Movie: Limitless

Recently I have watched a movie called Limitless. As it title recommends, it tells us what will happen if we could unlock all of the access to all parts in our brain, basically to achieve our fullest potential. If your hidden potential is a very smart person, with that drug you will be smart.

However, it seems to tell us that only drug used is able to unlock all paths in our brain. Well it seems to be only the way to do it as we will never access to 50% of our brains despite we maintain a superb healthy lifestyle that no one on earth could ever do that (simply because no one can tolerate with such a diet or sometimes people have no choice but to force them to work in order to make a living).

In that movie, a street wanderer could transform to a brilliant broker (which generated a profit of 2 million USD from 12,000 USD in 10 days) then to a senator through the drug used. As you might have expected, great power comes with great consequences. When the drug is not consumed in a timely manner, the user will suffocate to death. The movie ended with the actor found ways to duplicate the drug for his own use.

Personally, I do not like the way it ended. What is the moral of the story? To encourage people to consume the drug and find ways to duplicate it? It would have been better if the actor finds ways to cure his addiction and yet lived. If so, it also would have been a little more interesting.

I would love to unlock the paths in order to have the access to every single unit in my brain too. Through this movie, I thought I could learn some tips to do that. Just rather disappointed, a little.

Awareness on Food Consumption

This comes into my mind when I was taking a “to go” dinner at a hawker stall today.

How do you choose what you want to consume for lunch/dinner?

Do you choose to consume the diet which you feel you lacked of? Or do you choose it based on your mood of the day?

In the first question, it basically means that when you have some meat today, you might want to get some vegetables tomorrow. I think if you exercise this regularly, you will be mentally strong as you would think that you have a well balanced diet everyday.

Personally, I choose based on my mood which is the latter option. I think this is not a good habit because our body often needs various nutrients from different foods. My case is more serious especially when I am a person who loves to consume food with little choices (basically, I consume the same small cycle of food everyday).

This is what I have for lunch everyday before I go to work: Pan Mee, Wan Tan Mee or Chee Cheong Fun (and fruits at work) for the past few months! This is what I have for dinner: Mixed Rice and Chicken Rice (rarely).

Even though I made sure my food contains vegetables, fruits, meat and toufu, but I doubt it is sufficient for a balanced diet. For instance I might have a great vitamin C from fruits, but I am certain that I am lack of some other nutrient that is not in my daily consumption. Perhaps occasionally I need some herbal soup or probably some multi-vitamins pills.

I write this for the purpose of self-awareness. And I hope it would bring you some self-conscious about your choice of food too. Eating chicken rice for 2 meals a day and 7 days a week does not ensure you have a healthy diet; in fact it is the exact opposite!

New Year Resolution 2012

It is time to set some good resolutions for the year 2012. This year is the only year where I seriously think and set the targets for the year as in the past was all mainly focused on education. This year onwards, other than my professional paper CFA, all of my resolutions will focus on self development.

First, career is prioritized. I don’t have to elaborate much on this as I have been an annoying brat talking it in almost all of my previous posts.

Second, I will work out every week to ensure a healthy lifestyle. Ideally, I hope to work out once every weekend, and once every weekday. But it is hard as I am working the night shift. I could work out in the morning but the sun is too bright for me to do so. Working out under the sun contradicts with my next resolution. As for now, I really enjoy hiking. I will set a hiking trip either weekly or biweekly. In order to achieve this, I need to gather a few hiking peeps or it will be hard to do it alone.

Third, learn to take care of a good, fair and healthy skin. After all it will boost self-esteem and give better first impression to new people that I am going to meet. Plus, I want to look good to my future wife too. I believe looking good and knowing how to take care of myself will add a bonus to our relationship. You think it sounds ridiculous? Tell me if you like your spouse face full of pimples and acnes ;)

Fourth, in conjunction with the second point, I will eat lesser meat and more vegetables. I have been doing this for awhile but I am writing to enforce it. Same goes for soft drinks. There are TONS of different soft drinks available for free in my office but after 5 months working here I have taken less than 5 can of cokes. =) It is a good start.

Fifth and I believe this is one of the hardest one. I want to remain life as a single for this year, at least. Please note that remaining single does not mean that I can’t fall in love with someone. Remaining single has been really challenging for me knowing that I seldom stay on single for the past 10 years. It would worth a challenge then. Reason for remaining single is because I want to have the freest time for myself. Unless I have met the right one which compliments each other in terms of productivity and happiness, else it will just be a waste of time everyone’s time. At the age of 24, no more puppy love for me. So this year is the year for me to survey around and perform environmental scanning.

Lastly, I want to focus of my time to build quality time with existing friends than focus my time to expand the quantity of friends. I used to think that expanding the quantity of friends is important especially when it will benefit your business network. However, now I believe the quality of time with existing friends are equally important too. Without them I will be in deep depression. Expanding my network will happen naturally as my life goes on but the quality of time will not expand itself without me putting effort into it. 

Reconciliation of Information

I truly believe that one’s dispute and misunderstanding are caused by lack of reconciliation of information. Don’t you think so? Perhaps the word dispute may be too strong to be used in this example. Perhaps heated discussion is more suitable to be used.

This piece of information is often not reconciled. Maybe because some people just don’t care, or some even just not aware of the dispute and therefore need not seek the trouble to reconcile it. In some events, some people just don’t know the approach to reconcile it and I am the one I was talking about in the latter case.

I often feel very irritated because of the inability to perform the reconciliation properly. When I do it, very often the person whom I think we have dispute in does not respond well in the sense that some think I am thinking too much, while the others give me a feeling that “You are not that important to me so I don’t care much about it”.

Let’s take an example, one of best friends Shin Yee which recently I had dispute with. Before I start, don’t get me wrong that I am biased that she is the person who caused the dispute. I have invited her to my father’s company annual dinner and house warming. She said she might not be able to make it because she might be having her company annual dinner around the same time. So its fine that she is not going to attend. But as the date approaches, her company annual dinner moved to a day before my house party. So I take it as she might attend. On that night itself, she did not tell me if she is attending, so I texted her to see if she is coming. She said not attending without telling me any reason. I don’t mind if she actually tells me she had no mood to attend or just simply don’t feel like attending. I felt extremely agitated at that moment as I think that she as my best friend should at least tell me why not attending, regardless if it is a minute before the event or after. So I texted her again and simple ask why. Just a “why”, no elaboration. She did not respond in a given time limit set by myself. So I texted her again to express my dissatisfaction on her. She replied that she was not available at the time she received my text and therefore not replying. Therefore, a dispute just happened. Reconciliation of information has not been performed. After that we figured a way to avoid that in a peaceful manner.

In another example which the situation is harder to explain the nature of it: me and my brother. Our relationship has always been so so. I would never get what he is thinking at every moment. Therefore, I don’t know what I should do in order to please him. I want to improve our relationship so badly that I often try to find ways to understand human behavior, until I got to learn about Myers Briggs personality framework from a friend. And believe me it did help me to understand my brother a lot. According to MB, I often feel confused about my brother’s action and also I feel that there is like a wall that separates us subconsciously. I feel it totally. He is the thinker type while I am the feeler type. Many things he said will hurt me indirectly because I care too much about the fact that he is my brother. I still need to understand more about the framework in order to improve our relationship; right now at least I grasp the problem between us. The approach to reconcile the information (him and his thinking) has to be unique for this case.

Let’s take the instance to the other side. I have a friend who enjoys constantly bullying me mentally; whether it is when I see him or especially on face book. Initially I enjoy his company as a friend, but this annoyance been drag too far which exceeds the limit of my patience. There are so many things that he has done to me, but none were good. Well, to protect myself from him I take him as immature and/or jealous of me. And that surprisingly solve the problem knowing that our common friends are on my side. Seriously, you wont like the way he treats you of you are the victim.  

Quarter Life Crisis

Does it sound familiar to you guys? Perhaps it relates to the term Midlife crisis? It is actually very similar to midlife crisis, it just occurs at a different age. The term quarter life crisis (QLC) does not mean that it has to occur on the 25 years old and above. It is actually defined as insecurities, disappointments, loneliness and depression that hit twenty and thirty somethings shortly after they enter into the real world (quoted at http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/may/05/quarterlife-crisis-young-insecure-depressed).

I think I am actually experiencing QLC now. To further explained, I feel very disappointed at my job and lonely at the same time. I am not sure if I am doing what I want to achieve in life. I first joined this company because it is a multinational company and I can deal a wide range of securities products (equities, bonds, options, futures and you name it) but I don’t get to participate in the decision making process in which why the security is bought. My job is just to execute the transaction properly so that all interests/dividends/exchange rates and so on are in line and causes minimal NAV daily variance changes on the fund which I calculate.

Of course I have the option to leave, but there are several concerns. First being the two months of termination notice. When I start applying for another job now, I believe it is hard for employers to accept my two months termination period from current company. If there is a desired position available right now, and if the manager desperately needs someone to fill in the position, I won’t be qualified for it.

Another reason is that I am not sure if I should wait until I get job confirmation from my current company (which is the end of January) before pursuing other companies. This is my first job ever and they serve as a great reference for my next job. Also getting the confirmation improves my credibility. With that I can actually tell the recruiting manager that I am already capable of working in the field which I have little interests in and therefore more capable on the desired field (which is the position that I am going to apply for). Recruiting managers will also favor me better than any other fresh candidates as I apply for that job is not for the sake of just getting a steady paid job but to work in a field in which I am passionate.

It then posts another question as to whether should I work in current company for at least one year before leaving to get the necessary experience and hop into the my desired field as an experience hire? For your information, my current job background is investment field and my desired field is also in the investment field; being a financial analyst instead of a fund accountant. So I will be entitled to demand for a higher wage and get it as an experienced staff instead of a fresh graduate. But then, will my competency be challenged because my experience may not necessary be related to the job that I am going to apply?

Next, let’s say if I resign right now, would I be able to get my desired job out there? FYI, I am willing to compromise wage for knowledge to a certain extent. I am going to regret much if I going to stuck in a job that provides lesser knowledge than my current job. This fear just could not get out of me.

All of these are my concerns. In fact I had been thinking a lot lately but I am not able to conclude it. Some other minor things which make me feel attached to current company is the high wage and great working environment (great and awesome colleagues, free drinks (soft drinks, coffee, milo etc), a boss which appreciates my work and listen to my demand/concerns, ABSOLUTELY NO TRAFFIC JAM as I am working on a shift and it is really close to my house). I tried to seek answers by asking one of my human resource friend but apparently she is busy and yet to reply my message.  I believe she will be the key for this issue.

So I have justified all of my current concerns about my job. It is consistent with the phases of QLC stated in the link above. Phase 1: feeling locked in to a job/relationship, or both. “You can leave but you feel you can’t” is totally true. I don’t believe my qualification can’t get a job out there right now. I got my current job because of reasons mentioned above and also they are the first to offer me a job. But I just feel that I can’t get the right job out there.

I really hope to hop to Phase 2: “Phase 2 is typified by a growing sense that change is possible. “This mental and physical separation from previous commitments leads to all sorts of emotional upheavals. It allows exploration of new possibilities with a closer link to interests, preferences and sense of self.”

Phase 3 is the period of rebuilding a new life while phase 4 is cementing of fresh commitments that reflect the young person’s new interests, aspirations and values.

Yet, only going to Phase 1 you will be able to reach the second phase. Phase 1 is always the most challenging one.

5 Love Languages

What are your love languages? I believe each person has at least one love language with their partner in the sense that they feel love when their partners perform certain things/actions. Below are the 5 love languages I found on www.5lovelanguages.com.

·         Words of Affirmation

Actions don’t always speak louder than words. If this is your love language, unsolicited compliments mean the world to you. Hearing the words, “I love you,” are important—hearing the reasons behind that love sends your spirits skyward. Insults can leave you shattered and are not easily forgotten.

·         Quality Time

In the vernacular of Quality Time, nothing says, “I love you,” like full, undivided attention. Being there for this type of person is critical, but really being there—with the TV off, fork and knife down, and all chores and tasks on standby—makes your significant other feel truly special and loved. Distractions, postponed dates, or the failure to listen can be especially hurtful.

·         Receiving Gifts

Don’t mistake this love language for materialism; the receiver of gifts thrives on the love, thoughtfulness, and effort behind the gift. If you speak this language, the perfect gift or gesture shows that you are known, you are cared for, and you are prized above whatever was sacrificed to bring the gift to you. A missed birthday, anniversary, or a hasty, thoughtless gift would be disastrous—so would the absence of everyday gestures.

·         Acts of Service

Can vacuuming the floors really be an expression of love? Absolutely! Anything you do to ease the burden of responsibilities weighing on an “Acts of Service” person will speak volumes. The words he or she most want to hear: “Let me do that for you.” Laziness, broken commitments, and making more work for them tell speakers of this language their feelings don’t matter.

·         Physical Touch

This language isn’t all about the bedroom. A person whose primary language is Physical Touch is, not surprisingly, very touchy. Hugs, pats on the back, holding hands, and thoughtful touches on the arm, shoulder, or face—they can all be ways to show excitement, concern, care, and love. Physical presence and accessibility are crucial, while neglect or abuse can be unforgivable and destructive.

After giving it much thought, my primary love language is actually through physical touch. As the description stated, it is not all about bedroom, in fact mine is not too! I love it when my girl comes and hold my hand or hug me, especially in the crowd. It makes me feel like the man/king; it really feels like owning the girl.

If I were to rank them base on my preference, it will be as follows: Physical touch, quality time, act of service, words of affirmation and receiving gifts.

I do treasure quality time. Probably I need a balance between time with my girl and my personal time. But more on quality time with the chosen one.

A little bit of act of service will do as it makes her a fine wife. Imagine in the future when you wake up early in the morning to get ready for work and the breakfast is all set on the table. Of course I don’t expect much from this.

Words of affirmation is not what I really keen to. I believe action speaks louder than words.

I have not much of an expectation on receiving gifts as being one of my love languages as I am so used to not receiving anything from my parents since I was little.  I would appreciate when I received a gift, but not as a love language. Normally I will already get what I really wanted in terms of physical items, and I seldom delay my purchase as long as I do not touch on my savings. The funny thing is that I will feel bad receiving a gift from my girl when I know she is financially not stable. I would prefer her to use that amount (regardless it’s small or large) on herself UNLESS she is financially stable. 

Followers VS Leaders

I have been wondering for ages how do we define them. Until now, I still don’t have a concrete definition for them. Does being a follower means that they could not be a leader? Should we regard a leader as a non-follower? Or can it be both?

Leadership is defined as the ability to influence the action of anyone or a group. Many people have mistaken it as controlling someone. Here is a famous quote, not all boss can be a leader, but all leader can be a boss.

Let’s break them down in steps, using myself as the example.

When someone instructs me to do something:

I will ask why and trying to find out his intention of asking before doing it. I feel very frustrated when I don’t know what I am doing. In a workplace, we can’t afford to have every single question answered. Our best bet is to perform the task, think for ourselves and ask later when our manager is not busy or when he is in a good mood. For our age we tend to be a rookie in a workplace so we can’t demand for things/answers as we are at the lowest level of the hierarchy system in the company.

When someone is leading the team and I am the team member:

I will follow orders in the area which I am not familiar with. When you have no expertise in that particular field, you would not have any credibility to lead a group especially when there is someone with both expertise and leadership in a team. However, I would quickly identify the direction which the leader is heading and act as an expressional leader behind the scene to motivate other members to follow the orders. At times, I can be good at putting the crowd together.

Sometimes being a follower can better understand how leadership fails. As a team member, we can look around to see why other members do not follow suit. We as followers understand the needs as a follower and therefore provide that need when we become leaders.

When I am leading a team:

I may not be a very good leader even though I can lead a team to achieve the objective. The reason being that I am too concern of the feelings of my team members. I tend to focus more on making sure everyone is okay with the objective, failing to prioritize the objective. I am still working on it.

Do I have the trait to be a leader? Or am I just a follower? Or both?

ENFJ (From the Net)

If you want to know more about me, I dont even need to write it myself because this describes me so accurately. I got it from a website.


The Giver

As an ENFJ, you're primary mode of living is focused externally, where you deal with things according to how you feel about them, or how they fit into your personal value system. Your secondary mode is internal, where you take things in primarily via your intuition.

ENFJs are people-focused individuals. They live in the world of people possibilities. More so than any other type, they have excellent people skills. They understand and care about people, and have a special talent for bringing out the best in others. ENFJ's main interest in life is giving love, support, and a good time to other people. They are focused on understanding, supporting, and encouraging others. They make things happen for people, and get their best personal satisfaction from this.

Because ENFJ's people skills are so extraordinary, they have the ability to make people do exactly what they want them to do. They get under people's skins and get the reactions that they are seeking. ENFJ's motives are usually unselfish, but ENFJs who have developed less than ideally have been known to use their power over people to manipulate them.

ENFJ's are so externally focused that it's especially important for them to spend time alone. This can be difficult for some ENFJs, because they have the tendency to be hard on themselves and turn to dark thoughts when alone. Consequently, ENFJs might avoid being alone, and fill their lives with activities involving other people. ENFJs tend to define their life's direction and priorities according to other people's needs, and may not be aware of their own needs. It's natural to their personality type that they will tend to place other people's needs above their own, but they need to stay aware of their own needs so that they don't sacrifice themselves in their drive to help others.

ENFJ's tend to be more reserved about exposing themselves than other extraverted types. Although they may have strongly-felt beliefs, they're likely to refrain from expressing them if doing so would interfere with bringing out the best in others. Because their strongest interest lies in being a catalyst of change in other people, they're likely to interact with others on their own level, in a chameleon-like manner, rather than as individuals.

Which is not to say that the ENFJ does not have opinions. ENFJs have definite values and opinions which they're able to express clearly and succinctly. These beliefs will be expressed as long as they're not too personal. ENFJ is in many ways expressive and open, but is more focused on being responsive and supportive of others. When faced with a conflict between a strongly-held value and serving another person's need, they are highly likely to value the other person's needs.

The ENFJ may feel quite lonely even when surrounded by people. This feeling of aloneness may be exacerbated by the tendency to not reveal their true selves.

People love ENFJs. They are fun to be with, and truly understand and love people. They are typically very straight-forward and honest. Usually ENFJs exude a lot of self-confidence, and have a great amount of ability to do many different things. They are generally bright, full of potential, energetic and fast-paced. They are usually good at anything which captures their interest.

ENFJs like for things to be well-organized, and will work hard at maintaining structure and resolving ambiguity. They have a tendency to be fussy, especially with their home environments.

In the work place, ENFJs do well in positions where they deal with people. They are naturals for the social committee. Their uncanny ability to understand people and say just what needs to be said to make them happy makes them naturals for counseling. They enjoy being the center of attention, and do very well in situations where they can inspire and lead others, such as teaching.

ENFJs do not like dealing with impersonal reasoning. They don't understand or appreciate its merit, and will be unhappy in situations where they're forced to deal with logic and facts without any connection to a human element. Living in the world of people possibilities, they enjoy their plans more than their achievements. They get excited about possibilities for the future, but may become easily bored and restless with the present.

ENFJs have a special gift with people, and are basically happy people when they can use that gift to help others. They get their best satisfaction from serving others. Their genuine interest in Humankind and their exceptional intuitive awareness of people makes them able to draw out even the most reserved individuals.

ENFJs have a strong need for close, intimate relationships, and will put forth a lot of effort in creating and maintaining these relationships. They're very loyal and trustworthy once involved in a relationship.

An ENFJ who has not developed their Feeling side may have difficulty making good decisions, and may rely heavily on other people in decision-making processes. If they have not developed their Intuition, they may not be able to see possibilities, and will judge things too quickly based on established value systems or social rules, without really understanding the current situation. An ENFJ who has not found their place in the world is likely to be extremely sensitive to criticism, and to have the tendency to worry excessively and feel guilty. They are also likely to be very manipulative and controling with others.

In general, ENFJs are charming, warm, gracious, creative and diverse individuals with richly developed insights into what makes other people tick. This special ability to see growth potential in others combined with a genuine drive to help people makes the ENFJ a truly valued individual. As giving and caring as the ENFJ is, they need to remember to value their own needs as well as the needs of others.

Americans VS Malaysians

I have always wanted to write about this but I kept procrastinating until recently when one of my friends actually asked me about how are we different compare to the Americans. What I am about to write is just based solely on my own observation and therefore it will not hit a 100% accuracy and the sample size used was pretty small (just the people around my University when I was studying in the US).

Conversation: Americans tend to elaborate one point to the fullest, to ensure they don’t miss anything about it while Malaysians will only mention about key points, less on elaboration.

E.g. When a person is being asked “how are you/what have you been up to”:
Americans: I am doing great! I have been to …, oh scenery was so beautiful … (elaborate, keep going on and on and on).
Malaysians: I am okay lah, went to Genting yesterday, how are you ah?

Personal thought: I feel that Americans are proud of what they have been up to while the Malaysians are shy/shame to tell what they have been up to.

Working in a team:
American: individualistic
Malaysian: collectivism

E.g. When a person is assigned a single task:
Americans will perform the task in their own way. They tend to work independently. If they don’t understand the nature of the work, they will search the answer themselves (for instance, through googling or by asking professor/manager).
Malaysians will tend to clarify everything, asking for guidance in search for the answer. They will always ask their team mates on the methods of pursuing the answer if they don’t already know how.

When phone is ringing:
Americans tend to ignore and let it go to voicemail. They will reply later if they need to.
Malaysians tend to answer the call despite they are in a meeting, dating etc.

When making an appointment or setting a time for an event:
Americans train/bus will depart at stated time with no delay. When the event is supposed to start at 8:00pm, it will really start on time (e.g. VIP starts walking into the hall etc). To simply put, Americans respect the time of others very well.
Malaysians are always late for meeting, date etc. When there is an event stating the time would start at 8:00pm, the VIP will only walk in an hour or two later. Malaysians tend to accept this “being late” mindset.

When we have absolutely nothing to do:
Americans: read or workout or watch TV.
Malaysians: call friends to see if they are free to hangout or watch TV/drama.

When we open the door in front of us and pass through:
Americans: will hold the door behind them and make sure the person behind them pass through it.
Malaysians: just walk through and pretend there is no one behind.

p.s. don’t get me wrong, Malaysians are very nice people. Just that they are not trained to be like that or lack of awareness on this issue.

Comparing iPhone 4/4s and Samsung Galaxy SII

I would like to compare the iPhone 4/4s and Samsung Galaxy SII holistically. I know that there are many reviews and technical specs shown on other websites. I would say this version of review is different based on my experiences on iPhone 4, 4s and Samsung Galaxy SII that I previously owned.  

Common iPhone 4/4s and S2 problems located over the net:

1. iPhone has the home button problem that it becomes less responsive if you use it overtime. It costs more than RM 150 to get it fixed (happened to my iPhone 3G).
2. S2 has problem with its battery. Many had complained about it. Like battery drains incredibly fast and nothing could stop it until the batter has fully depleted. After that it will work like normal (happened to me, once).

First off, lets start with processing speed, iPhone 4 is slightly slower than 4s and S2 because it is still working on a single core processor. iPhone 4s and Samsung S2 work incredibly fast due to their dual core processors. The set back for the 4s and S2 is that the battery life drain incredibly fast (I am comparing to iPhone 4); and it is faster on the S2 due to its bigger screen.

Personally note: Speed for a cell phone is really important, at least to me. I will want to get to every app as fast as I could simply because I don’t like to wait to stuff to load. Many people would want to get the iPhone 4 after the release of the 4s because they think there is not much of a difference between the two of them and it is slightly cheaper on the 4. But I would prefer to get the faster one because these kind of technological gadgets get outdated pretty fast, especially when there is an update on the iOS (the slower ones will be even slower). On the other hand, a cell phone that has low battery life will easily cause frustration to me because it limits the things that I could do without my charger staying with me.

In terms of touch sensitivity, it really frustrates me when I was using S2. Certain times it would not detect the heat from my thumb and therefore it would not respond. You may argue that different person has different heat level on their thumb. But, in all honesty, I have never experienced this issue with iPhones, not even with my old iPhone 3G (iPhone 3G would respond to every touch I made on screen, it just respond in a very slow manner). I feel the lack of total control over the S2; it really frustrates me at times, especially when I am gaming on that device. How would you feel if you instruct it to do something but it does not follow? Think about it.

On the connectivity of the phones, the S2 has a slight flaw because certain times the pages would not load despite I am on a WIFI or on EDGE/3G. I seriously don’t know why and how this would happen even though it loads just perfectly fine awhile later. One thing that I am certain is that this is not due to the connectivity issues because it happens quite frequently. You may think that no one device would function perfectly at all times in terms of connectivity because the line may face connectivity issues, however, in my experiences with my iPhones, it almost never happened. When there is a connection, even though it is very slow, it will definitely load.

In the apps market, iPhones have more apps in the app store than S2. However, I do not think the number of apps is a factor in choosing between iPhone 4/4s and S2 unless you tell me you want to have 500,000 apps in your phone. On the other hand, there is one thing that I would like to say about these apps for Apple and Android. Apple apps are only available in the apps store (Apple Inc. legit store, unless you jail broken it) while S2 comprises of many third party apps. In another way to say this is that, one has more quality control while the other has lesser control. The time when I was using the S2, certain apps could not be updated. I remember there was one app about Google map that could not be updated because it says that the update is not supported in Malaysia. Meaning to say, as long as you are in Malaysia, you will always have that app pending on your apps update. In addition, I have experience constant crashing on one of the games app on the S2 (because I only play that particular game on that device). This may be justified that there is a bug on that particular app that has not been fixed. Well, I have no much to say about this. This is just base on my personal opinion.

As you read, you may find me bias towards iPhones. But let’s talk about prices of iPhone and S2. The iPhone 4s with Digi cheapest you can get is RM 2090 while S2 is RM 1399. I guess the price differences are compensated with the quality that comes with it. So essentially we could not make a direct comparison. But I really like the bigger size of screen of S2 even though I could not text with one hand as my thumb go hardly reach the other side of the screen.

Let’s work on iPhone 4 and 4s. Three biggest changes from 4 to 4s are camera, processors and Siri.

The camera is really awesome. Everyone has a different definition when we say awesome. But I have never seen a phone camera that could compare with a point and shoot camera. The shuttle speed is great too. I am really satisfied with the camera for casual use even though I am a DSLR.

Dual core processors are of course better, but like I just mentioned, it is compensated with the lower battery life. But it is sufficient enough to last me for a day, so it is okay. For those who have higher tolerance for a bit slower phone but with possible longer battery life, go for the 4.

As for Siri, in all honesty, I don’t use it much because it is pretty useless in Malaysia for two reasons. One being the slang we use on a daily basis could not be captured by Siri with 100% accuracy. I played with it many times and most of the times I have to repeat myself; forcing my self to speak nicely and accurately in English. On the other hand, Siri does not locate maps & restaurants in Malaysia. When you say “bring me there” and Siri will say “Sorry, I am not able to find restaurants in Malaysia”. These are the reasons why I don’t use Siri much and people should not factor in Siri when purchasing between iPhone 4 and 4s.

Think about these when you are considering your purchase because the amount is significant.