September

Gosh time is going fast. I’ve just realised I haven’t blogged in well over a month. In fact, I actually forgot to blog in August. There goes the monthly streak lol…

Assessment Centre is looming ever closer. Started reading the Pharmacy Practice Handbook 2003 a few nights ago. Better start filling out those annoyingly tedious Evidence Portfolio sheets too…

Mum and Dad left for Los Angeles last Thursday. Dill, Jenny and me took them to the airport in two cars. Jenny banged her head and nose on one of the the ridiculously low carpark signs in the carpark… Nose suffered an abrasion… Poor Bobo :’(

25th September 2010 (Los Angeles time) marks my cousin Desiree and her fiance Matt Geiger’s wedding. Congratulations you two!! The first of my cousins to get married too! A pity I couldn’t be at the reception in person…

Still loving my HTC Desire (thanks again, Boo!) as much as the day I eagerly went to pick it up from the FedEx office near the Airport Android 2.2 (aka Froyo) was released a month or so ago as well. I didn’t manage to get it via the official OTA (over-the-air) update, as I was rooted and running a custom 2.1 ROM by then (more on rooting and custom ROMs soon)

Been fiddling around with it quite a bit. Managed to root it a few months back, and have been mucking around with custom ROMs. Haven’t tried any except Paul O’Brien’s at the MoDaCo Forums. And why should I? His ROMs are the closest things to the stock HTC Desire ROMs, but give users the flexibility of “baking” their own ROMs (via an online Kitchen exclusive to paid subscribed members at the forum). Thanks, Paul!!

So a few months back, I took the plunge and rooted the phone; enabling me to install custom ROMs, and a whole boatload of other stuff. Just earlier this evening, I decided to try my hand at ADB and manually “pushing” specific files onto my Desire’s /system folder (normally unreachable, I believe? But I could be wrong, as I am at a total loss when it comes to ADB/AndroidSDK lingo). BUT the good new is, I managed to successfully remove the “GenieWidget.apk” that was included in the MCR r9 WIP ROM I had running, and install a modded version Looks much better, imo!! *pats myself on the back*

Feeling a bit more confident with ADB now. Can’t wait to push/pull some more when the need arises!!

Over and out!!

Facebook for HTC Sense, StarCraft II

Facebook for HTC Sense Connection Issue

Been having heaps of trouble retrieving my Facebook friends list on my Desire for about 4-5 days now. At first I thought it was because I rooted my phone, and the ROM suddenly didn’t want to connect with Facebook and/or HTC. But after a quick Google search, it turned out that a huge number of HTC (ranging from Desires, Evos, Legends, Incredibles) users were experiencing the same problem. What a relief!!

The problem was quietly resolved by HTC (and possibly with the help of Facebook) earlier today. A few users at the HTC support forums were reporting that they were finally able to re-connect and retrieve their friends list, so I decided to give it a go. The first attempt resulted in a “Service is currently unavailable” error, whereas on the second attempt (about 1 hour later), I was finally able to connect.

A note to HTC and/or Facebook though: You might want to release an announcement to let us users know that there is a problem on your end and that you guys are working on resolving the issue, instead of leaving us in the dark!!

I’ll post a step-by-step as follows:

1) Go to “Settings” –> “Accounts & Sync”
2) Go into your “Facebook” account, and click on “Remove Account”
3) Enter the “People” application, then go to the “Online Directories” tab at the bottom
4) Click on the “Facebook” directory
5) Re-enter your Facebook login and password
6) Wait patiently for it to retrieve your friends list!! (you may need to go back and re-enter the “Facebook” directory a few times, as the progress is so slow it doesn’t load it all at once)

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty

From now on, July 27 2010 will most probably be known as StarCraft II Day. Picked up my copy of StarCraft II from the pharmacy (courier delivery from Might Ape) yesterday afternoon.

Haven’t had much time to fiddle around with it yet, but from the first few missions in the campaign mode, I’m thoroughly impressed. The game is so polished. Blizzard really put a lot of effort into it, and if the rest of the game stays this good, then it would have been definitely worth the 12 year long wait!!

My only complaint is that the campaign-specific units (namely the Terran Medic and Firebat; there may be more, but I haven’t progressed that far into the story yet) aren’t available in “v.s. AI” mode (I’m guessing they won’t be available in Battle.net either)…

Haven’t given multiplayer on Battle.net a go yet either. Will need to find some time this weekend to try it out

Steve Jobs LOL

Been following “Steve Jobs” (ceoSteveJobs) on Twitter (obviously a parody account, and by no means the real Steve Jobs), and whoever comes up with the things “Mr Jobs” tweets is bloody hilarious!! Some of the many examples include:

- iPhone 4: Reinventing the way you hold your phone, again.
- We may have to recall the new iPhone. This, I did not expect.
- Just FaceTimed my wife. If you know what I mean.
- To prevent signal problems with the new iPhone, avoid touching the phone at all times.
- The best way to fix the weak signal on the new iPhone? Buy a $29.00 Bumper case, only from Apple.
- The white iPhone 4 had a defect allowing every app to be downloaded free of charge. Apple is addressing the issue.
- Just made sure that FedEx pushed back Jason Chen’s iPhone order a few weeks.

The one in bold is definitely all-time favourite lol. Good job, pseudo-”Steve”!!

The new iPhone 4 may be raking in the cash for the real Jobs, but there’s already numerous complaints about reception and problems with the Retina screen as well. The high-resolution Retina screen and HD video recording may be pretty cool, but I’ll stick with my awesome HTC Desire with no dodgy reception issues, thank you very much!

HTC Desire!!

Just picked up my belated graduation present (from Bobo) this afternoon at the FedEx head office next to the airport My long-awaited HTC Desire has finally arrived from the UK!! Thank goodness it managed to sneak by before UK air traffic was shut down because of the Icelandic volcanic eruption

I am thoroughly impressed by the phone. Photos just don’t do it justice. Definitely sexier in real life. Not to mention the fact that it’s so thin!! Fits perfectly in my hand too. Worth every minute of the long wait! There’s just so many functions! Definitely the best phone I’ve had thus far! Surpasses the ol’ N95 8GB I got last year!

Thanks so much, Bobo for this wonderful graduation present! I love it! Now, to get you an HTC Legend for your birthday this year

Photos up soon!

HTC Desire On The Way!!

Just received an email notification early yesterday morning that my long-awaited HTC Desire has finally arrived in stock at Clove UK and has been shipped!! I’ve been checking the FedEx track and trace service just about every hour to see if it’s arrived yet

Got a call this morning from the NZ FedEx branch, asking for my credit card number, as I need to pay for GST. The lady said should hopefully arrive tomorrow morning!! Exciting times!! Will definitely opt to pick up from the FedEx offices near the airport, just to speed things up!!

Just sent out my first lot of paperwork for EVOLVE as well, so feeling quite stress-free for now

Desiring the “Desire” :)

The HTC Bravo (now officially renamed the “Desire”) was officially announced by HTC at the 2010 MWC in Barcelona, Spain yesterday. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so much anticipation over a cellular phone before. EVER. From what I’ve seen/read, I’m almost certain I will go out and get a Desire once it’s released (some sources say 29th March, some say April).

The leaked HTC road map pretty much nailed the Desire’s specs on the head, save for a few discrepancies. It will indeed have the same 3.7″ AMOLED screen as the Nexus One (also built by HTC), have an optical trackpad instead of the trackball the Nexus One had, and come with a 5.0 megapixel camera. I’ll have to admit, ever since the Desire was unofficially announced, I had been searching high and low to find out just how much RAM it would pack. Before the official announcement at MWC 2010, some sources stated 512MB RAM (the same as the Nexus One, therefore, GOOD!), while other sources stated it would only pack 256MB RAM (BOO!). I’m happy to announce that the official HTC Desire website here, states the Desire will pack 576MB RAM (even more than the Nexus One! BIG, BIG YAY!); making me want this “super”phone that much more! XD

However, there doesn’t seem to be any word regarding its HD video recording abilities (which was mentioned on the road map), but no matter. Everything else about the phone is perfect!

The other Android-powered HTC phone that was announced, the HTC Legend (successor to the Hero) was also quite nice.

So far, the phone looks amazing, and I really cannot wait for it to be released

In other news from my life, Valentine’s Day was this past Sunday. Spent a terrific day with my girlfriend, Jenny. We had lunch dinner (:P) at Umi at Sylvia Park, then caught “Valentine’s Day” at the Extreme Screen at Hoyts (also at Sylvia LOL). I was a bit skeptical when seeing the trailers, as I was expecting the movie to implode, considering how many big-time Hollywood stars they managed to pack in. I’m glad to say I was pleasantly surprised. It was full of laughs, and was done very well. Taylor Swift takes the cake by far for the best performance in the film. Boy, the girl can sing AND act! What next?!

All in all, V-Day was a terrific day, and I’d like to say Happy Valentine’s Day to all, especially to my darling, Jenny!

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

Xperia X10 Delayed… AGAIN!!

Been browsing through a few cellphone news websites and guess what I found… Turns out the highly-anticipated Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, the company’s first Android-powered superphone, is delayed YET AGAIN… Numerous sites state an early April 2010 release. WTF…

By the time the phone’s released, it will be old news specs-wise… Why does SE keep doing this…

Don’t blame me if I decide to get an HTC Bravo instead (specs-wise, looks just as good as the X10, although it has a 3.7″ screen vs. the X10′s 4.0″). Even that might be released earlier than the X10…