Category / Mobile Phone
May 2, 2013
And finally it’s here, arguably the most anticipated mobile phone launch of the year – Samsung Galaxy S4 is now officially available in Malaysia at all major telcos. I was there at the launch last Saturday to catch a glimpse of the gadget at Celcom Blue Cube, Sunway Pyramid and the Samsung store at Lowyat Plaza.
great fanfare at Samsung Galaxy S4 launch, Sunway Pyramid
The launch was a huge fanfare, there were clowns, jokers, jesters, people in stilts, drummers, dancers, magicians, singers, and there were balloons, ice creams, music, and everything that you could imagine. I’ve never seen Sunway Pyramid so alive especially at 9:30 in the morning on a Saturday.
There were a huge line of people queuing up to be the first Galaxy S4 customers. Celcom’s plan for the new phone was as low as RM 1,338 and there’s a “Spin the wheel” game to reduce another RM 200 to RM 750. What a deal.
I sneaked into Blue Cube to get my hands on the S4 before everyone else
Having worn a blue shirt and holding a camera has its upsides, we were allowed to get into the shop to play with Galaxy S4 before everyone else has the chance.
At the first impression, I thought the phone was bigger, but holding it up confirmed that while the 5″ Full-HD display is indeed larger, the overall phone dimension remains to be about the same as it’s older sibling, the Samsung Galaxy S3. Pixel density is much higher and I must say that the Super AMOLED display is indeed gorgeous.
color me fancy, multicolor S4 backs? with Lydia, Nana, and Ashley
I expected that with the Exynos 5 Octa (Quad-core 1.6 GHz Cortex-A15 & quad-core 1.2 GHz Cortex-A7), the phone should be very fast, and it certainly did not disappoint on that front. Swipe, pinch, zoom, and operating pretty much any application I tried without any visible lag.
While processing power is great, it also comes with a bigger 2600 mAh battery to keep the juice flowing as well.
the much anticipated Samsung Galaxy S4, now available at major telcos in Malaysia
I hoped to try the S Translator but it was perhaps a bit too noisy at the event, and with the phone yet to set up with 3G etc, so we didn’t get to try that. The Air View/Air Gesture seems to work well, though I should have brought my riding gloves with to fully test its effectiveness.
Redmummy & Moudini the Magician, Nazwan of beautifulnara
One of the fun features that comes with Galaxy S4 is the ability to use both the front and rear cameras at the same time. I thought that’s a gimmick at first, but after testing it I find myself really liking the way it is implemented.
Basically when you take picture of a place/scene, you can simultaneously snap a photo of yourself encased at a corner like a “stamp”. I think it gives the photo a sort of post-card feel and is great for documenting your travel. Less of those awkward “selfies” if you ask me.
Hope to get my hands on the phone for a more extensive review soon. In the mean time, Samsung Galaxy S4 is available now at RM 2,199. Do check out www.samsung.com/my for more.
April 26, 2013
Like many Malaysians, traveling is one of my hobbies. I spent some time in the States, and so far have also traveled to Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore, Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines, Hong Kong, Japan, and Australia.
with Dr. Foo & Dr. Melissa at Manila for Operation Smile
When traveling, I particularly love to explore local foods catered to the locals. This usually means stalls by the side of the road or restaurants that doesn’t have an English language menu.
Thus over the years, I’ve mastered some sort of hand signals that usually involves pointing to some type of ingredients or dishes that other clients are eating, follow by the signaling #1, and then point at myself. While this usually works quite well, I’m unable to customize the dish or ask any further questions, not to mention not knowing how much the meal will cost me.
Enter S Translator that comes with the new Samsung Galaxy S4. The device translates up to 8 languages WITHOUT requiring an internet connection, and it can do it by voice too!
This is like babel fish in your pocket (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy anyone?) and will certainly be the most useful feature ever when I travel. Stuff of science fictions, available now!
April 24, 2013
This is my transportation of choice lately, the Aprilia Shiver 750 middle weight naked bike that I procured not very long ago. I’ve been riding it to work most of the days and even took it up for a trip to Penang for “Cheng Beng”.
Riding certainly carries a higher risk, and thus I make it a point to wear proper protection gears at all time. A mesh jacket with armor proper fitting full-face helmet, riding boots, and of course, a pair of gloves.
And my friend, I can’t tell you how often I wish that my phone’s touch screen can work while I have my gloves on.
Well, the new Samsung Galaxy S4 can, and that brings us to today’s topic – the little things in life that can be solved by the new Galaxy S4.
The Air View and Air Gesture functions will be one that’s very neat! Motioning the device to accept calls while the phone is mounted on my bike’s handle bar (with bluetooth headset) without having to remove my gloves will be a godsend. Hovering over emails to get a preview of the content will be way cool as well.
Watching cooking video while cooking is finally practical with with the Smart Pause feature. How many times do you wish you can pause the video while chopping/stirring at the kitchen without touching the screen? When you look away, the video stops, this is a function I can certainly appreciate.
S Voice Drive is supposed to be a way for you to be able to make calls, find directions and such while driving by interacting with the phone via voice. While this certainly works when you’re driving (and keep both hands on steering wheel), I think motorcyclists can certainly benefits from this especially as a navigation device. Can’t wait to test this out myself.
For the lazy (or the really sleepy), Smart Scroll lets you scroll by just tilting the screen from side to side. This could be a neat little feature that I’ll just have to try to see how useful it is.
S4 is coming soon, I need to get my hands on one and see how well these features work. Can’t wait.
March 10, 2012
Many eons ago, there was this thing called portable cassette player (or walkman), then came CD players that uses AA batteries that might last half a day, after that iPod and various types of MP3 players. Not too long ago, many started to transfer and play songs on their mobile phones.
While technology changes, one thing remains constant – we want our music wherever we go.
Well, with musiCube from Celcom on Android smartphones, things get even better – the looking for and transferring songs from PC to mobile device becomes obsolete – the application will let you download and keep songs straight to the smartphone, from anywhere with the nation’s widest mobile coverage.
Sweet isn’t it? and this is completely legal too.
music cube application from Android market
From now until 24th March 2012, get a 6 month FREE access to musiCube application from the purchase of any Android smartphone from Celcom. All that music you can download, free for 6 months.
The featured models include: HTC Sensation XE, Motorola Razr, Samsung Galaxy Note, Samsung Galaxy SII, and LG Optimus Black.
Once you have the phone, download and activate musiCube application and stand a chance to win Beats Audio headset daily.
These headsets are some of the bests you can get for the mobile phone. Look it up online and you’ll know what the craze is all about with these headphones.
musiCube app is now on my Prada LG phone 
I downloaded the musiCube to give it a try and happy to say that the application works rather well. I now can have the music I want anytime I want just from a few clicks away, what about you?
Check out http://www.celcom.com.my/smartphones/beats.php for more!
March 4, 2012
Yes! I’m now a proud owner of a Prada, or more specifically, the Prada phone by LG 3.0.
In fact, I was told that I’m one of the very first people to have the phone in Malaysia, because I won it during the launch, Yeeaaahhhhhhh!
this silly pose bagged me a Prada LG 3.0 phone
Just last Friday, Celcom and LG threw a media launching event at G Tower for the brand new LG Prada phone, now powered with Android. Since my office is nearby, dropped by after work to join Haze to check out the new device.
While the previous LG Prada phones have always struck me as fashion statements more than sophisticated gadgets, the 3.0, with the complete departure from previous models by adopting Android operating system, does push its capabilities on par with aesthetics.
Prada LG 3.0, powered by Android, I’m using it now!
Here’s the specifications of the Prada LG 3.0
- 1.0 Ghz Dual-Core/Dual Channel Processor
- 1 GB RAM
- 8 GB user memory
- 4.3″ screen with WVGA resolution (800 x 480)
- 8MP rear camera with LED flash
- 1080p Full HD video recording
- 1.3MP secondary video-call camera, HD video
- 21 Mbps HSDPA and 5.76 Mbps HSUPA speed
- Wifi, GPS, MicroUSB, and supports MicroSD card up to 32 GB
the event was rather glamourous, I was under dressed
A rather impressive feature set if you ask me, and it doesn’t end there. The phone is beautifully designed, an all black slade with a leather-like pattern at the back, and that PRADA logo, of course. At only 8.5mm, it is also super slim.
The black and white interface is rather unique in the Android world, and actually could make a bit of a mess once you add in a lot of other applications, but thankfully the most common applications are already included in the phone with the same black & white themed icons. I simply hide the colorful icons in other pages. Gotta keep my phone looking pretty!
Haze, Eiling, and many other girls. Look at my silly grin when I found out I won
You can get your own Prada phone from Celcom from as low as RM 1518 by subscribing to Celcom Exec plans. For more information do check out http://www.celcom.com.my/smartphones/android.php#android5
After a day of usage, I’m happy to say that I do like it quite a lot. This phone now replaced my previous Android device – the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc. The Prada LG phone surpassed the Arc pretty much in all aspects other than low lighting photography, but I’ll gladly live with that.
