Archive for October, 2013

POTD: Sunset standoff between Cumulonimbus & Marina Bay Sands

Saturday, October 5th, 2013

Photo of the Day: I was walking to Fullerton Bay Hotel for the launch of the BlackBerry Z30 on Thursday evening when this majestic cumulonimbus cloud caught my eye.

It was towering menacingly over the Marina Bay Sands and was the only thing I’ve come across that was capable of counterbalancing the imposing hotel buildings.

Giant Calvus Cumulonimbus cloud versus Marina Bay Sands. Which will blink first? Photo taken with a Samsung NX2000 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with a 20-50mm lens. Photo credit: John Tan.

Giant Calvus Cumulonimbus cloud versus Marina Bay Sands. Which will blink first? Photo taken with a Samsung NX2000 mirrorless interchangeable lens camera with a 20-50mm lens. Photo credit: John Tan.

It was getting dark and I grabbed a quick snapshot with the Samsung NX2000 that I had with me.

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New arrivals: BlackBerry Z30 smartphone in Singapore 10 October

Friday, October 4th, 2013

The all-touch BlackBerry Z30 is the new flagship smartphone from BlackBerry and features a 5-inch display, 2880 mAh battery, and the latest version 10.2 of the BlackBerry 10 operating system.

Available in Singapore from 10 October at S$828 (without contract).

BlackBerry's new flagship: Z30 with 5-inch SuperAMOLED display, 1280 x 720 resolution at 295ppi.

BlackBerry’s new flagship: Z30 with 5-inch SuperAMOLED display, 1280 x 720 resolution at 295ppi.

Key new features of the BlackBerry Z30 include the BlackBerry Priority Hub, which can learn what conversations and people are important to you – making it fast and easy to find the messages and information you need.

BlackBerry Natural Sound creates an immersive experience for music, videos, apps and games, and makes BBM Video chats sound more natural and realistic, with nuances and variations in tone clearly audible.

With the largest battery ever on a BlackBerry smartphone, you can get up to 25 hours of mixed use, and BlackBerry’s new antenna technology dynamically tunes reception to give better connectivity in low signal areas, and improves data transfer speeds and reduces dropped calls.

Finally, the device comes with BlackBerry 10 OS version 10.2, which includes hundreds of refinements plus many new features that help the user get more productive.
The BlackBerry Z30 comes with a 5-inch Super AMOLED display, 1280 x 720 resolution at 295ppi.

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POTD: What does the cat say? Cat goes MEOW!

Thursday, October 3rd, 2013

Photo of the Day: Discovered this brood of four kittens over the weekend, kept by this group of retirees in an HDB void deck. I’ll be sharing snapshots I took over the next few POTD postings.

Not quite as cute as the Puss in Boots in Shrek, but what beady eyes. Just enjoying the sharpness and shallow depth of field of the lens. Photo taken with a Nikon D7100 with AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR lens. Photo credit: John Tan.

Not quite as cute as the Puss in Boots in Shrek, but what beady eyes. Just enjoying the sharpness and shallow depth of field of the lens. Photo taken with a Nikon D7100 with AF-S NIKKOR 70-200mm f/4G ED VR lens. Photo credit: John Tan.

Apart from the four kittens, the place was also a haunt for grown-up cats in the neighbourhood.

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New arrivals: 3 Logitech multimedia speakers for the home

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013

The Logitech Z200 Multimedia Speakers (S$49), Logitech Z150 Multimedia Speakers (S$29) and Logitech Z50 Multimedia Speaker (S$24) are expected to be available in Singapore from mid-October 2013.

The Logitech Z200, Logitech Z50 and Logitech Z150 Multimedia Speakers come in a modern, sturdy design and promises clear, room-filling stereo sound.

The Logitech Z200, Logitech Z50 and Logitech Z150 Multimedia Speakers come in a modern, sturdy design and promises clear, room-filling stereo sound.

All three new speakers come with 2-year limited hardware warranty, and work with audio devices with 3.5 mm output including: Windows and Mac OS computers, smartphones, tablets, MP3 players.

Key technical specifications for each of the speakers are tabulated below.

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Red Hat signs MOU with A*STAR BATC on Data Analytics Development

Tuesday, October 1st, 2013

A*STAR’s Business Analytics Translational Centre (BATC) collaborates with Red Hat to Use open source solutions for data analytic applications development.

Witnesses and signing parties of the MOU collaboration between Red Hat and A*STAR’s Business Analytics Translational Centre. From L-R: Ang Wee Tiong, Director, Technology, BATC; Dr. Tan Geok Leng, Executive Director, Science & Engineering Research Council, A*STAR & Chairman, BATC Management Committee; Damien Wong, General Manager, ASEAN, Red Hat; Suresh Sachi, Deputy Managing Director (Corporate & Legal), General Counsel, A*STAR; Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO, Red Hat; Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources; Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director, IDA; Shankha Sen, Chief Financial Officer, Red Hat Asia Pacific.

Witnesses and signing parties of the MOU collaboration between Red Hat and A*STAR’s Business Analytics Translational Centre. From L-R: Ang Wee Tiong, Director, Technology, BATC; Dr. Tan Geok Leng, Executive Director, Science & Engineering Research Council, A*STAR & Chairman, BATC Management Committee; Damien Wong, General Manager, ASEAN, Red Hat; Suresh Sachi, Deputy Managing Director (Corporate & Legal), General Counsel, A*STAR; Jim Whitehurst, President and CEO, Red Hat; Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources; Jacqueline Poh, Managing Director, IDA; Shankha Sen, Chief Financial Officer, Red Hat Asia Pacific.

Red Hat, Inc., a leading provider of open source solutions, today announced plans for a new collaboration with A*STAR’s Business Analytics Translational Centre (BATC) to help accelerate innovation and drive adoption of business analytics with open source solutions from Red Hat.

“Open source has evolved to become a foundation for innovation. As technology continues to become more of a commodity, the standardization of parts can help spur more rapid innovation,” said Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of Red Hat.

Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO of Red Hat, was present for the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) today in Singapore with Dr Tan Geok Leng, Chairman of BATC Management Committee and Executive Director for the Science & Engineering Research Council (SERC), A*STAR.

Red Hat will be collaborating with BATC in areas of big data, middleware, Platform-as-a-service (PaaS), cloud and storage, for the innovation and development of current and upcoming analytics projects.

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