My UGREEN CD226 GaN 100W 4-ports USB fast charger

If you want to have a common charger for multiple devices that charge using USB cable, and better still, to be able to charge multiple devices at the same time, then you can look for a multiport charger such as this UGREEN CD226.

The UGREEN CD226 is a 4-ports charger that supports fast charging (or quick charging / super charging) of various protocols including PD3.0, PD2.0, PPS, QC4+, QC3.0, QC2.0, FCP, SCP, AFC, etc.

You can feel that this Gallium Nitride (GaN) charger is quite big (compared with those single port charger) and quite heavy. Holding it is like holding a tennis ball.

Anyhow, if it is not using the modern Gallium Nitride (GaN) technology, it might have been even much more larger in size. 

It has 3 USB-C charging ports and 1 USB-A charging port. Its maximum charging power is 100W. You can use one or more ports at the same time to charge your device(s) simultaneously.

It is compatible with many devices (handphone, smart watch, tablet, game station, ear phone, and even laptop).

If you connect your device to the right charging port, it supports the fastest charging speed compatible with your device's USB port. However, if you connect your device to a non-compatible fast charging port, it can still charge up your device without problem, but with a slower charging speed.

Port C1 and C2 have the same specs that support a maximum charging power of 100W. You should try charging your device with either one of these 2 ports first. If you are unable to get fast charging, then try port C3, followed by port A.

It supports products of multiple brands, including but not limited to iPhone, iPad, MacBook, Dell XPS, Asus, Lenovo, HP, Surface, Huawei, Honor, Samsung, Xiaomi, Vivo, Nintendo Switch, etc.

Apple product users might like it very much, because its charging speed is much more faster than Apple's original charger.

However, it does not support the latest 100W super charge protocol of my Honor Magic 4 Pro handphone. I can still use it to charge the Honor Magic 4 Pro, but the charging speed is much slower, compared with charging using the handphone's original supercharge charger.

Same with most other modern chargers, the UGREEN CD226 has protection mechanisms to prevent overheat, overvoltage, overcharge, etc.

Which handphone can you buy with your monthly fixed income?

Handphone is a necessity nowadays.

Every now and then, new models of handphone are being introduced into the market, with price tag ranging from a few hundred ringgit to a few thousand ringgit.

From the perspective of personal finance management, one simple formula to evaluate your affordability for new handphone is that: the handphone price should not exceed your one week worth of net income for each year of usage.

Therefore:

• If you tend to change a new handphone every year, your handphone cost should not exceed 1/4 of your net income (equivalent to 1 week of net income).
• If you tend to change a new handphone every 2 years, your handphone cost should not exceed 1/2 of your net income (equivalent to 2 weeks of net income).
• If you tend to change a new handphone every 3 years, your handphone cost should not exceed 3/4 of your net income (equivalent to 3 weeks of net income).
• If you tend to change a new handphone every 4 years, your handphone cost should not exceed 1 month of your net income (equivalent to 4 weeks of net income).

If you are going to trade in your old handphone when buying a new handphone, your cost will then be the selling price of the new handphone deducted by the preloved selling price of your old handphone.

With this simple evaluation method in mind, the tables below show the maximum cost of handphone you can buy, relative to your monthly salary.

and the table below maps the handphone price range with some popular handphone models for your reference.

Assumptions and conditions:

• Net income = Salary - EPF contribution - SOCSO - EIS - income tax PCB
• Employee's portion of EPF contribution = 11%.

You might probably be interested to also read about:

• Which models of car can you afford with your monthly fixed income?
• How much housing loan can you afford with your monthly fixed income?

The 3 generations of timer switch plug used in my household

Timer switch plug is a kind of gadget that can easily convert a normal wall socket into programmable timer socket. 

I have been using it for quite a long time, from one generation to another.

Some scenarios of using timer switch plug include:

• To supply electric power to TV and audio-visual devices in the morning, so that they are well standby to be turned on instantly, and to cut off the power at mid-night.
• To switch off the air purifier when you go to work, and to switch it on when you back home.
• To turn on the light at night, and turn off in the morning.
• To turn off the wall charger power 2 hours after charging.
• etc.

Here are some photos of the 3 generations of them (front view, side view and back view):

Surprisingly, all the 3 generations are selling at almost the same price in the market now.

The 1st generation only support programmable timing interval of 15 seconds time period, and you can decide during that particular 15 seconds it should be turned on or turned off by toggling its key position to be up or down.

It will rotate and repeat its setting every 24 hours. It has no clock to keep track on the actual time. In the event there is a power blackout, it will stop rotating, and therefore after the power resume, its setting will be offset and you might need to readjust its setting.

The 2nd generation, a digital one, is more advanced. It has an internal clock, powered by an internal rechargeable battery, and its programmable period is up to a week.

With this capability, and its programmable timing interval of 1 second, it is possible for you to set it to turn on and turn off at different timing for each day in the week.

The 3rd generation, a smart plug which I am using now, is even more advanced. You need a mobile app (either Smart Life or Tuya Smart) to control it.

The smart plug connects with the corresponding mobile app via 2.4GHz WiFi network that is connected to the Internet. There is a gateway server in the cloud that link it to your mobile app.

One mobile app can be used to control multiple smart plugs.

Scheduling the time for it to be switched on and switched off is a basic function, available in the app.

On top of that, the smart plug also has the capability to monitor and record down the electric power consumption of the devices attached to it.

Together with the sensors in your handphone accessible by the mobile app, it is possible to program for scenario-based automation, such as:

• Turn off when you are away (your handphone detected location is leaving the smart plug)
• Turn on when you are back (your handphone detected location is near to the smart plug)
• Turn on/off at sunrise/sunset, which will be on different timing during different season
• Turn on/off when it rains (it can get the weather information from your phone)
• etc.

It even can integrate with some voice control assistants, including Alexa, Google Assistant, SmartThings, IFTTT, etc. so you can actually speak to your voice assistant and ask it to be turned on/off with your voice command.

Caltex RM5 cashback with CaltexGO pump-and-go mobile app

As you might have been aware, Caltex Malaysia has recently introduced the CaltexGO pump-and-go mobile app, available in Google Play Store and Apple App Store.

Apparently, it is the same CaltexGO mobile app already in used in Caltex Singapore and Caltex Thailand for the same purpose of enabling contactless and cashless petrol refueling at their petrol station.

This is an enhancement to the existing Caltax tap, pump and go system, which you need to slot in your JOURNEY card to collect BPoints, then tap your credit card or debit card at the petrol pump terminal to refuel your vehicle.

Now, with the CaltexGO mobile app, you can bind your JOURNEY card and your credit/debit card with your user account, and you can refuel your vehicle at Caltex petrol station even without bringing those cards along with you.

CaltexGO will auto-detect the Caltex petrol station you are located at with your mobile phone GPS location detection service. You just need to enter your petrol pump terminal number into the app, then lift the petrol pump and start refueling. When you put back the pump to the terminal, your bill will be instantly generated, and you just tap a confirm button to pay for it. Your JOURNEY card loyalty points will be automatically credited too.

Currently CaltexGO in Malaysia only support VISA or Mastercard credit card or debit card. Hopefully e-wallets will be included too in the future.

As a welcome offer to encourage usage of CaltexGO mobile app, Caltex Malaysia is currently giving out RM5 cashback for petrol refueling of RM30 and above, until 31st December 2021.

Your RM5 cashback will be automatically used during your next petrol refueling of RM30 and above at Caltex station using CaltexGO. You will see it as "promotion discount" in your bill, as shown above. Your bills are paperless and stored in your app, so you can always track back your historical petrol refueling transactions in Caltex station.

This means that you will not immediately get the RM5 cashback during your first time using CaltexGO to pump petrol of RM30 and above. The next time and all subsequent times you do the same, you will get the RM5 cashback automatically, until the end of promotion period on 31st December 2021.

RM5 is equivalent to 16.67% of RM30, which is a pretty good offer, isn't it?

My Niimbot D11 portable thermal label sticker printer

I had a Brother P-Touch 65 thermal label sticker printer in my household that served for more than 15 years. It was really handy to use. Recently, it had finally reached its end of life.

As its replacement, I have bought the Niimbot D11 portable thermal label sticker printer. If you are looking for a label printer under the price tag of RM100 that is capable of doing a lot of wonders, you can consider this too.

Niimbot D11 operates with internal rechargeable battery. You can recharge its battery with its USB port from wall charger, power bank, laptop USB port, etc.

Compared with most label printers that need 6 AA size battery to power up, this rechargeable type can no doubt save quite a lot of battery money, and also easy to get recharged. However, I think we can no longer expect its lifespan to last for many years without changing its internal battery.

The Niimbot D11 printer can't operate by itself. It needs to work together with the Niimbot mobile app which you can freely download from Google Play Store and Apple App Store. The app pairs with the label printer using Bluetooth connection.

I think this is a very brilliant way to unleash a lot of design possibilities to the printer, by letting us doing the design using the mobile app.

The label printer can be fed with different kinds of label sticker, of different sizes and different pre-printed patterns and designs. The printer is able to auto-detect the type of sticker you put in it. In case it has detected wrongly, you can also manually configure it for the right sticker type with the app.

Niimbot D11 can only print in black colour, but you can buy the pre-printed label base in colourful design, or normal white background, as well as in transparent background. Labels can be purchased from Niimbot e-commerce store, or inside the app (probably for purchase within China only).

Niimbot supports printing text in multilingual, multiple lines, multiple font sizes, different alignment styles. It also comes with many different types of font.

Among the supported languages are English, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Arabic, Russian, Japanese, Korean, Thai, and others as shown in the diagram above.

However, you need to switch the language preference in the app before you can have access to the various fonts made available to that particular language. This is a limitation that I find quite cumbersome. Hopefully this can be improved in future version of the app.

The label design interface is WYSIWYG type, and entering text is very alike using a word processor.

Beside text, you can also add in graphics and artworks to the label. There are quite a lot of ready made icons in the app too.

In fact, Niimbot D11 supports many types of printing element, including barcode, QR code, table, graphics, etc.

It can even support batch printing from lines of entry in Excel file, and also printing of serial number, current date and time, etc. This could be useful in commercial usage, such as printing of price tag, production batch, etc.

The printing speed of this Niimbot D11 is pretty fast. However, its thermal label stickers are of fixed length with gap in-between 2 stickers in a roll. This will have limitation if you want to print super long text.

All in all, I find this Niimbot D11 portable thermal label sticker printer to be value of money, and it makes label design fun and easy, with many possibilities.

Fixed Google Play services keeps stopping problem in Android device

Recently, my Samsung Galaxy Tab A 6 tablet suddenly hit the infamous "Google Play services keeps stopping" problem.

The following window will pop up almost every few seconds, even after you have chosen to close app or send feedback.

Clearing cache of Google Play services did not solve the problem.

The Google Play services was unable to be forced stop nor disabled.

Unable to uninstall updates to Google Play services too.

Restarting the tablet had no effect to the problem.

Force stop the Google Services Framework, clearing its cache and even clearing its data did not help.

It seems that factory reset the tablet will be the last resort.

Luckily, I managed to fix it before going to the extreme of factory reset option.

What I did was to manually download and install the Google Play services.

You can download the APK file of Google Play services from APKMirror website.

Choose the latest version, which currently is 21.06.13.

You need to download the APK file that matches with the CPU architecture of your Android device. In the case of Samsung Galaxy Tab A 6 (2016 edition), its architecture is arm64-v8a.

The APK file also needs to match with the Android OS version currently running on your device. In my case, it is Android 8.1.

After downloaded and installed the Google Play services APK file, my problem magically solved.

My L01 handphone selfie stick and tripod with Bluetooth shutter button

You might have awared that I am using Iruin to make use of my handphone camera as computer webcam.

This solution works pretty well. However, I found that I need a mini tripod to hold my handphone to get a better camera shooting angle, and I have found this L01 selfie stick which can also act as a tripod stand. Its price of below RM20 is very affordable.

The length of this L01 selfie stick, when folded, is only about 18.6 cm, which is very handy to carry along. It has a pretty light weight of 155 gram. It comes with a nice pouch too.

To use it as a tripod, just hold your handphone with its clamp, and unfold its 3 retractable legs.

The clamp is flexible to hold handphone of width between 5.5cm to 8.5cm, including the thickness of protective casing, if there is any.

Its length can be extended up to 70cm, by pulling out its stainless steel pole.

Obviously, you can use it as a selfie stick as well, by folding its 3 legs.

Its handphone holder is 360 degree rotatable, so you can take photo and video in portrait mode as well. 

The holder can be tilted up to 200 degree, to adjust the camera shooting angle.

This selfie stick has a handy Bluetooth shutter button, which is detachable.

The shutter button is powered by a CR1632 battery inside it, which is changeable.

To pair this Bluetooth shutter button with your handphone, just long-press it, and confirm the Bluetooth pairing in your handphone.

After pairing, you can use this button to take photo with your handphone.

The button will automatically disconnect and shutdown itself after 600 seconds of non-operation.

This L01 selfie stick is multi-functional, very easy to use, and made with pretty solid material. I like it very much.

Mirror displaying handphone screen on monitor and vice versa with WiFi connection using LetsView

If you are using an iPhone or Android phone, and you want to duplicate and show your handphone's screen on your computer monitor, laptop screen, or even smart TV screen, together with audio forwarding, you can easily do that with a free software called LetsView.

The beauty of LetsView is that it can also do the other way round, to duplicate your computer screen onto your handphone. This is pretty useful to make use of your handphone or tablet as a presentation control device, which you can control your computer screen (which can be in turn projected out to a large projector screen) by touching your handphone screen. You can perform drawing and highlighting with LetsView too.

LetsView can also perform computer to computer screen mirroring.

All you need is:

• Download and install LetsView, free of charge, in both the screen mirroring source and destination devices. Supported systems including Windows, Android, Mac OS, iOS, and TV.
• Connect both the devices into the same local network. The network connection can be using WiFi or LAN cable. It can work across VPN tunnel too.
• Run LetsView in both devices.

Running LetsView app in smartphone is pretty straightforward. When the app is able to detect another device in the same local network running LetsView, you will eventually step into the following screen.

Phone Screen Mirroring means to cast your phone screen, together with phone audio, to a computer screen.

Computer Screen Mirroring means to cast your computer screen to the phone.

The screenshot below is captured from my computer monitor, showing the LetsView software displaying my phone screen on it.

When your phone screen is placed in landscape mode, the mirrored one on computer screen will also be displayed in landscape mode.

In your LetsView computer software, you also have the option for Phone Screen Mirroring and Computer Screen Mirroring. If you choose Computer Screen Mirroring, your computer screen, as well as your computer audio, will be mirrored to another computer running LetsView. The receiver will need to key in the PIN code as shown in LetsView of the source computer, for security purpose.

Before the computer screen starts to mirror to the receiver, a confirmation dialog will popup on the screen of the source computer, and you'll need to Allow it to complete the process.

The source computer can choose to either mirror the entire screen to the receiver, or just to mirror the screen of an application currently running on it.

Here is how the screen of the source computer will be shown in LetsView of the receiver computer.

LetsView is pretty useful when you want to work with your computer, while at the same time need to have a glance to your phone's screen from time to time. By showing the phone's screen on your monitor, it is very convenient to see what is on your phone's screen even without touching your phone.

This is also useful if you want to show both your computer screen and your phone screen to your audience in a presentation or live streaming session.

On the other hand, by mirroring your computer screen to your phone or tablet, you can transform your phone/tablet into a pretty powerful presenter device to remote control your computer screen. You can even write or draw on your phone's screen, and make it appears on the larger screen, by using LetsView whiteboard and drawing utility function.

Fixed Xiaomi Redme AirDots left earbud no sound problem

When you put on both the earpieces of the Xiaomi Redme AirDots wireless earbuds, by right you just need to Bluetooth connect to the right earpiece (Redmi AirDots_R) and the left earpiece will connect itself automatically to give you a stereo audio experience.

After some times of usage, I noticed that my left earpiece no longer automatically connects to the right earpiece to form the stereo audio, and it has no sound unless I connect to Redmi AirDots_L, which will in turn causing the right earpiece to have no sound.

Here is the fix to solve the problem:

Step 1: Unpair the Bluetooth device Redmi AirDots_R (and Redmi AirDots_L, if any) in your handphone's setting, or any other device that paired with the Redme AirDots earbuds.

Step 2: Shutdown and reset both the earbuds together.

Long press the button of both the earbuds together for at least 15 seconds. You will see the red and white lights of both the earbuds flicker alternately and then go out. Very important - do not release yet! Continue your long-press, after a while, you will see the red and white lights of both the earbuds flicker alternately again, and then go out.

You need to hold your long-press until the red and white lights would not turn on again.

In my first few attempts, I failed this Step 2 and the problem still remain unfixed, because I thought it was done after one time of lights flickering and go out. It turned out that there will be second or even third round of lights flickering and go out cycle, before the reset process is totally done.

Step 3: Put back both the earbuds into the charging box. Wait until both of them enter the charging state (red light on). Let the charging to continue for at least 5 seconds.

Step 4: Take out both the earbuds from the charging box. The left earbud should now be trying to pair itself to the right earbud, and the right earbud should now be trying to seek for a pairing device.

Step 5: Go to your handphone's Bluetooth setting, search and pair with Redmi AirDots_R. Your problem should be fixed by now.

The difference between TikTok and DouYin

DouYin (斗音) is a short-video sharing social media introduced by ByteDance in China in 2016. In mid-2017, ByteDance launched DouYin's international counterparts called TikTok.

Although both DouYin and TikTok are sharing the same app icon that looks like below, they are in fact completely separate app, with respective user base and content.

Initially, both of them looks similar in functionality. Just that, DouYin operates and serves in Mainland China, and TikTok operates and serves the rest of the world outside Mainland China.

You can find TikTok app in Apple App Store, Google Play Store, Amazon App Store,  Huawei App Gallery, etc. but you can find DouYin app in those mobile apps marketplace.

To download and install DouYin, you can visit to DouYin official website and click on the respective download button there for iOS or Android.

DouYin is opened to users from all around the world, which you can register an account and verify your identity using a mobile number in your own country.

Over the times, DouYin and TikTok have been developing separately, and now also have quite a lot of differences in looks-and-feels as well as functionality.

The main difference between TikTok and DouYin is still their separated user base, which results in totally different content uploaded by the separated community.

The user interface and content in DouYin is in Chinese. You can find thousands of official account of Chinese celebrities there. Chinese singers are also using it as one of their channels to release and promote their songs.

There are several leaderboards in DouYin's search function, as shown below.

On the other hand, the user interface in TikTok is English, and the content can be multilingual. There is no leaderboards in TikTok's search function yet. In fact, you can find a list of trending hashtags there.

There is no issue for you to install both TikTok and DouYin in your phone, and register as user in both of the app separately. You just need to treat them as different apps sitting together in your phone.

Maxis officially supports Voice Over LTE (VoLTE) calls, finally

Among the major mobile carriers in Malaysia, Digi is the first mover in Voice over LTE (VoLTE) service, enabling voice calls, video calls and SMS to be handled through 4G LTE network since a few years ago, in 2016. UMobile had also followed suit in 2017.

Without VoLTE, only data is handled by 4G LTE. When the phone is calling out or receiving an incoming call while it is in 4G LTE network, it will need to temporary fall back to 3G network to handle the call, and revert back to 4G LTE network after the call hang up. The switching from 4G to 3G will take some times (can be as slow as a few seconds). You can experiment and feel the latency time by putting 2 phones together and make a call from one to another, then calculating how long you need to wait to pick up the call.

Celcom and Maxis are among the last to offer VoLTE service to their subscribers. Celcom has made available VoLTE service to selected iPhone models only in March 2020.

Now, Maxis finally also rolls out VoLTE to both Maxis postpaid and Hotlink postpaid subscribers who use selected iPhone and Android phones that support VoLTE function. Currently supported brands include iPhone, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi, Oppo, ZTE, and Vivo.

VoLTE enables much faster call connection, since both of the connecting phones no longer need to fall back to 3G network to establish the call.

The voice quality will also improved by making good use of LTE higher bandwidth. If the caller and recipient phones are both using VoLTE, the call can be established with High Definition (HD) voice quality.

When you are on VoLTE call, switching between voice and voice call is possible. Your Internet activities and data transfer also won't be affected during the call, unlike the previous GSM call that will pause your Internet activities during a call.

Note that your phone needs to be within the coverage of 4G LTE network in order to enjoy the benefit of using VoLTE. If the phone is connected with 3G network, its call will still be using the traditional GSM method.

Yoodo unveiled customizable unlimited data plan on top of existing high-speed data plan

Yoodo has been known to offer high-speed data plan with usage quota that has uncapped speed and uncapped hotspot tethering.

Now, Yoodo has unveiled a new customizable unlimited data plan on top of the existing high-speed data plan, so that users can configure their data plan at the best of their need.

The maximum speed of Yoodo unlimited data plan is capped at either 3 Mbps or 6 Mbps.

Current price for 3 Mbps unlimited data plan is RM35 per month, and for 6 Mbps is RM43 per month.

Both of the 3 Mbps and 6 Mbps unlimited data plan come with:

• Free 2GB of hotspot tethering quota
• Free 2GB of data roaming quota
• Free 50 minutes of voice call

Additional hotspot tethering quota, voice call minutes and SMS quantity can be purchased by user configuration in Yoodo app.

Yoodo SIM card is available for free and will be sent to your address, just click here to order it. You can also buy the Yoodo SIM card at 99 Speedmart at the minimal price of RM2.

New users who activate their Yoodo account using this referral code "cwqhp2909" will get free 7GB of high-speed data quota during first subscription month.

Hotlink Postpaid has increased data quota without additional charge since 5 September 2020

Hotlink Postpaid by Maxis has been around for quite some times, offering 3 different packages with different data quota limit, namely Hotlink Postpaid 30, Hotlink Postpaid 40 and Hotlink Postpaid 60.

All the 3 of them come with unlimited calls and unlimited SMS. The Hotlink Postpaid 60 plan also comes with an optional mid-range Android handphone bundle.

In August 2019, Hotlink had upgraded their Postpaid 40 and Postpaid 60 plans with additional high speed YouTube data, without additional charge, as shown in the middle table below.

Now, Hotlink has just upgraded all the 3 postpaid plans again with additional data quota, from 5 September 2020 onwards, without additional charge, as shown in the bottom table above.

If you have observed your monthly data utilization carefully, you will note that the YouTube quota in these Hotlink postpaid plans actually encompasses all the Google services, including YouTube, Play Store, Gmail, etc.

This upgrade is somehow seen as a response to the upgrade of Celcom XP Lite Postpaid Plans to include unlimited YouTube since early July 2020.

Huawei/Honor car charger comparison - AP31 vs CP31 vs AP38 vs AP38C vs CP37 vs CP39S

Huawei produces several models of car charger under its own Huawei or Honor brand. Different model of the car charger looks about the same, but their maximum charging output is different, and their price is different too.

Let's take a look on their differences, so that if you want to buy one, you could buy the correct model at the right price tag.

Huawei CP39S

Technology: SuperCharge wireless
Maximum power output: 27W
15-layers safety protection
You won't get this wrong, as this model is a wireless charger which looks different from the other models. It can only charge handphones that support wireless charging, such as Huawei P20 Pro, P30 Pro, Mate 20 Pro, Mate 30 Pro 5G, Mate RS, Mate 20 RS, Mate 20 X, etc.


Huawei CP37

Technology: SuperCharge 2.0
Maximum power output: 40W
12-layers safety protection
Charging USB #1: 5V2A
Charging USB #2: 10V4A max


Huawei AP38

Technology: SuperCharge
Maximum power output: 27.5W
Charging USB #1: 5V1A
Charging USB #2: 4.5V5A / 9V2A
5-layers safety protection
This is the same as Honor AP38C, but under Huawei brand.


Honor AP38C

Technology: SuperCharge
Maximum power output: 27.5W
Charging USB #1: 5V1A
Charging USB #2: 4.5V5A / 9V2A
5-layers safety protection
This is the same as Huawei AP38, but under Honor brand.


Huawei CP31

Technology: QuickCharge
Power output: 18W + 5W
Charging USB #1: 9V2A
Charging USB #2: 5V1A
5-layers safety protection
This is the same as Honor AP31, but under Huawei brand.


Honor AP31

Technology: QuickCharge
Power output: 18W + 5W
Charging USB #1: 9V2A
Charging USB #2: 5V1A
5-layers safety protection
This is the same as Huawei CP31, but under Honor brand.