A Teddy's Sunset Walk

Impossible that I do not share this wonderful photo by Matt Cooper of a soft toy looking into the sunset. What a wonderful composition! If it were alive, what would it be thinking? Won't be more complicated than our thoughts, will it?

seen on Flickr Blog.

Long and Short Zoom Interchangeable Lens

Glad to know that the manufacturers have got both ends covered: Tamron announced that their 16-300mm F3.5-6.3 Di II VC PZD Macro long zoom lens for Nikon, Canon and Sony mounts is in development while Nikon came out with a collapsible version of their popular 18-55mm F3.5-5.6G VR II kit lens.

Both are for the APS-C cropped sensors and the Tamron is a splash-proof. Cool!

via DPReview: The Tamron and the Nikon.

Pleasant Apple TV Rumour - A Games Machine On The Rise

A rumour will remain as a rumour but this one from TouchArcade sounds pleasant about the Apple TV:

This leads us to the hopeful conclusion that the Apple TV is getting a rework with a beefier GPU and some kind of onboard storage to play games. The pieces are all starting to come together, particularly as more iOS 7 controllers are released. Rumors have been pointing that way for a while, and I'd love to play some awesome iOS games full screen on my TV without the lag of Airplay or the Lightning to HDMI adapter.

But on the downside, if this is to become a reality, I suspect Apple TV won't sell for RM349 anymore. A significant price increase is in order. :'(

Flappy Bird Review (but why is it such a hit?!)

I was not going to download and try out Flappy Bird, I was certain, until Cult Of Mac posted that developer Dong Nguyen is going to take down the game from the iOS AppStore and Android Google Play. So, being a kiasu human, I had to check it out since it's free...

It's a simple, pixelated game where you tap and tap and tap and... to keep your bird afloat. Sorry that sentence may have sounded cheesy but that is really what you have to do.  Of course, if it was that simple, it wouldn't be such a hit. You have to keep your bird afloat by tapping (ah, cheesy cheesy) at the right time to navigate between gaps produced by two green pipes (not unlike the popular Super Mario Bros platformer of yesterday).

To me, the game is so damn bloody hard and a lot of my birds had hit the pipes and, hopefully, not died but just momentarily unconscious. It's good to know that after each lost, a new bird with a different colour takes its turn.

As to why the game is so popular, I am totally at a lost here. My only guess is that people like challenges: I can keep my bird up and go through all those openings without hitting a snag much longer than YOU!

I personally am not very interested in this genre, even those endless runners (but I didn't know what got into me when I purchased that Marvel one though that is a potential post to ramble about), plus this being so difficult and challenging my motor skills... Rating: 1/5

However, I'm not sure if there are any other games out there that are this successful with the download size of just 2.5MB! Rating 5/5 for file size!

And I've found this rather mindless video of the game on YouTube for you to get a feel of things:

I'll just leave you at that while I just go for one last game...

忍者小靈精

I found a super clear opening sequence (not quite the one I remember though this might be a newer sequence later in the series) of one of my favourite childhood cartoons! Those were the days of VHS video tapes. It was a Japanese cartoon but the version that I watched was a Cantonese translation. It was about a little ninja boy that mysteriously appeared (I can't remember if his appearance was ever established) and became part of a family of a boy and his parents. The ninja boy was later joined by his little sister and a dog. The style was not unlike the Doraemon cartoons.

西遊記之大鬧天宮 (The Monkey King) Review

I've been a long time fan of the Journey to the West stories and I particularly like the Monkey God character so it was no surprise that I had to go watch the latest iteration of the saga, The Monkey King (king probably because he was not god yet). This is the first part of a planned trilogy and judging from its success in China, I'd expect the second one to be in the making soon, if not already! Monkey King stars current martial arts actor Donnie Yen as the titular character while Chow Yun Fat and Aaron Kwok take on the role of Jade Emperor and Bull Demon (direct translation from the Cantonese name as I'm not sure how else to call him), respectively.

Monkey King was about how the Bull Demon would want to conquer the heavens where the Jade Emperor rules. After an initial fight which the Bull Demon lost but not without devastating the heavens, a Crystal Goddess (or something like that) sacrificed herself to magically rebuild the heavens with her crystal body. 

The heavens became impregnable BUT one of the crystals that protect the heavens dropped into earth. The Monkey King soon formed within this crystal. I loved the short scene with the Monkey King inside - it was at its cutest. Anyway, because he was part of the crystal, he was the only one that is not a god that could enter the heavens...

Through deceit, the Bull Demon hatched a plan and tricked the Monkey King (whom by now was known as Sun Wukong) into breaking into the heavens and so chaos ensued...

Probably with too high expectations, I was disappointed by the CGI which looked dated and jerky. Being a movie about gods and demons, CGI should play a very important role. 1/5

No one really stood out in this movie but Donnie Yen did appear monkey-like quite often. 2/5

The plot was really nothing new. 2/5 

Overall, I don't think this will end up in history as one of the better part of the Journey to the West series but opening during Chinese New Year with a big name cast sure would make it a blockbuster. 2/5

But if you are a fan like me, yeah, you should watch it once. 3/5

Dual-Boot Smartphone with Android and Firefox OS

Now that smartphones are going the way of PCs in terms of pricing and clones, I was wondering when smartphones would start to get multiple OSes. Aptly named Geeksphone announced their dual-booting smartphone called Revolution which boots Android and Firefox OS. The phone is expected to be released in some parts of the world this Valentine's Day so that geeky couples would have more to do.

Specs wise:

... the Geeksphone Revolution will be powered by a dual-core 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z2560 processor. The handset will have a 4.7-inch IPS display along with 1GB of RAM, 4GB of internal storage and a microSD memory card slot (with support for cards up to 32GB in size). Other specs include a 2000 mAh battery, 1.3 megapixel front-facing camera and 8 megapixel rear-facing camera.

The phone will have the usual connectivity and will cost about US$270. I'm interested to see if giants like Samsung have anything like this up their sleeves.

via Android Community.

Gong Xi Fa Cai! Lion Dance @ Mid Valley Megamall

Just saw lion dance at Mid Valley this Chinese New Year! Mobile phone photography has come a long way and this is one example - burst mode on the 1 year old iPhone 5. Wouldn't have got this without that function.

I've also edited the photo with the iOS version of iPhoto - cropped and soften background with added saturation before uploading using Flickr's mobile app.

Lenovo buys Motorola Mobility from Google, Google signs patents deal with Samsung

Shocking news for me at least that Google just sold Motorola Mobility that it just bought not too long ago to Lenovo but will be retaining some of its patents rights. And a few days ago Google signed a patents deal with Samsung.

Google is also rumoured to replace the Nexus series some time in 2015. Gasp! Things are just as complicated and fragmented as the Android system or maybe Google has a plan to fix things? Let's wait and see...

via BGR.

Strawberry Butter Cake

Taken at a McCafe. A little too sweet for my taste but its attractive colours got my attention to give it a try.

Disney's Frozen "Let It Go" in Multi-Language/Dialect

Thought "Let It Go" was a great song? Wait till you hear it in 25 different languages/dialects. Glad to see Bahasa Malaysia is one of them.

World's Best Sound Comes From Malaysia

A sound clip "Dusk by the Frog Pond" recorded from the Kubah National Park, Sarawak won an online competition to become The Most Beautiful Sound in the World. That's good news amidst all the recent negative stuffs going around in the media.

You can listen to the natural sound here.

via The Malaysian Insider.

Tiny Thief Review

As mentioned previously, among the things I was busy with recently was with games and Tiny Thief was one of them. Being offered free as one of the 12 Days of Gifts from Apple last month did not help PLUS a recommendation from my bud meant immediate action...

The game was released last year and I was not surprised that it was such a hit. It's basically sort of a platform puzzle solving game split into many levels. You, the Tiny Thief, start off as a small timer on the way to becoming a Robin Hood type of thief. There are no battles and very little action involved safe for one or two that I can remember. 

You basically pick up things and put some of them to where they should belong, push buttons, pull levers, etc. Sounds boring? Not at all! The puzzles are mostly straight forward and shouldn't be difficult to complete but fun to do nonetheless. I completed the game twice already, once on the phone and just last night on the iPad. XD

The difficult part is to achieve 3 stars for each level. Just completing the main objective, you will only accomplish 1 star. You'll need to find your pet squirrel for another star and this squirrel can be anywhere and worse, sometimes only appear after you've done something. For the third star you'll need to collect hidden (but are sometimes blatantly right under your nose in the open) objects.

There are in-app purchases but there is no need to buy any to complete the game... yet. More levels coming so I'm not sure what plans Rovio have for it... I have confidence Rovio's execution would be wise.

Graphics are drawn in a cartoon style and the game is full of humour. 4/5

Gameplay is executed very well for the touchscreen without any frustration although some hardcore gamers might find it too easy for them. 4/5

One complain that I must voice, or rather type, out is the game doesn't sync between iOS devices (at least not here in Malaysia) so Rovio should do something. I heard there's some sort of a special Rovio account thing in some parts of the world... 0/5

Not much of a soundtrack and whatever music playing in the background is too soft to be heard (or to be distracting). Sound effects is nothing to shout about either. But the lack of these do not appear to affect my pleasant experience with the game. 2/5

As a conclusion, the game is just perfect for this genre. 4/5

Shocking! 99% Emergency Calls Are Fake!

This is ridiculous. Is it just in our country or is this rampant worldwide? 99% of 2.8 million monthly calls to the 999 emergency line are pranks!

Urban Wellbeing, Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Abdul Rahman Dahlan:

It is most unfortunate that, because of this irresponsible act, the 999 line becomes busy and prevent genuine calls from getting through.

Wake up, people! Lives are at stake here!!!

via the Sun.

A mother takes beautiful photos of her two children, mostly with animals in the farm

Awesome photos and here's one of them beauties:

Head on to Boredpanda.com or her flickr gallery for more.