Got the Canon Digital IXUS 860 IS (Black) from Comex 2007 for $669. The silver version is only coming in September 2007.

Freebies:

- 2x 2GB SD Card
- 1x Digital Kit Bag
- 1x Case
- 1x Samsonite Travel Waist Shoulder Bag

Camera features:

- 3.8x (28mm) wide-angle lens with optical Image Stabilizer
- 8.0 Megapixels
- High ISO 1600 and Auto ISO Shift
- Canon DIGIC 3 with Noise Reduction technology
- Face Detection AF/AE/FE
- Improved Red-Eye Correction in playback
- 3.0 PureColor LCD
- Digital Tele-Converter and Safety Zoom for extra telephoto reach
- 17 shooting modes and My Colors photo effects
- Extensive movie options including VGA 30fps
- Long Play and Time Lapse movie modes
- Made in Japan

Taken from Digital Camera Review

This camera makes my Sony Cybershot T1 very oudated. But anyway, the IXUS 860 is meant for my mom’s office and the T1 is still my family’s personal camera. I already told my mom to get a 10mp camera when it is out to officially replace the T1.

I managed to get 3 videos from Dinesh that are played during the press conference and uploaded it to YouTube with permission from him of course.

The video came encoded in MPEG2 codec and I compressed it using DivX in order to meet the 100MB limit that YouTube has.

Enjoy!

The second and last day for the Nokia: Go Play was held in The Oriental Singapore, ballroom 1.

As usual there was an introductory speech followed by 2 panel discussions:

Panel Discussion on the Nokia NGage Platform

• Nokia rep: Ilkka Raiskinen, SVP, Multimedia Experiences, Nokia Multimedia
• Ludovic Blondel, OEM Director, GameLoft
• Vishal Gondal, Founder & CEO, Indiagames Ltd
• Bryan Ma, Director, Personal Systems Research, IDC Asia Pacific
• Moderator: Keith Liu, Head of Internet & Games Experiences, Asia Pacific, Nokia Multimedia

Summary of topics discuss during the above panel includes:

• Battery life
• Gaming violence
• Distribution of games on N-gage platform
• Local gaming content
• Target audience
• From casual gaming to addiction

Panel Discussion on Nokia Music Services

• Nokia rep: Jawahar Kanjilal, Director of Multimedia Experiences, Asia Pacific, Nokia Multimedia
• Nokia rep: Alex Lambeek, Vice President, Sales and Portfolio Management, Mobile Phones, Asia Pacific, Nokia
• Sandy Monteiro, Senior Vice President, Southeast Asia, Universal Music
• Bryan Ma, Director, Personal Systems Research, IDC Asia Pacific
• Moderator: Joe Augustin, Veteran DJ and Emcee

Summary of topics discuss during the above panel includes:

• 20% increased in digital sales and hence physical sales decreases
• Customize to individual
• 2/3 surveyed wants convergence of devices.
• Convergence started with FM radio
• Local music store
• DRM getting bad reputation
• Ease of use in downloading/transferring of music led to growth
• Bitrate vs file size of the audio tracks
• 2 million songs will be ready when launched
• Privacy will decline when people can use it easily and the price is reasonable

I also realized that people who asked questions in the first panel discussion will always ask it in the second panel discussion.

Lunch was next at the MELT and the spread and quality of the food is simply fantastic. I think by just trying a piece from every dish, you will get full. I was eating alone at first till I saw Blair which so happens to be Nic soon-to-be wife. I saw her the day before at the dinner and I find her very familiar, then after checking Nic’s Facebook, I am 80% sure it is the same girl and I confirmed it during the lunch. LOL

After lunch, I proceeded on the Press Room where they have the phones for me to play with and I managed to snap a few lousy quality pictures (photography is just not my cup of tea) and 2 videos showing the new multimedia/music menu. I did not manage to play with the N95 8GB because the battery is FLAT and I can’t find any charger in the room =(

Stayed there for quite a while before proceeding on to Comex 2007 to meet up with my mom.

Here are 4 sample shots and 2 videos that I have taken/recorded:

Nokia N95 8GB

Nokia N95 8GB Live Shot

- My Own Nokia N95 8GB Live Shots

Nokia N81

Nokia N81 Live Shot

- My Own Nokia N81 Live Shots

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Live Shot

- My Own Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Live Shots

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic

Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Live Shot

- My Own Nokia 5310 XpressMusic Live Shots

Network
Met up with a couple of people like Blair, Aaron, Gabrielle and Sue Lynn from Text 100. Joseph from MediaCorp Press. Julian from Asia One . Lai Chow from Youth.sg and of course people from Nokia Like Dinesh, Julia and some other Nokia staffs which I can’t remember the names. Cheer to you guys and girls! I want to apologize to those whom I had met but not in the list as I am really bad in remembering names and that is the reason why I rely on name cards. Sorry about that.

Check out all the pictures I have taken from the 2 day Nokia: Go Play Singapore event.

I was almost late for the opening speech as I expected it would be delayed till about 5.30pm, but it started on the dot at 5.15pm as stated on the agenda.

The programs for the night are split into 3 major parts, the speech, the live demo of phones followed by dinner.

The Speech
Nokia announced N95 8GB the difference between that and the normal N95 is that is spot a 2.8″ screen, 8GB internal memory, no memory card expansion, no camera lens cover. It will have 2 colors mainly black and brown. I am still trying to find out whether it is using S60 FP2. Keep you all updated.

Nokia N95 8GB Official Press Photo

N81 on the other hand has also 8GB of memory, but it has only a 2MP camera as it meant to be a music phone. Apparently Nokia is focusing a lot of attention onto this phone as a ngage platform (gaming) and a music phone.

- Engadget’s Nokia N81 hands-on gallery

Nokia N81 Official Press Photo

Nokia XpressMusic 5310 has got to be the thinnest phone ever created by Nokia. The buttons on the side of the screen for both Nokia XpressMusic 5310 and XpressMusic 5610 are all made of aluminum. The cameras are 3.2MP.

- Engadget’s Nokia XpressMusic 5310 hands-on Gallery

- Engadget’s Nokia XpressMusic 5610 hands-on Gallery

Nokia XpressMusic 5310 Blue Official Press Photo

Nokia XpressMusic 5610 Blue Official Press Photo

Nokia announced Ovi (which means “the door” in Finnish), an online platform for Nokia online services when you can download music (Nokia Music Store), games (N-Gage) and maps (Nokia Maps) through your Nokia phone.

I have uploaded some photos that I have taken (I suck in photography) and mirrored images from the official press CD to http://files.lesterchan.net/browse/photos/nokia_goplay/. All the images are resized as the images from the CD are just way to huge to be display online, imagine a 7MB image.

The Live Demo
The female models there promoting the phone are so tall, they are taller than me by a head and that makes me look short.

I was surprise by the number of live working Nokia phones there, I managed to play with every phone for a while but due to my lousy photography skills, I am unable to take clear picture of any phones.

The Dinner
Dinner is provided by The Oriental Singapore. It is a 4 course dinner and the good is good.

They invited 3 performers to performed, namely Min Lee, a Singapore rock band which I can’t really remember the name and the singer which did Singapore proud, Corinne May.

Rants
I am definitely getting Nokia N95 8GB as my next phone. Hopefully I can get to review it for 3 months before I buy it.

I will try to upload videos from the presentation when I get my hands on it tomorrow.

PS: Nokia N82 will not be coming to Singapore or maybe even Asia as it is meant for the US market.

As you all might heard that Nokia is going to announce something on the 29th August 2007 (Next Wednesday) in London. The event name will be called Nokia: GO PLAY. The same event will be held here in Singapore on the exact same date. This Asia Pacific press conference will be held concurrently with the global press conference in London.

This morning I got a call from Dinesh who is working for Nokia Asia Pacific and to my shock he invited me to the event which is going to be held in Singapore on 29th August 2007. No words can describe how happy I am and just that phone call along is enough to made my day. I have been monitoring several mobile phones sites for leak shots of the new Nokia phones but to actually see it with my own eyes is something that I have never think of.

I will bring my laptop and my camera to the event and hopefully there is an Internet connection to allow me to post live shots of the announced handphones (if they have the demo model there) on this site. So you might want to stay tuned to this site on Wednesday, 29th August 2007. The event will be in the evening.

With Samsung, Microsoft and Nokia finding my blog, I am starting to feel that after all these years in maintaining my blog, my efforts had paid off.

THANK YOU Dinesh, if you are reading this.

mun420 from Sammyboy.com’s Alfresco Coffee Shop paid $5.00 and dig up the Odex Pte Ltd ACRA information. EVERYTHING is in the report ranging from SS only hold 1 share out of 1 million shares to IC numbers, addresses and stuffs.

I have mirrored it for your convenience: Odex Pte Ltd ACRA Information

The Bourne Identity, Supremacy and Ultimatum is one of the best if not THE BEST trilogy I have ever seen, it has taken over Lord Of The Rings (from my point of view).

The story line is fantastic, the action is excellent, the ending is good (for Ultimatum) and definitely no CG is used in any of the 3 films.

It is a MUST watch trilogy.

881 is no doubt one of the best local production ever been made. Royston Tan has yet done it again right after 15 and 4:30. At this age, I think he has already surpass Jack Neo.

One thing I like about Royston’s movies is that they are always very unique and portray a different side of Singapore and some of the actors and actress he used in the movie are not actors and actress by nature, instead they are doing it as a profession.

Take 881 for example, where it is a Getai (Chinese 7th month stage show), some the actors and actress in the movies are professional getai singers.

Take 15 for example, where it is a Singapore gangster movie, the actors in it are all real gangsters in real life.

On the other hand, Jack Neo’s movies are all getting to be very stagnant and always uses the same actors and actress all over again. I think it is time for him to think out of the box.

By the way, the 881 OST is kinda below my expectations. Many of the movie songs are not inside as the singers (明 珠 姐 妹 Ming Zhu Sisters) behind those songs sang during the movie is coming out with an album of their own, so buy the OST at your own risk.

From the very Beginning, Gal’s family objected strongly on her dating this guy. Saying that it has got to do with family background, & that the gal will have to suffer for the rest of her life if she were to be with him. Due to family’s pressure, the couple quarrelled very often. Though the gal love the guy deeply, but she always ask him: “How deep is your love for me?” As the guy is not good with his words, this often cause the gal to be very upset. With that & the family’s pressure, the gal often vent her anger on him. As for him, he only endured it in silence.

After a couple of years, the guy finally graduated & decided to further his studies overseas. Before leaving, he proposed to the gal: “I’m not very good with words. But all I know is that I love you. If you allow me, I will take care of you for the rest of my life. As for your family, I’ll try my best to talk them round. Will you marry me?” The gal agreed, & with the guy’s determination, the family finally gave in & agreed to let them get married. So before he leave, they got engaged. The gal went out to the working society, whereas the guy was overseas, continuing his studies. They sent their love through emails & phone calls. Though it’s hard, but both never thought of giving up.

One day, while the gal was on her way to work, she was knocked down by a car that lost control. When she woke up, she saw her parents beside her bed. She realised that she was badly injured. Seeing her mum crying, she wanted to comfort her. But she realized that all that could come out of her mouth was just a sigh. she has lost her voice.. The doctors says that the impact that had on her brain has caused her to loss her voice. Listening to her parents’ comfort, but with nothing coming out from her, she broke down.

During the stay in hospital, besides silence cry.. it’s still just silence cry that accompanied her. Upon reaching home, everything seems to be the same. Except for the ringing tone of the phone, which pierced into her heart every time it rang. She does not wish to let the guy know. & not wanting to be a burden to him, she wrote a letter to him saying that she does not wish to wait any longer. With that, she sent the ring back to him. In return, the guy sent millions & millions of reply, countless of phone calls.. all the gal could do, besides crying, is still crying…. The parents decided to move away, hoping that she could eventually forget everything & be happy.

With a new environment, the gal learn sign language & started a new life. Telling herself everyday that she must forget the guy. One day, her friend came & told her that he’s back. She asked her friend not to let him know what happened to her. Since then, there wasn’t anymore news of him.

A year has passed & her friend came with an envelope, containing a invitation card for the guy’s wedding. The gal was shattered. When she open the letter, she saw her name in it instead. When she was about to ask her friend what’s going on, she saw the guy standing in front of her. He used sign language telling her “I’ve spent a year’s time to learn sign language. Just to let you know that I’ve not forgotten our promise. “Let me have the chance to be your voice. I Love You.” With that, he slipped the ring back into her finger. The gal finally smiled.

Source: AIDS of Hardware Zone Forums

I will be taking the following modules for my second year, first semester:

CS2105 - Introduction To Computer Networks (4 MCs) [1 PT]
CS3214 - Information Systems Development Project (8 MCs) [1 PT]
CS3253- Management of Information Systems (4 MCs) [1 PT]
GEK1531 -Introduction To Cybercrime (4 MCs) [795 PTS]

Module Code - Module Name (Module Credits) [Points Bidded]