Finally got around XCode 4.3 (from Xcode 3)

After a span of almost 2 years, I got to submit my latest iPhone application (nothing fantastic, but a simple hindu pray app) on iTunesconnect. I guess while waiting for it to be approved, I might as well blog a little bit about XCode 4.3.1 since the last version I used before this was XCode 3! Yeah, that was light years ago (calibrated to Apple's speed of innovation).

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Samsung VS Apple - Battle of the giants!

Just yesterday, Samsung posted a huge profit - in fact its record profit and not surprisingly this was powered mostly by smartphone sales. Profit alone was at a whopping $4.7 billion for this quarter. So check this out, Samsung sold around 36.5 million smartphones while Apple sold around 37.04 million iPhones. I still think Apple has an awesome record keeping in mind that it sells just one models - The iPhone as compared to the multiple models that Samsung sells in its Smartphone series powered by Android.

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Is Apple trading its conscience for profits?

Over the weekend I've been reading quite a few articles on "moral values" when it comes to offshore production plants - especially China. The company that was targeted was Apple and the subcontractor in discussion was Foxconn in China. The article was carried on Yahoo Finance: Apple's Sweatshop Problem: 16 Hour days, ~70 cents and hour.

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Creative journalism

So I've been struggling with the quality of some of the articles on our leading English newspaper - The Star. I've seen some bad grammar, hilarious spelling errors and misleading headlines. But I still follow the news on The Star as there is no proper alternative. I'm not really into politics so the other online newspapers don't really interest me.

So here I was, sipping coffee on a nice Wednesday morning and sitting on my couch browsing through Facebook when a status update from a friend caught my eye. 

"I knew there was a reason why I kept sending manual tax forms to IRB over the years even after they kept telling everyone to go digital..... I wonder whats their excuse now -->"

The reason?

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Western Bar - Retro games making a comeback?

So if you are more than 30, there is a high probability that you might have picked up a noisy little handheld game in monochrome and kindergarten graphics called "Western Bar". I used to think that it was top of the line when it came to action games and it used to be one of my favorites alongside Tetris and Donkey Kong.

The drunk sheriff on a rampage

 So when my colleague told me that Western Bar is now available on the app store, I was surprised albeit pleasantly. Since I was on a business trip when he told me, I couldn't find a wifi hotspot to download the game. But as soon as I got back to Malaysia I made sure that I downloaded the game and played it on my iPhone 4.

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Traffic in Hanoi - My first YouTube video

So finally I figured out how to upload a YouTube video. Was a piece of cake - I know, I know I'm not exactly Mr. Social Media!

This video might not exactly be a work of art, but somehow I just wanted to share it as an example of how the roads in Hanoi are messy and noisy. Kind of reminds me of the traffic in India. Oh by the way, if you get caught in peak hour traffic in Hanoi, I think its much worse than India. I like the way you weave yourself through the sea of bikes and cars to cross the road. Was an experience doing it the first time, but hey I'm still in one piece!

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Would I get the iPad 3? Oh yeah baby!

So the cat is out of the bag - the specifications of the iPad 3 have been leaked out on cyberspace. It just seems like Apple can't hold their secrets anymore, not much different from an old grandpa struggling to control his bladder. Every year you see them "splashing" their news around in bars or some weird places where there are a ton of people who would obviously notice their stupid antics.

(photo courtesy of www.thetechlabs.com)

But having said that, I'm beginning to like the iPad 3 already. I was one of the few who paid a premium to get the iPad 1 (initially called THE iPad) in Singapore and my colleagues still have a good laugh about it. But I was just so much in love with a gadget that was 10 times the size of my phone and could do everything similar other than make a phone call. Pretty cool huh?

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Migrated to new blog

Finally I have decided to make the switch from wordpress to blogger. I remember starting off with blogger 3 years ago and then slowly migrating to wordpress. Now I'm back again. No big reason, but I just dont need all the fancy plugins and I just look forward to an easy to use interface. I guess blogger helps me achieve that quite nicely.

And I've also decided that this blog is going to be about a lot of stuff - technology, photography, travel, food, beer and everything that interests me. That's why I've decided to call this blog "Distinctively Raj".

P.S. I will cease to update my previous blog My Lens, My Life from today. So if you want to keep reading my crap, you can read it here. You could also follow me on twitter @gadgetfrik. Ciao!

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