Network Attached Storage Plan

I plan to build a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system for my home. It should be easy enough to connect to all the gadgets in the house and compatible for future gadget upgrades (a macbook perhaps?) and reliable enough to hold thousands of precious digital data; mainly pictures, work data and medias. Most importantly, it should be able to last, not fail and keep the data intact for at least 5 years (or longer).

I have this great and easy to use home network in mind, where any computer could save a back-up of their hard drive in one location, which will make file sharing easy. A Tv or multiple TV could access the network drive and we could watch downloaded movies straight from the NAS without having to conect any computer at all. Same goes for music, as long as I have a wireless system, it's all good. Pictures taken from iPads, iPhones and cameras could be stored immediately onto the NAS, and viewed on the TV, also immediately.

I think the NAS is the answer for the question I have for many years now. I asked photographers and Torrenters alike, how do you keep/manage your data? I also was looking for a proper back-up system for my computer in case one of these two things happens causing loss of data:
1) Hard disk failure and erased itself
2) Break-ins and the stealing of computers
I had these two incidents occured to me within the span of 6 months. I've lost quite a lot of data, especially pictures that I've taken. Fortunately some a retrievable from the internet and for some they are gone forever without a trace, forever irretrieveable =(

I know that there is a flaw of putting your eggs into just one basket. Backing up ALL your data onto a NAS is still risky. So I decided to go for a NAS that has TWO hard drives. Where one will be the first line of back-up and the second hard drive will be an exact mirror image of the first. This is just incase the first one fails, I still have a second back up.

Adding a second hard drive will increase the cost of the whole system by a couple hundred of Ringgit, but I believe the cost of disk space is very less compared to the cost of data lost. I mean, even if you lose just ONE single image of, say your grandparents, it's the only one you have in this whole world, then it would cause such a grievance to lose it, right? I would know.

Now the chances of losing all your data is 25% with two hard drives.

To have higher confidence in having your data intact, I believe, would be saving multiple copies of it on multiple mediums of storage. This includes CD-ROMs, external hard drives, USB sticks, flash memories and saving them in The Clouds (Dropbox or Box).

These are what I am doing anyway. Now, with the NAS I am adding another storage medium for my data. So basically, NAS's first purpose is not to back-up data, but to have a Network for media for the whole house.

Bidding farewell to a loyal companion

I just sold my trusty DSLR camera to a dear friend. It's a bitter sweet feeling letting the camera go. It feels surreal knowing that the camerabag is empty.

The DSLR is my loyal travel companion. It's the first thing that I pack when I'm leaving to some place. For Godsakes, it has its own special bag (which Yuna complimented as nice and cool when I met her the other day). That camera was like my extended limb during my travels. I decided to buy a dslr two weeks before I left for India. That was its first maiden journey with me. From then on, we went to many places and continents together. India, China, Denmark, Brunei, United States and many other local destinations together. The greatest time I had with the dslr was when I mounted it on a telescope that was the size of a large bucket and captured images of the moon. Even staying idle at home, we had great times experimenting with lighting and taking stills.

Time to move on onto greater things. I will still be taking pictures, but from a smaller and simpler camera. Maybe I'll get a new dslr body (I still have the prime lens, zoom lens and flash unit with me), but not so soon. There are other things that's more important now.

Goodbye dslr. I hope your new owner will take good care of you and fully utilise you like I did, ot maybe even better.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Bloggin from the Ipad.

Hello,
My post today is brought to you by the letter "I" and "B". "I" is for the IPAD and "B" is for BLOGGER.com.

A review.
I'm posting this manually via blogger.com because I can't find a (free) blogging app just yet. There's a lot of effort needed to post something on blogger.

One, you can't use the 'compose' mode, so need to fork out some effort to remember some html codes. So i have to keep it simple.

Second, to post a picture on blogger needs even more work. The 'upload photo from folder' doesn't work, so i had to use the URL link instead. This means, i had to upload a photo from the ipad to a server, like photobucket or dropbox, copy the link and paste it in blogger.

The above is a picture of a hot and cold glasses of water taken using Photobooth app using thermal camera mode, which i think doesn't really work, or just need to be calibrated. But i don,t think there's actually a thermal sensor in the ipad, or does it?

What would be nice is to be able to post a 'real time' photo directly into blogger. Like the many twitter apps available.

Thirdly, landscape mode only works for a certain 'height' of the browser. Once your entry goes below the virtual keyboard, you can't see what you're typing. Scrolling doesn't help because it,ll keep scrolling back up. I also can't scroll in the editing box!

So guys, if you know any good blogging app for the ipad that's free, please let me know. I,m in dire need of a blogging app. Otherwise, i have to write to the blogger team about this.

28_Something that you could never get tired of doing

Blogging. Most definitely. I've been doing this since 2003. My therapeutic stress reliever has always been writing.. erm, to myself. Well, if i'm not writing in here, i'm writing in my journal. That's for my more 'private thoughts'.

And then, there's being 'awed by technology and gadgets'. I could never get tired of finding out the new technology. It's amazing how i could type this from my ipad, while i'm lying on my bed getting ready to sleep :)

Or maybe, looking at these camera bags... I don't get tired of looking at them, yet. They are to die for (metaphorically speaking). There are actually other bags that are to die for twice! Which is the Epiphan!e bags, but the price range is out of the budget. I'd choose these over Coach or LV anyday (unless they start making pretty and practical camera bags like these).

I'm going with the Rose series... but I'm undecided on the colour. The practical person in me says go for black or bronze colour, but there's a small voice that keeps shouting go for the funky colours! Like Teal or Moss or Yellow! Which one would you choose?

Rasa bersalah nak beli pasal I've been on a spending spree lately. But I do wish to replace my bulky and boring camera bag.

I think that's enough for now.

iCame iHome iTwice as iHappy i=)

I just thought I'd share my experience about my iFantastic iFriday being in the iQueue waiting for the iPad2. But before that, you can just jump right down to the very last picture for a summary of the day to save time and spare some geek drama.

=============================
iSlept early the night before the iFriday. The rain woke me up, and when I looked at the clock it was only 1130pm. What? I've only been asleep for 1 hour?! Went back to sleep. Woke up back at 4,5 and 630am. Excited much Dyanna?

Finally got ready by 730am and ready to move. Peeked outside, "Man.. the traffic is really bad outside! Luckily I'm taking the LRT to KLCC."

There's a reason why I choose KLCC and machines. 1st there's no bookings, so 1st come first serve give some guarantee that there's enough stock for early birds. Fanboys and girls are not allowed to camp overnight, unlike in some place that I heard of. More guarantee that less people are there early morning. I try to avoid geek central like digital mall and low yat. KLCC is a nice place and convenient too.

Traffic standstill.

After taking a light breakfast of roti canai and teh tarik, I headed to KLCC. By 830am, I reached Level 3 and found people has already started queuing. Bummer, I thought I was the first few. There's actually 70 to 100 people ahead of me! How crazy is that? I am standing across of Machines, on the other side of corridor. There's a 4 storey fall gap separating us.

Not so early birds.

Now let's take a look who ARE the people at the front of the pearly gates. I heard they waited there since 530am. Fuh... Store not open yet.

The REAL early birds.

930am. The lights inside Machines are turned on. Hopes went up. Everyone's bright eyed now.

Lights on giving hope. Stores not open yet for another half hour.

Once you make new friends with others, waiting in line wasn't that dreadful, really. A collection of Apple fanboys and fangirls. Geeks galore! Talking with these people are entertaining because you learn so much about stuff like the best food in Ipoh, Penang, KL. Whether or not we should buy the casing here. Take the protection plan. economics. gadget testing methods. Camera. Anything. So I had this one girl behind me, who took a leave to buy one for her boyfriend. Then, there's a guy in front of me who also took leave to buy for himself, I wonder if he's single. Then another guy, who took leave to buy for his wife. A girl who was in line with her dad/uncle.. (not sure).

Let's have a quick look at the line again... 

When the stores officially opened and rolled up the shutters at 10am, the staff came out with goodies bag and everybody applauded. Unfortunately it was for the first 10-15 customers =(  They got machines T-Shirts. I was a bit jealous... but what the hey.

A booking card. Sensed the irony?

By 1030, staff passed out booking cards. This is to ensure you'll get one. No changing of minds after this. Oh, and the 32GB Wifi+3G model has already ran out of stock. The first customer came out from the store with his iPad2 and the whole floor APPLAUDED. Wah, so semangat one!

View from the top.

11am. Stil waiting....line is moving slowly. Very slowly...

This is my second time being in a  long line waiting for something. The first one was waiting in line to get into NEXT stores on Boxing Day on a very cold December morning (5am already walking through Hyde Park!). Gotta give credit for the "commitment". Not.

View from the bottom?

12pm. FINALLY, in front of machines! But still can't enter the shop yet. Wait outside lagi. By this time I'm a bit irritated because i'm getting tired and hungry. I did brought some food, but I didn't eat there because I didn't brought enough to share.

Crowd in the store testing iPad and other iMachines.

1230.. Yeay, the big burly guy allowed us to enter the store! Still have to wait though...

Finally IN the store. One tired but happy camper.

1245.. reached the counter. Collected my ipad and paid. Looked at some accessories.. get some ideas... Can't wait to get out of that crowded place. Bid goodbye to my new friends.

Met other non-gadget frenzied friends for lunch and tea and coffee. Btw, I walked back to machines at 4pm. People are STILL queuing for the Ipad... But i doubt not all models are available.

The busiest store in KLCC today. definitely.

By the time I got home, I'm knackered. REALLY knackered! Felt like I knocked my knee off.

Finally, some alone time with the shiny =)

There's a Lady Gaga song that somehow stuck in my head which relates to this... but i'll share on the next one.

Quick UNBOXING of Ipad2 was done with my friend, Dieya, at Chinoz later that day. You can read about it here...

Summary of my day.

Normal blog post - Friday is Ipad2 Day

(my 2nd post for today)

Firstly, I have to come clean with you guys (or myself actually - I need to get this off my chest!), for the past 5 weeks I've been keeping a watch scouring the internet for any news of the Ipad 2 in Singapore and Malaysia, up to a point that I myself think I'm becoming an crazy obsessed freak. I don't even want to say how many hours spent doing this 'research' for fear of looking even more like a pathetic crazy obsessed freak.

Last Saturday new rumours emerged on some local tech websites showing someone holding a receipt of ipad2 pre-booking confirmation, then followed by the start-up of a tech forum and from there on, fans went mad and the forum expanded uncontrollably like a wild forest fire.It goes up to 108 pages in just 5 days and has more than 50k views! Apparently there's a whole group of pathetic crazy obsessed freak like me out there. Phew, what a relief! -lol- *maybe the hindi word 'pagal he' is more appropriate*

So, I did my research. I have set what kind of model, color and storage capacity that I wanted to buy. 

Last time Apple only gave fans 6 options to choose from. Now the number of choices have doubled with the introduction of white colored border. Talk about spoiled for choice. Black vs White. The dark side or the light side. The hip or the serious.

Then there's the option of which capacity to choose from. 16GB, 32GB or 64GB. For each model it's RM300 difference, which is quite a considerable amount. You could go for that lower capacity and have extra dosh for a funky ipad2 casing. However, the inner geek in me tells me to choose function over fashion.

And finally, choosing between a Wi-Fi or 3G model. For me this is a no-brainer.

Now the real question is what time should i go and make a bee line to the store? I don't know how long I'll be  in the queue. What should I bring? A jacket? A thermos filled with coffee/tea? Some food? A book? Fortunately it's launched on Friday, where people are at work, schools and some have exams! So I estimate the crowd would be less, but you'll never know, maybe it won't.

I really do hope they got tons of stocks and enough for everyone that day. I've seen pictures of the carton boxes in the stock holding room, but after doing a quick math and dividing it with all the different ipad types, it's actually not that many. Only 1/12th of the box contains the model I wanted. Like, hey, in US pun you have to wait 1-2 weeks if ordered online. ugh...

* I don't know why i'm so obsessed with this. If I was still working at M0t0 i don't think I would even look at an ipad. No, I will look, but I won't have the slightest desire to own one. Maybe it's because back then I already have a portable computer given. Or maybe because it's a competitor gadget?

OK what ever... now less than 24 hours to go! Friday is becoming a favorite song for ipad2 fans. Now Rebecca Black has the last laugh, how ironic.

It’s Friday, Friday
Gotta get down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward Friday, Friday
Friday, Friday
Gettin’ down on Friday
Everybody’s lookin’ forward for the Ipad2

Potato-ism Upped a Notch

I haven't reviewed any gadgets in years. The last one was an MP3 player. So here's another one to add to the list. Unboxing a media player. You see it coming, it's not too late to jump to another blog because I am going to rant about gadgets. Yes, shiny little things that is pleasing to the eyes ;)

Meet my new friend, Ryan. AC Ryan Play On Essential.

I have dozens of movies on my portable hard drive that I have not watched yet simply because I'm too lazy to sit propped up in a chair in front of my computer and to add more reasons, the audio system on the computer isn't that good either.

It so happen that one day when I visited a friend who was also gadget enthusiast, he introduced to me a nifty little thing called a media player. And it was The Answer to my digital media predicament.

As a rule, I waited one month before buying anything that costs more than RM50. That only make it more desirable. I was thinking about it day and night. Read reviews and made comparisons. It is also one of the reason why I have sleeping problems. Finally decided to go to the dreaded PC Fair (I hate crowds).

Contents of the box. HDMI cable was an extra Christmas gift.

There were like half a dozen options at the Fair, AVF, Imation, WD Life, RMVB and VBridge. It's hard to make a decision on which one to buy. Price range is roughly the same, ranging between RM280 to RM300 depending on their capabilities and bundles. You must know what kind of files they're able to play and whether the software could be upgraded for better user experience. Does it come with all the cables?

It came down to only PlayOn . This one is slightly pricier than the rest, but I bought it because it has 2 years warranty (the others only provide 1 year warranty) and plays almost anything you dump into it.

The PlayOn Essential doesn't have any LAN input for viewing internet directly from the system, but you can buy the hardware and upgrade if needed . It also doesn't come bundled with a HDMI cable (too bad), but I managed to persuade the tauke to throw me in one for free and he even gave me a reduction on the price by RM10 and got a RM30 voucher. OK la, I think I found a good bargain.

A peek inside the box. A lot of space for air ventilation.

Like most product, this one is made in China, but designed by a Dutch company. The system is quite 'boxy' compared to other players of the same range. I was dismayed at first looking at all the wasted space which holds only a thin PCB board. But the extra space has a purpose, which is to install a 3.5" hard disk inside of it. The cooling fan at the back helps with air ventilation and prevent hard disk from heating up and is pretty quiet. (most don't offer this option).

Test drive with a USB stick. Blosson is patiently waiting.

The PlayOn Essential can play any kind of media file you throw at it and perhaps more in the future because the software is upgradable. It plays movies, music and picture slideshows. It has 2 USB 2.0 ports and an SD card slot at the side. It detects the TV system automatically. User interface is blue and black, soothing to the eyes and easy to navigate. I've played Glee from my 8GB USB stick and watched a couple of movies from my 500GB portable hard disk and there wasn't even a single glitch.

However there is a few things that I wish it could improve upon:

• The volume is pretty low. I normally watch TV at audio level of 7-10, but I had to boost it up to 40 when playing from the Essential, maybe it's just the files. 
• Although the system auto detects the files and displays it on the list, I wish it could be more 'intelligent', like sorting files into folders and not dump it all in one screen. I had to go through 360 files to find a movie. Most of the rubbish are .dat files that doesn't have media content of interest.
• I found that I had to press the button twice on the remote to make a selection. I don't know if this is like as a 'confirmation' press, but it surely annoying. A single press would be good enough.
• The remote control range is does not have wide coverage. I had to point directly to the box to get a response. Cheap infrared remote?

TURN the TV on kid

Some of you may have come across this antique television set in their young life before. I remember a tv set like this on my great-grandmother's (Mokmek) house.

Kids, this was the grand-father of TV. It only shows images in black and white, it has this V-shaped antenna on top of it. There is no remote control so if you wanted to turn it on or change the channel, you'd actually have to WALK up to the tv set and turn the knobs. Yes, you have to actually touch the tv and TURN the circular knob (that's where the statement 'Turn the TV on' came from). To adjust the volume, there's a slide to control the loudness coming from the speaker. There were no buttons to push (gasp!).

Some even comes in nice housing. You don't even have to buy an extra furniture (read: tv cabinet) to compliment it. My Mokmek's tv had this folding covers where you can slide it to the side if you wanted to watch TV and slide it back to close it, so it'll look like another cupboard furniture in the house. Very stealthy, right?

I don't know what kind of shows people watch back in the 60-70's, but I know it's not Glee or Dexter. I think there's only 1 or 2 channel available. Compared to now, we have hundreds of channels and thousands of shows, but sometimes there's nothing to watch on TV :( especially on Friday nights.

Anyway, I brought this topic up because last night I dreamt of this tv (weird kan?), and to top it off it, when I turned it on was working and was showing the current tv shows on the screen, like, how cool was that?! IMMD.

(ps: can my dreams get any geekier?)

For the mean time while we wait for Eid-ul Adha post, let's take a poll:

create free polls | comment on this

Kamera Ku

If you ask me, I'm not much of a photographer myself. I don't take pictures for art or have any intention of selling any pictures. But I do like to take pictures for the sake of memories. And I also like to spend my monies on shiny little things.

I've had this idea in my head for some time now and I was thinking of chronolizing the cameras in my life. (Hmm, it looks like someone had nothing much to do on her free time). I decided to split the time line into three different eras:

1) The Film era:

OMG! This is possibly the most sentimental era for an 80's kid.

From left to right:
a) Canon SLR:
I believe this is my first brush with a professional camera as far as I could remember. I might be 8-10 years old back then. It's my dad's and I used to play with this camera when he's not around. He has 3 different kind of lenses and two of them are prime lenses, which I think are cute (??). Classic kan?

b) Olympus Automatic Camera:
This is the first camera that I bought with my own money, well, actually my own scholarship money. And the first item I bought from ebay too. It was £35.00. Had so many good memories travelling around Europe with this one.

Can you believe that not too long ago we are using films in cameras? and had to ration our film usage down to maximum of 36 snaps per film?? LOL! Sometimes one roll can last months! I remembered using 6 rolls of film for my two weeks Spain trip last time. And I thought that was crazy...

2) The Digital Era:

This is when it all started

From left to right:
a) Sony Cyber Shot DSC:
When it comes to shiny gadgets, I'm a sucker. The Sony Cyber shot was my first digital camera and it cost me a whopping £250.00. That was my one month salary working as a cleaner. I was sooooo ecstatic when it arrived in the mail. Kira habis canggih la masa ni. LOL. But the memory capacity was only 16MB (back then that was considered a lot already). I had to travel around with the film camera as a back up. Actually, no. The digital camera was the back-up. But a nasi lemak by the sea side accident happened and I found out that sending it for repair might be a stupid option because it's cheaper to buy a new one at the PC Fair.

b) Nikon Coolpix 3200:
No, I didn't bought a drawn out picture of a camera, silly. lol. It's just a depiction of how it looked like because I sold it off to my cousin. The coolpix was smaller than cybershot and it was easier for storage. So I brought it everywhere and kept it close to me at all times (paparazzi in-training). I used this camera to take a lot of pictures in Cardiff. Good times.

c) Panasonic Lumix FX-01:
Perhaps the best P&S camera ever bought (it has Leica lens!). Again, sold it off, hence the paper camera. Once I got back to Malaysia, I used my own money (very proud to say) to buy this little shiny thing. I love how vivid the pictures are and the many setting it has, especially the shutter delay option. It's first touch to the next level. I had this camera for about 1 year only. But if people ask me for advice what camera they should buy, I'd tell them go for Lumix with Leica lens :)

(of all the things, I'm proud of my drawing skills).

3) The Professional Camera Era:

What I'm using right now.

From left to right:
a) Canon 400D:
Nothing glamorous... orang lain ade HD recording capability and live view as such.. mine does no special tricks, just plain straight forward; click and snap. I bought this on purpose for my India trip. Really excited back then, and still excited now. I feel like holding this camera is like a license to 'poyo', especially at weddings :P Just walk right up in front of the stage and when people sees you with this big hunk of plastic and glass, they'll just give you way and space without questions asked. I like, thank you very much. 2 years on.. I'm still learning how to use it.

b) Nokia XpressMusic 5800:
Unfortunately, I can't always lug around a 0.5kg camera kit everywhere I go. Being the trigger happy person that I am, I still need a gear for a quick and swift shooting (read: not referring to a pistol or any firearms). This handphone does just that and is a fine piece of gadget that packs a (punch) whole lot of other gadgets inside it. Neat and cool. With enough light, I can take a decent picture with. No complaints.

There you go, a list of cameras. I hope this has been entertaining to you as it was for me, reminiscing the beautiful memories of the past. And for the future, I hope to take more nice pictures and I hope to share it with you cyber lots. Until next time, ciao.

If wishes were a sofa, beggars would be comfy

Wish list.... (sometimes material goals change).

1. The ultimate travel adventure. Don't care where I go as long as I can see new places, learn new culture, savor new tastes and meet new people. I still got 12 days of leave that I haven't claimed yet. Will Mr Burns II approve of this?

2. Kata 3N1-10 camera backpack. Because I need one. Easy to carry camera stuff whilst traveling (refer no.1).

3. To compliment the new bag (refer no.2), I will need to add one more lens to my collection.

Looking for a second lens.

4. I hope the stock market will show improvements daily. Up, up, up... not down, down, down for the past 3 years :(

M0t0 stock to rise. I hope Droid will provide the push needed.

5. Moving on, i need fresh new ideas to get me going. I hope my head and vision will be crystal clear.

Last but not least, I'd like to wish all my Muslim brothers and sisters Eid Mubarak. And for those who are performing the Hajj, let's pray that it will be accepted as Mabrur Hajj by Allah SWT.

Touch me

CNET reviews these phones (link)

No matter how I try to fight back the oncoming wave and believe that mobile phones should stick to a conventional design for phones, I feel that there's a soft spot that's starting to grow in my heart for these new touch sensitive screen phones.

They are one of today's fashion's 'IN' thing. Shiny, sleek, smooth, have minimalistic design and not to forget, Sexy...

Biggest player is, of course, Apple with the ever popular iPhone. Which changed how we look at phones.
The next alternatives are Samsung and LG.
Coming into the 'IN' party room is Nokia.
But what about Motorola, question mark.

The technology for these touch screen pads are evolving so fast. 10years ago it was a grey screen with black letters (Palm PDA) and you had to memorize pen strokes for each alphabet. Now, you can define your own strokes and the phone will have to learn to adapt to your handwriting, no matter how ugly it is. (don't you just love engineers doing these things?)

The touch screen had to come along to our world, just because someone said, "What if, 6 months down the road after you came out with a new phone, you suddenly had an idea to add another great application? You can't just add another button on the phone, it's already out in the market." So the idea was, to have that additional button on a LCD screen which can be added on just by upgrading your phone's software. I still don't know what particular extra button that will be in dire need in the near future. A button for 'change to stealth mode when stalking/camouflage' perhaps? Oh! Maybe something like that starwars movie, 3Dprojection-like phone calls (Princess Leia's message to Obi Wan Kenobi).

However there are a few concerns with these type of phones, a few of them being:
- The LCD screen is the heart of the phone (for the user, at least). If the screen gone bonkers, you can't make any calls or send messages out. Maybe receiving calls would be a problem as well.

- You can't type messages under the table to save yourself (ie, bored to death _____ insert event here). Maybe the most you could type is - hafhoafadnm.

- sleek and shiny means slippery. Argh! Don't drop it!!!

All things aside, it's still strikingly alluring.

I. can't. help. but. submit. myself.to.the.force.
Noooooo!
(i'm sticking to my 1 month rule before buying big budget gadget).

Jamil aka Hiyoshi must be sniggering by now.

My obsession

I just spent a large chunk of my bonus money to buy something that I think I need, but not really sure whether I really need it or not... it's not in the 'regret' section or 'good investment' section. it's still under my 'unsure' section in my head..

(no it's not the phone, by the way.)

Sophistication rings

I have now in my head, two phones that's worthy of my ownership. But only one can fit into my pocket. Which one?

The two shiny little gems has all the stuff anybody who are in their right mind would want in a phone. It plays music, it tells you where you are and how to get to point B, nice games, big and sharp LCD screen, has Wi-Fi built in so you can check your email every so often. Oh, not to forget, it can make calls too, if you finally got bored of surfing free wi-fi, listening to music and snapping pictures with it's 5 megapixel camera.

The two contenders are (numberings does not indicate preference):
1) N85.

This sounds like cool:

• very stylish design. It doesn't scream out "hey, look at me! I'm a tech geek".
  
• black is the new black again.
• talking about it is enticing enough.
• internet on the go. anywhere, everywhere
• fits in me pocket.

This is not cool:

• Expensive. In Msian market, maybe cost more than 2k.
• I hear it hangs. Must be due to that symbian thing.
• I'm just scared that it may slip out of my hand and God forbid, touches the asphalt from a height.
• surfing the net with a non-qwerty keypad? how can i possibly blog with a T9 keypad?
  

2) E71
This sounds like cool:

• very large LCD screens.
• full qwerty keypad. I can blog! Yeay!
• cheaper than the above, just over 1k.
  
• Got a few frens using it and no complaints so far. No hang issues.

This is not cool:

• It's a chunk-a-phone. So big..
• The look it too 'businessy'.. like, too serious... hmmph... ppl will think 'cannot joke with this lady'.
• still worry that it might slip out of my hand and fall.

There's a poll up there... I know there's more than one person who visits this blog and reads it. So, why don't you cast a vote in.. I would like to know what you think :)

If wishes were horses, beggars would ride

This is not a good time to want things.... really. Well, better spit it out of my system so I could sleep better at night. Here's a list of things I want:

1. New handphone. The one where I could blog from it, has GPS navigation system, high resolution camera, awesome speakers that could play tunes, looks sleek and chic. To be precise, I want Nokia N85 or anything better. Total = 2000 at least.
2. A 17" monitor. I got used to work with 2 monitors now. I feel claustrophobic when using the one monitor of the laptop. Total = 500.
3. Zoom lens. Seeing other people have one. I also want one. 1500 at least. Then, a flash. Another 1500. Total = 3000.
   
4. Bags. Three. First one is a handbag on sale. 200 after discount. Knapsack, easy for me to travel without having to lug around large luggage. 200 at least. Crumpler bag. 200 at least. Total 600.
5. External Hardisk 250GB. Why not? Total 300.
   

Grand Total = 6400. Ka-ching!

Yeah! Dream on babe.

Awww..... How cute are those????
They look like cute chubby little iPod babies.

Rasa nak nangis!

Gajet: Creative MUVO S200

Hmm... so today I went out and bought myself an MP3 player. I thought it will be useful to kill time at events that you have not much control over, such as....
(1) being stranded at the airport for 5 hours and you just don't feel like talking to anyone at all (bengangnya!)
(2) not using your mobile phone's music player applilcation because you need to save that 1 bar of battery before it goes flat.
(3) stuck in a car for 8 hours and you have no control over the radio (terpaksa dengar dikir barat, oldies, radio drama, relentless chatter).

There are a lot of factors and angles of consideration that need to be taken on choosing the right MP3 player. I was at first torn between two (major) choices namely the iPod and Creative. I liked the idea of having an iPod because of its vast selection of accessories (speakers, skins, casings) and also my curiosity on the 'click wheel'. On the other hand Creative provides more flexibility of various file formats (mp3, wmv, avi -for media players), records audio, built in mic, fm tuner, longer battery life, discreet size, word on the street is the sound quality is much better and its affordable price. I chose to be practical rather than cool (and there's a tiny little voice in me that regrets on my unromantic choice and says I should've bought the iPod instead, huhuu...).

Price check

This is the MP3 player that I chose, 512MB in size. The price shown above the official PC Fair price in December 2006. Basically, the norm in Msia is that after the fair, the price will stay at the offer price until the next fair (3-4 months from the last fair). I managed to ask the tokei for another RM9 price reduction.

Nice packaging I'd say...

The Creative Muvo S200 comes in 3 shiny colours; metallic blue, silver and metallic magenta (or pink). In the box, the S200 comes with an AAA battery (Duracell), USB 2.0 cable, a set of earphones, a neck strap, an installation CD and a user manual.

A closer look

I bought the silver one for myself.

On the palm of my hand, the S200 feels very light even with the battery inserted, I also could get a solid grip on the player. Having to use a battery means almost 'zero down time', you don't need to wait to charge the thing up. The buttons are easily accessible, and joystick like menu/playlist/volume button is sturdy and easy to control. Did I mentioned the OLED display? Though not shown to be active in the picture, but I think it's great because it reduces the glare of the screen when operating the S200 in a dark room.

A set of earphone. Decently crafted.

Surfing the menu is easy once you get the hold of how the interface of the software works. It's quite simple really, and you can invert the screen to suit you comfort, whether you are a lefty or a righty. Exploring the guide, I was made to understand that this player can display lyrics of songs played and from there on, you can go into karaoke mode :P

Here comes the cons of the S200 from a humble user...
1. I think the file transfer from the computer to the s200 is a bit slower than what I expected.
2. The USB port at the bottom of the player is exposed. Should've a cover to prevent dusts from collecting inside the small opening.
3. Could've been better with a clip (something like the iPod shuffle), it's more portable and secure.

If I give more comments on the cons, I should start thinking of finding a job at Creative :P
Well, I guess this is my first official gadget (or 'Gajet' in Bahasa, kelakar semacam kan?) review. I've only had the thing for only a few hours and I dare to write a review?!

More detailed info can be found here: Creative Muvo S200 -Specifications.

Gizmos

I love gadgets. They're like things that enhances your everyday life and keeps you company. I think all gadgets are cool, especially the small ones that can be put in the pocket, or ones that I can store away easily. I always feel tempted to buy gadgets that I think is cool, but most of the time, I have to burn the thought since I don't really have the time to enjoy using it. Membazir duit je. But it's not wrong to just look and think of the possibilities if you have it, right?

1. Creative Zen Vision W or anything similar

I can browse through my favourite pictures, watch video clips or Desperate Housewives episodes whenever and wherever I want to. No need to bring the laptop everywhere, and this fits in my pocket/ handbag. Nice.

2. Magic 8 ball

Useful when I get tired of making decisions or when it's just a dead boring day with nothing to do. (Ok-la, not a hi-tech gizmo).

3. Plasma tv

There was a survey done in the UK asking women about what they prefer to as a gift, and more than 50% says they rather have a plasma tv than bling-bling diamond jewellery. It could be that the traditional rings and necklaces is slowly getting out of date? Who can resist the whole entertainment set shown above? If you ask me, I'd like to have both; the blings and the tv set :-)

4. Mobile phone and bluetooth earpiece (not in picture)

Just because it's much more slimmer and it slides too! It rawks!

5. DSLR

I am trying to gain the skills to match.

6. A cool kitchen stove

Easy to clean, safe and stable to place pots and pans with the help of... electromagnetic energy. The last time I saw this thingamabob is at Wickes, and it costs GBP8999.99. Huuu... imagine this in RM.. hai...