I finally got Jay Chou's new album, The Era

Yay! After a year of waiting, Jay has finally released his latest album on 18 May 2010. Well for preorder customers we get the album one day earlier. Hence I went to collect my copy at Tampines Popular although I did not order the 3D metal box version (see below).

For Taiwan fans who preordered, they get an additional 3D calendar on top of getting a set of 9 commemorative badges representing each album that Jay has released throughout his decade career. Singapore fans like me only get the badge, no calendar =(

I am not sure what I can do with the badges. Maybe I'll just put them aside and keep them in their original plastic so that dust will not accumulate.

The theme for Jay's new album is vampire and Jay dresses up as a vampire but somehow he doesn't look as good as the dragon warrior knight in his previous album. Nonetheless he is probably catching up on the vampire fever that starts from Twilight and I don't think it will hurt his album sales.

Now I am happily listening to his new songs as well as Ayumi Hamasaki's new album, Rock 'n' Roll Circus (see below).

I bought her album much earlier and after listening to the songs, I liked them immediately and now I am a happy fan. Both my favourite male and female singers have put out their respective albums so what is there not to be happy?

=D

Jay Chou's New Duet with Cindy Yeon

All right, this isn't exactly a brand new piece of information but Jay Chou has recorded a duet with Cindy Yeon, an upcoming new singer I suppose. I'm not familiar with Cindy but Jay is my absolute favourite idol. The title of the new song is 画沙 and you can find the song at the link here.

I hope Jay's new album will come out soon. Normally he would release his new album around the end of the year and it's November now. I am constantly checking for news that I might have missed out. O.o

That's all for now.

Enjoy! ^_^

New HTC Magic

Whoa, andriod phones are starting to invade the mobile phone market and the newest model from HTC is the MTC Magic.




It looks so much better than its predecessor, the HTC Dream. So far not much details are known about this phone except that it doesn't come with a slide out keyboard like the HTC Dream.

Based on looks, it sure wins over the HTC Dream anytime but iPhone is still way too sleek for its competitors to catch up to it in terms of the looks.

So far reports are saying that the phone will be selling in Europe but no releases has been announced for Asia yet. By the time that release comes, Apple will probably have released its third version of its hugely popular iPhone, which is slated for an update this July.

Jackie Chan Insults Singapore

The latest hoo-haa about movie star Jackie Chan has landed him in hot soup. His mouth, known for spouting off nonsense, has found its latest target in a tiny country, Singapore.

It was reported that he said that Singaporeans have no self-respect and even mocked fun of its legal law. Despite that, the accuracy of the report is yet to be determined as it's published in a tabloid paper in Singapore, the Shin Min Daily News. That paper is known for publishing rubbish sometimes. Once it even claimed that Ayumi Hamasaki had contracted Aids even though that rumour was false.

Nonetheless, the Jackie Chan fiasco has spread over to China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Established papers like New York Times and The Wall Street Journal carried reports of his rude comments on the internet as well as on print.

He alleged that the Chinese people doesn't know how to handle liberty and hence needs the government to step in to control the people. Many Chinese are still angry at him and a group was even set up in Facebook to exile Jackie to North Korea, though it was mainly a tongue-in-cheek reaction to his comments.

In any case, I won't be watching his movies anymore since he's obviously a star with wrong morals and thinking. If he ever comes to Singapore, we had better be sure to quarantine him so that he won't start infect other people with his thoughts. Muawahahaha!

More MSI Wind U120 Updates

This time round, a review has been done by Laptop Mag on the new MSI Wind U120.

Basically, the emphasis is still on the new design of the Wind. Other factors such as the Intel chip, OS and other specifications still remain the same as before. So that means there's not much of a reason to do an upgrade if you are a current Wind owner. However the new Wind does come in at a cheaper price.

Looks like this time round MSI fails to grab the opportunity to do more improvement on its flagship netbook. Now it's up to the other competitors to show off their products' superiority over the new Wind.

Will they succeed? Only time can tell.

New Second Gen of MSI Wind

According to Gadget Lab's new article, MSI has just released a new generation of the hugely successful MSI Wind for this year. A test unit was sent to Gadget Lab for review and it's still early to tell if the performance of the new Wind will be better than the previous generation, which I'm using currently.

From the pictures provided below, it is clear that the design has been redrawn to look more professional than before. However, the article contains very little information on the new Wind so hopefully I can find other better tech sites that does a better review than this.






Nonetheless, I am still very happy using my own Wind and I don't mind using Win XP for my OS, unlike the writer of the article who called it crap. Bah! Win XP is way better than Vista. At the very lest, it doesn't gobble up lots of resources just to maintain operations.

Yep, so off to my Wind!

Manga Read: Skip Beat!

Currently I am following several mangas, one of which is Skip Beat!. It is a long-running manga series that dates back to 2002. Its creator is Yoshiki Nakamura and this manga has been a great success. To date, about 20 volumes have been published

The manga follows a young girl's trials and tribulations of surviving in the showbiz world and it also showcase her intricate lovelife. Kyoko Mogami has always been in love with Sho Fuwa and when he asked her to follow him to Toyko to realise his dream of being a star, she agreed immediately.

However Sho only treats her like a servant and he declares that he has no feelings for her at all, in front of his manager. When Kyoko heard this, she was heartbroken but her rage overpowered her and she swore revenge on Sho through an unusual way, by getting into showbiz and make it to the top so that she can crush him.

To achieve her goal, she joined Sho's rival, Ren Tsuruga's company, LME. Ren's popularity is much higher than Sho's, hence making him a rival to Sho. Sho has vowed to overtake Ren in the popularity stakes and control the entertainment world.

Kyoko displayed her amazing talent during LME's audition, which she had tried very hard to get into. However she failed the audition as she lacked the most important virtue that an artiste needs, love. Due to her constant obsession over Sho, she gradually forgets her own existence and hence when Sho dumped her, she lost the ability to love, or so she thought.

Despite her failure, the president of LME, Rory Takarada, decides to create an entirely new section and Kyoko would be the first member. That section is named 'Love Me', alluding to its mission of cultivating talents who lack the love virtue.

Throughout Kyoko's work in LME, she encountered many setbacks which she met with much gusto. Her strong determination and professional attitude towards her work slowly gains the respect of Ren Tsuruga, whom initially had disliked Kyoko's motivation to join the entertainment industry. In the later volumes, Ren is revealed to be Kyoko's childhood friend, Kuon Hizuri, although she does not recognize him due to the name and appearance change.

Kyoko's first audition for a drinks advertisement met with unexpected results and she was casted alongside with her fellow 'Love Me' member, Kanae Kotonami. Subsequently, she was casted in Sho's new PV due to the advertisement's success. That PV marked the first confrontational meeting with Sho after her entry into the entertainment world. Kyoko was subsequently casted in a TV drama, Dark Moon, and received rave reviews for her performance as Mio.

The manga is currently ongoing and I can't wait for the next volume to be released. The numerous setbacks that Kyoko faced and conquered made it a truly worthy read among the best mangas. Her never-say-die attitude is so strong that even when she has an injury, she still carries out her role to the very end. That's what I like about this series. It teaches valuable lessons about life and its trials.

Kyoko is only a 16 year old girl yet she managed to overcome so many difficult setbacks that even her seniors in the industry are beginning to like and care for her. The most evident person has to be Ren, for he had fallen in love with the gutsy girl despite his reservations about love. Even Sho has come to realise that he,too, has feelings for the girl that he had once tossed aside.

Now this manga has been made into an anime and its currently still running in Japan. In Singapore, it's being aired on OKTO every Friday at 11pm and it's a must for me to catch the show.

Below are some of the cover pictures for Skip Beat!:

Vol. 01 Cover - Kyoko Mogami

Kyoko in her Love Me uniform

Vol. 09 Cover - Ren Tsuruga

From left to right: Sho Fuwa, Ren Tsuruga and Kyoko Mogami

Vol. 17 Cover - Kyoko with Ren (my fave pairing!)

Vol. 05 Cover - Kyoko with Kanae Kotonami

Kyoko with Maria, the granddaughter of the LME president

Kyoko as the evil angel in Sho's PV, Sho by the side

Kyoko as Mio in Dark Moon

Currently there are confirmed talks of filming a Taiwanese idol drama version for the anime series. Jerry Yen will be playing Ren Tsuruga and Ariel Lin will play Kyoko Mogami. However the confirmed start of filming has been delayed due to a change in the Japanese company and it is not known when a date will be confirmed.

For me, I don't like the choice of Jerry and Ariel playing the leads. In fact, I don't want the anime to be adapted into a Taiwanese idol drama. The story will definitely be mangled to pieces in favour of promoting the stars in the show. It's horrible to see the stars making coo-coo eyes all the time, irregardless of the story plot.

But fans have no choice in this matter and we can only wait and see how things go. Kyoko's character is so complex that I doubt Ariel Lin can portray her well. I probably won't be watching the idol drama. The manga and anime are more than enough for me.

Hurray to Skip Beat!

My new 6-cell battery

I know this has been way too long in coming ever since I collected my 6-cell battery last month. Now I'm posting this to make up for my promise.

Overall, the battery life is definitely a great improvement over the 3-cell battery. Most of the times, I could log in about 4 hours of usage compared to my previous usage of 1.5 hours. I also got the technician at Corbell to overclock my wind but the guy only gave me an increase of 4%. It's pathetic but at least I'm having an overclock function rather than an underclock function, as was the case before.

The overclock function is made possible through MSI's latest bios update for the wind. Now my wind is better than ever and I'm so glad that I made the decision to buy it. Worth every cent, I must say.

Below are some of the pictures that I took of my 6-cell battery with my wind. I also took picture of the overclocking mode. Note that the power light turns to orange instead of its usual blue colour. Interesting and pretty, right?













What do you think of my wind? Worthy enough to dethrone the eee pc? Now my wind is perfect. Battery life is good. Has overclocking function. Is small and portable. What's there not to like about my wind?

=D

MSI Wind is Product of the Year

According to MSIWind.Net, pocket-lint has announced the winners of the Vodafone Pocket-lint Gadget Awards and the MSI Wind walked away with both the Best Laptop/Netbook award as well as the Product of the Year award.

The awards are decided by the UK's top technology and gadget journalists from online and print and MSIWind.Net has stated that it is one of the more reputable sites around.

I'm feeling so proud of my MSI Wind's achievements and the fact that I am an owner of a MSI Wind makes me dazzled. LOL. I don't know much about technology but I do follow the trends going on in the technology world.

It's a wonder for the MSI Wind to take the Product of the Year award straight right from under Apple's iPhone 3G. After all, you can't deny the fact that the iPhone has redefined the boundaries of the mobile phone world. Just like the way ASUS's eeepc single-handedly created a market of its own: Netbooks.

Besides, both the MSI Wind and the eeepc come from the Asian people, not those elite engineers from Silicon Valley, mind you. This make their achievements in the technology world much, much more significant.

In any case, I'm delighted to have my MSI Wind with me and hope it will last me for some time to come.

Right now, being part of the MSI wind users, I'm savouring its victory in the Gadgets awards slowly. Ahhh...

This is a follow-up picture to my first discharge on the 6 cells battery for my MSI Wind. Click on the thumbnail to get a bigger picture.



As the battery is still new, I will need to discharge it a couple of times before it finally stabilizes. But overall, the battery life for the 6 cells is around 5 hours, give or take. This is provided if the screen brightness is set to the minimum level and with only WIFI turned on. I rarely use other functions like the webcam or the bluetooth technology.

This in turn, helps to increase the battery life and giving a much more favourable lifespan than the 3 cells battery shit. I am a light user and my main activity is web-surfing. So this Wind works out to a nicely timing of roughly 5 hours and that's more than enough time.

However the battery life is still pretty much dependent on the user's usage pattern. If you turn on all the functions and do intensive work like photoshopping or browse videos all the time, stream music in the background, etc then you will drain the battery much faster.

Me is something of a computer idiot so web-surfing and a little bit of photoshop is pretty much all I do on my Wind.

Next I will post up comparison pictures of the 3 cells and 6 cells battery as well as the overclock function to give a rough idea of what my Wind is capable of doing. Not by much though. =(

Oh well. At least it's better than nothing. Tada!

A Short Update on my 6 cells battery

I have just collected my 6 cells 5200 mAH battery from Corbell yesterday and left it to charge for around 10 hours.

Today is my first discharge and I started using my Wind at around 2.13pm and the battery has lasted till now, and the time reads 9.16pm.

That's like 7 hours of usage for me, with the brightness level set to minimum and with only WIFI turned on. Nothing else. All I did was just web surfing, which is my main purpose of getting the Wind.

Now my battery indicator tells me that I'm left with around 12% of power or about 33 minutes of usage time. Wee!

So far, I have been very pleased with my new battery set & coupled together with my existing 3 cells battery, I can safely chucked my power adaptor at home without any worries of running out of battery power.

Now, MSI should have done this a long time ago and not make users wait infinitely for the 6 cells battery to arrive. That was such a torture. With my 3 cells battery producing only 90 minutes worth of battery life, I am literally bound to my room AND to the power adaptor. Not an amusing thing, I can tell ya that.

So, all in all, this 6 cells battery is a worthy bargain @ $99 for early adoptors. Now I'm truly mobile! w00t!

Jay Chou's Latest Album: Capricorn

Finally this day has arrived and I can get my hands on Jay's latest album, Capricorn!

I did a preorder at Tampines Mall's Music Junction and the album was supposed to be released on 9th Oct 2008. But due to a link of the album's songs on the internet, Jay decided to postponed the release date and to add on 1 more free gift to preorders.

The initial free gift was a Jay's rubik cube. Now the add-on will be a Jay's poker cards. Not that I'm planning to use either of them. They are meant for keepsakes. So I collected my items and took a snapshots of them. See below:















As for the songs, no doubt they are still Jay's signature songs with his distinct music style. As per tradition, you will need to listen to the songs a couple of times before they would grow on you. Most of the songs are my favourites except for the 3rd song, Snake Dance. I suspect Lara of Nan Quan Mama lends her vocals to this song and thus, making me hate this song. I have never like Lara's voice for it sounds very scratchy and irritating. There is absolute no good value about her voice. Bah!

The opening bars of the 1st song, Dragon Warrior Knight, has now become my newest ringtone on my Nokia N95 8GB. Heehee...

Now I shall devote my time to listening & learning the lyrics to Jay's new songs for it will be another year before the next release of his future album.

w00t!

New MSI Wind U120 Coming Soon

Fudzilla has reported that a new successor to the highly popular MSI Wind is due for release in around December. The new netbook, which is known as Wind U120, will be targeted at business users and hence its colour scheme is geared towards a more serious theme. Fudzilla has kindly posted the pictures for us to drool over:

























Based on the pictures and Fudzilla's observations, the netbook does not seem to differ much from the earlier version, the Wind U100, which I am using right now. Thus there is no real incentive for me to do any upgrading to this new machine.

Besides, my current Wind is still working very well and I am very happy with it (except for the lack of optical drive). Nonetheless, it's interesting to see what new products MSI is coming up with to whet consumers' appetite.

MSI Wind Now Selling in Carrefour

According to Corbell on HardwareZone, the MSI Wind is now being sold at Carrefour's Tech Fair at Plaza Singapura (PS) from 6 Oct to 12 Oct.

It's also stated that the Wind advertised for selling is while stocks last. Will consumers rush down to PS to buy the little netbook? Stocks of the netbook has been very inconsistent in Singapore and it's very hard to get hold of one unless you manage to get on a preorder list.

Or maybe the hype for the Wind might have died down by now and consumers are probably choosing ASUS's eeepc over the Wind. Who knows? I am not too sure but I ain't heading down to PS just to check the stocks availability.

I am already the proud owner of the MSI Wind for quite some time and I am mostly satisfied with it. Its battery life problem still plagues me though. Nonetheless, I am not letting the battery life bug me down since I'm using AC power for most of the time.

The other thing that still bothers me is the lack of a DVD drive. Initially I thought it would not be a problem as I don't use the DVD drive very often. However some of the gadgets that I bought came with CD installation software and I can't use my Wind to utilize them.

Oh well. I'll just have to make do with using both my Wind and my Acer desktop when the need arises. It's just a matter of adaptability.

No problem, man.

New Versions of MSI Wind Soon

Wow. Laptop Mag just posted an article on the MSI Wind's future models coming to major retailer and looks like the newer versions are going to be beefed up with lots of yummy specifications.

But for me, the most important is the arrival of the 6-cell battery and MSI is saying that by the end of October, they should be clearing up the battery problem. I most certainly hope that the 6-cells battery will be 5200Mah by the time it's ready for collection.

If not, then perhaps this might be worth checking out. The only thing is, it's all quoted in USD and so the price of getting a 9-cells battery will be very high. Plus the 9-cells battery is estimated to give around 7 hours of battery life, which might not sound like much when compared to ASUS's EEEPC 6-cells battery which can give around 6 to 7 hours of battery life.

Hmmm... all these talk about batteries is confusing me these days. Anyway I just want the battery which can offer me the longest battery life. Everything else can wait.

=)

More on the China Tainted Milk Scandal

China's tainted milk scandal continues to rock the international world with more negative reports coming from all over the world.

Now Taiwan's Pizza Hut chain has reported that packaged cheese powder has been contaminated with the toxic chemical, melamine, and has ordered the removal of such cheese from its stores. Today's The Straits Times also carried the same report and a picture of the company is attached below for reference.




Everything that contains Chinese dairy products are not spared from the massive recalls that occurs around the world. Things range from bread and cakes to crackers and cheese. Nothing is spared and now everybody does not dare to buy any single Chinese products at all.

In Singapore, reports carried news of products that have been tainted with melamine and pictures of the tainted products are attached below:






Do you notice that OREO's wafersticks is also included in the tainted list in the above picture? Yet in the same newspapers, there was an entire page issued by OREO's company which had claimed that its products, including the wafersticks, does not contain any milk ingredients from China. There was even a safety assurance issued by the company, presumely to calm consumers' unrest over its products. See below for illustration.




Now, OREO has its stand but so does AVA. Which report should consumer trust? Whatever it is, before any purchase is made, check the ingredients on the package. Just like the way we check for the product's expiry date and if both the expiry date and the ingredients passed the check, then we can go ahead and buy the products.

AVA is trying its very best to test as much products samples as possible to ensure that they pass the quality checks for consumption. Food is a very sensitive topic and this is especially so in Singapore as food is like the nation's favourite hobby.

Nonetheless, as long as we are conscious of the products that we buy and consume, there should not be much cause for concern as AVA regulates all food imports, unlike in China where such checks are not stringent and could pose health hazards to its people.

Life is short and we should take things in its stride. Let's hope the scandal will blow over soon and that China has learned its lesson from this. That quality should never be compromised for profiteering nor fame.

Ha! A Retard Reads My Blog?

I am very amused to log in to my blog and found a guy who calls himself retard posting on my cbox. So far, I have very little responses gathered in my cbox, so it's quite fun to see this retard posting about nonsense.

Well, billovee is a CHEAPSKATE guy. Freebies are given freely and willingly by the IT fair vendors. No one actually goes around comparing freebies instead of pricing. No matter what the freebies are, the most important thing is that your buying focus is on the main IT product, in my case a MSI Wind.

My Wind doesn't come with any freebies but I don't go round demanding people to give me freebies either. That's just plain shameless. If the product doesn't come with freebies then it's fine by me. My main focus is the Wind, not the freebies.

But if the vendors are offering the freebies themselves without the consumer asking for them, then that's ok too. It take 2 hands to clap. If the vendors don't want to give any freebies, then no matter how much the consumer demands, they would get nothing. If the vendors are willing to give based on their own initiative, then the consumers will get a good deal.

In fact, the price of the freebies is probably calculated into the selling price or is probably not worth much. In life, you don't hanker after things that you can't afford. There is no such thing as free lunch in this world. Everything comes with a price. You want cheapskate products with lots of freebies? Go to China. Everything is cheapo there. And probably poisonous too.

Hmmm... I think this retard guy is either billovee himself or just plain retard. Didn't I wrote about my experience at the recent Comex 2008? I don't even need to ask the vendors for freebies at the kiosk. All I did was to ask about the main products and they offered the freebies willingly. I don't have to be thick-skinned and demand for freebies before I make my purchases.

Still, everybody has their own opinions and no one will be fully convinced by the other party. This retard/billovee has his own view but so do I.

Plus this is my blog so I can and shall write whatever I feel is right. And billovee can't do anything about it. Other than being a online pest. Wahahaha!!!

Preorder for Wind 6-cells battery

Just now I had submitted a preorder for my MSI Wind netbook to Corbell. They are now giving a special price of $99 for the battery and each first batch buyer can only buy 1 unit at the special price. So add on to my earlier purchase price of $864, which includes an upgrade of RAM to 2GB, the total cost for my Wind comes to $963.

Compared to the people who bought the Wind during the recent Comex, I'm paying much more than what they are paying. The specifications for the Wind at the Comex remains almost the same except that it now comes with a 160GB SATA hard disk, a 6-cell battery with a free 3-cell battery. If the option of upgrading the 1GB RAM to 2GB RAM applies to them, these new batch of owners are looking at a grand price of only $934, which is $29 less than what I'm paying.

It might not seem like much but with that extra money, I could have gotten myself an optical mouse AND a laptop skin.

Well, I guess that's the price to pay for being the first adopters of the popular netbook. At least I get to use it for a few months before others. Should I console myself based on that? Hmmm....

But you have got to admit it's pretty tiring to wait infinitely for the 6-cell battery to arrive. MSI really tests its customers patience to the limit.

Damn...

Raining non-stop once more

For the past few days, the weather has been pretty bad. Rain has been coming on strongly for hours on end and it show no signs of stopping either.

As it's the weekends, I can just stay at home without venturing outside. It's nice to be able to spend time alone by myself without any troubles nor worries. Besides, I have very few friends and most of these friends usually have other engagements to tend to, so I'm pretty much a loner these days.

Well, at least for now I have my MSI Wind by my side and the rain outside to keep me company. It's pathetic but that's how my life goes.

^.^

Yay! I finally gets my new Wind!

It has been a very long wait for this baby to come along. I had placed order for it in early June and was told that the estimated date of arrival is in July. Finally, after a month of waiting, my baby has come.

Ladies and gentlemen, here comes the MSI Wind.

I received the much awaited phone call from M/s Corbell yesterday afternoon to notify me of my wind's collection. How I wish I could go down to the office immediately to take the wind but it was not yet time for dismissal and their office hours are the same as mine. *sighs* I could only wait till today in order to go down and collect my wind.

And so, after 1 whole day of charging the batteries, I finally get to tinker with my new baby. Here are some pictures that I took of my new Wind: -

My Wind in comparison to my Sony Ericsson K800i

I bought the Wind for $864 with an upgrade of my existing 1GB RAM to 2GB RAM. Besides using the latest Intel Atom chipset, my Wind also has a 80GB hard disk, wifi, bluetooth, 1.3MP webcam, 3 USB ports, 1 ethernet port, 1 kensington lock port, 1 vga port, 1 mic port, 1 headphones port and a 10.1 inch screen. For the operating system, it comes packaged with Window XP home basic, which I prefer to use. =)

Setting up a wifi connection by myself sounds very daunting to me and I went about doing it pretty much reliance on a CD. This CD is supplied together in the package of the Linksys wireless router that I specially bought for use with my Wind. Now I can happily say that everything went well, from the connection to the security of my network. Now both my desktop and laptop get to surf Internet without any worries. Wee! =)

The only bad thing about the Wind is that it has a short battery life with the supplied 3-cell battery. If I were to wait for the 6-cell version, it would be another long wait again for its expected release period is September. Plus MSI has this bad habit of pushing back the release date so I decided to take the 3-cell version. I can't bear the long wait again. But the battery power life really sucks big time.

Other than that, everything is good. The keyboard is manageable. The screen is also relatively good. I don't own a EEE PC so I can't really compare the two netbooks together.

Nonetheless, I am loving my Wind a lot and since it's supposed to be power-saving, I am going to be using it more often than my Acer desktop. This should help to save a bit of electricity.

With the upgraded 2GB RAM, I am seeing a fast response to my applications as well. Unlike my 512MB RAM Acer desktop which works so slowly. Everything is so zippy on the Wind and I am more than delighted at its performance. Though the webcam is not quite good and the mic doesn't capture my voice at all. So when I tried out video-conferencing with Mayi, she can't hear what I'm saying and the image freezes occasionally.

All in all, I would say it has been really worth it. I don't regret buying this netbook and I hope it will be a faithful companion to me the way my Acer desktop is.