Was invited to the Sony Walkman Z Series Launch held at Helipad yesterday. The first product to be launched under the new Walkman Z Series is the Sony Walkman Digital Media Players Z1050 (microsite).

For a music player, the Sony Walkman Z1050 packed some solid specifications:

• Nvidia Tegra 2 1GHz (Dual Core)
• 512MB RAM
• 4.3″, TFT color display with white LED-backlight, WQVGA(800 x 480 Pixels)
• Built-in FM Tuner
• 16GB Storage Capacity
• Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, WiFi IEEE 802.11b/g/n
• GPS/Accelerometer/Magnetometer
• HDMI Micro/3.5mm Audio Jack/Proprietary Connector (WM-Port)
• Android Version 2.3 (Gingerbread) Operating System
• Dimensions (W x H x D): 70.9 x 134.4 x 11.1 (mm)
• Weight: 156g
• Battery Life (Music): 20 Hours
• Battery Life (Video): 5 Hours

It can be considered an Android Phone without the phone and camera functionality. Yeap, you read it right, there is no camera in the Sony Walkman Z1050 which is perfect for National Service (NS) people as well as military related organisations.

Despite it comes with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread), it will be upgradable to Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) later this year.

The main selling point of the Sony Walkman Z1050 is of course the audio quality. First up is the new S-Master MX digital amplifier which is a unique technology by Sony that reduces noise levels and distortion to enhance your music. There are another 3 audio technologies (Clear Bass, Clear Stereo and Digital Sound Enchantment Engine (DSEE)) that improves the audio quality. With the Sony Walkman Z1050, you also get a pair of EX headphones (Engadget’s comment mentioned it might be the EX300).

The xLOUD speaker system within the device produces pretty clear and loud sound when playing audio files, but when it comes to video, the audio from the video playback was very soft.

The Sony Walkman Z1050 supports Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA), you can simply stream your music, videos and photos to any DLNA-compatible TVs, PCs or home audio system.

There are 2 downsides of the Sony Walkman Z1050. The first is the price, it will be retailing for SGD$429 which is incredibly steep. Apple iPod Touch (32GB) (current generation) is only retailing for SGD$428.

I seriously have no idea how Sony is going to market this. The only selling point to justify the steep price is the sound quality. I am not an audiophile person, but my fellow tech bloggers told me that the audio quality is pretty good, definitely better than Apple iPod Touch.

The second downside is the use of proprietary connector for syncing and charging? Seriously? The proprietary port is also known as the Walkman Port (WM-Port). It is a USB 2.0 compliant 22-pin connector which is used for syncing and charging the device. The package does include a USB to WM-Port cable (duh), but I just don’t understand why can’t they use Micro USB.

Sony Walkman Z1050

Sony Walkman Z1050 – Micro HDMI, Dedicated Music Button, Volume Buttons

Sony Walkman Z1050 – 3.5mm Audio Jack, Proprietary Connector (WM-Port)

Sony Walkman Z1050 – xLOUD

Sony Walkman Z1050 – Cover Art

Sony Walkman Z1050 – Visualizer

Sony Walkman Z1050 – Equalizer

Went to the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 Launch at BoConcept located in Paragon Shopping Centre.

There are 2 products being launched yesterday, one is the Lenovo IdeaCentre A720 (which is the main highlight) retailing for SGD$2,699 and the other is the Lenovo IdeaPad Y480 retailing for SGD$1,499.

Lenovo describes the IdeaCentre A720 as the industry’s slimmest 27-inch AIO with a frameless display from just 24.5mm, thinner than a typical club sandwich while the IdeaPad Y480 is a high-performance laptop capable of handling intensive multimedia applications. Personally, I would describe the IdeaPad Y480 as the laptop version of IdeaCentre A720 because the specifications are very similar (same processor, RAM, HDD and graphics card).

Lenovo IdeaCentre A720

Lenovo IdeaPad Y480

Read More (923 More Words, 13 More Images, 1 More Video)

Was invited to a blogger event for the launch of ESET Endpoint Solutions at Screening Room. ESET Endpoint Solutions is essentially a rebrand of ESET NOD32 Business Edition. ESET has always been focusing on the consumer markets and now they are going into the enterprise markets.

ESET NOD32 Antivirus & ESET Smart Security will still be there and are targetted at consumers. For the business/enterprise version, it will now be known as ESET Endpoint Antivirus and ESET Endpoint Security respectively.

Of course being deployed in an enterprise environment, deployment of software solutions to many computers are the norm and this is where ESET Remote Administrator comes into play.

ESET Endpoint Solutions

ESET Endpoint Solutions will be launched globally in late May 2012. Right now it is in release candidate and you can give it a try for free.

Features of ESET Endpoint Antivirus

Features of ESET Antivirus

• Antivirus (Antimalware)
• Antispyware
• Antirootkit
• Cloud-based Whitelisting
• Device Control
• Host-based Intrusion Prevention System
• Low System Demands
• ESET SysRescue
• ESET SysInspector
• Centralized Management
• Microsoft Network Access Protection (NAP) Support

ESET Endpoint Security

Features of ESET Endpoint Security

• All Features of ESET Endpoint Antivirus
• Bi-directional Firewall
• Client Antispam
• Web Control
• URL Blacklisting
• Trusted Network Detection
• Component-based Installation

Features of ESET Remote Administrator

• Real-time Web Dashboard
• Role-based Management
• Randomized Task Execution
• Improved Reporting
• Optimized Database Performance
• IPv6 Support
• Improved Configuration of Clients
• Rollback of Updates on Clients
• Support for new ESET business products

Price Plans (In SGD$, Inclusive of 7% GST, Per user)

Attended Adobe Creative Suite 6 launch yesterday at The Luxe Art Museum. Adobe has joined in the “more focus” bandwagon by only having 4 suites instead of 5 (for CS5) and 6 (for CS4). Creative Suite 6 will consists of 4 suites ranging from 14 different products.

Theme For CS 6 Is: Create Now

What’s New In CS6?

If I have to pick my favourite thing in CS6, it got to be the Mercury Engine. It speeds everything up so much faster. Whenever you press “Save”, it does a background save, allowing you to continuing working on your PSD file.

For Mac, Adobe has dropped 32bit support for lots of product. Photoshop, Illustrator, After Effects, Dreamweaver, Adobe Premiere Pro and SpeedGrade are now available only on 64bit for Mac. For Windows, because most government agencies has a 5-8 years timeframe before they change their computers, Adobe still has support for 32bit version of their products on the Windows platform.

4 Suites, 14 Products

2 new products to the CS6 suite and they are SpeedGrade and Prelude. Technically SpeedGrade is not a new product, it was used to be sold separately for USD$30,000, but now it is being bundled as part of CS6.

Adobe SpeedGrade CS6 color grading software brings the Lumetri Deep Color Engine to your production workflow. Open the full dynamic range of your footage through a sleek new interface. A new component of Adobe Creative Suite software, SpeedGrade gives you the power to push your stories further.

Adobe Prelude CS6 software streamlines your production tasks. Ingest nearly any file-based format and begin logging immediately, creating searchable markers and other temporal metadata that flow through post-production, so you can work faster and stay organized.

4 Main Pillars Of CS6

Prices (Excluding Taxes)

• CS6 Master Collection: SGD$3,924
  • Photoshop CS6 Extended
  • Illustrator CS6
  • InDesign CS6
  • Acrobat X Pro
  • Flash Professional CS6
  • Flash Builder 4.6 Premium Edition
  • Dreamweaver CS6
  • Fireworks CS6
  • Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
  • After Effects CS6
  • Adobe Audition CS6
  • SpeedGrade CS6
  • Prelude CS6
  • Encore CS6
  • Bridge CS6
  • Story CS6
  • Media Encoder CS6
• CS6 Design & Web Premium: SGD$2,868
  • Photoshop CS6 Extended
  • Illustrator CS6
  • InDesign CS6
  • Dreamweaver CS6
  • Flash Professional CS6
  • Fireworks CS6
  • Acrobat X Pro
  • Bridge CS6
  • Media Encoder CS6
• CS6 Design Standard: SGD$1,962
  • Photoshop CS6
  • Illustrator CS6
  • InDesign CS6
  • Acrobat X Pro
  • Bridge CS6
  • Media Encoder CS6
• CS6 Production Premium: SGD$2,868
  • Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
  • After Effects CS6
  • Photoshop CS6 Extended
  • Adobe Audition CS6
  • SpeedGrade CS6
  • Prelude CS6
  • Illustrator CS6
  • Encore CS6
  • Flash Professional CS6
  • Media Encoder CS6
  • Story CS6
  • Bridge CS6

If you are confused with all the text and products in each suite, check out the more visually pleasant, Buying guide – Product comparison from Adobe.

As you might heard in the US and some other parts of the world, CS6 was launched with Adobe Creative Cloud, but unfortunately, Adobe Creative Cloud will not be available in Singapore yet as Adobe is still trying to figure out the business model.

Adobe Creative Cloud is the digital hub that lets you download and install every Adobe Creative Suite 6 application; access online services for file sharing, collaboration, and publishing; and benefit from new apps and features as soon as they’re released – giving you the freedom to create anything you can imagine.

Press Release

Major CS Upgrades and All-New Muse Anchor Landmark Launch for Designers
The performance and workflow enhancements in Adobe Photoshop CS6, InDesign CS6 and Illustrator CS6 will result in significant time savings for print, web and mobile projects.

• In Photoshop CS6, designers will experience incredible performance, powered by the Adobe Mercury Graphics Engine, enabling near instant results from essential editing tools, including Liquify, Puppet Warp, Transform and Lighting Effects.
• Adobe has built on Photoshop’s breakthrough Content-Aware capabilities with advanced new Content-Aware Patch and Content-Aware Move features.
• Illustrator CS6 debuts a revamped modern interface and features include a new Image Tracing Engine, Pattern Creation and Gradient Strokes. The Mercury performance system delivers speed and stability, including 64-bit support for Mac OS and Windows.
• InDesign CS6 continues to blaze a trail in publishing, streamlining the creation of multiple layouts from a single set of content with new Adaptive Design Tools – Alternate Layout, Liquid Layout, Content Collector Tools and Linked Content.
• A brand new application, Adobe Muse, a radical new tool that enables designers to create and publish HTML5 web sites without writing code, was also announced today.

Adobe Doubles-Down on HTML5 Tooling for Web Professionals
Innovative new workflows and capabilities across Adobe tools simplify the creative process for today’s web designers, developers and interactive professionals.

• Web pros can conveniently integrate HTML5 animations, created with Adobe Edge Preview, into their Dreamweaver projects, driving home Adobe’s leadership in tooling for the HTML5 web standard.
• Dreamweaver CS6 addresses the challenge of responsive web designs with the ability to build fluid grid layouts replacing the tedious manual process of creating and configuring separate CSS-based interfaces for phone, tablet and desktop.
• Through direct integration with Adobe’s recently announced PhoneGap Build service, Dreamweaver CS6 helps round out a Web professional’s skillset and enables them to produce native mobile applications for multiple platforms.
• Flash Professional CS6 users can easily translate and transition their skills to HTML5 using the Flash Professional Toolkit for CreateJS. Flash Professional CS6 also helps designers to create exciting and impactful gaming experiences and advancements include the ability to generate sprite sheets that improve workflows and performance.
• Pre-built native extensions and new packaging options, leveraging the latest Adobe Flash Player and AIR runtimes, help expand and ease app delivery to Android and iOS devices.

Production Premium CS6 Pushes Boundaries of Video Creativity
Redesigned by and for video editors, with major performance enhancements, the tools included in Adobe Creative Suite 6 Production Premium set a new standard in professional video.

• With dozens of new features, Adobe Premiere Pro CS6 is the hub of any professional video workflow, featuring a sleek new editing environment. The powerful Adobe Mercury Playback Engine now supports OpenCL on MacBook Pros.
• The most significant After Effects release in a decade, After Effects CS6 is faster and more responsive than ever. With Global Performance Cache, previews are saved and ready to go— cutting the time spent bouncing between projects.
• New to Production Premium are Adobe Prelude CS6, which streamlines logging and ingest workflows in post-production, and Adobe SpeedGrade, which contains powerful finishing tools for film finishing and colour grading.
• Adobe Audition CS6 accelerates audio post-production: real-time clip stretching makes it simple to stretch clips to fit an edit; and Automatic Speech Alignment introduces a powerful new engine for automated dialogue analysis.
• A new 3rd party API for hardware integration – Adobe Mercury Transmit – allows broadcast video monitoring to connect directly into the Mercury Playback Engine via third-party cards from AJA, Blackmagic Design, and Matrox.

Official Site: Adobe Creative Suite 6
Adobe Online Shop: South East Asia

Before the summary, lets check out some of the videos that is filmed during Mobile World Congress 2012 by Nokia Connects featuring a skateboarder, free runner and BMX rider using the social features of the Nokia Lumia 900!

• Pip Andersen free running Barcelona with the Nokia Lumia 900
• Jed Cullen skates Barcelona with the Nokia Lumia 900
• James Ivett BMX in Barcelona with the Nokia Lumia 900

Summary

• Blog Links
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Pre Event
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 01
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 02
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 03
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 04
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Nokia Asha 202/203/302
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Nokia Lumia 610
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Nokia Lumia 900
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Nokia 808 PureView
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Summary (This Post)
• Flickr Gallery Links
  • Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 00
  • Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 01
  • Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 02
  • Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 03
  • Mobile World Congress 2012 – Day 04
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Nokia Asha 202/203/302
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Nokia Lumia 610
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Nokia Lumia 900
  • Nokia At Mobile World Congress 2012 – Nokia 808 PureView
  • Photos Taken By Nokia 808 PureView
• Nokia Products Data Sheets
  • Nokia Asha 202
  • Nokia Asha 203
  • Nokia Asha 302
  • Nokia Lumia 610
  • Nokia Lumia 900
  • Nokia 808 PureView
  • Nokia BH-221 Headset
  • Nokia DC-16 Universal Portable USB Charger
• Nokia Products Pricing & Availability
  • Nokia Asha 202 – €60 (SGD$99) – 2nd Quarter 2012
  • Nokia Asha 203 – €60 (SGD$99) – 2nd Quarter 2012
  • Nokia Asha 302 – €95 (SGD$156.60) – Now
  • Nokia Lumia 610 – €189 (SGD$311.60) – 2nd Quarter 2012
  • Nokia Lumia 900 – €480 (SGD$791.30) – 2nd Quarter 2012
  • Nokia 808 PureView – €450 (SGD$742.30) – 2nd Quarter 2012
  • Nokia BH-221 Headset – €59 (SGD$97.30) – 2nd Quarter 2012
  • Nokia DC-16 Universal Portable USB Charger – €25 (SGD$41.20) – 2nd Quarter 2012