Here’s wishing all Christians a Happy Easter holiday.
Homemade Easter bunnies jumping for joy.
“Easter is a Christian festival and holiday celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ on the third day after his crucifixion at Calvary as described in the New Testament,” according to Wikipedia.
Since it falls on a Sunday, some countries designate the next day (Monday) as a public holiday.
Good Friday commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus Christ at Calvary. It is a religious holiday observed primarily by Christians, and is a public holiday in many countries.
Candles in the Church of Our Lady of Bethlehem on La Rambla in Barcelona, Spain. Photo credit: John Tan
Here’s wishing everyone a great Easter weekend.
If you’re traveling overseas and facing inconveniences due to the language barrier, you can now count on the free Google Translate app on your Android mobile device – even when there isn’t any data connection.
Offline mode of the Google Translate app on Android lets you bring a translator around in your pocket.
Google Translate is a popular web service that helps translate free text and website text content from one language to another.
50 language packs available for download to use in offline mode of the Android app.
The browser-based service is usually used on desktop and notebook computers and require an Internet connection to work.
Languages include Chinese, Japanese and Korean.
Conversation mode allows voice entry and read out.
Google has now launched offline language packages for Google Translate on Android (2.3 and above) with support for 50 languages for the app – from French and Spanish to Chinese and Arabic.
I see three key features that makes this mobile version a useful tool for the traveller.
The newly-launched MFC-J2310 InkBenefit is the most compact inkjet model from Brother.
Available from 28 March 2013, the S$298 multi-function printer is capable of printing A3-sized documents and boast ink savings and increased efficiency for consumers, SOHOs and SMBs.
Brother MFC-J2310 InkBenefit. Available in Singapore from 28 March at S$298.
MFC-J2310 InkBenefit has wired and wireless functionalities for cloud and mobile printing with Brother’s iPrint&Scan app, Airprint and Google Cloud.
Brother MFC-J2310 InkBenefit is Brother’s most compact inkjet multi-function printer that prints up to A3 sizes.
The multi-function printer also copies, faxes, and scans, and sports an intuitive 1.8-inch touchscreen colour LCD display.
The MFC-J2310 is capable of printing up to A3 sizes, as well as automated two-side printing for A4 documents
As with the higher-end MFC-J2510 InkBenefit, which was launched in Singapore half a year ago, the new MFC-J2310 is compact and similar in size to the typical A4 multi-function printer, even though it can print up to A3 sizes.
The free fxTrade mobile app brings robust desktop functionality to mobile devices, including customizable charts, price alerts, overlays and indicators.
OANDA’s free fxTrade mobile app is available for the iPhone, iPad and Android mobile devices.
OANDA, a global provider of innovative foreign exchange trading services, today announced a significant update to its OANDA fxTrade mobile applications for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices.
OANDA’s fxTrade mobile app allows users to quickly monitor forex market activity as well as manage positions, control risk, and monitor account status and profitability while on the go.
The free app’s intuitive design makes the most of native iPhone, iPad, and Android capabilities to provide features that traders need to stay on top of the fast-moving forex market.
OANDA’s fxTrade mobile app comes with rich features and customisability.
Today’s release is the result of more than 18 months of work from the OANDA mobile development team, and incorporates user feedback from OANDA customers globally.
Mobile devices already account for 30 percent of logins and 15 percent of trades for OANDA clients, a number that has risen rapidly since the company introduced its first mobile trading app in 2010.
The OANDA mobile apps for iPhone and iPad users are available for download in the App Store, or on the Google Play apps store for Android-based smartphones and tablets.
These apps complement the OANDA MetaTrader 4 mobile applications that are available for iPhone and Android smartphones and tablets.
Key features of this new version of OANDA’s fxTrade mobile app include:
The Nikon COOLPIX A is now available in Singapore in black or silver. RRP: S$1,549. Nikon is giving away a LOWEPRO REZO 50 camera case with every COOLPIX A purchase while stocks last.
Nikon COOLPIX A is available in black or silver at S$1,549 in Singapore from 26 March 2013.
The COOLPIX A is Nikon’s first compact digital camera equipped with a DSLR sensor.
| Nikon COOLPIX A | |
| Megapixels | 16.2 MP |
| Sensor | DX-format CMOS sensor |
| Focal length | Fixed at 18.5mm (28mm in 35mm equiv.) |
| Max aperture | f/2.8 |
| AF | Contrast-detect |
| Focus range | 50cm to infinity |
| Macro | 10cm |
| LCD | 3″, 921k dots, TFT colour |
| Movie | 1920 x 1080 px 30fps |
| Flash | Built-in with hot-shoe |
| RAW | Yes |
| ISO | 100-3200, extendable to 25600 |
| Size /mm | 111 x 64.3 x 40.3 |
| Weight | 299 g |
| Price | S$1,549 |
The DX-format CMOS sensor is as large those used in DSLRs.
The COOLPIX A comes with a fixed 18.5mm (equivalent to 28mm in 35mm format), f/2.8 fixed focal focal length NIKKOR lens.
The camera’s adoption of a seven-blade iris diaphragm allows users to enjoy beautiful and natural blur characteristics.
Various types of aberrations are effectively reduced, demonstrating superior rendering performance throughout the entire frame at all aperture settings.
Moreover, the practical wide-angle lens is designed with optics that maximise its performance while making the most of the compact digital camera’s portability, covering a wide variety of shooting scenes.
Nikon COOLPIX A captures 14-bit compressed NEF (RAW) images, comes with a manual focus ring, and is able to record 1,920 × 1,080/30p full-HD movies.
The camera has a metallic look and feel of its design, with an extremely durable magnesium alloy top cover.
All three models come with Windows 8 and are available from today. Prices below.
New notebooks from Samsung. From left: Series 7 CHRONOS, Series 9 Full HD, Series 7 ULTRA.
The Series 9 notebook gets a Full HD upgrade, the enhanced Series 7 CHRONOS delivers professional performance in a thin and light form factor, while the Series 7 ULTRA takes Ultrabooks to the next level with enriched computing power, graphics and touch capability.
Below are more details of the new models and their prices.
If you’re a photography enthusiast looking for lab-quality prints at home, as well as copy, scan and fax capabilities for your home office, check out this duplex A4 inkjet printer that comes with wireless connectivity.
RRP: S$339 (incl. GST).
HP Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One inkjet photo printer.
The Photosmart 7520 e-All-in-One printer is HP’s top all-in-one home printer for lab-quality photos.
Other models in the Photosmart series of AiO printers are the Photosmart 6520 and 5520.
Photo quality
The Photosmart 6520 and 5520 uses only four ink cartridges (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Matt Black).
Basic specs
Print speed:
Dimensions:
Weight:
The Photosmart 7520, however uses an additional ink cartridge – Photo Black – that’s dedicated to printing photos, and which enhances the quality of photo prints.
The print quality on HP’s Photo Paper was superb, with vivid accurate colour and no sign of banding.
What I was particularly impressed with was the print quality on normal paper, be it from a digital file or from a photocopy.
The copy looked identical to the original for both photos and colour illustrations.
Print quality for text documents and powerpoint graphics was also very good, although not as fast and pro-looking as most laser printers.
Here’s your chance to win a My Passport 2TB, a My Passport Studio 2TB, or a My Passport Edge 500GB portable hard drive, worth a total of S$637. Giveaway ends 31 March 2013.
Update (3 April, 2013):
We have the final winner for the WD My Passport Studio 2TB (S$299). It is Rex Heng. Congratulations!
I will be contacting all the winners by email to arrange the mailing/delivery of the WD My Passport hard drives.
To all the others who took the time and effort to submit your entries, THANK YOU!
Update (2 April, 2013):
We have the winner for the WD My Passport 2TB (S$229). It is Denise Ting. Congratulations!
Update (1 April, 2013):
We have a winner for the WD My Passport Edge 500GB (S$109). It is Lam SK. Congratulations!
Stand a chance to win a WD My Passport 2TB (S$229), My Passport Studio 2TB (S$299), and My Passport Edge 500GB (S$109).
We consume so much music, photos and videos in our digital life, there’s just not enough storage to bring them around or back them up.
WD portable hard drives up for grabs:
From now till 31 March 2013, simply share – in less than 50 words – how you plan to use any one of the three WD My Passport portable hard drives should you win it.
Post your responses as comments at the end of this post.
Check out the rules of the Giveaway below.
Canon is having a contest on its Do More Work Less Facebook page – called “DMWL to the Rescue”. Participate from now till 10 April to stand a chance to win a Digital IXUS 140 and an imageCLASS MF4720w.
Win a Digital IXUS 140 and an imageCLASS MF4720w – contest ends 10 April 2013.
All you have to do is email dmwl@canon.com.sg with a photo of a flawed office device in your office and say in less than 100 how you wish you can improve the device so that you can do your job more efficiently.
