Ronnie's Blog

Business Times : Hong Kong will retain its position as Asia's top shopping capital with tourists tipped to spend at least US$11 billion in the territory by 2011, up from over US$6 billion in 2006, a MasterCard survey showed on Wednesday. In second place is Bangkok with shopping slated to hit US$3.5 billion in six years' time from above US$2 billion in 2006, followed by Seoul with US$3.1 billion, also from over US$2 billion currently, the global payments firm said. Singapore takes fourth spot with tourist spending estimated to reach US$2.9 billion by 2011 from around US$2 billion in 2006. 'Shopping spend in the four cities is expected to increase by 8 per cent per year between 2006 and 2011,' MasterCard said. Hong Kong, with its close proximity to China, is a favoured destination for mainland tourists and is seen as a gateway to the rest of Asia. 'Hong Kong is already repositioning to capitalise on the growing Chinese arrivals market, securing the

Details are as follows: Date: 26th August - 31st Aug 2005 (26th August TPC cardmember's preview day) Time: 10am - 7.00pm Venue: No.4 (2nd Floor), Jalan 13/4, Section 13, Petaling Jaya (behind Colgate-Palmolive) RM1 per entry for car park Special Bargains* Selected titles at RM1 per copy; titles will differ daily (Max 5 copies per person) *while stocks last Please present your Times Privilege Card upon entering for the preview day

Found this cute pink monkey over at CNet Asia. It's a FM radio + Plush Toy....2 for the price of 1. Amazing CUTE factor. I think it's a great gift for the upcoming Valentine's Day. Priced at approx USD$30.00.

Brighthand : The Bluetooth Qualification Program (BQP) has given its approval for Dell to release a new series of Pocket PCs. The BQP site gives few details on these devices, aside from the fact that they will be called the Axim X51/X51v series, and that they will use Bluetooth 1.2. This handhelds have not yet received approval from the FCC, a necessary step before they can be used in the United States. Rumors and Speculation Although few hard facts are available on the Axim X51/X51v, these are almost certainly the models that were mentioned in the roadmap of Dell's handheld plans that was leaked to Brighthand earlier this year. If so, then at least one these will be the first Axim with a built-in miniature hard drive, although the capacity of this is not yet known. Also, as the current Axim X50v is the company's only model with a VGA display, it's virtually certain that the X51v will also have a 640-by-480-pixel screen. It would be very surprising if these upcoming handhel

PalmInfocenter.com : "Palm and Audi of America, today announced their collaboration in a new generation of communications solutions designed to improve safety and convenience for drivers: easy and totally integrated hands-free calling inside the car. Using built-in Bluetooth wireless technology and the Palm Treo 650 smartphone, drivers of 2006 Audi A6 and A8 vehicles can make and receive calls totally hands-free using the car's MMI (Multi Media Interface) console, voice-recognition interface or steering-wheel controls. With the Treo 650 smartphone, Audi drivers can take advantage of the Treo 650's advanced calling features without ever touching the smartphone. After initiating Bluetooth communications between the Treo 650 and the car, drivers can use the steering-wheel controls, MMI controls on the dashboard, or the optional voice recognition to do the following: Pick up or ignore incoming calls; Dial outgoing calls; View active call status, including caller ID

Gizmodo : Amazon.com France has slipped a page with the European release date and price for Nintendo's monolithic new game console, the Revolution. The release date is listed as June 15, 2006. The total, after conversion, would be about $365. European console prices tend to be a bit higher than here in the U.S., but this still sounds like a fool's ransom given the Xbox 360's $299-$399 pricetag. (Remember that Nintendo says its console will be less technologically advanced and thus cheaper than the Xbox 360 or PS3). Based on the GameCube's 2001 launch cycle, it arrived in Europe six months after it debuted in N.A. This leak gives credence to rumors that the Revolution could see a surprise 2005 launch. Either that, or Nintendo is doing some very cheeky marketing."

Tom's Hardware Guide : "Rumors that Apple may soon replace the harddrive in the iPod mini with Flash memory gained substantial weight on Friday with an analyst saying that Samsung may drastically slash prices for its Flash memory products - potentially by up to 50 percent. According to Nam Kim, director and principal analyst for iSuppli's Memory ICs/Storage Systems research department, Samsung may be wooing Apple to convert parts of the iPod product line from using harddrives to Flash memory products. Apple already has booked as much as 40 percent of Samsung's NAND Flash output to support the production of 512 MByte and 1 GByte iPod Shuffle devices. To extend this relationship, Kim said that he believes that 'Samsung has committed to Apple that its NAND products will match harddrive pricing.' In order to replace the 4 GByte harddrive in the iPod mini, Samsung will have to reduce pricing of its 4 GByte Flash by about 50 percent. And Kim believes that Sa

BargainPDA : "Last week a report came out on BusinessWeek.com that Dell would likely be releasing a new PDA with QWERTY keyboard. As exciting as that may be to talk about, it's not going to happen according to Dell. Dell plans to focus on their current line of Axim products and won't be offering a model with integrated keyboard. There also will not be a version with mobile phone capabilities. While this may change at some point in the future, nothing will be released in 2005 along these lines."

BargainPDA : Reliable sources inform BargainPDA that watch maker Fossil is giving up on its ill-fated line of PDA watches, and gracefully exiting the market. The company, hamstrung by a lack of exposure, delays in production, and difficulties in their chosen niche, never fully found their footing in the market despite their best efforts.

Reuters.com : "Nintendo said its upcoming Game Boy Micro, a cell phone-size handheld, will ship at the end of September and sell for $99 in the United States. It will also be released in Japan and Europe in time for the holiday season." Picture courtesy of Gizmodo.com

StudioTraffic is one of the most successful autosurf program ever created. With my upgrade to account level $500, I am now earning USD$5 per day for less an hour of work. I will be getting my first cheque this coming September 2005. Don't miss this opportunity. JOIN NOW !!! StudioTraffic really rocks .

I've finally decided to upgrade my StudioTraffic account level to USD$490. ...that's RM1,881.60. I've send them a cheque of this amount to their Payment Gateway (StudioPay). Hopefully can get fund in to my account ASAP before end of the August. Will update my status on this blog ;)

I was waiting anxiously yesterday for the courier guy to come over. But nobody did not turn up. This morning, he finally arrived with my RM150 Fasta Pasta vouchers. Upon carefully opening the nice white Fasta Pasta envelope reveals TWO vouchers (RM50 and RM100 each). There's a very interesting clause under the Terms and Conditions. There are no cash refunds. All unused balances of voucher(s)(when applicable) will be refunded with voucher(s) only. The voucher is valued to the next RM10 within your bill. (When using a RM100 voucher and your bill is RM88, the management will refund you with a RM10 voucher only) Thank you very much to MixFM and Fasta Pasta

Just received a call from MixFM on my win of the Mix Battle of the Sexes contest. I won a RM150 voucher from Fasta Pasta (Ikano Power Centre). Basically getting the address to couriered the voucher to me. Yummy...yummy...yummy