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“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.

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.

Pre-orders are now available in Singapore at all leading gaming outlets.

Gamers who pre-order Spec Ops: The Line will receive a free upgrade to the Fubar Pack which include additional multiplayer gameplay perks.

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.

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

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 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.

Tags:2k Games, game, gaming, PlayStation, shoot, Sony, Spec Ops: The Line, Windows, Xbox 360
Posted in Announce, Gaming, Launch, Prices, Specifications | No Comments »

The Disaster Recovery Survey 2012: Asia Pacific and Japan

Tuesday, May 8th, 2012

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. New independent research sponsored by EMC points to outdated backup and recovery infrastructure.

The survey also found that 71% of all organizations had lost data or suffered systems downtime in the last 12 months.

Vanson Bourne interviewed 2,500 IT decision-makers in private and public sector organizations in Australia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Malaysia, The Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.

Each organization ranged between 250 and 3000-plus employees and represented a variety of industries including manufacturing, retail, financial services and telecoms, among others.

These findings highlight the need for backup transformation from antiquated technologies that are not suited for today’s data growth or availability expectations.

A move to next-generation backup and recovery solutions ensure continued business operations in the event of a natural disaster, malicious activity or more routine and common disruptions to IT systems.

In fact, the research showed that the causes of systems downtime are often the commonplace disruptions to IT, such as hardware failure or data corruption, rather than natural disasters or other major incidents.

Other key findings are summarised below:

Hardware failure (60%), data corruption (49%) and loss of power (44%) were cited as the primary causes of data loss and downtime.
42% of organizations cite loss of employee productivity as the most likely consequence of data loss and downtime.
44% of organizations who store a backup copy offsite for disaster recovery still use tape for recovery, and 37% still use CD ROM (although 62% now use disk-based storage).
83% of these organizations want to replace tape all together, highlighting the need for next generation backup and recovery.

Commissioned by EMC and conducted by independent research company Vanson Bourne, ‘The Disaster Recovery Survey 2012: Asia Pacific and Japan’ looks at the state of backup and disaster recovery in the region to understand how well companies are prepared for data loss and systems downtime.

For the full report, visit EMC’s website here.

Tags:Asia Pacific, Australia, China, data, Disaster Recovery, EMC, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, loss, Malaysia, research, Singapore, study, survey, Thailand, The Philippines
Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Figures, storage drive, Study, Tech news | 1 Comment »

Samsung finally unveils the GALAXY S III

Friday, May 4th, 2012

After much anticipation, Samsung has officially announced the third generation GALAXY S. The GALAXY S III will be available in Singapore from Q2 2012 in Pebble Blue and Marble White. Prices to be announced later.

Update (23 May 2012): RRP (without contract but incl. GST) in Singapore has been announced at S$998. Availability to be announced later.

Latest update (25 May 2012): Marble White Samsung GALAXY S III will go on sale in Singapore on 30 May. Collection of pre-orders begin 29 May. Pebble Blue version will be available at a later date. Stay tuned!

The Samsung GALAXY S III will come in Pebble Blue and Marble White.

The Samsung GALAXY S III has a 4.8-inch HD Super AMOLED display, an 8-megapixel main camera and 1.9-megapixel FRONT camera that shoots HD video, and is powered by Android 4.0, Ice Cream Sandwich.

“… it enables one of the most seamless, natural and human-centric mobile experiences …,” said JK Shin, President and Head of IT & Mobile Communications Division at Samsung.The GALAXY S III offers WiFi Channel Bonding which doubles the WiFi bandwidth.

For those who are tired of wires, a separate wireless charging kit allows you to charge the phone without plugging it to the socket.

Samsung boasts that the smartphone has been “designed for humans” – by making the phone recognise the user’s voice, understand more human gestures, and by making it easier to share moments on social networks.

Human-centric interface

A “Smart-stay” feature senses and recognises how you are using the smartphone.

For instance, when reading an e-book or browsing the web, the front camera detects the eyes and maintains a bright display on the phone for continual reading.

“S Voice” is Samsung’s advanced natural language user interface that listens and responds to voice commands. Does “S Voice” stand for S~~amsung~~ Voice – its response to S~~iri~~?

For example, you can TELL the GALAXY S III to “snooze” when the alarm goes off, or to play songs, reduce/increase the volume, send text messages and emails, organise your schedules, or launch the camera to take a photo.

Easy sharing

The new “S Beam” expands on Android Beam by allowing a 1GB movie file to be shared within three minutes and a 10MB music file within two seconds by simply touching another GALAXY S III phone, even without a Wi-Fi or cellular signal.

Click to display enlarged view of the tech specs.

“Buddy photo share” function allows photos to be easily and simultaneously shared with the friends pictured in an image directly from the camera or the photo gallery.

“AllShare Cast” allows wireless display of the smartphone’s content onto a larger display.

“AllShare Play” shares files between the GALAXY S III and a tablet, PC or television, regardless of the distance between the devices.

“Group Cast” shares the smartphone’s screen among multiple friends on the same WiFi network.

“Pop up Play” allows a video to continue playing on one part of the screen while other apps and tasks continue simultaneously.

Tags:Android, Galaxy, GALAXY S III, Ice Cream Sandwich, Samsung, smartphone
Posted in Android, Announce, Gadgets, Galaxy, Operating Systems, Phones, Samsung, Software, Specifications, Tech news | 2 Comments »

Experian says you are overloaded by marketers

Thursday, May 3rd, 2012

An independent research conducted by Experian finds that Singapore consumers are suffering from information overload and no longer respond to blanket marketing.

44% of respondents from Singapore interact with only three or fewer brands.

An independent research conducted by Experian in Singapore.

This is the result of poorly targeted communications from multi-channel marketer.

What’s the number one FRUSTRATION?

“The inability to unsubscribe from unwanted communication (email, newsletters, direct mail, SMS alerts, social media messages),” says 28% of consumers in Singapore.

18% of respondents think “receiving content that isn’t relevant or helpful” is their biggest annoyance.

17% of consumers are most frustrated with “online content that is badly formatted / difficult to read / not optimised for mobile devices”.

In addition, 30% of participants said they now IGNORE the emails, direct mail and social media messages they receive from brands because of information overload.

78% of consumers cited that they are very SELECTIVE about what opt-ins, newsletters or updates they sign up for to ensure they are only receiving messages that are relevant to their particular interests.

SG consumers agree that a COMPANY’S WEBSITE is the most valuable source of information they use to look for information about a brand, with 91% stating that it is a relevant or very relevant source.

While 36% of consumers believe the ideal frequency of brand communications is once a month, a quarter of consumers (25%) did not have frequency preferences as long as the communication is RELEVANT.

The survey was conducted locally involving 302 Singapore marketing professionals across the retail, financial services, government, technology, online/digital and travel/leisure industries.

It also included a representative sample of 1,048 consumers across all demographics, in order to explore how effectively the general population responds to and engages with marketing efforts.

Giveaways and incentives (65%) is the number one way for brands to engage the SG consumer. Any surprises here?!

The research also shows a clear DISCONNECT between the communications consumers want from brands and the way they are being targeted by marketers.

For example, although MARKETERS listed print media as one of the least important tools for connecting with consumers – 86% of CONSUMER respondents rated it as the second most valued communication medium.

Tags:consumers, Experian, marketers, overload, research, study
Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Figures, Study, Tech news | No Comments »

Lady Gaga’s manager to speak on All That Matters

Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012

The speaker line-up for the upcoming Digital and Music Matters 2012 (from 22 to 26 May 2012) has been announced.

Troy Carter and other speakers will be at All That Matters from 22-26 May 2012 at The Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore.

Industry experts such as Troy Carter (Lady Gaga’s manager), Bob Ezrin (Music Producer), Adam Smith (YouTube), Tod Machover (MIT Media Lab), Erik Johnson (Facebook), Brian Taptich (Zynga), Craig Hepburn (Nokia), Catherine Leung (Baidu), are set to convene at The Ritz Carlton, Millenia Singapore.

The full list of speakers can be viewed here.

Sponsors

Digital and Music Matters 2012 is supported by the Singapore Tourism Board, Media Development Authority of Singapore, and Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore.

Other key sponsors are; Facebook, YouTube, Nokia, SingTel, Singapore Grand Prix, MTV, rara.com KOCCA, Getty Images, The Orchard, Gracenote, Omnifone, MPAJ, Akamai, Movideo, Haldanes, AsiaWorld-Expo, Turntable, Lushington, Mobile Roadie, Invest HK, Sounds Australia and CIMA.

Participants can look forward to hearing first-hand from the industry’s elites who will be able to share their knowledge and experience discussing all that matters in the music and digital entertainment industry.

Other notable music and industry luminaries who will be attending Music Matters include Bob Lefsetz (the author of The Lefsetz Letter); Andrew Hipsley (McDonald’s Corporation); Souleymane Hamed (Coca Cola Indochina); Michael Chugg (super-promoter); Anthony Zameczkowski (Head of Music, YouTube Asia-Pacific); John McLellan (Haldanes); Michael Paull (Sony Music Entertainment); Stephen Bryan (Warner Music Group); Mike Bebel (Nokia); Haji Taniguchi, (President, Avex Music Publishing and Chairman, MPAJ); and Chee Meng Tan (Director, Music, SingTel).

Tags:Adam Smith, All That Matters, Baidu, Bob Ezrin, Brian Taptich, Catherine Leung, Craig Hepburn, Digital Matters, Erik Johnson, Facebook, Lady Gaga, Music Matters, Nokia, Singapore, Tod Machover, Troy Carter, YouTube, Zynga
Posted in Announce, Lifestyle, Shows | No Comments »

Microsoft and Tata Communications join OVCC

Tuesday, May 1st, 2012

Microsoft Corp, Tata Communications, ACT Conferencing, and Kathea have joined the Open Visual Communications Consortium (OVCC).

The OVCC is a group of leading service and solution providers creating the blueprint to deliver high-quality video collaboration that connects any vendor, any network and any device, anywhere.

23 Members of the OVCC

AARnet Pty., Ltd.
ACT Conferencing#
AT&T*
Acme Packet
BCS Global*
Bharti Airtel*
BT Conferencing*
Dialogic, Inc.*
Glowpoint
Kathea#
Masergy*
Microsoft#
Orange Business Services*
PCCW Global Ltd.
Polycom, Inc.*
Sabre Travel Network
SingTel Group
Tata Commumications#
Teliris*
Telstra*
Verizon*
XConnect
YorkTel Corporation

* the 11 founding members
# the 4 new members

Six months after the launch of the OVCC in October 2011, there are now 23 members in the independent group.

OVCC members contribute to and implement the OVCC technical and commercial blueprint, using established standards and best practices to accelerate and commercialize business-to-business video communications.

OVCC members are committed to providing video around the world to enable enterprise users to place and receive video calls beyond corporate firewalls and across standards-based and proprietary video platforms.

The first OVCC services are scheduled to launch later this year.

Service providers will develop and implement OVCC technical and commercial specifications based on industry standards, best practices and business approaches to answer the need for interconnection, addressing, signaling, interoperability and service coordination.

Interoperable, high-quality connectivity across networks and devices should allow network providers to profitably and predictably monetize their inter-enterprise video exchanges.

Earlier this year, Tata Communications had joined the Global Meeting Alliance – an open business video ecosystem which provides participating enterprises and service providers with greater global reach, lower total cost of ownership and an optimal user experience.

By making interoperability requirements invisible to the enterprise, the OVCC specification enables enterprise users to leverage video conferencing investments and enable more efficient value chains – spanning customers, distributors and suppliers – to improve the speed and efficiency of doing business.

Video collaboration stakeholders interested in closing video connectivity gaps can meet OVCC members in person at TIA in Dallas, Texas, June 5-7, or at CommunicAsia in Singapore, June 19-22.

Tags:ACT Conferencing, Kathea, Microsoft Corp, Open Visual Communications Consortium, OVCC, Tata Communications
Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Microsoft, Tata Communications, Video | No Comments »

The State of the Internet 4Q 2011 report from Akamai

Monday, April 30th, 2012

China is now the top source of observed attack traffic. South Korea boasts both highest average connection speed and highest average peak connection speed.

Fourth Quarter, 2011 State of the Internet report released by Akamai Technologies.

China, at 13 percent, generated the most attack traffic observed by Akamai. The United States (10%) and Indonesia (7.6%) rounded out the top three.

The findings were in the Fourth Quarter, 2011 State of the Internet report released by Akamai Technologies.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, the average measured connection speed for known MOBILE providers worldwide ranged from a high of slightly more than 5 Mbps to a low of 163 kbps.

Approximately 75 percent of the surveyed providers had average connection speeds above 1 Mbps.

Using data collected by Ericsson, the report showed that volume of mobile data traffic in the fourth quarter of 2011 doubled year-over-year and grew 28% quarter-over-quarter.

Going into its fifth year, the report incorporates four-year’s worth of trending data, illustrating how Internet connectivity has improved over time.

Based on data gathered from the Akamai Intelligent Platform, the report provides insight into key global statistics such as Internet penetration, mobile traffic and data consumption, origins of attack traffic, IPv6 adoption and global and regional connection speeds.

In the fourth quarter of 2011, more than 628 million unique IP addresses from 236 countries and regions connected to the Akamai Intelligent Platform. This represents 2.1 percent more IP addresses than connected in the third quarter of 2011, and an increase of 13 percent compared to the same quarter a year ago.

The Fourth Quarter, 2011 State of the Internet report includes a new section that will appear annually going forward and that tracks trends since the report’s inception in 2008.

Speed

Cities in the Asia Pacific region enjoy the fastest connection speeds in the world. Out of the 100 fastest cities worldwide, 69 cities were from the region, with 61 in Japan, six in South Korea, as well as Australia and Hong Kong.

24 cities in North America ranked among the top 100, including two in Canada and 22 in the United States.

Seven cities in Europe – including three in Sweden, two in Switzerland and one each in Romania and Latvia – made up the balance.

Globally, high broadband (>5 Mbps) adoption maintained at 27%.

South Korea took the top spot in high broadband adoption, with 83% of the country’s connections to Akamai > 5 Mbps.

Netherlands was second with 67%. US was twelfth (44%) while Singapore languished at 21st (32%).

Tags:2011, Akamai, Q4, SOTI, State of the Internet
Posted in Akamai Technologies, Announce, Enterprise IT, Figures, Internet, Phones, Study, Tech news | No Comments »

Nimsoft Monitor Certified on VCE Vblock Infrastructure Platforms

Friday, April 20th, 2012

Nimsoft has announced that Nimsoft Monitor has attained the VCE Vblock Ready certification.

Nimsoft Monitor is a component of Nimsoft Unified Manager, a multi-tenant IT Management as-a-Service solution.

This enables users to confidently leverage Nimsoft IT Management-as-a-Service capabilities to rapidly and cost-efficiently gain full visibility into their Vblock infrastructure—along with the rest of their cloud and non-cloud environments.

“Vblock Infrastructure Platforms offer the ability to substantially drive down technology ownership costs while dramatically improving technology value,” said Sumal Karunanayake, Vice President, Nimsoft, Asia Pacific & Japan.Nimsoft Monitor delivers end-to-end performance and availability monitoring of Vblock Infrastructure Platforms at the hardware, network, storage, computing and application layers.

By addressing the Vblock Infrastructure Platform as a whole—rather than as individual components—Nimsoft Monitor enables enterprises and service providers to quickly discover and address the root causes of issues that can adversely affect critical IT services.

Tags:enterprise IT, monitor, Nimsoft
Posted in Announce, Enterprise IT, Utility | No Comments »

Anybody wants a 40-inch tablet computer?

Thursday, April 19th, 2012

Microsoft and Samsung has unveiled the latest in surface computing in SouthEast Asia – the Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft Surface.

Prices for Singapore are estimated to be S$15k with LCD display only, and another S$750 to include the stand.

Samsung SUR40 for Microsoft

New PixelSense Technology enables the Samsung SUR40 to “see” and respond to touch and objects, creating new possibilities for interactive displays in various settings.

Embedding the Samsung SUR40 in a table

With Microsoft’s PixelSense technology, LCD panels can see and respond to touch and objects without using cameras.

SUR40 will allow people to share, collaborate and explore together using a large, thin (4-inch profile) display that recognises fingers, hands and other objects placed on the screen.

The interactive 40-inch Full HD 1080p (1920×1080) LCD panel can be used horizontally as a table, mounted vertically on a wall or embedded in other fixtures and furniture.

The collaboration between Microsoft Surface 2.0 software and Samsung’s display technology is now available through the Samsung channel and reseller partners in Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand.

Samsung SUR40 embedded in a table

Pricing and availability of the SUR40 may vary across countries and/or regions based on country-specific duties, taxes and fees.

Key specifications of the SUR40 is listed below.

(more…)

Tags:Microsoft, Samsung, SUR40, Surface
Posted in Announce, Gadgets, Microsoft, Prices, Samsung, Specifications, Tablets, TV | 1 Comment »

SUBWAY joins Pointpal in Singapore

Wednesday, April 18th, 2012

SUBWAY has become part of Pointpal’s loyalty and rewards community. SUBWAY customers can use their mobile phones (Apple iOS or Google Android based) in place of stamp card for collecting rewards points.

Get a free SUBWAY meal with every 8 stamps collected through Pointpal.

With the addition of SUBWAY, Pointpal claims to be the largest mobile loyalty programme in Singapore.

Pointpal replaces traditional paper and ink stamp collecting booklets/cards.

SUBWAY customers will get a free SUBWAY meal (6-inch sub regular meal) with every 8 stamps collected from SUBWAY.

Customers also enjoy an immediate 2 free stamps when they sign up for this offer from April 15 to May 15.

Customers who want to join the Pointpal community to enjoy the SUBWAY rewards programme need to first download the Pointpal app from either Apple iTunes (AppStore) or Android Market (Google Play).

They then register (which only needs to be done once), and can choose which pre-installed loyalty cards and programmes they wish to participate in, and begin collecting points.

Tags:loyalty, Pointpal, rewards, Singapore, Subway
Posted in Android, Announce, App, Gadgets, iOS, Phones, Shopping | No Comments »

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