Yes that's right! According to my colleagues and some of my friends, I have been deemed an Apple fanboy in their eyes. Little do they know that I just favour convenience over style (of course style matters a lot). Anyway, who says I am an Apple fan boy? I use an iPhone 4 on a daily basis, I have my iPad 3 with me which I absolutely adore because I watch movies on it when I travel, I connect to my PLEX server at home and I read all my Manga on it. I also have a 2008 Macbook Pro which is sort of dying and soon to become a permanent home server for me and a couple of iPods which I won last time. Who says I am an Apple fan boy?

So when I managed to convince my friend (he was currently using the Note 1) to get the new Samsung Note 2 after catching Tiger Woods at the CIMB Classics last weekend (Maxis had a booth offering the Note 2 for RM999 for Maxis One Club members), I only managed to get my hands dirty with it a couple of days ago (sorry mate, my hands wasn't exactly dirty and I know you put your phone next to your face). And boy, was I completely blown away. Mostly with the beautiful size of the screen, as much as a retina display supporter I am, the larger screen of the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 was just awesome.

Of course there were certain drawbacks. The phone was huge! Could barely fit into my tight work pants but definitely in my casual shorts. The phone was surprisingly light! But the OS interface seems a little messy and I feel that there are just way too many features which I think clutters up the whole screen. But that is just an initial feel, I felt the same way when I moved over to iOS.

I was quite convinced, the few apps which I use quite often are available there (mostly mainstream ones such as Facebook, WhatsApp, LINE, etc,etc,etc). Other than the cheaper price, I know the iPhone 5 would cost a lot more when it launches as well as not having a larger screen (compared to the Note 2), the pull of the dark side was really really strong! But seriously guys, why do you call yourselves the dark side anyway? Apple seems like the empire to me right now and since Disney bought over the Star Wars franchise, I can just imagine Storm troopers breaking out in song just before firing upon the rebels.

Anyway, back to my current itch. It was the 31st of October, the very last day of the offer by Maxis, I was still contemplating whether or not should I go for the Note 2. I am currently not bound on any Maxis contract and the last phone I purchased from Maxis was the iPhone 3Gs. Whilst sitting at my desk in my office located at KLCC, the Maxis store beneath Menara Maxis was but a 5 minute walk and I was comparing the current plans that I had versus the new 2 year plan I would need to sign up.

About 80% convinced, I shared this with some of my colleagues who kept on pushing me to go for it (especially those who are currently using the Android platform). Of course those who were true to Apple would still tell me to wait for the iPhone 5 which hasn't had had any indication on when it will be released in Malaysia.

Fortunately or unfortunately, it is currently my project's cutover period. Cutover is a word used to articulate how busy an IT person might be and is constantly one of the key and most stressful times of an IT project. Hopefully that gives an idea of how hectic it has been here at work where I was running from multiple meetings and discussions until I noticed my watch and it was already 9.00pm and I have missed out on the offer.

Oh well, I think my iPhone 4 (which I am officially borrowing from my mum) still rocks. Somewhat.

I feel like I am opening up a large can of worms here.

Rest in peace Steve Jobs, that seemed to be the theme this whole entire month when the iconic and visionary CEO of Apple passed away. Plenty of blog posts, news wire, memorial services flood the internet, I was curious. Curious about his life, curious about this photo.



Yes, that is the photo on the splash screen on the Apple website. Getting aside from being emotional over the demise of a great man, the curious side of me or shall I say the photographer in me wondered, who was the guy who took that image of Steve and what was the story behind it?

This sort of sparked from a message I received from Grace about taking images of family members during a wedding and you never knew when they would use those images. The last thing on my mind was that at the funeral memorial service. But it did make sense to use because in our Malaysian mindset, taking photos isn't so much of something my parent's generation like to do and how many times have we seen on the obituary, the photo used in our IC (identification card) is displayed.

Anyway back to the point. After mucking around on the internet, I found out a little bit more about the story behind the image of Steve. Read it more below.

Steve Jobs: Visionary, Inventor, and Very Challenging Photo Subject

©Doug Menuez/Getty Images

The media is heaping accolades on Apple founder Steve Jobs, who died yesterday of cancer at the age of 56. Tributes have poured in from all over the world. Jobs was a  visionary who changed the way we use and interact with technology. The iPhone and iPad have certainly helped re-make the photography landscape.

But Steve Jobs also had a reputation among photographers for being a difficult subject–and not just run-of-the mill difficult, but the archetype of difficult.

“It was the joke among photographers. He was like the nightmare subject,” says San Francisco photographer William Mercer McLeod, who photographed Jobs on assignment a total of five times, and once worked for Apple, helping to develop the company’s Aperture software.

Asked to recount his experiences photographing Jobs, another photographer said,  “I don’t really want to be the guy who pans iGod during this hour of national mourning!”

Photojournalist Ed Kashi, who photographed Jobs about 10 times between the early 1980s and early 1990s, recalled via text message, “He was one of the most difficult subjects I ever dealt with during my Silicon Valley years but I appreciated his awareness of identity, setting and message of the images. There was one time I had to get a picture with him and Ross Perot and when Jobs acted up Perot turned to him and like a stern parent said ‘Steve, Grow up!!’ No matter how dreadful he could be as a subject, I am deeply saddened by his early departure.”

McLeod says his first encounter with Jobs was as an assistant for Kashi. “It was in the late 80s. [Jobs] walked into the photo shoot and started moving the lights around. Then he picked up the phone and called the art director in New York and said he wanted to do something different.”

McLeod recalls how he and Kashi stood there watching in disbelief. “He’s the only person I ever saw do that,” McLeod continues. “Photographing Steve was like a dance. He had such a thing for control like nobody I’ve ever seen. He loved to be in charge. He wanted to have his say.”

“From an editor’s standpoint he could be difficult,” says Scott Thode, a former Fortunemagazine photo editor. “[He was] not unlike a political candidate. The main difference is that he had a real sense of design and how things can look.”

Doug Menuez spent more time photographing Jobs than just about any other photographer, after Jobs agreed to let him document the development of the NeXT computer. Menuez had access to the labs and boardroom for three years.

“In all those years, Steve only screamed at me at the top of his lungs once,” Menuez recalls. It was in 1988, when Fortune hired Menuez to shoot a portrait of Jobs for the cover of the magazine. Menuez wanted to photograph him in the NeXT offices, on a staircase that Jobs had commissioned architect I.M Pei to design. Jobs arrived for the shoot, looked at what Menuez had in mind, “then [he] leaned in and says, ‘This is the stupidest fucking idea that I’ve ever seen.’ Right in my face, like  5 or 6 inches away,” Menuez says. “I felt like I was 10 years old. He went off on a tirade. He said, ‘You just want to sell magazines. ‘And I said, ‘And you want to sell computers.’ And at that he said, ‘OK,’ and sat down.

Menuez concludes, “ I’ve been in war zones, but I like to say that I became a man learning how to stand my ground with Steve.”

Albert Watson, who photographed Jobs just once for a portfolio of people in power that Fortune commissioned him to shoot in 2006, had a different experience from other photographers. “The one thing I insisted on was that we have a three hour window of set up time,” Watson says. “We were prepared…we set up to make [every shoot] as greased lightning fast as possible for the [subject].’ Watson says he had also read “a massive amount of stuff” about Jobs to help him conceptualize the shoot, and so he would be able to converse with Jobs intelligently.

When Jobs walked in, Watson says that his power, charisma and genius were palpable. “It was like when Clint Eastwood walks in to the room.”

Jobs didn’t look immediately at Watson, but looked instead at the set-up and then focused on Watson’s 4×5 camera “like it was something dinosauric,” Watson recalls, “and he said, ‘Wow, you’re shooting film.”

“I said, ‘I don’t feel like digital is quite here yet.’ And he said, ‘I agree,’ then he turned and looked at me and said, ‘But we’ll get there.’”

Jobs gave Watson about an hour–much longer than he ever gave most photographers for a portrait session. “I had wanted to do the shot in a minimalistic way because I knew that was going to suit him very well. He said, ‘What do you want me to do?’ I said I would like 95 percent, almost 100 percent of eye contact with the camera, and I said, ‘Think about the next project you have on the table,’ and I asked him also to think about instances where people have challenged him.

“If you look at that shot, you can see the intensity. It was my intention that by looking at him, that you knew this guy was smart,” Watson says, adding, “I heard later that it was his favorite photograph of all time.”

Apple cleared its home page today to post that photograph as a tribute to Jobs.

(correction: an earlier version of this story said Fortune commissioned Albert Watson to photograph Steve Jobs in 2008. The date was actually 2006.)

Source of the story: http://pdnpulse.com/2011/10/steve-jobs-visionary-inventor-and-very-challenging-photo-subject.html 

The amount of work put in by the photographers just to shoot Steve was absolutely amazing, I mean, 3 hours or prep work? Shooting in film? Standing up to his screams? These are the guys who like in turn captures the most amazing or memorable images. And with this image plastered on the Apple main page, hundreds of millions of people will remember Steve by it. What an honour.

Now, to gain a little bit of insight to what they meant about Steve's character, I would recommend that you watch this show, Pirates of Silicon Valley, to see how Steve's character was portrayed alongside together with Bill Gates. Because frankly, before watching this movie, Steve in my head was that of an angel with a strong fatherly figure and someone you might look up to and ask for more porridge. Well, that movie did definitely set my thinking straight but it also came to me as a revelation that Steve's character is what made Apple what it is today.

Last night as I was trying to fight the after effects of jet lag (thanks to my 28-hour door to door journey from Chicago to KL), I saw that Steve Jobs has indeed released Lion and it was available in it's new form which was a downloadable update via the App Store. I am for one, am glad that the update came in the form of the App Store and it was easily downloadable. All I needed to do was fire up my Unifi connection and then download the package.

Now this was a huge difference from my experience about two weeks back when my home PC decided to die on me after a good 6 years (yes, the motherboard failed on me) and I decided to rebuild a whole new PC. Together with that set up, I bought a copy of Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit and the whole process of installing everything again took a good long day. What I didn't mention was that the guy at Compu-Zone was trying to figure out why the DVD writer driver couldn't be detected. After troubleshooting almost every component in the PC, the fault laid with the power supply.

What I am trying to point out is that, even with my old Macbook Pro 2008 model, the whole installation was fast and easy. It took me around 20-30 minutes to download Lion, and another 20 minutes to install it over my existing Snow Leopard installation. At the end of the day, I was very impressed and more so impressed by the price tag. USD$29,90 for the entire Operating System. I just paid like RM400 for my copy of Windows 7 and yet Apple has done it again with it's low price.

By the time the installation was completed, I managed to fiddle around with the new OS and the two most impressive thing that I enjoyed was Launchpad and Mission Control. Definitely a good way or sorting out my Apps, previously I would always curse trying to find out apps which I installed but totally forgotten about. Unfortunately for me as well, I can't utilize multi gestures due to the fact that my Macbook Pro was made in the dinosaur ages hence that is one thing I have yet to experience.

Perhaps a new Macbook Air might do the trick but as much as I would love one of those, I really can't justify the need for one.

 

 

 

 

Saw this bit of news on MacRumors, ever since the WWDC keynote event where Mac OS X Lion, iOS 5 and others were announced by good old Steve Jobs, one of the new features of iOS 5 did manage to catch my eye.

Image source - MacRumours

One of these new features within iOS is iMessage which is Apple's own messaging service for it's own devices. Built in to messages itself, what iOS 5 now will do is to check if the recipient of your message is using an iOS device and then sends it via iMessage instead of the usual SMS channel.

I guess this is Apple's official answer to RIM's Blackberry messenger, WhatsApp and other messaging service. I do hope that there are other features such as group chats and all but as much as I like this to work, we all still have friends who don't use iOS and rely on Blackberries and Android.

What it does allow us to do is to save a bit of cash instead of sending SMS out, and I really do like it's transparency feature where you only need to access messages instead of launching a separate app such as WhatsApp.

Can't wait for these new goodies to be available especially since I promised munz that I would get her an iPhone 5 and I definitely do need to upgrade my current MacbookPro. So far rumours have it is that the next model will sport a whole new casing design. Will probably wait for that. Also another feature which I am really looking forward to, is syncing iOS devices via Wi-fi.

Credit - MacRumors

It's Wednesday, that means there can either be two things, one, you only have 2 more days before completing your work. Two, the weekend is almost at hand. When it is a Wednesday, this means it is time for a Wednesday Clicks!

• I always suspected that a car wash business is actually good. Check out this one, he can charge up to $11,000 for a car wash!


• You just got to love the chinese for doing what they can really do, copying off Apple's product. Check out their website here and see it for yourself!


• So after so many years in operations, Proton has decided to go back to the old drawing board and used Mitsubishi car designs for their next Waja replacement models. Are they not the least bit innovative or have they wasted so much money on useless R&D that sky rockets their costs up?


• How do you use the iPad as a photographer's helper? Check it out here.


• I have always been trying to get my colleagues to head over to Lot 10 all the way from Cyberjaya to try their food. Although the journey is long, but I feel that it is worth it. Check out some of the delicious food here.


• Don't forget to vote for me and Mun Tzin here at the PJ Hilton competition! http://bit.ly/vote4mark

Have a great week ahead folks!

A very busy weekend with extreme late nights and also thanks to Blizzard for release Starcraft II after more than 10 years mean that I have very little time left to blog :)

• Did you know that lasers from laser shows can damage your DSLR's sensor? Check it out here.


• Do you know who Jonas Peterson is? Well, I just absolutely love his work.


• Can you imagine if Tokyo would have been left untouched and there was no people left in the city, what would it turn out to be? Well you can stop imagining and see some of the amazing images here.


• Here is how you can make your own iPhone 4 steadicam. Totally cool!


• Apple released a bundle of new upgrades and products yesterday. This include new iMacs, Mac Pros, a magic trackpad, rechargeable batteries and a 27" monitor. Head over here to find out more.


• Someone found Ansel Adam's negatives which is now valued at a whopping USD$200million. Now I wished that someone was me instead.

Have a great week ahead. For those of you playing Starcraft II, do make sure you keep yourself hydrated and get enough sleep!

The iPad was announced by Apple a week ago and with every new product that Apple announces and produces, there will be a plethora of blog posts and newspaper columns which creates a lot of buzz in the industry. First one I read was when Scott Kelby wrote about the iPad being launched and where he would like to get one for himself and for his wife. This sparked quite a fair bit of debate in his comments section (yes that guy gets loads of comments in his blog! I wonder why no one writes any comments here on my blog :P). Take a slow read at the comments and you would find that there will always be 3 camps. One which is pro-apple, one that is anti-apple and one that is the neutral camp.

Of course, after the heated comment debate, Scott wrote a post to reply all of the questions that have been posted up in his comments section which was rather lengthy and also yet entertaining to read. Then this morning I was greeted with a post by another guy saying that why the iPad is not for him as well.

So being ever so curious, I went about asking questions to some of my colleagues and clients as well as some of my friends about what they thought about the iPad. Of course I got the usual cracks about it being named after a sanitary pad but after the jokes and laughs, most of them decided that they are not going to get it now or when it launches. A lot more of them would prefer to get it when the 2nd generation model is out. I guess this was one of the responses from previous experience when the iPhone was launched (the 1st model wasn't available in Malaysia and only the 3G version was launched much later).

Anyway, I do see myself getting one but of course there are a lot of functionality that most Malaysians can't get with iTunes such as the ability to purchase music, videos and movies online via the iTunes store and with the iBook store going to be limited to the US only, that would just mean that this product is gonna be a large iPod touch.

But I do see myself buying it in the sometime future depending on some of my assumptions below.

1) As a photographer

I can definitely see the usefulness of the iPad as a photographer. This means that when meeting potential clients, we can display our portfolio on a much larger screen as well as show them previously made slideshows which are definitely very useful. The iPad also means that we don't have to carry a large laptop (I am getting tired of the weight of my 15" MacbookPro) out for quick catch-ups and meetings.

2) As a consultant

I love the fact that iWorks is going to be available on the iPad as well as it's ability to read MS Office documents and PDF files. Great to bring into meetings (aside from lugging around a laptop or if you work in an organization that requires you to work on a desktop) without the need to print out documents for reference. This equates to you saving the environment, well sort of, because you are not printing any unwanted documents.

I can also see it being used as I present presentations, that is if there is a way for the iPad to transmit via Wi-Fi to the project, that would be an even bigger advantage.

3) When I am travelling

No doubt that I constantly watch movies on my iPod video and when the battery does run out, I switch over to my iPhone (has not enough memory space!), whenever I travel. The life span of my iPod is about to reach it's end as it has now been relegated to staying in my car, so the iPad would prove to be a good traveling companion. I can easily transfer all of the movies I already converted for my iPod video for the iPad via iTunes.

All in all, these decisions are just some of the factors for me deciding to get one but I guess the biggest factor of all would be the price of the iPad. Hopefully the conversion rate doesn't kill us over here and perhaps be within the range where I can claim the iPad via tax.

Only time can tell.

Its Wednesday today and you know what that means, more interesting links out! I have for one thing learned recently that it takes friggin a lot of discipline to work and study at the same time. Anyway, before I skew off even more, let's check out what is new this week.

• I know everyone is waiting for the iPhone 3.0 OS to be release for their iPhones. Well this isn't really a link but here are some links to some new applications which will be launched as well. Tweetdeck for the iPhone (YAY!) and MapQuest is releasing their alternative software to the GoogleMaps.


• I posted in last week's Wednesday Clicks about a video which theBackPackr created for the McDonald's competition to win the iPhone. Guess what? They won the challenge and are now proud parents of the iPhone 3G.


• There are rumours of a leaked press material for the upcoming Nikon D300s. I am not too sure myself if it might be real.


• If you wanted to know more about Adobe Lightroom and how to maximise your workflow, Jon Low, a professional wedding photographer of IdealWedding has just the right answer for you. Thanks so much for sharing Jon!


• Check out Timothy Tiah's blog post on his holiday to Phuket. For those of you who are curious on just who Tim is, he is one of the founders of NuffNang which is a blog advertising network. One of the reason why it's up on this week's WC is that there is an interesting link in his blog post I found, it was in regards to a travel agency which handled his trip, PYOTravel.Com. I checked out the site and it definitely has very cheap prices. Site booked marked.

Before I finish this post, I would like to remind you that there are 3 ways you can eat "pan mee".

The first way, which is the most common one is to eat it in the form of a noodle soup.

Image source: Eating Asia

The second way is to eat it in the form of dry noodles with an accompanying bowl of soup.

Image source: Eating Asia

The third way, which I think this new restaurant is trying to revolutionize, is to eat it frozen.

Dang, chilly "pan mee", do you top it up with ice cream?

Anyway, this is another branch of super kitchen's chilli pan mee which is located in SS2, near Ang Kee restaurant and further down from Kayu Nasi Kandar behind Lim Mee Yoke restaurant.

Shootfest came and shootfest finished in a blink of an eye for me but instead of dreaming of the past, I will strive to move forward. Forward with this week's Wednesday Clicks, that is. I also realised that a post without pictures is definitely boring! So here is a image I took while I was away in NYC.


The park in the image above is the famous Central Park of Manhattan.

• This link highlights how organisations can use Twitter to their advantage.


• After Jenny's talk at Shootfest on personal branding, this link is definitely an interesting read as it teaches you how to do your own personal branding at work.


• For all of you iPhone users out there, check out what to expect with version 3.0. It will be launched next week on the 17th of June! I definitely can't wait for it!


• In case you have been living under a coconut for the past couple of days, Apple has announce loads of stuff at their recent WWDC conference. First up is their new refurbished line of 15" MacBook Pros and 17" MacBook Pros. Oh right, I shouldn't forget, 13" MacBook Pros. Yes, Apple is now calling all unibody laptops, MacBook Pros while they maintain a single white MacBook in their line up. Also to be anticipated is Snow Leopard which is being offered at USD$29. How cheap is that? And what everyone has been waiting for as well, the announcement of the Apple iPhone 3G-S.


• Chase Jarvis says it all here on why the new Apple iPhone 3G-S is a must have for photographers.


• Interested in seeing how many apps are there available for the Apple iTunes App store? Check out this wall of LCD monitors to find out more.

Here is a little reason why I chose Wednesday to have the Wednesday clicks, its because in the week, whenever you reach Wednesdays, its all downhill from here. Have a great week ahead!

This week on Wednesday Clicks I am proud to give you a new word to learn, "Boudoir". What is it you ask me? Well it has something to do with this style of photography which I am unsure if many male photographers get to shoot. Most of the ones posted on the web were usually taken by famous female photographers. Anyway, just an interesting point to note. If you are still clueless about what "Boudoir" means, just click on the first link.

• Jasmine Star's recent Boudoir shoot


• Last week both Scott Kelby and Matt Klowk...er...that Lightroom guy, anyway, they are part of this new online web resource/TV called D-Town TV where they had their premier episode last week. Check it out here.


• Check out this competition, it's called "Name your dream assignment" which is organised by Lenovo and Microsoft. Huge prizes to be won.


• Learn how to shoot rock concerts here.


• Apple has released their new line of Macs on Tuesday, "new" Macs include the ever elusive Mac Mini, new iMacs, a bumped up Macbook Pro and the Mac Pro.


• PSP2 is underway? Images do look fantastic though.

That's it for this week. Back to the rat race!

I am completely late for this week's Wednesday Clicks so do forgive me. It has been a hectic couple of days of fun and laughter and catching up with friends. I have two sets of wedding photos to blog about and that should come pretty soon. In the mean time, here are this week's Wednesday Clicks.

• What will our leaders do over the death of Kugan while in police custody?


• I never knew that in order to call someone an "idiot", that person has to be a stupid person with the mental age of below 3 years while a "moron" would be a stupid person with a mental age below seven to twelve years.


• Check out Bobbi and Mike's top 50 reception and posed photos.


• Joe McNally has been blogging about his lighting workshops. I like this photo quite a fair bit.


• So Samsung has 4Gb memory chips making a single stick of RAM being able to deliver 32Gb of awesomeness. Now if only my version of Vista would start utilizing all of my 4Gb of memory first.


• Rumours of the next generation of the Apple iPhone floats about again.

This is it for this week's weekly links. Next up, an actual post with more photos!

Here are this week's Wednesday Clicks with some interesting links to some various sites. Its the first Wednesday Clicks for 2009 so here is to a great year ahead with more interesting news and titbits from around.

• For you pixel peepers, check out some stunning photos taken with the new Nikon D3x here from our neighbours up north. For one thing, I am extremely impressed with the quality of the photos. They just look amazing!


• Another site to compare images between various cameras (Canon, Nikon, Sony and the list continues).


• Find out more about this free software to shoot tethered with Nikon here.


• An interesting article which highlights MCA and where they stand.


• If you haven't found out, YL Camera, that awesome camera store based at Pudu Plaza has launched their website. I wanted to announce this previously but their website wasn't updated but now I see a whole slew of lenses available for purchase there.


• Having a dual screen whilst working on photos/videos is awesome right? Now ever wondered if you could have a dual screen on-the-go? Well look no further, the Lenovo ThinkPad W700 might just be the solution for you. Check it out here.


• Looking for a RSS aggregator? I recommend Google Reader.


• Google's Picasa is now available for Macs! Download it here.


• Apple has released their new unibody 17" Macbookpro at the MacWorld conference. Other new items include iWork 09 and iLife 09. Also iTunes now deliver DRM free tunes to you. In terms of its released, rumours were that the iPhone Nano might make its debut.

Alright, that is it for this week. I am still way too busy trying to manage every available time I have to post process photos and get them delivered before the Chinese New Year. Please be patient with me ya? Thanks!

Christmas is almost upon us and I thought I would have missed posting this week's Wednesday clicks as I am away on training and I have no access to the internet when I am on training. But I decided to stick with my schedule and still post this before heading out for dinner with my cell.

1. Timothy shares his experience with queue cutters in Hong Kong here. Not a bad strategy by our neighbouring Asian countrymen (not the Hongkies) :)


2. Steve Jobs is skipping MacWorld? Who will present the new Mac Mini?


3. Check out this interesting Nikon D3 which is nicknamed the "Wedding Photographer Edition"


4. Twitter chooses Google over Facebook, er, what does that mean to me?

Tomorrow is my last day at my PMP training to prepare myself to sit for the PMI project management certification. One thing I learned is to bring loads of coffee over there and try to avoid the traffic jams at PJ State.

Another 6 months have passed since I've gotten my MacBook Pro and now Apple is at it again, releasing a whole new line of MacBook Pros and MacBooks. This time, there were some big changes for the MacBook line. First of all, Apple has shed their desire for white plastic electronic items in every household, only to replace them with a greener and slicker looking aluminium finish.



The new MacBook shown above

Several changes can easily be spotted starting with the black bordered LCD screens and wait a minute, the new MacBook looks like the younger sibbling of the MacBook Pro.



I bet you can't tell the difference between the two photos here!

In previous designs, the MacBook was distinguished as a fashion icon whilst the MacBook pro has always been designed for a classy and yet professional look. While that still remains the fact, the new fashion statement in notebooks these days are simplistic design with a hint of minimalistic touch and yet boasting enough features to blow the average consumer's mind away.

New improvements include having the DVD slot moved from the front to the side in order to cater for it's new battery design and easy removability as well as upgrade options to include a SSD drive. Another new feature which I think is extremely useful is the battery indicator.

Another new item which caught my eye is the new 24" Apple Cinema display. Of course designed in theme with the new notebooks, the ACD is sporting a black border as well with the theme that it was designed with MacBooks in mind.



The advert shows it all!

Judging from the size, this is something I am really interested in but of course I shall wait for a full and comprehensive review on it about it's colour and image processing performance.

With all of these new radical changes, Apple continues to be the market leader (IMHO) in gadget designs which are known to be iconic. From the 1st generation iPod to the early days of the Macbook, Apple continues to impress me. The only downside was that rumours did say that Apple might release a sub $899 notebook but the only news was that the older Macbook stock would be sold off at $999 instead. If Apple did manage to release a sub-$899 Macbook, I can easily see Apple grabbing larger pieces of the notebook market share.

More details on the MacBook and MacBook Pro can be found here.

Image source: Apple.com

Ah the 11th of April has finally arrived. It didn't really help since I was stuck in the office last night with some catching up to do (I will be away the whole of next week attending another workshop). Yesterdat was the day that I began my hectic schedule.

Well its not like this week has been a walk in the park. With many deadlines to meet and constantly being at meetings in work, I have been leaving the office late at night that I didn't have the time to make it for cell and even my Thursday night golf lessons which sucked. Last weekend was a dream as I had my company's annual dinner and dance last Friday night and guess what? I won a Nintendo Wii during the lucky draw. This was my first ever lucky draw win in my life

The following bits were actually written yesterday so try not to mind the present tense grammar from this point onwards.

Recap....

9.00am and I am already sipping on my coffee looking through the various emails in my work inbox and as I slowly watch the time before starting my teleconference with my senior manager in Singapore, I decided to make sure that everything is going fine.

Well for one thing which has me smiling at work today (it looked like I had slept with a clothes hanger in my mouth) was that my new baby arrived. I am typing this bit of post on it right now and I am really trying to get used to the new keyboard shortcuts.

By 11.40am I was ready to head to the airport and thanks to my good buddy Vincent who agreed to send me to the LCC Terminal, I was all set and ready to go. Of course like all good planning, things go wrong. Nothing wrong occurred of course but we got held up a little bit but I still managed to reach the LCC terminal on time and checked in with plenty of time to spare.

Lunch was at McDonalds and yes, I lost the best. I was supposed to stay away from fast food for two months and after a week, I gave in. Well, it wasn't entirely my fault, there isn't any place to eat in the LCC Terminal! Everywhere was packed with people and I had no choice to eat at McDonalds because I was short of time and the customer turnaround there was way quicker than the other place.

The wonders of AirAsia and the relatively cheap flights, recently they have been checking every passenger's hand luggage to check if they exceed the weight limit and it seems that they were charging the passengers additional costs for each additional kg over the weight limit. A bold move indeed by Mr. Tony Fernandes.

I reached Penang on time and with no problems, the airport was relatively full with passengers waiting to board the plane and the duty free shops looked tempting. To me, the first thing I wanted to do was check into the apartments I am staying in and taking a nice cool shower.

The taxi cost was about RM47.00 which was a little steep if you ask me considering Penang is a small island but the worst has yet to come. Not only did the taxi booth charged me RM47, they really shouldn't put the sign “LIMO” on it because the taxi I sat in was far from what one would even call a decent car. But hey, who am I to complain? I flew all the way to Penang just to learn and absorb from one of the reknowned wedding photographers in Malaysia and soon to be Asia.

After 10 minutes of sitting in the taxi whilst trying not to concentrate on how run down the taxi was (it was the old stretched proton saga where the rear seat passengers have a little more leg room), I started to smell something weird. Turned out that the taxi's air condition failed and there was some electrical short. Being the usual me, I just told the taxi driver who was a nice old malay man that we can just wind down the window and get some nice fresh air.

Contrary to fresh air, Penang ain't a place which offers fresh air. Other than the usual busses and their wonderful exhausts, the heat was getting to me but that didn't bother me. Thank God that I remembered to bring my trusty iPod along and I was catching an episode of CSI New York. The only thing was that I kept getting distracted because the taxi driver didn't know exactly where the apartments was and I had to show him some directions.

I stayed in the same apartments a long time ago, way back in 1999 after my SPM examination where me and a group of my friends from school took a road trip up to Penang and spent a week there. We travelled by train (overnight!) and it was an awesome experience. Ever since then, Penang has changed so much with plenty of development springing about everywhere.

Anyway it might seem that I have a lot to write but that is because I have an hour to kill before I start heading out to the workshop and run a couple of errands before that. Sadly there isn't any internet connection at where I am staying and it really made me wish that I had those wireless connection thingamajigs. If I can't find a place with free wireless internet, I guess this post might only be up on Monday.

Until then, its about time to head out for my workshop. I predict that something inside of me will definitely change and it will definitely be credited to this workshop I attended.