Outdated Penang Uncle

Good luck!

2012-02-01T05:51:00.020+08:00

Wow, time flies so fast that it is February already. Closer to rupture/end of world? :P
Anyway, have you pick up a new skill? Have you archive one of the resolution? Or at least working in progress of the goals?

As long as we make the effort to work on our goal, either the goal being archive or not, there is always good learning from the process.

We can learn from these Japanese ladies, as long as we make good use of our skill, we will be success (or at least appear on TV and youtube :P)

Hyper speed calculator lady:

Stamping machine lady:

Japanese Keyboard Typing Master:

Good luck!

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source: http://www.japansugoi.com/wordpress/fastest-japanese-calculator-lady/ - warning this site have NSFW content.

My new love: PotPlayer

2012-01-31T04:54:00.009+08:00

My new love, oh no, I mean have felt in love with a new media player. PotPlayer is not new, but being outdated uncle, I was too lazy to change the media player once I found it is very stable for daily usage. I have been using KMPlayer for many years, with Media Player Classic as backup for daily usage.

PotPlayer is created by the same author (Mr Kang) that wrote KMPlayer. However KMPlayer has been sold to a commercial company, Pandora TV in 2007. After that, Mr Kang shifted his focus to create another player, hence PotPlayer is created.

Why I switch from KMPlayer to PotPlayer?

1. PotPlayer has the same functionality like KMPLayer. Therefore no problem at all from the time I switched.

2. KMPlayer is becoming bulky after being takeover by Pandora TV. It is not as light as I think anymore. From the setup file grow from ~14M at Sep 2010, to ~17M at Oct 2011, to ~22M for latest version of KMP 3.1. This is a very bad sign, the code should be optimized from time to time, but becoming another MS Windows. PotPlayer at softpedia right now is about ~8M only.

3. KMPlayer become slow in sync up the video and audio during play back of RMVB format. The problem appear when I try to skip to a certain time, or fast-forward or backward, especially I use the left and right arrow keys to fast-forward or backward. PotPlayer don't have this problem at all. Media Player Classic don't have this problem as well.

4. Portable version of PotPlayer is easily available compare to KMPlayer.

5. No additional codec is require to enable PotPlayer to play all major format. I don't need to install any codec to play RMVB, mkv, divx, xvid, etc etc.

PotPlayer also have it's disadvantages as well:
1. Original website is in Korean only, no other language. We also cannot feedback in it's forum if we found any bug if we don't know Korean language. However you can find the English version from softpedia.

2. I downloaded portable version from a Chinese website, that PotPlayer is completely in Chinese only. Not as friendly as KMPlayer that I can switch language on the fly.

Summary, more advantage than disadvantage using PotPlayer. I am going to remove KMPlayer from my computer in very near future. Lifehacker even has feature this player.

To download PotPlayer:
English version [don't download from softonic, it has very outdated version]
English version from videohelp.com
English version from portableapps.com
Official website (in Korean)
Portable version (in Chinese)

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source: I wrote this!

p/s: contact me at ahsiang888 at google mail for software review.

Which file sharing server still working?

2012-01-30T05:04:00.066+08:00

With megaupload being shutdown, some file sharing server owners also shutting down and limiting the file sharing features, to avoid being arrest by authority. Personally I use file server a lot because I like to download files being shared in XDA forum to make my smartphone even better than stock ROM. These kind of file sharing activities are completely legal (unless commercial companies uses SOPA and PIPA to suppress this kind of creativity, if SOPA and PIPA being approved by US Senate).
Btw, XDA forum don't allow cracked apps (that supposed need to be pay in market/app store), therefore I think files shared in XDA forum is legal to download and use.

I listed down a list of file server that is working and non-working one just for reference. Please leave a comment if you found any of the info is outdated, I will try by best to update it.

Working:
filepost
hotfile
bitshare
115
fileape
uploaded.to
wupload
filerio (filekeen)
dbank
depositfiles
badongo
mediafire
gamefront
ifile
crocko
jumbofiles
sendspace
virtualdrive (Dump.ro)
rapidgator

Not-working (meaning not working for file sharing, including filesonic):
megaupload and all it's related file sharing servers
filejungle
filesonic (only allow download by the original uploader)
uploadstation
fileserve
zshare

Note: please make sure it is legal to download the files that being shared in any forum.

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source: I wrote this with research using Google :P

2012 CNY Waste Time post

2012-01-29T05:08:00.008+08:00

Yes, another waste time post for 2012 CNY.

How do boots and cats hold up to each other? Watch the video.

I told you this is a waste time post, don't blame that I didn't tell you. :P

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source: youtube!

2012 CNY Waste Time post

2012-01-28T05:01:00.012+08:00

I am still in CNY mode. In fact I am still in holiday. Therefore, I should continue posting waste time posts until I recover from holiday mode. Heheh.

Okay, for waste time post for today. Someone put up a website to show people how much video being uploaded to YouTube every second. While the video embedded in this post has its interesting facts, overdoing it in their website is really over doing it. Don't believe me? Click on the link after the video.

http://www.onehourpersecond.com/

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source: youtube!

Money Laundering and Reshipping Fraud

2012-01-27T23:01:00.000+08:00

I subscribed to many newsletter, from IT to finance, just to improve my knowledge, hopefully. Recently I received invitation email to invest in some investment scheme. Undeniable that scheme is very interesting and the return is very good, but I am skeptical even thought it is through a very reliable website. So I did some google-ing. Unfortunately or fortunately for the scheme (and the owner), I can't find any information regarding the scheme on the internet, except the company website. Hopefully is a legitimate scheme. Good luck to those invested in the scheme.

While doing the research on the scheme, I found a interesting website. It is called Money Laundering and Reshipping Fraud, however the link is bobbear.co.uk. No body would know the content with the link name, anyway. bobbear.co.uk is a voluntary, non-profit website that dedicated to provide information on fake companies offering part-time, work from home job scams, money mule or money transfer fraud. The website also provide advice from the victim of these mentioned scams.

Even though the website looks like not updated since 2nd May 2010, it is still a very good reference. Those people that creating those kind of scam cannot be too creative enough, similar scams are always being created, it might be different name, but the ultimate goal is to cheat hard-earn money.

The website:
Money Laundering and Reshipping Fraud

Please do some research on internet before you invest in anything.

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source: I wrote this!

Waste time Wednesday

2012-01-25T05:05:00.012+08:00

For those that back to work on 3rd day of CNY, "Welcome back to work!"
But are you sure you can really concentrate at work? Are you the only person in the office? Fear not, here is a song to keep you entertained.

zapatou user of youtube created this video, covering 71 clips of people singing "Rolling In The Deep" by Adele.

Enjoy the song now. If SOPA is being approve by US Senate, you will have a super boring Internet. Enjoy it while you can.

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source: youtube!

Free sms or text service

2012-01-24T05:38:00.000+08:00

Not only Chinese celebrate it, Korean, Vietnamese, Tibetan, and Mongolian also celebrate this New Year. Since it is based on Lunar Calendar, therefore it is called Lunar New Year, but still commonly known as Chinese New Year.

Usually during celebration such as Christmas, New Year and Lunar New Year, most people will send sms/text to friends and relative to wish them, but in some countries sms/text is not cheap, especially if you need to send more than hundreds of them. Last time there was a few websites that provide free sms service, but not to all countries. Recently I found one that still providing this service. And it is really reliable after I tested a few times.

I found out this service from it's Android apps when I playing with BlueStacks. Introducing Pinger.

Sending a testing sms/text to my own phone. The sms/text appear in my HTC Elfin in a few seconds only, I am in Malaysia by the way.

Pinger works iOS(iPhone/iPod/iPad) and Android:
http://www.pinger.com/content/textfree/

Pinger also works with web browsers with Java support:
http://www.pinger.com/textfree/

How it works?
For iOS and Android, install the apps from AppStore/Market.
For Windows/Linux, go directly to the website.

During registration, Pinger will ask for zip code. Give your actual zip code for US user. For international users, give a favorite zip code, usually I use 90210, very easy to remember. :P
After that, Pinger will give you a list of phone number for you to choose, pick wisely, because you cannot change it later. It will ask your permission to share with your facebook friends, you can skip by clicking "cancel".

Then you can start sending text. The number is based on International Direct Dial code.

For smartphone (iOS and Android), try to use wifi as much as possible.

Since it is free service, you will have to "enjoy" some advertisement.

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pinger logo source: pinger's twitter
I wrote this post!

Why stop SOPA?

2012-01-23T05:44:00.039+08:00

Happy Lunar New Year! Today is the first day of Water Dragon Lunar New Year.
To know more about Lunar New Year or Chinese New Year, check out these wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_New_Year
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_New_Year

However if SOPA being implemented, we might not getting website service like youtube and wiki. It will be an ice age of Internet.

Matthew Inman at The Oatmeal explains it, in a simple way [warning! not safe for kids]:

If SOPA being implemented, meaning you will not able to see any of this kind of video available at youtube and I will not able to write any waste time post anymore, sigh.

Here are example of video that will be banned if SOPA being implemented:
Empire Strike Back songs by dogs:

Farting Squirrel commercial:

Reddit user made this video:

Btw, Megaupload has been shutdown by FBI, and SOPA was not even being use for the shutdown.

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source: video from youtube, animated gif from theoatmeal.com

Happy Chinese New Year!

2012-01-22T05:11:00.008+08:00

Happy Chinese New Year! I will away from this blog for a few days, but I have line up posting for these few days. So keep coming for more fun stuffs. :)

Chinese New Year or Lunar New Year is always about family reunion, this TV commercial is from Malaysian National Petroleum company, talking about reunion.

Have a safe trip home.
Drive safe for those that driving.
Happy holiday to Malaysian, Singaporean, Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, and many more. :)

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source:TARGET="_blank"

Consult Virtual Doctors

2012-01-21T05:41:00.000+08:00

Warning: this website that I going to introduce is not for replacing the real doctors. It can acts as a second opinion or reference for medical students.

I found this website from some other blogs. Don't ask which one, because I read more than 100 blogs (weekly, not daily!), lost track of which one that I found it.

Beside many medical topic being discuss here, you can also try to diagnose based on symptom or injury. Example I tried here is the knee pain. You have to answer a series of questions, there is a video of the doctor being playback to ask the same question, somewhat annoying for me. :P

At the end of diagnose, there will be some results with picture and explanation. Then recommended actions, such as hospital or specialist or just some doctor. There are also some recommendation of what can be done at home to take care of the symptom or injury or disease. Finally there is a report of the diagnose that you can copy and send to your doctor.

As I said it cannot be replacing the real doctor, just for second opinion.

The website:
http://www.freemd.com/

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source: I wrote this article!

Mashup Video - Queen and Beatles

2012-01-20T05:37:00.000+08:00

What do Queen and Beatles have in common? Yes, they are famous people, but what else?
Both of them sang "Fat Bottomed Girls Come Together" before. But did they sing it together physically? No. But how did they have this video?
This video is made by a Dutch mashup artist, MadMixMustang. He not only mix the video, he also blended the sounds, which sounds like both Queen and Beatles are singing the song together.

Watch the video:

Nice? You also can do it. Find out the tools/scripts/software that you need to do this at:
Videohelp

I got my solution on how to extract mkv from this website as well.

Btw, the mp3 of this video is available freely from MadMixMustang website:
http://www.madmixmustang.nl/mp3/Fat%20Bottomed%20Girls%20Come%20Together.mp3

Lastly, the website:
http://www.madmixmustang.nl/

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source: I wrote this. Video is from YouTube.

iPad3 in March 2012?

2012-01-19T05:33:00.013+08:00

There was a lot of rumors and news about iPad3. Today I read somewhere that iPad3 will be LTE compatible. Why on iPad3 first before iPhone5? Because LTE is battery juice sucker, putting it on iPad3 first is a better choice before they can manage it on iPhone.

Anyway, everyone is waiting for the engineer of Apple to "forgot" his iPad3 prototype at some crappy bar. :P
Or maybe leaking photos from suppliers of iPad3.

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source: WWW for the news and I wrote the rest of this post, hahah!

Angry Birds Season - Dragon Year

2012-01-18T04:46:00.008+08:00

Another evident of every company in this world is trying to make some business from China, and all the Chinese around the world. Not convinced? Watch the Angry Birds Season for Dragon Year teaser:

Available on Jan 20, a few days before the Lunar New Year.
Angry Birds is still my favorite casual game, even though I am playing Chicken Invader recently. :P

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source: youtube!

Samsung Smart Window

2012-01-17T05:11:00.002+08:00

First, there was smartphone, then smart TV and now smart Window? Initially when I read the title of the youtube video, I thought just another OS. I was wrong, this Window is not the OS Windows, it is a real window, just that you can do your normal touch screen stuffs. Watch the video:

Even though the reported mentioned that people cannot see from the other side of the window, but what if someone find out how to do it? Don't think it is safe to surf all the rated websites on this window. :P

What do you think?

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source:youtube!

New usage of PVC - waste time post :P

2012-01-16T05:19:00.002+08:00

Even though PVC has been slowly remove from certain parts of the world, it is still popular in many developing countries, because it is very cheap to manufacture and many other politically advantages.

When I was small, I did play with PVC to make some noise, but someone could make music out of it. Don't believe? Watch this Angry Birds music:

Kent Jenkins made the PVC instrument and play some nice music with it. See more music made by him:

And if you think you have time to waste on Tuesday, there is another one:

Go to his YouTube channel to see more:
http://www.youtube.com/user/snubbyj/

If you have notice, he has his faux-twin to play with him. Meaning not a real twin, but using video editing software to combine 2 separate video files into one and sort of create a twin for himself. There are a lot of powerful software out there that can do this thing, let me do some planning to write something about free video editing software. Stay tune!

To know more about PVC, go to wiki:
Polyvinyl chloride

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source: read the news from http://pvc-innovation.wonderhowto.com

Recuva - Another File Recovery Freeware

2012-01-15T05:34:00.000+08:00

Recently I found another file recovery software, and yes, it is free. Recuva is made by the same company that made CCleaner. I used to use CCleaner a lot on older systems to make sure they are working as good as the new system.

No need to talk again about the file recovery on this software. But I wanted to point out that it can display the files that it can recover in different modes: tree view, file list view and best of all, thumbnail view.

Tree view:

File list view:

Thumbnail view:

Personally I think thumbnail view is the best to quickly find the files we want to recover, but there is a problem. What if family member or friend you are helping have some pictures that they don't want anyone to find out. That would be very awkward. You know what I mean. ;-)

Anyway, to completely remove a file from your harddisk, memory card or thumb drive, use this, all of these file recovery software should not able to recover it.
Get rid of file from PC/laptop forever

To download Recuva, go to this link:
http://www.piriform.com/recuva
For portable version, go to this link:
http://07hd.com/yb5f3su8awi2/RecuvaPortable_1.42.544_azo.exe.htm
Portable version is being provided by azo-freeware.blogspot.com

Here is a list of other file recover software and they are free.
PC Inspector
File Recovery Freeware by Brian Kato
PhotoRec

One thing to note: if you want to have a better chance of recovering file that you deleted accidentally, do not do anything (copy file, save file, download file, shutdown, etc), because the empty space that being use by the file you just deleted might be overwritten with new data. So make sure you have Recuva or other file recovery software ready in your PC/laptop.

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pix source: http://www.piriform.com/recuva/screenshots

Windows7 flaw or network driver error?

2012-01-14T05:22:00.000+08:00

Something wrong with my network card or Windows 7 or network driver.

Sometime I like to check Task Manager just to make sure my network is working. Or at least to make sure I am fully utilizing the broadband unlimited download. Even though it is a very slow broadband, 512k, yes, not even 1M, but at full speed, theoretically I can download 5G plus of files in one full day. Of course it is not always that case, but nevertheless, usually I can get about 3 to 4G of download in just 24 hours.

At one of the night recently, I was doing my usual habit (after I offline), but found out there are a long list of numbers in the Task Manager's Networking tab. See picture:

Don't get it? Let me zoom in:

Get it? No photoshop being use here, it is being cut from print screen only using IrfanView.

By looking at the above pictures, and assume Windows 7 or the network driver didn't go cockoo, there has been ? Of xxxByte going thru the network card. Here is the calculation:
Bytes Sent or Bytes Received (about the same, I round up the last 9 numbers of least significant numbers)
= 18,446,744,073,000000000

18446744073000000000/1024=18014398508789.0625 kilobytes (KB)

18014398508789.0625/1024=17592186043.74 megabytes (MB) [round up the decimal to 2 digits only]

17592186043.74/1024=17179869.18 gigabytes (GB) [round up the decimal to 2 digits only]

17179869.18/1024=16777.21 terabytes (TB) [round up the decimal to 2 digits only]

16777.21/1024=16.38 petabytes (PT) [round up the decimal to 2 digits only]

16.38 petabytes of data has been flow in and out through the network card, how is that possible?

Is that possible? I would think it is just Windows 7 flaw or driver problem. What do you think?
Have you seen this before on your PC?

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source: I wrote this!

Fake likes in YouTube?

2012-01-13T05:23:00.021+08:00

Recently I watched a youtube video which supposedly sang by an artist called Jason D Chen from California. It is a Chinese song adapted from some English songs. The singing was okay, but I can't helped to notice that the "likes" is more than "views". Is that possible? Can YouTube visitors "like" the video without "view" it? Could YouTube being manipulated? Or I am just too sensitive or outdated?

The original youtube video link:
http://youtu.be/-8MmL_wqUeE

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source:I wrote this!

BlueStacks on Windows 8

2012-01-12T05:32:00.017+08:00

These few days a lot of tech companies have been busy showing off their latest and concept gadgets at CES 2012 at Las Vegas. BlueStacks is one of them. They are showing off BlueStacks on Windows 8. The promo video below showed that after a new android apps being install on BlueStacks on Windows 8, an shortcut will appear automatically on the metro GUI.

BlueStacks for Windows8 will be available in Feb 2012. While waiting for that, why not install BlueStacks on your Windows 7 now and enjoy many Android apps on Windows 7, see see posts on how to do it:
How to install apk into BlueStacks
Rearrange apps list on BlueStacks
How to enable Android Market for BlueStacks

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source: saw this video on youtube

Mario in HTML5

2012-01-11T05:04:00.034+08:00

I was messing around with JoliCloud on the other day and found this website. The author of this webpage converted Mario from somewhere else into HTML5, probably the original game is in flash.

Mario is a never dying casual game, man and woman from 3 to 93 years old also like it (or hate it) somehow, either on Nintendo, to flash on internet, to iPad/iPhone apps, at some point of their life.

The loading is quit fast. And game play was very smooth. To find if your web browser can support it, go to this link to try out:
http://arcade.rawrbitrary.com/mario/

I tried it on Chrome (rev 16), FireFox 8.0 and FireFox 9.0.1, all of them no problem with this HTML5. However IE8 unable to support it.

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source: I wrote this!

PC that cost 25 dolar only

2012-01-10T05:27:00.000+08:00

Would you buy a PC that just the size of a credit card (thicker than credit card of course!) and it only cost you 25 dollar? Yes, 25 US Dollar. Better still, this PC can connect to TV/monitor/other display via USB2.0 or HDMI, capable of playing Quake and 1080p HD video. I don't mind to try it out.

Raspberry Pi (Pi is π ) is being developed by a NGO which is called Raspberry Pi. Got you, haha. Anyway, back to the topic.

This ultra-low-cost PC recently won an award at ARM TechCon, which aim to solve most of the costly PC problem in this world (sort of).

They are not selling the PC for making profit, all the money being put back into the business. And they don't mind other copy the design with hope that everyone and every company could develop clone of Raspberry Pi.

Here is a video of Eben, the Executive Director of Raspberry Pi Foundation explaining the product:

Personally I would think this is a very good product for education since conventional PC until nowadays still more than 100 dollar. If going forward all school can get this Raspberry Pi or clone with cost less than 25 dollar, more school kids can benefit from that.

Go to the website find out more detail:
http://www.raspberrypi.org/

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source: saw this at EE times

iPhone 4S vs Nokia Lumia 800

2012-01-09T05:37:00.000+08:00

Someone (yes, someone) has posted side-by-side comparison of iPhone4, Nokia Lumia 800 and iPhone 4S. I don't want to look at iPhone4 because it is on iOS4, make no-sense whatsoever to compare iOS4.

Looks like Nokia Lumia 800 WP7.5 is slower then iPhone4S, in most of the tests, but bear in mind that iPhone 4S is on dual-core processors, while Nokia Lumia is on single core processors.

Comparison on GSMArena:
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=4240&idPhone2=4212

Don't think this is useful when someone is considering to buy iPhone or WP7, unless he/she is very geeky. :D Therefore I categorized this post as waste time posts.

btw, I don't know why on the earth they put the music on this video, the finger gesture apparently showed that the person who did this video is talking about the comparison/result.

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source: youtube!

PS Vita Teardown

2012-01-08T05:33:00.000+08:00

I posted PS Vita Unboxing few weeks ago, and now to see what is inside of PS Vita, hence PS Vita Teardwon. This round of teardown is not from iFixIt, but from UBM TechInsights.

The teardown images (no detail like iFixIt, my comment in square brackets, click on the image to see in full size):

[unscrewing]

[more unscrewing]

[open with some forces?]

[battery attached on back cover?]

[more unscrewing to take out the PCB]

Okay, now the PCB boards:

[red: Sony's quad-core processors based on ARM Cortex-9]

Okay, that's it. :D

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source: http://www.ubmtechinsights.com/teardowns/sony-playstation-vita-teardown/

How to Fix Cannot Install Apps on Chrome Problem

2012-01-07T05:57:00.057+08:00

Recently I wanted to install JoliCloud on Chrome, so I go to the JoliCloud page on Chrome Web Store, and click the "+ ADD TO CHROME" button, the button changed to "CHECKING..." and there is a pop-up asking for confirmation, I clicked on "Install" button to proceed. However nothing happen after I clicked the "Install" button. I keep on waiting and waiting and waiting for quite a while. So I quite the page and try again, and it showed that "+ ADD TO CHROME" again, meaning the apps was not being installed. How could this happen?

So I go to ask Google, and after some trial and error on a few solutions being offered by nice people out there, finally I found the solution and it is very easy.

The solution:
1. Go to My Documents.
2. Create a new folder or directory called "Downloads" (without the double quote).
3. Go back Chrome to install apps, you should able to install apps now. :-)

No restart PC/Windows is needed. I have confirmed this again by removing the "Downloads" directory and I cannot install apps on Chrome again.

This solution is for Windows (XP until 7) only, I am not yet confirm for Mac.

When the Downloads folder is missing from My Documents, it keep on waiting for the folder to be created. As soon as the folder being created, it can proceed. I checked on the folder during downloading the crx (Chrome apps file format), the crx has to be downloaded into the Downloads before being install into Chrome and the crx will be remove after installation completed.
Obviously this is something that Google Chrome engineers should fix it in seconds.

If you have move to another PC, to check what apps you have added previously on Chrome (provided you login using google account on Chrome on older PC), you can do this on your Chrome on new PC:
1. Start a new tab
2. Switch the Apps if you always using "Most visited"
3. Click on Chrome Web Store
4. On top right, click on the setting button next to your google login name (usually an email).
5. Click "Your Apps"
I found out on old PC I installed some Chrome apps that I never use or just use once right after I installed them. :P

p/s: I removed that Downloads folder at first place during hard disk clean up, thinking that this folder have no use since I changed Chrome default download folder to somewhere else.

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source: I wrote this, found the solution at http://www.google.ms/support/forum/p/Chrome/thread?tid=66a6d85590718eb0&hl=en&fid=66a6d85590718eb00004b5c4b41c5dc8

Free Angry Birds Rio for Windows is back again! - expired

2012-01-06T05:05:00.056+08:00

Intel AppUp is giving away Angry Birds Rio for Windows for free! Limited period only, until January 15 (or while supplies last). I am not sure what this mean, software is just a soft copied, it can be download unlimited time right? Probably they have limited number of downloads. Anyway, this is for new registration only. So this is too bad for me, because I already got my Angry Birds Rio for Windows for free back in September last year.

Intel AppUp also added Chicken Invaders 4 Christmas as the freebie for new registration. Meaning you get US$11.99 worth of games for free!

Intel AppUp recently have being revamped and it looks much better than old version. One of the reason is to make sure Ultrabooks users also have a good user experience with AppUp. The old version of AppUp was actually created for netbook segment, however other Windows based PC also can use it.

The red arrow in picture below showing I already have Angry Birds Rio installed.

The best part about Intel AppUp is I can retain the free software for very long time. Even though I changed to new laptop, I still can download and install the Angry Birds Rio from AppUp for free on new laptop, as long as I use the same user id on AppUp. Another good thing about AppUp is you can try the software for 24 hours before you decide to buy or not. This is very good because you don't need to go through all the process just to get refund in case you find out you don't like the software.

To get your free legal version of Angry Birds Rio and Chicken Invaders 4 Christmas, go to download Intel AppUp now:
http://www.appup.com

Find out how to avoid credit card info on Intel AppUp in this post:
Free Angry Birds Rio For Windows

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source: I wrote this!

What kind of Facebook Friends you have?

2012-01-05T05:22:00.009+08:00

Friends on Facebook. There are really good friends, there are annoying friends who you wish you never accepted. See what kind of Facebook Friends you would have. I have 9 out of 10 listed here, sigh.

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source: http://dailyinfographic.com

Captcha.Trader for JDownloader and MiPony

2012-01-04T05:52:00.033+08:00

File-server services always being linked to piracy. A lot of songs, video, apk (Android setup file), software, PDF that supposedly need to be pay first before download legally from the original or authorized websites, but they are being cracked and put in to file-server and share publicly and the link being distribute worldwide. File-server actually being serve as temporary storage to send huge files for research and development in many area, from universities to private sectors.

Some of us need to download homework or huge result files from file-server that being upload by a friend at another side of the planet. Of course it is convenient to download directly using web browser, it is good for small file, but for huge file like a few GB, there is no way we can wait for days for the download to complete. Furthermore, some web browsers will time out, so we have to start the download all over again.

So some nice people out there wrote some nice softwares for us to manage these download, example MiPony and JDownloader. We can put all the links to the files we want to download and let the software manage them. However the captcha still has to be key-in manually by human (a.k.a. us). If your counterpart at Brazil uploaded 100 files, then you have to key-in 100 times the captcha and not once, but every time before the download begin on each file. We should be focusing on our the real work, not on downloading. So Captcha.Trader come to the picture.

I can download the Captcha.Trader plugins and then add into JDownloader and MiPony, so that Captcha.Trader will solve the captcha for me. You can either buy some credits or start resolve some captcha and earn credits before you want to use it for download purpose.

Captcha.Trader also works for Android (CaptchaDroid), WP7 (CaptchaToGo), and iOS (MobiCaptcha).

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source: I wrote this

Google Chinese Input - offline English to Chinese

2012-01-03T05:22:00.103+08:00

Google knows that China is a huge market. If add in Chinese population outside of China, that is even huge. There is saying you can find China Town in every major city around the globe, well, not all, but most of them. I can even find Chinese Restaurant at somewhere of nowhere in Utah, believe it or not, I did stop by to have dinner in that restaurant, since my friends insisted. :P

Okay, enough of non-sense. I have been using Google Chinese Input as alternative for default Chinese Input from Microsoft. As a known fact, MS's stuffs simply okay only, if you want something better, you have to find another software, hence Google Chinese Input. Since I was grown up in China's PinYin system (Malaysia Chinese Education system uses PinYin system, so as Singapore), I am too used to PinYin system. Google Chinese Input is actually Google PinYin Input System.

To understand PinYin System, read this wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin

The most important feature of Google PinYin Input System is that I can key-in only first character of PinYin of the Chinese phrase (usually from 2 to 4 Chinese characters, sometimes more than that), it will show me the right Chinese phrase. This is super fast compare to MS Chinese input.

Google Chinese Input has been there for few years, recently I noticed that Google Chinese Input have released version 3. Actually the latest version was on Jan 2011, boy, I am really outdated. :P Even though the software is not updated so frequent, the dictionary is being updated weekly, if not daily.

What so special about version 3? It included an offline English to Chinese dictionary. That is the dictionary that I mentioned in paragraph above. This is very useful for English educated people that start to learn Chinese or people like me which has been away from Chinese for too long. When you switch on Google Chinese Input, if you press "shift" key once, it will allow you to type in English directly, press "shift" again, it will go back to detect PinYin input. While writing English, it will start translate the English to Chinese.

Even I have problem spell an English word, it will try to suggest the correct answer.

It will also suggests synonym of the English word.

More synonym can be find in another tab.

You can turn this feature off in setting if you find it annoying or no use for you.

Set your preference on how many characters you key-in before Google Chinese Input start to suggest.

To download Google Chinese Input version 3 with English to Chinese Translation:
http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ime/english/

To download Google Chinese Input version 2, the classic:
http://www.google.com/intl/zh-CN/ime/pinyin/

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picture source: google [I don't need to recreate the wheel :P ]

Replace PhotoShop with PhotoCap

2012-01-02T05:49:00.150+08:00

I would think PhotoCap can replace PhotoShop for personal usage and/or family usage. Normally we don't need super special features that being use by professional. Features that we usually use are layers and filters, lighting or exposure, or maybe just red eye remover.

PhotoCap is like the primary level of PhotoShop, all basic functions of PhotoShop are available on PhotoCap. I did try PhotoShop on my computer last year, but at the end it just waste the time to download, install and use it. I go back to GIMP, or most of the time I just use Irfanview if no fancy editing is required.

PhotoCap also can use for:

Print large image to multiple pages [I wrote this similar tutorial before, but now I can use PhotoCap to deal with it]
Double sided printing: help you to align the pictures/images, for double sided name card or poker cards
Create collage: collection of photos
Add frame
Create your own frames.
Create puzzles
Create texture from photos
Create template, and use it
Create photobook
Create poker cards: import 52 pictures and you have your new set of poker cards.
Create name card, including double sided name card
Create greeting cards

etc etc......

PhotoCap also can do tasks in bulk:

resize photos
rename photos
change date on photos' exif [I had a similar post, but using other software]
convert to another file type
add frame in bulk

etc etc....

PhotoCap is free for personal use or for educational usage. It will cost 1000 Taiwan Dollars or about US$33 (at exchange rate on Jan 1, 2012) for commercial usage. It still consider super cheap compare to Photoshop CS5 that selling at US$650 on Amazon.

Supported Windows version: Windows XP to Windows 7 (including 64 bits), not supporting Windows 98/ME

To download full version, go to link below for different languages (multiple link available, choose either one will do:

Traditional Chinese [正體中文版]	下載點1	下載點2	下載點3	下載點4	下載點5	進入 PC Home 下載
Simplify Chinese [简体中文版]	下载点1	下载点2	下载点3	下载点4	下载点5	进入 PC Home 下载
English	Download1	Donwload2	Download3	Download4	Download5	Download from PC Home

The setup file is 13.6MB, but main execution file is 1.9MB only, the rest are plug-ins or add-ons.

Consider donate to help the development of PhotoCap:
http://www.photocap.com.tw/donate/donate.htm

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source: I wrote and also translate some from PhotoCap website.

Convert Your Typing Skill into Money with Captcha.Trader

2012-01-01T05:36:00.166+08:00

Happy New Year Everyone! By the time this post is out in public, most of the countries in Eastern Hemisphere are in 2012, while the rest of countries are still in 2011.

Let's this blog start off with a making money post. A lot of us have somehow, somewhere and sometime in our life have played or seen Typing game or Typing training software. Either a freeware or a paid game or Facebook game, they are not really fun anyway, well, it was fun at beginning, but somehow we get bored and never touch the game or software again, unlike Angry Birds which can be pick up after long but still feel excited for it. :)

The service (or a product??) that I want to introduce to you is Captcha.Trader.

Let's understand Captcha first. Captcha has been widely use in file-server services, to prevent machine/robot or automatic scripts being use to occupied all the download bandwidth. Captcha also being use on some website to prevent spam comments by robot/scripts.

Captcha.Trader can be use in JDownloader and MiPony to help to automatically resolve captcha. I will cover JDownloader and Mipony in future post(s). Captcha.Trader also available for Android, WP7 and iOS!

Since captcha need human eye to solve it, so Captcha.Trader need real people to solve the captcha for they customers. Here's how it work:
1. We open an account at Captcha.Trader.
2. We earn credits by solving captcha for Captcha.Trader. Captcha.Trader will give us the captcha and we type the answer into Captcha.Trader.
3. Captcha.Trader allow us to cash the credit.

100 Captcha.Trader credit is equivalent to 1 cent (US Dolar). You can choose to cash out by Amazon gift card (minimum $5), or Paypal (minimum $2.50, or AlertPay (minimum $1).
Even though the money is small, but here a calculation you can refer to:
1. Every captcha that Captcha.Trader send is around 20 to 30 seconds. Let's take 30 seconds as worst case.
2. Average users need 7 seconds to solve it. Let's take 10 seconds into calculation as worst case.
3. If a person work at home, in front of computer for 8 hours, he or she can key-in 720 captcha.
[ (8*60*60)/(30+10) = 720 ]
4. Usually one captcha worth 7 credits. So 5040 credits.
[ 720 * 7 = 5040 ]
5. 5000 credits is worth $0.50. Looks small but by doing that for 20 days only, we can get around $10.

Since we going to surf net and facebook-ing anyway, why not make use of the time to earn some extra money? Beside earning money, there is another good thing to have Captcha.Trader. I will write about it in future.

To sign up, go to link below:
Captcha.Trader.

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source: I wrote this!

Battle of the Gadgets

2011-12-31T05:32:00.029+08:00

Today is the last day of 2011!
Now, before we go to face the 'End of The World year - 2012', there is a summary of battle of technologies and gadgets.

If you are old enough, you should have known these products or gadgets from somewhere or used these products or gadget before.

The infographic included:
Betamax vs VHS - both are dinosaurs now :P
Sega Genesis vs Super Nintendo - both are retired now
Laserdisc vs DVD - DVD still popular since BD still expensive
Nook vs Kindle - on going fight!
BD vs HD-DVD - BD won, but for how long since nowadays more and more people are moving to online streaming
PS3 vs Xbox360 vs Wii - on going fight!
Zune vs iPod - iPod won, most people at countries outside of US never ever see the Zune real product anyway.

Click on the image to see in full side.

Happy New Year!

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source: dailyinfographic.com

Play LEGO without buying LEGO

2011-12-30T05:56:00.065+08:00

Excuse me? How to play LEGO without buying LEGO?
Imagination in my brain?
Not really, we are really able to play or design LEGO with need to buy the LEGO first.

Introducing LEGO Digital Designer.

The downloaded setup file size is about 140MB and installation need about 200MB only.

Here is the interface (from Lego website, I don't need to explain it again here, haha):

It will calculate how many of each type blocks that you need to build a Lego project, which is very convenient when you going to buy the real physical Lego to build the real Lego project.
It also include the Lego with micro computer, Lego Power Function, which make it a is a very good planning tool to plan for a Lego project, either huge or big or small.

Talking about Lego, I posted a few video showing Lego projects that people built using Lego:
How to waste 8mins on Tuesday
Build film projector with LEGO
Predict eclipses with LEGO
ARM that solves Rubik's Cube

To download this software, go this this link, choose either Windows or Mac OSX. Supported Windows version are Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.
http://ldd.lego.com/download/default.aspx

And yes, it is absolutely free!

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pix source: LEGO website
video source: http://ldd.lego.com/getstarted/default.aspx

Making Intel Graphics more comfortable to see

2011-12-29T05:13:00.066+08:00

If your laptop is the new Sandy Bridge platform and using Intel's integrated graphics, and if your eyes sometimes feels very tired after staring at laptop's monitor after a while, then you are on same situation like me.

In order to prolong the battery life, the default setting of the refresh rate on Intel Graphics is most likely is set at 40Hz only. This is a very good feature on Sandy Bridge platform to preserve power, my few months old Sandy Bridge HP laptop on single charge can last up to 7 to 8 hours on wired network, or 4 to 5 hours on WiFi [okay, okay, it should be longer, but I always open at least 15 Windows at same time, not including over 30 Chrome tabs :P ]

However if your eyes are sensitive like mine, 40Hz refresh rate would be more like a burden than convenient. I would rather bring along the charger than killing my eyes.

To make Intel Graphics more comfortable to see, here are few simple steps:
1. Open Intel Graphics and Media Control Panel (the top left icon in below picture) by double click on it.

2. Change the refresh rate from 40Hz to 60Hz. Save it as a new Display Profiles.

3. Repeat the step while the laptop on charging as well. My laptop has both on charging and on battery at 40Hz refresh rate, so I have to change the refresh rate and save the Display Profile for both.

Do note that changing power profile might change it back again to 40Hz again, use the above step to make your eye comfortable. :)

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source: I wrote this tutorial!

How to run Windows XP programs in Windows 7?

2011-12-28T05:24:00.001+08:00

If you have programs (or we call them apps nowadays, thanks to Apple) that runs only on Windows XP and will not run on Windows 7 at all. Even you tried to execute the program by setting "Compatibility" (in properties) to run as Windows XP, the program will stubbornly not run at all. It is time to install a virtual PC on your Windows 7.

There are other methods to allow you to run the native Windows XP program:
1. Install Windows XP and Windows 7, and make the PC dual boot - Windows XP and Windows 7 co-exist on same system. However this will create quite a messy files system and I am not sure will it works.
2. You can also install virtual box on Windows 7 and then install the Windows XP. However you will need the original setup CD of Windows XP. Who would ever keep the Windows XP setup CD?
3. Buy a second hand system that come with Windows XP. Or install Windows XP on the old system, but need the original Windows XP setup CD as well.

Microsoft is kind enough to provide this Windows XP virtual [read: MS is not always so generous, okay]. Here are what to do:
1. Go to the virtual pc website of MS
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/virtual-pc/download.aspx
2. Choose to download for Windows XP virtual pc.
3. The website will need to verify if your Windows 7 is a legitimate, you will need to allow the download and execute this file "WindowsActivationUpdate.exe". I have to use IE to do this, using Chrome to download and execute taking forever (Probably MS purposely make it that way?).
4. After verification, it will bring you to the actual download page. There are 4 steps to follow, first step is to save that web page or print it for reference. I skipped the first step and jump to step 2 to step 4. :P
5. There are 3 files to download:

Windows XP virtual PC (WindowsXPMode_N_en-us.exe) ~460MB.
Virtual PC update (Windows6.1-KB958559-x64-RefreshPkg.msu) ~16MB
WinXP virtual PC update (Windows6.1-KB977206-x64.msu) ~4MB

6. Install the files in order listed in step 5. It will ask to restart in every step, I just wait until all has been install.
7. After restart your PC, time to run Windows XP virtual PC for first time.
a. Start -> All Programs -> Windows Virtual PC -> Windows XP Mode
8. You will have to wait a while for the first time because it will install the Windows XP.
a. Key in a password for the Windows XP virtual PC when it ask for it. Not needed to be same with your Windows 7 password.
9. After Windows XP boot up in virtual PC, you will able to see this. Note the BlueStacks gadget next to it. :D

10. The C drive and D drive in this virtual PC is not the same one on your Windows 7. They are virtual disk on this virtual PC. However your actual disks on Windows 7 should be link as a network disk in the virtual PC.
11. Go ahead and install the programs that you want to use in Windows 7.

Things to note: there are no shutdown option in this virtual Windows XP. Click on "Ctrl+Alt+Del" on the virtual PC windows and select shutdown. Or course no hibernate for this Windows XP as well.

It took ~2 to 3GB of disk space from the Windows 7 system for the Windows XP virtual PC default installation, not including the additional software you going to install on the virtual PC.

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source: I wrote this!

How to embed PDF in blogger?

2011-12-27T05:17:00.084+08:00

This should works for PDF and any document that uploaded or created in Google docs.
I posted this so that I can find this blogging tips easily next time when I want to embed another PDF or Google docs in my blog.

1. Make sure you are using "Edit HTML" mode when adding the code below (Otherwise, it will try to load the document in "Compose" mode as soon as you paste the code).
<iframe frameborder="0" height="75%" width="50%"
src="http://docs.google.com/gview?
a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=false&api=true&embedded=true&srcid=
0B6E4pzOCFjPAMjA1MTFiNzQtOTZiYi00NTM4LWEzZDItMzcxOGI1NTRlNTIz"
width="100%"></iframe>
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">

2. Open the PDF or google documents at docs.google.com, copy the documents ID from the URL and replace with the ID in the code above (bold and purple font). It should be a bunch of numbers and letters starting at srcid= and ending with =en. Or between srcid= and double quote.

3. Adjust the height and width of the PDF or document you want to display in your blog. It can be in percentage or pixel. The example showed here is in percentage.
height="75%" width="50%"

4. Hit "PREVIEW" button to preview it to make sure it is in the size that you want. If not, go back to step 3 to edit the height and width.

I used this method to embed a PDF which is a ebook of this blog in previous post:
Publish your blog into PDF and Kindle and ePub

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source of this tips: http://www.google.ca/support/forum/p/Google+Docs/thread?tid=2e81a3ec8fc33480&hl=en

Batman (1966) in Lego

2011-12-26T05:06:00.000+08:00

Lego is fun and it can be remake of every movie, video and songs. Here is Intro of Batman from 1966 using Lego. Have fun.

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source: youtube!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

2011-12-25T05:46:00.004+08:00

Merry Christmas everyone! And a Happy New Year!

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: youtube!

Publish your blog into PDF and Kindle and ePub

2011-12-24T05:22:00.065+08:00

Blog is a dream of everyone who wish to publish their idea. Think of the time before internet, to publish an article, we have to send the article to every single news papers or magazine publishers at downtown and hope that the editor like it very much and publish it. Painful right?
At the time of free website (geocities and so on), there are too many stuffs to configure, too many codes to take care just to make the website looks okay only.
But when blog came out, it is super easy to publish our idea, pictures, and video. There are tens of thousands of blog template that freely available. Since then everyone become publisher.

However what if you want to convert your blog into an PDF or Kindle or ePub, so that you could print it out as a book. Of course you can send it to a publisher, but how much it would cost?

Recently I saw this website that provide free service to convert blog or website into PDF or Kindle or ePub a.k.a. your book! And it is free. Yes, free with limited features, but with the first 20 posting that being included into your book would be a good start to publish it.

I use Zinepal to publish this blog into a book (PDF/Kindle/ePub).

Even without sign up with Zinepal, I can convert this blog into a book. But I cannot customize it. So I sign up for a free account and edit the layout.

So here it is, my "book" ;-)

Of course there is no free lunch in this world, Zinepal will include their link into the book. But this is good start. If you feel like want to really publish a real PDF without ads, you can sign up for pro account.

I would not introduce something that need to be pay here. Because I am Outdated Penang Uncle!

Merry Christmas for those celebrating and happy holiday!
Happy New Year to everyone!

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source: I wrote this!

Find your apps quick

2011-12-23T05:48:00.001+08:00

Nowadays everything must be fast and quick. Anything that slow is a big NO NO. That's why we have google, smartphones, GPS, and tablet, everything has to be done within a blink of eyes. That's why Quixey come to the picture. It helps us to find apps for everything. Yes, everything meaning Android, iOS, Mac, Windows, Chrome, Firefox, Facebook, and so on.

I did a search for WhatsApp, the very hot apps on Android, iOS and Blackberry. The result is WhatsApp for Android, Blackberry, iOS and Nokia. Beside the price, it also include some introduction and version number. If there is picture or tweets or video about the apps, you can also take a look of the apps before go to download/buy it.
The search result also shows some other similar apps.

Next search for Angry Birds Rio. 12 editions of Angry Birds Rio show up, including free version, paid version and HD version.

So if you saw your friends using a cool apps on his/her smartphone, don't worry that you will left out if you using different OS/platform. Go to Quixey to find the apps.

The ~~google~~ link of apps:
http://www.quixey.com/

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pix source: Quixey
p/s: I wrote this!

Samsung Galaxy Note - a crossover of smartphone and tablet

2011-12-22T05:10:00.000+08:00

I saw this "thing" at Kuala Lumpur last month at some Samsung roadshow. It was a bit sluggish when I tried it. The sales person forgot or don't know how to kill background apps to give the best out of Android. Anyway, I know that it should be powerful enough to meet some expectation.

If you call it a smartphone, it is too huge.
If you call it a tablet, it is too small.
So I would call it crossover of smartphone and tablet. This concept is very popular these few years in automotive industry (crossover of sedan and SVU/offroad).

To see the hardware spec, I always go to the old and fateful gsmarena.com.

When comparing with Samsung Galaxy S 2, there only a few things that different between these 2 phones, everything else are pretty much the same. It is like Ford Focus hatchback and Ford Focus sedan. :-)
What are the different?
1. The screen, which is very obvious; 5.3 inches vs 4.3 inches; 800x1280 vs 480x800
2. Processor a bit faster; 1.4GHz vs 1.2GHz.
3. Stylus [stylus was very popular during Windows Mobile time, because everything on touch screen back then was super tiny!]

What are the best ones among the good ones on both phone?
Gorilla Glass! , Dual core processors and support external microSD cards.

Link to comparison on gsmarena:
http://www.gsmarena.com/compare.php3?idPhone1=4135&idPhone2=3621

Smartphone review without video is a NO NO. So after some "research", here are some review video from pocketnow.com.

Samsung Galaxy Note Unboxing

Jump to 2:05 to skip the stuffs that come with the box.
Jump to 2:30 to see the stylus in action.
Jump to 3:13 to see how tiny other smartphones compare to Samsung Galaxy Note.

Samsung Galaxy Note Hardware Review

Jump to 3:40 to see the speed benchmark.

Samsung Galaxy Note Software Review (15 mins of video!)

Jump to 4:48 to see note can be taken at any apps.
Jump to 5:58 to see DLNA in action.
Jump to 7:00 to see more stylus action.

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
video source: pocketnow.com

p/s: yes, this post is way too late since SGN being announced, this is OutdatedPenangUncle.blogspot.com!

Manage HP laptop wireless connections

2011-12-21T05:08:00.000+08:00

This tutorial works only for HP laptop (applicable to desktop if has WiFi and/or bluetooth).

My company gives (almost) everyone in the company a laptop each for work purpose (of course you have to return the laptop if you resign). Since the IT department has concern about the security of the laptops, they will not using the default setup (OS and programs/software) that come together with the laptop. They will format and re-install OS, and programs/software that custom made to the company. Too bad that this IT department always left out some software that I think is useful. They might do it on purpose since the Windows already has the default programs.

The work laptop I am having right is a HP EliteBook 8460p. The only HP program the IT department installed for me is HP HotKey Support, which is required to works with the function keys on this laptop.

However, there is no connection manager being installed. Whenever I press the "Wireless" button , it will turn on both bluetooth and WiFi at same time, which I don't want it that way all the time. Wifi and bluetooth will draw power from the battery. I want to preserve some battery juice if possible. Sometime I want to sync my smartphone with the laptop through bluetooth, so I don't need the WiFi.

After some research at HP website, I found out there are a few HP Connection Manager. I chosen the one the labeled "HP Connection Manager - Power Only mode" because all I want is to control the power of WiFi and BlueTooth.

Here is the direct link the page to download the setup file:
HP connection manager link
This program should works for all current HP laptop models and OS supported are from Windows XP to Windows 7.

After installation, I can find the HP Connection Manager icon on the taskbar notification area.
This is the icon.

Right click on the icon will bring up the Connection Manager, click on the button to turn on/off Wifi and/or BlueTooth. In this picture, I turn on Wifi, but turn off BlueTooth. I also have the option to turn on Airplane mode which actually turn off both WiFi and BlueTooth.

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source: I wrote this!

Samsung Galaxy Nexus - everything you need to know

2011-12-20T05:15:00.000+08:00

Usually I will post the phone review before the teardown, but for this Samsung Galaxy Nexus, I do it the other way this time. I have posted the teardown few days ago. Actually I don't really do the review. What I did was grep some video from youtube and website. That's is called research, my teacher told me. I would hope that I have the chance to do some review on my own. Telco or smartphone.tablet maker's marketing guys (and ladies), do contact me for smartphone/tablet review. :)

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Unboxing, which was not done by Mr Miniman, so it was a bit lame. You can skip it. :P

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Hardware Tour, which was not done by Mr Miniman as well. But this one is less lame compare with unboxing video above. You should spend bit of time to watch it.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus First Boot and some GUI intro, not done by Mr Miniman as well. sigh.

Jump to 3.:30 if you don't want to see the login to google.
Jump to 5:00 if you want to look at the widgets directly.

Side by side comparison of Samsung Galaxy Nexus and iPhone 4S. iPhone 4S looks very small!

Mr Miniman do this video personally, yeah!
Jump to 6:49 if you want to see the browser comparison.
Jump to 10:00 if you want to see how iPhone 4S looks terrible on playing youtube video. ;-)
Jump to 12:30 if you want to see how iPhone 4S's screen looks terrible again on showing pictures. ;-)
Jump to 14:00 if you want to see Galaxy Nexus slower loading a racing game apps, but start the game a it faster.

More browser speed test. This time include Samsung Galaxy S 2.

Time 0 to 4:30 is just demo of browser on Samsung Galaxy Nexus. Some special features of the browser.
Jump to 4:41 to see side by side browser comparison of iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy Nexus vs Samsung Galaxy S 2.
Jump to 6:02, I like the auto text wrap on Samsung Galaxy S 2.
Jump to 7:25 for youtube playback performance.
Jump to 8:20 to see youtube playback error on iPhone 4S! ;-)

Here is an ads from Google that selling the new features available on Android 4.0.

In summary, there will be some pros and cons on each smartphone. At end of day, it is the one that satisfy your need and also meeting the budget. Happy shopping!

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source: videos by pocketnow.com

Summary of 2011

2011-12-19T05:28:00.041+08:00

It is almost end of 2011. All media will start to publish summary of 2011 or review of 2011. News, either sad or happy, are part of history book now. Ever year, Google will also produce a summary according the keywords being searched on Google. Google called it Zeitgeist. Here is the Zeitgeist 2011: Year In Review by Google.

This blog made it to 50k pageview at Nov. The all time most popular post are always the mobilism posts.
ppcwarez.org changed to mobilism.org
Mobilism (ppcwarez.org) is back online

Excluding the mobilism posts, the most popular post this year should be the post about how to put picture side by side on blogspot/blogger:
How to put picture side by side in Blogspot or Blogger
Follow by Samsung Galaxy S 2 screen problem and it's review:
Samsung Galaxy S 2 screen problem?
Samsung Galaxy S 2 - everything you need to know

I believe the BlueStacks posts will soon take over the Samsung Galaxy S 2 posts:
How to install apk into BlueStacks
How to enable Android Market for BlueStacks

How about you? What is your 2011 summary?

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source: google and youtube

PS Vita unboxing

2011-12-18T05:40:00.002+08:00

If you follow Engadget and other tech websites, PS Vita might have been mentioned and being demo at some gadget shows. An gadget website at HongKong managed to get hold on a PS Vita (Jap version) and played an Romance of Three Kingdom game.

Need translation? [my opinion is in square bracket]

Time 1:19 - Back side of PS Vita has lots of small icon consist of the symbol of PS (The square, triangle, cross and circle)
Time 1:27 - Camera
Time 1:37 - The gadget looks huge, but the weight feels relatively lighter. Build quality feels good.
Time 1:49 - the buttons are smaller than PSP
Time 2:03 - power button next to the card slot
Time 2:25 - this PS Vita has been changed to display Chinese characters.
Time 2:29 - the time of this unboxing video is 3:36pm, Dec 16.
Time 2:42 - the interface, nice!
Time 3:08 - demo of game [the game is in Japanese]
Time 4:25 - can use the touch screen
Time 4:45 - [some pages of the game cannot be operate by touch screen, not fully touch screen yet, still need the buttons to operate]
Time 5:00 - the color is very nice
Time 6:20 - home button take you all the way to the begin screen of the game and then to home screen
Time 6:32 - the game card slot [looks like SD card, except it is curve at top]
Time 7:03 - right hand side is a normal SD card
Time 7:12 - not sure of the function of this socket
Time 7:26 - socket for charging
Time 7:30 - socket for earphone
Time 7:38 - socket for 3G dongle. This model is a wifi model only, so no 3G dongle inserted here.
Time 7:53 - Lets look at the package of games. Smaller than DVD, BD box.
Time 8:11 - Left side is some menu or brouchers, right side is the slot for the game card.
Time 8:23 - Cable for charging. One side of it doesn't match with other products in the market at the moment.

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source: youtube via Kotaku.com

Notorious S.I.R.I.

2011-12-17T05:04:00.018+08:00

SIRI, the talking apps for iOS has been hacked for London's Music Hack Day 2011. SIRI raps Notorious B.I.G in this video. The sky is the limit with what SIRI can do nowadays. We are one more step closer to Skynet? :P

Previously I posted SIRI duet with a male singer.
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2011/10/duet-with-siri.html

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source: saw this at blameitonthevoices.com and youtube!

Biggest Daytime Fireworks Show

2011-12-16T05:51:00.010+08:00

Seriously, daytime fireworks? What I gonna see? Nothing except smokes right? Well, I had the same thought before I saw this video. A Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang uses computer to control computer microchips on the fireworks. And here you go, enjoy!

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: youtube!

Waste time Thursday

2011-12-15T05:39:00.020+08:00

I think I have not posted any waste time post on Thursday, so here it is. Whole 5 minutes of dogs sticking their heads out car windows, in slow-motion. Great for dog lovers.

I am still trying to figure out good tutorial to write, please stay tune okay? In mean time, check out more waste time posts.

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source: saw this at vimeo :P

Extend Windows desktop to 4 desktops

2011-12-14T05:09:00.040+08:00

Why would someone extend a Windows desktop to 4 desktop? For those that used to Linux would know that that help to organize the Windows, you can put some jobs in one desktop and another jobs in another. By doing that you don't always have to look into every Windows just find the MS office or MathLab or Chrome.

I could put all personal web browsing in one desktop and work related Windows into another desktop. So when your boss drop by your cubicle, he/she would see your clean desktop with just work related stuffs. ;-)

There are a few similar software that have this kind of function. Today I would want to introduce Dexpot. It is free of charge for personal use.

It supports older version of Windows such as Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows ME and Windows NT4, but upto version 1.4 only.

It also have portable version, which I like it very much!

You can configure different wallpapers and screen saver for each desktop. However I didn't try the password. One Windows login password is enough, why want to have so many password? I would think this is very useful if you are sharing one computer with another person, there is no need to login and logout every time want to change user. Just use Dexpot to assign each Desktop to each user. By doing this it can be share with 4 persons!

There is a powerful component in Dexpot that automatically distribute the Windows into different Desktop. By configure it correctly, you can always make sure your facebook page is not same desktop with simulation windows.

There are many more features, but it would be super long post. So I leave it to you to explorer. :)

Dexpot download page

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pix source: http://dexpot.de
Source: I wrote this!

Extracting video or audio from MKV

2011-12-13T05:12:00.061+08:00

Recently my brother gave me a mkv video file which I have a problem playing with my laptop. Initially I thought that the laptop problem or the k-lite that I install is outdated. So I went to download and install the latest k-lite. But this didn't resolve the problem. And I did tried with Windows Media Player, KMPLayer, and MediaPlayerClassic, playback of the same file still very sluggish. Later when I check the file format with MediaInfo (come together with k-lite), the video inside the mkv is actually rmvb. I think all the playback software did not know how to decode rmvb inside mkv correctly.

After some goggle-ing, I found a MKV extract tool that can separate video and/or audio. By separating the rmvb video and the audio (forgot what format was the audio) from the mkv, I can play the movie with no problem. Due to I did not intend to keep the movie (watch and delete!), so I did not merge the video with the audio that I extracted. What I did was play the rmvb and load the audio file at same time with KMPlayer.

The tools (actually is 2 tools) to extract video and/or audio from mkv that I mentioned is MKVExtractGUI and MKVToolnix. I found them at videohelp.com.

MKVEXtractGUI is the GUI and MKVtoolnix is the executable file. Please download them from the links that I included on the name on this paragraph. Don't worry, both of them are freeware. :)

After downloaded them, unzip them to same folder. Run MKVEXtractGUI.

1. Choose your mkv you want to extract, it will show you what are the track (video and audio) that you can extract.
2. Make sure you also choose the output directory.
3. Check or uncheck that format that you want or don't want from the "Track/Attachment list" box.
4. Click "Extract" and wait for it to complete.
5. Check the output dir, you should able to find the file you want.

You can also merge them back to mkv format (maybe exclude one of the track, to save space) using mkvmergeGUI that included in MKVtoolnix.

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source: http://www.videohelp.com

Decorate Windows with Snow Flakes

2011-12-12T05:51:00.074+08:00

Usually at this time of year, a lot of people would start changing their wallpapers or Windows theme to something very Christmas. Here is something to impress your family or colleagues or customers.

DesktopSnowOK is just small ~57k zip file (~79k after unzip). You can put it any place you want and execute the .exe file. DesktopSnowOK.ini will be generated to keep the setting. DesktopSnowOK is a portable software, so please copy both files (exe and ini) when you want to transfer the program and its setting to thumbdrive or another computer.

As you can see in the picture above, DesktopSnowOK (below BlueStacks) will generate the snowflakes all over your desktop.
There is a few settings to change:
1. Number of flakes
2. Transparency of flakes
3. Speed - how fast the flakes fall
4. How big is the flakes. Or you can choose soccer/glass/red/blue/tennis/baseball balls.
5. Let the snow continue to fall or disable snow flakes with mouse/keyboard movement.

DesktopSnowOK is written by Nenad Hrg from Germany. He is very good software writer who wrote a lot of freeware for Windows. I will try to intro other good stuffs he has in his website.

However I do notice that the snowflakes only appear in primary screen. If you have extended screen like me, the snowflakes will not appear in extended screen. Even if I place the program at extended screen before activate it, the snowflakes still appear at primary screen. Probably this is a bug. I will try to feedback to him about this.

To download this freeware, go to this link:
http://softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/DesktopSnowOK
Look for "... Download (57 KB)"

Or direct download link:
http://softwareok.com/?Download=DesktopSnowOK&goto=../Download/DesktopSnowOK.zip

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
software source: http://softwareok.com/?seite=Freeware/DesktopSnowOK
I wrote this review! And also the screen capture by myself!

p/s: contact me for software/smartphone/tablet/anything you can send to me for review

Star Wars vs Star Trek

2011-12-11T05:38:00.017+08:00

Oppss...... I think I have used up all my energy to write BlueStacks series (running Android on Windows), now I have no idea what to write. Most probably I will put post a few more stuffs that I think is funny or interesting. Until I find my inspiration...... x-finger.

How is Star Wars vs Star Trek? Read this comic to find out: (Btw, I am Star Wars geek, not Star Trek geek.

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: www.cracked.com

Angry Birds party!

2011-12-10T14:27:00.000+08:00

I can't wait to post this until next week, so I just post this even I have already posted the Angry Birds movie just few hours ago.

Thanks to Intel AppUp, few months ago, I got my Angry Birds Rio for Windows for free! Now it is updated to 1.4.0. For those that also got this free offer or those that pay USD $4.99, please open up your IntelAppUp and then go to "My Apps" and look for the update if you have not done so.

3 new levels! (all 3 columns from right)

On another note, Angry Birds Chrome also have a Christmas party. For the first time, Angry Birds Chrome is offering Angry Birds Season.

Thing to note is we have to login using google account in order to play Angry Birds Season on Chrome. This also mean need to be connected to intenet to play it. However there is no need to login to play Level 1 and Level 2.

For those that installing Angry Birds Chrome for first time, please wait for a moment for Angry Birds to download and install, especially those with slower connection.

Have a blasting weekend!

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source: I wrote this!

Another Angry Birds Movie

2011-12-10T05:09:00.003+08:00

Instead of animation, this time is real life people action in Angry Birds movie, with a lot of CG, of course!

Would you want to watch this movie?
Happy weekend!

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source: youtube!

How Google Impacting Our Memory

2011-12-09T05:54:00.004+08:00

Ever since search engine become part of our life, the way how we find information changed completely. Before search engine, we have to go to library and look for whole day just for a small project or homework, but with Google/Yahoo/Bing, we can find the information we want in less than 30 mins or less.

See how Google impacting our memory. Click on the image to see in fullsize:

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source:http://dailyinfographic.com/is-google-making-us-e-tards-infographic/googleandmemory

Which Geek Are You?

2011-12-08T05:55:00.007+08:00

Geek is now no longer refer to nerd. There are so many types of geek nowadays. Check out the infographic below to find out which geek are you? :)
I am Star Wars and Internet Geek for sure. :)

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: http://dailyinfographic.com

Samsung Galaxy Nexus Teardown

2011-12-07T05:29:00.037+08:00

How can this blog miss out any teardown? So here it is, the first teardown in this month on this blog.

Samsung Galaxy Nexus is released on last month (Nov 2011). Instead of Gorilla glass that being use on Galaxy S 2, oleophobic being use, I wonder why they choose it. Another cons is lower resolution of the front and back camera. 5MP and 1.3MP vs 8MP and 2MP on Galaxy S 2. Also no slot of external memory card.
Beside that, everything else is pretty much same like Galaxy S 2, except the screen is 4.65 inches with 720x1280. Galaxy S 2's screen only have 4.3 inches with 480x800. It also support NFC.

So here is the teardown:

If you prefer to read it on iFixIt website, here is the link:
Samsung Galaxy Nexus Teardown at iFixIt

The see the spec in detail, you can go to gsmarena:
http://www.gsmarena.com/samsung_galaxy_nexus-4219.php

For comparison between Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy S 2, also refer to gsmarena:
Galaxy Nexus vs Galaxy S2 in gsmarena

Galaxy S 2 teardown also being posted in this blog:
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2011/07/samsung-galaxy-s-2-teardown.html

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: iFixit!

Google and its numbers

2011-12-05T05:18:00.001+08:00

I have posted a series of tutorial on how to run Android apps on Windows 7, now to take a break, lets look at how Google impacting the world and the environment.

Click on the picture to see it in full size.

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: http://dailyinfographic.com

More info on BlueStacks

2011-12-04T05:24:00.002+08:00

Some nice people at XDA forum put up a comprehensive tutorial/tips/hacking for BlueStacks, in my previous posts I also refer to the same page at XDA. If you want to also change BlueStacks to windowed (not fullscreen), there is a part for it. If you want to change the SD card capacity, there is tools to do that, what you need to do is to go this link below and find out the detail:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1298332

http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-install-apk-into-bluestacks.html
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-enable-android-market-for.html
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2011/12/rearrange-apps-list-on-bluestacks.html

Have an adventure weekend. :)

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source: XDA
pix source: BlueStacks

How to enable Android Market for BlueStacks

2011-12-03T05:53:00.005+08:00

In previous post, I have showed how to install apk directly into BlueStacks, however some prefer to install apps through Android Market. Even though there was cases where virus being distributed on Android Market (because Android Market is not as stringent as Apple AppStore), it is still better than downloading apk from unknown sources.

BlueStacks don't offer Android Market apk, but we can find the apk from XDA forum. Download the zip file from this link:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=18336028&postcount=7

After unzip apk files from the zip file, install the apk in the following order using the method showed here:
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-install-apk-into-bluestacks.html

1. GoogleServicesFramework.apk
2. OneTimeInitializer.apk
3. SetupWizard.apk
4. Talk.apk
5. Vending.apk
6. Gmail.apk
7. Maps.apk

If you don't have any google account, you can use normal method (web browser on PC) to create one new account.
If you already have google account, you can use the same user name and password to login to Android Apps.

After login, it is just like browsing Android Market on Android phone. Find your apps and install and launch it. Do note that apps that installed through Android Market has to be launch from Android Market. I cannot find the apps appear on launcher of BlueStacks.
Android Market also require internet access no matter to launch the apps that already install. So there might be a problem if you are offline (not connected to internet all the time).

I also installed Amazon AppStore on BlueStacks, however the apps that I installed through Amazon AppStore seems like taking forever to load (a.k.a not running). Probably it is because the apps or Amazon AppStore, I have to check again.

Because of limitation of Android Market and Amazon AppStore, I still think installing apk directly is the best method.

Update (Jan 19, 2012): If you are plan to upgrade BlueStacks and if you want to preserve the icon arrangement after you edit the apps.json, make sure you back up the file before you run the upgrade.

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source: XDA

Rearrange apps list on BlueStacks

2011-12-02T05:38:00.075+08:00

After installing apk on BlueStacks, I found out that the app list is following the installation order. The last installed apps will be added into last icon in the gadget/launcher. At beginning it was okay since I have a few apps only, but later when I install more apps, finding apps become difficult. And I have a few apps that I always use, so I would want to move the icons to the first page of launcher.
However BlueStack does not allow moving icon of apps interactively like on iOS (iPhone/iPad/iPod touch). Fortunately, there is a way to do it, it is by hacking a BlueStacks' file.

Edit this file: %localappdata%\bluestacks\gadget\apps.json

1. To access this path quickly, put in the following path (without double quote) into the run box [the "Search programs and files box"] and hit Enter.
"%localappdata%\bluestacks\gadget\"

A new Windows Explorer windows will open at that location.

2. Back up apps.json first.

3. Edit apps.json with text editor (Notepad, Textpad or PSPad).

4. The file is in one single line only. Each icon is represent by a pair of curly bracket {xxx}.

5. For example, I want to move ASTRO file manager to be first one. I will move the following code to be first one and separate it from the currently first one with a comma.
{"name": "ASTRO", "img": "com.metago.astro.png", "package": "com.metago.astro", "activity": "com.metago.astro.SplashActivity", "system": "0"}

6. I can also change the name of the apps. Example, Dolphin Browser HD that I installed is a Chinese version. The name for this apps become some funny characters after installation. So I edit it to Dolphin Browser HD.
{"name": "Dolphin Browser HD", "img": "com.dolphin.browser.cn.png", "package": "com.dolphin.browser.cn", "activity".......

7. For those apps that I removed using ASTRO, the icon still remain there, so I can use this method to remove the icon as well. Example, I want to remove TextFree apps, I will remove this code from apps.json.
{"name": "Textfree", "img": "com.pinger.textfree.png", "package": "com.pinger.textfree", "activity": "com.pinger.textfree.activities.TFSplash", "system": "0"}

Now I can access ASTRO, Android Market, Amazon AppStore and Talking Tom 2 FREE at first page:

Update (Jan 19, 2012): If you plan to upgrade BlueStacks, please backup the apps.json that you edited before running the update. Otherwise it will be overwrite by the update and all the edit will be gone.

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: some from XDA (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=18333866&postcount=5)

How to install apk into BlueStacks

2011-12-01T05:05:00.005+08:00

In previous post, I wrote about BlueStacks and how to install additional apps that provided by BlueStacks. But how to install additional apps? Either wait for BlueStacks to add into their database, or sync from your android phone using BlueStacks' cloud connect. However if we already own Android phone, there is no use to sync to PC right? And for those that do not own an Android phone, how to get more apps on BlueStacks?

There is a lot of free apps available in Android market or Amazon apps or can be directly download. For direct download, you just need to google for it. :)

So how to install the apk (that is the setup file for Android apps) into BlueStacks?

1. Right-click on the .apk file and click on "Open with..."
2. Click on "Browse..."
3. Navigate to "C:\Program Files\BlueStacks" or for 64-bit computers, "C:\Program Files (x86)\BlueStacks"
4. Double-click on "HD-ApkHandler.exe"
5. Click on "Ok" [Check on "Always use the selected program to open this kind of file" if you wish to associate apk with BlueStacks. I use this method, so now every time I just need to double click on apk to install new apps to my BlueStacks ;) ]
The .apk file will be install into Bluestacks and notify you when its done. You should able to see new icon to the apps that you just install on BlueStacks.

If you getting error msg "INSTALL_FAILED_CPU_ABI_INCOMPATIBLE" during apk installation, too bad that now still don't have workaround yet. This is because BlueStacks currently doesn't support binary translation. More info here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=18376033&postcount=15

Even though there is a warning from XDA forum that apps installed this way CANNOT be removed directly. I found out I can use Astro File Manager to uninstall apps from BlueStacks. Astro File Manager is available freely from the internet.
http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/app/astro-file-manager
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.metago.astro&hl=en

update:
see also how to rearrange the apps list on BlueStacks after you install apk
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2011/12/rearrange-apps-list-on-bluestacks.html
see also how to enable Android Market using method mentioned in this post
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-enable-android-market-for.html

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source: XDA forum

Running Android apps on Windows with BlueStacks

2011-11-29T05:51:00.136+08:00

What have been Outdated Penang Uncle up to lately? I have been trying out Android apps on my laptop using BlueStacks.

Before BlueStacks, there is only Android SDK that has the emulator to try out Android apps on Windows. To do that you have to install Android SDK, install bla bla bla and then do bla bla bla and finally try to the Android apps on Windows.

Thanks to BlueStacks, now I can skip a lot of steps and just double-click to install the Android apps into BlueStacks. Sounds like installing software on Windows right? I will show you how in following post, do stay tune or subscribe to rss of this blog.

To download, go to BlueStacks website and then go to download page to download BlueStacks App Player.
http://bluestacks.com

For Windows 7, make sure you install BlueStacks using administrator permission so avoid any installation problem. ~~If I remember correctly, BlueStacks runs only on Windows 7, too bad for older version of Windows.~~ Update: BlueStacks now runs on Windows XP as well! [I was using version Alpha v2007 when I write this post, latest version is 0.6.2.0563_REL]

Most of users will find the BlueStacks icon (gadget to be exact) appear on desktop after installation success. Launching Android apps on BlueStack is actually through Windows Gadget of BlueStacks.
If you don't find the BlueStacks icon, minimize all windows (Start button + m) and then right-click on any place of desktop, select "Gadget". The Gadget windows will come up, you should able to see BlueStacks Gadget. Left click and hold on the gadget, then drag it to any place at desktop that you prefer.

BlueStacks' default installation already come with some Android apps, such as Bloomberg, Pulse, Kids Learn to Read FREE, and Talking Tom 2 FREE.

If you want to more apps from BlueStacks, you can go to BlueStacks website by click on the "Get More Apps" button.

It will open your default web browser and asking you to login with facebook account. That is the only login that BlueStacks provide. After login, there are total of 31 apps that available for you to install.

BlueStacks also allow Android phone owner to send apps from Android phone to BlueStacks on PC. I am not sure the motive of this feature, if you already have Android phone, why would you want to use the apps on PC? Example, if you send Angry Birds from your phone to PC via BlueStacks' Cloud Connect, the progress or level completed on Angry Birds cannot be sync between phone and PC. So there is not really a benefit right? Anyway, I will show you how to install apps through Android market, Amazon apps, and install apk directly. So stay tune ya.

Thing to note: Do not install apps that need sensor to play, because laptop don't have accelerometer sensor. Would not able to play the game anyway. However if your tablet have the sensor, you might able to make use of the sensor to play apps that need sensor to play. :)

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source: I learned the tricks from XDA forum :)
pix source: BlueStack pix from BlueStacks

Why switch to Samsung Galaxy S 2?

2011-11-27T05:15:00.023+08:00

Samsung US come out with a nice TV commercial to woo iPhone users. Watch the youtube:

Now you have more solid reason to switch to GS2 right?

If you still can't decide, here are some of my post to help you to decide:
Samsung Galaxy S 2 - everything you need to know
More of Samsung Galaxy S 2
Samsung Galaxy S 2 teardown
iPhone4s vs Samsung Galaxy S 2

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source: saw this video at youtube!

Internet 1996 vs 2011

2011-11-25T05:14:00.011+08:00

Internet has been ever changing since 1980s. See how much the Internet change since 1996 compare with 2011.

Click on the picture to see in fullsize.

Happy Thanks Giving to fellow US friends!

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source: http://dailyinfographic.com/true-hollywood-story-bipeds-and-the-world-wide-web/1996-vs-2011

Nook Tablet Teardown

2011-11-23T05:18:00.016+08:00

People at iFixIt must be very busy these few weeks with so many devices come to market within a short period. Barnes & Noble (is a online book store) come out Nook Tablet to fight with Amazon's Kindle Fire.

Equips with a dual-core OMAP, 1GM RAM, Wi-Fi b/g/n, Custom Android OS and supports upto 48GB of mini SD card, do you want to get one? I think I will still get an iPad2. :P

If you prefer to read it at iFixIt website, go to this link:
Nook Tablet Teardown at iFixIt website

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source: teardown from iFixIt, I wrote the rest.

Amazon Kindle Fire Teardown

2011-11-21T05:42:00.029+08:00

Amazon Kindle Fire supposedly come out to compete with iPad. People who wish to get something like iPad but don't want to pay the high price, and do not want to buy no-name brand from China manufacturers, would consider Kindle Fire as the top choice.

With dual-core processor, Android 2.3 OS, WiFi, multi-touch display, looks like this is a good choice. If you need to update your facebook status where ever you go, then this is not a good choice since no 3G connectivity (WiFi is not available everywhere, okay?).

Okay, here is the teardown, enjoy!

If you prefer to read it at ifixit, here is the link:
Amazon Kindle Fire Teardown at iFixIt

Btw, I am trying out Android apps using BlueStacks on my Windows 7. BlueStacks is an Android emulator. Stay tune for the tutorial of it, or subscribe to RSS or follow me in blogger.

p/s: I found out the ifixit embed code always show up as 2 same ifixit windows, I have tried IE, FireFox and Chrome, all show same problem. I have no time to debug it, just ignore the 2nd one, it is the same ifixit.

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source: iFixIt for the teardown, I wrote the rest, okay?

Motorola Droid RAZR Teardown

2011-11-19T05:21:00.023+08:00

How can this blog complete without any teardown? I haven't post any teardown this month, so let's do it on this weekend. :)

Motorola DROID Razr, is also know as DROID HD, is a new release from Motorola. It supports GSM/CDMA/HSDPA/HSUPA/EV-DO/LTE/WiFi b/g/n, meaning it is a world phone, you can use in most of the countries in this world, except North Korea. :P

Okay, cut the crap and see the teardown yourself here:

Or if you prefer, go directly to ifixit website at link below:
Motorola Droid RAZR Teardown at iFixit.

And if you like to see the spec of this phone, go to gmsarena:
Motorola DROID RAZR spec at gsmarena

Have a nice weekend. :)

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source: ifixit

Teach your children electric or electronics

2011-11-17T05:51:00.045+08:00

How do you teach children about electric or electronics? By using broadboard like this?

Pix source: Wikipedia

Only if they are more grown up right? What if you want to teach 3 or 5 years old about electric or electronics? Using breadboard is not really a good choice because breadboard is small and not easy to use. Even sometime myself also find it difficult to plug in some components into breadboard.

So how about using some material that can be find at home and make learning electronics a fun stuff?

Squishy circuits are a project from Thomas Lab at University of St. Thomas. Here is the TED video of the demonstration of Squishy circuit:

This is how to make a conductive dough:

This is how to make a insulating dough:

This is how to play squishy circuits with young children:

Visit Squishy Circuits official website for more detail:
http://courseweb.stthomas.edu/apthomas/SquishyCircuits/

Here are 2 posts on how to dowload TED video:
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2010/10/how-to-download-ted-videos.html
http://outdatedpenanguncle.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-to-download-ted-videos-ii.html

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source: video from TED and youtube and squishy circuit

Super fast find file for Windows

2011-11-15T05:39:00.048+08:00

For most of the Windows users, they use the default "search" function on Windows to find their file. There are a few problems with it.

For older Windows, the search function just not doing the job right, meaning it cannot find the file I want, even though I gave the right keyword. This happen a lot during Windows XP time. So I use cygwin to search file.

For Windows 7, the search function become better and faster. Why it can become faster? It is because it keep on indexing all the files (including emails). The problem with this is that it create a huge index file on hard-disk Although hard-disk (non-solid-state type) are very cheap nowadays, no problem with Windows creating a Gig or two on a 500G or 1T hard-disk. But this will be a problem for solid-state type hard-disk, because solid-state hard-disk still very expensive. So in order to save the disk space on my laptop (I use solid-state hard-disk, hehe), I disable the indexing but search function become super slow.

Luckily I found a software that search files as fast as Windows 7 search (with indexing turn on), but without the huge indexing file! Introducing FileLocator Lite. The same company also selling the pro version, named "FileLocator Pro", but this cost US$39!

Anyway, you can download the setup file for lite version here:
http://mythicsoft.com/Page.aspx?type=filelocatorlite&page=download

I found out the lite version is good enough for me for daily usage. Search with asterisk (*something*) always give me the right file. You can also search by modified, created, or last accessed date of a particular file(s).

Actually this software also called "Agent Ransack" but the name seems like not really suitable for work (NSFW), so the company compile the same code with different product name.

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pix source: http://mythicsoft.com
source: I wrote this review!

Contact me for software review at: ahsiang888 at gmail dot com

Outdated Penang Uncle PageRank

2011-11-13T05:30:00.005+08:00

PageRank of this blog is not consistent. I did reach PR1 last year, but then it drop to zero after Google panda update. Don't ask me what is panda update, google it if you want. :P

Recently I found out this blog is getting PR2. Wow! Jump from zero to PR2!

This is the snapshot of PR check on http://www.checkpagerank.net/

This is the snapshot of PR check on http://www.prchecker.info/check_page_rank.php

Some blogging/website experts told that backlink is very important to PageRank, most important is quality backlink. I am not hiring anyone to create backlink to this blog. All I did is just comment on other blog and website of my opinion on their articles.

How about you? How you promote your blog/website?

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source: I wrote this!

How to update maps for Garmin nüvi 255W

2011-11-11T05:04:00.036+08:00

Recently I borrow a GPS (Garmin nüvi 255W) from my friend so that I can use it when traveling to Kuala Lumpur. Since the maps in his GPS is dated April this year, I decided to update the maps to the latest one.

Updating maps for Garmin GPS in Malaysia (Singapore and Brunei too!) is super easy. Thanks to the people at community of MalSingMaps.com! Another great thing about MalSingMaps is they update the map at least once a month, which is much better than the official Garmin update that happen once every quarter (read 3 months) only!

Here are the steps:
1. Go to MalSingMaps.com to download the latest maps.
http://www.malsingmaps.com/portal/downloads.php
There are 3 types for Garmin Format section. For the super easy method, download the first type, which is usually name like this "MSM NT v5.xx". "MSM NT for Mapsource v5.xx" is for another method, refer to malsingmaps.com forum for detail.

2. Unzip the zip file. For version v5.29 and v5.30 which I downloaded, it has 2 files in it. gmapsupp.img is the map file, while product.JCV is junction view file, which not being supported on this 255W. If you have a GPS that support junction view, you should also copy it. For this example, I will just copy both file, so that other Garmin GPS can benefit from this tutorial.

3. Connect the GPS to your computer via USB. It should take a while for Windows to detect the GPS.

4. Because you update any map, do a backup first. Since this GPS is my friend's, so I just backup everything, even though I really just need to backup the old map. It took me about 1 hour for me, because the transfer rate for Garmin nüvi (not latest one) are just USB1.0 speed only, the max is about 600k per sec.

5. After backup is done, it is time to replace the original map. Depend on where you store the maps, you should copy and replace gmapsupp.img in your device.
Either on device: :\Garmin\ [gmapsupp.img is here]
Or on SD card which on the GPS device: :\Garmin\ or :\Maps\

6. After copy finish, it is time to verify the map.

7. Disconnect the GPS from your computer, turn on Garmin nüvi 255W.

8. After the GPS is turn on, click "Tool" -> "Settings" -> "Map" -> "Map Info". You should able to see "MSM NT v5.30".

9. If you don't find it, turn off the GPS and connect to computer again. This time put gmapsupp.img to another location mentioned in step 5.

10. If you find there is more than one map, just check on the map that you want to use. For my case, I saw "CN North America NT 2010.10", because my friend bought this GPS at US.

That's it, you just get yourself to update Garmin GPS!
Unless the shop that sold you the GPS willing to do it with no cost at all, why not DIY! (Do It Yourself)
:)

If you still have question or problem, just go to the malsingmaps.com forum to find out. You have to register to post question but registration is free!
Malsingmaps forum

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source: I wrote this!

Online QR code generator

2011-11-09T05:49:00.001+08:00

I posted a free QR code Reader for PC (QuickMark) in last post. This software require you to install the software. If you do not want to install any software or you are using company computer/laptop that not being allow to install any software, here is a website that generate QR code for free!

Here is how:
1. Go to this link:
free-2d-barcode-data-matrix-or-qrcode-online-creator

2. Fill in the text or URL to encode in the text box.

3. Choose your preferred encoding type, I chosen QR code.

4. Click "Generate", wait for a while for your QR code to show up.

5. Right click on the barcode and save it to your computer/laptop. Or copy it and paste it directly.

Of course this free service is for personal purpose only, if you want to use it as business, please buy commercial software.

This is Outdated Penang Uncle QR code, I upload it to imgur.com and put it in this blog.

p/s: I found another website also provide free QR code generator. Also it is for personal use.
http://i-nigma.com/CreateBarcodes.html

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source: I wrote this and the QR code link is from http://www.wikarski.com

QR Code Reader for PC

2011-11-07T05:14:00.075+08:00

What is QR Code? QR code is a 2D barcode that represent information like websites and contact info. The 1D barcode is the usual barcode that we see on most of the food product. That contains numbers only. So to store more information such as links, QR code being invented. Usually we can see QR code reader on Android phone (Barcode Scanner App) and iPhone (QR Reader for iPhone). It is very rare to find QR code reader for PC, it is because QR code reader require a camera, which some PC don't have a web cam. And we don't usually carry laptop around just to read the QR code.

With more and more websites and companies use QR code for their posters or promotional flyer, PC user with no smartphone (Android and iPhone) felt like being left out. Luckily I found a software that will help PC users to read the QR code, without the need of camera or webcam.

QuickMark QR Code Reader for PC is the software that I am talking about. Not only QR code, it can also read many popular 2D and 1D barcode format, using webcam, drag and drop, and screen capture.

This software also can create 2D barcode for you. This is OutdatedPenangUncle 2D barcode that I created previously, you can try it to use this barcode reader to read this barcode.

This QuickMark also available for Windows Mobile, which is very surprise for me, no one would support Windows Mobile platform nowadays. The company even compiled their code for different screen size resolution!

Of course, iPhone and Android are supported as well. Samsung Bada OS and Symbian S60 also supported.
To find out the suitable setup file for your device, go to this link below:
http://www.quickmark.com.tw/en/basic/download.asp

Also available for Chrome browser extension:
https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bhddglpocgogkbpkbkoieiplhgbjmiim

update: I forgot to mention, you can also drag and drop for this software. Meaning if you see a QR code image, you can just drag and drop it into the box of this software to decode it.

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source: I wrote this!

How Much Does The Internet Weigh?

2011-11-05T05:34:00.004+08:00

How Much Does The Internet weigh? Really. No, not based on the knowledge or database. But based on mass of electrons that moving the Internet. How much do you think? in kg? or ton?

Actually it is just 50 grams. HAHA.

See the video to find out how. Anyway, this is just another waste time post from Outdated Penang Uncle. :P

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source: youtube!

7 billion world population explained in video

2011-11-04T05:19:00.015+08:00

Yesterday I posted the chart of world population that reaching 7 billion. Here is a video that help you to understand the population growth since the time we have some sort of human population statistic.

Which continent are you from?

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source: youtube!

World Population reaching 7 billion

2011-11-03T05:32:00.001+08:00

It is expected the world population to hit 7 billion in next few weeks. The number of people on Earth has more than doubled in last 50 years. Where are you in this chart? Go to to interactive chart via the link after this picture.
I am 4,266,975,210th person according to the chart. :P

World Population Interactive Chart at BBC

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source: BBC

Facebook wall of shame

2011-11-01T05:57:00.017+08:00

Facebook Facebook, how many of you out there are NOT using Facebook? I am still using Facebook because 99% of my friends use Facebook. So in order to get update of a friend, Facebook. In order to see the photo that my friend took with me, Facebook. How about you? Do you still use Facebook?

Here are some fact about Facebook (click image to enlarge):

Also see why you should quit Facebook :D
What you should quit Facebook
Video: why you should quit Facebook
More reason why you should quit Facebook
More Fact on Facebook

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source: http://dailyinfographic.com

Smashing Pumpkins in slow motion

2011-10-31T05:06:00.006+08:00

This got nothing to do with Smashing Pumpkin, the band. Since it is Halloween at US, lets do some "Smashing Pumpkins"! Happy Halloween!

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: youtube!

The making of Nokia N9

2011-10-30T05:33:00.011+08:00

Even though Nokia N9 is the first and only and the last Meego phone made by Nokia, this Nokia N9 actually amazed many people (not Apple Fan Boy though :P). Power by ARM Cortex A8, the user experience is quite good. Now to see how it is being made:

Here is the review of Nokia N9:
Nokia N9 - What you need to know!

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source: youtube!

The Life and Times of Steve Jobs

2011-10-28T05:20:00.014+08:00

Everything move so fast nowadays. Steve is in history already. You might have been reading a lot of his success on news papers, website and blogs. But how can you relate those figures? Here is a infograph for you (click on the image to see in full size):

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: http://dailyinfographic.com

Ice Cream Sandwich Tour

2011-10-26T17:40:00.019+08:00

If you are not a smartphone fan or just a poor AFB (Apple Fan Boys, who lives in Apple world), you will wonder why I am talking about dessert in this post. :P (This is not a food blog btw!)

Ice Cream Sandwich is code name of Android 4.0, the latest version of Android OS todate.
Before you want to spend money to buy the Samsung Google Nexus or Google Samsung Nexus, whatever, you might want to take a look what Ice Cream Sandwich have to offer. This video is made by Mr Miniman from pocketnow.com, which he did the review on an Android 4.0 emulator.

Impressive? Or just duh? To find out if your android can support this Android 4.0, just do a google at XDA forum.

Btw, Happy Deepavali to all Hindus friends and readers. :)

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source: youtube and pocketnow.com

Windows 7 is the king now!

2011-10-24T05:31:00.001+08:00

According to Stat Counter, Windows 7 take over the number 1 most people use OS recently. Only after 2 years it manage to take over Windows XP as the champion. Vista is just pathetic at 3rd place while Mac OS and Linux are steadily ramping up over the years. That is world wide data.

How about for Malaysia? Looks like Malaysia is ahead of the world wide that we use more Windows 7 at April of this year.

One interesting chart is for Antarctica, it is very inconsistent. The reason I can think of is that this is a no-man land, only some scientists go there. So depend on the system that those few scientists use during that time, the OS change from time to time. Example from mid of 2010 to mid of this year, it is dominant by Win7, but at July alone it is dominate by Mac OS.

If you prefer, you can go to the interactive chart in the source link at end of this post and look for your country and region. You can even check for the market segment of web browsers and Mobile OS.

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source: Stat Counter

iPod Touch 4th Generation Teardown

2011-10-23T05:37:00.018+08:00

Everyone is focusing on iPhone 4S and Siri, have anyone notice about the iPod Touch? iPod Touch is not cheap in my country, starting from RM699. If I want a iPod Touch, I would save up more money to buy an iPhone or iPad. Anyway, iFixit have teardown an iPod Touch 4th generation.

Go see what is inside an iPod Touch 4th generation:

Or if you prefer to see in full page, click the link below:
iPod Touch 4th Generation Teardown at iFixit

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source: http://www.ifixit.com

Duet with SIRI

2011-10-22T05:25:00.016+08:00

SIRI is the apps that allow iPhone 4S to take voice command. Wait a minute, why only now? This kind of apps already exist on Windows Mobile (the ancestor of Windows Phone 7, recall?), and similar apps is being use widely on Androids (called Voice Actions). But some how Apple always make people think whatever they did is the first of this world, grow up AFB (Apple Fan Boys)!

Anyway, Mr Mann is a famous web owner that produces one youtube video per day. Recently he produced a duet with Siri. I know you already see a lot of blog posts and website that feature the joke with Siri, but have you see Siri in a song? Here you go:

Hope you will enjoy this post, subscribe to my RSS or mailing list or follow me on blogger or twitter. :)
source: jonathanmann.net and youtube!

iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy S 2

2011-10-21T05:11:00.019+08:00

You have seen the unboxing of iPhone 4S and teardown of iPhone 4S, so how does it compare to the best non-apple/iphone smartphone out there? To do the comparison, pocketnow.com put out a side-by-side comparison video between iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S 2.

Because this video is not made by Mr Miniman, so just cut the crap and jump to 3.52 time (don't waste your time if you already know what are the Samsung Galaxy S 2 and iPhone 4S).
If you just to know the browser speed, just jump to 10:00 time.

If you like more of the technical stuffs of these 2 smartphone that have dual core processor, head to this link below for the hardware comparison at gsmarena:
Samsung Galaxy S 2 vs iPhone 4S

So have you made up your mind? Samsung Galaxy S 2 or iPhone 4S? Or just pick up a dump phone from Nokia if you just making phone calls and sms. :P

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source: pocketnow.com and youtube!

Newest adventures of Angry Birds!

2011-10-20T05:24:00.003+08:00

Can't wait to see another special edition of Angry Birds. From the video below, looks like it is going to be some Halloween or Christmas (?) theme. This is the only video I found so far, so stay ~~tube~~ tune!

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source: youtube!

iPhone 4S teardown

2011-10-18T17:43:00.017+08:00

Forget about what is in the OS in iPhone 4S, lets go see what is really inside an iPhone 4S, the hardware.
This is the first phone that has dual core processor from Apple. 8MP rear-facing camera (made by Sony!), and VGA front-facing camera, wifi b/g/n (standard la), Bluetooth 4.0 (wow), Retina Display (this one same like iPhone4?), and Quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE and Dual-band CMDA/EV-DO (supposedly a world phone?).

Ready? Lets go find what is inside to make it great phone (or sucky phone if you ask Android/BB/WP users :P)

iPhone 4S Teardown at iFixIt

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source: iFixit.com

iPhone 4S unboxing video

2011-10-16T18:10:00.004+08:00

For those still waiting for iPhone4S to come to your country or still waiting for the iPhone4S parcel to reach your house, there is a iPhone 4S unboxing video to cure your crave for iPhone 4S.

Should I wait for iPhone4S or just buy the cheaper iPhone 4?

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source: pocketnow.com

Free Drawing Apps for your kids (part two)

2011-10-14T05:50:00.016+08:00

For part two of Free Drawing Apps for your kids, I am introducing "My Little Artist". Designed for kids, it has a very easy to use interface and it will help children to be creative. Just like Glow, it runs in full screen, so your kids can play with it without the worry of changing your others Windows settings or software accidentally. :)

See this video for some demo:

Nice? Get it from Intel AppUp:
My Little Artist at Intel AppUp

How to get Intel AppUp with out giving up credit card information?
Refer to this posting: Angry Birds Rio free at Intel AppUp
Well, Angry Birds Rio is no free anymore and now is US$4.99 at Intel AppUp, but that are a lot of free apps for you to play/work/utilize with.

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source: I wrote this!

Target website

2011-10-13T11:07:00.001+08:00

Initially I want to post this in a few more days, however if the website is up and running by that time, then my post will make no sense right? Every minute count in this world ~~wide~~ wild web.

Okay, back to this website. Target.com.

I want to look for GPS prices in target.com website just for reference, however I can't access it. I tried IE, FireFox, and Chrome. I just change my laptop recently and still tied up with work, so no Safari, Opera and other rare browsers yet. :P

Anyway, why access denied? Is someone just lock out the server from outside world? See the print screen. I got the same message on all 3 browsers.

I also tried deeper link, meaning search in google and get the long long link to goes to GPS section, but still getting same error.

Target, please fix this.

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source: I wrote this! HAHA

Free Drawing Apps for your kids (part one)

2011-10-12T05:32:00.047+08:00

I have found 2 nice and FREE drawing apps for Windows which are very easy to use for kids and everyone! Windows should not be just work, work and work only, and not friendly to kids? Who says only Apple products are friendly. We have nice and free apps for Windows too!

In this part one, Glow is the apps that I am going to introduce to you. Glow is a free drawing application, which you can create beautiful glowing art. The apps is always full screen (I haven't find out how to not running in full screen), which is very nice if you want to let your kids to play with the apps only and not deleting or modifying other Windows setting or other software by accident.

Here are some of my favorite pictures created using Glow:

Glow is free and available at Intel AppUp at this link:
Glow at Intel AppUp

How to get Intel AppUp with out giving up credit card information?
Refer to this posting: Angry Birds Rio free at Intel AppUp
Well, Angry Birds Rio is no free anymore and now is US$4.99 at Intel AppUp, but that are a lot of free apps for you to play/work/utilize with.

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source: I wrote this!
Picture source: http://www.intelloware.com

Disable Comments & Lock Posts Before Sharing on Google+

2011-10-11T15:59:00.001+08:00

One of the advantages of Google+ is the ability to disable comments and lock post to make sure no one re-shares it. Previously this only can be done after you posted it, however now you can do the lock down and disable before you share to your stream.

See the announcement in video:

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source: http://www.blogworld.com/2011/10/05/disable-comments-lock-posts-before-sharing-on-google/

Motorola Careers website

2011-10-08T05:24:00.034+08:00

The reason for this kind of post is not trying to laugh at people (but if you want, you can laugh as loud as you can :P ).
I am sure these companies hire professional website designers to design the website for them. If not also, they have IT department to do that. So there should not be any obvious mistake. Small mistake is allow, however some huge mistake should not be happen. Unless the IT department is just one man/woman, he or she is the department manager, engineer and office boy/girl, which is unlikely right?

So who is the victim for this post? Motorola!

How did I saw that? My friend forward me the open interview they have recently, so when I look at the website, it is super obvious mistake!

At http://careers.motorolasolutions.com, at bottom, there is option to browser the website in other languages, in this case: Spanish, French, Portuguese, Chinese, and Czech. Supposedly......

However, if translating the Chinese one:
http://translate.google.com/#auto|en|%E6%B8%B8%E8%A7%88%E8%8B%B1%E6%96%87%E7%BD%91%E7%AB%99

Why it says "Visit the English website", when it supposedly says "Visit the Chinese website"?

Motorola, please get someone to fix this please.

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source: I wrote this!

Steve pass away

2011-10-06T08:17:00.001+08:00

The silicon valley icon, Steve is gone. We will miss you, Steve. He create an apple kingdom for the world, people would just line up for days just to get the iPad and iPhone (not so hot for iPod and MacBook). With his past away, and also iPhone 4S which pissed off many Apple fans, will Apple share price drop? Where is my iPhone5? Now I can't ask Steve anymore. Too bad.

From WSJ:

Steven P. Jobs, the Apple Inc. chairman and co-founder who pioneered the personal computer industry and changed the way people think about technology, died Wednesday.

"Steve's brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives," Apple said in a statement. "The world is immeasurably better because of Steve."

His family, in a separate statement, said Mr. Jobs "died peacefully today surrounded by his family...We know many of you will mourn with us, and we ask that you respect our privacy during our time of grief."

During his more than three decade-long career, Mr. Jobs transformed Silicon Valley as he helped turn the once sleepy expanse of fruit orchards into the technology industry's innovation center. In addition to laying the groundwork for the modern high-tech industry alongside other pioneers like Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison, Mr. Jobs proved the appeal of well-designed intuitive products over the sheer power of technology itself and shifted the way consumers interact with technology in an increasingly digital world.

Unlike those men, however, the most productive chapter in Mr. Jobs' career occurred near the end of his life, when a nearly unbroken string of innovative and wildly successful products like the iPod, iPhone and iPad fundamentally changed the PC, electronics and digital media industries. The way he marketed and sold those products through savvy advertising campaigns and its retail stores, in the meanwhile, helped turn the company into a pop culture icon.

At the beginning of that phase, Mr. Jobs once described his philosophy as trying to make products that were at "the intersection of art and technology." In doing so, he turned Apple into the world's most valuable company.

Mr. Jobs was 56 years old. After exhibiting significant weight loss in mid-2008, he took a nearly six month medical leave of absence in 2009, during which he received a liver transplant. He took another medical leave of absence in mid-January without explanation before stepping down as chief executive in August.

Mr. Jobs is survived by his wife, Laurene, and four children.

Although his achievements in technology alone were immense, Mr. Jobs played an equally groundbreaking role in entertainment. He turned Apple into the largest retailer of music and helped popularize computer-animated films as the financier and CEO of Pixar Animation Studios, which he later sold to Walt Disney Co. He was a key figure in changing the way people used the Internet and how they consumed music, TV shows, movies, books, disrupting industries in the process.

Mr. Jobs also pulled off one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern business history, returning to Apple after an 11-year absence during which he was largely written off as a has-been and then reviving the then-struggling company by introducing products such as the iMac all-in-one computer, iPod music player and iTunes digital music store.

The company produces $65.2 billion a year in revenue compared with $7.1 billion in its business year ending September 1997. Apple has become one of the world's premier designers of consumer-electronics devices, dropping the "computer" in its name in January 2007 to underscore its expansion beyond PCs.

Although Mr. Jobs officially handed over the reins of the company to long-time deputy Tim Cook in August, his death nevertheless raises a high-stakes question for Apple of how the company—which has been in the vanguard of technological creativity for most of the past decade—will sustain its success without his vision and guidance. Other icons of American capitalism, including Walt Disney, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and International Business Machines Corp., experienced some transitional woes but eventually managed to thrive after their charismatic founders passed on.

But few companies of that stature have shown such an acute dependence on their founder, or lost the founder at the peak of his career. Several years after Mr. Jobs was fired from Apple in 1985, the company began a steady decline that saw it drift to the margins of the computer industry. That slide was reversed only after Mr. Jobs returned to Apple in 1997.

Mr. Jobs also leaves behind innumerable tales about his mercurial management style, such as his habit of calling employees or their ideas "dumb" when he didn't like something. He was even more combative against foes like Microsoft Corp., Google Inc., and Amazon.com Inc. When Adobe Systems Inc. waged a campaign against Apple for not supporting Adobe's Flash video format on its iPhones and iPads in April 2010, Mr. Jobs wrote a 1,600 word essay about why the software was outdated and inadequate for mobile devices.

The CEO maintained uncompromising standards about the company's hardware and software, demanding "insanely great" aesthetics and ease of use from the moment a consumer walked into one of Apple's stylish stores. His attention to the smallest details in the development and design process were instrumental in shaping some of the most distinctive features of Apple's products, while his meticulously planned onstage demonstrations helped fuel excitement that was unmatched by his peers.

At event after event to introduce new Apple products, Mr. Jobs often puckishly proclaimed "There is one more thing" before revealing the most significant news at the very end of a speech. He enforced strict secrecy among Apple employees, a strategy that he believed heightened anticipation for upcoming Apple products.

Mr. Jobs, the adopted son of a family in Palo Alto, Calif., was born on Feb. 24, 1955. A college dropout, he established his reputation early on as a tech innovator when at 21 years old, he and friend Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer Inc. in the Jobs family garage in 1976. Mr. Jobs chose the name, in part, because he was a Beatles fan and admired the group's Apple records label, according to the book "Apple: The Inside Story of Intrigue, Egomania, and Business Blunders" by Wall Street Journal reporter Jim Carlton.

The pair came out with the Apple II in 1977, a groundbreaking computer that was relatively affordable and designed for the mass market consumer rather than for hobbyists. The product went on to become one of the first commercially successful personal computers, making the company $117 million in annual sales by the time of Apple's initial public offering in 1980. The IPO instantly made Mr. Jobs a multimillionaire.

Not all of Mr. Jobs's early ideas paid off. Apple's Apple III and Lisa computers that debuted in 1980 and 1983 were flops. But the distinctive all-in-one Macintosh--foreshadowed in a ground-breaking TV ad inspired by George Orwell's novel "1984" that famously only aired once -- would set the standard for the design of modern computer operating systems, in which users point and click on icons with a mouse rather than typing in commands.

Even then, Mr. Jobs was a stickler about design details. Bruce Tognazzini, a former user-interface expert at Apple who joined the company in 1978, once said that Mr. Jobs was adamant than the keyboard not include "up", "down," "right" and "left" keys that allow users to move the cursor around their computer screens.

Mr. Jobs's pursuit for aesthetic beauty sometimes bordered on the extreme. George Crow, an Apple engineer in the 1980s and again from 1998 to 2005, recalls how Mr. Jobs wanted to make even the inside of computers beautiful. On the original Macintosh PC, Mr. Crow says Mr. Jobs wanted the internal wiring to be in the colors of Apple's early rainbow logo. Mr. Crow says he eventually convinced Mr. Jobs it was an unnecessary expense.

Many ideas in the Macintosh came from a visit in 1979 to Xerox Corp.'s Palo Alto Research, where Mr. Jobs saw a machine called the Xerox Alto that had a crude graphical user interface and a mouse. The episode underscored his recurring role as a refiner and popularizer of existing inventions.

"Picasso had a saying, 'Good artists copy. Great artists steal,'" Mr. Jobs said in a PBS documentary on the computer industry from the mid-1990s. "I've been shameless about stealing great ideas."

Even in his appearance, Mr. Jobs seemed to cultivate an image more like that of an artist than a corporate executive. In public, he rarely deviated from an outfit consisting of Levis jeans, a black mock turtleneck and New Balance running shoes.

As Apple expanded, Mr. Jobs decided to bring in a more experienced manager to lead the company. He recruited John Sculley from Pepsi Co. to be Apple CEO in 1983, famously overcoming Mr. Sculley's initial reluctance by asking the executive if he just wanted to sell "sugar water to kids" or help change the world.

After Apple fell into a subsequent slump, a leadership struggle led its board's decision to back Mr. Sculley and fire Mr. Jobs two years later at the age of 30. "What can I say – I hired the wrong guy," Mr. Jobs brooded in the same PBS documentary. "He destroyed everything I had spent ten years working for."

Mr. Jobs then created NeXT Inc., a closely watched startup that in 1988 introduced a distinctive black desktop computer with advanced software that was initially targeted at the academic computing market. But the machine was hobbled by its exorbitant price tag and some key design decisions, including its use of an optical disk drive and a Motorola Inc. microprocessor at a time when Intel Corp. chips and floppy drives had become the norm.

NeXT eventually stopped selling hardware and failed to make money as a software company. But its operating system would become a foundation for OS X, the software backbone of today's Macs, after Apple purchased NeXT for $400 million in December 1996.

In 1986, using part of his fortune from Apple, Mr. Jobs paid filmmaker George Lucas $10 million to acquire the computer graphics division of Lucasfilm Ltd. The company he formed out of those assets, Pixar Animation Studios, first sold hardware, then software, and later turned to feature films. Pixar went on to create a string of computer-animated hits, from "Toy Story" to 2008's "Wall-E." Mr. Jobs sold Pixar to Disney in January 2006 in a $7.4 billion deal that gave him a Disney board seat and made him the entertainment company's largest shareholder.

Meanwhile, Apple began foundering. Computers using Intel chips and Microsoft software grew to dominate the market, a trend that accelerated after Microsoft's Windows emulated many elements of the Mac's visual interface.

Apple, by contrast, had to finance both hardware and software development internally. Fewer developers of application programs created products to make the Macintosh more useful. Apple would eventually decide to license its operating system to other hardware companies, but it was too late to reverse the swing to Windows-based machines.

By 1997, Apple had racked up nearly $2 billion in losses in two years, its shares were at record lows and it was on its third CEO--Gil Amelio--in four years. Eight months after the deal to buy NeXT in December 1996, Mr. Amelio was ousted and Mr. Jobs appointed interim CEO, a title that became permanent in January 2000. One former Apple employee recalls Mr. Jobs joking soon after he returned that "the lunatics have taken over the asylum and we can do anything we want."

Mr. Jobs, who was given a salary of $1 a year along with options to Apple stock, made a series of changes that started paying off quickly. He ended the nascent software licensing program that created Mac clones, killed the struggling Newton handheld computer and trimmed a confusing array of Mac models to a handful of systems focused on the consumer market.

In May 1998, he introduced the iMac, an unusual one-piece computer that sported a colorful casing in translucent turquoise and gray. The popular machine--which sent competitors scrambling to improve their own designs—was embodied by a bold ad campaign that featured the phrase "Think Different," with the picture of one of Mr. Jobs's heroes, such as Albert Einstein and Muppets creator Jim Henson.

While shareholders cheered the changes, Mr. Jobs flexed his power on Apple's Cupertino, Calif., campus. Within months of taking over, he had replaced four of the five top executive positions with former NeXT underlings. He issued emails forbidding employees on the famously laid-back campus to bring pets to the office, smoke even in parking lots, and threatening to fire anyone caught leaking company documents.

One personal assistant became a target when he failed to arrange the installation of a high-speed digital data line to Mr. Jobs's office fast enough to suit the interim CEO. The worker said Mr. Jobs fired him for the delay, but rescinded the firing the next day after he had cooled down. (The worker ended up resigning soon afterwards).

Apple had some stumbles during Mr. Jobs's second coming, including a cube-shaped Macintosh that failed to catch on and was scrapped in 2001. The failure was one reason that Apple posted a quarterly loss and warned it would miss estimates several times in 2000 and 2001.

But big hits followed. In 2001, Apple introduced a PowerBook laptop made from titanium, a metal more frequently found in fighter airplanes. The same year, it introduced the iPod, which transformed digital music players with features such as its smooth shape and DJ-like wheel for navigating through songs. As of Sept. 2010, Apple had sold more than 275 million iPod devices since its introduction, and it has more than 70% market share in the market for digital music players.

A key differentiator was the iTunes Music Store, opened in 2003. At the time, the music industry was largely sitting on the sidelines of the digital revolution, badly wounded by illegal downloads but unable to agree on an easy, inexpensive way to sell songs online. But Mr. Jobs helped convince major record labels to sell recordings for 99 cents each, along with antipiracy restrictions that most consumers found acceptable.

The store, which has sold more than ten billion songs, became the largest music retailer in the U.S. in 2008. It also became an incentive for consumers to buy iPods because, for much of its history, songs from the iTunes store could only be downloaded to Apple's music player and not devices made by other companies.

At the same time, Mr. Jobs was building a deep bench of executives. He recruited former Compaq Computer Corp. executive Tim Cook in the late 1990s to straighten Apple's operations and promoted him over time to chief operating officer. Ron Johnson, senior vice president of Apple retail, was hired from Target Corp. in 2000 to launch Apple's stores worldwide. Apple's lead industrial designer Jonathan Ive took charge of the physical look-and-feel of the company's products and is said to share in Mr. Jobs's sensibilities about design.

In 2004, Mr. Jobs had to lean on this bench when he disclosed that he had had surgery to remove a cancerous tumor from his pancreas. Apple revealed the procedure in early August 2004, but a person familiar with the situation said Mr. Jobs first learned of the tumor during a routine abdominal scan nine months earlier. The board and Mr. Jobs said nothing to Apple shareholders as the Apple executive, during that time, dealt with the tumor through changes to his diet, the person said.

In June 2007, Mr. Jobs made another splash when Apple introduced the iPhone. The cellphone pushed the envelope in the mobile phone market with features that included a touch-screen interface, allowing tricks such as blowing up images by spreading a thumb and finger on the phone's surface.

Mr. Jobs was typically hands on in the creation of the iPhone. People familiar with the matter say the CEO was the one that made a decision to change the screen of the iPhone from plastic to glass after he unveiled the product at the Macworld trade show in 2007. The iPhone team scrambled to procure glass that would meet his exacting standards, so the devices could be manufactured in time for the launch, which took place just seven months later.

Despite skepticism about Apple's ability to enter an already-competitive market dominated by the likes of Research in Motion Ltd.'s Blackberry devices, Apple quickly became a force in the mobile phone market, selling 92 million iPhones as of December 2010. The product kicked into a higher gear earlier this year when Apple said it would begin selling iPhones through Verizon Wireless in addition to carrier AT&T.

Last year, Mr. Jobs also unveiled the iPad tablet computer to great fanfare, billing it as "magical and revolutionary". In the first nine months of the product's release, Apple sold 14.8 million iPads as consumers snapped them up to use as a casual multimedia device for activities such as emailing, watching video and reading. People who work closely with Mr. Jobs said the project was so important to him that he was intimately involved in its planning even while recovering from his 2009 liver transplant.

A major selling point for both the iPhone and iPad has been the App Store, which allows developers to easily make application programs that users can download for free or for a small fee; the store meanwhile has seen more than seven billion downloads as of the end of 2010.

One cloud to Mr. Jobs's reign came in 2006 when Apple also disclosed that an internal investigation had discovered that stock option grants to Apple executives between 1997 and 2002-- including to Mr. Jobs-- were improperly dated. Apple became the most high-profile technology company caught up in a broad series of options backdating scandals that helped inflate the profits executives made from their stock awards.

Apple later disclosed that Mr. Jobs helped select the favorable option dates, but denied that he did anything wrong since he didn't understand the accounting implications of his actions. Apple's investigation ended up blaming two ex-Apple executives – former general counsel Nancy Heinen and former chief financial officer Fred Anderson – for their role in the backdating. Both were later charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission. They ended up settling the charges. Mr. Jobs was never charged with any wrongdoing.

Those who knew Mr. Jobs say that one reason why he was able to keep innovating was because he didn't dwell on past accomplishments or legacy but kept looking ahead and demanded that employees do the same. Hitoshi Hokamura, a former Apple employee, recalls how an old Apple I that was displayed by the company cafeteria quietly disappeared after Mr. Jobs returned in the late 1990s.

"Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose," Mr. Jobs said in a commencement speech at Stanford University in June 2005, almost a year after he was diagnosed with cancer.

—Pui-Wing Tam, Don Clark and Jim Carlton contributed to this article.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576410753210811910.html#ixzz1ZxKHQOai

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576410753210811910.html#ixzz1ZxKCh500

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source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304447804576410753210811910.html#mjDropdown

Apple Thunderbolt Display teardown

2011-10-04T05:45:00.028+08:00

This Apple Thunderbolt Display is the first Thunderbolt display in this world. Of course it is the first one, because no one else making this, or is there anyone else? Anyway, Steve always did a good job to come out something is not new but people still think it is something out of this world, probably an extraterrestrial technology. :P
Opps... Talking too much and too far away. HAHAHA.

Okay, this Apple Thunderbolt Display is quite impressive, you can use it to charge your mac book or mac book air while using it to extend your display. So no more messy cables and plugs and hubs and whatever, which Apple always does a good job on this while other PC/smartphone makers lack of.

This display also have a sub-woofer build-in, Apple claimed that it sounds good, I haven't seen it in Apple store near to my place, will let you know once I listen to it. :D

So here is the teardown of Apple Thunderbolt Display, by the famous iFixit:

If you prefer, you can view the teardown at iFixit website by clicking this link:
Apple Thunderbolt Display Teardown

And the detail or marketing side of this Thurderbolt DISPLAY you can go to Apple website:
http://www.apple.com/displays/

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source: iFixit and Apple

Should you upgrade to iPhone 5

2011-10-02T05:33:00.014+08:00

With the rumors running around with Oct 4 is iPhone 5 day, should you upgrade to iPhone 5? Find how the fun fact about iPhone 5 and who is most likely to upgrade to iPhone 5.

If you have notice, the infograph says part1, I tried to look at part 2, but cannot find it, probably it is not out yet.

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source: picture from paidviewpoint.com

How to disable Facebook News Ticker

2011-09-30T05:31:00.009+08:00

Don't like the Facebook News Ticker? Here is a simple video to teach you how to do it. A picture worth a thousand words, a video worth a million words? Never mind, just click play on the video below.

Note: for FireFox and Chrome only.

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source: See the original author of the video(?) http://googleplus.wonderhowto.com/corkboard/hide-facebook-news-ticker-firefox-and-google-chrome-0130089/

The Google Plus Song

2011-09-29T05:46:00.008+08:00

With Google Plus open up to public, meaning everyone can register with Google Plus. If you still not on Google Plus, you no longer need someone in Google Plus to invite you. Just go to the Google Plus link and click to register.
http://plus.google.com/

Here is a song to help you to understand what Google Plus can do, although the song is not nice at all, IMHO. :P

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source: I wrote this, and video is from youtube!

[Android Game] Drop the Star

2011-09-28T05:35:00.012+08:00

See the video first:

How? Nice? You can download this Android game from this link:
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.happyangel.dropthestar

From the author:
Description:
Our cute star is afraid of the height. Use your finger to destroy the blocks, and land the star on the safe base.
You can earn points by completing levels, and use the earned points to buy powerups in the in-game store.
- 8 different worlds (120 levels, more levels will be included in the updates).
- Simple, funny, colorful, relaxing.
- Many creative, and challenging levels.
- 3 different powerups.
- 3 relaxing music tracks.
- Unique menu style.
- High resolution graphics.
- Auto-save at the end of each level.
- All saved game files are stored on your SD card. You can copy the files, and transfer them to other devices.

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source: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=17733979&posted=1#post17733979