Here’s a new Company Byte – for OpenNet, the Singapore company responsible for the building, managing and operating of the fibre-optic platform for Singapore’s Next Generation Nationwide Broadband Network (Next Gen NBN).
Read a byte-sized profile and background information of OpenNetfor quick reference here.
You can also read articles related to OpenNet on tech4tea.com here.
Adobe introduces the latest versions of the photo and video editing software with revamped user interfaces that makes editing, organising and sharing easier.
Available as stand-alone products (S$131 each), Photoshop Elements 11 and Premiere Elements 11 can also be purchased together as a bundle (S$197).
Check the buying guide for Adobe Photoshop Elements 11, Premiere Elements 11 or the bundle.
Photoshop Elements 11 offers a complete solution for editing, organizing and sharing photo creations while Premiere Elements 11 offers easy creation of engaging home movies with professional flair.
Prices listed are the Adobe direct store prices in SGD and reseller prices may vary.
Prices do not include tax or shipping and handling.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 11 and Adobe Premiere Elements 11 software for Windows and Mac are now available here.
Both solutions are available for Windows and Mac.
Powerful, intuitive tools in Photoshop Elements 11
Make photos look their best with editing options that offer virtually everything from quick fixes to a number of creative possibilities.
Organise photos based on people, places (via Google maps geo-tagging) or events easily and intuitively.Easy pro-quality videos with Premiere Elements 11
Create attractive, pro-level videos with automated moviemaking options to take the work out of editing.
Add polish with a wide range of great-looking effects, transitions, themes, titles, disc menus, and professional-level effects and sound.I popped down to Caterham’s garage last Thursday to take a peek at what went on behind the scenes when the F1 car was being prepped for the Singapore leg of the Formula One Grand Prix.
This stunning shot of the Caterham F1 car during practice was taken by Singaporean photographer Pat Law. Check out his Facebook page for other great photos.
The Caterham F1 Team is owned by Malaysian Tony Fernandes, Group CEO of AirAsia. The team is based in the United Kingdom in Leafield, Oxfordshire.
The team competed as Caterham for the first time this season after team principal Fernandes acquired British sportscar manufacturer Caterham Cars.
Understanding the different types of tyres and when each type is best employed.
The team had competed as Team Lotus in the 2011 F1 season last year, and had finished 10th in the Constructors Championship, with three 13th place finishes.
Partners of Caterham F1 Team.
For the 2012 season, Caterham’s F1 cars are powered by Renault engines and driven by Heikki Kovalainen and Vitaly Petrov.
Both of them have achieved one 13th place finish each in terms of best placing so far.
In the Singapore leg last night, Kovalainen came in 15 while Petrov came in 19.
The team has set as their target this season the capture of its first point in F1 racing for the young team.
The garage tour was made possible thanks to Jacinta Yeo from LG Electronics Singapore.
We were told that the electronic LED signalling system used for F1 on the track was designed and implemented by LG.
The system has replaced the manual flag system waved by human marshallers that were used in the past.
The garage tour was made possible thanks to LG.
Unfortunately, no photos were allowed within the garage.
Apart from the cover photo by Pat Law and video from YouTube, all the other photos in this post were taken by Muhamad Farhan Harmid from LG-One.
Nubox and EpiCentre, both Apple Premium Reseller chains in Singapore, sold out their non-contracted iPhone 5 units nationwide when sales of the new smartphone commenced at 8am this morning.
This is the first time either are selling non-contracted iPhones on launch day. (All photos in this post taken by Nubox and EpiCentre)
Happy customers with their new iPhone 5 at Nubox Tampines Mall.
Nubox sold out its iPhone 5 units within 30 minutes while EpiCentre sold out its units within 2 hours.
Overnight queues at EpiCentre Somerset.
Both were unable to divulge the number of units sold as there was a gag order from Apple on sales figures.
Longest queue at for Nubox was at Tampines Mall with more than 200 people.
Nubox set up queue poles outside its outlets at 8pm last night, with people starting to queue at that time at Tampines Mall, which also had the longest queue of some 200 people.
1st 2 customers at Nubox@Raffles City – Felix Haryanto William (L) & Angus Tan. 18-yr-old polytechnic student Felix started the queue at 1 am this morning with his father. “My friends and I have been eagerly waiting for iPhone 5 since last December. I am an Apple fan and I just want the latest phone. We queued at Nubox for the launch of the new iPad in March and decided to come here again to queue for the new iPhone,” said Felix.
19-year-old Deepti Vasan queued with her father since 8 pm last night at Nubox@Tampines Mall. “We are looking forward to the larger screen which would be great for videos. We were very excited when we know that Nubox is selling iPhone 5. We still have an existing contract and it would be very expensive to break the contact,” said Deepti. Both father and daughter were delighted with their new 64GB iPhone 5.
“I was pleasantly surprised to be greeted by a welcome crew as I entered the store,” said Ms Tang Yinghua, the first customer at the EpiCentre ION Orchard outlet. “I felt like a VIP as the crew clapped and cheered continuously as they activated my iPhone 5. It was an overwhelming experience and I can’t wait to use my iPhone 5 immediately.”
EpiCentre is offering promotional bundles for the iPhone 5, which includes trade-up promotions for customers upgrading their smartphones to the new Apple iPhone 5.
The non-contracted Apple iPhone 5 retails at:
Trade-up prices vary depending on the smartphone model and conditions.
Accessories bundles include either the purchase of a Gosh iPhone 5 screen protector and a Gosh Cross Case at S$39.90 (usual price: S$70.90); or the purchase of any screen protector or phone case at 15% discount.
20-year-old Liu Ting Ting was the first customer to purchase an iPhone 5 from SingTel this morning.
Besides selling the iPhone 5, SingTel also launched a new version of deF!ND – its free mobile personal assistant app that integrates local information and enables bookings of services on the move.
Early-bird customers at SingTel’s iPhone 5 launch.
SingTel has organised a three-day launch event for the iPhone 5 starting this morning at 8am at Marina Bay Sands, Exhibition Hall D, Basement 2.
Liu Ting Ting jumping with joy.
A record 68,000 customers registered their interest over six days to purchase iPhone 5 from SingTel.
SingTel’s price plans can be found at the end of this post.
The 10,000 appointment slots to purchase iPhone 5 at our launch event were snapped-up within one and a half hours.
The first customer to purchase iPhone 5 is Ms Liu Ting Ting (age 20, student).
She had arrived last night (Thurs 20 Sep) at 8:30pm even though she had a confirmed appointment to purchase iPhone 5 this morning.
Liu Ting Ting with Allan Lew (R) and Yuen Kuan Moon (L) from SingTel.
She chose to camp overnight in order to be the first to get the phone.
SingTel also unveiled a new version of deF!ND, which features Singapore’s own voice-activated personal assistant, often dubbed the “Singapore Siri”.
First launched in November last year, the new version now features a significantly expanded database of more than 100,000 reviews on more than 15,000 eateries from HungryGoWhere, Singapore’s popular food website.
Users can quickly and easily browse through recommendations of highly-rated restaurants and hawkers nearest to their current location.
SingTel deF!ND can be downloaded free from the Apple App Store and Google Play store.
deF!ND is now able to make intelligent movie recommendations based on users’ personal preferences and display screening times at GV, Shaw and Cathay cinemas nearest to their current location.
A virtual barometer predicts the user’s level of interest in all movies that are currently airing.
The app allows users to select seats and charge ticket purchases to their credit cards.
With deF!ND, users can also book taxis, locate ATMs, medical clinics and other essential amenities, find the best shopping deals and get updates on local events.
The app draws from SingTel’s popular inSing.com database of more than 170,000 business listings.
By the way, SingTel’s price plans is listed below.
I just watched an interesting movie – its about how three protagonists ATTEMPT to thwart evil cracker Gustov Dobreff from taking over the world.
Produced by CSI creator, Anthony E. Zuiker, the show reveals the growing threat of cybercrime in a realistic and entertaining way.
The first three episodes of Cybergeddon has been released at 1pm today. The remaining six webisodes will be released over the next two days. Catch the movie at Yahoo!
Also check out “Cybergeddon” app – the free mobile game on the Apple App Store for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad; as well as Google Play store for Android devices.
Cybergeddon, Anthony E. Zuiker’s digital blockbuster will premiere globally on Tuesday, 25 September.
Cybergeddon follows agent Chloe Jocelyn (Missy Peregrym) as she investigates a slew of seemingly unrelated cyber-attacks with fellow agent Frank Parker (Manny Montana) and incarcerated master hacker Chase ‘Rabbit’ Rosen (Kick Gurry).
Anthony E. Zuiker and Missy Peregrym on the set of Cybergeddon in Toronto, Canada.
In a world where everyone is connected, Chloe and her team must break the worldwide cybercrime ring led by Gustov Dobreff (Olivier Martinez) before it is too late.
Olivier Martinez (from “Unfaithful”) acts as villain Gustov Dobreff.
The “movie” is actually a web serial comprising 9 webisodes to be released on Yahoo! over a period of three consecutive days starting 25 September 2012 (Tuesday).
Cybergeddon debuts on 25 September (Tuesday) on Yahoo! with three webisodes released each day for three consecutive days.You can watch the trailer here.
Cybergeddon will debut in over 25 countries and 10 languages.
The digital blockbuster was produced in Toronto, Canada and puts the spotlight on the growing threat of cybercrime, identity theft and vulnerabilities in our highly connected and digital lives.
Missy Peregrym (from “Rookie Blue”) acts as heroine Chloe Jocelyn.
Norton by Symantec consulted directly with the projects’ creators to lend credibility and technical insights that helped inform the narrative and led to the creation of a cybersecurity character in the film.
Kick Gurry (from “Speed Racer”) as master hacker Chase ‘Rabbit’ Rosen.
I found the show struck a good balance between technical depth and entertainment value.
Missy Peregrym’s character is framed by the villain in Cybergeddon.
There was an adequate supply of technical jargon to appease the informed hacker in the audience without boring the living daylights out of the layman viewer.
Manny Montana (from “Breakout Kings”) acts as agent Frank Parker.
In fact, well-designed animation was used to illustrate abstract hacking processes to help audiences appreciate the complexities and progress of various hacking processes.
Missy Peregrym in the Norton Security Operations Center (NSOC) in Cybergeddon.
The pace of the movie was maintained throughout so that the show felt like a regular action thriller – actually, there was plenty of chase and fight scenes, complete with pyrotechnics and gory stabs so even if you don’t understand any of the hacking bits, you can still enjoy the flick.
Re-creation of the Norton Security Operations Center (NSOC) for Cybergeddon.
The free app works on iOS, Android and web platforms and helps users discover new blogs, follow bloggers’ updates and conduct two-way conversations with them while on the go.
NuffnangX is a free app for iOS, Android and Web platforms for perusing blogs on the road.
Netccentric Pte Ltd, the parent company of Asia Pacific’s blog advertising community Nuffnang.com, has globally launched NuffnangX.
With thousands of blogs out there, NuffnangX hand-picks blogs to suit your reading preferences and interests.
The app serves as your personal blog shopper which selects the best blogs from around the world for you.
NuffnangX’s Patent Pending Technology summarises hundreds and thousands of words of each blog entry on your feed to a single line that is known as the “elevator pitch” so you can decide quickly whether a blog is interesting enough for you to read.
NuffnangX also simplifies the commenting process, making it seamless and easy to use.
Where to get NuffnangX
NuffnangX is available for free download from the Apple App Store and Google Play store.
Both partners had met whilst studying in London, and fresh from graduation, started Netccentric Pte Ltd as the holding company for their web ventures.
Coupled with a mixed bag of working experience in the Finance and Government sectors, their first project was Nuffnang.com, Asia Pacific’s First Blog Advertising Community.
LG has launched the Optimus G in Seoul, Korea today. Available in Korea next week and in key global markets in October.
The Optimus G is LG’s new flagship smartphone model, with 1.5 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor.
| LG Optimus G | |
| OS | Android 4.0.4 (ICS) |
| Screen | 4.7″ WXGA, True HD IPSPlus |
| Resolution | 1280 x 768 |
| Battery | 2,100 mAh, sealed |
| Processor | Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro processor with 1.5 GHz Quad-Core Krait CPUs |
| Features | LTE, NFC |
| Camera | Rear: 13 MP* |
| Front: 1.3 MP | |
| Video | 1080p Full HD |
| Memory | RAM: 2 GB |
| Int: 32 GB | |
| Ext: Nil | |
| Size /mm | 131.9 x 68.9 x 8.45 |
| Weight | 145 g |
| Price | TBA |
| * In certain markets, the phone could be shipped with an 8 MP camera. | |
The Android 4.0.4 (Ice Cream Sandwich) phone has a camera that shoots an amazing 13 megapixels while the sealed battery is rated at 2,100 mAh.
The Optimus G has a 4.7-inch WXGA True HD IPS Plus (1280 x 768 pixels) screen and is only 8.45mm thin.
It is both LTE and NFC capable.
LG’s new flagship smartphone leverages the powerful 1.5 GHz Quad-core Qualcomm Snapdragon S4 Pro CPU to provide speedy performance and a sleek user experience.
LG boasts that the Optimus G goes beyond multi-taking into “cross-tasking” of activities without limitations.
According to LG: whereas multi-tasking applies to running various applications at the same time, cross-tasking applies to complex tasks that can be completed simultaneously without having to compromise other tasks.
Some new UX features that will be included into the Optimus G to showcase its cross-tasking and engaging capabilities are listed below.
Olympus has unveiled two new cameras and three new lenses for Photokina 2012 (18-23 September). At the same time, it is consolidating all its compact cameras under the new STYLUS branding.
None of the pricing is available yet.
The Recommended Retail Price of the Olympus PEN Lite E-PL5 has just been announced.
Option 1: Single Lens Kit (S$1,098)
Option 2: Double Zoom Kit (S$1,348)
The new Olympus STYLUS XZ-2 with its selection of accessories. The PEN Lite E-PL5 has its own set of chic accessories.
Photokina 2012 begins tomorrow and ends on Sunday. Below is a summary of the slew of cameras and lenses that Olympus has lined up for the biennial trade show in Cologne, Germany.
| PEN Lite E-PL5 micro four thirds MIL camera |
|---|
 Skipping the inauspicious number “4” in the Japanese language, Olympus introduces the E-PL5, the successor to the E-PL3.Available in October 2012 in Silver, Black or White.
Features:
|
| STYLUS XZ-2 compact camera |
 The first member of the new STYLUS line, the XZ-2 is the successor to my favourite compact, the XZ-1.As the latest member of the STYLUS X series, the XZ-2 will be the flagship of the Olympus compact cameras.Available in November 2012 in Black.Features:
|
| M.Zuiko DIGITAL ED 12mm f2.0 Limited Edition Black Kit Lens |
 This lens will have a limited worldwide release of 3,000 sets, with 50 allocated to Singapore.Available in early October 2012.Features:
|
| M.Zuiko DIGITAL 17mm f1.8 Lens |
 With product launch scheduled in the first half of 2013, the detailed product specifications are not determined yet.It will have the same snapshot focusing mechanism from the M.Zuiko DIGITAL ED 12mm f2.0 lens.It will also feature the MSC (Movie & Still Compatible) mechanism for fast, quiet autofocusing. |
| M.Zuiko DIGITAL ED 60mm f2.8 Macro Lens |
 This lens promises high resolution and contrast, as well as the ability to shoot close-up with 1x magnification.MSC mechanism for fast, quiet autofocusing.Dust and splash proof construction for secure shooting under poor conditions.Enhanced control with focus limit switch and indicator window.
Available from early October 2012. |
Following in the footsteps of the Sony Alpha SLT-A99 and Nikon D600, Canon has unveiled its full-frame DSLR. The 20.2-megapixel EOS 6D will be available in December and is priced at US$2,100 (S$2,570) for the body only.
Canon’s new full-frame DSLR, the 20.2-megapixel EOS 6D.
Full-frame DSLRs are in, going by the announcements and launch in the lead-up to Photokina in Cologne, Germany – which begins tomorrow and lasts until Sunday.
Photokina 2012
The biennial Photokina in Cologne, Germany is the world’s biggest trade fair for the photography and imaging industries.
This year’s exhibition will be from September 18–23, 2012. That’s from tomorrow till Sunday.
After Sony announced its Alpha SLT-A99 (and fixed-lens compact CyberShot RX-1); and Nikon launched its D600 last week, Canon has announced today its new full-frame shooter – the Canon EOS 6D, which will be available in December.
All the new Sony and Nikon full-frame cameras above have 24.3 megapixels. The Canon EOS 6D, which can be considered as the 60D with a full-frame sensor shoots 20.2 megapixels and is priced at US$2,100 (S$2,570).
Price of the Canon EOS 6D with EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USZ zoom kit lens is $2,899 (S$3,545).
Keep an eye on this space for more details.
