9/30/2018

House of Marley Positive Vibration 2 Wireless Headphones

I have had a pair of this for over two months. Herewith a wrap-up of my experience.

GOOD THINGS
> Good quality sound.
> Good bass.
> Cool design. Very classy and elegant, and they blend perfectly with brown hair.
> Buttons and connecting sockets are discreetly located and barely noticeable, so the set looks very polished.
> Good Bluetooth range, so I can move around my apartment without the quality of the sound changing of the connection braking up.
> It can be easily folded into itself and it is easy to carry. 

SO-SO
> The Battery life. Not too bad but not too good either. Be sure to switch off the set if you aren't going to use it because, otherwise, the battery drains fast. If you switch them off, it will last you for several days of casual listening.
> The phone cord is a bit short and a bit too thick to carry it outside home.
> The design of the switch on-off button could be better. I would have preferred an on-off button that works without having to hold it, just by pushing it once.
 

NOT SO GOOD THINGS
> The earphone pods are too small even for small adult ears, like mine.
> The earphone set is too tight and pressures the head too much. As one can adjust the length of the pods but not the tightness, this set can give you a headache if you want to use it for more than a couple of hours at the time. This is my case, and I have a small head.
> No indicator of battery percentage left. I mean, even if there was, the indicator is at the base of one of the pods, so if you are wearing them you won't be able to see them. It would be great to have a notification bubble appearing on my device showing battery levels. Just a suggestion!

Overall, a good pair of earphones, but there are too many things needing improvement to ignore.

9/22/2018

Colori D'Italia Pizza - Pasta - Cucina (Melbourne CBD)

GOOD
A bit of everything sort of cafeteria.
Generous portions.
Good priced.
Fast service.
Clean spacious premises.
Lovely staff.
Great location.

NOT SO GOOD
The food., bland, unseasoned, lacking flavour. I visited for an early lunch, when the pre-prepared pasta dishes had been just cooked, and the pasta was already a bit on the soft side, not on the al-dente side. I think it would have been overcooked if I had visited 10 minutes later. 

MIND
During the day, which is when I visited, this is more a cafeteria (a la hospital) which offers a bit of everything, mostly pre-prepared food, than a cafe or restaurant. They have a selection of rolls, sandwiches and prepared Italian dishes (fresh pasta dishes, meatballs) for you to choose from.  Except for the breakfast and pizzas, which are cooked on order, the food they were serving was all pre-cooked. On the other hand, for those prices, you cannot expect real Italian either.

Industry Beans Lt. Collins (Melbourne CBD)

I visited at around twelve. Due to the photos of food on Zomato, I thought that they would be serving cooked prepared food. However, this is not the case. They serve coffee and have a small cabinet with prepared rolls, sandwiches, raw balls and cupcakes.

The place is cute, modern and in a killer location. 

Coffee was well prepared but one of those too-much-milk coffees that is spreading like a plague throughout Melbourne. It might be just the beans they use or the roasting, but it was a meh coffee, totally postmodern meh.

I tried one of their cranberries raw balls, and I have to say it was absolutely delicious, filling, filled with goodness, totally tasty, not greasy and not sweet. One of the best raw balls ever!

Staff were underwhelming, reactive to any comment or action,. Thank gosh for Mr "Skinny Water', who understood what customer service is all about. 

MIND
> No large size coffee cups or takeaways.
> No cash accepted. That's right!
> Receipts on paper not given. If you want yours, you add your email and they email it to you.

Shade Cafe (Hawthorn, Vic)

Coffee was really good. Food was nice, but not beyond nice, really; good serving portions, and good priced as well. However, it took about 15 minutes or so for my food to come out and, honestly, it was not worth the wait. The staff were really lovely but there was an evident lack of coordination and attention to detail. There were a good deal of patrons when I visited, but the place was not full by any means. This is a good addition to the Glenferrie coffee strip, but there are so many awesome cafes around that they need to step up their game if they want to survive.

9/13/2018

OPPO R15 4G LTE Mobile Phone

This is my second Oppo, and most happy with it. Here a wrap-up of my experience with this phone.

GOOD THINGS
> Light compact phone, beautifully designed, classy and cool. Easy to handle even if you have small hands.
> The charging speed is amazing. Charger is really good quality. This is, perhaps, one of the main reasons I love this brand.
> Battery capacity is also amazing. I have experienced that for years with my old Oppo and still experiencing it now with this new one.
> Fast responsive intuitive touch.
> Clear, crisp vibrant images.
> Camera is very clear and detailed. There are many adorable stickers for selfies, a decent number of effects, basic adjustments, different light settings and an expert mode to take photos with manual settings. The results are excellent from both front and rear cameras.
> I thought that face recognition capability would be an unnecessary thing, but now that I've experienced the joy of unlocking my phone and apps by looking lovingly at my device, what the heck?! I think this is a must. Fingerprint, as in previous models, is really accurate and another way to lock/unlock phone and apps.
> I love the square 'button' on the screen, which is like the one tablets have to allow easy switch between open applications/windows. I really missed that in my previous phone, and I'm happy to have it in this one.
> The toggle is easily customizable and has a good deal of functions to choose from.
> Multi-screen allowed.
> The sound, which was one of my main complaints about my old Oppo has dramatically improved. The quality of the recording has improved dramatically, so much so that a friend commented on it.
> There is a safe kids' space for you to allow your kids to use the phone in a censored way, as you can put your naughty photos, videos or stuff in an inbuilt safe that they cannot access.
> There are tons of security features in this phone to protect your privacy, the leaking of the information from your apps, phishing and what's not. The phone comes with a simple but handy phone manager (to optimize your phone, which includes a simple anti-virus, and special settings to protect payment applications). One of the things I like the most, is that, regardless of which keyboard you are using, when you have to login and type a password the system automatically switches to the inbuilt keyboard, so your passwords cannot be 'recorded'. Also, you don't need any extra app to lock your applications as you can do that from your phone settings.
> Some apps are part of the system: compass, torch, night shield, calculator, assistive ball and even Google assistant. I personally don't want to be assisted by Google, but if this is your cup of tea, you can easily activate it and use it from your phone.
> One of the pages of the phone screen contains a customisable Google shortcuts area, a Google search area, a steps tracker, and a few other things that you can add if you don't activate Google Assistant in that space
> Free wallpapers and themes in their 'theme store' app.
> Unless you really want a new case , the included translucent silicone case will do the job and be enough to protect your beautifully-colored device. It is a bit rigid, but it adjusts perfectly and is not 'slippery' when I put it on my lap.

ANNOYING THINGS
> The most annoying thing to me is the way the designers have reorganized the phone settings area. I really appreciate many of the additions and improvements, but I would had rather kept the previous settings structure (very similar to pure Android) and add new sub-sections, than doing what they've done. It took me a while to go through the settings area to customize my new Oppo. Any person changing from any pure Android to Oppo's derivative Coloros system might be baffled.
> Lack of a purposely-built app drawer. I've downloaded an app that does just that, but it's difficult to understand why the designers have ignored Oppo customers' complaints on this issue for years.
> This is not a true dual SIM phone, but a hybrid dual SIM, i.e., you can use 2 SIM cards or 1 SIM card and 1 memory SD card, not 2 SIM cards and 1 SD card. Why not, Mr Oppo?!
> The download folder is nowhere to be seen. It was part of the system in my previous Oppo, not in this one. I use that folder a lot. I had to install an app to access that folder easily. What were the designers thinking?!
> Although the quality of the sound is good, the speaker has some some sort of glitch and if I am hearing a voice message and move the phone, the sound stops.
> The sound volume has been reduced, which is OK, if you use earphones to listen to anything. However, if you want to use the speaker, the volume is not high enough to be heard in a normal-noise environment, not to say in a noise environment. My old Oppo was way better in that regard.> The tips guide is too short and incomplete to be a proper user guide.
> No inbuilt notepad or notebook.
> The inbuilt steps tracker is not customizable and it has a life of its own. I mean, it cannot be stopped or switched on at volition.
> The toggle was great before regarding contrast. There has been an update of the system since I bought this phone, and now the toggle is white and green, very bad for people with sight problems or simply poor sight. I was thinking it could be customised to turn it into the previous dark theme, but it is not possible.
 > I chose this purple-ish model because it looked truly beautiful in the shop under artificial lighting. In normal light and with the transparent cover on, the color is not so noticeable and not so beautiful, and it looks almost black. Waw waw waw. If I had known, I would have chosen the red model.
> The colours aren't as vibrant or beautiful as those of my previous Oppo, especially for interior.

USE TIPS
> To change the background and theme, go to the theme store in-built app. Backgrounds and themes are free; download them and then apply them in full or just to the home wallpaper, lockup screen wallpaper, or just the icons.
> To access widgets and screen effects, pinch in on the screen's empty space.
> To take a screenshot, simultaneously press Up volume button + power button. Also, if you enable the function in the phone settings, you can use sliding of three fingers down to automatically capture the image.
> If you optimize your battery, vibration, sound, notifications, brightness, and data settings, you will have battery for nearly two full days. Do you really want your phone to send you endless notifications about anything? Do you want all your notifications to have sound and vibration? Do you want your phone to vibrate for everything? Do you want the keyboard to have typing sound? Do you want full brightness all day? Do you need to have your WiFi/data on all day long? The answer will change from person to person, of course, but generally speaking unnecessary sounds, display features and notifications drain the battery of this phone unnecessarily.

IN SHORT
I really love this phone. I think it is a bit tricky to get around the settings during the first two or three days. However, this is a de-luxe-feel, good quality, sturdy, classy and wow device at cheaper prices than other smartphones with similar or identical features. Not cheap though.However, the designers of interface and hardware features seem to be out of touch with the needs of customers, even those loyal Oppo customers like me, as some things are altered and made less user-friendly than before, some general complaints about the system cried out by users are ignored, the result of that is the section annoying things, which is a bit long for any phone or brand that costs as much as this smartphone.

Logitech M185 Swift Grey Wireless Mouse

I tend to forget my mouse at home, so I have ended buying two of these, out of necessity. I wasn't expecting much, to be honest, because of the price, but this mouse is a proof that you don't need to spend much to have a good mouse.

PROS
> Lightweight.
> Intuitive and very responsive to movement.
> It works on almost any surface. Right now I'm using it on my fabric sofa without any mat or support underneath, and it works to perfection.
> Sizing is on the medium side, so it will suit people with small and big hands.
> The USB pin is easily stored in the mouse belly, which makes it perfect for people on the go.
> Long life battery even though it is powered by only one AA battery.
> Great value.

CONS
> It is all made of cheap-looking plastickie material and it looks cheap.
> No buttons for shortcuts or anything. It has the right and left buttons plus a scrolling wheel; if you want more, this mouse is not for you.
> The click is a bit noisy. Not a problem if you use the mouse sporadically, but a bit annoying if you use it the whole day.
> A bit bulkier than I would like it to be.

9/08/2018

Billy's Central (Melbourne Central, Vic)

I've been to this place plenty of times due to its convenient location and prompt service.

I like their menu, which changes often. Everything I have tried has been good, on the large size, and nicely presented. They also have a good selection of smoothies and teas. However, I have always left feeling that my food could have been better, that my dishes were a step down for what they were intended to be, if you know what I mean. Take the last dish I had, for example, the taste was good, all the single elements were great, but the toast was too small to accommodate all the adds-ons, and the dish lacked texture, so it was all too 'mashy'.  I think if they put a bit of more thought on the dishes, the food could be even better.

Good coffee.

Friendly staff and quick service.

Functional premises.

Average prices.

La Porchetta (Highpoint Shopping Centre, Maribyrnong Vic)

If you are hungry and craving carbs in the Highpoint shopping mall this is your place. They have a mix of pasta and pizza dishes, with different sizes on offer. I had one of their small pizzas (the sausage, broccoli and ricotta) and it was very tasty. Not bad, but not good either. The small size is more than enough for lunch. Friendly caring staff. Outdated premises. I found the prices on the high side for what they serve, but this is Highpoint.

Unabara Lobster & Oyster Bar (Melbourne Central, Vic)

I've been there a couple of times, and left feeling that the dishes tasted good but were way overpriced, especially taking into account that some of the dumplings are frozen. I love their mocktails. Correct service, but on the slow side even when the place is not half full. Great location. They aren't happy to adjust dishes, so they lose business just because of their lack of flexibility.