A calendar worth adding for Malaysian moviegoers!

Dear Readers,

I was looking through Google Calendar late last week. I was looking under the Interesting Calendars section when an idea popped up in my head. Why not update Malaysia's latest movie release dates in a Calendar and share it to the public for everyone's (if not everyone, then at least for avid Malaysian movie fans) consumption?

So i went to a reliable movie release site for Malaysia: Cinema Online and began creating the Calendar for all moviegoers in Malaysia to use. 

You should see it available for you to subscribe to on the right hand side of this page. It's quite big, you can't miss it! 

Simply click on the +Google Calendar button at the bottom right of the calendar and you should be transported to the full calendar. 

If you would like to add the calendar, here are the relevant links to various formats:

iCal

XML

HTML

I appreciate helpful comments regarding the calendar and if you do find it useful, please spread the word. Once you've used the calendar, you will know when a movie will hit Malaysian shores simply by looking it up in your calendar. 


Thanks for reading!

Transformers: Age of Extinction opening night at Cathay Cineplex

Honestly, I wasn't too excited by the latest feature film in the Transformers movie franchise. It's called Transformers: Age of Extinction. I watched a couple of trailers and I've even featured one on my blog, but I felt that I would reserve judgment until I actually watched the movie. I will not be judging the movie in this blog entry. I leave that open to you, dear readers. 

My indecision

I was quite undecided on where to watch this movie, initially, and I paid the price. The tickets were on sale really early on..perhaps in early June? I can't recall. And by the time I did click through the relevant cinema websites, I could not find optimum seats any longer. 

I had to ask myself, shall I watch it in IMAX 3D or in plain 3D or in a Dolby Atmos theatre or just plain old run of the mill 2D ?

A quick Google search of the movie title yielded a lot of IMAX 3D references. Apparently Michael Bay has stated that unequivocally that IMAX 3D is the best way to catch the movie. Nuff said.

OK, we're supposed to catch it in IMAX 3D but I could not find any optimum seats by that time. Tough luck. I think Michael Bay did say that the next best way to catch the movie would be in a Dolby Atmos theatre, so I looked that up as well. No luck, the best seats were taken. And if they weren't yet taken, the showtime would be something that I can't manage; e.g. in the middle of the day or too late in the night. 

So, I was in damage control mode. I decided. Let's just watch it in the cheapest but most reasonable setting. This would leave room (and spare change) for me to maybe watch the movie again in a more optimal environment, such as in an Atmos or IMAX 3D theatre, IF it was worth a 2nd viewing, of course

My decision

My eyes fell upon Cathay Cineplex. I believe I've not blogged about this cinema. I have been there though. As early on as in 2006, I believe. One praise I have for Cathay (it was once called Cineleisure) was that it always seemed easy to get tickets there (it's not exactly a hub for moviegoers, in my view) AND the viewing and auditory experience was satisfactory. How can it be unsatisfactory, as its theatres have met the THX standard?


My fragile tickets

And it was indeed a very decent, straightforward experience. No real frills. The tickets themselves were printed on very cheap paper. I do not think they utilize electronic ticketing. I had to go to the counter, state my ticket reference number and the attendant would print out the seemingly incredibly fragile tickets. I regret I have no photo to show you all what the tickets were like, but please, feel free to go there and experience it yourself!

My takeaway

I would recommend Cathay Cineplex, located at e@curve, for those looking for seats to the latest movies in a pinch! There's no Dolby Atmos, D-Box or fancy IMAX theatres here, but they do guarantee all their theatres feature digital projection so there's no more Analog film reel in use by this cinema, I can tell you that :-)

Till next time!

Galaxy Note 3 23 metre Drop Test!

The Note 3 as it was recovered at the scene

Yup, you read that headline right. I'm going to share with all of you the story of a Galaxy Note 3 that fell 11 stories right smack onto the concrete ground floor. This is from personal experience and is NOT a friend of a friend story.

The missing phone

It happened at a 12 storey hotel in Kuala Terengganu and the story starts when we realised the phone was mysteriously absent. I tried to call the phone, and the nice (automated) lady response machine said over the line, "The number you have dialled is unreachable". Uh oh. Could someone have swiped the phone whilst we went for a swim just half an hour ago? We started to retrace our steps, in our minds, at first. I recollected that I saw the phone being used just before we went to the swimming pool. At least we can be sure it's not lost in the hotel cafeteria.

We supposed that perhaps the phone was still in the room, though it's strange that the phone is lying in the room, without any reception. We were in the room, and searched high and low for the phone, but we could not find it. Only then did it dawn on us that perhaps the phone took a "leap of faith" off the hotel balcony, as one of us recalled seeing one of the kids tossing something off the balcony not long after we went up to the room (after the swimming session). We immediately went up to the balcony railing and looked down.

Sure enough, the phone was "resting" face down on the concrete floor. We could see the camera lens and the form factor of the Note 3 all the way from the 11th floor. That gave us 70% assurance that the phone has indeed been found, but in a less than ideal state. I raced down the floors, via elevator of course, to make sure.

The fallen phone

At the scene of the 'accident', this is what I found:

The phone is actually the one nearer the bottom of the photo

 It looks as if there were 2 phones, but it simply reflects the 2 separate phone casings that were in fact, installed together, as shown on Otterbox's website. I guess the force of the impact dislodged the harder polycarbonate outer shell from the softer synthetic rubber inner shell. They were probably forced apart by the fall to a distance of more than a metre, from what I could tell.

I picked up the polycarbonate shell first, just to lengthen the suspense on the actual state of the "fallen phone". I mean, if you knew it fell 11 stories, I'd think you'd be pessimistic too, right? I inspected the polycarbonate shell and I was surprised. It seemed absolutely intact. No broken pieces. No aberrations even. This gave me more hope, instantaneously, that perhaps the phone itself would be in a "not so bad" state as I previously thought it would be.

With much trepidation, I picked up the phone off the concrete.


The incredible fallen phone

The phone and its Otterbox casing

I was instantly surprised, because as I scooped up the phone off the concrete, it vibrated! And that's when I saw that the action keys also had its lights on. The screen itself was definitely cracked though, and it was as black as night. No response from the screen whatsoever. 

After taking some photos, which I've shared with you here, I went back into the hotel to look at it up close. I personally thought it was in a boot loop as it periodically vibrated. Perhaps the fall destroyed some component and as a result, it's failing to boot up properly.

So I took out the phone from its synthetic rubber shell and the back cover of the phone looked remarkably intact. The camera lens looked fine too. I took out the battery of the phone in order to kill the phone. That's when I discovered that the battery was very slightly bent out of shape.

The phone's exposed internals

A casual visual inspection of the SIM card and micro SD card revealed no issues. I proceeded to put the battery back in its place and immediately tried to turn the device on. It responded with a vibration and shortly after, the signature Samsung tune. So, the speakers are working too!

This was all good news, from a phone repair standpoint. If a lot of the components are working, then perhaps the phone can indeed be salvaged, and at minimal cost.

Indeed, the phone's famous S-pen was also found to be intact. It was not bent out of shape in any way or form.

I had a rough idea of where to take it for evaluation and quotation and that's exactly what I did the next day, upon our return to Kuala Lumpur.


I decided that the best place to get a quotation for the repair would be from its manufacturer: Samsung. Feel free to comment on another good repair center, if you know of any. Let's look at how Samsung promotes their new (it opened in February 2014) Samsung Premier Care and Experience Center:

So that's where I was, as I sent it in for a quotation, I told them it fell 11 stories to the ground. Some were immediately skeptical anything could be done to salvage the phone (especially the front desk staff). Finally, after a very brisk queue as there weren't many people at all waiting in line, I was given a verbal quotation telling me it would cost RM600.70 to repair the screen and bezel. They said if I opted to use a credit/debit card, they could lower the cost by 10% to RM540.63. I mulled it over and after a few minutes of consultation and deliberation, I agreed that they should proceed with the repair work.

They proceeded with the repair work and handed me a work order sheet at 1240hrs. They also suggested I could go for my lunch now since it would probably take an hour to complete the repair(s). I was on my way to lunch, but I had to handle a few things with regards to my job first, and just as I completed the items, I received a call on my mobile at 1315hrs telling me the repair has been completed and to the Technician, the phone looked completely fine. He even sounded surprised. I was indeed eager to have a look at this phone which got a new lease on life, but I opted to eat lunch first :)

The resurrected phone

I believe a photo of the newly repaired phone is in order:

Internally well preserved with a brand new exterior

Some people claim that a cheaper repair cost could be achieved by going to a reliable phone repair shop; I don't know exactly how much cheaper it would be, but I am sure that the peace of mind that comes with having the manufacturer repair the screen cannot be beaten.

The phone's survival

I'm certain that a few factors helped this phone to survive the 11 storey drop (or roughly 23.78 metres according to the height calculator here), presented in no particular order:

1. The build quality of the Galaxy Note 3 (we've all been amazed before at the reliability of Nokia phones before the "Smartphone Age", so why not be amazed at Samsung's build quality?)
2. The usage of a screen protector helped to ensure that the cracked screen stayed 'stuck' together as much as possible, helpfully preserving us users from injuring our fingers on the screen, and maybe even protecting from further damage to the internal components? 
3. A big help nonetheless came from the Otterbox Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Commuter Series Case. I will be writing to them to inform them about the inadvertent product test that they just passed!
4. The angle of the phone's impact with the ground probably helped a lot too. I didn't go as far as to get CCTV footage of the impact (if there was any) but all I know is that the impact managed to separate the 2 components of the Otterbox case (which usually requires some effort to manually remove). According to the article I linked to, a ±5°(degree in the angle of impact) may result in up to 36% difference in predicted internal stress!

If any of you have a similarly gut wrenching mobile phone or related device story to share, please sound off in the comments below!

Godzilla AKA Gojira returns!

Hi there,

I was fortunate enough to be able to catch Godzilla relatively early on in its Malaysian release. 

I chose to experience Godzilla at (GSC) Golden Screen Cinema's (and Malaysia's) one and only Dolby Atmos theatre which is actually Hall 3 in Golden Screen Cinema 1 Utama. 

I paid for the ticket online and simply printed out the selfprint ticket which would allow me through the turnstile. 

QR code at the ready

Below is how the turnstile scans the QR code and subsequently opens up the gates to your chosen (and paid for) cinema experience.

Make sure the QR code is within that scanning window (obscured by the paper) and you're good to go!

 My chosen seat this time around was seat H14. I was fortunate that I arrived just in time before any commercial/trailer had begun (how early is that?!) and there weren't many people. It being the first show on a Thursday probably had something to do with it. :P

I managed to take a photo of the viewpoint from my seat. Here it is:

Methinks this view is pretty decent. What do you think?

The minutes ticked by. It was only then that I realised that I hadn't been early, the show itself was delayed. Oh dear. A fellow audience member (seated a row above me) chatted with his friend. He said there were delays previously, up to half an hour, but I wasn't sure whether he meant this particular Atmos theatre (Hall 3) or just a delay in general in GSC's cinema services. Why wasn't I sure? Because he spoke in a language that I have yet to understand; Cantonese with some English thrown in. Seeing as the movie was not going to start soon, I took out my phone, and started to take some notes regarding my 2nd Atmos experience, just in case I forgot anything later. 

Moments after that, I heard our fellow from a row above change his topic to smartphones. He talked about phones with pretty good specs, like a 5" screen, 13MP camera, but don't expect the build quality of a smartphone that costs thousands of Ringgit. I assumed he was talking about some new, cheaper smartphone emerging in the Malaysian market; perhaps any one of these: 

• Xiaomi's Mi 3 which would be available for purchase from May 20th 2014 at RM889
• Oneplus' One of which I have no details on its Malaysian availability or pricing, sorry!

 It's nice to know that the phone in my hand could generate a conversation elsewhere! Anyway, their conversation, in turn, led me to try benchmarking the data connection in Hall 3 of GSC. Why not? I noticed that the data connection seemed speedy enough. So i ran a Speedtest and the result is below:

It's OK-ish..nothing to shout about I guess

It's decent..in terms of download performance. The ping and upload needs work though. I recall, at least, that a ping > 500ms is synonymous with an unplayable online gaming experience. Am I right? :D

Back to the movie experience! I timed 1208hrs as the time when the first trailer popped up on screen. So we were 8 minutes late already. Which trailer was it? Why, none other than ...

Yup, guess I've got to book my calendar for this too. After 20 minutes of advertisements and a "The Purge" trailer, the famous THX demonstration played. So, this is a THX cinema? Cool. It was followed by 2 (count 'em!) Dolby Atmos demos. I wondered why there were 2. Perhaps they came up with a new one. I liked the newer one better, that's for sure. It seemed to really leverage the 64 speakers in the Hall.

I remember the movie proper started to 'roll' (perhaps once upon a time it rolled, because movies were a series of pictures in a 'can' displayed at a certain speed) at 1228hrs. 

I liked the movie and its presentation. I would say 2D is definitely the way to watch this movie. I've no idea whether 3D has any momentum left in it nowadays. I want to ask GSC/TGV in Malaysia; how are 3D ticket sales going? Are they still selling well? If it's not selling well, what happens to the 3D theatres? Will they be selling off the 3D specs? Are people even buying 3D television sets?

You see, I watched Captain America: The Winter Soldier in 3D and throughout the movie, I wished I could just watch it in 2D, and that's never a nice feeling to have hang over you whilst watching a movie! As I said in a previous post, I praised Gravity for being an excellent 3D movie. A 3D showcase, if you will. Other than that, I've not been impressed with any 3D movie lately..

Let me share with you one highlight from watching Godzilla. As the character played by Ken Watanabe was introducing Godzilla to the audience, he said on-screen "We call him.." and someone from the audience sportingly and spontaneously cried out "Gojira!" That moment certainly made me laugh! Thanks for livening up the theatre man!

Honda Service Centre provides certain level of comfort while you wait

 Fancy some hot coffee and biscuits while you wait? Honda's got you covered.

What's that? You brought your kids with you? No problem, Kids' Corner to the rescue!

Your device is 'tired out' from all that surfing you're doing? There's a handy mobile charger station but I think it's slightly defunct now. Which one of you has a powerbank handy? :)

If you've brought your laptop or Ehem! Microsoft Surface with you, then you could probably sit at this 'Free Wifi' corner complete with your own deskspace! (Yeah wall power outlets included)

Dear Readers,

If you've ever sent your car for service and chose to stay on until the service was completed, you would probably be wondering what you could possibly do while waiting. Hey, we're now in the Age of the Internet, so first of all, you've got the world in the palm of your hand or hands (depending on the size of your chosen device).

I took the above photos at a Honda service centre (though it might not seem all that apparent).

What the photos missed though, was that the customer pantry had stocks of instant noodles as well as a drinks machine which could churn out coffee and tea related drinks for you in a jiffy. Thumbs up!

Overall, I waited just under 2 hours, so it's not too long a wait. I spent the time looking at the new car models, talked with a Salesperson, surfed the web and read and answered instant messages on my phone and suddenly the Service Attendant (not sure what you call them) came to me and said that the car is ready.

How do all of you service your cars? Sound off in the comments!

Side by side comparison between maxis 4G and celcom 4G

Dear Readers,

I was fortunate to have bumped into a friend who indulged in my curiosity. I wanted to see how Maxis 4G and Celcom 4G performed in the same place, at the same time. But not on identical devices I'm afraid.

The time: 26th Feb 2014
The place: The Curve

First, here's Celcom 4G results on a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 (SM-N9005):

 

Next, we compare that with the Maxis 4G results on a 2013 spec HTC One:

Now, it's by no means representative of the overall performance of each carrier, but at least we have a marker to start with.

 Let me know what all of you think in the comments section :-)

Internet Access at 47300

Hello again,

On a roll here. I didn't recently upgrade to UniFi VIP 10 but I just decided to share the speed test result (obtained from www.speedtest.net ) with all of you:

I would say that the speedtest result is pretty decent, wouldn't you? Kudos to UniFi

That's the reason why I have a hard time giving up UniFi in favour of Maxis' offering. Unless some Maxis users can share their speedtest results and their overall experience with me? Thanks in advance.