MM1015C - ASP0111

Assil Palta - ASP0111 - MM1015C

This is my video:

MM1015C - Time Based Media

- FEG0037 - MM1015C


The music for this video is royalty free and can be found on this page : http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/index.html?genre=Jazz

direct link to the song : http://kmdownload.com/royalty-free/Dispersion%20Relation.mp3

A Slice of Chocolate Heaven

The above phone is an early press picture of the first Korean model, the EU spec phone looks slightly different. The two main things changed are not illustrated above. Their was a slight bulge at the top of the phone and it used to have a different lense, below are two pictures showing how the current EU model looks.




Some people love sitting on the cutting edge of mobile technology. These people are normally called geeks, which is kind of a contradiction to the stereotypical geek who sits at home never leaving his 'battlestation'. When it comes to phones I've always been a browser rather than an early adopter. I've only owned 3 long term phones (alongside a slew of temporary phones which I always find fault with), all nokia, all pretty middle of the road phones made to last and have good all round features.
There have been plenty of times when I've wanted to splash out on the latest phone for a feature or new design styling but none have grabbed me enough to make me chase after a particular model until I owned it. However, the Chocolate (LG KG800 in the EU) grabbed my attention back in late November when Cyon (LG's imprint in South Korea) debuted the phone (LG KV5900) as their new slim-slider phone. At the time it looked like a nice phone with new age simplistic design ethics and a nice set of features. I then proceeded to see the phone pop up on most of the big Korean shows that season which showed off the phone in real life situations and firmly establishing the design as a masterpiece of a slider just as the v3 RAZR has been the epitome of the flip phone for the last 12 months. It also gave a vague highlight to the touchpad style front which seemed to ooze high class appeal.
Now normally phones from Korea and Japan are just objects to lust after, pointless handsets that would never make it to the West and are as useful as bricks if they were imported. On the odd occasion I had seen some LG/Samsung phones designed for the Orient make their way to the Middle East. But normally these were budget or out of date handsets which made them pointless token gestures.
When I heard rumblings indicating that the Chocolate would be making it over to the U.S. and Europe I treated the news with derision. It would probably get here in 2007 was my initial reaction. Within a week a date had been set for early to late May, this coincided with my mobile phone contract renewal so I thought it would be perfect if the phone did land on it's designated release date. After looking around at the useless phones offered to me by my current network I decided to look elsewhere All the other network providers were useless, providing no release date or price. By pure coincidence I decided to check out some 3rd party retailers and to my surprise I found the phone a full week before May has begun.
Now on to the phone.



Packaging :

The packaging is pretty nice, with a luxury feel reminiscent of other high-end phones like the early v3's and the 8810. A nice sturdy hardboard box with a magnetic clasp and simple but elegant compartments for the phone and it's accessories. It also proudly displays it's 2 awards for design on the back of the slip cover.

Inside the box :

Inside the box you get the phone in a custom pouch, a keyfob with a screen cleaner on one side, a charger, a very elegant remote, a pair of stereo headphones, a charger, USB cable, assorted manuals and the install CD.

The phone :

Feel and software :

If you've ever owned or used an iPod you'll kind of understand the sensation you get when you use the touch surface on this phone, it feels odd but comfortable. The first thing I'd like to address is the software which has become a very important part of overly complex modern phones. Some manufacturers just do not know how to get it right at all (I'm looking at you SE and MOTO) with overly clunky interfaces and simple features absent. The LG makes it halfway, it has most of the simple stuff down to a tee with plenty of nice touches to make traversing the menus much easier, but they also have somehow missed out completely with some elemental things. The main one is a design fault in my opinion. To put the call end/power button on the side of the phone is just awkward and shortsighted. If it were just the button for power this wouldn't be a big problem as it isn't used that often. But, the fact that I have to fiddle my thumb over to the right of the phone to end a call instead of just pressing the cancel key on the touch pad is just plain idiotic. It wouldn't have been hard to put this into the software as a dual use key, but evidently they chose to leave it out. The minor fault that is closer to a missing feature is the lack of speaker phone. Maybe I've been spoilt by phones catering to the essentials of making calls, but this seems like a major oversight for me. Both of these niggles are things I'm sure I'll get past within a few days and they pale in comparison to the overall design and ease of use offered by the no nonsense software.


Look :

The first thing you think when you see this phone is, "Wow! How slim is it going to be once I put the battery in?" And once you put the battery in you will be amazed by just how slim and sleek this phone is. Obviously the surface of the phone is prone to fingerprints, but they don't show up as much as you'd first imagine. Then, when you look at the front you are met with this incredibly smooth, almost superlative surface which lights up once you turn the phone on. Giving you an amazingly beautiful phone to coo over.

Battery & Inter-operability :

After a full charge/discharge cycle I recharged the battery fully which gave me a rough talktime of ~200 minutes and a standby time of ~30 hours. As this is the first proper charge I can't say if this is indicative of it's performance. I tried the phone with a few random Bluetooth dongles with successful connections to all the headsets and no problems during calls. I also tried transfers to/from a few phones and a PC all with successful results (though one transfer was slightly slow, as the other phone only had Bluetooth v1).

Other features :

The camera, video camera and mp3 player are still being tested thoroughly by myself, so I won't judge these features of the phone just yet.

Overall :

The phone is amazingly sexy with a great suite of features and is pleasant enough to live with. It also has that intangible quality that may see it become the next big thing in mobile phone handsets.

Boondocks Season 1 Episode 11

Now, for a long time american and european cartoons, big budget or South Park, have not posessed the artistic direction normally associated with anime from the east or even traditional comic books. I personally refute this and feel that western cartoons tackle their audience in a different way. Maybe I'll re-edit this post to go deeper into these points, but until then... let me get back to the point.

Now, I'm not a huge movie buff, even in the mainstream sense. I haven't seen Scarface, Goodfellas, Pulp Fiction or any other violent classic you care to name - I'll sidestep other genres as they aren't relevant to today's post. So a lot of things other people would recognise as nods to famous movies I simply take at face value and enjoy them as if they were a completely new effect. This is a crucial point especially with a show that quotes and borrows from a lot of the "must sees" of yester-year.

Boondocks, is in my opinion this seasons Chapelle Show. Not because it is a mix of extremist black views wrapped in a comedy package. The thing that binds the two shows in my opinion is an ability to become more than a sum of it's parts. Now, if you've ever seen an episode of Chapelle Show you will know that it is a great sketch based comedy show. However, if you ever watch Dave Chapelle doing stand-up, you would soon realise that he just isn't suited to that kind of situation. His lack of pacing and the poor layout of his act make it a chore to watch, amusing in places, but still a chore to watch. In the same way, I found Aaron McGruder's comic strips mildly amusing with the occasional thought provoking point, but on the whole it seemed flacid and ill-suited to the medium. So, when I heard he had been commisioned to do a series I hoped and prayed that he was given a good producer and art director to steer the show towards fulfilling it's promise. Overall, the show has shattered all expectations I had for it. The way the story, music, references and cameos have been layered have given me a immensely watchable show that I watch over and over without hesitation.
Episode 11 is a case in point. Oozing style and silky delivery throughout the episode the nods to mainstream cinema as well as Asian anime and manga in it's fighting scenes make this a visual feast which is complemented by well placed adrenaline-fueled hip hop exerpts to keep the pacing.






The episode starts with a Pulp Fiction style conversation on the virtues of 'txting' (I have seen that part of Pulp Fiction, many times...) and it's classification as a 'nigger technology'. These wiggers are voiced by Charlie Murphy and Samuel L. Jackson.



Once they arrive they are met by Riley, one of the main characters. This pic looks like a pastiche of Snatch to me... but if anyone can think of another movie that predates Snatch with this effect, let me know. This initiates a scene where the two white males try to rob a bank.



After a failed attempt at robbing the bank in a reasonable time, the gang arrange to meet the next day. However, Riley doesn't count on his brother (Huey, the embodiment of the author's ideals) stopping him from going. Thus a superbly scripted fight ensues that very few tv shows can ever hope to match. Short, sweet and taking cues from every fight scene in recent memory. It truly is enjoyable at worst, timeless at best.



After making it to their HQ, the gang decide that they'll try and kidnap Opera at a local booksigning. Of course this goes horribly wrong... But I'll leave that much and the rest of the episode for you to enjoy. All I can say is that unless I describe and explain every reference and line of the show, it's brilliance would not be understandable. So, just watch it. There should be a streamable copy on the Comedy Central website or you can obtain it via other means.

Room, how quaint.

So, I'm gonna give this blogging thing a go as it seems that every pleb and 16 year old Asian girl is doing it (age changed for my own safety). So I thought I'd start with that cliche, my room. Or in my case a corner of my room known as the workbench (named after that great Amiga OS that now rests in OS heaven). Plus with my room being the cleanest it's been in a long time I thought this would be the perfect time to take some pics.

This is all part of the standard first year bonus pack at Shinsen... I'm looking forward to the retirement plan.








Below is the hole where I found ScR3WiEuS in one fateful evening :

They're Here!!