At the edge

I had been impressed with the review on the S6 since the announcement was made. It was a toss up between this new Samsung flagship or the HTC M9.

Having owned the M7 and Galaxy Nexus and S2 previously, I was familiar with the strength of both lines, but clearly the Galaxy S series had moved along quite far, compared to the HTC.

So, I did a free order and picked up my phone last weekend. I went for the S6 Edge. Although honestly, apart from the slicker form factor and bigger battery capacity, there were not much deterrence between the standard S6 and the Edge. The specs were identical.

After a couple of days of use, I was struck by how comfortable the phone felt on my phone compared to my staple, the iPhone 6 Plus.

The Edge was just blazing fast and the Lollipop OS just sang! There was no lag which I could detect although I hardly put any skin on the system to compliment the standard Samsung interface.

I use the standard Google app - Mail, Calendar and the rest. Of course the first thing I did was download Facebook, Twitter, Feedly, 2Do, Instagram, Flickr and VSCO cam among others. Then I went about putting the phone through its pace.

A couple of things was plain obvious from the start. Yes, the screen was gorgeous and reception on LTE was fast. But unexpectedly the camera and battery life were the features which impressed me the most.

The home button, cum the fingerprint recognising buttonLet's start with the camera. 16MP with optical stabilisation. Sound basic, but that's double the amount of pixel on the iPhone camera. And the results were just fantastic. Hands down, out of the camera they were better jpgs compared to the iPhone. Almost at the level of the Lumia 930, but with better post processing apps to chose from.

The app of choice so far for image post-processing was Snapseed. The newly updated 2.0 version was just amazing. I can't stop admiring the camera output and I have yet to explore its full potential.

The second thing which impressed me was the battery life. I had been reading reviews that due to high resolution screen and small form factor, battery life was limited. I have yet to experience such a drain so far. At least compared to the Nexus 4 and M7. Or even the Oppo Find 7 which carried the same.screen resolution - although on a physically larger-dimensioned screen.

I have a wireless charger placed at my clinic and I just put it on the tray while seeing patients. No issues. And setting up emails were a doodle, but I was still using the basic apps for them. None of those fancy app or Samsung's proprietary programs. They were just too fiddly.

One major criticism I had out of the box was the keyboard. They were just lame. Fleksy soon fixed those up. If only they could make some similar to my Z10 - which I still use for emails at home - then the S6 Edge would be perfect!

These were still my early impression but I think this phone would be a hit, especially for the power user. I have set up my Feedly account to connect to my bitly service, so expect many updates on Facebook coming soon!‎

Broken SquareSpace

I have been using SquareSpace for more than 5 years and with innovation, there was bound to be issued. And that certainly what happened to the iOS app for the blogging platform.

The app now no longer support Square space version 5 which my blog still used - because that was the most advanced version back in 2009.

SquareSpace released version 6 of the program back in 2011 and I was one of the beta tester for the new update. I used it for close to 6 months before the version matured and went out of beta. Over the years, development of version 5 were put in the back burners. And the main problem was, those two versions were not compatible. Upgrading from 5 to 6 did take plenty of work.

I decided against updating this blog and now I found myself having to either use the Android version of the SquareSpace app, which I was also a beta tester, or updating it manually on the web. The app were no longer available for download from iTunes, so I my have to update my iPhone manually from the Mac to get the old app back.

It was a pain. What would happen when version 7 come along? There would be another app update and those using the older version may suffer the same problem as I did.

It looked like I may just have to do the. Prating the old fashion way with the new phone.

Update on Thursday, October 9, 2014 at 6:48AM by Haris Abdul Rahman

Problem solved by manually uploading the Squarepace App from my iTunes backup onto my new iPhone. End of the World everted!

A Thing of Beauty

I called my usual camera store to inquire if they have a used Ricoh GR in store after having a look at it at KLPF. I can see it being my designated pocket camera. I was lucky.

They just had a four-month old unit just in from last weekend and it was going for half the original price. Sounds fishy. But I must have a look.

After work, I stopped by the shop on my way home and had a closer look. I was smitten. It came with all the original parts and documentation. Plus it still held Ricoh manufacturer warranty for another 8 months. Shutter count acceptable. A bit of smudge here and there but no big deal. It was an aluminum body after all.

I paid extra for an external charger and a memory card. It still had the original pouch, not that I would be using that. Took it round the block for some snaps. My mind was made up.

I went home happy with the GR in hand. Would need to familiarise with the unit before I could really get the best of it. Maybe a photo walk or two. It was light and small enough to slip into my trouser pocket, although a bit bigger than the Sony RX100 III.

I took a series of snap at the apartment during lunch time and processed the jpeg. I still need to get the colour tone to my liking but certainly it had potential. More experimentation then.

A New Pair

My Beats headphone lasted almost three years now and was worn off especially at the ear cups. The connections were also suspect as I could sometime could hear interference when I moved about. Time for a new pair of headphones.

Initially I wanted a Bose. But after some search on the Net, the Audio Technica MT50X got some decent review. And it was reasonably priced as well.

So, I went around looking for a pair around Bukit Bintang yesterday, and tested one. Impressive. No active noise-cancellation like my old Beats, but the sound was good. None of the exaggerated base of the Beats as well. The midtone and vocal sounded super-sharp. I was happy.

The pair I picked up was from the limited edition line, with faux-leather muffs coming with a matching pouch. Slightly more expensive than the standard but not by much. The whole package was less that RM700. Good value I thought since my old Beats cost double that ....

Thursday Morning Stroll

After cancelling my clinics on Thursdays, practically freeing it for myself, Thursday had never been completely free. This morning, I forced myself to take some down time. I ended up having a nice breakfast at the hospital, and took a drive towards Bukit Bintang.

Checking out Low Yat, when the place was practically empty put a different spin on things. I managed to walk around without much hassle.

My main plan was to pay my credit card and mobile bills, and to check out the Surface Pro 3.

They were just been available in Malaysia, but only the wifi versions were available. There were no plans for an LTE unit to imported to this region, or whether it would ever be made by Microsoft. Should an LTE version was available, I would have no qualms but grab one. It would replace my iPad for work bo doubt. Opportunity missed by Microsoft I thought. I was sure plenty more people would be interested in the LTE version.

I spent almost a couple of hours at Low Yat before driving back to Subang. I was still full to catch lunch. Got back to Subang by 2, dis my rounds and a procedure. Then off again.

Getting a free Thursday every once in a while was definitely welcomed. Not next week though. I have a meeting in Putrajaya next Thursday afternoon. No free time....‎