Nov
12th

New Paris Restaurant at SS2, that’s what I called Fast Food

When we think of fast food, what comes to mind would usually be the big American chains. Burgers, fried chicken, and maybe even of porridge and sandwiches are usually to be expected.

However, one of the truly fastest dinner you can get is at a Chinese tai chow style eatery located at SS2 by the name of New Paris Restaurant.

Restaurant New Paris
KY, Rachel, Horng, Kimberly, and Kerol at New Paris restaurant

New Paris had a humble beginning, many years ago this was an operation with tables and chairs sprawling under a tree. Today, the restaurant has grown to occupy three shop lots and three floors.

The ambiance might have changed, but the one thing that stays true is the speed of service.

Business is often pretty brisk despite the size of the restaurant. Once customers leave a table, the workers will simply detached a layer of plastic table cloths together with all the plates, and new diners can take their seats within about 10 seconds.

german pork knuckle, vegetable, guinness pork
pork knuckle, spinach, Guinness pork ribs, four types of beans

Here’s the blow by blow account of our dinner at New Paris, time stamp gathered from JPEG EXIF data.

8:22 p.m. – we were ordering our final dish.

8:24 p.m. – first dish arrived! The German pork knuckle (RM 38), one of their claim of fame, was crisp on the outside, but juicy and fatty on the inside. Very savory, very sinful.

8:27 p.m. - sautéed spinach with garlic and topped with salted dried “silver fish” (RM 9). Not anything particularly special, but provide balance to the meat dishes we ordered.

8:28 p.m.Guinness pork ribs (RM 18), one of my favorite new style Chinese dishes. Tender ribs soaked with the goodness of Guinness black beer, providing that hint of bitterness that is so addictive.

8:34 p.m.spicy squid with long bean (RM 15). A little bit of spicy seafood with the meat and vegetable dishes. This dish was somewhat a disappointment, squid tasted a little stale. I wouldn’t order this again.

9:03 p.m. – paid and left the building

map to restaurant new paris

Another famous dish at New Paris is their watermelon chicken w(Huai Bin blogged about it here) which we did not order this time around. Though the food at this place isn’t exactly the best nor they are very special, they are still pretty tasty. Of course, the super fast service makes up for any short falls.

Where else could you have a full Chinese tai chow meal within 45 minutes?

Address:
New Paris Restaurant
No. 62, 64, 66, Jalan SS2/72
47300 Petaling Jaya Selangor

GPS: 3.118758, 101.62938
Tel: 03-7955 9180

BB battery tips:

For the Blackberry addicts, including the newly converts from Xpax BB, one of the most tragic things that could happen is when you are out and the Blackberry starts to run low on juice.

For casual users, most BB models could last for 1.5 to 2 days under moderate to heavy usage. However, for the true addicts, you might find yourself left stranded with your BB notification light blinking amber before the late night is over.

Good news is, there are some adjustments you can make to prolong the battery life.

  • Turn the back light dimmer.  I set mine at 20%, you can also consider setting the back light to auto shut off in shorter duration.
  • Minimize the usage of vibration. Vibrating alerts consume quite a bit of power, use it only if you have to. I set mine to vibrate only when the phone is in the holster.
  • Switch off WIFI scanning when you’re not using. This seems obvious but a lot of people overlooked it.
  • Turn your bluetooth off when not using.
  • Set Twitter auto update to 10 or 15 minutes. Cheesie used to set her UberTwitter client to refresh at 1 minute interval and wondered why her Blackberry 8520 couldn’t survive past dinner time.
  • For models with 3G/HSDPA support, consider switching to only EDGE/2G. I get about 30% more life out of a full charge and don’t see a lot of performance impact unless downloading big files.


Oct
31st

Blackberry as tethered modem with BB Desktop Manager

Files under Mobile Phone | 12 Comments

For all Blackberry users, and especially the new comers who’s just signed up via Xpax with their brand new BB Curve 8520, it’s time to update your Blackberry Desktop Manager (originally came with the CD).

blackberry desktop manager 5
notice the IP Modem icon?

With the latest update, the desktop manager not only allows the usual contact sync, backup, application installation, and media synchronization that some of you are familiar with, but also the new IP Modem functionality.

Modem tethering with Blackberry isn’t something new, but it used to be quite a hassle to set up and usually only someone who are quite well versed with the computer could get it done. With the latest Desktop Manager, setting up your blackberry as a modem is made very very simple.

BBdesktop_modem

Simply click on IP modem – Configure, then choose Celcom as the connection profile. To connect to the internet, click Connect! That is all.

Do note that data rate and caps apply, for example, Xpax has a quota of 1GB per day for unlimited access, while Hotlink capped their monthly BIS premium at 1.5GB per month. Use wisely, for more comparison, refer to the rate plan comparison post.



Oct
22nd

Rate Plan comparison – Xpax BB vs Hotlink BB with BB Curve 8520

Files under Mobile Phone | 21 Comments

By now, you’ve probably read about the Blackberry 8520 that is designed with prepaid customers in mind from this blog and/or elsewhere.

Although I’ve been talking pretty much exclusively about the offer from Xpax (advertorial ma..), we do something a little different today, lets put Xpax and the offer from Hotlink head to head for an very direct and simple comparison.

Xpax blackberry plan
rate plan for Xpax from here

First, from Xpax, there are two plans to choose from, and they are pretty simple.

  • Blackberry Social - RM 1/day (from 12.00am to 11.59pm) you get facebook, Myspace, instant messaging such as YM, Windows Live Messenger, BBM, Gtalk, ICQ, and more
  • Blackberry Advance – RM 2.5/day, you have everything the BB 8520 has to offer,  push mail, web browsing and any application that connects to the internet, including my favorite – Twitter.

So in short, it’s around RM 30 to RM 75 per month.

note: although branded “unlimited”, the data rate is capped at 1 GB per day, additional data usage subject to RM0.10/10kb. Source.

hotlink blackberry plan
rate plan for Hotlink from here

Now lets look at Hotlink’s offer. There are four plans in total, so a direct comparison gets slightly more tricky.

  • BIS Social - RM 28/month, services are similar to Xpax’s Blackberry Social, but data is capped at 100 MB
  • BIS Messaging – RM 28/month, with instant messaging and push mail only, data is capped at 100 MB
  • BIS Weekly Premium - RM 28/week, this is everything, similar to Xpax’s Blackberry Advance, data is capped at 50MB
  • BIS Premium – RM 98/month, data at 1.5GB

Data cap is for Hotlink as per the subscription period of either weekly or monthly, additional rate is at RM 0.01/1kb peak and RM 0.005/1kb off peak. Source (pdf).

Conclusion:

In terms of pricing, Xpax is clearly cheaper with RM 75-77.50 vs RM 98 per month for Advance/Premium plan, while Hotlink priced their Social plan slightly lower at RM 28 vs RM 30/31 per month.

Hotlink has the Push mail + Instant Messaging plan that Xpax lack (at RM 28/month)

However, the biggest difference in these two offering is at the data caps. Xpax’s quota is on at 1 GB per day while Hotlink’s cap varies from 100MB to 1.5GB per month is just a lot lower in comparison. If you’re a heavy user, this is quite clearly a cause for concern.



Oct
11th

Got the Curve 8520 already!

Files under Mobile Phone | 35 Comments

It’s out, and I now got not one, but two units of Blackberry Curve 8520 with me from the xBerry launch party last Saturday at Republic, Sunway Pyramid.

I got the phone from the one-day only deal at RM 888 + RM 50 xpax reload + RM 8.50 for a celcom prepaid number. Total damage = RM 945.60.

xpax xberry launch
brisk business at the launch party, check out the giant 8520

I got the extra unit for a colleague who didn’t want to miss out the deal but couldn’t make it to the party. There were hundreds of people at the event and within a couple hours, half of the 500 allocated units of Curve were already gone.

The phone is now RRP at RM 1188, still a pretty good deal since it’s completely unlock and you’re not tied down with any contract.

blackberry curve 8520 from xBerry party
KY, Cheesie, Tzia, and Cindy at xBerry party

Now I’m just waiting for everyone to get their BB services activated so we can have BBM orgies! That’s you Cheesie and Cindy!



Oct
5th

Get invites to XBerry Party!

Files under Mobile Phone | 22 Comments

The Xpax Blackberry you’ve been hearing about all these while is finally being launched this Saturday, and you can score an invite simply by pre-registering for the BlackBerry Curve 8520 smartphone with Xpax right here.

xpax_party_1

Details on XBerry Party:

  • Date: 10 Oct 2009 (Saturday)
  • Time: 8pm till late
  • Venue: Republic, Sunway Pyramid
  • Highlights: Special performances by Joe Flizzow, Arabyrd, Lapsap(Xu), and Twilight Action Girl
  • Dress code: Party chic

xpax_party_2

Other than the performances and free drinks vouchers, there’re also lucky draws and other freebies at the party. There will also be these promotions that runs precisely only for this particular night!

  • BlackBerry Curve 852 for only RM 888 (with no contract, RRP 1188)
  • free 1 month BB prepaid access (BIS)
  • free limited edition designer skin (exclusively designed by Lapsap, TAG, Black Fryday, Yayawoo & Bangkit)
  • free leather holster or car charger

RM 888 for this phone is gonna be pretty sweet. I actually went to the shop this afternoon and asked for the price on “underwater” set and it came up to some 1.2k.

Cindy, Cheesie, and I are going to be there, see you! Remember to preregister yourself with Xpax!



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