Samsung Galaxy SII
The old workhorse finally kicked the bucket due to a broken ribbon which is a common problem for the Nokia N95. After being fed up with repairing the phone so many times, the broken ribbon was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Ironically, several days before I was reading reviews on the Samsung Galaxy SII. Its funny how things work out.
The new phone is miles ahead of the old one but the only problem is its terrible battery life. Medium usage will see the battery empty itself slightly over 12 hours. Of course, light usage will get me through a whole day and then some but then again, hardly anyone with a smartphone will use the phone just to tell the time. The only workaround was to buy chargers and make sure the phone remains charged throughout the whole day.
Canon 270 EX II
A new toy dropped into my lap the other day courtesy of Canon Malaysia (Thanks Canon!). :D
Took it for for a quick spin around the house and from the initial impression is pretty good. The flash output is probably one stop less as compared to the 430 EX II but it loses out in terms of the flexibility in rotating the head.
Another gripe is that the settings cannot be adjusted on the flash itself but must be controlled via the camera's in built menu. On the plus side, it offers ETTL or manual control on the power but again, one mus go through the menu to set it although I've read that the newer bodies (ie. 60D & 7D) can control the flash remotely.
Also, the AF assist isn't the red grid, it's the retina searing flash burst (great way to annoy those who you don't really like because you can blame the camera for it :P). Not very discreet and definitely not subject friendly unless your subject is impervious to flashing bright lights in which case, they'd ought to be seeing a optician.
As for now, I'll probably use it off camera rather than having it sit on my camera as the 430 EX II allows me more flexibility even though the 270 EX II is lighter.
Xbox 360
It was a toss-up between the PS3 and Xbox but I ended up with the Xbox because the PS Move was pretty expensive in the long run.
The Xbox package came with the Kinect and a free kinect game; Kinect Adventures which was good but not brilliant. Thankfully I bought the Kinect Sport which was more engaging than the Kinect Adventures. However, it has to be said that a motion sensor can only be so accurate. Certain moves like smashing the ball does not really translate well into your avatar's actions. Nevertheless, it was still great fun as you don't need the controller to play.
All you have to do is to jump around and wave you arms like a mad man. :)
