My Ruizu X02 MP3 player with 8GB internal storage

I have bought a Ruizu X02 MP3 player for my kid who is studying in a boarding school. It is a budget MP3 player which cost around RM50.

This Ruizu X02 MP3 player is very lightweight, compact at the size of just 3.9cm x 9.0cm x 0.7cm, and surprisingly feature rich. Its only shortfall is not supporting Bluetooth audio. Anyhow, Bluetooth is supported in higher ranked models of Ruizu MP3 player, such as the X06 which cost about 50% more expensive than the X02.

It doesn't come together with a earphone. well, you can easily get a decent earphone that come with your handphone, or to purchase one from the market.

Its default firmware is not so user friendly, because for certain function, you need to press its left and right button to navigate up and down on the screen. There is a new firmware version available for download in Ruizu official website. After the firmware update, its UX screen navigation is much better now. You can click here to learn about how to perform the firmware update to Ruizu MP3 player.

This MP3 player has an internal storage of 8GB. It also supports using SD card as external storage, but I found that after plugged-in the SD card, there will be additional steps to access and play the music and files, making it less convenient. In the end, I find it much better without the SD card. After all, 8GB of storage is large enough to store in a lot of songs and files.

One of the unique selling points (USP) of this Ruizu X02 MP3 player is its built-in battery's run time, which is able to play music for as long as 80 hours for a full charge cycle.

Another USP is that it supports as many as 25 languages, not only able to display the menu text in different language, but also able to correctly display filename, tag info, lyrics, and text in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Italian, French, and characters of other languages.

Among its functions are:

1. Music player

Its music player is able to play MP3, APE, AAC, OGG, M4A, WMA, WAV and FLAC.

It has a decent software equalizer, and able to play music with satisfactory quality when paired with a good stereo earphone, or a music speaker connected with AUX cable to it.

It supports display of song lyrics with LRC file, and also display of song album image when the music is playing.

2. Audio recorder

It has a built-in mic for audio recording. Supported audio recording file formats are MP3, WAV and ACT.

The effective sound recording distance is less than 8 meters.

3. FM radio

It makes use of the connected earphone wire or AUX cable as antenna for its FM radio. It is able to memorize up to 30 favourite stations, which is quite a lot. It is also able to perform FM radio recording.

4. Photo viewer

It is able to display JPG, JPEG and BMP files on its 1.8" TFT screen. Do not expect much, as the screen resolution is low.

5. Video player

It can also play video in AMV format of resolution 128x160. You can convert Music Video (MV) into this AMV format, and it will be able to play the MV.

6. E-book

It can display content of TXT files, and allow you to put a bookmark onto the reading file. Text files with Chinese, Japanese, Korean, etc. are supported.

7. Games

Its default firmware does not come with games, but after updated its firmware to latest version, there are 3 small games found in it, namely Snake, Sokoban and Tetris.

8. Other functions

Other functions include clock (as screen saver), calendar, stopwatch and alarm.

It would be nice if it could include a simple calculator as well, but that is lacking.


All in all, this is a feature rich MP3 player with very affordable price. A nice gadget for students in the situation that use of handphone is very restricted within the school compound, but MP3 player is allowed, particularly in the library area.

Rakuten Trade - all-rounded stock trading platform with lowest brokerage fee

Rakuten Trade is a totally online Bursa Malaysia stock trading platform. It is a joint venture between Kenanga Investment Bank and Japanese-based Rakuten Securities. It has been in service since 2017.

If you haven't open a stock trading account with Rakuten Trade, now is a good time if you intend to do so, because there is promotion which going to end soon in 31 March 2020 worth RM60 upon account activation, and the best time to buy stocks is when the price of most stock counters were beaten down.

Opening account is just for preparation to trade with Rakuten Trade, hopefully in the near future, when you are mentally and financially ready to buy stocks. A good timing will be when good development of mitigating COVID-19 virus is announced (such as, proven vaccine is available) and the socio-economical traction is recovering from the damage made by the COVID-19 virus. That will be the time to ride on the rebounding wave of the stock market. Anyhow, if you are a risk taker, you might want to enter your position earlier too.

Why Rakuten Trade?

First of all, you can open account with Rakuten Trade totally online, without the need of filling and signing on any paper forms, and without the need of visiting to their office.

More importantly, opening CDS account(s) with Rakuten Trade is free of charge, while most other broking firms will charge you RM10 per CDS account.

You can click here to open your Rakuten Trade account at their website.

Remember to use the Referral Code Voyager8 during account opening to get 500 Rakuten Trade Points (RT Points) upon successful account activation.

If you open your account on or before 31 March 2020, remember to open both Cash Upfront and Contra accounts together, and key-in HelloGold as Promotion Code by following the instruction in this linked webpage, because you can get RM60 worth of gold in HelloGold, upon successful Rakuten Trade accounts activation. The RM60 will be emailed to you in the form of HelloGold promo code, which you can key-in under the Rewards > Enter Code section in HelloGold app to redeem as gold of equivalent price.

There are 3 kinds of accounts in Rakuten Trade. You can activate any one, two or three of them. Click here to learn more about the Cash Upfront, Contra and Margin accounts available in Rakuten Trade.

Among all the broking firms in Malaysia, Rakuten Trade is one of the one with the lowest brokerage fee (if and only if, there really exist another broking firm with cheaper brokerage than them).

Their brokerage is as low as RM7, and the maximum brokerage fee per stock per day is capped at RM100 only (while most other broking firm will charge brokerage unlimitedly).

Note that beside the cheaper brokerage fee, the clearing fee and stamp duty is at the same rate with the other broking firms.

You can earn RT Points while using Rakuten Trade, especially when you are first time user. Here are some of the ways to earn RT Points:

• Open new account with Referral Code Voyager8 and successfully activate it: +500 points
• Open Margin account with Promotion Code RakuMargin and successfully activate it: +1888 points
• Deposit at least RM100 into new Cash Upfront account within 5 days upon activation: +500 points
• Deposit at least RM100 into new Contra account within 5 days upon activation: +500 points
• Deposit at least RM100 into new Margin account within 5 days upon activation: +500 points
• Execute 1st trade successfully within 10 days upon Cash Upfront account activation: +1000 points
• Execute 1st trade successfully within 10 days upon Contra account activation: +1000 points
• Execute 1st trade successfully within 10 days upon Margin account activation: +1000 points
• Refer new friends to Rakuten Trade with your own referral code: +500 points each
• Trading stocks with Rakuten Trade: +1 point for every RM2 in brokerage
• Transfer shares from other CDS accounts to Rakuten Trade CDS account: +500 points

What can you do with RT Points accumulated? You can perform 1-to-1 points conversion with AirAsia BIG, B Infinite or Bonuslink, which is a pretty good deal!

The Rakuten Trade web trading platform is pretty comprehensive and easy to use.

Beside the normal functions of stock buying, selling, monitoring, watch-listing, cash in, cash out, etc., Rakuten Trade provides a pretty comprehensive and up-to-date information and report about the stock counters under Stock Info section.

It also has a very nice Stock Screener to perform stock filtering at ease.

Beside the preset screening formula, you can also define your own screening formula as well, and there are many screening criteria for you to work with.

You can even go into detail analysis of the filtered result.

Beside web online trading platform, Rakuten Trade also has mobile trading platform called iSPEED.my which you can download from Google Play Store or Apple App Store. However, its user interface is very old style and has many rooms of improvement.

If you find that Rakuten Trade is better than your current online trading platform, just go ahead to open your Rakuten Trade account to enjoy its benefit. After all, open new CDS accounts in Rakuten Trade is free of charge. You can of course continue using your existing trading platform, if you want, even though you have opened new account in Rakuten Trade.

Reliable online shop to buy disposable 3-ply non-woven face masks and disposable plastic gloves

It is a crucial practice to maintain good hygiene during current critical time against the COVID-19 corona virus.

To prevent infection, it is essential to wear a 3-ply non-woven face mask whenever we go outdoor, or whenever there is any sick family member in the house.

As the global demand for face masks is very high at this moment, there are not much stocks available in the market. Worse still, there exists quite a lot of scam face mask sellers in the Internet trying to cheat the buyers.

As such, it is very important to know where can you buy face masks online of:

• with reasonable price
• of reliable quality
• from trustworthy seller
• that promised to deliver to you within a short period of time

One of the online shop that fulfil all of the above requirements is the online JDX Presto Concept Store in PrestoMall.

JDX Presto Concept Store is a renown O2O store with a 50,000 square-feet physical shop located in Quill City Mall. PrestoMall, formerly known as 11Street, is one of the larger and popular online marketplace in Malaysia.

The URL to buy disposable 3-ply non-woven face masks from them is:
https://www.prestomall.com/productdetail/3ply-disposable-face-mask-50pcs-3-69407527

 

 



According to a research done by University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), the COVID-19 virus can stay active for more than 3 days on certain surfaces including plastic and stainless steel.

If you touch on the following (but not limited to) objects, you might carry the bacteria and virus on their surface to your hand, which might include the COVID-19 virus as well:

• Petrol pump
• Lift buttons
• ATM machine buttons
• Door access keypad buttons
• Door handle
• Bus / train handle bar or handle strap
• Shopping trolley cart handle
• Fingerprint scanner
• ... and many more

Then, the bacteria and virus would spread out from your hand to all the other surfaces that you touch on, and might also enter into your own body if you touched your eye, nose, mouth, body wound, etc.

Therefore, it is highly advisable to wear a disposable plastic glove before you touch on any of such objects, especially in public places, and immediately throw away the glove into dustbin after use.

You can buy the disposable plastic gloves from Shopee. According to my own experience, the plastic gloves arrived at my doorstep within 24 hour of purchase.

The URL that I bought my disposable plastic gloves is:
https://shopee.com.my/product/12837901/986704474

The same shop also sell alcohol-free hand sanitizer spray as well.

Take care. If you find this article useful, please bookmark and share its link to your friends.

Yoodo provides free weekly additional 1GB data plan until end April 2020

Currently, Malaysia is undergoing a Movement Control Order (MCO) to prevent the widespread infection of COVID-19 corona virus. Most people are ordered to work from home.

In view of this, Yoodo has announced to provide free additional 1GB data plan on every Monday to all their active users. This free additional 1GB data is given automatically, and users need not do any setting to enjoy the free data.

The first additional 1GB data has been allocated on Friday 20 March 2020. Thereafter, on every Monday of every week until 27 April 2020, active users will automatically get another additional 1GB data in their plan.

Note that if you did not subscribe to any Yoodo data plan during the period, you will still get this free 1GB data as long as your account is still active. However, the 1GB data will not be seen in your Yoodo app's dashboard.

If you have an active data plan, you will be able to see 1GB added on top of your remaining data quota in the dashboard screen. However, the 1GB free data will not be added to your total data plan value.

In the example above, the active data plan is 2GB, and 0.03 GB has already been used. The remaining is 1.97GB. Then, the additional 1GB is added, so the remaining is now 2.97GB instead.

Unifi Mobile #bebas prepaid provides 7 days FREE unlimited LTE data pass during 2020 Malaysia Movement Control Order period

Currently, Malaysia is undergoing a Movement Control Order (MCO) to prevent the widespread infection of COVID-19 corona virus. Most people are ordered to work from home.

Unifi Mobile has just announced that they are providing a 7 days FREE unlimited LTE data pass to all their  #bebas prepaid users.

Note that this 7 days FREE unlimited LTE data pass, namely BEBAS Weekly, is not given automatically, and you have to subscribe to it from within the mobile@unifi app.

All you need to do is to tap on the BUY NOW! button at the bottom of the screen, go to the Data menu, and select BEBAS Weekly at the price of RM0.

I believe after 7 days, when this free data pass is expired, you can go to the same place and subscribe for another 7 days, until this option is eventually revoked from the menu.

Huawei Watch GT 2 46mm (LTN-B19) and 42mm (DAN-B19)

Recently, 2 smart watches have entered into my family life, one for my wife and another for myself.

Due to the size difference, the larger, 46mm Huawei Watch GT 2 (LTN-B19) is more suitable for gentlemen, while the smaller, 42mm Huawei Watch GT 2 (DAN-B19) is more suitable for ladies.

There are a lot of similarities in terms of features and functions between the 2 of them. However, the Huawei Watch GT 2 46mm is slightly more expensive than the 42mm version. Other than a larger screen size, the Huawei Watch GT 2 46mm (LTN-B19) contains several features more than the 42mm version. The key differences are:

• 46mm LTN-B19 (41 gram) is 30% heavier than the 42mm DAN-B19 (29 gram).
• 46mm LTN-B19 has a slightly wider strap (22mm) than the 42mm DAN-B19 (20mm).
• 46mm LTN-B19 has longer battery life (typically 14 days) than the 42mm DAN-B19 (typically 7 days).
• 46mm LTN-B19 supports making phone calls through favourite contacts list and also receiving incoming phone calls, while the 42mm DAN-B19 doesn't have this feature.
• 46mm LTN-B19 can play music on the watch itself as well as through connected ear buds, while 42mm DAN-B19 does not have built-in speaker to play music on the watch itself, but able to play music through connected ear buds.

The Huawei Watch GT 2 is more than a smart watch. When connected to a smartphone with Bluetooth and working together with the Huawei Health mobile app, you will realize that it can function as a personal digital coach for health, exercise and lifestyle.

Its basic functions as a smart watch including:

• Time and calendar
• MP3 music player
• Barometer
• Compass
• Make and receive phone calls (46mm version only)
• SMS and notifications sync from smartphone
• Weather reporting
• Stopwatch
• Timer
• Alarm
• Flashlight
• Find my phone
• Monitoring and recording of steps, heart rates, calorie burning, etc.
• Workout recording

In terms of MP3 music, it can play music streamed from the connected smartphone, or play music directly stored in its storage. For 46mm version, the watch can play the music by itself. Both 46mm and 42mm versions can play the music with connected ear buds. It supports MP3 information written in Chinese.

For the coaching functions, this smart watch can work together with Huawei Health mobile app to provide comprehensive report about your night sleep quality with improvement suggestion.

The watch can also vibrate and remind you to move your body when you are detected to be sitting at the same place for a long time.

It can continuously monitor your heart rate and alert you when your heart rate is too high or too low.

It can also monitor and provide report to your stress level.

It has comprehensive work-out programmes, able to record down your body condition during exercise, and come out with work-out report and coaching advice.

When connected to a digital weighting scale, it can also monitor your weight change and provide advice accordingly.

There is even a simple breathing exercise to guide you to breath and relax.

One thing I want to emphasize is that, its sensors and data measurements are more accurate than most of the cheaper smartwatches and smart bands in the market.