Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Gadget lovers unite

Yes they literally do - as I've just recently found out - at a place called Geek Terminal at Raffles Place. A little note here: I'm typing this at 1am on a Wednesday morning. I'm dead tired, my eyes can't open more than 2mm and my legs are jelly. Do bear with me if I've made any spelling errors, if any.

So there I was, waiting with Jerrick at Raffles Place interchange after that long train ride devoid of any empty seats. Well ok, I did manage to find one but it was only like 5 seconds before I reached my destination, so what the heck. Dinner with Daniel, Ren Hao and Jerrick was at a clop before we headed off to this place called Geek Terminal to see Singapore's (and possible perhaps) SE Asia's first iPhone, though possibly not the only one.

A little background first. This guy who owns the iPhone is fabulously tech-minded, hence his eyePhone. He's apparently a developer who - duh - develops software for the iFone. So naturally, he's got his hands on a set, ready to work his whiz-bang wizardry on it so that we mortals can partake in its rewards.

So we entered this Geek Terminal (henceforth known as GT since my fingers can't type the full words) and I will forthrightly say that I was dumbstruck. True I've stepped into some fancy bars before but this took the cake. Soft turquoise lighting illuminated the walls and the bar to our right as we walked in, providing an ambiance of sooth, of calmness and serenity. The walls were smooth, glossy white, complemented with several neat glass shelves. Patrons were on their laptops pecking away at their keyboards, absorbed in their work. A short flight of steps beckoned as we ascended it into some sort of a loft, replete with tables and chairs for the customers who presumably dwell in this awesome place (sorry, ran out of adjectives). We 4 grabbed some extra tables and chairs and sat at the head of the table, I next to a rather pretty young lady.

As we sat ourselves down I frankly felt rather awkward and out of place. I was possibly the youngest there and in the company of all those like-minded, insanely passionate techies, started to feel like a fish out of water. I forced myself to think straight and logically, and to blend in with the crowd. I'm not ashamed to admit my tech knowledge has been dinky of late, because cars have filled up the void, but I do know my tech stuff when the going gets, well, going.

The initial excitement dying down, we ordered ridiculously expensive coffee (busted my wallet for a double espresso) and lay back to wait for the eyeFone's arrival. We weren't disappointed. Soon a collective gasp was heard from the comparatively swakoo members of 65Bits as the HaloPhone was produced. A long, agonizing wait followed as other people ahead of us babied, cooed and wowed at the latest gadget to come out of the hallowed Apple, Inc..

After nearly a century of waiting, the GoGoGadget reached our side and it was our turn to ooh and aah at it. In Jerrick's words:

"I think I just had a techgasm or something."

IT was wonderful. An absolutely gem of industrial design and the product of a long, long road of development. I could not help but stare at it in wonderment. It was everything I expected it to be. For the brief period that I held it, I couldn't stop thinking that this WonderPhone, this IncrediPhone, this iCallU, could just symbolise the success of savvy marketing and design over untested, untrialled and untried products. It was - in short - brilliant; there's no more apt a word. The touchscreen touched, the pictures pinched and stretched, the accelerometers flipped the screen this way and that, the buttons clicked, the interface interacted, and the phone just....worked. Without exaggeration, the phone did everything I expected it to do. A truly amazing product.

Can't type anything else cos my brain's fried. My dear Amy talked me into doing the ST bestfriends quiz, which I promptly rushed home to complete by 0000 18th July. Unfortunately the minute I opened the quiz I knew I was screwed.

I don't know her address.

And the time at that point was 2345 17th July. Frantic, I screamed through a dozen webpages trying to find the name of her condo. I know the name, but when I googled it, nothing came out except some place in Bukit Timah that might as well have been on Mars. She's in Yishun. All wrong. So then I had a brainwave and searched for bus services. Hooray SMRT saves the day! Or so I thought. The damn website was down. How bad could my luck be?

In the end I had to chuck in some fictitious address which I hoped sounded close to the right one. Damn my rotten luck that I didn't ask her for her address.

I have a hundred over things to do. Literally.

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