[Not anime] Introducing the iPhone 5, now with 5 times more suffering

It doesn't want to lose to your penis in terms of length.


It doesn’t want to lose to your penis in terms of length.

Yes you’re reading it right. iPhone 5 is here (almost) and we can expect to see people trading off their ‘old’ 4GS in order to get Apple’s now expensive toy. What I deem as interesting however is, in a move that was seemingly unlike Apple, they introduced a phone with 4″ display, breaking the tradition of the 3.5″ that comes with the previous models. However instead of making the phone bigger in both width and length to accommodate this new display size, unlike Android phones, Apple choose to retain the width as the last model, resulting in a noticeable longer phone than its predecessors, and that itself resulting in people mocking the future iPhones will become even longer, in the similar way people ‘praising’ the “super phone” Nokia 3310 (though in the case of Nokia 3310 it was done in a way of giving it a credit for being a real tough phone).

Anyway I must praise Apple for being able to fit a resolution of 1136×640 into such as ‘small’ display real estate while most Android phones only manage to have ‘only’ 1024×600 on a similar display size. Well for me a pixel density of 250 to 300 dpi is enough to make the texts on such display feel like they’re on printed media. Therefore a few more pixel per inch is not really necessary but only looks more like marketing bait rather than being a really useful feature. In other words it doesn’t add anything to the phone’s functionality. However I must again praise Apple for being able to keep the price as the same as iPhone 4GS despite the improvements on this new model which includes LTE as well.

Speaking of LTE now must say Apple is no leader in technology as we’ve seen Android phones equipped with 4G/LTE/WiMax around for quite some time now, although they were the first to bring Thunderbolt to consumers from their latest MacBooks. I guess this was related to them trying to find a workaround to implement LTE as not to violate any patent. IN the Malay tradition, there was a saying “afraid of own shadow” which literally means one is afraid of being a backfired by his own wrongdoings. Apple indeed created many enemies resulted from the lawsuits they filed all these times so it is no wonder if they are worried about it biting back at them again. And by the time of writing I heard Samsung is ready to file a lawsuit against Apple for violating their LTE patents.

This iPhone 5 is great but not as groundbreaking as I would expect because from the specs and features as exposed during and after the launch, it only made me think “Meh! It’s just yet another iPhone”. In fact I found Nokia’s launching of Lumia 820 and Lumia 920 last week was far more interesting and “feels closer to my hand” than this iPhone. Now I’m waiting for Apple’s next announcement/launch related to the rumor “closer to the truth” about the iPad Mini. For this I think one could mock it as “the real oversized iPod” and if there was a 3G model one could even say “iPod 3G”. By the way I think I’ll just ignore the iPad Mini because I am actually looking forward to the launching of Microsoft Surface next month. Maybe the MS Surface won’t have a 3G/4G model at launch but I think that’s OK since it has full-sized USB ports and it’s Windows-powered so there’s a high chance that the currently available USB 3G dongles could work on it as well.

[Not anime] I don’t mind

iphone-guy



My first ever “web comic“.

Oh no, don’t get me wrong. I have no intention to rival The Oatmeal (if that’ is what you think I am doing), and I am not expecting this to be circulating into a meme either. I’m just doing this to show you my perspective as someone who used to have an iPhone, before I committed myself to Android.

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While I’m waiting for Summer 2012 Anime… (We’re recruiting!)

Picture probably unrelated but it's Christina so there should be no problem.


Picture probably unrelated but it’s Christina so there should be no problem.

Many things happened since last week. First Microsoft announced their first “in-house-made PCs” or more specifically tablets named “Microsoft Surface Pro” and “Microsoft Surface RT”. They look beautiful to me and the most important thing is they don’t look too similar to iPad. The tablets invited mixed reactions where some (including me) appreciated it while some others hate it for various reasons. For me not knowing the price, the battery life and the launch date is not a reason to hate it as I can always wait and see. Besides just announcing doesn’t hurt my pocket and my planned purchase.

In the last few days Google on the other hand announced their take on tablet business by launching the ASUS-made “Nexus 7″ which immediately made available for purchase after the Google I/O event. For me Nexus 7 is more like a competitor to the existing 7″ Android tablets like Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook rather than iPad. Alongside that they also announced another Nexus-branded product which is the “Nexus Q” streaming media player, together with the recommended premium-priced Triad bookshelf speaker. I’m not interested in that player but if I got the money I’d get the speaker for sure.

With both Microsoft and Google already have their own tablet hardware let’s not forget about another company that is new to this tablet business. Vizio, one of the major household names in the US when it comes to LCD TVs are making their own PCs that look as beautiful as Macs if not prettier. For the first time I feel Macs now have a serious competitor that even longtimers in the PC business failed to achieve that reputation. They are also making tablets but so far the focus is more on their laptop and desktop offerings. Now I wonder if they would make their way to this part of the world.

And the tech thing that happened to myself this week is I was offered a broadband speed upgrade by my ISP (TMnut) to 4Mbps. I accepted the offer but not after I trolled them good for about 10 minutes, citing their various failures like the capping in their UniFi packages. They told me so far none of their existing customers have exceeded the allocated download volume limit ever since the introduction. I told them that’s bullcrap because if the ‘higher’ product (UniFi) comes with a limit that it’s ‘lower’ counterpart (Snailmyx) doesn’t have then it means the product isn’t worth getting for.
Oh do you remember sometime last year and earlier this year where I wrote about customizing my own smartphone and tablet? Well now I have another new interest to add to the list, which is to play with the reduced-sized ARM-powered computers, now that ‘toys’ like Raspberry Pi, FXI Cotton Candy and Pandaboard are getting closer to my hand. I hope more of these ARM ‘PC’ being made so that Microsoft would reconsider their decision of not selling Windows RT (ARM version of Windows 8) as a standalone purchase, unless they don’t mind Android dominating that market too.

About anime, yeah most of Spring 2012 titles have ended this week and we’ll be watching Summer 2012 anime starting next week. This spring I enjoyed titles like Tasogare Otome x Amnesia, Sankarea, Haiyore! Nyaruko-san, Acchi Kocchi and a few others, including titles carried from winter (Aquarion EVOL). Titles like Shining Hearts and NazoKano will end this week too (the finale for those series is not available yet by the time of writing). Other than that, Mouretsu Pirates, another title carried from winter will have its finale aired by tonight and I’m going to see Chiaki-chan again (^_^)

Speaking of ‘pirates’….. for now I’m happy with me being able to watch anime almost as the same time as it was airing in Japan. Earlier this week Apple has launched iTunes music store in my country after so many years waiting. The only problem is I can’t purchase anisongs from it without registering to the Japanese iTunes music store. Of course I could always register by using the iTunes prepaid card and use a random Japanese address but it shouldn’t have been that tedious! Record labels nag about piracy but then they never make it easy to get although I’m willing to pay! Bullcrap!

By the way do you have a blog? If you do then I would like to have a link-exchange with you. If you don’t have any then I’m inviting you to become a co-blogger at my blog. Currently I have only one co-blogger and I’d like to expand that number. I don’t set any particular requirement to become my co-blogger; as long as you’re interested and passionate about it then it’s enough. You may also give it a try by becoming a guess writer first so if you’re thinking of joining my team then reply to this post and I’ll guide you to the next step. Note: you may write about things other than anime/manga/games.

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[Not anime] A certain mobile device with the ’7′ moniker but doesn’t come with Windows Phone 7

A device with the '7' moniker but powered by Android "Jelly Bean". I am jelly.


With most of spring anime have finished airing and while waiting for the next summer anime title to start airing, I decided to write about this new gadget that is just revealed yesterday. Before I go into details about that new high-tech toy I must say I’m not into the summer anime “Kingdom” which already had its 4th episode aired by the time of writing (the character design is just not my type). Back into the gadget, it is none other but the freshly baked “Googlet” (Google tablet) named Google Nexus 7.

A device with the ’7′ moniker but powered by Android “Jelly Bean”. I am jelly.

Made by ASUS, this is tablet is beautiful in terms of looks and build quality and kudos to ASUS for keeping up their reputation with the release of this new toy. Sporting a 7″  (thus the “7″ moniker) 1280×800 Corning glass display, 10hrs of web browsing/e-reading, powered by a quad-core Tegra 3 CPU and pre-loaded with Android 4.1 “Jelly Bean”, this is perhaps the most powerful 7″ tablet so far. However the device is quite a “crippled-down” one if it were to be compared with the offerings from Samsung and the likes.

The first thing I’d look for in a tablet is the availability of a microSD card slot, which this tablet has none but to only rely on its internal storage (8 or 16 GB available). That much is not bad but I could customize it by myself I would make it with 4 GB internal memory plus 32 GB expandable via microSD card. After all with it supporting memory card it could virtually support unlimited storage capacity because the only limit would be how many memory card you could carry at one time.

Another thing that is missing is there is no 3G/4G version available which is quite a turn off factor for me though they might have not considered it to keep the price down ($199 for 8 GB version). Other than that there’s no back-facing camera present, though it wasn’t a big deal to me but then with the announcement of Microsoft Surface more than a week ago I changed my mind a bit. There are more than one way to use a back-facing camera on a tablet despite that thing is too huge to be a real picture snapper.

For example Microsoft have mentioned about how the back-facing camera would be useful in a meeting where you could even record the meeting itself if you wanted to. I on the other hand imagined that if I were an interviewer recruiting new staff for my company I could use it to record the footage of the interview itself. For now I think I want Microsoft Surface better but considering that this is a reference design for Android Jelly Bean tablet I think I could ignore all of its shortcomings.

The so-called “the world’s first social streaming media player” that looks beautiful but can’t do much by itself.

At the same time Google launched their first streaming media player named Nexus Q that is just yet another streaming player but with a spherical shape and integrated with Google Music (as one would expect). By my definition it is nowhere close enough to be called a media player because it has no control and no display to know what’s playing. The only way you could control it is via your Android phone/tablet as it has no playback control and the only thing you could control is power on/off and the volume.

Ports for “banana” audio plugs, network, optical S/PDIF, micro HDMI, micro USB, you name it.

Other than the audio/network/power related ports at the back of the player unit I’m not sure what exactly the micro USB port is for. I sure hope that it means there’s a way to control this device from a PC interface because although I have an Android phone it doesn’t mean that I’m happy with that as the only way to interface with it. Well for its design/shape there’s no way to put a display on it though because hey who’d want a spherical display even for a small computer like this?

Yes it is a computer because you know what, it is powered by Android 4.0 (ICS) and comes with 16GB internal storage (priced at $299). For me the only acceptable reason of it using Android is to allow it to interface with Google Music, Google TV and Youtube but you can’t play Angry Birds on it. If only it was designed to come with a dock so that it could connect to a touchscreen display and act as an Android desktop (now that would be cool).

Google recommended the premium-priced Triad bookshelf speaker for this baby, meaning that the speaker they recommended is pricier than the player itself (or as much as the player + 1 Android device to control it). Another accessory they recommended is the audio cable with the “banana” plugs with length tailored to fit the player’s unique shape. All are available from Google Play store but as the time of writing it is only available in the US (typical ‘evil’ Google).

So will I get the player too? Even if I have money I don’t think I would buy it or any “streaming player” at that because I can’t imagine a situation where I would need it. Just like games, audio is also pretty much a personal experience to me and I am not compelled to share let alone stream my stuff even if it means sharing with friends and family. Well I’m able to say this because my preferences are always different from nearly everybody I know so I’ve got used to it.

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[Not anime] The surface of the surface (This month in tech)

surface_05


If I were to list down the hottest tech trend in June I’d spontaneously say “Microsoft Surface and Vizio PC”. Yes, both companies that are known for something else has just ventured into a business a bit different from what they used to do before. Microsoft known with their software (mainly Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Office) ‘upgraded’ their hardware business by making their own computers while Vizio, know for their LCd TVs are making computers as well.

Microsoft is no stranger when it comes to making their own hardware but all these times it was about making computer peripherals and not a full-fledged PC itself. I have nothing against it because, say what you want but the Surface is beautiful to my eyes, it didn’t fool me into thinking of it as an iPad, and more importantly I’m ready for the Metro UI no matter how suck you think it is. I even used Metro UI on Android phone thanks to some launcher apps for bringing it to Android users.

According to Microsoft, they’re aren’t really happy with some of their partners (OEM PC makers) included crapware in their products which resulting in “bad Windows experience” to the end users. I’m not sure whether this was true or sincere but I could think that Microsoft has always had to allow it or otherwise Windows won’t sell. The truth is Windows sales come mostly from OEM so it’s understandable if Microsoft always tried to keep a good relationship with OEMS all these times.

Now that they are making their own computers Microsoft can have full control in delivering the “Windows experience” to the users as what they intended it to be. With that said they would be facing Apple as another company that is senior in tight OS-hardware integration, something that Apple has done extremely well. Now if only Microsoft could give it a right price and at the same time not locking out DIY-ers I’m pretty sure these Surface tablets would take the world by storm.

So how about Vizio? I must say for the first time in my life that I feel a non-Apple PC maker sporting a PC design comparable to the beauty of Macs, if not better (I personally think they’re WAY better than the half-assed efforts shown by Dell Adamo and the likes back then). Too bad by the time of writing the page for computer in Vizio’s website was down (and I don’t want to use images found outside of their website) so there’s no sample image to be found here.

Before I end this I’d like to announce that Google+, the social network I primarily use now will be having its first anniversary which is just around the corner. I can’t remember the exact date (despite being one of the first few earlier adopters), and despite how awesome it is if compared to Facebook, I must admit that it is still a ****ed-up social network in many aspects. It’s not a failure but if they keep up with their stupid censorship policy then I wouldn’t mind if they’re doomed to fail either.

Dear Google, make this your doodle on G+’s anniversary. Thank you.

By the way sorry for 2 weeks straight without Hyouka review. I’ve explained why I didn’t write one last week but for this week’s episode, despite it was a good watch I found that there wasn’t any scene worth taking snapshots (I’ve always maintained that I need awesome snapshots to help in my reviews). I’m no fan of that smaller-eyed senpai and I’m not a fan of Chitandawg either so I had to give it a pass but I promise I’ll write a review again provided that the next episode has awesome scenes.

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[Not really anime] Of new theme, seriousness and moe (Sengoku Collection ep. 11)

[FFFpeeps] Sengoku Collection - 11 [10bit][249B3D50].mkv_snapshot_11.57_[2012.06.15_18.15.31]


With the new WordPress version, the time has come for this blog to have a new theme as well. Actually this has been planned since last year but I always have the trouble looking for the fully customizable theme. This time I’ll just use the modified version of “The Akiba – Danny Choo” theme which is already undergone 50% of the modification process.

Of course my greatest dream for blogging is to develop my own blog platform but with my limited programming skills that is impossible. WordPress is good but it is still quite restrictive in doing things right out of the box for me. The only reason I still using it is it is the best standalone blogging platform so far as it is backed by the largest plugins and themes developer community.

I must say most of the so-called “customizable WordPress themes” out there are deceiving or misleading in their claims and descriptions, like saying everything was customizable although most of the times it only applies to header and background. Another thing that made it sounds misleading is most of the time customizations are only available via CSS editing (or even template files editing) which is not what most people would expect. Being customizable should be having drag-drop element support, adjustable height-width and not relying to FTP to replace theme-related images.

Currently I’m still trying to develop my own WordPress theme but by the time I  finished I think the Mars would already be colonized.

There’s no new anime for me to watch today except for Sengoku Collection ep. 11. The last time I wrote a review for this show was for episode 04 but that doesn’t mean I have lost interest. In fact I still manage to watch it on time, and the real reason for no review is that I planned for a series summary once this show finishes.

The latest episode carries the similar serious plot to episode 04 but lighter and the only bloodshed was fake blood. I don’t mind with the seriousness and I could I say I love it like that as it feels fresh and does not restrictive in plot progress. Too bad though not everybody are able to accept it that way just because it was beyond their expectation of moe and stuff.

I’m always fine with moe but it doesn’t mean I would like to see everything moe. If you ask me what is moe I’d say it’s similar to a feeling of you seeing babies or kittens. In my place we have something called ‘geram’ which is quite similar to moe (and in this state I’m living in we have another situation called ‘rindok’ which is also similar but the usage is a bit different from ‘geram’).

For me Sengoku Collection is already cute enough even with one or two serious episodes in between. Honestly the seriousness doesn’t affect how much I enjoyed the series either, it even made me want to see more. Now if only haters could stop hating and complaining about it.

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[Not Anime] Welcoming WordPress 3.4


WordPress 3.4 has just released today and this is my second post since the update, or the first ‘non-Project360′ post under the latest version of WordPress. I’ve been anticipating this update because it introduces a few noteworthy features that I think I’m going to use a lot. In this post I’ll mention two of them, which is the HTML support in image caption (notice the link in the caption above) and better theme customization called “Live Preview” that I’m going to explain in details.

The above image shows the snapshot of image upload dialog in the post-writing end. With this users will not only be able to add links to caption (instead of linking the image only as in the previous versions) but also manipulating the caption using any supported HTML tags. I’m not sure how many tags are supported but for now I only need the links to work.

Then we have the “Live Theme Preview”, a new kind of built-in theme customization that would enable the users to test-drive the customizations before committing any changes. Of course it’s nowhere near the Blogger’s (Blogspot) superior WYSIWYG theme editor but according to WordPress team they’re heading there. I’m waiting for the day I no longer need to peek into the template files and the style.css anymore.

So that’s more less made today’s non-Project360 post. You’re asking where’s Medaka Box ep. 11 review? Sorry but I’ll combine it with the next episode because I found the episode 11 less interesting and there wasn’t any moment worth taking a snapshot at all. Sorry to disappoint.

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[Not Anime] An open letter to TMnet – Part 2


TM and UniFi official logo.

TM and UniFi official logo. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A couple of weeks ago I have written an “open letter” to TMnet concerning their datacap-infested UniFi broadband packages. The ‘letter’ can still be read here. It was a letter written openly so I was expecting an open answer too but too bad that was not the case.

They have tried to contact me using twitter instead of leaving comments in my blog. Not only that, they contacted me through the “wrong” twitter account. It’s not really wrong actually but I have 3 twitter accounts, one I use as my main account (mahou_shounen) while the other 2 act as news aggregator, and they replied to one of these 2.

Even creepier I have never ‘advertised’ these 2 twitter accounts publicly but they were convinced that one of them is mine and chose to contact me there. Well I used the name Halfey Halphstein in one of those accounts though so maybe that is why they’re convinced. However for them to assume that I have twitter account is another problem.

The problem is what if I don’t have any twitter account? I even put a contact form in my blog here but they didn’t use that? (whether they were unaware of it or just didn’t try hard enough, I don’t know). Is this supposed to be the ISP I have to trust?

Oh yeah if you’re wondering what kind of response I got in that twitter account (followhalfey), it was 2 mentions which you can see below:

 

 

So one more time, dear TMnet, I posted an open letter so why not answer it openly as well? Don’t give me craps like “corporate secrets” or something like that, I won’t buy it. There has to be a transparency when it comes to delivering quality services to customers.

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[Not anime] Samsung Galaxy SIII, its rivals and the problems


A couple of months has passed since the death my Androphone. If you’ve followed my blog (and my G+) you’ll notice that I’ve planned to get a new phone to replace my dying LG Optimus One since last year (and that plan kept being postponed until today, even after the phone died). Well there were financial constraint and other problems that hindered me from executing the plan but that will most likely change in the near future.

Samsung Galaxy SIII

Now I have 3 newer candidates for my next Androphone (in release date order) namely SONY XPERIA S, HTC one X and the latest one being Samsung Galaxy SIII. They are all very similar, at least in terms of hardware and price (note that XPERIA S is the only one with dual-core CPU as opposed to quad-core CPU used by the other 2). All are sporting a display larger than 4″ (which is already a trend among high-end Androphone). However when it comes to software dept XPERIA S seems to fall behind for still using Gingerbread release of Android. Well it was the earliest one released among those 3 but considering that SONY lately having the reputation of being the fastest to roll out ICS update to the XPERIA series it would be just a matter of time until the update reaches XPERIA S too.

HTC One X

Android phone makers keep pushing larger display size is already hateable to me. Now they’re starting to push (more like “to force”) the adoption of micro-SIM. The hell??!! Micro-SIM doesn’t improve much to the phone size, let alone saving significant space for other components. What’s next? NanoSD card? If this is considered as “innovation”, it’s one of a few smartphone “innovations” that I hate.

SONY XPERIA S

It looks like there’s no way for those Android phone makers to revert back to using sub 4″ display size because for them that would be like going backward. In other words my dream of having the “Awesomephone” will never be a reality. Even those 3 aren’t close enough. I’m not asking for the “uber perfect” phone, I just want a phone with only features that I want and have no feature that I don’t need. Is it too hard to do just that? I do understand the need to make the phone appealing to users but the way Android phone makers pushing unnecessary stuff like larger display and adoption of micro-SIM makes me sad.

Actually I’m not blaming Android phone makers for all these. If anything Apple is partly responsible too for the larger-display-craze. I mean if it’s not because of Apple keep suing them I’m pretty sure we might not be seeing some like thing for a little longer. Whatever it is I have no choice but to get one of these. I’m not going for another ‘nightmare’ with iPhone. These newer Androids are ‘nightmares’ too but they’re the better nightmare than iPhone.

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[Interpost] The new iFad


Apple on Wednesday have revealed ‘half’ of the stories about what they call “the new iPad” (instead of “iPad 3″). However what’s so great about “the new iPad” anyway? Without expandable storage the tablet ain’t going to be a post-Mac (sorry, not post-PC) device. Sure we have cloud storage now but computing isn’t supposed to be an online experience alone. I believe we have to be able to get access to our files regardless an internet connection is present or not. After all we’re still far away from  a super reliable and free internet. Not to mention with all those efforts to censor our not-so-free internet that we still need to rely on.

With the last 2 generations of iPads I always thought “there are still room for improvements” yet the only thing I see improved are stuff that I don’t need. Apple still hate ports, slots and buttons.

“The new iPad” is not all bad. However I’ve never liked Apple’s closed ecosystem to begin with. Although there’s a thin possibility I’d need to jailbreak the iGadget, chances are there are even a lot more things I found too restrictive. For example I don’t see any reason in not allowing drag&drop file transfer and force users to use the iTunes.

I remember having earlier generations of mp3 Walkman where although drag&drop was possible for music files, those files weren’t playable unless you were using the SonicStage software to transfer them. In the end SONY stopped using that following user complaints and chose the conventional-but-works drag&drop. Now I can’t understand why Apple would like to force iGadget owners to use it as if they haven’t had enough control on the ecosystem. I found that there’s no excuse for not to allow drag&drop file transfer because it’s not that it’s not technically impossible. It’s also the most widely adopted method of transferring files to mobile devices so this just makes Apple look like some arrogant companies.

Now do you think you should or should not get it? I’ve set a few guides here and decide by yourself.

Reasons why you should get it:

  • You have ridiculous amount of money to spend and nothing to regret about it later.
  • You naturally love Apple and not realizing you’re being used all the time.
  • You’re happy to be in a jail-less jail.
  • You’re bored of your ‘old’ iPad 2 already, or rather the arrival of “the new iPad” made you think that you no longer need your ‘old’ iPad 2.
  • You’re clearly an Apple loyalist no matter how Apple ignore you.

Reasons why you should avoid it:

  • You know Apple is being dick all this time.
  • Apple hates you and your money.
  • You think Android tablet is still a better option despite having lower display resolution (who needs retina display anyway?).
  • Apple were deceptive in telling people that “the new iPad” is a quad-core device although the truth is only the graphics chip is quad-core (at least Android tablets are more honest about their offerings).
  • You believe that just because it’s Apple doesn’t mean it’s good.
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