TP-Link TL-WDR3600 dual band gigabit router now supports both TM Unifi and Maxis Home Fibre Internet

TP-Link TL-WDR3600 is an N600 wireless dual band gigabit router ranged in between the lower TL-WR1043ND N300 router and the higher TL-WDR4300 N750 router. Good news is, it now has official firmware for Malaysia that supports both TM Unifi and Maxis Home Fibre Internet.

At the price of RM17x (selling at All IT Hypermarket) which is just slightly higher than the price of TL-WR1043ND at RM14x, you get 2 major feature upgrades namely dual band WiFi (2.4GHz and 5GHz, 300Mbps each, can work simultaneously) and hardware NAT (providing faster WAN to LAN throughput). The TL-WDR4300 with 3 antennas is still selling at RM2xx.

I have made a table to compare this TP-Link TL-WDR3600 with the stock D-Link DIR-615 router of TM Unifi and stock Thomson TG784n router of Maxis Home Fibre Internet.

You might want to consider this TL-WDR3600 router if:

• the D-Link/Thomson router that comes with your HSBB Internet service damaged and warranty period expired.
• and/or you want to have much better WiFi experience (more stable connection, farther reach, and make use of the 5Ghz WiFi frequency band for your devices that support it).
• and/or you want to have much faster wired gigabit connections between your devices in the LAN.

In order for your TL-WDR3600 to support TM Unifi or Maxis Home Fibre Internet connection, you need to download the latest Malaysia version firmware from TP-Link website and flash it to your router.

After the firmware upgrade, the firmware version becomes 3.13.32 Build 130723 Rel.9433n.

 

 

Setting up for Unifi or Maxis mode is pretty straightforward and easy. You just need to follow the step-by-step instruction in the Quick Setup function.

The Quick Setup function will help you configure the necessary VLAN settings for Unifi to enable both Internet access and IPTV.

You can also plug the network cable connecting to your IPTV set-top-box to LAN port other than LAN1, as long as you configure the LAN ports setting correctly.

For Maxis Home Fibre Internet, it will help you to configure the necessary VLAN settings to enable Internet access, VoIP and IPTV.

Note that you will lost the IPv6 feature in this router after you flashed it with Malaysian version of firmware. This should not be an issue as the Internet is still heavily using IPv4 now.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) S-pen misalignment issue after Android 4.2.2 update

Several weeks ago, the Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) around the world started to get a firmware update to upgrade its Android version 4.1.2 to Android 4.2.2. The build number of my Galaxy Note 8.0 becomes JDQ39.N5100XXCMH1 after the update.

Unfortunately, this firmware update has introduced a new bug to the S-pen of the tablet. There is a slight offset of the landing point of the S-pen on its screen. This problem doesn't exist in previous version of firmware with Android 4.1.2, where the S-pen landed perfectly.

The misalignment problem behaves differently depend on the orientation of the tablet. When it is in upright portrait mode (where the Samsung logo is on top), the landing point is offsetted to the bottom right from the tip of the S-pen, as shown below:

When it is rotated clockwise in landscape mode, the landing point is offsetted to the bottom left from the tip of the S-pen.

When it is rotated anti-clockwise in landscape mode, the landing point is offsetted to the upper right from the tip of the S-pen.

When it is rotated 180 degree upside-down (where the Home button is on top), the landing point is perfect!

This S-pen misalignment issue does not bring much issue for handwriting, but will be a disturbance when drawing, sketching, or selecting an area with the S-pen, as we need the S-pen to land precisely on the screen.

Information and discussions in the Internet seems to conclude that this S-pen misalignment bug with Samsung GT-N5100 Android 4.2.2 firmware is related to its kernel.

If you are owning a Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) and have not updated to the latest firmware with Android 4.2.2 yet, you have the option to withhold the firmware update to keep yourself away from being affected by this bug.

If you have already updated to the latest firmware and hit by this bug, here are your options:

• To turn your tablet upside-down whenever you use your S-pen. Hopefully it will work fine in that weird position.
• To restore to the previous firmware of Android 4.1.2. You can either bring the tablet to Samsung service center and ask them to revert the firmware for you. If you can find a copy of the previous firmware for Samsung GT-N5100 of your region in the Internet, you can try to use Odin to flash it to your tablet and wipe out all its caches (do this solely on your own risk!!).
• To wait for Samsung to come out with a bug fix, probably in the next release of firmware update.
• To flash a custom ROM which managed to fix this bug.

FYI, here is the on-going discussion in XDA-Developers forum about this S-pen misalignment problem with Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2414053

My Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100)

My Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) is an Android tablet with 3G and WiFi function.

The unique selling point of Samsung Galaxy Note range of products is their S-Pen, which is a button-enabled and pressure-sensitive digitizer pen (up to 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity) that enables us to do handwriting, drawing, sketching, rubber deleting, air viewing, issuing commands, and some other tricks. This is something you can't find in its sister products of Samsung Galaxy Tab series.

Another unique feature in this Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) is multi-windows, which enables us to split its screen into two for two different apps operating on the screen at the same time. (This feature is also available in some other Samsung Android devices running the Jelly Beans OS.)

Its 8" size is about the same size as an exercise book. When it is covered with my rotatable book case cover, it just looks and feels like a book. Just like the Apple iPad Mini, this size is easy to hand carry as well as store in a bag.

Interface wise, I still feel that HTC Sense UI is better than Samsung TouchWiz. It is really the S-Pen features that make the difference for this Samsung Android device.

I obtained this Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) as part of the package of The Edge 3-years Subscription bundle. It is a good bargain. I only need to pay a total of RM1,163.60 over a period of 12 months for the entire package, after getting RM250 cash back from CIMB credit card promotion.

Well, there is some hassle in registering for the 1 year warranty for this device, as I have no "vendor" to do the SMS e-Warranty registration. Instead, I managed to register the product with Samsung Cyber Service Center.

One bonus of using this Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 (GT-N5100) is that my Dropbox account gets an additional 48GB of free storage for 2 years after I linked the tablet with my Dropbox account.

A family trip to Lost World of Tambun, Perak

My family just have a one day trip to Lost World of Tambun, located at the outskirt of Ipoh, Perak. It is an adventure theme park built and operated by Sunway Group, which I would describe it to be wilder, larger, and closer to the natural than the famous Sunway Lagoon in Selangor.

If you want to visit to Lost World of Tambun, I would advise you to spend a full day there, because the theme park is really big in area with many places to visit and have fun with. This means you have to reach there around 10am, or else you might not have enough time to visit all the attractions inside.

The entrance fee is RM48 for adult and RM41 for child. You can get a cheaper rate if you buy the ticket online from their website at http://www.sunwaylostworldoftambun.com/.

You will first reach a souvenir stall after entering from the entrance. Then, the water park is in front of you. I would advise you to have fun in the water park as your last schedule, otherwise you might be too tired to visit the rest of the park. In addition, the sun is not too hot at evening time.

There is an amusement park beside the water park, which you can take free ride on Giddy Galleon, Dragon Flight, Perak Parade, Storm Rider, roller coaster, etc.

There is a petting zoo with small animals and lots of snakes. Take the Rainforest Trail to have closer contact with the animals.

There are some small animal feeding shows between 12pm and 3.30pm here.

There is also a swan lake with swans and koi fishes. You can feed the swans and fishes there. You can also ride the water bicycle, which the fee is not inclusive in your entrance ticket (need to pay separately).

Outside food and drink is not permitted to be brought into the theme park. They actually check for your items when you enter. Food and beverage is available at the stalls and food court near the amusement park. The price is not cheap though.

Don't forget to watch the tiger feeding show at Tiger Valley at 3pm. The show is not just about tiger. Before the tiger show, you can see the performance of some other animals and birds as well.

Some other attractions include:

The Tin Valley, with a gallery which you can see an ancient monochrome CRT TV that is still working well.

Kepura Caves

And something erected...

The Lost World Hot Springs & Spa is opened at night, which needs a separate entrance ticket. We haven't visited this yet, probably will be in our next visit to the Lost World of Tambun.

Watching movie in TGV Beanie Hall (Beanieplex)

This is my first experience watching movie in Beanie Hall of Tanjong Golden Village (TGV) cinema.

Beanie Hall is relatively small compared with normal Cineplex of TGV, with limited number of couple seats. It makes a difference from normal cinema halls with its beanbag seats which are spacious, relaxing, comfortable, and really make you feel at home.

This kind of premium seat also comes with a premium price, much higher than ordinary seat and even the twin seat. The ticket above cost me RM45 (RM44 for the ticket, plus RM1 for online booking). After all, it is a good experience for my family.

Inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014

I have posted the list of auspicious dates for wedding/marriage in 2014 quite some times ago, and here is the reverse, namely the inauspicious dates to avoid for wedding/marriage in 2014. The list below is produced based on the Chinese almanac Tong Shu. (Click the image to enlarge)

If you are concerned, then you should probably avoid getting married on the listed days above.

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

A short trip to French village, Bukit Tinggi Bentong (Berjaya Hills)

My family has made a short trip to the French village located at Bukit Tinggi, Bentong, Pahang (a.k.a. Berjaya Hills), which is near to Genting Highlands and Janda Baik.

The French village is located uphill, quite some distance away from the junction linked to Karak Highway. The road condition is worse than that of Genting Highlands or Cameron Highlands. Fortunately, there is not much car on the road.

Before entering the premise, we need to pay RM12 per adult and RM8 per child, which I think is a bit expensive.

There are 2 hotels over there, namely The Chateau and Colmar Tropicale. The accommodation price is pretty expensive. Unless you want to enjoy the calm and silentness of Berjaya Hills, otherwise you will most likely find boring staying there.

During our visit, Samsung was having some team building event there, so we can see some crowd. Otherwise, I think the staff over there will easily outnumber the tourist.

Bukit Tinggi is a good place for photo taking, especially for marriage couples. It has nice scenes, and some good looking swans at the lake near the village entrance too.

 

The French village is actually quite small, takes less than an hour to visit. Beside the Colmar Tropicale hotels, there are some western restaurants selling food at high price, some souvenir shops, a video game center, and SPA center.

There is a Japanese garden nearby, with waterfall, a koi pond, and some Japanese huts. Japanese traditional costumes are available for photo shooting rent in the bigger hut there. There suppose to have a Japanese restaurant, but we couldn't find it.

My overall comment: Bukit Tinggi is not too bad for scenic visit, but it can be much better than what it is now. It has good "hardware" but lack of "software" to make it attractive.

The Edge giving away iPad Mini 16G or Samsung Galaxy Note 8 in 3-year subscription bundle

From now until 31 August 2013, you can get the following at the price of as low as RM1413.60 (with CIMB credit card, option for 12-month 0% interest EPP easy payment plan):

• 3 years subscription of The Edge Malaysia (printed + 3 digital access)
• 3 years subscription of The Edge Singapore (1 digital access)
• 3 years subscription of The Edge Review (1 digital access)
• iPad Mini 16G WiFi & cellular or Samsung Galaxy Note 8

This deal looks attractive if you have intention to buy the iPad Mini or Samsung Galaxy Note 8, as RM1413.60 alone is an attractive price to get the phablet with credit card payment and 12-month interest free instalment. Now, on top of that, you can get 3 years subscription of 3 weekly papers from The Edge.

This deal is also attractive if you do not have intention to own the phablet. If you manage to sell it out, your 3 years subscription of the 3 weekly papers will be free or almost free of charge to you. In addition, you can get a pretty good cashflow, as you only need to pay the RM1413.60 over a 12 month period, but you can collect the full cash once you sell out the phablet.

Click here for more information about The Edge collection deal.

Garmin releases MalFreeMaps 2013.20 and MalSingMaps 2013.20. Now MalFreeMaps lane assist feature is available.

About 2 weeks ago, Garmin released Navteq City Navigator SG/MY NT 2013.20 map update. Now, the MalFreeMaps 2013.20 and MalSingMaps NT 2013.20 are also made available for free download.

The long anticipated Lane Assist feature is finally available in this new release of MalFreeMaps 2013.20 now.

Click here to download the installation file of MalFreeMaps 2013.20 and MalSingMaps 2013.20 from Garmin server.

If you have moved the MalFreeMaps and/or MalSingMaps map files from Garmin Nuvi 2565LM internal storage to microSD card, you have to do it again, because the installer from Garmin will respectively install the new MalFreeMaps and MalSingMaps into the GPS internal storage memory.

Attended PhillipCapital 4th Annual Investment Conference 2013 @ Istana Hotel

I have just attended the PhillipCapital 4th Annual Investment Conference 2013 held at Istana Hotel on 20 July 2013.

Overall, it is a good investment conference, with topics covering stock investment, derivative investment, gold investment, etc. Speakers include famous fund managers such as Chen Fan Fai who made his name in Kenanga and now is the Chief Investment Officer of Eastspring, Ang Kok Heng the Chief Investment Officer of Phillip Capital, etc.

The maximum harvest I reaped from this conference is a booklet called Hugh Young's Ten Golden Rules of Equity Investing distributed by Aberdeen Asset Management to their audience of Bharat Joshi's talk on Golden Rules of Investing. Hugh Young is the co-founder of Singapore-based Aberdeen Asia.

The 10 Golden Rules are:

• Treatment of minority shareholders
• Remember that companies are about people not asset
• Balance sheet strength is critical
• Understand what you're buying
• Be wary of overambition
• Think long term
• Benchmarks are measuring devices not portfolio construction tools
• Take advantage of irrational behaviour
• Do your own research
• Focus on industries in which it is possible to have a sustainable competitive advantage

If you want to know more about these 10 golden rules of Hugh Young, you can click here to read the article on this topic posted by Aberdeen Asset Management. Alternatively, you can also try to get a copy of the booklet or eBook from Aberdeen, or from Amazon, Apple iTunes, etc.

Most of the speakers are talking from the macro-economics viewpoint, and they are kind of bullish to the near term local and world economics.

Chen Fan Fai in his topic "How is an Asian Fund Managed?" honestly pointed out that, in the long run, most of the fund managers are underperform the market index.

Updated my HTC One to Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean)

The HTC One smartphones in Malaysia receive our Android 4.2.2 (Jelly Bean) update from the previous Android 4.1.2 (Jelly Bean) since yesterday 12 July 2013 around 4.00pm onwards.

The whole update started with a small "bug fix" update to enable the phone to upgrade to Android 4.2.2 successfully. After installing the "bug fix" update and reboot the phone, a larger 440+MB update is made available to the phone, which will update it to Android 4.2.2.

Among the new features and improvement brought to our HTC One with this update are:

• Able to show battery level in status bar

• Quick Setting panel, which is accessible by tapping on the top-right icon of the notification screen, or by doing a 2-finger pull down.

• Configurable Home button. If switched to the 2nd option, the 3-dots soft menu button the appears in certain apps will also be eliminated.

• Daydream function

• Lock screen widgets (but very limited selection)
• Instagram feeds to Blinkfeed
• Apps able to also move from launcher bar to home screen or vice versa by drag-and-drop. Before this, can only move by drag-and-drop from app drawer to launcher bar or vice versa.
• Improved camera functions
• More tidy Gallery app
• Additional music player (icon is golden headset) beside the existing (icon is read headset)
• WeChat pre-installed
• ... and more

Note that the "Developer options" (which include the USB Debugging mode toggle) is hidden from the Settings screen in Android 4.2.2. To unhide it, go to About > Software information > More and tap on Build number for 7 times.

Solution for Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) unable to run after Windows update

Yesterday, the automated Windows update of my laptop installed some updates, and one of them related to Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) failed.

Since then, the Microsoft Security Essentials unable to run, and the Action Center keeps on telling me that there is no antivirus and spyware protection running on my Windows 7.

I managed to fix it by this way:

• Download a new installer of Microsoft Security Essentials from Microsoft website (http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security-essentials-download).
• Download OneCareCleanup from Microsoft website (http://download.microsoft.com/download/4/c/b/4cb845e7-1076-437b-852a-7842a8ab13c8/OneCareCleanup.exe)
• Run the OneCareCleanup.exe
• Reboot the computer
• Reinstall Microsoft Security Essentials with the installer downloaded just now

Note: If you directly reinstall MSE without running the OneCareCleanup tool, the installation will stop halfway, giving out a 0x80070643 error.

Move the map files from Garmin Nuvi 2565LM internal storage to microSD card

The Garmin Nuvi 2565LM SG/MY GPS navigator comes with 3 preinstalled maps, namely:

• Navteq City Navigator SGMY NT (gmapprom.img)
• MalSingMaps SGMY NT (gmapprom1.img)
• MalFreeMaps SGMY NT (gmapsupp.img)

These maps, especially their junction view JCV files, have taken a lot of internal storage space of the GPS, left over with just around 200MB of free storage.

Unlike my Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS navigator which only supports 1 map file, namely gmapsupp.img in the SD card external storage, the Garmin Nuvi 2565LM SG/MY GPS navigator supports multiple unlimited map files in the microSD card external storage.

When the free space in the Garmin GPS internal storage become lesser and lesser, you will experience the GPS acting slower and slower. Therefore, it is a better idea to move the map files from its internal storage to external microSD card, in order to make space for the GPS to work smoother and act faster.

Note that at least 1 map file (the gmapprom.img) must be kept in the GPS internal memory, or else your GPS with no map in its internal storage might face problem booting up.

MalSingMaps is initially stored as .System\gmapprom1.img in the GPS, while MalFreeMaps is initially stored as map\gmapsupp,.img in the GPS.

In order to access the hidden .System folder, you need to drop down the Organize menu and select "Folder and search options" in Windows Explorer. Then, go to the View tab and make sure "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" is checked, while "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)" is unchecked.

Alternatively, you can also open the command prompt window and use the "cd" command to access into the hidden .System folder.

Here are the steps to move MalSingMaps and MalFreeMaps from Garmin Nuvi 2565LM internal storage to microSD card. A class 10 microSD card is recommended for faster read/write speed.

• Create a new folder in the microSD card and name it as "Map".
• Create another new folder in the microSD card and name it as "Garmin".
• Create a new folder inside the Garmin folder and name it as "JCV".
• Move the 3 files gmapprom1.img, gmapprom1.sum and gmapprom1.unl from .System folder of internal storage to Map folder of microSD card.
• Move the 3 files gmapsupp.img, gmapsupp.sum and gmapsupp.unl from map folder of internal storage to Map folder of microSD card.
• Move the 4 files SGMYMAL.JCV, SgMyMal.sum, SgMyMfre.JCV and SgMyMfre.sum from .System\JCV folder of internal storage to Garmin\JCV folder of microSD card.
• Use the "Safely Remove Hardware and Eject Media" function to unmount both the internal and external storage of the GPS from Windows.
• Check that you can still access to the 3 maps in the GPS, including the 2 maps that are now residing in your microSD card instead of the GPS internal storage.

• Check that the junction view in your MalSingMaps and MalFreeMaps are still available to you.

Congratulation, you have just freed up about 672MB of valuable storage space from your GPS internal storage. Your GPS internal storage should have around 950MB of free internal storage space now.

If you want to install more maps into your Garmin Nuvi 2565LM GPS, just put the map file into the Map folder in its microSD card, and put the JCV file (if available) into the Garmin\JCV folder in its microSD card. The map files in the Map folder can be of any name, as long as the extension is .img.

Garmin Nuvi 2565LM, my 2nd GPS navigator

My Garmin Nuvi 255W GPS navigator which I bought in 2009 is still working fine, but for some reason my family needs a 2nd GPS navigator, so I have purchased a new Garmin Nuvi 2565LM.

It is a genuine AECO unit that comes with 2 years warranty and with AECO and MCMC stickers, sold at RM650 with some free gifts (screen protector, carry case, home charger, etc.). This price is even cheaper than the price I bought my Garmin Nuvi 255W about 4 years ago!

Some of the differences/enhancements of Garmin Nuvi 2565LM from Nuvi 255W includes:

• A larger 5" screen (255W has a 4.3" screen)
• Supports microSD card (255W supports normal size SD card for additional storage)
• Faster and stronger GPS satellite signal detection. It is able to get some GPS signal even indoor near the window.
• Better and faster search function. It no longer need to specify the location for the search target as in 255W.
• Automatic speech recognition (ASR) to issue voice command without the need to touch the GPS.
• Bluetooth integration with Android smartphone, which is able to make or receive hands-free call as well as displaying the phone's address book on its screen. When getting a call, it is able to display the caller's name or phone number. If a Point of Interest (POI) contains telephone information, it is able to make call using the Android phone as well.
• Customizable Main Menu. I think the default layout is pretty good, so I haven't tried this.
• Remember last parking spot (when it is removed from its mount).
• "Go Office" beside "Go Home".
• MyTrends predictive routing.
• Route preview among faster time, shorter distance and cost saving.
• Custom avoidances by area or by road.
• Trip Planner.
• ecoRoute, which I haven't tried yet.
• Built in compass.
• Calculator.
• Unit converter.
• User definable display on bottom left-hand-side of the map. Can display either one of travel direction, elevation, time of day, vehicle speed, time to arrival, distance to arrival, etc.
• Integrated driving recorder, which I haven't tried this. It needs an additional GDR camera to function.
• Rear camera video support.
• Preloaded with 3 maps - City Navigator, MalFreeMaps NT and MalSingMaps NT. Also preloaded with Custom POIs including AES spots.

One thing I dislike about this Garmin Nuvi 2565LM is that, its speaker volume is softer and screen display is dimmer when using battery compared to when it is plugged to the car charger. This could be a "feature" to save the battery juice, but the variance should not be too big. I find it to be either too soft when using battery at 70% volume, or too loud when using charger at 90% volume.

Buying 3-ply surgical face mask online, and the correct way to wear it

Just to share that, in case you are looking for 3-ply surgical face mask and unable to get it from store/pharmacy around your area, or the price has already jacked up, you can actually buy from the Internet, which will deliver to you at your doorstep within 1-2 day, and the price is reasonably cheap.

For example, if you look around in Lelong website, you can find seller selling 5 boxes of the 3-ply surgical face mask (50 pieces per box) at the price of RM33 only, which is equivalent to RM33/250 = 13.20 sen per piece.

If you are looking for lower volume like 1 box (50 pieces), there are sellers selling as low as RM10 per box, which is equivalent to RM10/50 = 20 sen per piece.

As for the correct way of wearing the face mask, the right one should be the coloured side face away from you, while the white side touches your face. There are some rumours spreading around the Internet saying that in certain cases you should wear with the white side in front, which I believe is not true. Whether you are sick and want to prevent virus spreading out, or you are preventing yourself from inhaling harmful substances from outside such as haze/dust/virus, just wear the face mask with the coloured side in front. You can refer to many professional medical websites or government healthcare websites to get the correct info. One of the websites is this: http://www.primed.ca/ClinicalResources/MaskStandardsandFAQ.aspx

All schools in KL, Selangor, Melaka, Muar, Ledang, Segamat, Kuantan, PD, etc. to close on 24/6/2013 due to haze

The haze condition in Malaysia and Singapore, which is caused by forest fires in Indonesia, has worsen today.

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister Datuk Seri G. Palanivel has just instructed for the  closure of all schools in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor on Monday 24/6/2013, as advised by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Meanwhile, the Melaka state government earlier instructed all 313 primary and secondary schools plus all pre-schools, including Tadika Perpaduan, Kemas, to be closed on Monday 24/6/2013 due to the haze.

Pahang Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Adnan Yaakob also ordered schools in the Kuantan district and areas badly affected by the haze to close on Monday 24/6/2013.

Johor Education director Mohd Nor A Ghani announced 110 primary and secondary schools in Segamat have been ordered to close on Monday 24/6/2013 following the Air Pollutants Index (AP1) reading having reached the hazardous level of 400.

The closure order for 117 schools in Kluang and 175 schools in Batu Pahat, involving 134,872 students, has not been withdrawn, but the order has been extended to 171 primary and 40 secondary schools in Muar and Ledang following the haze emergency declaration for the two districts (Muar and Ledang) by Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak today.  

In Negri Sembilan, Menteri Besar Datuk Seri Haji Mohamad Haji Hasan announced schools in Port Dickson to be closed on Monday 24/6/2013  after the API recorded at 295.

However, 300 schools in Kota Tinggi, Pontian and Pasir Gudang, which were ordered to close because of the haze problem on Friday 21/6/2013, would REOPEN on 24/6/2013 following a drop in the API readings for the three areas.

Free Celcom 4G LTE SIM card upgrade for postpaid customers

Celcom postpaid customers who are subscribing to a monthly mobile Internet plan (1GB and above) and owns an LTE supported device including HTC One, Samsung Galaxy S4 or iPhone 5 can now get a new 4G LTE SIM card upgrade for free from either Blue Cube Menara Celcom or Blue Cube Sunway.

HTC One and Samsung Galaxy S4 users will get a Micro SIM card, while iPhone 5 users will get a Nano SIM card.

Click here to check for Celcom 4G LTE coverage.

The download and upload speed of Celcom 4G LTE is quite impressive. I can get a 44.68Mbps download speed and 18.1Mbps upload speed when connected to Celcom 4G LTE.

Symphony Life (SYMLIFE, 1538, f.k.a. BOLTON) transforming to unleash its value

Talking about property stocks listed in KLSE nowadays, few will thought of Symphony Life (SYMLIFE, 1538), but I think this counter worth for investors and analysts to take a look.

In fact, SYMLIFE is a rebranded name from BOLTON just a few months ago. The company said the name change was the 1st phase of its transformation exercise, expected to be complete by year-end.

SYMLIFE transformation involve selling off non-core businesses, and refocusing to property development. Their immediate aim is to return  to the premier league of property developers. Their property development unique selling points focus on quality lifestyle, which brought about their new name Symphony Life.

BOLTON is an old-timer property stock, listed in KLSE since 1973. Its chairman Datuk Mohamed Azman bin Yahya was one of the six individuals in Najib's circle while Najib was appointed Finance Minister in 2008 before becoming the Prime Minister later on (click here to read the news report about Najib's circle). Datuk Mohamed Azman Yahya is also director of Khazanah, founder and group CEO of Symphony House (SYMPHNY, 0016), and ex-CEO of Pengurusan Danaharta Bhd.

SYMLIFE current project includes:

• Surin in Tanjung Bungah, Penang (GDV: RM201m)
• Lavendar Heights in Senawang, Negeri Sembilan (GDV: RM370m)
• Bandar Amanjaya in Sungai Petani (GDV: RM490m)
• Arata in Bukit Tunku, KL (GDV: RM120m)
• Sixceylon in Bukie Ceylon, KL (GDV: RM180m)
• The Wharf in Puchong (GDV: >RM650m)
• Summer Homes in Puchong (GDV: RM55m)
• Tijani Ukay in Ukay Perdana (GDV: RM300m) 
• 51 Gurney in KL (GDV: RM210m)

Note that along with the transformation exercise to bring in more value to investors, the estimated GDV of some of the projects above has been revised in their quarterly report, mainly resulting from the change of project blueprint:

• Tijani Ukay: from RM323m to RM300m since 2012Q4 report onwards.
• The Wharf: from >RM500m to >RM650m since 2013Q3 report onwards.
• Summer Homes: from RM40m to RM55m since 2013Q3 report onwards.
• 51 Gurney: from RM207m to RM210m since 2013Q1 report onwards.

SYMLIFE has a total GDV of RM2 billions worth of new projects to be launched in 2013-2014.

Their reported quarterly revenue and unbilled sales is as below:

Note that its revenue has surged to RM140.518 million during last quarter, at the same time its unbilled sales doesn't decrease following the recognised sales, but in fact increased from RM514 million to RM517 million.

Dynaquest has in its Stock Performance Guide 2013 March Edition estimated the EPS of SYMLIFE in 2013 to be 30.7 sen. With its today's closing price of RM1.18, its PE is only 3.84 which is unbelievably cheap compared with other property stocks in KLSE.

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.

Download and read the complete HTC One User Guide

HTC One comes with a small printed Quick Guide, which is definitely not sufficient enough for new user to learn about the phone features and get the best of the phone.

There are 2 ways for HTC One user to learn more and get the best of the phone:

• Tips & Help - it is in your phone inside Settings > About > Help > Tips & Help. There, you will find some video tips as well as detail how-tos about the phone's features and apps. The Tips & Help content is updated from the Internet.
• User Guide in PDF format - this 179 pages User Guide is available in the Internet. Click here to download the HTC One User Guide.

Among the tips are:

• The function of 2-finger swipe and 3-finger gesture.
• Double-tap Home button to see recently opened apps.
• Removing an app from Recently Opened Apps list by dragging it up.
• Capturing the screen by pressing both the Power and Home buttons together.
• Using the Trace keyboard
• Optimizing battery life
• ... and many more

HTC One (M7) - my 3rd smartphone

4 years ago, I bought my 1st smartphone running on Symbian OS. It is a Sony Ericsson P1i with physical QWERTY keypad, 208 MHz ARM9 PNX4008 processor, 128 MB RAM, 256 MB ROM, 160 MB internal storage, 2.6" touch screen, 240x320 TFT display, Wi-Fi 802.11b, 950 mAh battery, and a stylus. It is a 3G phone.

2 years ago, I bought my 2nd smartphone running on Android OS. It is an HTC Incredible S with 1 GHz Qualcomm MSM8255 Snapdragon Scorpion processor, Adreno 205 GPU, 768 MB RAM, 1.1 GB ROM, 8 GB internal storage, 4" multi-touch screen, 480x800 WVGA display, Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, 1450 mAh battery. It is a 3G phone supporting HSUPA/HSDPA/HSPA+ connection. I have just upgraded it to Nik ROM with Sense 4.1 Lite and Sense 5 visual.

Recently, I bought my 3rd smartphone, also running on Android OS. It is an HTC One (a.k.a. M7) with quad-core 1.7 GHz Qualcomm Krait 300 processor, Adreno 320 GPU, 2GB LPDDR2 RAM, 29.8 GB ROM, 32 GB internal memory, 4.7" multi-touch screen, 1920x1080p HD display, Wi-Fi 802.11 a/ac/b/g/n, 2300 mAh battery. It is an LTE 4G phone.

From the specs of the 3 smartphones that I have, you can probably see the evolution in smartphone  over the past 4 years period. By the time I purchased those smartphones, they were the topliner in the market at that particular time period. The One is currently the flagship phone of HTC.

The speaker sound of HTC smartphones had be criticized for being too soft until they finally made significant improvement with Beats Audio from the Sensation series onwards (Sensation was the successor of my Incredible S). Now the HTC One comes with dual front-facing stereo speakers with built-in amplifiers and Beats Audio enhancement (they call it the BoomSound) is a real breakthrough. The sound quality is really good, loud and clear.

There are lots of comparison made among the HTC Ultrapixel camera with F2.0 aperture with HTC Zoe features and the camera of Samsung Galaxy S4, Apple iPhone 5, Nokia Lumia 925, Sony Xperia Z, etc. The camera quality in smartphones has been improved a lot especially over the past 1 year, which is a good competition. Perhaps sooner or later, the photo quality developed by smartphone cameras will be comparable to those taken by my Canon PowerShot S95.

One thing I noticed is you can launch the camera from lock screen directly by pulling its icon up, bypassing the security checking (password/pattern/etc.). This enables us not to miss the precious moment by having quick access to the camera and make it ready to shoot photo soonest possible.

I don't quite like the BlinkFeed on the default home screen. A lot of people find it annoying especially when linked with Facebook. I have unlinked it with my Facebook feed too. The BlinkFeed news photos can only be fed with a handful of predefined websites. It would be more favourable if the user can self define the feeds from the web.

The HTC TV Remote works well with my LCD TV, Astro B.yond STB and Panasonic hi-fi system. I am able to get the Astro TV guide too. However, I am not able to configure it to work with my UniFi HyppTV STB.

The NFC function well, able to detect the Touch 'n Go chips embedded in Zing card as well as MyKad.

Google Now is accessible by long press the Home button (double tap the Home button will open the Recent Apps screen). When Google Now is off, it will show a normal Google Search screen. If you are unable to find Google Now there, try switching your system language to another, such as "English (Singapore)". At the moment there is nothing much available in Google Now for Malaysia user yet. It will show the weather information, estimated travelling time to home, to work, and to other user-defined places.

I use the Metal-Slim transparent hard case to cover the phone. The case provides protection to the phone while keeping its nice full metal body unhide. However, it makes the phone heavier and bulkier. I am thinking of getting the Mophie Juice Pack, but its price is a bit high, especially after adding in the shipping fee.

I have been searching for the DestraShield nanoliquid screen protector that I applied on my HTC Incredible S before, but it seems that this product has disappeared from the market. I ended up applying the Kristall nanoliquid screen protector on my HTC One. They seems to function the same, except Kristall is cheaper but doesn't have Ag+ anti-bacteria formula in it.

Upgraded my HTC Incredible S to Nik ROM with Sense 4.1 Lite and Sense 5 visual

My 2 years old HTC Incredible S Android smartphone with official HTC ROM was last updated to Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich, ICS) with Sense UI 3.6 in July 2012. Since then, it didn't receive any new ROM update from HTC anymore.

Since its 2-years warranty period is now over, I upgraded it to a custom ROM called Nik Project X Rebirth v3.0 with Sense 4.1 Lite and some Sense 5 visual (a.k.a. Nik's ROM). This custom ROM for HTC Incredible S is also running on Android 4.0.4 but bring us the Sense 4.1 UI experience found in HTC One X and some Sense 5 visual found in HTC One (M7).

Although there are some other HTC Incredible S custom ROMs running on newer Android 4.1 (Jelly Bean) or even Android 4.2 (Jelly Bean), but they don't include HTC Sense with the ROM.

If you are still using HTC Incredible S, you might probably also want to try out Nik's ROM because it brings new Sense experience as in HTC One series of smartphone, and it runs faster, smooter and more battery efficient than the stock HTC ICS ROM with Sense 3.6. This ROM will also upgrade your phone's filesystem to EXT4 too.

It really makes your HTC Incredible S remain fit and fun for use for quite some times.

In order to upgrade your HTC Incredible S to Nik's ROM, you need to get your phone rooted and S-Offed. There is a detail instruction in XDA developers forum to guide you through the process.

Click here to get the detail instruction to root and S-Off HTC Incredible S.

Note that you need to follow the instruction exactly, including flashing the CyanogenMod 7.2 ROM. This is because you might not be able to install Blackrose HBOOT with some other ROM.

At the end of the process, when you boot your phone by pressing Volume Down and Power key together, your screen should show the information as below.

Once you are done, you can proceed to download Nik's ROM, put it in your SD card, and flash it into your HTC Incredible S with ClockworkMod Recovery.

Click here to go to the download page of Nik Project X Rebirth v3.0 ROM.

After successfully upgraded to Nik's ROM, you can find the 4EXT Recovery Updater app in your app drawer. You can use it to replace your ClockworkMod Recovery with 4EXT Recovery Touch then.

Nik's ROM uses AROMA Installer for its installation. Along the process, you can customize your installation and choose whether to include or exclude the Sense UI, select the looks and feels of the icon style, battery icon, font, etc.

You can also exclude some of the "pre-install" apps that you don't want to install into your phone.

What are the new things and experience you can get in your HTC Incredible S after upgraded it to Nik's ROM? Well, here are a few of them...

The weather lock screen (among the available lock screens in Sense 4.1):

The home screen with Sense 4.1 looks and feels:

Press the phone's Power button, and you can see more options, including taking a screenshot:

The Quick Settings menu:

Now your HTC Incredible S can also have HTC Sense input with trace keyboard:

Long press the Home button to open this Recent Apps screen:

And you also get a faster, better, more feature rich Camera app with HDR, panaroma, show motion video, etc.

In addition, you can just swipe your finger from left to right (from Home button to Search button) to wake up your phone from sleep, and bring it to sleep mode by swiping your finger from right to left (from Search button to Home button). Therefore, you no longer need to use your phone's Power button as often as before.

Diagnose the HTC hardware function with HTC Function Test (*#*#3424#*#*)

The HTC Android smartphones including the new HTC Butterfly and the HTC One series come with a hidden diagnostic software that enables you to test on its parts and hardware.

Just go to the phone dialer and dial this sequent: *#*#3424#*#*

The HTC Function Test diagnostic software will be brought up.

The tests available are:

• Audio test
• Backlight test
• Bluetooth test
• Button test
• Charger test
• Flashlight test
• G-Sensor test
• Headset test
• LED test
• Light-sensor test
• Line drawing test
• P-sensor test
• SD card + camera test
• Vibrator test
• Wi-Fi test

You can tap on the "Select All" button and then the "Run" button to run all the tests above. If you are unable to see the "Run" button on your screen, just scroll down the screen. It is located at the bottom.

There are some more tests available after you tap on the "More" button:

• Battery test
• Device information
• Factory data reset
• AGPS test
• Hardware information
• Live call test
• Safe mode
• Software version
• Line drawing test (no time-limit)

This HTC Function Test is particularly useful when you want to buy a new or used HTC Android smartphone. You might want to make sure the phone is working perfectly before making your payment to the seller.

Are we heading towards a new secular bull market?

The investment sentiment has been gaining momentum recently, especially after the general election.

Some of my chartist friends who use technical analysis in their investment mentioned that the next secular bull market is now right in our doorstep.

If you search the Internet now for the keyword "secular bull market", you will find a handful of articles supporting this bullish view in the worldwide market. You can also easily find the long term DJIA chart similar to the one below in those articles.

Meanwhile, layman investors and other who don't rely much on technical analysis in their investment are also remembering the previous super bull run which started in 1983, 1993, and 2003. So, will the history repeat again in 2013?

To me, I am more than happy to see the next secular bull market formation right now and ride on the bull for the next couple of years (if our chartist friends are correct in their analysis and prediction now).

On the other hand, if the secular bull market delays and not happening in this year or next year, I will also not be disappointed, because you and me have already survive through the past 14 years of secular bear market, aren't we?

If the secular bull market come, it will be a great bonus to all of us in the stock market. If it hasn't come yet, then it is just life as normal.

What do you think?