Founder of lesterchan.net, a Singapore tech and gadgets blog running since 2002. An engineering leader by day and a WordPress plugin developer since 2003, with a soft spot for gadgets, smart home, and a good deal.
I plan to mount my Nest Cam outside my new house, which needs three accessories. Unfortunately, none ship to Singapore directly from Amazon, so a freight forwarder is required. Dropcessories makes solid Nest Cam outdoor accessories.
I bought the Nest Cam from Amazon for US$183.90, which qualified for free AmazonGlobal Saver shipping. It wasn't the lowest price, dropping to US$168.99 on Black Friday 2015, which I missed. I also grabbed a few accessories.
Singtel has partnered with Netflix to offer customers promotional access. Re-contracting or signing up for a Singtel mobile plan or Fibre Entertainment Bundle+ between 22nd January and 22nd July 2016 earns up to nine months of free Netflix.
After two weeks with the tado Smart AC Control, it has taken over air conditioner duty from my Ambi Climate. I doubt I'll switch back to Ambi Climate unless it gains third-party integrations like IFTTT.
I was seeded the tado Smart AC Control for review, which I'm splitting into two posts: this unboxing and setup, and a follow-up on the experience. In Singapore, tado Smart AC Control is distributed by Aerahaus Smart.
Disclosure: I was gifted an ExpressVPN subscription for this guest post by Guy Miller. After Netflix launched in 130 more countries in January 2016, becoming a near-global service, ExpressVPN helps users unblock the larger US Netflix library.
Singtel Easy Mobile is a postpaid plan that lets you customise your tariff each month to fit your budget. It's my second-favourite after SIM Only, and I'm deciding between the two as my Combo 2 plan expires mid-year.
At CES 2016, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced the service's launch in almost every country except China. A subscriber since April 2015 via VPN, I'd long awaited this, since VPN access was slower, more cumbersome, and required blocking Google DNS.
After almost two weeks using the Moto 360 (Second Generation) instead of my Apple Watch, I miss the Apple Watch only a little, mainly its ability to act on notifications. On iOS, Android Wear's notification handling is more limited.
Looking back at 2015, I travelled to the UK and Paris in June and Hong Kong in September. For 2016, I'm off to Thailand for Chinese New Year, hoping for Taiwan or Japan, and I collect my house keys soon.
Thanks to Lenovo, I was seeded the Moto 360 (Second Generation) as a Christmas present, choosing the Large 46mm with Cognac Leather at S$549. It went on sale in Singapore on 15th December 2015 across three models.
In my earlier Amazon Echo and Logitech Harmony articles, I covered controlling your TV with Echo, but the IFTTT solution was then too premature. Last month, an IFTTT update with Amazon Echo finally lets a phrase trigger a recipe.
Acronis True Image Cloud and True Image 2016 launched over three months ago, and last week Acronis released a major update with five new features. Chief among them is Full Image Backup, offering block-level copying to create an exact replica.
The Nexus 6P Official Case was out of stock on the Google Store for ages. It returned on Black Friday during a 50% off cases sale, so I grabbed it for US$17.49, down from US$34.99.
I spotted a November offer from Chowren Toys via Brickset for the LEGO Minifigure Display Case 16, dropping from US$29.99 to US$20.99. I bought two, forwarding them through HopShopGo, since their direct Singapore shipping was a pricey US$60.
Amazon ran a 48% discount on the Samsung 850 EVO 250GB SSD in November 2015, dropping it from US$149.99 to US$74.99. It also qualified for free AmazonGlobal Saver shipping to Singapore on orders over US$125, making it a great deal.
The second-generation Moto 360 is now available in Singapore at selected Newstead, Challenger, Best Denki, Courts, and Lenovo stores. Unlike the US store, where you can customise case, bezel, and band, Singapore offers only three predefined variations.
The Synology Router RT1900ac is Synology's first router, aimed at the mid-range market at roughly S$234. It went on sale in Singapore on 6th October 2015. For the unaware, this brings Synology's polished software experience to home networking.
A recap of lesterchan.net's evolution: now on HTTPS, running nginx, PHP-FPM, MariaDB, and HHVM, with search powered by Algolia. The v4.4 update lands alongside the WordPress 4.4 release, the last major WordPress release of 2015.
The Oral-B Black 7000 SmartSeries Electric Toothbrush had a US$30 coupon during Amazon's Black Friday week, dropping it from US$155.68 to US$125.68. The discount applies automatically at checkout once you clip the coupon. It's considerably pricier in Singapore.
Thanks to my friend Stephen, I tried the Freefly VR, a mobile VR headset that uses your phone as screen and speaker. This differs from the Oculus Rift and Razer OSVR, which have built-in screens and audio.
The BlackBerry PRIV, BlackBerry's first Android phone, arrives in Singapore from 12th December 2015 at S$1,098, sold via Singtel, M1, StarHub, and authorised partners. I'm impressed by it: the build is solid and it's remarkably thin.