Well this post is completely unrelated to photography but recently I managed to get a good look at various car mods around and found this particularly interesting for those of you who drive a Volkswagen car (namely the Polo, Golf, Scirocco, Jetta and Passat). Of course, this mod falls under the category of "In Car Entertainment" or ICE for short.

Just to give a little background and put this into context, the RCD series is basically the head unit for Volkswagen cars.



The image above basically sums what I am about to speak about or review. Now in Malaysia, the Golf GTI, Golf TSI, Polo and Scirocco 1.4 TSI comes with this head unit as standard. Its a great unit, it reads CD, for some models, it shows the parking sensors and provide you with information especially if you are going to reverse into something or someone.

Now, here comes the poison. Introducing the RCD 510.



This head unit is vastly different especially in terms of looks which relies on touch screen technology. Other added extras would be the SD card slot and there is an optional bluetooth connectivity kit which allows you to pair your handphone with it and make calls using the Multi Function Display (MFD) or via the controls on your steering wheel.

Here are some of the key changes you would see in terms of graphics that is shown when using the RCD 510 in place of the RCD 310.



Image above shows the welcome screen when you turn on the head unit.



This is when you use either a USB  thumbdrive to plug in to the system. The RCD 510 will display the song title, artist and the album name. Volume and song selection controls from the steering wheel is also available.



This shows the air conditioner controls. As dual controls have been selected, so there are two images depicting the air flow as well as the temperature of the respective areas. Of course this does not replace the control buttons which are still located below the head unit.



This is how the parking sensor will look like. There are two zones, front and rear. When you are rather close to an object it will flash out in orange as shown above. When you are VERY CLOSE, then a bright red will appear. The RCD 510 is also smart enough to identify if your car is a Golf or if it is a Scirocco. The display shown for the Scirocco is different than the one above because the current Golf TSI's sold here in Malaysia at this time, includes the "Light & Sound" package which also features a front sensor.

Note that the following images were not taken by me. I swiped this off my friend's page. If you are interested in getting the RCD 510, do check out his page here and here or just Google "Ryou's Modshop" and you will find it :)



This is how the Bluetooth integration kit would look like once it has been set up.



This is how it will look like from the Multi Function Display (MFD).

The RCD 510 comes standard in the Passat CC and Scirocco 2.0 here in Malaysia so if you go to any of the VW showrooms, you will see this head unit on those models.

After a nice relaxing weekend two weeks ago, I was hammered with a long and busy week. Firstly I attended a two day seminar at the Renaissance Hotel where I checked in there on Wednesday night till Friday then followed with a quick flight up north to Langkawi with the Stories team for a wedding shoot on Saturday.

It was the first time I stayed at the Renaissance Hotel here in KL. I've shot there a couple of times and have seen the rooms there but my stay there throughout the two nights was a pleasant one. I had two beds to myself in the room (until now I have no idea why the firm books those rooms) and the room was fairly large. Still they can't compare to the rooms where I stayed in the Marriot in Putrajaya.

After the 1st day at the seminar, a group of us decided to walk over to the Asian Heritage Row (located next to Sheraton along Sultan Ismail) only to be greeted on a Thursday night, a completely empty street. A lot of the bars were being renovated and those that were open, were completely empty, lest for a few tourists and our group. Apparently everyone has decided to party at Changkat Bukit Bintang according to one of my mates.

On Friday evening, I flew off to Langkawi only to be greeted by a delayed flight but at least the delay was only an hours delay. The shoot started on Saturday morning at The Westin in Langkawi. The resort looked stunning, one of the best looking resorts in Langkawi. I shall leave the details of the wedding for another blog post :)

On Sunday, the sky was very clear as we were flying back to KL and I managed to take a couple of shots of the scenery with my iPhone.



Thats one of the islands around Langkawi in the photo above.



I managed to capture a shot of the Penang bridge when we flew over Penang Island and Butterworth.

After a couple of rounds of playing "Flight Control", I noticed that we were flying over PJ and I could actually see my apartment from the plane! Wo0t!



Can you see where Sri Hartamas is in the image above?

Anyway when I arrived back, I noticed this array of supercars parked in front of Tropicana City Mall. There were a huge number of Ferrari's, Porsches, Lotus Elites, a couple of Audi R8s and a few Lambos.



Everyone was crowding around the cars, taking photos with a couple of the models there as well as with the cars themselves.



Then something caught the eye of everyone's attention. I was also struck with shock, everyone just turned around and started looking at a car which drove by. It was the first time for me seeing this car on the road, the license plate showed that it was totally newly registered, probably a day or two ago. The driver inside had a wide smile because his car caught the attention of all the passers by amongst all of the super cars. Heck, it even made me turn and capture it on camera.



It was the brand new Proton Inspira!!! First time seeing it on the road leh....

Okay, I was just kidding myself. Yes, we had a long 3-day weekend and after two weeks of hectic living, it was good that I managed to get some rest. Note that I just said "some" instead of a good rest. Anyway, Friday itself wasn't exactly a rest day. I was supposed to collect my car on Friday and then head down to Malacca with the peeps for a day trip but alas, I was utterly disappointed when the dealer messed up my registration hence there is yet another delay.

Nevertheless, the trip must go on so we headed down to Malacca for some great food (although I hardly know the various spots for eating even though I was born in Malacca and have traveled there countless of times). The trip down there was eventful as it is, especially if you like travelling in a moving sauna ;)

First stop of the day, Seremban for some good ole beef noodles and loads of sugar cane with lemon (yes, that is my new favourite drink!). The beef noodles were good as well and it was starchy as hell.

Traffic there was totally insane, everyone in Singapore decided to check out what Malacca has to offer as well. The meals started with the coconut shake off Klebang, then for some chicken rice balls in Jonker, loads of cookies and pineapple tarts and ending it with some crepe from Nadeje. So much for my dieting plans.

Saturday itself was relaxing with loads of sleep and SC2 and ending it with dinner with some old uni mates.

Spent more time in Ikea finding stuff for the new place, I am constantly finding new things to buy, or basically more things to get such as a wall clock and a dish drainer and other smaller items which we might have missed out initially. Also it was MW's birthday as well so we had a drink with her as well at Sid's TTDI.

I realised that a snake bite black can definitely keep me awake because I couldn't sleep till 3am this morning. Was busy fiddling with the new Sim City Deluxe game which I bought on iTunes. Although the game was meant for the iPhone but because unlike my mum who has the new iPhone 4, I am still using my older one, hence it gets slow but playing the game on the iPad is just fantastic!

Here's to a great week to everyone out there!