Nokia E71 Opens Up A New World

I have been using Sony Ericsson mobile phones since 2001 (with the T68) because mainly of its unbelievably list of features and its "open-source" data format. I could transfer contacts, notes, multimedia files via IR and Bluetooth to PC without any proprietory software. This is important for me so that all information can be easily backed up without depending on any proprietory applications to view them. Even till now, most other phone manufacturers have this limitation, and is very very annoying.

And so for years I have been hanging on to SE phones, no doubt not running the most efficient interface in the market. Till now, I still love the Symbian UIQ touchscreen interface but hated the lag. 

Then a fortnight ago, my colleague showed me the Nokia E71 during lunch. I was wholeheartedly impressed with the speed of interface, the seamless connectivity to the online world, and the capability of what it can achieve. It reminded me of how Sony Ericsson won my heart with their mobile innovation.

And so, here in my hands is my very own Nokia E71.

Instead of lauding how good the device is, let me list down what I could achieve with the Nokia E71 that I could not on my current Sony Ericsson G900:

1. The entire interface is faster. There are some apps that take a little more time to load, but that's the exception rather than the norm.

2. A faster interface means everything. Scrolling data, moving from page to page, app to app.

3. The speed of logging onto the Internet using E71 is so fast, it felt as if the phone is always connected. Simply put, it's no longer a pain to access the Internet when I need to.

4. There are more installable applications due to the popularity. For instance, there is no Yahoo Go app for UIQ3 after so many years..

5. With app like Nimbuzz, I made my first ever overseas VoIP call on a mobile handset. And I did that with zero fuss.

6. The device has almost everything that a converged device would need: a QWERTY keyboard, IR, bluetooth, WiFi, A-GPS, VoIP, music player, photo viewer, Flash player, Realplayer, Internet browser, instant messenging, MS Office viewer, PDF viewer, Zip compression app, Microsoft Exchange to sync with office Outlook emails, expandable memory, camera (3.2mp), video calls, HSDA (3.6Mbps).

7. The phone has a landscape screen orientation which is easier to view information than the traditional portrait mode.

8. It keeps a log of all activities you did on your phone for up to 30 days.

9. The raised keyboard is easy to feel and press the right keys.

10. The keyboard supports simultaneous key-presses. I can hold the shift key to get caps, and when I release, I get normal letters.

While Sony Ericsson still maintains its advantage of "open-source", this advantage is no longer critical, because of the ease of synchronising my calendar, tasks, contacts to my remote Exchange server. And the supposedly ease-of-use with the Symbian UIQ touch-screen is negated by the intuitive navigation method on the Symbian S60.

The question is: did I wait too long to convert to Nokia? Probably not. Because I find that the selling point of E71 lies entirely with its ease of connection and content creation (using QWERTY) to the Internet. Until a month ago, my only data activity on my phone was to check my Gmail. With the popularity of social networking plus the competition from wireless broadband operators, the E71 is an enabler to the world of Internet content at a fixed access price. Sadly, the UIQ interface has been largely unchanged since the P910 in 2004 and has been bogged by memory and processor speed issues (the G900 seems to have fixed the stability issues as I personally experienced 30-day uptime without having to restart). And since 2004, many many manufacturers have progressed tremendously in their hardware and software development, particularly touchscreen interfaces.

Using the E71 is very liberating, and has truly opened up a new world for me to access and interact - on the move.

Meet Cheapling

Cheapling is a cheapo. And she only shops at The 199 Shop.

No, it's not THE 1.99 Shop that closed down years ago. Too bad for that shop, because look at how Daiso prospers with its "Everything for $2" slogan.

So this 199 Shop does the same thing too.

All merchandise is going for S$19.90, including normal postage.

I think it's really cheap like bird.

CHEAP CHEAP.

I mean, when will the day come when men can buy decent attire to cover their entire body for less than $20?

I guess the day will come if men wears dresses.

Sorry for digressing.

So yes. I'm envious of women having able to dress up for less than $20. Of course I know I am leaving out the rest of the accessories like bangles, necklace, footwear, underwear, hairdo, etc.

There are lots of blogshops online, so what makes this one so special that is worth mentioning?

To me, the winning factor is PRICE.

I don't think I have come across any blogshops that sell all their clothes below $20. Maybe a few promo items, but generally they are above $20. Some blogshops also went upmarket, bringing in higher quality materials and charge above $50.

While I don't think like women, I believe every shopper has the same mentality: they want to feel the real thing.

So how do you attract buyers to buy your merchandise before feeling and trying the real good?

This blogshop simply pushes prices down, just like what Daiso and the defunct 1.99 Shop did. And I think this strategy can work, because it becomes less risky for buyers to spend $19.90 on a piece of clothing. And having a standard price makes shopping easier, because everything you see has the same one price.

So to make the story short, go visit http://199shop.livejournal.com/ and see for yourself the merchandise that they carry.

From the numerous blogshops I visited in recent weeks, it's interesting how different blogshops carry different clothes, which is good, because there is really no competition, since there are variety. This blogshop is no exception. The shop owner makes sure she gets the best merchandise at the price range.

And so far, she's doing a great job.

So, since you are at my blog, reading this article, just move your mouse over to http://199shop.livejournal.com/ , click the link, and view the offerings.

Tonight I Celebrate My Love For You

Tonight, Mayenne was not at home, because wifey has to work on a big project proposal. So the night is ours to do what we wanted.

I have no other photo projects on hand, and I have a cameo performance for my friend's wedding banquet this Saturday, so I switched on my digital piano for the first time this year and practiced.

The opening song that I am intending to play for the performance is "Tonight I Celebrate My Love (For You)". While practicing, I decided to make a recording, a simple straightforward rendition. The song has been uploaded to my blog playlist or you can listen in my Facebook.

After that, I practiced my second song, a Mandarin song by David Tao, called 爱很简单 "Ai Hen Jian Dan". Instead of the straightforward rendition, I injected a dramatic arrangement. Warning: don't turn up the volume, as some passages may get rough.

Let me know if you enjoy the new songs.

The Benjamin Button Syndrome

I was talking to a colleague about our children progress and we mentioned about trying for a second child. It then occurred to me that as we grow older, it gets more difficult to conceive. My thought led to how young people are more fertile and thus easier to get pregnant. But due to the increase in pre-marital sex, it also means the risk is higher. Ironically, young people have high risks in unwanted pregnancy while older people have high risks in carrying pregnancy.

My thought then led to the latest movie, "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button", and I was thinking, perhaps it's a good idea if people age backwards. Why? Because when people are young, they do not appreciate about beauty or health. And when they grow up, they learn more things, and therefore appreciate things better. But as age catches up, they cannot enjoy the things they learn, or gets health problems, or grow uglier. 

So if the Button Syndrome were to occur in real life, then couples will only get more fertile as they grow older. Teenagers will not get pregnant so easily, and people will have an amazing mid-life and retirement, looking good, partying all night.

Bleah.

Photostory: The Angel's New Paradise

Deon will be leaving Singapore in 2 weeks time. She will be studying music in Melbourne. Back in August 2008, I already did an indoor shoot with her and her harps, at her home.
http://musicphotolife.blogspot.com/2008/08/d700-road-test-deon.html

So on 2 Jan 2009, we went outdoors with her mini-harp and did the rest of the planned shoot.


The photostory is at http://chester.sg/photostory/deon-angel/

The idea of doing a story of an angel started when I brainstormed with Deon about doing an outdoor photoshoot with the harp. Then I decided to throw in the fantasy tale of an angel on Earth, since we often associate angels with harps. But I didn't want the angel in my photoshoot to look like angel with wings and halo and harp. I have researched and found that biblical angels are not what we thought. I also tried to find if there are any fan fictions about an alternate angel origin, but couldn't find any. So I decided to create my own angel origin and developed this photo story.

I am usually not a wordy person when it comes to photo stories, but I had to put more text for this one to explain my version of angel. Imagine the questions from viewers as they view my photostory: where are the angel's wings and halo? What's this angel doing on Earth? Why does this angel act like this?

Angels are a super-race that lived in a parallel dimension among the high altitudes. In the biblical context, angels play their roles as messengers.

Over the centuries, the angel population has grown and many has moved out of the Holy Kingdom to live secular lives. Just like any living species, angels evolve.

This is a story of a music angel named Noeding.

This photo story alone cannot completely explain the origin of this angel, so I have worked out some more materials for me to develop further photo stories. Basically, my version of angels live on sunlight and emotional love. Without sunlight, they become mortals and age. Without love, they enter a stage of metamorphosis and change into something of a negative nature. They possess super abilities but on Earth these abilities cannot be unleashed to their potential because they are further away from the sun than on their own land. One of the most common abilities is to levitate or fly. They do not need wings to fly, just like Superman. In my version, as explained in my photo story, Kryptonians (Superman's race) evolved from this angel species. But Superman could fly on Earth because Kryptonians have evolved to perfection while my species of angels evolved in their own pace.


In my photostory, the angel's dream was so powerful that she was transported to the place in her dreams. She can also communicate with living things, like trees. Different angels possess different abilities. And this is not another "Heros" spin-off. Through my new angel race, I want to conjure stories beyond the human boundaries, of events of fantasy nature (like talking to trees).

I was quite glad that there many interpretations of angels available. This site, for instance, overturns everything we thought we know about angels.
http://www.new-life.net/angel02.htm



There is actually a hidden meaning for naming the photostory "The Angel's New Paradise". In this angel's viewpoint, Earth is a paradise, and is it that hard to imagine? Our world has green trees, blue waters, colourful flowers, melodious birds, majestic beasts, lovable pets, tasty poultry. And within the human race, we have hundreds of cultures, billions of people where everyone is a potential mate, millions of creations - books, music, photos, videos, paintings, software, architecture, etc.

But there is also the ugly side: of pollution, of diseases, of inter-racial disharmony, of deforestation, of over-industrialisation, of imbalanced ecology. My angel didn't see these coming, and I'm sure she would be very depressed when all these start to overwhelm her.

If, after reading all these, you are inspired, or interested, to develop this new angel species, I'd like to hear from you. Be it, interested to model for my future stories, or interested to contribute ideas and mini-stories, or even to inform me that another human from another part of Earth has similar concept.


And oh, I have already decided on my next angel photostory theme. It's about a runaway bride.

The Singapore Flyer-Movie-Shopping Experience

My Aunt Penny gave me a pair of tickets to the Singapore Flyer back in early December. Before we could arrange for a trip, the wheel broke down. So we called up the ticketing and they agreed to extend the validity. Meanwhile, we applied leave on the 3rd day of the Lunar New Year, to laze around. Luck has it that the wheel started turning on the 1st day of the Lunar New Year - good start for the Flyer I must say - so we decided to go for it on the 28 Jan.

It's just us in the capsule.

A new add-on after the re-opening

Reached the top of the Flyer.

So many cargo ships outside the sea. Undoubtedly one of the busiest seaports in the world.

After the Flyer, we went to Vivocity - my third time for the month. It has become my favourite mall to go, not because it's such a wonderful place, but because my wife has earned so much car park credits that we have to spend by end of June. We reached there at about 11.30am, wanting to catch a movie, and was surprised to see a long queue for the tickets. We chose "Changeling", a movie starring Angelina Jolie and directed by Clint Eastwood. No CGI, no big-bang, pure drama and all acting. It is enjoyable, a change from all the block-busting movies we've watched last month.

Before the show started at 12.50pm, we grabbed a bite at Sushi Tei. Despite a 10-minute queue, we got a nice seat and the food were served very promptly.

Don't try this at home, as I got impatient waiting for wifey to frame, focus and hit the shutter button.

We highly recommend the Sashimi Salad with the Sushi Tei dressing. Generous servings of sashimi

We spent the rest of the afternoon on more shopping, with me at PageOne bookstore most of the time. I love to check out books, and found a few that interests me. My only reason to procrastinate is storing the new purchases, for my cabinets are really full. I must build lots of cabinets if I move to a new house. In fact, I still haven't unwrapped the books at this moment.

We came across a National Geographic themed store, which was rather interesting. The store is decorated like an exhibition hall, with nice exhibits and merchandise for sale. Creating awareness I believe this place will achieve, but not sure about the sales and profit part.

We dined at White Dog Cafe, our second time. And then we remembered why we had mixed feelings about this restaurant. For the second time, our soups were lukewarm, and blatantly obvious that they had been heated in the microwave oven. The button mushrooms are delicious, tender on the inside and crispy on the outside. The cowboy pizza wasn't to our liking, so we ate only half of it, partly because the better-tasting appetizers filled our stomach.




And so ends our eventful day, a typical Singaporean experience of sight-seeing, movie-going, shopping.