Archive for the ‘Brands’ Category
Thursday, November 10th, 2011
The GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage has been named an International CES Innovations 2012 Design and Engineering Awards Honouree.
Products entered in this prestigious program are judged by a panel of independent industrial designers, engineers and members of the media to honour outstanding design and engineering in cutting edge consumer electronics products across 32 product categories.
Started in 1976, the Innovations Design and Engineering Awards are sponsored by the Consumer Electronics Association (CEA),“A first for the industry, the GoFlex Satellite drive extends the limited capacity of mobile devices by wirelessly streaming media without the use of an external power source,” said Patrick Connolly, vice president and general manager of Seagate Branded Solutions. the producer of the International CES, the world’s largest consumer technology tradeshow.
The Seagate GoFlex Satellite external hard drive will be displayed at the Innovations Showcase in the Venetian Ballroom during the 2012 International CES, which runs January 10-13, 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The GoFlex Satellite was first announced in end-August. The 500GB version became available in Singapore in September at S$299.
Tags:award, GoFlex, HDD, mobile, Satellite, Seagate, storage
Posted in Accessories, Gadgets, Seagate, storage drive, Tablets, Tech news | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 8th, 2011
The GALAXY Note (S$998, 16GB) will be available in Singapore in November 2011, and the GALAXY Nexus (S$948) in January 2012.
Samsung and Google has jointly launched the GALAXY Nexus, the world’s first smartphone running Android 4.0 or Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest release of the Android platform.
GALAXY Nexus features a 4.65” HD Super AMOLED touch screen display with 1280×720 pixels and a 1.2 GHz dual core processor with 1GB RAM.
It also sports a 5-megapixel rear camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera; and comes with 16GB or 32GB of onboard memory.
Samsung has also announced the launch of the GALAXY Note, a device that tries to combine the larger screen size of tablets with the portability of smart phones.
The 9.65mm thick GALAXY Note features the world’s first and largest 5.3” HD Super AMOLED touch screen display at WXGA (1280×800, 285ppi) resolution. It works with pen-input technology using a stylus called the S Pen.
Powered by a 1.4 GHz dual-core processor, the gadget runs on Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and comes with 16GB onboard storage, with a microSD slot that supports up to 32GB.
GALAXY Note comes with an 8-megapixel rear camera and a 2-megapixel front camera.
Tags:Android, Gingerbread, Google, Ice Cream Sandwich, Nexus, Note, Samsung, smartphone, tablets
Posted in Android, Cameras, Gadgets, Galaxy, Google, Launch, Phones, Prices, Samsung, Specifications, Tablets | 3 Comments »
Sunday, November 6th, 2011
GarageBand 1.1 for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is available on the App Store for USD$4.49 to new users, or as a free update for existing GarageBand for iPad customers.
GarageBand 1.1 for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch is available on the App Store
GarageBand is a universal app that runs on iPad, iPad 2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S and iPod touch (3rd & 4th generation).
The music creation app from Apple was Introduced earlier this year on the iPad. GarageBand uses Apple’s Multi-Touch interface to make it easy for anyone to create and record their own songs, even if they’ve never played an instrument before.
GarageBand features a collection of fun Touch Instruments that sound great and make it easy for beginners or experienced musicians to play and record keyboards, guitars, drums and basses in a wide variety of styles.
“The innovative Multi-Touch interface combined with Smart Instruments makes it easy to create great sounding music, even if you’ve never studied music or played an instrument before,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing.Smart Instruments now allow you to choose from an extensive new library of custom chords so you can play and strum along with your favourite songs.
You can plug your electric guitar into iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to play and record through classic amps and stompbox effects, or record your voice or any acoustic sound using the built-in microphone.
GarageBand allows you to record and mix up to eight tracks and then share your finished song with friends or send it to your Mac to keep working on it in GarageBand or Logic Pro.
Tags:Apple, Apps, GarageBand, music
Posted in App, Apple, Gadgets, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Launch, Mac OS, Music, Phones, Prices, Software, Tablets | No Comments »
Saturday, November 5th, 2011
Seagate is streamlining its flagship family of desktop drives under a single product that focuses on performance and big capacities – to cater to the explosive growth in content creation and consumption by businesses and consumers.
The new Barracuda family makes it easier for consumers to find the product they need and reduces costs for Seagate’s original equipment manufacturer and distribution channel customers by reducing the number of product qualifications and amount of inventory they need to manage.
The new Barracuda hard drive – to be available first at online retailers – is designed for desktop, tower or all-in-one personal computers; workstations, home and small business servers; “Our OEM and channel customers want to reduce overhead costs by having fewer product lines to qualify and manage in their inventory,” said Scott Horn, vice president of Marketing at Seagate.network-attached storage devices; direct-attached storage expansion; and home and small-business RAID solutions.
Capacities of the family range from 250GB to 3TB.
The simplification of the Barracuda family comes as Seagate begins volume shipments of its 1TB-per-disk Barracuda hard drive. Seagate plans to end production of its Barracuda Green drive in February 2012.
Seagate analysis shows that its new Barracuda drives have a nearly identical power-consumption profile as energy-efficient desktop drives but deliver much higher performance. Barracuda XT, Seagate’s fastest desktop hard drive, will be folded into the new Barracuda family and re-emerge, in name, as the company’s desktop solid state hybrid drive.
Technical specifications
The new Barracuda hard drive features a SATA 6GB/second interface, 7200RPM spin speed and up to 64MB cache to deliver high performance across all capacities.
Seagate’s SmartAlign technology, a feature of Seagate’s Barracuda Green drives, will continue to ship with the flagship Barracuda drives to help the hard drive industry segue from the current 512-byte sector standard for hard drives to the new 4096-byte sector size.
The new 4K standard enables the use of stronger error correction algorithms to maintain data integrity at higher storage densities and capacities.
Tags:Barracuda, HDD, Seagate, storage
Posted in Accessories, Desktops, Gadgets, Launch, Seagate, Specifications, storage drive | No Comments »
Friday, November 4th, 2011
The new Test Server from Micro Focus offers a revolutionary approach and additional test capacity to IBM Mainframe Application Testing.
“We needed to find an innovative solution that would facilitate higher quality, scalable testing,” explained José Caetano Pereira, Senior IT Manager at BES. “By detecting errors earlier in the software development lifecycle, we will be able to deliver changes faster and deliver more robust software through to the User Acceptance Test phase and subsequent production.”Micro Focus, a leading provider of enterprise application modernization, testing and management solutions, has released Micro Focus Test Server – a unique technology that promises to accelerate testing processes while significantly reducing operating costs.
Customers such as the largest listed Portuguese bank, Banco Espirito Santo (BES), are implementing Micro Focus Test Server to enable them to improve software quality by increasing available mainframe test capacity on a Windows platform.
Micro Focus Test Server is an IBM z/OS compatible environment where application execution behaves just as it would on the target production mainframe. This makes it possible to perform a broad range of preproduction testing on readily available hardware. Testing capacity can now be easily increased to meet business-critical timeframes without incurring prohibitive costs.
Micro Focus Test Server is the first and only IBM mainframe-compatible solution for system, user acceptance and integration testing.
Micro Focus Test Server features:
- Support for a wide range of mainframe COBOL and Assembler applications and data including batch with JCL, online CICS or IMS TM, DB2, IMS DB and VSAM files.
- A black box test execution environment for composite applications where .NET and Java programmes invoke mainframe COBOL resources.
- Close integration back to the mainframe with seamless and secure access to mainframe source code libraries, applications and data, enabling organizations to integrate testing with resources that continue to reside on the mainframe.
- A proven test server engine that provides a high performance, robust execution environment for multi-region, multi-user testing.
Tags:IBM, Micro Focus, servers
Posted in App, Enterprise IT, IBM, Launch, servers, Software, Tech news | No Comments »
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
The Samsung NX200 was first unveiled on September 1, 2011. It has just become available yesterday, with prices in Singapore set at S$1,099 (incl 7% GST and 18-55 mm kit lens).
Here are the main specifications for the Samsung NX200 mirrorless interchangeable lens digital camera:
| NX200 |
Main specifications |
| Image Sensor |
20.3 Megapixels APS-C Size CMOS (23.5 x 15.7mm) |
| Lens |
Samsung Lenses for Samsung NX Mount, bundled with Standard Kit Lens: Samsung 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 OIS i-Function lens |
| Image Stabilization |
Lens Shift (depends on Lens) |
| Shutter Speed |
Auto： 1/4000sec. – 30sec.
Manual: 1/4000sec. – 30sec. (1/3 EV step) |
| Exposure |
- Compensation: ±3 EV (1/3EV step)
- ISO Equivalent: Auto, 100, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800 (1 or 1/3EV step)
- Metering System: TTL 221(17×13) Block segment
- Metering: Multi, Center-weighted, Spot
- Metering range: EV 0 – 18 (ISO 100 · 30mm, F2)
|
| Focusing |
Contrast AF (100ms AF Speed)
- Modes: Single AF, Continuous AF, MF
- Focusing Point: Selection (1 point), Multi (Normal 15points, Close up 35points), Face Detection (max.10 faces)
|
| Shooting |
- Modes: Smart Auto 2.0, Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual, Lens Priority, Magic, Panorama, Scene, Movie
- Scene Modes: Beauty Shot, Night, Landscape, Portrait, Children, Sports, Close-Up, Text, Sunset, Dawn, Backlight, Fireworks, Beach & Snow, Sound Picture, 3D Photo
- Smart Filter: Vignetting, Miniature, Fish Eye, Sketch, Defog, Halftone Dots, Soft Focus, Old Film 1, Old Film 2, Negative
- Magic Frame: Holiday, Old Film, Ripple, Full Moon, Old Record, Magazine, Sunny Day, Classic TV, Yesterday, Wall Art, Billboard 1, Billboard 2, Newspaper
- Picture Wizard: Standard, Vivid, Portrait, Landscape, Forest, Retro, Cool, Calm, Classic, Custom (1 – 3) / Contrast, Sharpness, Saturation, Color
- White Balance: Auto, Daylight, Cloudy, Fluorescent (W, N, D), Tungsten, Flash, Custom, K(Manual)
- Size (max.): JPEG 20.0M, RAW 20.0M (5472 x 3648)
- Quality: Super fine , Fine, Normal, RAW (SRW format)
|
| Drive |
- Single
- Continuous: High (Up to 11 Shots at 7fps), Low (Up to 15 Shots at 3fps) in JPEG
- Burst (5M): 10, 15, 30fps by 1 release
- Bracket (AE/WB/PW)
- Self-Timer: 2 – 30sec. (1 sec. step)
|
| Movie |
1080p/30fps Full HD Movie Recording with MP4 (H.264)
- Modes: Program, Aperture Priority, Shutter Priority, Manual
- Quality: High Quality, Normal
- Recording time: 25mins
- Movie Editing: Still Image Capture, Time Trimming
- Smart Filter: Vignetting, Miniature, Fish Eye, Sketch, Defog, Halftone Dots, Soft Focus, Old Film 1, Old Film 2, Negative
|
| Flash |
External Flash only (Bundle with SEF8A) with 28mm wide-angle
- Modes: Smart Flash, Auto, Auto+Red-eye reduction, Fill-in,
Fill-in + Red-eye reduction, 1st Curtain, 2nd Curtain, Off
- Guide number: 8 (SEF8A at ISO 100)
- Sync. Speed: Less than 1/180sec.
- Compensation: -2 – +2EV (1/2 EV step)
|
| Physical Specifications |
- Dimensions: 116.5 x 62.5 x 36.2mm (exclude projecting)
- Weight: 220.4g (without battery and card)
- Battery Life: 165min / 330shots (CIPA Standard)
|
| Additional features |
- Supersonic Dust Reduction drive
- 3.0” VGA AMOLED Screen (614,000 dots)
- Samsung External Flash available
(SEF42A, SEF20A, SEF15A: Optional)
- Hot Shoe
- Software: Intelli-Studio 3.0, Samsung RAW Converter 4. Adobe Reader
- Storage File Formats: RAW (SRW), JPEG (EXIF 2.21), DCF, DPOF 1.1, PictBridge 1.0
|
Tags:cameras, DSLR, mirrorless, NX200, Samsung
Posted in Cameras, DSLR, Gadgets, Photography, Prices, Samsung, Specifications | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Having just launched the new e-mail app earlier in the day, Google has withdrawn it new Gmail app from iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch devices after users started getting error messages.
“Unfortunately, it contained a bug which broke notifications and caused users to see an error message when first opening the app,” the company said in a blog. “We’ve removed the app while we correct the problem.”The newly-launched app is the first Gmail app for Apple’s iOS devices.
Google is now fixing the software bug and will release a new version. In the meantime, users who have already installed the app can continue using it, despite the bug.
Read the breaking story on Bloomberg.
Tags:Apple, Gmail, Google, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch
Posted in App, Apple, Gadgets, Google, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Phones, Software, Tablets, Tech news | No Comments »
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Apple has finally broke its silence on the matter. A spokeswoman for Apple, Natalie Harrison, acknowledges that a “small” number of customers have reported “lower-than-expected battery life on iOS 5 devices.
"The power-efficient A5 chip and iOS 5 deliver outstanding battery life," says Apple's website.
It’s interesting that she mentioned iOS5 devices, instead of specifically iPhone 4S, when referring to the customer complaints.
So the problem is not confined to just the newly launched and hugely popular iPhone 4S. It’s just that the 4S has been hogging the headlines.
She tells Bloomberg that “We have found a few bugs that are affecting battery life and we will release a software update to address those in a few weeks.”
Tags:Apple, iPhone, smartphone
Posted in Apple, Gadgets, iOS, iPhone, Phones, Software, Tech news | No Comments »
Thursday, November 3rd, 2011
Anybody up for an iPad 2 crusted with T-Rex bone, 24-carat gold and 12.5 carats of diamonds? Better hurry cos’ it’s already 50% sold out and it’s only going for — £5,000,000!
Only two will be made by British designer Stuart Hughes, and one has already been sold to an undisclosed customer, so hurry before you miss the purchase of a life time.
Stuart is well-known for a series of ‘ultra-luxury’ gadgets, which includes the world’s most expensive phone – a £5,000,000 gold and diamond encrusted iPhone; and a £219,000 Macbook Air that’s coated with 24-carat gold 53 diamonds.
Check out the original story by Rob Waugh of Daily Mail.
Tags:Apple, iOS, iPad, iPhone, MacBook, notebooks, smartphone, tablets
Posted in Apple, Gadgets, Humour, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Lifestyle, Mac OS, Notebooks, Phones, Prices, Tablets | No Comments »
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011
Google has launched, today, a new set of 360-degree panoramic views of Singapore’s most iconic sites, including the Singapore Flyer, Hwa Par Villa, and Fort Canning Park.
At some locations, like in public parks and the Singapore Flyer here, Google Street View brings you right into the place.
These sites were chosen by Singaporeans in a poll jointly organised with the Singapore Tourism Board, of which spots they wanted to see on Street View.
Street View provides 360-degree street-level images in Google Maps to allow users to view and navigate through historic buildings, parks and gardens.
In areas where Street View is available, you can see the images on Google Maps (on a PC or an Internet-enabled mobile) by zooming into the lowest level, or by dragging the orange “Pegman” icon on the left-hand side of the map onto a blue highlighted street.
Google first launched Street View in Singapore in 2008, and since then new places have been added while images have been regularly updated.
Google says it has gone to lengths to safeguard privacy.
Street View only contains imagery that is already visible from public roads. And in the case of the partner program collections, it has permission from the landmark to drive and collect imagery.
Street View also uses technology that blurs both faces and licence plates. In addition, any user can easily flag images for removal that he or she considers inappropriate by clicking on “Report a problem.”
The new images, collected by a Street View trike, allow a viewer to intimately explore the nooks and crannies of popular Singaporean spots. The trike is a mechanical masterpiece comprising three bicycle wheels, a mounted Street View camera, and a specially decorated box containing image-collecting gadgetry.
It has the same capability as the Street View cars for collecting street-level imagery but is specially designed to help Google go to places less accessible by cars, such as historic landmarks and coastal paths.
Street View first launched in 2007 and is currently available in more than 30 countries and 100 metropolitan areas worldwide, including large areas of the U.S., Australia, Japan, France, Italy and Spain.
The new images feature the following Singaporean favorites:
Tags:Google, maps, Singapore, Street View
Posted in Google, Launch, Software, Tech news | No Comments »
