Haven't got my new iPhone yet (due to be delivered on Tuesday) and I'm already shopping for apps on the iTunes apps shop. Crazy right? Here's what I identified so far:

1. LJ app (definite must)
2. Tweet Deck for the iPhone
3. Facebook
4. Free Menstrual Calender
5. Spend Lite
6. To Do
7. My Sticky Lite
8. Quad camera
9. Locacity SG
10. Traffic Alerts

Anyone has any suggestions what I should get? Do leave me a message.

Ok, GPS is cool when the map is all updated and you can find your way to places that you're unsure of. Until you realise that the map is outdated and you want to get the latest update from the website.

Mine is a Garmin Nuvi 205, a gift from my parents last year when I got my car. It was great having the unit, coz I really suck getting to places I'm not familiar with, and it made sure that I was never lost. Only till I got more familiar with the roads, then I reduced my reliance on it.

And then yesterday, I realised it was giving my a super outdated route home from the ICA building. En route to Jalan Eunos, I realised instead of going into crowded Geylang, I could just turn into the KPE (TPE) and then exit out to Bartley Road East, which was much quicker.

So I decided to check if there were any map updates from the Garmin website, since mine is with the original City Navigator map. To my astonishment, nothing! There was absolutely no updates available. What a load of bull! So I went around other websites, and found other maps like Jerome Wee's were updated like almost every month!

Now I really wanna find out how I can get my hands on the Jerome Wee map to download into my GPS instead. Ideas anyone?

Whilst doing my iPod cleanup, I deciding to spruce up my collection. With influences from Hubba and Grey's Anatomy, I seem to be going all Indie/alternative now.

Spent roughly 3 days to look through a selection of music featured in Grey's Anatomy episodes (Seasons 1 - 3) and managed to get quite a good selection of music. Even took the opportunity to further explore more songs for some of those performers that caught my fancy. Think now my collection of music is as unique as Hubba's.

Here are just a couple of songs that I thought I'd share:


Los Angeles - The Rosewood Thieves



Gone Are The Days - Mirah - This is new, and the album is not released I think.

After accumulating unclassified mpegs in my iPod, I decided to clean it up by re-classifying all the songs into the correct albums, and adding the correct album artwork, by editing all the ID3 tags. Was tedious and took me 3 days to finish most of the English songs. I also cleared out quite a number of mpegs that were not properly burnt and most of the classical music that I added few months back coz I'm done listening to the pieces. Now I'm only left with the Chinese songs, which is tougher, coz some of them have unreadable fonts due to the lack of some language software.

For some reason, I'm enjoying it, coz now I can see pretty album artwork when I flip through the albums to choose my music, making full use of my iPod Nano. Pretty neat. Next up will be to obtain new mpegs, many of which are nice songs from the Grey's Anatomy soundtrack. Here's one that I like, that has a real 60's feel to the music:


Wishful Thinking (Album Version) - Abby Dewald

Why doesn't Sg have the iTunes shop? Sigh...

Crazy me sneaked Hubba's set of JBL iPod speakers to work last week, so that I could enjoy some music in my eerily quiet office. When discovered by Hubba, he insisted that I return his speakers as he intended to bring them to work to use.

Just by chance, Apple's Online Store was having a one-day special for selected items last Wednesday. And, one of the speakers I had been eyeing for some time had a $60 price-off. Without even thinking, I immediately placed an order for it online, and had it shipped directly to my office, so that I could return Hubba's speakers to him. And I got them the very next day!

My new Altec Lansing T612 iPod Speakers
 

Now I'm comfortably listening to my crazy selection of music (classical, opera, pop, Mandarin/Canto-pop) in my own office. Yay to the wonders of online shopping.

Hubba and I spent this Hari Raya Haji doing totally Japanese stuff.

First, after I did some morning yoga at home (to make up for not going down for class with my yoga buddies), we made our way down to Starhub Centre to have lunch at Waraku de Gohan. Place for lunch was randomly chosen; we had set out without an inkling of what to eat in the beginning.

As it was our first time dining at this place, we asked the waitress to recommend some dishes to us. Here is what we ended up having:



We had ordered beef teppanyaki, garlic chicken teppanyaki, yakiudon and potato yaki. Halfway through our meal, a waiter came up to tell us that our orders had been mixed up with another table's order, and that we had been served the kansai oyokomiyagi instead of the potato yaki. To make up for their mistake, they would serve us our potato yaki and not charge us for the extra kansai oyokomiyagi. A second time for the hubs, since the last time we had a meal at Coffee Club, the same thing had happened to us.

After an extremely filling lunch, we paid up and headed off to 8Q Singapore Arts Museum to view the Japanese Media Arts Festival. Haa... didn't realise it wasn't such an arty farty deal to begin with. Ok, the first zone was pretty cool, with very interesting media displays and collages, and some display of a manga that I'd always wanted to read, "Nodame Cantabile". Viewing those few pages of manga got me hooked, and now I'm gonna try sourcing for the anime online. Anyone has any lobang?

Zones 2 and 3 were more game centred. Quite a fair bit of Nintendo, such as the Wii, where Hubba and I embarrassed ourselves with our lousy tennis skills. There was also this pretty cool 2-player game in which you try to kill the other party by shooting it down, but in actuality, the type of game screen each person was viewing was different. On my end, I was viewing some octopus and submarine game, and Hubba's end was cupid and his arrow. Pretty fun. There was also some cool sensor thingee on the table in which after you struck the table with a stick, the sensor would memorise the rhythm struck and repeat it with its own stick.

I think I got pretty caught up with the games coz I ended up playing with some motion-sensored PS game that required one to kill the invaders by swiping them with your hands. And I hit so hard that my arms actually started to ache, although I think I wasn't supposed to use so much force. Perhaps something to do with the morning's yoga.

All in all, we had a pretty fun time at the museum, so much so that now I'm pretty gian to get myself a Wii for Christmas. Hint hint, Hubba... :P

This week has just flown by in a flash.

Kinda relieved that Hubba has finally re-adjusted his circadian rhythm so that I finally don't get awaken in the middle of the night. However, again I have an hour's sleep taken away from me each morning coz he leaves the house earlier than me. Oh well, just have to make up by sleeping an hour earlier each night, which I have been doing ever since before he came back from his trip.

Had an interesting Friday dinner with Hubba's colleagues to celebrate two birthdays. Was fun hanging out with a younger set (by younger, the definition is 4 - 5 years our junior), hearing their funny stories and re-living the thrills of being young and poking fun at the senior people, us included. And it was good having that to end a not so good work day/week; it really helped to relieve the work tension built up the entire week.

Finally broke my abstinence and went back to yoga class. Kind of suffering from it now as the body is totally aching from the lack of action for the past month. But it feels good coz at least I'm back to working out. Wanted to go for another one this morning, but the body was so much in pain that I had to give it miss. Perhaps a mid-week jog again, now that my body seems to be showing signs of an all-clear from the flu. Except the occasional sneezing.

Went down to Sitex yesterday to brave the crowd, all just to get the bro-in-law his GPS. Got a worthy buy, although Hubba and I decided not to continue braving the crowds thereafter even though we very much wanted to get a Wii. Going through one hall is bad enough.

Managed to catch "Quantum of Solace" finally today, before it closes. As usual, I loved the action totally from beginning to end, though I think it would have been better not to have it so much in the beginning such that the end kind of got a little boring. Think the screenwriter and producers need to re-think how to continue wow-ing the crowd if they do not want the 007 saga to end prematurely. However, Daniel Craig is still eye-candy (much to Hubba's irritation), so I was still pretty much entertained, despite the not-so-terrific script.

Well, another few hours left of the Sunday, before I have my whirlwind of meetings starting tomorrow and then zoom off for company team-building the following week. Now it's back to the laundry.

Wow... after a hiatus of almost a week, due to the weather and also social obligations, this is the type of run that I had today:



This is bad. Think I have to push the consistency factor up... At least sustain a minimum of 2 runs a week.

Starting to achieve a more consistent jog-and-walk nowadays... but I think I need to push myself to jog more and walk less. Think Sunday's break was not a very good idea...

May decide to push in another jog tomorrow, if I can complete my chores...

The hubs is flying off tomorrow for his maiden business trip to KL and it is tonight of all nights his new iPod Nano decided to "die" on him and show no backlight. The iPod works fine, music played and all, but just that there is no darn light illuminating the screen!

Instead of being able to pack everything properly for his trip tomorrow, he's now fiddling with the crazy thing, hoping that the light would come back, be fine, and last him the entire trip to KL and back before we troop down to EpiCentre at Wheelock to check out the problem.

So much of wanting to have a last night of cuddles and alone time... Hmph.

Did the running warm up again this morning before my usual hot yoga sesh.

Think I pushed my muscles a little too much the last run coz I started feeling my shin/calf muscles way too early, before I hit my first km. Started to slow down to a brisk walk for a while, before resuming a slow jog pace. After the muscles got warmed up and the body got used to the lactic acid build-up, the run got easier and I was able to increase the pace.


I hit my fastest km today at 6'53"! :)

Somehow I think my jogging pace is as fast as my brisk walk pace, from the constant shape of the graph. Hmph...

Hot yoga sesh was good... Anil gave us some new position to try today, and I was able to improve on my flexibility. Only thing is I started getting cramps in my metatarsals mid way... which made me ease off slightly during the warrior 2 and plank poses.

Think having high arch is really irritating, coz I'm always prone to getting cramps in my metatarsals and twisting my ankles. Wonder, if and when I need to get a new pair of running shoes, I can get one to fit and support my high arch...

Took a different approach this evening and decided to run to the stadium and then continue from there round the track.


Some personality (the name I didn't catch) congratulated me for attaining my farthest run. :)

No prizes for guessing that it was a jog-and-walk affair, but I do think that it's getting better. I still feel the burn from the lactic acid build-up, but it isn't as bad as when I first started last week. Admittedly, it seems to be a little more attainable with each jog, and I find myself being more encouraged to continue this routine.

Only thing I still need to improve on is my breathing... really find it very discouraging when I start gasping for breath! Advice anyone?

I managed to calibrate my Nike+ after all.

Found out by accident that the reason why the sensor was not detecting well was coz it kept slipping into the shoe. Sighz... Read from some forum that the sensor is meant to be kept as near parallel to the ground as possible in order to get the best results.

Lesson learnt: Must tie my laces tight-tight to ensure that the sensor doesn't slip in again... nor fall out.

Today's run:

Plus calibration run: 0.4km

Total distance: 2.21km
Total time: ~16mins

Plus... I heard Tiger Woods congratulate me for achieving my fastest mile @ 12' 05"!! Yay!

How many km is a mile anyway???

After realising my Nike+ wasn't reflecting my true distance covered, I decided to go jog at the track this morning to calibrate it. Ya, silly old me took it for granted that I needn't do calibration coz the instruction manual said so...

Took me 4 tries to calibrate it properly. Somehow I think the sensor wasn't able to read properly when I ran, as opposed to when I was walking. Walking calibration didn't pose any problems. But when I ran 400m, it only clocked the distance as 150m! This happened three times! The last time round, I actually ran an extra 10+m just so that it could close the gap up to complete the calibration, as the past three trys were rejected due to distance difference.

Perhaps next time round I'll monitor it by running on the track or treadmill...

Distance ran: 1.6km
Time: 10 mins
Distance walked: 0.4km
Time: 4 mins

Just coz it's the hubs birthday coming up, and coz my trusty old iPod Mini is dying... I ended up purchasing 2 new iPod Nanos:


Hers



His

The hubs is now happily playing with his new toy, which he can use to entertain himself on his long trips to work and while in the office. I will use mine, together with the Nike + which I intend to get to re-start my jogging regimen.

My parents surprised me today with a special prezzie: a GPS!


My new toy!

My dad being the gadget geek helped me install it when I was on the way down to NUH to visit a relative, and back. This little fella was really damn good, down to telling you where all the ERP gantries are and the speed cameras, and even potential areas for police speed trap. Super cool!

Only problem we encountered was at one stage it kinda got "lost" and directed me to make a ridiculous loop against the direction I was headed in, making me potentially go by a longer route. So the smart alack in me purposely went against its directions several times, "forcing" it to have to re-orientate and re-calculate distance to destination. Also I think the little bugger will have to be trained to know the short cuts that I usually take, instead of making me follow stupid directions to lengthen my ride home.

Anyway, now I'd be able to roam the roads with this little handy piece of equipment and explore those ulu areas for food. :P

After a couple of weeks of a cranky mobile, and the possibility of missing job opportunities due to its non-reliance, I finally gave in to purchase a new phone last night, the SE G900 in red!

Phone's pretty good, very slim, pretty reliable 5mb camera and has nice clear speaker sound. Package even came with free bluetooth headset and 1gb memory card. Only minus found so far is that the contacts function is pretty weird. After copying all the contacts over, whenever the phone book is open, the contacts on your phone memory and SIM card are both shown, resulting in duplicates. Also, sms entry is more email like now, and reminds me a bit of the Samsung phone that my dad has, which needs some time to get used to. Haven't really fiddled with the rest of the functions yet, but on the whole, I do like the "Post-It" style notepad fastkey as well as the keylock shortcut key on the side of the phone.

Just hope whatever problems with the phone will surface within this one week, if there are any.

After a couple of weeks of enduring the death of our existing DVD player, which unfortunately is an all-in-one home-entertainment system, plus searching online for the best deals in town, the hubs and I finally got a replacement.

Thankfully the old player only conked off relative to the player head (player head was not detecting discs nor reading anything), but the sound system was still working fine. So after checking with some reliable sources (a.k.a my dad and his sound-enthusiast friend), we realised the cheapest way to solve the problem was to get another DVD player, together with an optical cable and hook that up to the existing player, which would then act as the A/V receiver.

So off we went to Courts to take a look at the DVD players on sale. What we wanted was something cheap (preferably less than $200), had the optical cable slot, could read multi-region, and had HDMI capabilities.

At first we had settled on a LG DVD player that was going only for $169, with HDMI, USB and card-reader capabilities. But when we were about to pay, the salesperson recommended a Pioneer DVD player, which was going on 50% discount at $199, with HDMI & USB capabilities, and supported multi-region code and all recordable types of media, as well as DivX, WMA/MP3, WMV file types.


Pioneer DV-400V-S DVD Player

We ended up going along with the salesperson's recommendation and bought the Pioneer, together with an optical cable, which came to be slightly less than $300.

Once we reached home, the hubs spent less than half an hour to do the entire set up with the old player and in no time, we were able to enjoy our rented DVD "Untraceable" on the big screen, that is our 42-inch LCD TV. So much for having survived watching rented DVDs on our laptops for the past couple of weeks.

Ok, call me backdated, but I just managed to Google this recently, although this was posted in May. Never got to read it coz I hardly get a chance to get my hands on any copy of Today paper.

Anyway, this confirms my suspicion that you can use the iPhone 3G even though you're not a SingTel subscriber, coz of the illegality of SIM-locking in Singapore, which is how US and other countries will restrict the use of the iPhone to those subscribing to the official telcos. So... for those like me who are anxiously waiting for the iPhone 3G and not SingTel subscribers, you definitely can use the iPhone as long as you manage to get your hands on one.

Also, there seems to be a chance that the other Telcos, M1 and Starhub, might get a chance to distribute the iPhone after all, since it was reported that some countries had multiple Telcos seal deals with Apple. So it may be possible to get the same deal offered in Sg eventually.

Now it is just counting down to the day that Sg launches the sale of the iPhone 3G...

Read the news report from ChannelNewsAsia here.

Just read through several reliable gadget RSS sites that the iPhone 3G activation process has been leaked out. Seems like the first iPhone, a software download is required through iTunes, which will unbrick the iPhone and allow it to be used. Read more about the post here.

The only thing now is to wait for the iPhone 3G to come in to Sg. Ah... the wait is excrutiating!