This 6th sense talk has been going on forever and I'm inclined to believe humans may have a sort of 6th sense. One that I call 'consciousness in sleep'. Have you ever woke up like a few minutes before the alarm clock is supposed to go off? Or have you fell asleep in the bus then suddenly woke up to realize you're pulling into your stop? Because I have. And it's strange because you're not supposed to be able to see the time or where the bus is going when you're asleep. But I have to say it's not Always accurate because I do have times when I wake up a stop after mine. Or a couple of times way past my stop. Whatever the case, I'd like to think we do indeed have some sort of a 6th sense. A consciousness of our surroundings.

It's time to honour the best and best designs in the gadget world!

Mobilephone of the Year
Sony Ericsson K800i

All bow to the phone of the year! It looks pretty good, has everything you'd ever need in a mobile unless you're a power-exec, and it doesn't even cost much now! $198 with 2 year contract at M1. The only downside is its ubiquity and thickness. However as with the K750i, the masses got it right. 3 megapixels, 3G, Bluetooth, M2 card expansion slot, 262k colours 240x320 pixels display.















MP3 Player of the Year
iriver Clix

Applause for MP3 player of the year! The Clix is actually a pumped up U10 launched last year. Check out the phyiscally buttonless interface (you press the sides to control it), the design, the display to device size ratio and sound quality and be blown away! 2 downs: the price is still a tad steep and the max memory size is 2GB for now.






Digicam of the Year
Canon Ixus 850 IS

Sorry Fujifilm, great as the F30 and F31d are, they look too plain. Like there can be a better compact point and shoot. This time it comes with 7 megapixels, 4x zoom, and optical image stabilizer. If only they could squeeze all it's internals into the tiny perfectly angular (and gorgeous) Ixus 60 body. Not very cheap at over $700 though.




Notebook of the Year
Apple Macbook

Mac fans will rejoice at this choice for notebook of the year, but now with Boot Camp, PC users get to enjoy it too! It's thin, looks great, is good value for the specs and Windows compatible! Apple design is no longer mutually exclusive with 'cheap' and 'compatibility'. Don't bother getting the black version, cos it's a $200 paint job even after you spec up the white one.







Significant Others
Samsung Ultra Edition 6.9 (X820)

This product has been featured here before, and makes this year end list simply because it's the slimmest phone in the world. It's a little longer and wider than a regular candybar, but packs enough features for a midrange phone. Another 1.5mm thickness gets you the Z370, a 3G-fied and microSD slot-ted version of the X820.














Motorola KRZR K1

Ok, I know I wasn't particularly impressed with the KRZR except the tv ad when it just came out. I eat my words. It's officially the most attractive clamshell phone of 2006. Packing whatever the V3i has with a better camera, it's girth goes down from size 6 to size 0. Still a fingerprint magnet and quite overpriced though.












LG Chocolate (KG800)

Gorgeous phones can be rubbish to use, and here's proof. Ok, it's not that bad, it's just that the touch sensitive controls are not the best solution on a mobile phone. Other than that it satisfy users who want something stylish and low-ish specced. Was way overpriced at launch, the asking price is more sane now.











Nokia 8800 Sirocco

My biasness towards Nokia didn't stop me from gawking at the 8800 Sirocco. I don't exactly know why people want platinum and diamonds in their phone cos this is pretty damn luxurious enough. At $1300 it's not cheap, but then you can't expect it to be when it's crafted out of stainless steel and scratch proof glass for the display. Now comes with a 2 megapixel camera.











Sony Ericsson M600i

No way another smartphone could be the award winner for style this year, heck, did you even realize it doesnt have conventional navigation buttons? The jog dial is back! Although it'll be much easier to navigate if the usual buttons were included too. All it lacks is wifi and a version with the K750i's camera. Include those and I'll buy one tomorrow.

Motorola W220

Nobody should sacrifice every ounce of street cred he had come enlistment and Motorola knows just that. Here's a bare bones phone that looks great. FM radio is a good extra feature, and it costs around $150 without a contract. Sweet! Also available in silver/black combination.









Sony NW-S203F

It's here for introducing an innovative form factor: the light saber. It's expensive and only has a one line display, but it's unique. Sound quality is expected to be above average, as is battery life, without a power sapping colour display.










Samsung Yepp Z5F

iPod nano is beaten! This thing looks cool with all it's sharp edges, sounds good, is about the same size, has a bigger screen, asks for similar amount of dollars, and at least sounds as good. Throw in FM and line-in recording too, and it'll surely make you think twice about getting the default nano.














iPod 6th Gen

Fending off iriver e10 (with its too low capacity) and the locally unavailable Toshiba Gigabeat S, the iPod reigns again in the hard disk memory media player category. Thinner than ever before and now costing just $428 for 30GB and $598 for 80GB, the case for getting iPod has hardly been stronger since it's introduction.













Creative Zen Vision: W

Best PMP, beating Archos 604 on price and Maxian T600 on aftersales support. Check out that display and you'll know what I'm saying. Supports a truckload of formats, easy to operate, and well priced against the competition too. It even looks classy! Not something Creative does everyday, mind you.




Samsung NV7 OPS

As you know I love retro-ish designs ala Leica, so it's no surprise this one makes the list. The NV7 also brings a new user interface for digicams with controls lined up against the display. Also comes with 7x optical zoom, full manual mode and optical image stabilization. Some encouragement for the first line of Samsung digicams with passable picture quality!













Kodak Easyshare V610

Sorry Panasonic, you're beaten as far as the slimmest 10x optical zoom digicam is concerned. This is done through a unique dual lens system, which provides ultra wide angle zoom. It looks good (rare for a Kodak) and doesn't cost that much to boot. Nice achievement from the totally forgotten Kodak.

Sony Vaio SZ Series

Thin, light, feature packed and looking darn sleek, one can't ask for much more from a single product. It's got the Fujitsu S Series well and truly beaten, so will 8Flags please sell this instead of the Fujitsu in school please! If you have $2999 to $3999, get this machine. All models feature dedicated graphics. Close to perfect if not for the price.




Sony Vaio TX Series

Fujitsu's Q2010 may be the lightest notebook if you discount the UMPCs, but again Sony trounces the Fujitsu rival. For the road warrior, the ULV processor gives a long battery life, has a built in DVD-RW drive and external media controls which the Fujitsu doesn't have. Oh, did I mention it turns heads too? At $3500, only deep pockets need apply.

Compaq Presario V3000 Series

I felt inclined to include the V3000 in this list. Because like Jolin Tsai, it's the most successful transformation in it's market. Look at one to know what I'm talking about. The downside is its thicker than usual chassis. Available in many configurations, from AMD to Intel processors.





Nintendo Wii

The underdog wins console of the year! Why so? The Xbox and especially the PS3 are simply too advanced for their own good. This thing looks fantastic, costs the right money and does its primary job just fine. Throw in standard DVD movies playback and HDMI support and it'd be the ideal gaming console.










ASUS PW201 LCD

Yes, a LCD made it here. Look at it and drool first. Done? Ok, it's a 20-inch widescreen, has a built in webcam, adjusts positions in more ways than Madonna after yoga, has various inputs on the LCD itself to connect direct to your game console for example and has touch sensitive controls. You may now drool again.

Hi! I'm 21! YAY!

The Asian Games ended a week ago, but it's sure not over. Controversy surrounds practically any major sporting event, and Doha contributes by having a he-she medal winner! Woot! He-she's news definitely trounced the couple of dead athletes at the Games.

does indeed look like a man, doesn't 'she'?
What's the deal then? Santhi Soundarajan won a silver medal in the women's 800m race, but after the Games ended Indian Olympics Association chief announced that 'she' was actually a 'he'. After tests were conducted, he-she was stripped of the silver medal. So the heroine becomes a laughing stock. Double embarrassment, because as a 'he', Santhi still didn't manage to clinch the gold medal. Hmm.

Anyway gender tests, unlike drug tests, are not compulsory for competitors, and the last time a competitor's gender was in question was like 20 years ago. So there.

I'm guessing most people will not disagree with me when I say Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy are among the best shows on TV today. If you don't agree, watching these 2 episodes may change your mind. And also, if you didn't sniff up a teeny bit at all after watching these 2 episodes, you might wanna check if you're dead inside.


Desperate Housewives Season 3, Episode 7: Bang
A hopping mad wife holds shoppers hostage in the supermarket because her husband cheated on her. One of the Housewives was inside.


Grey's Anatomy Season 2, Episode 6: Into You Like A Train
Painful decisions to be made as the hospital goes through a long night saving casualties from a major train accident in the city.

Watch them! I guarantee you wouldn't waste that hour and a half.

2006 is ending! Let's do a review! Starting with music!

I couldn't get enough of these 20 songs this year!

1. Ciara feat. Chamillionaire - Get Up
2. Justin Timberlake - SexyBack
3. Jamelia - Beware Of The Dog
4. KT Tunstall - Suddenly I See
5. Keyshia Cole - Love
6. Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancin'
7. Beyonce - Irreplaceable
8. Justin Timberlake - What Goes Around Comes Around
9. Snow Patrol - Chasing Cars
10. Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
11. Mary J Blige - Be Without You
12. 范逸臣 - Love Story
13. 范逸臣 - 醉青楼
14. 梁静茹 - 亲亲
15. 周杰伦 - 退后
16. SHE - 触电
17. 曹格 - Superwoman
18. FIR - 天天夜夜
19. 王力宏 - Kiss Goodbye
20. 范玮琪 - 一个像夏天一个像秋天

Listen to them if you haven't! WOOT!

Visit this small shop that sells fantastic muffins and chicken pie at Sunshine Plaza (near Paradiz Centre)! Can't remember the name of the shop but it's on level 1 beside Parklane Fried Wanton Mee shop! Try the banana walnut muffin and chicken pie! Everything is made on the day itself and each batch isn't very big so it's always fresh!


People in NTU do not only post classified ads on our notice boards and imall, they also paste it on the back windown of their car. Hyundai Santa Fe anyone?


Children look away now, I present to you the ugliest face of the year, the front of this Ssangyong i-dunno-what-name! The equally ugly Rodius from the same company and designed by former head of the automotive design course at the Royal College of Art in London, can be seen bashing on our roads as the largest taxis.


Lastly for lovers of the traditional motorcycle ice cream, come to Bugis! Er, it's near the Kwan In temple/ OG building and all the motorcycle ice cream is at 50cents for the cone or cup and 80 for the biscuit or bread! Rocks!!

Oh by the way, I didn't know but freaking Samsung didn't give me the USB cable for the laser printer. A look at the manual says the USB cable may not be available in packages of some countries. Since when did people stop packaging essential accessories with things that they sell?