I finally got a blogger name card to give away during blogger events, thanks to Li Xiang who designed it for me. Printed it at Tommy Print. SGD$60 for 200 pieces. The price is pretty steep because the material used is translucent plastic card. It took a month before I am able to collect it. Guess not much people print those.

Went to the Nokia N900 blogger preview which took place at Segafredo located at 51 Telok Ayer Street, #01-06, Chinasquare Plaza. First off, the Nokia N900 will be launching in Singapore at the end of March 2010. No local pricing is available yet, but elsewhere the RRP is USD$649 = SGD$911.78.

Nokia N900

Nokia N900 Screen

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I have moved Li Xiang blog from http://hiang1211.blogspot.com/, powered by Blogger, to our domain called http://onezero24.net/, powered by WordPress. I have imported all the post successfully by NOT using the default WordPress importer (WP-Admin -> Tools -> Import -> Blogger).

What I did was to make a backup of the blogger site (Blogger Admin -> Settings -> Basic -> Blog Tools -> Export Blog) and then it will generate a XML file for you to download it to your PC.

Once the XML file has been downloaded, go to Blogger2Wordpress conversion utility and browse for the downloaded XML file. Give it a while to upload and process the XML file and once it is done, it will generate a WXR (WordPress eXtended RSS) file for you to download.

Once the WXR file has been downloaded, go to your WordPress site, WP-Admin -> Tools -> Import -> WordPress and browse for the WXR file and click import. Give it some time and you will get all your posts imported from Blogger to WordPress!

Went for the Nokia N97 Blogger Preview at Nokia Singapore office located at Alexandra Technopark. The Nokia N97 will be the next Nokia flagship device. It felt solid when I got my hands on it. There will be 2 colors for it. The black as well as the pearl white. There are a lot of interesting applications/widgets that you can place on the home screen such as Facebook, Stocks, Weather, etc. Gone are those days of those boring Active Standby screen which exists all the way till the N96. You can have up to 5 widgets on the home screen which you can arrange in any order you like. A neat feature which not many people may know is there if you swipe to the left or right of the home screen, all your widgets will be hidden to protect your privacy. Swipe again to get them back.

The sensitivity of the screen is just average due to the technology used. If I am not wrong, the N97 is using a resistive screen to cater for a wider audience with many different methods of input instead of a capacitive screen and hence scrolling or “flickering” is not as smooth as iPhone. That is the only complain I have. In terms of responsiveness, I felt that it is more responsive than the iPhone. Typing on the mini QWERTY keyboard is quite smooth for me as the keys are not clustered together.

Of course the iPhone has a much thinner body but the length of both phones is above the same. The width of the N97 is much smaller than the iPhone.

There will be a few applications that is catered specially for the Singapore Market and it will be included in the default package at launch time. Applications include Straits Time, Golden Village (GV), SG Buses and a taxi application.

The N97 will be launching in June, should be before the mid of June 2009. The retail price is not yet know, but I estimate it to be about SGD$1200 or less without subsidy. In the mean time you can check out http://www.nokia.com.sg/n97, this will be the official Nokia N97 website in Singapore.

Gallery

Video
I kinda suck when it comes to video recording, sorry about that, there are 3 videos that I took on the Nokia N97.

I was invited by Derrick to attend the first Lenovo Blogger Night which is held at 7atenine (pronounced as 7 8 9) located at the Esplanade Mall. Food and drinks were good, ambiance as good as well as there were not much people. There were about 20 of us, about 10 where bloggers and the rest were Text 100 or Lenovo Staff. There is the first time I attended a Lenovo event. I was suppose to attend one last year, but was unable to make it as my Dad is leaving for Vietnam the next day.

Besides food, there are 5 new upcoming computers, 4 laptops and 1 desktop. I am not able to get a clear shot of the computers because spot lights are used and if I do, my shadow will block the image. If I use flash, the shadow problem will be gone but the picture will be overexposed!

Lenovo ThinkPad W700
The ThinkPad W700 is a 17″ notebook which weights about 3.7kg and it has an inbuilt Wacom Digitizer. It is currently available but the price will set you back because it will cost you SGD$8,000!

• Processor: Intel Core 2 Extreme processor X9100 ( 3.06GHz 1GHz 6MB )
• Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista Business
• System graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700 1GB
• Total memory: 2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz
• Display type: 17.0 ” WUXGA TFT with integrated camera LCD Glossy 1920×1200
• Hard drive device: 160GB 7200
• Network card: Intel Wireless Wi-Fi Link 5300
• Optical device: DVD Recordable
• Warranty: Three years parts and labour (system battery: one year)
• Pointing device: ThinkPad UltraNav + Pantone Color Sensor + WACOM Digitizer
• Battery: 9 Cell Lithium-Ion

Lenovo IdeaPad Y Series (Y450, Y550, Y650)
Lenovo IdeaPad Y Series namely the Y450, Y550 and Y650 will be launching sometime in March 2009, just in time for the IT Show 2009 which will be held in Suntec City from the 12th to 15th March 2009. The 3 models are closely related. The Y450 gives you a 14″ screen, the Y550 gives you a 15.6″ screen and the Y650 gives you a 16″ screen. The flagship model will be the Y650, it is the biggest in size, but also the lightest. In contrast the Y450 is much smaller but heavier.

Here is a quote from the press release:

Lenovo’s latest IdeaPad Y Series laptops deliver powerful Hi-Definition entertainment in new sizes that are smaller, thinner and lighter than the previous generation to give more choices to consumers. The three Y Series laptops – the Y650, Y550, and Y450 – share the same modern soft black design featuring an interlocked hexagon pattern on the top cover along with a discrete copper accent around the perimeter of the laptop.

Lenovo delivers its first 16-inch widescreen laptop, the IdeaPad Y650, as one of the thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptops1. In fact, the laptop weighs less than many 15-inch laptops, providing users with an additional inch of screen space without compromising on mobility. Making use of advanced materials, Lenovo has engineered the laptop down to a slender one-inch at its thinnest point with a weight of just 5.6 pounds.

The expanded Y Series adds new screen sizes to the IdeaPad laptop lineup: the 16-inch Y650, the 15.6-inch Y550, and the 14-inch Y450. The new Y Series laptops are configurable with up to 500GB of hard drive storage space and up to 4GB of DDR3 memory.

To provide an exceptional Hi-Definition entertainment and multimedia experience, the Y Series laptops are equipped with 16:9 format glossy widescreen panels, optional latest generation NVIDIA GFX graphics for gaming and smooth HD video playback and Dolby Home Theater surround sound. The IdeaPad Y650 laptop also features JBL speakers for a rich sound.

Lenovo IdeaCentre A600
The IdeaCentre A600 is Lenovo answer to the HP’s TouchSmart PC. Instead of making the a touch screen (which lags on the TouchSmart), the A600 includes a Wii-like remote control (they call it motion drive) that allows you to play games that is of similar sort. The A600 is quite afforable which is between the SGD$2,000 range.I think my dad can get this!

Here is a quote from the press release:

Lenovo brings consumers the next generation of desktop computing with the IdeaCentre A600 – Lenovo’ s first all-in-one desktop. The new, sleek IdeaCentre A600 all-in-one features a 21.5-inch frameless screen, and provides discerning space-conscious and style-conscious users a modern design that measures only one inch at its slimmest point, making it one of the slimmest all-in-one desktop PCs2.

For the entertainment enthusiast, the all-in-one offers true entertainment experience featuring a 16:9 aspect ratio screen for cinema-like viewing and support for 1920×1080 full HD resolution, delivering outstanding image quality. The integrated speaker system includes a bass sub-woofer and Dolby Home Theatre audio certification, while the optional Blu-ray player completes the home cinema experience. Users can also take advantage of a digital TV tuner for watching and recording their favorite TV programs. Users can opt to include the Microsoft Vista Media Center for easy recording of TV programs and interactive navigation between videos, music and TV programs.

For gaming enthusiasts, Lenovo developed the 4-in-1 optional remote controller. It is the first to bring PC users the ability to play games using the remote control’s ‘motion drive’ feature, which controls on-screen objects according to the movement of the remote.

Unlike other remotes, the Lenovo 4-in-1 remote controller can also be used as a VOIP handset to make and receive phone calls over the Internet, similar to a typical cordless telephone. The remote also serves as a media center/TV remote, and with Microsoft Vista Media Center users can use the controller to operate DVDs, movies and TV. Additionally, the remote functions as an “air mouse” so it can be used to operate the cursor on the screen.

At the core of the all-in-one is a powerful desktop computer with choices of Intel Core2 Duo processors, optional ATI Radeon graphics card technology with DirectX10 support, up to 4GB of fast DDR3 memory for improved multitasking and up to 1TB (1,000GB) of hard drive space for storing hundreds of videos, music and other documents. Equipped with the latest high-performance mobile processor technology, the all-in-one runs whisper-quiet even when performing intensive tasks.

PS: I love press releases, they sums up everything for you!

PS2: Added Lenovo IdeaPad S10 (SGD$699) to my wishlist!

Press Release: “Thin is In” for Consumer PC Design as Lenovo Debuts Super-Slim All-in-One Desktop and 16-inch Laptop

Facebook Gallery: Lenovo Blogger Nite 2009