The SanDisk Memory Vault is not meant to be used as a normal thumbdrive. Well, you can still do that, but it will be kinda wasteful. Instead, it is meant for you to store important documents and photos. Things that matters the most to you. Things that you will take with you when your house is on fire.

In fact, I think the SanDisk Memory Vault would be good for storing memorable photos, resume, digital copies of important documents like birth certificate, NRIC, Passport, marriage certificate etc and placed in your Ready Bag.

What? You don’t have a Ready Bag? Hmmm… Then you should get 1 and be prepared for emergencies.

The SanDisk Memory Vault comes in 8GB and 16GB flavors and will retail at S$85 and S$129 respectively.

OK, you might be wondering how did they managed to find out that the SanDisk Memory Vault is able to retain data for 100 years. Well, SanDisk use accelerated temperature cycling and the Arrhenius acceleration factor to simulate the effects to data retention over long durations of memory usage. To find out more, visit SanDisk website for a detailed explanation.

Anyway, I’ve copied my avatar picture onto the SanDisk Memory Vault. Come back here 100 years later to see the results.

I had the opportunity to test how AirPrint works on HP Officejet 6500A Plus. The HP Office Jet 6500A Plus is All in One printer (Print/Fax/Scan/Copy) with WIFI. Setting up the Officejet 6500A Plus is a piece of cake. It’s even easier if your router has a WPS button. I managed to hook up the HP Officejet 6500A Plus with my router in less than 5 minutes. Once connected to the router, you are ready to print directly from your iPad.

AirPrint works with Safari, Mail, Photos, iWork, PDFs in iBooks, and lots of third-party apps. All you need to do is to connect your iPad to the same router as your printer, tap the Print options, select your printer and you are ready to print. It’s that simple.

I tried printing from Evernote and it works pretty well. What you see on the iPad 2 is what you get from the HP Officejet 6500A Plus printout.

HP has an iOS application call HP iPrint. The HP iPrint App allows you to select Paper Size and Paper Type. This is useful if you want to print photos directly from your iPhone or iPad.

The HP iPrint app also allows you to do scanning if your printer has a scanner. This is great if you want to scan a document or picture and store it on your iPad. In the past, you’ll need to scan it on a computer and transfer it to the iPad. With the iPrint app, you can scan the document or picture directly on your iPad. Nice.

The AirPrint feature allows iOS users to print their pictures and documents in a quick and convenient way. Besides HP Officejet 6500A Plus, there are several HP printers which support AirPrint too. My only complaint is that not all iOS applications support AirPrint. Some of my favorite apps like Notes Plus and Dropbox does not support AirPrint.

But then, I can always use HP’s ePrint feature by email the document/picture that you want to print to your printer. As long as you can email it, you can print it. And luckily for us, most iOS applications do have email feature built in. Isn’t that convenient?

But interestingly, I didn’t see Dockem when it was seeking funding at Kickstarter. But luckily for me, the creators of Dockem send me a set for review.

I was rather surprised when I first got Dockem. The packaging is plain and boring. But don’t be fooled by the packaging. It’s the contents that matters.

The Dockem is a simple and very elegantly designed universal wall dock for your smartphones and tablets. It is able to fit any device that is less than 20mm thick. Which means your iPhone, iPad, Nexus S, Motorola Xoom, BlackBerry Torch, PlayBook etc etc can all be used with Dockem. There’s a hook at the bottom of the Dockem for you to hang your charging cables.

Dockem is mounted to the wall (or any surface) using the 3M Command Strips. You can easily get replacement from stationary shops. One thing I love about Dockem is that there is a compartment to hide the unsightly 3M Command Strip “tail”. When you need to remove Dockem from the wall, simply use a pin or toothpick to pull out the 3M Command Strip’s “tail” from the compartment and pull the “tail” downwards.

I love the way that the Dockem is designed to work perfectly with the 3M Command Strip. We all know that 3M Command Strip is very reliable. I have no worries hanging my iPad 2 on the wall with Dockem. I’m very confident that the 3M Command Strip will keep Dockem and my iPad on the wall for as long as I want. The 3M Command Strip is able to hold up to 2kg load. I don’t think there’s a tablet that is heavier than 2kg. If your Tablet is more than 2kg, then I guess you should get a lighter tablet.

A set of Dockem and 3M Command Strips cost US$9.99. Shipping cost around US$2 to US$5. For more info, check out the online store.

Now that I have Dockem, the question is….. Where should I hang my iPad 2?

Hmmmm……. well, if I can waterproof my iPad 2, maybe I can use Dockem in the bathroom so that I can watch Youtube or check Facebook & Twitter while in the shower. I just need to remember not to turn on FaceTime by accident.

The main reason why I got the Kuel H10 Stylus is that there’s a cap to protect the pen tip. Strangely, a lot of stylus in the market does not have a cap. Don’t know why. Wouldn’t it make sense to protect the silicon stylus tip?

There is a strap plug for you to hang the cap and the stylus on your 3.5mm audio jack. Pretty useful. But do note that the strap plug is only strong enough to hold the stylus. Do not attempt to lift your device by holding the stylus. The strap plug will give way and your precious device will most likely have a nasty fall.

The Stylus can be extended when in use. The weight of the stylus is pretty good although personally I wish it would be slightly heavier. It’s quite comfortable to write/draw using the stylus. The stylus works with all capacitive screen. This means your iPhone, iPad or any phone with capacitive screen. In fact, you can even use the stylus on the MacBook’s trackpad. Haha!

Another reason why I choose the Kuel H10 stylus is the pricing. Most shops are selling it at S$29.90. The SGP online store is selling it at US$12.99. Actually, if you think about it, most of the capacitive screen stylus nowadays are overpriced. I found some stylus selling at almost S$50. Why is it so expensive? And I still remember we were complaining that those S$10 resistive screen stylus were expensive back in the Palm OS days.

PS: It feels funny finding myself going back to the “Pen Computing”. I thought the whole idea of capacitive screen is to allow interaction without a pen. But I guess sometimes it’s easier to draw or write using a pen than finger. Well, at least we got the option to use finger or stylus.

If you ask me to describe the Nokia E7 in a few words, I would say it’s a Nokia N8 with keyboard. In fact, I’m not the only person who made this remark when we first saw the Nokia E7. But it’s weird that Nokia choose to call it E7 instead of “following industry standards” by calling it N8 Pro.

Name jokes aside, the Nokia E7 is exactly what you would expect from Nokia. Great hardware on a Symbian OS. The Nokia E7 has a 4 inch AMOLED touchscreen. The screen is beautiful. Perhaps one of the best Nokia screen I’ve ever seen. The screen is able to produce 16 million colours with 16:9 nHD (640 x 360 pixels). 12.37 x 6.24 x 1.36 cm and weighs 176g.

The Nokia E7 has 16GB internal memory and no memory card slot. Yes, this is quite a surprise for many people. It might be a slight problem for those who takes lots of photos and video. The E7 has a 8 Megapixels camera capable of 720p video recording. There’s a HDMI port for connecting to TV or projector. And of cos you have the usual WIFI, Bluetooth, GPS, MicroUSB and 3.5mm jack.

The Nokia E7 is pretty sturdy. The slide out keyboard reminded me of the Nokia N97. In fact, I kinda like this form factor. The screen tilts at a comfortable angle when you slide out the keyboard. This makes the Nokia E7 a great table top phone for viewing videos.

Unlike the Nokia N97, the E7′s keyboard is slightly harder to slide out. This is mainly due to the fact that the E7 is much thiner and thus less space for you to push the screen upwards. But I guess users will get used to it after a while. The keyboard is pretty good to type with. The keys are well spaced but the alphabets are positioned slightly to the left so it will take a while for users to get used to it. Something interesting to note. There is no volume control button. Instead, there’s a slider for volume control. I’m not a fan of this.

The battery is non-user replaceable. But I guess most people are used to this already

Here’s the thing. While the hardware of the Nokia E7 is pretty good, I couldn’t say likewise for the OS. Most of you should know that Nokia is planning to drop Symbian in favor of Windows Phone 7. Although we are still seeing a few new phones with Symbian, it is clear that this Operating System is approaching it’s end of life. I would only recommend the Nokia E7 to the existing Symbian users and Symbian fans. After all, it’s still going to be at least a year or two before Symbian disappear. So if you don’t mind Symbian, the Nokia E7 is a pretty decent phone.

In short:
Great hardware but running Symbian

Likes:
Beautiful screen resolution
Good keyboard
Sturdy

Dislikes:
Symbian
No memory card slot
Volume control

The Joby GorlliaPod is unlike your conventional tripod. The legs of the GorlliaPod is made up of several flexible yet very sturdy joints. The joints are so flexible that it can support the camera in virtually any position. You can bend the GorillaPod’s legs so that it cling on any available object like railing or tree branch.

You can also use it as a conventional tripod if you are not so adventurous.

I like the Joby GorillaPod because it is compact and lightweight. Most importantly, it is very stable. According to the website, the original Joby GorillaPod is able to hold up to 325 grams. I tried mounting my Canon G11 which weighs 369 grams and it still holds well. But I guess anything heavier than a G11 will be too much for the original Joby GorillaPod. Joby have other model like SLR, SLR-Zoom and Focus which is able to hold up to 800g, 3kg and 5kg respectively.

But becareful when you shop for the Joby GorillaPod. There’s lots of imitation out there in the market. Most of them aren’t as sturdy as the original Joby GorillaPod.

By the way, I’m using my Glif to mount my iPhone 4 on the GorillaPod. The GorillaPod does not come with a Glif. Joby have a version of the GorillaPod that is specially built for the iPhone 4. But it can only mount the iPhone 4 and nothing else. If you want to use your iPhone 4 on the Joby GorillaPod or any tripod, I highly recommend you get the Glif.

Before I start the review, let’s talk a little about Schwan-Stabilo. The company was founded as Grossberger & Kurz Bleistiftfabrik (pencil company) in Nuremberg in 1855 and acquired by the Schwanhäusser family in 1865. In 1967 it started a German-Malaysian joint venture called Swan Malaysia Sdn Bhd in Malaysia. The company changed its name to Schwan-Stabilo in 1976. The have a manufacturing plants in Johor Baru. Interesting. Wonder if I can visit their plant someday.

Anyway, back to the Schwan-Stabilo Legacy 1186 Superior Plastic Eraser. The Legacy 1186 is a lightweight eraser weighing just 5 grams. Measuring 1.1 x 6.17 x 2.21 cm, it fits nicely in the hands. I think the engineers at Schwan-Stabilo spend lots of time on the ergonomic of the eraser. It’s very comfortable to use and my fingers don’t feel tired after using the eraser for more than 5 minutes.

The Legacy 1186 is able to remove all pencil mark well. But like all erasers, it leaves behind some residue after use. I notice that the Legacy 1186 produce less residue compared to most erasers in the market. Schwan-Stabilo calls this Residue-Less technology. The Residue-Less technology also make most of the residue lightweight and easily blown away with a single breath. But I’m not sure about how easy is it to sweep away the residue from the floor.

The Legacy 1186 uses their famous Superior Eraser Power that does not leave behind any stains on the paper. It is also non-abrasive and less likely to damage the paper. I tried using the Legacy 1186 on different type of paper materials and they all produce excellent results.

I love the bundled multiplayer eraser game that comes with all Legacy 1186. It is the same eraser game that we played when we were young. Schwan-Stabilo managed to port this classic game to the Legacy 1186. The eraser game also works great with other brand of eraser without conflict. Setting up the game with other brand eraser is easy due to the simple interface. But I notice that it’s slightly harder to control the Legacy 1186. Maybe I need more practice. The country flag brand eraser is much easier to control compared to Legacy 1186.

One disadvantage of the Schwan-Stabilo Legacy 1186 Superior Plastic Eraser is that it can’t remove pen marks. It is quite disappointing that Schwan-Stabilo didn’t include this feature on the Legacy 1186. I hope Schwan-Stabilo will include this feature in the next version.

The Schwan-Stabilo Legacy 1186 Superior Plastic Eraser is now available at all stationary shops.

In short:
A great eraser with Residue-Less technology and multiplayer eraser game

Likes:
Ergonomic design
Residue-Less technology
Non-abrasive

Dislikes:
Can’t remove pen mark
Difficult controls on eraser game

Update: Happy April Fools Day!!!!

Well, one Singapore company have an interesting idea. Handmade iPad case using jelutong wood. Jelutong wood is light and easy for the craftsmen to work with. The Artisans Craftsmen’s iPad Case weighs around 215g. Of course some case might weigh slightly heavier or lighter since these are handmade.

The wooden frame hold the iPad securely without any hooks. It just fit tightly and securely into the frame. The wooden frame also makes the casing looks like a notebook when closed. In fact, the casing is styled to looks like a moleskine notebook. Very classy and elegant.

The workmanship for the Artisans Craftsmen’s Case is pretty good. From what I understand, each casing took 10 hours to make. There is a stringent QC process before the iPad casing is packed and delivered to customers.

And to make the Artisans Craftsmen’s Case exclusive, the company intends to release just 2,000 casing for each tablet model.

Here’s the only problem with the Artisans Craftsmen’s Case for iPad. It cost S$128. But remember, you are paying a premium for a limited edition elegant and classy handmade iPad case.

Too bad I don’t have a iPad. Else I’ll most likely get one before it sold out.

Oh, they also have casing for Samsung Galaxy Tab too. Weighs 130g and cost S$78.

Check out their website if you are a iPad or Galaxy Tab owner.

The LiveView is a watch that works wirelessly with an Android phone via Bluetooth. It doesn’t need to be a Sony Ericsson Android phone. As long as it is running Android 2.0 and above. And luckily for Sony Ericsson, the Xperia X10, X10 mini, X10 mini pro and X8 have all been upgraded to Android 2.1 recently. Setting up the LiveView is pretty easy. Just go to Android Marketplace to download an App call LiveView application by Sony Ericsson. Once installed, pair your Android phone with LiveView like you normally do for Bluetooth devices and your LiveView is ready to use. The time on the LiveView is synchronized with your phone. If the LiveView lost connection with the phone, it can still function as a normal watch.

Navigation on LiveView is fairly straight forward. The LiveView is not a touchscreen watch. But there’s 4 sensor area on the bezel. Tap on the left or right side to navigate thru menu, press the top right button to select a menu item and tap top or bottom to scroll up or down.

The Sony Ericsson LiveView allows users to see incoming caller id and missed call number. If the number is in your address book, LiveView will display the name of the person calling. Pretty straight forward. You can also read SMS using LiveView.

There is also Facebook and Twitter integration. For Facebook, you can choose to receive notifications, inbox messages and news feed on your LiveView. The Facebook integration is pretty alright except for 1 thing. The minimum update frequency is 15 minutes. That’s too long. I know it’s hard to make the update instantaneously. But at least update every 5 minutes or less. And sadly, the Twitter integration is pretty badly done. You can’t select the type of message to receive on your LiveView. You can only view your timeline. Your mentions and DM will most likely be lost in the timeline if you follow a lot of people on Twitter. And like Facebook, the minimum update frequency is 15 minutes.

But thankfully, the Sony Ericsson LiveView allows 3rd party developers to write plugins. So all we need to do now is wait for someone to write a better Twitter plugin for LiveView. In fact, there is already a Twitter plugin in the Android Marketplace. But it’s kinda buggy and not so well written. Let’s hope the developer update the plugin soon. Besides the Twitter plugin, there are other plugins like Gmail plugins, Remote Camera, Dialer etc etc. If you ask me, I’ll say that the best thing about the Sony Ericsson LiveView is the abilities to install plugins.

For example, there’s a plugin call Viewfinder which allows user to control the phone’s camera via LiveView. A low res live video is stream to the LiveView watch so that you can see what your Android phone’s camera lens is seeing using your LiveView. I’ve no idea why I would need to use that plugin. But it’s just geeky cool. I bet Dick Tracy would love to have that too.

Sony Ericsson needs to get more developers to write awesome plugins and make it easier for LiveView owners to find and manage plugins.

The Sony Ericsson LiveView is available in the “Sony Ericsson Fitness Experience Pack” which is aimed at sports and fitness enthusiasts. I don’t know why Sony Ericsson wants to limit themselves and just target the sporting crowd. I think the LiveView is great for everyday use. In fact, I would wear it almost daily if I’m using an Android as my primary phone. The only problem here is the strap. The velcro strap is alright for jogging but it’s not suitable daily use. I know I’m not a fashion expert here, but it looks weird when you pair a velcro strap with shirts. Maybe Sony Ericsson might want to consider releasing some metal and rubber straps as optional accessories.

I think the Sony Ericsson LiveView has great potential. But there are some rough edges that needs to be fixed. Once these problems are resolved, I’m sure more developers will jump onboard and write great plugins for the Sony Ericsson LiveView.

Likes:
Allows 3rd party plugins
Easy to setup
Easy to use interface

Dislikes:
15 minute update frequency for Facebook and Twitter
Poor Twitter integration
No easy way to discover 3rd party plugins

The Glif works perfectly as a iPhone 4 tripod mount. It doesn’t matter if your tripod is a professional camera tripod or a cheap mini tripod. It works fine for both landscape and portrait mode. This is great for those who wants to do time lapse using the iPhone 4.

The Glif is also a great tool to prop your iPhone so that you can watch video or facetime in a comfortable angle.

The makers of Glif said that it can also be used as a iPhone 4 antenna guard. Well, it does protect you against antennagate. But it’s kinda hard to touch the side of the screen when the Glif is attached to it. I don’t really recommend anyone using it mainly as an antenna guard. You are better off with a iPhone 4 casing.

Due to the nature of the product, the Glif does not work when the iPhone 4 is in a case. I’m quite fine with that. I’m only worried that the Glif might become loose after prolong usage. I hope it wont. After all, the Glif is made from Santoprene (grade 101-87) hard rubber

One cool thing about The Glif is that it’s a project from Kickstarter. I’m one of the contributor to the project. Which explains why I got it so early.

As you can see, I’ll be using my Glif mainly to prop up my iPhone 4 to a comfortable viewing angle for watching videos. I’m also going to try out some time lapse. So keep a lookout for it.

If you are interested, you can order the Glif from their website at USD$20 now.