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Did you know that Haagen Dazs has a Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough flavor? I didn’t.

I do like how the brand identity is so far up its own ass that the copy has to practically apologize for the flavor being so “playful”, and point out that you, the adult consumer, are separated from the pure-hearted child who enjoys sticking his finger in the bowl by, oh, I don’t know, millions of dollars? Heaven forbid a child could afford and enjoy Haagen Dazs ice-cream! Incidentally the only positive feelings I have about the brand were fostered in my childhood, when it was pretty much the costliest thing I ate. Now in my old age (where I theoretically aim to recapture lost youth), they’ve pretty much destroyed all of that goodwill on their own, leaving me to embrace the unapologetically fun Ben & Jerry’s instead.

I hope those faux-European bastards are happy now! And what’s up with the lowercase?

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So… one leather pochette resembling a wrinkled labia? That’ll be £485, ma’am.

How does one balance playing Grand Theft Auto 4 with other games and other consoles? Square Enix’s “The World Ends With You” on the DS makes it pretty easy actually, by rewarding you with ability points relative to the time you’ve spent not playing the game. It’s an ability you earn pretty early in the game, called Shutdown, and using the system’s internal clock, it calculates the numbers of hours you’ve been away (up to 7 days), and gives you PP when you come back, which can be used to powerup your weapons. The in-game description of this feature reads: “Work, school, or life getting in the way of gaming? Shutdown’s got your back!”

It’s a smart feature that ensures people who don’t get to play too much still enjoy the game at a level that more dedicated players do. I think acknowledging that your audience have lives outside of your games, and providing a peace-of-mind incentive like this, is a great step. Nintendo’s Animal Crossing is a game that does the exact opposite. Leave the game alone for a week, and when you come back to it, the world is overgrown with weeds that you have to remove – a tedious process. It’s a heavy-handed approach that essentially slaps a paying customer on the wrist for having the audacity to neglect a game they should be free to enjoy however they wish.

The game also uses a real-time clock in other ways, such as limiting the amount of food you can consume in one day (pretty logical, really). Eating food allows your powers to grow, but only after time has passed and the ramen/burgers/etc have been digested. What it’s all about will take a little more time to get into, but the short summary is that it’s an ultra-modern RPG set in a parallel universe version of Tokyo’s Shibuya district, where wearing the latest fashions gives you an advantage in battle, and powers are bestowed by wearing lapel pins. I’ve never seen another game like it, and if the idea of fighting spirits called “Noise” in Shibuya while eating Japanese street food to hip-hop beats appeals to you, then give it a go.

Just found this disturbing news via cneil’s twitterstream: M1 Broadband passes all requests through a proxy that serves up low-quality images. In order to see the original images, users have to mouse-over the pictures they want and wait a few seconds. Obviously this involves a javascript code injection into all webpages, and could completely screw some sites.

Without exception, I would encourage anyone to avoid an internet service that interferes with the data they’ve requested in this way. Of course, all pages in Singapore are filtered against a blacklist of pornographic/political/hate sites, but aside from that which cannot be helped, no one should pay for anything less than a pure, direct connection.*

Previously: Singapore and Mobile Internet Data Plans

* Singtel offers two internet configuration profiles for mobile phones: One is named IDEAS WAP and the other, IDEAS INTERNET. The former passes through a sort of proxy server (supposedly) optimized for websurfing, while the latter is the direct connection that you should use – it also allows traffic on other ports, such as those needed for FTP, email, P2P, etc.

It’s not quite the same thing, but if you love Guitar Hero then here’s an official version you can play in the office browser! If you hold your keyboard upside down, it’s pretty close to the real thing (at least on the new aluminum Apple keyboards). See below.

I love that I don’t have to start up my Xbox for a quick fix now!

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I’ve noticed that more than a few of my local Twitter contacts update via text message to the UK, which is a pretty inelegant way of doing things, seeing as how the mobile web interface allows you to do so for far less money (and more geek cred).

It is a sadly little-known fact that all 3 Singaporean cell providers now offer near-unlimited data plans for very low prices, and there’s no reason why anybody with a fairly modern phone (that is to say, equipped with GPRS/3G/HSDPA connectivity and a web browser) shouldn’t be hooked up with one. The providers have done a pretty good job of obfuscating the availability of these plans – i don’t know why, perhaps to protect their margins from consumer overuse, or just because their marketing departments suck – but they are there if you know what to look for.

Part of the problem is that they sell these services as meant for use with portable computers, along with HSDPA modem dongles that plug in via USB. But they are fully compatible with phones too, after all, these ARE cellphone service providers.

Singtel calls their service “Broadband On Mobile”, and plans start for about SGD$22/month, giving you 50GB of bandwidth. That is a lot for any phone. I’ve been unable to use more than a couple hundred megabytes a month myself, and I am constantly on my phone. Note: They claim you need a 3G-enabled phone to use this service, but that is rubbish. I used it fine on my old Sony-Ericsson K750 with GPRS.

M1’s offerings are even better, giving the use of unlimited bandwidth at similar price points. They call theirs “M1 Broadband” to one-up Singtel on the confusion front. It’s easy to see why people don’t associate it with their mobiles; it sounds like a purely desktop internet solution. Starhub’s “MaxMobile” plans are the most expensive, with the unlimited coming in at about SGD$70/month, but so-called Hubber customers can get 50% off that by signing up for cable TV and internet with them.

There’s a lot that having the internet on your phone can do for your life, if you like to be as constantly connected as I do. You can use IM networks like Gtalk and MSN with apps like ebuddy, check your gmail, update Twitter and Jaiku, browse Facebook, and of course, catch up on your RSS reading while on public transportation. “M” subdomains aside, if you have a good enough browser like Opera Mini, or the S60 Webkit browser that comes on high-end Nokia devices, you can pretty much visit any of the websites you’re used to. That the iPhone really shines when you have a mobile data plan goes without saying.

I’ve been sick and too busy catching up on movies and blowing snot out my nose to complain about as many things as I’d have liked to, but here’s one. Can I? Can I just b&w in a childish petulant fashion about the state of Snickers candy bars in Singapore? They’re all made in China now, you know, and they really suck. I mean they’re crap. They’re shit. They’re not the same (preceding sentences for the benefit of search engines only).

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Simply indescribable, originally uploaded by sangsara.

Well, I can think of “lazy copywriting” to start…