Xperia Go & Xperia Acro S – The water resistant duos

It’s an great idea that Sony has been trying to push out devices that are dust proof and water resistant. It haven’t been a good time to release dust proof and water resistant phones until now, which is the right time. The reason why is because smart phones has integrated to our lives more than we could think of. We eat while reading news on our smartphones, we browse through youtube videos while we are in the loo for the “big projects”, a little bit of reading before our sleep and so much more. It has become some sort of like a cloth, waiting for the waters and sunshines to invade them.

Thus, releasing dust proof and water resistant products haven’t been a good time until now. Plus, in Malaysia it’s probably summer all year and some rain at the end of the year, so our phones are pretty vulnerable to water and rains. Water being that we go to islands, beaches and swimming pool during the summer time, and rain being in the raining season.

For my next device upgrade, water resistant is a must. I almost dropped my phone into the toilet bowl for a few times now, its just a good idea that my phone would be ready when that day comes. Besides, don’t you find it annoying everything time you were showeing and there was that important call and then you had to wipe your face and ear clean just to be disappointed by the other party dropped the call once you’ve clean up your face for the call? With water resistant capability in my next phone, I don’t need to do that anymore and just accept the call directly.

Plus, it’s fun to make videos in the pool, capturing that fun moment should be priceless from anything else. Especially if you have kids at home.

What’s wrong with your 3G DiGi? (It rhymes!) – Part II

Ok so a little bit story on the previous post, hope I didn’t bore you, so what I am looking at here today is the problems that the 3G connection I am facing everyday now. In year 2010 when I first signed up for the iPhone plan, everything was smooth (The 3G connection). Youtube was fast, Facebook was instant, but as years gone by, the 3G network has not been working well it used to. I can’t even get the Facebook app to work at times. My guess is that DiGi is having too many data plan users sharing the same internet connection.

In Peninsula Malaysia, DiGi’s network coverage is the worst in the big 3, but in Sabah, DiGi’s coverage is comparable with Maxis’ Thus, the customer base for DiGi in Sabah is very strong. Starting from my generation, most people chose DiGi instead of Maxis, and Celcom is far away behind in the younger generations. People used to say only the rich uses Celcom, but not today, as the Xpax plan is pretty decent as well. For voice calls, RM0.28 for 5 minutes (To other network) or 10 minutes if Celcom to Celcom. And only 5 sen per SMS to other network or 1 sen per SMS for Celcom to Celcom.

Okay back to the topic for a bit, sure, the 3G connection is fast, but it’s not as stable as EDGE. Especially in the last few weeks, the DiGi 3G network has been a havoc. After confronting my friend who works for DiGi, he simply explained that it might be that DiGi has installed 4G towers in Sabah, and that the 4G LTE network is clashing with the existing 3G radio. I mean, seriously? my iPhone doesn’t support 4G network. How can it clash with the 4G network? Right?

All in all, I’d say DiGi has too many users right now that are sharing the same internet connection. It’s either they really have to upgrade the capacity of their connection or end up more users switching to Maxis or Celcom. Worse, P1 is in town, and YES is coming to town. Get ready for some intense competition!

What’s wrong with your 3G DiGi? (It rhymes!) – Part I

I’ve been a loyal DiGi user since my high school days.

In terms of prepaid, DiGi (016) managed to give us the best call & SMS rates, Maxis (012) a very close 2nd best, followed by Celcom (019), TM Touch (013), & TIME (017).

Celcom was the most expensive to use at the time, where you have to top up for network access which differs from the credit that you can actually use for calls / SMS.

e.g Topup RM50 for 50 days network access, and you will have to topup another RM50 for call/SMS credits; while DiGi, you topup RM50 which includes 30 days network access (which is called credit expiry these days)

But in terms of network coverage, Celcom was the best, (which is essential at the time since our place is full of trees and a lot of remote towns like Papar, Tuaran was not developed at the time.

There were no 010 / 014 / 018 / 0111 in my high school days, but I recall 010 did appear before the Prepaid Era, my father’s time, but had problems with network hacking etc. And getting a VIP number with 3 numbers in a row like 016-8306668 was easy, and the new pack was sold for RM50 but it came with RM50 credits inside, which means you are virtually paying nothing to the simpack. (Those were the days!) These days you only get a RM8.50 pack with RM5 inside. And those VIP numbers with 3 repeating numbers in a row with good numbers like 8883 can go up to few hundreds of dollars each pack.

And then slowly, Celcom and TM Touch merged, which then followed by the Maxis and TIMEdotcom merger. DiGi was still standing tall even with intense competition from these mergers, but as DiGi gave the best prepaid rates, almost everyone in my school who owns a handphone uses DiGi as it is truly affordable for students like us at the time.

Kids nowadays are lucky to have very low rates and with special packs like the Hotlink Youth Club, Celcom’s UOX, SOX & DiGi campus, it’s so affordable that you can just call them without thinking about the credit. But in our times, we like to “PLAY MISS CALL”, even under very urgent situations, and hoping the other person would call back and you get to answer it before he hangs or cancels the phone. You’re the winner if you get to answer the call as it’s automatically charge RM0.15, so the caller would just let the call run since it was charged already. Even with the SMS craze at the time, we still love to “PLAY MISS CALL”, flirting girls.

Thanks to the wonders of mobile phones, I actually get to knew my wife better from “PLAYING MISS CALLS” with her during our school days. She didn’t know my number at the time, but she went on to ask around in class as we were in the same class and finally she knew it was me, and we got along together after starting to text each other more frequently.

I’ll look into the 3G problems that I and most of you are facing, later in the Part II. Stay tuned for my update.

Laksaboy’s Life.

I’m not getting any younger anymore, now currently at 27, I still stay with my parents, and I don’t own any sorts of property. Where is my life leading to?

But one thing for sure is that I am very thankful to my girlfriend, who has been together with me for almost 10 years now, and thankful to my parents and father in heaven for giving me such a healthy body and life.

I have a daily routine of going to work, get back home, meet up with my girlfriend for a drink, and get back home. That’s my daily routine here in Sabah.

But I have a strong passion for good food. I mean, since we are going to eat, why don’t we treat our tummy better and go for the good food? That’s my philosophy but many of the people can’t afford good food and the people in Africa is struggling to get food. But what I mean good food here, isn’t meaning expensive food, cheap foods can be good food too if it’s well cooked by good chefs.

So why laksaboy this name? Ok, me and my girlfriend has been loving this particular laksa mee at a place nearby her workplace. We would go there EVERY single time whenever I have free time to look her out for lunch and on weekends, we would go there again for another meal of the delicious Laksa mee.

But weirdly, the shop was closed about 2 months ago, we went there and the shop just closed, no notice, no anything, the shop was gone! Me and my girlfriend misses that laksa so much we rant about it almost everyday. Thus, the idea of naming this blog laksaboy. Besides, the name sounds fun and catchy as Laksa is one of the most famous and must have local dish in Malaysia.

Do follow my blog on my updates on my food adventures and journey in life.