Product Launch

Somersby Sparkling White cider launch @ The Majapahit, Marc Residence KLCC

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Malaysians were the first outside of Europe to sample Somersby Sparkling White – a newly launched cider inspired by white wine. It’s less sweet than their regular offerings and pairs well with the traditional white wine pairings of seafood, white meat, ham and cheese.

Somersby is targeted more towards females and youth and as I remembered, there were lots of young female Instagrammers at their previous event. This had nothing to do with my decision to attend though. Honest.

Carlsberg events are the only events I attend with any kind of regularity nowadays. I barely registered the eye candy. I’m in a fulfilling relationship and my eyes feel no need to feast on supplementary flesh.

Except for oysters. I love the oyster bar they had set up coz raw oysters are one of those things I love to eat but am too cheap to order in restaurants. I will happily partake if someone else is picking up the bill though.

I also indulged in the delicious shrimp skewers they had. These are only the hors d’oeuvres, mind. They also had a dinner spread for later.

The featured foods also included cheese and cold cuts – all things that go well with Somersby Sparkling White cider. I liked how they only served the new cider at first so everyone gets a chance to try it out.

The Sparkling White wine rack was really cool! This is a tall, backlit display that was perfect as a photo op. There’s a Somersby Sparkling White Kombi van parked at the exterior, which proved very popular with the Instagram crowd too.

There was a launch event by the MD of Carlsberg Malaysia, Lars Lehmann, before dinner was served.

The buffet dinner was quite upscale – none of the usual suspects you find in similar setups. This event featured whole giant grouper fish, huge deep-fried king prawns, sliced beef steak, and crispy BBQ chicken wings. I regretted eating so much for lunch. I wish I had saved space for this spread.

Entertainment was also provided throughout the night with a live band performance featuring Janet Lee as the vocalist and a violin performance by Grace Tan.

I really enjoyed the new Somersby Sparkling White cider. It’s very easy to drink, without being too cloying. One of my gripes about the regular Somersby line is that it’s too sweet. As someone who prefers hoppy beer and peaty whiskey, I don’t enjoy saccharine notes in my alcohol. Somersby Sparkling White strikes the perfect balance between sweet and refreshing – without any of the dry acidic notes which some people dislike in white wine.

Prosperity Begins with a POP!: Carlsberg CNY dinner at HXC Grand Ballroom @ ICC Pudu

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“Why so early CNY stuff come out dy?”. I hear this refrain every year without fail on my Facebook. Let me share a recent finding by Google I was privy to at work – search interest in Chinese New Year picks up 3 weeks before the actual date e.g. now. Thus, the decision by marketers to do CNY early is based on solid data. As someone who loves Chinese New Year and listens to CNY songs starting Christmas, I’m one of those who definitely gets into the mood early.

I love Chinese New Year. I adore everything about it – the lou sang, the reunion dinner, the gettogethers with family and friends, the yearly display of fireworks, the sojourn back to our hometown. I’m going back to Sibu and Kuching this year so I’m extra in-the-mood. I was talking to my housemate Mandy about how much I like CNY. She doesn’t feel the same excitement, and I realized that my passion for the Lunar New Year has remained relatively unchanged since I was a kid. What can I say? I’m a romantic when it comes to CNY.

I went to Carlsberg’s “Prosperity Begins with a POP” Chinese New Year dinner/launch event last night. I’ve seen these bottles with the brightly colored caps around. Lots of brands do CNY-specific SKU refreshes and it’s nice to see what’s coming every year at the grocery aisles. I also enjoy these dinners with lou sang so I jumped at the chance to go.

This was held at Hao Xiang Chi Seafood in ICC Pudu. It’s a huge event with a grand stage and lots of tables. I hear they invited 500 trade partners and media guests to the dinner. There were pop-up bars serving the entire Carlsberg range as well as food stands serving siu yoke, chicken wings and other finger food before the banquet dinner started. I was honestly impressed by the entire thing.

Oh! I also saw Crystal Ong of the CNY group M-Girls. This is the second M-Girls member I’ve met this year!

We also got the chance to play a replica version of “Probably The Best CNY Shopping Experience – You Shop, Carlsberg Pays!”. There was a huge Carlsberg Smooth Draught can that we popped to get a chance at the top prize of RM 800 worth of groceries and beers paid for by Carlsberg.

I managed to win the second prize of a 6-pack of Carlsberg Smooth Draught!

This activation will be held at participating supermarkets and hypermarkets on 12, 13, 19, 20, 21, 24, 26 and 27 January 2019. There have been 65 lucky winners who’ve won the grand prize of RM 800 worth of groceries paid for by Carlsberg thus far. You just need to buy RM 200 worth of Carlsberg products to get a chance to pop the can!

Somersby Oriental Yee Sang.

We ended up spilling more yee sang on the table than eating it but it was fun! This is my first lou sang of the year.

Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc Lobster Salad. I really enjoyed this dish! It’s a mixture of lobster meat and various fruits. One of the guys at our table had a shellfish allergy so I ended up eating his plate too. Best.

Asahi Superior Soup with Scallop. A beautiful bowl of chicken, huge Shitake mushroom, scallops, and an abalone. Luxurious.

Carlsberg Smooth Draught Braised Abalone. I love braised abalone! Nothing says CNY more than abalone.

Carlsberg Steamed Estuary Grouper. I’m a huge fan of grouper too. I think all Chinese will have a fish dish during the CNY reunion dinner coz it sounds fortuitous.

Connor’s Pork Ribs Stew. I was quite full at this point but I like how they provided a glove for you to eat this. Very thoughtful.

Carlsberg Superior Chicken Rice. I honestly can’t remember how this tasted like. I had indulged in quite a few drinks and I was too stuffed to be able to appreciate more food.

You’ll get a chance to win frantastic grand prizes like electronic mahjong table sets that auto shuffles and sorts the game tiles for you! There are also limited edition mahjong sets, RM 100 ang paus and playing cards! All you need to do is check the winning icon under the bottle caps when you enjoy Carlsberg or Carlsberg Smooth Draught big bottles at coffee shops and food courts.

You’ll also get a mahjong set by topping up RM 88 when you buy two cartons of Carlsberg or Carlbserg Smooth Draught AND one carton of Somersby (any variant) OR one carton of Kronenbourg 1664 Blanc. Tesco is giving these mahjong sets away FREE when you spend RM 600 on Carlsberg Malaysia products.

“Prosperity Begins with a POP” also has a bistro, restaurant and pub activation – enjoy Carlsberg or Carlsberg Smooth Draught at these places to get a deck of playing cards and stand a chance to win a RM 100 beer voucher! Check out www.facebook.com/CarlsbergMY or visit www.probablythebest.com.my for more information.

The promoter girl asked my Chinese zodiac when I registered. It turns out they had a personalized gift pack of 8 cans of Carlsberg and Carlsberg Smooth Draught featuring the four festive colors with my name written in calligraphy and zodiac on it. Pretty cool!

Brooklyn Beer x Saro Lounge food and beer pairing

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Brooklyn-Beer-Girls

I’ve had Brooklyn Lager once before this dinner. I saw a beer I haven’t tried before in Jaya Grocer and picked it up. I thought it was a small batch import by Jaya Grocer, which they sometimes do via distributors. I almost joined one such company which imports overseas snacks and candy and sells them to people like Jaya Grocer and the airport duty free shops. In the end, I chose my current company but it’s an interesting line of work to be in.

Brooklyn-Experience

I digress. I was at The Brooklyn Experience yesterday. It’s an exclusive food and craft beer pairing session at Saro Lounge, Pavilion Elite organized by Thirst and Carlsberg. Carlsberg is the distributor of Brooklyn Beer in Malaysia. I liked the lager from Brooklyn Beer and I was keen to try the East IPA one, which is supposed to be bolder in character.

May-Ng

The session was fun and intimate – 4 medium tables with a diverse mix of people. I saw one filled with retirees, a younger crowd, and what looked like expatriates. There was an introduction to Brooklyn Beer (which was named as such coz it originated from that borough in New York) and a video by its founder. We also got to touch, smell and taste the grains and hops used in brewing this craft beer.

Brooklyn-Beer-Hops

Except the hops. We were warned not to eat the hops coz it’s so bitter it’s going to ruin your palate for the night.

Fusion-Lamb-Skewers

The dinner started with Mini Burgers and Fusion Lamb on Skewers and Garlic Fried Rice paired with Brooklyn Lager. I liked the slightly mochi glutenous garlic rice and the tasty NZ lamb skewers. The mini burger’s buns were a little stale. I still finished them though coz I was very hungry by this time. The strong and salty flavors go very well with the crisp, refreshing Brooklyn lager. You can’t go wrong with robust flavors and lagers, that’s why lagers pair so well with Asian food.

Brooklyn-Lager

Brooklyn Lager is an American amber lager in the Vienna style. It’s 5.2% ABV and is described as having a firm malt center with a refreshingly bitter and floral hop aroma. I hear the brewing process uses something like cold brew coffee where they steep cold beer with hops after fermentation in a process called dry-hopping.

Linguine-Garlic-Prawns

Next up is Beef Burrito and Linguine Aglio Olio with Garlic Prawns. There’s a 3rd prawn hidden under one of the mounds of pasta. I thought this was just on my plate, a friendly greeting from the chef or an accidental addition, but everyone had it. I thought that was cool. Unexpected prawns = best 🦐. It’s quite spicy, and that’s coming from me, someone who eats cili padi whole. I really enjoyed it, but it was too much for most of my table. That’s okay, more for me! Haha. The wraps were pretty good too! I thought the flavors were interesting.

Brooklyn-East-IPA

Brooklyn East IPA clocks in at a slightly higher 6.9% ABV. You need to watch out for that lest you think flirting with the pretty girl beside you is a good idea. I enjoyed this more than Brooklyn Lager coz it’s more flavorful and hoppy. There’s also a fruity aftertaste from the East Kent Goldings hops. It can be a bit bitter for people used to lagers but I enjoy IPAs, especially the maltier tasting ones like these. I hear East Coast (of USA) breweries tend to do a maltier IPA.

Brooklyn-Beer-Me

I love chill events like these where you get to eat and drink in relative peace and learn something new while you’re at it. Beer pairing is not as foreign as it sounds – many places offer it nowadays as an alternative to wine. It’s a signature of the 10-course tasting menu at 1 Michelin star Upstairs @ Mikkeler in Bangkok. The craft beer and beer pairing trends are positive ones for food and drink lovers like me. It was a thoroughly enjoyable night, although I was slightly sleepy the next day at work. 😄

Limited release festival beer Tiger Amber Lager @ The Great Brew Fest 2018

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Tiger-Amber-Lager

I was chuffed to get an invite to the launch of The Great Brew Fest. I have not been active in the blogging scene for years and I half thought the summon was sent out in error. I’ve heard whisperings of a limited-release exclusive festival beer this year, and I was keen to try it. The Great Brew Fest is Heineken Malaysia’s ode to Oktoberfest and it’ll be a month-long celebration of the amber fluid.

HB

The event to kick things off was held at Souled Out. Heineken Malaysia’s portfolio of brews were on free flow and I indulged in a few I don’t usually drink like Strongbow Original Dry, which is a wonderfully dry cider. The ultra sweet ciders in the Malaysian market are not my favorite so this really hit the spot. I’m usually more of a Guinness type of person but I enjoy partaking in different brews.

Informative-Wall

There were a lot of fun activations like this informative interactive wall display which explains how beer is brewed.

Quiz

Promoter girls went around for an impromptu quiz session where you can win coupons for a complimentary pint or bottle.

Ee-Laine

The limited-release festival beer is Tiger Amber Lager. This is the first ever locally brewed amber lager and Heineken Malaysia came out with this for The Great Brew Fest. It’s 5% alcohol and it tastes very flavorful.

Heineken-Malaysia

I enjoyed the fruity notes, malty sweetness and deep flavors. Some people didn’t like it but I loved it. It’s not as refreshing as lager, but it’s way tastier. It’s a cross between Paulaner/Kilkenny and Tiger White.

Wings

It’s perfect with food! People like to pair Tiger beer with Asian food and while there’s nothing wrong with that, I feel it washes out the flavors of food instead of complementing it. I’m a bit of a food geek and it is my nerdy opinion that Tiger Amber Lager would go better with certain food. The fruity malt notes would be a smashing companion to most ingredients.

Tiger-Amber

Heineken Malaysia even set up a bus for people to pop in and get a free sampler of Tiger Amber Lager.

Selfie

This is a semi-related selfie that I took because I found this promoter girl arrestingly beautiful.

Brewfest-Mugs

Moving on, another highlight of the night was the introduction of The Great Brew Fest 2018 limited edition designer mugs. There are five (5) in total – one each for Apple Fox, Tiger, Guinness, Paulaner and Kirin Ichiban. Each mug is done by one designer, from CLOAKWORK (who is a graffiti artist) to Lynda of Pink Tattoos. I’ve heard a lot about her and one of my colleagues even has a tattoo by her.

Apple-Fox

I got the red Apple Fox x CLOAKWORK one. Pretty cool! You can get one by visiting one of the participating outlets. There’s also a MugShot Contest where you can win a bucket of beer! More details and list of outlets at The Great Brew Fest Facebook page.

Exclusive-Brewfest-Mugs

Tiger Amber Lager is only going to be available for a limited time so check it out at participating outlets during The Great Brew Fest. I personally enjoyed it a lot and will be redeeming the two complimentary coupons I won for Tiger Amber Lager. Part of my enthusiasm is undoubtedly due to my affinity for limited runs but it really tastes good too!

Huawei P9 smartphone

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Huawei P9

I got a chance to play around with the new Huawei P9. It’s co-engineered with Leica and meant to reinvent smartphone photography. The thing that jumps out the most is the dual-lens at the back of the phone. That’s right, this smartphone has TWO lenses instead of the usual one at the rear. It also has 2 sensors so you can capture more light. I took it out to snap photos during the weekend.

Huawei

Nowadays, smartphones are primarily used to take photos of weekends, food and miscellaneous daily happenings to post to Instagram, Facebook, blogs. That’s what I use mine for anyway, and the image quality so good that I don’t feel the need to carry a regular digicam or dSLR anymore. It’s still not as good as a dSLR, of course, but the Huawei P9 is really close, close enough that I’ll choose the portable smartphone any day.

Professional Mode

The Huawei P9 has dual 12 MP cameras with a professional mode! This allows you to control all the aperture, shutter and ISO settings and save photos in RAW so it feels like a dSLR.

Tokyo Secret

The technologies packed into the smartphone camera is quite impressive too – there are now built-in dual-core ISP (image signal processors), professional DSP, and depth-measurement ISP for improved image focusing, speeds and processing. This allows you to take action shots of fast moving objects in low light conditions.

HDR

There are several presets you can use to take good photos well, like the HDR mode.

Document

The P9 has a feature which automatically takes documents too! I found that quite useful.

Chateraise

The lens are co-developed with Leica so the image quality is really good.

Honey Wings

I love how bright and vibrant the colors are.

Pocky Brazilian Orange

I got this new Pocky Brazilian Orange just to show off the intense color production of the camera. I can’t go back to using faded looking smartphone cameras after this beautiful shot. Oh, and the Pocky is pretty good too, it’s a Japan import to celebrate the Rio Olympics and it tastes intensely orange-y.

Panoramic

This is the Panoramic mode.

Photos

The camera will also auto-detect faces and focus on them.

Flash

There’s also a 8 MP front facing camera for selfies too! This was taken in pure darkness and the built-in flash went off, illuminating my face well enough to temporarily blind me. It also colored my face pretty decently, when you keep in mind that this was taken with zero other lighting, it’s really impressive. I remember when 8 MP was a lot for a rear facing camera in a smartphone and now even the front-facing ones are 8 MP. Amazing!

Beauty Mode

The Huawei P9 also has a dial for “Beauty” which can go from 0-10. You remember those third-party apps that some teenagers use to artificially enlarge and add shine to their eyes and add a BB cream smooth sheen to their skin? It’s all built-in now – no need for 3rd party apps.

Beauty

I took one as a demonstration. This is ultra boosted up to a 10 so it looks mildly ridiculous. I personally don’t approve of apps like this coz I don’t like how it looks. I don’t use them myself but that may be due to the fact that I already have nice eyes genetically (thanks mom). I can see that a lot of people like them though, so to each his/her own.

P9 Home

The smartphone also does everything well. I like the automatic step counter and the vivid 5.2” FHD display. The 3,000 mAh battery is pretty useful too. I don’t need to recharge every few hours and it works for up to 24 hours at full capacity in my daily tasks. There’s a fingerprint sensor and a virtual triple antenna with WiFi+ 2.0 which switches automatically between HSDPA+ and WiFi networks. I love the feel of the aerospace-class unibody aluminum and 2.5D glass. The Huawei has all the functions of a modern smartphone you’ll expect and more.

HuaweiP9

I actually saw the Huawei P9 advertisement in the cinema and thought it looked like a brilliant smartphone. As the smartphone market matures, non-camera technical specifications have increased so much that it makes little difference even in the most graphics intensive games. As such, it falls to other things to differentiate one smartphone from another and I like the direction the Huawei P9 is taking with the camera. It’s the most useful thing on a smartphone for most people and I appreciate how the superior camera and lenses allows me to capture high quality photos in such a small and sleek handset.

Horlicks NutriQuest Roadshow @ Orange Concourse, Sunway Pyramid

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Horlicks NutriQuest Game

I was at the Horlicks NutriQuest event over the weekend. It took up one of the concourses of Sunway Pyramid and the Horlicks NutriQuest roadshow is open to the public. However, on the event day, media and bloggers were invited to join the exclusive campaign launch session. The roadshow was meant to introduce a new game for iOS and Android which is incorporated with the story elements of being Tall, Strong and Sharp in the mobile game play. The story elements are coincidentally also what Horlicks is all about. Horlicks wants to engage kids of all ages through fun adventures available online and on ground by being Tall, Strong and Sharp! Check out Top Health Journal

Horlicks MidValley

Dr Greedy is the key character in the game. He is an evil scientist and the mastermind of the robbery in the Horlicks Factory because he does not want our kids to benefit from the nutrition provided by Horlicks. I also met him in person over the weekend. Haha. He (and his Metaloids) destroyed all Horlicks caches to prevent kids from growing Tall, Strong and Sharp. You’re one of the adventurers that steps up to stop him. This was reflected in the booths too – in addition to the one which had demos of the game running, there were three (3) activity booths.

Horlicks Tall

Tall is a Horlicks NutriQuest booth set up according to your height. Thus, this goes up if you’re higher and down if you’re lower. It’s all about giving a fair chance to kids, so it’s set to your relative height. You’re supposed to catch the Horlicks star. Are you tall enough to defeat Dr Greedy?

Horlicks Strong

Strong is where they set up a Bop Bag. This is a HUGE plastic Dr Greedy which has been bottom stabilized so it never topples over. You try and punch it as hard as you can to earn a stamp on your card. This is meant for kids but I tried punching the Bop Bag as hard as I could. It actually went over but didn’t topple, just as it was designed to do. Nifty.

Horlicks Sharp

Sharp is where they had a wild west rogue’s gallery of Dr Greedy and his henchmen. You’re armed with a semi-automatic Nerf gun full of foam darts. Your aim is to take out the entire board with just one bullet each. It was quite a challenge since Nerf guns don’t always shoot straight. I had fun at this booth, as did most older kids.

Nerf Gun

Stacy Wallace, the General Manager of GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Consumer Healthcare Malaysia launched the Horlicks NutriQuest Campaign and the mobile game app with the media after that. We also had lunch at Delicious courtesy of GSK. I have two kids and there was one (1) watch in the media kit so I asked her if it was possible to get another one. Thanks to her, I managed to get another one so the kids won’t fight. 🙂

Horlicks NutriQuest

Plus, she’s a mom too so she knows how it’s like having two kids. You either don’t give it to them at all (since you only have one) or you get another one and she was kind enough to procure another watch for me. What’s this watch, you say? Well, it’s an item from Horlicks which you can redeem too!

Horlicks Fun

Each Horlicks pack will have Horlicks NutriCoins inside within the duration of this campaign and the Horlicks NutriCoins can be redeemed for both in-game levels *and* exclusive prizes through online redemption.

Horlicks Event

I’ll showcase more about the Horlicks NutriQuest interactive adventure game in a separate post. Horlicks also offers 23 vital nutrients which are essential for growth and children development and I though it’s a great idea for the NutriCoins to be redeemable for awesome merchandise like watches in addition to in-game levels such as to unlock exclusive levels in the 4th Dimension world.

Dr Greedy

No, I’m not acting cool. I’m defeating Dr Greedy in-game and IRL at the same time! The game is very we-well-polished and fun, go download it for either iOS or Android now!

Driving with Shell V-Power Racing!

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Racing

The first time I experienced Shell V-Power Racing was earlier this year. I liked how it works for me, so I did a bit of reading up. To my surprise, I found out that it’s the first performance fuel in Malaysia, which has been around for 10 years! Can’t believe that it’s been around for a decade and I only got to know about in it 2016!

Station

Anyway, I tested it out recently and was pleasantly surprised, which was when I started using Shell V-Power Racing. I’ve been using it for 2 weeks since and it’s been very beneficial to me, as someone who drives a lot every day, a road warrior if you will (though not the Mad Max kind). You can really feel the performance when accelerating from a dead stop.

V-Power Racing

Shell V-Power Racing is formulated by 120 scientists and specialists around the world dedicated to the research and development of fuel. When you start accelerating from traffic lights (for example), you can really feel the fuel unlock a lot more power from the engine and better yet, it’s now Euro 4M compliant, so the emission standards are better for modern Euro 4-compliant cars too.

Shell develops the fuel by leveraging its Technical Partnership with Ferrari. Shell V-Power Racing contains a unique double action formulation, which is designed to unlock the potential of your car and actively clean your engine, in addition to reducing friction to produce more power. Awesome stuff!

Shell V-Power Racing uses the same Friction Modification Technology (FMT) used in Shell V-Power race fuel by Ferrari Formula 1 cars. It’s designed to reduce friction by introducing a surface coating component, which protects critical engine parts. I really like how Shell V-Power Racing cleans my engine while I’m driving and I’m sure that will have a lot of benefits down the road.

Shell V-Power Racing also helps unlock valuable energy by enabling a more efficient energy transfer from the fuel to the wheels. The way Shell V-Power Racing removes existing deposits can also enhance the responsiveness of your engine and with regular usage, Shell V-Power Racing can even help maintain a new car’s performance and in some cases, even recapture an engine’s performance!

Interesting fact: Shell V-Power race fuel supplied to Scuderia Ferrari’s Formula 1 team contains at least 99% of the same types of compounds normally found in the Shell V-Power Racing road fuel we get in Shell stations in Malaysia!

It’s nice to finally have a performance fuel, which not only actively cleans your engine, but is also formulated to reduce friction in critical engine areas and deliver high performance. These benefits are designed to give you an edge throughout the day, whether you are making short or long trips.

Shell Euro4M

Shell V-Power Racing is now available in over 45 stations around Malaysia. Drive into your nearest Shell station now or check out the list of stations where Shell V-Power Racing is available.

The best money exchange app!

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Convocation

I always have one eye on the currency exchange rates. It’s become a bit of a habit for me, since I left Malaysia to study in New Zealand when I was just 15 years old. I spent over 4 years in Australia for my university and spent a lot of time traveling around the world after that. I’ve been to multiple destinations in Europe (Germany, France, London, Amsterdam and Georgia) as well as Sri Lanka, Taiwan and China and Hong Kong.

Champs Elysees

I have travelled to Korea on a business trip and made my way to Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia on work related trips too. I’m both a leisure traveler and a business traveler so I can see things from both sides. It’s important to be able to check the money exchange rates quickly, especially if a trip is short-notice. I’ve known about the eforex.com.my website but now they have a mobile app!

eForex

I went to download the eForex app ( although you can always check some of the best affiliate programs for noobs 2020) to review it and I’ve kept it since it’s so useful! You have to register to use all the features and it can be a bit of a hassle. However, it’s an important step since you need to provide your personal details anyway when you exchange money in person. This way, you only have to do it once!

I felt better with that knowledge and entered all my details, which allowed me to create my own profile.

eForex App

The eForex app basically allows you to check live rates and buy foreign currency anytime anywhere from the app. They do it well with a minimalistic and easy to understand interface. You’re shown the few major options where you can instantly purchase currency or check your favorite currency rates live.

Today Exchange Rates

I really like the one-click instant update feature. You just need to click on “Today’s Rate” on the main landing screen in order to see all the major world currencies on one page from USD, Euro, GBP, etc. These are today’s live exchange rates and I’ve been clicking on it several times a day to monitor USD and the Japanese Yen since I will be travelling again in a couple of months.

Add Favorites

You can also set your favorite currencies here. Just click on the “…” options on the right and “Add to Favorite”. This will remember the currencies you exchange the most and put it in the Favorites List.

Favorite Currencies

There is also a wonderful feature where you can just input a single number in Malaysian Ringgit (MYR) and it shows you the equivalent rates today on ALL your favorite currencies. This allows me to type in 10000 and instantly see how much RM 10,000 would get me in JPY, SGD (my sister and dad lives there), NZD, USD and Euro. Very nifty!

Pick Up

There is also a sidebar where you can see where the nearest Pick-up Points are. You can browse through the list or enter in your current location to see if they have a branch nearby. eForex app is made by Merchantrade so they have a lot of outlets.

Kota Damansara

You can also see exactly where the outlet is (and use it to open Google Maps) or click to call the place directly. This allows you to easily purchase foreign currency and go and pick it up at a location. You just need to bring along your MyKad/IC (for Malaysians) or your passport (for non-Malaysians) along with your Transaction Confirmation Slip or eForex Pin Number (which is shown in the eForex app).

eForex Purchace

The online payment system is secure and you don’t need to carry huge amounts of cash to money changers anymore since you’ve already paid via the app. You can even purchase now and collect the foreign currency at today’s rate up to 6 months down the road – a great feature that is usually reserved for large companies! This is the first app in Malaysia which allows you to buy currency directly from the app.

Travel Reminder

There are also other awesome features like Rate Alerts (so you can know when your favorite currency hits a certain point) and Travel Reminder (which prompts you to buy currency when you’re about to fly off). It’s a simple app to navigate, yet with lots of important features which makes eForex an awesome app for frequent flyers, whether you’re traveling for business or pleasure.

Australia

Check it out by typing eForex in Google Play or App Store and you can download the free app and see how it works out for you. I’m quite fond of it, instead of having to type in “100 USD to MYR” in Google (which is a shortcut to see today’s rate, albeit from a US perspective so it’s not accurate) I can just click on the app to see a host of my favorite currencies rates updated live. I can now get the current confirmed exchange rate instead of an estimate to see if it’s a good day to exchange money. Lovely!

Titan Raga Moonlight Collection Launch @ Svago, KLCC

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Titan Svago KLCC

I have heard a lot of good things about Titan. They’re one of the largest watch manufacturers in the words (5th largest to be exact) and ranked among the top 100 luxury watch companies. Brought and distributed in Malaysia by Chronosoft Sdn Bhd, I’ve seen their timepieces around and when I heard about the launch of their Moonlight collection, I dropped by Svago in KLCC to check it out.

Titan Raga Moonlight

The Moonlight collection by Titan is inspired by the beauty of objects captured in moonlight. Mr Vijesh Rajan (Business Head International Division, Titan Company Limited) was there to share the stories behind the creation of each of the watches.

The Taj

I was particularly impressed by this one. It’s inspired by the Taj Mahal and features Swarovski crystals. This is called The Taj and is described as “a stunning illustration of the iconic monument, these timepieces draw inspiration from the awe-inspiring silhouette of the Taj Mahal on a full moon night”.

Mystic Luna

Mystic Luna is inspired by the moon goddess Luna and I like the beauty and elegance of the design.

Titan Moonlight Collection

Titan only uses Swarovski crystals exclusively in their Moonlight collection. The range is priced between RM 375 to RM 1,985 and there were models there to showcase the timepieces.

The Moonlight collection is under Titan Raga, which is a range of exquisite watches for the modern women. This leans towards the more mature and luxurious target market and often features precious stones and gems embedded into the timepieces.

Titan Edge

I also managed to examine their Edge range, which is the slimmest quartz watch in the world. You can see just how thin each one is. Amazing.

Titan

I also got a limited edition Titan watch!

Titan Watch

Titan creates a range of limited edition watches for the Penang Bridge International Marathon each year and this one retails for RM 525. They’re also one of the sponsors of the event and the official watch for the Allianz Penang Bridge International Marathon.

Watch

This particular watch has a large face with 100 meter water resistance.

Titan Penang Bridge International Marathon

It has the Penang Bridge International Marathon emblem engraved into the back of the watch.

Titan Watch Design

I like how there is a LCD display with digital timekeeping in addition to the regular chronograph and the day of the week is displayed as well.

Titan Men Watch

The leather strap offers a practical functionality and I personally prefer leather straps for versatility but you can swap it out if you want.

Work

I’ve been using this watch exclusively for almost a month now, both in KL and in my business dealings in Sarawak and I love the way it’s appropriate for both work…

Casual

…and play.

Titan Watches

Titan has a range of watches for both men and women and if you’re keen to hear more about it, drop by their website at Titan World or interact with them on the Titan Facebook page.

Acer Predator 15 Gaming Laptop Review

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Acer Predator Launch

I have a problem which I’m sure a lot of other games share. I own a relatively new notebook (bought it earlier this year) since I need a portable device to use for work when I’m out and about. However, I believe that notebooks should be dual purpose and it must be able to handle the games I play when I’m home too.

Buy Games

Unfortunately, that isn’t a reality for the majority of us with regular notebooks. I can’t play a lot of the new games for this very reason. I didn’t buy even buy Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void until two weeks ago coz I knew my (relatively new) notebook can’t handle the graphics on the highest settings and I *want* to play it on the highest settings.

Predator

Hell, I’ll even go so far to say that I deserve to.

Hearthstone

However, you can’t expect that in a normal notebook. There simply isn’t enough processing and graphics card power in a notebook format. Thus, I mostly play Hearthstone, a relatively non-intensive game. Anything remotely related to FPS (first person shooter) and MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena) genres are out of the question. Games like Wolfenstein: The Old Blood. Alien Isolation, Heroes of the Storm just doesn’t run well on work notebooks.

Acer Predator Box

Enter the Acer Predator laptop. It’s a notebook that’s built to gamer friendly specifications. I was amazed when I scrolled though the technical details. The Acer Predator laptop all run the latest and most powerful NVIDIA GeForce notebook GPUs! The new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M and 980M has been rated to run at up to 70% of their desktop counterparts.

Acer Predator Unboxing

That’s a huge figure if you know anything about notebook gaming. Previous notebook GPUs can only achieve less than 40% parity with their desktop counterparts. Finally, we have a gaming laptop solution which is almost equal to the most powerful desktop gaming machines (and definitely more powerful than most mid-tier gaming desktops).

Acer Predator 15

You can at last run the latest and greatest games like Call of Duty: Black Ops III on a notebook and get better performance than all but the highest end desktop machines, courtesy of the Acer Predator laptop series. I was lucky enough to get an Acer Predator 15 for review. This laptop is equipped with:

  • Windows 10 Home 64-bit
  • Intel Core i7-6700HQ processor
  • 16GB DDR4 RAM
  • Full HD 1920 x 1080 15.6″ display
  • NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M with 3GB GDDR5 VRAM
  • 128 GB SSD drive + 1 TB SATA HDD

This unit retails for RM 6,999. You can also get 24 GB DDR4 RAM and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980M with 4GB GDDR5 VRAM and a 256GB SSD drive for RM 8,999. I can tell you that the graphics card alone is easily a third of the cost when you buy it from stores, this is not as expensive as you think, gamers spend this amount for GPUs all the time.

Acer Predator Gaming Series

I say this coz I heard a lot of people commenting about the price during the launch of the Acer Predator. I silently thought to myself “These people have never played a single game in their lives, much less know about GPUs and the price of the latest NVIDIA GeForce graphics card”. I didn’t say it out loud coz I didn’t want to appear to be condescending but that’s the point of the Acer Predator laptop series.

Acer Predator

It’s for GAMERS.

FrostCore Acer

There’s Predator FrostCore, the swappable fan design which injects this powerful gaming rig with extra cold to keep heat down and performance up. It’s additional cooling, the notebook is already cooled, but if you don’t need the DVD drive, you can swap out the bay easily by a switch via the back.

Predator FrostCore

Pop in the Predator FrostCore and you’ll see a noticeable change in your performance.

Watch Dogs

I found out that putting the Predator FrostCore in for games like Watch Dogs gives a 5-10 fps (frames per second) increase. This is on the highest quality settings with all the bells and whistles (4xSSAA anti-aliasing etc).

FPS

I also liked the Killer DoubleShot Pro technology. It basically uses BOTH your WiFi and Ethernet to combine and optimize bandwidth. You can use this by selecting the fastest one (which can differ according to circumstances) to dedicate to your game or select one to use for your game and the other for streaming.

Steam

This is perfect for Twitch streamers. You don’t need a lot for your games but NVIDIA ShadowPlay takes a lot of bandwidth so you can use the faster one (be it Ethernet or WiFi) for uploading ShadowPlay recordings to Twitch or YouTube Gaming.

Subwoofer

The Predator SoundPound 4.2 boasts four speakers with two powerful subwoofers and Dolby Audio surround sound. I was quite surprised at the fidelity of treble notes and the intensity of bass in a laptop. The Acer Predator 15 I had was LOUD!

PredatorSense ProZone

The PredatorSense intelligent gaming keyboard control and customization options lets you set up keyboard macros (essential for anyone who plays World of Warcraft and similar games). It’s quite useful for RTS (real time strategy) games like Starcraft II also. The Predator ProZone keyboard is insanely accurate and has four (4) customizable backlight zones and programmable macro profiles you can share. The backlight is very useful if you’re gaming in the dark and you can set the intensity as you wish – notice how the W, A, S, D keys are brighter than the surrounding ones.

You can use up to three (3) monitors including one NVIDIA G-SYNC monitor with the Acer Predator gaming laptop too so you can setup the most immersive gaming experience at your home. The features above are standard in all Acer Predator laptop series.

StarcraftII

The Acer Predator series is not for the average Joe who fiddles around with Microsoft Word and uses Excel once in a while to do their taxes. It’s not for the casual gamer who thinks Angry Birds or Bejeweled is the pinnacle of gaming. It’s for gamers like us who plays AAA titles like Call of Duty. It’s for the competitive gamers who participate in DOTA tournaments. It’s for Twitch streamers who wants to play Counter Strike: Global Offensive and have enough processing power to do it in the highest resolution and quality settings while rebroadcasting it to their fans.

Acer Gaming

The gaming industry has grown exponentially over the past decade and games are now the biggest budget titles and earners instead of Hollywood films. This trend will continue and for those of us who enjoys playing games, you’ll want to have a high end notebook, especially if you’re someone like me who only wants one (1) device to do it all – both work and games.

Find out more at the Acer Predator website.



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