Landmark 1st Drupal Camp in Singapore

DrupalCamp Singapore 2012

Attended the 1st ever local Drupal Camp today. It was a great experience.

What is Drupal? It's a software that allows you to run a website. It's similar to Wordpress, but with more customisable options.

Even though I only downloaded a copy of Drupal to try out on my laptop a day earlier, the sessions were understandable and not too techy.

Attendees were friendly and I had several thoughtful discussions (both tech and non-tech topics). The speakers and topics were of sufficient variety, and the organisers (who were all volunteers) did a great job.

Will definitely encourage more people to try out Drupal :)

• Drupal overview
• How to install on a local computer for testing

Nokia e6 - Full Review - Part 1 of 2

Only Android experts need apply (not me)

HTC ChaCha - Rooted to Life (Part 2)
The amount of work, just to make the Chacha usable. Too 'cheem' for me, I'm afraid.

The next evolution for the X100 & G12

Preview: Fujifilm X-Pro1

OMG, Fujifilm just made a Leica M9. Just look at the size similarity. (photo from dpreview.com)

Coming in February. Estimated body price US$1,700 [S$2,200]; lens at US$650 [S$840].

Canon also just announced its G1 X, estimated price US$800 [S$1,000].

Xperia Pro keyboard

I finally managed to find a retail shop to try out the Sony Ericsson Xperia Pro.

First impressions are not encouraging. The key edges are straight instead of being domed, which enable one's thumbs to move around the keyboard.

Also, the keys are slightly softly sprung. They don't provide the positive clicky feeling I have with my Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro.

The sales assistant was hovering around constantly, asking questions, so I didn't have a lot of time to really test the keyboard and camera.

Guess I'll have to find another shop to try it again. Now tempted to reconsider the HTC ChaCha even with its inherent problems of insufficient memory, short battery life, and slow processor. The keyboard on the ChaCha is that good.

Xperia Pro finally lands in Singapore

After what seems to be an eternity, the Xperia Pro has finally landed in Singapore. Currently selling at $598 (without contract), it belongs to a rare breed of QWERTY Android handphones.

I need to try out the keyboard before I can decide on whether this handphone is a suitable replacement for my aging X10 Mini Pro.

This is further complicated by a desire for a QWERTY candybar form factor (aka HTC ChaCha), and a super camera phone (Nokia N8).

I already have 2 mobile devices (X10 Mini Pro & Galaxy Tab), so adding another device just sounds extravagant and wasteful.

Has it arrived too late to the game?

Trying out the Xperia pro — Sony Ericsson Product Blog
After almost one year of delays, we finally see the Xperia Pro becoming available.

With an ample screen, QWERTY keyboard, and a potentially good camera, perhaps the only stumbling block is the form factor.

A horizontal slider means plenty of switching between portrait and landscape formats. Also, the fact that I had to replace the connector between the 2 sliding pieces on my X10 Mini Pro means question marks regarding reliability.
I suppose I'm still tempted by the HTC ChaCha, even it has quite a few bugs.

QuickWeb on the HP DM1

By accident, I stumbled onto the QuickWeb feature on my HP DM1, while it was crammed into a bag. A quick google search later, I found that pressing F5 (which also corresponds to the shortcut to opening a browser) would boot the notebook into the QuickWeb environment, which is a Linux OS which allows quick access (about 20-25sec) to the Web upon booting.

Tested several websites with the browser, and found most functions working (e.g. Flash, Java, etc). The browser was generally snappy, and easy to use.

As most of my work is done online, this is an interesting option that I may use quite regularly in the future.

A portable Windows device with QWERTY keyboard

Panasonic Toughbook U1 gets new sunlight-viewable screen, still solid to its Atom core -- Engadget
The price is expensive (US$2,799), but it has the right combination of features
- Windows (full desktop experience)
- hardware QWERTY keyboard (needed for extended text entry)
- touchscreen (important feature on a portable device)
- reasonable battery life

Xperia Mini Pro lands in Singapore; Xperia Pro still delayed

The successor to my current phone (X10 Mini Pro), has arrived in Singapore.

Features include

1. a bigger screen (from 2.5-inch to 3-inch)
2. faster processor (from 600MHz to 1Ghz); this also means Adobe Flash is supported
   
3. OS upgrade (from Android 2.1 to 2.3)
4. front-facing camera (Skype just announced expanded video-calling capability for its Android app)
5. hardware QWERTY keyboard has more keys, including 4-way arrow keys and shortcut keys
   

Looks tempting, but I don't think I will get this phone, as it does not have the backlit CMOS sensor (a.k.a. Exmor-R) in its camera. The long delayed Xperia Pro has that feature, but is also bulkier.