What's in the box - Sony Action Cam HDR-AS30V

An upgrade from its precedent AS15V, the AS30V boasts a lighter and smaller housing coupled with better still image quality plus in-built GPS and Near Field Communication. 

As if my Sony staff discount wasn't attractive enough, I was still considering between Hero GoPro and this, however the in-built stabiliser gave it an edge over GoPro. I also did some intensive research over YouTube on its video quality and am satisfied with the AS30V's low light performance.

The AS30V not only has the ability to take still images, movie, but also time stop still images, and slow-mo movie. The NFC also gives data transfer a boost as all you need is to touch the Action Cam with your smartphone to connect and then transfer via Wi-Fi.

The PlayMemories software leverages on the overall experience in post-production through the ability to map, merge, rotate video, as well as to impose a GPS data overlay. Imagine now I can see where I rode, and how fast, not only by video evidence but with statistics.

The AS30V's RRP is at SGD449, but from now till 1st Jan 2014, Sony Centre is absorbing the 7% GST. If you are also keen on getting a Live View Remote, which I didn't, you can get the entire package at SGD549.

What came in the box was the AS30V Action Cam in its waterproof housing, one battery, one curved mount, one flat surface mount, and cable.

As part of Sony's promotion, a 16GB memory card as well as extra battery pack was given.

Pretty satisfied with this purchase and am raring to give it a go soon! 

Here's how the AS30V looks like on a curved surface mount, on my riding helmet.

Now I'm glad to announce that I will probably be able to capture video while on Viet's motobike taxi without the fear of losing my device. 

But... Amidst the excitement of purchase, I actually forgot to get the Action Cam accessory that I had intended to buy! I wanted to get a chest or head band mount! Ah well, till the next trip to Sony Centre.

Winning Scoot's $250 Voucher

Alright, so there is a large following of FlyScoot on Facebook and FlyScoot regularly organises contests and giveaways. The most recent being Naughty or Nice 2013, where Scoot Fans earn guesses for candies and can subsequently exchange the candies for flight vouchers.

I don't usually join lucky draws or contests, unless I really like the prize! Like.. The other time i won Tigerair's pair of return Chiangmai air tickets; which I did not make the trip due to work commitments and still feeling sore about it. So this time, the top prize of $250 flight voucher appealed to me, especially since I travels quite frequently. When Tan (circled in red) suggested that the community work together to help each other get more guesses for candies, I kinda weighed my chances and opportunity cost and found it viable. So I jumped onto the bandwagon as early as possible as I know this will be a race against time if I want the top prize. The redemption of prizes were on a first come first serve basis.

I started my quest during lunch time, and left a comment on one of FlyScoot's photos to get people to add me. For every invite who eventually played the game, I will get additional two guesses. It worked well, replies were prompt, and I got 62 guesses for candies. According to the FAQs, there is one in six chance of getting a candy with the guesses.

By end of lunch time I had accumulated 20 candies. Sufficient to redeem a $40 flight voucher. 

I just left my Facebook account as is until I was off work at 6 pm. Friend requests began to slow and I had to act on it if I still want to be kept in the race. Meanwhile, I went for my prayer's session which lasted from 7 pm to about 10 pm. Halfway through, I panicked a little when I saw one of the four $250 vouchers was redeemed. That meant that someone of the 'pioneer batch' had made it. If I still wanted the top prize I needed to hurry! If not, I would have to be contented with 2 x $80 flight vouchers.

I posted another 2 comments on the other two of FlyScoot's photos to get people to add me for candies. Progress was slower but revived again and I got more guesses! There were times when it took me more than six guesses to get a single candy especially towards nearing my goal of 50 candies. Really wasn't that easy to guess! 

I finally found my 50th candy at 10+pm and exchanged for my $250! Unity worked! Feeling quite happy that my strategy worked. After almost half a day, I had an additional 124 friends on Facebook, which translated to 248 guesses for 50 candies. Works out to be about one candy in five guesses. Not exactly lucky, but still bettered the system's one in six probability. By the time I got home at 11+pm, the top prizes were totally wiped out, and the $80 vouchers as well. There were several users lamenting on their statuses that they were just two or three candies shy! Seems like I made it just in the nick of time! 

See, this is the power of Internet and Social Networking Sites. 

I explored my possibilities and set my target vacation dates to be in Feb 2014. Figured out that I could go free to Bangkok and Hong Kong (HK on promo) on Economy class. Or go Bangkok on ScootBiz with a $50 top-up. I am also rather keen on topping up approx $150 for a return trip to Gold Coast or Perth! I've never been down under! 

Either way, thank you everyone!

Merry Christmas!

Let's indulge in the festive spirit by decorating our workstation! :)

Have a merry merry christmas!

Vlog #6 - Phonics fun with Savelle!

Phonics is fundamental to kickstart English learning, thus it is important for us to instill factors of edutainment in the process.

Watch my 3 year old niece Savelle acts out the pronunciation of Aa Bb Cc Dd and Ee! She might not have nailed some pronunciations but it was definitely a fun time for us!

A little takeaway from Singapore's 081213 Little India Riot

A good proportion of us stayed up late Sunday night to catch the live bites and feeds that the mainstream media was feeding us with. I stayed up till 3am to digest the police press conference at 1:30am and to make sense of all the jigsaw pieces.

Another good majority of the secular nation-state woke up to a rude shock. Little India Riot. 

Five police cars, one ambulance, several private cars damaged; 400 involved, 27 nabbed, 1 dead. Flipped vehicles, projectiles, violence. All these were so unheard of locally except from footage shown on BBC, CNN and Al-Jazeera, usually on riots overseas. Never, Singapore. 

Remember one of our National Day songs, We are Singapore?  We are Singapore, We are Singapore, We're a nation strong and free and forevermore. 

We cannot take the freedom we achieved painstakingly through the years of nation building for granted. We need to leverage on social responsibility. Else, where is the forevermore?

A nation is not without its people, and yet, everybody has a story to tell. Can we learn to be more sensitive and respectful mutually? I beseech so. We tear at touching video of a white baby hugging a black baby and say that it there is no racism at the root of our hearts. Is there? No, yet we can't practice it. Let's face it, if the bus driver was a Chinese, would there be even stronger reactions in our society?

We need not be perfect, as long as we try to do what is right to us. We need not sweet talk anyone, but do not hurt anyone with our words. I do not think that finger-pointing is appropriate. It might have happened in Little India, it might have involved a large amount of foreign workers, but end of the day they are here for the development of Singapore, and they have left their family behind to endure the hardship here almost alone. If we treated them by their colours, and not their contributions, I am ashamed and sorry.

This riot, we should not dwell in it as the nation's worst riot in 40 years. We should focus, not only on clearing the aftermath. but also to look into providing support both physically and emotionally to our migrant workers. The spade of events recently definitely sounds the alarm. The bus drivers, the man on crane, and this.

And then, there's the people busy typing away on their keyboards criticising our Special Operations Command, saying that our Red Car reversed and backed off cowardly. Our police, military, paramedics, they are the true heroes. Not the keyboard warriors. Of course they wouldn't have time to retaliate the groundless 'coward' accusations as they braved the front line and did what was right to protect both the protesters and themselves. A decision that is not easily balanced in most cases, but they did it right that night. Not a single round was fired, no fatalities from the riot. 

All in all, I must say it was definitely a vibrant hell of a night on my social media feed as various posts of different nature streamed in. Part analytic, part racist, part insensitive, part appreciative of whatsoever things, part joining-in-the-fun, part stirring shit. As a then mass communications student, ethics is important to me. Ethics, and media ethics. One thing that I appreciated throughout the night is the call by various sensible actors to stop speculation and to stop the spread of un-verified information. It is our social responsibility to protect the fundamental of society. This instinct should be a born nature, called maturity. 

Tonight, life is as usual, except with a little more respect. Respect towards everyone who have played a part in our nation building, peace and harmony. Friends and family, our military, our migrant workers, everyone. I salute you. 

Vlog #5 - 36 hours in Saigon!

What can you do in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam in just 36 hours?

Here's what I did!

Eventhough it might seem as though I cramped in quite a bit of activities, but it sure was a leisure itinerary as most of the places were accessible by foot. One regret is probably the inability to get footage from when I was on motordop (read: motorbike taxi) zipping in the traffic.

Maybe I need an action cam! Sony's action cam AS-30 has got my eyes! Send me some Bitcoin today! =)

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Vlog #4 - First hand experience of Saigon Taxi scam!

Last weekend I flew into Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, to attend my best friend's wedding dinner. The trip was good, fun and enjoyable. On the day of departure back to Singapore, I went for the water puppet show and was headed to the airport from there. Thus, I did not take the hotel taxi at fixed rate of 160k Dong (USD 8).

There was a row of taxi outside the Golden Dragon Water Puppet Theatre in District 1, and I chose this driver who wore a neat white shirt and his taxi resembled one from the reputable Vinasun taxi. As a seasoned traveller, I asked if it was a metered taxi before I hopped on. It was metered. Albeit a doctored and erratic meter! After doing some research online, I think I might have hopped onto a fake taxi!

I was just randomly looking at the meter as it jumps. Then I thought I saw it jumped from 59k Dong to 72k Dong. Every increment is supposed to be 3k Dong in HCMC! Damn, I even chuckled to myself as I thought I have misread the 69k as 59k Dong. Then I continued looking at the meter.

The distinct moment came when I heard clearly two clicks and saw two corresponding jump in fare on the meter. That was when I starting to record the entire process down. He had the clicker to inflate fare on his left hand behind the steering wheel!

It was an emotion roller coaster. From feeling generous, in thinking that I will be fine in paying slightly more since I'm home-bound, to worrying about my dinner money being siphoned off, and then to wondering if I had enough money to pay as I only had about 400k Dong (USD 20) in my wallet. And all of a sudden, I realised I fell prey to a scam!

He kept trying to distract me by asking if I was from Tokyo, and then kept asking me to look at shopping centres whenever we past by one. The last straw came at 2:55 minute mark of the vlog which you can see him desperately asking me to "look! look! look!", and quickly inflate the fare outrageously till I shouted at him to stop.

The scam didn't stop at just an erratic meter. Later on he tried to hide the big bill of 100k Dong and insisted I gave him wrong amount. Luckily I kept track of how much I had in my wallet. To not shortchange him, I even did a mental track back to verify if I did additional shopping before going for the water puppet show. Nope, I didn't. I clearly documented what I bought and ate for the sake of my next vlog (thankfully)! I tried to ask for help at the airport, but the taxi staff ignored me. It was the guilty-conscience of the driver that almost brought the episode to a closure. Read about it in my vlog!

I'm really just thankful to be safe and sound. He could have caused personal harm and damage to me for all you know.