GadgetSS
If you follow my Twitter @tikkoss, you will probably realized that few weeks back, I did complaint that my current Bluetooth Headset, Plantronics Blackbeats 903+ is about time to retire. One side of the stereo headset broke due to ‘too’ loud music. Nah.. how can that be possible, right? I guess due to my poor in handling the fragile device.
Not long after that, I decided to place my order via online shop to get another version of Bluetooth Stereo Headset from Jabra. Of all the choices, I decided to land my money on this due to multiple reason. i) design – cooler ii) more advance iii) I cannot possibly get back the same headset I have right?
This is what I received after about a week of waiting, the Jabra Sport – Bluetooth Stereo Headset with FM capability.
Before I unwrapped, I have about 99.9% impression that this product is made in China 
. Looks so coooollll !!!
The product come with a stereo Bluetooth headset (duh..), few ear gels, charger and pouch .. this cost me about S$ 169??
Yea, a bit pricy for me but together with US Military Grade rain, shock and dust protection, the sound quality is surprisingly meet my standard. I will not compare it with Bose headset but this is just fit for my everyday running (if I’m not lazy) or alternatively, for my listening pleasure. Ohh.. the downside is the headset only last for 4 hours but hey, how long do you need right?
If you want to find out more, you can visit Jabra website but more interestingly, you might want to find out more about Endomondo. An apps that works almost the same like Nike+ and you get it for free, no additional device is required.
Jabra Sport
Web: http://www.jabra.com/products/bluetooth/jabra_sport/jabra_sport
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
RSI or repetitive strain injuries become so common nowadays especially when social networking, blogging and net surfing turn into our daily routine. Desktop ergonomic is at utmost important and any wrong sitting positions, hand positions or leg positions are critical and will maximize the risk of RSI.
Few months back, I bought a so called “ergonomic keyboard and mouse” and it reduces my wrist pain and shoulder pain. More importantly, it gives me the great feel when I caress the buttons and scrolling the wheel. Not long after that, I feel the tingling sensation on my thigh and later on toes.
Without further delay, I get myself this little box. Don’t know what is this? This is a foot rest. Of all the brands, I think Fellowes is a standard brand for standard footrest. It can help to support your feet to increase comfort and reduce the pressure below the thigh when you sit.
I don’t know if there are any brands around but apparently, this seems to work fine for me. I can feel less pressure apply on my legs now even after sitting for few hours. As far as I know, if the pressure is significantly reduces, the blood circulation will proportionately improve.
From the look of it, the foot rest is just a piece of plastic but surprisingly this plastic has the flexibility to elevate the height to suit your sitting position. Come with two pieces of plastic with one setup as top and the other one as bottom. It is a simple design and it is ergonomically created.
More importantly, this piece is affordable. In other words, if you do spend a lot of time in front of computer or sitting in same position for long hours or reading my blog for too long.. hehe.. this is a must have furniture to improve your posture.
Fellowes Standard Foot Rest
Web: Fellowes Standard Foot Rest Website
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
We keep talking about modem here and modem there. Do you know that modem is an abbreviation for modulator-demodulator? This is a piece of equipment that modulates an analog signal to encode digital information. Essentially, it is a device to allow you to go online by plugging phone lines into it.
Back in 90ties, I remember dial-up 56kbps modem is the famous one and later, ADSL modem is out. Obviously, ADSL become slightly more advance and with unlimited broadband service, loading a webpage no longer requires long waiting.
The ADSL modem starts to improve from wired to wireless. The wireless technology again improves from wireless-G to wireless N. Gosh, there are so many new terms that I nearly loose track in this modern world. This becomes a real headache when I need to choose one to replace my old junks.
With router or I need to buy router separately? Kinda tough decision when money is a slight constraint. Which brand to get, what model should I go for? I nearly spent about 5-6 days to finally decide on this, Linksys X3000 Advance Wireless-N ADSL 2+ Modem Router.
Oh yea, it looks cool on the outside and best on the inside. With the combination of router and modem, I just need only one device instead of two. This device can be worked as a router or ADSL or combination of both. If you connect your portable hard drive to the USB port, you can easily get a network drive with no additional charges.
I tried to connect my printer to this modem and believe it or not, it turns into network printers. Yes, as simple as just plug and play. I am a noob in computer and don’t know what is FTP but if you are smart enough, I think this has the capability to do so too.
With combination of gigabyte Ethernet and wireless N technology, I would consider it is perfect if you plan to stream movies on your iPad or network player. Sometimes, I really wonder how can this small dinky device can helps me in connecting to the world and bring it closer to my fingertips.
The setup is a little easy with a user friendly CD. All you need is just put the CD in the disk drive and follow the screen instruction but before that, you need to get username and password from Internet Service Provider, ISP. I spent about RM 360 + for this piece of gadget and I love it much!
Linksys X3000 Advance Wireless-N ADSL 2+ Modem Router
Web: http://homestore.cisco.eu/store/ciscoeu/en_IE/pd/productID.241269600
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
As a Malaysian, we are blessed with variety of deliciously tempting food. Instead of having to travel few thousand miles to India for Indian food or another few thousand miles for Chinese food, Malaysia has just about anything.
With 5-6 times of meals a day, I am still not bored with Malaysian food. In fact, the most torturing thing when I travel abroad is to ease the cravings for local food. Not me actually but it is my fat fault.
Delicious food is always unhealthy. That is the main reason why many Malaysians are diabetic. To avoid yourself from getting diabetes melitus, you need to consistently monitor your food consumption.
It is recommended to get yourself a glucometer. Test your blood frequently to know which food will contribute to high sugar in your blood. This is what I get for myself as one of my toys, Accu-Check Performa.
This set comes with complementary 10+10 stripes with bullets (needles). It comes with one meter, pen-alike needle launcher and a carrying case. Quite easy to use for a beginner like me except the part where I need to poke poke myself.
Press the on button, set the timing, put in the memory card on first use and put the stripe in the designated slot. Poke, put a droplet of blood and the reading will then appears on the display. Isn’t that easy?
You don’t need a notepad to record all the test results as the device is capable of self recording your glucose level for up to 500 records. Not only that, it will self generates weekly average and monthly average if I’m not mistaken.
I’m not an expert in medical line but with an easy to understand leaflet, it makes everything simpler. To summarize, 4-6 is ideal reading before food and 5-7 reading is ideal for after 2 hours of food.
In other words, spend some money in exchange for healthier life by monitoring your food consumption is never a wrong choice!
Accu-Check Performa
Web: https://www.accu-chek.co.nz/nz/products/metersystems/performa.html
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
Back in 19th century, typewriter used to be the means to translate your thought into words. Although many are illiterate at that time, typewriter also helps many who have bad handwriting.
After the technology revolution, typewriter turned out to be obsolete and it transformed into keyboard. With the assistance of mouse, you can now maneuver the computer interface with as easy as few clicks.
Started with wired keyboard and mouse, now, I have advanced myself to wireless keyboard and mouse. So which one to get? I spent few days and night to research over the net and finally I decided to get one myself.
The Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710 is my final choice. From the review, it got good ratings but in terms of price, I got my wallet a big hole after spending about RM 200+ for wireless mouse and keyboard.
When unboxing MK710, you will notice an ergonomic keyboard with electronic display wrapped nicely under a plastic cover. First thing that came to my mind is “Damn, this few plastic keys gonna make me starve for the next few days!”
As soon as you remove the keyboard from its box, you will notice an ergonomic laser mouse beneath it with 2x AA Duracell batteries and a unify mini dongle. Oh yea, with single USB dongle, you can connect up to 6 devices.
This device is idiot proof. Just take the dongle and plug in to your computer and it is ready to impress you. First thing is the battery, it can last for 18 months. If that is not good enough, you get advance 2.4GHz wireless connection.
With hyper-fast scrolling and LCD dashboard icon status, this is the best keyboard I have used so far (yea..by definition 10x better coz RM200+ vs RM20+ wor). I’m still getting use to the incurve keys but so far, no regret!
Logitech Wireless Desktop MK710
Web: http://www.logitech.com/en-us/keyboards/keyboard-mice-combos/wireless-desktop-mk710
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
Back in 1997, I got my first IBM computer. I still remember the hard disk spec is 4.3GB. That is equivalent to one Bluray Disc Movie. Oh.. the brand is Quantum Bigfoot. AND I have a roller ball mouse too. Phew, I can’t believe I actually have such a good memory.
Operating on Window 95, most of the file sizes are relatively small. Even my first digital camera captured images with only 16MB memory card. Playing games is not a problem and 4.3GB was considered sufficient for that period of time.
After spending a few hours in Low Yat, I finally came to a conclusion to get 1TB Western Digital Hard drive. Yes, that is a lot bigger than 4.3GB. This is the side effect of taking a lot of RAW photos recently. Most of my hard drives are full with my photos.
Due to lack of organizing skills, I tend to get at least 1 x hard drive a year or probably more. This time round, I spent about RM 368 for a piece of pocket size hard disk. Silver is my favourite color but you get to choose other colors too. With USB 3.0, transferring photos will be a lot quicker.
Considering that the hard disk is slightly below my budget, I decided to get a mousy which cost about RM 70. Not my necessity but I need something more reliable than ball type mouse. With one single AA batt, the wireless mouse can last for 18 months.
Believe it or not? I will tell you after 18 months but it is looking good so far. Again, I get to expose to another new piece of technology, Logitech Nano Unify receiver. This small dongle will allow you to connect up to 6 wireless devices. Which means, I can still get additional 5 gadgets.. Hooray.. 
)
Western Digital My Passport 1TB and Logitech m325 Unify Mouse
Web: http://www.wdc.com/en/, http://www.logitech.com/en-my/home
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
As an Apple user, recently, I was exposed to Android os. As many of you might know, Android is a Linux-based operating system for mobile device led by Google. Android Inc, was founded in 2003 and now you can find it in many smart phones.
If you own a Galaxy Tab, I bet you are familiar with the interface. Yes, Android is not only in Smart Phones but in tablets too. The benefit of Android system is you get to download apps which are mostly free from Android Market or they called it Google Play now.
To tryout an Android system, I spent about S$ 190 to get Aztech PlayXtreme 2. This is neither a smartphone nor a tablet but this is an Android TV box. Er.. if you are technology idiot like me, the TV box is essentially a device to make your conventional TV to become Smart TV.
Instead of spending extra dollars for Smart TV which has limited functionality, now, with this device that run on Android 2.3 initially (upgradable to Android 4.0) seems like a perfect alternative. This device allows you to have unlimited boundary in the world of smart technology.
The device comes with a small portable hard disk size alike box, HDMI cables, power adaptor and a smart QWERTY keyboard with keypad functionality. All you need is just plug the HDMI and the power cables and you get to experience new things on your TV, from surfing the net, playing various entertainment media and games too.
The Aztech PlayXtreme2 is running on 800MHz ARM Cortex A9 CPU, 512 MB DDR 2 Ram, NAND 2GB Storage and more importantly, it can play almost all the media video and audio file type. If you are keen in getting a media player, this is well recommended.
You might notice the spec is not attractive but bear in mind that this is a mobile device, not a hardcore gamer PC. If you are thinking of seeing your gf/bf via skype, you can connect your webcam with mic to any of the 3 x USB ports and walla, you get to see even their pimples .
As many of you might know, Android Smartphone run on touch screens but with touchpad on 2.4GHz Wireless Remote Control keyboard, it makes the control a lot easier and seamless. With wireless -N or wired connection, you can download apps, games etc right at your fingertips.
Aztech PlayXtreme2, Wireless Internet TV Hub – ITV102EW
Web: http://www.aztech.com/sg/playxtreme2.html
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
Maid is a female employed domestic service. Duh.. who don’t know about this, right? But have you ever wonder why only female and not male? I’m not trying to be sexist here but really, have you ever wonder why? They look kind of cute in maid costume as well, don’t you think?
Ok, forget about cross dress because that is not the answer. OK, there are indeed male maid as well but it is called valet, man servant, housekeeper or houseman. LOL. I know you will say I am tricking you in English but hey, I am trying to improve your vocab here.
In a decade time, you no longer called maid as maid or valet as valet. At that time, people will only know about iRobot or some automated cleaners to do most of the house chores. I know many will ask, is this the latest invention of Apple? I have iPhone and iPad here.. but.. the answer is NO.
Please don’t relate every single word that started with “i” to Apple. iRobot here is a vacuum cleaning robot and not some mobile device. It cannot do Facetime or iMessage or any Apps functionality BUT you can use the remote to control it OR Virtual Wall Lighthouse to restrict the movement.
Like nothing uncommon, there are also a lot of Chinese imitated products which claimed to be the same like Roomba but I can roughly pointed out some differences. You can set multiple timers on various days in a week, it is self adjusting between floor types and got 3 stages cleaning system.
With the combination between spinning side brush, counter rotating brushes and powerful vacuum, Roomba can easily clean your whole house even on unreachable places such as under the sofa and bed. Don’t worry if it will fall on stairs because it is equipped with cliff detection sensors.
When you are tired, you do know where to find your bolster and bed. Roomba will also find its own docking station when the battery is exhausted. It is like, once you put it on, you can forget about it. Eh.. that is not really true to certain extend.
You might need to clean the dust trap, filters and brushes once in awhile. Maybe once every two weeks? This robot cost about RM 2400 when I first bought it two years ago. If you do your math right, that is almost two months of human maid.
Sometime human maid gives you human problems but with iRobot Roomba, you are problem free!
iRobot – Roomba
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
Are you a fan of Korean Series, the one that has a lot of romantic crying scenes? I don’t! Not because I am not a romantic or emotionally sensitive guy but I don’t understand their language.
Subtitle is a bonus but crappy translation is not. Sometime, delay in subtitle makes you wonder why the girl cries again? Gosh.. if you watch with your girlfriend, I bet it will be close to impossible to console her when she is weeping with tears.
All my life, I only completed two, Lovers in Paris and Love Story in Harvard. That was before my puberty when I was still living in la la land. Not because I am crazy for it, but my mom watched it and we are poor enough to only have one TV.
Romantic aside, I spotted a singing/dancing teddy bear in one of the Korean series preview. Again, I am not a fan of soft toy but I love the technology of a multi talented invention.
This is not the one I saw in tv but the functionality wise is alike.
If you are not fan of polar bear, you can choose between frog, lion or panda bear. I have to tell you from the appearance of it, the polar bear is the best looking one .. hehe ..
All you need is just inserted 4 x AA battery and voila, the animal starts to move. You can switch between voice activated or plug in the audio cord into you iPhone and let it rocks and rolls.
Once you see it, I bet you will hardly resist yourself from not getting it.
This is not a post to show the softer side of me. This is also not a post to tell you I got this for USD 70 from Korea International Airport but this a post to show the bad repercussion of Korean Series.
Till now, I still cannot figure it out why I get this apart from impulsive decision. While writing this post, the bear is now dancing gracefully in front of me following the rhythm of a romantic song.. guess what.. I am loving it !
Kuchi-Paku Animal Speaker
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
APPLE is famous not because of an old saying “an apple day keeps doctor away” or it hit Sir Isaac Newton in his head that led to the discovery of theory of gravity. It is still a fruit when someone mentioned “apple” before this but..
If you walk down the street and say “apple” today, first thing that comes in anyone’s mind is either iPhone, iPod, iMac, iTouch or anything that is related to Apple’s Product. All because of one person, Steve Jobs.
Martian might not know much about earth but if you are earthman, you might aware that that there are 3 breaking news that figuratively transmitted to every single corner in the world. i) Steve Jobs died on 5 Oct 2011 ii) iPhone 4s launched on 6 Oct 2011 iii) iOS 5 launched on 12 Oct 2011.
Nothing much I can do about i) besides sending my sincere condolences to his family. I did not have a chance to meet him in person but having his photos in my blog is a great honour. Since it takes awhile before I get to literally touch iPhone 4s, it did not bother me but iii) iOS 5 is something I am eyeing at.
If you still remember, I wrote about Jailbreak iPhone? Tethered or Untethered? long long time ago. Having Jailbreak is nice and dandy until the new iOS 5 is up! The update is not as straight forward as many might think.
Before you update your jailbreak iPhone, here are few consideration:
i) you will NOT be able to retain all jailbreak software that downloaded from Installous.
ii) NO untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 yet (but will be available soon!)
iii) it is better to install iOS 5 as NEW installation (Restore to Factory Default) than just update to avoid crashing or complication later.
If your answers are OK to all above, then you can continue reading else this post will only be useful when you plan to update it later when untethered jailbreak for iOS 5 is out.
Please backup your contact and other important stuff before you start. To computer of course just in case any surprises happen. I used ‘screenshot snap’ to back up as photos on important notes (press sleep button + home button) and copy to computer later (faster than sending it via email).
Here is how you backup your contact to PC:
- Open iTunes on your computer that you sync it to
- Plug in you iPhone to the computer
- Click on the phone icon on the left
- Click on the Info and under “Sync Contacs with”, then Select “Windows Contacts” or “Outlook” or etc
- Then at the bottom right of iTunes, click “Apply” and “Sync”. A message will pop up to ask if you would like to replace or merge. Make sure you select “MERGE” or it will delete all your phone contact.
*If you Sync with “Windows Contacts”, you can check if the contacts have backup in your pc, goto START–>RUN–>wab.exe . Your contacts should be there!
Just plug in your iPhone and click update in iTunes?? If you do so, you might get ‘Error 3195’ or ‘Error 3002’ while updating. It means your miss couple of important steps and lead major disaster that you are unable to restore device to previous version or worse still the phone works but unable to make a phone call after that.
That is because you did not safe SHSH when jailbreak it. To simplify what is SHSH, it is an encrypted signature issued by Apple everytime iTunes install or upgrades the iOS firmware. Once you jailbreak the phone, Apply is unable to grant permission to renew the signature (might be expired) when you want to update it later.
So, to avoid it, here is the fix for iPhone Jailbreak User.
- Download TinyUmbrella
- Launch it
- Click on the “Advanced” tab.
- Uncheck “Set Hosts to Cydia on Exit”
- Click on “Apply Changes”
- Reboot your PC/Mac.
If it doesn’t help, try another solution or if you are a non-jailbreak user
- Exit iTunes
- Locate your hosts file
- In Mac OS X /etc/hosts and In Windows c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
- Open the hosts file with Administrator privileges using Notepad.
- Add the following lines to the very bottom of the hosts file:
- #74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com
- Connect your device to the computer
- Launch iTunes
- Put device into DFU Mode by turning your device off and then holding down the sleep and power button for 10 seconds, then release the power button but hold onto the home button until iTunes tells you that the device is now in recover mode
If you want you can remove the “#74.208.105.171 gs.apple.com” line from your hosts file again so that iTunes can properly update as usual.
OK, it is time to do the updating.
1. Open iTunes and click on your iPhone
2. Choose Update
3.Then download the iOS 5 update. So choose “Download Only”
4. Hold down shift + press restore. All data will be WIPED CLEAN and restore your phone to FACTORY DEFAULT
5. Select files from C:\Users\[your name]\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates (See Photo Above)
6. Click Open.
7. iTunes should do the rest.
The photos above are most of screenshots during the iOS 5 update. If you see it, you have SUCCESSFULLY installed iOS 5 on your jailbreak iPhone 4, it is just like a brand new phone. Now, you can repeat backup contact steps to sync your iPhone contact.
Follow my blog at Networkedblogs or Twitter or Facebook
Recent Comments