Jakarta Guide, Issue 8, Spring/Summer 2014. Published on Elite Traveler, the Private Jet Lifestyle Magazine, Asia Edition.

The following is my original copy from my article "Jakarta Guide" as published by Elite Traveler, the Private Jet Lifestyle Magazine, Asia Edition, Issue 8.

--
From A To Z

From the same culinary geniuses behind the enduring success of Amuz, Jakarta’s legendary fine French dining helmed by local celebrity chef Gilles Marx, comes their newest creation, Auroz Gourmet Grill, already voted as one of top three must-try new restaurants in Jakarta by the city’s critics and luminaries. Auroz’s closest competitor at this time is the equally excellent and equally new E&O (Eastern & Oriental) restaurant headed by another culinary heavyweight, celebrated chef Will Meyrick of Sarong and Mama San fame in Bali. But where E&O is a victim of its own success, in which getting a table upon walk-in is these days proving impossible, Auroz still has that underground vibe where dining can still be enjoyed in a fairly relaxed, intimate setting.

And that’s really Auroz’s raison d'etre. Chef founder Gilles Marx explained, “We learned that many guests are too intimidated to eat at Amuz save for special occasions. So, we decided to create a new concept, one that is much less intimidating and casual and bistro-like without abandoning style. We deliberately chose an off-site location for Auroz in a new building, so that diners can hang all that pretentiousness at the door and just come here for the food.” The concept behind Auroz is that of a gourmet grill bistro that blends French bistro cooking with modern American steakhouse. Obviously, grill is its specialty and its premium quality steaks selections grilled to perfection are of the highest recommendation. Order anything from the USDA Prime Ribeye to the Australian Wagyu Tenderloin Grade 9+ and your trip to Auroz will have been wholly vindicated. A selection of very decent and truly quite excellent wines such as 2008 Amuse Bouche and Bordeaux Left Bank (notable: 1998 Chateau Leoville Las Cases Grands CrusClasses) and Bordeaux Right Bank will complete your evening.

Auroz Gourmet Grill, Menara Merdeka Ground Floor, Jl. Budi Kemuliaan 1 No.2, Jakarta 10110. +62 21 2957 3690 

PR & VIP Contact: Chef founder Gilles Marx, Mobile +62 815 1130 7110

gilles@amuzgourmet.com; www.aurozgourmet.com

-

The Great Exodus

The latest mega-nightclub iteration to rock Jakarta comes from the same group which launched one of the most controversial, yet successfully epic nightclubs in the history of the city – The Stadium Jakarta. If you’ve been to this place, you know what I’m talking about. Their second concept is no less glitzy, boisterous and promises the same kind of star-studded hard partyings as its sister property, but with the respectability of a location in South Jakarta, where most of the socialites and celebrities reside. Hidden in a somewhat demure, also newly-opened shopping mall called Kuningan City on Casablanca Road, Exodus’s penchant for glam and the extravagant makes it easy to find: three floors of socializing space, spanning a restaurant, a lounge and a flagship club, each equipped with an array of the latest and greatest audio / video system.

The flagship club, Exodus 5 CLUB, features a swanky, 750-square meter space boasting classic Tiffany-era décor fused with stainless steel, mirrors and blue shades. Luxurious, oversized leather VIP sofas allow freedom of sight while ensuring privacy. The piece de resistance however is the HD LED screens that wrap around the entire span of the walls, streaming audio/visual mash-ups in high definition. The party atmosphere is further enhanced by Martin Pro Lighting, German Laser light show, 50,000+ audio watts by Funktion One, FFA and Logic Systems, and Exodus’s unique Liquid Oxygen (LOX) injection system blasting the dance floor in white clouds of pure oxygen. 

Gentlemen will appreciate rare and ultra-premium spirits such as Macallan 30 Years Old, The Glenlivet XXV Twenty 25 Year Old or Martell L'Or de Jean Martell, while the ladies will be pleased with the club’s selection of very decent premium well cocktails such as the Grape & Basil Martini (fresh grapefruit juice, Grey Goose Vodka, lime juice, simple syrup) and The Red (fresh strawberry juice, Belvedere Vodka, Light Rum, Grenadine and lime fruit).  

Exodus Jakarta, Kuningan City Mall floors 5, 6 and 7. Jl. Prof. Dr. Satrio Kav. 18, Jakarta 12940. +62 21 30056285 / 86 / 87

PR & VIP Contact: Addo Arsyad, Mobile +62 812 9163 8381, addo@exodus-jakarta.com (resigned, no longer in Exodus) 

www.exodusjakarta.com

--

To read the final, edited and published article, please visit: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ytxbc9si7vojlcz/Jakarta%20Guide.pdf

Read more about Elite Traveler: http://www.elitetraveler.com/magazine-library/elite-traveler-asia-springsummer-2014

Stay tuned as I'll post more fun images from the photoshoot of each property tomorrow!  

Thanks for reading.

Transferring music to SD card on Galaxy Note (or Android)

So I just found out the exhaustive way how to transfer music to my Samsung Galaxy Note preparation for my long haul flight tomorrow to Paris. Turns out you can't simply plug in the USB from my phone to the laptop where the music is at, and drag and drop mp3 music files like I could in Blackberry system.

Turns out there's a buried menu at "Settings" called "USB Utilities" which you'd need to get to first before you can access your SD Card (and it also lets you access the system's internal memory).

So "Settings" (from home page) --> "Wireless and network" --> "USB utilities" --> connect the USB Cable (don't connect it before this) --> Then click "Connect Storage to PC".

Then a pop up window to "Open Folder" will appear or you can simply hit My Computer and see everything there. From there you can drop music files onto your SD card if you already bought one.

Once done, you'd need to un-mount (eject) the USB drive from your laptop by using the remove external hardware thingie and then just press the "Disconnect storage from PC". Then you disconnect the USB cable.

I thought this is noteworthy since I just spent the last hour scouring the web for various solutions - even one that suggests I should disable my SIM card password - and none worked. Till I found this solution after digging through my "phablet". Hope this doesn't happen to anyone else because this was frustrating.

Renungan Minggu Pagi: To Forgive....or To Forget?

Masuk ke bulan Desember, kita juga masuk ke bulan Natal. Bagi yang ngerayain Natal, ini (mestinya) bulan yang suci dan penuh rahmat, selain juga bulan spesial yang ngebawa nuansa Natal yang khas itu: Pohon natal dan lampu2 hiasan dimana2, mall2 pada sibuk dan penuh sama orang2 yg belanja kado, lagu Natal dimana2 dan kalo di Amerika, tempat saya “nyasar” 12 tahun sebelumnya, udaranya juga jadi dingin dan “crispy” yang bikin dusel2 sama si dia makin mantap. Pokoknya merry banget deh.

Tapi kali ini, bukannya “peace” dan “joy of holiday” yang saya temukan, malah nemuin hal yang ga enak. Saya baru sadar kalo mungkin saya punya musuh. Penemuan ini terjadi secara ga sengaja di Twitter waktu saya lagi baca2 timeline. Eh kok kayaknya ada satu tweet dari salah satu kontek saya yang ga bisa dibilang temen, tapi yang pasti saya berhubungan deket dengan dia karna masalah kerja, yang rada “nampol” hati nurani saya. Kenapa? Karena isi tweet dia itu menyinggung gaya hidup “seseorang”, yang kebetulan “seseorang” itu mirip banget karakternya sama gue!

Bukan, bukan saya ge-er. Kebetulan saya tau kontak saya ini emang hobi mencemooh manusia lain, dan sebelumnya saya banyak ngebaca twit dia yang isinya tiap hari – kalo boleh dibilang kasarnya – adalah mikirin kemana arah semut jalan. Pokoknya hidupnya remponnggg.....banget. Dulu juga beberapa kali saya sempet ngebaca twit dia yang isinya nyerempet2 karakter temen2 saya lainnya di lingkungan kerja itu, dan tentunya karakter saya juga. Dulu sih saya sebodo amat.

Tapi kali ini kok celaan dia sangat mengena di karakter saya ya? Right down to the details. Ini apa gue yang parno, atau emang dari dulu dia sebenarnya udah nyela gue, tapi guenya yang ga pernah sadar? Ngeliat sejarah dia nyela banyak orang, wajar dong saya jadi parno, apalagi karena emang kita berhubungan deket karena urusan kerja.

Sejujurnya selama ini hubungan saya dengan dia itu fine2 aja, atau mungkin lebih tepat dibilang kita “mind our own business.” Makanya saya jadi kepikiran sama tweet dia kali ini. Lah, emang gue salah apa sama loe?

Di rumus SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) hidup saya, celaan2 dan hina2an itu langsung saya masukin ke kategori SAMPAH HIDUP. Cara penanggulannya juga simple: cuekin aja. Ga usah dipikirin, jangan kata pake dibales segala. Buang waktu dan sama sekali ga ada manfaatnya. Tapi sayangnya, kali ini, saya jadi mayan kepikiran tentang tweet dia. Cukup kepikiran sampe bela2in nulis di blog ini. Mungkin juga karena selama ini saya ga pernah nganggep dia musuh. Saya yakin, kalo dia kebetulan baca ini, pasti dia udah guling2an di lantai. Seneng banget pastinya.

Tapi setelah saya pikir2 lagi, kalo emang bener dia nyela saya, sebenarnya dalam hal ini who is the real loser? Apakah diri saya, seperti yang digambarkan dalam twitnya, atau........sebenarnya dia?

Mau bagaimanapun juga, orang yang hobinya mencela orang lain itu pasti kedudukannya lebih rendah dari orang yang dicela itu. Kenapa? Karena dia sirik. Mungkin dia benci dengan suatu karakter dari orang itu. Mungkin dia iri hati oleh suatu kesuksesan orang itu. Apapun itu, kita tahu istilah “haters gonna hate” itu dibuat karena ada orang2 pembenci. Di dalam hidup kita pasti kita ada aja yang ngebenciin. Alasannya macem2, dari SARA sampe promosi kerja sampe pacar ganteng/cantik, dan orangnya pun bermacem2, dari orang ga dikenal di pinggir jalan sampe supir taksi sampe rekan kerja sendiri.

And you know what? It is okay to be hated by someone. We can’t please everyone. Tapi yang pasti, pembenci itu adalah pecundang sesungguhnya. Mereka ga akan pernah melampui orang yang dibencinya hanya dengan membenci.

Orang yang sukses itu pasti ga punya waktu untuk mikirin hidup orang lain, apalagi nyempetin nyela di twitter. Orang sukses ga sempet utk iri hati kepada orang lain, karna mereka udah sukses. Orang sukses akan lebih berminat kepada hidupnya sendiri, either untuk improve atau maintain kesuksesannya. Dan yang pasti, orang sukses itu ga punya waktu utk update celaan di Twitter tiap jam, seperti “musuh” saya ini yang saya tahu persis kebetulan bertingkah begitu.

Maka dari itu, hari ini saya mendapat pencerahan secara ga sengaja dari orang ini. Dia hampir aja berhasil menarik saya ke level serendah dia, dan ikut2an membenci dia. Untung saya buru2 sadar bahwa mau bagaimanapun dia mencela saya – mau ke seribu follower dia kek, mau ke temen2 mutual kita kek, mau ke bos dia kek – faktanya adalah dia ga akan pernah lebih unggul dari saya. Dia ga akan pernah bisa melampaui level saya. Pernah kebayang Bill Gates bisa sirik sama gue? Ga mungkin pernah, karena level Bill Gates jauhhh...berada di atas level saya. He has nothing to envy from me.

Sama halnya dengan musuh2 di hidup saya ini. Saya ga punya waktu buat mikirin apa yang mereka pikirin atau gosipin tentang saya, karena kedudukan mereka lebih rendah. Malah saya harus berterima kasih kepada mereka karena setiap saat saya lagi sedih, lagi butuh dukungan mental, saya tinggal nyari mereka di Twitter, Facebook dll dan ngeliatin mereka melakukan hal yang sama dari pertama kali saya kenal mereka: membenci dunia sekitar mereka. Dari situ, saya bisa ngerasa kasian sama kehidupan mereka yang amat sangat tidak berarti dan sebaliknya ngerasa terdongkrak dengan hidup saya sendiri.

Haters, thank you for being there. I forgive you, but I am also forgetting you.

Happy Holidays everyone! Live well.

HATI2 SECURE PARKING TIDAK JUJUR & KORUPSI

Hati2, parkiran korupsi & tdk jujur - selalu minta receipt parkir.

Saudara/i sekalian, saya mau sharing sekaligus kasi peringatan ga enak nih ttg pengalaman markir di Secure Parking di Cilandak Town Square (Citos).

Walaupun ane ngomongin parkiran motor, tapi prinsip ini berlaku untuk mobil juga. Ceritanya gini: Waktu ane mau bayar parkir, yang kasirnya itu (cowo) dengan belagunya (ga ada ramah tamahnya, kasar) tanpa ngomong sepatah kata pun (mestinya kan paling ga kasi tau jumlah yg mesti dibayar berapa) langsung ngambil duit ane yg kebetulan 50rb (abis ngambil ATM, ga punya pecahan lagi), lalu dengan kasar balikin duit kembalian.

Untung ane udah kebiasaan, markir dimanapun, selalu minta receipt bukti bayar parkir. Nah, dia kaget setengah mati pas denger permintaan gw, lalu dengan berat hati (tetep ga ngomong ba bi bu) pelan2 ngasi kertas receiptnya...... bersama dengan Rp. 1000!!!!

Berarti kalo ane ga minta tuh, dia akan dengan sukses ngantongin 1000 perak. Itu cuma dari ane seorang. Ga keitung dia kerja 8 jam itu uda ngantongin berapa ribu. Lumayan buat beli rokok bukan??? Di mesin printernya dia, kertas2 receipt beronggok2 karna pemotor sebelum ane pd ga minta bukti parkirnya.

Moral dari cerita ini: PARKIR DIMANAPUN, SELALU MINTA RECEIPTNYA DAN COCOKIN SAMA JUMLAH YG DIA SEBUT.

Ane ga masalah mesti bayar parkir. Tapi ane masalah dengan parkiran yg udah ga manusiawi (sempit, panas ngujubileh, desek2an, dan sama sekali ga menghargai pemotor), ditambah pula ga jujur!

Hidup di Jakarta itu uda susah.... markir di 711 aja beli rokok semenit uda mesti bayar parkir 2000rb. Masa mesti ditambah dengan "perusahaan parkir professional" pada korupsi pulak? Ditambah lagi, mereka berusaha ngambil keuntungan dari org2 "kecil" yang notabene dianggap rendah ini. Bener2 AIB. So bro sis... mulai sekarang, selalu minta tanda bukti parkiran. Jangan mau ditipu begitu aja sama Secure Parking yang tamak ini. Wass.

P.S. Ada yang tau ga kemana ane bisa ekspos kebusukan Secure Parking ini di ranah media nusantara? Secure Parking adalah perusahaan parkir "professional" yang berasal dari Australia. Kenapa dan bagaimana dia bisa jadi perusahaan parkir dominan di Jakarta itu gw bingung kenapa. Macam korupsi apa neh yang dia kongkalikong sama Pemda Jkt??

Lebih tepatnya, ane pengen tau, kenapa gw MESTI BAYAR PARKIR KE PERUSAHAAN ASING UTK PARKIR DI TANAH GW SENDIRI??? KALO BAYAR PARKIR DI PACIFIC PLACE MALL, GRAND INDO, PLAZA INDONESIA, OK LAH. TAPI BAYAR PARKIR UTK MASUK KE RUKO INDOMARET DI BELAKANG RUMAH GW???? DARI GW KECIL JG MARKIR DI RUKO INI UDA GRATIS. KENAPA TAU2 SKRG DIPAGERIN DAN DIATUR SAMA SECURE PARKING????

Getting married? AVOID THIS DECOR COMPANY FROM HELL: Mount Florist, Jl. Kelinci Raya No. 40, Pasar Baru. Name: Naomi Soeryadi, 0815-888-2364

I wanted to share this particularly rotten decor company if you live in Indonesia and are getting married. Here is their information:

Mount Florist

Jl. Kelinci Raya No. 40

Pasar Baru.

Name: Naomi Soeryadi, 0815-888-2364

mountflorist.com

Stay away from this unprofessional company as they requested full payment prior to rendering service and then cancelling at the last minute, saying that they have another client that day and chose them instead of us.

This is fine if they want to ensure that each client gets the best service, but the problem is they told us at the very last minute, precisely when we are driving down to a meeting place, to finalize our plan which we had talked about months before.

And they cancelled via Blackberry messenger, as we were en route to the meeting place, no sorry, no apology, nothing.

This is what they said roughly:

"Good afternoon, sorry, but I've just seen in my calendar that on 3o oct, the same date of your wedding, I have another decor. The place is far. So I've decided to cancel my contract with you. Sorry about that."

And that was it. Attempts to reach this vendor has been unsuccessful. So now we are trying to figure out what is happening with our payment to this vendor.

Stay away from this troubled vendor.

*******************************************

WASPADALAH! WASPADALAH!

Jika Anda akan menikah, hati-hati dengan vendor berikut ini:

Mount Florist

Jl. Kelinci Raya No. 40

Pasar Baru.

Name: Naomi Soeryadi, 0815-888-2364

mountflorist.com

Mereka ini servisnya busuk banget. Mereka baru aja cancel kontrak kita, lewat BBM, dan parahnya lagi, sewaktu kita lagi jalan mau meeting sama mereka di gedung pernikahan. Kita mau final meeting buat beresin semuanya, yang notabene uda dibahas berbulan2 sebelumnya. Eh tau2 dapet BBM isinya begini:

"Met siang, mohon maaf. Saya baru liat agenda pd tgl 30 Oct 2011 saya ada dekor, tempat berjauhan, takut mengecewakan. Jadi putuskan tdk jadi ambil dekor, kawatir tidak bisa tangani. Makasih."

Wah, seenak jidat banget nih vendor. Terus bulan2 berikutnya yg dia ceriwis banget maksa2 kita utk full payment itu duitnya gimana? Doain yah semoga bisa balik semua.

Pokoknya, kalau mau merit, ati2 aja sama vendor yang ini. Sekedar sharing, mudah2an ga ada yg kejeblok kayak kita. Peace.

Puma Commander II Perf for $10!

Okay so yesterday I went to Sports Station in Senayan City and scored myself a sweet little deal: a pair of Puma Commander for Rp. 100,000!! ($10). Awesome!! The actual price of the Commander was over Rp. 500,000 ($50) but Sports Station was having a sale up to 70% off. And without bargaining, this lonely little Commander was mine for a little over $10 after paying the taxes.

It's unreal how they managed to sell this for 10 bucks. How long had they held this? The inventory cost for this thing is prolly already $50 from the time it didn't sell till now.

I'm stoked, I had been looking for a good parkour shoes and this may prove to be just it... Until recently I've been training in my worn out Nike in which I slipped and fell a coupla times due to the worn soles...... then I was thinking of buying the Feiyou martial arts shoes but they cost like Rp. 125,000, and words from other traceurs is that it is harsh for beginners because the shoes provide very little padding. I can't imagine myself runing on those flat shoes.

The great thing about the Commander is that there's padding, but not that much. The sole is thin enough that it allows me to feel what I'm stepping on. And it's also flexible enough that I can balance myself on a rail, unlike my Reebok Zigtech which is basically a brick.

Nice sole: thin enough, but still provide padding for a beginner like me.

Durability of the shoes.... don't know yet, only time will tell although there does seem to be a lot of stitching going on here... but I dunno, they should be able to hold (hopefully) a year or so before they burst out from all that cat leaps and extreme braking. The fit & finish of the material looks very decent though.

Hmmm.... lots of stitches though.

The sole however is what totally sold me on it. It has all the requirement that I want from a parkour shoes: continuous, unbroken (except for the Puma segment) one-piece rubber, thin enough sole and.... just look at that beautiful herringbone pattern! When I tried it on at the store the rubber is just oh-so-grippy, and I know for a fact that when I'm out there doing cat leaps or scaling up walls (not yet, btw), the herringbone tread would have no problem sticking to coarse walls. In fact, I would not hesitate to canyoneer with this baby!

And would you look at that.... it even has a heel and toe gripper! It's almost like a climbing shoes! It reminds me of my Mad Rock.... which needs resoling btw.

Although honestly with the type of activities I'll be doing, I dont know how long it'll last before they get cleanly shaven.

Now as for the compound, I'm too lazy to read the description for material breakdown but it does seem like it's got a good mixture of soft and hard properties. The herringbone treads are very responsive to pressure but the overall sole holds up to pressure well. Again, only time will tell, but I sure hope they don't shave off clean within the next three months! These treads are seriously amazingly grippy and act like hundreds of counter-opposing gripping forces when you step down on them.

I think the padding on this shoes is just perfect. It's not too thick and not too thin so as to not provide any cushioning at all... I was led to believe that the Dunlop Volleys has about the same thickness but that they're just more flexible and just a tad less bit of padding.

But check this out, even Dunlop Volleys are selling on the internet for $50 bucks now..... whilst I got mine for $10. Another quick search for Puma Commander also reveals average "sale" price at $64.60. That's no freakin' sale! THIS, however, is a sale: $50 shoes discounted to 70% = $10. If they had 10 of those shoes at Sports Station, I'd buy them all.

Although to be a jerk and a nerd, I do have to say that I generally try NOT to support Puma or Adidas..... so far with little consistency on my part. I do still love both of these brands, and Adidas in particular is my favorite all-around uber cool brand. But Adidas and Puma are both German, and they both come from the same brothers, who split later on - but not before joining the Nazi party in WWII, a fact I'm positive the new leaderships at both Adidas and Puma are VERY keen to forget. But yep, they're both Nazi members once.

At least if I buy Dunlop Volleys, I'll be buying an Australian brand. Or Nike. Or best yet, New Balance. OMG I love New Balance. But there you go. A piece of nasty heritage which sometimes raises the question on my part, is it still worth to care about something like this? It was, after all, WWII, and Adidas and Puma today resembles nothing like Adidas and Puma under the leadership of the two original German brothers. But it still tickles the mind, particularly mine.

Blackberry OS 6 official release for Bold 9700 - my review

Okay okay okay so I've been really excited this past coupla days as I've just installed the official release of OS 6 for Bold 9700. The release was offered and made available automatically on the Blackberry Desktop Software (the OTA version, not the supplied CD version). And so it was two days ago when I nonchalantly hooked up my Onyx into my laptop when the message popped up along the line of "an update to your device software is available. Would you like to upgrade?" And then I read the version: Blackberry OS 6.0.0.461. HELL YEAH??!! I've been waiting for OS 6 upgrade for the Onyx for ages, since it first came out on the Torch!! Some impatient suckers even went as far as buying OS 6 THEME (theme, not actual software) for $6.99 from the App World. Some downloaded the hacked version of OS 6 from sites like Crackberry and found out that maybe it wasn't the smartest thing to do, as the hacked version crashed their phones. Duh. Onyx 1 only has 256 MB, while OS 6 is designed for a 512 MB memory.

As for me, a major reason I extremely look forward to getting my paws on OS 6 was for none other than its touted bump in the Blackberry website browser capabilities. I think everyone on the planet agrees that the BB browser is one of the most vile, retarded things anyone has ever invented in modern time. I always felt like an idiot whenever I was trying to open a website or something as simple as google.com and finding myself staring at an improperly rendered website. It's inhumane, and in 2011 no one deserves that.

OS 6 is supposed to fix that, in addition to boasting a couple of other eye candies. And so with glee, I downloaded the software, albeit with a few scares here and there due to the spotty internet connection here in this lovely city.

Now that I've spent a good, intense couple of days playing around with the system, here's my take of this newest Blackberry upgrade for Bold 9700:

1. Home screen "panned view panes" - Similar to "tabbed" browsing in modern web browser, this feature allows you to slide to 5 different panes which are "All", "Favorites", "Media", "Download" and "Frequent" in Home screen. "All" tab is basically the traditional Home screen where everything is grouped together, while "Favorites" is a new feature that allows you to mark any application, contact, website, or anything, as favorites and it will be promptly placed in this "tab", making this basically a shortcut for all your favorite application. "Media" groups all the media application, "Download" groups all the OTA downloads and "Frequent" groups your most frequently used applications.

My take: while the visual is nice and sleek, the very concept of this is cluttered, unnecessary and it is simply trying too hard to become something it's not.
SCORE: C

2. The "Quick Access Area", however, is an entirely different story. This is ingenious and brilliant. There are two "Quick Access Area": one is situated at the very topmost, where if you click it, it'll open several useful frequently-used settings, like connections, alarm and device options; and the second one is situated just below it, where if you click it, it'll open a drop-down menu listing the newest activities: emails, SMS, missed call, calendar or BBM. No longer do I have to open each item separately when I get out from a meeting and seeing multiple notifications.
SCORE: A

3. The best part of OS 6 is its "Universal Search" feature built right into the Home Screen. I can't love it enough. Love it, love it, love it. This feature basically lets you type in anything you want to search in your phone; contact, lost email, a keyword in an email, or even things you want to look up on the internet - right on the home screen as opposed to individually go into each application and conduct your search there. I am telling you - this thing is a dream. Not only will this search feature returns your query, like a contact business card, but it will also include EVERYTHING about the query - even including those on the internet. This is one of the finest examples of seamless device-software integration.
SCORE: A+

4. Visual: AWESOME. Sleek, fluid, elegant and butter-smooth, to me the new OS is a major eye candy upgrade from the previous 5.
SCORE: A

5. Speed: faster, but also noticing several lag that may just be anomalies. Thus far, I have not encountered any major problem like the phone freezing, but I've only been using it for a couple of days. We all know that in the case of a Blackberry, a battery pull a week keeps the doctor away.
SCORE: A (so far)

6. Memory: BOO. All those nice eye candies and universal search and fluid graphics need to come from somewhere, and in this case, it cannibalizes the memory. Consider this: My Bold 9700 has an internal memory of 256MB, of which 188 MB is generally available after subtracting it for the OS. After I installed OS 6, the remaining memory available went down to just 40 MB!!! Holy cow! Say goodbye to downloading more apps.
SCORE: C

7. Browser. Saving the best for last, I can now breathe a sigh of relief with this new, long overdue web browser and webkit engine. OS 6 browser opens pages a little faster, is nice to look at, has tabbed browsing capability, and, most importantly, renders web pages CORRECTLY. No longer do I have to stare at messed-up Google web screen. I now feel that I'm a part of the 2011 netizen community. I hope RIM keeps working to improve this web browsing engine in the coming years.
SCORE: B


8. Overall system. Much has improved to a very heart-warming level, but on the same token, there are definitely rooms for improvement. I like the fluid, tighter system; how it includes some new, surprising features like the ability to monitor your memory and CPU usage real-time, but on the other hand, some basic "illogicals" remain a thorn in the system, like how I can't add an additional phone number into my existing contact. When someone calls me, and I already have him/her in my phonebook, and he/she is calling me from a new number (like office), I can't simply choose "Add to contact". I will have to copy paste his contact and manually edit his business card. Things like these seem simply illogical for a device designed for business users.
SCORE: B

VERDICT: Download it now, especially it's official and FREE! Despite several weaknesses and old-time irritants, OS 6 is major upgrade and will breathe a new life into your aging Bold 9700.