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Business premises will close at least an hour every Friday

RA says Selamat Hari Raya Aidil Adha to all my Muslim friends. Yes, it’s another long weekend for Brunei as today is a public holiday and it’s good time to spend time with your love ones and also do some contribution to the community. Today is the day of sacrifice (feast of sacrifice) and there will be a sacrificial ceremony where goats and cattles will be slaughtered as part of the Korban ceremony.

In today’s headline, if you missed it, His Majesty the Sultan called for business shops to close during Friday prayers and this is to uphold the country’s Islamic image and prevent muslims from skipping the obligatory weekly prayer. I know this is practiced in Saudi Arabia where all shops are closed during praying time every day. So this is something new for Brunei but only during Friday prayers. I’m not to sure about restaurants though but retailers are already taking notice of the titah. Concepts Computer has already started implementing this rule when I did my coverage earlier this morning. So thumbs up for their efficiency in responding to the titah delivered yesterday. To read more of the article, you can click here.

Speaking of Concepts Computer, this morning they officially launched existing and a new Acer model notebook that has Windows 8 pre-installed.. Awesome!!! There have been a long buzz about Windows 8, the latest operating system by Microsoft as they are entering a battlefield among other operating system giants Mac OS, IOS and Android. Don’t get the wrong idea because Concepts Computer are not selling the software of Windows just yet but the Acer Notebooks will have all the Windows 8 pre-installed. So far there are 9 models from Acer and their latest model is the Acer Aspire M3985. All the device will either be powered by an Intel or AMD processor and running Windows 8 64-bit.

I’m quite impressed with some of the features of Windows 8 though it will be tough on me to convert to Windows because I’m a totally Apple user and I have no reason to swap to PCs. However, I might buy the parallel software that will only me to use Windows 8 on my iMac one day. There are plenty of features to use and once you master it, it’s a solid operating system. You can visit Concept Computer at Kiulap or Gadong or you can call 223 3551 for more details. Next week, they will bring in the S7 Ultra book which will be the most anticipated notebook from the S series.

Ani Suryani, Zul Abdul Rahman and Vincent Pao holding different Acer models with Windows 8 pre-installed

The new Windows button

I was hoping for a handover of any Acer notebook *lol*

There will be an upcoming Charity Expo 2012 starting tomorrow till Sunday and it is managed by Adison Marketing Services and organised by the Departmnet of Youth and Sports in cooperation with JDG Chinese Charitable Association. The event will be graced by Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports. So far there will be 41 exhibitors participating and it was announced that 100% of the proceeeds collected from booth rentals and donations by exhibitors will be donated to special causes. 50% will be donated to Dana Belia Brunei Prihatin to aid young entrepreneurs in starting small businesses while the 50% will be donated to poverty stricken families and disabled individuals. There will be a “Car Audio Show” taking place at the VIP car park area of the Indoor Stadium and every visitor will stand a chance to win a prized draw. There will be three prize draw sessions per day and up to five winners per session.

The participating vendors for tomorrow’s event

Hunting for iPhone 5 casings?? Well, look no further as Asanty Collections have cool choices for you to choose from. There are only a few pieces available while stock lasts and if you are interested, they also sell screen protectors for iPhone 5. I would think ladies would love most of the designs because of its striking colours and texture. For more information, you can visit the Facebook page here.

Click image to enter iPhone 5 casing albums

Wanna look at Studded Speedy? Click more for more choices

Happy birthday to Relentless Entertainment who turned 4 yesterday. Wow!!! It’s been that long aye? I remember these guys started off during the days of Zunic Wellness a few years back. They started their dance classes there initiated by Mardi and Amy Cheong and slowly they ventured out and got noticed by the public. They began recruiting for dancers and the family just grew from time to time. It’s no surprise that they are always being invited to perform for private events and lately Relentless Entertainment held an open audition as they are planning to diversify their strengths and not solely focusing on dancing. Good luck to you guys and keep up the great work and inspiring the youth!!

Happy 4th birthday, Relentless Entertainment. Image courtesy of Zatty Joanda.

*LOL* De No Goh responded to the article written by “An unimpressed Reader” and I guess the story won’t end here. Apparently, this is not the first time that Deno has received negative feedback from the public. This is the 4th respondent he received and he’s not totally bothered by it. I remember his previous articles on iPhone and how sarcastically it was written *lol* and I don’t blame him since he’s pro-Android user. Anyway, keep up the good work on “TechBrat” column. It’s always a good read nonetheless. For more of De No’s respond, click here.

De No responded back on the feedback aimed at him. Click image to read more.

For your info, Manjaro Restaurant has closed its door in Kiulap ever since Hari Raya. Now the spot will be taken over by Ceri Cafe, a popular eatery in Serusop. So where is Manjaro relocated? Well, let’s just say there’s no more Manjaro but the owners opened up a new restaurant called Rice Bowl and it’s located at Batu Bersurat – same building as the Victory Bikes store. They still have the popular dishes from Manjaro and of course, new dishes and oh yeah, all the dishes are served in bowl 😀 I shall pay another visit again to try out other dishes. Congrats to Wuei and Pris on the opening.

I love this dish – Corn Beef Kway Teow. Try it 😀

Winnie had the honour to open my Lego Minifig Series 8 and it was almost complete

Whooaa… I can’t believe my cousin won it. When they announced the winner, I was thrilled the emcee announced her name though it was her sister who represented her for the prize presentation. Over 20 entries were submitted for the iMMerse Character Design Challenge and the prize presentation was graced by Datin Paduka Hjh Adina, Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports. The first place went YAM Pengiran Anak Hamlatul Arsy Mulia and she received a Macbook Pro. The 2nd place went to On Wan Shi (new iPad) and 3rd place went to Carolyn Lee Yi Zheng (Wacom tablet). The prizes were sponsored by BIBD.

Brian Koh, Director of KR Consulting, Javed Ahmad, Managing Director of BIBD, Datin Paduka Hjh Adina, Deputy Minister of Culture, Youth and Sports, YAM Pg Anak Ajeerah Fidrausul Bulqiah receiving the first prize on behalf of her sister, Carolyn Lee Yi Zheng and On Wan Shi

Have you ever tried phone stacking? This is something new in Brunei though this has been practised in other countries. Ok, here’s the thing… All of us are already equipped with smartphones and hence we are so addicted to our phones that quality time spent among friends and families are getting lesser and lesser in terms of interaction. So how it works is the phones are being stacked on top of each other from the diners present. There will be a time limit given, for instance, 30 mins per challenge. So the first person to take his or her phone from the stack will lose and will be penalised accordingly. I think this system is cool but it will take a lot of cooperation among your friends and family to pull this off. We are just to used play with technology especially social media stuff and whatsapp-ing. Anyway, do try phone stacking game soon and see how tempted you are to grab your phone.

A group of us did phone stacking last night at Villa Mauri. The challenge only lasted 3 minutes.

KFC Brunei has started introducing phone stacking and the challenge lasted 30 minutes

Concept Computers are currently having their Epson roadshow at The Mall and they have recently introduced two new Epson printers which are highly recommended because of its ability to print hundreds of pages. Furthermore, the ink cartridges are selling at a very reasonable price of $10 per bottle and you can expect a print yield up to 4,000 pages. The promotional prices are $198 for Epson L210 and $128 for Epson ME-101. According to the management, they will restocking these models as they are hot sellers especially among students.

Epson roadshow happening until Sunday at The Mall

The new printer Epson L210 is pretty awesome and selling like cakes

bFIT Challenge will be heading into elimination stage this Sunday evening. 10 contestants out of 50 will be eliminated from the bFIT challenge programme. After three weeks of training, consultation, team building and many more, it has come to the crucial stage where the judges (compromising from b•mobile, Fitness Zone and HPC) will decide the fate of the eliminated contestants. The team and individual points will be accounted for but the leading team after this weekend round will be safe from elimination. I can’t wait to see the outcome this Sunday and it will be a nerve-wrecking episode because 10 people will leave the programme (and the show) and I could already sense the great bonding they have among themselves.

Last Monday, a nutritionist from HPC delivered his talk to the bFIT participants