I have a fear for hell and Petaling Jaya (PJ).
I’ve got the hell issue well addressed, and that leaves me with PJ. I have only just figured out certain roads in SS2 (where New Formosa and Hoi Peng and the lok lok man are), but that leaves me with a terrifying area of speckled non-sequential numbers, waiting to swallow me into the depths of an apocalyptic chasm. In New York, one knows that 5th Avenue follows 4th Avenue. In PJ, if you walk in one direction of SS2, you’ll find yourself in SS22, a misleading leap of 20 numbers which is a pretty good tool for conning the folk when you want to show off how far you’ve jogged. “I ran from SS2 to SS22, bow down and worship me now, heathen.”
Psychic Kim dropped me an email one day asking me if I would to test out the latest toy in the market, the Garmin-Asus nüvifone M10, to be launched in KL on March 25, 2010. If I could overcome my fear for PJ, I would be able to move down my list of fears and address the next one – bungee jumping. So off I went a-testing, because bungee jumping waits for no man.
Quick facts. The Garmin-Asus M10 works on GSM 900 / 1800 / 1900 HSDPA 900 / 2100 network technology, weighs 138 grams, has a screen size of 3.5 inches and a touchscreen menu. Because it’s a Garmin and a phone, the Garmin software is already preloaded into the phone, and in addition to the City Navigator Singapore/Malaysia, it comes with the popular Malsingmaps Malaysia/Singapore/Brunei. It also has a 5.0 Megapixel camera.
If you’re getting this phone, chances are, it’s because of Garmin. Wait time for satellite connection is short, and then you’re ready to go. There’s a stylus to help you key in the names of locations. The screen is clear both in daytime and at night. It also has voice navigation (American or British English, Malay or Chinese). I tested it out from Bangsar KL to Bukit Tinggi Klang, and around PJ, and in both instances, it worked pretty well.
Of course, the reason you’re here is not because you trust my tech knowledge, but because I can tell you why I like it from an end-user’s point of view. Here are 10 reasons why I think the Garmin-Asus M10 is a keeper:
- It’s an all-in-one device. No more large handbags to evening functions. Just pop the Garmin-Asus M10 and your wallet into your evening bag, and you’re good to go.
- It gets you to places like Puchong Lim (caution: eat responsibly) without fear.
- While you’re waiting at Puchong Lim for your monkey stew to arrive, you can check Facebook and Twitter on your device.
- You can plot your next route (or escape from Puchong Lim) while waiting.
- While you’re plotting your next route, you can look up food finds on the Navigational Panel (really cool) or you can SMS Finder 401 if you’re on Maxis.
- It’s an entertainment unit. You can download songs and games onto the device, but if you’re cheap and looking for a quick thrill when no comedian is in the vicinity, you can learn how Americans pronounce the names of our local roads. No prizes for guessing what Jalan Panty in KL is.
- Once the food arrives, you can quickly whip out your phone with the 5.0 Megapixel camera and snap away. I tested it alongside my iPhone 3G, and to be honest, the iPhone 3G failed miserably. The Garmin-Asus M10 worked better under low light conditions, and pictures were also sharper.
- If you’re a food blogger, you can upload the pictures onto the blog immediately and geotag your location for the benefit of your readers.
- For the workaholics, the phone comes with Office Mobile which includes Word, Excel and Powerpoint Mobile.
- It comes in black or white, and either colour matches your nails. No need for major wardrobe change. Phew.
Picture captured with the Garmin-Asus M10 under normal light conditions. Thanks, Marcky, for the delicious floss-filled-love-letters from Penang!
I don’t love everything, of course. I own an iPhone, so the finger swiping thing across the screen is my forte. With the Garmin-Asus M10, I find it easier to swipe across with the stylus. Also, picture quality, although better than my iPhone, still isn’t perfect yet. A slight blue tinge is cast on my pictures, and on occasion, it isn’t as sharp as I’d like it to be. The Garmin function also drinks up the battery, so it’s good to keep it charged in the car or you may miss Jalan Panty altogether.
Since the phone will only be launched on March 25, 2010 (tomorrow, people!), prices have yet to be released although sources say that it will be priced between RM1,700 and RM2,000.
Thanks, Kim and Garmin-Asus for kindly sponsoring the phone for this helpless foodie. And if you’d like a chance to win a free Garmin-Asus M10 phone, hop over to FriedBeef’s Tech.
Please don’t remind me about bungee jumping if you bump into me.
Haha, my colleague just used Garmin to help us figure out our way from the Penang airport to our hotel today (cos we rented a car instead of the usual taxi, for once).
It does work! 🙂
i definitely want this! it would have been so useful when i had to find my way to rawang late last year. too bad my birthday’s 10 months away; otherwise, i’d be lobbying ferociously for this!
i’m also pj-phobic. thank god i work in the city.
oooh, and i feel the love in the post! i feel it! 😀
LFB: I honestly can’t imagine how life was before Garmin. Nothing will make me give up my Garmin now.
Sean: What love? Are you being sarky, boy? Btw, nothing you say or do will make me part with my beloved Garmin-Asus phone. Unless, of course, you pay me a hundred million ringgit. For now, I think I’ll just be happy owing you stuff instead (which I’ve lost count of, btw *ahem*).
You know how when we grew up we could probably remember 20 phone numbers… home, BFF, GF, friend you love to backstab, the one you are cheating with, the tuition babe, booze & adult entertainment supplier… etc…
… with technology and digital addressbooks in our mobile phones, I don’t think many people remember more than 5 numbers these days. We have replaced these trivial details with more important things in our brain.
With GPS… it will probably be the same. One day it will be sooooo effortless and easy to use and integrated in our glasses and sunnies that we never have to remember how to get to anywhere. Hell… we might even GPS our way to the toilet!
Garmin’s got a damn good reputation backing this product. So LL… thanks for loaning it to me… LONG TERM… you da best and most generous!
haha reminds me that i shud use the family garmin more often..instead of looking it up on google map which is more often than not a disaster!
what a lovely cute post.. can my garmin talk to your garmin now.. they wanna plan our next makan trip 😛 hehe
Tsk tsk…chicks and their garmins! LOL
so when are you gonna bungee jump?
I remember my first job when I accidentally(/stupidly?) ended up in SS16 instead of Seksyen16 when I was going around to meet all the client accounts handed over to me.
(Amazingly I still managed to race over there in time for the meeting… Well, was just about 10 minutes late anyway)
🙂
(Could have really used a Garmin then! Had just come back from Aus with little to no idea about Malaysian roads/ areas…)
chis, why you lend to frat you never lend to me? i pride myself on being a walking GPS… ahem…so i dont see the need for these things. i think women should however carry it.
ooh, i just noticed monkey made a similar observation. yalar, something about the chick’s brain….
and who is this marcky character, and why havent i met him? chis. shelved….made new friends oridi la, forget the old ones.
Frat Mustard: Amoebas think alike! I was wondering if I’d forget how to go home one day if I got too reliant on the Garmin! As for loaning you my Garmin, I have only one word…..pbbbbthhhh!!!
lotsofcravings: Googlemaps has its use, but when you’re on the road, the Garmin is the way to go, I think.
cumidanciki: Sure! Get your Garmin to call my Garmin, k! muaks. (that’s my Garmin keeesing your Garmin)
A Lil Fat Monkey: One day, you’ll beg me for directions, and my Garmin will you you the nose. 😛
KY: CHIS!
J: You reminded me of the other reason why I hate PJ! LOL. Get a Garmin-Asus phone!
fatboybakes:
1. Who said I lent to Frat? You’re a walking GPS? Chis…I remember how you led me through the scenic route of Kepong once!
2. That’s why you love us, right?
3. You’ve met Marcky lah! It’s not my fault that you’ve chosen not to keep in touch with him. You’d never be shelved, my dearest tangechi. You’re my bestest friend!
Is that a word in the dictionary of La Lemongrass?
Frat, it is. What lauyah dictionary are you using ar?
Yeah… for those people who are not familiar with the roads in PJ, it can be a pain in the @$$ when you are looking for someone or someplace in that area. I had my fair share of experience when I came to study in Subang Jaya in 1997…
Right now, I am a walking GPS… PJ is a piece of cake to me 😛
And while the GPS enabled phone is the IN thing at the moment, I am switching back to conventional candy bar phone… as I don’t have any use for my hp except for making calls and SMS!
I’ve never had a hankering for these devices. I’ve never really had an issue with finding my way around and 9 times out of 10 I haven’t got lost before. Am I then afraid to go to a new place? No. Hard Copy maps are fine for now. We have one in the cars we have. And a quick ref is quick enough. Even when we go to new cities. I find it really helps me learn about the city to pore over a map and plan a route. Takes a moment but its really amazing to see what is along the way. And in a place like Bali for example, good luck using GPS. 😉 The roads are literally the size of my right thigh. OK maybe both of them now. 😉 And there have been cases in the UK when people got into a road where cars werent’ meant to go and had to airlift the car out. So for now, will resist the allure of shiny new smooth bright blinking shiny smooth new gadgetgadgetgadgetgadgetgadgetgadgetgadgetgadgetgadget…ooo where was I? 😉
leo: Wow, I can’t ever imagine turning back to conventional handphones, but then again, I’m very much a gadgets freak, always salivating for new stuff on the market! I can’t imagine how a newbie survives in PJ. It’s literally a mess there.
Nigel: I think it’s okay if you have eidetic memory. Of course, that can be trained, but in many cases, when one is travelling a great distance, it is hard to commit everything to memory. I also analyse maps when I travel to new cities, but as a navigator to a rather agitated driver, it can be pretty frustrating for both of us when I suddenly lose concentration on the map and decide to focus on a pretty rainbow instead. 🙂 Talking about the UK, I once navigated Tim over a roundabout (but not with a GPS…just a printed map), so shit happens when you’re not paying attention, I guess. 😀 I really must go to Bali after reading your awesome story in Ciki’s blog. 🙂
I love poring over maps too when I travel. Like Nigel said, its nice to see what else is along the way. And luckily for me, ToyBoy is a walking GPS, haha…plus he gets irritated when I’m doing the navigation. Too slow for him it seems. So i just sit back and relax, look at the rainbow/grass scene. And let him find the way. :p
Toygirl: I guess you’re just like me. The first thing I do before travelling to any new place is to procure a map and then mark it with all the places I’d like to see. Tim isn’t a walking GPS, although he’s much better than me when it comes to PJ! You’re lucky ToyBoy wants to do all the work hehe.
nevertheless, I’d like a Garmin too. I like to surround myself with gadgets. Not that I use them all the time. But still…if only they make a girl version…in PINK!!! that’ll match my wardrobe.^0^
LOL Toygirl! I do agree that a Pink Garmin-Asus M10 would be fabulous!
This GPS phone sounds like a dream. rif has been asking me to get the Nokia X6 (for the OVI maps) since I’m now phone-less and I’m bad at directions. =P
I would like to thank my marder for threatening to leave me where I was when I was but a wee lad, her many quips included:-
“you make noise again, you walk home!”
“no, you’re not getting that matchbox car. Now stop crying or I’m leaving you here.”
I used to focus so hard on remembering the directions back home. ’tis has served me well 😉 seared in memory are the back routes through the Sections/SS of PJ 😉
Bangsar-bAbE: Yeah, I think it’ll be perfect for you, since you’re looking for a phone now anyway. Lemme know if you wanna test out mine.
unkaleong: Your marder made you a man, and dontchu forget it! 😛
Not a big fan of SatNav systems. Once I used it to get to villa inside a maze of villa suburbs with no streetnames, and without the blardy thing, I couldn’t find my way back to that place. Even though I’ve been there a few times. And to places I’ve gone to with good old maps, I have had no problems finding the place again. SatNav is like the NEP.. 😛
And I cannot understand the American setting because of the terms they use! Miles and yards.. jeez..
*in 300m, pls bear left.*
*at the roundabout, take the 2nd exit*
It kinda gets in your head, no? My kids were chanting away after our UK trip.. 😀
LL, we go Bali togedder gedder hang out with Gaby et al 😉
gfad: Yeah, the problem with GPS is that you concentrate too much on the talkin’ and less on the lookin’. Maps, you gotta be more observant, I guess. Now the GPS, whether in American of British, uses the measurement denominator of your choice, so I choose Metric. 🙂
Nigel: Who da Gaby? I wanna go Bali. Take me please! 🙂
i think we can safely conclude that jee pee asses are for chicks.
Cheng Yi: Chicks and real men.
the audio on the M10 can be turned off if you’re not into it. there’s also options to keep the audio but have the street names switched off. all customisable 🙂
i admire the reason behind wanting to use maps, but that’s only practical when you’re on vacation or have lots of time to study maps. the GPS is very handy when you have a couple of appointment in different places and it can give you the fastest or shortest routes depending on your preference. traffic jam? i just intentionally turn into a completely random road and let the M10 re-calculate the best way to escape. things like that lor 🙂
Funny how as humans become more intelligent and technology more advanced, we invent things that make us more lazy and dependent on external sources rather than our own senses. Intelligent computers/phones, satellite navigation, electronic games. What happened to handwriting letters and dialling a rotary phone; looking at the stars, sun and river for directions and playing imaginative games with stones, leaves and twigs? One day, we will look lost when told to head east while staring at the rising sun, and instead ask for SatNav coordinates.. -__-
Kim: Yeah, I’ve been experimenting with the audio, but I think I like Jack the most coz he makes me laugh. 🙂 I guess I’m also more accustomed to the American accent these days despite our colonial past. You’ve made an excellent point about traffic jams. After all, how often do most of us travel? Two, three times a year? In my line of work, I have to meet clients often, and I find the GPS handy in locating those out-of-town clients in industrial areas. I love the other functions in the Garmin-Asus M10 too, and the white…swoon…so gorgeous. (allowing my superficiality to surface hehe)
gfad: I think it’s inevitable, and we have a choice to embrace it or push it away. I do know that technology has made me lazy, but I’m constantly excited to see what’s new in the market that will make my life easier to manage so that I can spend the rest of my life on Twitter. hehe. Kidding lah, but you know what I mean… 🙂
Gaby’s a Bali food blogger Fren of velvet escapes/Keith. Allan met her come we go Bali. Luv luvthe place. Could live there.
This other 8mp camera-phone-navigation gadget ( coming soon… ) called HTC Evo will fulfill every KL food bloggers (wet n saucy) dreams, and will come with ultra internet browsing speed, voice Email and of course voice location navigation ( hopefully for PJ SS2 to 33 too ) and should be well worth the wait and in one shot , we suspect kill Garmin in 22 secs ( sorry ) 😀
If I had that phone, maybe I could’ve tagged the GPS coords for where Mary sells her hair-floss.
Hope you enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed the tiny sample Mary offered before I bought some.
Nigel: Cool, in that case, I look forward to meeting Gaby soon. 🙂
thebaDderMen: should be interesting to check it out. will look out for it. 🙂
Marcky: LOL, well at least we have Mary’s number! The love letters are pretty tasty, and the floss is good too! Thanks once again!!
I have a garmin but it’s mostly left at home, hehe! I should use it more often since the inbuilt GPS in my car is not very good – it doesn’t allow coordinates to be keyed in – yeah, wat kinda GPS is tat huh huh? *go in search of the garmin now*
Hiya! Just got back from Amsterdam. Sorry, couldn’t find time to arrange a meet up whilst in Malaysia. Some other time, I promise 🙂 Nice gadget BTW. I have a Garmin car GPS myself. It’s fab!
Meena, do you know where I can buy a Msia map to be loaded into our European GPS system? Or does it all come with the gadget only?
Can I borrow that toy “if” i ever get to KL?