Synology DS210j

One of the questions I often get from friends coming up to Hong Kong is if stuff is cheaper here or in Singapore. In many cases, the answer is “not really” or “just a little” – but in the case of the Synology DS210j that I bought for my bro recently, it was a helluva lot cheaper!

At HK$1530 (which is about S$278 at 1S$:5.5HK$), you’d be paying almost 50% more if you bought one from Synology’s dealer in Singapore (Memory World) which has priced it at S$408. Plus according to the Synology forum (post dates back to 2007 though), Synology does provide international warranty.

So why the DS210j? Only the Qnap TS210J II comes close to the DS210j’s transfer rates, but is more expensive. The rest of the 2-bay NAS competition, like the D-Link DNS-323 are generally slower. Oh, and its DLNA compliant too, so fits in with the plan of adding those ‘media extender’ devices to stream video and audio later.

Voice search for your phone – sounds good yeah?

I thought so too – so I tried out the latest Google Mobile App’s voice search feature on my Nokia E71 (which means the S60 flavour of the app).

Google Mobile App

The app is basically kinda like a one-stop-shop to quickly link to and search through Google stuff, so you will need a data connection (wifi or cellphone network), and the other mobile apps (Gmail, Google Maps etc) loaded if you want to fire it up from the above home screen.

If you enable its location-based function, it’s supposed to yield more relevant results. But it didn’t seem to do anything for me in terms of returning more relevant search results so I shut that feature off.

What’s one of the best ways to go one up on the competition? Hire their former CEO.

That’s just what StarHub announced today, when it said that its current CEO Terry Clontz will be retiring in January 2010, and former M1 CEO Neil Montefiore has surfaced to fill his shoes – pending regulatory approval.

Earlier this year on Feb 1, Neil stepped down from M1 and its then CFO Karen Kooi stood in as acting CEO, only to be confirmed as CEO a little more than two months later.

Now Neil, whom Terry has known “on a professional and personal level for ten years”, will take the reins of the number two telco in Singapore – a position which he probably wanted M1 to reach during his tenure.

Will this fuel further speculation of consolidation in the local telco scene? You bet. StarHub and M1 were already partners in the Infinity consortium, which put in a failed Netco bid in the Next Gen NBN project. And M1’s fixed broadband service essentially rides off StarHub’s cable modem infrastructure.

And if being pals doesn’t work out, StarHub can have the dirt on M1 – where they are good, and where they can hit it hard.

StarHub, 1 – M1, 0.

With the telco regulator in Hong Kong giving its stamp of approval for fixed mobile number portability last Friday, fixed line phone numbers here can finally be set free. Right off, I can think of a couple of scenarios where its useful to port fixed to mobile.

• You can move your business fixed line to a mobile and not miss any calls without the need to subscribe to call forwarding.
• Stop paying for your monthly fixed line fees just because you feel nostalgic about the number – port it to a prepaid mobile number.
• Going from fixed to a prepaid mobile might actually lower your phone bills if you’re an extremely infrequent voice user.

I’m sure there’ll be more scenarios and benefits, but unfortunately, this is expected that it will take a while before the fixed line carriers here actually let you do it, as the regulator’s left it to the telcos to sort it out commercially.

And I can’t think of too many reasons why the fixed line folks here would be wanting to open the floodgates to the fixed line exodus, but hey, at least they can start the conversation on how they want to do this and work out fixed to mobile migration options.

Now that’s what I call true number portability.

Meanwhile in sunny Singapore, can someone tell me where we are on our quest for telco liberalisation and true number portability? Since the implementation of “full mobile number portability” in 2008, I still can’t port my post-paid mobile to pre-paid *sigh*! Worse still, a review on number portability doesn’t seem to be on the horizon!

Techgoondu on BlackBerry Storm

A touchscreen with a tactile keypress. That’s probably the most strikingly unique feature about RIM’s first touchscreen device – the BlackBerry Storm … aka its 9500 series.

The concept of its “SurePress” touchscreen certainly sounds good … on the screen – a capacitive touchscreen that you can not only tap, double tap, flick and drag your finger on, but also click on.

Click on a screen? Hmm. But will it make typing faster and easier?

While the idea of a clickable touchscreen sounds great, in reality, it didn’t quite click with me. The touch and tap aspects of the screen were great – you could highlight, copy and paste, swipe your finger to scroll etc. But when it came to typing, which I’d imagine you’d do a lot of on a messaging-centric device like a BlackBerry, that’s when the idea of a clicking screen started to come apart. First, it takes some effort to click the screen – more so than needed for a light tap on the touchscreen. And closer to the edges of the screen, the clicks needed even more effort. Will it have worked better if the screen required less effort to click? I think not.

Matt at WordCamp 2009

Went to the first ever WordCamp Hong Kong today and the highlight for me was certainly hearing from the founding developer of the WordPress platform Matt Mullenweg, which this site – and millions of others – run on.

Affable Matt took the WordCampers, which I’m guessing numbered around maybe 50, on a journey back through time – from how he started working on it and ending off a little into the future – with features request for the next version of WordPress. But there was much more.

Google "shop"

“A Google shop? Now just what has Google diversified into?” That was my initial reaction when I went by this busy part of Causeway Bay (right opposite to the Sogo in case you’re familiar with the area) and spotted this.

Walking a little closer, it turns out that it was just their idea of marketing their Google Finance portal for Hong Kong, with some folks dishing out flyers and some demo computers in there.

So how old do you think are the chaps behind WordPress – the platform that Techgoondu and tons of blogs run on?

I recently found out that one of the founding developers – Matt Mullenweg, is all of 25 years old this year! Gosh, what was I doing at 25…

And if you happen to be in Hong Kong during on April 5th (Sunday), you might want to meet him at WordCamp – a “Wordpress fest” of sorts – in Hong Kong.

WordCamp Hong Kong

If you register by today, its just 10HKD at the door, otherwise it’ll be 25HKD. Pay when you’re there. Techgoondu doesn’t get any kick backs on this.

I’m not sure what happens at these WordCamps, but I think it should be interesting to find out what’s up with the WordPress community here. I plan on being there so shout if anyone is in the hood!

Looks like there ain’t a WordCamp Singapore planned yet?

Getting one of the new Media PCs to consolidate all your media needs sound like a great idea. But if you have a MacBook Pro (MBP) – even an early rev A version like mine, all you need is Plex and you already have a Media PC ready to go.

First, props to Techgoondu friend Chris who gave me a heads up to Plex. Plex is a media center software based on XBMC Media Center. I have yet to try XBMC but it apparently is Mac, Linux, Windows and XBox compatible, unlike Plex which will only work with Intel Macs running Leopard – but there should be quite a few of you Techgoondu readers out there who are running that, at least according to our logs.

So after the usual download and install routine, I hooked everything up and voila, there was I, using my Apple Remote to navigate through my media files and playing them back on the LCD TV.

Running Plex on a MacBook Pro