Jenson Press

Yo guys, thanks for being so patient with me (though I would not know whether there is actually no one reading my blog at all, hehe …), by the way, I have tried out pairing this YP-T10 with my Sony Ericsson W850i and the SBH 500 Bluetooth headset weeks before, I think should be two weeks ago? As I never brought along my earpiece, so I took out the bluetooth headset and try to pair with the player (oops, in fact, it’s already paired up), and paired the YP-T10 to the phone (I can’t try out my samsung as that E730 is not with me now, I give it out, so I will report on it when I have the chance to touch on it again, which I will be trying to do before 2007 ends, and I shall continue to update here beginning 1st Jan 2008 and onwards.

The result is pretty good. I enjoy the 3-in-1 music playback with phone functionality. But remember to upgrade your firmware first. I’ve upgraded it after I’ve fully charged it on the same day I brought it home. So I’m not pretty sure whether you can do the same without upgrading the firmware of your YP-T10. But you can always give it a try.

How to pair it? Just do the same like what you would do with the pairing of your T10 and Bluetooth headset. Press and hold down the “Pick up” button on the bluetooth headset, and use your other hand to switch on the bluetooth player and continue holding the “Pick Up” button, I mean the button you press to pick up a phone call (Of course it’s on the bluetooth side, not on your mobile phone, so better make sure you press the correct one!). Then wait until the light stop flashing and stay still at Blue, then you can on your Bluetooth at your mobile phone there, and search for device, then you can pair it by keying in the default 4-digit key to pair them up.

Woot! Now you have your 3-in-1 Phone calling and music playing set! Ok, I don’t know Sony Ericsson will actually call me up, then I happen to be reading book and listening to music at the same time. Then I suddenly hear the dial-tone from the headset, together with my mobile phone vibrating, I think with the ringtone playing too. Then I press the “pick up” button on the bluetooth headset to answer the call.

You know what, I always have confidence in Samsung technology on voice clarity during phone call (my E730 has the voice clarity on and it’s crystal clear with minimum to zero background noise, all I can hear is the voice of the other party, unless it’s extremely noisy, but the background noise would become nothing since it boost the clarity of voice and you can hear the other party as if you’re talking to him/her face-to-face!), so this apply to the bluetooth headset too!

I can hear no background noise (maybe because he is in the office or what) and he talked to me, everyone stared at me because it’s very fascinating while I’m listening to music, reading book, I still can answer call from the same bluetooth headset. Then I start talking to the Sony Ericsson guy regarding joining as Sony Ericsson phone application developers. But too bad, until now no updates from him yet regarding sending me the “things” via email. He never disclosed anything to me, just promised will send the details to me via email.

Well, one bad thing I don’t like about the headset is, though it’s clear, I have to speak louder while having the bluetooth headset on, else the other party would find it hard to hear what I’m trying to tell him. So I have to speak louder, not to the extreme of shouting yet, which make me feel that, whatever I said, other people also can hear it. But no choice, if you want the conveniences, you have to sacrifice something, haha…

So overall, it’s still quite useful. With these 3 devices working together (of course your mobile phone could be anyone matching the requirements stated in the user manual of bluetooth headset), you have no worries of missed call or untangled music listening.

Well, before I finish up part 3 (wait for my other updates too, ok? There would be part 4 and 5, so and so forth), I have some comments on the usability of the bluetooth headset. This bluetooth headset will auto pause your music while you have incoming call, so after you hang up the call, they will resume from where the music stop and continue playing. Moreover, it won’t pause abruptly or resume surprisingly! What I mean by that? It’s because on Samsung mobile phone, they have this built-in settings, the ringtone won’t play with the default loudness you have set, so it will play gradually from lower volume and slowly increasing to the volume level you have set for your ringtone. Same thing apply to this bluetooth headset too. The music will gradually come to a pause (not very slow, but you can feel and hear it), upon resuming, the same process repeat for this part. Which is very nice, isn’t it? At least you won’t be shocked by sudden loud music playing and damage your hearing too? Good idea!

Samsung has always put in more efforts for customer care. They might not always be the leader in the features, functionality and technology of their products, but they always try to make it the best before they release it, even though it’s slower than other vendors and make them lose up to the competition. But you know what, that’s one thing Samsung fans like about it, they don’t care who come out with it first, they want it to perform at its best when they finally get it. And one more thing is, Samsung always listen to their consumers, whenever you have some special requests and complaints or bug reports, you can be 100% assured that next release of their products would have the things you want! The bug is fixed too! For those old model, just bring for firmware upgrade, unless it’s a device design faults, then they changed their design in their new product release! Which I quite like it.

The reason I get my current Sony Ericsson phone is because I find it cheap and my mobile plan contract is ending in one month time, and I have never try their product, and also with limited budget, so I get this phone, but quite like it too, just that the built-in 2MP camera is not a clear as what my Samsung E730 1.3MP camera. Maybe only their K series Cybershot phone camera can be better? Not so sure =)

Because I like music, that’s why I joined as Samsung and Ripplevox Wireless Wizard, and that’s also the reason why I get a walkman phone instead of the Cybershot K-series SE phones, hehe… Music all the way! Go go go….

Wow, today when I’m on the way to take MRT at Bukit Batok Interchange, I passed by WestMall, you guess what I see? I see a lot of people queuing around the corridor, all the way from outside the MRT station to the some sort of booths. I’m rushing to somewhere else, so I can’t really check what’s happening there. But by looking at the promotion brochures/pamphlets the promoters are holding, I roughly saw some phone pictures there, moreover, the brochure look greenish here and there. So I supposed it should be those regular Starhub year-end roadshow.

Not to my surprise, when I took the train back to Bukit Batok, it’s about 1.30pm and I saw the queue become even longer, so out of curiosity, I follow the queue and found the source. Yes! You’re right, Starhub Christmas Roadshow! Really good deal I tell you. You have to believe me, I have took a picture of part of the brochure I took from a young promoter.

So I think you can guess that $0 you see on the brochure is $0 dollar. Those phones are free for first 100 customers of the day. Yes, it’s on daily basis, everyday 100 lucky customers. That is not all. Those four are the only 4 I’m showing you, there are much much more. Sorry I’m not their promoter or staff, so I won’t help them to promote more here since I get nothing by helping them, haha… to know more in details please visit their roadshow at WestMall, Bukit Batok

Okie, to show you how exaggerate it is, here are some photos to share with you, well, I even heard those who just arrived saying,”OMG, this must be a joke! How come the queue can be so long?Is it really that good?”. Ok, most of the deals are real good and attractive, just make a trip down there you will know what I mean.

That is only the queue for those who are interested to get the deals from Starhub, there are people sitting everywhere around Starhub booths to wait for their numbers to be called and process their subscriptions/applications. Can you imagine so many people queuing there daily? From morning until night time! Gosh! Of course I’m not that bored to do something so stupid, which is to stay there from morning until night time just to take photos and report to you? No no no, I have too much stuff to do and too many commitments, I can’t afford to waste my valuable time here. Hehe…

Well, just browse through these photos to have some feels of Christmas bargains, this also telling you that Christmas is just around the corner, have you bought your present for someone special? your friends? colleagues? Or your family members? Or you just want to get one for yourself? It’s time to get something now. If you need a new phone, new broadband, or cable TV shows? Go to Starhub now, they even have special discount and promotions for limited customers who become their hubbers at the roadshow.

You might want to buy the Samsung YP-T10 that I’m auditioning right now. So far so good, the longer you are holding to it, the more you will like it, my love for it grows day after day, and I can tell you now I cannot live without it, though the bluetooth headset is still a problem for me, i felt fatigued easily if I clamped my head with it for one whole day. I cannot take it. And I’m not those who can listen to music for hours with earphones or headphones. At most I can last 3 hours, but normally I would maintain at the level of taking a break after every 1 hour of music listening to protect my precious ears and my hearing. I don’t want to overload them with music until they fail to function for me, and I can hear nothing at all by then. Do you want it to happen to you? So take good care of your ears and maintain a healthy music style and listening habit. And one more important thing is to maintain the volume at reasonable and acceptable level, blasting music to your ear for one hour daily would make you one step closer to become hearing-impaired. Do you really want to be like that? Of course NO! So be satisfied and be under control. Don’t be too greedy, the music won’t runaway, the player is yours, why in a hurry to join the music listening marathon to see who can blast longer? Stay cool, and be frienly to your ears =)

Ok, back to the topic, here are the photos, enjoy!

Well, after a few days or trying out the Samsung YP-T10 and SBH 500, which accordingly to Lin from RippleVox, that it’s currently only available at Samsung Concept Shop in VivoCity! Well, perhaps I should pay a visit to their concept shop this weekend! Maybe I would receive a warm reception by the staff there if they see me using their new products! (Fat hope! I guess you would like to tell me this). It’s ok, just allow me to dream on, hehe…

I noticed that the screen protector that comes with the player itself isn’t that protective at all, it attract finger marks, and easily get scratched! Eewww… that’s too cruel to hurt a beauty like this. Well, i do read up a bit on the specs of this little “Black Beauty”, and I found out that, there’s no applications and no games at all (which is quite true even by my self-exploration after right after I opened the box at home, as what you can see in the pictures of my previous post). Well, it’s a waste to miss out on these since iPod Nano have card game and calendar plus stopwatch? But not too bad, YP-T10 does come with one application, which is quite common in mp3 players nowadays, yes you’re right if you guess for Voice Recorder!

Okie, and it’s nice that it comes with bluetooth connectivity, which allows the file sharing between bluetooth devices, as well as the pairing of bluetooth headset which will further enhance and enjoyment of this sleek and slim player. but a bit too long I must say. I would prefer the designer(s) to design it smaller in the first place. But it’s so slim that I can always put inside my pocket, of course it has a drawback there, you would easily lose it if you never keep it inside your pocket properly. You might let it slips out from your pocket unknowingly, I told you! Because it’s too sleek and slim that it helps on its sliding pleasure out of your pocket enjoy some fresh air! Or even worse, landed on another stranger’s hand. Though as the saying goes,” Sharing is caring”, but I don’t think you would want to share your “baby” or “wife” with someone else, do you?

Back to my main point, so far I have only tested on the music playing and bluetooth connectivity. I figure out for quite a while on the pairing part, but I managed to pair them up eventually. The user guide/manual is really a rubbish! I swear! Just play around with them on your own free time, you can figure out faster than to understand what it’s trying to tell you! I always believe hands-on is always easier and more enjoyable then reading up guides, haha, a programmer/developer style on working with stuff?

Well, I learned how to use the player and the bluetooth headset by my own exploration and as usual, within a couple of minutes, you are ready to enjoy it at least 70% if not 100%. I would tell you, the user guide, I just leave it there, and try to figure out myself how to navigate between different menus and options, and now I can say I’ve fully use all the functions right now. Ok, this is not bragging, you can do the same too! As long as you spend some time playing with it, you will master it within maybe one hour? Most likely less than that.

Okay okay, I used too much “well” and “okay” here, thus, I shall refrained myself from using it further in the following paragraph, and sorry for being a tad long-winded. Now, what is the good and bad of the bluetooth headset? What can you expect? What is my experience with it? How can it improve further?

First of all, the bluetooth headset looks very cool, when I put it on for the first time and roam the WestMall, quite a lot of people staring at me and trying to figure out which headset am I using, and some even come closer or pretend to look for someone behind me, and check on my headset. I think they are wondering this headset is wireless and some more they have never seen it anywhere before? Well, I think they are just too shy to ask me where I get and how is it sounding? I think most of them would miss out the “calling” sign, or whatever name you would call it, that it can make a call, and there is a little hole on the rounded-pointed thing come out from one side of the phones (on your right), that has a in-built microphone for you to make or answer a call! So far I haven’t use it to make or receive calls yet. So I’m not so sure about the quality there.

The experience with the sound quality is decent, or maybe can say it’s above average. Nowhere sounding etremely good or superior. I did try my my audio-technica ATH-A500, a close phones, or in proper English, a closed type headphones, which definitely sound much better compare to SBH 500, but SBH 500 is doing a better job than the pairing earphones that come with the player. I find that although the bass for SBH 500 is there, but the extensibility of lower bass is not there. You can try to experience it with orchestra, instrumental with drums, and Jazz (yes, my favourite) pieces to prove me wrong, if you don’t agree with me. But well, if you like pop and rock, you would surely like this headset and its bass is just right for you to blast your head off, but for more demanding music lovers, there are still rooms for improvements. But good job! Samsung, the samsung phone I used to own has a decent sound quality too, which I enjoy while listening to it during my journey to and fro between my house and the workplace. But mp3 player by Samsung definitely used a better technology, I suppose, but who doesn’t? Do you want to make a mp3 player sounds like a radio?

Sometime I use the earphones, sometime I switch to the headset. Why? Because, I’m wearing a spec! I can’t fit up the neckband headset properly. My spec have thick bands too, so it’s a bit hard to put both of them together without fighting with each other on space to sit on my ears! Well, sometime I do manage to find the “just right” position for the headphones to rest peacefully on top of my ears with my spec, but you would expect me to get fatigue over time, and it does happen to me, so that’s the time when I switch to earphones, or you would call it earpiece. Though the design leave some gaps there, which I can make use of it to “clip” to my spec bands, but unfortunately, it’s not good enough, it jumps off from my ear once in a while, due to limited space available for two “thick” guys to squeeze in. I hope Samsung can refine their design and come out with a universal neckband bluetooth headset that can be used by those wearing spec and those who’re not. That would be an ideal solution.

The listening experience is quite good and I have less distractions and noises from my surroundings. Due to the fact that it’s a mini closed headphones, or maybe you can call it semi-closed? Hmmm…it looks like a tiny closed headphones to me, that clip on your ears. But the earphones that come with the player fit in comfortably and I have no problem having them on for hours. The drawback would be the long wire or cable, or whatever you would like to call it, or maybe lines, too! It’s too long and always get tangled. Sometime people next to you (inside the MRT) might just sit on your cables accidentally. Ouch! When you stand up and about to alight, and with him/her remain seated, you could imagine what would happen next.

Quality wise, I find that I can’t really get the Street Mode working? I’m like what the? Even I turned out the Street Mode, I can’t even listen to my music properly when the train is moving inside the tunnel, or when I’m traveling by bus. I can hear the noise but not my music. That’s very strange. That makes me try to stick to the bluetooth headset when I’m traveling with public transport.

By the way, before I end my review today, please allow me to commend abit on the player itself. The touch screen navigation of the player is a cool things to have. But I find it too sensitive, especially for those who has big or “fat” fingers, they would have difficulties, even myself would press the wrong button, which I think the touch “buttons” are too close to each other, sometime you end up pressing next track when you actually want to press on the play “button”. Hmm…

Anyway, I must say, it’s cool if you are bringing these gadgets around, and everyone would be amazed by what you’re holding but they are generally too shy to ask you more on the gadgets you have on hands. Well, I guess what we can do is just blog more and share with the friends you know.

Oh yeah, Lin also asked to to mentioned about RippleVox too! Hey guys, if you are interested to stand a chance to enjoy what I’m doing right now, join us at RippleVox! Free registration is required, and you can visit the site at http://www.ripplevox.com

There’s not only activity like this. There are all sorts of other activities and events, that I think there would definitely be one that will interest you!

So cya for now! Do come back again for my updates on the wireless journey on music listening! Nitez…

Jenson.