Wu Bai’s first photography exhibition in Singapore

October 22nd, 2011
The Leica store at Raffles Hotel is hosting the first photography exhibition in Singapore by Taiwanese rockstar Wu Bai (伍佰). 14 black-and-white photos taken in Taiwan are on display for the 42-day exhibition based on the theme “More Earth”.
Wu Bai launching his first photo exhibition in Singapore from Oct 22 - Dec 2, 2011

Wu Bai launching his first photo exhibition in Singapore from Oct 22 - Dec 2.

Wu Bai (吳俊霖 Wu Jun Ling) is best known for his powerful live shows and rock ballads, Wu Bai composes and writes his own tunes, mostly inspired from his own life experiences. Some of the hits written by the multi award-winning musician include 浪人情歌 (Wanderer’s Love Song) and 挪威的森林 (Norwegian Woods).

Wu Bai says he enjoys hitting the streets of the countries he visits to get the feel of real life.

Wu Bai says he enjoys hitting the streets of the countries he visits to get the feel of real life.

Another avenue of expression for the talented Mandarin rock artiste is his photography. He has published two photo books in 2007 and 2009.

“More Earth” will be open to the public from today until December 2, 2011. Open daily from 10 am till 8 pm, admission is free.

Wu Bai personally launched the exhibition yesterday and spoke in depth for more than half an hour about his passion for photography, despite a bad throat.

He shared that black-and-white photography is his style of choice, even though he started out with colour photography. He had discovered the sensuous touch of black-and-white photography after he viewed some photos of snow scenes that he had taken, and was taken with the almost black-and-white look of those photos.

Wu Bai shares some of the photos he took in Singapore on his iPad.

Wu Bai shares some of the photos he took in Singapore on his iPad.

The photos for “More Earth” were selected based on his concern with how human development and construction is rapidly encroaching on nature, with greens and natural waterways superseded by concrete and steel structures, many of which were not even really necessary.

Date 22 Oct – 2 Dec, 2011
Time 10 am to 8 pm
Venue Leica store,
Raffles Hotel
Address Raffles Hotel Arcade
#01-18

The photos for the exhibition were taken using his Leica M6 and M7 with the 28mm f/2 M Summicron lens.

Plans to bring the exhibition to other countries in South East Asia are underway.

Singapore Leica store celebrates first anniversary

October 21st, 2011
The Leica store at Raffles Hotel in Singapore celebrated its first anniversary today with the a new compact camera and a photo exhibition.
The Leica store at Raffles Hotel Arcade in Singapore celebrates its first anniversary.

The Leica store at Raffles Hotel Arcade in Singapore celebrates its first anniversary.

The Leica store in the Raffles Hotel Arcade (#01-18) first opened its doors on October 10th last year.

Special edition Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium compact digital camera.

Special edition Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium compact digital camera.

As part of its first anniversary celebrations, it has launched the Special Edition of hte Leica D-Lux 5 Titanium compact digital camera.

It also launched the first photography exhibition in Singapore by Taiwanese rock singer Wu Bai (伍佰).

The compact camera has an elegant silver-grey Titanium look, and sports a 10.1-megapixel, 1/1.63” CCD sensor that records 720 pixel HD video.

Wu Bai talks about his passion for photography.

Wu Bai talks about his passion for photography.

Focal range is from 24 to 90 mm (35mm equivalent).

Priced at SS$1,595, the camera comes bundled with the full version of Photoshop Lightroom, which is worth some S$400 on its own.

The standard Leica D-Lux 5 retails at S$1,200.

Wu Bai’s exhibition of 14 black-and-white photos is themed “More Earth” and features photos of the environment that he took in Taiwan.

The exhibition will begin tomorrow and last till December 2, 2011.

It will be open daily from 10 am to 8 pm, admission free.

The9 establishes Red 5 Singapore to operate Firefall

October 21st, 2011
NASDAQ-listed The9, an online game developer and operator in China, announced today that it has established “Red 5 Singapore” for conducting online game operations and R&D activities.
Firefall is a team-based MMORPG 3D Sci-Fi action shooter game from Red 5.

Firefall is a team-based MMORPG 3D Sci-Fi action shooter game from Red 5.

In early 2010, The9 announced its acquisition of majority stake in Red 5 Studios Inc, an online game developer located in California, formed in 2006 “The market share and revenue in Asia has a huge impact on the Firefall global operation. This was one of the reasons why we have decided to set up an Asia headquarters for Firefall,” said Mr Zhu Jun, CEO of Red 5 Singapore. “Singapore is strategically-located, demonstrates a thirst for global talent, latest technology and has strong support from the government. The rich resources of talent, friendly government policy and efficiency here have won us over.”by former executives and developers from Blizzard Entertainment.

“Red 5” in this report refers to Red 5 Studios Inc as opposed to “Red 5 Singapore”.

Since the acquisition, The9 has provided support to Red 5 for the game development and preparation work for launch of Firefall – the first team-based action shooter game from Red 5.

Firefall has already attracted interestfrom gamers, media and industry peers across the world.

It is also part of The9’s ‘Global Game for Global Market’ strategy.

Red 5 Singapore will be responsible for the operation of Firefall in all the countries around the globe“We are delighted that The9 Limited has chosen Singapore as its base to spearhead its global strategy. Red 5’s Asian operation in Singapore will create an opportunity for local talent to work with some of the most respected veterans in the games industry,” said Jayson Goh, Executive Director, Infocomms & Media Division of EDB, Singapore. other than North American and European markets, and will first focus on the Asian markets.

The9 and Red 5 will support Red 5 Singapore with talent recruitment, capital investment, technology, as well as other necessary resources.

Red 5 Singapore will develop localized versions of Firefall according to the progress of the game in each country in the Asia region, and will become the Asian operation and development center for Firefall.

New BlackBerry Curve 9360 arrives in Singapore

October 20th, 2011

Unveiled some two months ago, the Curve 9360 has now been launched in Singapore. The sleek, fast and easy-to-use smartphone from Research In Motion (RIM) promises to deliver smooth social experiences wherever you go.

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 was first unveiled in late August 2011.

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 was first unveiled in late August 2011.

The BlackBerry 9360 features the new BlackBerry 7 operating system and is now available in Singapore from authorised BlackBerry partners and carriers. The main specs can be found here.

The new BlackBerry Curve smartphone retains the iconic QWERTY keyboard and an optical trackpad for easy, one-handed navigation. GPS and Wi-Fi support are also included, as well as a 5MP camera with flash and video recording that can be shared instantly on social networks. The microSD/SDHC slot supports up to 32 GB memory cards for additional media storage.

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 smartphone features an upgraded processor and display, more memory, and built-in support for NFC (Near Field Communication) – a new technology that enables the ability to pair accessories or read SmartPoster tags with a simple tap of the smartphone.

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 focuses on providing a smooth social experience.

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 focuses on providing a smooth social experience.

The BlackBerry Curve 9360 promises to provide the world’s “best mobile communications and social experiences” with a highly refined and integrated suite of phone, email, messaging and social apps to keep users connected and productive throughout the day.

The latest release of BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) is pre-loaded, and users can interact with other ‘BBM connected’ apps. The social experience includes an updated Social Feeds (2.0) app, Facebook for BlackBerry smartphones (2.0) app, and Twitter for BlackBerry.

Quick summary of IT company results

October 19th, 2011

It’s been a busy few days of earnings results from IT bigwigs. Here’s a quick sum-up of the state of the IT industry:

Brisk days of results from Apple, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, RIM BlackBerry, Amazon, and IBMYahoo! did well with profits beating estimates – could it be because expectations were low?

Conversely, Apple didn’t do so good, missing analysts’ predictions for the first time in at least six years – but that’s probably because expectations were so high!

Google’s doing real well with sales and profit beating estimates – from search advertising growth as usual.

Microsoft is patting itself on its back – for not having bought Yahoo! back in 2008. And taking a swipe at Google’s Android – Steve Balmer says you need to be a computer scientist to use an Android smart phone, unlike Windows Phone 7.

RIM’s still trying to find its way forward by taking a step backward – trying to bridge new QNX with “old” BlackBerry OS 7 – hope that works out.

Amazon is being sued for screwing up the career of an actress by revealing her real age against her will in IMDb.

On the corporate IT front, industry bell weather IBM missed analysts’ estimates on slowing revenue growth at its software, hardware and services businesses.

RIM unveils BlackBerry BBX

October 19th, 2011

At BlackBerry DevCon Americas 2011, RIM unveiled BlackBerry BBX – the next generation mobile platform that takes the best of the BlackBerry platform for its smartphones and the best of the QNX platform that it uses for its PlayBook tablets.

“With nearly 5 million BlackBerry apps downloaded daily, our customers have made BlackBerry one of the most profitable platforms for developers,” said Mike Lazaridis, President and Co-CEO at RIM.The BBX platform will include BBX-OS, and will support BlackBerry cloud services and development environments for both HTML5 and native developers.

BBX will also support applications developed using any of the tools available today for the BlackBerry PlayBook – including Native SDK, Adobe AIR/Flash and WebWorks/HTML5, as well as the BlackBerry Runtime for Android Apps – on future BBX-based tablets and smartphones.

Research In Motion (RIM) believes the new BBX will connect people, devices, content and services.

RIM freebies to recompense service disruptions

October 18th, 2011

Research In Motion (RIM) is making moves to recompense widespread service disruptions last week. Premium apps will be offered free of charge to BlackBerry customers, while enterprise customers will be offered one month of free Technical Support.

Gesture from RIM to sooth ruffled customers.Last week, many BlackBerry users experienced service interruptions and delays over a period of approximately 3 days in Europe, the Middle East, India and Africa, 1.5 days in Latin America and Canada, and 1 day in the United States.

Global teams worked around the clock to contain the issue and minimize the impact to customers as much as possible. Service levels returned to normal on Thursday, October 13.

To make amends for the disruptions, RIM has offered – for free – more than US$100 worth of premium apps from October 19 to December 31, 2011.

RIM’s enterprise customers will also be offered one month of free Technical Support. Current customers will be offered a complimentary one month extension of their existing Technical Support contract.

Customers who do not currently have a Technical Support contract will be offered a one month trial of RIM’s BlackBerry Technical Support Services – Enhanced Support, free of charge.

Additional details about the program and information about how to register will be available here.

Free Premium Apps from BlackBerry App World

October 17th, 2011

Research In Motion (RIM) announced today that more than US$100 worth of selected premium apps will be offered free of charge to BlackBerry customers, in view of service disruptions last week.

Game Publisher
SIMS 3 Electronic Arts
Bejeweled Electronic Arts
N.O.V.A. Gameloft
Texas Hold’em Poker 2 Gameloft
Bubble Bash 2 Gameloft
Photo Editor Ultimate Ice Cold Apps
iSpeech Translator Pro iSpeech.org
DriveSafe.ly Pro iSpeech.org
Drive Safe.ly Enterprise iSpeech.org
Nobex Radio Premium Nobex
Shazam Encore Shazam
Vlingo Plus: Virtual Assistant Vlingo

The apps will be available from October 19 to December 31, 2011.

The complete selection of premium apps will become available for download at BlackBerry App World over a period of four weeks beginning Wednesday, October 19th.

The selections over this period will include the following (with more to come):

New Mac portable hard drives: My Passport Studio and My Passport for Mac

October 16th, 2011

Western Digital has launched two new portable hard drives designed for use with Mac computers and Apple Time Machine, with capacities of 500GB, 750GB and 1 TB.

Western Digital My Passport for Mac

Western Digital My Passport for Mac

The Mac-inspired designs of the compact portable hard drives feature matches the external designs of Mac computers.

Powered through the USB 2.0 or Firewire connection, these portable drives allow convenient quick connect external storage without the hassle of lugging additional power adaptors and cables.

My Passport for Mac features a USB 2.0 interface and is an easy way to increase the minimal local storage on MacBook and MacBook Air notebooks.

Western Digital My Passport Studio

Western Digital My Passport Studio

My Passport Studio sports an all-metal design, with two FireWire 800 ports and a USB 2.0 interface. The FireWire ports provide fast upload and transfer speeds and can be used to daisy chain up to five additional drives or peripherals such as HD camcorders.

“The speed of the fifth device at the end of the daisy chain is only slower by less than 10% of the first device on the chain,” according to Sheraine Chua, Regional Sales Manager of Branded Products at Western Digital.

Capacity My Passport Studio My Passport for MAC
500 GB S$169 S$119
750 GB S$189 S$129
1 TB S$219 S$159

My Passport Studio also features encryption and password protection software.

New wireless streaming media player: WD TV Live

October 15th, 2011

The S$189 WD TV Live is an easy to use Wi-Fi enabled media player that can stream media either from a network attached storage drive in the local network, or directly from the Internet – via an Ethernet connection or the high performance 802.11n wireless connectivity.

Western Digital WD TV Live wireless streaming media player

Western Digital WD TV Live wireless streaming media player

If you don’t already own an Apple TV or Google TV, check out WD TV Live from Western Digital.

Western Digital WD TV Live streaming media playerThe Wi-Fi enabled media player comes with its own apps to stream media from Internet video, radio and social networking sites such as YouTube, Dailymotion, Facebook, Picassa Web Albums, and TuneIn Radio directly to your TV in Full-HD 1080p resolution. Dailymotion video service is now included to offer video

WD TV Live also includes Fun Spot Games, a casual gaming service that offers arcade, strategy, and card games, puzzles, and quizzes. Some of these games include Sudoku, Black Jack and Poker.

WD TV Live allows users to enjoy personal media such as photos, video and music on their home entertainment systems.

Access Internet media content using WD TV Live in Full-HD 1080p resolution.

Access Internet media content using WD TV Live in Full-HD 1080p resolution.

It supports a wide range of file formats for streaming content from any connected USB drive, digital camcorder or camera, network drive such as the My Book Live personal cloud storage, and any networked PC or Mac computer in the home.