iPhone 4 - All in one communication device..........

My friend and I were talking for a few hours today over various things.  Among the items discussed were our iPhone 4's that we each have.  I suggested a few applications my friend might want and vice versa.  As we were talking away, I realized how the iPhone 4 is the all in one communication device for me (probably many others as well).

The iPhone 4 is first and foremost a phone.  However, you can also receive text messages.  The next thing is there are various applications of instant messaging.  Lastly, there's Skype for making voice calls over the Internet.

I told my friend that if they couldn't reach me at any of the methods above, I definitely was not available!  :)

SIDENOTE:  Despite picking up the iPhone 4, my old Blackberry Curve is still around.  While the Curve doesn't serve as a phone anymore, I still have many songs on the device.  In fact, once I get around to deleting the various applications that no longer work, I will have even more space.  I plan to keep the Curve around as a portable music device for some occasions.  Recycling technology!  

The Rise of Far East Movement (FM)

According to Wiki, Far East Movement's been around since 2003.  I'd heard inklings of them from various Asian-American sites but not being a fan of hip-hop music, I never paid them much attention.

It wasn't until I ran across the song "Girls On The Dance Floor" which drew my attention.  It combined rapping with dance beats and I was in love.  I'd always listened to dance, trance and other electronic music and this was perfect.  In fact, many other acts like the Black Eyed Peas and others were getting into the hip-hop / dance music act.

When Far East Movement released their album "Animal", I immediately purchased and loved it.  There were many great songs and I thought it was a shame that only a small market of people would likely purchase the album.  Anytime I was in the car, I made it a point to pump up the volume a bit when I had the "Animal" album playing.

"Girls On The Dance Floor" did well enough to garner some national attention and Far East Movement ended up signing a contract with Interscope / Cherry Tree Records.  Far East Movement has followed up Girls On The Dance Floor with several other songs:

"2 is Better"
"Go Ape!"
"Like a G6"

While Girls On The Dance Floor was a club hit,  "Like a G6" is looking more and more like the breakout hit they have been looking for.  The song has been playing in Bay Area powerhouse stations Wild 94.9 and Movin' 99.7  In addition, "Like a G6" debuted in Billboard Top 100 list at #92.

"Like a G6" by Far East Movement (Video)

The success is well deserved and I hope the guys keep it up.  Asian Americans have plenty of underground artists but not many have had mainstream success.  Far East Movement is looking to break that trend and be a role model for many Asian-Americans in the years to come.

If you ever wondered why I post the stuff on Facebook that I post.....

On Facebook, I tend to post a lot of links to things I like to my wall, which in turn goes out to my friends home pages.   There is one trend that I am sure most people have noticed.  A good number of those links are Asian or Asian-American themed.    They may be about Asian athletes (Jeremy Lin, Ed Wang, Yao Ming), Asian-American movies (usually independent stuff), or music videos by Asian-American performers (Far East Movement, etc).

Why do I do that?  Considering that Asian representation in the movies, TV, music and the professional sports arenas are fairly sparse, I want to take advantage of the Facebook platform to promote all things Asian.

That might seem odd to a degree.  However,  one should not underestimate the power of the media to influence people of all ages.  The people who see my postings may enjoy what they see and that is good.  But maybe some young kid who hadn't thought of pursuing interests in acting, music or athletics might be influenced by what he sees and give it a shot.

Asians families are a practical sort.  They encourage their kids to focus on careers that are solid, stable and earn money.  Acting, music and professional sports are not always guarantee of that.

However, I would hope that Asian families learn to encourage their children to follow their passions to wherever it takes them.  After all, the Jeremy Lin's, Ed Wang's, John Cho's and the Far East Movement's of the world have been able to do it.  Your child may be able to do it as well.  Even if he fails, it's not the end of the world.  That is one aspect of life that is so great.  Mistakes are usually not fatal and will teach you to do better in your next endeavor.  

First Impressions: Blackberry Torch = IPhone 4 LITE

My first ever smartphone was the Blackberry Curve 8310 from AT&T.  I've had the curve for about two years now and enjoy it greatly.  With the release of the IPhone 4, I have been quite tempted to join the Apple bandwagon.

I have to admit that I like the IPhone 4 especially for it's browser, camera and video camera.  The negatives (for me anyway) has always been the lack of a physical keyboard.   With supplies limited, I've been sitting on the fence about getting the IPhone 4.

However, when the Blackberry Torch was announced a week ago, I was intrigued.  A touch screen Blackberry, new operating system AND a physical keyboard?   Today was the first day the Torch was at AT&T stores and I went to check it out.

My initial impressions was I was a little disappointed.  The new browser in the Torch was nice but I could not get the screen shift when I tried to go to the widescreen view.   Also, the touch screen wasn't particularly responsive and I had trouble clicking on the proper links on websites.

In addition, there were times I didn't know how to navigate back to certain screens using the touch screen.  It turned out I had to use some of the physical buttons on the Torch to do so.  To be fair, it was my first time using the phone so perhaps I had a bit of a learning curve.

Unfortunately, since I was at the AT&T store, I couldn't get a feel of the sliding mechanism of the phone.  The phone was locked into place with the keyboard showing.   Using the keyboard was a different experience.  Each Blackberry seems to have it's own distinct layouts.  I find the Curve's keyboard the most comfortable.  I use a Blackberry Bold for work and the keys are a little big for me and it takes a little getting used to.

Using the Torch's keyboard, I thought the keys were a little smaller than the Curve.  In addition, due to sliding mechanism, the keyboard portion of the Torch feels flimsy.   Typing with thumbs as many do with Blackberries may be a little difficult than before.

Overall, I left with a relatively "BLAH" impression of the Torch.   I knew I wasn't going to be blown away.  However, I thought I might leave with the impression that Blackberry created a device that combined the best of the Iphone 4 and Blackberry worlds.  Alas, I think there's still some work to be done.

I don't think the Torch is an IPhone 4 killer.  At best, it may be an IPhone 4 LITE.  It does some things that IPhone does and keeps some of the Blackberry sensibilities.  I think there will be a market for it but RIM shouldn't expect the masses clamoring for the Torch like the IPhone 4.

What's Going On in China?

Reading some news online earlier, I saw that there were a couple of mass murders that occurred in China the past couple of days. One involved a guy who started running people over with a tractor.  The other involved a man who snuck into a school and then used a knife to attack teachers and children.

Besides these two events, there has been a spate of other mass murders that have occurred, causing outsiders to wonder what is happening.  Many people are speculating that the dramatic change China is going through (from a Communist country to a more Capitalist country) is taking a mental toll on poorer citizens.   The concern is that mental illness is growing and the government is not addressing the issue properly.

While I don't live in China, being an American Born Chinese person, I have some insight into why some of these problems may be happening.

Though my upbringing is a mix of Chinese and American,  I know that many Chinese people prefer keep their problems "in the house".  They don't not want outsiders to know their dirty laundry.   This causes many problems, especially for kids like me who were born Chinese-American.  I remember reading a few years ago about some young Chinese-American kids who committed suicide because they couldn't handle the pressure of school and other things.   This set off many Chinese-American mental health groups to reach out to the community to let people know that is was OK to share their problems.   I don't know about the success of the outreach but hopefully the Chinese-American community is better off.

Keeping what I said in mind, the citizens of China may not have the options that we have in the United States.   There are definitely support groups but as a whole Chinese culture is conservative and it's difficult to change the collective mindset.

I haven't been in China since 2007 so I don't know how things have changed.  However, I'm sure that China is moving to the future at a unprecedented pace.  Unfortunately, like many things, some people have an easier time than others.

While the recent issues have been disturbing, I hope that this causes China to look at the issues and address them appropriately so that these kind of things don't happen again.

The first time I heard about Jeremy Lin

With the Golden State Warriors signing Harvard grad and Bay Area product Jeremy Lin, the Internet has been buzzing with news and blog postings about Jeremy. The news outlets have been going with the "hometown boy does good" story line. There has been many blog postings (including your truly) talking what Jeremy means to the Asian American, Harvard and Palo Alto communities.

However, with all of the focus on Jeremy these days, I feel I should take a step back and talk about when I first heard of Jeremy Lin.

The first time I was aware of Jeremy Lin was sometime during the 2005-2006 high school basketball season (Jeremy's senior year). I can't pinpoint an exact date. However, as a huge basketball fan, I follow a lot of basketball at all levels including youth, high school, college and NBA.

My main recollection is that the San Francisco Chronicle / SFGate mentioning Jeremy Lin and his Palo Alto team being a favorite to get to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) State Championship game in Division II. Up to this point, I had not heard of Jeremy Lin or his Palo Alto team. After all, living in San Francisco, I'm usually more focused on how the San Francisco public and private high schools do at the state tournaments than other teams in the Bay Area.

However, I was intrigued about who this Jeremy Lin kid was. As someone who lives here in the Bay Area, it's not unusual to see a ton of Asian kids play basketball at the youth and high school levels. There are some solid players too but they play in obscurity because their teams aren't that good. Not that many of them are Division I or pro material but there's some talent and skill there, even if they aren't the biggest or tallest players around.

However, it was a rare thing to see an Asian kid be the primary focal point of a team that had STATE CHAMPIONSHIP aspirations. From then on, I followed Jeremy and his Palo Alto team through their league playoffs, Central Coast Section (CCS) playoffs, the Northern California playoffs and finally the televised State Championship game between Palo Alto and Mater Dei.

Having never seen Jeremy play before, watching him play on TV for the first time was interesting. He didn't look physically intimidating and I thought his jumper looked a little awkward. However, just as those in the Ivy League and the NBA Summer League found out, Jeremy could play and Palo Alto knocked off mighty Mater Dei to claim the CIF Division II State Championship.

From there, I was curious about Jeremy's future plans. For many of the Asian basketball players I had seen in the past, they might go to play at junior college or small college to continue playing competitively. Many of the same players also played in the various Asian adult leagues and tournaments that are prevalent around the Bay Area and California.

In doing my research, I saw notes that Jeremy wasn't heavily recruited though he might walk on to the local Pac-10 schools. It wasn't until later that I found out that Jeremy was going to Harvard.

The rest, as you might say, is history. I heavily followed Jeremy Lin's career at Harvard through the Internet. Many people don't know that during Jeremy's sophomore year at Harvard, the Harvard team came to play in a tournament at Stanford. Unfortunately, Stanford blew out Harvard and Jeremy didn't score though he did bounce back with better games in the next two games in the tournament. I'm sure Jeremy would have loved to do well in front of the home crowd.

All in all, outside of Jeremy's family, friends, coaches and others from Palo Alto and Harvard, I believe I am may be one of Jeremy Lin's earliest fans (in fact someone pointed out to me they were following him before me....COOL!) . I didn't know if he could make it to the NBA but I was glad to see he had a great career at Harvard.

The fact that the Golden State Warriors have signed Jeremy is an added bonus. Good luck to Jeremy as the 2010-2011 NBA season slowly approaches. Many fans are eagerly awaiting this!

COUPLE OF SIDE NOTES:

1.

An interesting story line that doesn't get mentioned anymore is that Palo Alto was also a favorite to represent Northern California in the state championship during Jeremy's junior season. However, Jeremy decide to play pick up ball a few days before the CIF Northern California championship game and injured himself. Palo Alto would go on to lose in the Northern California championship game. I believe Jeremy himself mentioned this incident motivated him to work hard to get his team back to the State Championship his senior year.

2.

There was an article today in a local newspaper that was discussing how many people in his circle of friends and coaches that believed that Jeremy could make the NBA. Among the people who was interviewed was one Thomas Fang.

Not everyone surprised by Lin in the NBA

Fang was a 6'5" forward who played for Archbishop Mitty High School in San Jose and later walked on to the Cal basketball team. Jeremy's Palo Alto team defeated Fang's Mitty team in the Northern California championship game prior to playing Mater Dei.

When Palo Alto and Mitty played for the Northern California championship in 2006, I thought it was great that TWO ASIAN-AMERICAN kids played an integral part in each of their team's success. Jeremy was obviously the star of Palo Alto. Mitty's star was 6'9" Drew Gordon who would later go to UCLA and now New Mexico. However, Fang was a starter and an all league player in his own right.

Though Fang didn't play much at Cal, he plays in intramurals and other leagues around the area.

Jeremy Lin is coming home to the Bay....as a Golden State Warrior

I play in a summer adult basketball league and my team was beaten tonight 47-30. Afterwards, a few teammates and I headed off to dinner and the discussion wandered off to the Golden State Warriors and Jeremy Lin. Some of my teammates and I had just purchased Warriors season tickets for the upcoming season and we were discussing how to divide the tickets up.

Along the way, we were also discussing where Jeremy Lin would end up (Dallas Mavericks or Los Angeles Lakers). Since I hadn't checked the news in a few hours, I went online via my Blackberry and was stunned to see the news that Jeremy Lin might sign with his hometown GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS!

Various news outlets have confirmed a deal is in the works and could be signed by tomorrow.

It's a good move overall for the Warriors for a couple of reasons:

1. It's a great marketing move. Jeremy Lin is a hometown kid from Palo Alto and sure to draw friends and family to Warriors games. In addition, being Asian-American, Lin is sure to attract many Asian-Americans basketball fans as well.
2. It's a good economic move for the Warriors. Lin was an un-drafted free agent and thus wouldn't command a huge salary. It's a low cost move with the potential for a high reward if Lin shows he can play in the NBA at a solid level.

The signing of Lin is tempered by the fact that the Warriors first round draft pick is out with an injury. In addition, David Lee, whom the Warriors acquired from the Knicks hurt his finger during practice with the USA basketball team.

However, I am personally excited by the prospect of Lin playing on the Warriors. It's the most excited I've been about the Warriors in years.