Wednesday, July 11, 2012

I had a THORific day at work.

It seems I was too bored sitting in meetings the whole day, so I decided to make some THOR memes since there is so many of it going around the Internet. Kinda enjoyed making them, will see if I can come up with more :)








I think I have more meetings coming up in the next couple of days, time for more thormenting.



Monday, July 9, 2012

Marvel has plenty more movies lined up.


If you though the recent THE AVENGERS movie was good, Marvel has plenty more installed for us comic book fan boys and superhero lovers.

Marvel is anything but done with bringing our favorite childhood superhero to the cinema screens. With so many characters, teams and villains to choose from, it is anyone's guess what we will be getting next.

So the latest confirmation on some Marvel films:


  • IRON MAN 3   -   3 May 2013
  • THOR 2   -   8 November 2013
  • CAPTAIN AMERICA 2   -   2 April 2014
  • GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY    -  1 August 2014
  • THE AVENGERS 2   -   Sometime in 2015


Well, that is just the tip of the iceberg it seems as Marvel has more up it sleeve:

* May contain spoilers, read at your own risk, but if you are a bad enough fan, it wouldn't matter.





  • Ant Man - is in the pipeworks and should eventually end up in of the movies above or possibly even a movie on its own before The Avengers 2.
  • Black Panther - has been confirmed to be a hoax and not in production (but we never know right? haha...)


    • A movie of its own as it has an group of characters and storyline.
      • Adam Warlock, Rocket Raccoon, Drax, etc.
    • Will tie in with The Avengers (in The Avengers 2 or 3?)
    • Will work together with The Avengers to deal with Thanos (Thanos is the bad-ass revealed in the after credits of The Avengers 2012)


  • Additional things you will want to read up on to get more info about this:

** Click to jump to link



With such a good run with The Avengers 2012, they will have plenty of budget and more experience in handling Marvel movies on a larger scale. Lets hope everything works out and we get to watch all this awesomeness in the next couple of years.


And here is a new photo from the upcoming RIDDICK movie




Source1, Source2

Sunday, July 8, 2012

Nexus 7 Tablet: Mega Value for your money



Along with the revealing of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, there was loads of other goodies that Google took time to share and discuss with its developers and users.

One of them that should not be missed is the unveiling of an awesome tablet, Google Nexus 7 Tablet.


This is one monster of a tablet for a fraction of the price you would have to pay for other tablets near similar specs. Not only that, this bad puppy will also run on 4.1 Jelly Bean, fully taking advantage of the latest updates.

All you have to pay for this great piece of technology is:

  • USD199 for 8GB (internal storage) version
  • USD 249 for 16GB  (internal storage) version

That would be like 700-800 Ringgit only! Take my money now!!!

Just try comparing this to the local tablet which a local maker is trying to sell for 999 Ringgit known as 1Malaysia Pad (click to view specs)


Here is a quick rundown on the specs for Google Nexus 7 Tablet:

  • 7 inch IPS display - 1280 x 800 pixels
  • 1.3GHz quad-core Tegra 3
  • 1GB Ram
  • 12 core ultra-low voltage Nvidia GeForce GPU
  • 8GB or 16GB internal storage
  • WiFi, Bluetooth & NFC (Google Wallet enabled)
  • No 3G model (yet, probably in the near future)
  • Front facing 1.2MP camera
  • No rear camera :(
  • Dimensions: 198.5 x 120 x 10.5 mm
  • Weigh - 340 grams
  • Battery - 4325 mAh 

How can someone not love all that sexiness squeezed into a 7 inch tablet for a couple of hundred bucks?

Promo video for the tablet:






Thursday, June 28, 2012

Time to have some Jelly Bean!



While were busy sleeping an all last nigh, Google I/O 2012 kicked off and revealed loads of goodies that will come in the near future. Google introduced it's latest sweet treat mobile OS, Android 4.1 Jelly Bean.


In a nutshell, Jelly Bean will offer Android users:

  • Framerate has been increased to 60 FPS
  • Vsync is enabled
  • Triple Buffering is enabled.
  • Text Input improvement
  • Voice Typing no longer requires network connection
  • Improved Voice search - time for Siri to hide?
  • Resizeable Widgets - finally, I have been waiting for so long...
  • Improvement to predictive keyboard
  • 18 new input languages
  • Improved CPU utilization - faster is better!
  • Improved Accessibility for the blind
  • Camera App update - pinch to view in film strip
  • Android Beam update- Video sharing via NFC and NFC pairing by just bumping with NFC enabled device
  • Notifications update - now able to make phone calls, view multiple emails, able to expand apps all within the notification shade overlay
  • Revamped mobile search
  • Google Now - gives you search result information at the right time.
    • eg. map/direction searches gives you directions now with how much time to get there, estimated arrival time, etc.

4.1 update will be pushed to some devices like Galaxy Nexus, Nexus S by mid July 2012, so expect it to hit the rest of the newer devices running on ICS after that.

Just some numbers from Google boasting about Android; 1 million Android users are activated everyday up from 400,000.




Monday, June 25, 2012

Apple iOS 6 : There won't be changes?


So Apple announced not long about it's new flagship Operating System (OS) that will run on some of its current products in the future and the newer products that are yet to be released.

I may not be a fan of Apple and their products but I am a fan of technological advancements and what Apple used to dish out always fascinated me in many ways due to its innovation and creativity.


Instead of jumping straight to the bad, I think I will start of with the Goods about iOS 6.

  • A better Siri - Siri gets an update (does everything get updated once a while?)
  • Integrated Facebook (every other mobile OS has this?)
  • Photo Steams (and this is suppose to be new when every other OS has it?)
  • Overall App enhancement (standard with new versions of OS, things get updated...)
  • Better Maps (got tired of paying Google and decided to make their own maps)

5 out of 5 recycled with 0 new innovations. Good job Apple cause millions will still end up buying your products thanks to millions of dollars spent on marketing and advertising, sigh...



But iOS 6 was a total bore and barely introduced anything outstandingly new at all. It was merely recycling what was readily available on other platforms and added a hint of Apple touch to it (not even improvement I might say) to make it look Apple-ish.

It like being sold Windows 2000 which is 95% the same Windows 98. Sad...


So, here is a nifty little article from Jaime Rivera that writes about Five Disappointments of iOS6.

1.    As of this year, it's no longer "ahead of its time

Back when Steve Jobs released the original iPhone in 2007, he said that the operating system was “at least five years ahead of its time”. If any of you were using the Motorola Q9h or BlackBerry Pearl that I was using back then, you’d agree with me in the fact that the guy was right. Sadly it seems that nobody at Apple remembers that any more. Those five years are up, and sadly nothing that was released at WWDC has prepared iOS to leap ahead of its time again. Today, a natural user interface is no longer a feature. It became mainstream years ago. Even feature phones have flick scrolling, Opera Mini for improved web browsing, and yeah, they’ve been doing music for a while now.

iOS 6 should’ve been about where the puck is going to be next. Siri, while superior in many ways to whatever other platforms currently do, is still half-baked. iPhone OS 1 made the phrase “ease-of-use” change in meaning half a decade ago, but today, the concept is no longer a selling point. So my question is, what’s next Apple? Your reluctance to change a legacy UI makes you, not look like you.


2.    Most of what it'll do, it won't do any better than others

When they’re timely, Apple is famous for launching products that define new standards. When they’re late, they usually leapfrog over competition with something dramatically better. iOS 6 is sadly nothing like that. Prettier maps are not necessarily the same as better maps. It doesn’t challenge the system to be any better than it already is. It’s just a late catch-up that’s great to have, but that won’t give you a reason to choose iOS over a competing platform.

Facebook Integration? Been there, done that with Windows Phone 7 or HTC Sense. FaceTime over cellular? Third party apps have been offering video calls over cellular long before the iPhone’s own manufacturer figured it out. These reasons are no longer big enough to stir any customer away from the competition.


3.    It still looks the same

Surely the wheel can evolve, but overall, it’s still just a wheel. With operating systems, that’s a different story. Can you imagine Microsoft launching a Windows Vista that still looked like Windows XP? The age difference between them is just five years, and still the user interface evolved for better or worse. The age difference between iPhone OS 1 and iOS 6 is exactly that, five years. Functionality has changed here and there, but eating chicken every day for the last half-a-decade must drive even some Apple employees crazy by now.

Even though I carry an iPhone 4S as one of my two daily drivers, I’ll admit that I’ve spent more time using HTC Sense on the One X that arrived on my doorstep a week ago, than this beta of iOS 6. I know this remark isn’t fair to all of you, since I know that for some people, what’s not broken shouldn’t be fixed, but my honest impression of iOS 6 is that I’m bored.
I do understand Apple’s purpose in keeping the grid of icons all over, but why not figure out some way to have UI profiles. If you’re a first-time user, you get the grid, and if you’re a power user, you can customize it differently. Hey, if Cydia could figure that out, I’m sure all those thousands of Apple Engineers can do better.

4.    It brings more fragmentation

I’ve got to hand it to Apple here. Users of legacy devices probably don’t get everything in future updates due to hardware limitations, but they at least get some of them. The problem is when this fragmentation is not justified by hardware limitations. For example, as of beta 1, Siri is not supported by the iPad 2, whose guts are almost identical to what we find powering the iPhone 4S. And if the iPhone 4 and 3GS are getting iOS 6, why isn’t the first-generation iPad getting it? None of these technical decisions make logical sense, unless you add dollars into the equation.

We have seen Apple change their minds as betas keep coming to developers, so let’s hope this is just another phase where they’ll lighten-up sooner or later.


5.    We’re stuck with it for at least another 18 months

Using a device that’s no longer ahead of its time, boring or no better than competitors isn’t easy in our times, but knowing that it won’t change for another 18 months is torture. Even if Apple released a new iPhone in the fall, which runs iOS 6 with some minor enhancements, nobody can switch phones every couple of months in this economy. Apple has slowly pushed users into adopting newer hardware just to get this new feature or that one, and it’s really not a good way to drive additional loyalty towards the platform.





It used to be exciting finding out what Apple has installed for the world and for competitors to follow/improve upon. But for the case of iOS 6, it seems to be a total flop selling recycled products to helpless Apple fans.


and No, I am not condemning Apple, I just expected more from the so call mobile/simplicity/innovative leader in the field.







Friday, June 22, 2012

Microsoft Surface: A Comparison




For those that live in a cave with no internet connection, Microsoft has just recently revealed their new Tablet / Ultrabook called Surface.


It looks totally sexy and after going through the specs, I started throwing my money at the screen and sticking my credit card into the CD slot in hopes of purchasing one NOW! but sadly...

Anyway, quite a few people has been asking what is so great about it, looks like just another tablet, blah blah blah. Well, instead great wall of text, I have made a nice little mashup comparison table.

The Tablet / Ultrabook mashup comparison takes a look at Surface against the top current models available.



Hope the about help put things about Surface in better perspective.

To close things off, here is a video of the product unveiling that took place recently.







Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Taken 2 poster, Daredevil & MK reboot...



Yes, it is real poster for Taken 2 once again starring Liam Neeson as the ass kicking retired CIA agent that goes around whopping kidnappers' arses. We won't have to wait too long to watch this old man back in action again cause the release is stated to be on 5 October 2012.

A quick synopsis:

"Liam Neeson returns as Bryan Mills, the retired CIA agent with a particular set of skills who stopped at nothing to save his daughter Kim from Albanian kidnappers. When the father of one of the kidnappers swears revenge and takes Bryan and his wife hostage during their family vacation in Istanbul, Bryan enlists Kim to help them escape, and uses the same advanced level of special forces tactics to get his family to safety and systematically take out the kidnappers one by one."


From the latest developments in the movie scene:
  • Michael "fail" Bay's reboot of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have been postponed to release in 2014 instead of 2013 due to script issues. We can all pray hard now for them to remove Bay from the picture of this beloved childhood cartoon characters.
  • Hans Zimmer has been confirmed to compose the score for Man of Steel (Superman reboot coming out in June 2013)
  • Marvel's Daredevil will be getting a reboot, so watch out for tie ins with Spidey or Avengers, etc.
  • Mortal Kombat will also be getting a reboot but not too much details about it yet except for a corny synopsis.
    • “… a lowly unlucky supermarket employee who discovers that he has out of this world powers and must decide between good and evil, even though the evil side has helped him discover his true potential and who he really is.”