I realized that my Nexus One uses a lot of data. Although I do have a data plan, but sadly, it’s not unlimited, I only have the 500mb data plan and unlimited data plan is rather expensive for Maxis.I turned of Gmail syncing and now it only auto sync Calendar and Contact.

I need to test use for another month to see whether 500mb is enough for me or not. The only thing I must not do to make sure that I won’t use a lot of data is Youtube, as you know Youtube sucks a lot of data.

Unlike my old Nokia N95, there’s no data counter on the Android. But after some searching in the Market, I found an application that can shows how much data you have used and auto resets every month. It’s called NetSentry, better than NetCounter IMO.

I set 500MB data limit, so I assume there will be a notification when reaching the limit. Hopefully, 500MB is enough for me or Maxis must revise their data plan rate.

Scan the QR code with your Android barcode reader or click here to download.

It’s pretty interesting to see the Maxis Broadband Windshield Sunshade on the cars at PC Fair. They really spent a lot on marketing. I like the tag “My car is as cool as my blog”. Somehow, if you are choosing for a broadband, choose smart. You should check out my speedtest at PC Fair. =)

I found out that the most interesting part about Penang December PC Fair is not about booth babe because they don’t have any here, but it’s the broadband booth. After coming through the entrance and walk for about 2 minutes and you will find the broadband company booth all side by side.

It’s really a big broadband war inside, when you passed by,

1. P1 Wimax (4G), they will ask you to POTONG (means cut in Malay)
2. Streamyx (Copperline ADSL) will ask you to upgrade,
3. Digi Broadband (3G) will tell you they have got no contract and free modem,
4. Maxis Broadband (3G) will tell you broadband discount for postpaid user,
5. and Celcom Broadband (3G) will tell you, nothing, in fact they just keep shouting Celcom Broadband at me.

They set up their booth nicely and they got a lot of promoters! One broadband company has like more than 20 promoters and I guess they are fighting to see who has hired the most promoter. They just keep shouting and calling you to join and subscribe their network.

I am a Streamyx user and I will still stick with Streamyx, I only change if there’s alternative for wired Internet, perhaps a new company that provides FTTH 100Mbps package at less than RM100 per month, for sure I will potong (cut).

P1 Wimax has got a nice booth, free big paper bag, plenty of laptop for Internet surfing, a lot of promoters and (some) nice girls giving out balloons.

The promotion that is interesting is the GET 1 MONTH FREE AND RM160 DISCOUNT. Discount is always better than getting a free Wiggy (P1 prepaid wireless modem.

I speed test their machine and got a 2.4mbps speed. Not bad, I can’t find any P1 10mbps Wiggy to try though.

Next up is Digi Broadband booth, with a lot of yellow colour promoters but no free gift. I believe Digi Broadband is the best 3G broadband provider in Malaysia, with fast speed, good service, and good price when compare to Maxis and Celcom, the other two 3G broadband provider.

Their promotion in PC Fair is PAY RM88 FOR EXPLORE PLAN (NORMALLY RM108) AND GET A FREE MODEM. NO CONTRACT. The best of their promotion is no contract where P1 is contract based.

And I speed tested too, with P1’s speedtest site. It shows that it has a 1.9, almost 2mbps speed, still hardly reach maximum of 3.6mbps of HSPDA network. This is nice because it’s faster than my house 1.5mbps line.

Streamyx’s booth didn’t interest me, they have got many promoters, but not as many as Digi and P1 have. So I went to speed test again and they got the fastest speed. Showing a 3.4mbps download, which I believe is running on a 4mbps plan. I want this speed and I want to ugprade, but I don’t have cash, so I need more sponsors. Hehe.

I am so not interested in Celcom Broadband, have heard a lot of bad comment about their service. The promoters don’t know their things around.

When I tried to speed test, the speed test site can’t even load and they told me they have got a lot of customer using their network so it’s slow. I got fed up and didn’t even get to speed test after waiting for few minutes. FAILED.

Lastly, I went to Maxis Broadband booth, green is their colour and they have balloons too. Actually I am also a Maxis Broadband user, using a 500MB data plan on top of my mobile postpaid line. Since it’s limited and pretty expensive, I only use it on the phone and not tethering it.

The speed test sucks again, showing only 187kbps which is less than 3G speed. Another FAILED one, at least I successfully ran the speed test. Their explanation of the slowness is many laptop sharing the same connection via a router, there’s a point, but still lousy.

Which broadband provider do you use and what do you think about them?

I love touring tech company offices, just the fact that I didn’t really been into any of it because I am not living in San Fransisco or anywhere near the Cupertino Loop or Mountain View. I just love to see people’s office, it’s my interest. Ha!

Some people behind Twitter just released a bunch of photos of their new headquarter. Check it out.

Macs, I love.

Big canteen or is it discussion hall? I see no food around.

Lovely kitchen and lovely fridge.

Nice view too. Don’t know who that is.

More photos at their Flickr set.

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I love Twitter, do you love Twitter? Follow me now @nicholaschan!

I am not sure any of you who uses Live Messenger (or more likely known as MSN Messenger) in Windows 7 have this problem but I am having it. I don’t know whether is the setting screw it up or is it just a bug.

I have my Live Messenger on as usual, everything is up, the contact windows and conversation windows are all hide nicely in the icon on Windows 7 start bar. Because of the integration of Live Messenger with Windows 7, there’s no more notification icon on your start bar at the clock area like in Vista or XP. So the problem is when I close all the Live Messenger windows, include the contact list, I can’t bring it back on. Assuming it’s fully closed, and logged out and everything, but it’s not. My friend still saw me online on their contact list but with “busy” status while on my side, I did not see any IM activity notification. I clicked on the Live Messenger icon, but it just nothing turned up and I had to end the process and restart the program.

Since Windows 7 is capable of running program in different OS mode, so I’ve decided to run my Live Messenger in XP mode and everything is doing fine now. Even if I closed all the windows, I still can access my contact list via the icon near the clock area. Great. Wonder anyone encounter this problem too?

Was looking around the web and found out from a Tech enthusiast’s blog at Cnet about him beta testing Maxis FTTH (Fibre To The Home) service. So it seems like another FTTH provider is coming soon competing with TMNet and other little FTTH provider.

Looking at the download and upload speed, it’s fascinating and I love that. Unfortunately, all these sweet talks are just, er, sweet talks. Still haven’t see an official rollout of the service yet. Maxis was into broadband but looking at their 3G wireless broadband plan when compare to other service provider like Digi and Celcom, I would rather go for other because of the pricing.

More to come, as Maxis will be providing an IP phone for testing calls. Astro and Maxis are going to do a tie-up to provide HDTV through the optical modem. Finally, justification to buy an HDTV!

As for the HDTV, it’s mentioned from the BETA tester blog that it will be streaming through the Internet. Great! I care about HDTV in Malaysia more because we are so so lagging behind. Having a widescreen full HD tv at home is just useless without any HD channel. So let’s wait and hope it will come very soon.

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