Nokia announces Nokia N79 today, it will be available in the 1st quarter next year. It will be the first Nseries touch device and the 2nd Nokia touch device after Nokia XpressMusic 5800.

Press Pictures

Nokia N97

Nokia N97

Nokia N97

Technical Profile

• System: WCDMA 900/1900/2100 (HSDPA),EGSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz
• User Interface: S60 5th Edition
• Dimensions: 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9 mm*mm (L x W x H) *18.25 mm at camera area
• Weight: Approx. 150 g
• Display: 3.5 inch TFT with up to 16 million colors, nHD16:9 widescreen (640×360 pixels)
• Battery: Nokia Battery BP-4L, 1500 mAh
• Media
  • Memory: Up to 48GB (32 GB on-board memory, plus 16GB expansion via microSD memory card slot)
  • Video playback: MPEG-4 / SP and MPEG-4 AVC/H.264,up to 30 fps, up to VGA resolution RealVideo up to QCIF @ 30 fps Windows Media (WMV9) up to CIF @ 30 fps
  • Flash Lite 3.0 / Flash Video in internet browser
• Music playback: MP3, AAC, eAAC, eAAC+, WMA
• Main Camera
  • Lens: Carl ZeissTessar
  • Image capture: Up to 5 megapixels (2584 x 1938) JPEG/EXIF (16.7 million/24-bit color)
  • Video capture: MPEG-4 VGA (640 x 480) at up to 30 fps
  • Aperture: F2.8
  • Focal length:5.4 mm
  • Flash: Dual LED camera flash and video light

Press Release

Desktop. Laptop. Pocket: The era of the personal Internet dawns with the Nokia N97
December 02, 2008

Tilting touch display, QWERTY keyboard and personalized home screen - a true mobile computer

Barcelona, Spain - Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N97, the world’s most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet-savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5″ touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an ‘always open’ window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia’s flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology - including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds - for people to create a personal Internet and share their ’social location.’

Press Release: Desktop. Laptop. Pocket: The era of the personal Internet dawns with the Nokia N97
Specifications: Nokia N97 Datasheet
Detailed Specifications: Nokia N97 Device Details

Went to Sitex 2008 yesterday with Julian, Kelvin and Weiquan. Surprising it was not very crowded. Now I am starting to dislike exhibitions at Sitex because it is so far! This year Sitex is quite a disappointment, Ban Leong did not take part and hence no Razer products. After walking Hall 5 and 6 of Singapore Expo, it makes me feel that this exhibition is selling TV instead of computer! The prices for some of the stuffs are not that cheap at all. I got my D-Link DNS-323 at SGD$199 from Comex 2008 back in August 2008 but now they are selling at SGD$209? Prices should drop and not increase!

I think the most value for money are the memory cards, thumbdrives and portable hardisk. Kelvin and I got the SanDisk Ultra II (Class 4) 8GB SDHC for just SGD$33. Julian got the SanDisk Cruzer Micro Skin 4GB Thumbdrive for just SGD$12! I bought the exact same thumbdrive for SGD$19.90 at Giant Hypermarket a few months back!

I also got my brother a TravelPac Memory/SIM Card Reader for SGD$26.90.

I did not get for Li Xiang the Samsung 2233SW 22” widescreen LCD monitor because the images look squashed on the monitor perhaps due to the long width and short height and a weird resolution of 1920×1080 and an aspect ratio of 16:9 whereas widescreen monitors all have an aspect ratio of 16:10.

After Sitex 2008, we proceed on to Bugis to have lunch and then went to Sim Lim Square! Julian bought Neverwinter Nights 2: Storm of Zehir for SGD$39.90, Weiquan bought the X-Mini Capsule Speakers for SGD$35 and Kelvin bought a memory card reader for SGD$12.

Judging from what we buy at Sim Lim Square, there is nothing much to buy at Sitex 2008 actually.

I am aiming for the D-Link DIR-655 wireless N router to upgrade my home network “infrastructure”, it is selling at SGD$139 during the special promotion but it is limited to the first 30 customers at 6.30pm yesterday. The usual price is SGD$229. Hopefully the next IT exhibition (IT Show 2009) on the 12th March 2009 will have better promotions for it.

Schedules for 2009 IT exhibitions:

• IT Show 2009: 12th March 2009 to 15th March 2009 (Suntec City)
• The PC Show 2009: 11th June 2009 to 14th June 2009 (Suntec City)
• Comex 2009: 10th September 2009 to 13th September 2009 (Suntec City)
• Sitex 2009: No information yet (Singapore Expo)

My year 3, semester 1 exams are over! Yesterday was my last paper, CS4254 - IS Project Management. The paper was the most difficult paper for me in this semester and even most of my friends say so. We did the past year paper and it was much easier even though it is set by the same lecturer.

Will be heading down to SITEX 2008 later at 12pm to hoot the Samsung 2233SW 22” widescreen LCD monitor for SGD$239 for Li Xiang. That is really a good buy. It boost a resolution nearly of a 24″ widescreen monitor of 1920 x 1080, an aspect ratio of 16:9 and a 5ms response time. Click here for the full specifications.

I will be leaving to Taiwan on the 14th December 2008 and coming back on the 31st December 2008. The first 6 days 5 nights will be a tour package and after that we will extend free and easy till the 31st December 2008. The flight is by Singapore Airlines (SQ). This will be my 2nd time taking SQ, the last time I took was to KL at least 15 years ago or so.

I think after I come back from Taiwan, my mandarin will definitely be improved!

Had my first paper on Saturday 9am. It is a good thing that my school McDonald’s is now 24 hours and Subway is also 24 hours during the exams period which ends on 6th December 2008.

This semester, all my papers are open book. My first paper is CS3251 - Technology Strategy Management , the paper was average, pretty similar to the previous year paper.

Caught Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa at GV Grand at Great World City, wanted to book at GV VivoCity but I booked wrongly!! I think I have booked at least 100 movies before through GV Website and this is the first time I booked wrongly, must be due to exams stress.

Great World City changed a lot or at least since the last time I been there! There is now Fish & Co there, Mark & Spencers replaces Best Denki, Burger King replaces Country Mana, British India replaces a Malaysia Fashion Boutique (can’t remember the name, but starts with W) and Pump Room is also there as well.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa was not bad, I think it is better than the first one, the penguins are still as smart and cunning as ever. At least this time I think they got more screen time compared to Madagascar 1.

I love the OST, the “I like to move it, move it” song is now sang by will.i.am.

Also, there will be a Madagascar 3 set to be released in 2011 where the characters will make it back to New York.

Okie back to study. Having CS4251 - Strategic IS Planning on Tuesday and my last paper CS4254 - IS Project Management on Thursday.

Good luck to me =D

Li Xiang has finished her exams! Argh!

Just came back from the launch of Intel Core i7 at Equinox, Swissotel The Stamford. This is the second time I have been to Equinox, the first time was attending OCBC Chinese New Year dinner with my mom.

My Badge

Equinox is located at the 70th floor of Swissotel The Stamford and you can expect the view to be fantastic.

Nice View Of The CBD

The place is pretty small, there were about 10 PCs setup with games running on the Core i7 and it doesn’t lag! Maybe because some of the gaming rig are using Nvidia SLI/ ATI CrossFire graphics card. There is also a demo by an Australian Overclocker which uses liquid nitrogen (he literally brought the whole tank of liquid nitrogen) to overclock the Core i7. He did not show us what clock speed is it running but rather the temperature of the CPU which is about 4deg;

I am very expressed by the speed of the processor, there is a demo between a Core 2 Quad and Core i7 processor base on 3D rendering and video encoding, and the results are impressive. I love the hyper-threading (HT) on the Core i7 which makes your OS recognize it as 8 cores instead of just 4, similar to the technology used in Pentium 4 half a decade ago.

Core i7 Specifications in CPU-Z

There are 3 flavors of the Core i7 available, Core i7-920 running at 2.66GHz, Core i7-940 running at 2.93GHz and Core i7-965 XE running at 3.2Ghz. It is available in Sim Lim Square as of today, they started shipping it 2 weeks ago to retailers at Sim Lim Square but they only can start selling from today onwards.

Prices wise, it is pretty steep, ranging from SGD$919 to SGD$2,176 with motherboard bundle and not forgetting it only support DDR3 RAM (which is expensive now) if I am not wrong.

Core i7 Prices - Click To View Larger Image

You might want to wait till next year for the price to drop before upgrading your computer. It suddenly makes my Core 2 Quad Q9450 very outdated. But I think the next time I change my computer (5 years later in 2013), it should have at least 16 cores and with HT, it will become 32 cores.

I have uploaded the pictures take I took to Facebook, you can check out here.

Wilfrid if you are reading this, thanks for the dinner treat =D

I ordered my Fabrix Cases for my MacBook Pro last Sunday and it got delivered to me on Wednesday via post. It is not by courier but a normal mail post (SGD$1.50 stamp). I am also wondering how the postman manage to squeeze the laptop sleeve into my letter box.

I ordered the Delux Laptop Cases and I chose Black Suite as the design. It cost SGD$59.90 and you can pay by Paypal. Delivery is free if it is within Singapore.

Saw two threads in Hardware Zone forums, Post pic of ur room~ and Showcase Your Mac(s) 2008 and I have decided to take some pictures of my computer table.

Just thought of sharing with you guys if you are wondering how my workspace is.

Yaki Yaki Bo
Yesterday was Li Xiang 24th birthday. Had a mini celebration with her by eating at Yaki Yaki Bo at Jurong Point at the newly opened Japanese food area called Shokutsu 10 - Osaka. It is a Teppanyaki Restaurant, similar concept to Sakae Teppanyaki. The interesting thing is that instead of placing your food on plates or aluminum foil, the place it on top of a bread perhaps to absorb the oil. Prices range between SGD$12.90 to SGD$29.90 for the executive set meals.

Personally I think that the chef at Yaki Yaki Bo do not have much skills as compared to the chef at Sakae Teppanyaki. There is almost no performance and the way the cook is very “neat” whereas the chef at Sakae Teppanyaki do perform some tricks and he cook the food almost all over the place.

You can view the photos that I uploaded to Facenook here, Lay Hiang 24th Birthday.

Quantum Of Solace
After dinner, we went to watch Quantum Of Solace at GV Jurong Point. The show is at 9.25pm. The movie as average, lots of action but the storyline is a little confusing at least more confusing than Casio Royale. Many people say you need to re-watch Casio Royale before you can watch Quantum Of Solace which I think that is true to a certain extend. Basically I have no idea what is going on, I just watch it for the action.

Presents
Bought 3 presents for Li Xiang, the first present is Kipling new Autumn/Winter 2008 Collection wallet, called “If | New Money Cuby Brown”, the second present is a book called Package Design Now and the last present is also a book called Little People in the City: The Street Art of Slinkachu. Li Xiang is a bookworm!

Happy 24th Birthday Penguin!

Looking Back

• 23rd Birthday
• 22nd Birthday
• 21st Birthday
• 20th Birthday
• 19th Birthday

Tropic Thunder
Caught Tropic Thunder a few weeks back and I think is is not a bad show, lots of cameo appearances. And I didn’t picture Les Grossman as Tom Cruise till I saw the credits.

I also like the conversation between Tugg Speedman and Alpa Chino, it made me laugh the most.

Tugg Speedman: Now, let’s go get those Viet Congs.
Alpa Chino: “Viet Cong!”
Tugg Speedman: What?
Alpa Chino: It’s “viet cong.” There’s no “s,” it’s already plural. You wouldn’t say “Chineses…”

Not forgetting the scene when Tom Cruise dances to Low by Flo-Rida Featuring T Pain. Thumbs up for that.

Saw V
Met up with Geargina last Monday to watch Saw V as no one dared to watch the show because of the gore. Had Sushi Tei at VivoCity for the first time as I don’t really have a good impression of Sushi Tei as being good. But to my surprise, the food is not bad and the prices are quite reasonable.

Saw V is still as good but not as much gore as the predecessor. I can’t wait for Saw VI next Halloween as that will conclude the whole series.

President
Barack Obama: 364
John McCain: 163

Senate
Democrats: 57
Republicans: 40

House
Democrats: 254
Republicans: 173

Now that Obama wins, hopefully US economy will recover and most importantly US dollar will go up!

Fellow Singaporeans, we need to make a change to Singapore in 2011. I had enough of our current government.