Archive for "Toys"
My New Toy
Posted on May 9, 2010 by Brian under Life, Toys.
I finally got the TV that I have been researching for the last three months. The 55 inch Samsung LED TV. It has great picture quality, an increadibly thin profile and the greatest feature of all, it comes Web-enabled. Thats right! I can access applications from the Samsung Apps store right on my TV. One of the coolest apps that we have been playing with is the Netflix App. Since we have a Netflix account and we watch the Instant Watch a lot already, it was a no-brainer for us to get a TV that would allow us to use this feature. Before, we had an old computer hooked up to our TV that let us watch Netflix. It was OK but it reached a point that if we left the computer running for too long it sounded like a jet engine spooling up in the TV cabinet.
Now we don’t have that problem. Our TV can access the Netflix instant watch, the Pandora playlist and a wide variety of other sites. It also has Yahoo widgets added so that you can look at the weather, Flickr and stock data. If you want you can also have a news ticker display news information across the bottom of your screen.
I am looking forward to getting a Bluray player to connected to it. I told Ching that once we get a Bluray player, there will be no need to go to the movies. We will just wait until it comes out on Bluray and watch it in the comfort of our home. I have a feeling that the next fight will be at our house. Although, I am very leery of having people over to the house. I am very protective of my new TV and dont want people around it. I name my cars, I am trying to decide if I want to name my TV.
Here is a picture of my TV on the Apps page.
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Like Selling Cigarettes to Children
Posted on August 23, 2009 by Ching under Toys.
Brian and I went to get a car charger for my new phone at our local T-Mobile store today. I was so excited to find out that the charger for my old Wing will work with my Touch Pro2. Now I have a charger for the house, a charger for the car (which has foldable prongs so I can actually use it at hotels when Brian and I travel), and a spare charger (the old Wing one) that I can leave at work. I am ecstatic.
Anyway, as we were leaving the store Brian ended up getting stalled by the Samsung Comeback phone display. Oh, shiny! Brian is like a child with ADD. Seriously. “Let’s go,” I called out to him. I was already at the door see.
He’s like, “Wait. Check out this phone.” He was looking at the Samsung Comeback. “It’s just like a Sidekick,” I said. I have no idea why he found this phone interesting. He hates Sidekicks.
“It’s like a mini Sidekick,” he proclaims like he’s discovered Alibaba’s treasure or something. At this point, one of the store representatives chimes in to the conversation. “We’re marketing it as a Back-to-School texting phone.”
“But kids aren’t allowed to text in school,” I said. “Isn’t that like marketing cigarettes to young children?” He didn’t have anything to say after that.
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Ching’s New Phone
Posted on August 23, 2009 by Ching under Toys.
I’ve had my phone for about a week now. I was reluctant to post a review until I’d actually used the phone for a substantial amount of time. I didn’t want to rave about it only to find out later that I really hate it or rant about it only to find out that it was just a matter of adjusting to the phone. Even today, the phone still has features I haven’t tried yet. However, I cannot contain my enthusiasm any longer. I love my new phone and I just have to share it with the world.
When my phone broke a couple of months ago, I hesitated to buy a new phone because there were none out there that I felt fit my needs. We had considered defecting to AT&T and joining the iPhone bandwagon, but we just couldn’t part with our $70 family plan. I mean where else can you get just the right number of minutes, unlimited nights and weekends, unlimited mobile-to-mobile, and unlimited messaging (pictures and text) for less than $75 for both phones. You just can’t. I had to stay with T-Mobile, but at the time they didn’t have any phones that were good enough. T-Mobile has great rate plans, but their phone selection is probably the weakest out of all the communications carriers.
There were rumors of some new phones coming so I didn’t want to buy another Wing. I mean, I didn’t want to be stuck with an obsolete phone for another couple of years if new phones are being released. What made it difficult for me to find a new phone is that I wanted one with wi-fi capabilities because I didn’t want to pay for a data package. Most cellphone carriers don’t carry good wi-fi capable phones because they want you to pay for a data package. So that they could make an extra $20-30 dollars a month on top of your regular cellphone plan. It would be cool to have all of these neat phone features always on and available on demand, but I don’t use my cellphone while I’m at work (that’s almost 9 hours out of the day) and when I’m sleeping (hopefully another 8 hours, but that doesn’t always happen). At best, I’m using my phone an average about 5 hours a day. Out of that, I’d probably use the features that require data less than an hour each day (if at all). Why would I pay an extra $30 a month for features I wouldn’t even use on a regular basis? This is my pragmatic side showing, through.
When we bought my Wing a couple of years ago for almost $300 sans data plan, it paid for itself in savings in a year (estimated at $25 multiplied by 12 months). There’s wi-fi at home so I just connect my phone to it when I’m around the house, and there’s free wi-fi pretty much anywhere you go any more. It really worked great for me.
When looking for my new phone, wi-fi capability was probably the biggest factor. The only phone T-Mobile had that had this feature and other secondary features (like good camera, Qwerty keyboard, etc.) I was looking for was the Wing. Instead of buying a new phone, I decided to use a temporary back up instead (my mother-in-law’s Samsung T509 Plum). I was willing to wait until November to get a new phone, hoping that maybe the $350 price tag on the HTC Touch Pro2 would come down a little, but as luck would have it a friend of ours got one which he didn’t like so I ended up getting a replacement phone early. Lucky for me.
He said it was too much phone for him (there is no such thing – LOL), but I’m not complaining because it worked to my benefit. Since I got my phone second-hand, I got it for less than the $350 price, without a 2-year contract, and sans data plan.
Enough about how cheap and frugal I am though. Let’s talk about the phone. The HTC Touch Pro2 is just like my old Wing only better. They improved on some of the buggy features and improved usability also. I love that the camera is 3.2 MP because, as you know, I take tons of pictures. The Touch Pro2 has everything I loved about my Wing. I am so glad I waited to get a new phone.
It took me a couple of days to get the settings just the way I want them and to get some apps installed (thank you, baby) and to play with the phone, but now it feels like it’s really mine. As I mentioned earlier, there are still some features I haven’t used or tried but I am satisfied — no, I’m happy — with the phone over all. I think I can live with this phone for another two years and I’m specially pleased that in a couple of years time, I would have saved myself $600 by not having to pay for a data package. Hmm… What to do with that money? Maybe I could put that toward a new phone two years from now. 🙂
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Ural Motorcycles
Posted on July 19, 2009 by Brian under Toys, Wishlist.
Today Ching and I watched this movie “Eastern Promises”. It was a really good movie and I thought Vigo Mortensen did a good job in his role.
However, I was completely taken by this Motorcycle that one of the lead characters was riding. It was called a Ural and is made in Russia. I know that everyone is rolling there eyes right now and thinking “Russia, it must be crap”. Quite the opposite actually. I found out that these Motorcycles are actually quite good and reliable. I have been looking into them and they are used quite a bit on Safari expeditions and forest outings because they have side cars and 2 wheel drive.
This bike is my favorite is the Sahara (pictured below).
Ural Sahara
This bike just looks tough. It has the 2wd option and a lot of cool extras that make it look like its ready to just jump off the road and into the outback.
If I were to come into some money I think this would definitely be one of the first things that I bought.
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Ching Bling – By Popular Demand
Posted on July 15, 2009 by Ching under Toys, Wishlist.
Okay, so not really by popular demand. Just by Cannady Girl. =P
About three years ago I had to get an upgrade on my bridal set because my fingers got too fat. Well, we could have gotten my rings sized but it would have cost $250 to size both the engagement and wedding bands and solder them together. Supposedly because when they size it up they have to add more Platinum.
Fast forward to 2009. My fingers have gotten fatter still. They don’t carry my bridal set anymore so I had to go with a different style. Now I’m using this three-stone ring as my wedding band.
I really hope I don’t get any fatter because I’m tired of upgrading. I’m beginning to think that the whole upgrading thing was created by jewelry stores to con more money out of you. Like jewelry isn’t marked up enough already.
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