Apple iPhone 3G

This entry is made exclusively for those gadget lovers who intend to buy, or keen on buying Apple iPhone 3G this coming 22 August 2008. Yes, iPhone 3G will be available in Singapore on 22 August 2008 onwards. Singtel has confirmed it via email for those who have reserved the phone online. From what I've heard, the phone does come in "bundle" with a 2-year Singtel mobile phone plan because this phone is currently exclusive for Singtel user only.

Well, here I'd like to summarize what I've found across the internet, regarding the good and the bad of iPhone 3G. Here we go.

The Good aka Pro:

• High-Speed 3G network: meaning, you can browse at a faster speed than the old iPhone does.
• The new design: Well, it looks slightly "slimmer" than the old iPhone. Truth is, the body of the phone itself is thicker in the center but the edges are thinner than before. If you ever notice it, the back of the phone is no longer a matte aluminum, but a black (or white if you choose to buy the 16G one) plastic.
• GPS navigation: fast GPS acquisition, depending on your location and reception. It utilizes the Assisted GPS (AGPS) supplemented by satellites, which better pinpoints your location.
• Camera: Slight improvement in the photo quality.
• Contact Search: Now you are able to search your contact by typing any portion of the name.
• Call quality: The call quality is improved by eliminating the presence of slight background hum and increasing the audio volume.

The Bad aka cons:

• Its high resolution 480 x 320 3.5-inch display is a magnet for fingerprints and smudges.
• The most irritating one is that the Bluetooth only supports headset and can't be used for file transfer.
• There is no MMS (Multimedia Message) feature in iPhone 3G.
• You can't shoot any video using the 2MP camera. Well, perhaps for those of you who don't really bother about shooting video using mobile phones, this drawback could be ignored.
• We might be familiar with "copy and paste" feature that common symbian / windows based phones have. Sadly, this feature can't be found here in iPhone 3G.
• After contemplating some pictures taken using iPhone 3G's 2MP camera, I conclude that the camera is really something Apple needs to improve when launching next generation of iPhone.
• The battery is short-lived, as in when you turn on everything (3G, wifi, bluetooth for headset, GPS), the battery could be drained very quickly. In addition, unlike most other smart phones, the iPhone battery is sealed and hence can't be replaced with a spare.
• No voice dialing for iPhone 3G.
• There is no way to extend the memory size of this phone as no memory-card slot can be found in this phone.

Conclusion:
iPhone has successfully delivered what other smart phones unable to deliver. The design, technology, user interfaces, all are brilliant! However, most features that a standard phone has are missing. For myself, at least for the time being, I'd prefer to buy iPod touch rather than iPhone 3G. Both of them are nearly the same, the UI, design, applications, and so on. The only difference is that iPod Touch is working offline, as in not receiving any GSM signal whatsoever. Last word, iPhone 3G is worth the design and all the technologies it utilizes, but it is not worth a phone..




*all images are courtesy of engadget.com

Graduation and Working life...

Finally.. it's the end of our undergrad journey my dear SCEian fellows.. I started a new life on 8 July 2008.. which is my very 1st day working here in NCS. Yeah.. I'm working with NCS now. It's not like I have not ever imagined it before, but it's totally a two different worlds.. schooling vs working. Somehow.. in this very moment, i can feel the insatiable desire of human being.. It's very simple, once you have graduated and entering a working life, you might feel like university and dorm life were so great. Hahaha.. you could skip as many lectures as you want. :P you could slack and sleep in the LT.. etc and hence you wish you could go back in time to your uni life haha.

Having my convocation on 25 July. It was raining back then :( couldn't take pictures outdoor hahaha.. Yeah, I am officially graduated from NTU with Bachelor of Engineering (CE) degree :P LOLz.. My parents, my sis, and my dear were all there :D what a beautiful yet cloudy day :P

Well, my first day of work was quite normal. Woke up very2 early in the morning (ard 6 i guess) and reached office ten minutes before 830 and hence I had to wait til' 830 ^^;; I was brought to some room (dunno d name :P) and they took my photo for my staff ID card. I was introduced to Adam then, so called my buddy here in my team. haha.. He's so funny, talkative, etc :P i was also introduced to Jenny (if you noticed, she is the one who spammed my blog several days ago.. you can see her comments are everywhere within my entries LOL). Well, I was brought to my cubicle then.. in the nice corner just beside my Project Manager's cubicle haha. Well, maybe i was wrong, there's one flaw.. i wrongly put my monitor to face d aisle. You may have guessed it.. ya that's correct! Everybody who walks pass my cubicle might see what I am doing LOLz haha. Can't browse too much :P:P hahahahaha.

Nothing much to do on my 1st dae actually, read some online orientation module and tried hard to keep my eyes open :P hahaha. Then I tried to familiarize with the environment ard here, tried to remember the way to pantry and toilet, etc. One thing I dun really like here is that in this big big room, no single window can be found! haha.. of coz without ur watch or computer, u won't know whether it is morning, afternoon, or night! No big deal actually hahaah.. since my PC is always on.

a view from NCS's pantry on a bright day...

I was assigned to PORTS project. At first, I thought PORTS is really2 ports.. literally.. as in Singapore Ports stg like tat. haha, the real thing is, PORTS is totally a different thing. It's an abbreviation of Prison Operations and Rehabilitations System. hahaha.. So I'm kinda in "prison" rite now LOLz. About the work so far.. ya quite ok I guess. Still can manage to meet the deadline and everything. Sometimes, it could be dreadfully boring here.. hahaha.. especially when my team mates are nt in.

I have finished one assignment for module enhancement yesterday.. and nothing much to do now hahaha. Can just relax for d time being I guess :P


-=I'm out=-
"work hard, play harder!!"

--> this entry is the 100th entry in diz blog.. :P

Unofficially... GRADUATED!

Yoshh.. today is my "judgement day" yeah well, FYP presentation day!! haha.. and now I'm finally FREE!! I started preparing my slides on Friday, and I still blurred tat time.. :S hahah.. I had to go thru my report again.. and find out which one shud be included in the slides, which one shudn't.. The initial slides were done on Sunday.. and after having an "improper" rehearsal, i noticed that it was more than 20 minutes !! Yeah actually we are only given max 20 minutes for presentation and 10 mins for QnA. I deleted some slides then.. mostly about the literature review. I did a rehearsal again and the best I could do was 20 minutes sumthin'. Ya, quite a relief.. but still.. I was thinking how to further shorten my presentation... I went to school, looked for a bench.. and did a rehearsal again there. Well, nt really rehearsal actually, juz tried to speak (I was whispering thou :P) and timed it.. and it was still ard 20 minutes stg.. well, I stopped and went back. hahaha..

Today before the presentation, I rehearsed once again and surprisingly it was only 18 mins hahah.. yeah well.. maybe I spoke too fast .. enough is enough.. Venny, my group mate for diz FYP, went first. I was surprised tat during the presentation, our examiner interrupted her and asked stg regarding the slide. hahaha.. quite frightening rite.. I was afraid tat I cudn't finish everything in 30 mins time. However, to be honest, my examiner was nt tat scary and to make it better, my supervisor (same as Venny's) helped her answering the qns from examiner (well, I was wondering tat time.. would he help me as well? :P) and the time came.. it was my turn.. During my presentation, I was interrupted only once.. and after finishing my presentation, he asked another question. That's ALL !! haha.. luckily my supervisor helped me convincing my examiner during the very last question. haha.. Thank GOD !! It's all over then !!! :D I am UNOFFICIALLY graduated now haha.. --> Edmond Gunarso, BEng (Hons) huahauha..

but still.. I'm afraid of the results hahaha.. well, what's done is done.. nothin' you can do to fix it eniwei.. so yah.. juz hope for the bez !!


-=I'm out=-

Chapter 22

Yosh... It's my Chapter 22 of life.. Thank GOD for everything :) Birthday wishes : iPod Touch, PSP, PS3, job offer, etc2 wakakaak.. juz kidding lar :P I wish everything goes well, including my FYP presentation (5th May), job hunting, and.. my future endeavors !! :D Nothing special today, I went out wif my sis, having lunch at Ajisen Ramen @ Tiong Bahru Plaza.. and of coz her treat wakaka.. XD

Well, my dear is not in Singapore.. She's leaving for Shanghai today haha.. quite sad.. but she really has to go. That's okay :) I'll juz wait for her to come back.. and maybe we could have a little celebration together XD


Thank you all! Have a nice dae pals!

Freedom !!!

Yes yes yes.. today is our "independence" day.. at least for some ppl taking CPE416 - Distributed System as their LAST paper.. Freedom finally... from EXAMS !! haahaha.. yeah but it's not really over actually. Will be having FYP demo and final presentation on 2nd and 5th of May. That will be the last two stuffs.. before I'm leaving NTU.

Today, other than my LAST paper, I got final interview with Citibank as well... wad a day! Yeah, hopefully all went well.. The paper was quite okay.. little mistakes here and there thou'.. Interview? "sufficiently bored" waiting.. and a bit sleepy :P Well, I waited for approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes (well, I arrived at the office ard 12.15..) My schedule was actually at 12.45 but there was this one person who was supposedly engaging the panelists at 12.00.. and he came late.. hence his slot was brought to 1230. The HR person told me tat it is a 30-minute interview but well.. I waited til' 13.30 to get my turn.. Quite bored waiting.. hahaa.. the interview itself was okay.. normal interview questions I had expected the nite before.. and luckily not too technical as well..

I'll just relax myself for now.. counting the hours before my........ XD

One more...

One last paper.. for the entire life.. *oops.. nt really.. well.. at least for several years :P Yesss.. It's the very lastttt oneee !! on 30.. Haf to finish hundred pages of lecture notes in... hmm.. lemme think.. 5 days ? well let's just see..

These few days, I suffered from quite SEVERE diarrhea =.=" it started on Tuesday night..... Tuesday was the presentation day with Citi (refer to the previous entry), and I decided to skip my lunch and directly go for dinner. Well, that was nt intentionally thou.. I juz din feel hungry tat afternoon, so I decided to juz sleep away and skip the lunch (I ate breakfast quite a lot neway..). Me and Jaq were having dinner at the newly opened Sakae Sushi outlet (hoho.. NTU is getting more and more "classy" huh ? :P) and I grabbed one plate of sushi tat nite before savoring my "main course", chicken katsudon if I'm nt wrong...... then we continued studying at the newly opened canteen A. I was okay for several hours.. which then I felt like vomiting.. dunno why.. I rested well that night, and the next day, I felt that I had a little fever.. and lost my entire appetite for food! After lunch, I was feeling like going to toilet every half an hour or so. =.=" tat was tiring !! I was very tired.. I din do enithing but very tired.. that must be due to the diarrhea. I was sleeping almost the whole day man ! and believe it or nt.. the next day was my FIRST paper dude! I was afraid that I could not make it .. :S but I kept on believing tat tml I NEED to go.. rili2 need to go man.. I had porridge for the dinner, nt too savory but I needed to eat sumthin to get some energy to finish my study! To sum up everything, that nite was very2 awful one.. got headache, needed to use the toilet every half n hour, got a lil' fever too! =.="

the next day, when I woke up, the fever had gone, but my body was tired still.... I went to bathroom splashing some waters on my face.. then preparing things for exam.. and grabbed a red bean pau on the way to the bus stop to catch the shuttle bus to the exam venue. Well, that was at SRC (Sports and Recreation Center) which is quite far from my hall of residence and under normal circumstances I'll just walk from here, but... no choice I had to take shuttle bus there due to my sickness T_T Miraculously, I din need to go to the toilet during the 2-hour battle with Simulation and Modeling.. thank GOD! Went back, had yong tofu for my lunch then went to bed again... too tired to do enithing else... wew and.. the fever came back T_T

After some days without any sign of getting better... on Saturday I went to the medical center wewww... to get some "proper" medicines.. (well actually I haf only NORIT and DIATABS tablets for diarrhea.. but they weren't handy thou). Now, I feel a lot better.. and just gone for the second paper this afternoon. Thank GOD.. I managed to get out from very very very mortifying situation last week...

Citi actually have contacted me on Thursday, and I have been selected for the FINAL interview on 30 April next week. Wow.. juz let it flow, do my best.. and leave it to God for the rest... :) I'll just relax myself tonite.. recharging for the last battle with Distributed System.. and the interview of course.. quite frightening thou :P


-=I'm out=-
Mugging hard and play HARDER !!

Treasuring every moment..

Wohoho.. I'm back ! hahaah.. Phew, 18 January... quite a long time ago huh? XD Well, so many things have happened diz semester. Mostly, FYP matters... I thought tat my FYP was a piece of crap, dunno wad to do, dunno how to survive, exaggerated desperation (if it is even the correct term to describe it :P) etc.. but in d end, I could finish d report on time and surprisingly.. no comments from my examiner, and my supervisor told me that the report was good. Thank GOD.. but, it's not over YET.

Preparing the demo was another challenging yet exhausting work. Well, I changed the program quite A LOT.. enhancing the overall running time at the cost of less reliability. The idea is still the same with what I have written in the report, only the method is a lil' bit different. That's okay, its unreliability is still at the tolerable level, and more importantly, it's neither disrupting another processes in the program nor causing run-time error. Phew.. More or less, now the demo preparation has finished.. Most likely, the demo will be on 2 May.. just a few days before my FINAL presentation which is on 5 May, 1400. Yeah, tat will be the very LAST and FINAL task I have to tackle in NTU.

I mentioned about summer studies in the previous entry rite.. know wad ? ISC has ruined everything!! Here is the story.. I submitted the application quite a while ago using FIREFOX browser.. and it was stated that the application has been submitted successfully. I didn't expect for any acknowledgment to be sent afterwards, since.. yeah, sometimes we just need to wait for the outcome rite? (to make it worse, me and some of my buddies were all submitting the application using Firefox.. so nobody knew about the ack email.. =.=") After waiting nearly a month with nothing abt the summer studies, my friend Adi called ISC and was told that his application did NOT thru'... WAD??? I couldn't believe that, and I called ISC myself to make sure.. I was told that my application did NOT thru' as well =.=" wthh... The problem was.. he said there was a technical glitch when students submitted their application using Firefox browser.. WTH.. Why didn't they give us warning, or precaution about Firefox before????... =.=" damn lousy lar ! Yeah, so.. my summer study dream.. gone.. oh well..

It's less than a month now to the time of freedom (after my FYP FINAL presentation.. and to be exact, it's ard 21 days, 12 hours, 20 minutes and 16 seconds).. from school.. textbooks, lecture notes, etc.. (for a while.. since I'm thinking of having a Master degree in 2/3 years time). Well, nt really a freedom thou.. haf to keep on looking for a job (if I haven't got any...) and looking for a new shelter.. to be called home..

Job hunting ? I'm still jobless huahau.. No worries, keep on trying still.. Well, actually I have a presentation for Citibank CTI-MA this coming TUESDAY!!! haven't prepared anything yet.. and my first paper is juz ard the corner also.. on this coming THURSDAY!! What a week! Juz, treasure it.. treasure ur every last moment here in NTU (i mean.. your "schooling" time.. :P nt necessarily to be NTU) coz you might have these times no more...


I'm out..
~Mugging hard and play harder !! ~