So I bought a cheap alternative, the RAPOO 3200. It’s a fifth of my last Logitech mouse price, which has served me well (and still do). The biggest problem I had was, it does not support Mac. There goes another ‘meRAPOO’ investment. Yeah, Mac was a lousy bet but I’m kinda stuck to it. Anyway, all the buttons weren’t functioning, the back and the forward especially.

After ogling  the web, I found one app that could enhance the lightweight mouse, it’s called SteerMouse. After setting the app, I can configure what each button does (Windows is plug and play). Another one not to be missed, is the MagicPrefs, it’s specifically for Magic mouse but can also work for trackpad etc.

ps: Clearing up my holiday balance.. wee~

Then it evolved as we discussed about the layout etc.

It evolved to many series actually, but unfortunately, I forgot to screen capture the various versions of the design.

When we arrived the day before the official launch, we had to agree on something. By then, it was too late to vet through the design and other impending tasks were already lined up; porting server, migrate db etc . Either way, they had to stick their necks and pray that it wouldn’t be a mess. They just had to trust me.

Thank God everything went well. Now to do UAT.. so boring!

ps: Web design used to be my work, now my hobby

Few weeks back I was summoned by Samsung and Celcom to drop by at their office and to get a hold of the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Seriously, it’s drop dead gorgeous. It definitely beats the junk out of other android tablets.

If you’re looking forward for me to compare Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 against iPad2, I suggest you look elsewhere. The whole purpose of having a tablet is a substitute for mobile computing with some mobility. So between Android and iOS, it’s like saying “same shit different day”.

The unit handed to us was the 3G version. I didn’t check the space it had because I had no idea how to. The unit wasn’t meant to be brought home, at least not that day. (I actually have one in my hand right now )

Ok, maybe a little comparison, the right is a product of a fruit company and the left is the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1. Beaten marginally by 1mm (at least to the naked eye). Very nice piece of engineering.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is well proportioned and uniform in size. Unlike some tablets, they kinda have nasty curves and doesn’t feel right. The screen ratio is 16:9 somewhat pleasing if you plan on using it as your entertainment hub.

There’s a few accessories lined up already for the tablet, a very optimistic and confident move.

Final words, Celcom will be bringing the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 to our shore. As for the launching date, I guess it’ll be shortly after Raya. I hope it doesn’t happen on the day I’m getting married. I’m not going to line up with tanjak on my head and keris in my waist.

ps: Macbook Air update, left palm feels a little numb due to heat. I guess it’s why I prefer desktop than laptops.

The first thing that came to mind when we talk about mobile gaming, it’ll always be the Sony PSP. Heck, kids are carrying abundant of those. Now, Sony Ericsson came out with another mind blowing mobile gaming, the Xperia PLAY. The worlds first Playstation on Android brought to you by Celcom!

This is another level of mobile entertainment already!

The Technical Specs:

• Real Game Controller (like PSP)
• Powered by Android Gingerbread
• 4″ Capacitive Touch Screen
• Camera rear and front facing
• Using Snapdragon 1Ghz Processor

The Games:

• Grand Theft Auto
• Winning Eleven
• Final Fantasy and many more!

You can get this from Celcom as low as RM 848 on Celcom Exec!

Find out more about SonyEricsson Xperia Play visit Celcom.com.my.

The widest network coverage, Celcom has a long list of smartphones. Android, Blackberry, Windows 7 and Symbian phones.

I gotta admit, Android + Google is the best combination ever. I have all my mails consolidated into my Gmail account, sync my calendar on the fly, install apps from the Android Market, sync Google Task and many more. It’s true, Android is a geek phone, but that doesn’t matter. As long as I’m productive!

Here’s some of Celcom’s Smartphone line up:

Android : For the gadget freak. For the gizmo geek in you who enjoys the open platform with the ability to control their smartphone to their liking.

• Samsung Galaxy SL (from 468)
• Samsung Galaxy Tab (from RM668)
• LG Optimus 2X (from RM978)
• LG Optimus One (from RM48)
• LG Optimus Me (from RM0)
• Sony Ericsson Xperia X8 (from RM0)

BlackBerry : For the workaholic. For you on-the-go whose mind is always about business and work, but not neglecting social life.

• BlackBerry Bold 9780 (from RM888)
• BlackBerry Torch 9800 (from RM1,188)
• BlackBerry Curve 9300 (from RM488)

Windows Phone 7 : For the tech whiz. For you who appreciates the Windows platform on the mobile with the best of everything.

• LG Optimus 7 (from RM1,068)

Symbian : For the realist. For you who puts simplicity and practicality first with the efficiency of getting something done easily.

• Nokia E7 (from RM958)
• Nokia C7 (from 468)
• Nokia C3 (from RM18)
• Nokia C2-01 (from RM0)

and the most latest one…

iPhone 4 : COMING SOON

The launching date? Hmm.. let’s just say next week. *wink*

ps: First image, I’m just messing with the tagline.

or

I’m sure those who crawled to top ten of the award at least wrote a post-whore asking you to vote for them. Unfortunately for you, I want you to spend your daily vote quota on me.

In case you don’t know me, I am NoktahHitam and I have been blogging for almost a decade. I am a freak, a geek, an egoist. I do my best to write things that would touch you and me, based on my daily live. And I talk alone, when I have a gadget in my hand.

Before you start whiffing your mouse across the screen, allow me to re-cap some of the best 2010 posts, in 4 categories of “LOL-Real Story”, “How I Met Your Mother”, “Literature” and “Serious Matters”. This will seriously save you a lot of time on considering, whether I’m good or just crap.

LOL – Real Story

These are all real story and based actual events. They are basically pranks and jokes, written with a different mood. Characters were renamed to protect the real person.

1. Pakcik Jaga Nepal (38) - This is a story of how I pranked the guards at the office. Serious LOL. To this day, we became good buddies and sometimes he’d reserve a parking lot for me.

2. The Daughter I Never Had, Yet (39) – A girl called and told me, I’m her father.

3. The Expensive Italian Under Garment (33) - The story of wedgies and underwear.

How I Met Your Mother

By July, I will be a husband to Aisyah Rozi. So I thought it’d be great to compile some of the post that can be read by my (or rather our) kids. I’d probably fluster but wth..

1. TOLONGGGG!!! (38) – Your mom chased by a guy.

2. Redial (21) - Pranked using a phone though it’s not really impossible, just not with that phone. Serious LOL

3. Shampoo & Wall Street (22) – Some guy can take all the time in the world just to pick a shampoo.

Literature

This is where I experiment and play with words. I do poetry and stories.

1. I’m Slowly Falling For You (46) - This is dedicated to the one and only.

2. The ER6-F Story (35)-  I’d call it a hybrid, a combination of poem and story of a super bike I admire most.

3. The Proposal (15) - Fictional or not, but this is one of the genre I actually like writing, romantic sappy stuff.

Serious Matters

My most prided posts resides here. This is where critical matters were discussed, argued, proposed and some were forwarded to management.

1. Open Letter to Maybank (46) - Wrote an open letter to Maybank in Bahasa Melayu. It was featured in MalaysiaKini column and got a call from a Maybank director to take down the post. It was credit card issue.

2. Why I Changed from Maxis to Digi! (68) - A lengthy post why I changed telco provider. Although it may reflect negatively on Maxis, Maxis should be professional enough and take this as a challenge. As far as I remembered, close to 20 guys & girls changed telco provider after reading the post.

3. DiGi – Make This Happen! (23) - A healthy proposal/debate on how DiGi could innovate. And they did just that, by introducing the RM33 for 300 mb plan, few weeks after the post was forwarded to the top management.

There you go, 12 posts for your consideration. So again, if you feel that I deserve to win, VOTE FOR ME. Else, just drop me a hate-comment.

or

ps: If I did win, seriously I’ll do an open table, of course everything on me.

Kolony is an SMS based social networking that connects you and your friends. There are about 1.3 million users now, thanks to the aggressive campaign launched by Celcom. This phenomenon sure is a big hit about those who heavy texting.

To get started, just send KOLONY to 25333. (You just need to have an Xpax, U.O.X., S.O.X. or Celcom mobile number to join!)

After you get your nickname, check out some of the ways you can socialize on Kolony:

• DING – Ding your buddies and leave them a message to cheer them up. Send KDING to 25333
• BOMM – Have an update to share? BOMM it away to all your FRENs! Send KBOMM to 25333
• FREN - FREN for life? Make as many as you can in Kolony! Send KFREN to 25333
• POPP – Get to comment on what your buddies say! Send KPOPP to 25333
• For even more cool activities in Kolony, just send KHELP to 25333 to get a full list of keywords that you can use to explore the rest of the world of Kolony!

How does it work?

Make calls from new XPAX plan and get KOINZ. These KOINZ can then be used for Kolony!

• 1st – 5th calls made in a day = FREE 10 KOINZ per call
• 6th & more calls made in a day = FREE 20 KOINZ per call
• The FREE KOINZ will be granted the next day
• Alternatively, you can also purchase KOINZ to enjoy KOLONY services: RM0.30 for 10Koinz, RM1.50 for 50Koinz, RM3 for 100Koinz

The New XPAX Plan

What’s more? With the New Xpax Plan, besides earning FREE KOINZ for you to stay infected on Kolony, you get enjoy super awesome LOW RATES! Yup! You heard us right!!! Calls are ONLY 28 sen for 10 minutes to Celcom network and 5mins to other networks. SMS are ONLY 1sen to Celcom numbers and 5sen to other networks!

Or you can head over to Blue Cube outlet or Celcom branch to pick up the New XPAX Plan!

In my blogging affairs, I’d never thought I’d get anything apart from, improve English usage, meet new circle of geeks and most importantly, say the things that I wanted to say (I still have loads though). Some people write about tech, some life, their shopping spree (screams envy!), their pet bunny.. oppss. I choose to write something that bothers me at that moment. The surreal feeling when penning down thoughts and reading it 2 years later really gets me.

Any how, here’s a way to apply for #maxis10. Go to this App on Facebook, and click on Go To App. Key in everything as you please. Some tips for you, just do it once and when writing down, make sure you double or triple check your entry. It has to have the UMPH factor, not some lame duck (although I have to admit, some Maxis10 participants are drop dead boring, I literally drooled on my keyboard).

• Nobody likes reading syok sendiri blog
• Nobody would care about what gadget you’re drooling over
• Keep Blogging, Facebook & Twitter updated
• Be original in every way, even if you’re Mr. Bean
• DON’T PLAGIARIZE
• Don’t RT everything you think is funny. It’s lame.
• Stop being LAME
• DON’T MAKE JOKES THAT AREN’T FUNNY
• Stop playing with your bunny and entertain your fiancée (hahaha)
• Last, DON’T TRY TO BE COOL, BECAUSE YOU’RE NOT!

Use this three imminent force. God willing, you’ll get it.

ps: I still have my last say for #maxis10 in the next posts ok?

Celcom is throwing away FREE* internet and talk time on Friday, Saturday and Sunday! How awesome is that? All you need to do is sign up for Celcom Exec 50 from now till 31st March 2011 for a period of 6 Months! That sounds like a very promising deal.

To be eligible for this, you need to do is hit a monthly of RM 99. It gets better when you reach RM 199, FREE internet and free on-net voice EVERYDAY with a discounted call rate as low as 10.5 sen/min and 8.4 sen/sms. This is applicable to NEW and EXISTING Celcom Exec 50.

To start enjoying these benefit, send sms “ILOVEWEEKENDS” to 22188 to enroll.

The following rates apply too once you start hitting RM 60 of usage. Check out the table below.

For more details go to the official Celcom Website.

ps: I’ll update on the photos of my engagement in a few days time ok? Sorry.

If you are one hell-of-a-geek, you’ll try all the Twitter clients available for Android on it’s market place. That’s what I did.

There are a few that caught my attention. Mainly the ones with 250,000 downloads and above. (It worked for some people didn’t it?). They are, Peep, Plume, TweetCast, TweetDeck, twica and Twitter (original from Twitter team).

1. Peep

It comes as standard on HTC Desire Z. It offers the most simplest form of UI compared to others. There’s a row of 4 buttons at the bottom of the page namely, Your Tweets, Mentioned, Messages and Favorite. In the setting, you will be able change the Update frequency, how many to download and asks whether you want update on launch. You can also change the notification, ring or vibrate. It also has url shorterning service, no image support though.

Verdict: Too simple.

2. Plume

I’m not sure about you but I don’t fancy Plume because it’s fill with ads. The features are somewhat the same with Peep except a Refresh button at the bottom of the screen. To create new tweet, click on Plume and slide it down (I couldn’t find it first time around). You’ll get the screen on your right. Sometimes if you miss clicked, you’ll accidentally drag down the Android notification way on top, which is why I don’t vouch for it.

On the upside, when you type @ there’ll be a lists of suggestion based on the people you are following, plus point.

Verdict: Looks too busy and typing a new tweet requires accuracy.

3. TweetCast

Another ads oriented but it loads at the bottom of the page, which takes up screen real estate. Similar to the rest, you can change update frequency and notifications. Like Plume, when you type @x it will suggest who do you want to mention. You can even set to refresh when you shake!

Verdict: Size is big, takes up valuable real estate even using the smallest font.

4. TweetDeck

I’ve used this on the desktop using Adobe Air. Seriously, I don’t like it. But when it rolled out on Google Chrome, I was among the first to try. It has never crashed compared to Adobe Air version. Anyway, the same team made it possible on Android like a gazillion years ago. Sadly, the only thing missing is the auto suggest when you are trying to mention someone. Must I mention that it actually previews if a picture and video attached to the tweet? Cool stuff.

Verdict: Could have added Auto Suggest Mention. Plus point, neat interface.

5. twica

Among the best looking Twitter client out there, as simple as that. However, the downside is, it takes awhile to get screen names as it loads directly from Twitter. When I want to tweet someone or something, I want it as snappy as possible else I’d forget what I wanted to say.

Verdict: Seriously worth considering.

6. Twitter

Developed by the original Twitter team, Twitter is a no brainer as to it’s function. However, I do not like the fact that it has a ‘welcome’ screen, makes me want to scream. Like others, it supports image upload and url shortening. But the most annoying part is when it asks you, “Abandon change?” when you press back if decided not to tweet about it. God, it’s annoying. Given it’s bright white background, I’d humbly decline Twitter as my Twitter client.

Verdict: Simplified, but could make do without Welcome screen.

In conclusion, I’d go with either twica or TweetDeck. Why? Because it has black background, which consumes less battery and also it has experience in implementing Twitter client on the said platform.

If you have any comments or suggestion or find any discrepancies in this review, do let me know. I’ll credit you.

ps: Can’t believe it’s already the end of the year.

For those of you who’s still blur, HTC Desire Z comes with a physical keyboard. Now, how do you leverage on these hardwares (physical or screen keyboard)?

To make the best of it, I change a few of its settings, much like the phone I’m used to, Nokia 5800. When you hold it vertically (portrait mode), the phone keypad comes to life (like normal phone) and holding it horizontally (landscape mode), I’ll get a full QWERTY keypad.

The first few days, dealing with HTC Desire Z was cumbersome if not troubling. It keeps auto correcting. I wanted to type Gmail, but it spelled out Genital. Luckily I didn’t shoot that email out to my customer.

I wanted to write “You memang”, turns out differently. Notice the XT9 on the right. Click that to turn off Auto Complete/dictionary. I find this setting suits me most.

In landscape mode, I have to click “memang” else it’ll change to “means” as highlighted.

If I pull the keyboard out, I’ll be able to type as pleased. That, being Manglish. It comes handy especially if you talk that way, in real and digital life. I even have additional space to see what I’m typing.

Question: How Do I Change it?

Easy.

1. Go to Menu > Settings > Language & Keyboard > Touch Input > Hardware Keyboard Settings and turn off prediction.

2. Go to Menu > Settings > Language & Keyboard > Touch Input > Keyboard types chose Phone Keypad

That’s it! You can now tweet and f-booking using Manglish. I find it convenient most of the time.

ps: Seriously, the keyboard is starting to get loose.

I like the new color. Damn bloody awesome. Going to add yellow stripes to make it more awesomeness. Hahaha.

- sent from HTC desire z

Now that the trays are here, I’m setting myself off to my wildest imaginations. Though mom is giving me loads of idea and input I still need sometime to digest the whole concept. Similar to the colors on my blog? Hmm, I guess I’ll sleep over it.

-sent from HTC desire z

Never thought I’d buy this.

It’s necessary, I need ideas to do the gubahan by myself.

- sent from HTC desire z

This was taken using HTC desire z, at ISO 100.

Me and @azmanishak have this crazy idea to do a battle of live blogging around the heart of Kuala Lumpur. The battle should have a dedicated live host and will be judged by visitors.

The format should be a max of 6 posts.

However I do feel that we should open the event and allow other bloggers to compete as well.

Ego and pride aside, I believe we could depict Kuala Lumpur through pictorial posts along with its location, which in return boost the national image. If you think its an awesome idea, do leave a comment.

-sent from HTC desire z