I was invited for HP Singapore 40th Anniversary at Dempsey The House last Friday. Didn’t take pictures as I left my camera at home, but you can check out Joe’s Blog for pictures! And the food there is fantastic. The part is hosted by Muttons from 987FM and they are awesomely funny!

To celebrate HP Singapore 40th Anniversary, there is 40 Days of Christmas with HP. From 22nd November 2010 through to 31st December 2010, HP will be giving Christmas shoppers 40 days of great offers.

1. HP ENVY14 Beats Edition

HP ENVY14 Beats Edition

Designed to deliver power and performance, the HP ENVY14 Beats Edition is equipped with the advanced audio capabilities of Beats Audio – a unique, high-performance technology developed by HP and Beats by Dr. Dre. Measuring 1.11-inches thin and starting from 2.58-kilos, the HP ENVY14 Beats Edition is the first HP notebook built for music and engineered to maximize your audio experience while delivering a superior overall PC experience. And by the way, there are 2 Audio line out ports for this edition!

HP Store: HP Envy (SGD$2,699)

2. HP TouchSmart310 and HP TouchSmart600 Desktop PCs

HP TouchSmart 600

With a sleek design and the advanced TouchSmart 4.0 software, you will experience computing that is intuitive, fun and personal. The latest version of HP’s exclusive Touch software transforms the desktop, offering new ways for your family to stay connected and entertained. From games to education to productivity, there is a world of apps to explore with your family.

HP Store: HP TouchSmart310 (SGD$1,399)
HP Store: HP TouchSmart600 (SGD$2,699)

3. HP ENVY17 3D

HP ENVY17 3D

The HP ENVY17 3D delivers an unparalleled 3D movie experience – similar to that in the theaters. Powered by advanced 3D technology, BeatsTM Audio and an HP Triple Bass Reflex subwoofer, digital entertainment will never be the same again. It is the first HP notebook designed to deliver an advanced 3D experience and has best-in-class entertainment capabilities. The advanced 3D technology on the HP ENVY17 offers a superior stereoscopic 3D visual experience without compromising 2D content, while the 17.3-inch diagonal, full HD HP 3D Ultra BrightView Infinity LED Display provides crisp and full HD viewing for 3D Blu-ray content. The HP 3D Active Shutter Glasses sync wirelessly to the HD display while allowing users to switch perspective seamlessly to view the action on the screen.

The HP ENVY17 3D model will come only in December.

HP Store: HP ENVY17 (SGD$3,499)

4. HP ENVY100 e-All-in-One

HP ENVY100 Printer (Foreground)

The HP ENVY100 e-All-in-One is a sleek, slim-line printer designed to complement modern home décor and features a high resolution touchscreen display, whisper-quiet operation and a retractable paper tray. It makes a stylish addition to any room in the home and offers the most convenient way to wirelessly print documents and photos.

Official Site: HP ENVY1000 (SGD$469)

5. HP Mini 210

HP Mini 210 (Luminous Rose)

Designed for all-day computing, the ultra-compact HP Mini 210 now comes in two trendy colors and enhanced features for information-snacking while on the go. It is available in two eye-catching colors, including Luminous Rose and Ocean Drive.

HP Store: HP Mini 210 (SGD$599)

I have been seeded the Nokia N8 through the Nokia Rangers program. I must say that N8 has a fantastic built and hardware specs and the camera is just amazing. But the Symbian^3 kills the hardware totally. The feeling it gives me is that the OS is not able to make use of the hardware properly. A good comparison is running Windows 98 on a Intel Core i7 computer.

Box Front

Box Back

Nokia N8

The built of the phone is good, the glass is made up of Gorilla Glass and the body is made up of anodised aluminum. Not forgetting it has a capacitive touch screen with AMOLED display. The battery is non-removable though.

HDMI Port

12MP Camera

The camera is a 12MP camera with Carl Zeiss lens and xenon flashlight. It can record 720p HD video at 25fps and it has a front facing camera for video calls.

MicroUSB Port

For connectivity, it has a HDMI output, uses MicroUSB, Bluetooth 3.0 and supports B/G/N Wireless Network. It comes with 16GB internal memory and expandable via MicroSD.

As mentioned before the hardware is fantastic. But the OS is a serious let down. As a whole, the OS is so sluggish. There is no proper or official social app like Twitter or Facebook. All your social needs is found in the Social app made by Nokia and the app is just mediocre. There is an app called Gravity which I heard is the best social app on Symbian but no way I am going to pay SGD$15 bucks for it.

Symbian^3 Home Screen

There is no QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode and you have to type in T9! I wonder when is the last time I use the numpad to type a message. When you rotate the screen to landscape, the keyboard changes to QWERTY and it occupy half the screen and the other half of the screen is the input text box instead of showing a portion of the screen you are at.

Internet surfing is a pain, I have to click Options -> Go To -> Type in URL -> Enter. The address bar should always be on top of the screen like iPhone or hidden like Android and only show it when I tap the top portion of the screen. There is pinch to zoom on web pages on Symbian^3 but like Android the experience for this is not as smooth as iPhone.

I would call it a great multimedia device, but as a whole is no where near a smartphone in terms of today’s standard thanks to Symbian^3. If someone made a ROM and allows it to be flashed to Android, I think it will perform much better.

As you can see Symbian has already reached its EOL (I doubt Symbian^4 will be a huge leap), hopefully MeeGo will do Nokia’s phones justice.

The Nokia N8 retails for SGD$785 without contract and available in 5 colors (Silver white, Dark grey, Orange, Blue and Green). I love the Orange color.

SingTel will be the first operator to bring in the Nokia N8 to Singapore. It will be launching on 5th November 2010. SingTel will introduce new N’tertainment 3G Flexi price plans for the Nokia N8. Nokia N8 is available for pre-order on SingTel N8 Page.

Press Release: SingTel and Nokia launch the new Nokia N8 smartphone in Singapore

Nokia Singapore: Nokia N8

Galaxy Tab will be available in Singapore only to SingTel customers from 13th Nov 2010. You can pre-order the Galaxy Tab from http://www.singtel.com/tab and pre-order begins on 30th October 2010 till 12th November 2010. No word on the pricing yet as it will be revealed on the 14th November 2010.

The Galaxy Tab will be available with SingTel’s existing 3G Flexi price plans and a range of SingTel’s home and mobile broadband plans.

Galaxy Tab will be bundled with a few SingTel Apps:

• De!ite – View a wide selection of Singapore’s most loved magazines. This includes popular titles such as Hardware Magazine, Australasia Scuba Diver and ZbBz
• AMPed – SingTel’s social music service
• MobileTV – SingTel’s video streaming service
• Roam Track – Monitor and alert your overseas mobile roaming expenses when charges have exceeded a pre-defined level
• GD121 – SingTel GlobalDial 121 service for overseas calls

For more information, please check out the press release link below.

Press Release: SingTel introduces a new category of mobile multimedia devices with the Samsung Galaxy Tab

Official Site: Samsung Galaxy Tab

*UPDATE*
SingTel has release the prices for the Samsung Galaxy Tab

3G Flexi Lite

• Galaxy Tab Price: SGD$538
• Monthly Subscription: SGD$39.00
• Free Local Outgoing Calls (anytime): 100 minutes

3G Flexi

• Galaxy Tab Price: SGD$298
• Monthly Subscription: SGD$56.00
• Free Local Outgoing Calls (anytime): 200 minutes

3G Flexi Plus

• Galaxy Tab Price: SGD$0
• Monthly Subscription: SGD$95.00
• Free Local Outgoing Calls (anytime): 500 minutes

For the above 3 plans, the bundled Free Local Data is 12GB and bundled Free Local SMS is 500.

Customers will enjoy a $50 early-bird discount off the price of the Galaxy Tab when they make their purchase with a 3G Flexi plan at http://www.singtel.com/tab before 13 Nov 2010. They will also receive a free Bluetooth headset and 16GB micro SD card, as well as a pair of tickets to an exclusive Galaxy Tab post-launch party.

BroadBand Package
SingTel also offers a broadband package for customers who wish to use the Galaxy Tab as an internet device for the home. The Galaxy Tab comes bundled with this package aka Free and you pay a monthly subscription fee of SGD$75.90. It comes with integrated wireless modem and 3G Mobile Data SIM card with free local data (30GB) for mobile broadband.

Microsoft Office 2011 for Mac is now available. You should be able to find it on the shelves of most computer retail stores.

Here are the two editions of it:

• Home and Student Edition:
  • Includes:
    1. Word for Mac
    2. PowerPoint for Mac
    3. Excel for Mac
    4. Messenger for Mac
  • Suggested retail price:
    • SGD$188 (1 licence)
    • SGD$228 (3 licences Family Pack)
  • Apple Store Singapore:
    • Home and Student Edition (3 licences Family Pack)
• Home and Business Edition:
  • Includes:
    1. Word for Mac
    2. PowerPoint for Mac
    3. Excel for Mac
    4. Messenger for Mac
    5. Outlook for Mac (NEW!)
  • Suggested retail price:
    • SGD$298 (1 licence)
    • SGD$398 (2 licence Multipack)
  • Apple Store Singapore:
    • Home and Business Edition (2 licence Multipack)
    • Home and Business Edition (1 licence)

If you get the Home and Student Edition (Family Pack) or Home and Business Edition (Multipack), you can redeem a free Microsoft Bluetooth Notebook Mouse 5000 worth SGD$54!

*UPDATE* Apple has updated its store with Microsoft Office 2011! Post has been updated to include the link

My boss got the Apple MacBook Air 11.6″ from the US for one of our business partner . It is the 11.6″ with 64GB of SSD. Apple Singapore is selling it for SGD$1,488 while the US is selling for USD$999.

MacBook Air 11.6″ Box

As the the MacBook Air does not belong to me, I did not power it on, only compared the size and weight of it to my iPad, Macbook Pro and my Asus EEE 1000HE.

iPad Weight

MacBook Air Weight

Comparing With iPad

Thickest End Of The MacBook Air

Thinest End Of The MacBook Air

My first impression of it is extremely small, thin and light. I took my iPad out to compare the size and the width of the iPad matches the width of the MacBook Air almost exactly. The MacBook Air is obviously longer because of the 2″ difference in screen size. In terms of weight, I weigh the iPad and it weighs 694g vs the weight of the MacBook Air which weights 1,020g.

I would say the MacBook Air is the netbook (in terms of size and lower specs than its elder brothers) from Apple because it is in-between the iPad and the MacBook Pro 13″. I would not say the MacBook Air is an iPad replacement because you will not bring out a MacBook Pro and use it while standing up or walking around with it because the posture is just weird.

MacBook Air 11.6″ Specifications

Comparing With Asus EEE 1000HE

In terms of processing, it is only a Intel Core 2 Duo with a 1.4GHz or a 1.6GHz (for 11.6″ variant) which does not really gives you that much of a processing power if you compare the price range with the MacBook Pro. If you compare it with the market prices of netbooks, the MacBook Air easily twice the price of a mid range netbook by offering much faster processor and RAM (DDR3) and of course SSD storage.

If you were to get the Macbook Air, I would say go for the 11.6″ instead as it is smaller and slightly lighter.

If you are going to get the 13″ variant, I rather you go for the MacBook Pro 13″ which offer better processing power and more RAM and it is SGD$600 cheaper than the highest end MacBook Air 13.3″. Do we need SSD at this point in time? I would say it is good to have but not a must have.

PS: One of the benefit for working at mig33 is that our boss travels to the US pretty often and he buys back the latest gadgets to Singapore and we get our hands on it!