The next sentai series that will air in Japan on February 2011 is called Kaizoku Sentai Goukaiger. And by the looks of things, since this is an anniversary series (35th Anniversary of the Super Sentai franchise), they’re going to pull off something similar to Decade which makes this even more epic! It is so awesome to see so many Red Senshis in a single poster! Definitely a series to look forward to.

I have to admit that I’ve yet to catch up with Kamen Rider OOO and Goseiger episodes. Hopefully I can do that this weekend. But this one is definitely good news.

Other things to look forward to would be the Core Wars movie featuring Kamen Rider W and Kamen Rider OOO as well as the joint movie featuring Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and Tensou Sentai Goseiger.

I’ve talked about Hyakka Ryouran figures in the recent past and now there’s another one coming out and I think even if this one’s a mail order exclusive, it’s actually a worthwhile exclusive to get. As gorgeous as Yagyu Jubei is, this baby’s got a juicier rack and more beautiful legs. The character I’m talking about is the silent companion of Yukimura Sanada: Goto Matabei. She’s all meek but still all woman.

This woman has no idea how much skin she’s showing. But the sculpt for this figurine is just so gorgeous that it’s difficult to let this one pass. The figurine is a mail order exclusive so if you want to own this figurine, you would need to contact your third party buyers to get this gorgeous piece for you.

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I’ve always been a fan of Super Robot Wars,  a big fan of Original Generations mobile suit/personal trooper designs and even a bigger fan of Hajime Katoki’s work for this video game. So seeing Bandai release a SRW Original Personal Trooper is quite a happy surprise for me especially this particular design.

Now I won’t deny the fact that I haven’t been up to date with what’s been going on in the Original Generations Universe these past couple of years but I am still familiar the Personal Troopers and their design history.

This one in particular is supposed to be coming after the Huckebein Mk. III which was one of my favorites especially because of the Armored Modules that could be equipped to the Huckie MkIII.

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This occupied a good amount of my day, trying to figure out what could have been wrong.

Basically my problem was that I noticed that when I’m trying to reply to an email from my BlackBerry (my @winterheim.com account), the Send option was not appearing and when I check out the email details, the Received Using field displayed Unknown.

I tried checking if this was because of transition problems with my Google Apps account where my personal webmail is hosted but it did not apply. I tried adding other accounts from that domain and everything appeared to be just fine. All the emails indicated which account received the email. Even my office OWA account worked properly. So it was just my main @winterheim.com account that was not working properly. One more frustrating thing that was happening was that whenever I tried to access my winterheim.com inbox directly (I normally access all my email accounts from the Messages application), the screen freezes and I need to open the multitasking window just to get out of that frozen state.

So I combed the net to see if anyone had a solution. The most common suggestion was to delete the related service books then have them re-sent to my BlackBerry. Tried that. Didn’t work.

The most drastic options that came about were the data/security wipe + restore option and the OS reinstall option. I didn’t want to reinstall my OS although it definitely crossed my mind since I felt that these problems started to surface when I upgraded to OS 5.0.0.900 from .681.

I’ve tried restoring to most recent “healthy” state that my BlackBerry was in which was a back-up I made prior to upgrading to the .900 build. That didn’t work either. I’ve tried deleting the email account in question as well as the service books then resend them from the BIS website for my service provider. Didn’t work.

So I mustered up the courage to do a partial data/security wipe. A partial wipe meant all my messages, calendar data, settings and whatnot will be deleted by the apps will stay there. They’ll just be in a fresh state since even the application settings and permissions will be wiped. But basically, I end up with a fresh BlackBerry but with the apps I’ve already installed intact.

After doing so, I didn’t proceed with doing a restore. I tried having my service provider resend the service books first and see if I can receive email “properly” and by properly, I meant that I’d be able to reply to emails properly and the phone will recognize what account it is using to receive the emails.

It worked! But I was left with a barebones-looking device. So I decided it’s safe to do a restore.

After doing so, I tried resending emails and replying to emails using my main @winterheim.com account. I tried receiving emails from there as well. Everything was fine!

So I didn’t need to go as far as to do an OS reinstall/downgrade after all although my computer was already being set up to carry out that task as I was trying to find other alternative solutions.

So for those who are encountering inbox/gmail icon freezes, missing reply options and received using: unknown, here’s what can do to resolve it. (note: I am on OS 5.0.0.900 and using BIS 2.0)

1. Make sure you have a full back-up of your data from your BlackBerry, hopefully from before all this started to happen. Or at least have a full back-up of all the pertinent data you need. The rest can be re-synced.
2. Do a partial data/security wipe. (Options > Security Options > Security Wipe – Emails, Contacts, etc.)
3. After security wipe is completed and device has rebooted, you will have a fresh device with no settings whatsoever so you pretty much start from scratch on the settings end. Skip restoring your settings for now.
4. Resend your Service Books.
5. Test the email account in question if the reply option appears and received using: indicates what email address you are testing.
6. Once everything is confirmed to be in good working order, restore to the healthiest Back-Up file for your BlackBerry. You’ll be short of several messages and maybe a couple of contacts but at least all is well in the world again.

Remeber, I did not get as far as doing a downgrade/reinstall of the BlackBerry OS and this might be strictly applicable to OS5 and BIS 2.0 but it’s always worth giving a shot. If it doesn’t work, there’s always the downgrade/reinstall on the OS end.

But one thing’s for sure: I hope you never experience this problem but at the same time, don’t give up on trying to figure out what went wrong. Sometimes, a complete wipe is just what a device like this needs.

I have never watched the original series of Kamen Rider Kuuga. Whatever exposure I had with Kuuga was through the Kamen Rider Decade series. It didn’t help that the earlier SIC releases of Kamen Rider Kuuga were the skinny and gaunt reimaginations of this Kamen Rider. So when I saw SIC’s Decade version of this action figure, I wanted to get one right away.

Now, the preorders are open, particularly in Amiami.com where I got the images for this.

The upside to it is that this SIC release also has interchangeable parts and you’ll see them later.

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I think I skipped last year for making up a Christmas wishlist so I figured it’s a good time to write another one up this year. I actually just have a devices this year that I would actually want to have. I also tried to limit the price range because the other stuff that I would like to get are ones that I can delay or postpone to later months. These ones, however, would be nice to get this Christmas season.

First up on the list is the MadCatz R.A.T.9. It’s an adjustable mouse with a really wicked cool look. I would love to have either this or the Razer Orochi as my wireless optical mouse.

Next up is the Hisense Stereo Headset HB440H. I love my current earbuds but the end keeps snagging in my pocket since the headphone jack on my BlackBerry is on the side (all of a sudden, iPod’s headphone jack positioning makes sense). So to avoid the snagging altogether, this would be a nice acquisition. If not this, then Hisense HB400C is a close second. This is also a bluetooth communication device which basically moves your earphone jack away from your device and allows you to take calls with it. But since the device is a small bit that you can hang around your neck with the earphone jack there, you can change headsets and use any compatible headset brand you like.

I’ve mentioned before that I’d like to upgrade from a Curve to a Bold. And the latest Bold release is what I would want to upgrade to. The Bold 9780 looks almost exactly like the 9700 except for that darker chrome edge. It has twice the RAM as the 9700 and comes with OS6 out of the box. The Curve is nice but with the frequency that I use it, the keyboard’s about to give out on me. I am hoping that since the Bold is of a higher-end device, it would have a better, sturdier keypad.

Aviator glasses: something I have always wanted to own. I saw a black framed one with gold mirror lenses.

The Wii is more of a party piece than anything else. If not this, then a new laptop would be just as good for me.

What’s on YOUR Christmas wishlist?

When I first saw the Yagyu Jyubei figurine by Alter for the Hyakka Ryoran series, I had told myself that I would get that figurine above anything else. But I guess over the timespan between then and now, other things got me preoccupied as well as my wallet. But my liking for the sculpt of the figurine has not diminished.

Back then, I have not yet been able to watch the series so I was liking it more for the lineart that came with the announcement of the figurine as well as sculpt of the figurine itself. But after watching some episodes from the series, I am definitely planning out how to get all three figurines (I said three because the fourth one is a mail-order exclusive plus the character’s too young for my taste).

There are three Hyakka Ryoran figurines that I would love to own which were all made by Alter. The first one is of course Yagyu Jubei.

The sculpt and color of this figurine just looks so topnotch and I think a lot of those who have already acquired this figurine attest to the quality that Alter put into making this figurine. I am absolutely loving the thighs on this sculpt as attested by another figurine acquisition I had made recently. The ropes are a nice touch and I am definitely loving this particularl figurine. I think this is the next one I’ll get once my P.O.P. Boa Hancock arrives.

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FINALLY! I saw this come up for preorder at a local store (Wasabi Toys) and I was initially worried that this might not be for real since I didn’t see anything coming up in Amiami.com. But when I Googled this SIC, so many results turned up that this was actually a legit release, much to my joy, of course! Continue Reading

This started less than a month back, just a couple of weeks into when I started using Sun Cellular’s BlackBerry Internet Service. I had switched to Sun’s BIS for two things: I’m a postpaid plan owner so having the BIS as part of my bill makes paying convenient instead of doing it the prepaid way with Globe, and second, Sun’s BIS was cheaper (Php999 per month for unlimited BIS, tax inclusive).

So after much deliberation, I finally switched to Sun’s BIS.

Boy was I wrong.

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That’s definitely the plan although I can’t do that anytime soon. I just picked up a new phone less than six months ago and that was also the time I started using a BlackBerry. Now, RIM has announced that a new Bold will be coming out in the market before this year closes out which is the BlackBerry 9780.

When I was going to pick up my first BlackBerry, I still wanted to try out the whole thing: QWERTY keypad, new phone brand, data plan. So I chose not to spend on a more expensive model and picked up the Curve 8520 instead of the Bold 9700. Quite timely since less than a year later from when I picked up my phone, the 9780 comes out. It does come out, I think, a year after the 9700 rolled out so it’s ok for the early-adopters of the 9700 to upgrade but in my case, I avoid changing phones too soon especially if it’s a low-spec smartphone to a high-spec smartphone. It’s an expensive habit that I don’t want to develop. So I’ll probably wait it out till around April of next year to change phones but I’m definitely picking up a Bold.

So why do I want this particular device? Why not the Torch, right?

I still prefer a candybar design over a slider and I still prefer a dedicated keypad design over touchscreen. I definitely plan to own an Android alongside my BlackBerry eventually but I can confidently say the BlackBerry stays for good until RIM fucks up and makes me want to leave (the way Nokia’s been making lame phones while everyone else has been rolling out game-changers for the past couple of years).

This Bold has twice the RAM of the 9700, better battery life, and already comes with OS6. Now I am aware that RIM had acquired a software company which they will use to develop the PlayBook OS which they said would eventually be the basis for future BlackBerry device operating systems. But then the PlayBook came out around the same time the Torch started rolling out and people got their first experience of the much-awaited OS6. So I think it’s safe to say that the PlayBook won’t be out till around late 2011 so that can also mean that RIM will be rolling out a couple more batches of BlackBerries that will have OS6 inside. So the waiting game may not be so bad. I am still ok with the BlackBerry Curve 8520 although the keypad’s starting to give out and I’m beginning to experience some squeaking due to it’s 80% plastic body.

So we’ll see. This might not be the only Bold design to be released within next year but if by that time, and I’m good to go with upgrading to a Bold and there aren’t any rumors of a newer Bold in the horizon, then I’ll grab this one.