Inconsistency

Check out this awesome tag cloud from a Hong Kong website:

There are also lots of other cool things in the site worth checking out.  The site is full of rich media.  They are definitely catching up quickly.

Spotted this new feature while entering password for my email:

The number will be display for about a couple seconds before it turns back into an asterisk.  Interesting approach.  I totally agree with Apple that it’s hard to verify the password I am punching in.  But I still don’t think it helps too much.  What about a conveniently located “Show Typing” button that I can just switch back and forth with like the Mac OSX Keychain?

Technorati Tags: iphone, password, asterisk, interaction, design, usability, apple, mac

Wow! I totally didn’t realize taking screenshots on the iPhone doesn’t need any fancy app and is native to the device.  Here is my iPhone home screens:

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Google says mobile web app but Apple says native app.

I think they both got it right.  Check out this app Zoho using the Google platform.  I think online or native, one of the most important thing I care about is what happens when I lost internet connectivity.

These people don’t live in New York.  They don’t understand subways doesn’t have internet connection.  They don’t understand AT&T sucks.  I downloaded a bunch of iPhone app and all I want to do is to play some game while in the subway.  With Zoho, it works even offline.  This is extremely important when we start talking about mobile computing.

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I used to know how to ride a bike when I was a kid, but somehow I just never got a chance to ride since elementary school and had forgotten how. After re-learning it a couple months ago, I am completely hooked. The bike I am riding now is my boyfriend’s BMX. It’s a great bike overall but I wish it’s not single speed. Going uphill is a pain.

I researched and read a ton of reviews on all the bike shops in Brooklyn and the city. I went to most of them, but the sad part is I still haven’t found a bike. It’s hard to find a decent bike shop in this town. Usually they will try to sell you something very expensive and completely ignore you when you tell them your budget.

Here is a list of all the shops I checked out and thoughts:

Frank’s Bike Shop (Yelp Profile)
This place got really good reviews on Yelp a while ago but things had since changed. The place had gotten 5-stars consistently all the way up to May 2008 and has been dropping ever since. See Yelp details below:

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“Turn to the right”, “Open the Car Door Now”, “Smile with your eyes and not your mouth”

I love this campaign.  The metaphor works well for me.  The TV ad was smart and funny.  The site itself was really engaging and sophisicated.  It’s an all around win-win.

The site in question is: http://www.sexysubaru.ca/index2.php?lang=en

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Do you miss the in-store browsing experience when you shop for books online? Do you think you find things faster in-store instead of using Amazon? If you ask me, my answer will be no.

Not because browsing in-store sucks. I quite enjoy walking around a book store when I am in an exploratory mode. There is nothing like flipping through a book and read through some pages before buying it. But that’s about it. I don’t miss trying to find my way through thousands of bookshelves trying to find one book. I don’t miss waiting in line in front of the Information Desk just so I can find out if they have a certain book. Even with the Kiosk at Barnes and Nobles, when I have a book in mind, I still wish I can go in and grab a staff and make them take me to my book in less than 0.1 seconds.

So when I first see Zoomii, my first reaction is why?

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Out of all the online services that had appeared in the last couple years, eBay is probably the only one where I thought I would be addicted to but never really used. I had sold stuff through Craigslist and Amazon, but never through eBay.

eBay’s business seemed to be going downhill lately. With the Criagslist war and the amount of scams, how will they bounce back?

Poor eBay, after today they will owe LVMH group $62.9 million damage.

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I never blog about my Amsterdam and Berlin trip, but there is one fact about Berlin which I find amusing.

We rented a SmartCar for the 3 days we were in Berlin.  Needless to say, we got to visit a lot more places with the SmartCar and had so much fun with it.

Our second day with the car wasn’t as delightful.  It got towed while we were hanging out inside the dome of Reichstag.  You can probably imagine how freaked out we were when we couldn’t find our car in a country where we can hardly communicate with the locals!

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I posted an update on this phone here.

First off, I am using Skype not because I am a phone person. As some of you might know, AT&T had failed to provide me any reception at home. There has not been one call where it ran smoothly. Worst yet, Apple signed an exclusive deal with AT&T and I am stuck with them for another 2 years.

Tired of complaining all day, it was time to try Skype. I bought some Skype credits and had since use Skype as my main phone at home. Skype is incredibly cheap, a $10 credit can usually last me for a couple months. I trusted the sound and microphone quality of my Macbook Pro and had refused to purchase any additional hardware at that time.

After months of usage, I keep hearing the same comments: “Are you on Speakphone?”, “I can’t hear you”, “I hear a lot of echo”. It was a really stressful situation. It’s not like we just invented phone a year ago. What do I need to do to get some decent phone service?

I decided to research about Skype phones. There are quite a lot listed on Skype.com, but either they are expensive or they look ugly. I finally did a search on Amazon, and had found the phone that solved all my problems.

What I bought is this:

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