KakaoTalk

Have you heard of the hottest talk in town, KakaoTalk? It's a chat program that originated from South Korea said to be used by a lot of K-pop celebrities.

Even before KakaoTalk arrived in Malaysia, I've downloaded the application out of curiosity, having it installed in my 3rd generation iPad. KakaoTalk for iOS is optimised for smaller screens but it's compatible with iPad, so I had no problem running it.

Using KakaoTalk is quite straightforward.

Before you began, you'll be asked to register for an account if you have none. Like most mobile chatting app, you'll be asked for a mobile phone number.



Once you've opened the app, you'll be led to the Friends tab. Your friends are listed in alphabetical order. There're two types of accounts available: normal and Plus friends (those with a P beside). I shall explain about Plus friends in the later part of the post.



By clicking on one of the friend you'll be led to the Mini Profile. That's my friend Vvens.
She has a special theme installed so you see stuff crayon drawing. Otherwise most profiles display default theme.



The second tab if of course... Chats! I've set my iPad to display in Chinese but the button layouts are pretty self explanatory.

Whenever a message is received, the software makes a "Katukkk" sound.



This is the chatting screen.



Press on the smiley face (on the left) to access all sorts of dynamic emoticons (called Stickers)...



... and use them in your chats.



You can have access to some other functions by pressing the ">" button. Or simply flip from the left



Now we come to the Find Friends screen. You can find friends by KakaoTalk ID or QR codes.
Do you see Plus Friends? They're celebrities' official KakaoTalk account to send you updates on their latest promotions and music comebacks. Or they belong to businesses to tell you about their latest promotions and discounts on their goods.



There are games to play if you fancy them. Sorry I don't usually play games :(



The More screen contains everything else for KakaoTalk. Settings is my most important friend because I get to control how KakaoTalk behaves to how I like it to be.



Have fun guys! Don't forget to like KakaoTalk Malaysia FB. You can visit KakaoTalk official website to know more.

Interfaith relationship?

The situation above is best described as interracial infatuation rather than interracial/interfaith relationship. The video may be shallow, but has given us enough points to ponder. Out of all types of interfaith relationships, Islam draws the most controversy.

Under Malaysian law, any person who's marrying a Muslim must convert to Islam prior to marriage, regardless of male or female.

The harsh fact in Malaysia is, most Chinese refuse to have anything to do with Islam. Many are not open to marrying Malays. Religion can be the sole reason for rejection. Many Chinese families mount resistance should they ever find out their sons/daughters are in a relationship with a Malay. They'd choose to preserve their culture and belief from generation to generation.

The real culprit behind this is political Islam. In all Abrahamic faiths (Judaism, Christianity & Islam), not only the faiths provides guidance to believers but they exert political control over people in the Middle East throughout history. In the Scriptures of these religions, it's all about control over people if you are familiar with their contents.

There's little problem when the church is separated from the state. But not in Malaysia, the 'church' (mosque) remains under jurisdiction of the state. The Mosque is government backed, to make matters worse. Hence the contention shown in the video rears its ugly head.

Tech Kaijiu Arena: Ninetology U9X1 vs Samsung Galaxy Mega Review

Good day readers, how are you? I'm glad to share two nice phones in the market, thanks to Ninetology Malaysia. This review is part of Tech Kaijiu Arena, Ninetology's Bloggers' Review Program :)

Before I dwell on my review, I have a message to share about Responsible Blogging. Being responsible means being accountable to all things we've done, and that includes everything we share on the Internet. Have you done your research before you post about anything? If you've taken the extra mile to ensure all information is correct, you're doing everybody a favour! Together we can make the Internet a better place.

Ninetology U9X1 i9480

I'm so excited to head towards Singapore! Aside from visiting the city, I'm stopping by at two of the nation's flagship universities: National University of Singapore and Nanyang Technological University for an appointment with professors. They're offering worthy postgraduate research projects worthy of consideration. Since it's hard to communicate by email, the professors ask me to drop by in Singapore to meet them at their respective labs!

I have sorted out my ticket, but what's missing?

While a transit ticket is enough for me to land in Singapore, I'll still need a few more things to get around the city-state smoothly and comfortably. Three essential items to get around Singapore are:


Singapore dollars.


A prepaid 3G SIM card, either SingTel or StarHub will do.


Ezlink smart card. You'll need this to pay for bus and MRT fares without having to wait in long queues.

Why can't I just keep my Malaysian SIM card and set my phone on roaming while I'm in Singapore? It can be one of the most unwise choice to make. Let me tell you why.

Although it's true that I can have my phone set to roaming in Singapore, it's actually not economical. While roaming overseas, you are charged exorbitantly for calls you made and receive on your phone. In my case my prepaid credit will dry up by just talking on my phone for a few minutes. For postpaid users it's a nightmare when the bill arrives.

If you use 3G data, I advise you to be careful of the data roaming feature in your smartphone. There're news report of users getting astronomical bills just by checking on Facebook or reading a few emails while overseas; getting a bill shock back home is the last thing anybody wants.

Before setting off overseas, make sure you disable data roaming in your smartphone. After you've obtained immigration clearance, buy a local SIM card and insert it into your phone. In this way, you won't accidentally burn up your wallet :)


If your phone is using micro-SIM, I strongly advise you to keep the remaining plastic just in case you need it.

As a very much Malaysian at heart having activities in Singapore, a dual SIM phone comes in handy. Whenever I cross the border, it saves me the trouble of changing SIM cards.


Thanks to Ninetology, I had a chance to experience a dual SIM device. This is how you insert SIM cards into the phone:


The first SIM card, inserted into the bottom slot, designated as Slot 1.


The second SIM card goes into Slot 2.

After powering on your phone, simply follow the instruction booklet that comes with your SIM to sign up for a 3G data plan. Now I can Tweet, Facebook, browse web pages, check-in Foursquare and view Google Maps when I'm lost, without worrying about cut throat data charges!

What is the most important feature of a dual SIM phone? I may sound a bit cheong hei, but I'm here to fulfil your curiosity before getting one! You can switch ON/OFF SIM card, turn on 3G data (separately for each SIM), turn ON/OFF roaming (separately), turn ON/OFF data roaming (separately) and setting the default SIM card for outgoing calls/SMS/video calls. All of these can be accessed from Settings > SIM management.



As far as the battery for U9X1 is concerned, it is equipped with a 2200 mAh Li-ion battery. mAh stands for miliAmpere-hour, a unit used for measuring electrical charges, it's SI derived unit being Ampere-second (Coulomb). Since 1 mAh equals 3.6 Coulomb, that equals to 2200*3.6 = 7920 Coulombs of electrical charges (when the battery is fully charged).

When it comes to multilinguality, Ninetology U9X1 supports display in Bahasa Melayu, Bahasa Indonesia, English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese. Typing in English and Malay is supported in its native Android keyboard whereas Chinese typing is supported through a built-in Google Pinyin.

The Ninetology U9X1 enabled me to keep in touch with friends in Singapore without paying through my nose. It came in handy when a professor called me to give me directions to his lab & university (I'm so touched!).

In conclusion, if you're looking for a usable touchscreen, dual SIM smartphone without a hefty price tag (RM 1099), then the quad-core Ninetology U9X1 is for you. In terms of craftmanship, Ninetology still has a great room for improvement.

Samsung Galaxy Mega GT-i9205


Would you please come in?


Presenting you... the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3"! It's so wonderfully made...


In my eyes...


It's the best thing in the world!


Just call up and order the phone already!

What a cuteness overdose! The photos above are A Pink's U You music video screencaps, all taken with Samsung Galaxy Mega!. Now let's go to the important stuff.



This version of Galaxy Mega I received comes with support for 4G LTE. When you buy a Samsung Galaxy Mega, make sure you state your preference for 4G or non-4G models. There are four versions of Galaxy Mega in the market: GT-19150, GT-i9152, GT-i9200 and GT-i9205 but only GT-i9205 comes with 4G.

I currently own a Samsung Galaxy S3 GT-i9300, that makes Samsung Galaxy Mega is essentially its big brother. But its bigger screen makes it a phablet.


The Galaxy Mega has more juice: 3200 mAh on a full charge. That's 11,520 Coulombs.


This phablet accepts a single micro-SIM.


Having a larger screen size, typing on the Galaxy Mega is much more comfortable. There is no need to switch keyboard layout whenever I need to type a number, as the number keys lie on top of the QWERTY keyboard.


Rotation of home screen is possible with the Screen Rotation feature turned ON, a cool feature I've noticed. This saves the hassle of turning the screen up whenever I finished using an app in landscape mode.




It's high quality speaker, big screen and ability to support High Definition coupled with landscape mode creates an unparalleled experience on viewing Youtube.

This device supports display in major languages of the world. When Chinese and Bahasa Malaysia are concerned, their input is supported via the native Android keyboard (without needing Google keyboards). All of these can be changed in Settings > Language and Inputs.

For satellite navigation, the phone specification lists GPS and GLONASS. I'm sure veryone is familiar with GPS. If you're wondering, GLONASS is just like GPS, operated by Russia. To date, both systems have full global coverage. You can also say that the phone makes use of both US and Russian satellites to determine its position on Earth. For driving navigation, you can make use of Waze or Google Maps, available from Google Play store. Not forgetting that its loud speaker makes navigation easy too!

Despite its sheer size, the Samsung Galaxy Mega is light and fits nicely into my palm.


Samsung Galaxy Mega is for you if you value craftmanship and solid tactile experience, provided that you're willing to afford its RM 1900 price tag.

Sign Up for Ninetology Newsletter

This post is part of Ninetology's Bloggers Review Program. As a reader, Ninetology is treating you some goodies! Every month, Ninetology generously allocates RM 15,000 to RM 20,000 worth of E-Vouchers just for you! All you need to do is to click on the banner to sign up for a newsletter.

Contents of the newsletter will include featured blogger's post under "Tech Kaijiu Arena" program, Ninetology's latest product news and E-vouchers.

The first 100 readers every month to sign up for Ninetology newsletter will win RM 100-200 worth of E-vouchers to buy Ninetology products at discounted prices. Be the first 100! *Click click*


That's all for Ninetology's Tech Kaijiu Arena, please show me lots of love manhi manhi saranghae juseyo! Goodbye and have a nice day Annyeong!

A Pink - U You

For A Pink's [Secret Garden] comeback, I've heard that the album contains three music videos. The first two has been released and I was eagerly waited for the third video. That was a very long wait, finally it's out a week ago!

The girls are very, very cute in the video. I like that they choose to be fun and candid!

------------



Chorus
My love is U U
When I see you, I keep getting nervous
My everything is U U
I can only see you in my eyes
In my dreams, it’s U U U (baby my love)
Every day, it’s U U U (I just wanna)
Little by little, slowly, I want to fall into your love

Verse 1
On a morning that is especially sunny
Today is the day I meet you
There are so many outfits that I picked out last night
But what do I wear to look even prettier?

Pre-chorus
Shining Shining Shining Star, you are my super star
No matter what anyone says, no matter what they say, you always look good to me

Chorus
My love is U U
When I see you, I keep getting nervous
My everything is U U
I can only see you in my eyes
In my dreams, it’s U U U (baby my love)
Every day, it’s U U U (I just wanna)
Little by little, slowly, I want to fall into your love

Verse 2
Oh my boy, oh my love
Now I’m on my way to meet you
I wore pretty shoes and a pretty skirt
When I see you, I will brightly smile

Pre-chorus
Shining Shining Shining Star, you are my super star
No matter what anyone says, no matter what they say
In my eyes, in my eyes, in my eyes, you’re perfect

Chorus
My love is U U
When I see you, I keep getting nervous
My everything is U U
I can only see you in my eyes
In my dreams, it’s U U U (baby my love)
Every day, it’s U U U (I just wanna)
Little by little, slowly, I want to fall into your love

Bridge
Chu chu chu, your lips are getting closer
Chu pop chu pop, what should I do?
My love is really you, my everything is really you
Do you feel the same as me? Do you have the same heart?

Chorus
My love is U U
When I see you, I keep getting nervous
My everything is U U
I can only see you in my eyes
In my dreams, it’s U U U (baby my love)
Every day, it’s U U U (I just wanna)
Little by little, slowly, I want to fall into your love

Ending
When I see you, what do I do?
My heart keeps trembling
When I see you, what do I do?
Your love comes to me
All day, I’ll think of you
I see you but I miss you
Little by little, slowly, I want to fall into your love

Translation credit: Pop!Gasa

Decoding Namewee's Tokok ep 019: Oppa Petrol Style

Namewee (real name Wee Meng Chee) has a word to say in response to the petrol price hike. But he did it differently this time - he spoke in an alien tongue to us! I was so taken aback with his acquisition of "Korean".

It's fairly easy to understand just by watching what he shows without the need to understand what he actually says. But if you're not Malaysian and don't know what actually happened, this is what he mean to say through the pictures:

Since the petrol price hike, the government is making our lives harder! Whatever fuel that's sold by Petronas, Shell, Caltex and Mobil, they're all raised by 20 cents. Aissshh! The Malaysian government is picking on us Chinese people, with the Chicken and Horse Screw messing up the government and think that they hold absolute power in the country. Really, all of you are sick! Do you want us to drink plain water, eat plain bread and ride on our bicycle so that you'll be satisfied with everything?! Aisssh, Aiish, then what do you want?! Before this you spent public money to bring Psy (Park Jae Sang) to Penang, where everyone enjoyed a free show; when election comes you gave so many goodies to people, furthermore you spent so much to bring Bangladeshi migrant workers to vote for you, only to raise the price of petrol to pay the bills after all these while? Is your dick bigger that we do? Certainly you can't do that to us. Aisssh, what do you want from us? Isn't it. Are these our fault? By doing this you only make crime pay. Aisssh! I'm really fed up with you...

Now you've got what you needed to know, aren't you? But in fact there's actually more, so read on to fulfil your curiosity!

I listened to Namewee's speech carefully and it led me to new findings! There're so many secrets to this video. I've even gone to extra mile of sharing the video to people that may know about Korean language. If you have been following Namewee since his early days, he is indeed famous for swearing in his videos to get his message across. By paying attention to his speech you'll notice these words:

Jenjang: A Korean swear word.

Shibal: That's a very bad Korean swear word.

Gae seki: That's also a Korean swear word.

Puniabo: Possibly a Hainanese swear word. From what I heard, Namewee has a Hainanese ancestry.

Gamsa hamnida: Korean word for "Thank you". Namewee was probably referring that the current Malaysian government ought to thank the Chinese people for their contribution. On the other hand, ruling party politicians that lose their seat in the 2013 General Election retorted that Chinese people "were not grateful". A majority of Chinese people has voted in favour of the opposition coalition during the election.

Kim Il-Sung, Pyeongyang, Kim Jong-Il: He's referring to transfer of power in North Korea and draws a parallel between North Korea and Malaysia. The current Prime Minister of Malaysia (Najib bin Abdul Razak) is the son of former Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak bin Hussein.

Namewee Tokok episode 19 is made up of random words with a few curse words, I believe. But since only few of us know about Korean profanities, he could largely get away.

In short, Namewee has voiced our grievance against the petrol price hike. Ask yourself again, what is Namewee famous for? =D

Malaysia: a nation left out

Good day readers. I finally get to head to Singapore for a short visit after five years! Was considering a postgraduate opportunities at Monash Sunway, but found out that I didn't really like it. Immediately I looked for projects in Singapore and found two that appealed to me.

I made the trip to Singapore to see professors!

So I bought train tickets to Johor Bahru. My meeting with professors took place on 30th of August so I bought tickets arriving on 29th to buy more time. To my dismay, a one way train journey took seven and a half hours from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru.

Repeat after me, 7.5 hours from Kuala Lumpur to Johor Bahru/Singapore in the 21st century. That's a journey covering 400 km (not very far, actually). Going by the train speed, a trip to Bangkok can easily take 22 hours. That's downright unacceptable today. Judging by the standard 20 years ago, I wouldn't mind this train journey.

I regret to say that this is the level of service offered by our national railway company, Keretapi Tanah Melayu Berhad. The KTM Intercity service has existed for 30 years and there wasn't a single bit of improvement to cater growing needs and changing time.

The railway track from Gemas to Singapore still remains single tracked, severely limiting capacity. Isn't this supposed to be completed five years ago?

Malaysia as a nation is progressing at a pace too slow to be acceptable today. South Korea and Taiwan, less developed than us 50 years ago, has caught up and left us far behind in terms of development. This is akin to starting ahead in a race, but allowing other racers (whose starting lines lie behind us) to overtake simply because we don't run fast enough. The country has been mismanaged that progress is impeded.

The amount of foreign investments in Malaysia is less, but we had net outflow since the past few years. Where do I put my face when foreigners remark that Malaysia is a backward country only comparable to less developed areas of Africa?