A Singaporean [Quitter] in Maesai

Its been 2 years since I got my HTC touch cruise and its showing its signs.  Takes longer to charge and getting slower to use everyday.  And although I hard reseted it to make it go faster.   It still slow compare to the latest smartphones out there in accessing the web.  Blame WM 6.1...

I have been using smartphones with windows mobile ever since when I was in the army.  Its a pretty good PDA Os( first device was the casio E500 :P before my iPaq)

So HTC touch cruise will be my last Windows phone.  Especially true when I saw my friend's Hero running Andriod.  I have read much about it and already planned to get such a device.  When the hardware and the OS is mature enough.  The phone was released only recently and you could only buy it via Google web store.  As usual, I read about it and was still undecided until another geek friend of mine who used to own an iPhone bought it and show it to me.  And I'm sold. 

I have been using it for more than a week and so far so good, it met my expectations.  There are 3 cons I find concerning this phone which I hope they will be improvements..

1st thing is that the apps can only be installed on the phone main memory (SD card for notes, photos, videos and music nia) 512MB and preinstalled with stuffs.. which left only 192mb for your other apps..  This is ridiculously small in this era leh... I do heard they are working on this and I hope they will come up with an update on this issue.

2nd is a missing stylus... yes, I still enjoying poking a screen with my plastic pen on my WM devices... Just a habit I need to get rid of. Onscreen keyboard is good but I like ease of copy and paste using a stylus on WM.  Even the iPhone did a better job in selecting text with their magnifying glass highlighting oiption(although still loose to a stylus though).

3rd is the battery life.  A bit weak as I am already a light user and it could only last less than 48hrs (less than 2 days)

So some may ask.. why not get an Iphone?? 3 reasons

1)Bloody Itunes sucks big time as a syncing software.  And you need to connect physically with the computer to copy music and files.  No such issues with Andriod. No such issue with WM too since active sync allow bluetooth syncing too! :)

2)Closed Source.  Can't change or hack the device easily as its closed source.  You can root it but confirm spoill the warranty of the device.  Again, no such issues with andriod phones., easier to root (if you want too) and you can unroot it back  :P

3)Too many iPhonies , this is a lousy reason to some but I just hate to be one of the crowd... I like to be different (call me wierd but its just me..) People using canon and nikon cameras and switching camp while I still stuck with Sony/Minolta hehe..

Price with GST included is a whopping $825.  My most expensive phone till date... But its practically a mini computer (bloody 1 Ghz processor leh).  Will last until it spoils or the Nexus 6 model is released.. :P

I have a few friends who are really into getting a PDA phone and some of them are really into the Iphone.  Until I show them what Android can do too. :P

Iphone is great actually.  Especially the OS which basically is a scaled down version of it OS X.  But I really hate the idea of Apple monopolizing the hardware and using bloody iTunes to sync the device.   I don’t really like the form factor of the Iphone too.  (Just a matter of personal preference)  I am currently using Windows Mobile HTC Touch Cruise (surprise!) but I am already starting to plan my next purchase.  So Iphone used to be on my to buy list (I’m a bit sick of Windows Mobile) until I heard about the Open Handset Alliance and their announcement of the Android operating system for mobile phones looks really promising.  Its still pretty under development and they have cute names for their builds (current version is Cupcake… the next one is Donut)

It is really promising as since the OS is open sourced.  A lot of mobile phone manufacturers will implement it onto their PDA phones.  So far, HTC, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG are going to produce devices under Android.  Acer and Asus is also looking into using Android as a alternative for their netbooks.  Which means I get to have a lot more hardware to choose from rather than Apple alone.  If Apple is willing to open up and allow the other hardware manufacturers to offer hardware based on their OS.. then it might be a different story altogether.  But you should know the answer.  Its next to impossible for Apple to do that so Android based phones will be on my shopping list.

Wow. time really flies when you are working! I have not checked my blog for 8 days!!
Anyway, planning to save up to get this camera. Not cheap whor... 4kSGD. Can easily buy 2 motorbikes in Thailand!

Do I really need it, well I always dream of having a Full Frame DSLR. So when Sony finally release their A900 flagship, I went straight to a Sonystyle shop to try it out. Picture quality and the resolution is damn impressive (highest amount of MP in the FF now). Interface is the same as my A700 but the point to note is the bloody viewfinder. Finally get to see a film camera size viewfinder. Bright and 100% coverage which means I no longer need to squint my eyes to peer through the little hole in my current camera. (I wear spectacles and this makes it worst)

But... 4k leh.... think if I buy, wife will seriously kill me liao.... so just a wishlist. Hopefully price will drop (sure will lah) and then i grab later... hehehe

I like music (who doesn't :P). Not to the extreme as those Audiophiles but to a certain degree, I want a system that really please my ears.

Comes the digital age and I find that I no longer really need expensive amplifiers (audiophiles will definitely disagree on this). This is because most of the time I would listen to my collections on my PC or Mp3 players. I always buy the latest creative series of soundblaster cards for my PCs as they are really good. My Audigy card just died recently so I switched to the onboard audio (those came with the motherboard)to save some money(since got one inside mah). Too my horror (Maybe I am just too fickle) but I find the output is not good at all. Bass and tonality is not there at all.

Went down to Simlim and bought the latest X-Fi series (Gamer edition). Since I might used it to play some games and its only $40 more than the standard edition. I bought it and wow.. the advertised X-Fi really works leh. Bass is deep and clear. Treble is sweet and sharp (not over piercingly like those on the motherboard). The quality is definitely better than my Audigy. Paid $135 for it and really worth it.