Kamen Rider IXA: Fight for Justice MV

Another proof that Kamen Rider is blurring the line between idols and tokusatsu, which is why it's so cool! :D Nago-kun, don't forget your Biore!

Momotaros-tachi funny scene

The 4 hilarious imajins from Kamen Rider Den-O will be coming back in the summer crossover movie between Kamen Rider Kiva and Den-O. For the last couple episodes of Kamen Rider Kiva, they are showing Momotaros-tachi promoting the new movie. The funny part is that they also did a crossover with Go-Onger. this time, from Kamen Rider Kiva Ep27, Momotaros-tachi are copying Go-Onger poses. Hilarious!

Moroccan food

Chi's flash game

She can get mad and scratch you.

Costco turkey roll, the next victim of grocery shrink ray

I remembered that they used to be much bigger, close to filling up the tray. Well, it's still the same tray, but the rolls obviously got smaller. Sign of a recession?

Cute Mouse

Got a new mouse that was on sale recently, Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000. It's so cute and tiny!


It's a wireless bluetooth mouse. Unlike most BT mouse, this one doesn't come with the annoying BT dongle, thus it only works with computers that already have BT built-in, like most Macs. :) Connecting it to my iMac is pretty straight forward, although I had to use a wired mouse first to setup the bluetooth configuration. It uses 2 AAA batteries.

Unfortunately, I don't see a way to configure the buttons on my Mac. So the back button doesn't work, despite being advertised as such. For some reason, it activated the Dashboard. Oh well, so much for that. The back button is 1 big thing I missed on the Mac. Wheel is rough, and only does vertical scrolling. I prefer the 4-way ball on Apple's mighty mouse. Still, the size of this MS mouse is very compact, good for travel. It even comes with a bag!

Unlocked iPhone 3G

According to Apple, there are 2 countries that officially sell the iPhone 3G unlocked. Italy and Hong Kong. The question is of course, how to obtain them. Some online cellphone import resellers are selling the iPhone 3G for $1500. Yup, $1500 for the 8GB version. Isn't that insane? Apple really have to think about this. Does Apple really want some independent reseller profiting thousands of dollars selling the iPhone 3G? Apple was not happy with the unlocking of the first iPhone, yet still sell the iPhone 3G locked in most countries. At least if you have a friend in Hong Kong, you can be rich.

MobileMe push with iPod Touch

The idea of push technology is to have almost instant sync. For example, if you add a contact in your address book on a portable device, with push technology, the information is automatically pushed so the address book in your computer is automatically updated. This idea makes sense on the iPhone, where there is a constant data access via the cellular wireless. However, how about the iPod Touch? The iPod Touch only have wifi for internet connection. Well, MobileMe push works, with caveats. Basically if you do any changes on the calendar/address book on the Touch WHILE it's connected to the internet, push works. I tried it, and it worked just fine with my iMac. However, stuff that you do when the Touch is NOT connected to the internet will NOT be pushed until the next successful push (when you do something WHILE connected to the internet). The contents that you changed while the Touch is offline don't seem to be pushed EVEN when you're connected to the internet later on, IF you don't change anything else. So, you can change a lot of things on the Touch offline, and not having the contents being pushed at all. Bummer!

iMovie08 youtube uploading issue (workaround)

For the past couple days, I've been baffled with iMovie08. Every time I wanted to upload my video to youtube, it spit out an error message "YouTube reported an unknown error." Yeah, not really helpful there. After combing Apple's discussion forum, apparently iMove08 choked on non-standard character passwords. I remembered that I just changed my Google password into some random gibberish for security reason. I changed my Google password to contain only letters and numbers, and voila, iMovie08 youtube uploading works again. That's just lame. I mean what is the problem of submitting a bunch of standard keyboard characters? So much for trying to be more secure. Apple, fix this!

Sony NWZ-S616F pink

Guess what I bought.




My sister wants larger capacity DAP than the 2GB nano I gave her, and something with FM radio. The Sony player is perfect, especially with its super easy drag-n-drop file transfer. I guess transferring music to the nano is not "easy" enough for her. :p Plus she doesn't need gapless playback.

The NWZ-S616F comes with minimal accessories. A stock bud (looks like the crappy E808), USB to WM-port cable, and a dock adapter. The body is plastic, but build quality seems okay. The buttons (especially the volume and hold switch) feel really cheap though. The FCC label looks like a cheapo sticker. Unit is Made in Malaysia. Obviously thicker vs the 2G nano (pictured above).

Drag-n-drop from my iMac is straight forward. The Sony is recognized as a UMS device. Drag-n-drop files using Finder is super easy. The only weird issue is that I cannot seem to eject the device. Every time I eject it, it will reconnect almost right away. Unplugging the USB cable when it's not writing doesn't hurt the content, but Finder yelled at me. I connected it to my WinXP machine, and it's recognized as UMS device just fine. The fact that a Sony audio device can be as easy as this is mind boggling. :D

Oh, gapless? Since I don't see anybody doing it, I conducted a test myself. Here's the video:


In short, gapless only on WAV files. Even at 4GB, using WAV files is not practical, unless you only listen to very few albums.

iPod Touch 2.0 firmware

As most people know, iPhone 3G goes on sale today. At the same time, 2.0 firmware is released for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I've been refreshing my iTunes in the morning, but it's not until about 9-10pm at night that the firmware is finally available for purchase. Yup, it's another $10 for yet another firmware update. But the ability to install the apps makes the $10 worth it IMO, although free would've been preferable.

Updating my Touch took quite sometime, mainly because iTunes had to wipe my Touch clean, and reload the content after updating the firmware. The flash memory on the Touch has pretty slow write speed. After updating, preferences, all icons arrangement and screens are put back to default.

Most noticeable addition is the App store icon. This will allow you to download/apps directly form the Touch. In iTunes, there is an option to setup mobileMe, although it only directs you the Apple's website, showing you simply to sync mobileMe/.Mac in system preferences. There are some minor cosmetic updates on the maps app. In preferences, there's an option to schedule the email push/fetch.

First app I downloaded is epocrates. Finally! As I mentioned in the past, I've been using my beat up Palm Tungsten E for epocrates. The app seems to download pretty quick in iTunes. After transferring it to my Touch, I put in my log-in, and the app continues the installation by downloading (presumably) all the updated database over-the-air. My Palm Tungsten E doesn't have bluetooth nor wifi, so updating epocrates requires me to sync it with my desktop. It's a nice upgrade that now I can just update my epocrates directly from my Touch without having to sync back to my desktop all the time. The UI is just like any other app. I just have to get used to the touch keyboard, having used to my Palm's stylus. Another great feature is pill ID, with pictures. This is not available on my Palm before.

Next app is iTunes remote. This allow your iPhone/iPod Touch to control your iTunes via wifi. Obviously you have to have a wifi access point, since that is the only way the Touch can be connected to the network. The computer itself doesn't have to be connected to wifi. My iMac is connected to the network via ethernet. In iTunes 7.7, there is a new option for iTunes to find iPhone/Touch remotes. When I tap on Add library on the remote app, iTunes shows my Touch on the sidebar. On the Touch, it shows a 4 digit code that I have to enter into iTunes, just like bluetooth pairing. After that, I can control most aspect of iTunes from my Touch. Even better, I can control my Airtunes output from my Touch! Control response is surprisingly responsive! UI is pretty much like the Music app. There are a couple of gotchas though.
1. You don't get the output on the Touch, meaning audio and video are not streamed to the Touch. The Touch will simply act as a remote control only.
2. Cover flow doesn't work. Although the album list of your library will look very similar as the music on the Touch, tilting the screen won't give you cover flow.
3. All playlist are listed, except Party Shuffle. Don't know why. :(
4. The remote is only for iTunes, not Frontrow. It would've been much more awesome if Apple made this into a more capable Frontrow remote, vs the basic Apple remote.
5. The starting volume control on the remote app is set to max. This volume is independent from the actual volume control in iTunes/MacOS. So make sure you set the max volume you desired in iTunes/MacOS.

Despite all of the advance things the Touch can do now, still no shuffle by album feature, something that the traditional iPods can do. Booo!

This is definitely an exciting platform for developers and Apple. I can see Apple phasing out the traditional iPods for this platform. Of course, the idea of having to pay Apple for every firmware update is highly annoying.

Addendum: epocrates' pill pictures are only loaded when my Touch is online (via wifi). If not, it only shows a question mark, although the pill ID still identify the pill correctly, albeit without pictures. Grrr! I assume it would require quite a lot of storage space to store the variety of pill pictures locally. Still, the app doesn't even cache the pics I already viewed. I'm kinda disappointed, especially that I don't have wifi access at my work place. :(

2nd addendum: Screen capture capability! On any screen, press & hold the home button, then press the on/off button. A white flash will pop up, and there will be a new folder in the photos app called Saved Photos holding the captured picture. You can also save pictures from Safari by pressing on the picture for a couple seconds, then an option will pop up to save/email the picture. Saving the picture will put it into the Saved Photos folder.

Princess Maker 4 DS

Well, you gotta hand it to the Japanese. Princess Maker is a life simulation game, where you're raising a girl to adulthood. Get it? =) Obviously, the franchise never come to the US, but it's already on the 5th one in Japan. Princess Maker 4 is coming for the DS, and the DS have touch screen. Are you following? Only the Japanese can come up with that. Well, to get a taste of what it's going to be, here's a really brief touch demo.


You be the judge.... LOL

Zettai Kareshi

Finished watching the last episode of Zettai Kareshi dorama. Thanks to SARS-fansub for subbing the drama.

As a drama, Zetai Kareshi is so so. The first couple episodes don't really hook you in. Plus, if you already read the manga, you are going to be disappointed by the changes in characters, especially Soshi's. Half-way through, the drama turned out to be okay, providing the typical comedy and emotions. As usual, there is no "happily ever after" in J-dorama, giving the usual tears here and there. So, it's an ok drama.

However, if we look Zettai Kareshi as a sci-fi, it's awesome. Despite being a drama, there are plenty of science fiction in this. Do robots have emotion? Free will? Can a robot fall in love? Is it right to scrap a robot that have a free will? These are all hard core sci-fi material. You gotta hand it to the Japanese to handle anything robot related properly. This is an awesome sci-fi experience, especially the last episode, disguised as a dorama based on a shoujo manga.

Disappointed with the mess of Will Smith's "I, Robot" movie? If you can get over the dorama factor, Zettai Kareshi is probably closer to the idea and spirit of Asimov's "I, Robot" than Will Smith's movie. Unfortunately, the chance of a western sci-fi fan watching a Japanese dorama is pretty slim (I'm the exception).

One Touch

A music video that I made. :)

New iPods rumor?

With the day of the iPhone 3G coming closer, more and more rumors are starting for iPods on the net. With Apple putting the iPhone 3G price at $199, it's pretty confusing to consumers in regards to pricing of the iPod lineup. Anything at the $199 price will become a hard sell, since the comparison is the iPhone 3G 8GB.

My take:
-Shuffle: no change, maybe price drop (1GB gone, 2GB at current 1GB price).
-iPod nano: Apple pretty much nailed it with the 3G nano. There isn't much they could do more. Maybe capacity bump across the board and/or price drop. You could see some hints at the prices of the refurbished nanos. Maybe 8GB or 16GB @ $149. It would be hard for Apple to promote the nano at $199, considering the iPhone 3G price.
-iPod classic: There is no announcements/rumors about larger capacity 1.8" hard-drives. The iPod classic is already at 160GB. Price drop will overlap with the nano/iPhone/Touch too closely. Maybe 100GB/120GB @ $249, and 160GB @299, but unlikely.
-iPod Touch: In the past, at the same price with the iPhone, you loose the phone, but gain more capacity at the same price point. With the iPhone 3G, consumers might look at the Touch as the worst deal. Apple could ignore the Touch altogether, pushing people to buy the iPhone. If not, there must be some price cuts/capacity bump. I'm guessing $100 price drop across the board. Same price with the iPhone 3G and all the new apps without 2 year commitment to AT&T.

My wish:
-iPod nano: bring back the aluminum enclosure like 2G nano. I can't believe Apple brought back the highly scratchable chrome back for the 3G. 16GB is a must, considering all the competitors (Sony, Creative, etc) have 16GB already. Maybe also put the Nike transmitter built-in so we don't have to deal with dock-blocking attachment anymore.
-iPod classic: I want a flash based iPod classic. The nano is great, but the click wheel is just too small. The iPod classic has the perfect size on my hand. Make it full aluminum (ala mini/2G nano) and flash based (32GB+).
-iPod Touch: Make it cheap and use the backing of the first gen iPhone. And where's the shuffle by album?

To be honest, there isn't much more innovation you can do on a digital audio player anymore. Apple nailed almost everything, including gapless playback on MP3 & AAC, something that the competitors cannot even figure out yet. Microsoft tried wifi sharing, but it's going nowhere. Creative will come up with their X-Fi DAP, but too late and who cares. With memory card prices getting cheaper and cheaper, more and more people are using cellphones as their basic DAPs. Everybody realize this (Apple with Touch/iPhone, Sony Ericsson with Walkman phones, Nokia with XpressMusic and N-series phones). It's cheaper for people to buy a 2GB microSD card than an iPod shuffle. The MP3 player as we know it is going to the way of the PDA, replaced by cellphones, and Apple is definitely aware of this. I can see Apple will focus more and more on the iPhone/Touch, especially with the new firmware and apps. The iPod as we know it might be gone, or maybe Apple will just keep the nano as a low end DAP, and push the Touch as the main iPod.