Gears Of War - Third Shooter Game

Having had my adrenaline dose of Crysis, I was edging for more games... Sadly, nothing with the same exhilaration effect of Crysis is available. Maybe Call Of Duty 4, but I took up the second highly rated game on the web, Gears Of War(GOW).

The game was initially launch for XBOX, but they made it available for PC in early November. Some friends of mine mentioned that there were a lot of improvement in the game for the PC version and made the XBOX edition a more inferior product.

Personally, I did not like the game that much. It is a third-shooter PC game launched by Microsoft. In comparison to Crysis....GOW is a snail paced game.

I finished the game in less than two weeks.... and am itching now for something new.

Here is the footage of game GOW :

Crysis - the best first shooter PC Game so far

I was looking for a new thrill to occupy my time, I hardly go out these days with the price of things going up and the hectic traffic jams everywhere in town.

What's best done at home? first it was movies... then it got tiring, so I turned to PC Games. I turned to Google for the best rated PC games to date, and there it was... Crysis... the most intense, intelligent, realistic and fully functional virtual world.

Crysis is a first shooter game that was launched in November 2007. I got a copy of it just 3 days after the launch. Details of the game is available on wikipedia, here.

I have not been entertained much since my experience with the famous Final Fantasy Series (I managed to play FF VII, FF VIII and FF IX), but Crysis... it changed my gaming experience totally.

Will not be going into detailed account of the game, Wiki is there and Google can assist you further... I am just posting this to share a REALLY worthwhile game to invest your time in... you will not be dissappointed.

The game requires some high end setting for your PC, please do read the back of the box (unless you are getting it from a Low Yat equivalent source which never spell the requirements correctly :-P).

I completed the game in less than two weeks with hard devotion and disciplne.... hope you'll enjoy it as much as I do.

Suit up your nano suit... the aliens are here...

Here's a view of the game :

Digital Video Broadcast over Handheld (DVB-H) anyone?

There is a new provider in town, its called U Mobile. The company is licensed for 3G services and will be offering services with the 018 prefix "very soon" but unconfirmed at this date.

U Mobile will be offering a new mobile service to the market, its the digital TV broadcast that is accessible via your mobile. Globally, there are only a few operators that had started this service offering and Europe is doing some trials to finalize the vendor for their service roll-out.

I had the opportunity to take DVB-H for a test drive. First and foremost, to have this service, you need devices that are DVB-H compatible... its a hardware requirement, not software driven. For the test, I have been given a Nokia device, the N77. I will take some session out to do some write up on the device later, but for now,... lets focus on the service.

U Mobile has an approximate 6 channels on trial at the moment. It offers the free-to-air television channels available at the moment like TV3, 8TV and NTV7. In addition, it has two own channels, Channel News Asia and a MTV like channel, Trace.

The service is easy to set up, just plug in the SIM card into the phone and hit the dedicated button on the phone for your DVB-H to load the channels and choose your viewing. The video image is sharp and with very good resolution.

With the phone with me, I mounted a phone holder and drove around enjoying the news feed as well as the music channel while being stuck in the daily traffic congestion. Surprisingly, the coverage within town area is rather extensive. I have driven from town center, all the way to Gombak without any service interruption.. impressive.

Here is a snapshot of my phone set-up.



And an added note... the service is not affected by rain.

I have also noticed that there are some threads in popular forums such as lowyat.net that discusses this topic at length. I am so looking forward to see the development on this.

Huawei's HSDPA USB Modem E220

There has been a lot of buzz on the new sleek looking oval shaped USB modem promoted by Celcom and Maxis. Both had the modem re-branded according to the operator. The modem is actually by Huawei, China based telecommunication vendor.

I managed to get a sampler from Huawei to test over the weekends.

The packaging is as shown below :



The package includes :

a) the modem
b) USB cable
c) a quick guide



Starting off, I added the SIM card and connected the USB to my notebook USB port. The device was easily detected and in addition to the modem, it also has an in-built memory on device that houses the software and necessary drivers. Installation was swift and without any issues.

For the re-branded version, the device is preconfigured for the needed access point and other details, as this is off the shelf... it took me less than three minutes to have it configured.. breezy...

Once connected, the modem will glow in different colors according to the connection type. I got green for HSDPA.



After about 20 minutes of usage, the modem tend to get hot. And at about 45 mins (along with some heavy internet usage), the device got cut-off and I have to re-connect to the service.

This is the snapshot of the User Interface Application for the modem :



To conclude;

Pros :

a) very easy to install and use. The software and drivers are in the device itself, so no tendency of losing the installation disc that is so commonly occuring to the myriad of devices one would have
b) Its compatible to EDGE, 3G, HSDPA
c) convenient to carry around

Cons :

a) Price
b) it heats up
c) Regardless of what capacity of bandwith it is capable of, the limitation is the USB capability. Version 1.1 will limit it to just 2 Mbps. Its not like an LAN cable or RJ-45

I may consider purchase of this, but not my prime choice. It does look good aesthetically, but functionally... there are some drawbacks.

Resident Evil 4 - The RPG Game

I have heard of a major improvement in the release of the new RPG game, Resident Evil 4 (RE4). To be honest, I was rather skeptical of the game title since I last experienced Resident evil 1 & 2 (never did finished those slow paced and boring games).

However, RE4 proved its worth and there really were some serious improvements in the game development. This RPG game combines the interesting blend of thriller, horror, mazes and puzzles... with a lot of zombie shooting tasks. Apart from the serious game-plot, there are entertaining bits such as zombie shooting contest, jet ski maneuvering and three additional games once you are done with the main quest.

I really enjoyed it.

Strongly recommending this game. It comes third after Final Fantasy.

Here is a preview of the game for PS2 :

TV on your mobile... its available in Malaysia now

As the market waits for mobile TV services through DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast over Handheld), the availability of it seems still far away.

Maxis had announced its trial for the service bit it would take some time before its widely available with a further question on how much it will cost us consumers. Apart from when and how much.. comes the question of devices that are readily available to support it. The whole equation of total cost of ownership to get that service gives headaches to many people and it will also delays the mass adoption of the services that will warrant favorable package pricing from the operator... its like 3G woes all over again...and yet the issue has not yet been resolved.

However, there is a solution to that... check out this service by Rok-tv, its a java-based application that is compliant to most mobile telephones in the market currently. And it can be accessed through GPRS and 3G... just make sure that you have a good unlimited data plan in place.

Goodbye good friend... torrentspy

Two days ago, I visited a site that had been a dear friend to me over the past years. To my surprise, the announcement of its closure is posted on the landing page and it no longer serves as a resource site for quality torrents on the web.

Torrentspy.... You will be missed.

Wimax Winners Announced

After all the delay and postponements, the results are out.

The winners are :



With these licenses awarded, lets hope that more new, affordable and innovative services are made available to Malaysian public.

Mobility Carnival 2007 - DiGi

Low Yat Plaza, the tech hub of Klang Valley, as some would say... will be the host of the next DiGi powered event, the Mobility Carnival 2007.

The event will be held from 5th to 11th March and it will be targetting PDA enthusiasts with a week long of tech forums on mobile computing on new devices, mobile operating systems and PDA related topics.

This event is organized by the pdacrafters.com and the DiGi's specialized store, The Gadgets Shop.

Lined up sessions for the seven days are as follow :



Other companies participating in this event are Stellarnet, Tengo, Mobile World, MobileNews, I-Symbian, O2 and Sonyericsson.

There will be some giveaways and special prizes for this 7 day event and it starts from 10 am to 9.30 pm.

Some User Groups are buzzing with postings on this event and it seems that there are encouraging supports from the local PDA users to ensure the success of this event.

I, for one will definitely be there....

Heat from the Regulator for MNP

Over the recent months the telecommunication industry had been hit with a series of push from the government. A case to state is the mobile number portability (MNP), in February (if I am not mistaken), the Minister from the Ministry of Energy, Water and Communications announced that the service for MNP will be ready by June. This announcement was a surprise to all the telcos as they had only kickstarted the discussions on implementing the service.

Many things are uncertain at the moment, even if all the telcos could come up with the processes and implementation for the service, the cake is only half baked. The crucial element to the MNP is an intermediary mechanism called the Clearing House. The clearing house is preferably managed by an independent party to be the central governing entity on the porting of subscribers from one telco to the next. With so many controversies on the appointment of the Clearing House, the announcement of the appointment has not been made to date. While telcos are racing against time to meet the dateline, none of them could predict the set of processes for the inter-facing with this clearing house.

June... merely 4 months away. Could it be sufficient time for the telcos to get the processes drawn up and implemented? This would involve amendments to the network configurations, additional porting systems to be in place and other arrangements to be made.

At times there are concerns over the feasibility and rationality of the timeline announced. Could it be similar to the WiMAX bidding? No one seems to know what is the story on that at the moment.

P2P Torrent on Mobile

New services had sprung out from the high speed internet bandwidth services... allowing people to do more things and share bigger files over the web. Previously high speed bandwidth had been limited to just the fixed PC environment, but as the wireless mobile technologies are now high speed capable, its only natural to have the services to spill-over or migrating to the mobile devices.

Two new applications I have discovered recently and would like to share with all.

a) SymTorrent - the symbian based Torrent application



The application can be downloaded here.

It is a freeware that allows users to download files and documents from the Peer-to-Peer network using your mobile.

Here are some images that I captured from my usage :






I have managed to download 2 albums with this application so far using my 3G access. The download bandwidth went up as much as 14 Kbps while I was using it.

b) Symella - a symbian based application that access to the Gnutella file sharing networks. It allows for the multi-threaded download of files that are hosted by peers within the P2P network.

This application can be downloaded from this link.



Prior to using any of these applications, please be advised that it could be costly if you are not on the proper data package from your mobile operator.

These applications are power hungry, it consumes the battery life REALLY, REALLY fast as the processors are running at all time to download the data and search for the peers within the network.

My biggest concern now, will Mobile Operators be forced to go down the path undertaken by Internet Access Providers in shaping the bandwidth to ensure that the network capacity is not over-utilized? Will the network be congested by the usage of P2P clients?

Well, we shall soon see.

In the meantime, have fun downloading.... :-D

Guarding your Mobile - Symbian Toy Guardian

There has been a great dependence that we have nurtured towards our telecommunication devices that has made mobile phones, pager, computers and home telephony into vital elements of our daily lives. A research was done and the findings highlighted that many of us have developed the fear of losing these devices - especially our mobile phones. In fact, many do not fear losing the devices but its the information contained within the devices that we fear to loose such as our contact book and e-mail addresses.

There are many solution to safeguarding these information. Telecommunication operators like Maxis has provided services like Phone book backup and messages back up to provide the ease of mind against the fear of loss. Apart from the operator services, synchronization softwares and applications are available to sync the contents of the phone with the Personal Computer to enable a symmetric image of your device into another repository. Web services such as Plaxo provides the similar function as well, with the added feature of periodic update with all your contact list.

A free option for Symbian phones (mainly the Nokias) can be obtained from Symbian Toys with its third party application called the Guardian.



This application provides the service of authenticating the SIM card placed within a particular mobile phone. When a phone is lost or stolen, it can be traced to the next user who removes the SIM card from the phone and replaces it with his or her own. Once the authentication of the SIM fails, it will push an SMS out to your configured mobile number to alert you of the person's mobile number and which mobile cell area the phone is activated. With these details, you will be able to contact the person or lodge a report to recover your mobile phone.

The interesting thing about this application is that, it has further plugins above the basic function. This plugins can be obtained through a donation for the development of this application. The plugins will extend the basic function of the application such as deleting all information from the mobile phone through a set sms command to the phone.

Now, we can have more security and comfort with our mobile devices - if its lost, we will know to whom it goes to and if we cannot do anything on retrieving the mobile phone, we can wipe the data clean remotely.

This is definitely a worthy application to be tried out. And to those who have additional money, please direct your contribution to support further development of this application.

The limited unlimited Maxis broadband access service

We have cried foul over the poor quality of service by our operators and still, we have no positive effect. Its just like crying foul over the toll rate increase, no one listens and people involve do not care because at the end of the day, their bank balance will increase... so what's the harm of playing "deaf", "dumb" and "stupid"?

I have earlier blogged about the HSPDA service by Maxis, I have had the perception that finally a service operator is here to challenge the pride and insolence of Telekom Malaysia, but... it seems that my perception is to be corrected.

The "unlimited" package offered on the website is not as it claims to be, Jeff Ooi was alerted by a fellow blogger on some interesting items stipulated in the terms and condition of the service subscription. Details can be read here.

To summarize the salient points :

a) The unlimited package is only limited to 3GB (upload and download) per month
b) Connection to the internet will be automatically disconnected following and idle time of 20 to 30 minutes
c) If more data transfers needed beyond the 3GB limit, a subscriber can write in to request for it
d) Maxis have the right to reject (c)
e) The justification of the limited unlimited package is available under the Fair Usage Policy (Yes, I am aware that there are repeated juxtapositions in this sentence... its designed by Maxis - its just like saying " I am a skinny fat person that eats non-stop very little at every hour - get it? - I think Maxis should also consider expanding their writing skills and publish them on a monthly basis... or maybe get into the insurance business)

In Redesign Malaysia, when someone complaint about the service quality by TM Net... I wrote in a feedback that is also applicable to this particular blog thread.

An excerpt from my response :

"In the Spirit of “Malaysia boleh!”, I believe that the tribunals, consumer forums, consumer protection and consumer rights are available for the false sentiment of comfort but not bearing any functional purpose… I believe all Malaysians have had that experience with “rights” in this country.

I am not sure if its the legal foundation or just pure ignorance by us consumers to battle for our statutory rights.

Anyhow, we can shout all we want… unless there is a massive termination of broadband subscriptions all across the country, everyone boycotting the internet related services… no operators will do anything to enhance our “experience”… they know that it cannot and will not happen…. I applaud the effort of Redesign Malaysia to do something about it.. but do the operators take notice or tremble with fear? No… they are just laughing.. "

Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2007

Every year tech enthusiasts and vendors would flock to Vegas to witness the annual International Electronics Show or the CES. The CES is reputed as the largest tradeshow in the U.S and its the event that showcases latest digital and electronics innovations that are up-coming for the year. The event kicked-off this year on the 8th of January and will end on the 11th.

CES provides the opportunity for PC vendors, software developers, gadgets and mobile phone manufacturers to showcase their range of products soon to launch or their proto-types. At this event, great minds gather to explore potential ventures and collaborations.

So, what do we have in store for us this year? (well... in the US at least...).

Check these links out.(Here) and (Here)

My personal favourites :

a) WidgetStation

c) Nokia's N800 Tablet PC

d) the new OQO ultra-portable notebook (I really want one of this)

e) Nokia's launch of N93i and N95

f) Slingbox's latest

g) The iPhone. (here) and (here)

Now.. having fantasies of meddling with those above, I need to get back to reality and off to bed...

Alternatives to mobile Instant Messaging (IM)

Following my earlier blog on the IM applications available from mobile, here are two more that I discovered while surfing the web.

I have not gotten the chance to test them out yet but the reviews on the service seems good.

The first is called Nimbuzz and the other is called NootMobile.

For the moment, Nimbuzz is not available for new registrants as they are coming up with a newer application version that integrates Voice function, the release is scheduled on the coming 15th January 2007.

Noot is a webbased service that requires you to visit a link to access your registered services.

Well, have fun....