Mattsplained - Xmas

This is a download from the FM89.9, the Business Station. It's fun Friday, my name is Jeff Zandu. Is it better to give or to receive? CollegeBobs Man Amadej believes that the best scenario is for you to give and him to receive.

Anything else apparently is a complete waste of his time, which means that his picks for Xmas are probably going to be a little bit more than his own personal shopping list. I hate to say this, but it's Christmas, Matt's plane. Matt, it's a little too early for your Christmas list, isn't it? Well, it is, but we'll be off there next week.

So, you know, I'm getting in with the head start. And now, just to put you all in the festive mood. Yep, I'm feeling really jolly after that one. No, now is actually a pretty good time to be talking about Christmas gifts in the end of the year, because today is Black Friday.

So as long as the sites don't crash, it's a good time to buy. And if you're ordering online, especially from overseas, you've still got plenty of time to get the shipping in. But I would say, make sure you check those shipping costs. Some sites will offer knockdown prices and sting you for expensive shipping at checkout, especially for international items.

While others are offering special shipping deals, including free overseas shipping on items that are in the year and period. So really do check because it can make a huge difference to the end price. And you've also got something to say about Christmas cookies as well. Yeah, not the kind that makes Santa fat, but the kind that helps sites to price dynamically.

Ah! It's worth checking prices on the same site from a couple of different machines. One that has all your normal browsing trail and logins, and another where the cash has been cleared and you're using incognito or private mode. That way, you can see if you're being goose up on the price.

But what about those price comparison sites? There are a lot of sites that help you find the cheapest deals online. And it's worth checking those too. But do your own checking as well, because some of these sites are less scrupulous than others are, and they may actually have a financial link with the site.

So you may not be getting the truly cheapest price. And also, again, watch those shipping charges. It does slow you down, but take your purchases all the way to that final checkup to make sure that all the add-on charges have been put in. And if you're bulk buying from online sites, remember it may tip you over into the round where you have to pay Malaysian import duties.

And that can hype your prices up by another 5-10%, and you'll be hit for processing fees for that as well. It's not an endorsement of the company, but I usually stick to sites like Amazon, simply because they calculate the import duty for you at the checkout, and they don't charge you additional customs processing fees. So it saves you the headache of doing the paperwork, it saves you the delays, and they also have different levels of shipping, so it lets you get the goods by the date that you need it. No, it's really not getting any better with age, that's just getting worse.

So let's get on with the gifts then. OK, so where should we start? Do you want to go with high or low or him or her or for the kids? Or maybe we should just play the ho-ho-ho again?

No, we're not doing that. So let's rock through all the obvious ones. What if you or a family member needs a new laptop? I think I'm going to be saying a lot of the same stuff over and over here, in that a lot of the manufacturers have got really, really great products.

So it's getting harder to buy bad products. So the most important thing, as with any device is your budget, like I said, most of the manufacturers are making really good machines. So it's all about checking those boxes. What screen size do you want?

Some people are fine with an ultra compact with an 11-inch screen, others want to max it up to 17 inches. How portable is the machine going to be? Is weight really an issue? Make sure it's got as many ports and outputs as you need.

If it is going to be portable, how much standby time are you going to get? It doesn't matter if it's going to be, doesn't matter so much if it's going to be plugged in on a desk most of the time. And also, what are you going to be using it for? Is it going to be used for surfing and work?

Or is it going to be used for more intensive things like video editing or intensive gaming? That way you can prioritize your budget towards premium components, like graphics cards, processors, and speakers. Things that actually meet the requirements of the device you need. If you had to recommend a specific machine?

Probably not the answer that anyone expects from me. I would say the Microsoft Surface laptop. Yes, firstly, because you can spec them in funky, but still tasteful colors. I like the burgundy, which surprises me because I'm not really a big fan of red.

It has a 13 and a half inch touchscreen. So you still get that tactile tablet type experience, but it's a full series laptop at the same time, which runs full flat windows. It's light, standby time is excellent. The build and the specification are really, really good.

It is expensive. They started around $1,000 US dollars, but you really need to up spec a little to 8GB RAM and 256GB of storage before it's going to be really useful to you as a machine. But it should last you a good few years. You can also go for the Dell XPS 13.

That's another machine that's been getting a lot of really good press this year. It's a bit more utilitarian and less lifestyle than the Surface. And also it's got a 4.5K starting price, so it's not a budget model. But it does have that Dell Edge in that you can come up with almost infinite versions of the device.

You can upgrade, you can add things, you can spec it exactly the way you want it. So that would be my next option. I actually really like the Surface. And I was just recently watching a YouTube video and the hardware department in Microsoft and the reason why they're out there, products look really good is they've got a specific engine to work on very small details, like the hinge.

It took them a year just to perfect the hinge. Which is exactly the way it should be. And that's kind of the approach that Apple's taken. Everything is thought through.

And it's nice that Microsoft is finally in this game. We've been wanting them to be in this game for 15 years. So it's great that they're finally here. And as we've said, Apple is sagging a bit, so they're giving them a run by them.

Well, what about tablets, mate? Well, with tablets, in Malaysia at least, it's still a bit of a one horse race. They're the Surface tablets. But along with the various Android tablets, they're still not as convincing as Apple's iPad.

In a world where, as we said, Apple is being attacked from all sides, the tablets really are still king. And they're still pretty much approaching something that is offering you value. It's one of the best priced items in their product range. So, you know, forget the pros unless you've had a big year-end bonus.

And the mini is just a bit too weak for most. So whether it's for you or your partner or your kids, most people are going to be happy with the standard 9.7-inch iPad. Prices start at $1,549, so it is pretty competitively priced. Most people are going to be happy with the Wi-Fi model as well, because you can always tether it to your phone if you're out and about.

I mean, the processor, it's fast as a whip. Yeah, it'll last around 10 hours unless you're messing around with, you know, a lot of processor heavy games. And Apple really does have the best apps ecosystem. And thanks to the App Store's, you know, fairly stringent vetting, it doesn't get a lot of malware infected apps slipping through the net.

In fact, most malware now targets Android devices. I think it's, you know, it's up to a nearly 50% or something. Microsoft is a distant second with around 25% now. And Apple is like 2 to 3%.

You know, if you're getting it for the kids, do watch out for those in-app purchases. So check your privacy settings, because those in-app purchases can very quickly add up to hundreds and even thousands of you've ring it. For listeners outside Malaysia, you can also consider the Amazon Fire tablets, especially if you're going to use them mainly for watching content. They're pretty well-spent and the prices are incredible.

They start under 100 US dollars. You can't really use them so much in Malaysia, unless you've got a dedicated VPN at home. Most of the Amazon content won't stream here. And even the apps you can't download most of the apps, unless you convince the device, it's in one of Amazon's acceptable locations.

So hopefully that changes soon. If we have access to these ultra cheap, really good quality tablets as well. Yeah, now this will be interesting. What phone, Matt, would you recommend this Christmas?

I hear an element of gloating in your voice there. So there we go. That unpleasant glass should remind everyone who's in charge here. It's not called Jeff's Blane.

This one really kind of puts me in a bind, because I don't like Android. I, as a user experience, I think it's a long way from where it ought to be. At the same time, I can't recommend the iPhone X, because, well, it's stupid. We're calling the Surface Pro and the Dell XPS laptops expensive, because they start at 4.5K.

The iPhone costs more than that. It starts at 5K. I mean, it's insane. The iPhone 8 is a solid phone, but it's expensive, given that it's basically a facelift of a model that's now two or three years old.

It's basically non-existent now, because the iPhone X is already out. Well, it's, yeah, exactly. So I think in terms of the phones that I'd recommend, I would have to say it's the Samsung Galaxy S8, and there's no point me talking about it. Jeff, take it from here.

Well, I'm using the phone. I'm using the S8 Plus. It's a big screen on surprisingly a small device, and the H2H display, the camera's brilliant for me. Of course, it's not as good as the iPhone X.

It's not as good as the Pixel 2, but it does the job for me. What do I use my camera for? Instagram, Facebook, and send a few photos to a few people. It does everything seamlessly plays games well.

I'm happy with it. It's got a headphone jack, huh, it's got a micro SD card slot as well. So waterproof, those are the only things I need on my phone. Precisely, and we've joked before about Samsung Galaxy but running an Apple OS.

You know, that would really be the perfect phone right now. So anything else really is a compromise, but I think when you're talking about compromises, the S8 is the best compromise you're going to find right now. But the S8 will still be an expensive option for many of our listeners, especially if you're talking about buying a handset for kids, so what's in the rest of the pack? Well, the Motorola, the Moto G5 is a great option.

They're a little bit tricky to find, but if you shop around, you should be able to get one. The revamped Nokia's are pretty good. You know, they're fairly high spec for the price. But if we're talking about bang for your buck, it has to be Huawei, and the rest of the...

Matching, Chinese, no. I mean, Huawei has teamed up with Leica, the world's highest-end camera maker for the optics on some of its phone. You know, if you care about photos, then that's a dream pairing. So really the Chinese brand phones are way, you should be looking.

We're doing a Met's Blaining episode about Christmas, basically, it's just Met on the T-shirt. It's my shopping list, yes. They can be sent to care of Matt at the North Pole. And we'll stick with somewhere along the lines of a phone to move on to a more specific usage of a phone, which is camera, that will be next after this.

We have 89.9. Before Friday, materialises, BFM, 89.9. And we're back, and this is Matt's Blaine Christmas, which is basically his Christmas, which is here. We've talked about ESA, that's your phone, we've talked about the Microsoft Surface, that's a PC of your choice.

Let's talk about cameras, Matt, because we talked about smartphones earlier on, and most of us view smartphones for camera, but why do you think they're taking a photo? But why do you want a standalone camera here, Matt? Well, I think, like you said, most people probably don't need one anymore, but a camera gives you a lot of flexibility and options that the phone won't give you. Most of all, it gives you a much bigger lens and a better sensor, so the overall quality will be better.

And it won't be so reliant on tweaking and post-processing, which a lot of the smartphones automatically do to get those images that you think are quite nice. So, again, cameras is a really crowded field. If you want to change lenses, there are loads of DSLR and mirrorless systems out there, but most of us are happy with a good compact. And really, there are a few as good as Sony's RX100, 5, yes.

Now, both of us are RX100 fans. I'm still on a Mark III. You're on a Mark III as well. And that tells you how good this camera is, because there have been two versions come out, neither one of us has felt the need to upgrade.

No, exactly. The frame is solid, the Zeiss lens is super crisp, and it works really, really well in low-light conditions. And it transfers your snaps really easily to your phone at your tablet, so you can upload to your favourite social media site. This is really the closest you'll get to the flexibility of a big DSLR in that kind of pocket-sized form.

Admittedly, it's not cheap at 4,599, but this range is so good that Sony is still selling the Mark II, the Mark III, and the Mark IV, and the Mark II starts at 2,649. So you really can pick one of these up to suit your budget. And even if you go for the Mark II, which is the version of the 4-hour, it's still fantastic. If you start with the three, which the price is, I think, around 3,000, just over three, it's fantastic.

You really want a lot of the functions on the 5. Definitely. What if you're looking to change your TV this year? Well, you told me a story about you going and buying a TV with a friend last week, so I'm going to let you handle this one.

Yeah, so last week, me and my friend decided to just walk down to one of the religious KL shopping malls, and we went to a bunch of electronic stores, and there were just so many TVs on really good sale. Like, it's not a Black Friday sale, this is just an offer that they were giving you. And you could just walk in and just pick, just name your pick. And it's the best way to go in is just set a price of what you're willing to spend, and then you work around it.

Do you want a smart TV or a non-smart TV? Do you want 4K or just want a 10-ATP? I managed to get a deal with my friend. Not through any special negotiations killed here.

We have none, by the way. We just walked in, saw the price. Is that price for real? And all we did was he got an LG 4K Smart TV, 4,200,200, and it's a 49-inch TV.

I know, the price is insane. So probably the most important you can do, like you said, you tick off your list, but most importantly, measure the space. Measure the space from where your TV will be, to where you're going to be. If I knew about this, I would not have put a 60-inch TV in my really tiny room, because now the TV operates as a light.

Yeah, it's basically a really, really bright one. Really bright light. No, because if you get a TV that's too big, it can make you dizzy for starters, and you won't enjoy it. I mean, my brother bought a 70 or 80-inch one ages ago, and he had to completely reconfigure his.

Literally, he had to switch it from being a blast to... No, completely, because he suddenly needed, literally about three or four meters between the sofa and the TV. You couldn't watch it. So the bigger the TV, the further it will be from where you sit.

So really, the thing you have to pay attention to is the audio, because you're going to be a lot further from the TV. If you're going to be more than sort of two, two and a half meters from the TV, you might want to start, you know, pimping the sound. Sonos has a bunch of great wireless streaming options that you can buy here in Malaysia, but they are pricing. Oh, it's a bit it.

Yes. The Wolf Nail DX2 is a pretty affordable 5.1 system, which comprises of a subwoofer, and it comes with five satellite speakers, and they all have Treble and Bass drivers in the units. So it's a really meaty sounding system. I've only seen UK prices for this, but they started around £450, which is around £2,500, which for an audio package, TV is actually pretty good.

So that's a pretty good bet for a good quality audio setup. So let's all just stay at home then. Always my favourite option. I mean, it's not that I don't like to party.

It's just that the only person I like to party with is my cat, King Jafar. Otherwise, I find that the quality of the conversation does tend to drop a little bit. Now, we've mentioned those Philips Hue bulbs, you know, the colour programmable and wirelessly controllable. They're also massively expensive.

IKEA has come up with its own version. It's a line called Tradfree. Now, I don't know how to say it. No one knows how to say it.

People think it's Swedish, but IKEA names its products by getting dogs to jump into a pool of strabble tiles, and the letters they kick out are what? The products end up being cool. Now, Tradfree doesn't seem to have made it to the Malaysian store yet, but you could always get a friend overseas to send you some. The basic kit consists of two bulbs, a wireless gateway, which is like a little hockey puck, and a remote control.

And that starts at 80 US dollars, which is not too bad. And there are lots, there are all kinds of bulbs and sizes in the range, and the prices for the bulbs actually starts at $7. So once you've got that, that, that, you can start adding piece by piece. So I do hope IKEA brings these in soon, so we can all have the flexibility of affordable smart home lighting.

Now, Matt, for a lot of people, Christmas is the time for indulgence, and the New Year is the time for fitness. What's going to keep us fit this year? We've talked about a lot of wearables and devices. The idea of smart shoes is not something that's new.

Nike has been making trainers that you can fit a smart sensor into for years now. Under Armour, the new kit on the Athletics block is taking a slightly different tack. Under Armour has a slightly utilitarian image, but it's actually one of the most high-tech performance wear brands on the high street. And it really is giving the likes of Nike and Adidas a bit of a spanking when it comes to fabrics with fast drying or cooling or thermal-tech properties.

They're also very upfront about the SPF protection of their clothing, something the other brands have been weirdly a bit slow to catch up on when you're talking about outdoor exercise equipment. Just tell us what the SDF is, it's easy. And you can test how high-tech sportswear has become. Just by walking into any big brands sport store and trying to find a 100% cotton t-shirt.

You can't do it. You know, they're all these high-tech space fabric. So back to the smart shoes, the Under Armour Gemini 3RE, that stands for Recorder Quit. These shoes have a smart sensor in each shoe, which measures the usual nonsense like steps and gates and can help you to improve your form.

It can also help you to choose the intensity of your next run, so based on what it calls the jump test, that helps to measure the level of fatigue in your body and the amount of springless in your legs and your joints. They're available for men and for women. I can't find them on the Under Armour Malaysia site, so you may have to order online. And prices overseas start at around 500 and get a pair.

That's not too bad. Now the next one's going to be a bit weird because it's like asking your grandad about his favourite hip hop axe. Men, what's your tips for gaming? Well, thankfully this is a no-brainer even for me.

Nintendo Switch, I think is the console I will buy for versatility and on the GoFund. But for me, I think it's going to have to be the Nintendo Classic Mini S-N-E-S, the Super Nintendo, which came out in August or September. First, it looks great. It's a scaled-down version of the SNES, a machine that even I was able to have fun with.

You get two controllers in the box, so it's fun if the word go. And it's priced at a super competitive US$100. Although, high demand seems to have brought out the gouging element on many sites. It seems to be floating closer to US$150 right now, so maybe wait until all the fuss has died down and driven by it a bit more cheaply.

Why would you want this? Well, you get 21 classic games from the 1990s. You get Street Fighter II, which is possibly the best game ever made. Super Mario Kart, Zelda, and Yoshi's Island.

It's perfect for parents and kids, especially because they've updated it slightly. They've added modern touches like Pause, Save, and Rewind, so it will be accessible to a new generation of gamer as well. We do need something for the kids, though, man. Robots, not the killer ones.

But we need to get kids used to robots now, because very soon their lives are going to be ruled by robots. Lego, of course, has loads of great robot-building kits at all kinds of price points. This year, the Boost Creative Toolbox, which allows you to make a programmable and talking robot called Verne. That seems to be the kind of popular option.

A company called Little Bits has a great R2D2 building kit, and it comes with something they call Force Drive, which is really, really cool, whether you're a grown-up or a few. It's a sensor that detects your hand, so it appears as though you're pushing it forward without touching it. So it appears that you're using the Force Drive. I'm buying it.

Exactly. And it's really well priced. It's around 100 US Dollars, which is way cheaper than a lot of the Lego kits, and it's a lot cheaper than a lot of the robotics kits out there. And Little Bits really is a great company for kids.

It's got all sorts of kids, rather, that allow your kids to build and program. All sorts of crazy devices, not just robots, but to come up with their own inventions as well. And they've got stuff that meets every budget, and perfect for your kids to be creative. What about those secret center gifts?

You know what? We usually do a selection of these, but this kind of cheap gift usually means a novelty item that the person will look at a couple of times and then throw in the bin. And we've been discussing the need to reduce e-waste quite a lot this year. So I would have to say, don't buy that novelty item.

If you can't buy something useful, then maybe make a donation on that person's because it's not very techie. I know. I'll get my own soapbox. I'd suggest something like MyCat, which is a local NGO that takes people out into the jungle to try and protect Malaysia's wildcat populations.

Better still, you can sign yourself and your colleagues up for one of their jungle walks for volunteers, where trained guides will take you along trails in places like Tamunagara, and you'll actually look for signs of poachers, camps and activity, and you'll help them to log that information and pass it on to Perhilidan, which will then go out and see if there's been any proper activity out there. You can find them at MyCat.my. Now, as always, with all our Christmas shows, we always end with one super-bling item. What do you have in store for the person who pretty much has everything already?

Well, we've already said forget the iPhone with an X. So I'm saying go for the Tesla with an X. Now, I know listeners are going to say, well, you can't buy them in Malaysia, but if you're the kind of person who can afford a luxury S, you've got a Christmas present, exactly, you'll be able to find a way to get one into country. There's no point in giving you a price because in the US there, you know, just over 70,000 US dollars, what is...

Not mention the waiting list. Exactly. And what it would cost to get one bought and shipped and licensed here is anyone's guess. So the question is then, why would you want one of these?

Well, with the supplied supercharger, it recharges in about 90 minutes, which is seriously fast for an electric car, and that gives you a range of about 300 kilometres. And the car is seriously fast, super car fast. You know, we're talking like three and a half, four seconds, not to a hundred fast. And that's in an SUV that seats up to seven people.

I mean, that's pretty amazing. And the seating, you can expect the options from five to seven with combinations of bench and captain chairs and all that kind of stuff. And you should just preorder the new Tesla routes to all the Tesla semi truck instead, you know. It's pretty bad, everything.

Yeah, just bulk by truck is fast enough as well. So what's the real reason you want one there? Because it has gull wing doors. And you know, you could do without the rest of it, it'd still be super cool because it's an SUV with gull wing doors.

There is an MSA DS that you can get with gull wing doors, but that is seriously expensive. And you really have to be a good driver to take that visa. That really is a wild machine. The Tesla is both mental and a great everyday car.

They've got a button that says ludicrous mood. Yeah, exactly. So you can take it easy or you can go crazy. The doors themselves don't need much additional clearance, but if you are in one of those parking garages that has quite a low ceiling, you can all get out of the car and you can park the car from the phone app with no one inside it.

On a highway, it'll change lanes to overtake when you indicate. Now, I do realize that may not work in Malaysia where other drivers will stop you changing lane if you indicate, but you know, it's a trial and error thing. Plus, at some point, we're all going to have to leap on the kind of electric vehicle wagon at some point because many, many countries are seriously considering banning fossil fuel powered vehicles from the roads over the next decade or so. So that's my list for this year, whether you're buying for Christmas or indulging your Black Friday event.

Happy shopping, one and all. You can take it easy or you can go crazy. That's what I took from your Christmas shopping list. Matt's plane, Christmas edition.

We'll be right back with the Geek's Wamps After This, BFM 89.9. Thank you for listening to this podcast. To find more great interviews, go to bfm.my or find us on iTunes, BFM 89.9. The Business Station.