My ceiling fan had always been switched on all the time. It’s the jack-of-many-trades, useful in nearly every home space and in virtually every décor. It’s also a necessity for us to cut down on our utility bills, you won’t want to max out your bill charges don’t ya?

But yeah, my ceiling fan broke down today. What a pity, so I’m guessing we’re gonna go shop for a new ceiling fan now. I’ve been hearing those radio ads, KDK safety feature fans… Been researching about it and it looks pretty good. A consumer should purchase a fan that has a good motor, that is energy efficient and most importantly it is SAFE. So yeah, I’ve been thinking about that KDK fan.

What you guys think about it? Any of you have KDK fans at your home?

The Nokia Lumia 800 is the first child of the marriage of Nokia & Microsoft – the first true Windows Phone. Nokia Malaysia was kind enough to pass me a unit to try it out and what have I gotta say?

Simply Amazing.

Nokia Lumia 800 is a stylish and sleek smartphone with an easy-to-use & attractive user interface. It utilises ClearBlack display whose super bright display makes it perfect for people on the move. The AMOLED screen on the Lumia 800 is very nice to look at. It may not go as bright as S-LCD equivalents, but the colours are deep and lustrous and blacks are truly black.

It’s an amazing smartphone for social media addicts especially as it comes pre-loaded with Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms where you can integrate your phonebook contacts with their social media profiles and check their updates right from it. GPS is also available out of the box as its Nokia Maps is perfectly made for people who often gets lost in their way to a certain destination haha. It also has an extensive app library in the name of Windows Marketplace. Although not as extensive as Apple Store or Android Marketplace, they’re surely on their way there. Microsoft Office is also pre-installed in every Nokia Lumia 800 and it makes it convenient for people to check their documents/presentation slides/excel sheets/etc.

I’ve found the battery life to be no more than adequate. Even with no usage at all during the day, apart from being left on standby, I’ve seen the battery charge drop from 100% in the morning to 30% before the night ends. Some phone calls, web surfing and a few texts in the course of a day plus use of email account and social media updates have seen it drop down to 15% by early evening. But fret not, as I heard that Nokia came out with new firmware to help extend the battery life of the Lumia 800 (which I haven’t updated yet).

The Lumia has a well specified camera with 8 megapixel resolution via a Carl Zeiss lens and dual LED flash. It is also capable of shooting 720p videos. In common with other Windows Phone devices, the Lumia has a ‘touch to focus and shoot’ facility- tapping the subject on the screen can cause the focus to centre and then expose the shot automatically. Alternatively a half press on the camera button sets the focus and a full press takes the shot. My verdict for the camera? It shoots good daylight photos with natural colours (which is awesome), but in low light and macro shots, it definitely need more improvements as the camera from other major flagship phones out there definitely beat down the camera quality output from this Lumia 800.

Overall, the experience from the Nokia Lumia 800 is something worth holding onto. The Windows operating system itself is so engaging and enabling. This phone does pretty much everything you’d expect from a smartphone and more and it isn’t overly expensive either. It isn’t the lightest handset out there but its smooth curves make it a joy to hold. Yes, the phone has bearable imperfections but that’s how technology works anyway because you can’t have the perfect device otherwise there won’t be any upcoming better devices in future. That’s why Nokia is constantly providing support and pushing out fixes and updates.

Of course you may be too comfortable with your current iOS / Android platform, and I know that a change is sometimes too difficult to be made due to various factors. However if you don’t try to step out of your comfort zone, what would be your compasses towards future growth?

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Here are some of my peers’ feedback regarding the Nokia Lumia 800:

Paranoid activitiessss~

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Challenge 1 : FlyFM Ratatouille

Iskandar bidded for RM2525 to do the challenge… what’s the challenge? Easy only… heh

Within 40 seconds, Iskandar had to pick out the items on the list (5x 10cents coin, 3x hair pins, 2x wall plugs)

Too bad, he failed to finish on time. However he was given another 10 seconds to pick out the remaining and he managed to finish the task within 5 seconds!

Great job Iskandar, easy money for him as he brought home RM3000!

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Challenge 2 : FlyFM Torpedo Challenge

Renuga Devi had to finish a bowl of torpedo soup for RM2410. You know what’s ‘torpedo soup’ right? It’s… Ox’s penis!!! Ewww gurl.

She managed to finish the bowl of delicious torpedo soup without a problem and she got double dared to eat an extra ox’s tongue for RM3500!!

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Challenge 3 : FlyFM Happy Mansion

Ng Boon Teong bidded the challenge for RM1159, and his task was to walk in the ‘Happy Mansion’ @ Sunway Lagoon Scream Park confidently without fear. He had to grab 5x New Straits Times newspaper in the process as well.

He came out with 3 copies of News Straits Times and was challenged again to collect 2 more in 10 minutes with the condition that they will deduct RM100 for each paper if he don’t get it out. In the end, he only manage to get one paper out and lost RM100 which total up to RM1,059. Still quite a sum of money right, so easy weh!

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Challenge 4 : FlyFM Reverse Bungee

The starting bid for this challenge was RM8000, however the daredevil Abidah won the bid with only RM249! Damn girl, should have bidded higher haha.

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It was a fun and exciting week with exhilarating challenges! All thanks to Sunway Lagoon for providing the FlyFM crew the venue to carry out the stunts

If you still remember the show ‘Fear Factor‘ on TV where contestants had to complete extreme stunts, consume gross creature crawlies, face their nightmare experiences all in one show; now we have a somewhat similar local version of it and it’s on national radio.

FlyFM Paranoid Activity (co-organized by New Straits Times) offers up to RM40,000 for contestants who bid for the daring challenges each day to overcome their fears.

That’s a pretty huge amount of cash, eyh? Who says facing your fears isn’t worth it?

Here are some of the challenges during the past week:

Challenge 1 : FlyFM Paranoia’s Next Top Model

Zuhaili won the lowest bid at RM2 to take on the very first challenge of FlyFM Paranoid Activity.

His challenge was to pose in front of the camera… with reptiles/creatures! He seemed pretty comfortable with all the geckos, snakes and all because apparently he works in Sunway Lagoon Wildlife Park. However, he’s really afraid of spiders (hehe..)

At the end of the day, he managed to complete the challenge. Not only he got himself his RM2, but he also got an extra RM1000 for being double dared and being so sporting with the tasks although he has arachnophobia (fear of spiders)!

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Challenge 2 : FlyFM Brew of the Day

Chef Shamsudin blended a mixture of chicken liver, oats, milk, wasabi, milo, and egg plant for Sunny, FlyFM Paranoid Activity’s second contestant. The starting amount to bid was RM9500 and he won the bid for RM95.8! He thinks he can get it through easily just because he bid for 95.8 (FlyFM radio frequency)? Ha ha ha.

Well yeah, Sunny downed the first glass like a chanpion. He was then double dared to drink the same second glass in 60 seconds for RM1,500 and he walked away with RM 1,595.80 at the end of the challenge! Wow super easy money, me thinks.

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Challenge 3 : FlyFM Sniper on the Loose

As for this challenge, the contestant has to evade himself from being hit by the paintball. He has to run for his life and will lose RM100 for every shot he has on his body.

He got shot 5 times in 15 seconds, lol poor guy. However FlyFM was generous enough to give him a second chance! He was able to go through the entire shooting ground without getting shot and he walked away with RM1000 at the end of the day. Easy peasy!

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Challenge 4 : FlyFM Blindfolded Wheel

Muhammad Aizad took the challenge and he tried 5 times and failed. And as usual being the generous radio station, the FlyFM peeps decided to give him a second chance! He managed to go through 50m on a bumpy ground and walked home RM1000 richer on that day! Worth it, yes?

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Challenge 5 : FlyFM The Swamp

As for this challenge… ewww. Challenger Ruben Ravi Fernandez has to retrieve 15 earthworms within 5 minutes!

Although he failed the first 5 minutes challenge as the mud was too deep in, he got another chance to overcome his fear for worms. He managed to retrieve 13 worms during the second chance but an extra 30 seconds was given to him to complete the challenge (how kind FlyFM?).

At the end of the day although he didn’t really successfully completed the challenge on time, he still walked away with RM250 in his pocket yo!

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Tune in to the Pagi Rock Crew every Monday to Thursday from 6am to 10am, and listen as they reveal the challenge of the day and the starting price. Call in, or text FLY <space> PA <space> BID VALUE to 33399, and show them just how low you can go from the starting price to face your fears! The lowest bidder of the day will be the one that gets to execute the challenge. Bidding closes at 7pm daily, and another round will begin the next day.

That’s not all! Every Friday, there’ll be an unexpected Mystery Friday revealed in New Straits Times. Listeners have to grab a copy of the newspaper to find out what the challenge and starting price is, and the search for the lowest bidder will continue on air. The 5 lowest bidders at the end of each week will take on their fears on the ground, and must successfully complete the challenge that they bid for to walk away with that cash cow!

Stay tuned as I’ll update you on the second week of the FlyFM Paranoid Activity

Over 50 bloggers + media attended the grand launch whereby all of us witnessed a ‘Live Bidding’ auction. Members of the media had the opportunity to bid for an iPhone 4s!

What is Sold.My?

It’s an exciting, innovative and reliable auction website offering new products at bargain prices. Like super duper cheap okayy, you seriously should go check out the site as you can find the hottest tech gadgets, hotel stays, travel deals and many other interesting goodies up for grabs!

All auctions start from RM0.00 and all products are brand new & shipped directly from the relevant suppliers. Each time a person enters a bid, the current price increases by 15 cents and the time remaining increases by up to 20 seconds. When the timer reaches 0 seconds, the last successful bidder wins the right to buy the product at the final auction price (usually at 60 – 98% off the retail price).

“Tokens” are required to bid on the auctions. Each Token costs RM1.50 and can be purchased from My Page. Registration is fast, simple and free. No credit card information is required. We will give you 10 free Tokens with your first purchase of any of our Token packs. And unlike any other online auctions, you do not have to pay to place a bid and the bid price is 100% determined by you. At Sold.my, each bid uses one Token (RM1.50 each) and all bid prices start from zero with fixed bid price increments. This way, we are able to keep the final bid prices extremely low. Both auction types have timer elements; the only difference is that at Sold.my, the timer extends by up to 20 seconds whenever a bid is placed.

So yup, don’t miss out on all the exciting deals on SOLD.MY! Click click click

And since Borders is one of the many participating outlets for the BCard loyalty program, I decided to redeem a Moleskin for myself using the existing points in my BCard.

Sooo many types of Moleskin to choose from, all also sooo expensive! To be honest I’ve always thought Moleskin is just an overrated notebook that doesn’t worth the money spent buying it hahaha.

So, I went to the counter and asked if I could redeem my existing points in my BCard to purchase the Moleskin…

Fortunately they said yes! Happy because I managed to get a Moleskin without paying for it, all thanks to the accumulated BCard points woots!

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Shop and dine with BCARD at 300 stores nationwide!

Also, don’t forget to take part in the Bcard Swipe and Win contest from 2nd January 2012 to 29th February 2012 to win some cool prizes like an all expense trip to London!! Check it out on www.bcard.com.my for more details.

BCard hebattt!!

Besides that, I heard Thais are such nice people, all the time smiling and trying to help whenever they can. Friendly people makes me smile, when I smile it makes me happy, when I’m happy means my holiday travel is a great one!

All these factors just makes me wanna travel so badly; haven’t gotten to travel outside Malaysia (and Singapore) for quite a long time already because I could’t afford an overseas holiday as often as many other fortunate ones. If I were to, I would have to save up my own

But then again, I found out that VISA wants to bring people over to Thailand! They’re giving away a holiday trip in Thailand, just by entering the contest!

1. Check out this video of Matt Harding in Thailand:

2. Visit the contest site: HERE, click on the Enter Contest button, fill in the form, answer a simple question related to the video then tell them where is your favourite destination in Thailand and why.

It’s so easy that I’ve already joined it before I wrote this post… So, how about you?

Head on to HERE for more details!

May the last lucky man standing wins!

But… no Xbox 360 Kinect bundle

Instead, Nokia Malaysia is going to offer its first 100 customers who purchase a Nokia Lumia 800 at the exclusive launch event @ Pavilion KL with a FREE Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster + Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse + exclusive Nokia premiums worth up to RM1,000!

Wowowowowowow. Music freaks, rejoice! Nokia fans, rejoice!

If you’re wondering what’s so special about the Nokia Purity HD Stereo Headset by Monster, well probably because you haven’t heard of the discontinued partnership news between Beats & Monster… Now that you combine Monster’s recognition of superb audio performance with Nokia’s sleek design, it is one of the headphones which may attract the market segment of those who adores Monster Beats by Dr Dre headphones alike.

The Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse is also another great offering! Looking sleek, heard good reviews about it. If you’ve been looking for one, why not just get the whole Nokia Lumia 800 set? Superb deal, you know? :p

Can’t wait for the Nokia Lumia launch next Friday (10 February 2012) @ Pavilion KL!

Touched, fiddled, harrass played around with the Nokia Lumia 710 & Nokia Lumia 800 phone few weeks back @ Nokia HQ. I would say I think I love the integration of apps & the simplicity of the Windows Phone 7 Platform.

Hope to be able to get hold of the Nokia Lumia 800 once it is launched! Will you be getting one? Are you going to be the first 100 customers in line?

Not sure if you’ve read my past post regarding Petronas CNY event? I did mention that in line with its TVC as shown below, a photography contest themed ‘Reimagining Energy’, in collaboration with Leica Camera AG is also ongoing.

Here’s 4 extended version of the Chinese New Year TVC showcasing the casts from different countries coming home for CNY:

India

England

China

Malaysia

Back to the contest… Contestants have the chance to win exciting cash prizes and have their photographs exhibited at Galeri Petronas in KLCC. All YOU have to do is to submit snapshots of Chinese New Year celebrations that best portray the spirit of ‘Reimagining Energy’.

I had submitted mine! Did you spot it in the Petronas Photography Contest Facebook page? :p

The picture was actually taken during last year’s Chinese New Year, where I spotted a dragon dance troupe and I happen to have my camera with me. Took some snapshots here and there, who knew that I would be able to use one of the pictures I had taken for this Petronas CNY Photography contest? It suits the theme pretty well I’d say!

So, have you submitted yours?

I had previously updated about Ep. 1 Ben Spies & Ep. 2 Jorge Lorenzo; now it’s already on Ep. 8 which features the profile of the Petronas Syntium Moto Yamaha AHM riders!

It’s an online show showcasing the essence of the racing world & Petronas, hosted by the sassy Julie Woon. Check out some of the insights as well as getting to know the riders from Petronas Syntium Moto Yamaha AHM racing team, support Malaysian yo! Malaysia Boleh

Remember to check out PETRONAS MOTORSPORTS Facebook page to be updated with their latest campaigns & events, as well as the new videos uploaded on their YouTube channel too!