25 Sept 2014

My essential driving gear

After moving back to Malaysia, I joined the University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus in Semenyih, Selangor. Without traffic, it is only about 45 minutes from my house in Petaling Jaya. However, it normally takes between an hour to sometimes even more than two hours on a bad day. There are several routes I can take but as I am still not familiar with the roads here and I have to depend on a satnav. Unfortunately, I cannot use my TomTom One satnav here in Malaysia. I heard that they are in the process of mapping the roads but till then I have to use an alternative. My favourite is the free Waze app. It is amazing in finding alternative routes when I get stuck in traffic jams.

However, problems with sat reception and undependable mobile battery life was making my life difficult until my father passed me his new Papago Z1 satnav. Apparently this is one of the most popular satnavs in Malaysia.



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Initially I really hated it as it was not user friendly, the pronunciations of names were really bad and I often had a hard time finding addresses. However, now that I am more familiar with the device and its user interface, it has become a really useful tool in finding alternative routes.

Another pet peeve of mine are the various tolls on the highways. I needed to make sure I had some small cash in my pocket always and the queuing up is really frustrating. I used to be envious of people who used to zoom off on the automated lanes with the SMART TAG system and got one of my friends to get one for me. I really wonder why all drivers do not get one as well but then it might not be a good idea as queues start forming on the SMART TAG lanes as well.





Drive safely everyone.

22 Sept 2014

Nokia N900 Cracked

I have been looking forward to upgrading my mobile phone for a while but have been putting it off for the simple reason that my old Nokia N900 was still doing a great job. It has survived several falls and tumbles and even an dip in the bath. However, soon after we moved back to Malaysia, it slipped off my hands and fell flat on it's face. The result:


This is my second phone with a cracked screen. I still have a Samsung Galaxy Note with a cracked screen. This proves that these phones with super tough screens will still break (Check out the various new iPhone 6 drop tests on YouTube) when they fall face down and phone cover designers need to somehow keep this in mind. They should somehow incorporate designs which prevent the phones from falling flat on their screens. Ayyway, I have learnt my lesson and will invest on thick covers with screen protectors next time though it will be a pain to answer and make calls every time.

Fortunately, in the meantime I still have my old trusty Samsung Galaxy S2. It still works perfectly but I need to get a new micro SD card so I can load up all the apps I use regularly.