Nokia E51 was announced yesterday, somehow I was expecting a E series phone being announced after Go Play as there were many rumors floating around Mobile Review forum.

I think the E51 reminds me of a candy bar version of E65 which is a slider phone. The only think I dislike the E51 is the 2MP camera, I mean even though camera is not the main feature of this phone, they should at least put in a 3.2MP camera instead.

Here some of the features for it:

• Nokia Office Tools 2.0 including Nokia Team Suite, In-device Search, Quickoffice, Macromedia PDF reader, Zip manager, File manager, and Active Notes
• Nokia Maps application integrated into device
• 2 megapixel camera with 4 x digital zoom for high quality still imaging and video capture
• Integrated WLAN (IEEE 802.11g)
• Bluetooth 2.0 specification with enhanced data rate (EDR)
• Mini USB connector, USB 2.0 full-speed
• 2.5 mm Nokia A/V connector
• 2″ (240 x 320 pixels), active-matrix color display supports up to 16 million colors
• Up to 130 MB of user data memory
• Expandable up to 4 GB with hot swappable microSD card
• S60 3.1 Edition Feature Pack 1

- Nokia E51 Press Release
- Nokia E51 Full Specifications

US started airing Prison Break Season 3 last night! Been waiting for months for it! Get it off your nearest friendly site, but careful not to get ODEXed.

Parkour is an activity of French origin, the aim of which is to move from point A to point B as efficiently and quickly as possible, using principally the abilities of the human body.

Just watch finished District 13, it is a French action film which features Parkour and starring David Belle, the co-founder of Parkour. The movie is not bad but the movie is in French and the worst part is that the English dub sucks.

- Wikipedia on Parkour
- Wikipedia on District 13
- Wikipedia on David Belle

Here is a clip from the introduction of the movie featuring David Belle:

My Pentium 4 3.2GHz desktop will be reaching 4 years old in 2 months time. 2 days ago, my power supply unit (PSU) decided to give up on me by automatically cutting off the power to my computer and hence my computer is prone to shutting down anytime.

2 days ago, when I woke up, I was like how come it is so quiet (my computer is noisy due to the PSU also) and then I realize my computer was off. As I am going to school, I did not on it till I came home at night. When I came home at night, I on it, everything seems to be normal. But about 2am after finishing talking to Li Xiang on the phone, I witness my computer turning off by itself. I was like WTF? I immediately try turning back on, but it will automatically off after passing BIOS (I tried it like 5 times). I decided to let it rest and then after 15 minutes, I turn it back on again and it works as per normal. I check whether the bottom of my PSU’s fan is spinning and to my horror, it is not spinning. I took a sharp object and twirl the PSU’s fan to get its engine started, it spinned by itself eventually after a few twirls. I went to sleep after that.

Again, when I woke up, it is so quiet, then I realized it is time to change my PSU. Went to Funan’s PK Computer in the afternoon to get a Cooler Master 430 watts PSU for $70.

At night came back home from school, dismantled my old PSU and fixed the new one in. This time my computer is so much quieter and I managed to play 2 games of C&C3 without my computer automatically restart. Previously, whenever I play 3D intensive games like C&C3, CS and even DotA, 15 minutes into the game, my computer will automatically restart. I tried many ways to debug this issue, but apparently it is due to my PSU not giving enough power to my ATI Radeon X800 and hence it decided to ask my CPU to restart.

Moral of the story is never to get a cheap PSU and always get a PSU with higher watts.

Ratatouille
It has been a month since I caught a movie at the cinema due to our busy schedule, but finally found some time last Friday to catch a midnight show, Ratatouille, at GV VivoCity.

The show was not bad bad but a little too draggy, it is about 2 hours longs but nevertheless Pixar animation is always outstanding, I am really amazed by how they did the water effects. Imagine the algorithm and mathematical calculation behind it! That was what is going through my mind when I am watching it. LOL

Facebook
Ever since I registered for Facebook, I stopped going back to Friendster. LiXiang is always the one updating my profile with ugly pictures of me. Facebook can win Friendster just about in every way, applications, APIs, design, AJAX, tagging and my personal favourite is the intuitive interface done in Java Applet for uploading multiple photos.

I have also updated 2 of my simple Facebook Applications to display this blog and my WordPress Plugins blog statistics, recent posts and comments.

Check it out here and here.

If you want the source, it is available, just drop me an email and not post your email address in the comments. With that source, you can create an application to display the statistics, recent posts and comments of your blog and fans of your blog can add the application to their Facebook profile. Do not ask me how to go about it, instead go and read the Facebook tutorial on how to create a simple Facebook Application.

By the way, Java Sucks Period.

Interesting article that I found in Neowin: Back Page News.

Ten years ago, Microsoft was the company everyone loved to hate.

The most vociferous Microsoft haters slammed the company for being a greedy industry bully that used its monopolistic, clunky, copycat operating system to force software on users and coerce partners into unfair licensing deals.

Don’t look now, but the role of the industry’s biggest bully is increasingly played by Apple, not Microsoft. Here’s a look at how Apple has shoved Microsoft aside as the company with the worst reputation as a monopolist, copycat and a bully.

Apple the monopolist

The core complaint about Microsoft in the 1990s was that its Windows market share gave it monopoly power, which it abused in multiple ways. Attorneys General and others zeroed in on the “bundling” of the Internet Explorer Web browser, which they claimed was forced on users because Microsoft offered it as part of Windows.

People love iPods (including me; my family of four has purchased 12 iPods in the past few years). But iPods come bundled with iTunes. Want to buy music from Apple? Guess what? You must install iTunes. Want an Apple cell phone from AT&T? Yep! ITunes is required even if you want only to make phone calls. Want to buy ringtones for your Apple phone? ITunes.

Apple not only “bundles” iTunes with multiple products, it forces you to use it. At least with Internet Explorer, you could always just download a competitor and ignore IE.

Not fair, you might say. Any hardware device that syncs data with a PC as part of its core functionality has software to facilitate that syncing. True enough. But operating systems have browsers as part of core functionality, too. Doesn’t Mac OS X come with Safari? Doesn’t the iPhone?

And “bundling” works. Steve Jobs bragged this week that Apple has distributed 600 million copies of iTunes to date. The overwhelming majority of those copies were iTunes for Windows. And iTunes for Windows’ popularity isn’t driven by software product quality. ITunes is the slowest, clunkiest, most nonintuitive application on my system. But I need it because I love my iPods.

At least with Windows, you could reformat your PC and install Linux or any number of other PC-compatible operating systems. Can I reformat my iPod and install something else? Can I uninstall iTunes but keep using the iTunes store and my iPods? Apple strongly discourages all that, claiming that the iPod, the iPod software and iTunes are three components of the same product. But that’s what Microsoft said about Windows and IE.

Source: PC World - Is Apple the New Microsoft?

Apple has announced a new branch of iPod, called iPod Touch. Updated iPod Shuffle, iPod Nano and the iPod 5th generation is now called iPod Classic.

iPod Touch
Imagine iPhone without the calling function and it is only 8mm thick and you will have the iPod Touch. It come pack with either a 8GB or a 16GB flash drive. The rest of the functions are pretty much the same as iPhone not forgetting it has Wifi too.

8GB will cost you SGD$498 and 16GB will cost you SGD$698.

- iPod Touch
- iPod Touch Specification

iPod Classic
Touted as the 6th generation iPod, it now comes in 80GB or 160GB, sports an enhanced UI which supports cover flow and it comes enclosed in a new metal shell with silver or black color.

80GB will cost you SGD$428 and 160GB will cost you SGD$598.

- iPod Classic
- iPod Classic Specification

iPod Nano
The 3rd generation iPod Nano just got fatter because it now has the ability to playback video and has a screen resolution of 320px by 240px. It comes with pack with either a 4GB or 8GB flash drive. Apple has ditched the 2GB edition. Only silver color is available for the 4GB edition while the 8GB edition has all the colors. And it also feature an enhanced UI which includes cover flow.

4GB will cost you SGD$248 and 8GB will cost you SGD$348.

- iPod Nano
- iPod Nano Specification

iPod Shuffle
Now comes in 4 new colors. The much pretty much stay the same.

1GB will cost you SGD$148.

- iPod Shuffle
- iPod Shuffle Specification

Microsoft Delivers Silverlight 1.0, Extends Support to Linux

REDMOND, Wash. - Sept. 4, 2007 - Microsoft Corp. today released to the Web (RTW) Silverlight 1.0, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering richer user experiences on the Web. In addition, Microsoft will work with Novell Inc. to deliver Silverlight support for Linux, called Moonlight, and based on the project started on mono-project.com.

Silverlight significantly reduces development and deployment costs and provides enhanced Web audio and video streaming and playback using industry-leading Windows Media Technologies. Microsoft unveiled new Silverlight customer experiences on “Entertainment Tonight,” HSN and World Wrestling Entertainment, and also launched the Silverlight Partner Initiative, a program designed to foster collaboration among solution providers, content delivery networks, tools vendors and design agencies.

“Our expectations for compelling, immersive experiences on the Web are increasing daily,” said Ray Ozzie, Microsoft’s chief software architect. “With today’s release of Silverlight 1.0, we’re making it possible for developers and designers to deliver to individuals the kind of high-def experiences they crave by integrating data and services in rich and unique ways. Silverlight will further accelerate the growth in rich interactive applications by giving developers and designers new options for delivering great experiences that span the Web, PC, phone and other devices.”

Source: Press Release

Got the Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS (Black) from Comex 2007 for $669. The silver version is only coming in September 2007.

Freebies:

- 2x 2GB SD Card
- 1x Digital Kit Bag
- 1x Case
- 1x Samsonite Travel Waist Shoulder Bag

Camera features:

- 3.8x (28mm) wide-angle lens with optical Image Stabilizer
- 8.0 Megapixels
- High ISO 1600 and Auto ISO Shift
- Canon DIGIC 3 with Noise Reduction technology
- Face Detection AF/AE/FE
- Improved Red-Eye Correction in playback
- 3.0 PureColor LCD
- Digital Tele-Converter and Safety Zoom for extra telephoto reach
- 17 shooting modes and My Colors photo effects
- Extensive movie options including VGA 30fps
- Long Play and Time Lapse movie modes
- Made in Japan

Taken from Digital Camera Review

This camera makes my Sony Cybershot T1 very oudated. But anyway, the IXUS 860 is meant for my mom’s office and the T1 is still my family’s personal camera. I already told my mom to get a 10mp camera when it is out to officially replace the T1.

I have scanned the data sheet specifications for Nokia N95 8GB, N81, 5310 XpressMusic and 5610 XpressMusic which is included in the press kit.

After reading through the specifications, I realized that N81 will come in 2 flavors, 1 with MicroSD memory and the other with 8GB internal memory (non-expandable).

Nokia N95 8GB will be using S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 3.1 operating system!

EDIT: Nokia website (http://www.forum.nokia.com/devices/N95_8GB) stated that N95 8GB is using FP1 instead. Hmmm.

EDIT2: Confirm it is Feature Pack 1.

- Nokia N95 8GB Specification
- Nokia N81 Specification
- Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Specification
- Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Specification