Astro will go HD tomorrow. I was sitting in the car to office this morning when I heard the news on the radio that Astro will launch HD service tomorrow. Well, it’s just time, and just a very perfect time since I also just recently getting obsessed with HD World when purchasing my Sony Full HD LCD TV.

After the launch of Measat 3A satellite, Astro been quietly upgrading their system to support HD broadcast. Well, they are doing a good job of keeping that quite as I only get to know that today despite several articles on the local newspaper already about this.

From the digging that I do, I found out that the broadcast will be in 1080i resolution. What? I thought that it will be in 720p. 1080i can be thought as 540p, which is below 720p. There’s also interesting rumors about the new decoder as well. The new decoder will be eqquiped with HDMI port, ethernet port, usb port and digital audio output.

(Images via Miri Community Forum)

But I don’t see any HDMI port from the new decoder that comes with any new Astro subscription.

But seeing the USB port and Ethernet port at the back of the decoder rather excites me (current model only have phone jack port for the modem). Having USB port can mean that you can connect portable external hard disk to it, and use Astro decoder as PVR (Personal Video Recorder) to programatically the whole season of Akademi Fantasia (LOL!), and watch it at your own leisure time.

With broadband internet is now connectable to Astro decoder, I hope this will be first Malaysia version of TiVo. As a matter of fact, in the past I have touched twice about Malaysia version of TiVo. Firstly, when MiTV first launched, which MiTV turn out to be not close to TiVo at all, and the launched of Astro Max after that (which the production has been ceased now)

During the launch, only a few channels will be broadcast in HD. Which channels then? Measat website has a good hint for this.

Local programs will be in HD in the next phase as Astro has to upgrade the video camera and other equipments. I just can’t want to watch Akademi Fantasia in HD (LOL).

The 2 things that still have big question marks on them are, i) how much the new decoder will cost, ii) what’s the price will be for the HD channels package. Everything will be unveiled soon.

It’s time for me to reconsider upgrading my package which currently I’m under protest by switching to the basic RM37.95 package due to the price hike that they announce to the Sports Channel last time.

Astro website will definately be the first website that I’ll be visiting first thing tomorrow.

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When it only feels like yesterday that I first laid my hand on Gmail, there’s the next thing from Google which I believe will change how people look at communication and collaboration – Google Wave.

I get to know about Google Wave sometimes end of May 2009, which I straightly request an invitation. Google Wave was first made available to public on 30th of September. After patiently waiting for so long, finally I received invitation to preview Google Wave. Yippe!

Google Wave supported in Google Chrome, Safari 4 and Firefox 3.5 web browser. If you are using Internet Explorer, you need to install Google Chrome Frame first.

Well, this is my very first wave that I write in Google Wave. There’s just too much things to write about Google Wave features here. Just watch this video to get the idea about what Google Wave is.

The next thing that came to my mind is, will Google Wave works on iPhone? Well, not yet. But wait. There’s a link down there that asks me to go ahead if I want to continue accessing Google Wave at my own peril.

Surprisingly, Google Wave does load up on iPhone. Let’s look at the first wave that I wrote earlier.

Nice. It loads up too. But one thing that I noticed, it takes quite long to load, and my iPhone feels like freezing at a time. This is I guess when the faster processor of iPhone 3GS is required. At this very early stage, the Map Gadgets Extension is loadable on iPhone.

Lets view the welcome note wave that I got. Bummer! The YouTube video extensions is not loadable here.

“Google Wave is more fun when you have others to wave with”. I have 8 invitations that I can give out, which 2 have been reserved already. So, I have 6 invitations left to be given out now. If you are interested, just buzz me at the comment section. First come first basis.

Please remember to fill in your email when leaving the comment so that I can send you the invitation. No worries. The email that you left in the email field is not viewable by others.

Nov 16 2009, 4:38pm:
Sorry folks. All invitations were given out already.

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Been invited by a friend of mine, who is a teacher at Sekolah Kebangsaan Puchong Utama 3 to attend that Fiesta Ria held by the school. It’s been ages since I last attended this kind of event. As far as I remember, I was still in primary school that time when I last attended something like this,

Some of the crowd that we have today. Well, the theme for this kind of event is to bring the parents, student and teachers together. You see so many kinds and behaviours of kids at school, and the same goes to parents.

Let’s look at what they have here. As stated in the bunting, there’s inflatable playground.

Flying fox is quite popular too amongst the pupils here. There’s one kind after another, non stop that flying down the cable.

If you are thirsty or hungry, you can find drinks and foods almost everywhere.

And this game has received quite extraordinary attention from the crowd. It’s RM5 for 3 times throw. I wonder how much money that the teacher is making out of this ;)

And I guess the highlight of the day is the performance by Akhbar and Yasin.

Anyway, it’s kinda fun tough once in a while to break away from my normal norm of spending the weeked.

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It’s quite a shocking news today to receive an SMS from friend telling that Micheal Jackson has died. Hopefully it’s just not another chain SMS that always happened. Quickly checking several of mainstream news website, yeap, it is confirmed.

Well, I was really hoping to see him making a comeback in this industry, and now it’s all history. May he rest in peace.

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On a very fine evening yesterday, my afternoon nap is disturbed with a call from a random number. The person introduces that she’s from Mid Valley. Ahh. Finally, the moment of truth. The result of my installment application yesterday. Yippe! The application is approved. So the person ask me to come tomorrow to make a first payment and arrange the delivery date.

So I’m there at Jusco Mid Valley today, which I happened to be on emergency leave since I have visitor at my home.

This is the time that the promoter is poisoning me even more. It turned out that there is another promotion that you can get the Sony Blu-Ray player for RM1000, on top of Bravia W-Series LCD TV purchase.

Wow! This is a very good offer. The player itself is priced at RM2499 if to be bought alone. This thing has long been on my wish list alongside with LCD TV. It’s like a must thing to have for you to enjoy high definition movie, which what Full HD LCD TV is all about.

The promoter even cut RM1 more from the price, making it RM999. Well, I put this on my plastic card first :D Anyway, will be getting RM1500 next month (someone will bayar hutang), so I guess I will settle the amount by then.

Then the delivery part. It’s kinda awkward that the delivery is only done from 1pm to 5pm. It’s like people don’t have to go to work and can happily stay at home at those time. This weekend is not a good idea too as I’m not in KL (going back to hometown). Then I don’t have a choice than to come back to KL a bit earlier next Monday, which I have applied for annual leave already. So the delivery date is set for next Monday.

There you go. 2 more new gadgets for me (TV and Blu-Ray player), and another new “hutang” as well. LOL.

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Looking back at my 2008’s wish list, it’s been a long time already that I’m longing for a Full HD LCD TV. With the price of LCD TV dropping these day, I keep saying to myself that I will get one once my new house construction is completed. But thinking of it, that’s the time that you will use your money a lot – house renovation, furnitures etc, so finally, I’ve decided to get one – using installment of course.

Being a fan of Sony for TV products, went to Mid Valley to visit Sony Centre. Well, they have this Double Cash Back promotion for Sony Bravia TV.

Since Sony Centre only offered installment by using credit card only (max 12 months), I just decided to use AEON credit service at Jusco. Furhermore, I can get J-Card points ;) So which one to get?

Well, I have decided on which one to get way before. Been researching for a week already. The one that I’m getting is the W-Series 46-inch one (KLV-46W550A). I’m quite attracted to the 100 Hz MotionFlow technology, among other features that are unique to Sony LCD TVs.

There’s quite a good promotion too. There’s 5% discount, as well as RM300 cash back. So the final price is RM7299.05. Didn’t really plan to get the sound system for double cash back. Will invest in proper sound system later on (Yamaha perhaps).

I’ve been an AEON Express member already, but the express application (1 hour approval) is limited only to the maximum price of RM3000. For this one, I have to apply the normal way which will take a day or two to process. So I filled in all the necessary forms, and am waiting eagerly for the result. Really hope the application will be approved.

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Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2009 will start today. Just can’t wait what new things that Apple has to annouce. There’s a very strong rumors about there will be a new iPhone, not just iPhone 3.0 software, but the actual iPhone 3.0 hardware itself. We’ll just wait and see.

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Test blog posting from mobile

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I received the following email from admin early evening yesterday when checking my office’s email from home. And in my mind, I have so many questions as I’m not expecting any parcel. What could that be.

Got to office this morning, the first thing that I do is to go and see admin at 18th floor. I’m getting excited looking at the size of the parcel. It’s quite big. But still, the main questions haven’t been answered – from who, and what’s inside.

Finally the truth unfolds. The parcel is actually souvenirs from Marts and Tot. Thanks Marts. Buat susah2 plak.

I guess I will spend my weekends reading books (hopefully!!)

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Just feels like yesterday that I do this exercise – calculated my hard earning money, and being in misery seeing my hard earning money has to be given back to government.

Well, I’m using e-Filing again this year, which LHDN makes it so easy for you to assessment. Since no big thing happened in my life (I’m still single with no kids), the process of filling the form is pretty much the same as what I have been doing for the past 5 years. I wonder how time consuming this will be for those with spouse and kids making sure that all the assessment is done correctly, or else you may end up having being taxed on the income that are not taxable.

Damn it! I have a balance of tax to pay this year, and the amount is not small – RM385. There goes additional RM385 out of my pocket from my next coming salary.

Well, the due date for this is 30th April 2009. Have you submitted your tax form?

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