The Singapore Gadget Talk Show

[NEW GADGET] LG Optimus ~~Prime~~ GT540 is originally seen at CES in January this year. And finally making its debut in Singapore after nearly 5 months. As an entry-level smartphone, Optimus face quite abit of competition against the likes of Motorola Dext, Samsung Galaxy Spica and HTC Tatto in terms of price point.

The major selling point for Optimus today, amazingly, has nothing to do with the phone itself. It has everything to do with the person holding on to the phone in the image below (the phone is really small in the image). He is Lee Min Ho, Ambassador for LG Optimus. In case, you don’t know him, best known for his leading role as the leader of F4, Gu Jun Pyo, in the South Korean adaptation of the popular manga series, Hana Yori Dango, titled Boys Over Flowers, in 2009. I can’t believe I am talking about K-Pop in TSGTS.

Lately, the trend with Samsung and LG is to appoint an ambassador for each newly release phone and bundle in the free tickets to the ambassador’s performance. Samsung Galaxy S I9000 is one example and now we have LG Optimus.

Back to the LG Optimus itself, LG has positioned it as the first Android phone to have for consumers that are prepared to switch. Sounds like an idea but are there really lots of people there looking to switch to a cheaper Android or just go for the kill and get a HTC Desire or Samsung Galaxy S, the two high-end Android phones in the market at the moment.

That aside, having a resistive touchscreen is a head scratching moment for me. I mean that is like the technology of last year. I wonder if they will bundle in the stylus since resistive touchscreen is not so sensitive with fingers.

Anyhow, LG Optimus is going for just S$418 without Telco’s contract. So this is really affordable.

Specifications:

3” TFT Resistive touchscreen with 256k colours
109 x 54.5 x 12.7 mm / 115.5 g
130MB Internal Storage / MicroSD Card Slot
HSDPA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with A2DP
3.15 MP Camera, 2048x1536 pixels, autofocus
Android OS, v1.6
3.5mm audio jack

[NEW GAME] Let’s see… What are the games that I play on PS3. There is Winning Eleven 2009… Guitar Hero 5… Disgaea 3… and.. that’s about it.

Yeah sure, go ahead and slaughter me for not playing the “must-play” games like Metal Gear Solid, GTA and so on… Well there is only 24 hours in a day and to work, study and blog and World Cup and this and that… you get the drift.

So what is the game that ultimately force me to post up the first ever GAMING post on this 3 year old blog? Drum roll please. *roll *roll *roll

It is the HHHIIIGHHHHLYYY anticipated GRAAAANNN TTTUUURISMMO 5. After delay, delay and delay and years of looking at the Prologue, and weeks of playing on the Time Trial we finally get to see the erm… trailer of the real thing.

In case you haven’t heard of the ‘legend’ of Grand Turismo, let’s take a look at some statistics to gain perspective.

150 people had worked on Gran Turismo 5 for four years
All of Polyphony Digital's 120 employees working on GT5
Polyphony is the developer of GT, so by assigning everyone to this project, they haven’t sell a thing in 4 years
GT5 costs 50 times more than the original GT
Originally announced by Sony to be out in March this year, but date have since been changed to November 2010
A time trial version is released earlier this year. I download, play and finished 1000+th on the Asian server.
The latest version of GT is on the PSP, titled GT PSP

But GT5 could well be worth the wait. The racing simulator is by far the most realistic I have played, consisting of nearly 1000 cars and 20 tracks in this latest version. The graphics is simply out of the world. The video below will feature some in-game graphics.

GT5 is a must-play. I mean if you can’t afford the COE of a Lamborghini in reality, drive it in GT5.

[EVENT REPORT] There is no question that the speed of the processors these days is improving as fast as Theo Walcott running on the pitch. As we have witnessed, the Core i series have improved the performance of computers tremendously but Intel knew they have to do more than just producing processors to improve their products. So this exclusive Intel event showcased plenty of non-processor’s technology.

Victor and I got a glimpse of exactly what Intel will bring to the table of notebooks and desktops in 6 to 12 months time as well as some technology that may take far longer than that. It was a very informal session with the American engineers from Intel (in picture) with just a small group of bloggers but it is far more informative and comfortable than some of the past events that I have been to.

The session is made up of a few technology that Intel specifically intended to showcase. They are:

Solid State Drive (~~no, Intel is not producing them, don’t get shock~~ Intel is absolutely producing them! For a while already!)
Intel Wireless Display (very very impressive yet believable)
Intel Atom and AppUp (netbooks)

The Intel guys also showed us a couple of other stuff they don’t specifically intend to showcase. They are:

An unidentified notebook with 3 external LCDs display
MeeGo OS on MSI Wind
Unidentified Ultra Thin Acer notebook

So the event is set to very informative but there is problem, I had to travel light that day and hence I was at the event without a proper camera. All Victor and I have are a Motorola Dext and the iPhone 3GS. That’s why the images are so poor. Anyhow, the images maybe poor, but we brought back great information!

Solid State Drive

In essential, Intel believes the notion of Solid State Drive offsetting the improvement that more memory (ie. RAM) offers. That’s to say that you are better off using SSD then HDD. SSD will offer the storage as HDD does and at the same time improvement the performance of your computer. Another less-known argument is that applications actually have to be programmed to take advantage of the additional RAMs installed on the computer and hence, again SSD does not required any.

Other advantage that SSD offer includes better data failure protection as when SSD failure occurs, the SSD remains read-only instead of complete failure.

But for me, and other average consumers, the question is going to be if the price of SSD will lower. Well, the Intel Engineers are confident of that.

Intel Wireless Display

The next thing that they showed us is the Intel Wireless Display. I have seen it a couple of times on video before the engineers show us live and there in the room. Essentially, the technology allows you to pipe the images (720p!) on your notebook wirelessly to your TV with the help of a small receiver. 720p is impressive but it is more impressive to see it live in action. The receiver will be manufactured by third parties but a notebook equip with the Intel Wireless Display technology will be able to work with the receiver right out of the box.

In my opinion, this is going to be very attractive to a particular group of consumers; people who watch movies on their TV via notebook. No more VGA cables.

Sure, it look like a game changer. Another feature that beats MacBook hands down.

to be continue…

[EVENT] No offence Nokia, you gave the media a first look at your X Series, including the Nokia X5, a phone that will go head on with the Motorola Backflip. But unfortunately, the new XBOX 360 is always going to steal the headlines or Microsoft Kinect (formerly known as Project Natal) but is does not seem so impressive after all. So I am going with the brand new XBOX 360 as the main image. What’s more? There are MORE to come. E3 Expo and CommunicAsia will both last a couple of days. And as of writing this post, Nintendo 3DS is formally introduced to the world.

Why did the companies chose to announce these gadgets so closely together? What are these events? Time to cut and paste.

E3 Expo is the premier global computer and video game trade show. It takes place June 15-17, 2010, at the Los Angeles Convention Center. E3 Expo draws tens of thousands of professionals to experience the future of interactive entertainment. The most influential people leading the most innovative companies in the business attend E3 Expo to see groundbreaking new technologies and never-before-seen products for computers, video game consoles, handheld systems and the Internet.

E3 Expo 2010 will welcome software developers, buyers and retailers, programmers, distributors, entertainment industry representatives, financiers and venture capitalists, importers and exporters, manufacturers, resellers, researchers, educators, financial and industry analysts and worldwide electronic and print media. (Source)

Nokia Connection is an annual event in Singapore where Nokia showcase their current device and service portfolio and address the SEAP (South East Asia and Pacific) market. This year it is being held on Monday June 14th (tomorrow) at Conrad Centennial Singapore. (Source) – I did not manage to find the information on the Nokia Singapore Website.

Since 1979, CommunicAsia has established itself to be THE unparalleled one-stop ICT event platform in Asia. CommunicAsia2010 is an ideal marketplace bringing buyers and sellers together to seek the best returns on investments and to determine the best value and latest convergent technologies and applications. (Source) – This is really more of a trade show but still a couple of big gadget manufacturers will be there.

I am really doing a BIG disservice to E3 here, because the size of that Expo is way bigger and the impact on our lives will be far more heavy too. Wow, electronic gaming is capable of impacting our lives?

[Commentary] I watched the opening game, South Africa vs. Mexico of the World Cup 2010 on Channel 5. The first thing I notice, or rather hear, is the buzzing sound from out my TV. My first thought: Is it the flies in South Africa? Then the camera zoom in to the crowd with plastic trumpets. “Oh!” I said. It is really disturbing though.

After that, I come across an web that actually reports that the particualr trumpet is called “Vuvuzelas” in South Africa!

The sound of Vuvuzelas is not the only problem watching the games. The MIO TV customers had problems watching the opening game too.

And oh, the screenshot shows the way I will watch any other games in this campaign.

Link – CNA’s report on MIO TV
Link – Winnipeg Free Press

[COMMENTARY] This is just amazing, Sony. A few weeks ago, you said that you will introduce your “Reader digital book device” into several new global market this year. It seems that very mature consumer market such as Singapore, where the population read so much will be a such an obvious choice. We have bookstores and libraries in every neighbourhood. What’s more, our library is equiped with the e-book shelves where we can borrow e-books!

In fact, the only e-book reader that we can get here with OFFICIAL support is the iRiver models. Or the SMARTQ series which is not really an e-book reader. Just like the iPad. I have tried the e-ink technology – made iRiver models and I do find that reading is much better on those than a regular screen such as our LCDs and more likely next month the iPad. Not that I am saying iPad is not as good a product. In fact, I looked forward to getting one.

It is just that if you are talking about finishing an entire series of Harry Porter on a bright screen such as the one of iPad, it may just provide a little too much strain on your eyes.

Curiously, Sony certainly has extensive coverage of retail stores and support offices in Singapore. So why is it that they choose not sell another product line it baffling.

Come on, move into Singapore and you will find customers that is so willing to pay you.

Link – CNET.com

[NEW GADGET] I said “Motorola is Back!” when I reviewed my Motorola Dext last month. I gotta say that again because the real Motorola is really back this time.
You see, Motorola style’s of developing phones since the turn of the century has been to milk and further develop on a successful design. In case you are lost so far, I am refering to the RAZR series.
First it is the Dext, then we have the BackFlip which follows a similar design and the latest in that line is the squarish FlipOut. As for for Milestone XT, it was previously just Milestone. They are all really refreshing designs but just how long Motorola can continue to produce handsets of all form factors? Clearly, Motorola knows what they are doing this time round.
Surprisingly, Milestone XT is Motorola first touchscreen only form factor product and furthermore, Milestone XT does have some really new features (or rather, features to keep up with competition), such as a HDMI slot for direct 720p playback on TV and recording video at 24fps (iPhone 4 does it at 30fps)
Specifications:

Android OS, v2.1 (Eclair)
ARM Cortex A8 720 MHz processor
3.7” TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors / 480 x 854 pixels
8 MP, 3264x2448 pixels, autofocus, Xenon flash
HD video (720p) playback over built-in HDMI slot
150 MB storage, 256 MB RAM, 512 MB ROM
HSDPA, Wi-fi
MicroSD Slot
3.5mm Audio jack
Geo-tagging, face and smile detection
A-GPS
Stereo Radio with RDS support
116 x 60.9 x 10.9 mm / 139g

Sorry SingTel and M1 customers, again, Motorola has decided to go with StarHub for the exclusive dealership. What is going on? SingTel has Dext and BackFlip while StarHub totally dominate with the more popular Milestone and Milestone XT which I am sure is going to be a hit as well. Again very affordable price tag compared to the fellow high-end Android such as the HTC Desire ~~or the~~ ~~Samsung Galaxy S, both of~~ which uses Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. Milestone XT720 runs on a 720 MHz processor and cost S$198 with a $38/mth plan that comes with a 12GB data cap.
M1 customers who wants a Motorola phone should switch their Telco or drop the idea altogether. Speaking of which, does M1 has any exclusive phones at all?

ps: Samsung Galaxy S I9000 uses ARM Cortex A8 1GHz processor, while Motorola Milestone XT720 uses ARM Cortex A8 720MHz processor.

Update 1: It seems as though the processor is capable to run up to 720MHz as a result many websites put that up. However in fact the processor for the Starhub's version could be underclock at 600 MHz. Pending reply from Motorola Singapore.

Meanwhile look at some other sources regarding the confusion.

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/30/milestone-xt720-spec-changes-again-this-time-for-the-worse/

http://www.engadget.com/2010/06/07/motorola-milestone-xt720-announced-8-megapixel-cam-720p-video/

http://androidandme.com/2010/06/news/motorola-milestone-xt720-is-bound-for-europe/

Update 2: Motorola confirms that the processor is 720 MHz but Starhub’s version is under clock at 550 MHz with 256mb of ram!

[GADGET DEALS] Apart from the Samsung Galaxy S I9000, Samsung actually does have a large brunch of other phones. Among them, Samsung does offer a complete range of feature phones. Clamshell, bar or slider. You name it, Samsung has something on their shelves.

My personal favourites has to be the Corby Series. It is not often that manufacturers actually produces some pretty feature phones. Corby Pro’s bright red QWERTY keyboard is gorgeous. At the same time, lately I managed to get some hands-on time on Samsung Monte and surprise surprise, its capacitive touchscreen is very responsive. That’s a large improvement from Samsung Jet. Suddenly, Nokia is not the only manufacturers making feature phones.

In case you are wondering why Samsung Galaxy S I9000 and Omina 2 is not on this list, I have no idea either. I am guessing they are more expensive handsets that is already on offer with the telcos.

[GADGET DEALS] Printers. Printers. Printers. Save some paper will ya? Find all the brochures here, you don’t have to visit the show! Link – Bootstrike

One thing you probably will not get there is the regular prices of the HP OfficeJet Pro series. I got the media release from a HP appointed agency (Thanks Ranjeet!) and she conveniently left me the regular prices as well.

Disclaimer: Sometimes the PC SHOW price may eventually become the regular prices but at least you bought it the first time the price drops! More importantly, I think HP holds a strict pricing rule over its retailers.

Just before you go, note that HP Officejet Pro 8500 Wireless All-in-One is also on sale but not listed below.

HP Booth A2003 @ PC SHOW 2010

HP LaserJet Pro P1102w printer

PC Show Price: S$198
Normal price: S$229
Special bundles or extra goodies during PC Show for this product: Carrier Bag

HP LaserJet Pro M1212nf MFP

PC Show Price: S$378
Normal price: S$389
Special bundles or extra goodies during PC Show for this product: Trolley

HP Officejet 4500 All-in-One

PC Show Price: S$229
Normal price: S$229
Special bundles or extra goodies during PC Show for this product: Extended warranty + S$30 Shopping voucher

HP Officejet 6500 Wireless All-in-One

PC Show Price: S$369
Normal price: S$399
Special bundles or extra goodies during PC Show for this product: Extended warranty + S$30 shopping voucher + Trolley

[EVENT] Another 3 months has gone by and yet another PC/IT Show is on our minds again. So what are the star buys?

Link - Hardwarezone Preview
Link – CNET Asia (they usually will provide their listing as well)
Link – Bootstrike (Visit this for all the brochures, they have EVERYTHING, so you don’t have to physically visit the show)

So what will NOT be at the PC Show?

Tablets: They are not here yet regardless if it is the Apple iPad or Windows 7 tablet or even Android tablet. Many designs and models are announced at Computex and I believe they should be for sale as soon as later this year or next. Typically, the first generation of gadgets tend to be less completed. But still I would like to think that once they are out, they might be able to drive the price of netbooks down tremendously. So unless you desperately need a netbook, maybe it is a better idea to wait for another 3 months?

E-Readers: It is almost ridiculous that our GREAT reading nation has as much as e-book readers as polite Singaporeans in Singapore. I mean what out there you can buy easily? iRiver e-book reader at popular and that is guess what? About it. Sony is not selling their stuff here either, which is baffling since they can totally dominate a market without any viable option. Anyhow, iRiver e-book is selling at SGD429 at the PC Show.

iPhone 4, Windows 7 Phones and Froyo Android Phones: The next generation of OSes and phones are not out yet!

[NEW GADGET] With such extensive coverage from Engadget live blog to CNA on the telly, do you even need to read somemore facts/opinions/analysis?

Well, yes you do. No, I am kidding. Feel free not to read this. Oops. You just did.

Regardless of the situation, I just say this to satisfy my ego as a blogger. iPhone 4 is out! July looks like the month where iPhone 4 will flood the streets according to the national papers.

From a personal point of view, I think the battery life is going to be a big difference aside from all the features and hardware improvement. An improvement of with seven hours of 3G talk and 10 hours of WiFi data, vs. five hours of talk and nine hours of WiFi data on the 3GS. That could mean that iPhone 4 could last more than 1 day with regular usage. Meaning a couple of hours of surfing and smses.

More significantly, the 3GS is probably on par with high end Android phones in terms of battery life. But now iPhone 4 has raised the bar.

[NEW GADGET] Does the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro look like a calculator? Maybe it is just me. Well, Sony Ericsson has just launched another member of their Vivaz series with Vivaz Pro. What does Pro stands for? I think it stands for QWERTY keyboard.

Another difference between Vivaz and Vivaz Pro is the camera. The Pro version comes with a 5MP camera while the original flavour is equipped with a 8MP one.

From the image, it does look like the QWERTY keys are made of rubbery material. Looked pretty comfortable to type on. Besides the keyboard, the highlight of the phone is still the capability to video your pretty girlfriend/boyfriend ~~in the nude~~ in 720p. In case you are doubtful of the “quality” of the recording, I have actually seen the quality from devices such as the Creative HD Vado. And they have proven that small devices are capable. Not that I am saying Vivaz Pro can do exactly the same, since I do not have a test unit. But well its worth a try or you find yourselves a demo unit.

In other areas, Vivaz Pro is a Symbian device. Still Series 60. Still baffling.

In terms of the impact on your bank account, Vivaz Pro is going at S$298 with a basic plan without data. Putting a 12GB data cap on it with bring the price down to S$198. Affordable.

Specifications:

109 x 52 x 15 mm / 117g
3.2” TFT resistive touchscreen, 16M colors
3.5 mm audio jack
Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g, DLNA
HSPDA, Bluetooth
5 MP, 2560х1920 pixels, autofocus, LED flash
720 MHz, PowerVR SGX graphics
Symbian Series 60, 5th edition
Stereo FM radio with RDS
A-GPS support
TV out (VGA resolution)
75 MB storage
microSD card slot

[GUIDE] If you have signed up for the YMAIL account back in 2008 and if you are still using the accounts thesedays, you are like me! Lately, I tried to put them on Windows Live Mail and my Android phone mail client (MotoBlur), and it seems that the normal settings does not seems to work nicely. The first hit in Google and even Yahoo! does not return anything exactly that works. So after a few rounds of trial and error, I managed to get them to work.

This is again a problem for Yahoo! if they are going to be back to their glory days. I mean GMAIL has IMAP. Yahoo! ? still on POP3. That’s pretty crazy in this digital age when people check mails from eveywhere, not just the web interface. Anyhow, here goes the settings:

Windows Live Mail and Android Mail (MotoBlur):

Outgoing Mail (SMTP) – in.smtp.mail.yahoo.com, Port 465 and SSL
Incoming Mail (POP3) – in.pop.mail.yahoo.com, Port 995 and SSL

Email and Password as per your account and the Outgoing Mail Server option should be checked.

[GADGET UPDATE] Mac Mini is probably the the cheapest option of becoming a Leopard OS user. I am quite tempted at times to just spend my wafer-thin income on it so to join the billions around the world to jeer at PC users. But everytime I walk past a iMac in the Apple Store, it somehow manages to make me drop the idea and say “damn, I have to hold out for a real Mac, that’s the pride of being a man.” To this day, I am still a PC user.

That’s me.

There are rumours days before the WWDC that the Mac Mini could get a specs bump and refresh. HDMI is rumoured to replace DVI, this is really about time since PC monitors these days tend to come with HDMI ports. And of course processors and graphics card are very likely to be replaced.

The basis of the rumours is that corporate clients of Apple (school, office etc) have their orders of Mac Mini delayed and was told to wait for awhile for shipment.

It’s pretty crazy to be buy Apple products now, I mean everything else have to wait till WWDC is over right?

Link – Gizmodo
Link – Mac Mini supplies dry up

[GADGET DEALS] Talk about buying gadgets online and I will think of Dell which to-date still provides a wide range of products online and more importantly, lots of options are available for to customize. And they are pretty aggressive when it comes to promoting their store too. And so lately, I have been working with dgm Affiliates Asia to put several ads for Dell.
Well the purpose of the post is definitely not to talk about these ads but to give you, my readers, some discount coupons! They are used for online purchases so you gotta be aware of that.

The expiry date for ALL the coupon codes above is 24th June 2010 and they are for DELL Singapore online store only.
Since the expiration date is pretty near, I would not go on to look into each product in detail. And there you go! Enjoy some savings!

Product	Discount	Coupon Code
Dell Vostro Desktops	S$50	P7$5B3R0B252C3
Dell Vostro Laptops	S$20	ZN7D6J6DGR1R9S
I~~nspiron Laptops or Desktops~~	~~$50~~	~~1WCPPCH$D2VT42 (Updated 10th Jun 2010)~~
~~Studio or Studio XPS Laptops or Desktops~~	~~$100~~	~~$D0?J?ZQLGQ7WL (Updated 10th Jun 2010)~~
Dell U2410 monitor (T14U2410SG)	S$70	G1?5P3GJLH?LCF
Dell U2311H monitor (T14U2311HSG)	S$30	7QQGLNSTKG5BSC
Dell U2211 monitor (T14U2211HSG)	S$20	W1FT?PHNQG7$0S
Dell 1230c printer (T841230CSG)	S$70	F3SLTRQ7RKHBTG
Dell 1320cn printer (T841122SG)	S$50	BP8GNZBZS0NW9G
Dell 1130n printer (T841130NSG)	S$30	NBDJK3?28P160C

[REVIEW] Before I buy a gadget, like many, I will do my due research to find out all about it. But this time, when I decide that I desperately need a controller that is red in colour (I have no idea why, it is just in the heat of the moment), I did not bother to read up anything about the controller. I mean they are only different in colour right?

Nope.

Check out the 13 seconds video that I record to find out the difference. It actually affect me quite a bit. But I guess I am better now.

The Singapore Gadget Talk Show

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