Polariod Cube Action Cam Review

I have owned the Polariod cube for a few months now, and is is pretty nifty. The size of this cube is 1.4 inches all round and it could shoot 720p or 1080p videos at 30fps or 6MP photos. It has a 124 degree wide angle lens which is rather standard nowadays.

Costing just under USD$100, this action camera is a simple no-frills alternative, but it is definitely not like any Sony or Go-Pro.

Firstly, it does not have any mounts other than the Polaroid Cube Mount, however, the bottom on this camera is a strong magnet. It is strong enough for me to mount on my Helmet with a double sided mounted steel plate, going at 160km/h.

It is available in 3 colors and it does not come with any memory card, but you can insert up to 32GB micro-SD card into it.

Like many action cams, this little unit is splash proof, and works fine after running into some rain. (I did not try dunking it into water) There are various mounts available (helmet mount, tripod mount, strap mount, etc.) for extra $$$.

Here are some videos shot with this camera. (Day and night)



I could say that used as a recording device for Motorcyclist, this is a pretty good option. It record videos in 5 minute intervals and the size is about 290MB. (1080p @ 30fps)

The night recording however does fall a little short as I could not make up the license plates of vehicles when the motorcycle is traveling on the highway.

I got about 75 minutes of battery life recording at 1080p

Pros:

Small form factor
Inexpensive
Easy to use
Nifty magnetic mount
Relatively ok battery life


Cons:

Not very good at night to be used as a recording device for Motorcyclists
Video Quality not very good
No Conventional Mounts.
Cannot change battery
No image stabilization


I would say, those who just want a fun camera, this would be it. Its small, cheap and fun.

For those expecting more, please spend more and the a real action cam.

Overall: 7/10

Robin Low

Ah Boys To Men 3: Frogmen -- Movie Review

Ah Boys to Men 3 is an anticipated sequel, however, this is of a totally story arc, and there is no relation to Ah Boys to Men.

This is another Jack Neo movie, no double about it. The hyper local jokes, are very good, provided you know Singapore, and then again, the whole premise of Ah Boys to Men is very Singapore centric.

I'd say the overall acting and story is pretty good. Many Singaporeans who serve NS will relate to many of the jokes and the characters in the movie. However, I do feel that the special effects in the beginning of the movie is very bad. What's worse is -- the beginning terrorist scene is not even needed and does not really relate to any part of the story.

Being a movie, the whole pro-NS part is clearly seen, and it is rather enjoyable movie for Singaporeans. A good command of Singlish and Singapore context, as well as Cantonese and Hokkien is required to understand the movie and appreciate it.

-- Robin Low

Great movie: 7/10
A great show to watch, especially if you have served NS

Privatizing in Singapore, is it better?

Somehow, security is privatized to Cisco, a government linked company. Is is better?

Every Chinese New Year, you can find a lot of security guards that look like police officers in Chinatown Singapore. Instead of retaining more professional police officers, security is outsourced and security companies are making a lot of money.

Its not easy to find patrolling police officers in Singapore, but you can definitely see CISCO or other security guards around.

Are private security better than the police?

There are constant traffic blocks in Chinatown during Chinese New Year to regulate traffic. The traffic is sometimes not so packed but the paths are blocked anyways. And the security guards (or auxiliary policemen) are simply following orders.

There seems to be a Volunteer Special Constabulary but from the people I've met, they felt that joining the security companies provide more benefits and they get to do their part at these events anyways. However Cisco and many of the security companies in Singapore can hire foreigners.

Certis CISCO Security Private Limited, is one of the five commercial Auxiliary Police forces authorized to provide armed security officers to government organizations as well as private companies or individuals in Singapore. It has its roots as a department of the Singapore Police Force (SPF), which branched out as the Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation, a statutory board with a monopoly over most areas of the local private armed security industry.

With this setup, a private company can make $$$ providing security to banks and events, where the police force (which is part of their duty). Does this drive up costs of events and services?

Incidents (CISCO) is not free of controversial...

Since its inception, CISCO officers have been involved in a number of incidents. Several CISCO constables and Lance Corporals have been shot and killed while on duty, and others injured.Several officers has also been involved in some high-profile incidents, such as a gun-snatching incident and an attempted bank robbery by a CISCO officer in Bukit Timah. One Lance Corporal prevented a robbery by firing two rounds at a robber. On 22 December 2011, a CISCO guard committed suicide using service pistol at Vivocity after duty at a Citibank there. He was a relief officer. On 29 January 2013, another CISCO police officer shot himself at the Supreme Court. In July 2013, a senior police officer was arrested on suspicion of a brutal double murder in Kovan. The incident may be related to missing items in CISCO safe deposit boxes. Documents revealed that the senior police officer had been neck-deep in debt.

The difference between Cisco and Singapore Police Force is that Cisco which is kinda like the police hires foreigners and is totally for profit.

Its seems like Privatizing is a common thing. Singapore's public transport systems SMRT, SBS are all private companies, but the government is paying for upgrades and infrastructure while they raise fares and reap in the profits.

Is Privatizing beneficial for Singapore?

-- Robin Low

Jupiter Ascending Movie Review

1. Jupiter Jones (Mila Kunis) was born under signs that predicted future greatness, but her reality as a woman consists of cleaning other people's houses and endless bad breaks. Caine (Channing Tatum), a genetically engineered hunter, arrives on Earth to locate her, making Jupiter finally aware of the great destiny that awaits her: Jupiter's genetic signature marks her as the next in line for an extraordinary inheritance that could alter the balance of the cosmos.

I was a little intrigued by the big names of the directors. The special effects in the trailers looked good, and I decided to give this a go. At the start of the movie, the set up was reasonable. A girl from Chicago with big dreams cleaning toilets and hating her life.

The movie however, takes a sharp turn and shows you Jupiter, aliens, space, boom boom boom. This is visually pleasing but the story / characters does not really make it any better. Then Sean Bean character shows up and all I could think of is how is he going to be killed.

As the story progresses, you have the feeling that it is a remake of a sparkling vampire love story, but with aliens, flying boots, werewolves with wings, dragon men, in space.

Definitely a miss and a waste of SFX on this movie. This is 2 hours of my life I cannot get back.

Overall: 2/10

Don't watch, even matinee... not worth the money and time.

Trying to be #1 -- Worst Tourist Destination #Singapore

Proposed law will ban alcohol retail sales in Singapore from 10:30pm

As there is a large number of low pay foreign workers, living in terrible conditions, and some people may call it "modern day slavery". With limited places to go and extremely high cost of everything including public transportation, these foreign workers tend to congregate in 2 main areas, Geylang and Little India.

When you have a small area with a lot of people, especially on weekends and holidays, you cannot avoid conflict, and with alcohol fueling the conflict, things sometimes get worse, and we have seen the first riots in decades.

The employers that refuse to automate and use 21st century technology, still like to employ low skilled workers. In many first world countries who are concerned about human rights, such a solution will never happen, but for Singapore, with the lax immigration laws, there are hundreds of thousands of these low skilled labors many third world countries would love to export -- here.

Many of the employment terms are borderline with human trafficking. Workers from Bangladesh will have to pay an agent thousands of dollars to work in Singapore, and some of the larger construction companies in Singapore will bid projects at a very low price, as long as they can bring in a lot of these low skilled workers. As a result, the workers are often exploited and works hard to repay the loan they got.

The strange thing is, some of the workers manage to survive by earning $2.25 an hour. (Foreign Workers Paid Only $2.25 an Hour!) They live in poor conditions and many of them threatened with premature repatriation. Employers also impose many fees and rules to pay their workers less.

The working conditions are less than ideal, and in many cases, these foreign workers suffer much discrimination in public by Singaporeans, Police and other foreigners as well. There is a lot of bottled up stress which is waiting to be released. In a country with the highest paid government minsters, why should anyone be paid $2.25 an hour and be treated like animals?

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After the riots, the government decided that instead of addressing the issue of low wages and poor working conditions, they would ban alcohol.

They have done so in Geylang and Little India, but as these workers have legs and can walk out of the areas, they just banned public drinking of alcohol from 10.30pm - 7am  countrywide today (19 Jan 2015)

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Of course, losing rights is something Singaporeans are used to. I could now say to my nephew, during my time, when we do BBQs at the beach, we could bring our own beer and drink at a public BBQ pit. But now...


"You will need a liquor consumption permit, on top of the NParks permit for the BBQ pit if you intend to consume liquor at your BBQ gathering beyond 10:30pm"



Boring Tourist Trap

Singapore is one of the most boring tourist destination with lots of Tourist Traps. At Sim Lim Square, many locals know not to shop on the ground floor and not a lot of locals go to Newton Hawker center for food. There are well known tourist traps and you get gouged big time going to places that feed on the ill informed.

There is little to do in Singapore but to shop and eat. Sentosa is very tacky and expensive, and although there is a Universal Studio, it is often "under maintenance" and they took down one of their best rides -- "Battlestar Galetica Ride".

Even for food, there are no street hawkers, and the hawker centers are often over crowded. Much of the smaller stalls suffer as there is constant renovations happening and these hawker cannot survive on 6 months or 1 year without work. So many of the stores employ foreign workers again, and the quality of food goes way down in order to make profits.

The malls in Singapore are all the same. Uniqlo, Charles and Keith, McDonalds, Starbucks, Daiso, Theater... That sounds like most of the malls in Singapore.

Expensive

Singapore is very expensive. Compared to Malaysia, just across the border, everything costs much more because -- RENTs.

Censorship and Controlled media

Everything here is sanitized. No chewing of gum here. Liberal arts is much banned. Many local made movies are not even allowed in the country.


So along with no drinking of alcohol after 10.30pm, will we be a less attractive tourist destination?

Please note that Chow Yun Fatt will not welcome you to Singapore, because he is not a Singaporean.

-- Robin Low

Test Drive: Audi R8 - V10, Porsche GT3, BMW i3

I have some friends who bought some new cars end of last year and I got to try them all today in the below zero temperatures.

Firstly, I was surprised that internally, nothing much has changed in terms of the console. Since I've been in a 2008, 2011, the 2015 R8 is not much different. I must say, I like the looks of this car. When you listen to the sound this baby put out, its simply intoxicating.

I would say, driving this car seems very fun. The 4WD and V10 engine feels very powerful. The acceleration is pretty fast. I really like the 7 speed dual clutch transmission which offers precise shifts.

The second car I've driven is a Porsche GT3. Strangely, I was with my friend when he bought his Prius in 2010, and when the gas prices fell, he called me at the dealership when he collected this GT3.

It seems like every time they have a new GT3, it seems to be lower and wider than the previous models. The car seems to sit low and when you look inside the car, it is not like any 911. The interior and exterior does scream out "sports car!"

However, when I tried the car, I was shocked... Shocked that this car is an automatic! Setting it to drive, this 6 cylinder does feel very punchy... 

With the Audi R8 with over 500hp, this GT3 is no push over too. The GT3 is naturally aspirated with 475hp and it reveals it easily with a push of the throttle. After driving the V10, this GT3 did not feel slower when it has only 6 cylinders. I've been a a GT3 back in 2008, and this certainly feels much faster.

The grip on this car is also fantastic, probably its the 20" rims and 305 rear tires. The brakes and suspension are improved, giving you comfort on the bumpy Boston roads while enough stiffness when you take corners on the curvy roads. 

I was told that there is a new clutch thing with the new shift pedals, however, when I tried driving this car hard, this car just springs to life! The grip and feedback you get from when you turn or accelerate is incredible. When the corner was tight, this car also has amazing braking power to stop on a dime.

I really enjoyed driving the GT3 more than the R8.

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Lastly, I looked at the BMW i3. Its cute and the door opens up really wide. Sure, I'll give it a spin.

This is a full electric car, and it felt very zippy with full of torque. It felt fun, however when I started pushing hard on the car, it easily oversteers and the brakes are weak. There is also heavy bodyroll and I did feel that I was about to flip the car or crash into something when I take corners hard.

I don't think I am ready for a BMW i3, I really like the Porsche GT3, but I think the Audi R8 is the fastest car of the 3.

-- Robin Low

First Night Boston 2015 Review

First Night Boston was pretty fun this year. The First Night buttons was $10, Ice Sculptures were in Copley, Boston Common and around Faenuil Hall, Puppet Shows at Hynes convention center, free trains in the evening...

I would say, everything was as expected. large crowds, cold weather, interesting parade... Although I have been there every year, I still enjoyed it a lot.

Here are some tips to enjoy the first night.

1) Have a big lunch and bring water for the day.

2) Know the locations of the toilets. They can be found in most malls. At downtown crossing, the large Walgreen, Corner Mall have great clean toilets.

3) Eat dinner before 6pm. The parade starts at 6pm and fireworks happen at 7pm, then the restaurants will be very packed with a 2 hour waiting list.

4) Dress warm with many layers.  For a few years in a row, temperatures fall below freezing when sun goes down.

5) Don't Drive. Take the T into Boston, then take the free T out at night. If you come from out of town, you can park on Beacon Street (In Brookline) or Commonwealth Ave (In Allston)

 Here are some photos of First Night Boston 2015