Tech Wonders

One Minute Quick Take on Apple AirPods Pro

2019-11-03T21:42:00.000+08:00

I have been using Apple AirPods Gen 1 for more than 2 years. This is my first upgrade, to what Apple terms as the "Pro" version of their flagship wireless earpiece.

The release of AirPods Pro came as a surprise because there was no fanfare ra ra announcement. It's merely a press release and an update on their website.

So what's the difference? Let's take a look at the photo comparisons below.

The new AirPods Pro case is slightly shorter but elongated than the AirPods case. It's not much bigger though. I finds it smaller than most ANC wireless earphone.

Looking from the top of the opened case, you see that the new AirPods seems bigger. That it a perception to me, it looks bigger due to the ear tips. The device itself is rather small as you can see from the photos below.

As you can see from the photos above, the stem of the AirPods Pro is shorter. I don't have complains about that, it is actually far more nicer when wearing it.

The most important part of the new AirPods Pro is that it comes with 3 different size of the silicon ear tips that can fit your ear comfortably and hold it well even for your regular jogging.

In terms of sound, Apple mentions that the new AirPods Pro has adaptive equaliser that automatically tune the sound based on the shape and canal of your ear. The bass is definitely much better than the original AirPods due to the isolation from the silicon ear tips. However do not expect the bass to be as powerful as those from Powerbeats, the AirPods are not meant to compete with those.

What excels in the AirPods Pro is the sound from neutral to mid-range. The vocal are clear and crisp, in fact I can hear some of the singer taking a breath before they started to sing out, something that you won't get it from the original AirPods.

The Active Noise Cancellation is very effective at blocking out external noises from the public subway and also from fans switching on at high speed. And so is the transparency mode where you can jog and still be made aware of your surrounding.

One last thing, you can long press the AirPods Pro icon in the Control Center to activate on ANC or Transparency or turning it off entirely.

Highly recommended if you are using an iPhone and needs a good ANC earphone.

My First 3D Printer - Pirate3D Buccaneer

2017-04-01T16:37:00.000+08:00

This is the 3D printer that many had touted as easy and works flawlessly. This is a printer for someone who wants to bypass the hassle that comes with endless customisation. This is also one of the few small form factor 3D printer, the other being Da Vinci Mini and M3D. So how does the reviews compared to actual usage?

Pros

It really works and the quality of print is fantastic even at 200 microns. It is as reliable as any of your inkjet printer. It can connect wirelessly to your home network so that you can print wirelessly from your PC. However to do that, you will need to connect your mobile to the buccaneer wifi during the initial setup and configure it to connect to your home wifi. Once that is done, you can literally print from anywhere in your home. You can print up to a size of 13cm x 9.6cm x 13.9cm and up to superfine print of 50 microns.

Cons

Let's look at the cons. Buccaneer doesn't have the power switch, you have to switch your main to turn on and off. You can only use the buccaneer software to print your project. The buccaneer software comes with the Pirate3D 3D library - Treasure Island that you can just select what you want to print but the models are quite limited. You can also download STL files from sites like Thingiverse and print using the buccaneer software, however it seems like the software have difficulties with complex model.

I understand that many people grips about having only be able to print PLA filament. I am actually fine with that since it is non-toxic and emits any smells unlike ABS, this is safer and cleaner for the house. Also, i need not worry about setting the temperature or any other parameters associated with some other 3D printers.

I have successfully printed many "junks" over the past few days from the STL files that I have downloaded from Thingiverse.

I have also encountered filament breakages in the guiding tube. This is easy to remove. However I did encounter some filament stuck in the extruder. Luckily Pirate3D did provide some videos in their YouTube channel to show you how you can clean that up using a T2.5 allen key.

So should you buy this? If you checks on the criteria below, then yes.

You want a small form factor 3D printer. It is 25.8cm (L) x 25.8cm (W) x 44cm (H).
You want the hassle free of meddling with the temperature, material settings etc.
You want peace of mind.

Is Apple Watch Series 2 GPS really working?

2017-03-17T23:38:00.000+08:00

I have been actively using Apple Watch 2 Nike Plus for my running activities for a few months. I usually run with my iPhone as well just in case that I have an emergency need to make a call for help. I wasn't aware of the negativity of the Apple Watch 2 (AW2) GPS since the Nike+ Run Club (NRC) App recorded and tracked my running route pretty good, though not as accurate as my Fenix 3 HR but acceptable.

Recently there are a few occasions that I ran without my iPhone. On syncing the data after each run, I found out that there is some issues with the AW2 GPS. Without the iPhone, it seems that AW2 GPS randomly tracked the route. The starting point and ending point is also inaccurate.

This is extracted from the Nike+ Run Club app. The starting/ending points are wrong, and so is the route.

This is extracted from the Garmin Connect app. It correctly tracked my route and also the starting/ending points.

As you can see from the screenshots that I have captured from the NRC and Garmin apps, AW2 GPS tracking are way off. Though the distance tracked is more or less correct.

I sent my AW2 back to Apple Authorized Service Center in Singapore to complain about the GPS. They did a software diagnostic and said that the GPS sensor is working and that the GPS is used to track the distance and not the route... Errrrr.... *Face Palmed* I referred the service agent to http://www.apple.com/apple-watch-series-2/ to show him that Apple marketing material indicated that you can see a map of your route blah blah. Only then he said that they will retain the watch for further diagnostic. I have not got back my AW2 yet, will update further.

Pairing Withings Steel HR with an iPhone

2017-02-26T19:40:00.001+08:00

Here's a short video on how to pair your Withings Steel HR with an iPhone. The entire process is seamless except for the fact that you have to register a Withings account.

Check out the video here!

Unboxing Withings Steel HR

2017-02-26T19:33:00.000+08:00

I have managed to get the Withings Steel HR shipped from Amazon to Singapore. It took about 3 weeks for my order to arrive, is it worth the wait? You bet!

Here's a video of my unboxing!

Enjoy! Do check out my other post on setting up the watch with my iPhone.

DJI Mavic Pro - A Novice Take!

2017-02-19T13:52:00.002+08:00

This is the first time that I have had a chance to fly a drone, and it's the DJI Mavic Pro. I have heard and read a lot on the DJI Phantom drones, about how good and easy it is. However this is my virgin flight and encounter with one. So how does it goes?

I have recorded my first YouTube video review and hope you all will like it.

Design
The compact and foldable design of the DJI Mavic Pro makes it easy to carry around. I simply slot it in my backpack, goes to work and fly it off during my lunch hours.

DJI Mavic Pro is a very compact drone

The Flying Experience
DJI Mavic Pro has the beginner mode. Taking off is simply tapping on the take off button. The system will launch and fly the drone to a height of 1.2 meters. From there, you can take control and fly it further up.

Given that you are flying in beginner mode, DJI has make it such that the drone can only goes up to a height of 30 meters and within a radius of 30 meters from where you take off. This is to ensure that you are always having a line of sight and peace of mind.

Controlling Mavic Pro in beginner mode is a no-brainer

Once you are up in the sky, controlling the with the flight controller is easy. The left joystick allows you to rotate the drone in any direction that you want it to be while also allowing you to control the height of the drone. The right stick gives you the options to command the drone forward or backward.

Control the angle of the camera will take some times to get use to. There is a dial on the right-front side of the controller that allows you to control the angle of the camera - up or down. And there is also a physical button for you to activate the video recording.

The controller

To land, I simple tapped on the landing button and the drone will slowly reduce its' height and landed on the ground.

Active Tracking
Active tracking is pretty precise. Once activated, it follows your subject closely. I did encounter an issue where the active tracking was suspended when the drone detected an aircraft nearby. It stopped moving from it's position and hovered on the spot for you to take control. There seems to be some kind of intelligence built-in to avoid any interference with the aircrafts.

Obstacle detection is also quite on the spot. I tried to "crash" my drone onto the tree, but the controller alerted me of an obstacle ahead while the phone vibrated. It will not let you fly near any object within a meter away in beginner mode (I assume...)

Overall Experience
The overall experience for a novice pilot is good. I would highly recommend you to get a good drone like this to enhance your flying experience!

Getting Watch Maker and third party watch faces to work on an iOS connected Android Wear

2016-03-26T22:35:00.001+08:00

Many people loves their Apple Watch, so do I. As Android Wear improves over the past year, we started to take it seriously. I have got an Huawei Watch with cool round 400x400 pixel AMOLED display. It looks like a traditional watch with a glance at it. The cool thing about having an Android Wear is that you have access to tons of cool watch faces. Apple Watch is limited by the fact that it has limited selection build by Apple, no developer has been given access to build any watch face for it.

You must be wondering how do you connect your Android Wear to iPhone and get access to third party watch faces. The Android Wear iOS app provided by Google provides access to some limited selection of watch faces, you can't use any of those that are out there on the internet developed for Watch Maker or Facer.

Thanks to Kevin from XDA Forum, you are in luck now.

You can now install third party watch faces on your Android Wear and get connected to iPhone for notifications and Google Now. It may not be straight forward but it's easy enough. Since the original instructions is too long winded and kinda incomplete, I have decided to put it up here in a simpler steps for everyone that are interested to follow.

Before you can proceed, the process only works if your watch charger has those 4 pins type of connection. So far I only know of Huawei Watch and LG Urbane. Also you will need to have an Android phone or an emulator.

To keep the story short, here are the steps:

Preparation Works

A. Connect Android Watch to your iPhone

1. Download Android Wear from the App Store.

2. Once installed, run the app and follow the instructions to connect to your watch.

B. Install Android SDK on your Mac

1. Go and download Android Developer Studio from here.

2. Install on your mac.

3. On first install, it will prompt you to install the Android SDK.

4. Proceed to download and install.

C. Enable ADB Debugging option on your Watch

1. Go to Setting | About then tap on the Build Number 7 times until you see that the "Developer Mode" is enabled. Go back to Setting and you should see a Developer Options. Go in there and Enable ADB debugging. Tap OK when prompted for Allow Debugging.

2. Once done, connect your charging cable to the mac USB port and your watch.

Getting Watch Maker and the Watch Faces

This step can either be performed on an Android phone or an Android Emulator. In my steps below, I will be using an Android phone but the steps are identical.

1. Download Watch Maker Premium on your Android phone from the Play Store. You will have to pay for this.

2. Go to http://facerepo.com and download the watch faces that you need and install it on your Watch Maker. My recommendation is to download everything that you need to save future troubles.

3. Download AirDroid on your Android phone. Open it and enable it. Then go to your mac and type in http://web.airdroid.com to connect to your phone. You will need to register and sign in on both of your device. It's free for the first 30 days.

4. Go to the Apps folder once your login to AirDroid. Look for WatchMaker Premium and download it to your mac.

5. Go to the files folder.

6. Look for SDCard and then BeautifulWatches folder. Download the entire folder as a BeautifulWatches.ZIP.

7. Rename the WatchMaker Premium_3.9.9.apk to WatchMaker Premium_3.9.9.zip.

8. Extract the file to a folder.

9. Go to /res/raw folder and copy the android_wear_micro_apk.apk to your mac.

10. Extract your BeautifulWatches.zip file to a folder.

11. Maintain the root BeautifulWatches folder name. I put the entire folder in my download folder.

12. Delete the following folders:

a. .temp (this is hidden, see below for instructions to remove it)
b. export
c. featured
d. preview
e. preview_dim
f. preview_mini
g. share
h. wallpaper_bg

and the file .DS_Store (this is hidden, see below for instructions to remove it)

12A. Rename preview_small to preview_mini

13. To delete the hidden folder, open the Terminal app on your mac.

14. Type "cd /users/your username/Downloads/BeautifulWatches/.temp"

15. Type "rm -rf *"

16. Type "rm -rf .*"

17. Type "cd .."

18. Type "rmdir .temp"

19. Type "rm -rf .DS_Store"

Final Step

1. Go to Terminal.

2. Type export PATH="/Users/your username/Library/Android/sdk/platform-tools":$PATH
Repeat this command overtime you re-open your terminal to ensure that your path to ADB command is available. Or use this command when you get an "adb command not found" error message.

3. Type "adb -d devices" and you should see your watch listed.

If you see that it is unauthorised, try enable and disable the ADB Debugging on your phone, then select OK when prompted for "Allow Debugging"

4. Go to your /Users/your username/Downloads folder

5. Now you have to install Watch Maker on your Android Wear now. Type "ADB -d install -i slide.watchFrenzy.premium android_wear_micro_apk.apk"

6. You should see a success message.

7. Wait for 5 to 10 seconds and then tap on your watch to set the Watch Maker as your watch face.

8. Type "adb -d push BeautifulWatches ./sdcard/"

10. It will take a few seconds to copy the folder from your mac to the watch.

11. Once you see the successful message, you can type "adb -d reboot"

12. When the watch is rebooted, you can tap on the watch maker face to change to the desired watch faces that you have downloaded earlier!

Happy Changing Watch Faces! If you have benefits from my simpler instructions and would like to contribute to my writing hobby, please donate any amount via Paypal to ptan218@gmail.com. Thank you.

Apple Watch versus Tom Tom

2015-05-07T23:09:00.004+08:00

Today I took Apple Watch and Tom Tom Multi-Sports Cardio (TT) for a run. I left my iPhone at home as I have ran with Apple Watch pairing the iPhone for the past 2 activities.

Here's the result:

Apple Watch tracked my distance at 3.07km while my trusted TT recorded 2.81km. A difference of 260m. Given that Apple Watch does not have access to the iPhone GPS, this is acceptable.

The average heart rate recorded by both watches is the same at 133bpm. The calories burnt on TT shows 179 calories while Apple calculated at 160 calories.

I would consider Apple Watch good for casual fitness folks but I will still go with my TT for any serious exercise.

Distance and Pace Tracking of the Apple Watch

2015-04-29T22:18:00.004+08:00

I have been using Map My Fitness (MMF) and TomTom (TT) Multi-Sports Cardio for quite a while. I love my TT very much except for an irritating sync bug between TT and MMF. I will go into that some day. Today I have got my 38mm Apple Watch Stainless Steel with a black Sports band delivered. While everyone mentioned that the 42mm is small enough to fit everyone, I find that 38mm fits even better. It's probably that I have a small wrist. Unlike my Pebble, Apple Watch is so comfortable that I had never once take out from my wrist.

38mm fits nicely on my small wrist.

My post today is comparing the accuracy of MMF and Apple Watch. I ran a 3.2km route at my usual pace. Here's the result.

Result from MMF

MMF recorded me running 3.28km at a pace of 5:52km/min.

Result from Apple Watch

Apple Watch recorded me running 3.08km at 5:54km/min.

In terms of pace, they are pretty close. Let's check out the route. According to Singapore's OneMap measurement, it should be 3.28km.

OneMap.sg measurement shows that my route should be 3.28km.

Thus MMF is pretty spot-on on the distance. Strangely, both the MMF and Apple Watch are using the iPhone GPS, how can the distance be that different?

TT tracking from a previous run

TT measured the distance at about 3.21km from a previous run. Both MMF and TT recorded a burn rate of about 201-202 calories while Apple Watch recorded a burn rate of 148 calories from the same distance ran.

So who's right?

My next run will be with TT and Apple Watch for a more accurate representation.

My Quick and Simple Review of Fitbit Surge

2015-03-12T20:37:00.001+08:00

I received my Fitbit Surge a few days ago from Amazon. It comes with a simple packaging that contains the quick guide, charging cable, bluetooth dongle and the device itself.

Setting up the device to pair with an iPhone is quick and easy. All you'll need is to download the Fitbit app from the Apple AppStore. I will not go into the detail of how to setup as there are many guides on the internet that will guide you through it.

The device looks simple and clean. The band is made of elastomer material which is soft, flexible and comfortable for daily wear. Controlling the device is by swiping left and right on the touch screen to cycle through the clock, steps, floors, calories burnt and heart rate. To go into the Settings and Exercise mode, you will need to press the left button and then followed by swiping to select the desired option. It is not too complex for anyone using this device. The device also provides simple notifications of SMS/iMessage and phone calls.

I took the device for a run and test it against my TomTom Multi-Sports GPS watch. I love how the Surge displays the information during your exercise. You can swipe left and right during your activity to see your pace, average pace, heart rate etc. And by the way, I love my TomTom too. :)

The end result for Fitbit isn't too good though. First of all, the Surge took almost 3 minutes to acquire the GPS signals while the TomTom took about 30 seconds. The next most important issue is that the Surge's GPS is not accurate. I was running on the pavement along the road, but Surge shows me running like a drunkard man. TomTom mapped my route very well.

Fitbit Surge showed me running off the road

TomTom showed precisely where I am running

Fitbit Surge measured me running for 5.40km while TomTom indicated that I have ran for 4.97km. TomTom is correct. I did a route measurement using OneMap and it showed that my route should be around 5km.

OneMap shows that my running route should be about 5.056km

When the distance measurement is off, my pace will be off too. It is off by about 30 seconds on Fitbit. However both Fitbit and TomTom show my average heart rate at 142bpm.

As I live in Singapore and bought the set from American off Amazon, I am not sure if the GPS is tuned for our region. Other than that, I have no other complains.

My first impression of iPhone 6

2014-09-20T14:20:00.001+08:00

This is not a review of iPhone 6. If that's what you are looking for then you are at the wrong place. If you want an honest opinion of a normal user of iPhone 6, then read on.

Overall the iPhone 6 is impressive! However it do have its shortcoming.

First of all, for an Asian that has a smaller Palm like me, 4.7" is considered big to use with one-handed most of the time. Note the phrase "most of the time" here. I can hold the phone with one hand and type if most of the time, but when I need to touch the top of the screen, I double tap the home button to bring down the screen. Unfortunately the screen move about 2/5 down this I have to re-adjust my grip to touch the top elements.

By doing so, it increases the drop rate of the iPhone, which I call it "dropability"! If there's a reachability, then there will be a dropability.

A Quick Look into the Beautiful iPhone 6

2014-09-02T21:33:00.001+08:00

There have been many leaks of iPhone 6. It doesn't look attractive until the high quality detail leaks in the past 2 days. The assembled 4.7 inch space gray iPhone 6 looks beautiful indeed!

The LCD glass is curved at the edges towards the unibody body.

Space gray iPhone 6 is beautiful even with the plastic banding

The protruded camera is enclosed with a chromed (or liquidmetal) ring. It blends nicely with the space gray body.

Look at the iPhone 6 LCD (right), it almost touches the edge of the body.

iPhone 6 4.7" is thinner than iPhone 5/5s

iPhone 6 is slightly taller than iPhone 5/5s

It's slightly larger than a iPhone 5/5s but it definitely feels more comfortable.

A Working iPhone 6

2014-08-30T18:21:00.003+08:00

With all the leaked parts for iPhone 6, this company did manage to successfully assembled a working iPhone 6. It did power up, except that booting to the Connect to iTunes screen.

Check it out here:

What's Wrong With Xiaomi?

2014-08-20T16:25:00.000+08:00

MIUI 6 has been announced! It's astonishing that it's design language is almost replica that of Apple! When Mi Pad was announced, Hugo Barro mentioned "If you have two similarly skilled designers, it makes sense that they would reach the same conclusion," he argues. "It doesn't matter if somebody else has reached the same conclusion" about, for example, a 4:3 screen ratio being preferable to the more cinematic 16:9 that most Android tablets offer. Mi is focused on making the best products that it can and refuses to shy away from a good idea just because Apple might have done it already. "We're not copying Apple's products. End of story." Does that means that they have almost an entire team that have the similar creativity and skill set to those from Apple? From their products, to their OS layer and their website? This cannot be coincidence...

iPad Mini

Mi Pad

Let's take a look at some of the screenshots of MIUI 6 versus that of iOS 7.

Settings, MIUI6 (left) vs iOS7 (right)

Search, MIUI6 (left) vs iOS7 (right)

Calendar, MIUI6 (left) vs iOS7 (right)

Calculator, MIUI6 (left) vs iOS7 (right)

Mi's products' main selling point is cheap and value for money. They shouldn't have to try to imitate Apple in doing their products, website and even their presentation. In China, there are many skilful and creative people, they can definitely do one better than Apple!

Xiaomi's Leijun with his One More Thing in recent presentation...

Jobs' One More Thing in his trademark presentation...

Xiaomi Mi-3 Review Part 2 - The OS, MIUI

2014-03-24T21:27:00.001+08:00

Introduction
I have been an iPhone user since the first generation was released in the United States. Having been accustomed to the way iPhone works for more than 7 years, it makes switching to an alternatives an uphill task. During the past few years, I have tried Samsung Galaxy, HTC One and Windows Mobile but weren't able to convince myself for the switch. Hardware speicifcations on these phones are always almost impressive but none impressed me in terms of their Android customisations.

Not till I met MIUI last year when I was in China.

MIUI

The familiarity of MIUI makes me take another look at Android. MIUI turns Android inside out. You will get familiar and settle down with it easily. MIUI is no simple copy of the Apple iOS. It offers enough unique features of its own to distinguish between itself, iOS and the rest of the Android world.

MIUI put an emphasis on the visual appeal to the Android ROM. Whether it be its transparent portions, the Gaussian blur, animations or even the color scheme, MIUI has the entire package yet doesn't appear overloaded. It is pleasing for the eyes if you happen to like its bright and playful look.

MIUI has an app for pretty much every area of use just like iOS, with something extras. It has Notes, Virus Scanner, Usage monitor for mobile data, app permissions, compass, voice recorder and flashlight to name a few. Not only do the apps look great, they offer a great range of functionalities.

One of the feature that I find it useful is the phone recorder, you can record your conversation directly from the phone app.

The phone dialer is great especially for those iOS user. The dialer pad is context sensitive, you can either hit the number that you wanna call or just enter the name using the dial pad conveniently without having to search for them in the Contacts.

MIUI offers a truck load of themes. To download and use new designs though, you'll be forced to set up the free Xiaomi account. If you don't like the default bright and playful look, you can always find something that you like here and applies the theme that changes the entire look and feel of your user interface in the blink of an eye. This is what iOS users had missed all these years.

Bugs/Issues
There are a multiple of bugs/issues with MIUI due to its deep customisations. 4 notable bugs/issues are the SMS, auto-correction, camera Selfie and HDR option.

SMS
This is a major bug and issue. If you try using those one-time pin issued by the bank such as DBS, you will never receive the SMS. Those 3D-Secure pin by the banks can never reach you too. If you intend to use MIUI, have a hot standby phone.

Auto-Correction
As you type along and make a spelling mistake, you would most likely touch on the word to make the correction. At this instance, a row of suggested words are displayed above the keypad along with suggested words on the pop-up. If you tap to select any of the word in the pop-up, the app will quit unexpectedly. The workaround is to tap the back key and select the suggested word from the row above the keypad. This is irritating if you have type a long sentence.

HDR
The HDR option to shoot an object back off a brightly lit background is really bad. See the photo for yourself below. This should be something basic, and shouldn't have happen.

Selfie
All your selfie taken are mirrored! Of course you can flip the photo after you have taken it, but it is very irritating.

Other Considerations
Memory Leakage
I realise that you can never get back your memory used in full. With 2G of RAM, you are good to start with about 1.2G after every reboot. As you use your apps, it will shrink down to about 800M even though you kill all the active apps.

Music Player
If you have ever play with the China ROM, you will realise that lyrics for your song are automatically sourced and displayed along when your song are being played. You can also search online for the song that you have wanted. Unfortunately in the International ROM, MIUI integrate the music player with Realplayer and it doesn't work as well as the China ROM does. There's no online streaming option too.

Video Player
The China ROM video player provides tons of video that you can stream online for free. This is not available in the International ROM due to legal and privacy issue. It's such a disappointment. Even though you can easily download other apps such as PPS.TV, PPTV and Souhu etc, but I am one who likes to use default apps.

RAW
Where is the RAW camera mode? It's one of the listed feature on their website and it's never found in the International ROM.

Bottom Line
MIUI v5 will be loved by everyone who wants to use the Android system but still likes the way iOS works. MIUI is beginner-friendly, yet offers some customisation options though not as much as a stock Android would. If Xiaomi could sort out the bugs, I wouldn't see why you wanna give it a miss.

Xiaomi Mi-3 Review Part 1 - The Hardware

2014-03-13T22:15:00.004+08:00

Introduction

Finally Xiaomi Mi-3 is launched in Singapore on 7th March 2014. The phone has been much talk about in the past few months. As you might already know, Xiaomi has been growing from strength to strength doubling it's sales year to year. Their phones have been selling like hotcakes and sold out every time it is out for sales in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. When they launched the Hongmi during the past 2 launches here in Singapore, it's sold out within minutes. Mi-3 launches this time round is no difference, it's sold out in 2 minute. Well, the number of Mi-3 phones put out for sales is unknown...

Design

First thing you will noticed when you get your Mi-3 is that the phone is beautifully packaged in a slim brown box. When you opened the box, you will see the much waited Mi-3.

Xiaomi’s flagship phone is an extremely slim and light device. It measures 5-inches with a thickness of a mere 8.1mm and weighing at only 145 grams. The design looks like a hybrid of Nokia Lumia 800 and Sony Xperia Z. The aluminium looking polycarbonate body looks good. Since it is not real aluminium, you wouldn't need to worry that it will get dents easily. The Corning Gorilla glass fronting the IPS LCD makes the screen looks gorgeous. The combination of the faux aluminium body and gorilla glass gives the phone a premium feel. My only grip is that the rectangular phone is a bit clunky and doesn’t sit well in my hands. I wish it had the slightly rounded corners of the Mi-2S.

Performance

The 16GB Singapore version of Mi-3 is equipped with a quad-core 2.3GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. Based on AnTuTu benchmark, the Mi-3 is ranked number one in terms of speed, easily outperforming high-end competing phones like Samsung Galaxy S4 and HTC One.

Video performance is as impressive. The phone plays 1080p video beautifully sharp and clear. Games from less graphics intensive one such Pet Rescue Saga to the heavily intensive one such as Real Racing 3 play smoothly and speedy. It is extremely responsive without any lag at all.

Battery life sits pretty well with me during the past 2 days. I had a full charge in the morning at 6:30am and by 9:30pm, I am left with 6% charge giving me about 15 hours of usage. During this time, I play about 2 hours of games on and off. I had my company push mails and I am checking the Straits Times breaking news regularly. In between, I had surf about an hour of internet and taking about 20 photographs. I also had the honour of demoing and introducing the phone to my curious colleagues.

Camera

Camera performance with the 13 megapixels Sony Exmor sensor under broad daylight is excellent. The camera has a bright f2.2 lens and a wide angle of 28mm. Even photo taken under undesired lighting condition didn't disappoint.

The photos shown below are taken from the Mi-3 without any editing other than the resizing.

In terms of the front facing camera, it is a 2 megapixel camera with the same bright f2.2 and 28mm wide lens as the rear camera. Ladies will love this front facing camera because the camera software provides an automatic brightening and smoothening of the skin tones.

Sound

The speaker of the phone is located at the bottom of the phone. When you are playing games or watching video in landscape mode, you will unintentionally covered the output and blocked the sound. Thus a earphones is necessary. This is where the Dirac SFX surround sound employed in Mi-3 comes in to optimise the audio output quality and provides theatrical like surround sound with your earphones. It is impressive!

Call/Data/GPS

Call quality is good with Mi-3. You can configure the phone to reduce background noise either by using the rear mic and/or main mic. The data connection is quite disappointing though. I kept having drop connection in 3.5G mobile network. However when it's not dropping, the HSPA+ speed is still acceptable.

5G and 2.4G wifi connection is fast without any issue.

The GPS locking is fast if you have a good network connection. Else it will take a much longer time to hook-up to the satellites. Also, I noticed that my GPS tends to "hang". This causes the compass app to fail to work, and also the camera app to hang as well. Only a reboot of the phone fixes the problem.

Maybe I might have a lemon...

NFC (updated)

This might not be a big thing, but Mi-3 has NFC built-in. The NFC chip is located around the mi logo on the back of the phone. I tested it with my Sony SRSTV5 speaker and it works seamlessly. I simply touch the speaker with the phone's back mi logo while playing my song and voila, the speaker is paired and the sound plays out from the speaker.

Wrap-up

The Mi-3 is a premium Android that performs exceptionally beyond the S$419 no-contract price that you have paid. It makes one wonder why Samsung Galaxy, Sony Xperia and HTC One with equivalent specs are slapped with a premium price range.

If you are not put away by a 5-inches screen size big phone and the lack of LTE, you should look no further.

I will provide a review of the OS in my next write-up.

A non-techie review of Pebble

2013-03-19T23:03:00.001+08:00

After waiting for more than 5 months, my Pebbles have finally arrived. From the mailing packaging, it seems that it has been sent locally in Singapore.

Opening the mailing package, I was presented with Pebble's brown cardboard packaging with basic information printed on in black.

There is a "zipper" on the side of the package where you tear off to review your newly acquired smart-watch and a magnetic USB charging cable layout in white preformed plastics. Nothing to shout about the design of the packaging, it's akin to that of Amazon Kindle Fire packaging.

You might already have the Pebble app installed either on your iPhone or Android smartphone. If not, head to App Store or Play Store to download it. Before you proceed to launch the app, power up the watch by pressing the left button (the lone button on the left). Once powered up, go to your phone Bluetooth setting to pair up the devices. When done, you can launch the app. It will prompt you to download and update the firmware for Pebble. The app will also provide you with additional watch faces that you can install later. Updating the firmware and installing the watch faces is a breeze.

Pebble is charged using the provided magnetic USB cable. Just plug the USB end to any iPhone charger or computer and stick the magnetic end to the charging contact on the left side of the watch to charge your Pebble. Pebble will not indicate that it is charging the watch or if its fully charged. That is quite an annoyance but I believe that it can be fixed with a firmware update.

The quality of the watch material and made is average, not exceptional. It's plastics after all. I am not really convinced that the watch lens is scratch-proof. However I have been using it for a week, so far no scratches on the lens yet. Navigational wise, the top left of the button is the back/power button, bottom left is the charging contact. On the right, you have the up/down scroll button with the select/enter button in the middle. The back of the watch has the Kickstarter Edition wording engraved on it. Unlike earlier prototype where the serial number is a cheap sticker, the actual watch engraved the text on it

Even though the watch looks big, it fit well on a ladies hand. As the back of Pebble is flat, it doesn't really feel comfortable wearing for long hours, but it isn't that bad either. Pebble attracts a lot of attention, people around me has been asking about this special (or maybe weird) looking watch. When I told them that it can alert you of phone calls and display SMS and emails, most of them would ask how do they get one. This shows that people are generally interested in this type of smart watch. Most of them really like the text watch face. The fact that you don't need backlight for Pebble's e-paper display under normal light condition make the text display really cool. When it gets dark, you can flick your wrist to activate the backlight to view the time or messages. It as a built-in accelerometer.

I have used Pebble with 2 different OSes - iOS and Android.

In iOS, it can displays SMS and email messages. When calls come in, it will alert you which you can choose to answer or reject the call. If you answer the call, you must talk using your phone. During the 3 days usage, I get constant Pebble disconnection alert from my iPhone. I have to launch Pebble app everytime to reconnect the watch to my iPhone.

On an Android, Pebble will only display SMS notification with no message preview using the official Pebble app. When call comes in, the accept or reject doesn't work. The good thing about Android is that it is an open source OS, developer can create wonderful solution. One of those is Pebble Notifier. You can get it from the Play Store. With is app, you can setup your Pebble to display messages from email, SMS, Whatsapp, Kakaotalk, Line and many more. I really love Pebble pairing with my Android phone. And you get much lesser disconnection of Pebble from your phone in android too.

So would I recommend Pebble? It's cool and since we do have any better alternatives at this moment, I would say Yes. It's even better for women who mostly had their phones in the handbags. They will never missed any messages or phone calls from their love ones.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

iPhone 5 is fastest smartphone!

2012-09-23T22:34:00.000+08:00

In my earlier blog, I mentioned that iPhone 5 edge out Samsung Galaxy III slightly. Someone wrote and argue with me that the result is fake because iPhone 5 has not been released yet. She pointed me to an article that doubt the authenticity of the result.

Well, now that the iPhone 5 is out, and the moment of truth... iPhone 5 is indeed the fastest smartphone in land. Not only that, an iPhone 4S upgraded to iOS 6 is also on par with a... quad core Samsung Galaxy S III!

Click here for the full report.

iPhone 5 edge out S3 slightly...

2012-09-17T21:38:00.000+08:00

For all the boosting of quad core processor from Samsung Galaxy S3, it still doesn't beat a dual core A6 processor from Apple. Check out the geekbench result below:

First Look at iPhone 5

2012-09-07T00:07:00.002+08:00

The rumours mills are working extremely hard this year. Parts of iPhone 5 have been all over the place. The final assembly of the physical phone was out even before Apple sent out the media invitation for 12th September 2012.

My first reaction to the design of iPhone 5 is... disappointed! Don't poke me, I am really disappointed and disgusted that after having the same iPhone design (4 and 4S) for the past 2 years, we are getting the same look and design again for the next one year. I mean same design but slightly thinner and longer phone. If you have not seen the iPhone 5 before, check out the video here:

Android owners will be laughing at us for having the same phone for 3 years. Apple is not moving, or are they complacent since SJ passing?

What's the purpose of having a 4 inches screen bearing a 16:9 ratio and having a weird resolution of 640 x 1136? We can't really think of what's Apple's plan with that.

To think of it again, I realised that I have wrong Apple.

What's Apple's design all about? If you were to look at the design of iMac, MacBook Pro and iPod, you will realise that the design of these products doesn't differ too much from it's predecessor. A 2007 aluminium iMac will almost look exactly like the current model. Ditto to MacBook Pro and iPod. Thus it wouldn't be strange that Apple decided to keep the changes to the design of iPhone 5 to the minimal. At least you will feel at ease with the new phone. Even with this larger 4 inches screen, the width of the phone remains unchanged. It will still be good for one-handed operation. You know what I mean if you have ever use a 4.5 or 5 inches Android phone.

With iPhone, it's all about the operating system - iOS. Everyone that owns an iPhone and tried an Android will know that. iOS is about simplicity. It's smooth and doesn't complicates. Thus the critical component of the iPhone 5 is not about the hardware, it's about iOS 6!

Let's see what surprise in iOS 6 that wasn't included in the beta for the developers! We are almost there! Just a week more to go.

Apple's Warranty Policy on iPad

2012-05-01T19:41:00.002+08:00

Recently my iPad suddenly refused to turn-on. Since it is under warranty, I decided to bring it down to the service centre for a repair (in Singapore).

To my shocks, the service centre refused to take in my iPad. The reason given was that I have dents at the corners of my iPad. I argued that the iPad has had dents all this while and was still working well, the fault is not related to the dents. However, the service centre stands by their policy.

Apple replaces a faulty iPad under warranty and does not repair them (at least in Singapore). This could have resulted in abuse by Apple users to replace their badly deformed iPads by faking some faults.

I am not asking Apple to replace my iPad. I just need them to rectify the fault. They can give me back the iPad in whatever condition that I have given them after they have repair it. Nobody has asked for a new replacement, it is their policy of not repairing the iDevice but replacing it.

Update: Apple has been good. They have excellent customer service and support. They have spoken to me, and had make an exception to replace my iPad for free! I doubt any other companies could emulate what Apple have done!

Samsung Galaxy Note

2012-01-13T20:26:00.060+08:00

I have been very fortunate to get this hot gadget - Samsung Galaxy Note. Android is the third mobile OS that I have been playing within the last 2 months. I have had a Nokia N9 (Meego) and a Lumia 800 (WP7) prior to this. So how does it fare? I will give you my short personal view.

Let's talk about the hardware. Galaxy Note is a fantastic device with 5.3" AMOLED display and a resolution of 1280x800 pixels. It features more pixels than an iPad. The brightness and color is fantastic. Except that there seem to be a slight bluish hue on the screen. It is running on dual core processor with a 1GB RAM and an internal storage of 16GB. You can add a 32GB SDHC microSD if you needed extra storage. On paper, this monster should fly.

The 5.3" size doesn't suit everyone though. However I find that it is not too big either, and it is quite comfortable to make calls but with lots of stares from people with around you. For my general usage of phone calls, messaging on SMS and WhatsApp, less than 15 minutes of web surfing, I find that the battery barely last me a day. I have to do in-between charges in the office.

In terms of UI, Samsung has put in their defacto TouchWiz UI on top of Gingerbread. Compared to other Android makers, the TouchWiz is good. You can have up to 7 pages to put in your shortcuts and widgets. However there's no way to create folders unless you decided to install third party launcher such as GO Launcher. Being Android and open, you can replace everything from Messaging app, Keyboard and Locker screen. There's no end to it.

In terms of input, the default Samsung keyboard lacks Chinese input. You can switch to Swype keyboard for Chinese input. I find that the keypress pop-up and word replacement/completion is kind of clunky. I do not know what's the cause given that it has powerful processor, I will attribute that to the OS deficiency.

In terms of camera, it takes good photo generally. However I find that it still lags by a fraction of a second between the time you press the shutter and the photo being captured. Could be an OS issue too.

I always wonder that with a high penetration rate of Android adoption should comes high internet traffic for Android browsers but it doesn't seems so. iOS's Safari is the king, capturing more than 70% of the internet traffic. I'd never know why but now I do know the reason. It is lousy internet surfing experience even on the gorgeous Note's screen and resolution. The zooming in and out of a web page is unnatural. Double tapping on a column doesn't zoom directly into it but sort of wobbles into that section. Scrolling up and down the zoomed in column is the worst. It moves laterally left-right as well. Unlike in iPhone, scrolling up and down of a zoomed in column will only move up and down. The web pages load generally fast. But if there's a flash component on the site, you will find that the page crawls. I can simply say that Mobile Safari on iPhone is the best mobile browser!

The device is responsive, however it may be slow at times and that's when you will have to start your Task Manager to clean up the memory. That reminds me of the old Windows Mobile 6.x and earlier days.

Overall, if you are an Android fan, you will love this monster. However if you comes from an iPhone environment, I can simply tell you that your iPhone is still the best. Even though the iOS UI looks a bit dated (being 5 years old), iOS5 on an iPhone 3GS should easily beat this device on Gingerbread.

Good about Note
* Big screen and easy on the eyes;
* Easy to type;
* Many customizations available;

Bad about Note
* No chinese input on default Samsung keyboard. You'll need to use swype or download third party keyboards. You might also like Google Pinyin IME which I do not like because it shows a chinese character (前往) for the Enter key be it I am typing in English or Chinese;
* Default Internet Browsing is not natural; Scrolling up and down a zoomed column moves the page laterally left and right as well. Best alternative is Firefox but unforunately it doesn't utilize the GPU and thus page rendering is slower and sucks battery;
* RAM is quickly chewed up by apps that you run, and also the background running apps. You will need to access Task Manager frequently;
* Sound volume is soft.
* Battery doesn't last the full day; but so is my iPhone.
* Android Market lacks quality apps. And there are porn apps available.

Ants Attack for iPhone/iTouch

2011-12-22T15:48:00.000+08:00

My 4-year old son was afraid of ants. He would scream every time an ant crosses his path, no matter how tiny it is. I thought why don't I create virtual ants, let him squeezes it and kill his phobia. He felt bored shortly after that.

I thought if I could bring in something interesting, it might attracts and retains his attention. It did but I felt bored... I pondered for a while to get myself interested. You need some challenges. So there came the Ice for freezing and halting the ants, and the bomb to help you kill all the ants. And there are obstacles (in terms of trashes) that obstruct you from kill the ants. If 3 tiny ants get away from you, there is it - Game Over!

And to add more challenges and fun to it, the ants will drop thumb pins that will prick you and kill you instantly.

That's how the story and the gameplay are formed. It is simple enough for casual play yet challenging enough to keep retain.

I hope to have your support so that I will have more motivation to work on future titles.

A video of the gameplay here.

Thank you for your time.

My take on Nokia Lumia 800

2011-12-12T17:05:00.003+08:00

Nokia Singapore has launched Lumia 800 last Wednesday. It's the company first Windows Phone 7 having abandoned Symbian and Meego earlier during the year. How does it goes for them?

Nokia Lumia 800 is a quality-made product. It is "carved" out from a single piece of plastic, or I should said polymer. The OLED is fantastic with a ClearBlack display on a corning's gorilla curved glass. Touching and sliding on the glass is great. It has 3 buttons - the volume, standby/on-off and camera. On top on the phone is the micro-usb connector for charging and data transfer covered by a pop-up door. It is using a micro-sim just like an iPhone 4/4S. Overall, the impression of the phone is great physically.

Lumia 800 is running WP7 Mango. I will not go into the detail of the OS as this is written all over the internet. I will provide my short take on the experience in the 5 days that I have using it.

The WP7 OS is incredibly slick most of the time but launching an app takes a while especially for those that utilize the wifi or 3G. Take for example, People - the program launch is quick but updating of information takes a while. Third party app fares worst. My favorite WhatsApp is slow is launching and refreshing of incoming messages. Games with graphics is also lagging, sometimes the graphics stutter... It makes my old iPhone 3GS looks so much better now.

As for Nokia Drive, it's a great product! However I did notice some issue. I can't seems to add a map. I tried downloading it but the system kept telling me that I need to connect to Wifi which I have already did. In any case, I am still able to drive around with it. Directions were given in clear and precise voice instructions. It is one of the better one that I have use.

The built-in battery just cannot last. I have a full charge overnight. In the morning, I replied some emails, played a game for about 10 minutes and sending many text messages using WhatsApp. Then I took a 20 minutes drive using the Nokia Drive. By 3:30pm, my battery is flat.

~~The strange thing is that emails from the internet does not allow download of images. There is no option to turn it on or off. It is so frustrating.~~ Updated: I was informed by microsoft that I have to physically tap on the white space that said Download Image to download the images.

Overall I would not recommend this phone yet unless you have money no where to spend and wanted a spare phone. Else still with your iPhone or Android for the moment.

A Short Review of Kindle Fire

2011-11-24T22:40:00.001+08:00

I received my Kindle Fire today. It came in a box made of recycled cardboard. Tear open the box and you will find the Kindle Fire and a charger underneath. No USB cable is provided.

It looks cool, small and light. The screen sharpness, color and brightness is fantastic. Capacitive touch screen is good and responsive. The keyboard is easy to type probably due to the 7" size.

I will not go into the rest where you have already read in other technical blogs or review. I will just give you my few cents of opinions.

1. Kindle Fire is laggy. Slow at times...

2. Due to the 7" size, net surfing is not comfortable. You will need to do a lot of scrolling.

3. The built-in silk browser is slow, you might want to consider Opera Mini.

4. If you are using the Fire outside US, you can't download Apps. This is restrictive and is odd considering that you are allow to purchase books.

Overall, it is still consider a value buy because where can you a tablet with a good LCD and touchscreen at USD199? It's a no brainer, but if you are looking at performance and comfortable usage then there is no other choice but the iPad.