tembeling’s muse

Yeay! I finally took the jump!

Despite all the bad things I heard about iPhone, I went to Maxis Centre on Saturday & bought a 16GB 3Gs iPhone at RM2490 using my Hotlink (prepaid) account. Of course I am not gonna use Maxis line. I am using Celcom…. *evil grin* So tested it for one day & loving the phone despite some rants about it……of which I’ll tell soon.

Yes, the phone is unlocked! So you guys can use it with any line.

It is solid. Very very user friendly. No multi tasking. So? I am OK so far.

What I did to it. I bought &  install few apps.

1. Power Search - to search contact by letter – USD1.99 – which is a built-in feature in Nokia E71/72
2. Quickoffice & Connect - USD7.99 – for Office documents – The connect app is free. Its to sync with my docs stored in GoogleDoc. Somehow iTunes can’t sync documents stored in PC.
3. Pocket Informant – USD?? (forgot) – a calendar replacement – Another frustration – Not able to sync with Outlook! Haiya. The built-in calendar can sync with Outlook tho’ but the calendar itself is pretty basic.

Free useful apps are:

1. uQuran (not the pro one tho’)
2. iPray – athan app
3. XE Converter

I’ll explore more when I have the time.

Oh btw….Microsoft Exchange sync very smoothly with iPhone. So that’s my way to sync my calendar & contact actually. Only that I have to use iPhone basic calendar to access the task & appointments.

And….one more thing….almost forgot about it. The battery life is horrible! Need to bring my mobile charger every where now. I browsed the net for solution, in the Apple website, they recommend us to shut down almost everything to save battery! If that’s the case, then better don’t use all the features. Ntah hapa hapa.

I used Tilopa for a quick 220m hike to photograph sunrise from Panorama Hill (Bukit Panorama) which located at Sungai Lembing Town, about 45 km from Kuantan.

The bag is very light. That was my first impression. The straps are great. The compartments are all useful. Huge side pockets are very convenience as compared to other bags that I have. The zips are tough.

However when I first load my gears, I realized that the ICU is pretty small. I can’t fit in my 300mm lens. But that’s OK as I don’t think I’ll hike 3000m mountain with a 300mm. I can fit my D3 attached to 70-200mm VR f2.8 and D300s with 14-24mm f2.8. Also I have one more space for my speedlight. I’ll show some pictures when I have time to transfer them into the PC.

I also put into its top compartment some snacks and my headlamp; 2 bottles of mineral water & poncho into the side pockets & my Feisol CT-3442 carbon fibre tripod strapped to the back. I didn’t really measure the weight but I guess circa 10 kg or slightly more.

The bag was comfortable to wear but after a few minutes, maybe after 30 minutes I feel uncomfortable at the waist support. I think the waist support is not wide enough. Even my Lowepro Primus has thicker padding. And the corner of the bottom of the bag (the inner side) kept hurting my waist. I am 173cm tall with waist circumference of 36 inches. Waist support is everything about a good backpack.

The back of the bag is pretty hot after a while. They should start looking at how to improve circulation to the back of the bag.

So as the conclusion:

Good Points:

1. Light
2. Great straps
3. Varieties of compartments
4. Tough zips

Things can be improved

1. Waist support
2. Poor air circulation at the back of the bag

Overall, I am happy with Tilopa. I am yet to test it on serious long trekking trip.

Thirteen odd extraordinary people will travel from Surabaya to Bromo to Kawah Ijen (Ijen Crater) in East Java in March 2010. We plan to stay 2 days in Bromo and spend more time visiting few lakes around the area. Then we will explore few waterfalls and travel to coffee plantation area before we climb Kawaj Ijen. On the way back we will stop at Baluran Safari.

Wish us luck guys.

I am very very happy today when I discovered that f-stop gear is shipping the bag to Malaysia FOC! I placed my order immediately. It cost me USD295. The shipping is via USPS….of which I know it gonna arrive pretty late & I might not be able to use it during my trip to Indonesia in March.

Still…..I am so happy! My muse about bags here.

p/s Now…I just worry about the custom tax.

Update: Just few hours after I placed my order, Druid Orion, the Managing Director emailed me saying that it might arrived within 7 days. Thanks for the email Druid!

Update #2:

	Out of Foreign Customs, March 02, 2010, 11:16 am, MALAYSIA
	Into Foreign Customs, March 02, 2010, 10:59 am, MALAYSIA
	Arrived Abroad, March 02, 2010, 8:15 am, MALAYSIA
	International Dispatch, February 25, 2010, 5:17 am, ISC CHICAGO IL (USPS)
	Arrival
	Electronic Shipping Info Received, February 22, 2010

Update #3: Today, 4th March 2010 the bag finally arrived!! Yes! Will test it during Panorama hiking this Sunday!

To Mac!! *evil grin*

With the excuse that my old Dell Precision is getting slow…….and my photo editing is getting sluggish, and not to mention the crashing Windows, I open Apple website & ordered a 27″ iMac with 3.33GHz CPU, 8GB RAM….& 1TB HDD. And I am now a happy little pussy cat (instead of dog lah).

What is my first impression?

WOW!!!!! *speechless*

The screen is so huge! I can’t view the browser at its full width or else I’ll get strabismus. The speed…of course it is faster. Even internet speed is faster. I am not sure why that happens. Maybe there were so many applications running in the background when I were using Windows last time.

However, this Mac is for my photography & photo editing work. I am still more comfortable using Windows & all the relevant apps for my office & statistics works. I am not ready to migrate everything to Mac. It will consume too many time.