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.

I was moving back and forth between Quill BMW located at Section 14 lately as I was installing my powerkit and had to send the car in for it's 30,000km service. It was during this period where I had a courtesy car to use over the week, which was the face-lifted BMW X3. During this week of travelling between home and KL as well as occasional trips to Bangi to visit certain clients and a wedding to attend at Cheras, I had my first taste of BMW's new 2.0 litre power plant with it's twin scroll turbo technology.

As I returned the X3, I spied the recently launched BMW F30 320i. Being the curious person I was, I wanted to try it out and have a go at it. Immediately after getting into the car, the few differences between the E90 and F30 can easily be noticed.

1. Key-less stop start system - This was one of the things which irritated me whilst I was driving the X3 as the engine would stop running every time I was at the traffic lights or stuck in traffic.


2. New steering wheel design - BMW has moved the cruise control functionality to the steering wheel rather than having an additional stalk compared to the E90.


3. No paddle shifters - Like the F30 320d, the F30 320i doesn't come with paddle shifters


4. 6.5" screen with no satellite navigation and DVD playback


5. 8-speed automatic transmission

Transmission
Personally I really do like the newer 8-speed automatic transmission, it feels a lot smoother versus the older 6-speed variant. It took me a lot of adjusting when I moved from a double clutch gearbox where shifts were extremely seamless and smooth to a 6-speed automatic. All I can say that the newer 8-speed feels very closely to the double clutch gearbox.

Power Plant
The BMW TwinPower Turbo four-cylinder petrol engine which combines twin-scroll turbocharger with Valvetronic, Double VANOS and High Precision Injection really does live up to all it's marketing hype. Those familiar with BMW's engines from the MINI series will be familiar with their latest engine in the F30 320i. Power delivery was fast thanks to the turbo and 270Nm of torque. I was very impressed with it's acceleration and couple that together with quick gear shifts, the F30 320i really did impress me. Definitely we will see people getting the 320i and then having a simple remap on the ECU should unleash even more horses from the car.



The car comes with the sports mode functionality whereby your throttle response is improved, your gear shifts are aggressive and your steering, a little heavier. In technical terms it means a gentle tap to the accelerator can be easily felt, you swap gears at higher RPM's and you get less help from the power steering making the wheel (steering) heavier.

Handling
The steering is definitely lighter than my car, the feel of it is nice and smooth and once you go into sports mode the steering gets heavier which is a feature I do like. But what you do lack in terms of steering is the feedback from the front tyres. You don't get to feel the groove the of the roads. This is a preference for different people, especially people who just want a car that is nice and comfortable, the steering on the F30 320i doesn't disappoint. But for those hardcore fanatics then they will be wondering what is it that is missing. It's like when Porsche recently included in an electric steering rack to their 911 which a lot of critics said that the car has lost it's soul. In this case, it really doesn't matter because the 320i is meant to be a comfort saloon car and not one would expect to turn it into a performance monster.

The suspension was soft on the model I have driven but that's because it wasn't the M-Sport model. So far, no tentative dates yet are available on when the F30 M-Sport models would be hitting our shores.

Priced at RM238,800 (recommended OTR), I would say it's main rivals would be the Audi A4 as well as the Volkswagen CC. Both the VAG cars have a 1.8 litre power plant but the A4 and the 320i are closely matched in terms of power although the A4 has a bit more torque (320Nm vs 270Nm) compared to the 320i but loses out in horsepower (170hp vs 184).

With the recent launch of the new iPhone 5, here's a look of what isn't available with iOS 6 here in Malaysia.

We DO NOT have:

1. Maps: Turn by Turn Navigation


2. Maps: 3D Buildings


3. Maps: Traffic (I rely on Google Maps' traffic updates a lot)


4. Maps: Business Reviews and Photos


5. Siri: Sports


6. Siri: Twitter Integration


7. Siri: Facebook Integration


8. Siri: Restaurant Information


9. Siri: Restaurant review


10. Siri: Restaurant reservations


11. Siri: Movie Information


12. Siri: Movie Reviews


13. iTunes Store: TV Shows


14. Dictations

From the looks of things, its no wonder that the Android OS is proliferating around Malaysian smartphone users.

 

Just the other day, on a fine early morning, me and my mates decided to have a very long overdue run up through the Ulu Yam route and man, was it completely different from my previous experiences. It has taken this long because time and time again I was pretty unlucky to have clashing schedules when my other group goes up Ulu Yam. So this time I joined some of my old VW "kakis" up the slippery slope of the mountain and drove up to Goh Tong for some curry "wan ton" noodles.

Why was it different compared to my other previous drives? First of all, its my first time driving up that route using a RWD (rear wheel drive) car. With the number of extreme bends we had to take, my first mistake was that I constantly anticipated for the car to understeer but I kept making that mistake. Another mistake I mad was that because of the new feel, I was braking like mad before every corner. Even my boss was mentioning that to me (yes my boss was following closely behind me).

Another thing I noticed was the hydraulic steering rack which BMW uses, makes it heavier compared to my previous ride which uses an electric steering rack. Good thing about it is that I get a lot more feedback from the tyres to the steering whilst the downside to it is that the steering feels a little bit heavier. That feeling seems a little bit more surreal in a sense that I was so used to the electric steering rack on a VW (ZF claims that they haven't sold a single electric steering rack because it doesn't break down).

Handling aside, the benefit of having a diesel engine whilst going uphill is that it is extremely fun! *cue to google up torque*.  The torque delivery at such low RPM is just awesome especially when you exit a corner which then leads uphill. The pure acceleration and thrill of it is something that an NA engine can't really deliver. And the best part of it is that I can average 800km on a full tank of diesel even whilst stuck in KL city traffic for about 2 hours on a daily basis.

After having a hearty breakfast, I then went up to the cable car station to have a quick photoshoot. Here are some of the photos I captured while I was up there.