Lucky Draw at Anfield

Waiting for my take-out Tandoori from NZ before the gameSo, it was a draw. Usually I would be disappointed but considering the circumstances, we were lucky to get anything after a display like that. Plus the fact that we lost on the last three trips to Anfield.

We played badly in the first half. It was as if we were content to keep Liverpool at bay by sitting back. We put the hardworking trio of Fletcher, Park and Jones in the middle of the park, and were happy just to grab the odd chances. Nani, Chicarito and Rooney were left on the bench. So was the more attack-minded Anderson. We were lucky not to go a goal behind.

The tempo was raised on the second half, and at times, we were overrun. It took the introduction of Rooney and Nani, and later, Chica for us to get going. And that was only after we were chasing the game, courtesy of a soft freekick which Gerrard converted - with Uncle Giggsy trying to protect his balls - breaking the wall.

We were more adventurous with the substitutes on the field, and with ten minutes remaining, Chica did what he did best - finding space in a crowded penalty area while tightly marked. Superb! The game then opened up.

It could have gone either way. De Gea did some splendid saves with the defense somehow forgotten to mark Jordan Handerson on a couple of occasions. The best defensive display was by Rooney in the end. He stopped a certain goal with a headed clearance near the death.

It was a draw, and if I was a Liverpool supporter, I would be disappointed. And the game again reinforced my utter dismay towards Suarez. A good player, but a cheat on the pitch - cue the World Cup Quarter Finals in South Africa last year against Ghana ….. you know the rest.

Migrating to iCloud

So, I had to wait overnight - until Friday afternoon, before I was able to migrate to iCloud. Any differences? Well, the choice to be able to upload photos straight from the phone onto the cloud as soon as they were taken was rather promising. I have to update my iPhoto for that first. So that would have to wait. All the other syncing seemed to be working so far, even though I synced my calendars using Google. Never trusted MobileMe for that before.

So, I clicked for the iPhoto update. 375MB! Oh no! Luckily the broadband at work was up for it …..

As for the rest, I played around with iMessage. Not bad. It worked for both text and photos. The notification system was a boon, almost as good as on my Galaxy SII. The system, especially autocorrection was rather sluggish at times, making blogging and entering large amount of text rather stop-start. Maybe the whole OS was optimised the the upcoming iPhone 4S.

The Update

So, the update was complete and after restoring the apps and all the rest, the process took nearly 45 minutes. No hitches this time.

It was rather tedious as initially the OS was reset, followed by reloading of all the installed apps. So far, the updates went well. All the apps were in working order.

Next, migration to iCloud.

The Download

Talking about bad timing, I woke up for nature's call at 4.30 am this morning. After doing the business, I realised that iOS 5 was being released this morning. So I quickly looked for it.

Before long, I was already started downloading. The 770Mb file would take about 3 hours. So I went back to bed. The file was finally downloaded just after 7am. Unfortunately it was time to head for work.

I persevered and synced the phone. Five minutes later, an error message. Apparently it was recommended that you reload the iTunes before the update. Well, I rushed to work instead then. The update would have to wait.

My Zeppelin Air

It has been a couple of weeks since I owned one of this. The Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin Air. It is an iPhone dock with integrated stereo system. And it is one with steroids.

It was compact enough to be placed around the room, although the base can be overwhelming if placed too near the wall. It did the simple things well, and the AirPlay worked a treat. I was able to tune to BBC Radio One on iTune from my iMac and stream it wirelessly to the unit.

The sound is bass-intensive. A definite boon if you are a bass-orientated listener, as the treble could be drowned in all those low frequency. The midrange is however crystal clear. Listening to Adele's Rolling in the Deep would definitely make you tap your feet.

And you would be tapping your feet to the back unfortunately as the unit is rather expensive - and quite difficult to acquire in Kuala Lumpur. I had to order mine as the one that was available at Machines was a display unit.

For a mall unit, the sound coming out from it would definitely fill the room, but sound separation could have been better, but that would be mean as you would need a hi-fi unit to appreciate it as such. As it is, the sound was clear enough and the first time you hear the base coming out, you would be surprised.

So, now, overtime I reached home, I just dock my iPhone and just tap play. It also came with a cute remote control unit - easily misplaced though. It was certainly one of those gadgets that you would not be surprised if it came out of Cupertino - the Apple Campus.