Bluetooth Blues

I know 2 consecutive nibble tech is boring but I’ve got to put down what had happened to my headset yesterday!

i.Tech i.VoicePro was my ideal headset because PW will not know where I am. Even if I ever go to clubbing because only my voice will be heard, all clubbing noise will be cut.

But yesterday the headset:

What happened was i.VoicePro that I bought was broken after usage of less than 1 day… So sad~ The headset mic does not work.

This is what happened to me yesterday:
Me with the headset and Bro using his phone.
Me: “Hello!”
Bro: “Hello”
Me: “Can open the gate for me?”
Bro: “Har?”
Me: “Hey don’t play play a, open the gate!!!”
Bro: “Har?” and slammed the phone…
Me: Called again..
Same thing!! My bro said that he can’t hear a thing from my side, total silent…

I spent hours analyzing what’s the problem and made countless trial to PW.  Annoyed, she suggested to off the “killer noise” function and it works. My conclusion on the problem is either the second mic does not work or the software is not functioning properly.

So happen next day is my appointment for my jaw at the TM clinic at UH. I was kept waiting for some time and ended up too late to make it for second half of work so instead I head to Lowyat to settle this issue.

This is what happened at the service centre:
1. The serviceman flashed new software to the headset. He said it should be working now but I tried and nothing.

2. The serviceman gave me a new set. Called my aunt she said working.

3. I was happy and walked off. Called PW to try one last time whether the ‘killer noise’ function work. PW say not working.

4. Head back and ask about it. The serviceman told me that for the i.VoicePro, most of it have the same problem. This is due to the software problem that does not work properly with the mic. Knowing that he flashed a software that permanently disables the ‘killer noise’ function. So far they do not have the solution yet! HE DID NOT TELL ME THAT!!!

5. I asked him why the heck I pay extra for the function when i don’t have the function? He referred me to the PIC that sold me the set.

6.  After long discussion with the boss, Don (Heheh I got her name) told me that she can replace another headset and return the extra that I had paid.

7. I chose the second best option that I had tried on the other day. Jabra BT2050 at the price of RM120 which was RM8 lesser after negotiating the price. Don was very sorry. I was telling Don, if you had told me about the problem I wouldn’t had buy it and get angry and no trouble on both side.

My advice:
DON’T BUY i.VoicePro!!!

I don’t know if this applies to i.VoicePro only or not because there were quite alot of i.Tech headset returned for warranty when I was waiting for them to repair mine. Well that was also the other reason why I took Jabra which was NOT i.Tech.

Overall, MCM service was alright. At least I get my result and are able to return the extra in cash so I was quite happy with Don’s service.

PW’s pocket is now heavier compare to Sunday’s…

 

Nibble Blues,

Catfish

PS: When I got back home, only that I realized that the charger is still attached to the plug point in my house. I forgot to return the i.VoicePro’s charger to Don and she did not check the box content. I really pity her. Sorry, I don’t think I have time to get back to Lowyat again.

Bluetooth Headset Hunt + Review

A special dedication to PW.

It’s been a few months that I have been driving illegally and dangerously, talking on the phone with one hand while driving a manual car! My wired headset that comes with my phone went MIA, result of transferring the headset around different cars.

Beacuse of that I was unhappy because I was driving dangerously and was happy because I get to buy a new headset . The lost headset was in a extremely bad shape with the connector and the headspeaker piece super glued many times.

I’ve made up my mind to buy a Bluetooth headset like years before I lost my wired headset. Why Bluetooth?

Wired	Bluetooth
The phone have to be taken out at least once to be attached	The phone can stay in your bag or pocket
End up in a tangled mess	No wire so just hook on to ear
Restricted movement when turning left and right	Just hook On
Ugly with wire dangling	told you to JUST HOOK ON EAR!!!

 

Buying anything for me is always not easy for me so the battle of research and analysis start with: Clip on or ear hook?
FYI, the picture above is 2 awarded headset by i.Tech Clip II mini and i.VoicePro with Stuff Readers Choise Winner 2007 and Gold award by HWM respectively.

Clip on	Ear Hook
Neat with a small earpiece	Ugly accessory to ear
Does not solve restricted movement	Solve restricted movement problem
Wired… What the difference between the normal wired headset?	No wire… This is the main reason to get a Bluetooth headset. yea…

Obviously, Ear hook won… Ting Ting Ting…

It is not easy to research on headset performance online so we head on to Lowyat Plaza for Bluetooth headset hunt to check test out the performance of the headset.

Shopping at Lowyat is like looking for a needle in sea for the cheapest store. We came to a shop that offers RM30 cheaper in any range of bluetooth headset compare to other store. It is around the back quiet area (Lot-1-TC26-28).

At first we were thinking whether they are selling ‘water’ goods but no. Overlooked the name 'Mobile Concept (M) Sdn Bhd’, which was the wholesale and main distributor for bluetooth headset! Hahaha…

The girl at the shop were very kind and cute. She was really patient with us. You’ll know why…

We ask for sample and tryouts on various headset to test which will perform the best. Well, mostly tested was i.Tech bluetooth headset as they are no 1 best selling headset in HK, Malaysia and Singapore.

Most headset function are almost the same so design is the deciding factor. Unless they have some killer function like quality sound and powerful noise cancelation capability.

Note: The below comparison is subjected to the battery condition as well as considering the fact that it is a sample unit.

First, we tried i.Tech i.Oval 303.

1. Look: Look sleek, small and lightweight. 4/5
2. Speaker: The speaker sound were good. 3/5
3. Mic: The microphone is moderately good. 3/5
4. Price: RM79.90 Good price. 5/5
This can be use for MP3 listening as well. –>Sorry for my mistake Updated on 21/07/2009

Next, Jabra BT2050. We got to try out some other brands to make some comparison.

1. Look: Look fat, small and lightweight. 4/5
2. Speaker: It is the best in its range compared to i.Air 301 and i.Oval. 4/5
3. Mic: The microphone is moderately good. 3/5
4. Price: RM129.90 Slightly on high for this range model. 3/5
Not sure if can play MP3.

Next, i.Tech i.Air 301.

1. Look: Look sleek, big and moderately weight. 3/5
2. Speaker: The speaker sound were full of noise. 2/5
3. Mic: PW said she could not stand the outcome of my voice on this. 2/5
4. Price: RM89.90 Moderately priced. 4/5
Not sure if can play MP3.

Lastly, i.Tech i.VoicePro. The most expensive one because it comes with a ‘Kill Noise’. How? There is 2 mic on this phone one is responsible to take in the voice and the other with the surrounding noise. (Voice mix with noise) – surrounding noise = Voice only.

1. Look: Look fat, big, ugly and moderately weight. 2/5
2. Speaker: It was excellent voice and very little noise. I’m not sure if the noise cancellation have any effect on this. 5/5
3. Mic: Excellent!!! No noise can be heard, ONLY YOUR VOICE!!!  5/5 <— No one will know where you are!
4. Price: RM190.00 Quite Expensive. 2/5
Disadvantage: you can’t listen to MP3 using this only for call purpose.

The ultimate decision rest with PW as she always get frustrated when talking on phone with me because:
1. I can’t hear her well with my K810-too-soft-speaker with me saying “har?” repeatedly.
2. She can’t really hear me when I’m driving in my car wind howling sound (Sunny boy is old). or with my radio on.

After a very long thought and testing, we decided to get the most expensive one (i.Tech proudest product):

It comes with 3 standard colors (there is a limited edition color ‘gold’ which was priced RM40 extra):

I unboxed it immediately as I got back:

The pack comes with the headset (of course ), USB charger, 3 pin adapter to USB convertor (loved this one, convenient, can use for other USB appliance), extra hook clip and manual. (clockwise)

Thanks for reading such a lengthy post. It is specially dedicated to PW for buying this headset for me as an early birthday present!!!

THANK YOU SO MUCH DEAR!

 

 

Nibbled Blue-teeth,

Catfish

PS: The bluetooth headset were fully charged way before I finish writing this post!

To PW:
Yes, next is your present. Start scouting for it now… You have 6 month to look out for it! hahah… Just tell me ya if anything comes along! Love you!

XBOX: Project Natal

Ever thinking of getting a Wii now?

You might want to hold back first and save your moo-lah for something more revolutionary.

Watch this and you will understand:

I remember having a conversation with my housemate (YJ) about this up and coming technology back in University some 3-4 years ago. Where games actually uses human body movement as controller.  When Wii was released, I thought that was it… but no I was wrong!

Previously, Microsoft Xbox sales was greatly affected by Wii’s existence. Sony Playstation wasn’t too good either at that time.

It got worst during the HD optical disc war! Remember Sony Blu-Ray won? “Microsoft ceased production of Xbox 360 HD DVD players while…” by Wikipedia. Terrible and tragic incident for Microsoft…

For Microsoft, it’s worry no more with Project Natal!!!

Sony Playstation you can get ready to pack your bag if you don’t have something up your sleeves soon. Or else where will you stand when this is released?

No controller, no string attached… Just you:

Imagine driving your favorite Ferrari without Ferrari…

Imagine playing soccer without getting dirty…

Imagine playing tennis without going under the sun…

All with freedom of movement and no restricting boundaries.

I wonder if pasar malam will come up with a corner for “blu” game corner for Project Natal… Hmm

PW mentioned that people playing X Box Project Natal looks like a mime. For gamers freak, maybe you can consider this as your 2nd career option.

On an unrelated note: Did you manage to watch this episode of Mr. Bean animated series with the mime? It’s damn freaking hilarious:

For more info Project Natal, click here.

Faithfully waiting,

--Catfish, PW--

Lost in Translation

I discover that people are travelling a lot these days. Must be due to the cheap air fare promotion by MAS and Air Asia.

Swine Flu? A(H1N1) Flu? What Flu?

Catfish and I almost booked a flight to Vietnam or Bangkok. But plan fail..  

Never mind, next time then..

Anyway in this season of travel, I’m sure a lot of people are doing some research or maybe learning a few of the destination language.

So have you found a website containing all the information you want but in foreign language? What’s the tool you use to translate?

I was playing around with Babel fish the other day. I wanted to test it’s effectiveness and accuracy.

Let’s try with the most important phrase during travelling especially for the ladies.

“How much?”

Guys might find it useful too. You can sneak behind your girlfriend and test the waters before deciding to bring her to the shop or lead her to another street.

So here goes..

Step 1 : English to Japanese. OK.

Step 2: To test it’s effectiveness, I copied the answer given and translate it to English.

Which Rank is not How much!!

Step 3: To test it’s accuracy, I put “Which Rank” for translation.

To which I got the answer Smell Which?

I wonder if the Japanese will understand me when I show them Which Rank? or Smell which?

Let’s say in a situation of a bachelor looking for partners in Japan:

Hot Bachelor A: (thinking) I wonder how much is her? Let me show her my copied phrase from Babel Fish.

*Proceed to show どの位か。

Kawaai Girl B:  F!!

Hot Bachelor A: ??? Maybe she didn’t get me.

*Proceed to show 臭いどれか。

Kawaai Girl B: Everywhere can smell! Very Good. (In Japanese of course)

Hot Bachelor A: ??? (Still waiting for some kind of numbers) Forget it. I don’t get you.

Unknowingly, Bachelor A had gotten all the answers he needs.  Maybe except the price.

 

To be fair, I tried Google translate.

Not much help either.

First attempt at nibble tech,

PW…

Microsoft CIBAI: Unfortunate Naming?

Sorry for the vulgar title here. I just can’t stand not posting about up.

This is one of the most unfortunate and hilarious name I ever come across. This could easily make it to the top 10 most unfortunate name.

Well I would say this definitely catches the attention of Hokkien community all around the world. Singaporean are twittering CIBAI to each other a lot last month.

Imagine some ‘ham sap’ man searching Cibai on the internet to fulfill his unstoppable lust but found this instead…. potong steam-nyer~

Mr. tech mode: Here are some explanation:

CIBAI is an acronym for Class Invariant By Abstract Interpretation.

To clarify things up Mr Brown has asked Microsoft regarding this matter. It is actually an academic research paper by researcher in the past, NOT a Microsoft product or application.

However, reading the abstract from the research paper, makes me rofl:

Abstract. We introduce Cibai a generic static analyzer based on abstract
interpretation for the modular analysis and verification of Java
classes. We present the abstract semantics and the underlying abstract
domain, a combination of an aliasing analysis and octagons. We discuss
some implementation issues, and we compare Cibai with similar tools,
showing how Cibai achieves a higher level of automation and precision
while having comparable performances.

I know I’m bad. I was curious after it caught my attention so I proceed to read the research paper.

I was amazed by this tool, bravo to them (you may skip this part if too technical) :

Cibai analyzed the 40 files of the library in 28.6 seconds, whereas ESC/Java took 50.2 seconds. Cibai was able to verify the library except for two assertions involving
non-octogonal arithmetic relations. ESC/Java 2 emitted 107 warnings, mainly
about null dereferences and out of bound array accesses.

I’m just imagining if this is really an application, how will they give title to the expert? MCCP Microsoft Certified CIBAI Programmer?

Sorry YeeJie, you might be angry with this post but I just can’t help it.

 

long live nibble tech,

--Catfish--

Windows Vista Adobe Photoshop CS4 Problem

Sorry for another post on “nibbled tech” because today we came back very late for a celebration for PW’s good news and our 3rd year and 1 month anniversary dinner so a short post today:

My newly installed Adobe Photoshop CS4 on Windows Vista in my laptop, has been giving me scrambled / distorted pictures, like this:

It never happen on the Windows XP one. I was beginning to think if I had installed the wrong version 64 bit instead of the 32 bit.

I can’t do much photo editing when using only Picasa, telling myself what’s the use of my laptop if I were to blog on the move. So I went around googling for an answer, true enough it is a known issue.

Solution: Edit>Preferences>Performance, disable “OpenGL Drawing”

Reason why Windows XP was that the OpenGL Drawing was disabled by default but Vista is otherwise.

 

Cheers,
-- Catfish --

PS: Shhh… I post this when PW is asleep now, don’t tell her ya! I should not blog any “nibbled tech” for another 2 more post else I’ll be getting it from PW. I’ll try to blog on our Pangkor trip soon…

Great Tool - Windows Live Writer Review

I just can’t stop bragging about how good a tool Windows Live Writer is; really credits and salute to Microsoft. In the beginning I was so fed up with the Blogger post writer interface, it really turns me off blogging but thanks to YJ for recommending me this.

Supported blog services:

Windows Live Writer is neat and user friendly as opposed to blogger post editor. It downloads the blogger’s layout and gives you WYSIWYG feel while writing your post.

Windows Live Writer

VS

Blogger Draft Online Editor
 
Which do you prefer?

Still not satisfied? No worry in Windows Live Writer, you can click Preview button on the bottom left to see the outcome of the blog post. For HTML experts, Source view is also available.

Set Category

The previously saved categories will be available for selection and you could also add a new category:

Set Publish Date

The latest blogger draft new function “Schedule at” function are also allowed to be done in Windows Live Writer:
 

Save Draft

There are option for both save draft locally and save draft to blog.

Open and Edit

Feel like editing and republishing your post that is already published or save as draft in blogger? Here you go:

Plug-ins

I find this a very cool addition to the blogging. You may try a lookout what plug-ins are available here. Recommended: Flickr4Writer, Polaroid Picture and Smileys (PW love the smiley tool).

Publish: Who say blogging is so hard? It’s just a click away. Vola~!

 

According to YJ, it works perfectly with Wordpress as well. This is a must try tool. Even PW (who constantly complains about any software) find it very user friendly. Those who have not started blogging, just pick up WLW and start now! Bloggers have a peace of mind when blogging…

Get it here.

If you have any good stuff or advise, do leave some comment.

Happy Blogging!

 

Cheers,
-- Catfish --

Annoying SD card!!!

D*mn the SD card!! Kept giving me a write protected error when I tried to delete photos from it using a card reader (click to enlarge) :

The card lock was unlock. I figured must be the contact so I brush the contact pins with a sand paper. STILL NOT WORKING!!! Next suspicion maybe the lock mechanism contact is not very good. Next try used 3 layers of cello tape on top of the lock and hope that it will be pressed down it enters the SD reader slot, as below:

Yippie!! It worked!! I’m a genius!

Hahah then I realized this was a very normal problem occurred for SD card and the solution was all over the World Wide Web… sigh… What a disappointment…

I found a very good article for more detailed explanation and instruction:
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_remove_write_protection_from_a_mini_SD_card

Cheers,
-- Catfish --