Archive for the ‘Brands’ Category
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 »
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 »
Sunday, October 16th, 2011
Western Digital has launched two new portable hard drives designed for use with Mac computers and Apple Time Machine, with capacities of 500GB, 750GB and 1 TB.
Western Digital My Passport for Mac
The Mac-inspired designs of the compact portable hard drives feature matches the external designs of Mac computers.
Powered through the USB 2.0 or Firewire connection, these portable drives allow convenient quick connect external storage without the hassle of lugging additional power adaptors and cables.
My Passport for Mac features a USB 2.0 interface and is an easy way to increase the minimal local storage on MacBook and MacBook Air notebooks.
Western Digital My Passport Studio
My Passport Studio sports an all-metal design, with two FireWire 800 ports and a USB 2.0 interface. The FireWire ports provide fast upload and transfer speeds and can be used to daisy chain up to five additional drives or peripherals such as HD camcorders.
“The speed of the fifth device at the end of the daisy chain is only slower by less than 10% of the first device on the chain,” according to Sheraine Chua, Regional Sales Manager of Branded Products at Western Digital.
| Capacity |
My Passport Studio |
My Passport for MAC |
| 500 GB |
S$169 |
S$119 |
| 750 GB |
S$189 |
S$129 |
| 1 TB |
S$219 |
S$159 |
My Passport Studio also features encryption and password protection software.
Tags:drive, Mac, MacBook Pro
Posted in Accessories, Events, Gadgets, Launch, Mac OS, Notebooks, Prices, Specifications, storage drive, Western Digital | 1 Comment »
Saturday, October 15th, 2011
The S$189 WD TV Live is an easy to use Wi-Fi enabled media player that can stream media either from a network attached storage drive in the local network, or directly from the Internet – via an Ethernet connection or the high performance 802.11n wireless connectivity.
Western Digital WD TV Live wireless streaming media player
If you don’t already own an Apple TV or Google TV, check out WD TV Live from Western Digital.
The Wi-Fi enabled media player comes with its own apps to stream media from Internet video, radio and social networking sites such as YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Picassa Web Albums, and TuneIn Radio directly to your TV in Full-HD 1080p resolution. Dailymotion video service is now included to offer video
WD TV Live also includes Fun Spot Games, a casual gaming service that offers arcade, strategy, and card games, puzzles, and quizzes. Some of these games include Sudoku, Black Jack and Poker.
WD TV Live allows users to enjoy personal media such as photos, video and music on their home entertainment systems.
Access Internet media content using WD TV Live in Full-HD 1080p resolution.
It supports a wide range of file formats for streaming content from any connected USB drive, digital camcorder or camera, network drive such as the My Book Live personal cloud storage, and any networked PC or Mac computer in the home.
Tags:media player, Western Digital, wireless
Posted in Accessories, Cloud, Events, Gadgets, Launch, Media player, Music, Photos, Prices, Specifications, TV, Video, Western Digital | 2 Comments »
Friday, October 14th, 2011
Western Digital offers an easy way to set up a personal private cloud to share documents and media – using the WD My Book Live network drive and mobile apps for Android and iOS smart phones and tablets.
The drives comes in 1TB (S$209), 2TB (S$239), and 3TB (S$299) capacities and are priced roughly US$50 more than non-network external drives with the same capacity.
I’d posted not long ago about setting up a home shared network hard drive in order to share documents and media – photos, music and video – in a private personal cloud in the comfort of the home.
That was followed with a case study of setting up and using the Seagate GoFlex Home storage system – a similar network attached storage (NAS) drive.
My Book Live is a network attached storage drive from Western Digital
The WD My Book Live network drive from Western Digital is also connected directly to the wireless router to plug into the home wireless network. Both Macs and PCs can store, access and share documents, as well as stream media from the drive.
With all the buzz about consumer public clouds and enterprise private and hybrid (private/public) clouds, the WD My Book Live makes it simple to set up your personal private cloud with the hard-disk and data physically sitting in the security of your home.
Access to this personal cloud can be extended beyond the home to the Internet. Any computer given the access rights can access the shared documents and media on the WD My Book Live through www.WD2go.com.
My Book Live comes in capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 3TB
In addition, Android and iOS mobile devices (both smart phones and tablets) can get mobile access to the files stored on the drive via the WD2go apps from Western Digital. The WD Photos and basic WD2go app are free and allows viewing files and streaming media from the WD My Book Live.
For US$2.99, the WD2g Pro app adds the ability to “clip” files – basically download a local copy of files and media to the mobile device; and allow users to share files by emailing either a copy of the files or a link to the WD My Book Live.
Note that once the link is sent out, anybody with the link will have access to that file. There is no expiry date for the sharing, like in Seagate’s GoFlex Home. The only way to stop sharing that file is to either remove that file or rename it – but that affects everybody to whom you’ve sent that link to.
Naturally, both the network drive and the router must be connected and powered up for access. And access from mobile devices is only via the apps over the Internet – instead of direct access over the local home wireless network.
That means that even if you’re at home, the app in your smart phone or tablet will still have to go to the Internet (via wireless or 3G) and come back into the home wireless network to access the files on the WD My Book Live. This is similar to the GoFlex Home.
But Western Digital does not limit the number of users or computers that can share the WD My Book Live. The GoFlex Home limits the number of users/computers that can be set up to connect with it to just 5. GoFlex Home customers need to subscribe to pay to enjoy unlimited connections.
| Capacity |
WD
My Book Live |
Seagate
GoFlex Home |
| 1 TB |
S$209 |
S$179 |
| 2 TB |
S$239 |
S$239 |
| 3 TB |
S$299 |
S$339 |
WD My Book Live features a built-in media server that streams music, photos and movies to any DLNA-certified multimedia device such as a WD TV Live network media player, Blu-ray Disc player, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and connected TV.
My Book Live comes in capacities of 1TB, 2TB and 3TB and is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS, as well as DLNA/UPnP enabled devices.
Tags:drive, media player, smartphone, tablets, Western Digital
Posted in Android, App, Cloud, Events, Gadgets, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Launch, Phones, Prices, Specifications, Tablets, TV, Western Digital | 1 Comment »
Thursday, October 13th, 2011
Western Digital launches a slew of media storage, networking and playback products for the connected lifestyle.
Western Digital My Book Live personal cloud storage
The premise of the Connected Life solution from Western Digital is the simple set-up of a private personal cloud where media can be accessed and shared from any computer at home.
This personal cloud can also be extended into the Internet so that mobile devices such as smart phones and tablet computers can also access data and media in the cloud using apps, while computers can use a browser interface.
The centrepiece of the Connected Life solution from Western Digital is the My Book Live network attached storage. With capacities ranging from 1TB to 3TB, these network capable external hard drives are connected directly to the wireless router at home so that any computer – be it a Mac or a PC – can store and access the media in the drive.
Western Digital WD TV Live streaming media player
The WD TV Live media player that is connected to the wireless network can then stream media from My Book Live and play photos, music and videos on a large TV screen. It can also stream media directly from Internet services such as YouTube.
Outside home, data and media on My Book Live can be accessed on mobile devices using WD apps WD 2go (free), WD 2go Pro (US$2.99), and WD Photos (free).
Tags:Android, cloud, drive, iOS, iPad, iPhone, media player, smartphone, tablets, Western Digital
Posted in Accessories, Android, Cloud, Events, Gadgets, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Launch, Media player, Phones, Prices, Specifications, storage drive, Tablets, Western Digital | 1 Comment »
