Received my Apple MacBook Pro 2.53GHz yesterday from TNT after ordering it from Apple Store on the 16th October 2008. Apparently TNT only has 2 time slot for me to choose for the delivery which is during office hours (9am till 6pm) or night delivery (7pm to 10pm).

Timeline

• 16th October 2008: Ordered
• 20th October 2008: Prepared to Ship
• 21st October 2008: Received my MacBook Pro at 9.30pm

Specifications

• Apple MacBook Pro 2.53GHz (Late 2008)
  • Intel Core 2 Duo T9400 2.53GHz
  • 1066MHz FSB 6MB L2 cache
  • 4GB 1066MHz PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM
  • nVidia GeForce 9600M GT with 512MB of GDDR3 SDRAM
  • 320GB SATA (5400RPM) HDD
  • 15.4″ (1440 x900) LED-backlit Glossy Widescreen Display
  • Built-in 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet
  • AirPort Extreme: Integrated 802.11a/b/g/draft-n (n enabled)
  • 8x SuperDrive (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
  • Built-in iSight camera, Mini DisplayPort output port with support for DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI
  • Built-in stereo speakers, built-in omnidirectional microphone, combined optical digital input/analog line in, combined optical digital output/analog line out
  • Mac OS X 10.5.5 (Build 9F2088)

Price
I bought it using the educational store and hence I got it for SGD$3,648 (including 7% GST), the usual price is SGD$3,988. That is about SGD$340 discount.

Pictures

MacBook Pro (Late 2008)

25 photos, 1.0 MiB size, 1,273 visits

This album is added on Tuesday, 21st October 2008.

Credits
I would like to thank my parents for this! THANK YOU MOM AND DAD!!!

Caught Max Payne over the weekend instead of the Japanese movie 20th Century Boys as the timeslot was earlier. I played Max Payne the computer game during my polytechnic days which is about 5 years ago and I still can remember some scenes from the game when watching the movie. However the storyline is a different. Overall the film was average, not too bad, but Li Xiang said it is a boring show. I wish they incorporated more “bullet time” in the show as that is what Max Payne is well known for in computer game.

I forgot to stay behind after the credits, damn it. I seriously hate movies that has a post credits scene!

Our 4th year anniversary is coming this Friday, going to bake a chocolate chiffon cake and have dinner at Relish, located at Bukit Timah Road.

Right after Adobe Flash Player 10 is released, Adobe announced that Creative Suite 4 has begun shipping. Woot!

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Oct. 15, 2008 - Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) today announced the immediate availability of the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family, the highly-anticipated release of industry-leading design and development software for virtually every creative workflow. Delivering radical breakthroughs in workflow efficiency – and packed with hundreds of innovative, time saving features – the new Creative Suite 4 product line advances the creative process across print, Web, interactive, film, video and mobile.

Customers can choose from six new versions: Adobe Creative Suite 4 Design Premium, Design Standard, Web Premium, Web Standard, Production Premium and Master Collection. The combination of Creative Suite and the new capabilities of Adobe Flash Player 10, also available today (see separate press release) deliver new levels of creativity and expressiveness across media channels. Designers using the Adobe Creative Suite 4 product family will gain unprecedented creative control using the new expressive features and visual performance improvements in Adobe Flash Player 10 to deliver breakthrough Web experiences across multiple browsers and operating systems.

Press Release (PDF): Adobe Creative Suite 4 Now Shipping
Website: Adobe Creative Suite

MacBook Pro

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
  • 15-inch widescreen
  • 2GB DDR3 Memory
  • 250GB hard drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 256MB
  • SGD$3,188.00
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.53GHz
  • 15-inch widescreen
  • 4GB DDR3 Memory
  • 320GB hard drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce 9400M + 9600M GT with 512MB
  • SGD$3,988.00

Website: Apple (Singapore) - MacBook Pro
Shop: Apple Store (Singapore) - MacBook Pro

MacBook Air

• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.6GHz
  • 2GB DDR3 Memory
  • 128GB SATA hard drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
  • SGD$2,888.00
• Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86GHz
  • 2GB DDR3 Memory
  • 128GB solid state drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
  • SGD$3,988.00

Website: Apple (Singapore) - MacBook Air
Shop: Apple Store (Singapore) - MacBook Air

MacBook

• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz
  • 2GB DDR3 Memory
  • 160GB hard drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
  • SGD$2,088.00
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz
  • 2GB DDR3 Memory
  • 250GB hard drive
  • NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics
  • SGD$2,588.00
• Intel Core 2 Duo 2.1GHz
  • 1GB DDR2 Memory
  • 120GB hard drive
  • Intel GMA X3100 graphics
  • SGD$1,588.00

Website: Apple (Singapore) - MacBook
Shop: Apple Store (Singapore) - MacBook

Microsoft has release Silverlight 2 and it will be available for download tomorrow. I have been waiting for this as Silverlight 1 and 1.1 is really an infant.

Microsoft Corp. today announced the availability of Silverlight 2, one of the industry’s most comprehensive and powerful solutions for the creation and delivery of applications and media experiences through a Web browser. Silverlight 2 delivers a wide range of new features and tools that enable designers and developers to better collaborate while creating more accessible, more discoverable and more secure user experiences.

Press Release: Microsoft Releases Silverlight 2, Already Reaching One in Four Consumers Worldwide
Website: Official Silverlight Page

It has been confirmed that Windows 7 will be just called Windows 7. Simple, short and sweet.

And, as you probably know, since we began development of the next version of the Windows client operating system we have been referring to it by a codename, “Windows 7.” But now is a good time to announce that we’ve decided to officially call the next version of Windows, “Windows 7.”

While I know there have been a few cases at Microsoft when the codename of a product was used for the final release, I am pretty sure that this is a first for Windows. You might wonder about the decision.

The decision to use the name Windows 7 is about simplicity. Over the years, we have taken different approaches to naming Windows. We’ve used version numbers like Windows 3.11, or dates like Windows 98, or “aspirational” monikers like Windows XP or Windows Vista. And since we do not ship new versions of Windows every year, using a date did not make sense. Likewise, coming up with an all-new “aspirational” name does not do justice to what we are trying to achieve, which is to stay firmly rooted in our aspirations for Windows Vista, while evolving and refining the substantial investments in platform technology in Windows Vista into the next generation of Windows.

Simply put, this is the seventh release of Windows, so therefore “Windows 7″ just makes sense.

We are very excited about the opportunity to tell you more about Windows 7 in the coming weeks, and show you how we have continued to build on investments begun in Windows Vista to deliver on the next release of the Windows operating system.

Source: Windows Vista Team Blog

As usual, I am so busy with school, as said previously, I got assignment due every single week since the 3rd week of school. It is now mid October. My last day of school is 14th November 2008. I got 3 exams on the 22nd, 25th and 27th of November 2008. The confirmation date for my Taiwan trip is getting closer each day, it is now mid December 2008. I think I should be able to get the exact date at the end of this month or latest by early November 2008.

Last Friday, Li Xiang has no school, so I skipped my lecture (the lecture is quite useless as that module is not examinable) and we spend some quality time together. I sent her to school to loan her Canon 20D DSLR camera for her photography assignment and then we went to Singapore Botanical Gardens to re-take some of her shots for her photography assignment.

After spending an hour there, we proceed on to Orchard Road to catch a movie, we caught Big Stan. It is the first movie directed by Rob Schneider and the movie was good. Personally, I love movies starring Rob Schneider and Adam Sandler as I have not been disappointed in any movies with them in it yet.

On Sunday, we went for Tim Sum at Crystal Jade Dining at VivoCity as our Thailand friends are leaving, they are here on a business trip to discuss something with my mom. 3 years ago when we visited Thailand, they really took good care of us! I will definitely be going to Thailand again when it is more stable over there. After the Tim Sum, Li Xiang and I headed home to catch some sleep while my mom and brother went to Takashimaya as they are having a storewide 15% discount because of their 15th anniversary in Singapore.

At night, they went to Serangoon Gardens because my mom’s cousin baby is one month old while Li Xiang and I headed to Central for the famous Ma-Rutama’s Ramen. They are opening a branch soon in Liang Court on the 1st November 2008. We walked around Clark Quay and Liang Court and took some pictures along the way. Last weekend was the best weekend I had since school starts.

Our 4th anniversary is coming on the 24th October 2008, going to bake her a chocolate Chiffon cake. It is my VERY FIRST attempt in baking a cake, hopefully it does not fail. I think it is easier for me to do programming than baking. LOL

I was busy with the Nokia Remix 2008 and hence I have no time to compile my site traffic statistics for September 2008. But better late than never, here it is:

September 2008 Total Traffic

• Total Hits: 10,026,167
• Total Files: 9,143,765
• Total Pages: 804,734
• Total Visits: 173,723
• Total KBytes: 37,275,290
• Total Unique Sites: 136,527
• Total Unique URLs: 16,197
• Total Unique Referrers: 19,417
• Total Unique User Agents: 5,630

September 2008 Daily Traffic

• Hits per Day: Average: 334,205 - Max: 383,820
• Files per Day: Average: 304,792 - Max: 344,866
• Pages per Day: Average: 26,824 - Max: 36,666
• Visits per Day: Average: 5,790 - Max: 7,999
• KBytes per Day: Average: 1,242,510 - Max: 1,627,248

Note: Green denotes increase and Red denotes decrease when compared with August 2008.

Previous month site traffic: August 2008

Red Dot Design Museum

This is the 2nd and final part to the Nokia Remix 2008 event. The party starts at 7pm and is held at Red Dot Design Museum. I was there with Li Xiang. We have a blogger meeting at Pacific Coffee also at 7pm where we get to play with the Nokia XpressMusic 5800 for quite a long time. I took a video of the Internet surfing experience and the gaming experience using accelerometer and will be uploading to YouTube.

About 8pm, we proceed on for the buffet dinner and followed by the Music Performance. By the way, the food catered by Nokia is as usual very good. Thumbs up for that.

There are a total of 4 music performances namely, Plain Sunset, Astreal, Andrew Macdonald and Lifehouse. The first 2 bands are from Singapore, the Andrew Macdonald is from Australia and the last band Lifehouse need no further introduction. And of course it is Lifehouse which gets the party going and I think Lifehouse has put up the best performance of the night. They will be performing at St James Power Station later on in the day (it has past 12mn). The MCs for the day is The Muttons featuring Justin Ang and Vernon A from 987FM. I think they did a great job at hosting the event and their jokes are awesome! Thumbs up!

Here is the video of the XpressMusic 5800 Internet Surfing/Browsing:

Here is the video of the XpressMusic 5800 Gaming:

Here are some of the pictures that I took:

Nokia Remix 2008 Singapore was held today at 9am at Odeon Towers, Supper Club. Supper Club is a beautiful place the huge sofa chairs are so comfortable that I almost fell asleep. I knew pretty much everything that Nokia is going to announce thanks to the pre-media briefing yesterday.

My Media Pass

I have finally got the chance to take a video of the user interface of the XpressMusic 5800 and I have uploaded it to YouTube. Nothing is new here, for more information, you can check out the post below this or check the specifications at http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/5800_XpressMusic.

Here is the video of the XpressMusic 5800 User Interface:

As usual, sorry for the out of focus digital camera video recording, but I don’t mind a sponsor for a dedicated HD video recording camcorder, any takers?

“Nokia Come With Music” service is also announced. Let me summarize it in points so that it is easier to digest.

• It is a pre-paid service that is bundled to Nokia mobile phones. Currently on the 5310 XpressMusic, N95 8GB and 5800 XpressMusic.
• You need to pay a little bit more for the bundled phone. Price for Singapore is still unknown at the moment.
• You get 1 year of unlimited music downloads through Nokia Music Store. 18 months option are coming in 2009.
• The music you downloaded, you get to keep it after the 1 year. Nokia spokesperson keep emphasising this.
• Like it or not it is DRMed.
• If I am not wrong, the format is WMA and not MP3.

Personally, I am not in favour of DRM and WMA. I don’t mind paying a little more for non-DRM and MP3.

Here are some of the pictures that I took: