HTC Smart Review

Recently I got my hands on a brand new HTC Smart phone, and here is the review.

HTC Smart comes in a very small box. Great form factor.

The way the phone is packed seemed pretty efficient, you get the battery (in the phone) a charger, headphone and data transfer cable, and some instruction manuals.

This way of packing saves space!! You need to remove the plastic, and the battery can be used!

After inserting in the SIM card, here is the review!

The phone powers on, and the intro screen seemed pretty simple. The phone looks very basic and neat.

The back of the phone shows a neat 3.15MP Camera and flashlight...

The following are the specifications of the phone:

GENERAL	2G Network	GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
	3G Network	HSDPA 2100

SIZE	Dimensions	104 x 55 x 12.8 mm
	Weight	108 g

DISPLAY	Type	TFT resistive touchscreen, 256K colors
	Size	240 x 320 pixels, 2.8 inches
		- Sense UI

SOUND	Alert types	Vibration, MP3, WAV ringtones
	Speakerphone	Yes
		- 3.5 mm audio jack

MEMORY	Phonebook	1000 entries, Photocall
	Call records	Yes
	Internal	256 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM
	Card slot	microSD, up to 16GB, buy memory

DATA	GPRS	Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
	EDGE	Class 10, 236.8 kbps
	3G	HSDPA, 3.6 Mbps
	WLAN	No
	Bluetooth	Yes v2.0 with A2DP
	Infrared port	No
	USB	Yes, miniUSB v2.0

CAMERA	Primary	3.15 MP, 2048x1536 pixels, LED flash
	Video	Yes
	Secondary	No

FEATURES	OS	Brew Mobile
	CPU	300 MHz processor
	Messaging	SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
	Browser	HTML
	Radio	Stereo FM radio with RDS
	Games	Yes
	Colors	Black
	GPS	No
	Java	Yes, MIDP 2.1
		- MP3/eAAC+/WAV/WMA9 player - MP4/H.263/H.264/WMV9 player - Organizer - T9

BATTERY		Standard battery, Li-Ion 1100 mAh
	Stand-by	Up to 450 h (2G) / Up to 600 h (3G)
	Talk time	Up to 7 h 30 min (2G) / Up to 6 h 10 min (3G)

Here are a few points to note:

1) This phone runs on Brew MP (A Qualcomm OS)
2) It comes in 3 colors
3) This phone is cheap, even without a contract
4) On Brew MP, apps are hard to find and install.
5) The micro-SD slot is pretty nice to have, and allows songs, movies and photos to be stored easily.

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In terms of looks, size and feel of the phone, this phone looks pretty good from all angles, has a great form factor, and is relatively light.

The talk time and standby time is descent, and even when I am listening to music (the 3.5mm headphone jack comes in handy) the phone could easily last more than a day.

The phone functions are pretty basic. With 4 buttons below the screen, Call, back, cancel and menu, it is not very hard to use, and yet is enough to perform most tasks. Anyway, its a touch screen, and you use the screen to input other information.

The display is pretty sharp, even in bright daylight, you can view it. The HTC sense, is quite intuitive, however, without multitouch and finger gestures found in iPhone and WM 6.5, this phone functions as just a basic phone with a touch screen with nothing more.

The Smart supports 256MB ROM and 256MB RAM, but there's a microSD card slot for increasing storage space up to a maximum of 32GB. A nice touch is that the card slot is accessible without having to remove the battery.

It takes descent photos, though the camera does seem a little slow on the shutter, and the video mode is pretty bad.

With a dataplan, you can access friend feeds (Facebook and Twitter), Gmail and surf the web, though it is pretty slow. Still, for something basic, its not too bad.

Pros:
Flashlight mode
Good battery life
Cheap for a new handset
Stylish design
Compact form factor

Cons:
No Wi-Fi
No Exchange support
Poor browser
Slow data performance
No GPS or map application
No app store for adding functionality
Terrible shutter lag on camera
Low quality video recording

Basically, this is a low end smart phone. If you are just getting into using a smart phone, this is very much an entry level which can help you get used to the different features, and access some emails, and browsing.

Rating 5/10

-- Robin Low

#TweetMeetSG Review

TweetMeetSG event is for creating awareness for Infocomm Accessibility Centre (IAC) to make IT courses available to people with disabilities to bridge the digital divide and to increase the employment opportunities of people with disabilities.

This is a picnic at SMU Campus Green on 26 June, where everyone, regardless of abilities, will have the unique opportunity to interact with each other.

There are goodie bags, music, a tent and lots of equipment. Pretty standard stuff you will expect in an event.

Location:

SMU Campus Green
(located between School of Information Systems and Li Ka Shing Library)

+ The location is very centralized and easy to get to.

- Picnic area is on a muddy patch, not really suitable to sit on.

+ The location has electricity and necessary shelter for equipment.

- The muddy patch has a narrow walkway for handicap access, and it is otherwise inaccessible by wheelchair. (If a wheelchair is on the walkway, another one could not get by.)

Crowd:

A crowd of more than 400 people were expected, but the actual turnout seemed to be around 100 people, way below the expected turn out, though the weather was good.

There was ample supporters and handicapped people there to support the event, however, the participating people were not present. The event does not seemed to be promoted well.

I've asked many people at TweetMeetSG, and about 80% were apparently unaware that this was for a good cause until they arrived, and the #hashtag that was used was not very descriptive on what the purpose this event was for. I believe if the word got our properly, and if there was more time to promote the event, more people would turn up.

However, everything went smoothly, and there were only some minor hickups. In terms of getting the crowds to tweet and tell their friends about it, it was a breeze.

For a good cause, everyone is tweeting!

I would consider the event rather successful in getting corporates to sponsor products, however in terms of getting a crowd, it does some lack marketing and promotion to get to real crowds.

In Singapore, mobilizing crowds to meet for events on Twitter has been successful for smaller events like Twestival, however only the same group of bloggers and markets turn up. For the rest of Singapore, mainstream media still plays a big role.

However, I do believe in terms of word of mouth, this event will probably get descent coverage and people on Twitter would talk about IAC and spread the word of mouth.

I do hope attendees could recommend someone they know who is handicapped to IAC for training, and spread the word!

More information on IAC:

The Infocomm Accessibilty Centre (IAC) is Singapore’s first centre set up to provide training in infocomm technology for people with all disabilities types. It is specially equipped with a wide range of assistive technology devices to cater to the different needs.

IAC also works with the IT Apprenticeship Programme (ITAP) to further train disabled people for specific jobs so as to get them to be work ready.

For more information, please visit their site.

I wish the IAC success, all the best for your future endeavors!

-- Robin Low

Orchard River in Singapore

After an hour of rain or so, Orchard Road flooded.



This is the review of the flood that is still going on at Orchard Road in Singapore.



There are a lot of construction going on in Singapore, the new downtown line is getting built, and Singapore enjoys covering up the open drains, and even the Singapore river is no longer a river.

But now, we have a new river in Singapore -- Orchard River.

Video of Orchard River

Video of Orchard River 2

Video of Lucky Plaza, not so lucky now..

Singapore wants to be #1 in everything, We may have been #1 once in Port, Airport, Environmental Offender, Human trafficking, Table Tennis, etc.

With the success on Venice with their Gondolas, maybe Singapore may one day emulate it with the help of poor drainage systems and heavy downpours.

Pity that you will get wet if you are trying to enjoy a nice boat ride though, but I guess a slow boat ride down Orchard Road may prove to be a fantastic experience. Great transport experience when it rains, and then some shopping later.

Rating: 8/10

-- Robin Low

《福星到》Happy Go Lucky Movie Review

I was in Malaysia, on a late afternoon with nothing better to do, and I decided to waste a few hours and watch a movie, but since I have seen all the other movies, I watched Happy Go Lucky (2010) with a few friends.

The word waste is an understatement. This is my review.

This is first-time director Harry Yap’s new film, Happy Go Lucky -- How bad can it be?

Fann Wong and Richard Low are veteran Singapore actors, even with their experience in this overused genre of Singapore movie, can they save it?

To cut it short and save you from watching it, here is the story I've endured.

Happy Go Lucky revolves around a hardcore gambler, Hock Lee Poh (Richard Low) who is very superstitious and at the start of the movie, he was gambling during his wife's maternity and Fann Wong was born. With her cries as a baby, he lost a few bets and lost his car, and all his cash.

In a cut scene, a thief steals the god of fortune from the set of "Fu Lu Shou" and runs away.

Then it cuts to Fu Xing (Fann Wong), Hock’s daughter who works in a foot massage parlor. She is very serious about her job. Donna (Patricia Mok) Fu Xing's sister (from another mother) is her opposite, and she is lazy, and not concerned about her job, just partying all night.

Fu Xing was seen as the helpful one, who helps her neighbors collect old junk, and she paid $150 for some "antiques" and kept it for herself when her "friend's" wife is injured. All the other cast does not really appear in the movie again. In the junk, is the god of fortune that was lost.

Fu Xing works hard and and cooks at home, Donna and Hock complains about her cooking and does not eat. Hock seemed to be gambling all the time and whenever he curses in Hokkien, people seemed to relate and enjoy themselves, even when there was not much need to curse.

Hock has 2 gambling buddies who seem to not win much with him together, and they seem to lose a lot throughout the whole movie. Everyone in the movie seemed very superstitious and there are at least 3 scenes of different fortune tellers who came to give advice which did not matter in the movie at all.

Many characters in the movies are introduced, and their actions seemed inconsequential. When Donna met a "China" Gigolo, she became drunk and he took a lot of photos of her when she behaved like a slut, but never used them at all.

When Hock's friends borrowed money from loan shark, and lost in their gambling game, nothing seemed to happen as Hock won 2 million from a ticket Fu Xing bought.

Hock rapidly gambled away his fortune, and since he has always lost gambling for many years, I don't see why he was "sadder" than normal as it seemed that he had the money for such a short period, and he "gave" $400,000 to a prostitute and bought a Mercedes "S" Class.

Then Hock and Donna seemed to have "lost" everything within 3 months and left to gamble more in Cambodia. Their idea of losing everything was still able to bet US$50,000 and owning Rolex watches. They stole the "God of fortune" from Fu Xing, and brought it to Cambodia, and quickly lost it in a bet.

Fu Xing then comes to the rescue, and found her father and sister and returned to the casino to bet. Of course she won.

The story ends with Hock kinda learning his lesson, and no becoming a problem gambler anymore.

There was no plot, everything was expected. The casts besides the main cast do not add to the story, and the only jokes were the swears in Hokkien.

This is Super Weak.

-- Robin Low

Super Deal in Singapore

With the Great Singapore Sale around the corner, I discovered a new site in town -- superdeal.sg. Initially, it sounded kind of like a spam site when I was first introduced to it, but I actually found fantastic deals there!


Get your 20 SGD Ikea voucher for ONLY 9 SGD today. 55% Off!

Cathay Movie Tickets at 89% off! Get your 8.50 SGD voucher for ONLY 1 SGD today.

Grab your SGD$10 Coffee Bean Gift Vouchers at 75% Off in the next 24 hours!

Golden Village Movie Tickets at 89% off! Get your 9 SGD voucher for ONLY 1 SGD today.

Grab your SGD$10 Starbucks Gift Vouchers at 75% Off in the next 24 hours!

I've met the creators of the site, and their intention was to discover fantastic deals, and leverage the power of group buy, (buying in bulk) and then selling it at a great discount.

I thought I'd share the information with you.

If you want to know more, they even have a Facebook Group: http://groups.to/superdeal/

Too bad this is only available in Singapore, and hope it will be available in a town near you soon.

Please spread the news!

-- Robin Low

Wynn Casino in Macau

I visited Wynn Macau with my mother for Mother's Day on 9th May 2010.

The following is a review of the hotel.

Location:

Wynn is a 5 star hotel located at Rua Cidade de Sintra, Macau.

Location wise, this is a very nice location, beside MGM grand, near Sands Casino, Grand Lisboa, etc. It is quite centralized and convenient to get to. The shopping areas are close to get to, and Airport is about 10 minutes away by Taxi.

Tree of prosperity show.

This show is amazing. The detail on the ceiling and the dome is great. The ceiling depicts the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac and the dome has all the horoscope embossed on it. It is extremely detailed.

Facade:

The Wynn Hotel looks very impressive and fancy from the outside. When you enter the lobby, it looks great with lots of high end shopping. The hotel is fantastic, different from Las Vegas, but still gives you the elegant feel.

Room:

I booked a VIP Grand Deluxe Lake View Room, did not mind spending more on my mom. The room was fantastic, and one of the largest I've been in for a decent price. The view is very stunning, and had every amenity I would have hoped for, but no "free" wireless Internet.The room was not cheap, but no free Wifi? Come on! I really believe that in today world this should be a standard inclusion as it is many 5 star hotels worldwide.

I wanted a smoke free room, however, the stench of 2nd hand smoke is unbearable. I could not change my room either. I got an air freshener for every corner, and it was tolerable.

Service: I wanted to feel like a VIP, however the staff does not even try. The staff felt untrained, I wanted to know what kind of VIP treatment came with the room, but was told by the staff that the key allowed me to go the end of the corridor and take the elevator. Not sure if it would be considered "VIP" for that.

This was supposed to be a Mother's Day treat for my mom and I decided to spend some time with her at the Casino. I do not gamble much, but since my mum loved playing slots, I decided to bring along HKD$100,000 for gambling and entertainment.

On my way to my hotel, I saw an ad for Cirque du Soleil, and decided to check it out while I was in Macau, The staff at Wynn Hotel and at the Casino does not even seem to bother to give any advice or tell me where it was. (Not a problem, except for the fact that there was no Internet!)

I am a little surprised that they have such a bad clientele in the casino as well. There was tons of Mainland Chinese. Not that I have anything against them, a small group of them bumped into my mom which caused her to fall. There was not an apology and the staff stood there to watch. In the casino, these Mainland Chinese people spit into the trash bins, which makes me and my mom not want to go near any of the bins when we search for slot machines.

There was a 388 points for a HKD$100 East/West dining voucher deal going on, and my mom got me to become a member. After getting turned off by the unruly people in the casino, we decided to ask the staff for nice dinner places nearby, but again, we were ignored. We had to get a cab, which brought us to Venetian and we really enjoyed our Steak there, no thanks to Wynn Hotel.

Later in the night, at 9pm, we returned to Wynn Casino and we wanted to see if we could get free rooms if we play a lot. I mean, $100,000 does not mean I'm a high roller, but since I only booked one night stay, I did not want to change hotels. The reply from the staff at the membership counter was, 1,000+ points.

We started playing slots and within a few minutes we had several hundred points. When I clarified, the staff said that the points on the card was different kind of points. Then i asked if the meal vouchers of $100 can be combined as we were aiming to get about 5 of these vouchers for lunch tomorrow, and specifically asked, "If I get 2000 points tonight on my slot machine card, can I get 5 $100 vouchers? Can they be combined?" The answer was "YES"

As we played the $0.20 slots, we managed to accumulate 2000 points shortly and returned to our room.

The next day, asking the staff about the "Ruins of St Paul" and "A Ma Temple" was a failure again, as the English speaking staff had a strong pinoy accent and I could not understand him. Nonetheless, traveling on the cab was cheap and the driver got us to where we want to go.

Returning to Wynn Casino, we decided to get lunch there, and when we went to membership service counter again, there was an apparent rule they forgot to let us know. "You can only redeem your points and use the voucher on the same day."

This is an outrage! We possibly lost HKD$2000 to get that 2000 points at 11pm at night, and at 11am the next day, our points were not valid because it was earned 12 hours ago? I tried to speak with the manager, but the reply was, "This is the rules set by the casino and I have to abide by it."

I was very unhappy and decided to check out and the hotel even wanted us to pay a "Late check out fee" as we checked out slightly after 12pm, but they "Waived it"

I have a suggestion to all who are interested in going to Wynn Macau. Don't stay there, don't gamble there, MGM Grand is just behind and Sands and Venetian are also fantastic hotel. There is a lot more to do at Sands and Venetian, and I got to watch my Cirque du Soleil and enjoy myself at other casinos and hotels with more knowledgeable staff who can communicate properly and have rules which make sense. For Wynn hotel, I'll never go back to your hotel and casino, even if you offer free rooms. There are more than 40 casinos in Macau, and many better than Wynn Macau.

This has been the worst hotel and casino experience ever, even for my 70 year old mom who got to a different casino every month. Wynn Macau, you are simply the worst in terms of service there can ever be.

Conclusion:

There are so many different casino hotels in Macau, why pick Wynn?

Tips:

Visit Wynn Macau to check out the tree of prosperity show at night, so that you can watch the fountain display as well. It is no Sands, and does not have anything else going on, and the service is bad so don't expect much and you can have a great time!

Ip Man 2 Review

The long awaited sequel is here, Ip Man 2.


No, this movie is not about computer networking, or any internet or networking protocols. This is actually a martial arts movie starring Donnie Yen as Ip Man.

The story continues as Ip Man (Donnie Yen) flees Southern China (Foshan) and arrive in Hong Kong in 1949. Life was still hard in the post war period, and Ip Man starts his Wing Chun School. There are many adversaries in the movie, such as other martial arts school and the British...

Without revealing too much of the plot, I would say that this movie will promise to evoke emotions, and you can have the "Rocky moment" and really feel for the movie when victory finally comes.

The fights scenes are pretty intense, and it is no doubt a Sammo Hung directed movie. From choreographing the Wing Chun style to the other authentic Chinese Martial arts style - Praying Mantis (Which seemed to look like monkey style) and Hung Gar -- the movie is packed with fantastic fight scenes. The directing of the action is fantastic, and the editing keeps the movie script tight.

Without initial knowledge of what would the movie be about, I was pleasantly surprised by the depth of emotions felt throughout the movie, even though you would think that all of these Chinese martial arts movies follow the same scripts, I can promise that Ip Man 2 can deliver the impact better than the other ones by far.

In this, Ip Man does get hurt, and be prepared to be blown away by the action, and feel "Chinese Pride" and other range of emotions by the end of the movie.

The fight scene between Donny Yen and Sammo Hung is quite a spectacle too. The story I felt, was well though out, and the action scenes and minor details in the movie really does bring it all together. This is not a mindless action flick!






Go watch it!

Rating 9/10

-- Robin Low