Beware of dishonest cheap power bank claimed to have high mAh capacity

One of the key issue of mobile phones, particularly smartphones, is that they are power hungry causing their battery doesn't last long. As a result, mobile power bank comes into the market as portable external power source to supplement the internal battery of the mobile phone or mobile device.

While most of the modern mobile devices nowadays are using Li-Polymer battery (鋰聚合物電池) as their power source, a lot of mobile power banks are using the cylindrical or prismatic Li-Ion battery (鋰離子電池).

The major problem or hazard of Li-Ion battery and Li-Polymer battery is that, they will overheat when charged for long time. There is an overcharge prevention IC on its circuit board to cut off the charging when the battery is fully charged. If the IC is malfunctioned, the battery might caught fire or explode when overcharged. (Note: the original article mentioned Li-Polymer will not explode due to overcharge, which I think is not true.)

Another disadvantage of Li-Ion battery is their lifespan will greatly reduced if they are operating in high temperature of 45°C and above. Li-Polymer battery, on the other hand, has higher endurance to high temperature, and can still operate over 4 hours in 85°C without much problem.

Nowadays, you can find a lot of power banks claimed to have charge capacity as high as 12000mAh, 18000mAh, 20000mAh, or even higher, selling at the Internet stores. If they are unbranded and selling at a very cheap price, you need to be alerted before placing your order.

The shorter power bank in the picture above consists of 4 Li-Ion 18650 batteries, while the longer one consists of 6 Li-Ion 18650 batteries. The size of the cylindrical Li-Ion battery in used is 18.25x65mm, and their manufacturing part number is normally in the form of XXX18650-XX.

The quality of Li-Ion battery differs.

Branded made-in-Japan (eg. Sanyo, Panasonic) one normally has capacity of at least 3100mAh, and comes with 1 year warranty. They have higher price too and won't be chosen to make the cheap power bank selling in the Internet stores.

Branded made-in-Korea (eg. Samsung) one is quite reliable too. Part number could be ICR18650-30A, ICR18650-28A, ICR18650-26F, ICR18650-26D, ICR18650-24E, ICR18650-24F, ICE18650-22F, etc. 30F means capacity is 3000mAh, 22F means capacity is 2200mAh, and so on.

Samsung OEM made-in-China Li-Ion battery has 4 grades. The highest A01 grade normally reserved for Samsung own use, while A02, A03 and A04 are made available for customers. Part number could be ICR18650-20, ICR18650-22, ICR18650-24, ICR18650-26, etc. If a power bank claimed to use Samsung batteries, the batteries inside are probably the A02~A04 type.

Certain unbranded made-in-china battery were found to have only 1600-1800mAh but also put in the 18650 code and claimed to have 3000mAh. The cheap power banks probably are using this kind of Li-Ion battery.

For the power bank with 12000mAh capacity above, its capacity is calculated like this:

3000mAh x 4 = 12000mAh

However, if the real capacity of the batteries inside is only 2200mAh, you can only get 2200mAh x 4 = 8800mAh.

For the power bank with 18000mAh capacity above, its capacity is calculated like this:

3000mAh x 6 = 18000mAh

However, if the real capacity of the batteries inside is only 2200mAh, you can only get 2200mAh x 6 = 13200mAh.

Beside the possible short-change in real capacity, since the size of the Li-Ion batteries are the same, some dishonest power bank might even use recycled batteries!

 

The picture above is said to be taken from a newly purchased cheap power bank, opened up for inspection. Note that the colour of the 6 Li-Ion batteries are all different, which is very unlikely if they are manufactured from the same batch.

 



Also note that the soldering point is rusted and shows sign of multiple re-soldering. There is also leftover glue on the surface.

Worse still, what if the cheap dishonest power bank does not have a properly functioning overcharge / over-discharge circuit?

And even more ridiculous case, you probably get only a single Li-Ion battery with 2 bags of sand.

So, better be cautious when you buy power bank either from Internet or shop, especially when the product is unbranded and the price is cheap.

Note: The above article is excerpted and translated from its original source posted in Chinese by a Taiwanese called 曾家辉 in his Facebook page. The photos above are taken from his original article.

Malaysia Interbank GIRO money transfer cost to reduce to 10 sen, cheque will be charged processing fee on top of stamp duty

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) plans to encourage paperless electronic money transfer by greatly reduce the charge of Interbank GIRO (IBG) money transfer with Internet banking or mobile banking, and at the same time greatly increase the cost of cheque transaction by charging processing fee on top of the existing stamp duty of each cheque issued out by the consumer.

Effective 2 May 2013, bank charge for IBG transaction performed online via internet banking or mobile banking will be reduced to RM0.10 only, compared to the current rate of between RM1-RM4.

On the other hand, from April 2014 onwards, the a processing fee of RM0.50 per cheque transaction will be charged, on top of the existing RM0.15 stamp duty, making the transaction per cheque to cost RM0.65. The processing fee will gradually increase to the level of RM3 in the future.

Note that before 2010, outstation cheques were charged RM0.50 by the bank for clearing. That charge was waived since the implementation of Cheque Truncation and Cheque Conversion System (CTCS) in Malaysia. Now it seems that the RM0.50 cost will be added back in the form of processing fee, and this time, is regardless the cheque is local or outstation.

It is a good news for online banking users to be able to transfer money electronically at a much lower cost in the near future.

However, as far as we know, transferring of money via online banking is capped to RM5,000 per day or so. Unless the banks revise this limit, it will bring inconvenient to us. In certain occasions, writing cheque is still the more preferred way, especially when the amount of money is large, such as buying a car, buying a house, paying lawyer fee, etc.

It is also a more common practice for companies to make payment in cheques.

I hope that BNM will really think through carefully before enforcing the "discouraging mechanism" of using cheque in order to get people to use electronic money transfer.

DAYANG (5141) share price hit new historical high again

Dayang Enterprise Holdings Bhd (DAYANG, 5141), an oil & gas company specilized in offshore topside maintenance services (TMS), offshore hook-up and comissioning (HUC) services, etc. is considered to be one of the largest offshore platform services providers in Malaysia.

Just like most other East Malaysia companies listed in KLSE, most of the time DAYANG remained undetected from the radar screen of most investors. It gained attention since Q4 2012, especially after announcing a superb quarterly report on 19 November 2012 with single quarter EPS of 7.52 sen, and its share price hitting historical record one after another from then onwards.

DAYANG share price hit RM2.72 on 21 January 2013 with high volume of 5.07 million shares transacted. After that, its share price dropped gradually to as low as RM2.34 on 25 February 2013, probably due to the sell down from Lembaga Tabung Haji.

It announced a poorer quarterly result on 26 February 2013 with lower revenue, but net profit is not affected too badly due to higher margin. A 5 sen tax-exempt dividend was announced, going to ex on 15 March 2013. Its share price moved up again, testing the previous high of RM2.72 on 3 March and 6 March 2013. Then, its price corrected to RM2.6x before regained momentum and hit its new record high of RM2.98 today morning and closed at RM2.85 at high volume of 6.58 million shares transacted.

Its intraday chart for 12 March 2013 is as below:

DAYANG is an associate company of Naim Holdings Bhd (NAIM, 5073) and the financial performance of NAIM is currently pretty much depends on its 33.6% holdings of DAYANG. NAIM share price rose 10 sen from RM2.23 to RM2.33 today (12 March 2013).

DAYANG is financially healthy with strong cash position  of about RM300 million. It recently acquired about 26.1% shares of its new associate company Perdana Petroleum Bhd (PERDANA, 7108). PERDANA and PERDANA-WA prices also rose in tandem with DAYANG and NAIM today (12 March 2013).

PERDANA was not doing well financially before DAYANG's acquisition, and is currently on its way making a turnaround. Recently, it disposed 7 old vessels with average age of approximately 30 years to PT Ninda Pratama Vriesindo from Indonesia, for a total consideration of US$3.45m. This move is expected to save about RM10-12 million annually in maintenance cost for PERDANA, and is viewed as an important move in its financial restructuring exercise.

DAYANG is teaming up with PERDANA to bid for a contract potentially worth RM3 billion from Shell, involving the Pan Malaysia Umbrella HUC project. Both DAYANG and Petra Energy Bhd (PENERGY, 5133) are shortlisted and the contract is predicted to be announced soon. Interestingly, PENERGY is an associate company of PERDANA, as PERDANA holds about 29.6% shares in PENERGY.

DAYANG has outstanding contracts worth some RM1.2 billion that could keep it busy until 2016.

The oil and gas activities in Malaysia is very active now. In 2012, Petronas has made  22 domestic discoveries, signed 9 Production Sharing Contract (PSC) agreements, awarded more contracts for marginal field Risk Service Contract (RSC), etc.

Today (12 March 2013), Lundin Petroleum, a Swedish-based independent oil and gas explorer, announced that it found more oil trapped in sand offshore Pahang, Malaysia after drilling in Block PM308A, as an extension to its discovery of oil sands in the same area in 2011.

Malaysia's deepwater reserves potential is estimated to be 10 billion barrels of oil equivalent (BBOE), and only 3 BBOE have been discovered so far, leaving  another 7 BBOE yet to be discovered.

All these new oil and gas development in the region are expected to bring benefit and money to the Malaysian O&G companies. This is the catalyst that will bring analysts' attention to O&G counters in KLSE.

DAYANG is currently covered by HwangDBS, OSK, Public Bank, HLG, RHB, BIMB, etc. All are making "buy" call. HwangDBS and HLG both set its target price to RM3.36 as of today.

Disclaimer: This article is intended for sharing of point of view only. It is not an advice or recommendation to buy or sell any of the mentioned stock counters. You should do your own homework before trading in Bursa Malaysia.

Microsoft Office 2013 traditional suite (retail box) no longer allow installation in more than 1 PC

Microsoft has just launched their Office 2013 suite, which is generally available in 2 different formats:

• the cloud-based Office 365 chargeable in yearly subscription basis, one subscription entitled to installation in 5 devices regardless PC, laptop, tablet or Mac.
• the traditional Office 2013 as Full Packaged Product (FPP - retail box) or Electronic Software Delivery (ESD - Internet download), paid once in a life time for the license.

The previous version of MS Office 2010 FPP products allow installation in multiple computers:

• MS Office Home and Student 2010 - up to 3 computers within the same household
• MS Office Home and Business 2010 - 1 computer and 1 laptop (mobile device) used by the same user
• MS Office Professional 2010 - 1 computer and 1 laptop (mobile device) used by the same user 

However, the new MS Office 2013, regardless Office Home and Student 2013, Office Home and Business 2013 or Office Professional 2013, is only licensed for 1 user and 1 computer only.

Beside this, the previous license agreement for MS Office 2010 retail products is transferable from one computer to another. You can uninstall the legitimate copy of MS Office 2010 from one computer, and use its license key to install and activate a new copy of MS Office 2010 in another computer, not more than one time every 90 days. You can also make a one-time transfer of ownership of the software and license to another user (i.e. sell or give it to another person).

The new MS Office 2013 was initially non-transferable, meaning once it is installed and activated in one computer, no other computer can use the same license, regardless the original is uninstalled or scrapped or not. This include situation when you want to shift from old or damaged computer to a new computer.

Anyhow, due to numerous protest by the users, there is news that Microsoft has just changed their policy to also allow MS Office 2013 to be transferable now.

Charging battery over the air - wireless charging (a.k.a. inductive charging)

Remember that it was just a few years back when the industry players of devices carrying a rechargeable battery (e.g. mobile phone, bluetooth headset, GPS, digital camera, digital camcorder, digital voice recorder, ... etc.) unified their charging interface to use USB or mini-USB or micro-USB, so that we no longer need to carry charging adapter and charging cable for each and every of the devices, as they can now share a common charging adapter and common USB charging cable.

That move has also made possible for car or furniture to provide USB port featuring charging capability to our mobile devices, and the invention of portable power bank.

What's next?

I think the next move for the industry players is to do away the charging cable and embrace the wireless charging (a.k.a. inductive charging) technology.

Wireless charging involves transmission of power contactlessly (over the air) from the charging base station (transmitter) to the receiver using electromagnetic field. In fact, this charging technology has been used in Oral-B rechargeable toothbrush since the early 90s.

Nowadays, there are already several mobile phones such as Nokia Lumia 820/920, Google Nexus 4 and HTC Droid DNA for Verizon support wireless charging with the Qi standard, and there is rumour for the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S IV to join the bandwagon too.

Imagine what will happen to our live in the near future when the wireless charging technology is more widespread:

• The home theatre system surround speakers can be truly wireless, without the need of power cable.
• The iRobot or other similar robotic cleaners can be recharged over the air and need to returning to its base station when battery power is low.
• Workstation or table top can be the charging station for our mobile devices (including laptop). When we put our mobile devices on top, they are automatically recharged.
• Restaurant, hotel and other places can offer "hotspot" charging service in the same way they are offering Wifi service now.
• Hybrid or electrical car can be charged when parked at the garage or parking area with the charging base station on the floor.

And possibly, the following scenario could happen in the future too:

• When one mobile device (such as a phone) is having low power, it can borrow the power from another mobile device (such as another phone, or a GPS, or a "wireless powerbank") by wireless transmission.
• More home appliance become wireless (kettle, blender, TV, ...) and the amount of  power socket needed in our house/office/building can be substantially reduced.

HTC One (M7) Android smartphone launched

HTC just launched a new Android smartphone in London just now. It will be made available to the market from 15 March 2013 onwards.

This widely anticipated HTC One (a.k.a. M7) features the following:

• All aluminium body frame, zero gap construction
• Platform: Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) with HTC Sense 5
• Size: 137.4 x 68.2 x 9.3mm
• Weight: 143 gram
• Display: 4.7 inch, Full HD 1080p (1920x1080), 468 ppi, Super LCD 3
• CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 600, quad-core 1.7 GHz
• RAM: 2GB DDR2
• Storage: 32/64GB internal
• Network: HSPA, WCDMA, GSM, GPRS, EDGE
• NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, DLNA
• Infrared remote control to home appliances (TV, DVD player, etc.)
• micro-USB 2.0 (5-pin) port with mobile high-definition video link (MHL) for USB or HDMI connection
• Dual front facing speakers with integrated amplifiers
• Beats Audio
• HDR microphone
• Sense Voice
• HTC Ultrapixel camera with dedicated HTC ImageChip 2, 2.0 micrometer pixel, F2.0 aperature, 28 mm lens, 1/3' sensor, Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) and Smart Flash
• Front Camera: 2.1 MP, 88⁰ wide angle lens with HDR capability
• 1080p Full HD video recording for both front and back cameras
• HDR Video
• GPS: Internal GPS antenna + GLONASS, Digital compass
• Sensors: Gyro sensor, Accelerometer, Proximity sensor, Ambient light sensor
• SIM card type: MicroSIM
• Battery: 2,300 mAh Li-Polymer
• HTC Zoe, HTC BoomSound, HTC BlinkFeed, HTC Sense TV

It seems that this HTC phone won't support for microSD external storage and LTE network. The battery is also non-removable.

Watch the HTC One commercial below:

Will HTC make a turn back and snatch back its market share lost to Samsung Galaxy series of smartphone with this new Android smartphone? Time will tell...

CNY red packet (ang pow) money in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China

TNS has conducted a study in January 2013, covering 5000 people over the age of 20 in Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China, about their Chinese New Year planning and spending to celebrate the festival.

Among the questions asked in the study, there are 2 questions related to red packet (a.k.a. ang pow) money:

• Average amount of red packet you give out to each individual during Chinese New Year
• What is the total amount of red packet money you allocate for CNY each year?

And the result for Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and China in their respective local currency is as below:

Converted to US dollar, the result for comparison is as below:

It seems that Taiwanese allocates the most red packet amount for each of their family members, while Hong Kong people are pretty generous in red packet given to their relatives, friends, colleagues and employees.

To see the full result of the said TNS study, you need to have Adobe Flash Player installed and:

• Click here for Singapore
• Click here for Malaysia
• Click here for Hong Kong
• Click here for Taiwan
• Click here for China

Note: I faced problem opening the page in Internet Explorer 9, but no problem with Google Chrome,  Firefox and Opera.

EPF declared 6.15% dividend for 2012

Few hours ago, the Employees Provident Fund (EPF, a.k.a. KWSP) has just declared the dividend rate for financial year 2012 to be 6.15%, which is 0.15% higher than the 6.00% dividend declared for 2012 (last year).

This is the highest dividend rate declared by EPF over the past 10 years.

If you have already registered as an EPF i-Akaun member to access your EPF account detail with their online service, you can login to your online account now and check the actual amount of dividend in RM added to your EPF account by viewing your 2012 online statement.

With this dividend rate, it seems that those who have withdrawn their EPF Account II savings to reduce their housing loan during 2012 might be regreted to do so, as the effective mortgage rate is generally lower than 6.15% in 2012, due to a lower housing loan financing rate along the year (BLR-2.4% = 6.6%-2.4% = 4.2%).

If you have withdrawn your EPF Account I savings for investment in unit trust or fund, your fund manager has outperformed EPF if your 2012 ROI in the fund is greater than 6.15%. Otherwise, you might want to meet up with your unit trust agent or fund manager to find out what's wrong.

In 2012, EPF has put the highest proportion of its investment portfolio into the equities (share) market, forming 38.77% of the portfolio.

The EPF 2012 investment return is reported as below:



 

Therefore, EPF's return of investment (ROI) for year 2012 is 31,024.94/469,035.43 = 6.6146%. Among them, the EPF's equities ROI for year 2012 is 13,912.54/162,089.56 = 8.5832%. However, in their announcement, EPF says their equities ROI is 10.06% instead.

The KLCI at 30 December 2011 (Friday) closed at 1,530.73 with  volume of 1.329 billion and value traded at 1.528 billion. The KLCI at 31 December 2012 (Monday) closed at 1,688.95 with volume of 0.835 billion and value traded at 1.314 billion.

Therefore, the ROI of KLCI in 2012 is (1,688.95-1,530.73)/1,530.73 = 10.3362%

This means that the ROI of EPF in equities portion is lower than the ROI of KLCI!

Click here to read the official announcement from EPF, and the investment structure of EPF in 2012, etc.

Source of the chart and tables above are from EPF website:

• Chart for historical dividend rate
• Tables for 2012 and 2011 investment proportion and return

Erroneous device driver update is harmful to your computer

Today, I installed an optional Windows 7 update called "NextWindow - Input - NextWindow Voltron Touch Screen" found in the Windows Update listing. This update is related to my Dell SX2210T touch screen LCD monitor.

After the update, I noticed there was unusual CPU activity causing its temperature shot up to over 70 degree Celcius. All the 4 CPU cores were in high usage.

I checked it up with Task Manager and found out the culprit was a process called TouchScreenTools.exe.

As the CPU usage continuously remained high and the CPU temperature also stayed at high level, I decided to undo this problemistic Windows update.

I opened the Device Manager by right clicking on Computer in the Start Menu and select Properties to bring out the Control Panel, and click on Device Manager in the left menu.

In the Device Manager, I managed to find "NextWindow Voltron Touch Screen" inside Human Interface Devices.

Right click on it and select Properties will bring out its Properties window. There is a "Roll Back Driver" button inside the Driver tab.

After clicking the "Roll Back Driver" button, there is a confirmation window, click "Yes" and restart Windows will roll back the driver to its previously installed version.

After the driver roll back, the CPU is now back to normal, with temperature back to below 50 degree Celcius.

In order to prevent future update of this erroneous driver, I went to Windows Update, right click on "NextWindow - Input - NextWindow Voltron Touch Screen" and hide it out.

If you also have a Dell SX2210T touch screen monitor and see this optional Windows update, remember not to select it. You might also want to hide it out from the Windows update listing.

Moon+ Reader Pro for Android is giving 50% discount

Moon+ Reader is a popular e-book reader app for Android which is feature-rich and supports a lot of e-book format including txt, html, epub, pdf, mobi, umd, fb2, chm, cbr, cbz, rar, zip and OPDS.

Recently, a compliant from a Russian online library LitRes to Google had caused Moon+ Reader (both free and Pro version) being removed from Google Play Store, just because Moon+ Reader supports the Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) Catalog format that is also used by certain pirate online libraries.

Anyhow, Moon+ Reader appealed to Google and finally relisted on Google Play Store. To celebrate this recovery to Google Play Store, it is now offering a 50% discount to its Pro version (selling price reduced from US$4.99 to US$2.50) from now onwards until end of February 2013.

I have been using Moon+ Reader free for quite some times. To show my support to them, I have made a purchase to Moon+ Reader Pro at this discounted price.

If you are looking for a good e-book reader for your Android smartphone or tablet, I would recommend you to try out Moon+ Reader free. If you like it, you can purchase the ad-free and feature richer Moon+ Reader Pro before this 50% discount offer expire.

How to put tick and cross in MS Excel

While working with MS Excel, sometimes you might want to mark a cell with a tick or cross. You can do that with either of these 2 fonts: Webdings and Wingdings 2.

Set the font of the cell(s) to Webdings, you can put a tick by typing the character "a", and putting a cross by typing the character "r".

Alternatively, set the font of the cell(s) to Wingdings 2, you  put a tick by typing the character "P", and putting a cross by typing the character "O".

You might want to share this trick with your friends, classmates or colleagues.

The innovative All-New Honda Civic web commercial

In a recent newspaper advertisement of Honda Civic I found this interesting website: http://www.allnewcivic.com.my/

It seems that the website has been around for a few months. It hosts a web commercial short movie of the 9th generation of Honda Civic launched in year 2012.

What caught my attention is that, before the movie is played, the website asked for a photo (either taken from webcam directly, or from file upload) and some basic personal info (name, age, gender, location, etc.).

It actually casts the photo and personal info into the commercial movie played thereafter. You can see your photo appeared in several scenes throughout the movie.

This is truly an innovative way of using mediated reality.

HTC Butterfly Android phone going to launch in Malaysia

HTC Malaysia unveiled in their Facebook fanpage that HTC Butterfly will be made available in Malaysia soon. However, there is no indication on the launching date and price yet. It is available now with an official selling price of RM2299.

HTC Butterfly is the international version of HTC J Butterfly launched in Japan sometimes in October 2012. The model made available in Malaysia is X920D.

Comparing HTC Butterfly with the HTC flagship Android phone HTC One X+:

• CPU: Butterfly comes with Quad-core Snapdragon S4 Pro 1.5GHz; One X+ comes with Quad-core 1.7GHz Tegra 3.
• GPU: Butterfly comes with Adreno 320 GPU; One X+ comes with ULP GeForce 2 GPU.
• RAM: Butterfly comes with 2GB RAM; One X+ comes with 1GB RAM.
• Display: Butterfly has 5" Super LCD3 with 440ppi full HD 1080x1920 display; One X+ has 4.7" S-LCD2 with 312ppi 720x1280 display.
• Storage: Butterfly has 16GB internal storage, expandable with MicroSD card (up to 32GB); One X+ has 32GB/64GB internal storage, no MicroSD slot.
• Cameras: Both have 8MP rear camera with 3264x2448 pixels. Butterfly has 2.1MP 1080p front camera; One X+ has 1.6MP 720p front camera.
• Battery: Butterfly uses non-removable Li-Po 2020 mAh battery; One X+ uses non-removable Li-Ion 2100 mAh battery.
• SIM card: Both using micro-SIM.
• Beats audio: Both come with Beats audio.
• NFC: Malaysian version of Butterfly doesn't support NFC; One X+ supports NFC.
• 4G LTE: Both Malaysian version don't support 4G LTE network.

I wonder why HTC wants to make the battery non-removable (not changeable by end user), and not supporting LTE/NFC in their international version. Other than these, both the phones are good in features.

Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2014

Many couples plan for their wedding more than 1 year ahead in order to have sufficient preparation time.

Here is the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in year 2014 (year of Horse), which is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

Note that there are 2 ninth month (润九月) in the lunar year during 2014.

You might aware that the Saint Valentine's Day (14-Feb-2014), Chinese New Year (31-Jan-2014), Mid-Autumn Day (08-Sep-2014), Christmas Eve (24-Dec-2014) are among the auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2014.

Bear in mind that although the Tong Shu is a compilation of Chinese astrology and calendaring studies gathering wisdom of thousands of years, we should use it wisely and rationally, but not be too superstitious on it.

You might probably be interested to also find out the auspicious dates in 2014 for:

• Wedding / Marriage
• Marriage proposal / engagement
• Renovation
• Moving to new house/office
• Housewarming / Open house / Party / Gathering
• Business opening
• Signing contract / register for marriage / receive baptism
• Start new job / assignment
• Baby first haircut (Mundan)
• Getting baby / conception planning / Caesarian delivery

You might probably be interested to also find out for:

• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014
• Auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2015
• Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2015

Sony ICD-UX523F digital voice recorder (MP3 supported)

Digital voice recorder is an essential device for students to record lectures, seminars, group discussions, etc. It is also commonly used in business for recording meetings, presentations, dictations, notes taking, etc.

Although your smartphone (iPhone, Android phone, ...) or tablet (iPad, Samsung Galaxy Tab, ...) is most probably having the feature and app for digital voice recording as well, it is still preferable to use a dedicated digital voice recorder device for better recording quality, longer battery life, longer recording hours, and special features such as voice activation, index markers, intelligent noise cut, pitch control playback, A-B repeat, etc.

Here are some considerations in choosing a suitable digital voice recorder:

• The price (of course)
• Stereo recording capability (some basic unit only support mono recording)
• High voice sensitivity
• Maximum recording time
• Battery life (better to be >20 hours)
• Ability to record in MP3 format (some basic unit only support LPCM format)
• Easy to operate
• Internal storage capacity (better to have at least 2GB)
• Expandable storage with MicroSD card
• USB connect to computer
• Windows and Mac support
• Compact and handy in size
• Support for Dragon NaturallySpeaking speech recognition software (for transcribing)
• Recording and replaying features available

If you are looking for a digital voice recorder below the price of RM400, you can consider Sony ICD-UX523 which is available in Sony Center in the shopping malls. The shop will probably sell the ICD-UX523F model with FM radio function, which I think this "F" for FM radio is not that important though.

 

The Sony ICD-UX523F is a 4-in-1 stereo recorders:

• Voice recorder (LPCM/MP3)
• Music player (MP3/WMA/AAC )
• USB flash memory (4GB internal)
• FM radio

It has a USB Direct connector that can be slided out to connect to the computer (Windows or Mac) for battery charging and file transfer, or to connect to a USB AC adapter charger for charging. It operates with one NH-AAA rechargeable battery that comes together with the unit.
 
It has a microSD memory card slot that supports MicroSD/MicroSDHC for more storage. Its maximum recording time is as follow:

and its battery life is as follow:

It supports the following preset recording Scenes:

and the default setting of the scenes are as follow:

It comes with a very brief printed Introduction sheet. Its complete Operating Instruction Manual (hundred over pages) is stored inside its internal memory as PDF file, and available in various languages.

However, if you format its internal memory, these PDF file might be erased as well.

Its feature buttons/switches are well explained in the Operating Instruction Manual:

• T-Mark: to add a track mark at a point during recording, pausing or playback, at which you would like to divide a file later or locate during playback. You can add a maximum of 98 track marks to each file.
• Noise Cut: when you set the NOISE CUT switch to “ON”, ambient noise other than the human voice is reduced. A file is played back with clear sound quality because the noise of all frequency bands including a human voice is reduced.
• A-B: to play back a specified section repeatedly
• DPC: Digital Pitch Control to adjust the playback speed in a range from 0.50 times to 2.00 times.

Some other terms related to this digital voice recorder:

• VOR: Voice Operated Recording starts and stops the recording when sound of a sufficient level is picked up by the microphone. This feature saves valuable recording time by not recording periods when there is little or no sound.
• Intelligent Noise Cut: Sony technology to significantly reduces ambient noise during recording for clearer playback.
• Low Cut Filter: helps reduce the effect of wind noise in your recordings.
• Sync Record: when recording directly from an external device, the Sync Record function can be used to automatically pause the recorder during silence and resume recording when sound is detected.

The Sony ICD-UX523F comes with a CD with Sound Organizer software to manipulate the files. It is compatible with Dragon NaturallySpeaking software to perform voice recognition for a file and convert the voice to text.

The list of most searched keywords in Google in 2012 unveiled

Google Zeitgeist 2012 published that in 2012, there were 1.2 trillion Google searches made in 146 languages across the world.

And the world's top 10 Google trending keywords in 2012 are:

• Whitney Houston
• Gangnam Style
• Hurricane Sandy
• iPad 3
• Diablo 3
• Kate Middleton
• Olympics 2012
• Amanda Todd
• Michael Clarke Duncan
• BBB12

Click here to download all the top 10 lists unveiled by Google Zeitgeist 2012 for the whole world and also separate lists for fifty over countries.

From the Malaysia lists, we can see that in 2012 Malaysian are most interested in the following brands:

Smartphones:

• Samsung Galaxy S3
• iPad 3
• iPad Mini
• Samsung Galaxy Note 2
• iPhone 4S
• HTC One X
• Samsung Galaxy Y
• Samsung Galaxy Ace
• Samsung Galaxy S2
• Samsung Galaxy W

Car models:

• Nissan Almera
• Toyota 86
• Proton Prevé
• Hyundai Elantra
• Mitsubishi Mirage
• Toyota Prius C
• Mazda Cx5
• Toyota Avanza
• Honda Civic
• Proton Exora Bold

Travel destinations:

• Legoland Malaysia
• Sunway Lagoon
• Langkawi
• Cameron Highland
• Universal Studios Singapore
• Kuala Lumpur
• Genting Highland
• Singapore
• Penang
• Melaka

Fashion labels:

• Coach
• Louis Vuitton
• Gucci
• Burberry
• Longchamp
• Prada
• Chanel
• Zara
• Adidas
• Victoria'S Secret

Top 20 IT companies to work with in 2013

The Glassdoor Annual Employees' Choice Awards has listed out the winners in the 50 Best Places to Work With In 2013.

There are 20 IT companies in the list, forming the top 20 IT companies to work with in 2013.

They are...

• Facebook
• Riverbed Technology
• Google
• National Instruments
• Linkedin
• Rackspace
• Akamai
• Workday Inc.
• Salesforce.com
• Citrix Systems
• Orbitz Worldwide
• MITRE
• Agilent Technologies
• Intel
• Red Hat
• Apple
• MathWorks
• QUALCOMM
• SAP
• Eaton

Do you agree with this list, particularly their HQ? Are you working in one of them?

A family vacation trip to Phuket, Thailand (Part 2/2)

... continue from Part 1

Tour to Phang Nga Bay and James Bond Island

The northern end of Phuket is connected to the mainland by Sarasin Bridge.

Our tour began with pick-up by minivan from hotel, leaving Patong and travelled all the way north, crossing the bridge and finally reached the 1st visiting point - Suwan Kuha Temple (a.k.a. Wat Tam) in mainland Phang Nga.

This temple is located beside a limestone mountain cave with Buddha. The cave is a bit alike Batu Caves in Kuala Lumpur. Similar to Batu Caves, there are steps to climb inside the cave, and there are "light cave" and "dark cave" inside its multi-cave structure.

This reclining Buddha is in the main cave.

The top most cave leads out into a rainforest.

There are monkeys outside the cave, and they are just staying outside, won't go inside the cave.

We continued the tour to a pier, and boarded into a longtail boat. The boat brought us for sight-seeing in Phang Nga Bay, where there are lots of mangrove trees along the Phang Nga Bay National Park estuary. After that, there are lots of beautiful rocky small islands around us in the sea.

The boat settled down in a floating village on the seaside in Koh Panyee. We took our lunch in a Muslim restaurant there. This lunch was inclusive as part of the tour package. There are some souvenir stalls behind the restaurant. In front of the restaurant near the jetty we saw a netted area where the seafoods (crabs, lobsters, etc.) are kept in the sea.

I'm not quite sure what is this. Is it pearl breeding?

After lunch, we boarded onto the same boat and departed to James Bond Island. It is a small island with 2 sandy beaches, once an undiscovered paradise, and after some shot taken in a James Bond 007 movie in 1974 (The Man With The Golden Gun), now it is crowded with tourists.

We landed on the longer beach. There is a row of souvenir stalls facing the beach. Although now is not a peak session, there were still a lot of tourists there.

There are 2 legendary scenes in James Bond Island. The straight wall cliffs...

and Koh Tapu (Nail Island), viewable from another beach.

The last stop is sea canoeing near Talu Island. We landed onto a "platform" formed by 2 cruise ships joined together, and got onto a canoe. A boatman kayaked the canoe and brought us around.

Along the kayak journey, we went through several sea caves. The above is a bigger cave, some required us to lay down in order to pass through.

After that, we returned to the platform, boarded onto our boat, went back to the pier, and sent back to Patong Beach by the same minivan.

Tour to Phi Phi Island

On another day, we went for another tour to Phi Phi Island.

A minivan came and picked us up from hotel. We passed through the Phuket Town and reached a pier. We bought a loaf of bread there to feed monkeys and fishes later on. We were advised to rent a pair of fins for snorkeling, but later we found that it was not necessary. So, if you were told to rent the fins, consider it carefully before paying the money.

Before getting onto the boat, we were briefed about the itinerary with this map (and I found the map later in Internet).

We took off with a speedboat. Our 1st stop was Maya Bay Phi Phi National Park. We landed on a beach lined up with a lot of speedboats. Many tourists were walking around the beach, and some were swimming in the sea.

We followed the path to the toilet, which located some distance away from the beach. We passed through a small forest, and at the end of the walking path is a viewpoint at another side of the island. It is also a diving location near Pi Leh Cove.

Departing from Maya Bay, we went sightseeing at Loh Samah Bay and then to several viewpoints as in the itinerary shown above. We were told that Viking Cave cannot be boardedWe fed the monkeys at Monkey Beach. We took lunch in a restaurant at Loh Dalum Bay and then continued our tour. The boat stopped in the middle of the sea at Hin Klang for snorkeling. There are beautiful corals and fishes under the sea. We finished up our loaf by bread by feeding the fishes there.

Then, there was a long travel to Khai Island with a long beach. The beach was occupied by a row of boats. Many tourists were walking around the shore. There are beach chairs with umbrella for rent, and it was compulsory for use to rent it as our tour guide informed us to bring along our belongings off the boat. Pineapple, watermelon and drinks were served as refreshment as part of the package.

Here is also the swimming and snorkeling spot in our itinerary. Fishes were found swimming around the coast.

The tour ended by returning to Phuket Island and we were sent back to hotel with the same minivan.

Elephant Trekking Tour

On another day, we went for elephant trekking near the foot of the mountain where Big Buddha is located.

This package includes monkey show, elephant show and snake show at the same place.

Siam Niramit Show

Siam Niramit Phuket is located beside an ex-mining lake.

We reached there around 7pm. International buffet dinner was served in a big restaurant at 3rd floor.

Outdoor, there is a small demo village showcasing traditional Thai-style living and a floating market. We rided on a canoe for free, going around the village.

Beside the demo village is a carnival funfair area for some games and prizes.

There was an open air pre-show performance at the outdoor stage, which included elephant show, and then the performance of a troop of ancient elephant army going to war.

Visitors were encouraged to take photo with this elephant army.

The Siam Niramit Show started at 8.30pm in a theatre located some distance away from the outdoor stage.

No photo can be taken for the show, and all guests were instructed to deposit their camera at the counter before entering the theatre hall.

The Siam Niramit Show is about Thai culture, history and believe. There were hundreds of performers including some animals. The show is full of amazing visual and sound sensation, and great thunder and raining effect.

We purchased the Platinum seats which have good location for watching the show.

There is another famous show in Phuket called Phuket Fantasea. We didn't went for that due to budget constraint.

Phuket City Tour

During our last day in Phuket, we visited to some attractions around the island for a 5-hours city tour in a 7-seater 4WD before being sent to the airport.

Departed from Patong, the car went south for sightseeing along Karon Beach and the beautiful Kata Beach. There is a nice viewpoint on top of a hill near Kata Beach.

There is another nice viewpoint at Prompthep Cape with a square and a lighthouse. We visited the lighthouse too.

Then, we visited the Big Buddha located on top of a mountain. The Big Buddha is undergoing some construction work to paste marbles onto its surface. There is a donation campaign for visitors to donate for the marbles to be used.

We dropped by Phuthai Phuket Souvenir and Handicrafts Market. This place is obviously operated to earn tourists money. We didn't buy anything there, as we found the price there is somehow even more expensive than the small souvenir shops in Patong main street. We have already bought our souvenir when we walked around in Patong.

We also visited Wat Chalong, the biggest Buddhist temple in Phuket.

There is a tower in Wat Chalong worshipping precious relics located at its top level.
 
Phuket Cashew Nut Factory is a place for tourist to buy snacks. We didn't visited the actual factory, but went into the outlet for food testing and shopping.

The Premium Outlet Shopping Center has shops of many branded names. The shops have big display area with lots of goods. However, the price in those retail outlets does not seems to give good bargain. It is just neither cheap nor expensive.

Our city tour in Phuket ended here, and the driver took us to airport for departure.