mrbrown.com

My Apple Watch and DBS Paylah!

I got my Apple Watch a day before the official release in Singapore on the 26th of June (ya, I know, big fat hairy deal, haha!). One of the first things I noticed was the DBS Paylah! app installed on it. This was one of the first few Singapore apps I saw on my Apple Watch.

A few months ago, my friend, whom I owed money to because she helped me buy some stuff overseas, said I could pay her with Paylah!.

At first, I thought she was saying, "The money you owe me? Pay lah!".

But then I realized she meant the DBS Paylah! mobile wallet app. I was going to visit the ATM to do a fund transfer to her, but this seemed like an easier option. So I installed the app on my iPhone and linked it to my bank account, and in seconds, I was done transferring the funds.

Also neat was the ability to log into my PayLah! app with my finger via Touch ID. No need to type my password every time. DBS tells me that as of today, more than 40% of logins are being made through the Touch ID fingerprint sensor feature.

The app is available on both Apple iOS and Android platforms, and you link your bank account to your mobile number. All anyone needs to send you money, or for you to send money, is a mobile number. The app even works with non-DBS/POSB accounts now.

The second time I encountered PayLah! significantly was at this year's DBS Marina Regatta. The food stalls there accepted Paylah! as payment and there was even a 10% discount for Paylah! payment, so it was just a matter of sending payment via the app and then collecting our order at the counter.

I roped in my wife and youngest brother to install the app too. The latter was because we were splitting the bill for meal that he paid for (my family's share was $30). As for my wife, my little demonstration cost me $10. She happily pocketed my $10 into her mobile wallet.

Some of the other things you can do with Paylah!: You can use it to pay your bills, donate money to 15 charitable organisations, shop online, send or request money from anyone instantly (even non-DBS/POSB customers), and even send an eAng-Bao (great for overseas relatives).

I know of many small businesses, blogshops and sole proprietors accepting payments via Paylah! because it is easier and faster than asking customers to pay by bank transfer. You can even try paying your kid's tutor this way.

Why am I spreading the word? Because I like the service, and the more people use it, the better the service becomes.

This is what Paylah! shows on my Apple Watch, which is mainly notification data (the app will only display notifications on the Apple Watch if your iPhone screen is off).

This is Paylah! on the phone itself.

Go check it out and let me know what you think!

Why has the Singapore bus arrival info become unreliable?

In the last few months, I've noticed an annoying thing about my bus arrival app. Information was flaky and unreliable. Sometimes the app would say that the bus is coming in 3 minutes, when in reality, the bus had already come and gone. OR, it says the bus will come in a whopping 20 minutes, and the bus comes within the minute. Sometimes the info will declare that the bus was not in service anymore… at 9pm.

It didn't use to be this bad. There were moments of inaccuracy in the past but not with this level of frequency.

At first I got angry at the app, like many users, judging from the App Store reviews. Many blamed the app maker and said the latest app update broke their bus info accuracy. But then I thought, this cannot be the app's fault because the behavior was consistent across different apps.

Then I thought, this must be SBS Transit's fault because it is their server giving wrong info. But then I realized that my app was now using the new LTA enhanced real-time bus arrival backend, not the one by SBS Transit.

The apps using this LTA backend include SBST IRIS, SMRTConnect, SG NextBus, SG Buses, bus@sg and Next Bus@SG.

I looked at the date of the rollout and it was April 2015, which was around the time the info became unreliable. You can tell your app is using the LTA backend because there is now seat availability info.

Look, I think seat availability is a nice little feature but really, if you have to take the bus, you have to take the bus, whether there are seats available or there is standing room only. What is more important is that the bus arrival info is accurate, which it isn't at the moment.

I don't care if you slap an Enhanced or Centralized on your new backend. If the information is shit, the information is shit, whether it is enhanced or centralized or not.

So if it is truly the LTA backend causing this grief, either fix it, or give us back to servers and backend that used to belong to the individual bus companies. Ok, maybe don't give us back the SMRT servers. They were pretty shit too.

End of rant. I have to go. My bus app tells me my bus is coming in 30 minutes. Or thereabouts.

See What Show: Terminator Genisys

Terminator Genisys is truly the real third installment. I can now forget Rise of the Machines and Christian Bale's Salvation ever existed. The fifth movie reboots the franchise with a new timeline. Almost everything is new.

Sarah Connor is Emilia Clarke (*bows before Daenerys Stormborn of the House Targaryen, Khaleesi of the Great Grass Sea, Mother of Dragons*) and she makes a fine badass Mother of John Connor. Yes, she isn't some helpless chick anymore.

John Connor's The Hand of the King, Sgt Kyle Reese is now Jai Courtney a.k.a. John McClane's son from Die Hard.

John Connor himself is also new. Inside and out (see trailer for spoiler).

Even Arnold is new because there are three Arnold Schwarzeneggers: Young T-800 Arnold, Middle-Aged Guardian Arnold, and "old, not obsolete" Arnold.

It does get confusing at times, with so many Terminators and Arnolds running around, and as the plot twists and turns trying to explain alternate timelines and memories, and why the merry band of Sarah, Kyle and Good Guy Terminator is jumping between time periods to stop Skynet.

But time travel stories are confusing to begin with. At the heart of it, the movie goes back to the great action and the look of the first two movies. As a fan of the first two movies, I found the allusions to the first two classics satisfying. And also to hear the old lines again.

Some of the CG was suspect. You can tell sometimes that they cheated a little. I suspect liquid metal is easier to show than hybrid flesh-metal shape-shifting.

There were genuinely touching moments, especially between Old Arnold and Young Sarah Connor. The last time I felt this way was in T2, when he was lowered into the boiling metal.

My only gripe was the name Genisys. I kept thinking it was the launch of the Sega Genesis console that caused the evil Skynet to go live. Instead, Genisys in the movie refers to the pre-state of Skynet, an OS that unites the Internet of things.

Why not just call it Terminator Google or Terminator Facebook? That's closer to our reality of putting everything in the hands of a pervasive online system.

I don't know how long Arnold Schwarzenegger can do the sequels that will spawn from this reboot. The guy is kind of old, don't you think? Even body doubles, CG and make-up can only do so much.

But I sure wouldn't mind seeing more Emilia Clarke. Maybe give Khaleesi her dragons in the next sequel, Terminator: Rise of the Dragons.

The best budget earphones I have ever used

My friend just gifted me this pair of Mrice E300 earphones from China. They cost between $10 to $25 a pair, depending on where you buy them, and GOOD GRIEF THEY SOUND AWESOME!

I mean, I have heard my share of headphones and earphones, some costing four figures, but these earphones are up there in sound quality.

If you can get your hands on one of these puppies, buy a whole lot of them and give them away as gifts. Your friends will love you.

I can hear you saying, this is some no-name China brand leh, how long do they last?

My answer is: WHO CARES?!

At this price point, you can just buy a boatload of them and change them every month, like underwear.

Ok, you would change underwear more often than every month, but you get my point.

My favourite bus seat of all

I was going home at 10pm last night, and found that upper deck is mine! All mine! Front row seat, empty upper deck, yay!

When I posted this photo on Facebook, some of my CSI friends pointed out that I may not be alone, judging from the reflection on the window. BUT IT WAS EMPTY, I TELL YA!

[Cue: Twilight Zone music]

Happy Laopeh Day!

To all Papas out there, Happy Fathers Day!

(Photo and finger at the bottom lefthand corner by the artist, Joy Lee.)

The browns go to Club Med Bintan

I know some of you are probably thinking, "There is a Club Med in Bintan?". Like many of you, I thought Club Med only existed in Cherating, Phuket and the Maldives, and was more of a singles place. But it seems the place is more family-oriented these days.

So when Club Med invited me and my brood to their resort in Bintan, I thought, why not? I told them I would be objective with my views as a newbie to the whole Club Med experience, and they seemed fine with that.

The idea with a Club Med holiday is you pay a per-head price, and you go there to play, eat and drink without needing to pay any more. It is a package deal. There are three buffets a day (breakfast, lunch and dinner) and the spread is actually pretty impressive.

In between meals, you can grab small bites at the bar area and also a free flow of drinks, both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. A special Kid's Corner is set up there for kids to order mocktails with silly names, like "Don't Tell Mama".

You can do nothing or do everything there. There is a program lined up all day for adults and kids so we did both.

The kids did everything (we dropped them off in the care of the G.O's (Gentil Organisateur) who led them from program to program from morning till evening, including lunch. Thanks for watching my two younger ones, Refa and gang!

And the wife and I did nothing. We chilled out and even had time for a two and a half hour massage/spa treatment at the Club Med Bintan Island Spa by Aramsa.

This is me after our Tropical Java Lulur spa treatment at the treatment-room-with-a-view. Can you see my skin glowing from the full body exfoliation and full body yoghurt wrap? I feel so beautiful now. The wife was also pleased with her 150 minutes of relaxation.

My mom happily watched tv in the room, and sometimes went to swim. And Faith also went swimming at the pool and went for walks at the beach with us.

The journey there was fairly painless. A 45-minute ferry ride from Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal was all it took. Because we had a nasty experience the last time we went to Bintan many years ago, when choppy waters made almost every one in my entourage sea sick, we came prepared. We came equipped with seasick pills but thankfully, the ride there and back was smooth.

The rooms are decent and they had enough tv channels to keep the kids entertained (though the signal was a little fuzzy because they don't use digital). The air conditioning was sufficiently cold which is super important to Singaporeans. And my rooms faced the open space in front of the sea, which was lovely.

My only complaint was that the wifi was spotty where we stayed. We only got decent wifi internet in the common areas and restaurant. Then again, it was nice to not be online so much. This is after all, a vacation.

In the evenings, there was a performance by the G.O's themselves. These enthusiastic hosts who look after you by day, become talented performers by night, led by their chief, Marco.

They even managed to get us dancing at the finale. We conga-ed our way to the bar area after the performances and then we led the kids to the rooms for bedtime. After which the wife and I snuck out for a final drink ourselves.

I have to say, we all enjoyed ourselves. I wish it didn't rain as much but we did have a full Saturday with great weather. I didn't have to plan too much and worry about the logistics. The kids had enough to keep them occupied and my mom, the wife and I even managed to get some time for ourselves. Food was never a problem: if the kids wanted to eat pizza, spaghetti and nuggets during meal times, they could help themselves while we adults had our beef steaks, lamb chops and grilled fish.

It is nice to be taken care of from start to finish. I could get used to this kind of family vacation.

If you are interested, there is a Kids Stay Free promotion going on for Bintan Island, Bali, Cherating Beach and Phuket. Go check it out.

Me, I am now thinking that a Club Med Hokkaido Sahoro ski vacation may be worth looking at.

Reliving the Nokia experience

A week ago, I spent time in San Francisco using an AT&T SIM card on my iPhone 6 Plus. That meant that my Singapore SIM card had nowhere to go, because I didn't bring a spare phone. I usually don't require a spare phone because the overseas prepaid SIM card normally goes into my Huawei mifi router, but this AT&T card didn't want to work with my Huawei. Damn American telcos.

This made me think, "I need a second phone as a backup when I travel." And just prior to my trip, my boy lost his Nokia phone while cycling. It dropped out of his pocket, it seems. He was duly chastised for it.

So I had more than ample reason to look for a non-Smartphone. I walked into many telco shops but the lowest end model they carried was a Xiaomi. The 7-Eleven stores had some feature phones but they were some unknown brands.

At the Funan Microsoft Store, which used to be a Nokia shop, I found what I was looking for.

I ended up with the Nokia Asha 305 semi-Smartphone, the one on the far right in the photo above. It was $49 bucks, on offer for purchase-with-purchase because I bought the Nokia 225 Dual Sim for the son as a replacement, which cost me $89. I know, I know, the 225 cost more than the more advanced 305, which is odd. I guess they were clearing stock.

In the end, I got a replacement SIM card for the son ($37.50, ouch) and made him use his older camera-less, music-less Nokia (the one on the far left) because I thought it didn't seem right to reward carelessness with a newer phone model.

So that's how I ended up with two brand new dual sim Nokia feature phones running the Symbian OS. Me, the man who owns a drawer full of smartphones from Apple, Samsung and even Nokia Lumia. Then again, I still have another drawer full of old Nokias, like the N95, N96 and the venerable 8210.

I charged the Nokia Asha 305 and powered it up. The Asha 305 charges via the traditional Nokia charger, or via micro-USB, which is nice if you just want to travel with one less charger.

It supports 2.5G and wifi, has a 2 megapixel camera, plays mp4 videos and has a capacitive touch screen. Pretty flash for a feature phone. There are apps for Whatsapp, Facebook and Twitter.

I looked at the specs online: "Maximum standby time with dual SIM: 22 days."

22 whole days. You can't even get smartphones to last 22 hours these days, let alone 22 days.

I connected the Nokia to my home wifi (2.4Ghz band only, no support for the 5Ghz band), and fired up the Twitter for Nokia app, then typed "I am tweeting this from a Nokia Asha 309 not-Smartphone, via the Symbian Twitter app, and typing with predictive text. Talk about retro. B-)".

You can tell I wasn't lying because Twitter reported that the tweet was made with "Twitter for Nokia S40".

I had to type that out using predictive text, you know that old input method that clustered ABC and DEF together. It took me a long time to type the 140 characters. Maybe I am rusty. I used to be able to touch type an SMS on a Nokia numeric pad with one hand, and without looking at it.

Then I tried the Nokia Explorer browser, which told me the application had been replaced by Opera Mini, and do I want to download the update? Sure! I always want the latest tech, who doesn't, right?

And after Opera Mini was downloaded and installed, I tried my blog. It worked!

It was quite quaint looking at my site on a 3-inch WQVGA screen that is all of 400 x 240 pixels.

All this high tech low tech is moot since I only plan to plonk my SIM card in it and use it for receiving and making phone calls when I am traveling. But it was quite fun to see the state of affairs in the Nokia sphere.

Since Microsoft swallowed up Nokia, you cannot even find a Nokia smartphone anymore. It is called Microsoft Lumia now.

Even my mother has a smartphone now, a Samsung A5 that recently replaced her string of Nokia feature phones she used for years. She is now a Facebook fan and is starting to get the hang of Whatsapp. She is even commenting on my Facebook posts. Be afraid. Be very afraid.

And as if to rub my nose in it, the day I bought these two Nokia phones that only support 2G, I read that the local telcos will discontinue 2G voice and messaging services from April 2017. It is happening in the States too.

Thanks ah. I now have only two more years to use these phones. Looks like my days of holding off smartphone use from my kids are numbered.

Thoughts on Apple's WWDC 2015

I am finally finished with the keynote at this year's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2015, at Moscone Center, San Francisco.

If the photos look close up to you, it's because I managed to score a fourth row seat in the hall, which is pretty close. I could almost see Tim Cook's nostril hair.

Updates on iOS 9, OS X El Capitan and watchOS 2 were announced.

Apple Pay is rolling out to the UK. I am happy for them, really. But still nada for Singapore. I would love to tap my iPhone or Apple Watch to pay for my Bak Chor Mee or my bus fare. Apple, make it happen please.

The new Notes app can now do drawing in-app and you can drag and drop photos, videos, web and map clippings. It will work across iOS 9 and OS X El Capitan. I use Notes a LOT and this is a nice enhancement.

Split View in OS X will put two apps side by side on your Mac automatically and there will be a Spaces Bar in Mission Control that will let you park your windows. I am not a big user of the multiple desktops feature but this may appeal to users who do.

I got most excited when they showed some of the iOS 9 iPad features. Multitasking is more enhanced, and you can use the new Slide Over feature to simultaneously work in a second app without leaving the first, in a Split View mode,

And with Picture-in-Picture, you can continue a FaceTime call or the video you were watching, while using some other app, like Mail. You can see this in action in the photo below.

I am also quite excited to see the new Apple News app, a Flipboard competitor that will customize your news for you, and also feature magazine-like articles natively, like Facebook's Instant Articles. That may actually make me use the iPad Air 2 more.

Public transport info now comes to Apple Maps. Which is about bloody time. I don't see Singapore on the list of roll-out cities though, so it will still be Google Maps for us public transport users.

Apple also added more little touches to iOS 9 to give more input options to iPads. Two fingers on the iPad keyboard and you get a virtual track pad to select things. That will certainly please those of us who travel and type a lot on our iPads.

Even before we get the Apple Watch in Singapore, Apple is already talking about version 2 of watchOS. There will be more third-party support and you can now reply to emails from the Apple Watch.

With Photo Face and Photo Album Face, you can now make any photo, or set of photos, into a watch face. Now you can look at your children or pet chinchilla as a watch face.

As usual, there is always One More Thing at Apple events. And this one was already leaked by Sony Music's big mouth CEO.

Apple Music is Apple's new music streaming service to compete with Spotify, Deezer, Pandora and Tidal. For US$9.99 a month (first three months will be a free trial), or US$14.99 for the whole family (up to six people), you get to listen to the entire iTunes catalog.

Will it topple the streaming darling Spotify? It remains to be seen. I do like the human curation and the new 24/7 Global Live radio station called Beats 1, fronted by BBC Radio 1 host Zane Lowe, that will stream from New York, L.A. and London, supposedly the music capitols of the world.

Why not also stream from the music capitol of Lorong Ah Soo? My housing estate is also quite hip what (we have artisan coffee there now).

Another feature, Apple Music Connect, will be the in-platform social media service for musicians to reach their fans. Who knows, maybe you can see the new lyrics of a song by Taylor Swift before it is recorded, or a Behind the Scenes video of a Behind the Scenes video of a Maroon 5 music video, or a photo of Snoop Dogg smoking weed.

I think it is nice to have all those fan-connecting functionality under one roof, but most music makers already know how to use Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Will there be exclusives on Apple Music Connect? That may be key.

Remember the sad fate of iTunes Ping? Wait a minute! Connect is the new Ping!

If I become an artiste on Apple Music, I will certainly try to share the exclusive and intimate details of my two-hour coffee breaks at the kopitiam downstairs. Anything for the fans.

Rapper and artist Drake came out to say some stuff about Apple Music, but Kanye didn't show, much to our disappointment. Rumour was that Kanye would be dropping by the WWDC to launch his seventh album SWISH, and it was even Kanye's birthday. But nope, The Unsmiling One did not show.

Instead, The Weeknd performed at the end of the keynote. I cannot say I am familiar with his work, but I asked my friend Henry of Stuff NZ and he told me how to spell this singer's name correctly. So that is not a typo, it really is The Weeknd.

Personally, I say forget Kanye. I was hoping Taylor Swift would be the surprise One Last Thing. She is my musical muse and she can Apple Music Connect with me anytime.

WWDC 2015, y'all

Good morning from San Francisco! I'm going to Apple's WWDC 2015 and it's a sunny day here.

It's my first time seeing this live and it is quite odd not waking up at 1am in the morning to watch this streaming online.

So far I can report that the croissants for the media are quite tasty. And I love the Mango Tango juice.

I will share more once I'm in there. Watch my Twitter feed for live updates.

Twins or Not?

Hey, Microsoft! Your Twins or Not? website is obviously not working.

On the other hand, the site got it right with my wife and me. People do say we have 夫妻相…

Hello again, San Francisco!

I'm spending a few days in San Francisco, partly for the Apple WWDC on the 8th of June and partly for leisure. This is me transiting through Narita earlier today, with my carry-on bags, the Tom Bihn Aeronaut 30 (carrying my clothes and 12-inch MacBook) and my Night Flight Travel Duffel (carrying my cameras and lenses).

It's nice to travel without checked luggage. I breezed through customs at SFO and didn't need to wait for my luggage at the belts. And carrying less allowed me to wander around Mission Street for a Cubano sandwich lunch at La Taza's, before I went to my Airbnb place.

Here are some photos of my Airbnb apartment in San Francisco. It is nestled in the colourful area of Mission Street and Treat Ave. The bed is in a loft and the building is very quaint.

First, I need to shower. It's been more than 24 hours since I bathed.

I hear this is a very popular dish with seamen

I hear this is a popular dish with seamen

Hmmmm.

[ohoto by Ivan Sng]

Girl on a swing in the Singapore Botanic Gardens

I didn't even know it was a public holiday but the 1st of June came around and I woke up from working the weekend, and saw the kids and the wife still in the house after 9am.

"Today is public holiday meh?"

"Ya, Vesak Day," replied the wife. "Are you taking the kids out?"

Despite my head still throbbing from spending the weekend in the sun at work, I managed to mumble a coherent reply, something along the lines of "Um, yeah, I'll think of something."

After breakfast and pottering around the house doing fatherly duties (like erasing a 2006 iMac for recycling and installing a new iPad Mini 3 for wife), I gathered the troops and headed for the Botanic Gardens.

It was crazy hot that afternoon. I don't know what possessed me to think of going outdoors in that heat, but I thought the kids would benefit from some tree and grass time.

We didn't pack any food or drink, just a mat and our kick scooters. Note to self, get a bigger mat.

Soon, I was lying on the grass, while Isaac was scootering around the gardens, Joy was picking up twigs and leaves, and my wife was with Faith on a walk with our new helper, Auntie Marian. And for some odd reason, the weather got cooler. Often the simplest moments in life are the happiest.

The son also tried to teach his mother how to ride a kick scooter. The wife had no problems moving, it was slowing down that she was trying to grasp.

Joy came running towards me later, very excited by a place she discovered with my wife. It was an area with old two-seater swings, the kind that rich people had in their gardens in the old days.

And Faith really enjoyed sitting on that swing. For a brief few minutes, she sat on the swing with her siblings and mother, with a big fat smile on her face, her sensory issues lost in the motion. Her younger brother put a protective arm around her occasionally.

As I looked at her smile, I remembered the time we lost her three years ago in 2012, at Dhoby Ghaut MRT station. It happened exactly on this day, the 1st of June. I mark it on my calendar and every year, I make it a point to say a little prayer of thanks on the day itself. I reminded the two younger ones too, that it was the third anniversary of the day we lost and found their autistic sister.

I am sure Auntie Cecilia is smiling at us from heaven, looking at the three kids she was a second mother to, especially at the big smiling girl she looked after since she was three weeks old. Fourteen years can fly by so quickly.

Like a girl on a swing.