V-Drumming

Idlan had been keen to take-up drumming for a while. He even signed up for classes at school and would be starting lessons in the next few weeks. And I had always been fascinated by drums but the main problem with them was the loud noise they generate!

As a compromise, we went for an electronic drum kit. We had been looking around for one, reading forums and review. It was quite difficult to be able to see and test one in KL. The only shop which allowed us to play around with a kit was in Mid Valley. After a few visits, we finally made up our minds.

The shtick!

Them pedals!

The speaker was actually quite good

It was a Roland rather than a Yamaha.

The set came in with a real foot pedal, as well as fabric snares and toms. This would create a real feedback and bounce so that when Idlan use the normal kit at school, it felt more natural. With your headphones on, the drums played out with minimal noise, although not completely silent.

The toms

The controller module

Tightening up

For a bit of kick!

The package also came with a dedicated speaker, from which drum noise could be generated. It was pretty clear that I would need plenty of practice to be any good at it, and at the current rate, Idlan would be teaching me a trick or two soon ….

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. 

Let'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!‎

Low Yat Look

Since I had some free time last Sunday, I walked - with the camera - towards Low Yat, enjoying the gorgeous weather. The MWC at Barcelona last weekend came with plenty of announcement - the HTC M9 and the Samsung S6 Edge to name a couple. I was keen to see if there had been any discounts going on at the plaza with the impending release.

No such luck. Business as usual from the look of things. I had a good look around at some cases for the iPad but nothing took my fancy. I was thinking of upgrading my 2 year-old Nexus 7, but the recent Lollipop update gave a new life to the ageing device. Although the battery life suffered big time, the new upgrade offered plenty of new excitement, especially in the notification department. The system also felt snappier than before.

And to be honest, the 7-inch Android tablet market had not been exciting for a while now, and certainly not after the release of Nexus 6, and the announcement that Google was not planning to replace the Nexus 7.The next up would be the Nexus 9, which personally felt to big. Samsung had a couple of offerings, but not much of an upgrade to my current tablet.

Frankly speaking, nothing much to see really. Maybe the next month would be interesting with the release of a host of new devices. 

Updating

So, the iOS 8.2 update was out tonight. And with that, you would be able to connect the iPhone to the upcoming Apple Watch at the tap of a button. And no, I have yet to own the Watch.

Anita on the other hand had been fascinated by the gold MacBook. Looked slick according to her, until I pointed out that the connections in and out of the thing would be tricky and proprietary. But I supposed she only need the port for charging.

As for the update itself, it was rather a big one. Around 2.2GB on my Mac Pro. I used that instead to save time rather than over the air. Thankfully there was no glitch so far as I would be on call tomorrow.

My Z10 gone LTE

After a good year using the Z10, I decided to upgrade. Not to a new system as such, but to an upgraded version of the same phone. The Z10, LTE version. Shame that it only came in White. Pricewise, it had certainly took a dive. There was no guarantee if BlackBerry would continue making phones. In fact, they were talking about selling their phone portfolio.

Why did I upgrade? Well, Maxis offered LTE at no extra cost and my workplace was covered. And the price, it was under RM800! I just couldn't say no to that! It was too good an offer.

As it stood, the keyboard was miles better any I had ever used, including the iPhone. I was not ashamed to admit that. The App Store was improving although it still lack plenty in the imaging department, but who in their right mind would be using a BlackBerry for their photography right?

I pray that BlackBerry would continue to soldier on. They had plenty more to offer on the platform I was sure, even if the profit margin was against that ...