The Raya Morning

Went to bed extra early last night. And by 5 this morning, I was already up awake. Couldn't get into my study as one of our cousins and his family spent the night there. So, I ended up just reading some magazines. Too lazy to get out of the room as well.

Everyone was up by 6 to prepare for the kenduri later this morning. I got to the shower and in the last hour, had been in front of the TV, enjoying my day off. My only day off, as I would be doing rounds tomorrow morning. So, better enjoy it while it lasts.

As for the weather, it was looking really gloomy outside. Hmmm! With the preparation at full swing at the moment, hopefully the rain would not be too heavy. Looked like I would have to brave the rain to get to the mosque. And imagine the qurban ...... in the rain ....

A Quick Lunch

I cancelled the afternoon clinic and raced through the morning. Saw all my referrals and put aside time in the afternoon for procedures. Somehow, I was free by noon and got a phone call from Anita. She was doing some shopping for Raya in Bangsar.

I decided to join her for lunch.

The traffic had been light all morning since school was already off. And plenty of people had left town for the long weekend. Even though I overslept this morning, I still made it in plenty of time to work this morning. The road was practically empty.

So getting to Bangsar was super quick even during lunch time.

We had a nice meal at Chinoz. Just the two of us. The groceries were for tomorrow's kenduri that we planned. Although most of the meal would be from the caterers, Anita wanted to cook some spaghetti. She also bought some cakes and drinks.

The kenduri tomorrow would be for neighbours and relatives. It was a "kenduri syukur" - Thanksgiving - after the recent illness. I will be off tomorrow, but would be back to do the rounds on Saturday morning. The Saturday clinic had been cancelled though. So just the ward rounds.

Looking forward to the day off and kenduri tomorrow. I heard that it was going to be a wet one .....

Upon Reflection

I spent the morning drive listening to MacBreak Weekly on the podcast, listening to the analysis post-Apple announcement, and it was clear, the sheer number of product launched in the session was mind boggling. It seemed that there was a change of guard happening, with Tim Cook drawing the line on the ground, releasing all of Steve Jobs relics in he open.

The next batch of products would be under his watch, and for the time being, it allowed for a new start. And what an end it was! A fourth generation iPad - more of an internal rather than external evolution - the iPad Mini, the new iMac line as well as the 13 inch MacBook Pro. Add to that an improvement to the Mac Mini and other software updates, those folks at Infinity Loop had certainly been busy!

It seemed only last month that the iPod line-up was launched - on a similar platform to the iPhone 5 - and now, new stocks into the Apple Shop. I would be broke real soon!

I would definitely be eyeing the iMac, and maybe the Mini, just to see how it was like. The iPhone 5 may have to wait, as my next phone would likely be the Galaxy Note II to go along with my 4S. I need a bit of Google magic in my pocket, an a second phone was almost essential in my line of work.

I might actually buy the iPad Mini during my visit to the US, just for the fun of it :) and excuse to go to the Apple Store there I supposed.

The Apple Announcement

It was finally announced. One of the worst kept secret in Apple was unveiled in the keynote last night and the iPad Mini would be arriving later in the year - or later in the month at Low Yat. Supporting the same resolution as the iPhone 4, not quite the retina display, Apple finally yielded at the viability of the 7 inch form factor. This iPad has a cellular chip, but the stock model does not carry voice, meaning no native ability to make phone calls.

Camera would be a 5 MP affair - which should be pretty decent. And taking snaps and videos would not be as awkward as doing so on a full sized iPad. But that was not the announcement which caught my eye.

Reading the rumor mills and reading the logs made it obvious that the announcement was imminent. So was the release of the 13 inch MacBook Pro with Retina Display. But what surprised me about the Pro was that it had two Thunderbolts and an HDMI output. It would be very interesting if the Intel Graphic chip - the laptop did not have a separate high-powered GPU unlike the 15 inch sister - would be able to shift all the pixels. It also only carried 4 GB RAM (ed: sorry 8 GB but still underpowered) and a dual core i5 processor. I think it would be a touch underpowered.

But the main headline for me was the upgrade to the iMac line. Yes, I was planning to grab one for the apartment for the last few months but held off as I thought it was de for a revamp. It finally came. New form factor, but nothing revolutionary. Same resolution, and still an i5 chip - a slightly powerful one though. The chassis was now thinner, and the display was upgraded to IPS technology, which translate to a mo vivid colour rendition. And no optical drive ...... I guess everything would be stranded rather than burned in the future ....

I have yet to watch the full keynote - I would leave it for later in the weekend. It would be interesting to read the gadget blogs to see the reactions. I reckoned it would generally be a positive one. And yes, I would be investing on an Android 7 incher .......

Spyder4

The moment I reached home from the KL Photography Festival, my boys wanted to go out. To Marche we went. I have to leave the screen calibrating until later in the evening.

But it was won the wait. I unpacked the unit, read the simple instructions and downloaded the latest software from the Net. Program installed and I was soon calibrating.

I just followed the clear instruction from the software. Since I have a couple of screens, it detected them both and asked which screen I wanted to calibrate first. Each screen took about 10 minutes and when I was done, I was more than impressed with the new setting.

I did not realise how cold my colour temperature on the screen were before the calibration. Now, the photos came to life, and the colour were much more pleasing, not to mention that the skin tones were much more life-like. What was more important was both the screen now looked comparable. The Samsung screen used to have a light blue tinge to it before.

I then calibrated my laptops, and certainly the LCD screen looked much better since. Definitely worth the investment ......