Gadget Shopping In Taipei (Part 2)…

(Note: The previous post can be found here)

I mentioned a while ago that Taipei was a gadget freak’s Mecca and almost every gadget that you can lust for is available… However, the shopping experience is marred by a fundamental flaw… The surprisingly low number of money changers around the shopping areas (Note: money changing services are available at banks in Taipei but a passport and a valid reason for the exchange is required. A single page form must also be filled)… And to make matters worse, most of the vendors that offered brilliant discounts and prices, only dealt in cash!!! So now this would be a pickle as most of the banks shut early and if you get a good offer on some pc parts, you will not be able to change your RM into NT and buy it!!!

So my advice for any budding shoppers out there is to bring double the NT you initially planned to bring over for shopping in Taipei because you’d never know what you will find…

Gadget Shopping In Taipei (Part 1)…

As you would have noticed, a few posts ago I mentioned that I just got back from Taipei… The city is essentially a gadget shopper’s Mecca… I was always under the impression before I left for Taipei that Guanghua, was an electronic market that I could go through within 2 hours or so… Boy was I wrong…

Well you see, this is Guanghua market…

Well more accurately, this is where the market starts… Where does it end??? Well I don’t know to be honest because my feet didn’t survive more than half way…

Its also interesting to note that they have stores and stores dedicated to the sale of single items… For example, there are stores that sell only gaming mice and they have stores that sell only cooling fans!!! Now if that market isn’t a Mecca for gadget enthusiasts, I don’t know what is…

In addition to the above, the shops in the area close at only 10.00 or 10.30 pm every night so you can shop and your leisure… it is also worth mentioning that the sellers are not very sales driven in the sense that they don’t really push you to get anything and would encourage you to shop around and only purchase the items that suit your needs…

In addition to Guanghua market, another place worth checking out is the NOVA store… Nova is fantastic because they split the store into several floors and areas… For example, there is a whole floor dedicated for gaming mice and keyboards, one whole floor for monitors and displays, one whole floor for a DIY section and a whole floor for consoles and games…Prebuilt systems and laptops however, are displayed next door at a sister outlet…

Now can you imagine the mind boggling shopping experience that I had???

(to be continued)…

Why Nick Why???

OMG!!! Have you heard??? Kinky Nicky did the unspeakable (hmmm maybe because of this, I should call him Scary Nicky instead of Kinky Nicky... What do you think???)... Still don't know what he did??? Well he did a one up on MarauderzMY by actually buying a macbook instead of an item from a mac store...

What is wrong with him anyway??? You see I am Asian (or Oriental as some people like to say)... and I use an Acer (its an Asian brand in case you didn't know... Taiwanese I think it is) laptop... MarauderzMY is Asian and he uses a Fujitsu (Japanese) laptop... I think you guys can pretty much figure out where this is going... So why Nick??? Why have you whored yourself to the white man??? WHY???

Tags: yoroi360, Marauderz, marauderzstuff.com, idiot, pay4lei, mac store, blog

He's Done It...

Ah so MarauderzMY has decided to blog about it afterall :P... I know lots of people have been waiting for the HTC Cavalier or Dopod C730 here in Malaysia and it stumps me as to why the local distributors have yet to bring it in (maybe for the reasons outlined on MarauderzMY's blog... it also stumps me to some degree as to why they call it a Dopod Cavalier rather than a HTC Cavalier or a Dopod C730)... I mean think of it, who wouldn't want it???

Aih... if only it came with a front vga camera for video calls... If only... Besides its not like its available here yet and I for one am not blessed with MarauderzMY's deep pockets, so I can't afford a trip to Singapore to get the phone...

I guess a pauper like me will have to get whatever I can from the local mall on Thursday...

Tags: yoroi360, blog, kuala lumpur, pay4lei, taiwan, 3.5g, gadgets, bluetooth, pocket pc, video call, asus, dopod, n93, k750i, nokia, symbian series 60, se

ZzzZZZzzzZZZ...

Was so knackered that I completely zonked out at 12.30 am... Must have been all that running around at work earlier on... Its gonna be another late night tonight as there will a seminar later on in the evening followed by a short presentation to the distributors... I am just glad that the presentation will be handled by another group of people and I'm just there for morale support...

In unrelated news, Firedancer's aka Synchronous' box kicked it last night... apparently it locks up after 5 mins of gameplay but has not exhibited any RODs yet...

In more unrelated news, it seems that MarauderzMY has uncovered something very interesting... It depends on whether he will blog about it though... lets just say it concerns a rather drool worthy gadget and 3.5g... Oooh and that its being made by the Taiwanese (heck coming to think of it, almost everything is made by the Taiwanese these days :P)...

In even more unrelated news, the 'project' is picking up some steam, several parties have expressed interest (which is good but doesn't do jack in the finances department)... however its not something that I will quit my day job for yet... I may not make a decent amount of money from this litle enterprise, but at least, I'll be able to offer better value to the average cash-strapped joe... More about this when it happens...

In some hardcore totally unrelated news, I've decided to stick it to symbian (series 60 in particular... after a long love and hate relationship) and moving on to windows mobile 5 (and subsequently windows mobile 6 when the update comes up mid july)... This would mean that the N93 will no longer be my primary mobile (it will be relegated to the secondary phone status effectively replacing the aging SE K750i) and it will be replaced by something that comes out of Taiwan... whatever that may be... some key features that it would need to have to serve as my primary mobile are as follows:

1. 3.5g;
2. wifi;
3. bluetooth;
4. video call functionality;
5. above par battery life; and
   
6. gps
   

So lets see what tomorrow's shopping trip will yield...

Tags: yoroi360, blog, kuala lumpur, pay4lei, taiwan, 3.5g, gadgets, bluetooth, pocket pc, video call, asus, dopod, n93, k750i, nokia, symbian series 60, se

Up... Down... Up... Down...

Relax... I've not turned into an econonomist overnight... I was not talking about share prices but rather the fact that I have been driving up and down the highway for the past two consecutive days... its been two hours down south and two hours back up north per day and I must say that its gotten me a little worn out... the thing that's a kick in the pants is, I get to do the same thing again tomorrow... Hooray (not)!!!

Jeanie will be driving up and down the highway as well over the next couple days as she has several events arranged up north...

The quality of services in my area has been going up and down as well... take the internet and postal services for instance...

Internet at home has also been spotty at best... didn't manage to connect at all last night but it seemed ok this morning... Managed to download the two news maps for GOW and the accompanying theme before I left for work, got both downloads (98 mb + 4 mb = 102 mb) done in about 10 mins... hopefully it holds up tonight so I can get some gaming done... I also need a connection to the internet tonight as I need to pay some bills online... Well you might think that its wrong to bitch about the internet connection in light of the recent earthquake but let me assure you fellow readers, earthquake or not, the ISP I use has to step up their game and offer a service that is on par with its subcription charges...

Postal services have been crazy as well, I've not been getting any mail for the past two weeks (which is weird because that when I normally receive my bills every month)... I just hope that the postman doesn't come over one day and just dump a whole pile of letters outside my door because he finally decided to get off his arse and do his job...

Technorati Tags: pay4lei, blog, yoroi360, highway, GOW, xbox360, postman, earthquake, Taiwan