. PocketMac did have a free Mac theme but frankly it didn't look that impressive and face it, it's still a Windows OS underneath the superficial veneer of an Apple logo.

Mistake: Installing demo of PocketMac, because sure enough it didn't uninstall cleanly and I had to search for obscure files in my Macintosh HD. Synchronisation took a while as I re-connected the USB cable, rebooted the Mac and 02 Mini multiple times, removed all other USB devices (due to possible hardware conflict) before it suddenly prompted me for my Registration info, hours later (hence this late post).

Apart from that horrible episode, the 02 Mini itself is a joy to use. Using GPRS, I downloaded my emails from 2 different accounts, including Google POP mail (will figure out how to do the Bluetooth Sync another day).

For viewing, you can toggle the view from vertical to horizontal (either side). Office documents open up quickly. Ringtones are loud and clear.

I've tried out their handwriting recognition and so far they got most of my words right. However I must remember to take regular eye breaks as the text can be strenuous to read after a while.

Let's see if the 02 Mini starts to get slower like my now traded-in Nokia 6600. Hopefully not! I knew the only thing I'd be downgrading to, would be the camera. Sure enough, a picture I took was grainy. I have resigned myself to the fact that nothing is ever perfect, and am now starting to pine for the new Canon Ixus 7 megapixel camera (ever so slightly).

Ah, it appears that my gazillion contacts and calendar items have been synced from my Mac to the 02 Mini. It is time to stop writing and continue playing with my new toy.

So... who's got Tiger? What's your favourite feature? Was it easy to upgrade, and was it worth it?

Tiger reviews and tips will be posted here:

• Macworld on OS X Tiger
• Something more geeky from Slashdot
• Lots of punny headlines about Tiger (compiled by Kottke)

In other news, I just upgraded to Delicious Library version 1.5 which supports Tiger's widgets. It would be nice to see a little bookshelf widget should I upgrade my OS. Nice, but not absolutely necessary.

I just set up iChat(AIM) our iMac to connect with AIM on a laptop PC (my sister's). At first we had some trouble viewing video on the iMac, but it turned out to be a configuration oversight on the PC.

In the meantime I had done some Googling and even though this comprehensive article didn't help me in the end, I thought it would still be useful to would-be iChatters.

In other news, I went to a members-only iPod sale at an Apple Centre, but a S$40 discount off a S$788 iPod Photo 60GB wasn't tempting enough. Especially now that VanPod has been most responsive ever since the firmware update. The only problem is its 1 hour stamina, which could be resolved by getting a car charger, or replacing the battery - both much cheaper options than an iPod upgrade.

I don't need a new phone. Not yet. Even though my Nokia 6600 hangs every now and then with cryptic error messages. Even though I've dropped it many times. Even though it's become more slow.

I don't need a new 60GB iPod Photo. Even though I have tonnes of photos and only have several GB left on my 40GB 3G iPod, which has a battery that now lasts only an hour. Even though the LCD goes dim every now and then, and I can't view some playlists after syncing it with my Mac.

I don't need an iPod shuffle. Even though I need every reason to go back to the gym. Knowing me, it will turn into a very expensive thumb drive.

I don't need a new digital camera. Even though my Olympus C5050 has been replaced with a new model with a built-in wide angle lens. Even though it forces me to reset my date and time every time I take out the rechargeable batteries. Even though the battery meter plays me out by saying it's full, then dips drastically and dies. Even though it's slow to get started.

I don't need a 15" PowerBook. Even though I miss having a laptop in my room - just like when I was a student. Anyway, I'm waiting for the day they squeeze in a G5 processor without burning my lap and a hole in my pocket.

I want them all. But I know I don't need them. Not yet.

Right now, I'm saving up for the Bose SoundDock - which would look much cooler on my bedside table, than the current Bose computer speakers and iPod dock, and numerous interconnecting cables. (There's an ongoing Bose sale @ AppleCentre Orchard)

Oh yes, it's all about priorities.

I updated my third-generation iPod firmware and the iPod couldn't work anymore. It displayed the folder icon with the exclamation mark. A few seconds later, it would turn off. No amount of rebooting worked, this time.

After hunting down some forum threads, I found Apple's documentation on this problem. For my case I think the firmware did get updated, but my iPod was stuck in Disk Mode and couldn't play any music.

Sigh ... another re-format this month!

[Update: It's nearly 2am on 26/2/05 and I've only managed to transfer 300+ songs back into the iPod. iTunes keeps on hanging and I've done many iPod and iMac reboots. This is really pissing me off. I'm using the latest Mac software versions. I've wasted so much time and sleep doing this. I'm going nuts. ]

[Update #2: I discovered that my iPod still works fine my PowerMac. Which means there could be something wrong with our iMac. I ran Disk Utility and fixed a gazillion permission conflicts. Quite unnerving, seeing how we only bought it last month.]

A picture postcard from Metroplex and Perceptor (both Autobots), taking a dip in the bathroom sink.

The iMac's starting to grow on me. It's fast (granted, not as fast as my PowerMac), the 20" screen is clear, and it has not crashed. However this Mac uses wires for everything - keyboard, mouse and ethernet. Our financial sponsors, i.e. our parents, felt that wireless devices wasted batteries (which is true). Of course I'd still have liked to get AirPort and Bluetooth.

Anyway, after attaching iSight to it as well, the iMac's back became a tangle of wires. For some semblance of tidiness, I've hooked all these wires through the hole at the back of the monitor stand.

The wireless no-reception saga continues: We bought a D-Link DWL2000AP access point and put it upstairs, within range (1/5 or 2/5 bars according to a Centrino-powered laptop) of the wireless D-Link router downstairs. However, while my PowerMac (upstairs) was able to connect with the access point and access its control panel, it was unable to connect to the internet.

Then we learnt that both devices' IDs, passwords and channels ought to be the same. We configured that, but still didn't get any internet connection upstairs. Argh. We even reset the access point manually, to make sure we started anew.

Next piece of news is that I was told that it was recently discovered that Firefox had three security flaws. Is that true? Because if it is, my case for introducing Firefox back to the office will probably be weakened. My argument in response was that IE had numerous security flaws, certainly more than three. However the answer to that was that at least there was an assurance that Microsoft fixed bugs rapidly.

On the contrary, this latest article by ECommerceTimes says:

...while newer browsers such as Firefox were built for blocking pop-ups and phishing attempts at ID and information theft, Explorer was not.

Despite months of griping, I realise I'm in no position to challenge authority and I understand the need for standardisation to better manage the security policy. But I just want to know the truth, and be able to speak up for the best possible browser we could have.

[Update: Found one security flaw report on Firefox - ironically it's on phishing!]

Albert's comment on my previous post got me wondering: So what might crop up at MacWorld Expo? MacRumors has a round-up of good things that may come.

What I myself am hoping for / expecting: PowerBook G5 (yeah, they like to say it's a long time coming), Flash iPod (doubt it's 10GB though), and an iPod mini with more memory (5GB or more?). If iLife '05 does come out I certainly hope iPhoto will enable me to create deep hierarchies of folders, and GarageBand will finally be able to export to MIDI format (not that I should care anymore since I'm happy with Logic Pro).

Yours truly has been disengaged from reality the past few weeks - no TV (never had one in my room since the old black and white set 2 decades ago), no newspapers (until we started re-ordering them for the new house last week), no Internet (unless I swipe the cable modem + wireless router), and very little time at work to read the news.

But enough about me. Mac lovers, what new products do you expect, or hope, to see?

[Update: Ha, I was right about the Flash iPod having less memory...]

I only have a few minutes of modem time to post this. But let me just introduce the latest work of art in our house:

Our D-Link DI-624 has been most reliable, and for under S$100 it was a steal. It had 4 ethernet ports (wired) so we could hook up all our computers as well. However its range isn't long enough to reach computers upstairs, on the other side of the house.

We also only have one cable modem (rented from Starhub) and we don't intend to rent another one for the upstairs part of the house.

So all this while I've been unscrewing the cable modem and wireless router from downstairs, and fixing them up in my music studio upstairs so the Mac can download my email. It's terribly ma fan (troublesome).

To solve this problem, I thought of two alternatives (as far as my limited knowledge of wireless routing goes):

1. A wireless access point upstairs. AirPort Express didn't work there - signal from downstairs was too weak so I assume it couldn't bridge the gap).
2. Stronger wireless router. This is where I need your help. I am thinking of this Netgear model, WGU624, which claims to have a range 3X further than other 802.11g networks.

Does anyone have any other products to recommend?

Firefox 1.0 launched

Firefox 1.0 is out. Go get it. Actually, as expected, the Mozilla server's getting overloaded with requests (read Netcraft report). That's a happy sort of problem.

Searching for a new smart phone

My Nokia 6600 has become increasingly slower in opening programs (even if other programs are not running in the background), and very occasionally, it hangs on me. However it syncs well on my Mac using iSync, which is the main reason keeping me from upgrading my handset at the moment. I'm now looking for a phone with even more PDA features such as displaying Office and PDF documents.

I probably have to buy third-party software should I switch to an 02 XDA or a Linux-powered Motorola smart phone. I was impressed with the responsiveness of the A768i, although it wasn't too pretty. Also its camera is not as high-res as my Nokia's, which still beats many newer handsets, hands down. However I am interested in the forthcoming Motorola A780, which looks good and has the keypad, which is reassuring - just in case something happens to the touch screen. It is quad-band, also runs on Linux, comes with Opera 7 and plays AAC files.

[Update: Overview of Linux smart devices. Hopefully more to come.]

I just downloaded the demo version of Delicious Library, a delightful OS X tool that catalogues your book, movie, music and game collections, links them up with Amazon.com resources and displays them in high-res quality on a virtual bookshelf. The interface works pretty much like iTunes.

Cool options? Rather than type in all your titles, you can use Apple's iSight webcam, or Delicious Library's own intelligent Bluetooth scanner to scan in bar codes. The catch is, the latter device can only be delivered to certain countries. Which means I will probably buy iSight when we move back into the house, which will be hopefully soon. Lots of unpacking and clearning to do.

Other cool factors include iPod Notes synchronisation, voice search (iSight might come in doubly handy then) and a drag-and-drop borrower's list using contacts in your Address Book. And it's just beautiful.

More information at the Delicious Monster website.

The rumours were true. Apple has just launched the iPod Photo with a 'razor sharp LCD display'.

No doubt this new iPod interface looks rather pretty - more similar to the Mac OS X interface. But somehow I don't think this model will sell as well as its predecessors. I don't want to look at photographs from a small screen, knowing that would sap my precious iPod battery power.

The Apple website says this new iPod gives you up to 15 hours of continuous music. If you add in the slideshow, however, it goes down to 5 hours.

And so I'm sticking with VanPod, through thick and thin (though being the 3rd generation 40GB model it'll remain on the thick side), because playing music is what it does best.

Anyway, speaking of iPods. Apple just sent me a notice saying my one year iPod warranty is ending and would I like to purchase AppleCare? I'm OK with forking out S$99 for two years' coverage. I would love to hear testimonials from any readers (good and bad) about AppleCare. Above all, I'd like to find out if my iPod battery can be replaced preferably free of charge, under this warranty.

[Update 27/10/04. Just when things were going hunkydory ... My screen turned dark and I received a warning message telling me to shut down or reboot my Mac. This hasn't happened for a while, but this isn't the sort of thing that should happen at all! Worse, I can't seem to find a solution in the Help section. Anyone has any ideas what to do?]

[Update 27/10/04 part 2. It's a 'kernel panic'. That's what happens when the mice discover they've run out of grain. Just kidding. What else can I do? I mean, I've updated to the latest version of Mac OS X already. I don't understand the gibberish in my Panic log. All they can say is, it's a software issue. Bah.]

So it's almost the end of another month and yes, I'm pretty happy with my G5 PowerMac and Cinema display. On the other hand, I just had dinner with a friend who has, like, over 20 of those machines each with a 23" display in his workplace. Which goes to show that you can never get enough of a good thing!

My Mac does hang occasionally, though. When this happens, the cursor becomes a spinning pizza-disc, and no amount of force-quitting (ALT+APPLE+ESC) the Finder will help. My desktop icons all disappear. I usually shut down the computer, then start it up again.

My Apple wireless keyboard, miraculously, is holding up at 3/5 battery power. The Apple wireless mouse, however, has been sentenced to life imprisonment in a dark drawer for sucking the life out of two batteries in just as many months. Its replacement, my old Microsoft wireless optical Intellimouse Explorer, is doing well. And - I can right-click with it! [Update 17/1/06 Duh, after over a year later I discover that I can also scroll horizontally using the Intellimouse. Pretty good for a Redmont rodent :) ]

Software-wise, Logic is holding up well, although I am now careful not to open too many music programs at the same time due to some MIDI/Sound card conflict. I am contemplating upgrading to the full version of Reason after I earn more money, because it still is easier to use where dance/D&B music is concerned. Of course, what I'd hate is for Reason 3.0 to come out right after I upgrade to 2.5 - which is exactly what happened to me and Logic Pro 6 7. I expect better integration now that Emagic has been bought over by Apple.

But enough about old stuff - I have some new software installed on my Mac and they're legitimate and free!

I confess - I actually installed one (1) game on my Mac. It's called Wesnoth and it's a toned-down Warcraft, so to speak. It has Elven soldiers and the Undead, with human commanders. It runs pretty smoothly on my system. However I've only done the tutorial. You can download it here (PC and Mac).

(Yes, yes... I know I should get the Sims 2!)

Next, there's a new Bible tool for the iPod called BiblePlayer. I installed it last week after reformatting VanPod, but didn't get to blog about it until today, when its creator, Pablo, wrote in to me. Anyway the scripture text loads fine, though I haven't installed any of the MP3 readings yet. Give it a try. Oh, and if you hate people like us, at least give the poor guy a break - he's already been flamed for simply creating this tool. Anyway at the time of writing this is ranked no. 4 on Apple's iPod popular downloads list.

No, this isn't pop art. It's my Olympus camera. After serving me well for nearly one and a half years it suddenly acted up. Purplish tints and blurred streaks make my pictures look like some haunted house (that's my apartment ceiling BTW, and it's supposed to be bright white).

I don't recall doing anything to it, although I have left my camera bag in the car boot, under the hot sun. I didn't drop my camera. I just took it out of my bag one day, and suddenly it was like Purple Rain (sorry, Prince).

Time to visit the service centre...

[Update: I picked up my camera from the service centre. The repair cost me just over S$200. Some microchip needed to be replaced. Everything's fine now.]

My previous Switch logs noted more short-term incidents. After owning a Mac for nearly two months, this is what I have concluded:

1) Bluetooth mice die young. This is the second time I've been asked to change my batteries for the Apple Wireless mouse (1 out of 5 bars). If the batteries need replacing every month, then I'm going to replace the mouse!

However, its companion, the Apple wireless keyboard is still going on strong with the first set of batteries (3 out of 5 bars). 'Makes me wonder if I click much more than I type. I don't think so!

Ironically I found my old Microsoft Wireless Optical Intellimouse Explorer (i.e. it had those back and forward buttons) much more responsive. Perhaps there is a split-second delay at times when I use these two Bluetooth devices.

2) Setting up AirPort Express has screwed up my previously stable connection to the router (which is both wired and wireless). I admit my lack of networking knowledge has probably contributed to the internet connection suddenly dying, requiring me to reboot the modem and/or computer.

Anyway I've packed the AirPort Express back in its little blue box until I've had time to figure it out. Another annoying thing is, the AirPort Express Assistant keeps on popping up every time I start or reboot my G5. Go away, already!

3) Next, I want to mention the grim-looking shutdown alert I've been getting today. It appeared once when I left the G5 running overnight in a closed room without air-conditioning. The fans were spinning away furiously and this greyish alert window came up, asking me to reboot the computer.

Today the same thing happened to my system twice (maybe my Mac knew I was going to post something nasty about it on my blog). I was not able to screen capture it, but I did get it down on my Nokia 6600 camera.

One good thing that did happen was after updating my Bluetooth firmware via Apple's Software Update, my phone seems to be able to connect with the G5 more consistently. I hope this isn't just my imagination.

Also, this is a very small feature but I like how images saved to my desktop, get thumbnailed. I also like how PDF files are also previewed. And I also like the fact that I can save my documents to PDF form, without having Adobe Acrobat installed (I'm not talking about the Reader but the proper software which you pay big moolah for publishing PDF files).

So at least, even though I don't have a driver for my HP LaserJet 1000 printer, and even though HP didn't freakin' bother to reply to my request for help (though they did send me a 'follow-up' email asking me how was their service - I mean, what the --?), I can at least convert my docs to PDF form and print them out on a PC. Whew!

Lastly, I am having trouble playing back my music, as sequenced on Reason, to my Korg Triton Extreme. I am sure this is more a software configuration issue. I am also a beginner at MIDI just as I am with networking. I just want to write my music, arrange everything all nicely in my sequencer, and use the kickass Korg sounds in my keyboard. Argh!

Oh, another thing. Turns out that while you can import MIDI files into GarageBand (which came gratis with OS X), you cannot export GarageBand files back to MIDI format. It is quite a bother and I suspect it's been done on purpose. I am not going to use GarageBand any longer [Update: Just removed it from my Dock.]. I'm saving up my first paycheck for Logic so I can put in vocals as well, which Reason can't.

[Update: One thing I can't complain about, is the G5's processing speed. My dual 2.0GHz processors take only 23 seconds to import a 5 minute song into AAC format (at 128kbps). My digitised music collection has now hit 4000 songs taking up over 18GB of space, not including my own unfinished material. I still have some more CDs to go.]

The new iMac. The slimmest desktop in the world. Designed by the same team as the iPod. (Thanks to MacBlog for the info.)

Thanks, folks, for your advice on configuring AirPort Express.

I tried many things, eventually disabling DCHP. Another thing which may be of note was that I set up a new wireless network between the AirPort Express and my G5. I am not sure exactly what did it, but the combination of my random tinkerings enabled me to play music 1) on my computer speakers, which I disconnected from my G5, and subsequently 2) in my bedroom. However, the living room was too far away to receive anything. Which was a shame because that's where our best speakers are.

1) The computer speakers played back music louder than when they were connected to my G5. Despite the AirPort Express being plugged into a socket right next to my G5, I could tell there was a split-second delay when I switched songs, stopped or played a song, or adjusted the volume. Not a big deal - it sounded fine. The AirPort Express didn't flash green though - just blinked orange. Strange, no?

2) Maybe it's the layout of our maze-like apartment but the reception wasn't that hot in my bedroom, as the powerpoint was behind a big shelf. iTunes/AirTunes found and connected to the AirPort Express; the music played, but it sounded like it was tuned into a radio station that was 0.5 points off the mark. So I used the alternative power extension cord that came with the cable set, pulling out the AirPort Express so it could have better reception. It worked. Similarly with my computer speakers, the sound was conspicuously louder.

The only thing is, now my Internet connection isn't working, despite re-connecting my ethernet cable to the router (in the futile hope that my G5's AirPort card could talk to the AirPort Express, while at the same time the ethernet cable connection would allow me to surf the Net). Numerous router restarts, G5 reboots, renewals of leases, and a re-enabling of DCHP didn't work. I'm only a beginner at networking and the crappy AirPort Express instruction manual doesn't help. The only consolation is that I know I'm not alone.

Many more late nights to come...

[Update: I read my D-Link manual again, and reset my Primary DNS address to 0.0.0.0. Now I'm back on the Net via the ethernet cable, and I'm still able to stream music to my bedroom stereo system via the AirPort connection. (Thanks particularly to Jamie for the detailed advice, which I will use later to fine tune the system.)]

I bought an AirPort Express last evening. Hurrah. But after a brief moment of detection (its presence was initially picked up by my G5 which has an Airport card), it could not be located again. This happened after the AirPort Express rebooted, which is how the installation process was supposed to work.

Up to this point, I was elated. Then I realised no sound was coming out from my stereo system. Then I noticed it was flashing orange, meaning it was no longer detecting any network.

A few complicating factors: Our D-Link wireless router was assigned the name 'default'. Later on I realised another wireless network with the same name had been detected as well. It could have been another neighbour's network - he could have just restarted his router or something.

So to be safe I renamed our network, renewed the lease on our wireless router (is that the right thing to do?), set my G5 to log on only to our newly-renamed network, and reset the Airport Express a couple of times, hoping to start again with the setup process. But it was still unable to connect to our network.

According to the manual (which I found barely useful as it only skimmed through all possibilities of connections), a steady green light meant the signal was picked up. It's been perpetually flashing orange, which means there is no signal pickup, i.e. it is out of range.

But even when I plug it into a power socket literally INCHES away from my G5, or into another socket two feet below our D-Link router, it flashes orange! 'Out of range', my foot. And plugging a network cable into it at the same time doesn't help either. At most, it glowed green for a few seconds, then went back to orange.

One possible theory is that my D-Link wireless router and the AirPort Express may have the same IP address, thereby causing some sort of conflict. I have no idea to find out if this is true.

I won't have time to figure everything out until next week, so if anyone has any prior experience with this sort of problem, your advice would be deeply appreciated.

This piece of news is just too exciting to post in my Asides column.

Rumour is that Apple is going to commemorate its 20th anniversary (since it launched its first Mac) with a mind-blowing new product.

That product, says the Register, may very well be a Tablet Mac, because Apple has just filed a patent for a design that looks like a flat iPod or an iBook without the keyboard half.

That would be very interesting, seeing how Steve Jobs once pooh-poohed the idea of tablets, and discontinued the Newton in 1998 despite it having superior handwriting recognition capabilities. To be precise, he said:

There are no plans to make a tablet. It turns out people want keyboards. When Apple first started out, "People couldn't type. We realized: Death would eventually take care of this... [Ha ha ha. Laughter, entirely my own. - vantan] We look at the tablet and we think it's going to fail."

"What would Steve Jobs do?" people wonder. Or more exactly, what would we do without Steve Jobs?

It's been a busy weekend. All I can say is, I'm pretty happy with my Airport card :-)

Switching to a Mac has been a bittersweet experience so far.

Sweet, because:

• I love my crisp wide-screen display - how all connections are consolidated into one cable which I plug into my G5, which is neat.
• The G5 is so quiet, you hardly realise it's on.
• Mac-compatible hardware and software programs are really easy to set up and uninstall. I'm still not used to dumping an application in the Trash folder - it's almost surreal.
• My computer talks to me.
• Everything looks so good, dammit... what more can I say?

Bitter, because:

• The rest of the world hasn't quite caught up yet. Meaning that I can't access some applications and services properly.

My case in point today is the Citibank (Singapore) website. When I use their recommended browser for OS X, which happens to be Netscape 7, I can't get past the login page due to some silly Applet not loading. I tried every other browser in my collection (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Camino, Opera) and none of them were able to get past the login page. All have Java enabled. The Mac Operating system already has Java installed. Am I missing out on something here?

I did have more success with Safari, which lets me do everything except view my statements in PDF form. Since I decided to go paperless a long time ago, being able to download my statements this way is of great importance to me.

Citibank has in fact been encouraging customers to switch from paper to electronic statements. I hope they respond to the technical support request I filed, with a working solution.

There are stories going about on how the iPod could pose a security risk. If that's the case, then make lemonade out of lemons, I say!

After viewing a few interesting shareware programs for personal use, I wonder if anyone's ever thought of using the iPod conversely as a mobile security key.

In order to access specific programs or data on a computer, an iPod with pre-installed software codes has to be docked and linked to it, acting as the second half of the jigsaw puzzle. I can imagine countless uses for it. Employees in high-security workplaces could carry iPods about town like any other civilian would. You wouldn't be able to tell these lean mean music machines were keys until you docked them with the right computer and, say, performed a special action on that computer.

To prevent the information from falling into the wrong hands, the iPod's ability to unlock data could be time-sensitive. Also, the key on the computer's side could be slightly modified so that docking with the iPod would no longer trigger a release of information.

Does it sound too much like something out of a James Bond movie to you, or am I making some sense here?

After over a week using my new G5, I have come to a few conclusions:

Office 2004 for Mac is better than Office XP for Windows. In particular, I love Entourage (for email) far more than I ever liked Outlook. It searches more efficiently, and has a project management feature which I actually use. It also traps spam quite intelligently; I read in a MacWorld review that the algorithms have been greatly improved.

If I ever had to save one department in Microsoft, I'd choose the Macintosh developers.

Other points. Plug and play does well on a Mac, sometimes so subtly that I don't even realise my new memory card or thumb drive has been detected. Of course, forcibly ripping out a device without 'ejecting' it prompts a similar warning that you get in Windows.

After many hiccups, third party music software is now working fine on the G5. Big thanks to my uncle for fixing that.

Sibelius is an amazing program for writing scores of your MIDI music. I haven't tried it on a PC but obviously when you're running on dual processors, everything is fast ;-) I like the idea of 'score-as-you-play'.

I am also going with Logic (when I earn more money) because, as some of you say, it should work pretty well with its new owners, Apple.

On the minus side, I am not going to use iPhoto for organising my pictures, because it doesn't respect or understand my deep hierarchies of folders.

iSync seems to work only with Apple's own Address Book and iCal. I have to import contacts manually to Entourage. I really miss my Nokia PC Suite, because I was able to browse my phone's directories, select all my snapshots and transfer them in bulk to my hard drive. iSync doens't seem to be able to locate any files in my phone. There are probably too many different devices for Apple's software to cater to.

The Bluetooth connection is working well enough, a little more consistently than the dongle on my old PC. I am quite impressed with my Apple wireless mouse and keyboard, although the battery level on my mouse has dipped to 3 out of 5 bars. I hope this isn't going to be too costly to upkeep. I am nonetheless grateful that there are less wires to grapple with.

Writing my own music to CDs has been a breeze. I transfer what I play from my KORG keyboard, via my M-Audio card, to either GarageBand or Reason, and export the song to WAV/AIFF format.

If I use GarageBand, I can save it directly to iTunes, then either burn it on a CD-R or upload it to my iPod. It is all very neat.

My display, though now outdated in design, is holding up well. You gotta love Apple cinema displays. The only problem is finding wallpaper wide enough for 1680x1050.

Oh, what a tragedy.

The fight is on! The front page of the Straits Times, Singapore's main broadsheet newspaper, features the latest challenger to the iPod - Creative's Zen Touch.

It also has a 20GB capacity, and looks suspiciously like the iPod (white, oblong body with blue screen), though Creative say they were doing digital players two years before the iPod came out (that's nice to know but in the tech world, it doesn't matter if you were there first if you don't improve. A good example: Netscape).

Anyway, if you want to make a chronological comparison, I am sure the iPod design came out first ;-)

While I generally respect Sim Wong Hoo's innovative ideas and business acumen, and am proud of homegrown companies making it big in the international field, it will be up to the market to decide if it really is better, or more saleable, than the iPod. Not what anyone - he or Steve Jobs - claims.

First of all, contrary to what Sim says, I do not think it looks better than the iPod, as it has a more cluttered interface.

I also think it is unfair to claim it can hold twice as many songs than the iPod. Someone should actually test the quality of this special Creative format first. I'm quite happy with my CD-quality Apple Lossless Format, even if that means my iPod holds less songs. I'm also happy with the quality of my AAC files. Of course if you have mostly WMA files then the iPod is not an option.

Admittedly, the iPod's improved battery power cannot beat the Zen Touch's claim of 24 hours. However the iPod also looks much slimmer than the Zen Touch. It's like choosing between a slim laptop that looks good, and a bulkier one that can last longer.

What the article fails to touch on (probably due to time and space constraints), are the extra features that both devices have. At least I know I can check my Calendar, Contacts and play games on my iPod while listening to music at the same time.

Also, it is very difficult to gauge usability, which I feel is very important and often ignored in tabulations of rival products' features.

If you want to start getting your hands dirty with comparisons, then lay out your cards for both players and see if they match up. I'm curious to see if Apple can hold on to its 50% market share.

ps. If anyone's tried out the software for the Zen Touch, please let me know how intuitive it is. I found the Creative Muvo interface confusing and cluttered - especially when compared to Apple's iTunes. Also, are Creative's products usable on Macs, not just PCs?

[overriding update: Good grief, things are happening faster than I can blog. Here are the real details on the new iPod, not just hearsay.]

So the blogosphere is waking up to the news of the latest iPods (at least according to my feedreader, whose spidey-senses are tingling with the growing excitement).

Some sources say there's no 60GB iPod yet, though it's only a question of time I'm sure. Others predicted a file size increase. Hopefully there will be a price decrease...

Nice blue screen. I see they've gone back to the first generation button layout. And the same white colour.

And I'm sure glad they did something about the miserable battery life, though it still can't beat some other digital music players.

After trying numerous ways to get my HP Laserjet 1000 printer to work with Mac OS X, I hit upon a brilliant idea: Contact HP directly for it. (Duh.)

However, while I was filling up the Asia Pacific support form, I had a sinking feeling that it wasn't going to help. This is why:

Despite all my oohs, aahs and bahs over the past three days (has it been that long already?), the G5 PowerMac was purchased with one main purpose: To serve as the main component in my home music studio.

Yesterday evening it embarked on its true life mission, when I installed the M-Audio Audiophile 2496 audio card with MIDI.

In simple English, it means it can take audio input (such as microphone vocals and guitars) as well as digital input from music keyboards. I then hooked it up with my Triton Extreme.

In my first attempt, GarageBand worked OK, although I was trained in Logic and require more than the basic features. However there are alternatives. Last night I recorded a trippy sort of loop with Reason Adapted, which came with my M-Audio card, and now with full MIDI functionality, I think I can much more than clicking and dragging a mouse.

I only had about 4.5 hours of sleep today, thanks to my new Mac fetish. While I was able to accomplish most of the items on my 'to-do' list, I did feel disappointed that I have so far been unable to:

• Find an OS X driver for my HP LaserJet 1000 series printer. HP only has OS X printer drivers for the LaserJet 1010, which do not work. No, they don't even have a OS 9 version for the LaserJet 1000, either.
• Get Mozilla Thunderbird to import my Address Book exactly the way I want it. Some of my contacts' fields have been mixed up.
• Locate the other computers on my home network. Maybe I should attend the free Home Networking seminar at Apple Centre Orchard tomorrow.

Also, my G5 hung for the first time today. I was unable to force-quit an installation of an upgrade for Stuffit Expander which had stalled, because it didn't even appear on the list of active applications. I tried switching to my sister's user account but there was no response. When I did a physical reboot, I was taken to the usual Login window - but this time, my user name wasn't there, just my sister's.

So I clicked on 'Cancel', and got taken immediately to a black DOS-like screen! There, I could see a log being created of all the startup applications running. I tried hitting some commands on my keyboard but that didn't help. After that strange diversion, I was taken back to the main login screen, and managed to log in as myself. Everything seems normal now.

I used to think this would only happen on a PC, but now I think it's just me. I jinx all my computers. I made a brand new PowerMac, running on dual 2.0GHz processors with 1GB of RAM, crash. Admittedly, I tried to install StuffIt at the same time as Microsoft Office. But isn't this the second fastest personal computer model in the world (the fastest being the 2.5GHz PowerMac)? Didn't they say, Macs never crash?

However this isn't an anti- OS X rant. Many problems involve external applications and I am sure there are workarounds to them. Thank you, kind readers, for all your Mac tips. I have found them extremely valuable.

On a more positive note, I have been able to:

• Record a track in GarageBand in a matter of minutes. The sounds are pretty good, actually (though nothing, yea, nothing, compares to a Korg!). However I really ought to connect my music keyboard to the G5 (after I purchase a MIDI adapter), lest I click my mouse to death.
• Convert my GarageBand track, as well as WAV files exported by my Korg Triton Extreme workstation, to AAC files which were then transferred to VanPod.
• Plug-and-play external USB devices like my memory card reader. There I was, expecting some Hardware Wizard to pop up, Windows-style, when all I had to do was insert my CF card and it appeared on my desktop. Duh.
• Watch a DVD. I hardly ever watch DVDs. What's with this zoning thing? I can only change my region five more times and I'm feeling thrifty.
• Gaze at my photos in a completely different way (yes I'm still doing it). A winning combination of iPhoto and, most definitely, the brilliant display.
• Turn off my computer by pressing a button on my monitor. I just love doing that. Also, activating the display controls the same way.
• Discover other websites dedicated to OS X tweaks. Like this one.

Things I have done while in the process of switching from PC to Mac, in chronological order:

• Wiring the 20" display to the G5. Fitting in wireless keyboard and mouse with batteries. Starting the computer for the first time!
• G5 detects the wireless mouse and keyboard. I wonder why the connection to both devices is so shaky. Then I realise it's because I hadn't plugged in the Bluetooth antenna at the back of the G5.
• I plug in the ethernet cable. G5 immediately connects to the home network / internet. I register my hardware with Apple.
• I run the software updater. Lots of programs need updating.
• Computer speakers are plugged in.
• I test out iLife's pre-installed programs. I visit kottke.org to see what Jason means about being blinded by his own site's colours on his Cinema Display. I visit Zeldman to see why he raves so much about smooth fonts. Then I visit my own site. I think Safari is nice, but why doesn't it have tabbed browsing? [OK guys, I get your message, I stand corrected. Safari does have tabbed browsing!] I decide I still prefer Mozilla Firefox. Yeah!
• I answer a couple of emails.
• My mobile phone pairs and syncs with G5, after an initial problem with memory shortage on my phone. I view my contacts in the Address Book, and my schedule in iCal.
• G5 meets VanPod! Music files and documents are transferred.
• In the meantime, I decide I'm not entirely happy with the default Mail program. I think I'll get Thunderbird. Yeah!
• I realise that I need to export my default Address Book to Thunderbird. I learn of this handy Address Book Exporter.
• I learn of a software treasure trove for OS X. However I am not going to do anything fancy until I figure out how to get my printer working...[Update: Drat! HP does not have a driver for the Laserjet 1000 series. And no, installing the driver for Laserjet 1010/1150 does not help.]
• Oh, Glory to God in the highest ... I had no idea my photographs looked so good, until I saw them on my cinema display. Heavenly!
• I start looking for desktop wallpaper and other fashionable accessories. I just found this.
• My eyeballs are popping out. I already darkened my oh-so-brilliant and sharp-looking screen, but to no avail. I'm going blind, folks. I'll continue tomorrow.
• Yeah, right. I'm having my second wind early this morning. Now I'm looking for newsfeed readers and all-in-one messaging programs for OS X.
• More to come...

The G5 has arrived. Unfortunately, Apple were unable to get me the latest 20" screen, so I've grudgingly settled for the old design (which is still decent I guess) at a small discount.

Excuse me while I cull my PC ...

While tidying up my shelves, I discovered a few old CDs of 'audiophile' quality and decided to rip them in iTunes, using the Apple Lossless Encoder.

However, iTunes was unable to update any of those files!

Does anyone have any idea how to fix this? For starters, I am not short of space, and every CD I ripped was legitimately acquired. I am on a PC using Windows 2000 and so for have not experienced any other synchronisation problems.

After doing a quick search on Google, it appears that other people have encountered the same problem:

My 2nd generation iPod, around 18 months old, cannot play Apple’s new Lossless encoded music ... I want to know why this is happening. If Apple can allow me to upgrade the firmware on my iPod so it can play their “better” AAC files, why can’t they do the same for the Lossless Codec?

[Update: I just learnt that you need to update iPod's firmware to play it. Hope this works...]

I bought a G5.

With a 20 inch screen.

2 Ghz dual processors, 512MB RAM.

Couldn't resist the wireless keyboard and mouse.

Airport and Bluetooth, too.

(Thank God for instalments.)

Delivery in 1-2 weeks' time.

Remember the problem I had with hard disk space? I tested out a theory today and it solved my problem.

Since my iPod (hereafter known as VanPod) also serves as a spare hard drive, why not reassign my iTunes music folder on my PC, to a directory in VanPod itself?

So I copied all my music files from my PC to a folder in VanPod. I reconfigured my iTunes settings. At first, nothing seemed to register. I exited iTunes and started it again. Voila!

Now when I rip my CDs, the music files get stored directly and immediately onto the 'hard drive' section of the iPod. These files can be restored to a computer (when I get a bigger hard drive). The files are then synchronised with the 'music playing' section of the iPod, which I heard is copy-protected(?).

Basically, it's like shaking hands with yourself.

However that does mean I have reduced VanPod's capacity to 50% since these files are duplicated. I seriously doubt I have that many CDs left to rip, though. And hopefully by the time I do, I'd be on a new G5 Mac anyway (yes I have decided to Switch, after the house is rebuilt).

For the new house, I was planning to set up a wireless home network.

Separately, I was also thinking of getting a new sound system to play tunes on my iPod.

But this may just change the way I think.

My system is down. I suspect it's been hit by the same bug that affected both my sister's and mother's systems.

I suspect it is something that breached our home network. In fact I used to pride myself on the fact that my computer was the only system that withstood all the funny problems that other family members were experiencing, because I was so tight on security that I installed a Firewall, subscribed to an Antivirus service and prevented anyone else from logging in with Administrative rights.

But ever since I turned down my Firewall so that darned Singapore Idol page could somehow load (what is it about that .php file that it redirects me to an error page when my Firewall's up?), nothing has been the same.

I don't recall installing any new programs that day. But I was 'defenceless' for perhaps an hour until I shut down my system. The next morning, it kept on hanging at startup - waiting for the very last unit on the loading bar to fill in.

After the kind advice of KH to press F8, start in Safe Mode / previous configuration, I got my system running - but without any external devices working! My wireless mouse was not working. The battery level and connection looked good. The drivers were still there. My Bluetooth dongle was on, but the system said there was no device detected. I had exclamation marks all over my hardware settings but re-installing drivers didn't seem to help.

Today I tried starting up my system again to continue fixing the problem. Now, it doesn't detect my keyboard while starting up, so pressing F8 doesn't work. Well actually on a few occasions, it did work, but my system now hangs regardless of whether I try starting in Safe Mode or in its previous configuration. So much for computers being logical creatures - they're just as erratic as human beings!

Any advice for this poor, computer-less soul?

While surfing around for accessories and software enhancements for my iPod, I chanced upon a very handy tool for Christians: the BiblePod, built for third generation iPods and Minis.

It's available for both Mac and PC (2000/XP). The Mac interface looks much prettier than the PC version. Yes I know that's usually the case, but it's a big difference here.

Note: They use the King James Version. Parting thought: We already have AppleScript. Now, do we also have AppleScripture? :) Incidentally I had no idea there was such a thing as an XML Bible Markup Language. Impressive.

More seriously, I am looking for a way to publish my iTunes playlists / top rated songs on my own website. Ideally it should transmit information via XML which will then be displayed on a web page. Previously I managed to hook up my Winamp player to display the latest playlist tracks on this website. This time it's a different piece of software, and it should contain my ratings. Any ideas?

We're experiencing a couple of problems with iPod and iTunes synchronisation here. Advice and provision of any links to tutorials, troubleshooting and FAQ pages would be greatly appreciated.

It seems that my sister's new 15GB iPod is unable to sync with my PC. My PC only recognises VanPod, my own 40GB iPod. We've already registered her new iPod on the Apple website. By default, 15GB iPods don't come with the dock, so I thought she could use mine, and since some of our CDs are shared, why couldn't she load our files onto her iPod from my PC and dock?

So we decided to install iTunes on her own PC. However as she's on Windows 98, she couldn't perform the installation. Bah! [Update: Problem solved. My sister's iPod was suddenly able to connect to my PC, after my last re-insertion (!).]

The other thing that irritates me is the fact that the Apple Singapore iPod section has had a broken CSS link for eons and hasn't fixed it, even though I wrote in to inform them of it last week. I even told them which link it was. Heck, I'd do it myself if they'd let me, because the site isn't very pretty at the moment. [Update: They haven't done anything about it, probably because it looks fine in IE. But it doesn't look OK on my Firebird.]

[Update 14/4/04: Zeldman's walk with the Panther, just in case any Mac users are planning to upgrade. ]

1413.5 songs later, my hard drive ran out of space while iTunes was ripping Groove Armada's Back To Mine compilation. I had zero (0) kb left in my drive. I couldn't even create a new folder!

Obviously, something had to go.

So I archived my old photos and documents, packed them onto CD-ROMs, and bid them goodbye. *wave*

iPodlounge.com has an ongoing display of iPods around the world. Here are a few reflection shots which I like: Mexico, France, Spain and Netherlands.

My sister's in town. I gave her the 15GB iPod. We have a new convert.

I couldn't resist it. I bought the Belkin TuneCast™ Mobile FM Transmitter for the VanPod. Still I couldn't believe that the music transmitted by this device would be better than radio quality.

I was wrong. Happily so. I can't say it's as good as listening to a CD, but it's closer to that than the music we get from radio. The trick is positioning the transmitter beside the stereo for the best reception - a few inches made a world of difference.

So for just S$59 (that's US$35) I got myself a 'wireless' media server!

I'm wondering: If the transmission is strong enough, will I be able to play the same tracks from one iPod, from stereos in different rooms?

(Next on the shopping list: some funky noise-cancelling headphones!)

Here's something I just discovered about the default iPod earphones. Try bringing them gently together, metal sides facing each other. They repel! :-D

Public service announcement: I bought an iPod.

Actually, make that two. There was an offer at the IT Fair at Suntec City where you could purchase a 40GB iPod for the normal price, and an additional 15GB iPod would be yours for just S$200 more. So I decided to give my little sister a present :)

Playing around with it for the past two hours has given me mixed feelings. What I like about my iPod:

1. Its pristine, white exterior and slender body makes me feel so good that I went into hours of euphoria.
2. No moving parts! And the dial. And the little ticky sounds it makes.
3. Of course, the fact that it now works with PCs.
4. Also the fact that I bought the second, 15GB iPod for only S$200 (that's US$117 to you, bud)
5. The expandability options / accessories it has (though I wish some were inbuilt).
6. Forty gigabytes, baby.

What I don't like / questions to work out:

1. I nearly had to purchase a separate USB cable so I could connect it to my PC (in the end I got it as a free gift). They shouldn't penalise PC users who want to give Apple products a shot. Can't they include the cable for free, by default?
2. No playing of music while charging and loading songs in the dock? Still trying to figure this one out.
3. Why is iTunes ripping my CD tracks into a non-MP3 format? There are now too many different formats on my computer and it's a mess. Thanks to Kristian for the tip! Everything's back in order.
4. The cost of changing the internal battery at Apple's Service Centres.
5. The same problem with any other steel surface: fingerprints.
6. The fact that, even after properly 'ejecting' my iPod, I get warnings that I had unsafely removed my device. (Windows compatibility error?)
7. When, just when can non-US users purchase music??
8. [Update: It's rumoured (?) that an iPod has been used by a woman to bludgeon her boyfriend to death for erasing 2000 of her MP3 files. Hmmm.]

Apart from that, I really am happy with my purchase.

After many hectic weeks at work, I finally had enough time to sit myself down and figure out how to sync my mobile phone to my Lotus Notes calendar and contacts. I decided to use my Bluetooth connection to do it, and everything works together beautifully.

I also took the opportunity to install the smartphone/PDA version of Opera via the Nokia connectivity suite. 14-day trial, US$29, pah... I wonder if Mozilla will come up with a cheaper alternative. However Opera is more advanced than the pre-installed browser on my Nokia 6600. I managed to view normal websites without a problem (if you don't count the excruciatingly slow download time). Opera has a special feature which sizes down content to suit smaller screens. Here it is in action, on vantan.org itself:

Opera also allows you to view the website as it really is, on the big screen - however that means having lots of horizontal and vertical scrolling to do. But it is fascinating nonetheless.

Check out the new Tangs website. Though some segments are in Flash, the site is generally easy to navigate. Some thought has gone into product promotion, though they should provide ALT text for large images.

Yes, I was at Tangs today. I picked up a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth headset for my Nokia 6600 phone. I was about to get the only available Nokia headset, but realised it is not entirely wireless - you still have to clip one part of it onto your shirt, and attach the other half to your ear. I might as well stick to my wired hands-free kit! [Later I learnt there is a wire-free Nokia earpiece but I don't think it's available in Singapore yet.]

So I settled for the newer, smaller and somewhat more expensive HBH-65 (read review). After charging it for several hours, I successfully paired it with my mobile phone (which incidentally has already been paired with my new laptop). Loud and clear. And it is quite a neat little device, much shorter than its predecessor. I can listen to my video clips as well as phone calls and it sounds as sharp as it does, directly from my handset.

Oh, happy day...

Test your digital IQ with this Flash-based quiz (nope, you can't jump back to the previous question). I scored 178. Warning: for some answers, you get points deducted.

A few things I did with my Nokia 6600 yesterday: Assign voice commands to activate my camera and call various people, including the police; shoot numerous videos of my golf swing; activate Bluetooth; create a wallpaper on my PC which I then transferred to my phone's multimedia card; update my currency convertor.

I bought a new mobile phone this evening. I am not a chronic handset changer, by Singaporean standards at least, so I was willing to wait for one and a half years before a model I liked came out.

I was considering the 02 models but decided it felt strange sticking a PDA to your face whenever you made a call. I quite liked the calendar feature in my old Nokia 6510 (at the time, it was cutting-edge), so I was looking for another model which had even more advanced organiser features. The camera with 2X zoom was a nice extra, but if MMS rates are still cut-throat then I won't be sending photos or video clips to anyone.

I haven't got a new laptop yet, so I won't be able to sync things up for now. I am pretty busy, working at home, so I should stop playing with it now and dreaming of the Java applications I can download from e-Ideas.

ps. Once I get my settings sorted out, I can also surf using the XHTML browser. Who says web standards aren't important?

Sacrilege! Last night I installed Object Dock, a nifty tool that adds a dock to my desktop which looks and works very much like the one in Mac OS X. All I have to do is drag the files and folders onto the dock, and shortcut icons will be created. My Start menu of course had to be relegated to the Northern hemisphere of my screen.

Speaking as a newbie, what I like best about the dock is that if, for instance, I have a few web pages in my browser(s) open, and then I minimise them, screen shots of each document will be thumbnailed in the dock. You can also customise your icons and how they appear when you hover over them.

But I couldn't stop there, could I? I had to go all the way and install Window Blinds to shed my stodgy Win 2000 image. I heard that someone created a Mac OS X skin but Apple wasn't happy with that, so it's no longer listed on the skins website.

So, my grandfather ordered a brand new G5 Mac at Comdex today. Is that cool, or what?!

The system should be delivered in a few days' time. It goes without saying (but of course I'll say it anyway) that I will be there to, erm, make sure everything's working smoothly.

I just hope the 23 inch studio display screen won't spoil my eyesight :-P

He still has a PC which we'd like to keep, to run programs and games written only for IBM-compatible machines. The lady at the Apple Booth told us we could use the monitor with a PC, as long as the PC has a 'DVI' output. On initial research I have found an article which explains how this can be done.

If anyone of you have further insight on this matter, post your tips here anyway. Much appreciated!

According to news sources, information on Apple's forthcoming G5 series has been leaked! Woohoo.

[ Update: New York Times article on Apple's new alliance with IBM. Wow, the Mac meets the PC. The latest technology and models were unveiled at the recent Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. And of course you can view the new G5 page here. ]

Hurrah! Another fruitful visit to Funan Centre. This time, Shin Dee and I accompanied Denyse in her noble quest for a laptop. Up to today, Denyse had not purchased a portable computer since 1997, so her decision was most commendable. ;-)

She finally settled for a Compaq Presario with a 15 inch screen, Pentium IV 2.4 Gigahertz processor, 256 MB RAM (upgraded to 512), CD-RW and DVD player, 30 gigabyte hard drive. It also came with a 5 year warranty from Challenger - all at an excellent price (quite a bit under S$3000).

Well done, if I must say so myself!

And the good news from John 3:16, which I visited again this evening, is that Olympus has extended their special offers to the end of the month. I can't wait to collect my new Epson photo printer! However the Singapore website is pathetically out of date. The camera I just purchased, which came out last year, is listed on their website as 'coming soon'. They don't even have the latest promotions on their website. I mean, the Nikon website isn't that pretty either but at least it's up to date. Pooey!

At the stroke of midnight I gave Dad his present. I bought him a Nokia digital camera attachment for his phone. He managed to take a few photos of me and my mother! I hope it will come in handy for him.

One good thing about it is that it works with the newer models. So should the rest of us upgrade our phones, we too can use this device to beam photographs to other enabled recipients. Heh heh.

I am now the proud owner of an Olympus C5050 zoom digital camera.

I can't stop beaming.

However, the rechargeable batteries are still getting initiated, so I feel like an anxious groom who can't kiss his bride yet.

I can however tell you that I spent nearly two hours at John 3:16 at Funan Centre this evening, talking it out with them. They could've convinced me to go for the more expensive Nikon Coolpix 5700, but they told me the C5050 was better overall. All right: they suggested the Nikon D100 digital SLR (nearly $3000 just for the body) if I was really serious, but since I wasn't serious or overflowing with money, they let me be!

What I liked best about the C5050 was the fast shutter speed. The 5700 was slow, they said. I recalled that my dad's Coolpix 880 was also slow to respond, resulting in many people's backs being taken in my futile attempts at candid shots.

The next thing I liked was how quickly it focussed on objects, and how easy it was to take artistic-looking shots with blurred backgrounds. I know, I sound like a real amateur but it's gratifying to find a camera you can - literally - click with.

What was also impressive, was how you could do a little Photoshopping in the camera itself. Samuel took a shot of me with Denyse (who previously bought her Nikon F55 at this same shop). Then he cropped Denyse's face, and voila, it was saved as another photo! You can even adjust levels with the same sort of graph you'd see in Photoshop.

And the icing on the cake was the price. S$1300 for the camera, INCLUDING all the freebies offered by Olympus during the PC Fair, where innocent customers were fleeced $1514 (ha!). The rechargeable batteries and charger were sold seperately at $55. I'm not going to use the two $25 disposable batteries that came with the camera, until I really need to!

All in all, I'm so glad my intuition was right.

And I still can't stop beaming.

Read detailed reviews: DPreview, Steve's Digicams.

The PC Fair was just like any other - hordes of eager Singaporean shoppers, with pamphlets generously strewn all over the floor and trampled upon.

I finally got my hands on an Olympus C5050 and decided that it felt all right. But I didn't like the fact that I could get it for S$1299 elsewhere. Was it worth paying S$1514 for freebies I didn't need? After all, I already have a tripod stand, a card reader, many memory cards - and Dad has a dry box.

I wanted to look at the Nikon cameras as well. Disappointingly, there was no Nikon booth (either that or shoot me, I'm blind). We spent half the time wading through the sea of people, and after picking up some HP Photo paper and blank CD-Rs we departed.

A friend was showing me her new Fuji Finepix F601 camera over lunch on Saturday (note how the information in the table is presented, and which specification is in bold).

"It's SIX megapixels and I got it for only S$600!"

She added that it was originally worth S$1000 but she got a trade-in deal.

Hmm. Something still didn't sound quite right. I've been looking around for a 5 megapixel camera (Nikon 5700, Olympus 5050), and their price range is around S$1300-1800. Which I thought was reasonable.

I remembered what my ex-colleague, who wrote for our newspaper's Tech Desk, warned me about when I was planning to purchase my own digital camera, three years ago: that Fuji misleads buyers into thinking they've got a camera with more megapixels, when actually there are two sets of numbers and naturally they quote the higher number, which other brands do not use.

Fuji quotes 'effective pixels', which, in other-brand-speak, means the normal number we use to describe how many megapixels the camera has. We usually call it the CCD. However, this number, being smaller, is usually downplayed by Fuji.

Fuji likes to emphasise their cameras' output resolution, that is, the size of the image produced. Which is always larger than the good ol' CCD/'effective pixel' resolution. You can imagine that many customers have been taken in by this misrepresentation, thinking they've got better bang for the buck with Fuji.

[ If you visit the Fuji camera link provided in the first paragraph of this post, look at the camera reviews further down on the right. At least one reviewer has been fooled by the stats as well, raving about the 6 million pixels and giving it a 91% rating. Shows that not all reviewers do their homework properly. ]

And it turns out that I'm not the only one writing about this:

Fuji uses a "don't ask, don't tell" approach and markets only the upsized image resolution. It's hard, if not impossible, to find physical specs anywhere in their marketing materials.

The article has a technical explanation which I recommend you read, and discusses how far companies can go before getting into legal trouble.

Moreover, in a separate forum discussion:

Fujifilm announced 3 new cameras today, and there was a consistent theme; they claimed an effective resolution of about twice the pixel count of their ccd.

In the words of my late great-grandmother: "Good things are not cheap, and cheap things are not good."

There was a mad crush of people at the IT Show at Suntec City. Paper handouts were scattered all over the floor and people were just trudging through them. At some points I could barely move.

Times are hard. Apple had a PC trade-in deal. The camera brands were all giving away free gifts worth hundreds of dollars (tripod stands, dry boxes, bags). Canon, Epson and HP let customers trade in old printers of any brand. I bought a new HP Laserjet printer for S$299 (US$170). That was the trade-in price but the sales rep told me I didn't even need to bring my old printer in.

I didn't buy a new digital camera in the end. I figured there was no point - until I know whether I'm going to study abroad again. My future will be determined at the end of March.

I have just downloaded software that will enable me to blog from my mobile phone or Palm. More info to come.

Computer update: Vicki (with the help of our cousin Bryan, hardware guru) has assembled my new, souped-up computer. However the metallic CPU case I chose seems to be too tall for my existing CD player cables to connect properly. Along with a configuration problem, I can now only start my new PC in Safe mode, and it cannot connect to the Internet. How tragic.

We changed the processor from a Pentium IV 2 GHz to an AMD 2600. We doubled the amount of RAM (which was 512 MB) meaning that I should now be able to open all my web design programs at the same time, without strange, wordless alert boxes popping up on my screen.

Hopefully the hardware problem can be resolved today so I can continue with my work on the Church website. In the meantime I'm hijacking my mum's computer to check my email - and post this message.

We just had our fill of XO Fish Noodle soup and were heading back to the office when I spotted a new digital camera shop at Pagoda Street.

The Panasonic Lumix LC40 was going for S$830 (cheapest), which isn't too bad for 3.9 megapixels and a Leica lens. I've had my eye on the higher-end Panasonic Lumix LC5 for some time, but alas the price hadn't fallen much in a year - $1299.

I decided to renew my research on the model to see if it was really worth a few hundred bucks more. Strangely, while there was a decent site for Lumix in the UK, lumix.com didn't exist. The Panasonic HQ's branding department is a little screwed up I say.

Meanwhile, the Singapore Panasonic site had a useless Flash intro and was one of the most difficult sites to navigate - because their products were listed as small animated gif buttons instead of words, so I couldn't tell where to go, and once I guessed my way to the consumer page, the links were black and not underlined, so they looked like ordinary text. Bleah!

However I found my way to their Lumix site, which BTW didn't turn up in at least the first 50 search results for "Panasonic Lumix Singapore" using Google. I was treated to another pointless Flash intro and disclaimer, and when I selected a model, I was taken to what looked like a normal static page - only it was a huge spliced-up image, listing bare information and nothing more.

I don't think they pay their local designers too well.

And maybe I'm better off with the independent camera review sites instead.

That's the much-anticipated human transport machine, completely emission-free. Now on sale, exclusively at Amazon.com. Check it out!

While you're at it, check out a spoof by Jason Kottke called the Megway. FYI, Meg's his girlfriend. She's one of the co-founders of Blogger.

I know the Nikon Coolpix 990's been out for a couple of years, but wanted to see if it was any better than my Coolpix 880. Largely because dad's been bringing the 880 to work, saying that his company camera (the 990) isn't as sharp.

Well, here are some photos I took around the house. They look pretty decent to me. Ahem.

This Nokia 6650 teaser is so funny. Well I do get the point, but the way it's done in Flash makes me want to laugh :-D Especially with the Aibo-like dog.

In brief, the features of the new phone are as follows:

• Triple band
• Camera
• Video capture and editing
• Talk and send messages at the same time

Cons:

• thick pointy antenna, non-retractable
• kind of long: 132 mm.

Can't have it all, I guess.

Is it just the packaging, or is the Palm Tungsten absolutely gorgeous?

I can feel my old Palm 505 turning a little green.

This is what I think of new generation mobile phones that can sing like a choir, check my email, play MP3s - and get your your photograph taken at the end of the day. They're cool, and you'll be the envy of your friends ... until the next person gets an even more feature-packed phone.

But frankly I'd prefer a phone that doesn't crash every time I try to access my Inbox. A phone which can intelligently organise my list of numbers so I can view my contacts in any way I want (for instance, call: Family Members > Dad. Or SMS: Friends > Bristol gang).

And a phone which remembers my personal settings and knows which words in its vocabulary I usually prefer to SMS with (for instance, I type 'mum' much more often than 'nun', but it's still the default when I use predictive text input).

But many phone manufacturers don't give a hoot about these 'little things' because it sounds so much nicer to say "We've put in polyphonic ringtones, colour screens, and a microwave to boot" rather than "We've improved our Calendar feature so the user only has to click once to access his schedule for the week. We've also gotten rid of that irritating bug which everyone's been complaining about. And overall, we've made things easier for everybody by getting rid of features which most people don't use, and charging them a lower price for this scaled-down model."

Frankly, I think WAP is dead, and 3G will follow in its footsteps until access to hi-speed networks becomes more affordable for the common user. The culture of using your mobile phone to access the Internet, hasn't been developed to its full potential, either - save for places like Japan where the average worker spends an hour or more sitting in a train to get to work, and is able to afford the phone and network rates.

I know this sounds pretty trivial, but after months of searching, I've finally found a new cover for my Nokia 6510 mobile phone. It's light silver and has a slightly rougher texture than my original dark blue cover, which gives it a better grip. So hopefully I won't drop it anymore.

I felt a little guilty the first time my new phone fell out of my pocket - and onto the main road, just as the lights were about to turn green. I dashed out and retrieved the phone, but alas the monitor and sides were scratched.

This evening I was walking along Holland Village with Min Yen, and found a roadside stall selling phone covers. This one was fairly expensive - S$38 - but it's a Nokia original so it fits like a glove. I feel like I've got a new phone.

Now if only the darned thing would stop hanging!

Comdex is still the same as ever - hordes of Singaporeans (and their families in tow), trudging along in various directions, shoulder to shoulder, a few carrying huge boxes which got in everyone else's way. After bearing with the occasional whiff of B.O. and a frequent elbow in the chest, I decided to call it quits. People were filing up and down the escalators, nobody noticing the 'Healthy Eating' exhibition which was being set up, just a floor below.

But I did manage to speak to the boss of an Apple retail shop. Now I'm wondering if I should trade in my G4 400 MHz Mac for S$900 (minus the monitor), or just add more RAM to my system when I finally set up my music studio proper. At least someone still takes in second hand Macs.