Goodbye Picnik..

One of the best online image editor is finally going to hit the dust..

But wait… according to CNET
“And until its demise, Picnik’s premium service is free, and its premium subscribers will receive full refunds“

So for those who wants to drive Picnik premium service, go ahead to the website before it shuts down on 20th April 2012.

But of course, being Google (lol) – I am sure they will just replace Picnik with some other awesome tool integrated into Google+ or so. Google is just like trying to monopoly everything on the internet. Well, I don’t think we will mind much, as long as it’s free.

If you’re looking for other online image editing sites, I’ve previously covered about this before. So head over > HERE < to read more.

Earth global warming almost at the end?

This global warming need to stop. And it actually does not matter if we contribute to stop it by turning off our air-conditioner when we don’t use them or not.. it simply DOES NOT MATTER because it’s the big corporation that’s making the heat.

I believe you will be scared after watching our earth heat map below…

Although there are statements that whatever we do does not contribute to global warming, but it’s the earth itself that’s getting warmer. The earth core is building up heat… how much longer do we have before it reaches meltdown?

The most important question is, if NASA knows about this, I am sure the US and other countries government earth observation or whatever earth department that they have MUST know about this as well. The real question is what are they doing to prevent this from happening? Is it just simply “oh we found a way to reach Mars by just 6 months journey” so they can abandon earth when the rich found no way else to make money from it?

I care about the earth, as much as I care about my kids. It is a home for our kids to grow. I don’t want them to live in bunkers or some underground facilities just because the climate is too hot for humans anymore. That is..

if we still have a future…

Have a look at the video on NASA website > HERE <

Back when I was a kid, I always dreamed of going to the future. Now what I really want is to go back to the past…

A compilation of most used Android Application

Recently I have a friend who just bought an Android phone. He posted in facebook asking for most favorite and most used Android apps. And I do have some other friends who kept asking about Android apps and all which I’ve noticed that I kept on repeating myself about it again and again. As I’ve been using Android since a few years ago (started off with HTC Magic) and have gotten quite used to it, I believe I should write a few about it and posted this here as “the best is to share, not to keep!“.

My favourite Android applications
- in no ranking order -

#GPS#
Ndrive (market link)

I’ve used several GPS voice navigation software before (such as Sygic and Papago, and there should be some more which I could not remember) but kept going back to Ndrive for it’s great voice navigation guidance. Ndrive is fluid without lags and have simple, nice interface. Great thing about it is that once you speed up, it will automatically zoom out the map so you can see more of what’s ahead. And when you slow down, the application will zoom in so you can see a more detailed map instead. There is an option to toggle this if you want more of manual control.

As much praise as I can give, Ndrive (I’m using version 10 currently) is horribly bad when coming to it’s searching capabilities. In Malaysia, there are a lot of mis-spelled road names and POI, and doing search on POI is a nightmare as the software will ask you for which town the POI is in, and you really need to be accurate in order to find what you need. For instance, if I enter Selangor, I will be prompted with multiple Selangor entries such as Selangor Setapak Gombak, Selangor Hulu Kelang Gombak, Selangor Batu Gombak, Selangor Bukit Raja Petaling, Selangor Damansara Petaling and so on.. it’s really frustrating when you just unsure of the exact POI that you are looking for and when you only know it’s in Selangor! I wish Ndrive could simplify this what Garmin did which made it so easy (and I still use Garmin on my Windows 6.5 phone when I have the chance to!). There are some rural areas which have roads without names. This is kind of frustrating especially when you’ve paid quite a heavy price tag of the software.

But still, I liked it for some unknown reason…

#religious#
iQuran (market link)

This is my favourite. I know that this is similar to the iPhone version, but I’m glad they also have it on Android. I’ve covered this application before in my previous post. So you can read all about it > HERE < and yes it’s FREE.

#religious#
Quran Android (market link)

After some time, I believe Quran – Madina was one of my most favorite Quran apps as it appears exactly like the real quran. If you want the text to be bigger, just flip the phone sideways for landscape support. However, I am not sure why this does not work on my Xperia Play anymore (I kept getting Force Close error). So an alternative to this was the Quran Android pictured above. Although text is a bit plain looking but it has support for audio recitation (like the iQuran), and easy to read without having to scroll much. This application is FREE as well.

#file management#
File Expert (market link)

Please remember this application was developed by ‘Geek Software Technology Inc’ and it is as geeky as it can get. You will not only have the normal file explorer capability, but access to your phone internal storage (without root, however root is required to perform write actions), access to your dropbox, box.net, kanbox, kDrive, etc straight from File Expert, server capability (Windows / Samba sharing, FTP, SFTP, FTPS, WebDAV, Bluetooth OBEX), backup and uninstall of apps, and many more which I honestly have not tried it all yet. Most common function for this is the easy file transfer via Wifi which when I get home, connect the phone to my home wifi, turn on web sharing and I am able to access the phone content (files, pictures, videos) on my PC browser wirelessly. Best thing is that I can download or even upload files to my phone without plugging the USB in. A top 5/5 must have application (I have no use for Root Explorer anymore, sadly, but still it was a good app), and did I mention it’s FREE?

#sms backup#
SMS Backup + (market link)

My wife been running her own business and have tons of SMS from clients on her Android phone. And the fact that Android only holds 200 of your SMS before the rest disappears unknowingly is quite scary for some who does not know about it (the one who keeps all SMS and never bothered to delete, until one day when you need to take a look at the old SMS only to realize that it’s not there anymore). SMS Backup + is a fine application which stores (automatically if configured) all of your SMS to your Gmail account. It’s simple to set and runs great. I’ve covered about this application before, so you may read it further over > HERE <

In short, this application is useful for people who either subscribed for data plan or frequently connect their phone to Wifi. For an offline version, read on below!

#sms backup#
SMS Backup (market link)

Now this is an offline backup application which backup your SMS to your MicroSD Card. Great for those who does not have data plan and does not frequently connect their phone to any Wifi connection. It’s pretty straight forward to begin with.

First, open the app > click on settings (tools icon on upper right), I usually click on ‘Archive Mode’ so new SMS are added into the same file automatically (does not generate a new file each time backup). I will just leave the rest of the settings by default. Then, click Schedule settings, specify what time to auto backup and the intervals (repeat every .. 1 day?) > Click Enable Schedule, and click on Save to accept the new settings. After that click back on your Android button, and do an initial backup by clicking Backup.

You can also view backup without restoring the SMS by clicking view. This will show a plain text layout with all SMS organized by received date / time. Clicking on any SMS will bring up it’s thread. And the awesomeness is complete! (It’s free of course, duh!)

#proxy#
sl4a (link)

There was this article on the internet in regards to SOPA which mentioned “the power to censor the Web using techniques similar to those used by China, Malaysia and Iran” – and look what appeared in Malaysian local newspaper…

Did you spot it? So, for this there’s this great Android application called sl4a which actually processes script (and I believe a few more functions which I am not quite familiar about) – so what we do is to run this script (WARNING only works on a rooted device, Ha, told ya to root before!) and you may (yes, some doesn’t work anymore) access these blocked sites like piratebay again. I’ve covered this before, so head > HERE < to read all about it (link to download is there as well).

#productivity#
Mindjet for Android (formerly known as Thinking Space), (market link)

I personally have not really tried Mindjet that much as of yet, but I have used Thinking Space before and it works very good. This is a mind mapping software that you can use on your Android. Of course, it is best when used on tablets and devices such as the Galaxy Note (*cough*) which have a bigger screen estate. But it works well on a typical 3 – 4″ screen.

The application is fast, have ability to export mindmap in png (although Mindjet now only allow you to do that if you’re sending the image file over via email – Thinking Space -if I remembered correctly- have an option to save png on SD Card, so it’s more easier to export. I think they should have this option in paid version of Mindjet Pro). And when you have access to your desktop, you can load your saved file in FreeMind (open source, free app for Windows), although I have not tried this with file saved under Mindjet (it does work before with Thinking Space saved files, although there were minor loss of details during conversion).

#picture editor#
PicSay Pro (market link)

The free version is OK, but the PRO (paid) version is awesome. It contains lots of effects and photo fix options from adjusting contrast, saturation, to applying vignette, dialog box, text, stickers and much more. It also allows you to upload the edited picture straight to social network eg Facebook and option to save it to your SDcard. As I said, the free version is OK, but I would recommend the PRO version for sure.

#emulator#
GameBoid emulator (Google for it!)

Android phones are powerful enough to decently run Gameboy Advanced games. Imagine playing back games such as Dragonball Supersonic Warriors, Balloon Fight, Super Mario Bros, Bomberman, Digimon, Pokemon, Metal Slug… you name it, if it’s there on the GBA handheld console, you can load it up on Android.

Unfortunately Gameboid is not listed in Android Market. But with some Googling, you should be able to find the .apk and also BIOS for GBA easily (this should be in zip file). As for ROMs, that I will not say further but feel free to ask uncle Google, he might be able to point you out to one or two…

So that’s it. I do have more, but if I post em all, I wouldn’t have any more to write on next time, right? So what are your favorite and most commonly used Android apps? Come share!

Love of a father…

Can a son do the same?

Credit to 9Gag

Battery Life on the Xperia PLAY

Not bad, not bad at all. Of all the Android based smartphones I had before, the Xperia PLAY holds the best battery life of all. With medium usage running on 3G (no internet) with some web surfing via WIFI, a couple of game play and downloads, I still have more than 50% after a near day of use.

Alphabets of today…

4 free games for Xperia PLAY owners

Yep you heard it you lucky owners of the Xperia Play (or does this offer drool you to actually own one now?). It seems that Sony has teamed with EA to offer Xperia Play owners access to 4 exclusive game titles for free.

Not bad. And these games are pretty high end as well – considering Xperia Play is a Playstation certified device, it deserved these.

So if you have one up, head on > HERE < to check how you can get these exclusive titles for free.

But hurry, offer ends on 15th January 2012. So download now, rip those apk off and save the data files somewhere so you may reinstall these again whenever you like in future.

Wishing you a fantastic 2012!

Have facebook? Time to do some housekeeping…

I know most of you don’t realize how many apps have (quite a lot of) access to your facebook account. This includes reading your profile / wall / posts even when you’re not logged in.

For apps that you trust, it’s OK. However, I’d recommend that we do some housekeeping to ensure that your data remain private (lol, what is private if you post it on the internet).

To do this, open up facebook, click the drop down arrow button beside HOME and click on ‘Account Settings‘.

Then click on Apps from menu list on your left.

From here, behold! The list of apps that have access to your account. Which surprises me that 30% of the apps on list were complete stranger as I can’t remember adding them up in the first place.

So review which one that you still allow access to your account and remove the ones that are not needed anymore by clicking the x button on the far right.

And that completes this tiny chapter of fb housekeeping…

Passive income? Making money?

Pelaburan Pasif, program pasif, pendapatan pasif, passive income, money generators, double your income, make money while you sleep, gold investments, savings for the future...

This article was originally written in Bahasa Melayu (but was unpublished), however I took a deep breath and re-wrote this back into English as I feel more comfortable doing so and by doing so will attract more visitors and I am able to share this article internationally. So here goes..

Passive income is one of the income that most of us (who knows about it) chase after. In fact, even Robert Kiyosaki (writer of Rich Dad Poor Dad) mentioned that he too have passive income, however this was generated from more than 1500+ units of luxury condominiums and apartments (I know there’s more to this, but of course Mr Robert here would love us to buy his book first before revealing further…)

So what is passive income really?

Well I guess based on Mr Robert example given above, it’s an investment which gives you return or dividend in a periodic manner. If you buy and rented out a house, you would get passive income from the rented unit. If you put your money in some sort of mutual fund / trust, the dividend are too considered as a passive income. Buy gold and keep it for a few years, then sell it off with a higher price – then that’s too considered as a passive income.

Whatever it is, it’s more profitable than saving MONEY. Why? Because money depreciate, it’s not an asset anymore – money becomes a liability. With inflation rising up and cost of living getting more expensive these days, if you saved $10 now, would it still worth $10 in 10 years time? That’s a definite NO.

The way to make sure your money will always be there is to ensure that you’re allocating your money to own an asset. What is an asset? An asset is something that does not take money out from your pocket.

Does properties considered as an asset? Well rented properties yes, but if you bought yourself a house and resides on it, it will become a liability because you’re paying up money more than money coming in.

So don’t save money.. instead, get more assets and you’ll be fine.

Back to the main story at hand. Passive income are easy to find (especially on the internet) but hard to earn profit from. Let me tell you why…

Most people on the internet will woo you by telling how easy it is for you to make money by becoming an investor that provide you with passive income, either paid out weekly, daily, monthly or quarterly, based on their ‘saying’. When there are real business that provides real passive income out there, mostly are scams and just there to collect money from small fishes as yourself. Here’s what I’ve learnt from monitoring these passive income schemes all these months…

1. Business has just started
Well yes, if business has just started and you have sources to say this is the real deal. It’s the best time to jump in the ship as you would be able to get your Return of Investment (ROI) quicker and less riskier as well. However, when dealing with strangers – you have to be extra cautious, especially with new start-ups. How well do you know of their business market and capabilities to generate income? Are you sure that you’re going to get income still (let’s not talk about getting back your ROI, because that would be useless right? You DID become an investor to get profit, not just dump your money there and take it back again after a few months or years, which is totally useless). So unless you know and trust the person, or if you don’t mind to burn the money if something goes wrong.. go ahead.

2. Too many intake and no payouts
Seeing a person or a company (usually a person) that kept taking money from it’s investors, but still saw no payouts given to any, is where you need to be concerned about. Especially if it’s been going on for months. These are what I call illegal loaners. I’ll explain about it more towards the end.

3. Promises.. empty promises
“And the company guarantees that under any losses, we shall 100% refund investors money back…” Does it sound assuring? NOT. First of all, most will never reveal ‘the company’, and ‘the company’ here refers to who or what? Basically a stranger comes to you and said, hey if you give me $100 bucks I’ll give you this note which says “I’ll return the money back to you tomorrow – signed, the stranger”. Go figure!

4. Actors are all over the place (dupes!)
These are highly trained actors to attract more fishes. If you personally know them (and trust of course) then it may be a real passive income, but if not, then all these are just ‘strangers’ which you never meet and never know before. Worst if it’s on the internet! The same person can create a duplicate of themselves (dupes) and post comments – mostly the one that motivates you to become an investor. So unless you know them personally and trust them, my advice, keep your other feet off somewhere safe.

5. Too good to be true, trust your instinct!
Usually we are able to sense if something bad is about to happen. Yes, usually we do. Just that we are too ignorant about it and pretended that feeling never happened. Once you have this curiosity, do some checking just to make sure. If a person or a company is offering 200% return within 30 days, you ought to thought to yourself, why they didn’t just get a bank loan instead? Of course there is a risk to anything, but jumping off a plane without any parachute isn’t a risk, that’s suicidal!

So what’s that about illegal loaners? I have noticed a trend that’s becoming more serious and more concerned over these few months whereby most passive income groups or companies bailed out as soon as they reached the $50,000 to $150,000 collective figure. Either leaving all it’s investors in the dark (the evil ones) without any news of refunds or returns, or some will leave their ‘well trained idiotic puppets’ to do the dirty work and talk to the rest of the investors, where these puppets are so highly trained (or brainwashed) that they act as if they are the guardian to an angel (in disguise). Most of the time these puppets have no idea of the actual business owner, nor have ever met them in person.

Some (the bad ones) will somewhat announce that the company is failing or in trouble, and that all investors will have a refund of their investment. However, this takes time, and some could take up to years for them to pay back the amount you invested. I know some of you may say that “it’s better than nothing” or “at least I got my money back”, but have you realized that you just given your money to illegal loaners? They are actually taking collected loan, illegally, by tricking you (the so called investors) that you will get profit from your money. The real deal is that there are no profit nor plan for profit for you at all. The only profit plan they have is for themselves. They just need your money to kick-start the business as they (possibly) are in the Blacklist or CTOS or CCr.. whatever.. or by evil reason, decided to get themselves an illegal loan without any interest, any guarantors, any repayment terms or guarantee, even there’s no black and white at all!

These syndicates (pardon me) usually collects from $50,000 to $150,000 before bailing out. And with the right approach, they are able to collect these figures within a month or a week perhaps. Without any documentation, and usually without even exposing the company details or what they actually do. Everything is just, imaginary… and yet there are still peoples who decided to jump in.

But please, before blaming them, blame yourself as a naive person. Scams like these doesn’t force you to join, they don’t bug you with phone calls or emails saying come and join us. Instead, mostly everyone who joined are volunteers, just because of the (imaginary) prospects that was tell and told.

So that serves as a tip for those who would like to join passive income that’s offered by a stranger.

Heck, to make fast real money – I can even open up a group and invite strangers telling them I have a good business proposal at hand. Whoever joined will get 300% dividend + profit within 60days, and business will only start when we have enough investors (that hit the $150,000 mark). When I have successfully obtained the $150,000 illegal bucks, I’ll just bail out and say “unfortunately the company has not been able to progress further and refund will be given slowly on a stage by stage basis” – which I will go out, buy myself a house, rent it over – get more money, and slowly pay back the investors around $500 bucks per month for let’s say… the next 25 years?

Who cares, I’m dealing with strangers, they don’t even know or seen me before!

On second thought, how about I’d just take a trip to Canada and dissappear from Malaysia instead? That would be easier…

*Seriously I’m afraid of the hereafter*