I’ve always looked at alternatives to Streamyx for my internet connection. Not that I despise TMNET but just because of the fact that their service way below par! I’m sure many Malaysian broadband users would attest to this. I had the opportunity to try out Maxis, Digi and P1WIMAX and I think I can share some of my experiences here.

Maxis Broadband

This is the first option I tried. Well, I opted to get their HSDPA modem which theoretically can offer data speeds up to 7.2MBps. I should say that my expectations were pretty high. But then, I realized that I could only get EDGE speeds. Excruciatingly slow speed on a HSDPA modem. I tried tweeting about the problem to @maxiscomms and after a few attempts I managed to get a response from them. From that point onwards, the technical team got in touch with me through email and asked me to send them a snapshot of the connection status on the diagnostics tool. After a day of waiting I was told that my area did not have a good coverage for 3G and there were no immediate plans to improve it as well. So I had to terminate my contract and move on.

Here’s a roundup of the plans available from Maxis broadband:

P1WIMAX

I was actually hoping that P1WIMAX would be the right plan for me. First of all, it offers the best value for money – The 20GB plan is just RM 99 per month. The speed was a little bit inconsistent. I was told by their technical support that from the 10th floor onwards they only offer speeds on a best effort basis. Fair enough that this was told upfront. Best thing about them, they have a 7 day trial period. That is so awesome! I was really sad to return their modem on the 6th day but then I did give them a chance. Their customer service is absolutely great and they are really responsive on twitter too. You should follow @p1wimax and get more details.

Here is a roundup of the plans that they offer:

Digi Broadband

Finally I decided to give Digi broadband a try. I must say that I did not have high expectations at all. But you know what? Their service surpassed my expectations. Initially I was told to try the prepaid internet plan. Of course, the speed is capped at 384Kbps but I was getting around 300Kbps consistently! And the connection status was full coverage for HSDPA! So I decided to go for the postpaid plan and signed up for their 10GB plan. Here is a snapshot of the speed I normally get.

Not too bad that I can get around 700Kbps on an average. Their data plans are pretty competitive as well. And not to mention their support on Twitter – excellent. Follow @DiGi_Telco for any support issues or updates. I am hoping that their service level remains the same throughout the tenure of my contract. So for now, I’m sticking with Digi!

So unless Digi really screws up, I’m not even going to think of Streamyx for now. Maybe Unifi next year, but not Streamyx!

If you’ve never owned an iPhone before and just got your hands on an iPad you must be wondering what you should do in case your iPad starts behaving strangely – which seldom happens actually. For some reasons known only to Apple, your device could be slow, unresponsive or apps might even crash which seemed to be working just fine previously. Well in case you are at your wit’s end on how to resolve these issues, then you could try the following tips.

iPad Hard Reset

This is probably the first thing I would try. Here are the steps to do this:

1. First, find the power button that is located at the top right corner of the iPad when holding it in portrait mode.

2. Once you have located the power button, hold it down for 3 seconds. You will see a rectangular bar on the screen with a red rectangle containing an arrow pointing to the right end of the screen.

3. Slidee the arrow towards the right and the iPad will shutdown (not sleep).

4. Wait for a few seconds. Maybe half a minute will do the trick. Hold down the power button until you see the Apple logo appear on the screen.

5. Your iPad has been hard reset and in most cases resolve the issue.

Take a screenshot of your screen on iPad

Lets say you have an issue on the iPad for which you need help. Get a hold of your geeky friend (you know how to contact me ). If he is not willing to work for beers at your place then you might just want to send a screenshot of what the issue is through email. Here are the steps you need to follow to take a screenshot.

1. Hold the iPad in portrait mode.

2. Get to the screen which you want to take a screenshot of.

3. Hold the power button and the Home button (located in the bottom center of the iPad facing you) together

4. You will hear a camera click. Fret not! There’s no camera in the iPad. It just took a screenshot similar to the ctrl+fn+prt scr function on your PC.

5. You can locate the screenshot picture in your camera roll under “Pictures”.

6. Voila! Email the photo to your friend.

I hope you found these tips helpful. Do subscribe to my blog for future tips as well. Let me know if you need any help in the comments section.

Nicely done Apple! After updating my iPhone 3GS to iOS 4.0.1 I started seeing quite a number of issues on my iPhone 3GS. Firstly I lost all my contacts – yes that’s right! That was so cruel I almost cried . But then I remembered that I had a backup of my numbers on my Macbook. OK, guess syncing my iPhone to the Macbook at least once a month is worth it after all. But the funny part was that I did not lose my contacts immediately after updating the OS. It was perfectly fine for a couple of days and then suddenly one day the contacts mysteriously disappeared right after a phone call. Weird! I wonder if anyone else has seen this kind of behavior before?

Ok, soon after I got over the contacts issue, I started noticing that the phone was actually getting “slow”. Although slow is not a word that I often associate with Apple products, this is what happened to my until then perfectly normal iPhone 3GS. When I say slow I experienced clumsy response while opening SMS, photos and even running some graphic intensive applications. Was something running in the background? With all the multithreading and all built into the OS, I wonder if there is a process that is constantly running in the background that is hindering the performance of my phone.

Well I’ve just updated my phone to iOS 4.0.2 today (yes, I was very late in getting this done being preoccupied with my iPad and all) and hopefully all goes well. Firstly I don’t see the phone stuttering much, and I say that with caution because I want to monitor it for the next couple of days at least. My contacts are still intact (phew!). While still waiting for the iPhone 4 for to be released in the wilderness of Malaysia, I hope my iPhone 3GS recovers soon.

It’s been a while since the last post on gadgetfrik. Well that’s mainly because I have been busy moving. With things settling down I intend to revive gadgetfrik very soon and you will be seeing a new and exciting post by today!

- @gadgetfrik

I’m sure by now everyone who has an iPhone 3G or 3GS will be on iOS4 (I hope the 2G and 3G folks don’t feel left behind). OS4 is really cool for users in many ways. Multitasking, home screen customization, camera zoom, new mail handling capabilities etc etc. So that’s for the users. What about developers? How is iOS4 going to help developers? As Steve Jobs had announced back in April, iAd is going to “revolutionize” the way that application developers will be making money from Apple. I will be first introducing my readers to what iAd is all about and then will follow up with a post on how to integrate iAd into your applications.

Firstly, why iAd and what the hell is it all about? Do you realize the thousands of free apps in the app store have some form of advertising or marketing in built in them? It could either be in the form of some of those ads from admob or the app could be an extension of a business like ebay. Take the example of the ads served by admob. What happens when you click on the app? You get kicked out of the app and land on the advertiser’s website. So what if you want to get back to your app exactly at the same point that you left? Pretty much impossible if you ask me.

What iAd does is to exactly address this issue. The ad is served in such a way that when the user clicks on the ad, he does not have to leave the app at all. The ad appears right in the application and there is no need to leave the app. So after viewing the ad, the user is able to get back to the exact same point where he clicked the ad. Pretty cool if you ask me. Now users will not have any second thoughts to click an ad if they liked what is was serving.

iAd is supposed to bridge the gap between emotion and interactivity. In Steve Job’s keynote address he mentions that while internet ads have interactivity, they lack emotion. And while TV ads have emotion, they lack interactivity. iAd will have both interaction and emotion which is very apparent from the example ads that he has shown in his keynote. Let’s face it – this is going to revolutionize the ad industry in a big big way. The ads will not be intrusive and will be served to the user only once every 3 minutes. That’s almost like the frequency of a television ad according to Jobs.

As a developer I’m certainly excited to try this out. I have already thought of quite a few free applications which I will be launching over the next few weeks. Instead of just relying on the marketing returns, I can certainly hope for some immediate revenue through iAd IF it is successful. I have not seen any live iAd being served on my current apps. Still waiting to see how it will look like in real life although I do have a good feel of it after seeing Steve Jobs’ keynote address.

If you are interested to view this video then I would encourage you to take a look at this youtube video. Its pretty straightforward and gives you an overall idea of this cool concept. Trust me, its 9:38 minutes well spent

Yep, the weekend is fast approaching. Can’t wait to head out with my friends to our favorite watering hole for some good ol’ fashioned whiskey and watch the world cup. So while I was searching for some interesting whiskeys to try out, I came across this incredibly ingenious geek who designed his own server with a whiskey bottle. Now how cool is that. That’s what I call inspiration while working. Jason Marton who designed this server was apparently looking for a quieter, hidden home server. Now thats what I call blending into your mini bar.

Any of you interested to build youw own server from your favorite whiskey bottle? Here’s what you need folks:

• 1.5 liter Ballantine’s bottle
• 3.5″ SBC board
• Intel P3 733EB processor
• 256MB notebook RAM
• 40GB notebook HDD
• 60W mini-ITX PSU
• 44 pin mini-IDE cable

Apparently Jason also had to take the bottle to a professional glass cutter after failing quite a few times using home tools. So unless you have some dandy tools at home, make sure you make friends with your neighborhood glass cutter.

Thanks Lifehacker

Right after I wrote the post on how iOS4 is running on my iPhone 3GS I had people asking me on how I installed the GM seed version on my iPhone 3GS. In fact its a very simple procedure and almost like restoring your phone. But take note that you will need to backup your data because everything will be wiped out when you restore your iPhone. The best part is that the device UDID is not necessary – so if you have a friend who has a developer’s account go ahead and get yourself the iOS GM seed version on your 3GS right away! Here’s a cool video that I followed to get my iPhone 3GS to be upgraded to iOS4.

Ok, so now you moved your blog to a new domain (for whatever reason it might be). But you still don’t want to lose to lose any readers who might still be stuck on your old domain since it has been indexed by Google previously. The best way to get around this will be to do a 301 redirect and place a .htaccess file in the root directory of your old domain. Not sure how to do it? Try these simple steps…

1. Download an ftp client. I prefer filezilla.

2. FTP into your old domain. Here is where you will need to place your .htaccess file

3. Open your favorite text editor and type the code below:

Options +FollowSymLinks

RewriteEngine on

RewriteRule (.*) http://www.newdomainname.com/$1 [R=301,L]

I’ve been really excited since the announcement of the iPhone 4 as well as the iOS4 firmware release last week. Almost everything I wanted on the iPhone will soon be available. The technical advancements made on the iOS4 firmware is pretty neat compared to the previous versions – especially multitasking which has been a big shortfall for a phone which relies so heavily on apps. Not being able to wait until June 25th for the official I went ahead and downloaded the seed version of iOS4 from the iphone developer website – yes being an iphone app developer certainly has its advantages

Although I will be covering the full features of the iOS4 soon after June 25th, I thought it would be worthwhile to write this post anyway as an “appetizer”. Of all the features that are available on iOS4, here are 4 major features I really like:

1. Custom background

Finally I have the option of choosing my own picture as the background for my home screen. The best part is that I can choose different pictures for the wallpaper and homescreen. Neat but nuff said!

2. Multitasking

Finally FINALLY we can have multitasking on the iPhone. It worked pretty fine on my iPhone 3GS but I wonder if there is going to be any lag on the iPhone 3G. Anyone installed it on your iPhone 3G yet?

3. Organization into folders

Instead of running into pages and pages of apps, now I can finally organize my apps into utilities, sports games, business, simulation games and so on. Neat feature to organize the clutter.

4. 5x digital zoom on camera

Although quite a few apps have been able to do it, its finally time that Apple actually provided this feature for free. Tried it out and it does what it says. Nice!

Finally there is something to mention about the iOS4. I did notice that the 3G connection wasn’t as stable as version 3.1.3. It could very well be because that the OS is still not the final version but I need to wait and see if my assumption is right. Overall the experience was that the phone responded a tad slower than 3.1.3 but then again I need to wait for the final version of iOS4 to validate it. Lookout for the full report of iOS4 on my iPhone 3GS in the next couple of weeks. If you want to be updated on my latest blog posts, don’t forget to subscribe to my RSS feed or follow me on twitter!

I was watching a show on computer games this afternoon and suddenly a thought popped in my mind – how I miss playing video games for hours on end! Yes, I was almost an addict and my grandparents had to pry me away from my Atari and PC. I thought that I would like to list five of my favorite games from the 80s and 90s that had captivated my imagination.

1. Pac Man

Definitely one of the most addictive games that I have ever played. I was searching the web for some screenshots and I found this cute youtube video which brings back so many memories.

The game play is pretty simple – steer Pac Man with the arrow keys, avoid the ghosts, and chomp all the pellets. The beauty of the game lies in its simplicity and a very interesting background score! Yes, the game is still very much alive and available for download at Download Free Games.

2. Super Mario Bros.
This is another game that my brother and I used to spend hours on end. I used to love it for the beautiful graphics (at that time yes) and the colorful layout of different levels. It certainly was interesting to see my Mario character grow bigger while consuming the mushrooms and headbutting bricks to collect extra points. Although the objective is to race through the Mushroom Kingdom, survive the main antagonist Bowser’s forces and save Princess Toadstool I never managed to get to the end of the game. Probably I should try my hand at it again. I found a way to beat super mario bros on youtube . Check out the video if you’re interested too!

3. Prince of Persia
This was probably the first game that I played on my PC (yep that was a 386 processor powered “power PC” back in the 90s). Actually this game was first released for the Apple computer back in 1989 and a year later was ported to the PC platform. My first PC keyboard used to take so much punishment as a result of playing this game. I even had friends coming over to my house just to play Prince of Persia. Again, I found a video of this game and I was in a world of my own!

You can download the game at Best Old Games.

4. Tetris
Tetris is an amazingly addictive game. The gameplay is to fit blocks of various shapes and sizes into each other and make sure that each level is cleared. Yes, Tetris messes with your mind. Check out the first ever version of Tetris below:

You can download Tetris at Mahalo.

5. Donkey Kong
Although I didn’t play Donkey Kong as much as the other four games here, I still found the game extremely interesting. This game was released in the early 80s by Nintendo and soon gained massive popularity. Apparently the game was inspired by a combination of Popeye and King Kong. Interesting right? Donkey Kong is considered to be the first platform game. Never got a chance to play the game? Check out the video below:

I hope that for those who have played these games before this post has brought some memories back. I had fun writing this post and thinking of some good old times. If you have any thoughts to share feel free to comment below!

Download and play Donkey Kong at Classic Retro Games.