New Park and Ride Feeder Hubs for BEST

Effective from 3rd September, the free park & ride shuttle service offered by Penang state government will be extended to Bandar Perda and Autocity with free car parking. In Bandar Perda, the feeder hub is located to next to the LHDN office while in Autocity, it is next to the Concept Hall.

BEST (Bridge Express Shuttle Transit) was first introduced in March 2011 to promote the use of public transport. It was Malaysia's first park and ride service. With the new feeder hubs, the park & ride service will provide better connectivity from Sunway Carnival, Bandar Perda (BM), Auto City Juru to Komtar via Queensbay Mall.

You can download the brochure for more details from Penang Transport Council. If you are staying in Seberang Perai and working in FTZ, I strongly recommend this service to you as it really saves a lot of expenses on travelling and reduces carbon footprint in the same time.

Microsoft New Logo

In July, Microsoft reported a quarterly loss for the first time since 26 years on the market. One month later, Microsoft came up with a new logo to replace the current logo which had been used for 25 years.

This is the first and major step taken before the official launch of Windows Mobile 8 in 5th September, one week ahead of iPhone5, and Windows 8 in October.

Windows 8 is the product that Microsoft is relying on getting back its market in the consumer business, especially on smartphones and tablets. Windows 8 is the first Microsoft OS that is able to run in both x86 and ARM processors.

If you buy a new PC now with Windows 7, you can upgrade to Windows 8 with USD 14.99 when it is released.

Worldwide Top 10 Smartphone Sales

Krusell, a global supplier of carrying cases for mobile devices, publishes 10 best-selling smartphone list monthly.

Worldwide Top 10 Smartphone Sales Ranking
Brand/ Model	July	June
Samsung/ Galaxy S3	1	1
Apple/ iPhone 4 and 4S	2	2
Sony/ Xperia S	3	3
Sony/ Xperia U	4	7
Samsung/ Galaxy S2	5	4
HTC/ One X	6	9
HTC/ One S	7	6
Sony/ Xperia Go	8	None
Samsung/ Xcover 271	9	8
Sony/ Xperia Arc and Arc S	10	10

In June & July, Samsung’s Galaxy S3 and Apple’s iPhone 4 (including 4S edition) were still the top sellers. Samsung’s Galaxy S3 is expected to keep holding its leading status in August by sales volume worldwide, but may be challenged by the upcoming iPhone 5 in September.

Sony’s Xperia S ranked No.3. Sony made the most significant progress among the brands in terms of sales in July, with 4 models on the top 10 list, ranging from entry-level to middle and high-end level.

Run Android App in Windows! BlueStacks

Do you consider of running Android apps in your PC Windows?
If you're looking these kind of tool that help you run android apps in your Windows. 
Perhaps you can use BlueStacks App player which has released first beta version for Windows. BlueStacks App Player enable you to run all Android Apps in in your laptop/tablets/PC which running on Windows OS.

It was initially announced in April 2011 and first alpha was released in October last year. Now beta is available for download.

If you want to know more about BlueStack program "Check out the video below",

Official web: Click HERE.
DOWNLOAD: Click HERE.

If you found the installer couldn't work in your system. Please try different type of installer. Click HERE.

Toyota Prius Selling Price in Malaysia Versus US

Toyota Prius (full spec) in US sell USD$29,805.00 = RM 92,924.60.
Toyota Prius (full spec aka not full spec as US model) in Malaysia sell RM145500. 
Government mentioned waive all import duty and excise duty. Will be only 10% tax + AP if not mistaken.

Let say RM 92,924.60. + 10% sales tax (RM9300 round-up) + AP (RM10000)= RM112,224.60 (actual price).

RM145,500.00-RM112,224.60= RM33,275.40 (Where is this money pay for?)

Government waive import duty and excise duty on hybrid car feel like does not make sense on Malaysia selling price. RM33,275.40 going to where???

Someone pls correct me if my calculation is mistake.

How to View Traffic Condition on Major Expressways

During these festive season, the traffic on major highways are heavy as most people balik kampung and some go Cuti-cuti Malaysia. So, is there any method that we can check the traffic condition on the highways before we go out?

The answer is Yes.

1. All you need to do is to logon to the website of Lembaga Lebuhraya Malaysia
2. Then click Realtime Traffic Updates. 
3. Then select the highway from the drop down list.
4. The thumbnails of each camera at desginated highway section would be displayed.
5. Lay your cursor over each thumbnail and you could get a larger photo.
6. If you dun like to scroll left & right, click on Click For Viewing All Cameras.
7. Enter the code as shown on screen.
8. Then all photos of camera will be shown.

Get 2X Cashback from Mach Credit Card

Mach Credit Card is the latest product from Hong Leong that targets at Generation Y. You can select one of three packages that suit your lifestyle; Social, Trendsetter, or Savvy. Each package includes three categories, with an option of adding up to 9 more categories to suit your personality.

No	Category	Rebate	Merchants
1	Movies	10%	All cinemas including GSC, TGV, Cathay, Cineleisure, and MBO cinemas.
2	Nightlife	2%	All bars and clubs such as Bakita, Finnegan’s, Hard Rock Café, Overtime, Sid’s Pubs, The Library, Twentyone, Red Box, Zouk, and many more.
3	Music & Event	3%	AirAsia RedTix, TicketCharge, TicketPro, and all Rock Corner outlets.
4	Style	2%	Uniqlo, Cotton On, Forever 21, Zara, Topshop, Topman, Charles & Keith, G2000, Converse, and Esprit.
5	Travel	1%	All spending on tickets and hotels at AirAsia.
6	Dining	5%	All dining outlets.
7	Health & Fitness	2%	Fitness Concept, Fitness First, True Fitness, Celebrity Fitness, GNC, Watson’s, and Guardian.
8	Mobile	3%	DiGi, Maxis, and Celcom.
9	Departmental	2%	Parkson, Tangs, Debenhams, Robinsons, Isetan, Marks & Spencers, and Metrojaya.
10	Groceries	2%	All grocery stores such as Giant, Tesco, Cold Storage, and many more.
11	Tech	2%	All IT stores such as Machines, Epicenter, IT Hypermart, and many more.
12	Online	1%	Earn cashback on all online spending.

If you sign up for Mach Credit Card from 15th August to 15th November 2012, you can enjoy 2x cashback for the first 3 months!

30% PLUS Toll Rebates on Raya Merdeka Holidays

Good news to all Malaysians! PLUS is giving 30% toll rebate to motorists paying toll electronically using the PLUSMiles cards, Touch 'n Go cards or SmartTAG on Aug 15, 16, 22, 23 and 31.

However, the toll rebate would not be given to motorists using the toll plaza at Tanjung Kupang, Bukit Kayu Hitam, Sultan Iskandar Building and the Penang Bridge.

Motorists could claim the rebate at the PLUS customer service center when they wanted to top up their cards from Oct 1 to Dec 31.

Comparison of Petrol Station Reward System

Most Malaysians have private vehicles instead of using public transport. Therefore petrol price is always a major concern for most of us. Are you interested to find out which petrol station actually offer the best reward system?

Update 3/9/13:
Most of the Esso and Mobil petrol stations have already been rebranded as Petron.

I have come out with a table that lists out all 5 major petrol stations available nationwide, ranking of rebates are from left (highest) to right (lowest), comparison & rebate calculation are based on RON95 petrol.

Petrol Station	Esso/Mobil	BHP	Petronas	Shell	Caltex
Reward Card	Smiles	eCard	Mesra	Bonus Link	-
Point Earning	1 point/RM	1 point/RM	1 point/litre	1 point/litre	-
Petrol Redeemable	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	-
Actual Rebate	1.5%	0.9%	0.5%	0.5%	-

It is very clear that Esso/Mobil offers the best reward system with 1.5% of rebate, follows by BHP, then Petronas & Shell.

MyEG - Electronic Government Portal

In my previous post, I mentioned that you could renew your car road tax via MyEG. There are other things that can be done through MyEG. The common ones are:

1. Driving license renewal
2. Auto insurance renewal
3. PDRM summon alert & payment

The latest e-service from MyEG is the voluntary vehicle ownership transfer service. The public can now carry out transfers of vehicle ownership from a seller directly to a buyer electronically. They do not need to be present at the JPJ office for the transfer of ownership.

However, they will need to first register for the 1Malaysia Authenticated Digital ID (1MID) at any of the 500 kiosks available nationwide to log into the MyEG portal before they can start the online transaction. Currently the service is only available for MyKad users and private vehicle owners.

Raspberry Pi - Cheapest Home Theatre PC Solution

The Raspberry Pi is a credit card sized single-board computer developed in the UK by the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It’s a miniature ARM-based PC which can be used like a desktop PC. The Foundation's goal is to offer two versions, priced at US$ 25 and US$ 35.

The Raspberry Pi has a Broadcom BCM2835 system on a chip (SoC), which includes an ARM1176JZF-S 700 MHz processor, VideoCore IV GPU and 256MB RAM. It uses an SD card for booting and long-term storage. Raspberry Pi runs on Linux & possibly Android (someone is working on the porting). There is a Debian-based OS known as Raspbian which is optimized for this board.

You can get this board from Element14 for RM125.

8 Aug Olympic Silver Celebration

Dato' Lee Chong Wei has won a silver medal in Olympic 2012 and Baskin Robbin had decided to give out free ice cream although Malaysia did not get its first gold medal.

Every Malaysian is entitled to one scoop of the ice-cream that would be available on August 8 from 8pm til 10pm at 61 participating Baskin Robbins outlets, excluding kiosks at Pantai Hospital in Bangsar and the Genting Theme Park.

At the same day, there will be a one-day-only 10% discount on Samsung Galaxy S3. The offer is limited to one smartphone per customer, and will only be available at 35 Samsung Elite Partner (SEP) brand shops nationwide.

IPHONE 5 leaked parts housing?

This is the rumored iPhone 5 leaked parts that fully assembled together.

iLab has just showed off the images of "next iPhone" parts housing. Video as above.

It is quite remarkable, the design of next iPhone seem looks pretty goods. What do you think?

Turn your LCD/LED TV into a Computer

3 years ago, I setup a desktop as a HTPC (Home Theatre PC) that was connected to my LCD TV. Then I could watch movies, view photos and surf Internet through the big screen. I still remember it cost me around RM1200 for the HTPC.

With the rapid increasing popularity of ARM processors and Android OS, now there are a few mini PCs that are as small as USB thumbdrive, namely:

• Cotton Candy by FXI, priced at USD 199
• mini PC-MK802 by Rikomagic, priced at USD76 (free shipping)

From as low as RM235, you can turn your LCD TV into a computer! This is the best solution for people who wish to add extra features to their LCD TV with minimum cost. You can even run Ubuntu Linux from it.

Let's take a look at the spec of the mini PC-MK802:

• Operating System: Android 4.0
• Processor: Allwinner A10 1.5GHz Cotex-A8
• Memory: 1GB DDR RAM
• Storage: 4GB NAND Flash (1GB used by system)
• External storage: USB and microSD of up to 32GB
• Graphics: Mali 400MP GPU
• HDMI and USB connections
• Apps included: Google Play, Google Mail, Google Maps, Youtube, Youku, PPS.TV Tablet Version, PPTV, Browser, Flash Player, QQ Messenger, Angry Bird Space and more

OCBC Online FD Placement 4.5% interest pa

If you are OCBC internet banking user, you can enjoy exclusive 2 months Fixed Deposit with interest rate of 4.5% per annum when you place your fixed deposit via online.

All you have to do is to make an online transfer of funds from your Savings/Current account to your new FD account to enjoy this exclusive privilege via OCBC Internet Banking only.

This promotion is valid from 1 August - 31 August 2012 only.

Terms and conditions.

Perodua Raya Fiesta

If you are looking for a new local car now, you might consider Perodua. I'm a perodua car owner and I have good experience with Perodua, overall quality is good, maintenance cost is low and is fuel economic.

Perodua is having a Raya promotion until 19 August 2012 and the discount can be up to RM2500. If you are interested, you may just walk in to the nearest branch to enquire about this.