2013 – Year of Football Revolution
The English football world continues to shock the world with surprises every other weeks. Not long ago, Manchester United secured their 20th Premier League title, and everyone thought the manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, is already planning on another assault in 2014. Within a week, the turn of event, the Manchester United boss decided that it is time to step down – after 26 years of managing the team at Old Trafford.
In quick succession, speculations began around the world news and tabloid as to who are likely to assume the role – 2 strong contenders were widely mentioned: Jose Mourinho (Chelsea ex-boss and current Real Madrid boss who still has 3 years left on is contract) and David Moyes (Everton manager). Before there is even enough time for the news and the world to compare and criticise the 2 possible candidates, Manchester United dealt another surprising blow by announcing the successor (David Moyes). That’s already 2 strikes coming from the English Premier League champion.
Outlook.com to support Skype Video Calling
According to several online sources, Microsoft has announced that it’s recently revamped free mail service, Outlook.com, will now support Skype video calling, starting from the United Kingdom, before introducing the “preview version” to the United States and Germany in the coming weeks.
Outlook.com users will be able to make audio and video calls as well as send Skype instant messages only by installing a browser plug-in. The integration will allow selecting the right medium for messages via e-mails, calls, video calls or instant messages, adding that Microsoft’s messenger service will also be made available to the users who can call messenger users from Outlook.com.
This move is a strategic one, especially Google’s GMail services already include such audio, video, email and messaging integration onto one platform. Furthermore, there are also other rival messaging services, such as Viber and Whatsapp, that are growing much quicker on the mobile platform.
Real Madrid Lost and Jose Mourinho May Leave
In the semi-final of the UEFA Champion League, Real Madrid needed 3 goals without reply against Borussia Dortmund to ensure their progress to the final stage after the latter scored 4-1 in the first leg of the meeting between the two.
Unfortunately, Real spurred a series of opening chances and managed to score 2-0, such that Borussia Dortmund will now progress with an aggregate of 4-3. After being knocked out from the Champion League, Real’s manager, Jose Mourinho hinted that he may not be around next season. After Tuesday’s match, he said: “I know in England I am loved, I know I am loved by some clubs, especially one.” Sadly for superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo, he could not find a respond to the solid defense held by the away team.
BlackBerry Z10
The long awaiting BlackBerry Z10 is finally here! After applying for the device last week, it did not take long for SingTel to revert back and confirm the availability of the product. Finally, I received the “state-of-the-art” fully-revamped BlackBerry device on Thursday (earlier this week). I understand from various past research that Lithium ion batteries do not require first-time charge to hold a longer and better battery life. There were also conflicting reports that users should still charge them for 12-14 hours for the first time. I am not going to take the chance to compromise my battery lifespan, so I chose to do the latter. In the midst of the process, I continued to explore my new “toy”.
I used to own a BlackBerry Bold device; so with Z10, the feeling of non-physical keyboard typing is really new for a BlackBerry owner. However, it did not take long for me to get adapted to typing on the new device. Because of this reason, the benefit is that I get to see more information on the screen, whereas the physical keyboard literally took up almost half the device, limiting the amount of content to be displayed. So, that is clearly a win over its predecessor. Unfortunately, as much as I applauded BlackBerry for creating a virtual keyboard that is so comfortable to the end user; in comparison to iPhone’s keyboard, iPhone still wins. Psychologically, typing on an iPhone feels much at ease than on BlackBerry Z10.
Gallery of posts up to 04-02-2013
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Considering an Upgrade of Blackberry Phone to Z10
Currently, I own a BlackBerry Bold device and have been using it for the last 22 months. Almost 2 years ago, I am intrigued by the security and corporate email capability of BlackBerry devices, powered by Research in Motion (RIM). Unfortunately, the growing use of enterprises tapping into BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) approach has steered users away from BlackBerry to other alternative devices, such as Samsung S3 or Apple iPhone. To ensure maximum security and data protection of using personal devices for corporate purpose, SAP has also introduced SAP Afaria to the market a few years ago. Anyway, the topic here is solely about BlackBerry and its new flagship OS 10 – installed on its latest roll-out of BlackBerry Z10.
Over the past few months, I have been contemplating to switch away from BlackBerry devices; but what prevented me from doing so are 2 things: the up-coming innovative Z10 powered by BlackBerry OS 10, and 2-year contract tied to the current device. I supposed it’s more of the latter that happened to be a show-stopper. Nevertheless, the contract renewal period is open for me, and just in time, Z10 is rolled out to Singapore market – this is the time to truly review what BlackBerry has done over the course of company restructuring and delaying its flagship release for almost a year.
I think users are tired of reading reviews after reviews; they are almost the same stuffs rewritten in a different approach. It supports 4G LTE, capacitive touchscreen keyboard that is on par with iPhone’s, expandable MircoSD slot up to 64GB, Bluetooth version 4.0, NFC (Near Field Communication), Dual core processor that never performed any poorer than Samsung’s octa-core or quad-core devices, etc.
Giving the Site a New Look
For years, I have been using the same theme, heavily customized with lots of codes and stuffs. Then, I tell myself – time has changed; it’s either I stay ahead of the trend, or risk falling behind. This is particularly true when mobile devices are getting smaller, web developers are switching to using HTML5 instead, and tablets and becoming more commonly used across all segments of users.
Switching WordPress Theme can be an easy thing to do; but with lots of customization done previously, it has made it quite a challenge. One of the challenges I have to answer myself is, should I forgo some of the old scripts that were implemented in the previous theme. The answer is Yes.
Change is only as effective (and efficient) only if we let go the old stuffs. Without delay, I turned on the new theme, “Black Lucas“, after going through a couple of shortlisted themes. I like the font type, it’s clean and highly flexible. Going forward, it is just keeping the site optimized for speed and look.
Happy Chinese New Year 2013
I would like to take the opportunity to wish every readers here, a Happy Lunar New Year in 2013!
Chinese New Year (CNY) is a tradition, well-celebrated by Chinese all over the world. This year, it falls on a Sunday, and hence we get to have holidays up to Tuesday in Singapore.
During CNY’s eve, we had reunion dinner, which gave me a great chance to meet all the relatives whom I have not seen for months. The subsequent 15 days will be the time when we will go house-to-house visiting – most importantly, collection of red packets!
This is likely to be a great year – looking forward to it.
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