HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010!

Here's wishing you all a prosperous, blessed and happy new year 2010! May the year of the tiger roar magnificently to you and your family!

2010 GADGETS WAR

Who will survive? Today, Google Nexus One (HTC) will be unveiled officially. Can this be finally something strong enough to challenge the iPhone? Apart from this phone, we heard a lot of hype about Apple's Tablet Computer.

What else to consider for this coming year?
We have:
Microsoft Courier Tablet
Microsoft XBox 360 Project Natal
Sony PS3 Motion Controller
Samsung OLED laptop
Sony Blu-ray 3D standard and 3D TV (resurrection because of 3D movies?)
AU Optronics bendable E-paper

The question is which gadget will revolutionize our lifestyle for the next decade.

Now, here's the Nexus One specifications:
General
2G Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900
3G Network HSDPA 1700 / 2100 / 900
Dimensions 119 x 59.8 x 11.5 mm
Weight 130 g

Display
Type AMOLED capacitive touchscreen
Size 480 x 800 pixels, 3.7 inches
- Accelerometer sensor
- Touch-sensitive controls
- Trackball navigation
- Proximity sensor for auto turn-off

Sound
Alert types Vibration, MP3 ringtones
Speakerphone Yes
- 3.5 mm audio jack

Memory
Phonebook Practically unlimited entries and fields, Photocall
Call records Practically unlimited
Internal 512MB RAM, 512MB ROM
Card slot microSD up to 32GB, 4GB included, buy memory

Data
GPRS Class 10 (4+1/3+2 slots), 32 - 48 kbps
EDGE Class 10, 236.8 kbps
3G HSDPA 7.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps
WLAN Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n
Bluetooth Yes, v2.1 with A2DP
Infrared port No
USB Yes, microUSB v2.0

Camera
Primary 5 MP, 2560х1920 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
Features Smile detection, geo-tagging
Video Yes, D1 (720x480 pixels)@min. 20fps
Secondary No

Features
OS Android OS, v2.1
CPU Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor
Messaging SMS(threaded view), MMS, Email, Push Email, IM
Browser HTML
Radio Stereo FM radio with RDS
Games Yes + downloadable
Colors Brown (teflon coating)
GPS Yes, with A-GPS support
Java Yes, MIDP 2.0
- Active noise cancellation with dedicated microphone
- Digital compass
- Dedicated search key
- Google Search, Maps, Gmail
- YouTube, Google Talk, Picasa integration
- MP3/eAAC+/WAV music player
- MP4/H.263/H.264 video player
- Voice memo

Battery
Standard battery, Li-Ion 1400 mAh
Stand-by Up to 290 h (2G) / Up to 250 h (3G)
Talk time Up to 10 hours (2G) / Up to 7 hours (3G)
Music play Up to 20 hours

GOODBYE 2009, HELLO 2010!

Well, time flies. It is true. Without noticing it, 2009 is coming to an end and 2010 is already knocking at your door. What have I done in 2009?

I had decided to change my career path abit, not that drastic.

I had decided to apply to some universities for the chance to do PhD next year if possible.

I had decided to decline three good offers, hopefully I will not live to regret them.

It has been a tiring year for me, especially the last stretch. The last quarter of the year was spent mostly in preparing for exams for entrance requirements of PhD and then drafting research proposals. It is not easy to study while working. It is also weird to go sitting for exams after quite a while since my last one.

I went to my previous research lab gathering yesterday. It's nice to meet up with previous colleagues. One of the things we did was to share our dreams and wishes for 2010. When it was my turn, I decided to stand up and said my dream is to realize virtual reality and/or mixed/augmented reality visualization to become a standard in architectural practise. My wish for 2010 is to get my next path of life settled.

I have decided to watch Avatar 3D this evening before the year ends. I plan to go for the countdown at Marina Bay. I hope there will be fireworks as good as the ones I had seen a week back for the 10th anniversary celebration when Macau returned to China. I was there to witness the magnificent display of fireworks.

I hope 2010 will be a good year for me since it will decide how my future path will go. I don't know where and how it's going to be but that's how life is I guess.

By the way, Johor, probably the only place on earth, is working on 1st January. Uniquely Johor.

You guys have a wonderful, prosperous, healthy and happy 2010!