Go-Onger Ep17

LOL, again, Go-Onger is just hilarious. The main team is so carefree. This time it's Sousuke. Poor Sousuke, not getting his food for the first time, LOL. Check the clip, and don't miss the pose parody done by the villains.

WWDC 2008

Streaming video is up at apple.com.

OK, here's my take on the WWDC 08 keynote.
1. iPhone 2.0 firmware.
OK, just bring it out. It's not coming out till July. My Palm Tungsten E is dying (battery & touch screen screwing up), and with the 2.0 firmware, I can easily use my iPod Touch as a replacement, since 1 app, the only app that I use on my Palm will be available for iPhone (epocrates).

The apps look amazing. You don't see app development for Windows Mobile nor Symbian being marketed this way and hyped so much. Games are great, and hopefully we'll see more fresh gaming idea, just like what Nintendo DS brought to the market.

Why apps are so great on the iPhone?
First, high res screen. Other phones from other manufactures usually use (very) low res screen, limiting the image quality and overall experience of the GUI, especially internet browsing. PMPs have high res screen already (Cowon A2/A3), and Apple has the unique position having the experience from iPods.
Second, processor speed. Other manufactures usually cut short in the processor used on their phones, usually using whatever cheapest processor they could find, resulting in slow UI response (like many Windows Mobile devices) to the point that it hampers the regular usage of the device. Even Nokia smartphones suffer from slow response and thus poor experience, even though Symbian has many apps.

The ugly side of this, $10 charge for iPod Touch users. WTF? We already had to pay for the previous firmware upgrade, now we have to pay more? In comparison, Sony adds new features in firmware upgrades for the PSP and PS3 multiple times, for free! MS adds new functionalities to the older Zune for free. Of course, I will bite and pay for this to have epocrates for my Touch. T_T

2. Mobile ME.
I thought the rumor was a joke. The name just doesn't seem "cool." It reminds me of Windows ME. What is it? It's .Mac rebranded, refreshed, and redesigned to work across Mac, iPhones/Touch, and Windows. Windows? Well, most of it will be web based, and there's support for outlook. So, it's still $100 per year. It has more uniform interface with Mac OS' own mail.app and iCal. 10GB storage is upgraded to 20GB. Sounds great? Well, consider that Microsoft offer Live Skydrive for free, and it has 5GB shareable storage space, so if all you want is online storage, nothing beats free. Plus Microsoft will have Live Mesh, which will be Mac compatible too. The upside of .Mac is syncing, and with outlook support, it might entice some people. I already like .Mac's syncing across my iMac and Macbook, but the cost is just too hard to swallow. IMO Apple needs to offer at least a free Mobile ME with maybe only ~2GB storage space, something like that. When Live Mesh goes final, Apple needs to up the ante.

3. iPhone 3G
Finally, long awaited, the newer Jesus Phone. 3G support so people outside the US can think that iPhone is up-to-par with the various 3G phones already on the market. July 11th is the date.

When Jobs started announcing the features of iPhone 3G, it's hilarious that the crowd are getting crazy over things like "flushed headphone jack." LOL. GPS, I never use GPS before, so I don't know if it matters. Battery life seems to be greatly improved (presumably with better power management).

70 countries. Singapore & Hong Kong, yay. Japan, wow. Ooops, not Indonesia, the place that usually gets the latest cellphones, but rampant with hackers and pirates. Are you afraid Apple? Wonder why.

Apple priced the 8GB iPhone 3G at $199. Plus, Jobs said Apple will set the price not to exceed $199 US in all those countries. WOW! This is BIG! Other manufactures usually have variable open prices outside the US (eg. Nokia latest model sometimes is sold at thousands of dollars at launch, then dropping down in price through time, and the cycle repeats). Now, there's gotta be a catch for this price. Although we will see what will happen in those countries, Apple is still going to lock the iPhone 3G with AT&T in the US. WRONG MOVE!

I guess Apple has not been to SE Asia. Most phones sold there are unlocked, even phones sold under a contract. People in Asia like to switch phones & providers, especially if they're traveling. IMO if Apple wants to be successful in Asia, without giving money away to hackers/unlockers, Apple needs to sell the iPhone 3G unlocked. So back to Indonesia, this is a place where they have the latest models from Nokia, etc, being sold, even before other countries like Singapore. The pirates will simply buy/smuggle the iPhone 3G from Singapore/Hong Kong, and unlock it. Nobody would bother buying the phone locked from the cell service provider.

Apple better be selling the iPhone 3G unlocked in Asia, and if they did, expect a flood of Americans/ebayers importing the phone. Moral of the story, just sell the phone unlocked, anywhere, period. Ditch AT&T. Apple has the upper hand anyway, AT&T is getting more business thanks to the iPhone, even from people that don't like AT&T.

Not unlocked, I'm not buying. Even worse, the rumor is that the iPhone 3G will have to be activated in store, in contrast of the first iPhone where users can activate it at home. Plus, it will have worse and more expensive data plans from AT&T. Yup, US cell providers can only go backwards, charging more for less service. Another reason for Apple to sell the iPhone unlocked if they really want to change the way the cellphone business is done. I guess the $10 upgrade fee for my Touch doesn't sound too bad.

That's it. No Fusion, no new Macs, no tablet. But hey, Steve casually mentioned OS X 10.6 called Snow Leopard. But of course they don't want it to steal the thunder from the iPhone 3G. 10.6 already? And I just upgraded to Leopard... T_T

C'mon Apple, why is it so hard not selling the iPhone unlocked? Even if Apple sold the iPhone 3G unlocked for $100 more ($299 for 8GB), I'll buy it right away. If Apple want to lock me to AT&T, then they are no better than those freebies locked phones. Asians want unlocked phones (if not, they'll hack it anyway). Business users want unlocked phones (more economical when traveling by using local GSM providers and not giving AT&T $$$ for roaming charges). I want it unlocked. Apple, you've just missed plenty of customers.

Myself Yourself

Currently watching Myself; Yourself anime series. Another reason why I like anime. They can be funny, cute, yet touching and sad at the same time, reflecting real emotions.

Of course, fansub FTW! ^_^

Go-On Yellow promoting Korean drama

I just love Go-Onger's hilariousness. We know Korean drama is very popular in Japan. So, what is the next step? By prepping up the younger kids to watch the drama. Of course! LOL. So in this episode, episode 15, at the end of the show, Bomper asked Saki what is her secret to her smile. Her answer is her obsessions, including Korean drama, showing some DVDs too! Yup, so kids, start watching Korean dramas like Go-On Yellow! LOL.

Go-Onger's villain = AV idol

Well, I kinda expected that that's the case. The actress that play one of the villains in Go-Onger, Kegareshia, is an AV idol, aka porn idol. LOL. Just put her name 及川奈央 in google, and voila. Super sentai, entertaining people of all ages, young and old. LOL.

More whining Americans

I'm watching a local news, featuring the troubles Americans are facing, the increase in fuel price. They're following and interviewing a girl on how she's trying to save money. Well, sounds more like whining to me. First, she said now she's making coffee at home instead of buying. OH BOOHOOO! Is that supposed to draw sympathy? Next she's talking about her car, and she wondered what should she do, sell her car? Well, guess what she's driving, an Acura RSX. Again, whooping BOOHOO! If she is really concerned about fuel prices, get a more economical car/hybrid. The news is trying to show how "bad" the economy is. In a way, yes, American economy is not doing pretty well, but showing white people whining about their luxury lifestyle and luxury cars means news media doesn't get the message, or simply trying to cloud the real problems/issues.

Go-Onger Episode 14

This is a funny episode. Go-Onger always made fun of the posing scene of sentai in general, but this one takes the cake. After rescuing his friends, Hanto took charge and setup the other for the Go-Onger pose setup.


Also, this episode has a special ending featuring kids dancing to the theme song.

Those Japanese....

Here's a video about the creator of Tenga, the Japanese masturbation device.

Note how serious he is when he's describing the innards of the device. LOL. We can laugh, but he's the rich one.

Amazing Mario Automation

Thanks to emulation, there are plenty of custom amazing Super Mario levels. Well, I guess the challenge now is to sync the sound effects on the level with anime songs. There are simple ones out there, but so far this one is quite amazing, considering it is 11 minutes long.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Just watched it.
WARNING!!! SPOILER ALERT!!!

OK, first of all, WTF with the UFO and aliens? FBI? Roswell? As if I was watching a prequel to the X-Files, not an Indiana Jones movie. I was expecting a movie more about the solving the puzzles of archeology, but those scenes are very brief and Indy seems to already know the answers.

The movie is set in 1957. Urrgh. One of the charm of past Indiana Jones movies was the time period of the 30's and the Nazis. Now it's 1957 and the Soviets. Doesn't feel right, especially when Indy going into the fake house. And then there's the atomic bomb. Yup, Indiana Jones survived(!) an atomic bomb explosion, mushroom cloud included. How? By hiding inside a refrigerator. Yeah, I rolled my eyes too. Fiction is one thing, but come on.

Harrison Ford is a very good actor. He's still charming and you can feel his excellent performance in the movie. However, you cannot just cheat age. Although there are plenty of action scenes, they just don't feel the same.

Then there's Mac. First I thought, hey, am I watching MacGyver? I thought he was Jack Dalton. Without much background story and character development (other than the similarities of his character and actions with MacGyver's Jack Dalton), they turned him from friend to foe so quick that you don't really care about him. You'll be wondering why he's there in the first place.

To really appreciate this movie, I recommend watching the first Indiana Jones movie beforehand (Raiders of the Lost Ark). If not, you'll be like me, "Who the hell is Marion?"

So, what do I think about the movie? Great action scenes. Plenty of comedic and slapstick action scenes, the staple of Indiana Jones movies. Harrison Ford is great. The only problem is the plot and story itself. Alien and UFO just don't go with Indiana Jones. I was hoping the movie to be more of classic archeology. In the end, it's okay. I would've rather watched it on DVD/blu-ray at home instead if I knew about the story beforehand. Want to watch a great Indiana Jones movie? Get Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Dave Rodgers on Napster

You can find Dave Rodgers' hard to find rare rock album "Blow Your Mind" as non-DRMed MP3. Just search for Dave Rodgers in Napster. Highly recommended since the actual CD is only available in Italy (I had to import mine). Question is, why not iTunes?

On eurobeat side, Eurobeat Masters compilations are available on Napster too, although not as complete as iTunes.

I'm waiting for A-Beat-C to go digital via iTunes. SCP too.

New Kids on The Block 2008?

When I heard New Kids on The Block (NKOTB) going to perform live on NBC Today, I didn't really pay attention. Maybe just some copycat new artist. Well, guess what, it's the same NKOTB from the late 80's. OMG. They're still alive? So I guess they ran out of money or something? It's unreal. Is the music industry so desperate? So we have Hollywood remaking 80's stuff (believe me, there's a rumor about MacGyver movie). Now we have NKOTB back. What's next? Backstreet Boys? 'N Sync? Vanilla Ice? LOL. Hey, who knows, maybe Michael Jackson is coming back too. Although it's expected for US artists to do a "come back" whenever they ran out of money, I still find NKOTB being back to be too surreal, considering the time lapse. For those that needs to see this "man-band" pictures, check their flickr photostream.

At least with eurobeat, I can enjoy new compilation at least on the monthly basis, not having to wait 10 years+ for a new track. :p

iPhoto 08 Impression

First most notable improvement, events. In iPhoto 06, photos are first organized by "rolls," and then you have to create albums manually on the sidebar. In iPhoto 08, organization is much easier since iPhoto will automatically create an "album" for you when you upload your pictures. They're called Events. The arrangement of "events" is much easier to users then "rolls."

Unfortunately, I found the "quick view" feature somewhat annoying. When I double-click a picture, instead of automatically go into editing mode, iPhoto only enlarge the picture. To edit it, I have to click on the edit icon. Annoying extra step. The picture adjustment features is better than 06 though, having clearly labeled sliders like shadows and highlights, and finally a dropper icon to choose a neutral color instead of command-clicking.

Although I still think Picasa to be the better software, I find it much easier to use iPhoto 08 compared to 06 thanks to "Events," and haven't touched Picasa ever since.

Food & Dessert

Anti-Drug Dog commercial parody

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

LOL
Here is the original: