Apple Maps is not Condemned

So, Apple Maps is unsurprisingly being voted one of the top 5 tech flops in 2012 by many gadget sites.

But is it really condemned?
Hmm.. I'm not sure for others.  But I'm not condemning it.

I actually did not hit any (yes, zero) snags or wrong directions from it for my country (Singapore).  I've been using it not less than 6 times now.

The 3D is not available yet in my country, so the "Fly-Over" mess is not applicable for me.

My Fibre Broadband under Minor Stress Test

This morning my newly-activated Fibre Broadband was put into minor stress test.

Several of the mobile devices were put to use in a typical Sunday morning.

I was also trying out the streaming of videos from my Android Samsung Galaxy S WIFI to my Apple TV. The PlayTo app was used to do that.

Meanwhile, the kids were watching YouTube videos on the iPad 3rd Gen. They like to replay those "favourited" videos.

At the same time, I continued my "saving" of 3 episodes of Taiwan drama serial simultaneously to local storage. "Saving" here means "Caching" technically or "Downloading" in layman term.

Then I start my "caching" of a 26MB videos from YouTube.

No one complained of any stoppages or lag.
Previously on ADSL, someone will grumble their videos are lagging or not moving.

WIFI Speed Test on my New Fibre Broadband

In 1996, I subscribed to my first Internet Provider, Pacific Internet with a then "fast" 56kbps dial-up modem.

In 2012 November 29th, I got my first Fibre Broadband with a speed of 100Mbs!

Naturally, I'm going to take my bunch of portable devices for a speed test comparison.

Here are the competitors:
1) Samsung Galaxy S WIFI 5.0 running Gingerbread 2.3.6
2) Apple iPhone 4S running iOS 5.1.1
3) Apple iPad (3rd gen) running iOS 5.1.1
4) Apple iPad Mini running iOS 6.0.1
5) Apple iPhone 5 running iOS 6.0

So, can the Apple iPhone 5, which Tim Cook said comes with "Fast WIFI" win it all?

The app to test with:
Speedtest.Net app for Android and iOS:

1. Speed Test Result for Samsung Galaxy S WIFI 5.0

2. Apple iPhone 4S

3. Apple iPad (3rd Gen)

4. Apple iPad Mini

5. Apple iPhone 5

Here's to summarise the results:

My Bet on X Factor UK 2012

I seldom watch English entertainment shows. But X Factor is one that I will always catch. It's entertainment both on-stage with the contestants and off-stage with the judges.
This season X Factor UK finalists features some good voices.

Here are two of my favourites:
Jahmene Douglas and James Arthur.

Both have great vocals.
Jahmene has a better vocal compared to James, but somehow James has the extra X Factor in his creativity style of singing.

My bet goes to James Arthur to win the competition.

My iPhone Got Upsized in Storage

Got the CloudFTP gadget recently.
Now, things are getting a bit sophisticated now.

Here, I'm now reading the video wirelessly on my Cruzer thumbdrive:
- via the Linux system on the CloudFTP and then stream it
- via my WIFI router
- via the Apple TV which is connected to my Full HD TV
- via HDMI.

Now I can offload all those big media files off my meagre iPhone's storage onto my thumb drives or external portable harddisk.

My Favourite iPhone Game Got Updated

Finally one of my favourite games is updated for iPhone 5's full screen. - Dream League Soccer.

Here are 2 screenshots of the games played on an iPhone 4 and iPhone 5.
The longer screen of the iPhone 5 really gives a big plus to the display viewing experience while playing:

Here a video export that I've played on my former iPhone 4S:

As of my last Android phone, I have not been successful to find an equivalent excellent soccer game for Android.

Highly recommended soccer game to my iPhone friends.
Yes, it's better than FIFA 12. I haven't tried FIFA 13 yet.

Both Dream League Soccer and FIFA 12 are nowhere near console quality, but they are certainly 2 of the best on mobile platform and I can play them anywhere.

My iPhone 5 Daily Usage

I've the iPhone 5 for roughly 3 weeks now.
Here's a breakdown of the things I do on it... Graphically.

As can be seen from the chart, I use the iPhone a lot for Music, Gaming and Apps.
- Music: because of iPhone's great sound quality. (with a music app that provides customised graphic equalizer)
- Gaming: because the graphic chip in iPhone 5 has significantly improved over its predecessor, iPhone 4's (which itself is already awesome)
- Apps: because I still prefer iOS's intuitive touches(pun not intended) to apps functionalities such as "Badge Notification", "Swipe to Delete", "Status Bar Tap to Top of Page", etc.

One thing to note is the low percentage for net browsing.
I generally don't use the iPhone much for surfing net. One of the reasons why a bigger size screen is not necessary for me.

Next, here's the breakdown for the Social Networking app usage for me.

Google+ is slowly taking over my social networking life because of the great community there and the quality of the mobile and PC app for Google+.

And yes, the iPhone 5 is taking over my life ... slowly but surely ...