Angry birds for Android need at least 50MB to install

Today I downloaded Angry Birds for Android to install. The first few attempts were not successful. It keep giving me the error message - Angry birds could not be viewed. Free up some space on your phone and try again.

Only after a few try and error attempt, I figured out the phone need at least 50MB internal memory before it can install itself. After sorting out the space issue, now the game is installed and fun to play.

Just in case you don't know what's great about it. It is one of the popular game on iphone and is now free for Android!

Lunch at Tonkichi - Tonkatsu

I realised that I have not update the blog for a long time.Today I am back!

Last Friday, I went with boss to Tonkichi for a lunch. The signature dish is the deep fried pork cutlet. That's what Tonkatsu means.

I just ordered the signature dish.



Well well, the pork cutlet was good. The serving includes rice, miso soup, 4 pieces of Tonkatsu and cabbage. The pork cutlet is crispy and gender inside. Nothing I want to complain, it is just good.

Sushi Tei at City Square Mall

I went to City Square during one of the weekend when they had some promotion. The mall is at Serangoon area near Mustafa. A brand new mall with residence behind it.


The is a city garden in front of the mall. The garden is quite a disappointment, without vibrant colour flowers and plants.

Many shops have promotion in conjunction with the mall opening. Sushi Tei was offering 20% discount on final bill, quite a good offer. That's the primary reason for me to walk in.

After going through the menu, I decided on this plate of sushi, which was half boiled. Something special to try.



Aburi Norikura (half broiled sushi assortment) - tuna belly, yellow tail, salmon belly, swordfish, raw shrimp, squid.

The taste was rather disappointing. Item like tuna belly, yellow tail come with fat. Once you boil it, the taste has been transformed to cooked taste. It lost the freshness taste, which comes with the raw meat. I think I will never try half cooked sushi again.

HTC Legend review

After playing with the new handset for more than a week, I will write a short review on it now.

7 home screen
There are 7 home screen available for you to put widget, program, shortcut and folder on it. Widget is like a small program run directly on the screen which you can have your information shown at one glance. You can arrange the screen with widget or program that you use most often, so it cut down the navigation time. So far, the transition from 1 screen to another is very smooth. It shows no sign of lagging. The AMOLED screen is bright, have nice contrast.

HTC widget
HTC has designed customised widget like Friend Stream which allows you to have all friend's update centralised in one place. I find it of little use, since at one time you can only see three update. However, there are useful one like Weather, Sync All and Calendar.

Usability and Speed
I find the phone quite usable, with the necessary programs supporting the task that you want to do. The contact is auto synced with Google contact, so you always have a backup. You can link your friend's contact with facebook profile, so it auto pull the facebook detail and merge with it. You can write down the to-do in calendar, set reminder for it, all synchronised back to your Google web account. The messaging function is a bit slow to open.

The on screen keyboard, although looks narrow, is a good one. You don't have to worry about pressing the wrong key, the auto correct will work wonder to give you the word you want to use. Majority of the time, the operating system is stable and menu item is fast and responsive. I only encountered auto reboot once.

Unlock the phone
After time out period, the screen will switch off to save the energy. The next time you wish to see your screen, you have to press the power button on top and then slide to unlock the phone. Pressing of the top power button just to see the display is an annoying feature. Unlike iPhone where you can press the home button, the Legend power button is on top, which can only be press by index finger.

Application
It all started with iPhone. Android also has android marketplace for you to download new application to extend the phone functionality. The built in youtube app and facebook app allow you to access the website inside the application.

Internet
The internet browsing experience is not so ideal. Primarily because it is on a smaller screen. It has multi touch that allow you to zoom in the webpage easily. However, the multi touch function on browser is not the same as iPhone. After you release your finger from the zooming, the webpage will shift position from where you thought it will be. After a while, I realised this is due to the text reflow function. You can call it a feature where it try to re-arrange the text so that it appear within the viewing screen.

Camera
The 5 mega pixel camera takes good picture in day light. I don't have high hope on the phone camera, it is after all a phone. The quality cannot compare to Sony Ericsson.

Battery
If you are opting for a smart phone, battery is a big concern. With the big screen and web surfing/downloading activities, the battery run out fast. You need to charge it daily, if using the web during day time.

Conclusion
In my view, if you don't want an iPhone, HTC is a good choice. They have put in more touch into android to make it a more polished mobile OS to use. Forget about those touch screen phone from other manufacturer which run on their own OS. The rule of thumb, if you find either of the following thing happen when you try out the phone, don't buy it.
i) the phone lag or slow
ii) it missed your touch

HTC Legend from Starhub

After watching from sideline for so many months, I finally decided to buy HTC Legend as my next phone.

If you want something iphone but not iphone, I think this is the next best option. It allows you to go online, run application, all multimedia stuff etc.

Let me play with it for few more days, before I put up my own review.

MRT circle line might not cut down travel time

This morning I went to try out the new circle line. I was trying to see whether it help to cut down travel time from east to north. The route chosen was from Bedok to Yishun.

You can take train to Paya Lebar, transfer to circle line, alight at Bishan, subsequently transfer to North South line. The result is not surprising. After taken into account of walking and waiting time during two transfer, it doesn't really cut down the time.

If you take East West line and change at City Hall interchange, the time required would be
Train - 16min
Waiting - 5min
Train - 28min
= 49min

If you take the circle line,
Train - 6min
Walking & waiting - 8min
Train - 13min
Walking & waiting - 8min
Train - 12min
= 47min


You can only save 2min of time

Motorola Milestone hands on at Starhub shop

Motorola Milestone was released over the weekend exclusively with Starhub. Being an android supporter, I am curious about the phone, it is the best seller in US. I went to Starhub shop at lunch time to try it out. They have a demo set which you can play with.

First impression of the device, it feels good on hand. The phone does not feel heavy or thick on hand. It features a slider keyboard with a slim form factor. It is just slightly thicker than iphone which you probably won't notice. The hardware keyboard is good to press and nice for sending email or sms.

The screen is 3.7 inch, big and clear. Though, it is not AMOLED. The slider keyboard is without spring, you need to push it all the way up. The four button at the bottom of screen are touch based.

The phone is running on android 2.1 where you get live wallpaper and five home screen. I used the phone for a while, tried out the main functions like sms, camera, music player and web browser.

The user interface is standard android home screen, five of them, where you can move around with swipe of finger. The screen feel jerky at time. Either it didn't register the touch or it is slow to respond. The touch is not too bad, but not as good as iphone. Milestone is not alone, Nexus One has the same problem also. Sometime it just lag a bit or didn't register your touch.

Having the hardware keyboard really make the sms experience great. It doesn't take much time to sms your friend. The web browser is doing ok by displaying the web page properly. It does lag a bit at time. The multi touch is working fine with the web browser. When you open the Google Map, mutil touch works also.

The music player is the standard android player. But i have no music file to try out. It has a 5 mega pixel camera, the image quality feels average. The good thing is there is a dedicated camera button. Not able to try out the email function, as it needs you to setup the Google account.

Starhub is selling it at $198 with the lowest voice+data plan. It is definitely good value for money.

HTC Legend coming to Singapore in April

HTC has just issued a statement that the HTC Legend would be coming in early April. This is the news release.

That means it is just another three weeks more. You will be able to buy the phone from your telco. The phone has gathered praises after being announced in the MWC. I would like to see it in real life.

Convert video for Sony walkman

My Sony walkman only has resolution 320x240. In order for it to play the video you want, you need to convert it to the appropriate format.

I am using Format Factory which is free. The interface is simple and the steps are straightforward.

1. Click on All to Mobile Device
2. Choose MP4 320x240 AVC on the left pane
3. Click on Ok button
4. Click the Add File button to choose file for conversion
5. Click on Ok button
6. Finally, click the Start and wait

Thunder tea rice at Suntec City 客家擂茶

I heard of Lei Cha (擂茶) for quite a long time, but never try it before. One night after the seminar at Suntec City, I went to Food Republic to look for things to eat. Since it was quite late, I guess I better eat something healthier. Lei Cha seems to fit the purpose.


Thunder rice mixed with different ingredients and brown rice. The ingredients are a bit salty, not as healthy as initially thought.


Tea is a mixature of green tea and other leaves.

Overall, it tastes good.

Jack Neo affair with model

The hottest story in Singapore over the weekend was Jack Neo affair with the model Wendy Chong.

There isn't much online coverage of the whole incident online. It could be SPH wanted everybody to buy more evening newspaper. However, internet doesn't define the country boundary clearly. You can find more details in Malaysia newspaper.

梁智强漏夜搬家　住酒店避风头


This gives a pretty good idea of the related news.

星光虎年特备节目 - 康禎庭 听见有人叫你宝贝

虽然新年已经过了，我还没有看星光的虎年特备节目。今天恰好就来看一下。其中给我印象深刻的是康禎庭，星光4的参赛者。星光4我是从头到尾都没看过，所以没听过她的声音。

唱的太好了，很好的声音

Ah Yat Tian Xia - Abalone for the mass

Sometime ago, I went to Ah Yat Tian Xia at Orchard Central with friends. It was a week day night, the business was not good. Mostly could be due to lack of crowd in Orchard Central. Many have saw the advertisement of Ah Yat Tian Xia for selling abalone dish to the mass.

It is true, the price is some what affordable and taste not bad. However, if you are expecting for superior taste, you might be disappointed.



Abalone baked rice which I ordered. The abalone is big, consider the price you pay for it. Standard abalone taste. The sauce is nice, but the rice was a bit hard. Especially at the edge, could be due to overcooked.


My friend ordered the mixed pot. As you can see, all the "ho liao" are inside. Looks nice.

What is the secret to low price of the abalone(although they are small)? They are getting the supply from Oceanus farm in China. Since abalone needs multiple year of effort to grow up to big size. Therefore, you have what you pay for.

Black Canyon Coffee at Jusco Tebrau City

My friend drove and we ended up at Jusco Tebrau City for a few hours. This shop is special - Black Canyon Coffee. Coffee chain come from Thailand. They also have branches in Singapore.

I am curious to try. The drink I ordered is Caffe Latte. The coffee taste alright only. However, the special thing about this is the biscuit and tea. Yes, it is tea. For you to clear your throat after drinking the latte. The biscuit is special also.


Caffe Latte. I am not sure where they source their coffee. I suspect the caffeine is very strong until I cannot get into sleep at night!

Imperial Treasure Nan Bei - Roast Pork Rice

I was at Tampines 1 around lunch time. Imperial Treasury Nan Bei restaurant was having take away set at 5.80 for roast pork rice, char siew rice etc. The price is double of roasted stall but consider cheap for restaurant.

The rice come with rice, roast pork, cooked vegetable and sauce.


Roast pork with perfect balance of fat and lean meat.

The rice was nothing special, but the roast pork is really heavenly. It is crispy with perfect balance of fat and lean meat. It is so tender and favourful. I will think it is money well spent. The yellow sauce is another surprise - wasabi sauce. It complement the meat well. I will come back for more.

Pu Tien Lor Mee

In one of the colleague farewell lunch, we went to Pu Tien at Tampines Mall. One of the signature dish is the Lor Mee. The waitress are generally polite and service was ok. The order process was speedy and after a while my Lor Mee is here.


Pu Tien Lor Mee is not your usual Hokkien style lor mee which in black soya sauce.

The soup is clear base and the hand made noodle is cooked together with some seafood. Really can't recall what's inside the big bowl already. It taste really good. I guess that's the sweetness of the seafood which make it so tasty. A big bowl at $6 only, what else can you ask for?

Wendy's Singapore at Lau Pa Sat

One of the hottest topic in town is Wendy's Singapore, American fast food chain return to Singapore, operated by Kopitiam group.

It was featured in the newspaper, stating the lunch queue was so long, people have to wait till 20min. My colleagues and I decided to check it out. We went in evening to avoid the crowd. However, it turn out, we waited even longer time. It was 30min and the queue hardly move in the process. There are only two counters and the speed is slow. I still cannot figure out why fastfood is slow. Perhaps it can be called slow food.

Ok, back to the burger and food quality. There are few choices - beef burger, chicken and fish. I choose the set number 1 - quarter pound burger. If you use the Kopitiam card, you can get 5% discount, but make sure you top up the card before going.


Wendy's burger choices - 1/4, 1/2 and 3/4 pound



The meat party is square, yes square, kind of interesting. The flavour and quality is there. The bun is one of the nice one, among fastfood chain in Singapore. There are more vegetables in the burger too. Overall, the burger is good.



The fries is too dry as you can see. I give it a big cross.

Firefox 3.5 vs Chrome 3 javascript performance

I am a firefox user since version 1 to current version 3.5. Beside this, I also installed the Google Chrome browser for testing.

Recently I noticed the Chrome 3 I have, when using the Google Reader is faster than the Firefox 3.5. Yes, I can see it with my eyes. When you press some keys, the page move faster, the loading seems faster. This also backed by the performance testing result on the net.

Google Chrome still the faster javascript render engine on the market. Therefore, if you are using the Google reader or some javascript heavy website, it is actually faster and of course better.

Google unveil Nexus One, but Google is not Apple

Google has finally unveil the Nexus One android phone which it design together with HTC. The phone would carry the Google brand and also HTC brand. Google would sell the phone online and it is possible to ship to Singapore! for a cost of USD529.

Would you be tempted to buy? The phone offer some interesting feature such as live wallpaper, but there is nothing significantly different than those available on the market. The lack of new features and multi touch make engadget calls it unexciting. Read the review at engadget site.

Google participated in the design of total experience of the phone, hoping to improve the user experience. The hardware was managed by HTC. Despite of that, there is no distinctive cutting edge feature that would wow the crowd. Compare to Apple who manage the total experience in every single detail, Apple would continue to have consumer mind share.

Eat vegetables to save the earth

In the past Copenhagen climate change conference, all the leaders gathered to discuss way to reduce carbon emission. But the meeting yield no tangible result. Believe it not, saving the earth can start from you. Beside the 3R - reduce, reuse and recycle. There is another way to save the earth, by eating vegetables only.

When I was back home, Sinchew Daily run a special to promote eating vege to save the earth. The key reasons are

1) Animal farming consumes crop that could feed more people
2) Crop which used to feed animal yields less food for people
3) Cow dung release methane which cause more green house effect than carbon dioxide

Well, I think I would try to eat less meat and be more vegetarian.

Sugar and coffee price relationship

The sugar price in Malaysia is set to be increased after government annouced the reduced amount of subsidy. The international price of sugar has increased a lot, but not in malaysia, due to the subsidy.
Another reason cited was to discourage excessive sugar consumption which contribute to illnesses.

In my view, the reduce or even abolishment of sugar subsidy is good for the long run. Although subsidy keep the price low, it distort the supply and demand. This in term, create other problems. Malaysian consume so much sugar, I think one of the reason simply is cheap. You look at the teh tarik, how sweet it is, you would know. For the man on street, this is of course not a good news. Who would like the price hike?

The worst part is this news served as trigger point of coffee price increase. Why a small amount of increment would make coffee more expensive by 10 cents? This is not a common sense. However, the coffee shop owner would tell you beside sugar, this and that have increased, therefore they need to hike the price. What can the poor consumer do?