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Was invited to the launch of starcount at Pangaea Marina Bay Sands. I must say they got pretty strong backing, Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), Interactive Digital Media Programme Office (IDMPO), Singapore Tourism Board (STB), Economic Development Board (EDB) and Marina Bay Sands (MBS) are all supporting them.

Popular Bloggers/Journalists in Singapore

What is starcount?

The world’s first and largest global, digital platform for social entertainment charts. starcount aims to provide the most extensive range of charts on the planet and be the definitive measure of social media popularity for fans, talent, media and brands alike.

starcount aggregates public data from the following social media sites, tabulate a starcount score and chart them.

• Facebook
• Renren
• Twitter
• Tencent Weibo
• Sina Weibo
• YouTube
• Youku
• mixi
• Vkontakte
• Google+
• Orkut

How is starcount score calculated?
The 11 social media sites are categorised further into 3 sub-categories, Social Networks, Microblogs and Video Sharing. Based on the algorithm below, they derive your starcount score (maximum starcount score is 100,000). P stands for Popularity and E stands for Engagement.

starcount Score Formula

The starcount weighting is its secret sauce that is constantly being revised.

The Social Star Awards
starcount will also be organising the inaugural The Social Star Awards. It will be a globally telecast event that will honour and reward the world’s biggest international superstars in social media from categories ranging from music, movies, fashion, computer gaming, TV and sports.

The Social Star Awards will take place next year on the 31st May 2013 at Marina Bay Sands. The team behind the show is same team who brought you F1 Rocks, London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony and the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Shows in the USA.

The Singapore Social
The Singapore Social event takes place after The Social Star Awards. It is a 2-day music extravaganza hosted at Gardens by the Bay in Singapore on the 1st and 2nd June 2013. The music festival will feature the top music stars of social media from around the world and will be streamed live on social media feeds and broadcast globally on TV.

Official Site: starcount

Microsoft Windows 8 Logo

Windows 8 Release Preview has been released!

This is our final pre-release, and includes Windows 8, Internet Explorer 10, new Windows 8 apps for connecting to Hotmail, SkyDrive, and Messenger (and many more), and hundreds of new and updated apps in the Windows Store. Since our first preview release last September, millions of people now use the pre-release product on a daily basis and millions more have been taking it through its paces, totaling hundreds of millions of hours of testing. We genuinely appreciate the effort that so many have put into pre-release testing, and of course, we appreciate the feedback too. Direct feedback and feedback through usage contributed to hundreds of visible changes in the product and tens of thousands of under-the-hood changes.

The next milestone would be Release to Manufacturing (RTM) which means 1 or 2 months after RTM, we will see it in the retail stores. I am guessing Windows 8 would be launched in the week of 20th October 2012. That is because Windows XP was released on 25th October 2001 and Windows 7 is on 22nd October 2009.

Our next milestone is traditionally called RTM, Release to Manufacturing, and from today until RTM, we will still be changing Windows 8, as we have done in past releases of Windows. We thought it would be a good idea to outline the kinds of feedback we are acting on as millions download and use the Windows 8 Release Preview.

Direct Download Links (ISO)

• English 64-bit (x64) – 3.3 GB – Sha 1 hash: 0xD76AD96773615E8C504F63564AF749469CFCCD57
• English 32-bit (x86) – 2.5 GB – Sha 1 hash: 0x8BED436F0959E7120A44BF7C29FF0AA962BDEFC9
• Product Key: TK8TP-9JN6P-7X7WW-RFFTV-B7QPF

For other languages, check out the downloads page.

System Requirements

• Processor: 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster
• RAM: 1 gigabyte (GB) (32-bit) or 2 GB (64-bit)
• Hard disk space: 16 GB (32-bit) or 20 GB (64-bit)
• Graphics card: Microsoft DirectX 9 graphics device with WDDM driver
• Additional requirements to use certain features:
  • To use touch, you need a tablet or a monitor that supports multitouch.
  • To access the Windows Store and to download and run apps, you need an active Internet connection and a screen resolution of at least 1024 x 768.
  • To snap apps, you need a screen resolution of at least 1366 x 768.
• Internet access (ISP fees might apply)

PS: I am still trying to find out when this copy will expire. Previously the Consumer Preview is set to expire on 15th January 2013.

UPDATE Looks like Windows 8 Release Preview will expire early 2013. Microsoft didn’t give me a specific date.

Official Site: Windows 8 Release Preview
Blog Post: Delivering the Windows 8 Release Preview

Samsung Galaxy SIII will be available in Singapore from Wednesday, 30th May 2012. It will be retailing for SGD$998 (including taxes & without contract) at all 3 operators (SingTel, M1, StarHub) in Singapore.

Preorders will begin the day before on Tuesday, 29th May 2012. For M1, the launch event is at M1 Shop Paragon on the 29th May 2012 from 9pm till 12am. StarHub will also start from 9pm on the 29th at their shops but only for customers who have indicated their interest with them previously.

At launch time only the Marble White will be available. The Pebble Blue will be available at a later date.

Samsung Galaxy SIII – Marble White

Pre-ordered my copy of Diablo III: Collector’s Edition from Amazon on the 14th March 2012, it was shipped on the 17th May 2012 (1 day after the official release) and I got it on the 20th May 2012 (didn’t know DHL delivers on Sunday as well).

The game itself cost USD$99.90 (SGD$126.60) and shipping (normal) cost USD$19.98 (SGD$25.30). Paid a total of USD$119.97 (SGD$152) for it.

The Collector’s Edition contains the following items:

• Diablo III PC/Mac Game
• Diablo Skull and 4GB USB Soulstone
• Exclusive In-Game Content
  • Diablo III – Aesthetic Artifacts
  • World of Warcraft – Fetish Shaman Pet
  • StarCraft II – Battle.net Portraits
• Behind the Scenes Blu-Ray/DVD Set
• The Art of Diablo III
• Diablo III Soundtrack

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – Box

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – Box Open

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – Box Content

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – What’s In The Box

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – The Art Of Diablo III

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – Diablo Skull and 4GB USB Soulstone

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – Diablo III Soundtrack

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – Behind The Scenes Blu-Ray/DVD

Diablo III: Collector’s Edition – Diablo III PC/Mac Game

Related: Starcraft 2 – Wings Of Liberty – Collector’s Edition

I have been using Panic‘s Coda 1 for almost 30 months since I started work at mig33. I have been waiting ages for Coda 2 and today my wish came true!

Coda 2 will be available from 24th May 2012 onwards from the Mac App Store as well as their own online store. The pricing scheme is a little tricky. For the first 24 hours, Coda 2 will be on sale at 50% which is USD$49, after that it will be back to USD$75 and after certain time frame it will be back to the original price which is USD$99.

If you have bought Coda 1 on or before 10th April 2012 via their online store (not applicable on Mac App Store), you are entitled to a free Coda 2 license.

There are just too many new features in Coda 2 to list in this blog post, check out Coda 2 for more information. My favorite new feature? It got to be Git integration and a a full GUI for MySQL management!

Panic also announced a Diet Coda which is essentially a strip down version of Coda for your iPad! Now you can edit your codes on the go. It comes with Prompt (SSH Terminal) build in. Similar to Coda 2, Diet Coda will be available from 24th May 2012 onwards on the App Store. For the first 24 hours, Diet Coda will be on sale at 50% off which is USD$9.99 and after that it will be back to the original price of USD$19.99.

Official Site: Coda 2
Official Site: Diet Coda
Official Blog Post: Announcing Coda 2. And introducing Diet Coda