Authority Sites Blog

No, I didn’t all of a sudden win some lottery and decided to buy this fancy gadget. I bought it on myself of someone else. If you are wondering where I bought this, I actually got this from eBay. My friend do not have a Paypal account and he wasn’t comfortable giving others his credit card number, so he got me to buy it for him.  This little headphone is from Monster, the very famous audio/video cable manufacturer. If you are looking for something much better than your regular headphones, perhaps you will find this little review interesting. And yes, this set of headphones is not cheap. If I remembered correctly, it was over US$100 over with shipping. Not what I can afford pay for my own headphones but some people like the high end stuff.

Yes, the Monster Mobile Jamz High Performance Music Phone Headphones. What a long tedious name. Basically what they mean is that this headphone can work as an attachment to your phone as well as a listening device. So you can use it as an hands-free microphone and answering headphone as well. It claims to work with numerous phones as indicated on the box. And it comes with a 2GB Monster Mobile Media Drive and software.

Yes, Mobile Jamz High Performance Music Phone Headphones. I kid you not.

MONSTER! Featuring ControlTalk Universal. No, I have no idea what that means.

Works with Blackberry, LG and more. Cool.

You open the box and this is what is displayed.

Yes, some software that helps you convert your music to something compatible for your phone. Whatever.

Nice, ControlTalk Universal with Mic and Answer/End Buttons – works with 2.5mm/3.5mm headphone port equipped phones. It features a single control button and a built-in high grade mic, letting you answer calls and talk hands-free. Plus Mobile Jamz includes adaptors for use with 2.5mm port-equipped music phones like some Blackberry, Palm, LG and Motorola phones. That is cool but confusing.

Mobile Jamz can be easily used for free calls and video chats on Skype, iChat, Yahoo! messenger, AIM, MSN messenger, Google Talk or any other voice and video chat application on your computer. Just use the included online Chat Adaptor to plug into your PC or Mac’s headphone and mic ports and speak through the crystal clear Controltalk Universal microphone. You get total privacy, not to mention the best sounding calls ever. Again, very nice. Wish I am rich.

Some compatibility thingy.

Basically the software allows you to create music files which are compatible with your phone easily.

Some information about the Monster Mobile Media Manager Software. This headphone comes with a USB adaptor and a 2GB MicroSD card! Not bad.

The Monster Mobile Media Manager Software.

The included Monster Mobile Media Manager Software makes managing and transferring music and phones from PC to phone simple and intuitive. It locates all your music and photos on your PC and displays them for easy management and saving to the Monster Mobile Media Drive’s MicroSD card. It even automatically formats files to work with your exact phone model. And you can run the software right from the Monster Mobile Media Drive without PC installation, so you can start using it immediately. Okay but why so confusing? I guess it could be due to the fact that this is just a headphone and you have used your daughter’s college fees to pay for it. So it better come with something more than just a headphone!

Make your phone sound better than you ever imagined. Now that is really something. My phone is rather crappy, even after using the hands-free set that comes with it. Hmm…you won’t believe how good your music phone can sound. With the right headphones your music phone can deliver the same club-caliber sound as any digital music player. Mobile Jamz features the same amazing headphone as Monster Lil’ Jamz, so you get the incredible clarity, crystal clear highs and deep bass punch you expect from Monster headphones. You see, told you that this is high end stuff. And only if you really appreciate music I might add.

They have this ControlTalk Universal – for clear and easy hands-free calling. ControlTalk Universal features a single control button and built-in high-grade mic, letting you answer calls and talk hands-free. The sound isolating headphones provide lifelike reproduction on calls, even in noisy environments. Plus, the included adaptors allow for use with phones with a 2.5mm headphone port. And Monster ControlTalk Universal;s patent pending unique shape makes it easy to find the button without looking. How about quality of the actual headphones? They are solid for a reason! These lightweight gems are solid, and for good reason. unlike inexpensive plastic headphones, Mobile Jamz are made of solid metal that doesn’t resonate. That’s why the music is razor sharp and the bass super tight. Plus these little babies are nearly indestructible. Well, want to try?

Check it out – even comes with a Microsuede Pouch. They are for protection and cable management for the rare moments you are not using your headphones.

More features for you to gawk at.

Inside the box, there is yet another box. And I look good right?

There you have it – in all its glory. Life is too short to listen to bad headphones. Hmmm…..why are you listening to headphones in the first place? Shouldn’t you be listening to music or speeches by some president or something. Why listen to headphones?? Anyway, there is indeed a pouch for you to store the headphones when not in use. Quite nice.

The Mobile Jamz headphones. And yes, the MicroSD and USB adaptor as well.

Another photo of the actual music headphones. The rest are merely accessories.

The adaptors for the different phones I believe.

Yes, the ear buds for the different ears. If you have big wide ears, choose the bigger buds. Hope they gave extra. I find it disgusting to keep on using the same ear buds for something. One of my friend has a in-ear headphone that looked kind of like there is a layer of yellow grease on his ear buds. Yucks.

The rest of the stuff in the package. Manuals, warranty stuff, safety tips and so on.

And yes, this ends the little review of the Monster Mobile Jamz headphones. If you have the money, go ahead and get one set. If not, then just stick to the ones that came with your mobile phone. It cannot be everyone is rich right?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Yes, yet another snack review. I know it is not healthy but sometimes we get the munchies. And it is not like I eat snacks everyday. Mostly at the weekends when I have some spare time in my hands. If I am busy, I probably would not have the time to eat snacks. Not to mention, when I get busy, I don’t really have the appetite for snacks anyway. I bought this “EDO Pack” Fries Cut Chips from Sheng Siong. I guess Fries Cut Chips is probably a Japanese word for potato chips that have been more or less julienned.  Juliene simply means cut into small strips. Yes, I talk like a chef sometimes. Not that I am good at cooking or even know how to handle a knife, more like when I have free time, I like to watch those cooking shows. Yes, some of us have weird interests, so don’t mind me.

Here we have the EDO Pack fries. Looks nice. You might be forgiven to think that this is from Japan. It isn’t. They just make the packaging till it looks like it is from Japan. It is actually from Hong Kong.

Yes, seaweed flavor. And I love French Fries!

Back of the pack.

I am very sorry for the blur photos. I tried taking a number of photos but all came out bad. This was one of the better ones. Some nutrition facts for you to look at if you are so interested.

Check out the ingredients – a long list of ingredients means not good in my opinion. Why can’t they just make me a french fry whose ingredients are just potato, oil and flavouring instead of whatever regulator and agent which I have no idea what is the use for. I don’t like chemicals in my food!

A photo of the actual crispy french fries (or fries cut chips).  Not too shabby but overall the taste is rather weak. The seaweed flavor does not stand out from the fries either. And since the fries are pretty small and the overall amount is just too little, you don’t get the same feeling like when you finish a bigger pack of fries. But luckily it is not too salty like most other fries I have eaten. Maybe it is because it does not contain too much salt that is why the taste isn’t that great?

Great for a quick light snack. And come on, who here doesn’t like having something crispy to enjoy when watching a movie or just surfing the net?

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Yes, yet another Campbell’s soup review. This should be a boring one I guess. I am sure that you guys have eaten this type of soup before. And yes, most likely you have eaten Creamy Chicken Mushroom Soup made from a Campbell’s can right? It is so typical. I remember when I was young, my parents making soup from Campbell’s can all the time. It is like so convenient – just open a can, dump the contents into a pot, add water and boil the hell out of it. In the end you get a passable soup. I mean when I was younger, anything salty and creamy was actually edible. Nowadays if you ask me to have a Campbell’s soup for lunch, I would probably have smack you back in the head so hard, your neck might just break.

But honestly, it is not that Campbell’s soups taste that bad – they do taste okay. But as you know, anything in a can will eventually taste dull with so sort of metallic aftertaste, after all, the contents have been kept in a can for don’t know who long and the contents have been boiled to death to kill off any bacteria. So yes, of course the soup isn’t going to be that great. But for busy parents, this is a god-sent.

The very common Creamy Chicken Mushroom Soup. No, not creamy at all. When it came out of the can, it was all lumpy and disgusting. Yucks! Even after making it into soup by adding water, it was not creamy in every sense of the word.

Don’t be fooled by the photo. No way does the actual end product resembles that in the photo. Although you will be able to find some pieces of mushroom. They look more like black specks if you ask me.  Campbell’s soup is great if you are cold and would like something more filling to warm you and you don’t want something to difficult to make.

The usual – combine 1 can of condensed soup and i can of water in a microwaveable container. Mix well, cover and microwave on HIGH for 5 minutes. Since I don’t have a microwave and anything that has been microwaved is probably poisonous to you, I did this in a pot under high heat. Works just as well.

The ingredients are – Wheat Flour, Chicken, Corn Starch, Mushrooms, Vegetable Oil, Salt, Flavourings, Whey Solids, Monosodium Glutamate, some protein thingy, Cream, Sodium Inosinate & Sodum Guanylate, Spices and Beta Carotene. Yes, they do need to add all those stuff so that the soup will at least taste like soup. If not, Campbell’s would probably have been out of business long time ago.

Some nutritional information for your reference. Nothing particularly interesting here. And yes, the soup isn’t healthy. There are many other healthy foodstuff out there you can try.

Yes, this is what I did.

Made in Malaysia. Doubt you can find many items in our local stores that is made in Singapore anymore. Heck, even made in Malaysia stuff is getting less common than before. Everything seemed to be made in China now.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Can’t get enough of potatoes? Well, if McDonalds and Botak Jones don’t give you enough satisfaction the potato freak in you, you should perhaps look toward some other direction – snack foods. Yes, potato snacks have been very popular among the locals for some time now. In fact, if you were to look at the snack section in our supermarkets, you would realize that most of the snacks are indeed potato based. We just love them so much, don’t we? Why is it that potatoes are so well-loved by all? Even kids can’t get enough of french fries and mash potatoes. Adults flock to eat those baked potato with whatever cream on top. It is like potato has become to main food source for most of us. This is truly what I call – “chek kang tang” or “eat potato” where once we (as in Asians) eat Rice as our sample diet.

Anyway, since the invention of the french fries, which is basically potato cut into strips and then fried in oil, we have all sorts of other types of potato-based snack products. And usually these snack products are made from the starch of the potato – the result of washing of cut potatoes – you are left with tons of starch and they use this starch to make those potato snacks. I guess this allows snack manufacturers to make tons of profits from what is basically the residue of making french fries and other potato stuff. But what is surprising is that this Jagabee is actually made from real potatoes, or so they claim.  And what is up with the name?

See, it states that the snack is made from real potato.

Nice, under the licence and the strictest quality control of Calbee Foods in Japan. And this is prepared and packed in Hong Kong. So I gather that this means the snack is made in Hong Kong? I didn’t know that Hong Kong is a producer of snack foods.

Some nutritional information for you to enjoy. The net weight is just 40g. Honestly, no very cheap considering that the weight is just 40g and you are paying like S$2-3 for one small little cup. But then again, nothing is cheap in Singapore anymore.

Yes, Calbee – harvest the power of nature! Then deep fried (or maybe baked?) them till they look nothing like those found in nature! Anyway, the ingredients are potato, vegetable oil, salt, vitamin C and emulsifier. What I don’t understand is why the hell do they need to add emulsifier to a fried potato snack? It is not like it is going to be gooey right? And what is up with all those artificial agents in their salt? Can’t they just add rock salt or sea salt instead? Probably taste better as well. Very likely the reason is cost.

Delicious no? Made from real potatoes my friends, real potatoes. You won’t find many snack foods made from real potatoes anymore that is for sure.

There – looks exactly like a french fry. Just that it is harder and taste better because it is all crunchy and salty. And for old folks like me with bad teeth, I really appreciate this. Kind of hate it when you bite into a crunchy snack, only to find it as hard as a rock and then losing a tooth or two trying to chew through them all. At least there is indeed some quality control here as all the pieces I ate are not “rocks”.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Peanut Butter – the most delicious something which you can put on your bread.  And oh, I love eating peanut butter straight from the jar. Yes, we have jam and all that, but honestly I just love peanut butter more than jam or even kaya.  Basically peanut butter is blended peanut with oil and some salt & sugar. It is also very easy to make it yourself if you have the necessary equipment – a blender, roasted peanuts, oil, salt and sugar. I have tried making it myself but I guess my blender isn’t that stronger – it created small oily chunks instead of the creamy peanut butter that we all love so much. Or perhaps I didn’t blend long enough. Whatever. You can get it easily at the local supermarkets, so that is not a great lose. Of course home made peanut butter you know what you put in it. Nowadays, a lot of supermarket brands, you will see all sort of weird ingredients in them. In my opinion, it is best to avoid them. If not, generally I would look for those with a short ingredient lists.

Anyway, I bought this from Sheng Siong. Not the most expensive one but the ingredients do not include any emulsifier, so it should not be that bad. And seriously, peanut butter is not what I would consider “sophisticated” food. Sure, there will be some difference between high quality peanut butter and low quality ones, but the difference isn’t that far. Heck, it is peanut butter for god’s sake! Not caviar or duck confit lah! They aren’t what I would call “complex’ food. As long as they don’t contain all those weird chemicals, I think it should be alright. And peanut butter shouldn’t cost a bomb either.

Here you have the Singlong Peanut Butter. Yes, very common packaging for peanut butter. Basically in a plastic container. The brand name is “Singlong”.

Yes, creamy peanut butter by Singlong. That peanut is all happy and shit. Kind of weird considering that to make peanut butter, you will have to blend the roasted peanut to death. Actually did you guys know that the peanut is not actually a nut? It is some sort of legume pretending to be a peanut. The “peanut” grows on the vines and when it is mature enough, it will sink to the ground. Why? I don’t know why. Perhaps to protect the legume or something like that.

The ingredients are roasted peanut, sugar, hydrogenated vegetable oil and salt. Too bad they use hydrogenated vegetable oil. If only they use something without trans-fat, I would highly recommend this brand. And from what I read on the Internet, peanut is actually a very healthy source of protein and minerals. But once you roast it and add trans-fat to it, it becomes well…..less healthy. But then again, who wants to eat un-roasted peanut butter?

What can I say? Nearly everything is made in China nowadays. So you shouldn’t be surprised to see even this product also coming from China.  Even Malaysia no longer produces these kind of foodstuff for the Singapore market anymore. Soon, I think we will be jobless.

Sealed for freshness! We can only hope.

There you have it – Singlong Peanut Butter. And the creamy version. Although in the above photo, the peanut butter looks kind of stiff but the actual texture is quite okay. Sure it is not that creamy as I had hoped for, but at least it is not like those brick like peanut butter I have tested before. And I think you shouldn’t worry about the sugar, as I hardly tasted any sweetness in the peanut butter. Good for people like me who don’t like too much sweetness.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites

Bought this from Chinabuye – the Chinese online retailer which sells basically everything under the sun. Of course the price is cheap. If the price isn’t cheap, then there is no point buying from them right? And the cost? USD 2.30 with free delivery. Cheap right? You probably won’t find these kind of prices anywhere in Singapore. But before we continue, please be warned that the quality of the USB hub isn’t great – as most of the things from such sites like Chinabuye or Dealextreme. So don’t say I didn’t warn you beforehand. You will have to compromise on the price and the quality of the items. And another thing, there are usually based in China or Hong Kong, so you will need to wait for a while till the items arrive. The slowest I received was over 3 weeks. Not too sure what happened there. The fastest I got my item was just within a week. So you will get very flaky delivery dates. Seems that Hong Kong mail delivery is worse than Singapore’s, though I have to admit, our very own Singpost is getting worse as well.

It is a 4-port USB hub, shaped to look like a robot. As to why I chose this design, I have absolutely no idea. I needed a USB hub and the one that I saw was this, so I chose it. Come to think of it, not very smart choice. It is kind of big and takes up space on my desk. And I don’t need all the 4 ports anyway. Just one or two would suffice.

The back of the pack.

Some very cool information. And you can connect only 2 devices without a power adaptor. If you want more than 2 devices, you would need a power adaptor. The problem is that this hub does not have any slot for that power adaptor at all. So I guess you can only make use of 2 of the ports. Good grief.

Connect for example…..

Tadaaa!  Yes, the cable provided is too short for any practical use unless the port on your PC or notebook is very near. I forgot to find out what length of cable is provided, so this port is basically useless for me. I am using a desktop and I place my PC on the floor. The cable just isn’t long enough to connect the hub from the floor area. Sad but that is Internet shopping. You can’t actually see the physical item so you might miss some important points when purchasing. Quality wise, it isn’t that great but it isn’t that bad either. At least when I move the “arms” and “legs” around, it doesn’t break off or anything.  And the price is just USD 2.30. Not a great loss actually.

Bookmark It

Hide Sites