Archive for May, 2012

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“Spec Ops: The Line” free playable demo and launch

Thursday, May 10th, 2012

A FREE playable demo of the third-person military shooter game is now available. The game will be launched on June 29, 2012 for Windows PC ($59.90), PlayStation ($79.90), and Xbox 360 ($69.90).

Spec Ops: The Line is rated M18 for Mature by the MDA in Singapore.

Spec Ops: The Line is rated M18 for Mature by the MDA in Singapore.

2K Games has announced that a free playable demo of “Spec Ops: The Line” is now available for gamers who are Gold members on the Xbox LIVE online entertainment network.

The demo will become available for all Xbox LIVE members on May 15, 2012 and May 17, 2012 on the PlayStation Network for the PlayStation3 computer entertainment system.

The single-player narrative unfolds within Dubai after a series of cataclysmic sandstorms cut the city off from the rest of the world.

Playing as Captain Martin Walker, gamers add to the city’s destruction by engaging in action-packed firefights as they search for Colonel John Konrad and his missing battalion,
The Damned 33rd.

Spec Ops: The Line will be launched on June 29, 2012 for Windows PC ($59.90), PlayStation ($79.90), and Xbox 360 ($69.90). In search of answers and survivors, players who experience the demo will tear through portions of two early chapters of Spec Ops: The Line.

The squad-based action in Spec Ops: The Line is highlighted by an intelligent squad command system that allows players to tactfully take out insurgents as they advance into the heart of Dubai.

Gamers will blast their way through sandstorms with a variety of weapons and explosives, even using sand as a weapon to strategically bury enemies in their path.

Spec Ops: The Line features an expansive, class-based multiplayer experience

Spec Ops: The Line features an expansive, class-based multiplayer experience

In addition to the single-player campaign, Spec Ops: The Line features an expansive, class-based multiplayer experience for both casual and hard core gamers.

The game will be launched on June 29, 2012 for Windows PC ($59.90), PlayStation ($79.90), and Xbox 360 ($69.90).The multiplayer mode features squad-based games where players are encouraged to use their sand-filled surroundings to thwart their enemies.

However, the environment can quickly turn from advantageous to treacherous with the onset of sandstorms – which impact visibility, team communication and weapon handling.

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Posted in Announce, Gaming, Launch, Prices, Specifications | No Comments »

New iStockphoto plugin for Adobe CS6

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

The FREE Stockphoto plugin enables designers to search and directly download images within the programs without interrupting their workflow.

The new iStockphoto plug-in works right withing Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

The new iStockphoto plug-in works right withing Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign.

A one-click comp replace feature automatically exchanges complimentary watermarked images with purchased images, perfectly resized and positioned within the working page layout or design.

Search and replace images easily.

Search and replace images easily.

Adobe Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator users can now search iStock’s millions of files, download multiple comps during the creative process, finalise their designs and then simply replace the desired comp with the purchased image in exactly the right spot and in the right dimensions, saving time and increasing productivity.

The free plugin allows customers to access purchased credits, review past purchases, add to light boxes and almost all of the other standard account management features that can be accessed directly from the iStock site.

It is immediately available for download and is compatible with Mac and Windows versions of CS6, CS5.5 and CS5.

The iStockphoto plug-in is free.

The iStockphoto plug-in is free.

Compatible with CS 5, 5.5 & 6.

Compatible with CS 5, 5.5 & 6.

iStockphoto offers easy, affordable inspiration with millions of vetted, royalty-free photos, illustrations, video, audio and Flash files.

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Posted in App, Illustrator, InDesign, Launch, Photos, Photoshop, Software | No Comments »

Adobe CS6 is available now

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

Adobe has announced the immediate availability of Adobe Creative Suite 6.

Adobe CS6 is available now.

Adobe CS6 is available now.

Launched globally two weeks ago, Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) comprises some 14 software for photo and video editing, graphics design and and web development, Flash/HTML and app building tools, as well as desktop publishing.

Suite Price
Master Collection S$3,925
Production Premium S$2,868
Design & Web Premium S$2,868
Design & Web Standard S$1,963

These software include Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Premiere Pro, After Effects, InDesign and Flash.

The component software have been packaged in into four suites, depending on the needs of the customer.

A subscription-based version of CS6 (Creative Cloud: US$600 per year) is also available in the US although it is not available in Singapore and some other parts of the world.

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Posted in Acrobat, Adobe, After Effects, Availability, Creative Suite, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Flash, Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop, Premiere Pro, Prices, Software, Specifications | No Comments »

Demand for Raspberry Pi goes through the roof

Wednesday, May 9th, 2012

From hundreds or thousands of units to hundreds OF thousands – that’s how demand for the Raspberry Pi has grown. The first 700 has shipped, with another 7,000 shipping within the next few weeks.

The Raspberry Pi is the size of a credit card and runs on an ARM11 chip with Fedora Linux off an SD card.

The Raspberry Pi is the size of a credit card and runs on an ARM11 chip with Fedora Linux off an SD card.

Raspberry Pi Foundation, the developers of the credit-card sized computer board, had expected sales going into hundreds – at most a few thousands if the product caught on.

So they were understandably surprised when a queue of some 280,000 worldwide signed up on their website to express interest in purchasing the Raspberry Pi once shipping commenced.

RS Components, one of two distributors for the single-board computer, estimates the first 75,000 of these orders to ship by July or August this year, while the rest of the 280,000 (and still counting) will have to wait even longer.

Model Price Configuration
Model A US$25 1x USB port, no Ethernet port
Model B US$35 2x USB ports, 1x Ethernet port

The bottleneck for the supply chain is the ARM chip from Broadcom, which, takes up nearly 60% of the material cost of the Raspberry Pi which is manufactured in Taiwan and China.

The Raspberry Pi is designed by the Raspberry Pi Foundation.Raspberry Pi designers already have ideas about Version 2 of the ultra-budget computer but they are not in a hurry to start work on that.

The current specs for the Raspberry Pi is more than enough to last a long time for the tasks it is designed for: computer programming, game playing, and watching HD movies.

Eben Upton, one of the designers of Raspberry Pi, has managed to play Quake 3 off the Raspberry Pi.

Upton, together with his colleagues at the University of Cambridge’s Computer Laboratory, had conceived the idea of making a tiny and cheap computer for kids back in 2006.

They were concerned with the declining numbers and skills levels of A-Level students applying to read Computer Science at the prestigious university.

They wanted to make possible and available an affordable device that kids could play with to explore and experience computer programming.

Main technical specifications are listed below.

(more…)

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Posted in Availability, Gadgets, Prices, Specifications, Tech news | No Comments »

The Disaster Recovery Survey 2012: Asia Pacific and Japan

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

81% of businesses in the Asia Pacific and Japan might NOT be able to recover lost data and systems in the event of a disaster. New independent research sponsored by EMC points to outdated backup and recovery infrastructure.

EMC Research: "The Disaster Recovery Survey 2012: Asia Pacific and Japan"

The survey also found that 71% of all organizations had lost data or suffered systems downtime in the last 12 months.

These findings highlight the need for backup transformation from antiquated technologies that are not suited for today’s data growth or availability expectations.

A move to next-generation backup and recovery solutions ensure continued business operations in the event of a natural disaster, malicious activity or more routine and common disruptions to IT systems.

In fact, the research showed that the causes of systems downtime are often the commonplace disruptions to IT, such as hardware failure or data corruption, rather than natural disasters or other major incidents.

Other key findings are summarised below:

  • Hardware failure (60%), data corruption (49%) and loss of power (44%) were cited as the primary causes of data loss and downtime.
  • 42% of organizations cite loss of employee productivity as the most likely consequence of data loss and downtime.
  • 44% of organizations who store a backup copy offsite for disaster recovery still use tape for recovery, and 37% still use CD ROM (although 62% now use disk-based storage).
  • 83% of these organizations want to replace tape all together, highlighting the need for next generation backup and recovery.

Commissioned by EMC and conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne, ‘The Disaster Recovery Survey 2012: Asia Pacific and Japan’ looks at the state of backup and disaster recovery in the region to understand how well companies are prepared for data loss and systems downtime.

For the full report, visit EMC’s website here.

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Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Figures, storage drive, Study, Tech news | 1 Comment »

Company Byte: Spirent Communications

Monday, May 7th, 2012

Spirent Communications is a multinational telecommunications and network testing company headquartered in the United Kingdom.

Spirent is a multinational telecommunications and network testing company headquartered in the United Kingdom.

With annual sales of US$528 million (US$160 million in APAC), it had a market capitalisation of US$1.7 billion as of May 2012.

Spirent Communications

Spirent Communications

Spirent is a global provider of performance analysis and service assurance solutions that enable the development and deployment of next-generation networking technologies.

It pioneered testing of Ethernet networks, IP Telephony and VoIP, VPNs, TriplePlay, CDMA applications and Location Based Services.

Today, the company is helping to test the first deployments of the next generation Internet or IPv6 networks in Asia, Europe and North America.

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Posted in Company byte, Enterprise IT, Internet, LTE, Technology | 1 Comment »

Profile: William Arruda – personal branding expert

Sunday, May 6th, 2012

Dubbed the Personal Branding Guru by Entrepreneur magazine, William Arruda is credited with turning the concept of personal branding into a global industry.

William Arruda, personal branding expert

William Arruda, personal branding expert

William Arruda is the founder and President of Reach, a global leading personal branding consultancy with representatives in 30 countries.

“Relationships require care and so building and maintaining them is a major component of successful career management. These days, we live in a highly connected and technology driven world, so building your online network on LinkedIn, is a critical career management skill,” says Arruda.One of the most sought-after speakers on career management and executive success, Arruda has delivered hundreds of keynotes to audiences of five to five thousand throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa.

His corporate clients include Adobe, BP, British Telecom, IBM, L’Oreal, JPMorgan, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley and Starwood Hotels. His private clients include some of the world’s most influential leaders.

As a thought-leader, Arruda is a spokesperson on personal branding and social media.

He has appeared on BBC TV, the Discovery Channel and Fox News Live and he has been featured in many publications, including Forbes, Strategies (France), Time Magazine, Veja (Brazil), the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.

William is the author of the bestselling book, Career Distinction, and the upcoming book, Ditch. Dare. Do! He has lived in Boston, London and Paris and now calls New York City home.

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Posted in LinkedIn, Profile | 2 Comments »

Photo Contest: Home Without Walls (Professional Category)

Saturday, May 5th, 2012

SingTel has launched a photo contest aimed at the professional photography community – with a top prize of S$15,000. Submit online before 20 May 2012.

Win the grand prize of S$15,000 or one of four S$1,000 prizes for the four themes.

Win the grand prize of S$15,000 or one of four S$1,000 prizes for the four themes.

The contest is part of a series of activities under the “Home Without Walls” campaign.

Capture family moments in one of four themes.

Capture family moments in one of four themes.

The campaign is about inspiring Singaporeans to make real and meaningful connections with the people who matter, with the aim of creating homes where there are no communication barriers, and connect from the heart – whether online or offline.

For the moment, only the Professional Category of the contest has been launched – for professional photographers that earn more than 50% of their normal income from photography.

Photos must be taken after 20 March 2012 and, if possible, reflect a Singapore context.

Each participant may submit up to 12 entries.

There are four separate themes for photos: Attachments, Connections, Memories, and Networks.

Participants must send in photo of family moments based on their own interpretations of the above themes.

Detailed terms & conditions can be found online.

The panel of judges comprises Derrick Heng from SingTel, as well as renowned photographers: Yumi Goto, Marc Prüst, and local photographer Tay Kay Chin.

The winner of each theme will win S$1,000 in cash, while a grand winner will take home S$15,000.

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Posted in Contest, Photography, Photos, SingTel | 2 Comments »

Samsung finally unveils the GALAXY S III

Friday, May 4th, 2012

After much anticipation, Samsung has officially announced the third generation GALAXY S. The GALAXY S III will be available in Singapore from Q2 2012 in Pebble Blue and Marble White. Prices to be announced later.

Update (23 May 2012): RRP (without contract but incl. GST) in Singapore has been announced at S$998. Availability to be announced later.

Latest update (25 May 2012): Marble White Samsung GALAXY S III will go on sale in Singapore on 30 May. Collection of pre-orders begin 29 May. Pebble Blue version will be available at a later date. Stay tuned!

The Samsung GALAXY S III will come in Pebble Blue and Marble White.

The Samsung GALAXY S III will come in Pebble Blue and Marble White.

The Samsung GALAXY S III has a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel main camera and 1.9-megapixel FRONT camera that shoots HD video, and is powered by Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

“… it enables one of the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experiences …,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung.The GALAXY S III offers WiFi Channel Bonding which doubles the WiFi bandwidth.

For those who are tired of wires, a separate wireless charging kit allows you to charge the phone without plugging it to the socket.

Samsung boasts that the smartphone has been “designed for humans” – by making the phone recognise the user’s voice, understand more human gestures, and by making it easier to share moments on social networks.

Human-centric interface

Samsung GALAXY S III has a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel main camera and 1.9-megapixel front camera, and is powered by Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.A “Smart-stay” feature senses and recognises how you are using the smartphone.

For instance, when reading an e-book or browsing the web, the front camera detects the eyes and maintains a bright display on the phone for continual reading.

“S Voice” is Samsung’s advanced natural language user interface that listens and responds to voice commands. Does “S Voice” stand for Samsung Voice – its response to Siri?

For example, you can TELL the GALAXY S III to “snooze” when the alarm goes off, or to play songs, reduce/increase the volume, send text messages and emails, organise your schedules, or launch the camera to take a photo.

Samsung GALAXY S III will be available in Singapore from Q2 2012.Easy sharing

The new “S Beam” expands on Android Beam by allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another GALAXY S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.

Click to display enlarged view of the tech specs.

Click to display enlarged view of the tech specs.

“Buddy photo share” function allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with the friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.

“AllShare Cast” allows wireless display of the smartphone’s content onto a larger display.

“AllShare Play” shares files between the GALAXY S III and a tablet, PC or television, regardless of the distance between the devices.

“Group Cast” shares the smartphone’s screen among multiple friends on the same WiFi network.

“Pop up Play” allows a video to continue playing on one part of the screen while other apps and tasks continue simultaneously.

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Posted in Android, Announce, Gadgets, Galaxy, Operating Systems, Phones, Samsung, Software, Specifications, Tech news | 2 Comments »

Experian says you are overloaded by marketers

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

An independent research conducted by Experian finds that Singapore consumers are suffering from information overload and no longer respond to blanket marketing.

44% of respondents from Singapore interact with only three or fewer brands.

An independent research conducted by Experian in Singapore.

An independent research conducted by Experian in Singapore.

This is the result of poorly targeted communications from multi-channel marketer.

In addition, 30% of participants said they now IGNORE the emails, direct mail and social media messages they receive from brands because of information overload.

78% of consumers cited that they are very SELECTIVE about what opt-ins, newsletters or updates they sign up for to ensure they are only receiving messages that are relevant to their particular interests.

SG consumers agree that a COMPANY’S WEBSITE is the most valuable source of information they use to look for information about a brand, with 91% stating that it is a relevant or very relevant source.

While 36% of consumers believe the ideal frequency of brand communications is once a month, a quarter of consumers (25%) did not have frequency preferences as long as the communication is RELEVANT.

Giveaways and incentives (65%) is the number one way for brands to engage the SG consumer. Any surprises here?!

The research also shows a clear DISCONNECT between the communications consumers want from brands and the way they are being targeted by marketers.

For example, although MARKETERS listed print media as one of the least important tools for connecting with consumers – 86% of CONSUMER respondents rated it as the second most valued communication medium.

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Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Figures, Study, Tech news | No Comments »

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