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Showing posts from October, 2018

The iPhone XS Max review from a iPhone 6 Plus user

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I use this photo as my Twitter avatar for years! I pulled out my iPhone 3G from the jeans pocket, just as Steve Jobs pulled out the iPod nano from his jeans to demonstrate how small the nano was. I am an iPhone user since the first iPhone was sold in Malaysia - the iPhone 3G. I was one of those fans who went for the midnight launch in KLCC. That was how much I wanted the iPhone after watching Steve Jobs’ keynote for many times over. Since then, I have upgraded to a iPhone 4, 5s and finally a 6 Plus and I have been using the 6 Plus for the longest time, around 4 years. The 6 Plus was a leap in the iPhone experience - simply because it transitioned into Big Screen.  When the iPhone X was launched last year, I was really close to buying it. It was a new iPhone experience - full screen edge to edge, OLED screen (as opposed to 10 years of LCD), no Home button (new gesture-base navigation), Face ID vs Touch ID. It wasn’t the camera or improved photography that made me want...

iPhone XS Max Pre Order - NOW!

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It's available now... and surprise, surprise... it's kinda reasonable as well ... this is the iPhone XS Max 256GB Plan It's not the RM6,000 Retail price. The subsidy by the telco is quite good .. they subsidize $1,400. And maxis also offered installment plan, so with a 24 month contract, I just needed to pay RM220/month with my current plan of RM$128/month call and data. But... $220x24months is $5,280. Comparing to paying upfront of $4,658, it is more expensive by $622! The dilemma is whether I want to do installment or to do upfront payment. I am also torn between white or space grey. While I am usually a space grey person, white will be in spirit of my first iPhone 3G which has a white back. I read elsewhere that the white is not pure white but looks like dishwasher white .. and I worry that it will turn yellow as time passed... so it is very likely I am sticking to black. Hmmmmm!! Ok, I compiled the prices: XS - 64GB XS - 256GB XS - 512GB ...

Pre Order iPhone XS and XS Max today @ 3.01pm!

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If you are a maxis user, here is the pre-order page . There are some steps to get yourself ready, so check out the page early. maxis' advertisement is already up.... This photo is taken by user will_chs from Lowyat forum. I believe it was taken in Jalan Ampang I am excited... but I am not sure I can afford it at this moment. The price is really ridiculous.. I am eyeing the XS Max 256GB and I believe the price is almost RM$6,000K if buy direct from Apple. With telco subsidy, it could be RM$5K. At that price, you can buy a laptop or a MacBook or a super, duper powerful PC desktop that can play state of the art game... or a 38" LG monitor . Perhaps a trade-in program? UMobile already have a promotional page up : Customers looking to get the iPhone XS will be able to purchase the 64GB model for RM3,799 (save RM1,200), 256GB for RM4,299 (save RM1,300) and RM512GB for RM5,299 (RM1,350) under the Unlimited Hero P99 postpaid plan . For RM99 a month, customers will g...

Luckily, the LG UltraWide did not have Backlight Bleeding

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A biggest fear of buying a new, expensive monitor is backlight bleeding. The way LCD monitors work is that the monitor screen is lighted from the back. There is a panel in front of the backlight that blocks the emitted light, thus creating different colour per pixel. A complete blockage produces the black colour. Normally, around the bezel, the panel have issue blocking the light. This is due to the pressure from the bezel itself or pressure created when you are pressing the screen too hard when moving the monitor. This causes the panel to fail to block the light completely and thus, it bleeds around the panel. Fortunately, this LG 38” have good manufacturing process or a very good QC. 4 days after using it, I decided to test it for backlight bleed. 1/ Testing is a simple procedure of loading up a full screen black wallpaper.. or you can just go to this website and click a link to load up a black screen.  2/ switch off your room light so tbe room is in darkness. This...

LG UltraWide Monitor 38WK95C Review

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I bought this today. It was not an impulse buy. I spent months researching and then two months of waiting for stock from LG Malaysia. So beautiful and wide .. although I have to say it is not as sharp as a MacBook Retina display Trust me, it is not easy to buy a modern monitor these days. I have a few criteria: ultra wide screen regardless of size - can be 32" or 34" or even 34" it must be IPS screen, not TN or whatever the other one is called it must have USB-C to charge the MacBook Pro and also to extend the display of the MacBook it must have good speakers. Not the puny ones that some Dell monitor shipped with. Really good ones. I hate having to plug in the speaker jack from PC to monitor it should have G-Sync support bonus - it has nice legs that doesn't take up space I have searched high and low. I looked for Asus, I looked at Dell and Alienware.. none of them ticked these checkboxes, particularly that USB-C one.. I realize that I real...

Philips Hue in Malaysia

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Have you ever thought of having smart lights in your home? You know, ability to adjust different intensity and colour? Or, if you are like me, you have Amazon Alexa , then ability to tell Alexa to set different mood for you room. I have been doing some research on Philips Hue and this is what I found: 1/ If you have Echo Plus which has a built in home automation hub, Philips Hue lights work with Echo Plus, without needing to buy the Philips Hue hub . That means, you can just buy the lights and Alexa will be able to discover the bulbs. 2/ The Philips Hue bulb come with E27 screws. That's the Thomas Edison standard screw size E27. If you owned a Ikea standing lights pictured here, you are in luck because will have the E27 plug base. You can buy the Philips Hue directly from their official store in Lazada . I envy you! This Ikea floor lamp has E27 Edison Srew light plug E27 Edison Screw 3/ However, if you are like me, and have the smaller sized plug, you will have...

Feedback on DSA - DSwim Academy

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It's raining, it's pouring.. and if there's thunder, usually the horn will blast and everyone gets out of the pool My recent feedback which I have written to DSA - D Swim Academy, Malaysia. They prided themselves to be the best swimming academy in Malaysia because of their affiliation with AustSwim. AUSTSWIM is Australia’s national organisation for the Teaching of Swimming and Water Safety. This is what I wrote: I have two girls who are enrolled to DSA in One Club, Bandar Utama. I have two feedback which I'd like to write in formally. 1) Our girls classes are on (time and date redacted). At (time date), there are thunderstorm happening. We called DSA and was told that the previous class was already cancelled. When we asked about my kids class, the girl on the phone was not able to tell us for sure if it was cancelled or not. Instead, she insisted for us to come to One Club first to see if it rained. I feel that this creates inconvenience for parents as we...

Great ATP podcast on Apple Watch Series 4

I am a Apple Watch Series 3 owner, and I owned the Nike+ 42mm Apple Watch with the black sports band. I am very happy about the Watch and while I do like to think about the new Series 4, I think I will pass this round. Every ringgit saved will be used to contribute to the XS Max that I REALLY, REALLY wanted. Anyway, I want to point out this excellent podcast by Marco Arment, John Siracusa and Casey Liss, Accidental Tech Podcast, where they talked about the Series 4 Watch, specifically describing which size you should choose. Marco, who is also a resident, fancy mechanical watch enthusiasts, talked about two things you should look out for when choosing the right size for your wrist. As Asians, we have smaller wrist and we are also pretty fashion conscious, so I thought his piece was excellent. Go ahead and listen to this podcast… http://atp.fm/episodes/293