I moved my blog to http://www.johndiew.com/

Thank you for your continuous support.

Beware of Kyuubey.

Talk about Summer.

2011 Summer anime chart is proudly brought to you by nelson☆彡. Click on the thumbnail for higher-res chart.

Honestly, the anime for this season is bad IMO, from the provided chart and first impression posts from other comrades, I barely find any title that really attracts me.

Most of them are in “evaluation” mode, which depends on how the story progress in first few episodes..

Could be good:

• Usagi Drop – Slice of life, y’know, my favourite
• Kami-sama no Memo-chou – Mystery stuff… but JC Staff, please, at least something new.
• Ikoku Meiro no Croisee – 1800s
• No. 6 – well…

Good or terrigruesome:

• Blood-C – This is on the list because it has girl + katana combi.
• THE IDOLM@STER – Harem

Previously, we discussed about PDair’s leather flip case for HTC Incredible S, which I ditched it after using it for one month (click here to know why).

After that rather annoying experience, I decided to get a better case to protect my HiTagi-Chan. By the way, HiTagi-Chan is my phone’s nickname, I have Hitagi-PC for desktop, Hitagi-mini for netbook & Lumi-chan for camera.

Simplicity.

At the back.

Other than the case itself, there’s no other thing included.

The case is consists of 2 layers. The inner silicone layer (right) and the outer ABS hard shell plastic layer (left).

This is to provide maximum protect to the body of the phone.

The hard shell has rugged look. It feels nice to hold in the hands.

Lock and loaded.

Take note that the case has lifted borders, which means if you put your phone faced down, your screen won’t get scratched easily.

I like how it looks at the back.

Pros:

• Dual layer Protection (inner silicone + outer ABS hard shell plastic)
• Lifted borders to prevent scratching screen when phone faced down (same applies to the camera)
• Access to ports, camera, flash and speaker
• Holds your phone tightly
• Nice to hold
• Superb Quality

Cons:

• Screen is not protected
• Silicone attracts dirt easily
• Dirt may accumulate in the case…
• Hard to remove

Conclusion

Compared with PDair’s leather flip case, both has their own pros and cons. PDair is more towards luxury/business class whereas Case-Mate is more casual.

I choose to stay with Case-Mate because it is a nice case which protects my gadget and that’s what PDair doesn’t do well.

Got a case for my HTC Incredible S.

Was having some hard time looking for a quality case, because there were quite limited choices available the time when I bought my phone.

Nevertheless, I found a seller who do bulk order from PDair and I got a leather flip case from him.

After using it for quite some time I got annoyed with its problems, and I changed it. I’ll explain why at the end of this post.

The packaging is rather simple and straight forward.

Included the leather case itself and the belt clip.

Front view.

It uses a magnet button as locking mechanism on the front of the case. The finishing on the leather is marvelous.

Rear view.

Notice that there’s no dedicated camera hole, thus it provides full protection for the phone, including the camera while the case is locked.

Otherwise, there’s just a belt clip mount and openings for speaker & antennas.

There’s a name card holder at the front piece. The cut off part in the middle is to provide connection to the headphone jack.

The phone is held by 3 pieces of leather wrapped metal holder.

Having the phone inside.

Pros:

• Secured magnet button lock
• High quality leather finish
• Full front and back protection (flip closed)
• Name card holder

This is case looks classy and I likes the smooth leather finish on it.

It provides maximum protection to the screen and camera which are the most fragile part out of all. Not to mention about the magnet button lock which is really tight if compared with other flip cases that uses regular snap-on locking mechanism.

Name card holder is a plus, but PDair made a little bit too tight, you need take extra care to slot in name cards.

Cons:

• Not 100% protected (flipped open) (left/right side no protection)
• Magnet button lock (male) would accidentally hit on the screen (flipped open)
• Troublesome to use the camera
• Bad phone holder design – blocks keyboard’s character ‘P’
• Bad phone holder design – not holding the phone in-place properly
• Takes time to flip open/close the case
• Why flip up?
• Useless belt clip (why plastic? why it can’t fit my belt?)
• Bulky

Indeed, I’m pretty satisfied with what I get from the case. However, looking at that impressive list of cons, I have loads of complains isn’t it. But the truth is when I throw out cash to get a case, of course I expect it to provide protection for my gadgets.

But due to it’s design, you can see from the photo, the phone’s left/right side is wide open, without any protection layer, which sucks…

Basically all the problems you have to blame on PDair’s designer.

Conclusion – BAD DESIGN.

All you bozos should watch this anime!!!

What the hell do you think it is?

It’s Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann!!!

Time sure flies. I thought the semester just started not long ago.. in fact we’re now entering week 6 already..

I have to admit that I didn’t keep with my words – to do posting regularly.

I have no idea why I’m losing the momentum, my internet life and anime passion plummets…

Perhaps my University life finally push me to this stage – CRISIS!!!

Pizza Hut meetup with my buddies.

In occasion of Dragon Boat Festival or DuanWu Festival, a ZongZi wrapping competition was held by the locals.

ZongZi is a Chinese traditional food, mainly made of glutinous rice and wrapped in bamboo leaves. The fillings are optional. I prefer red bean tho..

Ninja wrapping.

Done wrapping and ready to send to steam cooker.

After steaming…

Bought an orchid…

I could understand why the codename for GP03S is Dendrobium..

Went to a talk organized by Soft Skills department.

The facilitator is a nice guy.

She likes Angry Birds.

Health Awareness campaign organized by First Aid society.

They have talks and demonstrations.

=.=

Sorta high tech 3D model of a HIV virus.

Love your life <3

Bizarre… It caught me off guard.

May starts, My final continues, Yet another late update =D.

Oat crackers, perfect snack for studying.

Playing around with Lumi-chan.

Dynamic mode.

Semester break, went to Pangkor Island. Took some photos during the trip, looking forward to share with you guys.

Holiday cleaning. Ripping apart my Hitagi v1.1.

Taking everything off the case.

Sparkling clean.

Someone took my keychain collection.

LOL-some.

Sundae cone.

Health food.

=D

Had a BBQ party with friends.

Too many fish balls.

For the first time, I felt that my semester break is too short… Probably due to the hectic university life..

And I’ve been blogging less about anime lately…  Sigh, need to keep up with my blogging pace..

Intro (grandma story)

Since years ago, people around me including myself, have been using Nokia or Sony Ericsson phones like forever. Whenever they get a new phone, it’s either of them.

Probably both Nokia and Sony Ericsson succeed in captivating the users in my country, I don’t know.. Other brands such as Motorola and Samsung do pop up occasionally at that time, but they just can’t penetrate into the market..

Our impression on Nokia’s product is tough and useful phones. Whereas Sony Ericsson produces stylish and media-centered devices, especially their K and W series, but they’re not as durable as Nokia’s.

Until the iPhone hype reached our shore, that pretty much changed everything. People here are so excited with the iDevice and they view it as a premium product which symbolizes the users’ social status.

And then, Google’s Android joins the mobile battlefield too.

Both Apple and Google had caused a huge wave of smartphone revolution, especially the Android OS which helps HTC, Motorola, LG and Samsung mobiles to gain recognition in my country.

Coincidentally, my good-ol Nokia decide to blurp a series of problems to me, so I decided to get myself a new phone. The result – HTC Incredible S (IS).

Tech Specs

CPU: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255

GPU: Adreno 205

RAM: 768MB

ROM: 1.1GB

Display: Gorilla display 4″ S-LCD 480px * 800px

Data Inputs: A-GPS, Ambient light sensor, Digital compass, G-sensor, Multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, Proximity sensor

Camera: Rear 8MP dual flash, Front 1.3MP

Size: 120mm * 64mm * 11.7mm

Weight: 135.5g (including battery)

The Look and Feel

Front – IS has a 4″ screen, and the size is quite reasonable for a phone with that large screen. There’s nothing special at the front, which is covered mostly by the screen. Front facing camera, ambient light sensor and proximity sensor are placed between the ear piece and the screen, the later two are hidden. Four capacitive buttons are placed under the screen for different functionality – home, menu, back, search. The cover surrounding the gorilla glass is made of aluminium I assume.

There’s something special on IS – The backlit icons of the four function keys are able to rotate to match the orientation of the phone.

Back – A lot of reviewers are getting so excited with the edgy design at the back. Some hated, some loved. Yes, it is special indeed, but I don’t really care much of it. The back cover is made of some sort of plastic that feels a bit soft or rubbery. It is nice to hold in the hands. 8mp camera, dual LED flash and speaker is located at the back too.

Side – The side design is minimalist. We have the power button and 3.5mm audio jack on top. Volume rocker and USB sync-charge port at the left side. Otherwise, there is no any port or buttons at the right and bottom side, not even dedicated camera button.

My point of view is, having a dedicated camera button would be nice as it feels much stable to take photos rather than using the touch screen. By the way, the ports do not have any covers to protect them from dust. I’m okay with it because my previous phone has rubber cap for the ports, however it snapped after prolonged usage and it totally destroyed the phone’s looks.

Overall, the phone looks pretty cool and personally, I like its minimalist design. When the screen is turned off, it looks simple without any buttons in view.

Android

I had four phones prior to IS, 3 of them are Nokia and the odd one is Motorola.

The fourth phone Nokia 5700 XM even though labeled as smartphone, but the offered features are “not so smart”… Sad case isn’t it..

Android 2.2 Froyo

IS comes loaded with Android 2.2 Froyo. Well, it was kinda disappointed that HTC decide to ditch 2.3 Gingerbread in order to launch the phone as soon as possible… However Over-The-Air upgrade is promised once it was launched.

And so, I spent the first few weeks with Froyo. Since I’m not a pro in this field, I try to explain my usage experience in simplest way.

The Android experience is awesome. Loads of customization I can say. Furthermore through rooting, you gain super user access for advanced tweaks such as overclocking.

One thing I noticed, the IS’s battery life isn’t really good. It couldn’t last for more than 14hours with average usage… Most of the power is drawed by the 4inch SLCD screen.

Android 2.3 Gingerbread

OTA update is available since 26th May, and I updated my IS on that day.

I must say that I’m very impressed with the update.

First, the battery life has improved a lot. The phone now can last for 14hours of average usage and left 30%+ battery power at the end of the day.

Second, the user interface is smoother, less lag.

Third, organized. The apps menu are arranged in pages with different tabs to differentiate the apps.

HTC Sense

HTC Sense is a User Interface designed by HTC for their newer devices.

Android + HTC Sense = Superb Experience

The phonebook is integrated with your social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and even Flickr. Yeah, you can get almost everything in the phonebook, like status updates and photos. Another trick under HTC’s sleeves is, when your friend calls you, the caller information displays the caller name and their latest status update from their facebook/twitter/plurk… that’s genius!!! I’m the type of person who can’t socialize well, and certainly this helps a lot in my conversations.

Other tricks such as flip to silence call and etc.. feel free to visit HTC to learn more about what is HTC Sense.

However, there’s one problem though, its their cloud service. HTC promotes that HTC Sense’s cloud service such as locating our lost device, synchronizing contacts and data, locking our phone through HTCsense.com. Disappointing fact – their server always down for maintenance. I have no idea what kind of maintenance they’re having. Over-promising.

Camera & Media

The quality of the camera on this phone is average if compared with its close competitors such as Sony Ericsson & Samsung. I would say that I trade the camera quality for better user interface, more ROM & RAM.

A small sensor and unknown lens for 8MP? Based on my photography experience, it creates more noise instead of higher resolution photo. The 720p video recording isn’t smooth enough.

*PS – after using several third party camera apps, I found that the cause of low quality photo is probably due to HTC’s stock camera app. It tend to over-compress the JPEG file of the photo, thus lowering the quality. Seriously 1-2MB per 8mp photo? Ridiculous!

Music & video player are available out of the box. However, there are options available on the market. Thus, I won’t comment on this because music/movie playback depends on the media apps you’re using.

So far, I’m satisfied with the stock music player, meanwhile I replace the stock video player with MoboPlayer which plays almost everything I throw at it.

The included earphone is not good. First, it is not an in-ear earphone. Second, sound quality so-so. Third, volume control unit seems like easy to break. Fourth, I’m sticking with my Philips earphone.

Connectivity & GPS

The most common connection I used on the phone is WiFi, followed by GPS and Bluetooth.

So far, there’s isn’t any problem with the WiFi of this phone, though its a little weak in detecting WiFi signals.

Whereas the GPS works perfectly, although the first lockup with the GPS satellites took forever, however once it is locked, then the next locking time is shorter.

Bluetooth works perfectly, I tested sending files or synchronizing with bluetooth headphones.

Conclusion

Overall, I’m very satisfied with this phone and I’m amazed with the growth of smartphone market. It is definitely making mobile computing as easy as 123.

Although I heard loads of problems regarding this unit, such as auto reboot, miss call/SMS delay, but thank goodness my unit is free of all those reported issues, and I wouldn’t want it to happen on me. However, HTC is currently working on solving those issues.

and those who complain about single core processor or dual core processor… To be frank, the mobile industry is growing way too fast. As I remember, 1GHz single core mobile processor are fairly new in the market, and here comes the dual core.. There’s no end chasing technology. Just get what suits your need.

This just made my day.

Months of complaining and enduring the problems of my old phone…

Went through all sorts of reviews, recommendations and comparisons… I know it’s smartphone war out there…

And finally, my decision goes to Android – HTC Incredible S.

Opening the box reveals the phone, covered with protective films to avoid scratches.

Simple tech specs:

CPU: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM8255
GPU: Adreno 205
RAM: 768MB
ROM: 1.1GB
Display: Gorilla display 4″ S-LCD 480px * 800px
Data Inputs: A-GPS, Ambient light sensor, Digital compass, G-sensor, Multi-touch capacitive touchscreen, Proximity sensor
Camera: Rear 8MP dual flash, Front 1.3MP
Size: 120mm * 64mm * 11.7mm
Weight: 135.5g (including battery)

Nowadays, the packaging for mobile phones are getting smaller and smaller. I’m pretty sure that the manufacturers choose to go digital and ditches physical discs or user manuals to cut down cost.

It’s a good sign, because instead of printing thick user manuals which serves as toilet paper, the papers can be put into better use.

The result, compact packaging for our favourite electronic devices.

Taking out everything included in the package.

Handsfree with music controller (Sponge ear-buds included)
USB-sync cable
3-pin wall power socket
Power-USB adapter

Seriously, this is my very first HTC device, and I’m in awe with this unique design.

I assume that the 3-pin socket can be replaced with other units for different region or car charging..

Handsfree with music controller.

Our local distributor encourages online product registration by giving 1+1 year warranty extension, but they still provide the option to register by mail.

The documents included are minimum…

Front.

Rear

Back cover removed, revealing the antenna system and battery.. nekked.

After using the phone for 1 week+, I’m impressed with it. I could get all sorts of things done while on the go. It works just like my netbook..  Why my netbook suddenly become worthless..

Checking emails, RSS feeds, internet social networking, and more.

I might write up a review for it, so stay tuned.

Before wrapping up this hardware preview, I need to bid my farewell to my good-ol Nokia.

Four years to be exact, my loyal Nokia 5700 XM had served me. Even thought problems start to arise since a year ago, I continued to use it, believing that it could last for another year.

The time has come for me to stop torturing it.

Thank you.

Finally, I’m done with my finals and here comes my holiday.

Seriously, I miss my blogging life and always wanted to write up something, but I’m just too lazy to spend my time on editing the photos… I choose to sleep tho…

(the guy in the photo is not me)

March was a hell torturing month, which we had all sorts of assessments and assignments coming all together at one time.

Luckily we had everything covered before April, what’s left is just the presentation and submission.

Breakkie

There were lots of heavy rain during that time.. and I found my room was leaking!!

Studying won’t be the best with out facebook.

My ever trusty Casio.

Hi there.

Went to my uncle’s place.

Creepy whatsoever-you-call-it.

The King of Fruits – Durian.

You fancy?

Crap… out of focus…

Will try to post up more in the future.

And something exciting is coming~

I shall start my 2011 Spring season’s anime first impression post with this series.

When I read the synopsis of this show, to be frank, I think the idea is interesting.

But, there’s one thing.

One thing that I’ve forgot about.

The almighty anime killer – Censorship.

Seriously, after finishing the whole episode which is only 10minutes++…

I feel like a dumb guy watching that fella pointing at the blackboard with nothing I can see..

Late…

In courtesy of nelson☆彡 and The Cart Driver, here are the 2011 Spring preview charts. Click the pictures for higher resolution chart.

From the chart, I’m a bit disappointed with the season’s anime lineup. There isn’t any series that I’m really looking forward to. In fact, the only titles that I have high hopes on are the theatrical films or OVAs.

Still, I’ll have a few series in my watchlist which I think they might be good:

• Nichijou
• Hanasaku Iroha
• Steins;Gate
• Maria Holic Alive

I might watch:

• Oretachi ni Tsubasa wa Nai
• 30-sai no Hoken Taiiku
• Sket Dance

Because life is so stressful, hence, watching anime is a must in our daily life.

I guess I’m just barely catch up with my blog’s posting.

2011 March could be the most busy month I’ve ever had. Seven subjects with loads of assessments, assignments, tests and blablabla…

Still, I’m able to squeeze two days of free time and went to Genting Highlands.

In case you don’t know, Genting Highlands is a mountain resort with theme parks and legal land-based casino. It is dubbed as the “City of Entertainment”.

(the photo above has nothing to do with Genting…)

White balance nightmare…

My friend had a free coupon for a night stay at First World Hotel, and coincidentally, we’re free on that day.

So we arranged our schedule, booked the room and off we go.

Genting Highlands is accessible by car and a cable car. I don’t recommend to drive up because lack of skill + road condition = perfect recipe of disaster.

Genting Skyway Cable car is the safer way to reach your destination. It is also known as world’s fastest mono cable car system (21.6km/h) and longest cable car system in South East Asia (3.38km).

Love the misty feel.

First World Hotel, listed in Guinness World Records being the world’s largest hotel with a total of 6228 rooms.

They forgot to add in “hotel with smallest room ever”.

Durian fest <3

Don’t know whether the durians at there is fresh or not.. but foreigners don’t even know about that.

At the First World Hotel’s indoor theme park.

Was so excited about the trip, and my hand shakes a lot.

Too fast.

They have “Ripley’s Believe it or not!” museum.

Experience how winter feels.

Went out for a walk at night.

Didn’t brought my camera stand because it just ruins the mood.

But I’m impressed with Lumi-chan’s ability to take good pictures in low light condition.

Model of Genting Highlands.

The next day, we went to the outdoor theme park.

The weather was cloudy.

You like roller coasters?

The all-time-favorite space shot.

Planned to had a race, but the queue is just horribly long..

On the way down…

It was an awesome trip.

If you have the chance to visit Malaysia, do head up to Genting Highlands.

Back to normal life…

On da way to campus.

Presentations..

Editing photos for this post.

It’s week 13 now, I had left one practical assessment and one assignment before the finals on week 15.

That’s all for this monthly post, hope you all enjoyed the photos.

The month of February started with the celebration of Chinese New Year.

I like these kind of festivals which all the family members would gather and have fun.

Chinese New Year 2011 post at here.

Campus’ cafeteria.

Noticed that students tend to leave their plates and rubbish on the table after finishing their meal.

Iced Lemon Tea.

My hands looks old…

Blurred

My uncle just had his new home built and he invited me to his open house.

Cosy living room.

Glad that I went for the open house.

Met loads of awesome people, mostly my uncle’s acquaintance and had great conversations with them.

Attended a workshop about Commercial Crime.

C – Data Structures and Algorithm = AWESOME.

Gloomy weather.

There’s nothing…

Perhaps the simplest monthly photo journal I had…

I noticed that I didn’t take many photos during the month… I wonder why..

Had steamboat dinner with friends.

Our food devouring ability is stunning.

JuShuen is departing for England on the next day.

Taking a breeze.

At Kampar railway station.

At Berjaya Times Square, filled with Chinese New Year decorations.

ROLF.

Didn’t know that I had a pizza house.

Went for tree-hugging at Hutan Lipur Kanching.

It is an awesome place.

Engrish.

Some wicked trunks behind me.

Waterfall.

The mother nature.

That’s all the photos that I find publishable… hope you all like them.

Had some free time after having two midterms yesterday, but still I’ll be having a discussion for a campaign that will be organized by my team.

University student huh…

This post is gonna be short and brief about what I’ve been up to..

First, is regarding my blog. Yeah, the blog is so quiet that seems like I forgot my password and couldn’t write up new posts.

But no worry = ), I could feel my blogging sense is coming back to me.

Second, about my anime review posts. Initially I was planning to stop writing them because of my hellish university life. But soon decide to put my anime review posts into “slow mode”.

Yes, you hear it right. I’ll still be posting them, just limited to those series that I find worth.

However, this doesn’t mean that I’ll stop watching anime as it still stands an important place in my life. Without anime is definitely a no-no for me.

Third, about my otaku collection. My current financial situation is pretty terrible. I have to survive through the month, buy text books, and misc spendings… I don’t think I could able to afford to spend much on my figure or gundam collection…

Sad case, and I have to endure through all those tempting figure/gundam release previews… oh gawd….

Hello guys, I’m back.

University life = Hell, and so my blog went into hibernation mode and I hardly come up with any topics to talk about.

I have several assessments, reports and tests coming in next few weeks. I might be stressing myself too much. I thought of getting back into my normal working pace.

Anyway, here’s the super late Chinese New Year post. I still owe you guys the January 2011 Monthly Journal. (photo editing in progress…)

What’s Chinese New Year is about?

For me, it’s not just as simple as just a festival that celebrates the coming of new year.

I was glad that I was born in this family.

We spend every year’s Chinese New Year together and when I was a kid, I thought everyone in the world celebrated CNY that way.

Perhaps I’m the one whose lucky enough to have a family with such strong bond.

Of course, I appreciate the time we could spend together as a family, and so should you too.

I wanted to share more, however I have an assessment due on Monday. I guess I shall leave you with the photos.

Is attending a soft skill workshop entitled – “Commercial Crime”.

Starting a new series called as “Quick Journal” to replace the old “Week’O” series. I suppose I’ll use this series to post up some random thing.

Anyway, let me explain the reason of my absence from my blog..

Everything starts during my semester break….

I’m back into Ragnarok Online. Have you heard of the game? It’s a MMORPG that based on a Korean manga, and I played the game since it landed in Malaysia on 2004.

I stopped when they started the Pay-to-play system on 2006 if I’m not mistaken. Until few years ago, they started a Free-to-play server, I’m back to the game. However, I quit it after a while because of the low experience rate. Well, it’s free wha…

and recently, Malaysia joint with Taiwan, they launched a new mandarin server which has normal exp and item drop rate. Of course with new version patch, new jobs are available.. So, once again, I’m back into the game…

The rest is pretty much self explanatory. Why I went MIA? What am I doing during those times?

Leaving aside that matter, Chinese New Year is around the corner, and I’m now enjoying my CNY break (1 week).

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

Continuing with winter season, the second series featured in my first impression post is “Beelzebub”.

The story is about Tatsumi Oga, a delinquent who has been chosen to raise the son of the demon king. Yes, the green-haired fella is da mini-demon.

At first, I wasn’t planning to watch this series because shounen genre isn’t my cup of tea… usually…

But my brother’s first impression on the show is good, so I’m thinking of giving it a chance.

As expected, the story is pretty much “fired-up”. You know, shounen series focus more on masculinity and what you call that, burning spirit type. (eg, the orange suit ninja)

Although I’m bored with the starting of the episode, but the story gets interesting in the second half.

I’ll continue watching this series, before deciding to drop it.