Then, comes the iPad, the revolutionary Apple tablet computer. OMG. I was hooked, line and sinker. I wanted one really, really badly. We are talking about a small computer, the size of a netbook but thinner without the keyboard and yes, fully touchscreen. How cool is that?
So, there I was lusting after it on ebay and casually bidding for it when I won in one of my bids. Yep, it’s meant to be.I got an iPad 64gb with wifi and 3G capabilities. I was elated.
Nah, here’s my new toy…

So, it is goodbye to my old, clunky, bulky Nikon Coolpix5400. It had served me well.

My old Nikon camera

But it is old and getting cranky. So, I guess it is time to put it into retirement and get a brand new model! And I decided on the:

No, I didn’t get the Nikon Coolpix P80. Simply because the P50 is much cheaper. Heheheh…I did say I want a cheaper compact camera, considering I may be spending much, much more on a DSLR in the near future. So a pretty basic compact for now should be good enough. Although it was released last year and not exactly new in the market, it suits my needs perfectly.

Now, let’s look at the specs of this compact which offers more than any basic compact:

• 8.1 megapixel
• Electronic VR
• Up to 4x digital zoom
• ISO 2000 capability
• Macro shooting from as close as 5cm
• Face-priority AF
• Uses SDHC card
• Wide angle of 28 – 102mm
• It has several modes from Auto to Scenes to P (programmed auto) to M (manual settings where aperture and speed can be set)
• uses AA batteries

I especially like its internal basic photo edit function where I can resize the pictures, crop, lighten or even ‘sharpen’ if the picture was blurry due to shaky hands. This means I can edit the pictures on the camera and then download the pictures straigth to my computer. Since it uses the SD card, it is more convenient for me too because my computer has an SD card reader. No need for additional card readers and no need to bring around the troublesome cable.

The top of the Nikon Coolpix P50 where you could change the modes

It has more functions than the basic point and shoot compacts as in I can choose the M mode and play around with the settings such as the aperture and speed. It is a way for me to experiment and learn more about the effects of aperture and speed settings when taking pictures. But when I am too lazy to bother adjusting the settings, the auto mode is really good enough with the perfect settings.

The functions are pretty much easy to get the hang of so you don’t even really need to read through the manual to learn how to use it. That is if you are used to Nikon digital cameras, of course. Since , it’s my second Nikon Coolpix, I get familarised with it pretty quickly.

Take a look at some of the pictures it has taken:

Seaview

A view of George Town

Goldfishes in our little pond

As you can see, the photo quality is pretty good and the colours amazingly accurate and lively.

My verdict: The Nikon Coolpix P50 is a pretty good buy and for a compact camera, it sure do have loads of functions to play around with. I bought it for only RM600 with free mini tripod, camera casing and a 2G SD card.

If you’ve never been to the Lost World of Tambun, well, good for you. You didn’t miss a thing. In fact, you saved your money and yes, your time! We took a trip there for a short weekend getaway and did we regret it…Lost World of Tambun is indeed lost. A LOST case!

Let me show you some pictures…

Lost World of Tambun

The water theme park entrance looks interesting enough but it belies what lies inside…

The almost empty parking lot

We should have realised that something must be wrong when the enormous carpark lot only have about 30 cars ON A WEEKEND…

Inside, it is beautifully landscaped with nice ornaments

I suppose the landscaping and decorations and ornaments they put in the Lost World of Tambun is quite impressive but that’s about it. Entrance is RM25 per adult and RM18 per child. My son entered free because he’s below 90cm.

The 'beach' and tidal wave pool

Again, looks nice and impressive for a water theme park. But heck, we didn’t pay RM50 for beautiful scenery! We need beautiful scenery we’d go for FREE walks in the national park or something.

The children's wading pool

Which is absolutely pathetic. My son got tired of it after a full 10 minutes.  Wanna see a REAL children’s wading pool in a water theme park? Feast your eyes on this!

Children's wading pool at White Water World, Brisbane

See the difference? Let’s look at what else is at the Lost World of Tambun…

Spend RM10 to keep your things in this tiny locker or risk losing it

Yep. On top of the RM50 entrance fee, we have to fork out RM10 to rent the locker and if we want to use the big giant tube (float thingy), the rent is RM8 with RM2 deposit = RM10. We didn’t rent the stupid tube thingy.

Guess what this murky, slimy, oily pool of water is?

It is supposed to be a…

Can you guess by now?

Yep, it’s supposed to be a pond for people to paddle around in those giant Swan water-cycle thingies but ewwww….

Surprisingly, the fishes inside aren't dead yet and pretty darn hungry too

Look at them grabbing at some fish food we fed them (which we bought for RM1 at the ticketing counter outside). Some even wriggled to the ground to swallow the pellets before wriggling back into the murky slimy water.

The 'needle' of Tambun or so it's called 'politely' by the brochure

That’s what nature lovers get to view up close if they take the ‘nature walk’ path which leads right to the virile male symbol of all time….So, men, if you have an inferiority complex, please avert your eyes. But hey, maybe if you go there and hike there and touch it, it may help you to grow bigger and longer too? lol… just saying…

The only thing I like about this theme park is the Tiger Valley

We happened to talk to the tiger trainer, Nathan, and the park has 11 Siberian tigers. They only put four in display and they have tiger feeding time and show at 3pm and 4pm.

Nathan, the tiger trainer

Nathan is actually an MBA holder who used to be an ISO consultant before making a career change to train tigers. His rationale for the total about change?

“It is easier to handle tigers than to deal with people,”

How true. At least tigers don’t stab people on their backs. They don’t gossip. They don’t plan and plot your downfall. They don’t go into politics nor play politics. They only attack because of two reasons, either because they are hungry or because they feel you are threatening them. They generally do not eat humans and our Malayan tigers are on the brink of extinction, not that our Forestry Department care since they always LOVE to go on a shooting spree to kill tigers because of ONE rogue tiger when it is HUMANS WHO ARE ENCROACHING INTO TIGER TERRITORY and not the other way around. Don’t even get me started on that…

Let's not forget the Hot Spring Pool too

This is another redeeming quality of the park. They have a hot spring pool which is darn relaxing but be careful, it is so hot it may just melt your synthetic swimwear!

The things I don’t like about this place are:

No outside food allowed

Ridiculously, they charge you RM1 to store your food outside (if you happen to bring any) and you can collect it when you go back. And yes, you can’t smuggle it in because they check your bags at the entrance! We brought some dry biscuits in a tupperware for my son and they said we are not allowed to bring in the tupperwear but it is okay to bring in the dry biscuits. So, we took out the dry biscuits, put it in a plastic bag and left the tupperware in the locker outside. Yep, no tupperware allowed BUT plastic bags are okay. Why? They are worried that we’d smuggle some of their murky pond water in our tupperware? Or is it the sand? Perhaps we could fit the tiger into our tupperware?

The food sold inside SUCKS big time and DARN expensive too. And yes, did I mention not much choice except for some limited choice fast food, chicken rice, waffles, garlic bread and mee mamak?

Three lousy pools littered with dirt, leaves and floating objects – one hot spring, one tidal wave pool and one children’s pool but LOADS of leaves, clumps of hair and yes, dirt and grime.

They have that ‘river’ thingy but with no fake current and since it is more fun to go around with the tube, we didn’t even bother to try it. Besides, it is only a short distance and does not go around the three other pools or anything.

Oh yeah, they have the giant slides too but I didn’t even bother. It looks boring as ever and yes, it doesn’t look very safe. Hell, if they can’t maintain the cleanliness of the pools and the pond, what makes you think they maintained those slides?

It is NO fun at all. Water theme parks are supposed to be FUN. Not boring.

So, Lost World of Tambun is indeed a lost case. They lost the plot on how to be a fun water theme park somewhere. Other than fabulous landscaping and scenery and the tigers, they don’t have anything else. Blardy waste of time. Better to go to Sunway Lagoon. Strangely, these two water theme parks belonged in the same company but I don’t know why it is so lousy in Perak. I don’t mind paying the entrance fees though, since I know it’d go towards feeding those tigers…

Wanna get lost? Just don’t do it at the Lost World of Tambun or you might regret it.

So, now began my search for alternative broadband internet service providers….Here’s the few more known ones in the market and what I’ve gathered about these services:

Celcom

- the broadband service runs on its 3G and HSDPA (also known as 3.5G) network

HSDPA is an evolution of the 3G standards, and increases the data download speeds for mobile devices with capability to offer data transmission speeds of up to 7.2Mbps (in Celcom we offer speeds of up to 3.6Mbps). – taken from Celcom’s website

The packages available are:

1. Pay Per Use for those who only access the internet occassionally at 10sen per 10kbps, max charges of RM250 per month. Usually comes with Celcom 3G Postpaid / Prepaid line. Speed is up to 3.6Mbps.

2. Lite User – for those who needs to use internet only several days (not more than 9 days a month) and each use involved heavy surfing. Price is RM8 for 24 hours but speed is up to 384kbps.

3. Broadband basic package – for those who uses the internet daily but do not need very fast connections and only uses it for simple internet surfing. Cost is only RM68 per month with speed up to 384kbps.

4. Broadband advance package – for those who needs broadband internet connectivity with very fast connections for heavy downloads/ internet surfing. Cost is RM98 per month with speed up to 3.6Mbps.

Reviews: There’s been bad reviews of this service (is it any wonder considering it is the same company as Streamyx???) but in recent times, it has improved quite a bit. Some of my friends swear by their Celcom broadband and they claimed that it is much more reliable and better than Streamyx. Which is really strange considering both are under the same TM company. Perhaps different management, different service? It is still worth considering since the high speed package is only RM98 and I am paying more for stupid Streamyx (including the phone line which we never use!!).

Maxis

- comes with wired broadband and wireless broadband

- has 3G and also HSDPA too so the internet speed could be up to 3.6Mbps.

Wireless broadband

- the USB modem package price is darn expensive at RM138 per month. If you are a postpaid customer, you get a RM20 discount, wheee.. (got this info from their damn lousy website with VERY LITTLE information on their wireless broadband packages so don’t even know whether they update it or not). No mention of connection speed anywhere too.

- They have a starter package of RM68 for 384 kbps, advanced package of RM78 for 640 kbps and power package of RM98 for 3.6Mbps.

- Their Maxis 3G package is RM99.

Wired broadband

- only available at selected areas so you will need to check first before subscribing.

Reviews: I hear a lot of bad reviews of this broadband internet service provider. I’ve personally used it before, trust me. Steer clear of Maxis, at least until they fix the speed and connectivity. It’s what I’d call dis-connectivity and speed? HAH. For once, I can say Streamyx is better.

Digi

Sadly, they only have EDGE which is 224kbps. A tortoise compared to the others.

The packages:

Pay as you use – its from 10sen/10kb to  5sen/10kb but if your usage is above RM149, the rest is free.

Data basic plan – RM6 for 2MB and subsequently, 8sen/ 10KB. The max cap is RM149.

Data lite plan – RM22 for 8MB and subsequently, 5sen/10KB. The max is also RM149.

Data unlimited usage – DiGi HighSpeed Mobile Access EDGE (224 kbps) for RM66 per month.

- need to use bluetooth enabled phones as the modem to connect to the internet

- otherwise, you can also use the EDGE PC card Modem. No USB modem.

Reviews: Strangely, I’ve heard bad and good reviews for Digi. Some say it is darn slow and no connections in most places and some say it is quite good. Since I have a Digi phone line, I’ll say the yellow rubber suit man is NOT everywhere. It has quite bad reception at certain places and yes, even absolution no connection at all. If the phone line takda, that means the internet also takda lor.

U Mobile

This very new service just only made an appearance in the broadband internet service scene with 3G and HSDPA too. It is boasting connectivity of 1.8Mbps to 3.6Mbps.

- RM78 per month for up to 3.6Mbps and USB Modem is included (contract 24 months).

- It is only available in Selangor so those in other states

Reviews: Since it is so new, I don’t hear anything yet. Considering it’s in Selangor only, I probably won’t hear much about it anyway…

Jaring

I’ve used their dial-up service before and finds it quite good. For their broadband internet service, they have speeds up to 1Mbps only.

Packages are:

Basic – RM40 at 384kbps

Starter – RM70 at 512kbps

Standard – RM80 at 1Mbps

Reviews: Again, unfortunately, it is only available in Selangor and not other states. The speed is quite slow compared to the HSDPA networks available but since it is not available in Penang, I couldn’t say how slow or how good it is.

Then we also have fibre optic internet service providers…

PenangFon

It is only available in Penang island and provides internet speed of up to 2Mbps.

The residential package is RM60 for unlimited access of up to 2Mbps. However, the service areas are quite limited and as far as I know, it is not available at my apartment yet.

Reviews: So far, all I’ve heard are pretty good reviews from friends using this service. Another disadvantage to this service is that you need to put in cables when installing it and only if it is available in your area.

So there, these are the few alternatives I am looking at to replace the stupid Streamyx connection at home. What with all those bad reviews, it looks like we are all screwed either way! Seems like we do not have any high quality broadband internet service provider at all.

And they (you know who) like to spout the phrase ‘we have first class infrastructure’. Yeah, right. Where? We don’t even have a decent broadband internet service provider. Multimedia Super Corridor? HAH. What a joke.

Now, let me go back to stressing out over the super slow speed of the contender for the lousiest broadband internet service provider – Streamyx. Grrrrrrr…..

And then Apple have the nerve to dangle their shiny new soon-to-be released iPhone 3G in front of me. Crap. They must know one of my weakest point is the temptation of shiny new technology gadgets with tonnes of wonderful sounding specs and features (not that I will use most of it!).

Besides, it is soooo…pretty. Just feast your eyes on this:

The size of the phone is an issue with me since it is 4.5in high by 2.4in wide and 0.48in thick which means it is a good 1inch taller than my current phone. However, it is due to this size that it is able to provide a wider screen to fulfill your ‘entertainment’ needs. And the surface is much too shiny because it is prone to ‘capture’ a lot of fingerprints..uggh…however, on the bright side, mirror anyone? heheheh

Let’s look at the differences between the new iPhone 3G and the old iPhone:

- both comes in 8GB or 16GB models

- size is the same

- the new one is supposedly cheaper retailing at USD$199 (8GB) and USD$399 (16GB) while the old iPhone used to sell at USD$800 and USD$899. In Malaysia, the old iPhone was such a flop that its original price of almost RM3k dropped and it now costs around RM1,800 to get one, if you can find one in the market.

- the old iPhone doesn’t have 3G capability and but the new one obviously does so it is supposedly faster

- the new iPhone 3G will also have GPS

- the new iPhone will also feature newer softwares such as different languages support, App Store (for you to easily download third party applications), push email, contacts and calender with MS Exchange Activesync, ability to view more attachments in emails, better email management, scientific calculator and the iPhone 2.0 software.

- other than that, it is the same as the old iPhone as in it is a three-in-one phone where it is used as a handphone, an iPod and you can even go online on it.

- due to the App Store, you can also download games and you can use it to play a lot of new games available for download.

My verdict:

I have tried the old iPhone and I especially liked the smooth multi-touch user interface which my HTC Touch tried to emulate with its TouchFlo system but I have to say the iPhone multi-touch system is far more superior!

Also, the display is simply amazing and since it is also an iPod, I don’t have to tell you that the sound quality is exceptional too.

However, I feel it is too clunky and big and heavy. I suspect the new one won’t be any lighter. Also, no point using the built in camera because it is only 2 megapixel and it is about the same quality as my HTC Touch, nothing great to shout about. However, if you load you own pictures into it, it will display all the colours amazingly. No dullness here.

Oh, no external memory available for both, thus the two different models of either 8GB or 16GB. Although I personally feel 16GB is more than enough without the need for external memory.

Also, since it is an Apple product, the system is slightly different from a PDA phone running on Windows platform. You will need to learn how to use the interface or else you will feel darn frustrated with it and think it is a lousy phone.

In conclusion, the new iPhone 3G is basically still like the old iPhone with only a few added features, namely the software. If you already own the old iPhone, might as well just upgrade its softwares and you may just have your own new iPhone except without the 3G and GPS capabilities.

So, will I buy the new iPhone 3G? Well, since I just bought my HTC Touch, probably not. But there’s nothing wrong with salivating after it right?

And no, this is NOT a paid review. Only doing this out of interest.

I’ve been using my new HTC Touch for a few weeks already and decided to do a review of it in case anyone else is looking for a brand new PDA phone.

It is a pretty good phone and user-friendly. It runs of a Windows mobile platform which makes it easier for those used to Windows. It is small and light-weight, at 112g with battery. It is also very slim and not as bulky as other PDA phones. So, it has this elegant and slim look.

The memory is ROM 256MB and SDRAM 128MB DDR. However the processor runs at only 200MHz. It uses the micro-SD memory card.

So, it could be a tad slow. It would have been better if the processor runs at 400MHz. What I love the most about this phone is the TouchFlo system which means a swipe of the thumb and you can go from one interface to another. In short, you can go to the music, photos and videos list, the top nine contacts list and email/sms/calendar list with a swipe.

It also has Wifi, Bluetooth and GSM, GPRS, EDGE. It also has a serviceable 2.0megapixel camera.

A sample picture taken by my HTC Touch

Pros: Ease of use, elegant look, has all basic functions of a PDA phone, reasonably priced for a new PDA phone at RM1,688, has quite a lot of functions from watching video clips to taking pictures to checking emails to creating word documents.

Cons: a little slow, no 3-G, no GPS.

Battery: Based on average usage of three to four calls a day, taking pictures and videos, sending SMS, going on Wifi to check emails, using Edge to check emails, using bluetooth to transfer files – it can last one day. However, if the Wifi, bluetooth and Edge was not used and the phone was left on overnight, it can last for two days tops. A spare battery is definitely needed if you are a heavy phone user and you are always on the go.

I would recommend this phone if you are looking for a reasonably priced basic PDA phone.

Rating: 7 /10