Archive for the ‘Apps’ Category

New arrivals: Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 Android tablet in Singapore

Thursday, July 23rd, 2015

The new Galaxy Tab S2 comes in 9.7-inch and 8-inch form factors as well as 4G+ and Wi-Fi configurations, with 32GB memory and microSD support up to 128GB.

Prices range from S$598 to S$798 (see below). Black available from 7 August while Gold will be in later August.

At just 5.6mm thin and weighing only 389g (9.7”) and 265g (8.0”), Samsung claims that the Galaxy Tab S2 is the thinnest and lightest tablet of its size in the market, and is packed with powerful performance features to offer enhanced usability, whether for productivity and multitasking, or simply enjoying immersive content anytime, anywhere.

At just 5.6mm thin and weighing only 389g (9.7”) and 265g (8.0”), Samsung claims that the Galaxy Tab S2 is the thinnest and lightest tablet of its size in the market, and is packed with powerful performance features to offer enhanced usability, whether for productivity and multitasking, or simply enjoying immersive content anytime, anywhere.

Samsung is targeting users looking for a premium tablet for multimedia entertainment and personal use.

The 4G+ LTE Category 6 capability (for the 4G+ versions) promise users faster Internet access for browsing and downloading content.

Prices and detailed descriptions from the press release below.

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Twitter launches Periscope on Android (already on iOS)

Wednesday, May 27th, 2015

You can get Periscope free on the Google Play Store.

Periscope is now available for Android.

Periscope is now available for Android.

Periscope enables users to start or watch a live video broadcast.

Android owners using Version 4.4 (KitKat) and above can download Periscope from Google Play.

Periscope on Android has all the same core features of the existing Periscope:

  • start a public or private broadcast.
  • choose to allow comments from just those you follow.
  • interact with a broadcaster by chatting or sending hearts.

There are a few things that are unique to Android:

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Facebook enhances mobile app with sidebar

Friday, May 22nd, 2015

Facebook has enhanced the sidebar space within its Facebook mobile app – creating a dedicated place for you and your friends to stay up to date on all of the things you do every day.

Facebook enhances sidebar within its mobile app.

Facebook enhances sidebar within its mobile app.

People go to News Feed to catch up on what friends are posting at certain times of the day, like a best friend’s engagement or pictures from a university reunion.

But many users want a place to see and share the smaller updates that are a part of their day.

Setting your sidebar status in the Facebook app.

Setting your sidebar status in the Facebook app.

The Facebook sidebar is used by millions of people daily to quickly find and contact friends and loved ones while on the go with their mobile.

Now, you can visit the sidebar to get a quick look at what your friends are currently doing.

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Review: Lumia 640XL Windows Phone phablet from Microsoft Devices

Tuesday, May 19th, 2015

The 5.7-inch Lumia 640 XL (S$429) comes with Windows Phone 8.1 with Lumia Denim, a 13-megapixel rear camera and 3000mAh removable battery. Wee Wu Neo from The Neo Dimension checks out the affordable phablet from Microsoft Devices.

The Lumia 640 XL will be available in matte cyan, orange, black, and white.

The Lumia 640 XL will be available in matte cyan, orange, black, and white.

The Lumia 640 series features the first Microsoft-branded LTE smartphones since the acquisition of Nokia Mobile.

By the look of its price and hardware specification, the Lumia 640 series exhibits almost identical performance to the Android Motorola MotoG.

The Lumia 640 XL with its 3000mAh removable battery. Photo credit: Wee Wu Neo.

The Lumia 640 XL with its 3000mAh removable battery. Photo credit: Wee Wu Neo.

This review covers the Lumia 640 XL, the Windows Phone phablet in the Lumia 640 series.

Design and Build

The Lumia 640 XL measures 157.9 x 81.5 x 9.0mm and weighs 171g.

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Adobe adds Photoshop Lightroom CC to Creative Cloud Photography

Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015

Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan – with Photoshop CC and the new Photoshop Lightroom CC – is now available across desktop and mobile for S$13 per month.

All existing Photography and Creative Cloud complete plan members are able to access the new version of Lightroom CC today – at no extra charge.

All existing Photography and Creative Cloud complete plan members are able to access the new version of Lightroom CC today – at no extra charge.

The new Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC promises fast performance and new tools to edit, enhance, organise and showcase photos.

With Lightroom CC and Photoshop CC, Adobe Creative Cloud Photography includes mobile capabilities – automatically syncing photos with Lightroom CC on the desktop, while Lightroom on mobile devices lets users access and edit their entire catalog of photos on iPad, iPhone as well as Android smartphones and tablets.

Creative Cloud Photography is making the transition for digital photography from a traditional desktop-based process to a more mobile, connected workflow for digital images.

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Competition: PayPal CodeCallenge for Student Developers – 17 April 2015

Monday, April 13th, 2015

PayPal will be launching CodeChallenge – the online payments provider’s first coding competition for students in Singapore.

Calling Student Developers in Singapore - join PayPal’s CodeChallenge online this Friday on 17 April, 2015.

Calling Student Developers in Singapore – join PayPal’s CodeChallenge online this Friday on 17 April, 2015.

CodeChallenge is a nationwide coding contest aimed at nurturing budding young coders in Singapore.

Open to students currently enrolled in a school or educational institution based in Singapore, participants will need to demonstrate their coding prowess by solving a set of coding challenges within a time limit.

The online competition will commence at 7pm sharp and coders will have to submit their solutions within two hours.

Attractive prizes to be won.

Attractive prizes to be won.

The next morning, they will join fellow coders at PayPal’s office where the solutions and winners will be announced.

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GrabTaxi invests US$100m in its first R&D Centre in Singapore

Wednesday, April 8th, 2015

With senior hires from Facebook, Amazon and Palantir Technologies, Singapore is slated to become GrabTaxi’s technology hub.

The GrabTaxi R&D Centre is located at 138 Cecil Street, Cecil Court, Singapore 069538.

The GrabTaxi R&D Centre is located at 138 Cecil Street, Cecil Court, Singapore 069538.

GrabTaxi, one of Southeast Asia’s largest mobile phone transport app, has opened its first Research and Development (R&D) Centre in Singapore.

“Though we remain focused on Southeast Asia, we know that talent is global. This new R&D Centre has put on us a level playing field with the largest technology companies in the world. In fact, we’ve recently hired great senior talent from companies like Facebook, Amazon and Palantir Technologies, as their experience and expertise with these global powerhouses will help GrabTaxi reach our true potential,” said Anthony Tan, GrabTaxi Founder and Group CEO.

This will become GrabTaxi’s technology hub and it will house the majority of its technical staff and engineers from around the world.

The 4500 sq. ft. centre is located in the heart of Singapore’s bustling Central Business District and will eventually house 200 engineers and data scientists, which is a specialised role focused on analysing data and spotting trends from multiple data sources.

This US$100 million investment over a few years is a milestone for Southeast Asian startups as very few brands – local or regional – has made such a significant investment in technology infrastructure and talent based out of Singapore.

Eventually, 200 engineers and data scientists will occupy the 4,500 sq. ft. GrabTaxi R&D Centre.

Eventually, 200 engineers and data scientists will occupy the 4,500 sq. ft. GrabTaxi R&D Centre.

The R&D Centre reinforces GrabTaxi’s commitment to the region and an acknowledgment that Southeast Asia has the infrastructure and capacity to become a global technology hub.

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Eduardo Saverin & Sequoia funds launch of 99.co expansion

Friday, January 30th, 2015

The growing online property portal 99.co has officially launched its web and mobile search products, announcing a major round of funding and expansion into the residential sales segment.

Panel at the official launch of 99.co at the AVALON at Marina Bay Sands. From Left: Tan Kok Keong (CEO, REMS); Evan Chung (VP, DTZ); Darius Cheung (CEO, 99.co); Eduardo Saverin (Co-founder of Facebook and investor of 99.co); Eugene Lim (KEO, ERA); Mohd Ismail (CEO, Propnex). Photo credit: 99.co.

Panel at the official launch of 99.co at the AVALON at Marina Bay Sands. From Left: Tan Kok Keong (CEO, REMS); Evan Chung (VP, DTZ); Darius Cheung (CEO, 99.co); Eduardo Saverin (Co-founder of Facebook and investor of 99.co); Eugene Lim (KEO, ERA); Mohd Ismail (CEO, Propnex). Photo credit: 99.co.

Online property search portal 99.co has officially launched an expansion of its services into the residential sales segment and new investments totaling S$2.7 million to date.

“When I was trying to find a home for myself here in Singapore a few years ago, 99.co didn’t exist and I naturally explored all web and mobile tools available, and I was nothing short of disappointed. Were the listings real and available? Was the pricing data and other details accurate? Why so many duplicates?  It was a high-friction and time consumer experience that had to change,” says investor and user Eduardo Saverin.

The portal aims to “create the most trusted and authentic way for users to find a home they’ll love”.

99.co prioritises the end consumer experience first, promising unbiased search results, personalised to the query of the end user and sorted by the quality of the listing data versus by the promotional spend of the agents.

Since its soft-launch in November last year, 99co has introduced two mobile apps and ListRank, an algorithm that provides users the best and most relevant search results, and in the process doubled its web traffic.

In the same period, the company says its competitors such as PropertyGuru and iProperty have seen a decrease of web traffic between 10 and 20 percent.

Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, sharing why he invested in 99.co.

Eduardo Saverin, co-founder of Facebook, sharing why he invested in 99.co. Photo credit: John Tan, taken on Samsung Galaxy Note 4.

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Video Boost debuts in new Opera Mini 9 for iOS

Thursday, November 6th, 2014

Opera claims that its Video Boost is a first for mobile web browsers, offering faster loading time and money savings from data reduction (compression). Available now FREE from Apple App Store.

The new Opera Mini 9 for iOS comes with video boost feature that compresses video before delivering to your mobile phone, saving you from staring at the video-buffering wheel, as well as data savings.

The new Opera Mini 9 for iOS comes with video boost feature that compresses video before delivering to your mobile phone, saving you from staring at the video-buffering wheel, as well as data savings.

iPhone and iPad users will see less of the dreaded video-buffering wheel, using the new video boost feature in the Opera Mini 9 web browser.

“This is the first time video optimization has been integrated into a web browser, so your browser can now take pride of place as your favorite video app. Video snags are a small problem, but an annoying one — a pothole on the internet highway. And Opera fixed it,” says Lars Boilesen, CEO of Opera Software.

People love watching video on their mobiles and tablets.

Unfortunately, this can eat up a data plan quickly, and stalled videos waste time and create frustration.

Opera Mini boasts that it can address this problem with video boost.

Video boost brings down buffering time for eager video viewers, by reducing the size of video data.

Using the Rocket Optimizer engine from Opera’s Skyfire division, video boost can also save users on their data bills.

Optimising videos is becoming increasingly important, as video viewing explodes on mobile phones.

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Review: ASUS PadFone S Android smartphone cum tablet combo

Saturday, November 1st, 2014

As a pioneer of 2-in-1 mobile devices, ASUS offers with the PadFone S the portability of the smartphone and the larger screen of a tablet by selling both at the price of one device.

Two colours are available for the ASUS PadFone S - Dark Ruby (shown above) and Pure White.

Two colours are available for the ASUS PadFone S – Dark Ruby (shown above) and Pure White. Photo: ASUS Singapore.

The PadFone S was launched in Singapore on 14 October, 2014 together with 11 other new mobile and computing products.

The PadFone S is a 5-inch Android smartphone that comes with a PadFone S Station.

The PadFone S I reviewed was the Pure White version. Normal retail price: S$449.

The PadFone S I reviewed was the Pure White version. Normal retail price: S$449.

You can use the PadFone S on its own like any smartphone or you can slot it into the back of the PadFone S Station and use the combination as an 8.9-inch tablet, leveraging the larger backlit Super IPS display of the Station.

You can’t use the PadFone S Station on its own though, because it is simply a dumb display with no computer processors within.

Actually, the Station has more – it also includes a 4990mAh Li-Polymer (non-removable) battery to provide the larger energy demands of powering a larger display.

The larger battery can also be used to charge the PadFone S to extend its battery life from 22 hours talk-time (3G) to 64 hours.

The combined PadFone S in the Station felt a little bit hefty though, at a combined weight of 664g.

My view:
I found the ASUS PadFone S provided me with the portability of a smartphone and – only when I need it – a truely larger display and usability of a tablet –> all at the price of a single device (or less).

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