Archive for October, 2011
Monday, October 31st, 2011
It’s Halloween today. Here’s a selection of ghouly apps for the occasion.
There are apps for both BlackBerry smartphones and the PlayBook. All the apps can be downloaded from BlackBerry App World. Click on the screenshots to get to the app on BlackBerry App World.
| Apps |
Brief Description |
Count Munchula (Free)
smartphones only
|
The world-famous Screen Muncher just couldn’t resist getting dressed up for Halloween as a blood-sucking vampire named Count Munchula! “Munch” your BlackBerry screen and capture it as an image to post directly to Twitter, share through email, or save for later!
Screen Muncher lets you capture anything you see on your BlackBerry screen just like a desktop “print screen” on a PC. This funny, cute and useful app includes a very special “Count Munchula” sound effect, animation and vibrates every time you Munch a screen! |
Pumpkin Slider (US$0.99)
smartphones only
|
Pumpkin Slider is designed to lock your BlackBerry and prevent any unwanted key press. Even if your BlackBerry is unlocked by accident, Pumpkin Slider still locks your phone and you do not need to worry about the Send key or any unwanted key pressed. Pumpkin Slider automatically locks your BlackBerry when the screen dims.
Pumpkin Slider is fast to setup, easy to use and works with the Lock button on your BlackBerry. |
Jack-O-Lantern (Free)
smartphones only
|
Ever wanted your own Jack-O-Lantern but didn’t know how to carve one? This app is a virtual Jack-O-Lantern for your BlackBerry to help you celebrate the Halloween season. You can change the Jack-O-Lantern’s face by swiping from the left or right on the eyes, nose, or mouth. You can also change the colour by clicking on the screen. Happy Halloween! |
Halloween Photo Editor (US$1.99)
smartphones only
|
Halloween Photo Editor is a powerful image processing app that turns your photos into unique Halloween themed art. Very intuitive and easy to use. even beginners will quickly learn how to create impressive Halloweenish effects! Gear up for your Halloween celebration with this amazing photo app!
The app features 4 awesome Halloween filters, 16 unique Halloween themed photo frames and 11 cute clip art images. |
Ghosty Party (US$1.99)
smartphone/PlayBook
|
Vaporize as many ghosts of the same color as you can to get a high score, with cute halloween theme animations, bonuses, and sound effects. The more ghosts you tap at once, the more scores you will get. The more same color ghosts combo, the more scoresmultiply.
The game features an autosave function on exit or phone call, and the PlayBook version also has global online support to post your scores on Facebook. |
Halloween Haunt (S$1.99)
PlayBook only
|
Zombies, Ghosts, Mummies; oh my! Halloween Haunt is a 5 Reel Slot Machine that features up to 15 credits per line (up to 9 lines) – Changeable credit values ranging from 1¢, 2¢, 5¢, 10¢, and 25¢. Once the ‘High Roller Gauge’ is completely filled, you will gain access to even higher credit values; 50¢, $1, and $5. Slot machine symbols include ‘WILD’ and ‘SPIN & WIN’ symbols, which trigger the FREE SPIN feature. Earn your way to 50 trophies, purchase the 10 items in the gift shop, and work your way up to piles of cash like candy on Halloween! |
Halloween Sounds (US$0.99)
PlayBook only
|
Wanna scare theguy in the next cube out of his wits? Look no further! With Halloween Sounds you can play endless pranks on friends and enemies alike. 15 spooky sounds and Spooky Soundtrack which plays a creepy soundtrack and adds scary sounds on top of it. The perfect soundtrack for handing out treats, or great mood music for a costume party. |
Tags:Apps, BlackBerry, Halloween, Playbook, RIM, smartphone, tablets
Posted in App, BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Bold, Curve, Gadgets, Gaming, Humour, Lifestyle, Operating Systems, Phones, Photography, PlayBook, Prices, RIM, Software, Specifications, Tablets, Torch | No Comments »
Monday, October 31st, 2011
45 aspiring models sashayed down the catwalk at last night’s semi-finals of the Elite Model Look Singapore 2011 at Ion Orchard. 13 of them were selected for next Thursday’s Singapore Finals.
13 contestants made it to the Singapore Finals next Thursday.
The 13 finalists will vie for the sole ticket to the Elite Model Look Global Finals in Shanghai in December and compete with some 80 other aspirants from around the world.
The top three winners of the Global Finals will share out $350,000 worth of contracts with Elite Paris and other prizes.
The 32 contestants who did not make it to the Singapore Finals next Thursday will also be offered modelling contracts with Elite Model Management Singapore.
Originally, there were to be only 12 contestants for the Singapore Finals. Judges, however, decided to let a thirteenth contestant through.
An iPhone application will be launched to allow members of the public to view and vote for their favourite contestants.
The Singapore Finals will be held on next Thursday, November 3, at the Red Dot Traffic Museum.
Aspiring models who made it to next Thursday's Singapore Finals.
Check out the competition’s Facebook page for more photos.
Tags:Elite, lifestyle, models
Posted in Contest, Events, iOS, iPhone, Lifestyle | 2 Comments »
Sunday, October 30th, 2011
Some 50 semi-finalists will compete tonight for 12 places at the Finals in Singapore. The winner of the Singapore Finals will then fly to the Elite Global Final in Shanghai and then to Paris, sharing $350,000 worth of contracts and other prizes.
Semi-finals tonight at Ion Orchard Level 1 Alfresco from 7-10 pm
The semi-finalists were culled from almost a thousand applicants aspiring to follow in the footsteps of top supermodels like Linda Evangelista and Cindy Crawford – big names which Elite has discovered and represented.
The casting for the competition were held earlier this month from 8th to 23rd October at Vivocity and Ion Orchard. Contestants had to be aged 15 to 21 and at least 170 cm or 5’7 tall.
An iphone application will be launched to allow members of the public to view and vote for their favourite contestants.
The Elite Model Look competition is a world renowned and prestigious international modelling contest. It is the primary vehicle for finding new models for Elite Model Management, which is headquartered in Paris.
Since 1983, the competition has been conducted in over 50 countries around the world and has now reached Singapore. 350,000 girls around the world enter the competition every year, but only a few make it onto the world’s catwalks and magazine photoshoots.
Elite found many of the world’s supermodels through Elite Model Look, including Gisele Bundchen, Karen Mulder, Claudia Schiffer, Naomi Campbell and more recently, Fei Fei Sun, Constance Jablonski, Ming Xi and Sigrid Agren.
Elite Model Look, in exclusive partnership with Elite Model Management Singapore, gives a chance to girls in Singapore, who dream of becoming models, to realise their ambitions by competing to work with the top model agency network in the world.
Tags:Elite, lifestyle, models
Posted in App, Contest, Events, iOS, iPhone, Lifestyle | 3 Comments »
Sunday, October 30th, 2011
TomTom App for iPhone 1.9 is now available and optimised for iPad, offering higher resolution and improved user interface for the iPad at no extra cost. The app for South East Asia is available now at US$69.99 but existing app customers download for free.
TomTom App for iPhone/iPad Version 1.9
First announced and show-cased during IFA 2011 in Berlin last month, Existing TomTom App customers can download the new version to their iPads for free.
The user interface has been enhanced to fit the larger screen of the iPad while the resolution has been increased for a sharper display. The new release is also compatible with Apple’s new iOS5.
The TomTom App for iPhone/iPad 1.9 comes with a new map release, which includes updated roads, more accurate information about fixed speed camera locations and points of interest.
The new release makes use of the extra iPad screen space by showing both driving view and advanced lane guidance at the same time. Drivers can also switch to driving view with one touch from anywhere within the app, and can access guidance options in a tap.
Tags:Apps, GPS, iOS 5, iPad, iPhone, navigation, TomTom
Posted in App, Gadgets, GPS, iOS, Launch, TomTom | No Comments »
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
Research In Motion (RIM) and Microsoft have announced BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365. An open beta for the service has been launched in more than 30 countries.
“BlackBerry Business Cloud Services is an easy and cost-effective way for businesses and government agencies to extend Microsoft Office 365 to BlackBerry smartphones and manage the deployment in the cloud,” said Alan Panezic, Vice President at Research In Motion.The new RIM-hosted online service is targeted at midsized businesses and enterprises – extending Microsoft Exchange Online to BlackBerry smartphones, and allowing organizations to self-manage their BlackBerry deployments in the cloud.
The service mobilizes Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online via RIM-hosted BlackBerry Management Service. It features advanced Web-based IT and employee self-service smartphone management and security functions
Key features include:
- Access to Microsoft Exchange Online email, calendar and organizer data from a BlackBerry smartphone.
- BlackBerry Balance technology, which presents a unified view of work and personal content on a BlackBerry smartphone while keeping the content separate and secure.
- A web-based console for IT administrators to provision, manage and secure BlackBerry smartphones from anywhere.
- Online access to employee self-service smartphone security functions, allowing users to reset a device password or remotely lock or wipe a device in the event of loss or theft.
Managed service providers, systems integrators, carriers, resellers and other partners can also use the cloud service to manage BlackBerry deployments on behalf of their customers.
BlackBerry Business Cloud Services for Microsoft Office 365
A number of Fortune 500 customers and several government agencies in the US participated in an early access program and are among the many organizations that already plan to use the service.
Microsoft Office 365 customers can sign up for the BlackBerry Business Cloud Services beta here. The cloud-based service is available for no additional charge to Microsoft Office 365 Midsized Businesses and Enterprises plan subscribers and works with BlackBerry smartphones on business or consumer data plans.
Tags:BlackBerry, Exchange, Microsoft, Office 365, RIM, smartphone
Posted in BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, Enterprise IT, Microsoft, Phones, RIM, Security, Software, Utility | 1 Comment »
Friday, October 28th, 2011
The new X548de and X548dte business-oriented colour laser multifunction products (MFP) are available from authorised Lexmark business partners for S$2,449 and S$3,059 (excl 7% GST) respectively.
Lexmark X548de MFP
The X548 family of colour laser MFPs promise high performance, wide-ranging capabilities, time-saving productivity solutions and advanced security features with cheaper price tags and smaller physical footprints than competitors.
The two new MFPs streamline paper-intensive business processes and targets the rapidly growing mid-size workgroup segment.
The X548de base model comes with a 7-inch colour touch screen, and is pre-loaded with applications that can easily be customised with tailored workflows based on unique business needs.
The X548dte adds a hard disk to enable extra features, as well as a 650-sheet Duo Drawer for additional media handling capabilities.
Tags:laser, Lexmark, MFP, printers
Posted in Enterprise IT, Gadgets, Lexmark, Printers | No Comments »
Thursday, October 27th, 2011
BlackBerry Bold 9900 and BlackBerry Curve 9360 are the world’s first SIM-based smartphones to receive the MasterCard PayPass Handset Certification.
The two smartphones from Research In Motion (RIM) are the first SIM-based NFC (Near Field Communication) smartphones to be certified by MasterCard Worldwide as PayPass-approved devices.
The certification was granted on the basis of the BlackBerry smartphones meeting the functionality, interoperability 
and security requirements of MasterCard. With this certification, any MasterCard PayPass-issuing bank globally will be able to deploy MasterCard PayPass-enabled accounts to the SIM card of these smartphones.
“MasterCard is proud to be the first to certify these popular BlackBerry smartphones for mobile payments, and offer consumers another simple, easy, safe and convenient way to pay,” said Mung Ki Woo, Group Executive, Mobile at MasterCard Worldwide. “The availability of NFC on popular BlackBerry smartphones is an important milestone for the mobile contactless payments business.”The ecosystem to allow customers to take advantage of the certified BlackBerry smartphones for NFC payments is already growing. France Telecom – Orange is the first operator worldwide to have commercial NFC launches in two countries, UK and France, with trials in several European markets.
France Telecom – Orange believes that mobile NFC has the potential to enable a new revolution in mobile by further connecting people’s mobile digital world with the physical world around them.
In Singapore, I don’t think citizens probably will see NFC payments in place until at least middle of 2012 and beyond.
Tags:BlackBerry, Bold, Curve, MasterCard, NFC, PayPass, RIM, SIM
Posted in BlackBerry, Bold, Curve, Gadgets, Phones, RIM, Security, Tech news, Utility | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
CA Technologies promises to improve Virtualisation security with a new securty solution that enforces end-to-end privileged user management suport for VMware vSphere Environments.
CA Technologies is leveraging on CA Access Control for Virtual Environments to extend its identity and access management (IAM) security expertise. The new solution complements and protects VMware virtual environments.
“We see CA Access Control for Virtual Environments as a key solution that will meet our needs in virtualization security and help us to comply with PCI-DSS requirements,” said Arieh Berger, manager, Operating Systems and Information Security, EL AL Airlines. “By complementing and extending the security that comes with VMware, CA Access Control for Virtual Environments will allow us to enact segregation of duties and control privileged user access – all automatically.”The solution helps customers confidently virtualize critical applications by addressing security and compliance concerns, and helping control privileged user access to the virtual environment.
Virtualization management tools provide IT administrators with tremendous flexibility and power to make significant, rapid changes to their virtual environments.
This authority increases the insider threat and raises the need to protect virtual environments from user mistakes, misuse or blatant, malicious actions by those users with the most privilege.
CA Access Control for Virtual Environments is available direct from CA Technologies or through a growing global partner channel.
CA Access Control for Virtual Environments helps customers:
- Achieve compliance for their virtual data center through privileged user management for the hypervisor and guest virtual machines;
- Gain visibility and control over virtual environments with activity logging and privileged user password vaulting;
- Automate security operations and reduce security costs by applying security controls according to pre-set policies;
- Expedite adoption of virtualization technology for critical applications by improving security controls; and
- Create a secure, multi-tenant environment by isolating virtual machines through network zoning.
Tags:CA, security, virtualisation
Posted in Cloud, Enterprise IT, Launch, Security, Software, Utility | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, October 26th, 2011
Equinix has introduced the Equinix Marketplace, a new service that enables any company with a presence in any Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data center to quickly find and directly connect to a global value-chain of more than 4,000 potential partners, customers and suppliers of digital services.
Equinix Marketplace soughts to help companies more effectively reach new customers, offer new services, and connect to members of their digital supply chain to improve application performance, reduce cost and generate revenue.
By creating a custom profile and storefront in the Equinix Marketplace, sellers of services, ranging from network connectivity to private clouds to alternative trading systems, can drive sales by promoting their services to other participants—thousands of potential customers or partners that are a simple cross-connect away in Equinix data centers.
“AboveNet is excited about the opportunity to participate in the Equinix Marketplace. The Equinix Marketplace provides AboveNet an additional marketing channel to reach prospective customers to deliver our low latency High Bandwidth Connectivity solutions to Equinix facilities,” said Nick Ridolfi, senior vice president of sales for AboveNet.Currently, the vertical ecosystems inside Equinix data centers include companies such as Bloomberg, Verizon, Syniverse, GoGrid, and Abovenet. These companies are already connecting and doing business with customers and partners that are also inside Equinix, and now the Equinix Marketplace makes it even easier to do so.
Platform Equinix is home to ecosystems containing thousands of digital-driven enterprises including more than 700 cloud and IT service providers, 675 high-performance backbone and mobile networks, 450 online media, content and advertising destinations, and 600 electronic trading and financial market participants.
Buyers, on the other hand, can quickly locate the right services in the right data center locations from the suppliers now available in the Equinix Marketplace. This reduces the time-to-market to integrate with new partners and deploy new services, to reduce costs and improve the performance and efficiency of their digital supply chain.
Tags:data center, Equinix, Marketplace
Posted in Cloud, Enterprise IT, Launch, Tech news, Utility | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Samsung today launched its Series 7 GAMER notebook (700G), designed to deliver a smarter and richer gaming experience and its premium Series 7 CHRONOS notebook (700Z), designed for maximum performance and productivity.
The Series 7 CHRONOS comprises a 13.3” model (700Z3A – S$1,688) and a 15.6” model (700Z5A – S$1,988), both available in mid November.
The Series 5 GAMER has the single 17.3” model (700G7A), priced at S$2,899, and is available now.
The notebooks come with Windows 7 operating system.
Main highlights of the Series 7 GAMER notebook
Main highlights of the premium Series 7 CHRONOS notebook
Samsung Series 7 CHRONOS
- Powered with the 2nd generation Quad-Core Intel’s Core i7 processor and an extra 8GB of flash memory on the motherboard that provides a faster start-up as well as increases overall performance.
- 2 times faster web browsing (based on Microsoft Internet Explorer).
- Only takes 2 seconds to restart, a 33% time-improvement from previous models.
- Battery lasts up to five times longer than other notebooks.
- 15.6” display fitted into a chassis used for the usual 15” models, allowing users to benefit from a large screen in the form factor of a smaller model.
- Series 7 CHRONOS 13.3” 700Z3A (S$1,688) and 15.6” 700Z5A (S$1,988) available in mid November.
Tags:notebooks, Samsung, Windows
Posted in Gadgets, Gaming, Launch, Notebooks, Prices, Samsung, Specifications, Windows 7 | No Comments »
