Razer Spectre Starcraft 2 Gaming Mouse

Unlike my cousin brother, Eugene, I'm not really a fan of computer gadgets. As long as the gadgets are working fine with me, I won't be bothered to change them. However, I must admit that I was a little tempted by the Razer computer accessories.

Being a Starcraft 2 player myself, I was initially considering to get the Razer Spectre mouse. The urge of getting it were pretty strong but the thought of spending RM 250 for a mouse sets me back. Not until when Eugene agreed to release his Razer Spectre after a month of use at RM 200, I agreed to break my personal record of spending hundreds on a mouse.

Razer Spectre Mouse

Razer Spectre is the official licensed mouse of Starcraft 2 of Blizzard under the Razer Starcraft 2 Gaming Series. The name Spectre is derived from the name of a special tactical unit in the Starcraft 2 Wings of Liberty campaign which has the ability to snipe, cloak and call down nukes. Thus, it is no surprise to name this mouse as Spectre, because the mouse is the core accessory in executing the strategic movement of Starcraft 2 game play.

Look sexy even before the feature kicks in

Gold-plated USB connector

In truth, I really do not know what are the difference between a gold-plated and a typical USB connector.

Button force adjustment

Allow the adjustment of the force needed to click, with high being the higher force needed to perform a click.

Lighting Feature
The lighting area can each be customized differently using the Razer Starcraft 2 series software which offers more than 50 choice of colours.

The lighting feature does not meant to serve as a decorative purpose only. During the Starcraft 2 gameplay, the lights will change according to your Actions-Per-Minute(APM) in the game. APM is the measurement of actions (training, building, moving units) completed within a minute in the real time strategy game. Obviously, the higher the APM goes, the better it gets because it means you are more involved in the game.

Actions-Per-Minute (APM) Lighting System
The lights will change to white when you hit a 250 APM and above in Starcraft 2 gameplay.

Other notable key features include:
*Lightweight, Fingertip-Grip 5 Button Mouse
*5600 DPI 3.5G Laser Sensor
*Ultrapolling (1000Hz Polling/1ms Response)
*200 inches per second and 50g acceleration
*Braided 7-Foot Usb Cable

Without doubt, it is my most expensive mouse owned to date. I definitely felt the difference especially during the game play in Starcraft 2. This Razer Spectre mouse offers me a smoother scrolling experience and a better sensitivity in executing my actions. So as the saying goes, you get better things when you spend more, is very true indeed.

My favourite feature of Razer Spectre

Finally, I understands why Eugene are willing to spend a lot in computer accessories. As for now, I'm contented with my computer accesories especially with this addition of Razer Spectre mouse. Next target? A mechanical keyboard maybe.

Thank you Eugene for selling me this piece of sexy mouse at a very reasonable price!

Mum & Dad 30th Anniversary, Buffet Dinner @ Holiday Villa Hotel & Suites Subang, Subang Jaya

Everyday is special on it's own but today is especially special as my parents celebrate their 30th pearl anniversary. Congratulations to both you Dad and Mum and may the happiness last for as long as it can!

Initially, we wanted to go for a family trip but with most placed packed due to the long Hari Raya break, we decided to postpone the trip. We ended up having buffet dinner at the cozy 5 star hotel Holiday Villa Subang.

Holiday Villa Subang

Palm Terrace Coffee House is the cafe that serves buffet in Holiday Villa Subang. As the Ramadhan month has passed, the buffet themed is quickly switched back to international buffet. Priced at RM 69++ per pax, it has 100 over variety of food and desserts to offer.

Palm Terrace Coffee House, Holiday Villa Subang

With the wide array of food, you got to be a little picky on your food selection to fit your limited tummy space.

The Malay delicacy corner

Lamb Kebab with Leak and Cous-cats
A very meaty kebab but let down by it's lacking in flavour.

Lemang and Ketupat
A Malay delicacy that is well savoured during Hari Raya festival. One of my favourite Malay delicacy as well!

Curry Prawn

Fresh oysters
Left untouched as fresh oysters is not my cup of tea.

A big chunk of salmon meat
Please help yourself to slice as much of salmon as you want.

My Japanese savoury
The smoked salmon were pretty fresh and tasted a little like bacon. I would have prefer fresh salmon though.

Roasted Whole Chicken
A very ordinary roasted chicken.

Next, there was a little Italian stall that serves fresh from the pan pasta. Just pick your ingredients and the chef on duty will do the rest.

White Sauce Spaghetti

Both the pasta tasted really awesome thanks to the generous servings of the flavourful sauce. Not only that, I enjoyed the springy texture of the spaghetti as well.

Spaghetti in Tomato Sauce

My food selection from Malay Corner

Tom Yam Soup
It was bursting with flavour. My personal best experience of a Tom Yam soup.

Curry Laksa
Pretty decent one but could have been better with a saltier soup.

The desserts bar

Chocolate Cake
Wanted to have some of it but too bad as my tummy has no space left.

Fruit Punch

Fruits corner
Local fruits such as star fruits, watermelon, papaya and honey dew were served.

A little bit of this and that

My lovey dovey parents

30 years and counting

Happy 30th Anniversary to my parents

With my lovely Mum

Congratulations Dad and Mum for achieving such a milestone!

The food did lived up to my expectation from a 5 star rating hotel. However, the highlight of the night was the celebration of my parents 30th Anniversary. Love both of you, Dad and Mum!

Atmosphere: 8/10
Food: 6.5/10
Price: 5/10
Verdict: Pretty good food from a 5 star rated hotel with an excellent hostess service.

Palm Terrace Coffee House
Holiday Villa Hotel & Suites Subang
9, Jalan SS 12/1
47500, Subang Jaya
Selangor
Malaysia
Tel: 603 - 5633 8788
Fax: 603 - 5633 7449

Welcoming iPhone 3G S and Digi, Farewell to Nokia 5800 and Maxis!

With iPhone 4 expected to be reaching Malaysia sooner than later, telecommunications company have been slashing their iphone 3gs package price making it very affordable for people to have one.I'm still very comfortable with my Nokia 5800 Express Music handset. However, with my Maxis bills ballooning due to my heavy usage, I was considering to change my service provider to Digi because Digi offered me more discounts on my heavy usage.

After looking out at the available plans, I signed up the iPhone plan i138 which gives me a free 3gb bandwidth, 450 minutes of talk time and 400 sms. I am being locked in for 24 months with a monthly commitment of RM 179.58 that includes the price of the iPhone, but the amount is still way below the average phone bill of RM 250 that I forked out on Maxis each month.

Digi Specialized Store

With Mobile Number Portability (MNP), it reduces the hassle of changing telecommunications provider. We still can keep our existing number with the new service provider provided the previous service provider give it all clear.

Farewell Maxis and Hello Digi!

When the switch is successful, you should return to the same Digi specialized centre to get your iPhone and plan activated.

My Digi privilege card

Here it is, the box of iphone 3g S. I watched it as the sales assistant unwrapped it and helping me to setup and register it to the system. All in, it took me a whopping 1 hour of wait.

A new box containing the new iPhone 3Gs

Guess the colour of my iPhone 3G s?

You should always check the content inside the box. It is true that Apple is a reputable company but humans are still prone to error. So a box of iPhone would contain such kit:

1 iPhone 3Gs handset

1 3-pin plug, 1 usb-phone connector and 1 earphone cum hands free kit

Attach the usb-phone connector to the 3-pin plug and you will be able to charge your iPhone. Just like iPod, iPhone will be charged automatically when you connect it to your Mac or PC.

Plug that now work as iPhone battery charger

Sharp Pin
This stainless steel pin serve as a tool to push the hidden button that will eject the sim card compartment.

Black is my colour, iPhone 3G s Black

Silent and Volume button

It's time for me to move to Digi and get the iPhone working. Just use the pin to eject out the sim compartment and insert your new Digi sim card.

Moving on to Digi

Next, switch on your iPhone 3G s and you should the home screen. Slide to unlock and your iPhone is ready to be used. For the new iPhone 3Gs, I was advised to charge the battery for 6-8 hours to prolong the battery life. I was warned not to over charge the battery for more than 8 hours!

Slide to unlock

Upon unlocking, your virgin iPhone 3G s home screen should look like this with the some basic default application installed such as Compass, You Tube and iTunes.

Basic applications installed

Next you should have iTunes installed to your Mac or PC. Upon finished installing, connect your iPhone 3G s to the PC or Mac via the usb connector. Here you can import or sync your iPhone with contacts, songs or even videos from your PC or Mac. Having done that, next you can access to iTunes store to acquire some applications for your iPhone. However, you will need to setup an iTunes account first with an attached credit card information before you can start downloading any applications from the iTunes store, even for free application!

Some of the initial free application that I downloaded

iPhone applications are really wonderful and some application work even better than my PC. For example, I find my iPhone Twitter application is so much better than my browsed thru Twitter on my PC.

I called it a genius phone!

Remember to get your screen laminated with anti-glare protector and another cover for your new iPhone 3G s. After all, this genius phone should last you a few good year.

My cover for my iPhone 3G s

I'm not a fan of carrying two phone at one go. I find it a little bit troublesome and my pockets is just not enough to fit in 2 phone at the same time. As such, it is time to bid farewell to my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

My Nokia XpressMusic home screen

Thank you for serving me 17 months!

Some little comparison between iPhone 3G s and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

iPhone 3G S vs Nokia 5800

Nokia 5800 does look smaller but it is bulkier than iPhone 3G s. iPhone 3G s meanwhile has a bigger dimension especially on the screen making it more enjoyable when watching a video.

The bulkier Nokia 5800 and slimmer iPhone 3G s

In term of operating system, Nokia is running on Symbian OS 50.0.005 while iPhone 3G s is running on the just updated IOS 4. iPhone 3G s clearly have the edge by offering a very smooth screen animation changes and lag free! As for Nokia Symbian, it hang way too often even by accessing some mini application. So far my iPhone 3Gs has never lagged, what's more about hang? In term of application, needless to stay iTune Store clearly have the upper hand by offering 100k+ application compared to Nokia Ovi Store.

IOS 4 is so much better than Symbian 50.0.005 OS
It is as good as comparing Intel i7 and Pentium 3 processor.

Next comes another equally important element, the battery life of a fully charged battery. A fully charged Nokia 5800 XpressMusic lasts way longer than a fully charged iPhone 3Gs. Charging the iPhone is one of my daily routine and if you play with it more, prepared to charge it more often. Just make sure your battery bar of iPhone is above 90% before you head out home. Do bring the connector or purchase some car charger to get your iPhone 3G s charged whenever you need. After all, how genius a phone is will be dumb without sufficient power.

Only weakness of iPhone 3G s, the battery life of a fully charged battery!
Tips to have the battery lasted longer will be to reduce the brightness of the screen, turn off the 3G and Wi-Fi connection when not in use.

Thank you Maxis for serving me excellently for 6 years!

And as for now, I'm a iPhone 3G S user with i138 plan from Digi! I supposed it's a smarter choice and with my genius phone running on a smarter plan, I get to exploit more. With Digi and iPhone 3G s, I'm always connected whenever and wherever! =)

Like a mini Mac on my hand

Obviously I have friends which owned the iPhone 3G S way before me. Namely Phui Shan, Pei Shan, Chee, Guek Theeng, Mei Kheng, Isky and my Becky sis. Now will you guys welcome me to gang of iPhone 3G S? Till we cross path again for iPhone 4 or perhaps Android phone, lets enjoy the iPhone 3G S=)