Archive for October, 2011
Monday, October 24th, 2011
Taiwan has beaten Myanmar and US as the top source of attack traffic on the Internet, while Asian cities maintain their dominance of having the fastest connection speeds in the world, with HK at the pinnacle.
This is the 4th year for the quarterly report.
Akamai has released its Q2 State of the Internet report for 2011. It is a leading provider of cloud optimisation services.
Average Connection Speed by Country/Region
Based on data gathered from the Akamai Internet Platform, which carries between 15-30 percent of the world’s Web traffic, the report provides insight into key global Internet statistics such as the world’s fastest and slowest regions for connection speed, the most frequent origins of attack traffic, and the highest-performing geographies for mobile connectivity, as well as resulting trends over time.
It uses its globally distributed network of servers to gather massive amounts of information on many metrics about the Internet, such as connection speeds, attack traffic, and network connectivity/availability/latency problems, as well as traffic patterns on leading Web sites.
Average Peak Connection Speed by Country/Region
The Q2 report includes data gathered from across Akamai’s Intelligent Internet Platform during the second quarter of 2011 about attack traffic, broadband adoption, and mobile connectivity, as well as trends seen in this data over time.
In addition, this quarter’s report also includes insights into the state of IPv4 exhaustion, the impact of World IPv6 Day, the state of client-side SSL, and smartphone usage trends as observed by Akamai partner Ericsson.
The main highlights from the Q2 report paints the following picture:
Speed
- Global average connection speed increased 43 percent year over year to 2.6 Mbps. South Korea again had the highest average connection speed at 13.8 Mbps. Singapore was ranked 29th at 4.5 Mbps.
- Global average peak connection speed was 11.4 Mbps. Hong Kong has maintained its position as having the highest average peak connection speed at 44.4 Mbps. Singapore was 19th at 20.7 Mbps.
- Globally, high broadband (>5 Mbps) adoption grew to 27%. At 68%, the Netherlands was the highest, pushing S Korea to third position. Hong Kong came in second, while Singapore was 20th at 33% adoption.
- Gloobal broadband (>2 Mbps) adoption increased to 65%. Singapore was 48th at 67%.
- Global narrowband (<256 kbps) adoption at 2.9% continued its decline. Lebanon, with its 56% narrowband adoption is the top laggard.
- Cities in Asia again have the fastest connection speeds in the world. Out of the 100 fastest cities worldwide, 70 were from Asia, with Hong Kong, 59 cities in Japan and 10 cities in South Korea.
- Brno, Czech is the fastest city in Europe, at number 55 out of 100.
- 18 US cities made the top 100 list. 9th-placed San Jose’s 13.7 Mbps moved the US into the top 10 for the first time.
Security
Sources of top attack traffic
Taiwan was the top source of attack traffic accounting for 10% of overall attack traffic. Myanmar and US together accounted for another 17%. Having made it debut as top attack traffic source in the last quarter, second-placed Myanmar has continued its attack activities showing its entrance into the ranks of top attack traffic sources was not a flash in the pan.
Attack from mobile networks
With respect to attack traffic originating from mobile network providers, the US vaulted to the top of the list, generating 42% of the observed traffic. Italy has gone down to second place, after its observed attack traffic from was halved compared to the previous quarter. Russia took third place. The top three countries were responsible for almost 70% of observed attacks, while the top 10 countries accounted for nearly 90% of the observed attacks.
Exponential growth in mobile data traffic is outstripping linear growth of mobile voice traffic.
Previous SOTI reports from Akamai on tech4tea.com
1st Quarter, 2011 Report (Volume 4, Number 1)
4th Quarter, 2010 Report (Volume 3, Number 4)
Tags:Akamai, broadband, Internet, mobile, security, speed, statistics
Posted in Figures, Internet, Tech news | No Comments »
Sunday, October 23rd, 2011
The 2011 Girls’ Generation Tour will be held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on December, 2011. General ticket sales for the public will begin from November 1.
But from October 29 – 31, Samsung customers and OCBC card members will be able to purchase the tickets at a 5% discount.
2011 Girls' Generation Tour on 9 Dec, 8 pm @ Singapore Indoor Stadium.
A total of 5,500 tickets will be on sale for the S$1.8 million, three-hour K-Pop concert. There are two different ticket prices: S$218 for Terrace/Moshpit area and S$168 
for seats in the Balcony/Partially-restricted area. The Moshpit area will allow more than 2,000 standing fans to get closer to the girls.
For Samsung customers and OCBC card members, there will be a 3-day priority booking period commencing from 10 am on Saturday, October 29, 2011.
| Date |
9 Dec 2011 (Friday) |
| Time |
8 to 11 pm |
| Venue |
Singapore Indoor Stadium |
| Priority ticket sales |
29 Oct (8 pm) to 31 Oct |
They will be able to purchase tickets via Sistic online, phone and counter bookings. All purchases are limited to 6 tickets per transaction to prevent any reselling of tickets.
The first 250 tickets purchased by Samsung customers will enjoy 5% off ticket prices. They will need to flash their Samsung smartphones or tablets at any SISTIC counter to enjoy the discount.
Tags:concert, discounts, Girls' Generation, promotions, Samsung, smartphone, tablets
Posted in Events, Gadgets, Galaxy, Performance, Phones, Prices, Promotions, Samsung, Tablets | No Comments »
Saturday, October 22nd, 2011
The Leica store at Raffles Hotel is hosting the first photography exhibition in Singapore by Taiwanese rockstar Wu Bai (伍佰). 14 black-and-white photos taken in Taiwan are on display for the 42-day exhibition based on the theme “More Earth”.
Wu Bai launching his first photo exhibition in Singapore from Oct 22 - Dec 2.
Wu Bai (吳俊霖 Wu Jun Ling) is best known for his powerful live shows and rock ballads, Wu Bai composes and writes his own tunes, mostly inspired from his own life experiences. Some of the hits written by the multi award-winning musician include 浪人情歌 (Wanderer’s Love Song) and 挪威的森林 (Norwegian Woods).
Wu Bai says he enjoys hitting the streets of the countries he visits to get the feel of real life.
Another avenue of expression for the talented Mandarin rock artiste is his photography. He has published two photo books in 2007 and 2009.
“More Earth” will be open to the public from today until December 2, 2011. Open daily from 10 am till 8 pm, admission is free.
Wu Bai personally launched the exhibition yesterday and spoke in depth for more than half an hour about his passion for photography, despite a bad throat.
He shared that black-and-white photography is his style of choice, even though he started out with colour photography. He had discovered the sensuous touch of black-and-white photography after he viewed some photos of snow scenes that he had taken, and was taken with the almost black-and-white look of those photos.
Wu Bai shares some of the photos he took in Singapore on his iPad.
The photos for “More Earth” were selected based on his concern with how human development and construction is rapidly encroaching on nature, with greens and natural waterways superseded by concrete and steel structures, many of which were not even really necessary.
| Date |
22 Oct – 2 Dec, 2011 |
| Time |
10 am to 8 pm |
| Venue |
Leica store,
Raffles Hotel |
| Address |
Raffles Hotel Arcade
#01-18 |
The photos for the exhibition were taken using his Leica M6 and M7 with the 28mm f/2 M Summicron lens.
Plans to bring the exhibition to other countries in South East Asia are underway.
Tags:Leica, photography, photos, rock, Wu Bai
Posted in Cameras, Compact camera, Events, Gadgets, iPad, Launch, Leica, Music, Photography, Photos, Tablets | No Comments »
Friday, October 21st, 2011
The Leica store at Raffles Hotel in Singapore celebrated its first anniversary today with the a new compact camera and a photo exhibition.
The Leica store at Raffles Hotel Arcade in Singapore celebrates its first anniversary.
The Leica store in the Raffles Hotel Arcade (#01-18) first opened its doors on October 10th last year.
Special edition Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium compact digital camera.
As part of its first anniversary celebrations, it has launched the Special Edition of hte Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium compact digital camera.
It also launched the first photography exhibition in Singapore by Taiwanese rock singer Wu Bai (伍佰).
The compact camera has an elegant silver-grey Titanium look, and sports a 10.1-megapixel, 1/1.63” CCD sensor that records 720 pixel HD video.
Wu Bai talks about his passion for photography.
Focal range is from 24 to 90 mm (35mm equivalent).
Priced at SS$1,595, the camera comes bundled with the full version of Photoshop Lightroom, which is worth some S$400 on its own.
The standard Leica D-Lux 5 retails at S$1,200.
Wu Bai’s exhibition of 14 black-and-white photos is themed “More Earth” and features photos of the environment that he took in Taiwan.
The exhibition will begin tomorrow and last till December 2, 2011.
It will be open daily from 10 am to 8 pm, admission free.
Tags:Leica, photography, photos, rock, Wu Bai
Posted in Cameras, Compact camera, Events, Exhibition, Gadgets, Launch, Leica, Music, Photography, Photos, Prices, Specifications | No Comments »
Friday, October 21st, 2011
NASDAQ-listed The9, an online game developer and operator in China, announced today that it has established “Red 5 Singapore” for conducting online game operations and R&D activities.
Firefall is a team-based MMORPG 3D Sci-Fi action shooter game from Red 5.
In early 2010, The9 announced its acquisition of majority stake in Red 5 Studios Inc, an online game developer located in California, formed in 2006 “The market share and revenue in Asia has a huge impact on the Firefall global operation. This was one of the reasons why we have decided to set up an Asia headquarters for Firefall,” said Mr Zhu Jun, CEO of Red 5 Singapore. “Singapore is strategically-located, demonstrates a thirst for global talent, latest technology and has strong support from the government. The rich resources of talent, friendly government policy and efficiency here have won us over.”by former executives and developers from Blizzard Entertainment.
“Red 5” in this report refers to Red 5 Studios Inc as opposed to “Red 5 Singapore”.
Since the acquisition, The9 has provided support to Red 5 for the game development and preparation work for launch of Firefall – the first team-based action shooter game from Red 5.
Firefall has already attracted interestfrom gamers, media and industry peers across the world.
It is also part of The9’s ‘Global Game for Global Market’ strategy.
Red 5 Singapore will be responsible for the operation of Firefall in all the countries around the globe“We are delighted that The9 Limited has chosen Singapore as its base to spearhead its global strategy. Red 5’s Asian operation in Singapore will create an opportunity for local talent to work with some of the most respected veterans in the games industry,” said Jayson Goh, Executive Director, Infocomms & Media Division of EDB, Singapore. other than North American and European markets, and will first focus on the Asian markets.
The9 and Red 5 will support Red 5 Singapore with talent recruitment, capital investment, technology, as well as other necessary resources.
Red 5 Singapore will develop localized versions of Firefall according to the progress of the game in each country in the Asia region, and will become the Asian operation and development center for Firefall.
Tags:games, gaming, Red 5, The9
Posted in Gaming, Internet, Launch, Tech news | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
Unveiled some two months ago, the Curve 9360 has now been launched in Singapore. The sleek, fast and easy-to-use smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM) promises to deliver smooth social experiences wherever you go.
The BlackBerry Curve 9360 was first unveiled in late August 2011.
The BlackBerry 9360 features the new BlackBerry 7 operating system and is now available in Singapore from authorised BlackBerry partners and carriers. The main specs can be found here.
The new BlackBerry Curve smartphone retains the iconic QWERTY keyboard and an optical trackpad for easy, one-handed navigation. GPS and Wi-Fi support are also included, as well as a 5MP camera with flash and video recording that can be shared instantly on social networks. The microSD/SDHC slot supports up to 32 GB memory cards for additional media storage.
The BlackBerry Curve 9360 smartphone features an upgraded processor and display, more memory, and built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communication) – a new technology that enables the ability to pair accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.
The BlackBerry Curve 9360 focuses on providing a smooth social experience.
The BlackBerry Curve 9360 promises to provide the world’s “best mobile communications and social experiences” with a highly refined and integrated suite of phone, email, messaging and social apps to keep users connected and productive throughout the day.
The latest release of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) is pre-loaded, and users can interact with other ‘BBM connected’ apps. The social experience includes an updated Social Feeds (2.0) app, Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones (2.0) app, and Twitter for BlackBerry.
Tags:9360, BlackBerry, BlackBerry 7, Curve, launch, RIM, smartphone
Posted in BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, Curve, Gadgets, Launch, Phones, RIM, Specifications | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
It’s been a busy few days of earnings results from IT bigwigs. Here’s a quick sum-up of the state of the IT industry:
Yahoo! did well with profits beating estimates – could it be because expectations were low?
Conversely, Apple didn’t do so good, missing analysts’ predictions for the first time in at least six years – but that’s probably because expectations were so high!
Google’s doing real well with sales and profit beating estimates – from search advertising growth as usual.
Microsoft is patting itself on its back – for not having bought Yahoo! back in 2008. And taking a swipe at Google’s Android – Steve Balmer says you need to be a computer scientist to use an Android smart phone, unlike Windows Phone 7.
RIM’s still trying to find its way forward by taking a step backward – trying to bridge new QNX with “old” BlackBerry OS 7 – hope that works out.
Amazon is being sued for screwing up the career of an actress by revealing her real age against her will in IMDb.
On the corporate IT front, industry bell weather IBM missed analysts’ estimates on slowing revenue growth at its software, hardware and services businesses.
Tags:Android, Apple, BlackBerry, Google, IBM, Microsoft, RIM, Windows Phone 7, Yahoo
Posted in Amazon, Android, Apple, Enterprise IT, Figures, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Opinion, RIM, Tech news, Technology, Windows Phone 7, Yahoo | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 19th, 2011
At BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011, RIM unveiled BlackBerry BBX – the next generation mobile platform that takes the best of the BlackBerry platform for its smartphones and the best of the QNX platform that it uses for its PlayBook tablets.
“With nearly 5 million BlackBerry apps downloaded daily, our customers have made BlackBerry one of the most profitable platforms for developers,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM.The BBX platform will include BBX-OS, and will support BlackBerry cloud services and development environments for both HTML5 and native developers.
BBX will also support applications developed using any of the tools available today for the BlackBerry PlayBook – including Native SDK, Adobe AIR/Flash and WebWorks/HTML5, as well as the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps – on future BBX-based tablets and smartphones.
Research In Motion (RIM) believes the new BBX will connect people, devices, content and services.
Tags:BB10, BlackBerry, Playbook, RIM, smartphone, tablets
Posted in App, BlackBerry, BlackBerry 10, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Events, Gadgets, Operating Systems, Phones, PlayBook, RIM, Seminars, Software, Tablets, Tech news | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, October 18th, 2011
Research In Motion (RIM) is making moves to recompense widespread service disruptions last week. Premium apps will be offered free of charge to BlackBerry customers, while enterprise customers will be offered one month of free Technical Support.
Last week, many BlackBerry users experienced service interruptions and delays over a period of approximately 3 days in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, 1.5 days in Latin America and Canada, and 1 day in the United States.
Global teams worked around the clock to contain the issue and minimize the impact to customers as much as possible. Service levels returned to normal on Thursday, October 13.
To make amends for the disruptions, RIM has offered – for free – more than US$100 worth of premium apps from October 19 to December 31, 2011.
RIM’s enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free Technical Support. Current customers will be offered a complimentary one month extension of their existing Technical Support contract.
Customers who do not currently have a Technical Support contract will be offered a one month trial of RIM’s BlackBerry Technical Support Services – Enhanced Support, free of charge.
Additional details about the program and information about how to register will be available here.
Tags:Apps, BlackBerry, RIM, tablets
Posted in App, BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Enterprise IT, Gadgets, Operating Systems, Phones, PlayBook, RIM, Software, Tablets, Tech news | 1 Comment »
Monday, October 17th, 2011
Research In Motion (RIM) announced today that more than US$100 worth of selected premium apps will be offered free of charge to BlackBerry customers, in view of service disruptions last week.
| Game |
Publisher |
| SIMS 3 |
Electronic Arts |
| Bejeweled |
Electronic Arts |
| N.O.V.A. |
Gameloft |
| Texas Hold’em Poker 2 |
Gameloft |
| Bubble Bash 2 |
Gameloft |
| Photo Editor Ultimate |
Ice Cold Apps |
| iSpeech Translator Pro |
iSpeech.org |
| DriveSafe.ly Pro |
iSpeech.org |
| Drive Safe.ly Enterprise |
iSpeech.org |
| Nobex Radio Premium |
Nobex |
| Shazam Encore |
Shazam |
| Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant |
Vlingo |
The apps will be available from October 19 to December 31, 2011.
The complete selection of premium apps will become available for download at BlackBerry App World over a period of four weeks beginning Wednesday, October 19th.
The selections over this period will include the following (with more to come):
Tags:Apps, BlackBerry, free, RIM, smartphone, tablets
Posted in App, BlackBerry, BlackBerry OS, BlackBerry Tablet OS, Gadgets, Phones, PlayBook, Promotions, RIM, Software, Tablets, Tech news | 1 Comment »
