1. GPS

Pai Nian (Visiting friends and relatives house) for Ang Pao is the most important activity during Chinese New Year. Without Pai Nian, the whole CNY will not be meaningful because no Ang Pao = No CNY.

With the help of GPS and Satellite software like Garmin and Tom Tom Navigator, you’re able to locate your friends and relatives house without any hassle. Especially for friends and relatives who stay far away from the city or friends that you’ve lost contact for years, you can simply request for their GPS coordinates and your GPS device will guide your Ang Pao route.

2. Facebook

If you’re wondering what Facebook can do for you during Chinese New Year, here’s a suggestion…

First, wish all your friends happy CNY regardless of race and send them a virtual gift or ang pao. Second, create a RSVP event, gather all your friends to discuss and plan for group visit. An ang pao hunting event! Third, update your status. Tell others where you are and what are you doing so that your friends are able to join you. More people = more fun! Fourth, after visiting a friend’s house, don’t forget to upload the photos you’ve taken and don’t forget to tag them! Fifth, if you hate being visited by relatives and friends (or if you’re anti social) Facebook can help. Ignore them, turn on your PC and start Facebooking (play games). Start Facebooking only after you snatch your Ang Pao.

3. Twitter

Just like what you did in Facebook, you tweet your latest location and event with your iPhone. Let your followers contact you and join for Ang Pao hunting.

4. Digital Photo Frame

Visited by relatives and friends during CNY is pretty usual. Don’t just chit chat with small talk. Share your stories and impress them with your digital photos. A physical photo album is good but not as good as a digital photos frame that can store thousands of photos and stream photos from your computer through bluetooth or WIFI. Forget about your dusty photo album, Digital Photo Frame FTW!

5. Google Latitude

Google Latitude gives you the exact location of our friends and family. With Google Latitude, we able to locate and notify friends and relatives near our place so that we can pay them a visit or visit a place together.

6. Ipod / Mp3 player / Media Player

For those who’re going back to their home town for CNY, a long and boring journey is unavoidable. If you plan to relax or sleep for the whole journey, an MP3 player like iPod or iPod Touch is your best companion.

7. PSP / NDSL

If you plan to stay awake on the way back to your hometown, a portable gaming console is a must! For serious portable gaming, there’s not much choice out there. Try PSP (normally for guys) or a casual game oriented portable gaming console such as NDSL (normally for girls). If you’re bored with your PSP, you can always transform it to a portable media player. 4.3 inch screen for movie FTW!

8. Wii / PS3 / Xbox360

If you have kids visiting you, a gaming console is a must. Keep the kids and teenagers entertained. I’m not advocating violence but fighting games like Tekken and Street Fighter are always fun. Better live with the noise than the kids breaking all your other stuff.

9. PayPal for Angpau

If you can’t visit your kids or relatives during CNY, the least you can do is transfer some money to them. Besides Western Union and Maybank2u, PayPal is simple and fast, but note there is a 3-4% charge.

10. Skype / GTalk / MSN / Yahoo Messenger

Unable to visit your friends and relatives – Fret not! Audio and Video Conference with Skype, GTalk, MSN or Yahoo Messenger…  do an online virtual Pai Nian (visit) and renew your friendships

iPhone 3GS new features:

• The “S” stands for “SPEED!”. This phone is now much faster in almost everything!
• 3 Megapixels camera with auto focus, auto exposure, and auto white balance.
• Supports video, 30 frames per second VGA with auto focus, auto white balance, and auto exposure.
• Better connectivity – Three band UMTS/HSDPA, Four band GSM/EDGE, Wi-Fi 802.11b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR
• Fingerprint-resistant oleophobic coating!
• Magnetometer, which works with a Compass application.
• Voice control.
• Increased battery life.

Too much new features to list here, you might just want to read it on Apple.com.

With all these great features, you would expect I to love iPhone 3GS forever, but well, maybe not anymore… see why below!

Hey, I can SMS with US President Obama better on the Blackberry!

Wahahaha…

Okay, seriously. iPhone 3GS or Blackberry is your choice? Why? Share with us your preference and thoughts.

Well take heart, you can do something about it!

Computer games as a form of protest is quick becoming the vogue.

Check out the most recent protest game made by the Transport Workers Union of America to lash out at American Airlines CEO Gerard Arpey.

It is all part of a protest against bonuses paid to top executives despite poor company performance. The game itself is simple, being a flash animation game, but the issue it highlights is fueling debate worldwide.

The game represents a growing trend where games are to attract the public’s attention towards an issue.

A game used to be about relaxing and escapism, but now it is used to focus our attention on issues in the real world. Talk about irony.

But I guess these forms of games, called advergames, are here to stay. Most companies have already embraced the idea, using them to promote their products shamelessly, while other more creative individuals use games as a form of satire, to lampoon whoever they feel is worthy of their ridicule. Anyone remember the George Bush shoe throwing game?

I am a traditionalist, so I feel that these advergames are not truly games. In my book, games are more of a simulation, a way I can test my skills and abilities in an enjoyable way. A game would provide me with a challenge or problem to solve, and a sense of achievement after doing so. A really good game would also make me want to repeat it in hope of finding a better, faster, or more efficient way of completing it. All of which, I guess, could be viewed as personal development.

Seeing mainstream journalists lumping advergames together with real computer games is like saying that a McValue meal and a dinner at a 3-star Michelin restaurant are the same. Well, maybe they lack the taste to tell the difference.

Sourced from Flickr.

All right… this is a prank but it almost made me rolling on the floor laughing as it made me laughing so hard!

This video “YouTube in 1985″ tries to show us what the popular YouTube service would have been if it had initially operated in 1985 as a “mail-order video” site. Check out the video… it’s so funny!

Wanna try?

Let’s check out a few of the games which were inspired by this shoe throwing incident.

Sock and Awe
A pun on the US military strategy of “shock and awe”. This game gives the player 30 seconds to try to hit Bush as many times as possible, with shoes of course!

The game is pretty addictive but needless to say it’s difficult to hit President Bush in the face. I only managed to do 10 in one go… the best on the hall of fame is 35! Try yourself and see if you can beat the record! Play Sock and Awe.

Bush’s Boot Camp game

Bush’s Boot Camp game is slightly different although it offers the same level of fun and excitement.

In this game, you are the secret service. You need to fire at the shoes that were thrown at the President, otherwise the President loses health when he’s hit by the shoes. Try it, you will surely like the game!

Credit to the creator of this excellent flash game.

Flying Babush

Flying Babush is another flash game inspired by this incident. You are the President in this game and you need to duck to avoid being hit by the flying shoes. Stay alive as long as possible.

Play Flying Babush now!

Bush’s Shoe Dodge

If you hadn’t had enough fun with the above games, then try Bush’s Shoe Dodge. You need to dodge the flying shoes by hitting the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard. Three strikes and you are out!

In this game Muntazar al-Zaidi has an unlimited shoe supply! Play Bush’s Shoe Dodge.

Bush Shoe Game

I know you had lots of fun by now, but don’t miss this last game in the series! Simply use the arrow keys on your keyboard to do the trick!

Tired of playing ducking and dodging? Haha… go take a break and come back for more games!

Of course, this real Photoshop thingy which I came across on Digg.com could be real, but it’s not very likely. I think it should have been a work of Photoshop, by a creative fella.

Anyway, it’s so genius that it deserved more than 2,000 diggs in a really short period of time. Kudos to the creator!

As the app note points out, the hardest part in taking a dog’s picture is to attract its attention. Bow Cam solves this problem by barking at the dog for you! Simply, touch the “BOW” button when you are ready, and iPhone will bark and call the dog for you!! How clever!!

With Bow Cam you can even select what kind of bark you want – German Shepard, Chiwawa, and many more. In fact, there are 10 different barking sound effects so select the one your dog likes the most!

Why not take a photo with the normal iPhone camera?

By the way, of course you could just take your iPhone to the toilet.