The something I bought was placed in a paper bag instead of a plastic bag, it’s pretty cool to see they uses paper bag, very environmental friendly and it’s pretty. Haha. When you buy small stuff from Switch like iPod, iPhone, they will put it in these paper bags.

After watching blurry image of Thomas and Uber Cup on a big 55″ LCD TV, daddy finally can’t tolerate with the blurry image and subscribed to the only HD package in Malaysia and that is the Astro B.yond HD. With additional RM20 on top of current subscribed package of the Astro satellite TV, you get to watch 5 HD channel and 3 more coming soon.

There’s no charges for converting to HD, you only need to pay the monthly while the installation and set top box are free, provided you return your old Astro decorder.

I called Astro like 2 weeks ago and took them 10 days process my application, only then they send their cable man to install the new satellite dishes and the set-top box.

I live in an apartment and was using centralized satellite system, we need not to install a satellite dish for standard definition Astro, but the new HD need a new satellite dish. Since my apartment has not install the new satellite dish for the centralized thingy, the cable man has to install one for us. The new satellite dish is slightly bigger than the old one and is black in colour.

The new Astro B.yond HD has a new UI, the remote and response are pretty fast and output is HDMI. It’s only HDMI that can output to HD while component cable only can output to standard def. The cable man took a short time to set up the system, the new smartcard activated within minutes and I am so ready for HD.

There’s an EPG (Electronic Program Guide). It’s so much better and smoother than the Guide system in previous Astro.

There’s a new remote too. It’s white in colour. Lots of button and there’s button for PVR (Personal Video Recorder), the play, pause, record and rewind button. Unfortunately, for current B.yond subscriber, we have to pay RM5 to activate it and monthly for PVR service, you have to buy your own HDD though. Or on the other hand, change to the new B.yond PVR decorder (need to pay RM400), then RM10 per month for the recording service. Sucks a bit right? PVR is suppose to be free! Just like Tivo! I not very interested in PVR at the moment though. =)

So is there any difference between HD and non HD? Yes, there’s big difference. The 5 channel, ESPN HD, Astro Supersports HD, National Geographic HD, History Channel HD and HBO HD are super sharp.

High definition.

Standard definition.

HD channel output via normal AV cable. It’s letterboxed.

Now I really hope for more HD channel. The next 3 channels updating soon are FX HD, AXN HD and Astro Zhizhun HD, a Chinese channel. Excited. I’m looking forward for Discovery HD, Star Movies HD, CNN in HD and of course, the Hong Kong’s TVB series on Astro On Demand in HD. Come on, faster bring them in!

One more thing, I need to look for coaxial to Toslink for the digital audio output because my amp at home support Toslink input only.

And now, I found a friend who uses Android too and he’s Kenny, a geek like me, just signed up for DiGi’s DG Smartplan and bought the HTC Legend on a discounted price. I guess more and more people will go for Android already because Maxis and DiGi are selling it.

HTC Google Nexus One still rocks with bigger screen. Haha, but my rival HTC Desire is cool!

If you are wondering what’s CLIPtec, it’s actually an OEM brand in Malaysia and they outsource stuff from China and brand it under their name. I realized that my phone, the Nexus One and Nokia N95 would probably go low battery at night or during the day when I surf the day a lot and I am always on-the-go, so I need a charger in my car. I went to the computer store and bought this USB charger, now I can charge my phone with the USB cable and never worry of my battery run dry.

I went to Gurney Plaza for a walk in the afternoon just now, it’s a shopping mall in Penang, Malaysia and I spotted several mobile phone shop selling the iPad. Unfortunately, it’s only the wifi version and not the 3G one.

The original price selling in the US for the 16GB and 32GB are US$499 and US$599 respectively, if convert to Malaysian Ringgit would be RM1603 and RM1924. The one that they are selling here are so much expensive so for me, I rather wait for local official release of the iPad from Apple. At this moment, there’s still no news about iPad releasing date in Malaysia and I hope it will be here soon. I want one!

I have been using this new Google Nexus One phone for two weeks already and I am very satisfied with the new phone, love it a lot although there’s still don’t-like about the phone.

I live in Malaysia and it’s not listed in the shipping destination of four countries. There’s United States, United Kingdom, Hong Kong and Singapore. Luckily, I have a brother who resides in Singapore, he helped me to order and shipped to his address in Singapore, only then he bring it back to Malaysia during the Chinese New Year holiday two weeks ago.

The shipping from USA to Singapore was pretty fast, it took DHL 4 days and hand delivered on a Sunday.

The package comes with the phone and another order of the Europe-Asia AC Adapter, it’s actually useless because the two-pin works here too!

Inside the phone box, there’s the phone, a pouch, earpiece, USB cable and 2-pin adapter.

I like the earpiece because the microphone is tiny, although not as tiny as the iPhone’s but still it camouflaged into the media key and not many will notice it’s actually an earpiece with mic for the Nexus One. People will think that I am either talking to air, or just listening to MP3.

I was on Symbian, familiar with iPhone OS and it’s my first time using Android 2.1. Very unfamiliar with the UI and not very friendly at first, the keyboard was not as sensitive as the iPhone but I am getting used to the OS already. Although Android apps are not as many as the iPhone apps, but I believe it will grow, perhaps is because that it’s still new.

Another thing I dislike is the capacitive touch screen doesn’t feel good as the glassy one on the iPhone, and last dislike thing is the 4 touch sensitive button below the screen are annoying, because I always touch on it accidentally.

Afterall, I like my phone, I am satisfied with it. I can’t dislike the battery life because all smart phone’s battery life is like that.

If you want this phone, you need a data plan because it syncs a lot.

Here’s mine LIKES and DISLIKES.

Likes:

• Larger than iPhone’s screen.
• Capacitive multi-touch screen.
• Thin and lightweight.
• Solid built.
• 5MP Camera.
• Android open-sourced platform.
• Google Account and Facebook sync.
• Cheaper than iPhone.
• Unique because less people own it here at my place.
• Pouch with Android cute logo.
• Earpiece.

Dislikes:

• Less apps.
• Can’t buy paid apps here in Malaysia.
• Screen not as sensitive as iPhone.
• Battery life.
• Speaker phone not so nice.
• Facebook Application for Android. SUPER LOUSY.
• 4 touch sensitive buttons below the screen.

I think that’s all. =)

It’s not all yet! Boys Like Girls will be there, Khalil Fong will be there! And other artist too! I like Khalil Fong a lot. =)

Unfortunately, I am so far away from the location, I stay in Penang, somewhere 400km away from the venue and unless there’s sponsor want to cover my transportation and accommodation, only then I can go cover the event for you. I so wish that I could be in the line and buy a phone for such a low price and meet up with Boys Like Girls and Khalil Fong. OMG!

[via Nokia Malaysia]

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?

After all the convincing and the attractions, I am still not into buying a anti virus copy yet.

There’s 2 more popular anti virus out there, one is Karpersky which has Jackie Chan as their ambassador and you can always listen to the radio commercial on our local radio station and another is Avira with no famous super ambassador but they got have Show Girl.

They call them the Show Girl, that’s what I was being told and this is Penang, a small island and we only have 3 show girls, that sucks. We need more. Penang has demand!

PC Fair Penang is not like Tokyo Game Show where there’s a lot of booth babe, it’s so so different here.

Since Kaspersky has got no show girl, booth babe and only have a fake Jackie Chan poster on it, my (handsome) friends here helped them for promotion.

Kaspersky and Avira, which will you pick? I am serious.