Techiy

Image credit: Xiaomi Singapore Facebook Finally it is here! I first mentioned Xiaomi's plan to extend to overseas markets in my review on Xiaomi MI-2 . Few days ago, the mid range Android phone, Redmi has been selling in Singapore.

What if you are given a chance to relive your life to fulfill the one wish you always desire, but it is also the last thing you will do? At first, I thought To the Moon is another attempt on the recurring time travelling theme, but tons of positive reviews on this 2011 game encourage me to at least give this game a try. Oh boy, I am glad that I was dead wrong.

Steam is renowned for giving deep discount on digital games. Many gamers like myself have always hold our buying urge and waited for Steam Sales. Seeing the success of Steam, many similar digital content distribution stores have emerged in recent years. Online retail giant like Amazon has also joined the bandwagon, and is often giving away great discounts, which sometimes besting Steam sales, on digital games. You also have GOG.com , a place to get classic video games at a cheap price. Not forgetting Humble Bundle, offering awesome time-limited and pay-what-you-want game bundles.

Have you gotten your hand on the newly released PlayStation 4? Are you satisfied with the rather small hard drive? (PS4 comes with 500GB 5400RPM SATA II hard drive, and a typical game can take up tens of GB in space, list of launch games with their size .) Here is an article  that described the steps to change the default hard drive to a 256GB solid state drive. The user claimed that the full boot speed has decreased by 11 seconds to 16 seconds. Other reported improvements include a five-folds increase of game installation speed and smoother movie and cut scene playback. You might ask "will it void the warranty?" According to forums and ultimate FAQ by Sony America, the answer is no. One thing to note that Sony does not officially support a higher RPM hard drive. Thanks Terence for the tip!

Facebook addicts rejoice! Facebook just introduce Home, a group of apps that change your Android phone into a Facebook phone. Besides the overhaul of Android lock screen and home screen by Coverfeed, one notable feature is messaging, it appears everywhere, on top of the app you are using. Facebook Home would be available from 12 April, but initially on HTC One, One X, Samsung Galaxy S3, S4, and Note II. You can expect more phones to be compatible with Facebook Home as Samsung, Sony and HTC have already signed up the Facebook Home Program . Accompanying the launching of Facebook Home, the first phone optimized for Facebook Home, HTC First , is also announced. Sounds good eh? Unfortunately, Facebook Home will not be free from ads , just not at launch. SOURCE The Verge

If you are an avid user of Google service, you might want to check out Google Keep , a note-taking app released recently as an alternative to Evernote. The notes are saved in the cloud via Google Drive.

Updated 23 Dec 2013. Update 25 Feb 2014: WeChat has revamped their UI to have a much smoother navigation experience in version 5.2. Update 9 Oct 2014:Many have changed in few months, I will be updating this article later. Whatsapp Viber Line KakaoTalk WeChat Icons Available on Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Symbian, Nokia S40. Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry, PC (Windows, Mac, Linux), Windows 8, Symbian, Bada. Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry, PC (Windows, Mac), Windows 8, Nokia Asha. Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry, PC (Windows), Bada. Android, iOS, Windows Phone, Blackberry, Symbian, Nokia S40, Browser. Version 2.11.152 4.1.1.10 3.10.0 4.2.2 5.0.3.1 Origin 1 US Cyprus Japan Korea China License First year free, USD 0.99/year thereafter. Free, digital sticker store. Free, digital sticker store. Free, digital item sto...

Left: Phone image from Xiaomi website. Right: Box contents. Finally, I got my hand on the highly sought-after Xiaomi MI 2 phone. Besides reading my personal experience with this phone, I would suggest you to also read the article from Engadget and, if you understand Chinese, the in-depth review from Zealer . The package comes with the phone itself, a battery, a back cover (white), USB data cable, and USB power adapter (standard China 2-pin). A few notable missing specifications are no 4G, no NFC, and no card slot (and the total available storage for user is only about 10 GB out of 16GB). I have nothing to complain considering the price of about RM 1000 / SGD 400. MI 2 has very similar pricing and  specifications ( official page ) to another highly demanded phone, the Google Nexus 4 (quad-core, 2GB RAM, same chipsets, etc.) This phone is currently available only in China but there are plans to extend the market to Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore .

SOURCE: Hardware Zone Singapore At about 7pm today, a Hardware Zone Singapore forum poster named Bluefreak reported that Microsoft Office Professional 2013 is on sale at Singapore Microsoft Online Store for $5. Unfortunately, the relevant product page has been quickly taken down, suggesting that this is most likely a technical glitch. Nevertheless, some users manage to purchase and obtain the product keys, but it could only be activated when Office 2013 is officially released. Let us see whether Microsoft will honor the deal. This mishap also revealed the launch date, 31 May 2013. Thanks Terence and Edwin for the tip!