Finally some good conducting...

I managed to catch the Keat Hong CO performance at the Esplanade last Sunday. All the pieces were arranged by the conductor.

This is one of rare performances where I see the conductor actually doing some serious conducting. I think that the conductor tried to make his movements quite big and clear so that the whole orchestra can see the beat just by glancing. I had more fun looking at the conducting than the orchestra itself.

Maybe the reason is because the conductor has more than 20 years of experience... Anyway, his conducting is the best I've seen so far, and much much better than the "snake" conductor I've seen the other time. Nearly laughed out loud the other time.

His arrangement though doesn't seem to be easy. The time signature kept changing, which could be because they are mostly medley pieces. I love the last piece where he combined a few local folk songs like Rasa Sayang, and a few others. For the first time, I heard the Liu Qin section solo. Usually you can hardly hear them and I did tell people that its such a pity because I could see them do some quite interesting runs, which I cannot hear.

This esplanade performance was also the only performance I've seen with an encore. :p However, I didn't really like the Indian arrangement. A little ... ... weird? Indian pieces on CO instruments. :D

Shopping in California

For my trip to California, these are the shopping areas that has left an impression on me due to either its size, or its huge variety of products:

1. Stanford Mall
   
   This mall is located right next to Stanford University at Palo Alto. It has a variety of shops including small ones like Apple Store, Coach, and big departmental stores like Macy's, Bloomingdale's.
   
   It is at this location where I bought the premium Contour casing for the iPod touch. This is still by far the coolest iPod touch casing I've seen, and its not even sold in Singapore. Oh well... Luckily I did not hesitate. :)
   
   Refer to this link here for the mall directory.
   
   
   
2. Great Mall
   
   This mall is also known as the Great Mall of the bay area. It is located at Milpitas, around 50 miles away from San Francisco. There is also a Home Depot directly opposite the Great Mall if one is interested.
   
   This mall is another big mall that has many many different types of shop, including a number of outlets like Levis/Dockers, Gap, Nike, and normal shops. It is rather big, with a number of mall exits, so try not to get lost. :) If my memory serves me correctly, one of the exits also lead to a cinema.
   
   Refer to this link here for the mall directory.
   
   
   
3. Gilroy Premium Outlets
   
   This place got to be the biggest shopping area that I've ever been to. It is located at Gilroy, and it contains many outlet stores (145 as of last count), spread among 4 blocks, A, B, C and D.
   
   It is very possible that you can spend the full day in this area, and yet not cover every single store. I'm serious...
   
   So far, the stuff in thie area I would say is value for money. However, as they are outlet stores, the design might not be the latest. Heck.. That's the reason why its cheap. :) There are some designs that are quite unique though. As an avid window shopper, I can say that I've never seen these kind of designs in Singapore. :)
   
   Refer to this link here for the directory of shops. I would recommend that you download the map too so that you will not get lost. ;)
   

For these malls, do not worry about food. There are plenty of fast food, or restaurants around. Starbucks too. :)


One disadvantage of these shopping areas though... It is very VERY tiring! :p

iPhone isn't locked to the carrier!! Like real...

Updated 22 Jul 2008: iPhone is locked to carrier
Updated 27 Jul 2008: iPhone sold unlocked in HK

Today's Straits Times has just confirmed what I've suspected for a long time. The iPhone is no longer locked to the specific carrier!

You can get the iPhone, with some kind of plan, and use it across any other telco network. The cons however will be that some features of the iPhone will not work well on other networks. The iPhone requires some new features that the carrier might not have, so it might not work as well.

It will be interesting once Singtel announces its plans...

Straits Times is crap. Anyway, just got the latest news from the US that the iPhone 3G is indeed locked to certain networks. Even the latest jailbroken iPhone 3G is unable to connect to unauthorised networks. There are rumours though that there's a special SIM card adaptor that can trick the iPhone 3G that you're on an authorised network.

Latest news however says that only selected iPhone 3G phones are unlocked in certain countries. Today's newspaper stated that the HK iPhone 3G is unlocked. However, in other countries, it may be locked.

Translated, that means the locking of the phones has shifted from Apple to the carrier itself. The carrier can decide whether to lock it or not. So if you've encountered a locked iPhone 3G, it's not the fault of Apple, but the fault of the carrier.

PTC Fare Adjustment Formula

The Singapore PTC Fare Adjustment Formula (Maximum cap) for 2008 to 2012 will be:
0.5(YoY change of CPI) + 0.5(YoY change of Average Monthly Earnings) - 1.5%

The 1.5% represents the productivity extraction component. I have no idea what does it mean though. The news did say that the new formula will see the public transport operators sharing the productivity gains with the commuters. Is this the one?

Therefore for year 2008, the maximum fare increment will be:
0.5(2.1) + 0.5(6.9) - 1.5 = 3%


Anyway, what I'm looking forward to though is the distance based fare calculation. Hope they will announce good news soon. Finally some action from the government. At least they are listening...

iPhone plan costs $250/month????

This is the first time I see a plan being much more expensive than the phone itself. Today in New Zealand, the iPhone only costs $199 (150 USD), but the plan that comes with it costs a whopping $250/month?!?!?!

I wonder if iPhone will really take off in New Zealand?? $250 a month?? This doesn't make any sense at all, and most probably you're also tied with a 2 years contract. Taking advantage of Apple's brand??

All the way at Brussels though, a store is selling the iPhone for 525 euros, unlocked, and no contract! That would be like 1.2k SGD.

Biasness against iPhone?!?!?!

Recently read a few reviews of the iPhone in our local papers. I see a certain amount of biasness against the iPhone.

Reason... Although the header is about "reviewing" the iPhone, almost the whole article is bashing iPhone. They never pointed out the following:

1. Find me a 3G phone with HSDPA, Wifi (b/g), GPS, Bluetooth 2.0, 2MP camera with 8GB of internal flash for USD199. Go on... Find me one.
   
   
2. Find me a 3G phone that gives me a 1 short-cut icon to an App Store (Apple App Store to be launched on 11 July) that gives you access to paid and free applications. Yes... I really mean free. No need to crack any passwords or do any weird things. There are developers who just like to program free applications.
   
   If I'm free, I can write a simple iPhone app in less than half a day!
   
   
3. Find me a phone that gives a talk-time/internet surfing on 3G for 5 hours, 6hours Wireless, 7 hours video playback, or 24 hours of audio playback.
   

I have not even mentioned the superior web surfing experience of the iPhone. I'm not asking for a love iPhone review, but at least highlight the advantages of it if you're writing a d*** review for that phone. Instead, they kept harping that the phone only has 2MP camera. Tell me... Can your camera phone take this picture below?


Heck... Serious photographers will never use their phones to take pictures. This camera only costs USD250! (Canon SD870 IS if anyone is interested)

Write a review for the phone and never even highlight the advantages of the phone. Ridiculous...

Random Pictures around Fisherman's Wharf

Shops surrounding the Wharf

Wharf

Horse carriages around the wharf

Seagull with bread, at an area cordoned off specially for them

A ship moored near the wharf

Ship, with the golden gate bridge at the background

Alcatraz, with a sail boat nearby

Alcatraz, with a closer zoom

Alcatraz, taken from the submarine deck

Foggy Alcatraz, with a ship on its right

Closest zoom of Alcatraz

Fisherman's Wharf

Fisherman's Wharf is a popular tourist attraction in San Francisco. Think Clarke Quay... :)

We have reached there close to evening so we did not really explore the whole area. There is a submarine moored nearby which you could optionally pay to go on-board I think. Some pictures below:

Submarine Tour

Submarine, with Alcatraz in the background

The island you see on the right of the submarine above is the famous Alcatraz. There are several ferry tours you can take around Fisherman's Wharf that takes you to the golden gate bridge, and the famous prison island. It ranges from USD10 to USD30 for a ferry tour. However, to step into Alacatraz, according to the locals, you'll need to pre-book the tickets as it is quite popular. You better prepare warm clothings and a windbreaker if you're going for the ferry tour. It is very very cold out there. :) Below is a picture I took of Alcatraz. Will have a separate post later for all the random pictures I took. :)

Alcatraz

Near the area where you can see Alcatraz, you cannot miss Pier 39. Its quite a popular place because of the Sea Lions that like to rest themselves on the pier itself. Below is a picture of the pier:

Sea Lions at Pier 39

The area behind pier 39 also has many shops, including a shop opened by Forrest Gump, called Bubba Gump. It sells mainly shirts, hats, souveniers, and many pictures of the actual Forrest Gump. There are many shops behind Pier 39, and you can spend alot of time there.

Some pictures that I took around Bubba Gump:

Bubba Gump shop

Bubba Gump wanna-be, anyone?

I had my dinner at a Sourdough shop opposite the Wax Museum I think. Did not really go there to take a look. The clam chowder I had looks remarkably like the Old Chang Kee curry loaf, except that it instead contains clam chowder. :) Some pictures below of the area where I ate:

Sourdough shop

Sourdough with many interesting shapes

Dinner

Personally, I was full after eating it. Maybe because I like the Sourdough and I ate quite a lot of it. My other colleagues however went out for a supper later that night because they were hungry. :p

How does Sourdough tastes like?? Well... Sour. :D
I find that it matches well with the clam chow though.

WWDC Bash

On Thursday evening of the WWDC conference, Apple held a WWDC Bash for all developers in the Yerba Buena Gardens, next to the Moscone West. In short, beers, soft drinks, food, and music... There are basically 4 different categories of food that I've tried. Japanese, Chinese 点心, Normal Chinese Food, and the American food. Frankly, I prefer the American food. The burgers and nuggets were good, and popular too. The Chinese 点心 tastes a little weird. :p

Later on, the live band started playing. They actually composed an iPhone song. I remember it was quite hiliarious. :D

I managed to take a few shots of the bash. Heard that in previous years, it was held in Apple Campus. Its a pity this year it wasn't held there. The shots would be more interesting.


Yerba Buena Gardens, where the bash was held


Crowd eating and drinking


iPhones everywhere. :p


Live band

iPhone to be unlocked only when purchased

Latest news coming from AT&T. It seems that you will definitely need to get some sort of subscription from AT&T if you're getting an iPhone.

It sells for USD199/299 if you're getting it with a 2 year contract. However, if you do not want the 2 year contract, you will have to pay USD599/699 provided you subscribe to some kind of service from AT&T.

Judging from this news, I can safely say that iPhones definitely need to be activated by the provider upon sale. That means there is almost no way you can get an iPhone without subscribing to some sort of service from the provider.

Fast forwarding to what Singtel might do, I would say it will closely mirror what AT&T is doing. My guess is still that the iPhone plan will be bundled the voice together with the data plan by default. Price of iPhone? Cheapest 299SGD?? Hmmm....

Anyway, seems like there's still no news on when is Singtel launching the iPhone. No news from Starhub and M1 too. Wonder how the other countries will react on July 11.