Tech News Update: The Little Giant from Samsung, Galaxy Note 2. (Auckland, smartphone, repair, unlock, 021264000)

Key Features

• 5.55in AMOLED display, 720x1280, 267 pixels per inch
• Android 4.1 Jelly Bean
• 1.6GHz, quad-core processor
• 2GB RAM
• S-Pen stylus
  

Samsung Galaxy Note 2

Introduction

We have the technology to put a man on the moon, tweet from Mars and record an entire series of television at the push of a button, but replacing paper and ink with bits and bytes has eluded us.

That doesn't mean that we haven't tried - far for it infact; we had the Palm Pilot in the 90s and those chunky Sony Ericssons with the flipdown keyboards ten years ago but nothing to date has felt like pen and paper.

Galaxy Note 2 with an iPhone 4S

Samsung thinks it's cracked it though, with the Note 2. As the name suggests, this is the second generation of Samsung's Galaxy Note smartphone and falls somewhere between the smaller (but still huge) Galaxy S3 phone and the 10.1in Note tablet.

The Note 2 is the first Samsung device to get Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box, but it's that enormous 5.55in screen and S-Pen stylus that make this phone stand out from the crowd.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: Design and Feel

Earlier this year, many said how the 4.8in Galaxy S3 phone is too large to be used comfortably in one hand, and more recently we concluded that the 4in iPhone 5 was a better size.

We stand by that, but now the Note 2 has come along and opened our eyes to a third way; if we stop thinking of the Note as a huge smartphone, and more as a pocketable tablet that can make calls and send texts, we end up with a device that starts to make sense.

Forget about using it with one hand (even if the TouchWiz interface can be adjusted to help) and use both hands - better still, crack out the S-Pen stylus and use the Galaxy Note 2 as intended; this is a device that replaced both a conventional tablet and your smartphone.

Below that headline-grabbing screen is a central Home button, flanked by two capacitive touch-sensitive buttons for Back and to call up more options. A long press of the Home button opens up a list of apps currently multitasking, a double-press launches S-Voice (Samsung's answer to Siri on iOS) and finally a long press of the options button opens up Google Now.

Above the screen is the earpiece, proximity and ambient light sensors, a notification light, and a front-facing 1.9-megapixel camera.

There's a screen lock / power button on the right edge, volume rocker on the left (both of which are low enough to reach with one hand), a 3.5mm earphone jack up top and a micro USB port on the bottom for syncing and charging.

Next to that USB port is a slot housing the S-Pen stylus, while around the back Samsung has installed the same 8-megapixel camera with LED flash and 1080p video recording as is featuring on the Galaxy S3 smartphone.

Regular readers may be fed up of us complaining about the glossy plastic Samsung uses on all of its current products - and we're just as fed up of writing about it - but sadly the Note 2 is no exception.

We don't mind the glossy white - although we are fans of the matte white finish of the HTC One X - but the fake chrome edge is, as with the Galaxy S3, cheap.

If the chrome bezel was cold-to-the-touch and added a little weight to the device, then fine; but what Samsung has give the Note 2 is a piece of plastic that is reflective beyond belief, attracts fingerprints and - at least on our S3 - scratches and chips to reveal black plastic underneath.

It's a poor design choice and one which we hope Samsung will move away from sooner rather than later.

The rear cover of our Note 2 review unit moved and creaked a little when pushed near the volume rocker; not a deal-breaker, but not something we want from a £500+ device.

Elsewhere, it's obvious - and not necessarily a bad thing - that Samsung has borrowed much of the S3's design for the Note 2, both for its hardware and software.

Weighing 183g the Note 2 is around 50g heavier than the Galaxy S3 and a full 71g lighter than the slimmed down iPhone 5 - both of these phones are praised for their lightness, and considering its vast size, we're surprised the Note 2 doesn't weigh more.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: Hardware and Connectivity

Being a £500 smartphone the Galaxy Note 2 has Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n with the ability to become a Wi-Fi hotspot, Bluetooth 4.0 with A2DP for streaming music to wireless speakers, NFC for swapping contacts with a tap, 4G LTE (where available) and a microSD card slot.

There's 16, 32 or 64GB of storage as standard depending on how much you want to spend, and that SD slot under the rear cover (along with a microSIM slot) can increase storage by up to 64GB if you have a card that big.

As with the Galaxy S3, the Note 2 has a wide range of party tricks aimed to help make using it easier and more intuitive. Using the accelerometer, some menus can be navigated by tilting the device, and this works for zooming too, but we found it to be nothing more than a gimmick.

Along with that accelerometer, Samsung has crammed in (although we guess there's plenty of room) a compass, gyroscope, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor and, bizarrely, a barometer.

For syncing and charging the Note 2 uses a microUSB port located on the bottom edge of the device, and finally for audio there's a headphone jack at the top.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: Operating System and Performance

The Galaxy Note 2 is, without doubt, one of the fastest and most powerful smartphones on the market today. Powered by a 1.6GHz quad core processor and 2GB of RAM the Note 2 is a very capable device and shrugged off just about anything we had to throw at it.

Intense 3D gaming, HD YouTube videos, live TV streaming, social networking, acting as a hotspot...the lot.

As is the case with the Galaxy S3, HTC One X, Apple iPhone 5 and others, the Note 2 responds to your commands just about instantly, and no matter what we did it was impossible to encourage any form of lag or slowdown of the Android operating system.

One annoyance was with the Home button. Because a double-press launches S-Voice (Samsung's answer to Siri) there is a small pause between a single press and the device reacting, while it waits to see if you press twice.

We're talking no more than a second here but it's just enough to be noticeable - especially when the rest of the system is so quick and responsive.

There is a similar delay when pressing either the Home or power button to wake the phone from sleep, but it's not the end of the world.

Being one of the first devices to come with Google's brand new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean out of the box is a plus, but Samsung's TouchWiz UI skin changes so much, casual users will be hard-pressed to tell the difference between the Note 2's software and the Galaxy S3 - and the Note 10.1 tablet for that matter.

For us this isn't a problem, because we like TouchWiz and giving all of its devices the same user interface helps to unify the product line, and this ultimately keeps customers safe in the knowledge that no Samsung device is drastically different from the other.

Another small fault we came across was that the phone would sometimes fail to lock. A press of the lock button would turn the screen off, only for it to come back to life (unlocked) a couple of seconds later.

We wouldn't go as far as to call this a security flaw, because the phone comes back to life almost instantly and you would surely notice, but it's certainly a quirk Samsung needs to iron out.

The Note has a huge 3,100 mAh battery that saw our review unit last two full days of average use with the screen at around 50 percent brightness. Two hours of streaming video from the BBC iPlayer saw the battery drop less than 20 percent - it has the best battery life of any phone we've tested this year.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: S-Pen

The S-Pen is of course what makes the Galaxy Note unique and Samsung has been busy improving the plastic stylus since it's first outing in the original Note last year.

Now longer, thicker and more comfortable to hold, the S-Pen feels more natural than ever and thanks to the 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity, using it to write and draw efficiently is easy.

Sliding the stylus out causing the Note to vibrate and (if it's unlocked) display a new Home screen with links to quickly create a note.

While the S-Pen can be used to navigate just about all of the TouchWiz user interface - only the capacitive buttons below the screen cannot be prodded with the stylus - there are very few apps that make full use of it.

S-Note is a very basic note-taking app, allowing you to adjust the thickness of virtual ink, the colour and the type of pen or pencil the stylus is acting as.

Writing on the Note's screen is much natural than you would first imagine, and the screen can tell the difference between the nib of the S-Pen and the side of your hand, so leaning on the phone to write won't cause unwanted scribbling - basically, the screen will only respond to the style when it is less than a couple of centimeters away.

That stylus is a lot smarter than it's humble plastic construction would have you believe; the Note 'knows' when the stylus is within around two centimeters of the screen, and a dot appears to help you work out where exactly the pen will touch the screen.

This hovering technology also helps you preview content without actually tapping it. For example, hovering over the subject line of an email in your inbox will cause a preview box to open, showing more of the email, without you having to open it.

Another use is when watching a video. Hover over the timeline and a preview box will open showing a frame from wherever you're pointing the stylus - it's a useful way of scanning for a certain part of a video while not disturbing what is being played.

Once we selected a fine virtual point for the stylus we found writing on the Note 2 to be much like writing with a pen and paper - of course the screen provides less feedback than paper but as a replacement to our trusty notebook, it's closer than ever.

As for handwriting recognition, the S-Pen and Note 2 do a good job and even our mainly illegible scrawls were understood and converted to text more often than not, although the time it takes to write and have it converted to text - which just a fes seconds - is long enough for us to type instead of write text messages and emails.

That said note-taking is a joy and the ability to quickly take a screenshot by clicking a button on the side of the S-Pen is a bonus - screenshots can then be drawn on and emailed or shared via social networks.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: Display

The display measures 5.55 inches, has a resolution of 720 x 1280 and a pixel density of 267 per inch; along with the stylus, it's the Note 2's enormous screen that sets it apart from everything else on the market.

It's a Super AMOLED display and, as with the Galaxy S3, has a slightly cool, blue tinge. This isn't a deal-breaker for us, but it's worth remembering that the current crop of high-end Samsung devices make everything look a little cooler than it should.

Despite the slightly-off temperature balance, the screen of the Note 2 is excellent. It's clear, bright and very responsive to touch inputs, with a wide viewing angle and contrast is equally good.

HD content looks fantastic, naturally, and being AMOLED means that blacks are impressively dark.

While the screen quality cannot be disputed, the sheer size of it is definitely a love-or-hate affair. The extra size makes watching video, browsing the web and viewing photos better than any other smartphone, but typing and ideally navigating around the user interface - especially with one hand - is difficult.

Samsung Galaxy Note 2: Camera

Samsung has fitted the Note 2 with an 8-megapixel camera with autofocus, tap-to-focus, burst shooting, HD video recording and a whole range of other features and settings.

It's the same camera as found in the Galaxy S3 and that's good news to us - the S3's camera is one of the best we've tested this year.

You can shoot photos in HDR (high dynamic range) to capture scenes with high and low lighting in the same frame, burst mode - which shoots eight photos in around three seconds, then picks the best - and the usual range of monochrome and sepia effects.

White balance, metering and ISO can all be adjusted manually, or left to work things out automatically, and there's 13 different scenes to choose from, ranging from sports and portraits, to shooting by candlelight or capturing fireworks.

Although there's a minimum of 16GB of storage on tap depending on which S3 you buy, the resolution of photos taken can be lowered from 8-megapixels to six, 3.2, 2.4, 0.9 or just 0.3-megapixel if you so wish.

As for video, the Note 2 shoots in full 1080p HD, although that can be trimmed down to 720p or lower if you need to save space, while the white balance and exposure can be adjusted and photos can be taken while you shoot video.

The flash can be turned on to help illuminate the scene while recording and the phone usefully shows in megabytes how large the current recording is as you shoot, next to how much storage you have left on the phone.

The lack of a physical shutter button means that getting the perfect photo by tapping the on-screen icon can be difficult, compounded by the camera being located in the middle of the phone, rather than in an upper corner, and the touch buttons below the screen often get in the way - hitting Back and being ejected to the home screen while recording happened more times than we care to remember.

Verdict

This is where it gets difficult. The Note 2 is huge, there's no escaping that. But while the S3 is big for a phone, the Note does more - enough to class it as something entirely different? Possibly.

Samsung has created a device that is as love-or-hate as it gets; for some it's a phone that is far too large to be useful, yet not big enough to be a tablet; for others, it's a product that fits perfectly between a phone that isn't small enough to work on effectively, and a tablet that is too big to carry with you everywhere.

If you fall into the latter, then the Note 2 is perfect. It's fast, sleek, well built (plastic design aside), with the newest version of Android, a good camera and a stylus that is far from a gimmick.

But, if the Note isn't for you, then Samsung offers the smaller Galaxy S3 and - coming on 11 October - a 4in Galaxy 'Mini'. 

Sure it barely fits in your pocket and making calls in public feels like you're part of a comedy sketch, but forgive it for standing out and the Note 2 is wonderful; (just) small enough to fit in your pocket, but large enough to read, game and browse on.

It's a compromise between having a small phone and a large tablet. It may not be perfect all of the time (one-handed operation is all but impossible), but for most of the time it is ideal.

That isn't the outcome we were expecting. We thought it was ridiculous and we'd hate it, but give it a couple of days and you stop reaching for the iPad when you need a bigger screen because it's already there in your pocket.

As for getting used to such a large phone...our iPhone 4S felt like a toy and far too small after just a few days with the Note 2. It's amazing how quickly you get used to it, and nothing smaller will do.

Scores

• Screen: 8/10
• Design: 7/10
• Camera: 9/10
• Operating System: 9/10
• Build Quality: 8/10
• Overall: 9/10

The Good:

• Huge screen
• Stylus is useful, not a gimmick
• Good camera
• Incredible performance
• Great battery life

The Bad: 

• Huge screen
• Plastic finish feels cheap
• A couple of software issues to be addressed
• Not enough apps to use S-Pen with
• S-Voice still needs work
  

 

 

The Ultimate Apple iPhone 5 Tips and Trick (Dr Mobiles Limited, Auckland), repair, unlock, cracked screen

Just bought an iPhone 5? This guide will help you make the most of your new phone with a myriad of helpful features you may not know your phone has.

The iPhone 5 is here and Apple sold 5 million units in the first three days, so there will undoubtedly be a few of you out there looking for some handy pointers. Below are a few tips and tricks to help you get the most from your new phone.

Copying your old data

If you’re upgrading from an older iPhone then you can copy across your contacts, apps, data and settings easily.

Simply make an iTunes backup and then copy it to your new iPhone. To do that, connect your USB cable, right click on your device in iTunes, and select Backup. Connect your iPhone 5 and right click on it in iTunes and then select Restore from backup.

If you’re last iPhone was running iOS 5 or iOS 6, you can use iCloud to do this. Just go to Settings > iCloud > Storage & Backup on your device and make sure it’s toggled on. You’ll need a Wi-Fi connection and it will probably take a while, so we would advise just plugging your phone in and using iTunes instead.

For contacts, you can copy them onto your nano-SIM card and stick it into your new iPhone 5, then go to Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Import SIM Contact. If you don’t have a nano-SIM in your old phone, you can export your contacts. Different phones have different methods. One of the simplest ways, if you are switching from Android, is to save your contacts in Gmail and then set up your Gmail account on your iPhone 5 via Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars. You’ll get the option to import them.

Security

It is a good idea to go to Settings > General > Passcode Lock and set one up. That will prevent people from taking a look through your phone. You can also set your auto-lock timer in Settings > General which will both save battery power and increase the security of your phone. If you’re confident you can remember your four-digit PIN, there is also an option to have your phone wipe itself (completely delete all memory) if a PIN is entered incorrectly 10 times in a row. This is a potentially dangerous option for the scatterbrained among us, but could save your data if it’s stolen.

Social media

Facebook and Twitter have been fully integrated into iOS 6. This means you can share any content quickly and easily via the Share button.

Before you do that, you’ll need to set up your accounts. In Settings you’ll find Facebook and Twitter entries that let you input your account details once and then you’ll never have to enter them again. You may want to switch the Contacts toggle in the Facebook menu to “off“ before you do or you’ll end up importing contacts from Facebook into your Address Book.

Tips for Siri

If you’re new to Siri then you’ll want to play around with it. Press and hold your Home button to activate Siri. When “What can I help you with?” comes up, tap the “i” and you’ll get a list of what Siri can do.

You can teach Siri about people and locations by telling it things like “Jenny is my wife.” You can also dictate messages and emails. In fact, with iOS 6, you can use Siri to post tweets and Facebook updates. You can even launch apps with Siri now.

Tips for Maps

If you aren’t too keen on the new Maps App then check out our alternative iOS 6 map apps roundup. If you want to give it a try then you’ll find it’s easy to use. Touch and hold anywhere on a map to drop a pin. That gives you an exact address and allows you to select Quick Route for turn-by-turn directions, just hit the car icon and then Start.

You can tap “3D” to try out the Flyover mode and tilt and zoom to explore. You can also just tap the compass icon at any time to find North.

Camera tips

You can access your camera directly from the lock screen on the iPhone 5 by sliding up the camera icon. Simply tap on the screen to decide what you want to focus on. You can also pinch to zoom in the camera app.

You’ll find the new Panorama mode in Options in the Camera app and it allows you to slowly pan around to capture a panorama shot. Just hit done when you’re finished. You can also tap the arrow to change direction.

If you want to take a screenshot of whatever is currently on your screen, press and hold the Power button and then press the Home button. You’ll see a flash to indicate the screenshot was taken.

(Note: We’d love to give you a tip to avoid the infamous purple lens flare issue that’s popped up with the iPhone 5, but there currently isn’t a fix for this. Apple may issue a patch for it in the future, but for now, you need to avoid aiming your iPhone near the sun if you hate the color violet.)

Miscellaneous tips for iPhone 5

If you double click the Home button you can scroll over to the right and lock your screen orientation in landscape or portrait. You can also see active apps and touch and hold them to turn them off, access the volume controls, and use Air Play from this menu.

If you don’t want to be disturbed, you can go to Settings and toggle Do Not Disturb on and incoming call, notifications and messages won’t bother you. They’ll still be collected, but your iPhone won’t make a sound or light up.

Go to Settings > General > Keyboard > Shortcuts and you can set up your own personal shortcuts for typing messages. You can also add loads of emoticons to your text messages by going to Settings > General > Keyboard > Keyboard and selecting Emoji.

When you are reading a web page in Safari and you want to skip to the top quickly, just tap the status bar.

In Memory of Dr Richard Teo (1972- 12th October, 2012): Last words on joy, God, Ferraris and money

Below is the transcript of the talk of Dr. Richard Teo, who is a 40-year-old millionaire and cosmetic surgeon with a stage-4 lung cancer but selflessly came to sha

re with the D1 class his life experience on 19-Jan-2012. He has just passed away few days ago on 18 October 2012.

Hi good morning to all of you. My voice is a bit hoarse, so please bear with me. I thought I'll just introduce myself. My name is Richard, I'm a medical doctor. And I thought I'll just share some thoughts of my life. It's my pleasure to be invited by prof. Hopefully, it can get you thinking about how... as you pursue this.. embarking on your training to become dental surgeons, to think about other things as well.

Since young, I am a typical product of today's society. Relatively successful product that society requires.. From young, I came from a below average family. I was told by the media... and people around me that happiness is about success. And that success is about being wealthy. With this mind-set, I've always be extremely competitive, since I was young.

Not only do I need to go to the top school, I need to have success in all fields. Uniform groups, track, everything. I needed to get trophies, needed to be successful, I needed to have colours award, national colours award, everything. So I was highly competitive since young. I went on to medical school, graduated as a doctor. Some of you may know that within the medical faculty, ophthalmology is one of the most highly sought after specialities. So I went after that as well. I was given a traineeship in ophthalmology, I was also given a research scholarship by NUS to develop lasers to treat the eye.

So in the process, I was given 2 patents, one for the medical devices, and another for the lasers. And you know what, all this academic achievements did not bring me any wealth. So once I completed my bond with MOH, I decided that this is taking too long, the training in eye surgery is just taking too long. And there's lots of money to be made in the private sector. If you're aware, in the last few years, there is this rise in aesthetic medicine. Tons of money to be made there. So I decided, well, enough of staying in institution, it's time to leave. So I quit my training halfway and I went on to set up my aesthetic clinic... in town, together with a day surgery centre.

You know the irony is that people do not make heroes out average GP (general practitioner), family physicians. They don't. They make heroes out of people who are rich and famous. People who are not happy to pay $20 to see a GP, the same person have no qualms paying ten thousand dollars for a liposuction, 15 thousand dollars for a breast augmentation, and so on and so forth. So it's a no brainer isn't? Why do you want to be a gp? Become an aesthetic physician. So instead of healing the sick and ill, I decided that I'll become a glorified beautician. So, business was good, very good. It started off with waiting of one week, then became 3weeks, then one month, then 2 months, then 3 months. I was overwhelmed; there were just too many patients. Vanities are fantastic business. I employed one doctor, the second doctor, the 3rd doctor, the 4th doctor. And within the 1st year, we're already raking in millions. Just the 1st year. But never is enough because I was so obsessed with it. I started to expand into Indonesia to get all the rich Indonesian tai-tais who wouldn't blink an eye to have a procedure done. So life was really good.

So what do I do with the spare cash. How do I spend my weekends? Typically, I'll have car club gatherings. I take out my track car, with spare cash I got myself a track car. We have car club gatherings. We'll go up to Sepang in Malaysia. We'll go for car racing. And it was my life. With other spare cash, what do i do? I get myself a Ferrari. At that time, the 458 wasn't out, it's just a spider convertible, 430. This is a friend of mine, a schoolmate who is a forex trader, a banker. So he got a red one, he was wanting all along a red one, I was getting the silver one.

 

So what do I do after getting a car? It's time to buy a house, to build our own bungalows. So we go around looking for a land to build our own bungalows, we went around hunting. So how do i live my life? Well, we all think we have to mix around with the rich and famous. This is one of the Miss Universe. So we hang around with the beautiful, rich and famous. This by the way is an internet founder. So this is how we spend our lives, with dining and all the restaurants and Michelin Chefs you know.

So I reach a point in life that I got everything for my life. I was at the pinnacle of my career and all. That's me one year ago in the gym and I thought I was like, having everything under control and reaching the pinnacle.

Well, I was wrong. I didn't have everything under control. About last year March, I started to develop backache in the middle of nowhere. I thought maybe it was all the heavy squats I was doing. So I went to SGH, saw my classmate to do an MRI, to make sure it's not a slipped disc or anything. And that evening, he called me up and said that we found bone marrow replacement in your spine. I said, sorry what does that mean? I mean I know what it means, but I couldn't accept that. I was like “Are you serious?” I was still running around going to the gym you know. But we had more scans the next day, PET scans - positrons emission scans, they found that actually I have stage 4 terminal lung cancer. I was like "Whoa where did that come from?” It has already spread to the brain, the spine, the liver and the adrenals. And you know one moment I was there, totally thinking that I have everything under control, thinking that I've reached the pinnacle of my life. But the next moment, I have just lost it.

This is a CT scan of the lungs itself. If you look at it, every single dot there is a tumour. We call this miliaries tumour. And in fact, I have tens of thousands of them in the lungs. So, I was told that even with chemotherapy, that I'll have about 3-4months at most. Did my life come crushing on, of course it did, who wouldn't? I went into depression, of course, severe depression and I thought I had everything.

See the irony is that all these things that I have, the success, the trophies, my cars, my house and all. I thought that brought me happiness. But i was feeling really down, having severe depression. Having all these thoughts of my possessions, they brought me no joy. The thought of... You know, I can hug my Ferrari to sleep, no... No, it is not going to happen. It brought not a single comfort during my last ten months. And I thought they were, but they were not true happiness. But it wasn't. What really brought me joy in the last ten months was interaction with people, my loved ones, friends, people who genuinely care about me, they laugh and cry with me, and they are able to identify the pain and suffering I was going through. That brought joy to me, happiness. None of the things I have, all the possessions, and I thought those were supposed to bring me happiness. But it didn't, because if it did, I would have felt happy think about it, when I was feeling most down..

You know the classical Chinese New Year that is coming up. In the past, what do I do? Well, I will usually drive my flashy car to do my rounds, visit my relatives, to show it off to my friends. And I thought that was joy, you know. I thought that was really joy. But do you really think that my relatives and friends, whom some of them have difficulty trying to make ends meet, that will truly share the joy with me? Seeing me driving my flashy car and showing off to them? No, no way. They won’t be sharing joy with me. They were having problems trying to make ends meet, taking public transport. In fact i think, what I have done is more like you know, making them envious, jealous of all I have. In fact, sometimes even hatred.

Those are what we call objects of envy. I have them, I show them off to them and I feel it can fill my own pride and ego. That didn't bring any joy to these people, to my friends and relatives, and I thought they were real joy.

Well, let me just share another story with you. You know when I was about your age, I stayed in king Edward VII hall. I had this friend whom I thought was strange. Her name is Jennifer, we're still good friends. And as I walk along the path, she would, if she sees a snail, she would actually pick up the snail and put it along the grass patch. I was like why do you need to do that? Why dirty your hands? It’s just a snail. The truth is she could feel for the snail. The thought of being crushed to death is real to her, but to me it's just a snail. If you can't get out of the pathway of humans then you deserve to be crushed, it’s part of evolution isn't it? What an irony isn't it?

There I was being trained as a doctor, to be compassionate, to be able to empathise; but I couldn't. As a house officer, I graduated from medical school, posted to the oncology department at NUH. And, every day, every other day I witness death in the cancer department. When I see how they suffered, I see all the pain they went through. I see all the morphine they have to press every few minutes just to relieve their pain. I see them struggling with their oxygen breathing their last breath and all. But it was just a job. When I went to clinic every day, to the wards every day, take blood, give the medication but was the patient real to me? They weren't real to me. It was just a job, I do it, I get out of the ward, I can't wait to get home, I do my own stuff.

Was the pain, was the suffering the patients went through real? No. Of course I know all the medical terms to describe how they feel, all the suffering they went through. But in truth, I did not know how they feel, not until I became a patient. It is until now; I truly understand how they feel. And, if you ask me, would I have been a very different doctor if I were to re-live my life now, I can tell you yes I will. Because I truly understand how the patients feel now. And sometimes, you have to learn it the hard way.

Even as you start just your first year, and you embark this journey to become dental surgeons, let me just challenge you on two fronts.

Inevitably, all of you here will start to go into private practice. You will start to accumulate wealth. I can guarantee you. Just doing an implant can bring you thousands of dollars, it's fantastic money. And actually there is nothing wrong with being successful, with being rich or wealthy, absolutely nothing wrong. The only trouble is that a lot of us like myself couldn't handle it.

Why do I say that? Because when I start to accumulate, the more I have, the more I want. The more I wanted, the more obsessed I became. Like what I showed you earlier on, all I can was basically to get more possessions, to reach the pinnacle of what society did to us, of what society wants us to be. I became so obsessed that nothing else really mattered to me. Patients were just a source of income, and I tried to squeeze every single cent out of these patients.

A lot of times we forget, whom we are supposed to be serving. We become so lost that we serve nobody else but just ourselves. That was what happened to me. Whether it is in the medical, the dental fraternity, I can tell you, right now in the private practice, sometimes we just advise patients on treatment that is not indicated. Grey areas. And even though it is not necessary, we kind of advocate it. Even at this point, I know who are my friends and who genuinely cared for me and who are the ones who try to make money out of me by selling me "hope". We kind of lose our moral compass along the way. Because we just want to make money.

Worse, I can tell you, over the last few years, we bad mouth our fellow colleagues, our fellow competitors in the industry. We have no qualms about it. So if we can put them down to give ourselves an advantage, we do it. And that's what happening right now, medical, dental everywhere. My challenge to you is not to lose that moral compass. I learnt it the hard way, I hope you don't ever have to do it.

Secondly, a lot of us will start to get numb to our patients as we start to practise. Whether is it government hospitals, private practice, I can tell you when I was in the hospital, with stacks of patient folders, I can't wait to get rid of those folders as soon as possible; I can't wait to get patients out of my consultation room as soon as possible because there is just so many, and that's a reality. Because it becomes a job, a very routine job. And this is just part of it. Do I truly know how the patient feels back then? No, I don't. The fears and anxiety and all, do I truly understand what they are going through? I don't, not until when this happens to me and I think that is one of the biggest flaws in our system.

We’re being trained to be healthcare providers, professional, and all and yet we don't know how exactly they feel. I'm not asking you to get involved emotionally, I don't think that is professional but do we actually make a real effort to understand their pain and all? Most of us won’t, alright, I can assure you. So don't lose it, my challenge to you is to always be able to put yourself in your patient's shoes.

Because the pain, the anxiety, the fear are very real even though it's not real to you, it's real to them. So don't lose it and you know, right now I'm in the midst of my 5th cycle of my chemotherapy. I can tell you it’s a terrible feeling. Chemotherapy is one of those things that you don't wish even your enemies to go through because it's just suffering, lousy feeling, throwing out, you don't even know if you can retain your meals or not. Terrible feeling! And even with whatever little energy now I have, I try to reach out to other cancer patients because I truly understand what pain and suffering is like. But it's kind of little too late and too little.

You guys have a bright future ahead of you with all the resource and energy, so I’m going to challenge you to go beyond your immediate patients. To understand that there are people out there who are truly in pain, truly in hardship. Don’t get the idea that only poor people suffer. It is not true. A lot of these poor people do not have much in the first place, they are easily contented. for all you know they are happier than you and me but there are out there, people who are suffering mentally, physically, hardship, emotionally, financially and so on and so forth, and they are real. We choose to ignore them or we just don't want to know that they exist.

So do think about it alright, even as you go on to become professionals and dental surgeons and all. That you can reach out to these people who are in need. Whatever you do can make a large difference to them. I'm now at the receiving end so I know how it feels, someone who genuinely care for you, encourage and all. It makes a lot of difference to me. That’s what happens after treatment. I had a treatment recently, but I’ll leave this for another day. A lot of things happened along the way, that's why I am still able to talk to you today.

I'll just end of with this quote here, it's from this book called Tuesdays with Morris, and some of you may have read it. Everyone knows that they are going to die; every one of us knows that. The truth is, none of us believe it because if we did, we will do things differently. When I faced death, when I had to, I stripped myself off all stuff totally and I focused only on what is essential. The irony is that a lot of times, only when we learn how to die then we learn how to live. I know it sounds very morbid for this morning but it's the truth, this is what I’m going through.

Don’t let society tell you how to live. Don’t let the media tell you what you're supposed to do. Those things happened to me. And I led this life thinking that these are going to bring me happiness. I hope that you will think about it and decide for yourself how you want to live your own life. Not according to what other people tell you to do, and you have to decide whether you want to serve yourself, whether you are going to make a difference in somebody else's life. Because true happiness doesn't come from serving yourself. I thought it was but it didn't turn out that way. With that I thank you.
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Thanks to the road work and council upgrading the area.  The lamp post is removed. Hope they will not put one more new up or move it far from our signboard.  Our customer can see more clearly now!  The length of the signboard should be 9.1 meters