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Okay you’ve heard about the iPhone 4. You’ve probably heard about the bar incident and the lost-and-found prototype. And you’ve surely heard about all the hullabaloo surrounding the antenna issue. But here’s the thing: You still want to get the damn phone — because you know it’s the most beautifully crafted smartphone made with the highest grade materials. You know the Apple A4 processor will eat anything you throw at it for lunch. And you know the iOS 4 just shines on the Retina display and make all the other displays look pixelated.

For the record, I haven’t experienced any antenna issue or dropped calls no matter how I hold the phone. Maybe it’s really just a formula mistake?

Stumbled upon the Geographer Cafe in the heart of Malacca. Good live jazz performance in a setting with plenty of old-world charm. Pretty enchanting.

I came across some great tertiary-level courses on DVDs a while ago and couldn’t stop learning since. Highly recommend all you knowledge cravers out there to check out The Teaching Company. They pick only the top 1% of professors in the States and craft these courses from ground up for you to study at your own pace. I’ve just completed some fine arts classes and believe me, the professors and course materials are absolutely top-notch.

Alternatively, if you have a fast internet connection, go check out MIT OpenCourseWare and Academic Earth. Lots of great lectures from all the top-tier universities. There are no exams and you don’t get any course credits for burning the midnight oil. But it’ll definitely make you smarter. I can see a revolution in higher education is now well underway.

Just ditched my iPad for the Wi-Fi + 3G model. Everything is pretty much the same, except now there’s a black bar on top for better antenna reception. Plus a real GPS chip inside!

Vintage Apple fans, check out the retro rainbow logo!

Been teaching myself to draw and paint lately. I find this a wonderful way to relax and trick my brain to release more endorphins. It’s gonna be a while before I can show you anything decent though. But that’s not stopping me from getting an easel and feel like a real artist!

So long overweight, oversized DSLR! It’s been nice knowing you, but I guess it’s time to move on……to Micro Four Thirds!

Well I guess it’s been a while since a point-and-shoot camera got me excited! From the outside the Sony DSC-TX7 looks just like any of its T-series predecessors. Thin, sleek, sturdy. But as always, it’s what’s inside that counts most. I’m not gonna do a feature-by-feature review so let’s keep this short and sweet. All you need to know is this: This baby takes GREAT photos WITHOUT flash under LOW-LIGHT conditions with VERY MINIMAL noise. That feature alone and its tiny footprint are enough to justify the price tag. Plus it takes superb panoramic shots and does HD videos. Can’t complain!

Been fiddling around with my iPad for a while now and still trying to figure out how it fits into my daily workflow. What I can tell you is that, it’s not a laptop killer — at least not in its current incarnation. The iPad works great as a device for content consumption, but not content creation. Yes, there are tons of apps that allow you to do your spreadsheet or compile a report, but that surely is not the most efficient way to get any serious work done. It can handle email just fine too, but then again, it’s not gonna replace your BlackBerry. Real-time, on-the-go email service — that fits into your pocket — is still very much BlackBerry’s forte.

So what good is the iPad? (1) Web. Casual web surfing on the bed, couch, airport, coffeeshop has never been more fun; (2) E-reading. While I don’t think the iPad does anything to enhance the book reading experience, it does take magazine reading to a whole new level — think Car & Driver with video reviews or photo slideshows embedded inside the magazine itself. Same goes for newspaper. Fast, up-to-the-minute, and interactive. I think this will really change how newspapers and magazines get delivered to you; (3) Gaming. No elaboration needed here. The iPhone OS is already a serious gaming platform and is now the biggest threat to NDSi and PSP. But that’s not all. I believe the iPad has HUGE potential and its usage is only limited by the imagination of software developers around the world. Oh, and it’s not JUST a giant iPod touch. A bigger screen changes everything!

Aesthetically these are no Sorapot. But they’re the world famous Yixing Clay Teapots (aka Purple Sand Pots). They’re so prized because the clay has a unique characteristic that absorbs traces of tea into the pot during brewing, and over time develops a coating that retains the flavour and fragrance of the tea you put in. And that’s why each teapot is only meant for one kind of tea. It’s about time I give Camellia S. the proper treatment she deserves!

Update: I’m in Hong Kong now. Just heard on the TV that a lot of people in the Yixing town have been selling fake, poisonous Yixing Claypots that contain high level of heavy metals for years. Oh man, I’m gonna need a god damn metal analyzer when I get home.

Remember when everyone loved the G-Shock (and Baby-Gs) and it was like the coolest thing to put on your wrist? Casio’s still churning them out and they’ve gone extra large with the GA100 now. Copped a stealthy model for old time’s sake!

I guess the people in Kaohsiung aren’t so big on jazz. The closest thing to a jazz club I could find is the Blue Fantasy Music Pub on Wu-Fu 1st Road. It’s a pretty well-known venue for live music with some big-name local artists performing from time to time. You do get the occasional jazz sessions but the place’s pretty much an American-style restaurant & pub with styles of music ranging from pop to rock to country. If you don’t mind the loud chatters and the extremely limited wine selection, it’s not a bad place to spend the night. The fruit platter was a real masterpiece — took ‘em 45 minutes to hand-carve — just in case you’re into arts. Or fruits.

I used to love shooting with the original Lomo LC-A back in the college days. Whoever owned or used that little Russian gem knows what wonders the Minitar 1 lens can do. But the thing about 35mm photography, or lomography for that matter, is that you only get to see the results when you develop the film, which could be anywhere from several hours to a month later. And that can really take the fun out of photography sometimes.

Now that they’ve released a fix for that, I gotta get my hands on one and relive the good ol’ days of Polaroid instant photography, done in LOMO-style! Here’s my LC-A+ 25th Anniversary Edition paired with the Instant Back+ attachment, which uses Fuji Instax Mini films only. You get to enjoy all the goodies of the LC-A+, plus the whole range of accessories made for the original LC-A and LC-A+. There’s nothing quite like experimenting with different settings or accessories and see your shots develop right away! This sure as hell beats the crap out of my Fuji Instax Mini 7S.