shift smart, S-Smart

Gas prices continue to go up, but people can never stop driving in the deep-south backcountry of America. However, for the first time being in a long drive for three weeks, I realized something has changed.
As I drove on the interstate going toward Charlotte this afternoon during early rush-hour traffic (4:00 p.m.-ish), the driving momentum on the open road was fairly different. Through out my one hour thirty minutes drive, there wasn’t loads of traffic, but everybody remained at a constant pace of 62 mph. I wasn’t only talking about those old people whose would not be driving nor those idiots talking on their cell phone and eating t-bone stakes at the same time; the whole damn motorway was moving at a speed of 62 mph. Sure, the speed limit is 65 mph and 55 mph, but in this part of the interstates, it really translated to be 75 mph and 70 mph.
Usually I would be annoyed and start to find passing opportunities within traffic, but somehow, I slow down today; I was moving at the same pace as everybody else, 62 mph. With my calculation, I was actually rather surprise by the mpg when I arrived in Charlotte; with no A/C, I only burned 3 gallons of fuel in a 90% highway and 10% city driving condition. That was 26.6 mpg in an Infiniti G35 Coupe, which is… a lot.
So, I had to do a few things in town, had a lovely yet massive dinner with my friends, had a nice walk a long the water’s edge of an artificial pound, then it was time to drive the same trip in reverse.
The traffic out of the city was moderate, and yes, everybody was still driving at about 62 mph. Not to long after, however, the traffic really seems to clear up; there was nothing, except the empty interstate, a cool summer evening and my G35 Coupe. So I decided to bring the challenge up a notch, pushing the vigorous V6 to 68 mph.. Beyond any expectation, the range of my vehicle actually slightly increased. As time accumulated, the fuel gauges dropped so slow that I almost forgot I was driving a proper 280 horsepower V6 power-panzer.
At the end of the trip, I calculated my mpg; despite the extra weight from my massive dinner, my G35 Coupe managed to pull of an astonishing 30 mpg, and that was with about 50% of the drive time going at 68 mpg. That is totally exceeded the factory mpg assumption.
Maybe Top Gear top tips suggested at a 53 mph is the optimum speed for most vehicle, and yes you have to shift smart, S-smart; but ultimately, if you are driving a car that have decent mechanical engineering (in this case the VQ35 has better than decent engineering) and a very though out aero design, driving slow does not necessary to mean saving fuel. Of course, I cannot blast down the highway at 120 mph to shoot for a better gas mileage, but by modifying your driving style slightly do makes the biggest saving for petroleum shopping.
This is a good way to end a day, really, not only having a superb driving experience at a very chill summer night with windows down, but it also proved a 280 hp powerhouse does not necessary mean its need more fuel to be feed. And this simply concluded my next automobile shopping analysis; I don’t have to fall for the Smart Car nor Prius, as long as I can drive smart, I can save fuel in a CLS 600 with no problem.

live iPhone, LIVE!!!

It has been slightly more than a week since I have my iPhone 3G, (9 days to be exact) and today is the first day that I am using it lightly.
For the past eight days, I had been browsing the web very often on my iPhone, sometime even I am only 20 steps away from my macPro which was connected via a 3MB land line, but it was just cooler to use my iPhone on the sofa (yes, it is ALSO cooler than getting my macBook Pro and used the WiFi). I watch shows on my iPhone while I was doing cardio or listen to music during weight lifting at the gym every other day for an hour and half for each session. In addition, everybody seems to call me more often after I had an iPhone, so I would encounter about 2 hours of talk time between each full charge. So minus the time that I actually spend at the gym, eat, sleep, and working on my publication, I would spend about the rest of my time playing with iPhone apps, talking on AIM on my iPhone or shopping via my iPhone.
At a consistence pace, I managed to discharged a fully feed iPhone 3G in a 14 hour cycle. And we all know Mr. iPhone can do better than that, so I began digging in my setting. Since I am staying at a region without 3G coverage for the summer, I decided to turn off the 3G features. And boy, immediately, the battery went on to its stress-free vacation. I had fully charged my iPhone this morning; then I was on a conversation for 20 minutes about the German Gran Prix with my friend (with 3G off), the battery icon did not even move after the converse was over.
However, I did not turn off my WiFi, nor setting my apps data update into longer interval, but for users who does not require constant breath taking e-mail update to get through their day, they can modify those setting to accommodate a better battery solution. But seriously, an issue that will drain battery as fast as the 3G chip, if not faster, is the brilliantly vivid screen. So, if you are just listening to music, turn your screen OFF, the music will still play, and it save a hell lots of juice.
So, I have live through most of my day already, and it is now almost 12 hours since I unplug my iPhone from the charger, the battery icon is still showing I have about 85% of power on a day with light usage.
In the end, I think the iPhone can last me on a full 24 hour life cycle (I do stay awake for at least 19 hour on most of my day during school season…) in a single charge when I am distracted with my work. But to conclude this blog with a tip to myself and you, never EVER let the iPhone charger gone out of sight, because it is a hungry little fellow, and we can never want enough out of it.

:: mobile revoluzione ::

It is far from the one-week checkpoint of the post iPhone 3G launch, and I simply cannot stop playing with the most amazing gadget I have ever purchased (yes, more amazing than my macBook Pro, more amazing than my receiver, and even more amazing than my PS3 and PSP combined!)
Meanwhile, I am trying to find someone somewhere to buy my old phone; this also gives me sometime to reflect on my mobile phone possession journey. Let see, I went all the way back owning a Nokia 6110, the phone that I wanted so bad because they used to use one similar in the X-File (yeah, that was a while back, huh?) Sony and Ericson merged into, guess what, Sony Ericson, thus I got a little semi flip TZ-3? If I remembered the model correctly. After that, I moved to the US of A, so I got myself into a Samsung SGH-S307. Boy, that was a small phone, small enough that I washed it in my pocket at my friend’s washing machine… (yeah, I was drunk, okay? at the night of my 21st birthday as a matter of fact).
Then, the inevitable happened. Like all the cool kids, I bid a V3 RAZA off e-bay. My first camera phone, deadly thin, comfortable in the pocket. And it was really cool to have one, because it was a phone that everybody dying to have one. Even Jeremy Clarkson had to show his off during a Top Gear episode. But since the demand was so high, within a year, the phone became virtually free under contract at Cingula, then followed by many other carriers. So, now the sub-zero cool phone has become an object that everybody own.
With the RAZA scenery rendered in absolute un-coolness, I realized I had to swap out my phone for something special, something smart. Oh, that was easy, Smartphone! I made my purchase during my Hong Kong trip last year. It was a O2 atom xda, featuring a 433 MHz process, 16MB on board RAM and accept a maximum of 2GB miniSD, fully touch screen, 3G enable, and Windows Mobile! I really should have spot the problem piror to my purchase – “Windows”, the universal meaning of POS; but the “Mobile” fooled me. Of course it can play MP3, of course if has the Internet Explorer, and of course I can view PowerPoint, but what’s the point when any operation on the device basically takes a week to execute. And when I try to play video while I have WiFi turn on, the phone will just give up and eventually reboot.
It was very frustrating, turtle cruising speed and microscopic on screen keypad. I was dying to switch to an iPhone. I looked on craigslist, but every time when there was a great deal, it is always too far and when I managed to plan for a trip, it would have been sold.
But the wait was finally over as the iPhone 3G was announced early in June. My god, it one very exciting and desperate month until the launch day.
So, now, I am finally very happy, overwhelming delightful and excessively multi-touching the new jewel of the mobile phone business. It is of course, not the perfect phone yet. I do misses the self-portrait mirror and flash from my old O2, and the lack of A2DP the biggest let down for the iPhone 3G.
However, more intriguing to me is, “how long does it take for the iPhone to become a RAZA?” Us iPhone owners are still cool today because we are in an exclusive and prestigious club, but one day, the most amazing gadget will become the cheapest (price wise) merchandise one can own with the minimum wages in the United States society. The iPhone would then become a RAZA, everybody is rich, everybody Paris Hilton, and the iPhone would become the slut of gadget for mans.

:: you say hello, I say goodbye! ::

Champagne and caviar never seems as modest as they ever worth, as the world celebrate the glorious launch of iPhone 3G, kicking off an early weekend. Very early indeed, it was 4:30; I woke up from some fragmented dreams, laying restlessly on my bed.
Since I live in a small town where 90% of people don’t even know what the hell an iPhone is, the population who would aware of a revision of such product should be very slim. So, my plan was to arrive at the AT&T store at 6:00, which I predicted there, would be five persons on site.
However, since I was awake, and I knew for a fact that it would be impossible to force myself back into sleep, I decided to head out early. Changing cloths, grapping my pre-packed leather bag, then I was off, beginning my 30-minute journey to the closet AT&T store that carries the new iPhone at launch.
At 5:15, I parked in front of the AT&T store; amazingly, there really were only 5 people in line. But I was an hour early, so I guess my calculation cannot count after all.
Waiting in line for a product in such immense caliber is actually fun. Everybody shared their excitement about the launch, everybody pulled out their old phone and talk trash about their phones. Meanwhile, I also found out the person at the front of the line arrived just an hour before me.
To fill in the downtime of exciting chi-chatting, I prepared myself with the Top Gear Africa special aired during last season on my PSP; among with the usually suspects, iPod, book, and sketch book.
Sitting against cold store-front glazing on a cool summer morning, the sun slowing creep above the horizon. It was remotely romantic, really. Like being at the beach, except, a sea of automobile filled my peripheral.
No one show up since my arrival until 6:10 (so, if in fact I arrived at 6:00, I would still be the 6th person I line, cranky, huh?) But people soon started pouring in, the number of people in line growth exponentially to 25 by 7:00. My new friend at the spot in front of me spooked from the store manager a day ahead, knowing that there would only be 40 iPhone 3G in stock; that number had already exceeded by 7:45, but the staffs/crowd-controls were not allowed to inform customers in line of its quota.
Sadly, there was no count down prior to open; as soon as the store open, the first 11 people in line (of course, including me) were invited to enter the store. The whole place suddenly transformed into a stock market, people started calling out runner to the stock room, information are being exchanged for the activation process.
Without any doubt, delays and technical difficulty was expected… I mean, seriously, the whole damn east cost is activating iPhones at the same time. The data line at AT&T instantly crippled, in store staff begin to panic. Luckily, a very chill and delighted employee, who tried hard to work around the system, served me during activation.
Even though, I was the 6th person in line, but at 8:40, I became the first person with a fully functional iPhone 3G, walking out from the store front in complete holy glory, applauded by the remaining 40+ crowd.
“woooh!!!! Good luck guys!” I waved as I was walking toward my vehicle.
However, I never understood how luck I was until later on that day (after I played with my iPhone for hours) when I turn on the news, learning that only a fraction of people who actually left the store with a working iPhone.
It really was quiet an experience, from the day before the launch tweeting all day online, to become the first person walking out the store yesterday morning, the iPhone 3G launch left me a memory that is inerasable, and of course, the greatest product since the invention of the Concorde supersonic jetliner.