Archive for the ‘Prices’ Category

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New mobile music player: Sony Walkman Z Series

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Sony has launched its new mobile entertainment player. The Walkman NWZ-Z1050 series is powered by Android, and is targeted at audiophiles looking for exceptional sound quality in their music.

The Sony Walkman Z1050 Mobile Entertainment Player has a 16GB capacity and will be available for S$429 from this month.

Sony Walkman NWZ-Z1050 Music Player, 16 GB, Black, S$429.

Sony Walkman NWZ-Z1050 Music Player, 16 GB, Black, S$429.

The Walkman Z1050 is the Android equivalent of the iPod Touch, but with a bigger anti-reflective 4.3” multi-touch LCD screen. It is powered by a 1GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 dual-core processor.

With the form factor of a smartphone, this Walkman allows you to enjoy great music, watch videos, play games, use Android apps and surf the Web using WiFi.

I was at the launch of the new Walkman in Singapore, and got to play with the device and listen to the music quality. It did not disappoint. Audio was crisp and clear despite the loud background music inside the Helipad, and MP3 music sounded almost as good as CD-quality tracks.

There’s no 3G connection so you can only make calls through VOIP when there’s a WiFi connection. There’s no camera but you can upload, edit, view and share photos on the gadget.

From the makers of the original Walkman

Available in May 2012

Available in May 2012

But true to its tradition, it’s a music player made for music lovers by music lovers.

The new S-Master MX digital amplifier greatly reduces noise and distortion level in your music, even if you’re listening to MP3 quality audio files.

This is one of 5 Clear Audio Technologies – S-Master MX, Clear Bass, Clear Stereo, DSEE (Digital Sound Enhancement Engine), and EX headphones – which promises quality audio on-the-move.

A new W.BUTTON launches the W.Control app, which allows you to explore your music collection by flicking through the cover art viewing on-screen visualisations while the music plays.

SensMe sorts your music collection into 14 mood-themed channels to suit the time of day or the way you feel.

4.3-inch display, Android 2.3 OS.

4.3-inch display, Android 2.3 OS.

The xLOUD speaker system of the Z1050 to offers a high level of clear sound reproduction from its built-in speaker – you can now listen in to your favourite tunes with friends and loved ones without a speaker dock.

The Walkman Z Series allows you to share your content at home and on the move wirelessly via Wi-Fi and connects to other DLNA-enabled devices.

Simply ‘throw’ your music, pictures and videos from your Walkman screen by ‘flicking’ them directly to compatible TVs, PCs, or home audio system to stream your media.

Connect the Walkman directly to your TV via the micro HDMI to enjoy your videos, photos and games on big screen.

Or connect via Bluetooth to compatible speakers, headphones, hi-fi systems or car stereos effortlessly with no wire clutter.

Below are the main technical specifications of the new Sony Walkman NWZ-Z1050.

(more…)

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Posted in Android, App, Audio, Events, Gadgets, Gaming, Launch, Operating Systems, Prices, Software, Sony, Specifications | 3 Comments »

Affordable cloud backup for small and medium businesses

Tuesday, May 15th, 2012

Kronicles has launched, in Singapore, a new Backup-as-a-Service solution for small and medium businesses (SMB).

The solution includes both on-site and off-site backup and promises enterprise-class reliability and fast recovery at affordable subscription-based pricing starting from S$5,000 per month (before government subsidy).

Kronicles BaaS includes both on-site and off-site backup.

Kronicles BaaS includes both on-site and off-site backup.

Only last week, I wrote about EMC’s “Disaster Recovery Survey 2012” which found that “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”.

“71% of all organizations had lost data or suffered systems downtime in the last 12 months” – Vanson Bourne interview of 2,500 IT decision-makers.The results point to outdated backup and recovery infrastructure in businesses in Japan and the Asia Pacific.

Kronicles has come to the rescue with their new “Backup-as-a-Service” (BaaS), powered by technology from Quantum.

In the customer’s office, a POD (Periphery Onsite Device) backs up 30-days worth of data from a customer’s email and application servers.

The POD provides on-site backup for quick recovery.

The POD provides on-site backup for quick recovery.

The POD provides quick recovery of files over the local network, which is typically faster than an Internet connection.

Every day, during off-peak hours, data is copied over a dedicated link to Kronicles’ secure data facility for off-site protection.

In Singapore the data resides in-country within Starhub’s Tier 3 data center.

At the end of each month, Kronicles provides a copy of the data on an LTO tape, which can either be returned to the user or stored at a secure third=party location that can be returned on demand.

At any one time, there is a local copy of data for everyday operations, one stored on Kronicles’ cloud for business continuity, and one copy on tape for long-term archival.

Following today’s launch in Singapore, the service will be launched next in The Philippines and Malaysia.

Pricing

Three price packages are available. The basic Gold package – at S$5,000 per month – includes 200GB to 1TB of data backup, support for three to 10 Windows servers, up to 30-day history.

The Platinum package – at S$8,000 per month – includes 1TB to 2TB of data, three to 10 Windows servers, and up to 60-day history.

Customers with even more stringent requirements can discuss the Platinum Plus package with Kronicles.

Is the data secured? “Yes, data is encrypted with up to 256bit encryption when the data is ‘in flight’. At the data center itself, the data is not encrypted but protected,” says Pramotedham. The data on the back-up tapes are also not encrypted.A War Room for DR and BCP

Piti Pramotedham, Group CEO of Kronicles, described something that caught my attention during his presentation.

He described how a “War Room” can be set up in StarHub’s Media Centre should a customer’s premises be gutted by, say, a fire.

The customer, together with its partners, can set up shop in the War Room while their IT servers are re-constituted from the backup servers.

Is the data of one customer physically compartmentalised from that of another customer? “Yes, at the data center, it’s like a bank vault – so you see a whole wall of storage dedicated to one customer, separate from that of other customers,” say Piti.This can be completed in a matter of hours, after which, the customer and its partners can resume “business as usual”.

The aim is to suffer minimal disruption in times of disaster.

Pramotedham says that Kronicles insists that customers practise this once a year to ensure everything is well-rehearsed.

For SMBs that doesn’t yet have any Disaster Recovery (DR) and Business Continuity Plans (BCP), this is like having DR and BCP thrown in together with the BaaS.

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Posted in Cloud, Enterprise IT, Events, Launch, Prices, Specifications, storage drive, Technology | 1 Comment »

“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 »

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 »

Dell enhances Alienware portfolio for advanced mobile gaming

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

Dell’s Alienware M14x (from S$2,699) and M17x (from S$3,599) are now available from its online store.

The M14x claims to be “the most powerful 14-inch laptop in the Universe” while the M17x is 3D-capable – offering an immersive, high-definition, surround-sound experience.

Dell Alienware M14x (left, from S$2,699) and M17x (right, from S$3,599)

Dell Alienware M14x (left, from S$2,699) and M17x (right, from S$3,599)

The M14x features optional dual drive configurations, up to 16GB of memory for extreme multitasking, a Blu-ray combo optical drive, and an NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M graphics engine with GDDR5 graphics memory.

This is the most advanced GPU in a 14-inch form factor and the first time Alienware is offering GDDR5 graphics on a laptop of this size.

The M17x delivers the latest NVIDIA and AMD graphics card options, up to 32GB of memory, optional 17.3-inch 120Hz WideFHD WLED 3D display, and THX 3D surround sound.

It is one of the first laptops to offer the AMD Radeon HD 7970M graphics card and the latest GDDR5 NVIDIA GeForce GT 660M and 675M graphics solutionsii.

Both laptops feature Intel’s 3rd Generation processors and Intel Turbo Boost 2.0 technologies, HDMI 1.4, USB 3.0 for fast data transfer, Bluetooth 4.0, optional 3D HD gaming capability, optional Blu-ray disc drive and exceptional surround-sound quality from Klipsch speakers.

(more…)

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Posted in Dell, Gadgets, Games, Launch, Notebooks, Operating Systems, Prices, Specifications, Windows 7 | No Comments »

New mobile hard drive: WD Scorpio Blue 7mm

Thursday, April 26th, 2012

The 7mm 2.5-inch mobile hard drives delivers lower power consumption and are available in 500GB (S$139.99) and 320GB (S$109.99) capacities.

The new Scopio Blue 7mm mobile hard drive can be used in both ultrabooks and mainstream notebooks.

The new Scopio Blue 7mm mobile hard drive can be used in both ultrabooks and mainstream notebooks.

The slim, energy-efficient 7mm hard drives for ultrabooks are the latest additions to Western Digital’s Scorpio Blue line of mobile hard drives.

The single-platter small form factor of the new hard drives are compatible with industry-standard 9.5 mm slots for mainstream notebooks as well as slimmer notebook and ultrabook devices that require a thinner 7mm drive height.

Below is the fact sheet for the Scorpio Blue family of mobile hard drives.

(more…)

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Posted in Accessories, Availability, Brochures, Gadgets, Notebooks, Prices, Specifications, storage drive, Ultrabooks, Western Digital | No Comments »

Launch of Adobe CS6

Tuesday, April 24th, 2012

The latest iteration of Adobe’s flagship software suite has been launched. Available in May 2012, there will be 4 suites, comprising different combinations of 14 print, web and video software.

The suites are: Master Collection (S$3,924), Design & Web Premium (S$2,868), Design & Web Standard (S$1,962), and Production Premium (S$2,868).

Adobe has also launched the new subscription-based Creative Cloud (US$600 per year). This is not available in Singapore yet.

Adobe Creative Suite 6

Adobe Creative Suite 6

Singapore was the first venue in the world to launch Adobe Creative Suite 6.

Shantanu Narayen, Adobe CEO, and David Wadhwani, SVP, Digital Media Business, Adobe, will host a launch event and press conference on the release of Adobe Creative Cloud and CS 6 at 10:00 am Pacific Time, 23 April.

CS6 is part of Adobe’s 2-year renewal of its creative suite of software. One year on from each major release is a mid-cycle update, as with Adobe CS5.5.

The Mercury engine that was introduced in Premiere Pro in CS5 has been implemented in other products in CS6, notably Photoshop and Illustrator.

For Photoshop, the impressive Content-Aware Fill feature in Photoshop CS5 has been supplemented with two new enhancements – Content-Aware Patch and Content-Aware Move.

Dreamweaver and other component products in CS5 was based on perpetuating the Flash platform.

Having had the rug pulled from under its feet by the late Steve Jobs, Adobe has shifted the emphasis for Dreamweaver in CS5.5 and CS6 more towards facilitating HTML5, “an open Web standard that’s replacing Adobe’s older Flash tools for many Web designers” (quoted from Bloomberg).

There are also more tools for designing apps for smartphones and tablets.

A big step for Adobe this time round is its foray into a subscription-based model, although it is not available in Singapore yet.

Creative Cloud will charge US$50 a month for a one-year commitment (US$75 without one).

Subscribers can access the 14 programs, which can be installed on an Apple Mac or on a Windows PC.

Users can use the installed software even when they are not connected to the Internet.

A cloud-based service will also enable users to collaborate and share work with colleagues and clients through a Web browser.

The list of software as well as the composition of each suite can be found here.

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Posted in Adobe, App, Creative Suite, Events, Launch, Phones, Prices, Software, Specifications, Tablets | 2 Comments »

Nikon COOLPIX S30 available in Singapore

Monday, April 23rd, 2012

The 10.1-megapixel Nikon COOLPIX S30 (S$259) is now available exclusively from Courts. The waterproof and shockproof compact camera is ideal for kids.

Nikon COOLPIX S30 is shockproof, waterproof and dirtproof.

Nikon COOLPIX S30 is shockproof, waterproof and dirtproof.

The COOLPIX S30 is built to resist shock (withstands falls from heights of up to 80 cm), water (up to 3 metres depth) and dirt.

Nikon COOLPIX S30: 10.1 megapixels, 3x optical zoom.

10.1 megapixels, 3x optical zoom.

The camera has large buttons and a user-friendly interface, and comes with 3x optical zoom.

For added fun, a creative slide show function creates animated effects and music with the photos!

Unveiled on 1 February as part of Nikon’s Spring 2012 collection, the COOLPIX S30 is available in black, white, pink and blue.

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Posted in Availability, Cameras, Compact camera, COOLPIX, Gadgets, Nikon, Photography, Prices, Specifications | 1 Comment »

New TomTom App for iPhone/iPad available in iTunes

Sunday, April 22nd, 2012

TomTom South East Asia V1.10 is now available in the iTunes store. Priced at US$69.99, existing V1.9 users can download the update for free.

TomTom App for iPhone/iPad South East Asia V1.10 available now on iTunes.

TomTom App for iPhone/iPad South East Asia V1.10 available now on iTunes.

The latest version of the TomTom App integrates TomTom navigation with social media applications such as Facebook and Twitter – allowing users to navigate to friends, places and events more easily.

TomTom App for iPhone/iPad South East Asia V1.10 First previewed during CES 2012 in January, the TomTom navigation app for iPhone and iPad fully supports social networks as a source for turn-by-turn navigation.

The new version automatically plans routes based on information from Facebook events and places.

Additionally, drivers can use the app to share their destination and arrival time on Twitter, Facebook, by email and by SMS text.

The app offers regional coverage and the update includes the latest maps of Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and Brunei.

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Posted in App, Availability, Gadgets, GPS, iOS, iPad, iPhone, Prices, Software, Specifications, TomTom | 2 Comments »

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