blog.cczy.org

/restart

Posted by Calvin on August 17, 2010 0 comments

I have decided to restart my blog, deleting all old posts except for the few newest ones. Don’t ask me why, cos i don’t know either. Maybe because, some things, looking back, seems embarrassing. Oh well.

Photos

Posted by Calvin on August 10, 2010 0 comments

Competitive Singaporeans

Posted by Calvin on July 12, 2010 0 comments

Singapore is a competitive country. Everyone who has been in Singapore, is Singaporean, knows that. When we say “competitive”, the 1st thing we would probably think of, is the industry. Competitiveness drives our country’s economy forward. That’s good. What is lesser mentioned, is competitiveness in other areas, for example getting up a bus, getting seats at a hawker center, even at the traffic light. What we all do feel, but is never ever articulated, is when women compare spouses, or when people compare watches, bags, cars, gadgets, etc. But nobody does it openly. Its more of a “everyone knows that we are comparing ourselves with each other, and striving to outdo each other in one way or another”.

Let’s be more specific. In Singapore, everyone will want to be the first amongst their friends to have a car of his own. And when all of the friends have cars, everyone would want to have the better model, the higher cc, the newer model. For women, if they see a colleague have a, lets say, Burberry bag, they will carry a LV bag to work within the next few days. For the general population, everyone would be the 1st to get the iPhone, or a Hello Kitty toy.

This competitiveness, results in people living on credit. People would swipe cards, and with so many cards now offering interest-free installments, the phenomenon is even more prominent. For those without credit cards, they would take on installments from the store.

This “living on credit” is even more prominent amongst the younger generation with less than substantial salary. The younger generation, with their large social networks and social activities, would purchase cars on 90% bank loan, which is the maximum, just to impress their friends. For those items which can’t be purchased on credit, like bags, some would even resort to buying fake goods.

I am probably being incoherent and this is becoming more of a rant right now. Anyway, my point is, I feel suffocated by this competitiveness. Singapore’s competitiveness is good for the economy, but bad for society.

Why Apple Fails

Posted by Calvin on June 9, 2010 0 comments

The iPhone 4 is announced. Yay.

Most of you will probably be thinking, if Apple fails, why does everyone still buy their products? I’ll come to that later.

Anyway, the iPhone 4.

First, lets watch the promo video for the iPhone 4.

New Features of the iPhone 4 (from the video):

Video Calling (FaceTime)
Better Screen
Multitasking
Email (Organize by thread)
Better camera, LED Flash
iMovie
More talk-time, and faster
Slimmer, Quality Materials used

Why the features are a bad idea (or not)

Video Calling. Hello? 3G video call existed since I was in secondary school. And don’t ask how long ago that was. And you NEED WiFi for FaceTime? How “convenient” is that?
Better screen. Their better screen? 960-by-640-pixel resolution. Ok, i give it to them. That is one of the things that they didn’t screw up.
Multitasking. I remember that when i was in Sec 2, my classmate had this Windows Mobile O2 XDA. And yes, it multitasks.
Email, organizing emails by threads. The 1st time Gmail came into the world with 1GB of storage when i was in Sec 2, it has threaded emails as well. So does the Android.
Thier better camera? 5MP. That is already taken for granted in phones a year ago. In fact, 8MP do not even have the wow factor. LED Flash? my K750i in Sec 4 has flash. Xenon Flash.
iMovie. Who edits videos on a mobile phone?
More talk-time, and faster. They should have given it more talk-time when they came out with 2G. But its not too late.
Slimmer. My girlfriend complains that my iPod Touch is hard to hold when playing games as it is too slim and falls out of her hand easily. Quality materials? an iPhone is not a lifetime investment. And you just paid 200$ more for those materials when, you will change a phone 2 years down the road anyway.

Wow! Those are some great MIND-BLOWING FEATURES! (So they put it that way.)

My girlfriend told me she wanted an iPhone, even after having a HTC Legend. Why? Because of the apps! So is she putting the HTC at home and taking the iPhone out instead? No! She is taking BOTH out, one to play games, and one to actually use as a phone. No prizes for guessing which phone for which usage.

Right. So why do people buy iPhones? BECAUSE OF THE APPS!
Thats all.

So, instead of marketing the new iPhone 4 with this “fantastic great mind-blowing features”, they should just say, “Hey, we made the iPhone (which people buy only for the apps) more like a phone that you can actually use!”

So since apple really, really sucks at making phones, THEY SHOULD JUST STOP MAKING PHONES! They should, in fact, have an iPod Touch, with a sim card slot (for data connectivity only), and market it as a gaming device. That will work.

Ah, did I hear you say Apple already has a product that has a sim card slot only for data connectivity? Yes, they have, the iPad, BUT IT IS FUCKING BIG! Who wants to lug that thing around?! And since most of the people who play iPhone games are females, they have SMALL HANDBAGS WHICH CAN’T FIT IN SOMETHING THAT IS AS BIG AS AN A4 FOOLSCAP PAD.

Yes, the iPad. It is marketed as a device for web surfing and e-book reading. Web-surfing. Yes. I think the people at Apple doesn’t realise that 60% OF THE INTERWEB IS FLASH.

So, anyway, I am not stopping anyone from buy the iPhone, cause, hey, you want the apps! Go ahead and buy the iPhone 4. But, I will really laugh at you if you put a screen protector on it or you gmask-ed it, as you paid a hugh premium, (possibly 200$) for the anti-scratch fiberglass.