Best TV series of 2020

Better late than never. Here are my list of some of the best TV series of 2020 according to my opinion in no particular order.

Watchmen



The Watchmen HBO tv series was based on the 2009 American neo-noir movie starring Dr Manhattan and the Watchmen. If you like blue god-like superhero and a bunch of kick-ass masked men then you’ll love Watchmen.

Amazing Stories



Based on the 1926 science-fiction magazine, Amazing Stories. Like its namesake, Amazing Stories features a series of amazing, mind-boggling, out of this world stories. If you like the 80s original run, you’ll love the 2020 reboot as well on Apple TV.

Doom Patrol



Superheroes are usually good-looking, strong and usually good moral compass but not Doom Patrol. These guys received their powers through tragic circumstances and are shunned by society. Most members of the team were treated by the Chief, a medical doctor who gave them residence in his mansion to help protect them from the outside world. Their name derives from an earlier Doom Patrol team that was formed by the Chief. Catch them on HBO.

Key and Peele



Key & Peele is an American sketch comedy television series created by Keegan-Michael Key and Jordan Peele that aired on Comedy Central. If you’ve been on social media, I’m sure you’ve encountered one Peele meme or another. These guys are hilarious. Key & Peele is now showing on Hulu.

Emily in Paris



Emily left her fiance to pursue a new position as a marketing executive in Paris. What adventure could possibly await her? Unsurprisingly, Emily broke up with her fiance and had a mad fling with a local Parisian. Plot twist: the hot monsieur already in a relationship with someone else. So typical but yet cute enough that I watched it till the end. Catch this stereotypical romance drama on Netflix.

Lovecraft Country



I would describe Lovecraft Country as a messed up witchcraft story with mythological creatures and monsters. Set in 1950s America, the protagonist set out across the country in search of his missing father. You cannot watch this HBO horror drama with your family.

A queen’s gambit



Chess genius/prodigy child escapes from her broken family in pursuit of chess glory. Will Beth Harmon achieve the ultimate price? One thing for sure this period drama miniseries set off a minor global interest in chess-playing for a while (not for me though). One of Anna Taylor Joy’s more bearable acting.

Lenovo ThinkPad E495 review

After years of using Dell and HP laptops to mixed results, I’ve decided to give Lenovo a try. Not just any Lenovo models though, it’s their legendary ThinkPad line.

At first glance, the ThinkPad series looks tad overpriced for its specs. The cheapest ThinkPad model you can get right now is the L13 with only Intel i3, 4GB RAM and 256GB with Intel integrated graphics for a tidy RM2,837.14 from their official website. More if you buy from any of their offline resellers. But just as people don’t buy MacBook Pros for their crazy specs but for quality, the same can be said for the ThinkPad line. This hardy bunch can withstand even some of the most rigorous abuse you can throw at them. Water spill on keyboard? No problem. Dropped it from desk height? Only a few scratches.



Buying from the official Lenovo website will give you a nice discount - about 5% tops. Another trick is, if you’ve got a business registration number, you can sign up for Lenovo Pro which will give your up to 10% discount from the listed price. That’s exactly what I did so that I got a massive 300 ringgit discount on the ThinkPad E495 model. So remember, if you’d like to get better deals for ThinkPads or any other Lenovo models, buy from their website, not from Lazada or the resellers at Low Yat. They marked up the price so much, it’s 15-30% more than on the website. Even better, get somebody with a Lenovo Pro sign in (like me) to get further discount on your purchase.



The only downside of buying from the website is the long waiting time. Although it says shipped within 6 business days, I waited an agonizing 9 days for my shipment to arrive from China. It’s the price you pay I guess instead of paying extra for a cash and carry at Low Yat or similar stores.



Why the E495 though? For one thing I got the biggest bang for my buck (RM2,500.00). AMD Ryzen 5 2.10GHz, 8GB DDR3, 256GB M.2 PCIe NVMe + 1TB SATA HDD, Radeon Vega 8 graphics and the most important thing of all - USB-C charging. I’ve already got a MacBook Pro with USB-C charger plus an extra so it’s a no brainer. The L14 with similar specs and price uses the old square proprietary Lenovo charger and that’s a deal breaker for me. And I don’t mind at all using AMD instead of the traditional Intel because the Ryzen 5 is comparable to Intel’s i5 in terms of performance.



On the right side you will find one ethernet port, one USB 2.0 port and a microSD card slot. On the left side you get one USB-C port, 2 USB 3.1 ports, HDMI and a headphone jack. Just the right amount of peripherals port to get all your modern day work done. The 14”FHD AntiGlare screen is nice and bright but dims a bit while on battery. Until now I have no idea how to make the screen just as bright on battery.

At first glance, the ThinkPad line looks rather outdated with its plastic built and huge bezels around the screen. The plastic feels sturdy but I’m already missing the premium unibody aluminum finish of the MacBook Pro. The plastic body also shields me from the usual heat that I feel from using the MacBook Pro keyboard. I mean I love my MacBook Pro but the heat actually gave me chapped skin on my fingers. The keypads on the E495 though is a pleasure to type on. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to using their infamous red trackpoint and the positioning of the trackpad’s left and right button which is at the top is unique but still usable. This model does not come with any fingerprint readers but that’s fine with me. And like the way the Apple logo lights up on older MacBook models, I like the way the letter i lights up at the lid of this ThinkPad.



How does it fare performance-wise? 8GB of RAM is okay by today’s standard but I ordered another 8GB online to make it 16GB total. Boot up was superfast, less than 10 seconds with the NVMe SSD drive as the main drive. I try to install most of my applications and games on the huge 1TB SATA drive to save space on the main drive. Consequently, I find my games not as blazing fast as a full-fledged gaming machine. The Radeon Vega 8 graphics shares RAM space with the main RAM so I don’t expect to blast through PUBG with the highest specs. Still, most games I play a lot like Football Manager 2020, Rise of Industry or Need for Speed: Rivals runs okay on this laptop.

Now for the negatives. The E495 feels slightly heavier than my MacBook Pro. Opening the bottom cover to reach the RAM, HDD and other parts is a pain and if you’re not careful, might scratch or chip the case. At least you don’t have to disassemble the entire keyboard like some other laptops. If there’s any part that Lenovo skimp on, it must definitely be the speakers cause they sound terrible. Did I say the bezels on this laptop is yuge?

With normal use, the E495 can last for slightly more than 3 hours on single charge. Compared to my MacBook Pro, the E495 feels a bit bulky to carry around. That said, this ThinkPad is half the price of the MBP and it is actually mine. As nice as the MacBook is, it belongs to my company and someday I will need to return it. Therefore it is prudent for me to have my own laptop to fall back on in case the unthinkable happens. I’m expecting the E495 with its current specs would last 3-4 years into the future.

Would I recommend the E495? Absolutely, if you can find it. At time of writing, you can’t find it anymore on the Lenovo website. But if you can find something similar with USB-C chargers then go for it. So far I’m pretty happy with my ThinkPad and use it all the time at home for gaming and some occasional office work.

Pixel 3 review

My second phone, the Mi A2 was a fine phone. It runs on Android One, the closest thing you can get a Pixel-like Android experience on a non-Pixel device. That said, as much as it resembles a Pixel in a lot of ways, it is still not a Pixel phone. Hence why I sold it off and got myself a Pixel 3.

I was considering the Pixel 3A which is a slightly newer version of the Pixel line but the lack of wireless charging capabilities was the deal breaker. Like I said, once you got a taste of wireless charging, you’d never want to go back to wired charging. I can never bring myself to get the bigger Pixel 3 XL with its fugly notch. Plus I always wanted a smaller second phone so I can bring it anywhere without worrying about its weight. I got my secondhand (naturally) Pixel 3 for a pretty good deal of under 1,000 ringgit from a shop in Wangsa Maju. The body was spotless and battery life is pretty good too.

Coming from the Mi A2, the Pixel 3 is a bit shorter and slimmer in width and length. The user interface is pretty much the same but you can notice immediately the difference in quality of the OLED screen on the Pixel 3. Other than that, moving around the phone is buttery smooth, just like I remembered it on my old Pixel 2. As always, you get the latest Android update first on the Pixel. Out of the box it comes with Android 9 but I have already updated it to Android 10 by now.

There is not much to comment on the Pixel 3 because it is pretty much a newer version of the Pixel 2. Same two tone design at the back although it is now frosted glass instead of aluminium. Same single rear-facing camera. There’s two front-facing cameras now though. There’s no notch on this phone but you have a slightly thicker bezel at the top of the phone and a much slimmer one at the bottom. You still have the squeeze (Active Edge) feature at the bottom side of the phone although I rarely use it if ever. And as usual, there’s the always on display that I love on every Pixel (and Samsung) phone to tell the time and date.

Photo and video quality is slightly better than the Pixel 2 (a lot better than the Mi A2). As of writing, Pixel users will still get full resolution backup of photos and videos on Google Photos but only until January 31st, 2022. As my second phone, I use it pretty lightly every day so I get an amazing 16 hours battery life if I just scroll on my Instagram feed every morning and play all my Insta Stories. For a 2 years old phone, the Pixel 3 is still a pretty good phone. I got wireless charging, brilliant OLED screen, great camera and the best Android experience on a phone. All for a relatively affordable price. I’ve used a lot of Android phones over the year and I always gravitate back to the Pixel for the above reasons.

iPhone SE review

My last iPhone was the iPhone XR. It was almost the perfect iPhone except for a few minor shortcomings. First of all it only had one camera, meaning no portrait mode shots for non-human photos. Second, it was slightly too heavy, for me at least personally. I can say I dropped the XR on my face more times than I’d like to admit. Apple only sells a clear silicone case for the XR so I had no choice but to use that one which makes the phone bulky and heavy. Use another non-Apple case you say? Never!

Hence why I sold the XR and bought myself a brand new iPhone SE. Recycled design? Smaller screen? Did not bother me too much. The main pull of the iPhone SE is its smaller size. It feels really light in my hands and more importantly, no more dropping heavy phones on my face. Powering the SE is the same powerful A13 bionic chip on the iPhone 11 and it also uses the same camera. so, internally, it is almost as good as Apple’s current flagship phone.

Did I miss Face ID? Sometimes yeah but in this era of constant face mask use, I find Touch ID super useful instead. I truly appreciate not pulling off my mask to unlock the screen or worse, having to type the passcode on the screen. The screen is much smaller than the XR for sure and who can ignore the huge bezels on the top and bottom of the screen. But I thought if I wanted bigger screens for watching videos or movies or playing games, I’d use my trusty iPad. My iPhone is mostly used for regular communication stuff like texting, social media and the occasional video watching. And another benefit of a smaller iPhone is that it is also much lighter so I can bring it for my run without feeling anything at all.

With regular use, the battery can last up to 11 hours before needing charge (20%). Not too shabby for a 1,821mAh battery. I must say I did not regret switching from the bigger XR to the SE. I particularly enjoy typing with one hand and carrying around this lightweight iPhone for a change. Maybe I’d get a bigger iPhone again in the future, who knows. But for now I am really happy with my compact iPhone SE.

Port Dickson short getaway

Post MCO we thought it was a good idea to bring our entire family for a short getaway, you know to finally see the world after being cooped up for so long at home. Coincidentally we decided not to go back to our hometown for Eid ul Adha. Mostly because Adam had to go back to school right away after the short holiday. There is simply not enough time (thank God). We chose Port Dickson because it is nearby and was hoping the traffic would not be so horrible this festive season.

Traffic-wise, it was quite a pleasant journey to Port Dickson via Sepang/Bagan Lalang. It was my first time using this route instead of the usual Seremban-Port Dickson highway thanks to Waze. Apart from a short jam due to (an unnecessary) road block, the journey was smooth and clear. I booked a room at the Glory Beach Resort, right in the middle of downtown PD. Starting from the long queue right at the entrance I suspected there will be an even longer queue to check in. My suspicion was confirmed when I had to queue for nearly half an hour to check in. Well, Adam did most of the queuing for me (thanks buddy). Apparently a lot of people had the same idea of spending Raya Haji at resorts like us.

I remember booking for a 3 bedroom apartment at the resort online. They kindly upgraded us to a 3+1 penthouse suite at the top floor. I can’t complain much about the room - air cond in most rooms, warm running water, nice seafront view. If only they would sweep or mop the floor before letting the guests come in. I got the feeling they haven’t let out the room for quite some time. The floor was visibly dusty and unclean. On the flip side, the beach is right outside the hotel. It was filled with people for obvious reasons. Still the kids had a good time bathing and playing by the sea. Not wanting to expose the kids unnecessarily to the crowd, we bought drive-in McDonald’s for dinner that night.

Next morning, instead of the usual breakfast buffet, the food was pre-packed and distributed to guests at the café downstairs. There’s a mix of nasi lemak, nuggets and fried beehon (all tiny portions) for breakfast. I had a hard time justifying paying another 12 ringgit for an extra pack for my kid. To be honest, I’d rather go out and find a proper wholesome breakfast outside than eat their lousy breakfast. After another round of bathing at the beach, we checked out around 11:00. Sorry Glory Beach Resort but I can only give your 2 stars for our experience.

Would we return to Glory Beach Resort again? Probably not in the near future. In fact after Port Dickson, we’re not sure we would want to experience the whole long queue and terrible prepacked buffet at another resort or hotel. Not until this whole pandemic is over.

Afterwards, Hana and Asif had a cold and fever, I suspect from bathing in the polluted Port Dickson beach. I had my reservations about letting them bathe in a beach that’s located smack in the middle of town where all the drain water probably goes. But then again, what is the point of going to a seaside resort if you won’t let your kids play on the beach right?

Airpods review

The Airpods does not sound as good as my Sony wireless earphones. The sound quality is pretty good but the bass is only somewhat moderate. What made them truly remarkable is their seamless integration with the Apple ecosystem. And you don’t expect any less. Flip open the Airpods case near an iOS device and you get a notification asking whether you’d like to connect to it. Want to switch to another Apple device? Just head to the Bluetooth shortcut menu in the control centre and pick your iOS device. The next time you take out the Airpods out of its case, it will automatically connect to the last iOS device. And with iOS 14, the audio connection will switch automatically when you switch iOS devices while wearing the Airpods. Sure you can do all that with any other Bluetooth earbuds but you’ll have to go through the trouble of connecting and disconnecting the Bluetooth connection.

Charging the Airpods is easy. Just pop them in their case and it will charge. If the case runs out of battery, you charge the case. You can fast forward to the next song by double-tapping the right Airpods or skip back to the previous song by double-tapping the left Airpods. If you want to stop the music, just take out any one of the Airpods. Of course you can customize the double-tap feature to open Siri as well in the iOS settings. You can see how much battery’s left in the control centre and also when you swipe left to the widgets page. The Airpods will not blow away your brain listening to music but it is good enough. Listening to podcasts and audiobooks though are great because it is truly wireless and the spoken words are crystal clear. If you are already in the Apple ecosystem, the Airpods is truly useful to have. Otherwise, you’re better off with any other brands and cheaper models.

How I got conned on Mudah.my

I consider myself a tech-savvy man, up to date and abreast with current affairs and going ons of the modern world. It never occured to me that one day I will cheated on by an elderly lady off Mudah. Here’s my story.

I’ve been looking to get my hands on a pair of Airpods for a while now. Since the MCO started, I got the chance to save up some money for the purpose. While brand new Airpods are still too expensive for my liking, secondhand units though are just right for my budget. Hence how I started to look for one on Mudah.my, a popular online marketplace. It was not long before I stumble upon a pair of brand new Airpods, never opened before in a sealed box. It was listed slightly below market price. The seller worded it as “brand new sealed Airpods, got from lucky draw”.

Naturally, I asked for the Airpods serial number and look them up online and they checked out. The warranty expired but it was a legit Airpods unit. Without further ado, we agreed to meet at her place at Uptown Residences near Damansara Utama. I can’t believe my luck. A brand new unopened Airpods in a sealed box, too good to be true right? Well sort of. The elderly lady arrived and before I can proceed to open the box, she demanded that I pay for it first. I said I would normally test the merchandise first before paying but she insisted saying that once I opened the packaging it won’t be brand new anymore and she’ll have to sell it for less then.

Despite my usually skeptical and careful self, I agreed to her reasoning and proceed to transfer the money via online wire. I spent a good 10 minutes trying to connect the Airpods to my phone but to no avail. Yes I plugged in the Airpods to a power bank the whole time but still no luck. When I declared to the lady that the Airpods could be faulty, she nonchalantly claimed that it can’t possibly be since it’s brand new from a sealed box. Yes it was brand new but the warranty has expired and it could actually be a dud unit. She refused to accept my reasoning and casually walked away from the condo lobby. Not wanting to create a scene in the lobby area right next to the security personnel stationed there, I decided to go home first, with heavy heart of course. Perhaps I could try a few other ways to make the Airpods connect, you know being the resourceful man that I am.

After dozens of articles read and YouTube tutorials watched, I come to the realization two days later that the evil bitch really did sold me a bricked Airpods. Whether she did it on purpose or not, I guess we’ll never know. Sure it’s sealed in a box but sealing a refurbished or old gadgets back in a box is not really that hard to do nowadays. Yes I tried to reason with her and demanded nicely that she returned my money back for the faulty Airpods but she just flatly refuse. What am I going to do? Round up my gangster buddies and beat her up in her condo until she returns my money? Err no, I’m still way too civilized for that. So I did the next best thing and reported the case to a consumer tribunal and made a police report at a nearby station. At the time of writing it’s been weeks since I made those report and I have not heard anything back from them. Either they didn’t think my case merits any investigation or they just file this under NFA I don’t know. Honestly, I don’t have much faith in the system or getting my money back.

A normal, decent human being would usually return the money if they sell a faulty goods. I guess you can say Chan Yin Tho is not a decent human being. I don’t know how she sleeps at night cheating innocent people out of their hard-earned income. Pretty soundly I guess because she has no soul. To add further insult to injury, I reported the incident to Mudah first in case they could make this evil lady return my money. Their answer? We can’t do anything sir because we only provide a platform for people to buy and sell. If you get cheated by any scums online, that’s not our problem. They didn’t even have the guts to blacklist or remove this evil scammer from their website. So remember, if you get cheated on Mudah or I guess Carousell as well after this, don’t bother to report to them. You can basically go around and murder people you find on Mudah and they will wash their hands off the case. They simply don’t give a shit about their customer’s welfare.

And of course if you stumble upon a Mudah seller by the username Wish Wish or Chan Yin Tho (mobile number 016628764*), stay the hell away from her. Good thing I decided to wire the money online, or else I might not even know her name. The moral of the story here, don’t pay for anything first even if the goods is “brand new” in a sealed box. Test everything first and make sure they really work. If the seller insist that you pay first, just walk away. This is a painful and somewhat embarrassing story to tell but I had to lay it out here for the good of the people and so that nobody else will be cheated by evil human beings like Chan Yin Tho again in the future.

Sony CMT-SBT20 review

I have always wanted this micro Hi-Fi set. When I was small, I remember my uncles having one of these radios in their homes. I played around with them and the sound that they made was really sweet. But micro Hi-Fis, especially those from Sony are never cheap. At least cheap in my definition. Even when I can afford them in these past few years, they were not top of my priority. There’s so much I can do or spend on 300 ringgit. Until last week that is. I got myself this sweet baby for cheap, secondhand.

The sound was just as great as I remembered them. No cassette players of course but there’s still CD player, USB playback and Bluetooth. Strangely enough, I can never get my iPhone or iPad and most of my Android phones to connect to this radio’s Bluetooth. Only my Pixel 3 with NFC does. As I get most of my music from Spotify or a bunch online radio streaming sites, having Bluetooth connection is vital. If I ever sell my Pixel, I’ll have to get one of those Bluetooth audio receivers to listen with this radio. Just like all previous radios that I have in this house, I can never get good enough FM reception indoors. The FM tuner on this is useless. And CDs? Whoever got those nowadays?

Although there’s much cheaper models and brands out there with similar quality, I will always choose Sony. And that concludes my short and sweet review of my new favourite micro Hi-Fi set.

Must have apps on my phone

Today I am going to share some of the apps that I find very useful and are always first to be installed whenever I switch to a new phone or tablet. They are all cross-platform, meaning available on both iOS and Android since I use both ecosystems. Many of them also offer web-based version of the app which is useful when you want to use them on a computer.



OneNote

First on the list of note-taking apps is OneNote by Microsoft. I’ve been using this app for a long time now, taking important notes from work and also other relevant notes that I need to quickly and regularly refer to. I love the color-coded tabs and neat organisation in OneNote. Apart from text and photos, you can also add handwriting, sketches and audio notes. Unlike some freemium note-taking apps, you can install OneNote on as many devices as you like without any limits. The storage space is limited by your Outlook (Microsoft) account capacity.



Google Keep

My second favourite note-taking app is Google Keep. I put most of my lists here - shopping, groceries, wishlist, etc-etc. Also stored in Keep are my notes that I would like to note and forget. You know notes that are not important enough to go on OneNote but could still be useful for me in the future. Google Keep’s note searching function is second to none.



Evernote

I used to take a lot of notes on Evernote. This freemium note-taking app had been around for as long as OneNote. It had tonnes of my college diploma notes plus other educational notes that I’d like to keep. The Evernote Web Clip feature is especially useful when I want to quickly snap and store a website or articles that I find interesting and useful. Like OneNote, Evernote also offers multimedia note-taking on its app. Like Google Keep, the search function on Evernote is superb, scouring through your standard text and handwritten notes within seconds. Things started to go downhill for Evernote and me though when they started to impose a two-device limit on its free tier users. Sure there is no limit yet for the web version of Evernote but since that version is much slower to load than the app, I gradually started using Evernote less and less. I understand then need for this small company to be making money but still it sucks that I can only download the app on just two devices.


Simplenote

Simplenote is for notes that is not too important for me, disposable notes that I don’t really intend to keep or refer to in the long term. Sure I could use Google Keep note and forget feature but Simplenote offers a neat and minimalist UI design, similar to that of iOS’ Notes app. The reason I don’t just use Notes app is because it is not cross-platform.



Google Drive

The next category of apps that I must have on my phones and devices are cloud storage apps. Google Drive is top of my preferred list and I’ve been using it since it first launched. Yes 15GB is a rather small space to store all of your important files and folders hence why I upgraded to Google One which offers 100GB space across all your devices. If you know me, you know how frugal I am when it comes to paying for online services but Google services have been so interlinked and ubiquitous in my tech life that it is much more convenient to store all my stuff on one ecosystem rather than spread them across several apps, which what I’ve been doing before the upgrade. RM8.49 per month for 100GB is still an acceptable price to pay to store all my important files. Previously I’ve been paying RM3.90 monthly for iCloud Drive but their app’s performance on Windows machine has been abysmal to say the least plus the fact that there’s no iCloud Drive for Android.



Dropbox

Before upgrading to Google One, Dropbox have been my main app of choice for cloud storage. Thanks to its formerly generous user referral bonus policy, I’ve garnered a cool 25.88GB of free storage space on Dropbox. But that was then. Eventually, Dropbox stopped rewarding that referral bonus and then gradually limits the app to just two devices. Like Evernote, that was the straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back hence why I moved all my files to OneDrive and Google Drive before settling on just Gdrive.



Box

Similar to Dropbox, I managed to snag a generous 25GB free space on Box (formerly Box.net) thanks to their one time promo. I store some of my photos on one Box account and all my music files on another. Unlike Evernote or Dropbox, Box fortunately does not impose any limits on how many devices you install their app (yet).



Google Photos

I store most of my photos from 2 years back in full quality on Box but for archival purposes, I put them all up on Google Photos. Photos offer unlimited photo storage for up to 16MP in size and unlimited 1080P video. It’s a no brainer really. 16MP pics and 1080P videos are good enough for me to store all my audio-video files for free, for eternity. Of course I also keep a copy of the full sized photos and videos on my external hard drives.



NordVPN

Why do I need a VPN connection you ask? Well you see, certain streaming service providers like Netflix and Amazon Prime restrict some of their contents to local subscribers because of TV and movie rights. Therefore Netflix customers in Malaysia will miss out about 1/4 of the content available on Netflix USA for example. Other streaming services like Disney+ and Hulu are not available at all in many countries including Malaysia. Hence the need for a paid VPN service like NordVPN which provides a virtual connection to a number of countries such as USA, UK and Australia just to name a few. With the VPN connection on, I can finally watch region locked titles on Netflix and Disney+. It’s an eye-opener.



ePlatform

I am lucky to work in a private school which offers a variety of educational services such as ePlatform. ePlatform is an eBook & audiobook lending system which is accessible via their iOS and Android app and also on their website. The book selection is quite decent with several thousand titles available for loan including some recent best-sellers. Whenever I’m not on Twitter and have some time to kill, I’d open up ePlatform to continue my eBook reading.


Borrow Box

Another lending service that I use often is Borrow Box. Just like ePlatform, Borrow Box offers numerous eBooks and audiobooks titles for you to read and listen. So far, I find Borrow Box provide better audiobook selection than ePlatform.



Google Play Books

Play Books mainly offer paid book titles ala Amazon but the one feature that I find very useful is the ability to upload epub and pdf files. Needless to say, this is where I keep all my bootleg book titles.



Netflix

The next category of apps that I must have on my phone is streaming apps. Top of the list is none other than Netflix. Netflix offers some of the best and more popular TV series in the market right now plus a huge selection of movie titles to watch although I have watched most of the movies on offer.



Astro Go

I don’t actually have Astro satellite TV service at home but my good friend was kind enough to share his Astro Go login with me so I can catch Premier League football and other live football matches. The channels you can watch on this app mirror the kind of Astro plan that you subscribe on the TV box. Apart from local content, Astro Go also offers a nice selection of Hollywood content including many from HBO.



Disney+

Disney+ streaming service is not officially available in the country but thanks to NordVPN, I can sign up for the service and watch my favourite Disney, Marvel and Star Wars titles.



Apple TV+

Apple TV+ is a new streaming service launched by you guess it, Apple. Compared to the other streaming juggernauts, Apple TV+ selection is rather limited so there is not much series or movies to pick from. The only reason why I even use Apple TV+ is because I got a free one year subscription when my company bought me a brand new MacBook to use. From the tiny selection of content available so far, it is pretty unlikely that I will continue to subscribe to them after the free trial expires.



Playtv@Unifi

This streaming service is available for all Unifi subscribers which I happen to be one. Playtv offers a decent selection of current TV series and movie titles although not as much as Netflix or Disney+. Another reason to have Playtv is the live TV channels offered by the app. If you can watch the channel on your HyppTV box, you can watch it on Playtv as well.



RTM Mobile

RTM Mobile is mostly a TV streaming app featuring government owned channels from RTM. I don’t use this app much but when I want to catch important news or announcement from the government or to get prayer times for Ramadan, RTM Mobile comes quite handy. You can also tune in to many state-run radio channels on the app.



Pocket

Pocket, previously known as Read it Later is an application and web service for managing a reading list of articles and videos from the Internet. If I come upon an interesting article or website or videos on the Internet but I don’t have the time or inclination to read it right away, I send them to read later to Pocket via their web clip feature. The free version of Pocket is ad-supported but they are so not obtrusive, I don’t mind having them at all.



Remote Mouse

I use this app as a virtual mouse to control my computer or laptop from a distance. I had Astro Go installed on my Mac mini connected to my TV so having Remote Mouse on my phone is godsend. Otherwise I would need to find a mouse to move the cursor in Astro Go.

Another category of apps that I usually have on all my devices are productivity apps like Gmail, Google Sheets/Docs, Duolingo and myCuaca. For navigation, I rely mostly on Waze and sometimes Google Maps. So there you have it, the list of must have apps that I usually have on my smartphones and tablets. Of course this list is not exhaustive, there are a few more apps that I also have but they are not so important to mention here.