All That for 4G?

When I picked ip the new nano Sim from the Celcom store on Saturday, I was surprised to find out that it didn't enable LTE straight up. It happened automatically on my Maxis account. To activate, you'd have to turn up either at Menara Celcom - which only opened during office hours - or at Bluecube at Sunway Pyramid.

Luckily Sunway Pyramid was only 5 minutes away from my hospital. So, at 10 am on a Sunday morning, I gleefully made my way to the mall.

Yes, it was opened as advertise and I was the first customer. I have my account details, complete with presentation of my MyKad. They did something on the network, asked me to turn my phone off, restart it and walla. I was 4G.

Why can't they just activate it over the phone, or better still one could just apply through the internet via their phone. Imagine one had to waste their time just to turn up at Sunway Pyramid. Not even for a change of SIM. Rediculous! But then again, we were just customers. And the sad thing was, Maxis' network was way faster! Minus the hype. And I didn't even get to meet Usain Bolt!

The iPhone 5S Camera

So, the weekend had been spent taking the 5S through its paces and the main focus was on the camera. How much if an impact it was?

The quality of the 4 compared to 3GS was huge. And the jump was maintained when the 4S was released. I had been happy with the 4S until I got my hands on the HTC One and as a camera phone, the One was not short of awesome. But it remained what it was. A mobile phone with a camera. It's nowhere near my X-Pro 1.

So, in came the 5S. Does the camera present a big jump compared to its predecessor? Bear in mind that I jumped from the 4S, the quality increase was expected. I do not have a iPhone 5 to compare it to, so I did the next best thing. Comparing it to the HTC One. But I would leave that to the next entry.

Let's just look at the camera on its entirety. The snaps were good. And coupled that to the Camera+ app, the photos were really good. The focusing speed was faster and they tend to find the right focus points as well.

But I found that the snaps tended to be underexposed and cooler temperature-wise. Nothing that Camera+ couldn't fix.

Is it spontaneous enough? Unfortunately I did not. I found that snapping photos were fiddly for some reason. Compares to the HTC One, the photos tended to be warner and brighter. Maybe it was just the screen, but the same was seen on the computer monitors as well. I tended to like the HTC One snaps better, and tended to get the photos I wanted first time.

Maybe it was an unfair criticism for the new iPhone since I only had it for one weekend. I understood the HTC One's quirks better having used it since May. I might change my mind in a couple of months.

I will post up comparison photos between the HTC One and the iPhone 5S on my next entries.

Ed - the comparisons are here in not one, two, three or four, but five instalments!

The 5S Has Landed

So, the 5S has landed on our shores. And Low Yat had a few units available. It didn't take long for me to get hold of a 32Gb grey unit. Decided against the gold. Too obvious, but they were available. There were plenty of 5C units of various colour on display as well. But I think it won't be long before the 5S ran out of stock. They were flying off the shelf really fast.

No news as to when the local units of 5S and 5C would be made available at the Apple retail shops. Until then, the phone would thrive at places like Low Yat.

First impression? The fingerprint sensor worked much better than I thought. I have yet to program my nipple to unlock the phone. I programmed Idlan's thumb and he was well impressed. The phone was also snappy. Camera was good, but ineould need to take it for a ride - tomorrow I guess before I could compare it with my HTC One.

I also updated my Celcom SIM. Theoretically I should be able to surf on LTE speed similar to my HTC One on the Maxis network. At work in Subang, the LTE speed on the HTC was bang on. Uploading photos onto Flickr was blazing. Downloading was something else. At my home in Gombak, I have yet to see an LTE signal detected on my HTC. The fastest was HSDPA. But not in my study. It was only EDGE down there.

Expect more update on battery life, the camera and of course some cases over the coming days.

Another Loss

On paper, it looked like it was going to be a routine win. But it wasn't to be. The way the team was set out, showed that we were confident to get a result. Not fully fit, I could understand why van Persie was on the bench. But Fellaini not starting, and both Kagawa and Nani on the field at the same time. We could afford one passenger at a time. But with Anderson really showing his weight, the team had to carry three. Tough ask.

And the result was no surprise. We really struggled to protect the back four. Anichebe was giving Old Man Ferdinand hell. And today, he didn't have Vidic to mop things up after him. The midfield was easily bypassed with long passes and our passing in the final third really needed sorting out.

We should be more critical in attack and not just depended on Rooney. Fellaini should start the next few games as to develop understanding with Carrick. We desperately need a good spine in the team to build the around.

Two wins, three losses and a draw in the first six games. Not the best of starts but this is the time that we need to get behind the new manager. Slagging him would not get us far. We have to rally behind him. And march on forward. GGMU.

Visit to Muzium Negara

The last time we visited the Muzium Negara was when Idlan was still a toddler. 2008 if I wasn't mistaken. We didn't enter the building. We just lingered outside and Idlan remembered the locomotive parked outside the museum.

We went to the museum last Sunday afternoon and this time we entered the building and looked at the exhibits. The boys were quite interested and on the particular afternoon the place was relatively empty.

At the central hallway in between the two wingsI remembered this stairs from my schooldaysExhibit-wise, the museum was divided into four compartments over the couple of floors. Imaginatively named Hall A to D of course. Going from memory, we had the natural history exhibit, Malacca and history of early Tanah Melayu, Kesultanan Melayu and the latest one being the Merdeka exhibit.

The other exhibits were pretty standard - what you'd expect from a National Museum, but the Merdeka exhibit was rather good I thought, although I would've curated it slightly differently. They should've emphasised the actual struggle against the Malayan Union and what the real Merdeka struggle was all about rather than shoehorning and streamlining the history as if we were reading a textbook, prepared by Kementerian Pelajaran. I didn't discover anything new. There was no critical analysis. For example, what were the roles of Sir Tan Cheng Lock and Tun Sambanthan? Were they just there to make up the numbers? We would appreciate some anecdotes. Like when they stopped the negotiations to watch a football match at Wembley. Some juicy bits like that.

After all, you had to pay to see these exhibits. Please not them be propaganda instead. I knew it was only RM2 to enter, but still we had to pay.

It was definitely worth the visit, but it would take more to make me come back anytime soon.