IKEA not just about furniture
Yesterday, I went to IKEA in Logan for shopping. I found their product ranges are expanded in the tech side too. There are some wireless chargers. Also, I found this fancy battery charger too. It looks pretty and it can charge ten batteries each times. In addition, it got a digital display which can indicate the charged level of each battery, that looks great! But it costs AUD$40, which is a bit too much for me. I did not buy this.
Android Pay with Amex is available in Australia
Yesterday, I got a notification from American Express to tell me Android Pay is available in Australia. That is very similar with Apple Pay. In a simple term, you need to install the app and then you tap your phone with EFTPOS machine, instead of your credit card, if your phone supports NFC and with Android 4.4+. That is great. According to Google Blog, there is not amex supporting Android Pay, including ANZ, Westpac, Bank of Melbourne, Bank of South Australia, Bendigo Bank, Cuscal, ING DIRECT, Macquarie Bank, and St. Georg and the most major retailers supports Android Pay too, such as 7-Eleven, Brumby's Bakery, Coles Express, Coles Supermarkets, Crust Gourmet Pizza, Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Limited, Donut King, Gloria Jean’s Coffees, McDonald’s, Michel’s Patisserie, Pizza Capers, and Telstra.
That is great!
Mobile 4G Overage in Australia
Recently, I went to a road trip from Brisbane to Coffs Harbour, that is about 5 hours driving distance from Brisbane. I found I got the 4G connections in major towns, such as Byron Bay and Coffs Harbour. Also, even the small towns, such as yumba, I got 3G connection and I got a stable 3G connection when I travelled on Pacific Highway. That is not bad, a few years ago, there were a lot of back holes of mobile connections. So, I used the Google Map as a primary navigation system and GPS as the second. Google Map is even better, the Map in my GPS is quite old around 2011. A lot of sections in Pacific Highway have changed, GPS cannot work very well in those sections. I has to use Google Map. Another advantage is Google Map has the live traffic data. It helped us to use a different route in Gold Coast for avoiding traffic.
Laptop to be home use
I got a mobile office, I need to work in different clients' office, that is the reason I need to use a laptop. However, when I work in my work, a laptop is not good enough for me and I cannot always work with a smaller screen. Buy a dock station is the best solution for our kind, I can connect an external disk via USB 3.0, which is the data storage for videos and photo and most of dock stations have video card inside, I can connect with monitors from the display ports from dock stations. Then I can have a better work equipment at home! Alternative, there is a cut-budget option, just using an external usb 3.0 hub, which is the solution I am using. I connected the mouse, keyboard and external disks from USB hub. The only down side is only a monitor can use, because I have to the HDMI from the laptop.
By the way, I wish in future, some one can built a dock station with a CPU and ram, so when I park my laptop to the dock station, I can have a better computer. Currently, Microsoft surface is using a similar approach. When the tablet part connected with keyboard, it can connect with the graphic card in the keyboard side, then it can performance better.
Samsung Store@Westfield Carindale
A two weeks ago, While I was waking in Westfield Carindale, I found there was a new Samsung Store in front of entrance of Myer at the lower level. There were some new toys from Samsung, such as Galaxy View(18.7″ Giant Tablet)、Galaxy s7、Galaxy TabPro S(A Tablet with keyboard, similar with Microsoft Surface). Also, it had Galaxy VR, yes I know that is a just "advanced" version of Google Cupboard.. I still wish to play it for long time, however, there were so many kids to line up for trying this. That was too bad, finally I gave up.