My Canon EOS 7D

I've been wanted a new dSLR to replace my old Canon 400D that i've sold last year.

If you've been followed me quite some time, probably you know that i lost my iPad during my Australia trip in August'11. So, i can't leave without the iPad and i took the 400D money to buy another iPad2.

Ever since then, i've been taking pictures with my dad's Canon EOS550D.
Until now, i've save up some money to purchased another new camera for myself.

For camera body, i'd prefer to get an used set rather than new one since the 2nd hand price will drop kinda lots. Of course, you must say why don't get a used Canon 5D Mark II that everyone have been dreamt of? That's definitely in my mind to upgrade full frame but all the deals i found was RM5k above for an used set.

I decided to stick with crop factor camera and found this deal in forum. The used 7D.


The box, nope i didn't purchased together with the 15-85mm IS USM kit.
Only the sexy body.


The owner actually well taken care of this camera,  not a single scratch on the body.
Only some small scratch on the straps holder. Hehe..


First time there's a details screen on my dSLR. There were none on my 400D/550D.


And this deal came together with a third party Phottix battery grip.
This is not a must for me actually since this battery grip added some weight on my body.
It will be crazy if i paired my newly 7D + Battery Grip + 24-70L + Nissin Di622.

This is another experience in my photography journey.
Like I posted in my twitter earlier today, 'You may get a crazy gears with money, but you can't buy skills'.
I hope my photography skills able to go into another level and can do some part time money. Hehehe..

Smart Cover Review. To buy or not to buy?

Apple began the sale of iPad 2 at March 11, 2011 in USA.

This time, the hot topic next to iPad 2 is the Smart Cover introduced by Apple.

Smart Cover is a thin & sleek cover specially made for iPad 2.

It's perfectly match for the size of iPad 2, brighten it up, & unlock the screen when you open the Smart Cover. Personally, I myself bought the Pink polyurethane Smart Cover to pair with my White iPad 2. Bought it from Apple Store Online with RM159. Got it within a week.

It's really thin, and classic for me. The quality is very nice, especially when you compare the Smart Cover with the Genius cover claimed by some China third party company.

It's really thin when i unpacked it. Approximately 2mm from my view.

As usual written on Apple product. Designed by Apple in California, Assembled in China.

The sentences written were very clear.

There's a serial number at the hinge there for each Smart Cover.

So, beware of the serial number if you're purchase from third party.

So what about the back part of iPad 2 that doesn't covered by Smart Cover?

I'd recommend a back case for it, i bought it from Lowyat.net for only RM30.

It's white in colour and perfectly match with iPad 2 White too.

If yours is black probably you need to buy the white one.

The back casing hold your iPad 2 steadily.

Comparing the Smart Cover with Backcover.

The back cover has a slot for your volume button, so you don't have to worry that will block your volume button. Not to forget, the camera slot too.

Most important part, it has a place for the Smart Cover. It's fully compatible with Smart Cover, not bad right?

It has the speaker slot too.

How to put on your Smart Cover? It's very easy, you just need to put it near to your iPad 2. It'll automatically stick on it, all thanks to the magnet. It will not fall down unless you apply some force on it.

Flat mode, when you like to put it flat on the table.

It's closed and your screen will be locked as well. Thanks to the magnet.

So when you feel like to play your iPad 2 in horizontal mode, you can fold it like this.

The angle is just nice for surfing net and typing as well.

This is the full look of Smart Cover paired with the TPU Back cover. Personally like it so much for now.

So if you're asking me, to buy the Smart Cover or not?

The answer is YES, and it's better to bundle with the back cover if you're worry about scratching it later.

5 reasons that you should buy a smart cover:

1) It's specially made for iPad 2.

2) The auto turn on & off feature is very cool.

3) It's thin & sleek, not bulky at all.

4) The quality is great.

5) *Personal thinking* For me & my gf, we thinks that iPad 2 had to be paired with smart cover. It doesn't look 'so iPad 2' if it doesn't come with Smart Cover.

If you're thinking of so called Genius cover that covered your back & front, save your money and better invest on Smart Cover + Back cover.

Polyurethane Smart Cover price: RM159

Leather Smart Cover price: RM299

iPhone 4 full review

Since there's gonna be a official launching for both Maxis and Digi telco,

Here's i come out with idea to write a full review as i can about the new iPhone 4.

Before i started my review, some of you might curious how i got it before Malaysia launch?

Well, i got it from Australia for factory unlocked set, With Aud $859, approx RM2.4k+-.

Brought back from Australia from Ahboo. Big thanks for him.

So, it's almost 2 months i've own the this iPhone 4.

Eligible for a review now? :D

First, the iPhone 4 is powered by an Apple A4 chip,

instead of Samsung-built chip in previous 3Gs.

Engadget predicted it should be below 1GHz.

Next, the RAM is 512MB on-board,

It's pretty much increase because previous 3Gs model was 256MB only.

In the box

From the outlook of the box, i'd prefer previous version which i felt is nicer.

Unsealed the box and you'll get an iPhone 4, Dock-to-USB connector, Apple Earphone with remote and mic, USB power adapter and the documentation about the iPhone 4.

The front

After activated with your iTunes account, you can start using it.

This is the classic iPhone lock screen which you've to slide the slider to unlock the screen.

There's a button which is Home button.

There's proximity sensor and ambient light sensor in the front.

Which is somewhere near the top of the screen there.

Oh ya, iPhone 4 do support front camera too!

There's a VGA camera at the front.

The back

As usual as iPhone, there's a shiny Apple logo at the back.

And also a 5-megapixel auto focus camera with LED flash light.

This is a big improvement with LED flash, easy to snap at night.

The Right side

This is the sim-card slot, you'll have a sim card eject pin in your documentation box.

Use the pin and push the hole at the right hand side of the iPhone 4.

The tray will eject after a slightly tough push.

The Left side

Start from the left button from the pics above,

That is a ring/silent switch, push it down then it will be in silent mode.

Next, it's the volume key. '+' and '-'..

The Top

There's a hole there for earphone jack, it support 3.5mm earphone jack.

I'd personally use Beat by Dr Dre Tour earphone for it.

The Bottom

Start from left, this is the mic, 30 pin hole for dock-to-USB connector, and speaker.

Retina Display

(Picture taken from Engadget.com)

The retina display on iPhone 4 is a 3.5'' multitouch screen, with 960 x 640 pixels resolution.

Image above is a comparison for the resolution between iPhone 3Gs at the left, and iPhone 4 on the right. Can you spot the difference now?

For your information, iPhone 3Gs was 480 x 640 pixel resolution.

Folder

With the great update firmware from Apple, iPhone 4 is supporting Folders.

This can be easily categorize your apps on your springboard.

Each folder can maximum keeping 12 Apps inside.

I find it quite useful if you like a clean springboard instead of messy one.

Multitasking

Nowadays multitasking is a must for smart phone. Of course iPhone 4 too.

Imagine there's SMS coming in when you're playing game, should you read it or not?

If read then your game is closed. If not how you gonna know what you message about?

FaceTime

This is the main purpose for having a VGA camera at front.

The Facetime! Introduce by Apple, the brand new video call from cellphone.

This is Wifi based webcam feature, which is free when you're connected to wifi.

From my experience in calling from Malaysia to Australia,

First you have to make sure your internet is fast enough, coz my facetime disconnected when there were 3 computers are connected to the router. But it's very smooth when 1 or none of the computer are using the internet. Anyway, this is a very good feature from Apple!

Camera

With the support of 5 megapixels still camera, it's FTW!

Supporting tap-to-focus shooting.

Video recording is supported too, with HD (720p) up to 30 frames per second with Audio.

LED Flash and also supporting geo-tagging.

Camera (Food shot)

This is the food shooting that i've tried during my lunch earlier.

Straight out from my iPhone 4 camera without editting. :)

Camera (Macro shot)

Tried a macro shot (or maybe not) on my eneloop batteries.

The focus point is tap on the third batteries.

Camera (Scenery shot)

Tried on shooting scenery at night few days ago.

This is the results.

The dead grip

Some of you must be very curious on the death grip thingy on the iPhone 4.

Mine is not as serious as what you thought.

Never experience any drop calls or watsoever.

Even if you're getting a copy of iPhone with the death grip thingy,

a case would solve it perfectly. But so far i'd not seen any bad death grip thing yet.

So, no worries on that.

The battery life

This is the only thing i would like to complain about.

It has the built-in lithium ion battery, which require charging either USB/adapter.

From my experience for 2 months, you need to charge it everyday!

With 3G turned on, wifi sometimes. The battery drain quite fast.

I'd to make sure my battery enough whenever i want to go out.

Apple should make it more capacity! hahaha..

Well, After my explanation on iPhone 4. Does it make sense?

Are you joining Apple club like me? :P

Verdict

iPhone 4 is the phone i wanted so far, with tons of applications supported.

This is the best phone that i ever own, coolest phone also.

Try it, if you're a tech lover like me, you won't regret!

If you're a game lover, you won't regret!

If you're a online freak, you won't regret! (if you subscribe data plan)

If you're a Apple fanboy, you won't regret for sure! hahaha..

Beats by Dr Dre Tour Review

I got myself an earphone last week, it was purchased from Australia.

It's the Beats by dr. dre Tour in-ear phone.

Recommended by my gf and her friends.

The retails price is $179.95 in other country, but Malaysia seller is selling RM999.

I managed to get slightly cheaper than the price from Kassie's friend in Australia.

The box

It took a week for Pos laju delivered to my house all the way from Australia.

It wrapped by a black box outside.

A stunning red box that attracted my attention once I'd took it out.

A noticeable big logo and also the name were printed on the Red box.

The design is very simple and nice.

The earphone

A Beats by Dr. Dre logo on both side of earphone.

The wire is flat as you can see, they called it 'The World First tangle free cable'.

'Sound has always been the the most important thing to us, but we were determined to get rid of the annoying ritual of untangling the earbud bird's nest we all know and hate. After ten long years of passionate research, we finally found the solution. We flattened things out. The exclusive patent-pending Tour flat cable design virtually eliminates the tangles and snarls that have plagued earbuds since they hit the market. With Tours, you'll spend less time untying knots, and more time enjoying your music. You’re welcome.'

Apparently the beats word is kinda cool for me.

It's not the volume control tho, this model not included.

It has the gold plated 3.5mm plug for giving a better connection between your iPod/MP3s to your earphone.

My review

Firstly, i put it into my ear once I unboxed it. The sound were so-so and not as perfect as what Kassie told me. I'd left it for 5 hours burn-in session. I know it ain't enough for burn-in a new earphone, but impressively the earphone made a big changes for me after the burn-in session.

So far this is the best earphone I've own.

For those who doesn't know what's burn-in, click here for burn in details.

and also, this is the correct way to use an in-ear headphone.

Perfumes

Few weeks ago, Kassie told me that Wawa is offering her to buy perfumes with promotion price as her friend is working as aircrew. There was a promotion for the stuffs. Therefore she asked whether we need any perfumes with cheap price? For a shopaholic like me and kassie, of course we want! :P Thank you Wawa!

Bought for Kassie's mum, her bro and my mum too.

If you're following my twitter, u would probably know that i'd received those perfumes today.

First is the photo of Kassie's Lancome Magnifique!

Here comes a red sexy lady box.

I actually thinks that the bottle looks nice!

Price we bought was RM110.

How hot is the red sexy perfume? and it taste nice!

Next, my mum's Chanel. RM133, with this fugly box.

Ended up with a light green perfume inside, how weird combination is it?

But it taste quite freshy too. Nice!

Here comes my perfume, the Cartier Roadster.

I personally like the design so much. It smell abit tough tho.

But it's quite okay for long time smelling. More to prom night/ ball night?

I'd a Hugo Boss XY which i bought from my previous Langkawi trip last year, it smell much more fresh and lighter than this Roadster. So now i've the perfect combination with one light and one tough. *wink*

Stealth Guard Protector for iPhone 4 Review

This is the very first time i received mail from United State.

First Mum was shocked, how come i hav this mail from there?

Okay, if you followed my own Twitter , you would probably know that i've registered from Stealth Guard Company with the free protector.

I was told by my gf, Kassie about this promotion.

Which i don't know what's the reason they are giving free protector for all the iPhone 4 user.

This is the envelope with United State stamp on it.

The Stealth Guard protector. It's cheap tho, and i've ordered two.

Seriously thanks to StealthGuard company for the protector.

Soon when i unwrapped the envelope, i quickly applied on my phone.

From the results, this is a failure for me.

Is it my skills or because of the protector?

This is my first time failed in putting screen protector seriously.

Never fail before.

From my side of thinking, i felt that the protector is very soft.

and it's hard to stick properly on my iPhone 4 even tho i've tried slowly.

There's bubbles easily which i wonder why.

The size isn't match perfectly with my phone, if i'm matching the camera spot with the camera, the bottom part of protector exceed my phone body around 1mm.

For the bubbles occurred, i've tried to push it using cloth.

Success removed some of the bubbles but it still looks ugly.

Maybe i should attempt the second protector instead of this one? haha.

But for now, i found myself a very efficient way to make my phone look beautiful and sexy as before.

Want to know? Seriously it looks good with this method!

Scrool down for the answer.

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Okay now it looks good with my casing from DC Mugen, Ebay.

FML. epic fail.

However, still be very grateful to Stealth Guard Company with this protector.

Although my first attempt failed but i believes there's always a better results on the second attempt which i believe happens in short while.

p/s : Heard from my friends. The bubble will be auto dissipate out for some short time. Let's observe this in this few days time! :)

pp/s: Okay, after 24 hours of applied on my iphone 4. The bubbles are dissipated as what my friends told me. Now it's lesser bubble. But there's one things i've notice, the edge of the protector are dust sucker. Quite some dust on the edge now.

Everything's smooth now. Bubbles are gone! Left some dust because of my mistake during installation. Anyway, there's an installation guide from StealthGuards company itself.