Candy Crush Level 677 - Cleared

OOH!

This must be the toughest level yet. 10 striped candies combination. I cleared this after about 2 weeks and numerous tries. It's more of a luck rather than skill level. Plus I also used a special power - the swap tool that was free with the daily lucky wheel spins.

My strategy was:-

a) Try to get at least two striped candies combination - 1 each from the left and the right side by carefully detonating the candies.

2) Break down the bricks at the sides as early in the game as you can so that it leaves more room to build striped candies.

3) Create as many striped candies and move them to the conveyor belt so that they are constantly moving and there is a chance they may meet with the initial candies at each side.

4) Create as many striped candies in the center portion and hope that they line up against each other.

5) Be wary of two same color candies on each side of the conveyor belt - you do not want your striped candies on the conveyor belt to misfire.

Candy Crush Level 566 - Cleared!

This is a rather interesting level. I cleared it after a day's effort. Here's how I did it:-

a) Build a horizontal stripe candy in order to clear the bomb that is ticking on the outermost line.
b) Use a color candy ball + stripe candy combination to fulfill quota for striped candy.
c) Wherever possible, set the game to build candy wrappers and color candy ball.

Using Pebble Watch with Runkeeper

I use my Pebble watch mainly for running, as it allows me to keep track of my distance, time, and pace just by looking at my wrist without having to go through hassle of taking out and fiddling with my handphone. 

To do this, you need to have a Runkeeper account (basic membership is free), a bluetooth enabled smartphone (I use the Iphone), and of course the Pebble watch.

This is how the interface with Runkeeper looks like.

Pebble watch allows control of music from the watch as well. However, as I do not run with music, I do not have much use of this music function.

Candy Crush Level 483 - Cleared

I got through this stage pretty fast, after less than 10 tries. I did it by using a combination of colour ball + striped candy and it removed most of the tied bombs. What remains is just to remove the jellies :)

Candy Crush Level 482 - Cleared

This was quite a pesky level, in that there are potentially three columns of ticking bombs to deal with. I got through this stage after a few tries by

a) taking care to clear the gems within the centre bottom portion only during the first part of the game;
b) building combinations of striped candy + candy wrapper so that it clears the bombs in the middle column at one shot;
c) carefully planning for and removing stray bombs;
d) once number of moves left is less than 7, you can freely trigger release of the side wall bombs since they will not jeopardize the game.

My Windows 8.1 Tablet - ASUS Transformer T100-TA and Why I Love It

I have had three weeks with my ASUS Transformer TA100 now and I really love it!

Why I love it

• Versatile: I can use it like a normal laptop when it is docked onto its keyboard stand. It operates on Windows 8.1, not RT, so it has full Windows functionality. Plus, it comes preloaded with Office Home edition (Word,, Excel and Powerpoint). Or I can use it as a 10.1 inch tablet, good for reading pdf documents and for surfing net or watching video while lounging on the couch. To my surprise also, Windows 8.1 is easy to use.
• Light weight: 1.1 kg including keyboard dock, 600g for the tablet.
• Excellent battery life: 12 hours of use.
• Expandable memory: it has 32GB built in memory, with a microusb slot at the tablet portion. There is 500gb memory at the keyboard portion.
• Value for money: at S$599, I get a 2-in-1 tablet+laptop, that allows me to use as a reader esp for pdf documents, and as a laptop for work. It is lightweight, has long battery life and expandable memory.

Of course, there are some drawbacks of this device, namely the small keyboard and the tablet is a fingerprint magnet. All in all though, I think that the laptop is a great buy! I was considering an IPad Air (I already have an IPad 2 and an IPad4 in the house), and I'm really glad that I decided to get this instead.