Decorate Your Room with Stars - Star Theatre Planetarium

I believe most of us dreamed of becoming an astronomer in our childhood. When I was young, I was so fascinated by the sky that is full of stars and wondering what is really happening out there. Nowadays we care less about astronomy (what? right, if you count horoscope in). It is also difficult to spot that many stars in urban areas because of light pollutions. Recently I came across this really cool stuff when reading through a magazine. I would really like to share it with you guys, the Star Theatre Planetarium.

(Photo from Firebox.com)

It works much like a projector. When you turn the lights off in the room, and switch on the Star Theatre, here we go, you have the whole universe in your room! I managed to find a video on youtube to demonstrate the coolness.

It can also be set a time interval to produce random 'shooting stars' so it looks more real!

Isn't it great? Ok, I admit that it's a bit geeky watching stars in your room, but that's a perfect entertainment when you invite friends to your house and also a good opportunity to impress your girlfriend! :p 

Technorati Tags: Gadgets, Star Theatre Planetarium, Sega

Read More

What to Expect from Apple’s iPhone 6 (or 5S?)

(Photo credit: International Business Times)

The next generation of iPhone is likely to debut in a few months. The earliest possible date is June 10 - 14 when Apple hosts Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). Its actual product sales launch could be sometime in July or even September, considering the previous launch time.

Amid worries about Apple’s slowing growth, iPhone is definitely the key to reassure investors’ confidence. iPhone sales account for more than half of the firm’s revenue and it’s the key driver for Apple’s growth over past 5 years. Every single release of iPhone has been highly anticipated. The coming one is without exception, and it could be even more interesting.

The much heated competition in smartphone space has brought a lot of pressure on Apple’s ability to stay innovative, especially after Jobs’ departure. iPhone 5 is a major redesign from iPhone 4S, however, in terms of its operating system, iOS 6, it is not that ‘surprisingly’ good, not mentioning Apple’s fall in its own developed Maps app.

Personally, I still feel that iPhone 5 is the best phone I have ever used. It does the work and it does not have too many quirks except occasional hiccups. It is difficult for Apple to improve something that is already this good, but they have to. :) Below is just some of my guess what will be appearing in the next generation of iPhone.

Hardware-wise, there should not be much radical redesign. The possible upgrade could be

1. Faster processor and possibly larger RAM. That is something that is most likely to be going in.
2. Camera. better lens, or larger sensor and higher resolution.
3. NFC integrated: that’s one thing missing in iPhone 5, which eventually makes Passbook App useless. Hopefully NFC technology could enable this app again. NFC could be used for contactless payment, identification and data transmission, etc.
4. Larger battery capacity. iPhone 5 has been blamed for its short-living power performance especially in the use of LTE(4G) network. Longer battery life is always something desired.
5. 128GB storage option. Since the latest iPad is already offering the option of 128GB internal storage, there is no reason that iPhone would not follow the same.

Compared to hardware, I believe it could be a major revamp for iOS. The interface has not changed much since day 1. Since the departure of Scott Forstall, the ex-chief of iOS team, Jony Ive has been working closely with the interface team. I certainly think that he will have a quite different idea for iOS interface. Other features may include:

1. Enhancement of Siri. A lot more will and need to be added to the current Siri functionality. Most people only tried Siri in the first week when they get their new iPhone. It means that there are plenty of room to improve in this feature.
2. Major redesign of some built-in apps such as Mail, Weather, Calendar, Stocks, etc., as part of the UI revamp.
3. Passbook could be made to support contactless payment, with the help of NFC chips.

In brief, Apple will need to remain focused on user experience and innovation at the same time to keep the iPhone popular. However, it can still give us a surprise that nothing I listed above is correct. For me, the waiting part for new iPhone launch is always the most fun part.

If you are expecting any features from the next generation of iPhone, please leave a comment below! I would love to hear yours!

Technorati Tags: Apple, Commentary, iOS, iPhone, News

Read More

Get Yourself A Stylish Camera Bag! ZKIN Champ Hands on

I have long been looking for a decent camera bag. There are an awful lot of options out there in the market but most of them only address the functionality, not the appearance. In a camera bag shop, it is most common to see a bunch of black nylon/canvas bags without any design element. They may be capable of carrying many cameras and lenses at once, but for sure they are not the bag that I even want to carry out. 

Then ZKIN came to my attention. It is a Hong Kong brand offering various lines of camera bags. As now I don't really use DSLRs, what I need is a camera bag that can accommodate my two cameras, Sony NEX-5 and RX1. So, I ordered this Champ bag. 

The Champ bag is of some vintage design. It has three available colours. The one I got is Navy Grey.

The bag top is made by genuine leather with special finish, but it is still prone to water splash as the stain could be left on the surface. The brand name is embossed at the cover. The rest of the bag is made of grey canvas, which is more durable.

The shoulder pad is detachable, it offers a lot of cushion so that the weight does not hurt the shoulder.

There is a zip pocket at the back of the Champ bag. Even the zip is well designed.

Opening the cover, it is actually attached by a small piece of leather so that the cover does not completely flip over. Therefore the leather is less likely to be worn out.

Inside the bag, it is similar to other camera bags, there is a camera insert to accommodate the cameras and lenses. It can be taken out if you want to use the bag as a normal bag. The Velcro partition can be easily adjusted as well. 

After the insert is taken out, there is one compartment for laptop or other documents. 

My NEX-5N and lenses can be nicely snugged into the bag, while still having some rooms for small accessories and other stuff such as wallet and notebooks. I would say it is most suitable for mirror-less cameras. If you want to use the bag for for DSLR, it may fit up to one camera body and two lenses.

This ZKIN Champ bag in action!

In all, ZKIN Champ bag is of excellent built quality, which is not any inferior to the classic camera brand, Billingham. If you are in the market for a good-looking camera with decent functionality, ZKIN could be one of them on your list. 

Technorati Tags: Accessory, Hands-on, Camera Bag, ZKIN

Read More

Alibaba and Sina: Join Hands for A Better Future

(Photo from China.org.cn)

The biggest news last week in China’s Internet industry is Alibaba’s decision to purchase 18 percent of the share from Sina Weibo, by far the largest social network platform in China.

Alibaba is the biggest e-commerce company in China, which most people know it through the much popular B2C platform Taobao.com. Alibaba's business has been growing in an incredible pace for the past few years. Owning the stake in Weibo.com definitely strengthens Alibaba’s strategy in online advertising and sales.

On the other side, Weibo, pretty much the Chinese version of Twitter, has more than 500 million registered users. This massive user base is something that every business would like to tap on.

While Weibo is still prospering, Sina’s share price has been going low for the past few months before Alibaba’s announcement. Weibo has made 66 million dollars in revenue last year, however, the expense is greater, 93 millions, which leads to a net loss of around 27 million dollars. This shows that, just like Twitter, Sina is still struggling to find a profitable business model for its microblog platform.

The alliance between Alibaba and Weibo looks promising for both parties. By leveraging on the large user population, Alibaba’s marketing and advertising could better target the audience and educate more users in online shopping experience. In turn, Weibo could boost its revenue in advertising and maintain a long-term relationship with the e-commerce giant in China. 

From another perspective, Weibo's prosperity is still very much under government's surveillance. Though it may not  be directly affecting its advertising initiative, less free participation from users could still impact the effectiveness of the marketing strategies. That's something Alibaba and Weibo should deal with.

It is a very much promising partnership and collaboration for both Alibaba and Weibo, however, the future down the road still needs both parties' careful planning and steering.

Technorati Tags: Commentary, News, Alibaba, Sina, Weibo

Read More

HTC One: BlinkFeed, User Interface, Zoe Photo and Many More!

HTC One has created quite some hype on the Internet because it is first of its kind in HTC's smartphone history. All I want to say is, I love the design of this phone! It is as good as iPhone's hardware design, if not superior. In this post, its focus is on the user experience of HTC One. 

Upon launching the phone, the first thing you would notice is the BlinkFeed. If you have used Flipboard board before, you can imagine how it looks like. It can be customized so that the information and updates you want to see will populate on the home screen. It can be news, like straits times or ESPN, apps such as Facebook and Twitter, and even Calendar items in the phone. In short, it's a one-stop information centre on the phone screen.

HTC Sense UI 5.0 is something I'd like to mention as well. Among all the Android UIs I have used, I like HTC's Sense the best. It is simple, clear and easy to navigate around. The settings are intuitive. In the app menu screen, instead of navigating the apps by swiping left or right, it's up and down. However, the screen can't stay at any random position, it is still displaying the apps page by page. 

The task manager screen is a bit different from other Android phones, much like a mini 'mission control' on Mac.

The font is sharp and layout is clear. 

The built-in weather app is awesome.

Even Play Store is customized to HTC style.

Thanks to 2GB RAM and Quad-core 1.7GHz CPU, it is pretty smooth navigating across the screens and very responsive when launching the apps. It supports LTE connection so download speed is not a problem. But I found the Chinese input in HTC One is not very user-friendly and even troublesome. Luckily I can download 3rd party's input from the Play Store.

The sound quality of HTC is impressive, too. With the dual frontal stereo speakers, and built-in beats amplifiers, the phone delivers much richer sound. It is perfect for playing the music or watching movies.

The biggest attraction is HTC One's camera. Unlike the usual marketing campaign, this time the focus is not on the number of megapixels. Interestingly, it's the opposite. HTC One's UltraPixel camera resolution is only 4 megapixel, but the pixel size is as three times as those 13MP phone camera. What does this mean? It means that it captures 300% more light. The largest aperture of 2.0 and built-in optical image stabalization make it more capable in low light situation. 

From the sample images above, indeed HTC One does a decent job in low light, however, because of its relative low resolution, image quality and details are somewhat compromised.

However, that is not the best part about HTC One's camera yet. Its best feature is Zoe. It works like as if you were taking a video, but in fact it is just a continuous stream of pictures with 4 second interval. You can stop at any point to choose the best shot it has got. Also, in each event folder, there is a video highlight that puts together all the Zoe and normal photos in one clip of 30 seconds. Some sample videos are below.

It is definitely a lot of fun shooting the Zoe photo/Videos and it makes the gallery more lively! However, one thing I don't like is that the video highlights is only auto-generated based on the photos and videos under the same event. Moving the photos and videos is not so easy that I could not edit on the best videos I have. 

Battery wise, it is more power efficient than my iPhone 5, at least it could last about a day with the Power Saver mode on. However, I notice that charging the phone through USB port powered by my laptop is extremely slow, which is not the case for my iPhone 5. Charging speed seems improving when I used the socket charger, but still it is not something as fast as I'd expect. 

Verdict

HTC One is something I would recommend my family or friends to have because it has unique metallic design, very intuitive user interface, fast performance and a lot of fun elements with its BlinkFee and Zoe photos. The downside is that the built Chinese input isn't that great, the photo quality is compromised due to lower resolution and slow charging speed. If you are now looking for a new Android phone, this is definitely the one you should at least consider. 

Technorati Tags: HTC, HTC One, Review, Smartphone

Read More

Nikon Coolpix A in Action: Photos, Tips and Thoughts

After the previous post, I think everybody more or less knows how Nikon Coolpix A looks like. However, the photo quality is always the top factor to evaluate a camera's capability. In this post, I will share some of my photos taken by the camera and also my experience of using it. 

I have never used a Nikon camera before, be it compact or DSLR. It took me some time to get familiar with the controls and settings, but it isn't too long. Most of them are intuitive. I said MOST is because there are still some quirky settings I don't really appreciate. For example, the dial on the top right is set default as aperture dial. It can change ISO and exposure compensation, as well, by pressing the ISO or exposure compensation button. But I have to hold the button while adjusting the ISO or EV. This eventually makes me have to use two hands to operate the camera.

With the APS-C sensor, Coolpix A undoubtedly has superior image quality compared to a normal compact camera. Most of compact cameras nowadays are able to produce good photos under sunlight. The real challenge is the performance in low light. So noise level at high ISO is crucial. Coolpix A manages the noise pretty well, personally I feel that the maximal working ISO is 3200. 

This photo was taken in the sunrise, outside my window. F5.6, 1/250s, ISO 110 using scene mode.

After work, passing by Hong Lim Park. F4, 1/125s ISO 220, using scene mode.

Boy playing with water at Bugis Junction. F4, 1/640s, ISO 200.

Black Glutinous Rice at Ah Chew Dessert. F2.8, 1/30s, ISO 1600.

Kids playing on the beach at Sentosa. F5.6, 1/400s, ISO 100.

Macro shot of flower. F5.0, 1/30s, ISO 640.

Chicken wings at Over Easy bar. The actual scene is even darker than the photo. F2.8, 1/15s, ISO 2500

Close-up shot of apple cider. F2.8, 1/20s ISO 3200.

Verdict

Some of my thoughts on Coolpix A, good and bad.

Good:

1. Small and light, it is one of the few that I am willing to carry on a daily basis. The compact body also makes it easier to snap street photos without drawing too much attention. 

2. High ISO performance is pretty impressive, thanks to its APS-C sized sensor. 

3. 28mm focal length is suitable for various scenarios, so I don't find the fixed length that inconvenient.

4. Battery seems pretty good, around 200 photos per charge. Considering it is small in size and APS-C sensor is definitely more power consuming than the compact camera sensor.

5. Though Coolpix A does not support Wi-Fi and GPS in camera, it's worth mentioning that its accessories can enable it for that. Of course that needs to be purchased separately.

Bad:

1. F2.8 is fast, but not fast enough. In some extreme condition, F2.8 is still too small an aperture, which leads to slow shutter speed and hand-shake.

2. High ISO performance is a bonus point for Nikon Coolpix A. Since F2.8 is not sufficient, I turn to higher ISO. I find it more useful when I set the ISO to AUTO. However, the auto ISO option is not even in ISO setting. I have to go a few levels down and finally find it buried in the camera settings.

3. Image could be sharper, especially at F2.8. There is also some vignetting and loss of details at the corners.

4. Camera lacks built in HDR which may disappoint some users like me.

5. Price tag could be too high. It is even more expensive than some entry level DSLR. Even compared to the same category, such as Fujifilm's X100s, it is around the same price but seems offering more features. However, that depends on individual's needs and preferences.

In all, if you are looking for a compact, low profile camera which can produce excellent images, I would recommend you to take this camera in consideration. It is not much bigger than a smartphone so that you can literally slip it in the pocket.  28mm lens is good for most hangout or walkabout. Impressive high ISO performance makes indoor photo shooting much easier. 

Technorati Tags: Camera, Coolpix A, Nikon, Review

Read More