Thanks to 24seven, today Li Xiang, I and a few other bloggers have a chance to experience 4D Magix and CineBlast at Sentosa.

Sentosa 4D Magix

Sentosa CineBlast

Read More (493 More Words, 8 More Images, 1 More Video)

Uniquely Singapore Clipper

Thanks to Benjamin and Lionel from STB for the invite to go on board the Uniquely Singapore Clipper! We were out in the sea for almost 3 hours and I steered a boat for the first time in my life. It was somewhat similar to driving a car without power steering. This year is starting to get interesting. In January 2010 itself, I rode on a Segway and steered a boat!

Marina at Keppel Bay

The Uniquely Singapore Clipper is currently stop over at Singapore’s Keppel Bay’s Marina and will depart to Qingdao, China on the 2nd February 2010.

Singapore is currently at the 6th place in the overall race out of 10 teams.

Check out my Facebook Gallery: Uniquely Singapore Clipper for the full 89 photos taken.

What is a Clipper?
To be honest, I have no idea what a Clipper is.

A clipper was a very fast sailing ship of the 19th century that had multiple masts and a square rig. They were generally narrow for their length, could carry limited bulk freight, small by later 19th century standards, and had a large total sail area.

The term clipper originally applied to a fast horse and most likely derives from the term “clip” meaning “speed”, as in “going at a good clip”.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clipper

Race Schedule
Leg 1
Race start from the Humber, UK: 13 September 2009
La Rochelle, France: ETA 18-20 September, depart 22 September
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil: ETA 18-20 October

Leg 2
Rio de Janeiro: depart 27 October
Cape Town, South Africa: ETA 14-16 November

Leg 3
Cape Town: depart 22 or 23 November
Geraldton-Greenough, Western Australia: ETA 14-18 December

Leg 4
Geraldton-Greenough: depart 3 January 2010
Singapore: arrive 23 January, depart 2 February
Qingdao, China: ETA 19-22 February

Leg 5
Qingdao: depart 2 March
California: ETA 1-5 April

Leg 6
California: depart 11 April
Panama: ETA 4-7 May, ETD 12 May
Port Antonio, Jamaica: ETA 16-18 May

Leg 7
Jamaica: depart 22 May
New York: ETA 3 June, depart 6 June
Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada: ETA 11-13 June, depart 19 June
Cork/Kinsale, Ireland: ETA 1-4 July, depart 9 July
Ijmuiden, Netherlands: ETA 13-14 July, depart 15 or 16 July
The Humber: Race finish 17 July 2010

Google launches its own phone called the Nexus One. However before that, there are so many leak pictures, videos, specifications and even the official website was leaked for a while. I think it can be considered the most leaked phone of 2009 or perhaps the most leaked mobile phone.

Pricing & Availability

• USD$529 (without contract)
• USD$179 (with 2 years contract from T-Mobile USA)

Verizon Wireless in the US and Vodafone in Europe plan to bring in the Nexus One as well during Spring 2010. The Nexus One will ship to three international market at the moment, UK, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

Shipping To Singapore
If you are living in Singapore and interested to get the Nexus One, here is the price breakdown for you:

• Nexus One phone (without contract): USD$529
• AC Adapter (Singapore): USD$19.99
• DHL International (Shipping & Handling): USD$28.32
• Total: USD$577.31 or SGD$806.10 (USD$1 = SGD$1.3963)
• After adding in 7% GST: SGD$862.52

Hardware Specifications

• Display: 3.7″ AMOLED 480×800 WVGA display
• Thinness: 11.5mm; Weight: 130g
• Processor/Speed: Qualcomm Snapdragon 3G QSD8250 chipset, delivering speeds up to 1GHz
• Camera: 5 megapixel auto focus with flash and geo tagging
• Onboard memory: 512MB Flash, 512MB RAM
• Expandable memory: 4GB removable SD Card (expandable to 32GB)
• Noise Suppression: Dynamic noise suppression from Audience, Inc.
• Ports: 3.5mm stereo headphone jack with four contacts for inline voice and remote control
• Battery: Removable 1400 mAh
• Personalized laser engraving: Up to 50 characters on the back of the phone
• Trackball: Tri-color notification LED, alerts when new emails, chats, text messages arrive

Software Innovation

• Google Maps Navigation: offering turn-by-turn driving directions with voice output.
• Email: multiple Gmail accounts; universal inbox and Exchange support.
• Phone book: aggregate contacts from multiple sources, including Facebook.
• Quick Contacts: easily switch between communication and social applications.
• Android Market: access to more than 18,000 applications.
• Enter text without typing.
• Use a voice-enabled keyboard for all text fields: speak a text message, instant message, tweet, Facebook update, or complete an email.
• Tell your phone what you want it to do.
• Search Google, call contacts, or get driving directions by just speaking into your phone.
• Take personalization to the next level.
• Dynamic, interactive, live wallpapers react to the touch of a finger.
• More widgets and five home screen panels allow for further device customization.
• Capture camera-quality pictures and video with your device.
• 5 megapixel camera includes LED flash, auto focus, zoom, white balance and color effects.
• View pictures and Picasa Web Albums in the new 3D Gallery.
• Record Hi-Res MPEG4 video, and then upload to YouTube with one click.
• Read your voicemail messages.
• Get transcribed voicemail with Google Voice integration, without changing your number.

Video

Links

• View: Nexus One Official Homepage
• Buy: Nexus One
• Press Release: Google Offers New Model for Consumers to Buy a Mobile Phone
• Video: Nexus One Videos
• Image: Nexus One Press Photos

Finally! Street View on Google Maps has landed on our shores, been waiting for years for this!

Singapore, December 2, 2009 – Google today announced the launch of Street View in Singapore, allowing users to view and navigate 360 degree street-level imagery of Singapore. Taken by Street View cars along all public roads earlier this year, the imagery includes iconic locations like Orchard Road, Marina Bay and Clarke Quay; cultural areas like Chinatown, Little India and Kampong Glam; and the heartland like Tampines, Jurong and Woodlands. In addition to viewing the images on your PC, Street View can be accessed on your mobile phone, meaning you now have a virtual photo-based street guide of Singapore in your pocket. See it for yourself at maps.google.com.sg.

First launched in May 2007, Street View is hugely popular worldwide and is available in more than 100 metropolitan areas around the world. Singapore is the first country in Southeast Asia to get Street View and the fourth country in Asia Pacific after Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

In areas where Street View is available, you can access street-level imagery by zooming into the lowest level on Google Maps, or by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street. You can check out a restaurant before arriving, make travel plans, arrange meeting points, get a helping hand with geography homework, or just explore and get to know Singapore better. The coolest way to use Street View is on smartphones so users can do all of this fun stuff on-the-go, anytime, anywhere.

Organisations can also benefit from the Street View technology by putting a business listing on Google Maps for free or embedding Google Maps directly into their websites at no charge. The street-level imagery of their location can help them to promote and increase awareness of their business – whether its a chain of restaurants, a library, a local attraction or even a new hotel. For more tips and videos about using Street View in Singapore, visit maps.google.com.sg/streetview.

Andrew McGlinchey, Google’s Head of Product Management in Southeast Asia said, “Street View has been hugely popular with our Google Maps users worldwide so we’re thrilled to extend our Street View coverage to Singapore. Imagine all the great uses of Street View here, from promoting tourist hotspots to hunting for property to educating students about historic buildings, and of course, getting directions and searching for businesses. Street View will allow locals and visitors to visit places in Singapore they may not have had a chance to experience before.”

Our launch partner, the Singapore Tourism Board (STB), is very pleased with Street View’s ability to showcase some of Singapore’s best-loved tourist attractions and hidden gems to a global audience. Said Mr Ken Low, Assistant Chief Executive (Marketing), STB, “STB is very excited by Street View’s marketing potential as it will further raise Singapore’s prominence and reach through the Internet. People unfamiliar with Singapore can now get a first look at our city. The convenience of Google Maps, and the Street View feature, will give people from anywhere in the world a much better idea and picture of what Singapore looks like, and what it has to offer and we welcome private sector initiatives such as these which help us add value to our visitors’ experiences.”

Singaporean businesses and organizations keen to leverage Street View

Many other Singaporean businesses and organisations have already identified significant opportunities for Street View to be used in travel, tourism, house buying and renting, education and helping make small businesses easier to find.

Chris Robb, Managing Director of Spectrum Worldwide, OCBC Cycle Singapore event owner and organiser said, “Spectrum Worldwide and OCBC Cycle Singapore are thrilled to be the first local sporting event to use Google Street View to provide participants with the ability to virtually cycle the routes before event day. Street View will also give OCBC Cycle Singapore supporters an opportunity to find vantage points and see what the cyclists will tackle in March next year.”

Patrick Grove, Executive Chairman, iProperty.com Group said, “We welcome the opportunity to incorporate Street View on our website with the potential of providing a whole new approach for property search in Singapore for our users. Street View could benefit users in selecting the relevant properties to visit by providing detailed visual insights of the surrounding public transport, malls and other amenities. In short, the online property search process becomes less time-consuming, more informative, more efficient and most importantly resulting in smarter decisions made for your dream home.”

PropertyGuru’s Co-founder and Director Steve Melhuish said, “We are looking forward to having Street View on www.PropertyGuru.com.sg as it offers our users a new and unique way to view the location of properties and save time in their search. It’s an amazing tool that will allow our users to see each property and its surroundings and help them get a real feel for the area without having to physically be there. For those who are looking around to buy or rent a home in Singapore, the search just got easier!”

The winner of the Street View Trike online vote is…

Google and STB also announced the winners of the online poll in which the Singapore public voted for the best tourist attractions to be photographed by the Street View trike. Google received thousands of suggestions and votes over the past month and the top winner in each of the four voting categories are: Chinatown, Pagoda Street and Mosque Street for ‘Cultural Areas’; the Southern Ridge, Henderson Wave Bridge, Hort Park and Kent Ridge for ‘Hidden Gems’; Sentosa’s beaches and trails for ‘Natural Wonders’; and the Quays (Robertson, Clarke, Boat) and the Fullerton for ‘The City’.

And the top spot goes to… Sentosa, Asia’s favourite playground, which received the most number of votes to be hailed as Singapore’s most popular tourist attraction! These top voted locations will get a visit from the trike first while it is here in Singapore. The images it collects will later appear in Street View to help millions of Google users in Singapore and all over the world get a special view of some of Singapore’s famous attractions and inspire them to visit the attractions for themselves.

Privacy features built into Street View

Google has also gone to great lengths to safeguard privacy while allowing all Singaporean users to benefit from Street View. Street View only contains imagery that is already visible from public roads and features technology that blurs both faces and licence plates. In addition, any user can easily flag images for removal that he or she considers inappropriate by clicking on “Report a problem”. Google has consulted extensively with many privacy and community groups around the world in developing these privacy features and safeguards.

For more information, check out Press Release Site.

LTA and Google collaborate to help travelers get to their destinations around Singapore faster and easier
Singapore is the first country in the world to launch a comprehensive range and nation-wide coverage of land travel planning tools, from walking to public transit to traffic, on Google Maps

Singapore, November 19, 2009 – With a daily public transport ridership of 6 million travelling by buses, taxi and trains; and more than 870,000 other vehicles on the roads in Singapore, commuters and motorists can now better plan their trips on Google Maps through a unique collaboration between Google and Singapore’s Land Transport Authority (LTA). Mapping, directions and route planning for various forms of land transport modes – from buses to trains to cars to even by walking – are now all available for free on Google Maps. Transit and traffic information are also available on mobile devices with Google Maps for Mobile, so commuters and motorists can check the latest updates to make route changes on-the-go.

Singapore is the first country in the world to provide this comprehensive range and nation-wide coverage of land transport options on Google’s global online map platform. Today at the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, LTA’s Chief Executive, Mr Yam Ah Mee, and Google’s Geospatial Technologist, Mr Ed Parsons, launched this new service at maps.google.com.sg/transport.

Under this collaborative effort, LTA provided key transit and traffic information such as live traffic feeds and public bus/MRT routes and schedules. Google combined the high quality of LTA’s transit data, and worked with Quantum Inventions, a Singapore company, to integrate traffic data, on the popular and familiar user interface of Google Maps. The integration of LTA’s information on Google Maps complements existing LTA and third-party travel planning tools for commuters.

Whether a private car owner switching to go by bus or MRT, or a public transit rider choosing to drive or take a taxi, or even one of 10 million international visitors each year finding their way around, the Singapore public can now check all of their land transport options to make an informed decision on the quickest, most convenient route and method to reach their destinations. For example, each time a Google Maps user requests driving directions, the user will be given the opportunity to plan the same trip using public transit – a useful option when the driving route is highlighted as red or experiencing heavy congestion.

“In line with LTA’s vision for a people-centred public transport system, we have launched several initiatives to help commuters better manage their travel time, transfers, and make more informed transport decisions. Recent initiatives include PublicTransport@SG which has received good responses of 679,000 average page views monthly,” said Mr Yam Ah Mee, Chief Executive, LTA. “The collaboration with Google is another step in this direction to make it even easier for the public to plan their trips with transit and traffic information on Google Maps, whether travelling to their nearest shopping mall or across the island to their favourite eating joint.”

“Google’s goal is to bring LTA’s accurate, comprehensive land transport information together on a global mapping platform for easy access, search and use on PCs and mobile phones by millions of Singaporeans and Google Maps users around the world,” said Mr Ed Parsons, Geospatial Technologist, Google. “Google Maps seeks to provide users with tools to help them explore the world around them and working with LTA to improve the daily lives of Singaporeans is an example of how Google can partner with government agencies to serve the public on a national scale.”

Mapplets increase usefulness of Google Maps

Mapplets are useful mini-applications developed by third parties that can be added directly on to Google Maps Singapore. With just a single click of the mouse, users can customize their Google Maps by adding useful tools created just for Singapore.

The three highlighted mapplets on the left navigation panel on maps.google.com.sg are incidents, ERP locations/rates, and cycle routes (from National Parks Board). The incidents mapplet is based on LTA data and displays real-time traffic incidents, constructions, and road closures island-wide. If the traffic looks sluggish, you can find out what is causing it by clicking on the pin to get additional details such as when and where the incident happened.

Other Singapore mapplets can be found in the My Maps directory including petrol station finder, carpark finder, highway cameras and more.

More Information at the press release site, http://sites.pressatgoogle.com/sgtransport/ or visit Google Maps Singapore to have a feel of it.

This year Singapore Christmas light-up is themed “A Christmas All Decked Out”. Three Christmas icons namely Santa, reindeers and snowmen are given designers makeovers and all decked out in haute couture. The first Christmas light-up started in 1984 (the year I was born). So this is the 26th year running.

The decoration in Orchard road is divided into three zones, the blue zone covering from Tanglin Mall all the way to Shaw Center, the orange zone covers from Ion Orchard all the way to Heeren and lastly the red zone covers from Orchard Building till the end of Orchard Road.

Blue Zone

Orange Zone

Red Zone

Some trivia, the Christmas light-up launch mechanism was constructed from recycled wood panels with crystal ornaments from previous years Christmas decorations.

Personally I think the this year decoration is better than last year, my personally favorite is the “snowing effect” simulating by white LED lights.

Visit Singapore

For more information, check out Celebrate 2009 and for more pictures check out my Facebook Gallery: A Christmas All Decked Out.

Thanks to Benjamin from STB for the invite =D

Today marks our 5th anniversary. This year is a little unique. We did not buy each other gifts nor write each other a card. Instead we bought a card together and both of us will write in the same card.

We had a buffet lunch at Carosel at Royal Plaza. It is SGD$45 per pax during a weekend lunch and we get to redeem SGD$10 worth of carpark fees which is equivalent to about 3 hours of parking at Royal Plaza.

The reason we chose Carousel is because Li Xiang and I saw all the nicely displayed Macrons when we walked past Carousel quite sometime back. Another reason is because I was reading a review on it at HungryGoWhere and there are plenty of reviews on it (I sorted by number of reviews). But after trying it out, it is pretty average. The food and dessert variety is alright but the taste is not there. I kinda like the coffee there though. The thing I hate the most is the ice cream, I can tell that they are using some cheap ice cream like Walls because I am very sensitive to ice cream taste. I expect better quality ice cream like Mövenpick at least. Nevertheless the service was pretty good, my iced water was topped up almost instantly once it is goes below half.

I think Straits Kitchen at Hyatt will be better choice if you ask me.

After lunch, we went to Singapore Flyer. It is our first time there after so much procrastination from Li Xiang. We wanted to use the 15% voucher because it was sent to Li Xiang because of her upcoming birthday but didn’t know if you use OCBC or DBS credit card you are entitled to 20% discount. The usual adult price ticket is SGD$29.50 and after the discount, we paid SGD$23.60 for each ticket.

The experience we have on board the Singapore Flyer is pretty good. The service staff are all well mannered and friendly. The Singapore Flyer really gives you a 350° view of the landscape of Marina area and I didn’t know the Marina Bay Sands IR is so big till I am on board the Flyer. The ride lasted exactly 30 minutes because I was subtracting the time I took from the last photo with the first photo.

We bought the sovereign photo at SGD$18 because I don’t think we will be sitting the Singapore Flyer anytime soon and even we did, we will not be buying the photograph again. Most importantly the photography have a date stamp on it which marks today’s date. Li Xiang said the typography of the date could be smaller.

Came back home about 4pm and we played Wii Sports Resort!

Facebook Gallery: 5th Anniversary

Looking Back

• 4th Anniversary
• 3rd Anniversary
• 2nd Anniversary
• 1st Anniversary
• 0th Anniversary

The outcome of my Are You Being Served? Mission has been posted on the Are You Being Served? website, check out Lester & Li Xiang: Sound service!

Here is a snippet of the post:

We approached one of the staff, nearer to us, and ask him to take the product down for us. He is wearing an orange color t-shirt which is significantly different from the rest of the staff there (they wore black) and he do not bear a name tag but just the word “Promoter” so we assumed he might be a part time staff working on the weekends.

Judging from his reply stated on top, he is not very sure of the product himself either. To make matter worst, he has problem communicating with us. He seems to have problem understanding our English and his replies in English to us are often very short.

Check out Lester & Li Xiang: Sound service for the full glory details!

Windows 7 has officially been launch in Singapore at midnight on 22nd October 2009. The launch was collaborated between Microsoft Singapore and Challenger Funan. The first person in the queue started queuing at 3.30pm and only at 7pm they started giving out the queue number. At about 10.30pm, there was about 140+ people in the queue, but I think it eventually went up to 200 before midnight.

The first 177 customers gets to buy Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade Edition at SGD$77 (RRP: SGD$219). After that, a limited number of customers can purchase it at SGD$147 during the launch event.

Full Install Prices

• Windows 7 Home Premium – SGD$359
• Windows 7 Professional – SGD$529
• Windows 7 Ultimate – SGD$549

Upgrade Prices

• Windows 7 Home Premium – SGD$219
• Windows 7 Professional – SGD$359
• Windows 7 Ultimate – SGD$379

OEM Prices (Full Install)

• Windows 7 Home Premium – SGD$190
• Windows 7 Professional – SGD$255
• Windows 7 Ultimate – SGD$350

I have been using Windows 7 for quite sometime since it was available in my school’s MSDN AA on 14th August 2009. I am very satisfied with it, definitely an improvement over the failed Windows Vista or the long running Windows XP.

*UPDATE* Updated post with Windows 7 OEM prices from Fuwell.

Source: DK and VR Zone

I always complain that the service level in Singapore is lousy and now with the Are You Being Served? platform, I will see whether what I complain holds true.

Things I hate the most:

• When you ask “Do you have this product in store”, they will answer, “all the things are displayed on the shelves”.
• When you ask “Do you have the other model”, they will answer, “No”.
• Tai-Chi-ing you around. When you ask Person A, Person A ask you to ask Person B, when you ask Person B, Person B ask you to ask back Person A.
• With the influx of FT in Singapore, it is not uncommon to find sales personnel from China. Some of them do not even understand basic English which makes communication difficult and that begs the question, are we suppose to blend into them by speaking Mandarin or are they suppose to blend into us by learning English. This is really getting out of control.

Technically they did not answer wrongly but it is their attitude that pisses you off. For example, instead of answering “No”, they answer “Sorry, we do not have it”. Wouldn’t it make you feel better than saying a no and brushes you off after that?

Anyway, back to topic, following up on my Are You Being Served?’s blog post 3 weeks ago, my mission is suppose to commence on the 28th September 2009 and here are my mission details:

• I will be targeting the retail industry, in particularly the electronics portion.
• I am intending to get the Sony iPod Dock Clock Radio ICF-C1IPMK2 to replace my analog alarm clock while it charges my iPhone 3GS.
• I will be getting it from a local electronics store in VivoCity because it is the cheapest with member’s discount.
• I will be going together with Li Xiang and let her ask all the questions, while I observed the sales personnel.
• I will be observing his/her patience, attitude, product knowledge and most importantly will he go the extra mile to serve us.

PS: I can’t explicitly named the store to prevent unnecessary lawsuit.