Gadgets showoff 2015 :p

It has been a long time since I have posted the things I have gotten so I might just do it in just a condensed 1 post here now.

I was pretty lucky to get this in the company lucky draw, now it is used for work by accessing company email =_="

Felt like I wanna jump on the supposed healthy bandwagon so bought this although I was quite close to broke at that time. Now the strap is broken :(

My watch cannot keep time anymore so I settled for a cheap alternative first while still looking for a good watch

Got a fair bonus amount so I decided to give myself a treat, preparation for my trip as well =D

I think that is about it for now. Still looking around for accessories for the Yi Action Camera. A colleague of mine volunteered to search for me and I think he found some interesting selections. Have to wait for his collective shipment though...

How to fix Buffalo CS-XL NAS EM issue OR upgrade to newer firmwares

I feel a strong obligation to share my entire day's worth of trial and error not to mention download hell. For those of you who owns Buffalo CS-XL NAS, you might have been disappointed with the results from Google for your problem. You are in luck because I will be helping you out if you got into the same error as I did OR you can upgrade your extremely outdated firmware :)

To make sure we are on the same page or rather using the same device, here is the picture of my device:

 My device, CloudStore CS-XL (doesn't really matter what is the size of the storage)

 

NOT our device, the LinkStation LS-XL most likely renamed because Cloudstore is the same name as the device by Synology

So why do I need to show you both? Any person with a passable eyesight would notice that both are too alike to NOT be the same. I have went through the testing and I can vouch that they are the same, well at least in terms of the firmware which is probably what lead you here.

If you have hit the error Emergency Mode (EM), verified using Buffalo's NAS Navigator software, you will be asked to update your firmware i.e. CloudStor v1.13 (the same as your current). Unfortunately for me, my device went into EM without the LEDs blinking nor did it turn red but it was inaccessible all the same. You may download the firmware here.

If you have successfully gotten your device to work again then congratulations! If you have not read on, same goes for those who wants to upgrade their firmware to a newer version.

At the point of this post was written, the latest available firmware is LinkStation v1.7 and the firmware can be downloaded here (please do download it, required for the next steps). Once you have gotten the firmware, extract the content and you should see a bunch of files. What is of concern to you are just 2 files, the LSUpdater.ini and LSUpdater.exe.

Open the LSUpdater.ini using notepad and you should see this:

[Application]
Title = BUFFALO LinkStation Series Updater Ver.1.70
WaitReboot = 1200
WaitFormat = 600
WaitFileSend = 600
WaitDiscover = 120

[Target]
ProductID = 0x00000011
ProductID2 = 0x00000012
ProductID3 = 0x00000013
ProductID4 = 0x00000014
ProductID5 = 0x00003006
ProductID6 = 0x00003007
ProductID7 = 0x00000015
ProductID8 = 0x00000016
ProductID9 = 0x00003008
ProductID10 = 0x00004001
ProductID11 = 0x00000017
ProductID12 = 0x00000019
ProductID13 = 0x00000020
ProductID14 = 0x00003010
Name = LinkStation

[Flags]
VersionCheck = 1
NoFormatting = 1

Update the content to be like so, the changes are marked with RED. The CloudStore models are added into the file and it was recommended by other support sites that the VersionCheck field should be changed as well, that's what I did so I am sticking to it. Save the file with the new contents!!!

[Application]
Title = BUFFALO LinkStation Series Updater Ver.1.70
WaitReboot = 1200
WaitFormat = 600
WaitFileSend = 600
WaitDiscover = 120

[Target]
ProductID = 0x00000011
ProductID2 = 0x00000012
ProductID3 = 0x00000013
ProductID4 = 0x00000014
ProductID5 = 0x00003006
ProductID6 = 0x00003007
ProductID7 = 0x00000015
ProductID8 = 0x00000016
ProductID9 = 0x00003008
ProductID10 = 0x00004001
ProductID11 = 0x00000017
ProductID12 = 0x00000019
ProductID13 = 0x00000020
ProductID14 = 0x00003010
ProductID15 = 0x00003009
ProductID16 = 0x0000300A
ProductID17 = 0x0000002A
Name = LinkStation

[Flags]
VersionCheck = 0
NoFormatting = 1

Make sure that your NAS is connected to a stable network and NAS Navigator is able to detect it plus it is in the same segment e.g. 192.168.0.*. Run LSUpdater.exe, it should be able to detect your NAS now. If you ran LSUpdater.exe without changing the values, your NAS will not be detected. Click Update. This process will take a while, at least 15-20 minutes as far as I can remember.

After the updater have done its work, you will be prompted a message. Mine said the firmware was NOT compatible BUT my NAS was still displaying steady blue LED light i.e. no issues and finally NAS Navigator is showing that my NAS is using the name I had assigned it and no more EM status. YAY!!!

Now try to access your updated NAS by using the IP as detected by NAS Navigator and you will notice a different looking login page:

Login page of v1.7 firmware for LinkStation, but it is working in my CloudStore :p

MOST other people have reported that they CANNOT login back to their NAS because our previous screen DOES NOT ask for username! The username you should key in now is "admin" (without the quotes) and the password which you used to manage your NAS before this.

I hope you didn't encounter that issue, so if you didn't, CONGRATULATIONS! You have just updated your CloudStore with the latest firmware! To my delight, the bittorent client seems to have been updated as well, at least in terms of the look and feel. I hope this post was able to help you my fellow Buffalo CloudStore CS-XL users =) Cheers

Music in my ears ... again

Previously I have bought a very low end bluetooth wireless earphone. I think it didn't even lasted 6 months and the shop which sold me that could not be found anymore. Oh well, that just means more quiet train rides to and fro work. I got through that by doing something else ie flipping Flipboard and now reading manga.

Recently I found a good deal and reconsidered to get music into my journey again. This time I am getting something from a more reputable brand, hopefully it will fare much better and serve me well.



When I was at my previous company, a colleague of mine tried to poison me everyday with his RM1500 headphone which of course helped him concentrate on work since it has noise cancellation. Ever since then I have been searching for a more affordable solution since I definitely cannot afford RM1000+ headphones.

Researched high and low for a cheaper alternative but it was an impossible task if noise cancellation was part of the criteria so I had to give up that option. With that out of the window, the price ranges dropped significantly. However, I had some other requirements which I cannot give in ie over-ear type, wireless and foldable. Wireless especially limited the options but I came down to 2 candidates which was Rapoo H6080 and Edifier W670BT. Both were in the price range which I could afford without losing sleep over.

I like Rapoo's foldability but eventually I picked Edifier because they are more specialized in making sound related devices although I am no music enthusiast. Reviews would normally favor makers with sound background so that also swayed my decision. I was quite contented with Rapoo's ability to match my requirements but in the end, experience have taught me to perhaps pay a little more to get the better product which will pay off better in the end.


Introducing my Edifier W670BT:

 

Another feature which I have not mentioned and will most likely be irrelevant in day to day usage unless your work requires you to travel frequently via airplanes. The ability to use the wireless headphone as a wired headphone. This means that you can still use the headphone in situations which only allows for wired and when your headphone ran out of battery.

My Mi

There is a sudden rush of craze these past months of a certain brand. A brand that is trying to generate loads of hype and seems to be able to keep it. I couldn't post this earlier because I have met with failure in my earlier attempts to procure merchandise made by them but not anymore :D

On my 4th try, I FINALLY managed to get the extremely affordable powerbanks made by Xiaomi. I was over the moon and realized that I could have gotten it earlier if I was not so stubborn with using my preferred browser. Everything was so smooth and I didn't encounter the "carrot" error messages at all! Anyways, that is not the point of this post :p

I always call this powerbank as "a quality product at pasar malam price" because it is an absolute steal if you compare it to what the current market is flushed with. Fake powerbanks some carrying major names and sold at prices just a tad higher than this. So even when I already own more than 2 previously very good brand powerbanks, I will want to just get these because the prices are too insane NOT to!

 My powerbanks went on a tour of East Asia first before landing in Malaysia.

 An inconspicuous package received

 The package was packed in a way that it was very heavy on 1 side but at least the content will not be flying around in the oversized box

 The initial non-descript box has a label that reassures me that I go the correct item =D

 All of the boxes content

 Yep, it's 10400 mAH as I have made payments for

Still "virgin" for now

My charger is occupied at night so I can't prep this long awaited powerbank to be used so I guess it will have to wait until a charger is freed up to fully charge it.

Damn.. missed out on a free RM499 phone!!!

Godammit, I forgot that I had entered a competition to get a chance to win a free phone. I only realized it when their page started to show their staff packing the phones to be delivered to other winners :(

To avoid spam, I decided to use a less used email address hence I did not know I got the notification that I had won T_T A case where being too careful does not pay off :(

First email notification:

You Guessed Right!

Congratulations on guessing the correct price of the Huawei Honor 3C!

The Huawei Honor 3C which is packed with features like 5MP front camera, Quadcore 1.3 GHz CPU & 5" HD LTPS screen is priced at only RM499!

We will email the redemption code for xxx.my to you soon, be the first 100 to redeem the code and you will get the Honor 3C from xxx.my for FREE. 

1. Be sure to register yourselves at http://www.xxx.my/ before 1st May (Thursday) 12 noon and link the account to your Facebook profile.
2. Head on to http://www.xxx.my/ at 3.08pm on 2nd May (Friday) to redeem the Honor 3C.
3. Only the first 100 to redeem using the code provided in the email will get the Honor 3C for FREE so BE FAST!

All the best and get ready to grab the new Honor 3C!

Reminder notification:

Dear “guess the price” user:

Congratulations that you guess the right Price for Honor 3C.  your Voucher Code is “HONOR3C2GRAM”, this code it bundling with this Email Address  which you fill in our “guess the price” contest

However we got more than 100 users guess the right price, so we will have a little competition called “first come first serve”, this voucher will activated at May 2^nd ,3:08PM, and invalid after 100 usage.

And

The event information as below:

1.       Time : May 2^nd , 3:08PM

2.       We will launch a banner on “www.xxx.my ”on that day

3.       The winner can buy the Honor 3C Free with input the Voucher code

4.       The voucher code will send to winners through Email which filled in “guess the price” contest.

5.       The winner need to finish the register and verify by May 1^st 10:00PM.

6.       For all verification purposes, xxx only recognizes the email you used in the “guess the price” contest

And most important preparation is to register and verify on xxx.my, deadline is May 1^st 10:00PM  :

a)       If you Login in xxx with your FB account to snap, specify your “guess the  price” contest used email  ID in the prompt shown by xxx (Refer below image A).

b)       Please verify whether you have specified the right email ID in your Account Information

 (

c)    if you login in xxx with xxx account to snap, please make sure the vmall account email address is same as the “guess the price” contest used email.  

d)       any other issues, please contact us @ 1800 – xxxxxx.   Or  Email us @ xxx.my@mail01.xxx.com through your contest used Email ID

Come to think of it, I was driving around that time so might not be able to do this anyways =_="

My Galaxy Note II LTE =D

About a month ago, I accidently dropped my Galaxy S2 from waist height =( and the display went dead. I was very pissed off that day and probably that was why I got careless. I have been doing research on which replacement phone I should get to replace my faltering S2 seeing that its battery is drained too fast and ROMs are not updated as much anymore.

In the end, at the price that I would like to pay, I got a Note II LTE. I got the LTE version although its not supported by my then telco because I was thinking to switch telco as well due to the very poor reception in many places.

 

Actual box

 See the 4G? HEHEHE

Might be a little small but you can see the signal is now 4G after switching to the Evil Green telco :p

Unfortunately like my previous phone, due to its scarcity for now, there is quite a limited choice of custom ROMs for me to experiment with. In fact, there aren't many that are using the latest ones so I might just have to root it just for using some of the apps that I am used to until an attractive ROM or the official one comes out. Another reason for not using a custom ROM is that it will strip some of the functions which I feel should remain so that is really putting me off.

Last Friday, I went and pick up a piece of hardware which will make my phone even more modern and up-to-date =D A wireless charger to be placed on my already cluttered table =p Well what's a smartphone if it does not give you the feel that its the latest technology other than the choice of what you want, especially in size.

The packaging was very important for the seller =p

Pfft, typical China plugs which is quite a hassle

The charging station

Do you feel the Qi?

Place this baby correctly on the touch points and we are ready to go ^_^

 What sorcery is this???

The charging time depends on the usage of your phone, namely what do you run or have running in the background.

So far, the usage of this charger is just more for the sake of having it because I feel the charge rate is just too slow for my liking. Since my phone can last the whole day of my waking hours, this is for now somewhat like a showpiece.

Restoring and Jailbreaking my Ipad

Woke up in the morning to find that my Ipad is not accessible anymore because someone tried the password too many times. Doesn't matter who it is, the Ipad is locked and even when I did what it showed ie "Ipad is locked, connect to iTunes to unlock" it cannot be unlocked. So I had to do what I put off for quite some time already ie to upgrade. My Ipad was stuck in iOS 3+ since the day I got it.

Thankfully Google was a lot of help and I took my few minutes course but got too excited and made a mess. Could not find Installous (duh, the must have if you jailbreak) and again found the solution but overdid it. Added too many sources and slowed the damn thing down and every other thing which I wanted to install would require Installous to be removed =_=|||

In the end I could not take it anymore and re-did the everything, restore and upgrade. Thank goodness that I have a fast Internet connection else I would be stuck at the download firmware page for hours. Restore and upgrade was a pain but not something that is too different from flashing in Android. Lots of reboot and updating so you just have to wait it out.

Once the waiting is all over, I rebooted it once more just in case before I do the jailbreak using absinthe. This part was the easiest (the app only have 1 button to press) BUT you guessed it, more reboot and updating =_= You would think that after so many rounds of reboot, the bloody thing would be satisfied but you are in for a shock =D Cydia on first launch also requires reboot.

Learning from my earlier mistakes, I just added a couple of sources which I remember having before I encountered any issues. So before Installous is even on my mind, I needed to upgrade a couple of the apps which came with the jailbreak and you must be familiar with what is required by now ... After you installed Installous, you get to reboot some more =D

Thank heavens that you don't need to reboot the damn thing some more when installing games. But now I have to find back what I had before and try to get it all back. The hindsight of that issue was that I got someone to do the jailbreak for me before and did not bother to get to know what my friend helped to install. One thing I noticed in iOS 5.1.1 is that my Ipad is using up the juice quite fast, hmm why is this feeling so familiar?

There are a few sources now which offers Installous but I think its best to get it from the original source (of course its more lessons from the earlier experience). So I would just recommend a couple of things to you if you are new to jailbreak (which I doubt very much) :

Sources :
http://cydia.hackulo.us
http://sinfuliphonerepo.com

Cydia tweaks/apps :
Installous (DUH!)
SBSettings (you will get Activator once you choose to install this)
Barrel
Fake Carrier

Since I am more of the n00b here, please do recommend more useful stuff :)

My phone's new accessory =_="

Last week, we had a new system cutover and there was a change in process where I will need to login back to a system. When it was rolled out, all of had problems using or connecting to the system. My Blackberry had to be formatted just to reinstall the thing which did not work properly during UAT. I was very reluctant to use my SGSII to access the system as I wanted it to remain as my personal phone. However to ensure that I am able to carry out my duties, it has to be sacrificed and I installed the application. That was the easy part.

Over the weekend, there was a real need to access that system BUT all my team members either did not see the message or could not login to the system due to various reasons ranging from poor reception for data and did not bring their two factor authentication (2FA) token with them when they go out. Well, I am one of those who did not bring the token :p So to prevent future incidents, I now have a not so prefered dangling phone accessory, the 2FA token =_=|||

Looks damn fugly to be a phone accessory if you ask me ...

More sacrifices for the company and yet I am still poorly paid. Tunasingh betul ...

Gadgets Aplenty

Its not really like I don't want to make a blog post but I was somewhat busy with work and when I am not occupied with work, I just feel like resting and not typing more stuff which basically is half of my work. So with that being said, replying emails would be some of things which I type most and unfortunately for me, my boss felt that my colleagues and I are not really replying fast enough and the consequence is that we are now given with Blackberries :(



The first thing which I found out about it was that I now have a heavy phone to be carried around again ... My current phone weighs just over 100g :p With that being said, when I walked to office (because I take the train ) on the first day of carrying this from home, my pants almost fell off despite it being held up by a belt.

A Blackberry requires constant Internet connection so I now have quite a high quota ^_^ Since they did not uninstall the pre-installed programs, I have access to my IMs courtesy of my company and I can Facebook too >_< Now I get to make free calls without always needing to use my office phone XD

After my first week of using it, I realized that my company actually have many very hardworking people. These people I know they do not have remote access or use online emails which means if they send email, it shows that they are still office. The latest email I received so far is 10.30pm. Other Blackberry users sends email at 4am =_=|||

That's enough of my Blackberry. I have been searching for a wireless bluetooth headset for quite some time but have been put off by the prices of supposed better brands. Recently there was a sale and I took a look at one of those brands but it was quite disappointing perhaps due to my budget constraint, it was really not as good as when I first thought of it. In the end, I had to settle for a cheaper alternative but still does the job, Nokia BH503.



My colleague also uses this :( BUT I got it for less than half of what he paid for it >_< I don't really know how to check if this is a knock off but for me, I just want to listen to 15 minutes of music while I commute to work and IF I go on travel, I can also use this to kill time.

For anyone using an Android device, you would have become aware that its battery is somewhat of a letdown because if you use it often enough, it would most likely not last you a day, you'd be thankful that it lasts until the end of your working time. Realizing this, I had to get a portable charger so that I can be on the move and not be tied down to a power socket. Being the lazy me and thinking of more long term, I decided to get the biggest portable charger there is and hey presto, Yoobao 11200mAh seems to fit the bill.


I can even charge my Ipad if Im on the go or when I travel long distance where my parents will be looking to kill some time. However, I just recently found out that it cannot charge my Blackberry :( RIM you are the seed of your own destruction!!! Im not too worried about my Blackberry because it can last about 1.5 days for now. Not too many people know of my number just yet =D

The requirement for Unifi to be installed is that it should be near to a television so that the HyppTV box can output to it. This means that my PC is now about 5 meters away from it so a LAN cable to connect it would be in the way for a pathway. Since my PC crashed some time ago and some investment needs to be put into it so I decided to get a USB wifi adapter for my PC. Fixing a PC without knowing what is exactly wrong with it was really a huge challenge but I got it sorted out over the weekend. Installing this wifi adapter however was more of a challenge.


In XP, it cannot be detected and with my PC's dvdroms acting up, it made the task even more frustrating. Somehow this stupid adapter is rejecting my legitimate network password. Although it was quite a complex password BUT I know the damned thing and even checked it a few times to make sure I did not remember it wrongly. Almost on the brink of giving up, I tried the last option which was to play around with the Unifi's router settings. Lo and behold, it was that stupid router which was causing me havoc. Turn off "Wifi Protected Setup"!!! I missed 2 Hernandez goal because of this stupid settings mlm mlm

I think that makes quite a post after being absent for quite some time :p

My white Samsung Galaxy S2

After much consideration, I have finally bought a new mobile. I chose the white Samsung Galaxy S2 because it is the rated phone which was not too highly priced after rebates from Digi that is. Having a very able phone without data plan would be very stupid and that was what made me changed my initial plan of just purchasing the phone only and stick to my prepaid.

My phone looks like this BUT the language was Malay =_=|||

Its been roughly a week or so now that I have used this phone and I am still getting used to many things. My initial thought of it was that it felt like a toy because of its plastic exterior and its also super light which just further strengthens that feeling.

Still playing around with it for the moment but so far so good except for the battery life BUT from what I know 1 day seems to be the average of these smartphones. Perhaps I am not yet able to customize or enhance the battery life by "rooting" it because this version of the phone (GT-I9100G) is still quite new.

Digi's infamous not so good coverage is really doing a good job, UNFORTUNATELY for me.

Element replacement

Yesterday night my Element acted up on me. While using it, it would suddenly become not detectable and then a popup would ask me to format it @_@||| I got loads of data in there which could not fit anywhere else and it was my only repository. Sometimes after plugging it back in also would yield the same result and my worst fear was actually manifesting itself and started to let me know by giving out its dreaded sound, "tick tick tick". For those of you who don't know much about non-solid state harddisk, that sounds means that it is showing signs that it might be dying soon.

Knowing that I must make a backup of whatever that is in there, I have no choice but to secure another 2.5" harddisk. From a previous trip, I noticed 1 model that seems to be sold at quite a cheap price. Reading that line you would have deduced that I am on a shoestring budget. Actually I'm quite surprised by its value. For the same price of RM199, other brands are just offering 500GB but for Hitachi, I am getting a 750GB. By that virtue, my mind was pretty much made up unless I am able to find a 1TB selling for RM250 :p

Hitachi X Mobile

I suppose that is where you can stop having the value because to my horror, it was formatted using FAT32 ie it is unable to store files which are 4GB or more in size ZZZ. I had to reformat it to NTFS and it was a total bitch because it takes more almost 2 hours ZZZ. I started to backup my files from the Element to Hitachi and it has been running for more than 5 hours and from the indicator bar, its about 1/4 done. Hopefully by the time I wake up tomorrow, it would be done and I can be more relaxed knowing that my data are all having a duplicate copy.

My cousin is telling me that there will be something like our PC Fair in Singapore and he is coming to KL. So he might be able to help me get 1. I am now weighing up the offer and a 1TB harddisk is very tempting, IF the price is right, you can bet that I will be owning 1. Fingers crossed.

I now have a pad

Lady luck have been kind to me this year as I have received a number of items from lucky draws but this has been the biggest by far! My number was picked during my company dinner. This year's lucky draw was very limited ie only 2 units of Ipads, I believe they were donated by our Senior Management team and brought in from Singapore.

There were about 800 people in the hall yesterday night and with only 2 lucky draw prizes, the odds are heavily stacked against you. But when the emcee announced the first 2 digit of the drawn number, it was down to a combination of 10 people. I could not believe it, seriously my range of number was picked out of the hundreds of others. I was quite excited and my colleagues on the same table were cheering for me too =D

The holders of the remaining 10 possible winners were forced to do some silly stunts in hoping that the people whose number were not picked would not feel too bad. Finally, time for the truth and the emcee announced that the final number was "James Bond's number", I quickly ran towards to stage while waving my hands in the air in sheer joy ^_^

When I got on to the stage, I flashed them my lucky draw card and the rest my friend is history! I was the envy of the crowd alongst with my colleagues and friends :p Sorry lar, my number was really picked mar =D I thanked the manager and the emcee and the photographers took pictures of me with a million dollar smile =D

On stage being presented with the Ipad ^o^

When I got back to my table, I just refuse to let go of my prized possession. My friends who were on another table scampered over and muttered that their birthday was around the corner and whatever that crossed their mind in hoping that I would give them my precious :p My reply was very sarcastic as I held my prize to my face to show that it was indeed my precious. I opened my package to check the content to give and estimation of the price.

No, its not a 4D number 1639, its a 16GB 3G Ipad

When the event ended, we all exit the hall to take more pictures with other colleagues. I was congratulated by others but there was a particular person whom I must mention because she caught me by surprise. Like many others before her, she congratulated me and with a swift motion she managed to grab my Ipad and tried to run away with it. Since I know her quite well so I was sure that it was just a joke and she could easily afford it if she really wanted to buy it.

When I got home, I took a real look at the whole package and found that the case was bought as an accessory, I would assume that it was bought because the person who brought the prizes back from Singapore is a thoughtful person.

Now my problem is, "What do I do with an Ipad?" I can use it as an Ipod since I have always wanted one :D It size really makes me want to carry it around for meetings :p One my colleague immediately suggested for me to jailbreak it.

The Ipad

The manuals and infamous Apple stickers

The cable and USB socket charger

The protective case priced at SGD58

Free faulty PS2

A few weeks back, my friend have given up on his PS2 and his brother have no interest to play games on it anymore and i jokingly asked if I could take off him. Surprisingly, he said yes but not so surprisingly seeing that he got it on the super cheap from his friend who sold it to him for an insanely low price of RM50!!!

Well the catch to take this machine off him was that I had to send it for repairs as something was wrong with it since it is able to play DVD movies but not PS2 games =_=" Oh well, a small price to pay for a limited edition white PS2 :)

So last Wednesday after an outing with my bunch of friends, he gave me his PS2 and his entire collection of over 100 games. I did not have time until yesterday to send it for repairs but I have however enquired from a shop about the cost to repair it. Initially, I was quite hesitant because the person told me that I had to change the lens and an IC but i emphasized that if it could play DVDs, there should not be anything wrong with the lens, logical right?

So I sent it for repairs yesterday and indeed the repairman just replaced the IC telling me that it was too old and its quite natural that it died. Time to play games which I have missed out for many many years :p In the end the cost of owning a PS2 for now is RM65 ie the cost to replace the IC.

The limited edition Gran Tourismo white console with its 2 white controllers

Up close on the white console

The bag of games :D

I won a Canon Ixus ^_^

On 3rd of March, i got a peculiar email titled, "Canon - Capture the Moment" as below

Hi Lawsh,

Congratulations!

You probably have seen from SportsCenter Asia program that you have won the SportsCenter – Canon Capture the Moment contest for [month] [year]. Your caption was the best caption of for the month of [month] [year].

We would like to make arrangements for sending the Canon IXUS 200IS to you, kindly provide your full contact details please.
Name in full
Address
Telephone number
Identification number

We look forward to hearing from you soon

Keep the captions coming!

Best regards,

C*** L**

I went to check on the competition website and true enough, my name was listed there! I quickly replied the email with all the required details :D I was overwhelmed with joy that i went and print out result page and boasted to my colleagues :p When i was finally able to sit down again, i went to check on the prize and its worth :D Available in 4 colors and retailed at RM1398. WOOT!!!

I was told that the prize would be sent to me by Canon's advertising company. So, true to their words, the advertising company contacted me with and email titled "Congratualtions! You've won a Canon Ixus 200IS" --> yes, it is a typo error was made by the sender :p

Hi Lawsh

Thank you for participating Canon – Capture The Moment contest on ESPNSTAR.com.

In our record, you are the winner for the month of [month] [year] . On behalf of Canon, the delivery of your prize will now be arranged immediately. Please reply to this email in order to acknowledge your contact details below are absolutely correct before we activate the delivery

Name: Lawsh

Address: Blah Blah Blah

Malaysia

Contact number: 60-1xxxxxxxx

Please also note that prize(s) are not exchangeable for cash and/or kind and all unclaimed prizes will be donated to charity. Should you have any further queries, please kindly contact V***** H** at +65 xxxx xxxx or v*****@d*****.com.sg.

Thank you again for your participation and continued support. We look forward to hearing from you soon.


Yours sincerely,

V***** H**

Regional Account Director

D***** Singspore Pte Ltd (on behalf of Canon Singapore Pte Ltd)

So i acknowledged this email and chose Gold color and was again happily awaiting for my prize ^_^ A few more days later, i got another email update to tell me that my prize will be delivered using DHL from Singapore. Woohoo! Finally its coming! I tracked the shipment from time to time but today its status was delivered :D

Prize picked up from Singapore --> Hong Kong --> Malaysia.

I was kind of dumbfounded that my camera traveled that far in just 2 days. From a neighbouring country sent to Hong Kong to be sorted @_@ before being sent to Malaysia. However, this also shows the efficiency of DHL in delivering their parcel as promised. *2 thumbs up!*

Now for the pictures of the new camera ^_^

The long awaited parcel ^_^

Inside the parcel was an envelope with my name :D

The prize was carefully wrapped with bubble wrap ^_^

Unwrapped the bubble wrap protector ...

A display of all the items in the box

Singling out the most important item in the box :p

Tada! It is finally revealed ^_^

Real color is brown but now it really does look like gold in colour :D

Down side is there is no memory card :( Luckily though i have an extra memory card from my previous camera :D So now i have 2 great cameras. Will need to take some time to explore the full functionalities but so far, its got both features of touch screen and button menus. You can tilt the camera slightly to scroll to the next picture OR slide it with your finger similar to iPhone :p