For a Different View

A few years back, I was in awe of a series on Discovery called "The World from Above". I was guilty of recording the episodes and watching them again and again. It was basically aerial footage on famous landmarks with narratives in the background for colour. It was both eye-catching and educational. Especially when it features the UK, on landmarks which I knew but taken for granted. The particular episode featuring New York was my favourite. And don't get me started about San Francisco!

And then I read about the availability of drones for aerial footage. I always thought them as cumbersome, difficult to fly while getting decent footage would take some training. I was wrong!

The more I read into it, and looking at the videos on YouTube, I realised that it was quite simple. All you need is a bit of time and passion.

My interest peaked when I read about the Phantom 4. It was a drone which was easy to fly and had a decent camera attached to it, for both video and snaps. Did some homework and find out a bit more about the pricing. So, last weekend, I bought one.

Getting the blades in orderTrying to understand the parts ...The remote was still in the plastic coveringIt was not exactly cheap, but to be honest, it was cheaper than a decent dSLR. And I started flying them the next day. All you needed extra was a smartphone, or in my case an iPad which would act at the display. The flying was done via a remote plus touchscreen. And to take photos and video, you just press the screen. The camera was a 12MP affair, of a decent point-and-click quality - with an f2.8 aperture - and it was capable of capturing 4K footage straight into it's memory card.

Flight time was also rather decent with a battery unit lasting about 25 minutes - my set came with 3 batteries for an hour of flight. It came in a slick portable case, which meant carrying the drone around a piece of cake. The whole package weighed less than a couple of kilo trams.

Going through the instructionsReady to fly!I should have bought one earlier as the footage from Langkawi would have been amazing! But never mind. I would still have to get proficient with it and with every flight I was learning something new. Definitely a keeper! Now, I would have to get some free time to fly the damn thing!

The New Typecover

The new Surface Pro 4 certainly looked appetising to say the least. Better processor and higher resolution screen. But to be honest, I couldn't really justify an upgrade to my knee year old Surface Pro 3. The old unit was still going strong and the processor was still fast enough, certainly for what ever I was using the computer for.

It was mainly for letters in clinic, the odd email and of course scheduling into my Google Calendar.

But the new types cover which was launched with the new Surface was a big jump from the old one. And the good news was, it was compatible with the old notebook. Great!

It took a while before I could find a store that had it available far sales. So far, they only bundle it with the new Surface. And even harder to find one in black. I guessed I was lucky today and managed to pick one up. Not cheap, but it was certainly worth the investment.

It felt like I now own a new Surface!

HK Apple Store

The last Apple Store I went was in London, and it was quite an experience. So, when I arrived in Hong Kong, I was really glad to learn that the local store was only a ten minutes walk away. Two right turns and I was there.

However, the experience was not as grand. Maybe because Apple had become ubiquitous and the local dealers in Malaysia did well in replicating some of the experience. The streamlined catalogue and lack of diversity also helped matters.

The main reason why I was there was to get new straps for the Apple Watch, something which were yet to be available back home. Yup! There were choices alright, from the basic to the ridiculously expensive. I got what I wanted quite easily. Paying for the goods was also quite an experience. You just handed your credit card to your personal "Genius" and he would swipe it on his iPhone-sized device, you sign on the screen and that was it. Even the receipts were emailed to your inbox.

The knock-off merchants come early in these partsApart from that, there was nothing else fancy. The new Apple TV had yet to be released. No iPad Pro of course. Not really anything much else to look at. Nothing that I wouldn't be able to get hold of back home. The price? At least 10% more expensive there than back home. Hence no reason to actually by anything ...

However, the irony there was there were people in small tents right outside the store selling iPhones. I was sure that those were knock-offs but to be honest I wouldn't be able to tell. They were doing it cheap, but not that much cheaper ...

More write-up on the trip here.

Extra Coverage

We have been strugling with broadband coverage in the house lately since our main router is almost 4 years old. And then our wifi extender gave up on us last week. I tried dragging my old P1 router from Gombak but the signal inside the apartment was too weak. No joy!

Time for an upgrade.

I went for a new router first - a Linksys WRT1900AC - and should things worked out OK with the upgrade, I would decide on an extender later. So far, the signal in our bedroom from my study appeared to be steady but it could be more stable.

The new router also allowed for a 5GHz transmission, extending the signal further. But despite the upgrade, the signal at the dining room was still too weak. With the 5 GHz setup, I noticed that the upload speed was cut down.

Maybe I needed to do a bit of tweaking to get things really moving. Suffice to say, setting up a network was not my strong suit.

Nifty Little Keyboard

I have been eyeing a Bluetooth keyboard for a while. I have one attached to my iPad and it had revolutionised the way I used it. It was a Logitech variety and for the past year, it had been working a treat.

While walking around earlier, I spotted this one, the k810 also from Logitech which allowed me to connect to 3 devices. So, got it hooked up for the Android tablet, the iPhone and maybe the S6 since I have a spare slot.

The keyboard itself was very well constructed, with very tactile keys and can be charged using a micro-USB interphase. No issues there. It is also illuminated, so I can type in the dark with no issues, something I couldn't do with my iPad folio keyboard.

Definitely would recommend it although it was a bit on the pricy side. It could also do well wth a dedicated case so that I could carry it around better. But as it is, it stays in my office and maybe I would get a stand for my tablet with a built in charger. That would be a great combination.