My So Far Favorite iPhone Apps!

•October 9, 2009 • 1 Comment

I do not believe I have officially announced this on my blog, I know I have mentioned it on Twitter. As of umm I think it was last month I sold my iPod Touch and used the money I received for that to purchase an iPhone 3G! I wanted to purchase it used so I did not have to sign my soul over to AT&T for two years. Anyways I unlocked my iPhone 3G and I am now using it with T-Mobile. I probably will do a blog entry on that in the future. Anyways I have been testing and exploring different applications for the iPhone! Here are some of my favorite apps that I found.

Mint.com- This is probably one of the most used apps on my iPhone. Mint.com is a web-based way to manage all of your financial accounts from one place. Credit cards, saving accounts, checking accounts, loans, whatever you have, you can monitor it from this one application. Mint even added some security to the app, requiring you enter in a pin to access your records. Of course this is after you enter in your email and password. This app is FREE.

iheartradio- I absolutely love this application! This is a way to stream thousands of radio stations from around the US straight from your iPhone. If I was a customer with AT&T I could even use this application over HSDP. I currently have to use WIFI. Every weekend I am able to turn in to KFI AM 640 located in California. This app is also FREE.

Skype- as most of you probably know, Skype is an excellent way of making cheap IP phone calls. This is really the reason I sold my iPod Touch and bought the iPhone. I travel overseas for missions work almost every summer and this is an excellent way to make cheap phone calls back to the States wherever I have access to WIFI. I can even purchase a Skype-In number, which means I can choose a local number and my family or friends can call me on this local number and not get charged for international phone calls.This app is FREE but to call phone lines or the SkypeIn feature etc does require you to purchase these features.

Qingwen- is a Chinese dictionary! Most of you that know me, know I am minoring in Mandarin Chinese. This application is truly worth buying! If I have a Chinese character and I have no idea how to pronounce it or the pinyin for it, I can write the character using my finger and the dictionary will look up the word! I saw dictionaries in China and Hong Kong that had this feature over the summer, but this saved me literally almost $300 USD and I can carry it around with me anywhere. The single purpose electronic dictionaries I saw in Hong Kong were $200+ USD. As I mentioned before, this app is not free. But if you are serious about your Chinese, it is worth the price. This app is $4.99.

Rolando- is a game for the iPhone! It kind of reminds me of Katamari and I am a huge fan of Katamari. By the way, I am not a big fan of games on the iPhone, but I have had fun wasting a few moments waiting in line or waiting in the doctor’s office with this game. The object is to move your iPhone around to roll these creatures to safety. This game is $2.99, but they do have a lite version to try the demo. Which is FREE

Ocarina- is a really ingenious app! It is very simple, but it is a great app to show off your iPhone to your friends. This particular app turns your iPhone into an ocarina! Simple blow into the mic receiver and tap the buttons on the screen. It is kind of fun, but it’s definitely something you probably will not play with much. It is only $0.99 cent.

CBC Radio- is of course programming from the CBC in Canada. I just found it last night and I am absolutely loving it. Oh and for those of you who are do not know what the CBC is, it is pretty much like NPR but for Canada. You can choose between what city or province in Canada and listen to their local programming. I am a big fan of NPR, but I also love listening to the CBC programming (it’s kind of funny, because I consider myself a Conservative and I love NPR).

Well these are some of the apps that I have found that I am loving with my iPhone. If you have any suggestions or recommendations please leave a comment! I am looking forward to hearing some recommendations! Thanks for reading.

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Love Connected (保持爱你)

•September 24, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Love_ConnectedLove Connected (保持爱你) is one of the latest films by the Hong Kong director Patrick Kong. If any of you have seen the British love comedy “Love Actually” well then this type of storyline will be very familiar to you. The only difference is that these actors and actresses are speaking Cantonese. ;p Throughout the film, you are expected to keep up with several different love triangles all through the movie.
Before purchasing the DVD I read several different websites that are linked to this article about the film. Except I never really seem to agree entirely with the articles I read on lovehkfilms.com. I always seem to enjoy the movie more than whoever is writing the review. I do agree with the writer that this movie in particular was not Patrick Kong’s best film, but it was still a cute movie to watch. Despite what most Hong Kongers say, I really enjoy the cast in Patrick Kong’s films. Stephy Tang is one of my favorite Cantonese actresses and I seem to gravitate towards her films every time she releases a new film. *Probably mostly because she is cute lol* Anyways I think she is not as bad an actress some people portray her.
I found the movie on eBay for around 9USD and I definitely think this movie is worth spending $9 on. The movie is quite humorous in several areas throughout it and a lot of the characters are compelling. There was only one story that did not add up throughout this movie. I do not want to say who the character was because it probably would spoil the movie. But I will say one of the characters is actually deaf, except you do not find out who it is until the end of the movie. The only thing is that I do not buy the different ways the director shows the audience in how the character was actually deaf. The different scenes that are replayed just did not match up. But besides this one character, the movie I thought was enjoyable.
So if you are interested in a cute fun little movie with a lot of Hong Kong pop stars then this is your movie! You can either find it on eBay or YesAsia. This seems to be a nice date movie, so buy it and watch it with your girlfriend. 😛

asianmediawiki
lovehkfilms

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The 5th Season

•September 15, 2009 • 1 Comment

张韶涵 or aka Angela Zhang is one of my favorite Taiwanese female artists. She has been taking a break for the last two years from the music realm, but I am very glad she is finally coming back into the scene! The last CD that she released before her break was called Ang 5.0. This CD happened to be one of my favorite CDs she has released. Some of her popular songs on the album included 我戀愛了(I Am In Love), 不想懂得 (Don’t Want To Understand) and 重來(Again).

Her 6th CD to be released is called “The 5th Season”. Don’t ask me why it’s not called “The 6th Season”. lol I have no idea why she chose to name this album that. The CD is expected to be released on October 2, 2009 and if you pre-order her CD then you will receive a fifty-two page photo album of the lovely Angela. 😛 The CD also includes a DVD of all the music videos that she did for the songs on her latest album. So if your interested in Angela Zhang you should definitely check this one out. Also her latest single “White” which was recorded for the television show Sophie’s Revenge is available on the CD.

P.S. If you are interested in pre-ordering this CD then I provided the link below or you can head on over to http://yesasia.com and search for The 5th Season.

Drama Wiki
Wikipedia Article
Pre-Order the CD

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Rainy Days :P

•August 31, 2009 • 1 Comment



Rain Droplets

Originally uploaded by brandonnc

I just felt like posting some pictures that I took during one of our rainy days here in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Ever since I got back from Hong Kong, it has been raining here in Fayetteville a lot more than it did when I was in Hong Kong. It even was typhoon season over there! It’s been kind of weird. Anyways I took this picture with a little Canon Powershot. I thought it did a great job with the colors and capturing the picture. 😛 If you would like to see some more of the pictures then please go to http://flickr.com/brandonnc I love rain though, so it hasn’t been a problem for me. I love listening to thunder and listening to the rain. 🙂

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Nokia’s Branching Out

•August 24, 2009 • 1 Comment


I can remember my very first cell phone. It was a Nokia phone and it was back when they did not have color screens yet. I believe I was in the 7th grade in Junior High so that was around umm 2001 or 2002. Well ever since that first cell phone I have been a Nokia fan. Out of the four phones I have had since then three of my phones have been Nokia. My current phone that I have is a Nokia N95. I have always been impressed with Nokia’s Symbian based operating system and the durability that they seem to have. No matter how well you take care of a cell phone, you are going to eventually drop it.

Anyways Nokia’s market share has been dropping gradually ever since the introduction to Apple’s iPhone some two years ago and Canada’s notorious Blackberry. This being said, Nokia still has the largest market share in the mobile market than any other cell phone manufacture. Well in an effort to saturate the market even further, they have announce plans of jumping in the Netbook branch of the tech industry. Nokia has been a leading player in the mobile computing market with their tablet computers. Will Nokia be able to compete against the other established players in the Netbook realm? The good thing is this category of computers is new in itself. So luckily Nokia is not too far behind.

Well I am looking forward to playing around with one of these little machines. Judging by the youtube video they are going to be a very sleek high end type of netbook. I think they are clearly going against Asus and their new branch of netbooks known as the Seashell. For more information on the story, please follow the links provided at the end of this entry! Thanks for reading!

http://www.nokia.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/25/technology/companies/25nokia.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

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Flying Green?

•August 24, 2009 • 1 Comment

Now before I discuss the story that I found on the internet I would like to say that I do not buy all of this global warming fuss. Well allow me to rephrase that statement. I do believe the earth is warming but it is because of a cycle that the planet goes through every so often. I do not believe that all we are doing is screwing up the planet and that we are going to bring total destruction to the planet. But despite all of this I do believe we should be good stewards of what God gave us. So I was delighted to read this story.

So eight of America’s largest airlines are beginning a giant step in the direction of lowering their carbon emissions. Not only does their effort help the environment but I believe it will drive costs of airfare lower. Considering the source that they are using (biofuel) they will be able to obtain higher mileage and at a cheaper price than what they are currently paying for fuel. I admire this effort because I do not see flying decreasing in the new future, in fact given the current market and ideas people have on flying I see that flying will continue to be essential to our every day life. So if you would like to read a little more on the article, please refer to the link below!

http://english.cctv.com/20090820/101035.shtml

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A Time For Us

•August 18, 2009 • Leave a Comment

Well lately I have been becoming more and more a fan of Cantopop. It might be because of my recent trips to Hong Kong, but the music is really growing on me. One Cantopop artist that I am really liking at the moment is Joey Yung or 容祖兒(Yung Cho-Yee). She has also been around to my surprise for almost a decade in the entertainment space and I would gather she is very popular in Hong Kong, considering all of the advertisements I saw her in. Everywhere I turned my head I saw a giant poster with Joey Yung advertising something (mostly Broadway- a chain of electronic stores in Hong Kong). Anyways back to the real reason of this blog post. While I was over in Hong Kong I purchased one of her latest CDs. At the time it was her latest one, but within the last couple of weeks she has released another CD that is completely in Mandarin or Pǔtōnghuà. The album I am talking about though is “A Time For Us”. I bought what is called the version 2. I’m not sure what the difference was but there was a lot of stuff included in with the CD. I received a photo album of the lovely Joey, the CD and a DVD with all of her music videos that came from this album.

My favorite song from the CD is 可歌可泣. It was the very first song on the CD. I’m not sure how to translate the title. All I can read is Ge *blah* Ge *blah*. But that is my favorite song on the album, you can search for this one of youtube. Please do not get me wrong though, I have actually enjoyed every song on her CD (which is extremely rare, because this is the number one reason why I try not to buy CDs anymore, I often do not like all of the songs. But thank God for iTunes and the Amazon MP3 store). Anyways I just wanted to give a plug for the album because I am enjoying it. So listen to it if you get the chance! Until next time!

http://www.yesasia.com/us/a-time-for-us-version-2-cd-dvd/1020275051-0-0-0-en/info.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Yung

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Hangul Takeover

•August 9, 2009 • Leave a Comment

For those of you that may not know, Hangul is the Korean alphabet. Hangul was first introduced as the Korean alphabet in the year of 1443 by King Sejong the Great. His idea of Hangul came into a reality because he wanted his people to have the ability to have an easily written and read writing system. Up until this point, Korea was utilizing Chinese as their writing language.

Hangul is often considered a very scientific language and has definitely shown it’s usefulness in this current event. A minority tribe of people in Indonesia has decided to adopt Hangul as their official writing system. This particular tribe in Indonesia was on the break of losing their native spoken language due to the lack of a writing system. Some of the schools have started teaching the youth of the tribe Hangul during school hours.

This is a very impressive occasion for Korean society and every Korean should definitely feel a great deal of appreciation for their heritage. I am also happy that I have been able to take part in learning how to read and write in this fascinating language. Anyways for references of this story please refer to the links below. Thanks for reading!

http://english.kbs.co.kr/News/Commentary/view.html?No=16213

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul

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On the way to Church

•July 12, 2009 • Leave a Comment



On the way to Church

Originally uploaded by brandonnc

Maggie and Liz!! I was on my way to Island ECC on Hong Kong Island and it was a long walk. Anyways as I was coming up to my destination here in Hong Kong I saw my friends Maggie and Liz sitting by a window in a coffee shop. They are such sweethearts. I’m really glad my friends introduced them to me this year.

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Special Lunch Entertainment

•July 12, 2009 • Leave a Comment

So we were over by Causeway Bay here in Hong Kong eating lunch on Sunday and we ended up eating next to a couple of groups. I think they were a missions group of some sorts. Anyways they decided to put on a show for us while we ate. I did not get a chance to record it all but I did manage to get the tale end of it. Hope you all enjoy! Just click the link in order to view the  clip.

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