Famous Penang Tau Sar Pheah

Pulau Pinang aka Penang is famous for one particular type of biscuit and whenever locals or foreigners visit the island, they would buy a box or two, or three, or... I've been fortunate to sample the biscuits fresh off the oven once and it was just awesome. A little less awesome if you eat them thereafter. It's (me thinks) got green bean paste as fillings, tastes sweet with a hint of salt. I really don't know which is the original because there are a few brands out there but my colleague bought some and I discovered this particular brand has been around for 155 years and still counting!

Well, according to Penang Street Food, Ghee Hiang pictured above is indeed the original.

Slow Motion on the iPhone 5s

I never thought this particular feature would have any effect on me but recent videos published online such as the one below made me want an iPhone 5s. The power of Apple.

iPhone 5s Test Footage - 120 fps from Rishi Kaneria on Vimeo.

via Cult of Mac.

Christian Bale's Audition for Batman Begins

It's amazing how established actors, too, need to go for auditions and coming as an added feature in the upcoming Batman Trilogy collection, below is Christian Bale auditioning in Val Kilmer's version of Batman costume:

Christian Bale auditions for Batman Begins in... by BatmanNewsCom

Cillian Murphy also auditioned to become Batman but his version probably looked like a Scarecrow which prompted his casting as the villain.

via io9.

My iOS 7 Experience So Far

The Good
At first sight, this new iOS looked very colourful, cheerful and the word cartoonish came to mind but after meddling a bit with it, I found that the user experience had improved such as the Control Centre that slides up from the bottom. Easy access to turning on/off things such as wifi, Bluetooth, Do Not Disturb and brightness control. What I hoped to find there is the ability to enable/disable mobile (or cellular if you are at that part of the world) data and GPS which eat up more battery than wifi and Bluetooth.

I did discover that Siri had improved a lot, recognised my speech and could turn off mobile data (and a slew of others)! Nice! I think I might just start to use it.

I've been using Google Chrome a lot for browsing lately and was not really impressed with what I've read about the new mobile Safari until I used it. What I liked about Chrome were its unified search and address bar and switching between tabs by swiping left or right. iOS 7's Safari has the unified bar, a cool screen to switch between tabs (not on the iPad, though) AND by swiping left or right, you can go back or forward of your history! Wow!

All the new transparency effects make the new UI look modern and that is certainly most welcome. The current flat design (that's what everyone calls it at a time when cinemas and TVs are all promoting 3D) sure looks fresh compared to the older skeuomorphic design though I'm a little horrified that a lot of apps are going flat, too. Gasp!

Multitasking seems to be up a level with Apple opening up for background app refresh though I've yet to notice that happening despite one of my favourite Pocket claiming it does.

The "I Don't Care"

The parallax effect is so subtle that it didn't matter if it existed or not. Nice to check out the first few times and after the third day, I didn't bother with it. I read that Flipboard is using that effect for some thing, so I've got to try that out, though.

The dynamic moving bubble bokeh wallpapers looked nice but besides moving when titling the screen, they were mere display that it's not possible for animated wallpapers. Developers come out with some cooler ones already!

The multitasking "bar" looks good now that it displays the screen since the last use together with the app's icon and you could close the app by swiping up. Well, it looks cool, but I don't really care, actually. Besides that, on the iPad, swiping up with four fingers would normally reveal the row of icons at the bottom but now it would open up to the whole multitasking "bar" which I felt had some continuity problem.

The Bad

Since updating to iOS 7, I've "successfully" got it to hang a few times:

1. Twice while messing around Settings.

2. After a call, the screen froze and rebooted.

3. Can't remember what happened.

Occasionally, scrolling on the iPhone 5 was no longer as smooth as it used to be. That's not very nice and I suppose iOS 8 would make the phone so slow that I'd need an iPhone 6. Oooh, I like that. XD

The Notification Centre now has three tabs - Today, All and Missed. I get "Today" and I get "Missed" but I don't get "All". I'm still puzzled because it only has notifications. I thought "All" would mean everything. I guess I must have misunderstood. Also, to clear a notification, I've still got to touch on the "X" rather than do a swiping motion. Not so nice.

The new folders have only 9 icons when open and since they can have multiple pages, it could take awhile to find some apps from the same category. I have lots of photo apps and games so these two proved to be the most problematic so I had to rearrange the more commonly used ones on the first page or make another folder for the least used ones.

Wrapping up this post, I love the new ringtones and tones but they (ringtones, especially) are too soft and could not replace the "Old Phone" ringtone that I've been using... even that sounds softer after the update.

Generally, I'm loving the new update because the whole experience is great and I could live with the "I Don't Care" and "Bad" ones, too.

Paranoia Review

Despite a 4% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I had to go watch it because I've not seen Harrison Ford in action for far too long and the pull of watching Gary Oldman as the villain after his good guy Commissioner Gordon role is too enticing. I must be getting old because I didn't watch it because of the beautiful young man and woman. XD

Ahem, on with the plot: ambitious young man Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth, yes, I'm one of those that get confused with him and his Thor bro) messed up by using the credit card issued by his employer Wyatt (Oldman) for a night of clubbing after his presentation to the boss failed. Using this as blackmail, Wyatt got Cassidy to do some industrial espionage on Goddard's (Ford) company which is developing the ultimate smartphone. Sounds like a situation about our two current smartphone leaders but I think the stuff in this movie were over the top most of the time. Along the way, Cassidy fell in love with Goddard's head of marketing Emma Jennings ( Amber Heard). Following this, things get predictable as Cassidy had a change of heart... Although depending on your focus on the movie, there could be a twist somewhere at the later part of the movie.

Needless to say, the spy had to survive and need to do something smart to escape because those at the top will stop at nothing to have the upper hand... even killing. Sounds like a framework for a movie that could stir up some contemporary thrills but it fell just short of that. It won't make you nod off but it won't stop you from blinking either. By the way, I don't think the movie really emphasised much about paranoia. It probably got us paranoid of technological giants instead... oh wait, was that what this is all about?

Pretty girl and boy. Yeah, the two leads. 3/5

Awesome acting? Not really. Nothing that could win any awards but it doesn't look fake either. 3/5

Thrilling? Mostly predictable, no at the edge of your seat incident here. 2/5

Predictable plot but not the worst out there, IMHO it deserved more than the 4% rotten rating. 3/5

The Flu (Korean) Review

A Korean attempt on a widespread epidemic of a flu-like virus, the movie focuses on a city situated just on the outskirts of Seoul. The title characters are a rescue worker who saved a doctor (beautiful Korean chic, YEAH!) from a car that was knocked off its tracks into a deep construction pit. The rescuer had fallen for the doctor almost at first sight and one thing after another led to him meeting the doctor's daughter. Earlier the little girl met an illegal immigrant who was the only survivor (who developed immunity to the virus) from a group that was smuggled in to Korea in a container.

The illegal had broken lose when two brothers opened the container. This is where the infection started and all hell broke lose after that. The plot goes on to paint a picture of politicians who started off being sceptical and only had their self interests in mind. Quarantine procedures would go wrong and the people panicked. All these while the beautiful doctor tried to keep her daughter (infected by the illegal) from being taken away into quarantine. The gallant rescue worker would come in and help save the day, too.

The movie started off with some attempt at comedy and proceed to a more serious tone after that. There were also touching moments and of course picture of the people's struggle. I would say it was not overly thrilling but not to the point of boredom either.

Story wise, nothing that we've not seen in Hollywood productions. 2/5
Beautiful Koreans? 3/5
Ugly side of politics could be exaggerated but the point came across pretty well. 3/5
Not a waste of your time. 3/5

Video Guide to Draw Om Nom

How can I not post an instructional video showing how to draw the legendary cutey that is the star of the Cut The Rope series?!

Even though it's a step-by-step guide, it's so damn tough!!!

Smartphone Cameras - What's the Optimum Amount of Pixels?

In my unscientific gut opinion, as large as the sensor could go with around 8 megapixels but DPReview has a much better explanation with the following conclusion:

... for most purposes 3MP is plenty, but you might want to shoot at around 8MP for the crispest possible details. 8MP is a sensible minimum for big prints and 4K TVs, and even higher resolutions allow you to crop photos without sacrificing quality too much. However, make sure that very high resolutions are matched by an equivalent increase in sensor size.

However, do note that image quality also highly depends on the lens, image processing, sensor design, etc. so the search for the Holy Grail continues...

iOS 7 on the way...

I've got iOS 7 on my phone and was pretty impressed with it. Besides, I'm getting a new toy out of a phone that's going to be a year old. And now, my old iPad will be getting an update!

"Evil" Developers Just Want To Earn More

Some developers are taking the opportunity to charge iOS 7 users for a new revision of their apps, effectively treating the radically new iOS as a clean slate to reboot their apps. In all matter of speaking, I'm totally against this but Cult of Mac has it put down in a way that these developers are really not all that bad. Shucks!!!

Interesting Observation: Simple Cameras

Interesting observation at Open Mike (The Online Photographer Editorial) - one less mentioned reason that camera phones are "eating" into digital camera sales is because of their super simple ease of use. That's not all - camera phones' popularity might eventually lead to their very own increasing complexity. I noticed this happening with all the 3rd party iOS apps and stock Android ones. I like complex cameras and I love full control when I need it but I'm not the majority of users out there. For the record, I often like a quick snap with a simple camera, too.

via Daring Fireball.

It reads "big"

Contrary to the previous post, this Chinese word actually means big. It came about when the hawker wrote on the takeaway packaging to indicate that the portion is large. I'm ashamed to say that the packaging might not be the biodegradable type. We're not quite there yet in Malaysia.

Miniature Effect

I've always find it interesting how blurring some areas, in this case top and bottom, could turn certain images into miniatures. Wikipedia calls this the diorama effect or diorama illusion. For the initiated, you can check it out here. For me, I'm just satisfied with just blurring portions of the image... XD

Epilogue - What's after Apple’s September 10 event?

A motion co-processor aptly named M7? Remarkably suitable for tracking motion? May I join the foray and speculate that Apple's wearable device(s?) is coming really soon? O.o

What's after Apple’s September 10 event?

64-bit Mobile Computing 
Apple looks set to spearhead 64-bit mobile computing now that it is using the 64-bit A7 processor in its flagship phone (and here I was getting worried how Apple will compete with all those quad and not so octa-core processors). There is no doubt that the new iPad and iPad Mini will follow suit. However, 64-bit mobile computing will not be exploding into the scene sometime soon because there are plenty of legacy 16-bit devices out there… even Apple’s own iPhone 5C is still “yesterday’s technology” so it’d be obvious not many developers will go that direction anytime soon. Perhaps when the iPhone 6 comes out next year end then… At the same time, I’m worried that app prices will be increasing due to the efforts required to make higher quality apps to match the iPhone’s hardware…

Mobile Photography and Video to the Next Level 

I’ve always been mighty impress with HTC for coming out with its larger but less megapixels sensor for its flagship HTC One and here I am, highly impressed with Apple for making its sensor larger while maintaining the pixels. Hopefully, together with better and faster optics, image quality will improve. There’s also burst mode and Apple’s adding in an extra “warmer” LED for better coloured flash photography. Video is further enhanced with 120fps capture with ability to select later which part of it you’d want to go slow motion.

The Serious Smartphone
Apple's doing the right thing to give new buyers the whole iWork suite. But I'm saddened that at the time of writing, existing iOS owners are left out. I hope I misinterpreted it all... Anyway, new iOS device owners at least get to do more office productivity stuff (and further stress out) with their iOS devices. Luckily, there's also iPhoto and iMovie to balance things a bit.

False Sense of Security? 

I don’t know about you but despite the new fingerprint sensor I can’t help feeling that hackers will be able to crack through the phone’s security in no time… or maybe not.

All New Experience
iOS 7 will bring a whole new and fresh experience to the stale iOS of yesterday. I can’t wait to try it out and I hope it improves battery life for the current crop of iPhone 5.

Still Managed to Surprise
Just when I thought every possible news were leaked, Apple proved that it could still surprise and I hope when Tim Cook promised us an exciting season this fall, he really meant it.

Concept - The Phone That Never Goes Obsolete

What if your phone come in blocks and that every part of it can be upgraded? Change to a better camera, a more powerful battery, faster processor at your convenience. Replace a broken screen like a LEGO block. Sounds too good to be true? Yes, for now. But everything starts with a concept, right?

via Engadget.

Reminder for Writers

I like this. It's so contemporary!

“Keep a small can of WD-40 on your desk to remind yourself that if you don’t write daily, you will get rusty.” 

– George Singelton

 via Go Into The Story.

One of our favourite drinks, Ribena, to change ownership

Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd., Japan's second largest drinks maker known for its beer and whiskey  is about to buy our favourite sweet, but nourishing blackcurrant drink Ribena from GlaxoSmithKline Plc. for a whopping sum of £1.53 billion. The transaction will also include energy drink Lucozade.

While GSK felt that the two drinks lack global presence, they will help the Japanese company expand its presence into Britain, Nigeria, Malaysia and other countries. Subject to regulatory approvals, the transaction is expected to be completed by end of this year.

via Reuters.

Ironically, referring to the photo below, digital camera sales are not mushrooming...

I can understand how digital camera sales are declining the world over. I wouldn't be lugging around my digital camera, be it compact or DSLR or even mirrorless when I am at work. Now that there are phones that take reasonable photos, I seldom carry any cameras, unless I'm on holiday, I suppose. For work, I'd use my phone to snap away. Below is a photo of... ummm... mushrooms that I took with my phone during a late working night.

However, I do not deny that the current crop of compact cameras offer better photo qualities than even the best phones. Needless to say, DSLR are almost the best of the crop. It's just that, people are lazy to carry something that is difficult to fit into a jeans pocket, for instance. I do still lust for digital cameras and my current wish is to own a mirrorless Sony NEX. Well, I don't mind Sony's latest innovation, the QX10 and QX100 "lens cameras" either!

XD

New Robocop Trailer

Next year's Robocop reboot sees a much more mobile and agile cop than the previous movies, ages ago.

Mars Solar Eclipse!

This is perhaps something we don't see everyday... Of Mars' larger moon Phobos passing in front of the sun. At first glance, it's really not as spectacular as the ones we often see on Earth but remember, this is taken from Mars! Wow!

via PetaPixel.

What of Nokia's Future?

With the focus mainly on Microsoft’s purchase of Nokia’s devices and services division, not many have looked at what remains of Nokia’s future. Engadget has it here.

Nokia will continue to focus on its Here Maps (which I’ve used on the iPhone when it first launched but was not very impressed so I decided to stick withWaze and Google Maps. Now with more time, perhaps the company could make it stand out from the more established apps.

Next up, Nokia will stick to developing and building network infrastructure, now being LTE networks as the primary focal point. Besides this, Nokia will also concentrate on advance technologies, looking for business opportunities.

All da best, Nokia!

Riddick Review

I’ve never seen the previous two Riddick movies so this is going to be based on what I watched so here goes: Vin Diesel’s titular character Riddick was reluctantly crowned as the new leader of the Necromongers (or something like that) and he decided to visit his home world. He was tricked and brought to a different world, attacked and left for dead by evil Karl Urban’s minions whom I guess wanted to take over the throne.

And so Riddick had to survive by fending off the planet’s indigenous species and got to tame a crossover between a zebra and hyena as his pet “dog”. Later, he came across a bounty hunter station and activated the emergency beacon so that bounty hunters would come for him… and he could hijack their ship and get off the country. Two groups of bounty hunters came, one for his head as bounty while another to find out the truth about what happened to his son in the first movie, Pitch Black.

The movie proceed to become a mix between The Thing and Aliens as the bounty hunters hunt for Riddick and Riddick tries to get a ship while fending off scorpion-like aliens.

Vin Diesel is his usual tough self while the bounty hunters are a mixture of cool and arrogance bordering on stupidity. There is really nothing new in the plot that we’ve not seen but I suppose Vin Diesel fans and followers of the series would rejoice.

Vin Diesel fans? Not his best but passable, I guess. 3/5
Riddick fans? I can’t say because I’ve not watched the previous two but there’s plenty of that character.
Action? 2/5
Story? 2/5
Effects? Aliens ok but the part with them riding bikes in the rain is not. 2/5
I’d summarise this as only an average movie for fans. 2/5

Smart Watches - What I hope from Apple

There were Pebble and others. Then, Sony came before Samsung and the latest from both are compared here (I'm mighty impressed with Sony making their watches compatible with any Android 4.0 phones, a learning from a company that used to make Memory Sticks). Now even Qualcomm's announced one. But the rumour that started all these was of the Apple version and there's still no sign of it.

Whatever it is, I can't help hoping it will take the queue from the previous iPod Nano - detachable little thing that can work as a music device (and hopefully more) with plenty of straps to choose from - WITHOUT its shortcomings, of course. It was unfortunate that was discontinued and replaced with the current larger version. Or perhaps that's Apple's plan all along so that they can announce a smart watch (I think there will be an official word for "smartwatch" eventually) that is like that? Wishful thinking again, I know, but hope is a driver.

Tech Slangs Updated to Online Oxford Dictionary

The online edition of the Oxford English Dictionary updated its vocabulary list including some words that've been widely used to describe the current technology world and some of the fun words are:

• Digital detox (noun – informal) - A period of time during which a person refrains from using electronic devices such as smartphones or computers, regarded as an opportunity to reduce stress or focus on social interaction in the physical world.
• Emoji (noun – plural same or emojis) - A small digital image or icon used to express an idea or emotion in electronic communication
• Geek chic (noun informal) - The dress, appearance, and culture associated with computing and technology enthusiasts, regarded as stylish or fashionable.
• Hackerspace (noun) - A place in which people with an interest in computing or technology can gather to work on projects while sharing ideas, equipment, and knowledge.
• Internet of things (noun) - A proposed development of the Internet in which everyday objects have network connectivity, allowing them to send and receive data.
• Phablet (noun) - A smartphone having a screen which is intermediate in size between that of a typical smartphone and a tablet computer.
• Selfie (noun – plural selfies – informal) - A photograph that one has taken of oneself, typically one taken with a smartphone or webcam and uploaded to a social media website.

 via TechnologyTell.

Pandas’ Snack Time

Let's start the weekend watching pandas during their snack time:

Have a nice weekend!

Elysium Review

Believe it or not. There will be a time when Earth will be diseased and polluted to the point where the rich will pay to live in an utopia outpost sort of place (with machines that can cure all illness and extend life up to 3 times of the typical lifespan) that orbits the planet while the majority poor ones continue to live and suffer here. Such is the setting of Elysium.

The movie stars Matt Damon as a high tech criminal but still poor that decided to go straight and work his way up in a factory manufacturing droids to police Elysium and control Earth citizens. However, one work day turned out badly with him getting exposed to radiation and had only 5 days to live. Of course, only those miracle machines in Elysium can save him and so the movie really kicks off from there. He made a deal with the bad guys to steal the memory out of his evil boss' mind because he didn’t give a damn when he got exposed to radiation. He gets physically fitted into an exoskeleton with lots of drilling and hacking and become kind of super. In return he gets sent to Elysium.

Off he went to steal but of course things went bad, lost his best buddy and got hunted but he did manage to steal a, coincidentally, program that could reset the whole Elysium that will turn the tide of things. Along the way, he met his childhood sweetheart (whose daughter is dying of leukaemia and also needs the miracle machine). His original journey to save himself became one that could save the world! Oh yeah, it’s that kind of movie!

Effects are ok and there is nothing much to really act out. This is the first time I see an evil Jodie Foster, the controlling figure in Elysium. Interesting but there’s really not much acting skills required in this movie. Action sequences are not over the hill. All in, good for an entertainment but I doubt it’ll become a classic.

Story - extreme setting of what the world is becoming now. 3/5
Looking for lots of action? 3/5
Effects? 3/5
Acting? There’s really not much and not necessary. There’re lots of desperation, though. 3/5
Overall, an above average movie that’s not great. 3/5

And the trailer:

Fahrenheit in Malaysia!?

I don't have the slightest idea why this particular air-conditioning remote control in the hotel I'm staying in is in Fahrenheit! We use Celsius here in Malaysia!!! Thankfully there is Google to help translate it to 24 degrees Celsius for me! Otherwise I would be freezing or perspiring without knowing why. XD

The Star Wars Misquote

Darth Vader NEVER said "Luke, I am your father!" or similar iterations in the same sentence. Gasp!

via Blastr.