I was just about to cancel my Netflix account, this new Netflix iphone app came out today. I have been a Netflix subscriber for a while now, on and off. Recently, I’ve using my Samsung Bluray DVD player to stream videos from Netflix via a wired (wireless connection is slow and not watchable) network connection. The quality has been up and down, but there just isn’t much new contents out there, and you have to wait for another 2 weeks before you can get the new releases is a big turnoff for me. Now we have the nice iphone app, so I can watch “Office” anywhere I want, I think I’ll hang on to Netflix a little longer now.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tiger’s back?!
Only days after his announced divorce, Tiger Wood is back on the golf course, and sharing the lead at Barclays on the first day. He doesn’t need a putter change to get better, though the putter was the only club not made by Nike, so maybe he should return a favor to Nike for sticking out for him. Anyway, maybe it’s too early to tell, but at least Tiger can officially go out and party with no string attached, which would be a good relief for him, and put himself in the old comfort zone. Many sports radio show hosts have been hinting something like this, the national syndicated ones are more subtle, local ones are straight out saying he needs all the women. We shall see, I hope Tiger Woods will be more comfort on the course and with his game.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
What’s in Tiger’s Head
I think everybody watches sports regularly would hear something like “What’s wrong with Tiger’s game?”, though I think a lot of people know. Tiger Woods came back from a knee surgery after laying off for almost a year, but became a contender right away, winning tournaments, there wasn’t anything wrong with his game. Ever since November of last year, Tiger’s game has gone south, all of sudden, he couldn’t drive well, has changed the ball he plays, now, at British Open, changed his putter, why? I don’t think there is anything wrong with Tiger’s game, his swing, his putting, he’s just missing all the wild parties he used to have, which would release the tension and stress, and put himself into a comfort zone. Golf is a mental game, once he can party again, he’ll be in his groove! Go Tiger!
Friday, July 16, 2010
Free case from Steve, and he loves you!
I have been saying this all along: “iphone is everything but a phone”, after I got it, I have been wondering why other companies were still making smart phones. Hands down, no contest.
Now, with this iphone4 hoopla, Steve is telling you that “He loves you!” and giving out free cases, what else do you want from him, or Apple? i think this may have been blown out of proportion as well, I guess people are more interested in what he say today than anything else. Still will get the iphone4, if Apple or BestBuy call.
Friday, July 2, 2010
The unofficial review of 2010 world cup Jabulani match ball
The unofficial review of 2010 world cup Jabulani match ball
I have to admit that I’m a little obsessed with the Jabulani match ball. I’ve read article about it, heard people talking about it, saw how it’s been played in the world cup matches, and played with it, I think I have enough information to make a good review. First of all, the ball is made of plastic-like material, not leather, and is heavier than I originally thought, and handles and feels well. Two things in my opinion make the ball unusual: first, there is no traction on the ball, since there is ONLY 8 fake panels molding on the ball plastic surface making it “perfectly round”, but diminish its ability to grab on the ground, those little edges on the surface are intended to increase the traction, but don’t make much of the difference; secondly, the multiple layers make the ball traps the energy inside, and releases it slowly, unevenly, translating into unpredictable ball flight.
We’ve seen one strike by Messi in the Argentina vs Germany in slow motion went high, but clearly the ball jumped at the last moment, the same happened to Klose in the same match, a perfect ground pass jumped at the last moment resulting in the high ball instead of an easy goal. Not to mention the mishandled goals by the goalies in early stages. All the these, IMHO, were due to the fact that the energy trapped in the ball released slowly making the ball “flies on its own”. There have been so many crosses, and straight passes went long and out of reach, making the players looked really bad. They are the best players in the world! It’s the ball! The ball is heavy and with no grab on the ground, soft passes would end up short, harder passes would just either go far or skid off the grass. Giving the players credit, they adjusted, and made fantastic plays, such as swirl the ball to shoot, instead of strike it hard with all mighty (usually ends up high), but with a price: they’ve been changing the way they used to play, which is not something soccer fans want to see.
Why Adidas made and FIFA decided to use Jabulani ball? They should’ve known better, don’t they? More goals, soccer matches need more goals, world cup needs more goals. The ball characteristics doesn’t work toward any team’s advantage, but, with the unpredictable ball flight, could mean more goals, at least this is what FIFA was hoping for. I’m all for more goals, but not to achieve this by changing the way the soccer is played.
I have to admit that I’m a little obsessed with the Jabulani match ball. I’ve read article about it, heard people talking about it, saw how it’s been played in the world cup matches, and played with it, I think I have enough information to make a good review. First of all, the ball is made of plastic-like material, not leather, and is heavier than I originally thought, and handles and feels well. Two things in my opinion make the ball unusual: first, there is no traction on the ball, since there is ONLY 8 fake panels molding on the ball plastic surface making it “perfectly round”, but diminish its ability to grab on the ground, those little edges on the surface are intended to increase the traction, but don’t make much of the difference; secondly, the multiple layers make the ball traps the energy inside, and releases it slowly, unevenly, translating into unpredictable ball flight.
We’ve seen one strike by Messi in the Argentina vs Germany in slow motion went high, but clearly the ball jumped at the last moment, the same happened to Klose in the same match, a perfect ground pass jumped at the last moment resulting in the high ball instead of an easy goal. Not to mention the mishandled goals by the goalies in early stages. All the these, IMHO, were due to the fact that the energy trapped in the ball released slowly making the ball “flies on its own”. There have been so many crosses, and straight passes went long and out of reach, making the players looked really bad. They are the best players in the world! It’s the ball! The ball is heavy and with no grab on the ground, soft passes would end up short, harder passes would just either go far or skid off the grass. Giving the players credit, they adjusted, and made fantastic plays, such as swirl the ball to shoot, instead of strike it hard with all mighty (usually ends up high), but with a price: they’ve been changing the way they used to play, which is not something soccer fans want to see.
Why Adidas made and FIFA decided to use Jabulani ball? They should’ve known better, don’t they? More goals, soccer matches need more goals, world cup needs more goals. The ball characteristics doesn’t work toward any team’s advantage, but, with the unpredictable ball flight, could mean more goals, at least this is what FIFA was hoping for. I’m all for more goals, but not to achieve this by changing the way the soccer is played.
Brazilian played a sloppy match
Brazilians played a sloppy match today, the early goal didn't help them but, I think, ended up hurting them, 'cause they were getting too relaxed, making sloppy passes. The attacks were very unorganized, not efficient at all. Dani Alves can only play on the wing, he's NOT a central midfield ball controller, he held on to the ball too much making Dutches defense easier.
Dutches were aggressive, well prepared, and didn't let early goal affect their original game plan. They possess the ball well (51% vs 49%) against the Brazilians! Ref was too soft, probably was prepped by FIFA, not willing to issue yellow cards in the beginning, the match did get physical, even though it didn't get out of hands, but the soft tone encouraged the Dutches, ended up not in Brazilian's favor.
In general it was a good match, but a classic for sure.
Dutches were aggressive, well prepared, and didn't let early goal affect their original game plan. They possess the ball well (51% vs 49%) against the Brazilians! Ref was too soft, probably was prepped by FIFA, not willing to issue yellow cards in the beginning, the match did get physical, even though it didn't get out of hands, but the soft tone encouraged the Dutches, ended up not in Brazilian's favor.
In general it was a good match, but a classic for sure.
Monday, March 2, 2009
iPhone updated
Thought I wrote up an update on my iPhone experience after having it for about 3 weeks. I’m actually quite happy with it and liking it a lot! Like I mentioned before, the screen size was the biggest factor for me to switch from Fuze to iPhone. Now adding to that, setting up Chinese input on iPhone was a breeze, Settings –> General –> Keyboard –> International Keyboards –> turn Chinese (simplied or traditional) on, and voila. This even comes with handwriting input tool, which is super cool I think.
With other phones afraid of Apple by not offering multi-touch screen and regular 3.5mm earphone jack on their phones made iPhone more appealing. Sometimes, I even forget the fact that there still quite a lot of basic stuff I cannot do with my iPhone, such as zoom in camera, video recording, to name a few, and how Apple acts like an application Nazi annoys me, just don’t get me started.
I haven’t jailbroken my iPhone yet, read about stories on both goods and bads, just not convinced yet to go through the hassle. Maybe I have to one day just to see what’s all the fuss about.
BTW, the big gotcha: you will get charged for each IM you send out using Meebo or Nimbuzz or any IM app as a text message by AT&T when using 3G network. Man, wish I had known. What does “unlimited data” mean then?
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