Archive for the ‘Lifestyle’ Category
Wednesday, January 7th, 2015
Sennheiser is showcasing its products at the 2015 International CES between 6-9 January. The Sennheiser booth is located in South Hall 1, Booth 20606. The new products are targeted to be released in Singapore after March 2015.
Update (12 May, 2015):
Sennheiser MOMENTUM Wireless headphones are now available in Singapore.
The MOMENTUM Wireless headphones is priced at S$699 while the MOMENTUM On-Ear Wireless is priced at S$589.
The headphones can now be purchased at the Sennheiser Concept Store at Marina Square and other retailers.
Update (22 January, 2015):
The Sennheiser URBANITE XL WIRELESS is now available in Singapore. The headphones can be purchased at the Sennheiser Concept Store at Marina Square and authorised retailers at S$419.

All headphones in the SPORTS range are durable, lightweight and water-resistant with ergonomic designs that conform to the ear and allow maximum freedom of movement, while minimising noise from wind or from contact with the body or clothing.
The new generation of Sennheiser’s MOMENTUM line has been expanded with two new wireless versions.
A Bluetooth version of the URBANITE XL is also debuting at CES, as will the new RS range of digital wireless headphones for home audio.
Sennheiser is also launching an all new line of sports headphones.
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Tags:audio, AV, CES, CES 2015, earphones, headsets, Momentum, RS, Sennheiser, sports, Urbanite, wireless
Posted in Accessories, Audio, audioVisual, earphones, Entertainment, Exhibition, Gadgets, gadgets, headphones, Launch, Music, Sennheiser | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 6th, 2015
Sony Mobile today announced at CES 2015 new products, partners and experiences to its evolving SmartWear range.

SmartWatch 3 from Sony Mobile.
Highlights include a sleek stainless steel edition of SmartWatch 3, new Lifelog collaborations, and concept wearable devices, including Sony’s Smart B-Trainer prototype – a multi-sensor, waterproof headset prototype designed for optimising performance and providing real time insight on the running track.

Sony SmartWatch 3
Along with the stainless steel edition of SmartWatch 3, Sony also unveiled a new SmartWatch 3 holder, allowing users and partners alike to customise the SmartWatch 3 with any standard 24mm watch strap.
Golfshot and iFit are two developers already creating Android Wear experiences with SmartWatch 3’s standalone capability, for both performance on the course and track respectively.
Reflecting Sony’s strategy to bring new functionality and features to Lifelog, users can now access the application through their browser at lifelog.sonymobile.com.
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Tags:CES, CES 2015, mobile, SmartWatch, SmartWatch 3, smartwatches, Sony, watches
Posted in Accessories, Announce, Gadgets, gadgets, headsets, Lifestyle, Press Release, Seminars, smartwatches, Sony, Sony Mobile, Sports, Watches | No Comments »
Friday, January 2nd, 2015
Shopping is a favourite past time in Singapore and at the heart of the vendor’s efficiency and the consumer’s experience is the Point Of Sale (POS) being used.
As we step into 2015, Bikash Kumar shares his thoughts on some of the key trends shaping the evolution of POS technology in 2015.

Mobile POS enables greater consumer interaction with the sales staff.
* This article is a guest post written by Bikash Kumar – MD, Integrated Retail Management Consulting Pte. Ltd. The opinions expressed are his own and do not represent that of tech4tea.com.

Bikash Kumar has a Bachelor of Business Studies (1988-91) from the College of Business Studies in the University of Delhi; and an MBA (1991-93) from the Faculty of Management Study from the same university.
The Point of Sale (POS) system is where consumers pay for their purchases in a retail store.
Traditionally, the POS systems have been used to generate information on transactions within a retail outlet.
However, the POS technology has been improving significantly, allowing retail staff to deliver multiple operations, besides just scanning merchandise and generating bills.
According to Integrated Retail, a firm that specialises in designing, deploying and maintaining POS systems across the region, the POS systems are likely to see further enhancements in 2015.
Here are five key changes that we are likely to see.
- Morphing from Point of Sale to a Point of Service
- POS is increasingly mobile and it is lighter
- POS systems are becoming inter-connected
- POS system activities are traceable in real time
- POS is driving up productivity
Below are my thoughts on each of these key changes.
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Tags:consumers, Integrated Retail, opinion, Point of Sales, POS, shopping, Tech Focus, technology, trends
Posted in Business IT, Enterprise IT, Figures, Gadgets, gadgets, Interview, Interview, Mobile, Opinion, Shopping, Tech Focus, Technology | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014
LG plans to showcase its new Music Flow Wi-Fi Series lineup at the 2015 International CES in Las Vegas.

In addition to home libraries, users can stream music from service providers such as Spotify, Deezer, Napster, and TuneIn.
The lineup includes the company’s first battery-powered Wi-Fi Speaker (Model H4 Portable/NP8350), advanced Wi-Fi Sound Bars (Models HS7/LAS750M and HS9/LAS950M) and the Streaming 3D Blu-ray Player (Model BP550).
These speakers are designed to be compatible with Android and iOS devices.
More details from the press release below.
(more…)
Tags:audio, AV, Bluetooth, CES, CES 2015, LG, music, Music Flow, speakers, Wi-Fi
Posted in Announce, Audio, audioVisual, Entertainment, Gadgets, LG, Lifestyle, Music, speakers | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 10th, 2014
When we visited wasd in their final week of production, we discovered that they were very much ahead of schedule – and it looked like they’re going to finish with much time to spare! Erin reports.

Team wasd (Niger is just outside this snapshot) busy finishing up their animation clip.
On the second last day of the 3-week production, we visited Commonwealth Secondary School’s wasd at Nanyang Polytechnic.
There was a rather relaxed ambience in their cubicle, as they were close to completion and were simply doing rendering and touching up on the finer details.

All set for rendering.
They chose to do rendering in layers, instead of everything at one go.
Rendering in layers is to render different objects in the scene separately, in different layers, so that for each layer of objects, a different image is rendered.

The ticking clock that commences the day for the non-sleeping SAF.
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Tags:animation, Commonwealth, competition, education, N.E.mation!, N.E.mation! 9, production, wasd
Posted in After Effects, audioVisual, Contest, Education, Events, events | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 9th, 2014
We visited Team Elemonators in the third and final week of their 3-week production. The girls were going at completing their 1-minute animation by the end of the week. Erin reports.

The team Elemonators, with their two fluffy mascot bears, courtesy of Leanne.
It’s the third week and team Elemonators are speeding ahead hurriedly, close to the completion of their task!

The tools of the trade which occupy Esther’s workspace. To the right, near the NEWater bottle, is a Wacom Intuos Graphics Tablet, and a Lenovo computer.
The clock is ticking away for CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School’s Elemonators as they finish up their animation, already three-quarters through.
All they had to do was to finish animating the last few scenes of their animated piece, and then render it.
When we dropped by, the team was focused on the rotoscoping segment of their animation journey.
What is rotoscoping?
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Tags:animation, competition, education, Elemonators, N.E.mation!, N.E.mation! 9, production, St Nicholas
Posted in After Effects, audioVisual, Contest, Education, Events, events, Video, Visits, Wacom | No Comments »
Saturday, December 6th, 2014
The vision of Intel Education’s initiatives is: Empowering Tomorrow’s Innovators. Here’s a peek into how Intel is plugging into the education scene.

From left: Eileen Lento, Ph.D; John Galvin; Sam Al-Schamma – key education advocates and leaders in Intel.
To most people, including myself, Intel is the leading chip maker that manufactures the processors in the computers that we use.
The company is also heavily involved in helping educational organisations and government bodies harness technology to reinvent teaching and learning for the younger generation.
Intel’s contribution to Education
To improve education in more than 70 countries, Intel and the Intel Foundation has, in the past decade, invested more than US$1billion, contributed more than 4 million employee volunteer hours, trained 14 million teachers, and helped 5 million people gain digital literacy.
I had the pleasure of listening to key executives in Intel Education over lunch earlier this week during the Bett Asia Leadership Summit in Singapore at the Marina Bay Sands.
John Galvin – a vice president of the Sales and Marketing Group and general manager of Intel Education at Intel Corporation – hosted the lunch and shared his experience in setting global strategy and implementation of innovative technology solutions to advance education worldwide.
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Tags:Bett, education, Intel, Intel Foundation, Tech Focus, technology
Posted in Brief, Education, Enterprise IT, Events, events, Intel, Tech Focus | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014
This week, Commonwealth Secondary School’s wasd powers full-steam ahead in the production of their SAF-themed animation masterpiece. Erin Tan was on site to get to know the team members and to get the latest updates on their progress.

The team, wasd, with their mascot – Penguin the penguin.
Last Friday, we visited N.E.mation! team wasd, working studiously away in their cubicle in Nanyang Polytechnic.
They have been keeping very strictly to their schedule, as created for them by their mentor, and have made much progress in the making of their animation piece.

Niger and Zhi Qing talking enthusiastically about their progress of the previous week.
So far, the team has been able to finish most of the animation sequence, and were able to show us a fully-coloured, fully-animated sample of the final animation.
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Tags:animation, Commonwealth, competition, education, N.E.mation!, N.E.mation! 9, production, wasd
Posted in After Effects, audioVisual, Contest, Education, Events, events, Video, Visits | No Comments »
Monday, December 1st, 2014
CHIJ St. Nicholas Girls’ School team Elemonators are working away diligently at creating their animation piece. Erin reports.

Leanne and Esther of the Elemonators hard at work!
Last Friday, we visited Elemonators in their cubicle in Nanyang Polytechnic.

Their mascot bears, courtesy of Leanne. They accompany and motivate the team on this difficult journey towards animation stardom!
This being the middle of the 3-week production phase, the Elemonators are going at full gear with their animation.

Notes jotted down about ‘pegging’.
It’s not all work and no play though, as the team had lots of fun, socialising with the rest of the participants and teams in NEmation, especially the team (Millennium Dragons, also from St Nicholas Girls’ School) in the cubicle next to theirs.
A common pastime was taking group photos in their workspace, with the assistance of members from other teams.
It appears that NEmation has been a great platform for them to socialise with people from other schools and standards, and gain new friends!
The team is creating a digital 2D animation sequence using Toom Boom Studio, based on the premise of four people performing acts of kindness for people around them, and in doing so, inspiring others to be kind too.
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Tags:animation, competition, education, Elemonators, N.E.mation!, N.E.mation! 9, production, St Nicholas
Posted in After Effects, audioVisual, Contest, Education, Events, events, Visits | No Comments »
Sunday, November 23rd, 2014
The Elemonators is one of three teams from CHIJ Saint Nicholas Girls’ School that made it into the Top 10 Teams in this year’s installment of the N.E.mation! competition. The storyline for their animation is both heartwarming and inspiring.

“We are the Elemonators! We eliminate the sourness and bring sweetness to your day!”
The Elemonators registered for N.E.mation! 9 back in August and have not looked back since.
Comprising four sprightly young ladies in the second year of CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School, the Elemonators were among a staggering 11 teams from the school that made it into the Top 100.

Team leader Melissa Anne Lim performed the mesh-up during the pitching stages with her guitar and sang in the final recording as well.
For those familiar with N.E.mation!, you may be aware that CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School is a powerhouse in the series of competitions, regularly boasting multiple teams that make it to the Top 10 and frequently represented in the eventual Top 3 winners.
While some schools field teams from their IT clubs/CCA, CHIJ St Nicholas Girls’ School opens the participation to all students in the school.
Which was how Melissa, Esther, Leanne and Sabrina came to form the Elemonators.
(more…)
Tags:animation, competition, education, Elemonators, N.E.mation!, N.E.mation! 9, St Nicholas
Posted in After Effects, audioVisual, Contest, Education, Events, events, Visits | No Comments »