App: Yahoo! Mail for Android is a battery sucker

Yahoo! Mail for Android is an app developed by Yahoo! Inc. to access Yahoo! Mail accounts directly from the smart phone.

There are quite some feedbacks in Android Market complaining that this app is slow, but I didn't experience any obvious slowness in my HTC Incredible S.

Despite that, I've uninstalled Yahoo! Mail because it consumed too much battery, and I couldn't find any setting to fine tune its battery consumption, such as controlling its sync behaviour.

Before I installed Yahoo! Mail, my phone will consume about 7% of battery at night during my sleep. After installed Yahoo! Mail, I noticed the battery consumption had gone to 14%, doubling up the original, and after I uninstalled it, the battery consumption now gone back to 7% during sleep again.

Looks like Yahoo! need to pay more attention to their QA before releasing the app.

Solution for Samsung Galaxy Tab unable to turn on problem

If you own a Samsung Galaxy Tab, have you ever encountered the problem of unable to turn it on after you off or reboot it?

The symptom could be:

• You press the Power button. No matter how long you pressed and how many times you pressed it, nothing happen. Your Samsung Galaxy Tab remains dead with a black screen.
• You press the Power button. It vibrates. But then it is dead again.
• You press the Power button while charging. It shows the battery charging icon for a while, then it is dead again. 
• You press the Power button. It freezes during boot up.

If you encounter this kind of problem, don't give up yet! Try this:

Touch any part of the screen with one finger, at the same time press the Power button. Wait for a while (and pray - might take up to 2 minutes). Your Samsung Galaxy Tab might come back to life again.

HTC Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) built-in battery reading graph

There are several 3rd party battery metering apps which can draw graph based on battery reading, but if you have recently updated your HTC smartphone to Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread), your phone actually has a pretty nice built-in battery reading graph within the system. This feature is found in Gingerbread version of HTC Incredible S, HTC Desire HD, etc.

Go to Settings > About phone >Battery > Battery use and you'll see the screen similar to as below.

Note that on top of the screen is a slanting slope with information telling you how much time your phone is on battery since last charged. In fact, that slanting slope is your phone's battery reading graph. Right below the graph you will be able to see some blue marks. Don't worry, they are not screen display problem, but are actually indicators when battery is used by phone activities. If you charged your phone, you will also see green bar plotting the battery charging period.

Tap on it and you will get a clearer graph. The blue battery usage marks are further break down to the respective activity.

If you turn your phone to landscape orientation, this screen will also adjust itself to landscape view.

I think, with this nice battery plotting feature, you don't need to use any 3rd party battery metering apps anymore.

App: Keep an eye on apps that access your private data with Lookout Privacy Advisor

There are quite a number of private data stored in our smartphone, including our identity, contact details, location tracks, address book details, phone call logs, SMS messages, etc.

Do you want to keep an eye on the apps installed in your Android smartphone, to know what kind of private data they are able to access? In fact, these apps get access to our private data because we allowed them so during installation.

Anyhow, we don't want the apps to access our private data unless really needed. For example, SMS application such as Handcent need to access our mobile number, address book and SMS messages in order for it to function, but it should not access our location tracks unnecessarily.

Lookout Mobile Security (Premium Edition) for Android has a handy tools called Privacy Advisor that can scan through all the installed apps in our phone and provide us the insight of what kind of private data they are able to access.

After the scan, Privacy Advisor  will report how many apps has access to our Track Location, Identity Info, Messages and Contacts respectively.

It will list out all the apps with such private data access, and provide detail explanation of the findings.

If we click the "App Info & Options" button, it will go to the phone's application management function, which we have the option to uninstall the app if we want.

I find this feature pretty useful, but it is not available in the free version of Lookout Mobile Security.

App: NetQin Android Booster aka Mobile Guard

If you are using an Android phone, I would like to introduce you NetQin Android Booster (a.k.a. Mobile Guard), which is a utility that can automatically free up memory, monitor network and power usage, prolong battery time, etc. This is an ads supported free app, which you can find in the Android Market.

If you are using S60 Symbian phone, there is also a Symbian version of NetQin Mobile Guard, but there are lots of different from this Android version.

Android Booster comes with a handy widget. With it, you can watch the battery level in percentage, quickly toggle the WiFi, Bluetooth and Mobile Data Network. There is also a one button quick optimizer to clean up running apps and free up memory and save some battery usage.

Although the new Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) in HTC Incredible S already has a quick setting page to toggle the WiFi, Bluetooth, Mobile Network, etc., it still involves a few steps to reach there, and I find Android Booster really handy for switching these connections on/off. Samsung Galaxy Tab also has handy WiFi and Bluetooth toggle by pulling down its Notifications, but lack of Mobile Network toggle.

Tap on "Android Booster" will open up the app itself, and tap on the battery will bring you direct to the Battery Consumption Tracker screen of the app.

When you open up the app, you will be shown the Overview screen, which displays the memory usage, mobile data network usage and battery remaining. The same "optimize" button as in the widget is also found here.

The Utilities screen lists down all the functionalities of Android Booster.

Task Manager lists out the running apps and their memory usage, and you can kill them here if you want. This is similar to the famous Advanced Task Killer apps. So with Android Booster, you don't need another Task Killer apps anymore.

Network Manager displays your data plan consumption and WiFi usage, which you can counter check with 3G Watchdog Pro. This is not as comprehensive as 3G Watchdog Pro, but will give you basic information about your network bandwidth usage.

Power Manager (a.k.a. Battery Consumption Tracker) will tell you what is the item that consume the battery most.

If you tap on Applications, it will further tell you which app consume the battery most.

Application Manager enables you to see the listing of installed system apps and 3rd party apps. Tap on the app and you'll be able to run it, show its detail info, and even uninstall it if it is a 3rd party app.

File Manager lets you access the file system of your memory card. You can view the folders and files, and perform functions such as delete, rename, copy, move, share, create new folder, etc.

Call / SMS Manager is another app by NetQin which can block unwanted calls and/or SMS, and also hide out secret SMS and/or call logs.

Location Privacy Manager teaches you how to switch off the option to disable Google from collecting location data from your phone.

As you can see, Android Booster is feature rich, and it is free (but you will see Ads bar at the bottom).

The dual-core HTC Sensation to debut in Malaysia on 1 June 2011

There is news from Cubic Platforms that the dual-core HTC Sensation smartphone will be made available to Malaysia from 1 June 2011.

The HTC Sensation put emphasis on its multimedia capability, plays video and music with SRS virtual surround sound, and able to record full HD video with stereo sound. Its official retail price is RM2,299, slightly higher than the HTC Desire HD.

Specification:

• 4.3-inch Super LCD with qHD (540 x 960) resolution
• 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm MSM 8260 Snapdragon processor
• Adreno 220 GPU
• Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) OS
• HTC Sense v3.0 UI
• 1 GB internal storage, 768 MB RAM
• 8 MP main camera with dual-LED flash
• VGA front camera
• Bluetooth v3.0 with A2DP
• Comes with 8 GB microSD card
• 1520 mAh Li-ion battery

You may be able to see it at Cubic Platforms, Sunway Giza, Kota Damansara.

Updating HTC Incredible S from Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) to Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread)

The OTA (Over-The-Air) Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) of HTC Incredible S smartphone has been made available to Malaysia today (26 May 2011) morning.

You can manually check for the update now, or wait for the automated update alert appear on your HTC Incredible S smartphone sooner or later.

Although this update will not cause any data or setting lost to your smartphone, it is always a wise choice to perform a backup using tools such as MyBackup (or the paid MyBackupPro) or Titanium Backup (or the paid Titanium Backup Pro) prior to the update, just in case...

Before the update, my HTC Incredible S is running on Android 2.2.1 (Froyo) software number 1.38.707.1.

After the update, it is now running on Android 2.3.3 (Gingerbread) software number 2.12.707.5 with HTC Sense 2.1 (sadly, not the newer 3.0 yet).

Manual update is pretty easy. Just go to Settings > About phone > Software updates and click on the "Check now" button. You should be able to get the update notification as below.

After the download, you'll come to a confirmation screen to apply the update to your phone.

If you answer OK to Install now, your phone will be rebooted and the update process will begin. It takes a while to complete. Then the phone will reboot again, and your phone is now powered with Android Gingerbread!

Download and read the complete HTC Incredible S User Guide

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

Well, the complete HTC Incredible S User Guide of 214 pages does exist, and you can freely download it from the Internet.

This comprehensive user guide covers all the content in the Quick Guide, plus many more, including:

• Basics
• Getting started
• Personalizing
• Phone calls
• People
• Keyboard
• Messages
• Accounts and sync
• Social
• Email
• Calendar
• Clock and weather
• Internet connections
• Web browser
• Bluetooth
• Camera
• Photos, videos and music
• HTCSense.com
• Maps and location
• More apps
• Security
• Settings
• Update and reset
• Trademarks and copyrights
• Index

Click here to download the complete HTC Incredible S User Guide.

How to check if your HTC smartphone is genuine original (under SiS warranty)

Since SiS Corporation is the sole distributor of HTC smartphones in Malaysia, the HTC phones imported by SiS to Malaysia and under their warranty are generally called "genuine original set". Those imported by other vendors, not going through the official HTC distribution channel, and not under HTC/SiS warranty (probably warranty by the import vendors themselves), are generally called "AP set".

Because there is a price difference between genuine original set and AP set, if you are buying a genuine original set (which is normally more expensive than AP set), you might want to check if your HTC smartphone is really a genuine original set, officially supported and warranty by HTC through SiS.

You might also want to ensure that you are getting a brand new unopened set, instead of otherwise a display set, etc.

Here is the way to check it. A new HTC genuine original set must fulfil all the criteria below:

• The packaging box should be sealed with SiS sticker (photo as below)

• The phone's serial no. and IMEI no. should be the same as printed on the box and at the back of the phone (in battery compartment)
• You can check if the serial no. and IMEI no. is under SiS warranty here
• Inside the box, there should be 2 stickers with same serial no. and IMEI no. for you to stick on the warranty card
• All accessories should be sealed in plastic bag, except the battery charger. There should be a cut opening on the battery charger's plastic bag, for SiS to paste the warranty sticker onto the charger
• Beside the charger, there are also SiS warranty sticker on the phone and on the battery
• The battery is already inside the phone, but the circuit is blocked with a piece of plastic, which you need to remove in order for the battery to function
• The battery should be partially charged
• At the side of the box, you can find a sticker providing instruction about HTC/SiS online product warranty registration (photo as below)

• At the other side of the box, you can find another sticker about free introductory training provided for the phone
• If you are getting an HTC Incredible S phone, the free 8GB microSD memory card should be pre-installed in the phone's memory slot
• You can register the HTC phone for warranty here. Need to scan and upload your receipt of purchase during the registration process

Dynaquest Monthly Digest will stop publishing by August 2011

I have been subscribing to Dynaquest's Monthly Digest for years, and have been using it to shortlist and analyse my stock picks. It is sad to know that this publication will come to an end.

Founded by Dr Neoh Soon Kean (梁孙健), Dynaquest has been publishing precious fundamental analysis information of the Malaysian stock market, including the Stock Performance Guide (SPG), the Second Board Guide (SBG, which has ceased publication few years ago), Monthly Digest and the expensive Stockbase.

Contents of Monthly Digest includes:

• Summary of marketwide information
• Ranking of companies by PER & DY
• Ranking by discount to NAB/Share
• Ranking by Market Capitalisation
• Ranking by combination of PER, DY, PX/NAB and ROE
• Valuation of TSR and warrant
• Valuation of REITs
• Dynaquest's selected stocks
• EMAS index vs Sectoral indices
• EMAS index vs Major Global indices
• Entitlements information
• Summary of updates for the month
• Financial statistics
• Weekly price charts

Although there are a few competitors to this publication, those competitors are yet to close up the gap in getting close to Monthly Digest's comprehensiveness, up-to-date info, detail and usefulness.

Existing subscribers of Monthly Digest are given 3 options to:

• Get a refund for remaining subscription paid
• Continue receiving Financial Statistics part of Monthly Digest in PDF format
• Convert to Stockbase subscription

Stockbase is a set of updated KLSE public listed companies' information and fundamentals, selling at a few thousand ringgit per year. This will be too expensive for retail investors.

Tweaking Ubuntu 11.04 easily with Ubuntu Tweak

Ubuntu Tweak is an open source tool licensed with GPL v2, designed to make easy to configure your Ubuntu Linux system and desktop settings using its user friendly GUI interface.

It is developed by Tualatrix Chou (周鼎), a 24 years old Chinese guy who also founded HZLUG (Hangzhou Linux User Group).

Features of Ubuntu Tweak includes:

• Display Basic System Information (Distribution, Kernel, CPU, Memory, etc.)
• GNOME Session Control
• Auto Start Program Control
• Quick installer for popular applications
• Lots of 3rd-party sources to keep applications up-to-date
• Clean unneeded packages or cache to free disk space
• Show/Hide and Change Splash screen
• Show/Hide desktop icons or Mounted Volumes
• Show/Hide/Rename Computer, Home, Trash or Network icon
• Tweak Metacity Window Manager's style and behaviour
• Compiz Fusion settings, Screen Edge Settings, Window Effect Settings, Menu Effect Settings
• Set the Shortcuts to archive quicker access your favourite applications
• GNOME Panel Settings
• Nautilus Settings
• Advanced Power Management Settings
• System Security Settings
• and many more...

For example, many of us prefer to have the Window Titlebar buttons on the right instead of on the left. You can easily set this with Window Manager Settings in Ubuntu Tweak.

You can download the DEB installation package of Ubuntu Tweak from its website. To install it after download, just double click on the DEB file.

After installation, you can find Ubuntu Tweak inside the System category of Applications. Click the Applications launcher on the side bar of Ubuntu 11.04 Unity Desktop, drop down the search selector which default to All Applications and select System. Alternatively, you can search for "Ubuntu Tweak" by key-in its name in the application search box.

Deloitte Technology Trends 2011 Report - The natural convergence of business and IT

Deloitte has released their annual Technology Trends report for 2011, taglined "The natural convergence of business and IT".

This report examines the ever-evolving landscape of technology put to business use. Although it is written from the perspective of the CIO, it also informs business executives on exciting new possibilities to apply technology to address their most pressing business challenges.

10 important trends were identified in this report, clustered in 2 categories.

1. (Re)Emerging Enablers are trends that many CIOs and technology executives have spent time, thought and resources on in the past.

They are:

• Visualization
• "Almost-Enterprise" Applications
• Cyber Intelligence
• CIOs as Revolutionaries
• The End of the "Death of ERP"

2. Disruptive Deployments are trends that present significant new opportunities to improve business processes, rethink operations or even enter into new business models. The technologies themselves are not necessarily disruptive, but when when deployed, could disrupt the cost, capabilities, or even the core operating model of IT and the business.

They are:

• Real Analytics
• Social Computing
• User Engagement
• Applied Mobility
• Capability Clouds

Among the list, the convergence of Social and Mobile computing plays significantly.

Click here to download the 68 pages Deloitte Technology Trends 2011 Report.

How to switch from the new Ubuntu 11.04 Unity Desktop to the classic GNOME Desktop

The newly released Ubuntu Linux 11.04 has a new default Unity Desktop interface, which brings different experience from the classic GNOME Desktop in all its previous releases which you are already familiar with.

If you dislike this new Unity Desktop for whatever reason, here is the easy way for you to revert back to the Ubuntu classic desktop.

When you are at the Ubuntu login screen, click on the user to login, and you will be able to see the taskbar at the bottom of the screen as shown below. One of the item on the taskbar is the session selector.

Change the session from the default "Ubuntu" to "Ubuntu Classic" and proceed with the login, your desktop will now changed from the new Unity Desktop to the traditional Ubuntu GNOME Desktop. You just need to apply this setting once, and it will be the default for all subsequence login.

If your Ubuntu is set to automatically login the default user, you can get to the login screen by logout the user.

Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) released

Ubuntu Linux 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) has just released on 28 April 2011.

This version brings some new experience to the user.

The installation process involves less number of step.

Its default desktop interface is a new Unity Desktop instead of the traditional GNOME Desktop. The experience is now more Macintosh alike. You can notice the sidebar on its left, which doesn't found in previous version of Ubuntu. It took me a while to figure out where to access to my favourite applications in this new desktop.

The default office productivity suite has also shifted from OpenOffice.org to LibreOffice.

If you want to revert from the new Ubuntu Unity Desktop to the traditional Ubuntu GNOME Desktop, click here to find out the easy method to do so.

Cooling Unifi Broadband Termination Unit (BTU) using Vztec NC2165 notebook cooler

The black Huawei brand Unifi Broadband Termination Unit (BTU) has a metal casing. This BTU is supposed to work 24x7, and when you touch on its metal surface, you will feel some heat.

I use a Vztec NC2165 notebook cooler as its cooling solution. After installed, when you touch the BTU metal surface again, you will feel it is cool.

This Vztec NC2165 is USB powered. You can find one USB port in front of the Dlink DIR-615 Unifi Residential Gateway (RG), which can be a good choice for its power source. Alternatively, you can use any available USB port as its power source.

There are many USB powered notebook cooler in the market, most are just too big for this Unifi BTU, and their fan(s) might not match with the place of the BTU ventilation holes on top. As you can see in the picture, this Vztec NC2165 just suit perfectly, and it cost only RM15.

If you are also using Unifi HSBB, I recommend this inexpensive BTU cooling solution for you.

Cleaning camera lens with LensPen miniPro II

How do you normally clean the dirt, dust, grease, fingerprint, etc. on the camera lens of your digital camera and/or handphone? Using special cleaning fluid? Using brush? Wiping with microfibre? Wiping with cloth? Wiping with tissue paper? Wiping with your shirt? Never clean and let it be?

Regardless how you do the cleaning, I believe the bottom line is:

• The glass surface, as well as other parts of the device, won't be hurt or scratched
• The cleaning must be effective

I use a Canadian product called LensPen miniPro II to clean the camera lens of my digital camera as well as my handphone. It is very effective and inexpensive (selling at RM23 only).

LensPen miniPro II contains 2 cleaning parts. At one end, there is a retractable ultra fine brush to brush away dust and other particles deposited on the lens. At the other end, it has a special cleaning tip to wipe the lens. It is claimed that this special tip can do more than 500 times cleaning.

LensPen miniPro II has a compact size, easy to carry around or put in the camera bag. Its cleaning tip is small enough to be used for compact digital camera and the handphone camera lens. There are also LensPen products with larger cleaning tip for bigger DSLR lens. There is also LensPen MicroPro to clean even smaller lens surface.

To let you have a better picture of its length and size, here is my LensPen miniPro II putting together with my Canon PowerShot S95 digital camera.

Luminance histogram and RGB histograms in digital camera

One of the nice features in digital camera that cannot be found in traditional camera is the ability to display histogram.

Histogram shows the distribution of brightness in an image horizontally, and the amount of brightness vertically. A typical histogram looks like mountain as below. It is a handy tool to evaluate the exposure.

If you see the peaks are gathered on the left, the image is dark; and if you see the peaks are gathered on the right, the image is bright.

In normal situation, we would like the peaks to be in the middle, so that there is no under-exposure (too dark) or over-exposure (too bright). However, there are situations when dark is OK (e.g. shooting the Earth Hour scene) and there are situations when bright is OK too. Anyhow, you can make use of histogram to assist you in adjusting the exposure value of your picture.

Canon PowerShot S95 camera is able to show histogram in Shooting Modes and Playbank Modes. Histogram is not available in Auto modes (you won't need it, as the camera is taking care of the exposure adjustment for you), and is available for P, Tv, Av, M modes.

Canon PowerShot S95 has two customizable shooting displays, and the default setting for each of the shooting modes is different. You can use the Custom Display setting to turn histogram on or off for either one or both of the shooting displays. You can switch between the custom displays using the DISP. button.

Histogram can also be shown in Playback screen of Canon PowerShot S95. You need to switch to the Detailed Information Display playback screen in order to see the histogram of the picture. You can rotate among the available playback screens by pressing the DISP. button. You can set the default playback mode with the Review Info option.
Canon PowerShot S95 is able to display the RGB histograms of the picture in Detailed Information Display screen. You can toggle RGB histograms on and off by pressing the "Up" button when you are in Detailed Information Display.

The RGB histograms show individual graph for each of the Red, Green and Blue colour captured by the camera in the picture. This will be good piece of information to judge the colour and white balance of the picture.

Shooting modes of Canon PowerShot S95 - from fully automatic to fully manual (part 2 of 2)

In the 1st part of this article, I wrote about the shooting modes of Canon PowerShot S95 digital camera when you dial its mode dial clockwise from Auto (inclusive). Now I would like to share about what I learnt about the shooting modes of this camera when you dial anticlockwise from Auto.

P-mode (Program mode)

P-mode is very close to Auto mode as opposed to Manual mode, in the sense that the camera will automatically adjust the aperture and shutter speed for you. One of the major reason for using P-mode (and above) is the ability to save the picture in RAW format for post processing.

In P-mode, you can decide on the image brightness/darkness by controling the ISO level. You can also make correction to the white balance.

Normally, we like to keep the ISO level as low as possible to produce better quality photographs. That's why we want to take control over ISO level adjustment rather than using Auto-ISO.

ISO level controls the light sensitivity of the camera's image sensor. If the ISO level is too low, you might get camera shake (blur) in the photos. If the ISO level is too high, you will get a lot of digital noise (grains).

Canon PowerShot S95 supports ISO levels from 80 until 3200.

P-mode is handy when quick adjustment is needed to shoot the precious moment that won't wait.


TV-mode (Time Value, Shutter Priority mode)

TV-mode allows us to control the shutter speed, which determine how long the camera's image sensor is exposed to light.

You can use longer shutter speed to capture trailing motion effect, and shorter shutter speed to freeze the moving objects.

Canon PowerShot S95 supports shutter speed as fast as 1/1600 second and as slow as 15 seconds. You need TV-mode to set for slower shutter speed less than 1 second.


AV-mode (Apperture Value, Apperture Prioirty mode)

The aperture controls the depth of field of the photo.

Wider aperture enable you to produce photos of shallower depth of field, with clear focus object and blur out its background. Smaller aperture creates deeper image, with more sharpness across the whole picture.

AV-mode is best when shooting macro (close up) photography with wide aperture. It is also suitable to shoot for landscapes and sceneries with small aperture.

Canon PowerShot S95 supports apperture value from f/2.0 to f/8.0. The smaller the f-number, the larger will be the aperture. One of the selling point of S95 is its f/2.0 capability.


M-mode (Manual mode)

This is the fully manual mode for the professionals. In Manual mode, you take full control to adjust the aperture (rotate the front dial) and shutter speed (rotate the control dial). You can also decide on the ISO level.

As opposed to the P-Mode, the exposure reading is displayed on the LCD screen, and change accordingly when you adjust your aperture and shutter speed.


C-mode (Custom mode)

This is a place for you to instantly get back your favourite settings. You can make the adjustments and settings to the camera, then save them by using the "Save Settings" menu options. When you come to C-mode, you'll get back the settings and adjustments.

Shooting modes of Canon PowerShot S95 - from fully automatic to fully manual (part 1 of 2)

Canon PowerShot S95 is my first high end digital camera. Before this, I use a Kodak EasyShare LS743 point-and-shoot digital camera which doesn't have so much features (it is my 1st digital camera purchased in 2004 and is 7 years old now).

So, what I'm going to write down here is something new I just learnt in order to know how to use my PowerShot S95. If you are also a rookie photographer like me, probably this information might be useful to you too.

You can find the Canon PowerShot S95 camera's shooting mode dial on its top right. This is the dial to control among fully automatic, semi-automatic, and fully manual modes of photographing. It is also the place to switch between photographing and video-graphing.

AUTO mode

This is the fully automatic point-and-shoot mode to let the camera decide and adjust itself on almost everything to get a good quality picture (in the camera's A.I. points of view), and you cannot take control most of the settings in this mode. In Auto mode, your main concern is the focus (or focuses) of the image. Canon PowerShot S95 supports 9-point face detection AiAF, and also 1-point AF at the center.

This is a good mode to start with, before you familiar with the camera features and functions. You can straightaway start shooting photos with this mode right after you get it, even without reading its manual or knowing its controls and settings.

It seems that you can only save the photo in JPEG and cannot save it in RAW mode. Photo saved in RAW mode allows you to do post processing using Canon Digital Photo Professional software provided in the CD that bundled in the box with the camera.

Photo saved in JPEG image is 8-bit image and RAW mode is 14-bit image. This means more colour information is saved in RAW mode.

Low light (Candle) mode

This is a point-and-shoot mode used to take photos in dim environment. The camera will automatically use a wider aperture and higher ISO level for the picture. (Normally, we should use ISO level as low as possible to reduce noise in the picture)

It is ideal to capture dark situations, especially when you don't want to use the flash light. Example will be birthday cake with lighted candles in a dark indoor.

Scene (SCN) mode

This is a point-and-shoot mode to tell the camera to optimize itself specific to the subject you want to shoot. Sometimes, the camera Auto mode has no idea what type of subject you are photographing, and you can get better pictures using SCN mode instead of Auto.

The modes available for Canon PowerShot S95 are: portrait (shooting people), landscape (shooting scenery), kids & pets (capture the moment while they are moving around), beach (people in bright surrounding), underwater (aquatic life, with higher ISO shot), foliage (trees and leaves), snow (people in white snowy background), and fireworks (higher ISO shot).

Besides that, you can also make special effect to your photos in SCN mode. The effects available for Canon PowerShot S95 are: Super Vivid, Poster Effect, Sepia, Black/White, Color Accent, Color Swap, High Dynamic Range, Miniature, Fish-eye, and Nostalgic.

In addition, you can produce panoramic (long) photos using software, by merging the continuous shot of Stitch Assist pictures.

Video mode

One of the nice features of Canon PowerShot S95 is its capability to shoot 720p HD video.
There are 3 picture quality options for video shooting in this camera:

• 1280x720, 24 frames/second (fps). You'll probably need a Class 4 or higher SDHC Card to get a smoother movie with this setting.
• 640x480, 30 fps
• 320x240, 30 fps

Special effects available for Canon PowerShot S95 video shooting are Miniature Effect, Color Accent, and Color Swap.

... continue reading on Part 2

Good deal to buy Canon PowerShot S95 premium compact camera @ PIKOM PC Fair 2011

I have been eyeing for Canon PowerShot S95 premium compact digital camera since its launch. This is a good camera close to DSLR quality and standard with an easy-to-carry light-weight compact body. The camera is made in Japan (not made in China) and its official list price is RM1549.

This Canon PowerShot S95 camera received a lot of good comments and recommendations in the Internet. You can use it as a point-and-shoot in its fully automated mode, and there are also many manual controls for you to play around as if using a DSLR. If you don't play around with lenses (which will probably burn a hole in your pocket), perhaps S95 is good enough for you to take some good pictures.

Today I found a good deal in PIKOM PC Fair 2011 at KL Convention Centre, and finally bought it at the price of RM1299 using credit card. There are several exhibition booths selling this Canon PowerShot S95 camera, all selling at the price of RM1399 with different free gift goodies, and I only found one willing to sell at RM1299. The booth is located at Exhibition Hall 4.

Here is what I get at the cost of RM1299 (using credit card).

• Canon PowerShot S95 digital camera with all standard accessories in its box (made in Japan and with Canon Genuine DNA sticker)
• 1+1 years warranty
• Canon screen protector
• Canon camera's protective case for PowerShot series
• Toshiba 8GB SDHC memory card (5 years warranty)
• Canon digital alarm clock and MP3 player
• No-brand 170mm small tripod
• Fahrenheit (飞轮海) concert 2DVD pack
• Fahrenheit (飞轮海) recycle bag

Actually, the following are standard goodies that all Canon booths in PIKOM PC Fair 2011 will give. The rest need to bargain to get.

• 1+1 years warranty
• 8GB SDHC memory card
• Canon digital alarm clock and MP3 player
• Fahrenheit (飞轮海) concert 2DVD pack
• Fahrenheit (飞轮海) recycle bag

Forseeing that the recent earthquakes in Japan will probably affect its production and supply, I think the PIKOM PC Fair now is a good time to still get a good deal to buy made in Japan product(s) like this one.

Use Unifi HyppTV to preview new and upcoming cinema movie trailers

With Unifi HyppTV, now it is very easy for us to know the new and upcoming movies coming soon or currently on screen in local cinemas. We can even instantly and freely preview the movie trailers.

Cinema Movie Trailers is the first option inside the Unifi HyppTV iNTER@CTIVE menu.

It will list down the new and upcoming movies to be on screen in local cinemas, and also allows us to preview those movies' trailer.

Nice feature isn't it? I wonder why Astro doesn't have such feature, although TGV and GSC are both under the same group with Astro.

Checking the HSDPA/3G/EDGE/GPRS coverage area of Celcom, Digi & Maxis

Before you sign up for a new data plan with either Celcom, Digi or Maxis, I think it is wise for you to check up their HSDPA broadband coverage availability in your favourite areas. Otherwise, you might regret to later find out your frequent visit area only has low speed GPRS coverage.

All Celcom, Digi and Maxis provide a "coverage map" for you to check for their broadband data service coverage easily. Celcom and Digi provide a more detail and precise map, while Maxis map is not so detail.

The URLs to check for their HSDPA/3G/EDGE/GPRS coverage online are:

• Celcom: http://coverage.celcom.com.my/CelcomCoverageIIPub/faces/CelcomCoverage.jsp
• Digi: http://www.digi.com.my/internet/coverage.html
• Maxis: http://www.maxis.com.my/3G/coverage_local.asp

Below are their HSDPA broadband coverage around SS2 area.

Celcom:

Digi:

Maxis:

Three of them also let you search for the coverage area using location keywords. The  keyword search webpage of Celcom and Digi is the same URL as above, while the keyword search webpage of Maxis is http://www.maxis.com.my/3G/coverage_search.asp.

Digi to sell HTC Incredible S for RM599 only on 2 April 2011 (limited to 300 units)

The long awaited HTC Incredible S Android phone is now officially available in Malaysia. Currently, the official distribution channel is exclusive to Digi Stores only.

HTC Incredible S is equipped with:

• Android 2.2.1 Froyo, upgradable to 2.3 Gingerbread soon
• 4" Super LCD capacitive multitouch screen
• 1 GHz CPU
• 1.1 GB ROM, 768 MB RAM
• 8GB microSD (support up to 32GB)
• HTC Sense v3.0 UI
• Li-Ion 1450 mAh battery
• 8 megapixel rear camera
• 1.3 megapixel front camera

Its normal price is set at RM1,999 when launched. Digi is selling it at RM1,449 for 12-month contract, and RM1,199 for 24-month contract.

In order to get the HTC Incredible S at the price of RM599 only, you need to:

• Sign up DG Smart Plan (RM68 per month)
• Be the first 300 to purchase the phone on 2 April 2011 at one of the Digi Retail Centres
• Tie up with 24-month contract for the DG Smart Plan

Click here for more information about this Digi HTC Incredible S one day promotion.

Garmin releases MalSingMaps Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei NT 2011.10 for free update

Garmin has made available MalSingMaps (MSM) Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei NT 2011.10 (2011-Q1) for free update now.

You can click here to download the installation file of MalSingMaps Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei NT 2011.10 from Garmin server. The download file is split into 4, and you just need to download the file relevant to your Garmin GPS navigator:

• nuvi 3790
• nuvi 1250
• nuvi 1460, 1350, 765 or 255w
• nuvi 205 or 205w

The installation file for nuvi 255w is 237MB (243,671KB), almost the same size with its previous version.

For nuvi 255w, the installation program requires you to have an SD Card slotted in your GPS before it can proceed. It will install gmapprom1.img (42,128KB) and SGMYMAL.JCV (215,403KB) into your SD Card instead of the flash memory of your GPS. This is something new from all the previous nuvi 255w MSM updates. Anyhow, the gmapprom1.unl file is still updated in the flash memory of the GPS.

In fact, you can move gmapprom1.img and SGMYMAL.JCV back to the flash memory of GPS after the installation.

During the installation process, you'll be asked for the unlock key. The key is stored in the existing gmapprom1.unl file in your Garmin GPS navigator, which you can open with Notepad or any text editor. Just copy and paste the key to the installer when asked.

Free unlimited full version of Ashampoo Burning Studio Elements 10 (limited time offer)

Right now, Computeractive is offering free exclusive license (normal price US$29.99) for the famous Ashampoo Burning Studio Elements 10. This offer will end by 14 April 2011.

Ashampoo Burning Studio Elements 10 provides the straightforward, fast and effective way to burn movies, music and data easily. It is a handy tool to create data discs, burn backups, rip music, create audio CDs, burn already existing film files on Blu-ray Disc, create/burn disc images, create bootable discs, erase data in rewritable discs, design and print labels and covers, etc.

Note that there are several versions of Ashampoo Burning Studio software available for download:

• Ashampoo Burning Studio Elements 10 is based on Version 10 of the software
• Ashampoo Burning Studio 2010 Advanced is based on Version 9 of the software
• Ashampoo Burning Studio Free is based on Version 6 of the software

This Ashampoo Burning Studio Elements 10 can be upgraded with a discounted price to Ashampoo Burning Studio 10 (premium edition) which contains more features, including the Autoplay Editor module for building auto-start data discs with attractive interactive menus.

Click here to download your full version of Ashampoo Burning Studio Element 10 for free. You will need an email address to receive your free unlimited time license key from Ashampoo.

Shaolin soccer - from movie to comics to games to reality

Shaolin soccer (少林足球) is about applying Shaolin Kung Fu to play soccer.

In 2001, Hong Kong comedy actor and director Stephen Chow (周星驰) came out with the famous Shaolin Soccer film. In less than a year time, a 4 volume Shaolin Soccer comics was published in Hong Kong. Following that, several Shaolin Soccer computer games also appear in the market.

Now, you guess what? The actual legendary Shaolin Temple (少林寺) in Dengfeng city (登封市)，Henan province (河南省) of China has established a Shaolin Youth Soccer Academy (少林青少年足球学校) in October 2010.

And who is the chief coach of this soccer academy? He is not a monk, nor a Chinese. He is Tchami, a former Cameroon international player.

Yes, Shaolin soccer has now come to reality. Among its main mission is to improve China's soccer skill, with the hope to bring some of the Shaolin warrior-monks to be international soccer superstars some day.

"Shaolin Kung Fu and football are similar in some aspects, especially the brave and diligent spirit of kung fu which I think will help promote the level of Chinese football," said Shi Yanlu (释延鲁), the chief coach of Shaolin warrior-monks training base.

We all know that although China has been superb in various sport games, they have never been outstanding in the soccer arena. Can we see China make its way into the World Cup championship with Shaolin soccer? Time will tell.

Clearing the doubt on My First Home Scheme a.k.a. Skim Rumah Pertamaku (SRP)

My First Home Scheme (a.k.a. Skim Rumah Pertamaku, SRP) was just launched by the government of Malaysia, aimed to help younger segments to buy their first home.

Without the scheme, most bank only offer up to a maximum of 90% financing for housing loan, and the home buyer need to prepare for the first 10% of the house, partially paid as the down payment or booking fee before S&P agreement is signed, with the rest payable within a very short period of time right after S&P agreement signed.

Under the scheme, mortgage borrower can obtain 100% housing loan from the participating banks. Cagamas SRP Berhad (a unit under Bank Negara) will guarantee the bank on financing above the 90% level. Borrower is liable to the bank for the full financing amount (up to 100%), and the guarantee indemnifies the bank for any loss incurred as a result of financing above 90%.

Here are some of the information I gathered about this My First Home Scheme:

• Borrower must be an employee in the private sector (not applicable to self-employed, non-employed or government servant)
• Borrower must be employed for more than 6 months with the same employer (not applicable for employee still under probation period)
• Borrower must be a Malaysian
• Borrower gross monthly income must not exceed RM3000
• Borrower's age must not exceed 35 years old
• The property must be a residential unit
• The property can be completed or being developed
• The property can be from developer or from existing owner
• The property must be the first property under the borrower's name
• The property must be occupied by the borrower (must not be rented out or keep vacant)
• Cost of property within the range of RM100k to RM220k
• Not applicable to refinancing existing property
• Available for both conventional and Islamic housing loans
• Not available for flexible home loan or any housing loan with redrawable features
• Compulsory fire insurance/takaful. Depends on the bank if MRTA/MRTT/MLTA is also compulsory or not
• Maximum financing tenure is 30 years
• Monthly financing repayment amount should not be more than 1/3 of borrower’s monthly gross income. This may be increased to a maximum of 1/2 of borrower's monthly gross income, subjected to approval from the bank.
• Joint application is only applicable to family member only (spouse or siblings)
• All applicants in joint application must meet all the requirements above, including citizenship, first home, employment, age, income criteria, etc.

Participating banks of this My First Home Scheme include:

• Affin Bank
• Alliance Bank
• Ambank
• Bank Islam
• Bank Muamalat
• CIMB Bank
• EON Bank
• Hong Leong Bank
• Maybank
• OCBC Bank
• Public Bank
• RHB
• Standard Chartered
• UOB

Click here to go to the official website of My First Home Scheme.

Disclaimer: The above information is gathered from several reliable sources. I have no guarantee nor liability on its total correctness. Please verify the information by yourself.

Earth Hour @ 8.30pm this Saturday 26 March 2011 - go beyond the hour

Time is moving fast, and another year has past since I last posted about Earth Hour. Yes, it is back again to be happened on this coming Saturday 26 March 2011. The time remains fixed at 8.30pm.

This year, the theme is about "going beyond the hour". Well, this is not talking about switching off your light for more than 1 hour. This is about using the Earth Hour event to commit to a meaningful action, be it big or small, that will sustain for the future of our planet earth. And this echoes well to what I wrote on my Earth Hour article here last year.

Note that this year, there is a slight change to the Earth Hour logo to reflect the theme. Compare with the logo in my previous Earth Hour article and you'll see the different.

You can share with the whole world about your action of going beyond the hour here.

Bank Negara imposes higher income requirement for credit card holders

Bank Negara has just imposed some new measures on credit cards, with objective "to promote prudent financial management and responsible business practices".

Now, you need to have a minimum income of RM24,000 per annum in order to be eligible to apply for new credit card, compared with the previous RM18,000 per annum.

In addition, if your income is less than RM36,000 per annum, you can only hold credit cards from a maximum of 2 issuers, and your maximum combined credit limit per issuer shall not exceed 2x your monthly income.

This will affect at least 50% of existing credit card holders in Malaysia, as "currently 50% of 3.2 million credit card holders have income below RM36,000".

I think this is a good measure, as long as the merchants also accept for alternative card payment mode, such as debit cards, charge cards (American Express, Diners Club, ...) or ATM cards (MEPS, e-POS, ...).

After all, credit card is meant for convenient to make cashless payment, and not for making spending that we can't affort to repay in near future.

There will be tighter security for credit card transactions too.

Effective 1 January 2012, transaction alerts via Short Messaging Service (SMS) will be implemented by card issuers for their card holders after transactions are performed. But who will bear the cost of the SMS sending? I hope that it is not the card holders.

On top of that,  Personal Identification Number (PIN) verification for all card transactions will be imposed from 1 January 2015 onwards. This is a good measure, especially for unattended transactions such as petrol payment at the pump station. However, I wonder how this is going to apply for credit cards issued overseas. We do have many expatriates and tourists holding foriegn credit cards!

So, apart from the credit card holders, these new measures will most probably also affect:

• CIMB Direct Access - which target to fresh graduates.
• Mobile operators - they will have increased income in SMS soon.

Microsoft releases Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) today

After about 1 year of public testing since its 1st release of Platform Preview to developers on March 2010, Microsoft finally releases Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) today, in conjunction with the South by Southwest Interactive Festival (SXSW) 2011 in Austin, Texas.

IE9 improves on support to the latest web technologies nowadays, including HTML5, CSS3, SVG, XHTML, and a new Javascript engine called "Chakra" (is this developed by Indian developers??). It also features GPU-powered hardware acceleration for better and faster graphical and video support.

However, IE9 is only made available for Windows 7 and Windows Vista, and is not supporting Windows XP. This means that if you are still using Windows XP and want to use a modern web browser, you are forced to upgrade to later version of Windows, or you better change your favourite browser to the upcoming Firefox 4 or Chrome 9, which will also support for the latest web technologies, and at the same time still available to Windows XP.

Click here to download Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.

How to pay Unifi bill online using credit card

Unifi bill payment account is different from Telekom or Streamyx payment account.

There are 2 places in the Internet where you can make payment to your Unifi HSBB bills with your credit card.

If you have a Maybank credit card, you can login to Maybank2u, go to Bill Payment section and make a payment to the payee named as "Telekom Malaysia Berhad - Unifi". Of course, you can also pay with your balance in your Maybank account there.

Another place in the Internet to make payment to your Unifi HSBB bills with your credit card is in the My Unifi Online Customer Centre - http://occ.unifi.my.

After login to MyUnifi OCC, go to the MyBill tab, you will see a blue "Make Payment" button at the bottom of the page.

There is a trick here. Before you click on the "Make Payment" button, you need to set your web browser to allow for pop-up within occ.unifi.my as the payment form is a pop-up page.

After clicking on "Make Payment" button, this is what you will see. You can then make payment with any of your credit cards there.

Note that your credit card information will be sent via secured HTTPS channel.