Tech news and brand announcements, mostly telco and industry, summarised in my own words with a quick take.
Sharing a good cause: M1, SingTel and StarHub, with Ericsson's IPX, are letting post-paid customers donate $5, $10 or $20 by SMS to aid Japan's disaster victims. All three telcos are waiving their administration fees.
In today's press release announcing iPad 2 availability across 25 more countries this Friday, Apple confirmed Hong Kong, Korea and Singapore will get the second-generation tablet sometime in April 2011, a little after the initial wave of launches.
Samsung's Nexus S is now available from all leading mobile retailers at a recommended S$828, contract-free and inclusive of GST. The world's first handset with a contour display, it launches in Singapore on 18 March 2011.
Didn't realise Edelman handles PR for Facebook Singapore. Facebook today launched Places here, already live in some countries, letting you check in and share where you are and who you're with. Personally I prefer Facebook check-in to Foursquare.
Finally, Nokia is dumping Symbian for something better: Windows Phone! Nokia and Microsoft today announced a broad strategic partnership combining their complementary strengths to build a new global mobile ecosystem and challenge the smartphone status quo.
Palm was doomed once HP bought it in April 2010, and now it's officially dead: HP has dropped the Palm name and launched three new webOS devices, the Veer, Pre 3 and TouchPad.
A.C. Ryan has announced the Playon!HD2 and Playon!HD Mini2, just after I got my Playon!HD back in November 2010, argh! I love the new gigabit wired networking, since the original's 10/100Mbps made transferring files over my gigabit LAN painfully slow.
Not tech-related, but H&M is finally opening in Singapore! So far I've only visited Hong Kong's H&M, where I picked up some shorts. Hennes & Mauritz takes its first step with a store at a prime Orchard Road location.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab will be available in Singapore exclusively to SingTel customers from 13th November 2010, with pre-orders from 30th October to 12th November. Pricing comes on 14th November, offered with SingTel's existing 3G Flexi plans.
SingTel has announced its OpenNet fibre price plans, with interest registration opening tomorrow, 1st September 2010, at their exStream site. Honestly it still looks pricey; I'm hoping for an exPress 200 plan, since exPress 150 barely beats StarHub's 100Mbps cable.
Microsoft has announced Singapore Kinect and new Xbox 360 prices. Kinect with Kinect Adventures is S$229, the 4GB Xbox 360 alone S$339, or bundled with Kinect S$469, and individual Kinect games S$59.90. Everything arrives at the end of August 2010.
Back in May 2010 Facebook launched free mobile access via 0.facebook.com by partnering operators, but Singapore wasn't on the list then. Today SingTel has announced its own partnership with Facebook to offer free 0.facebook.com access on your mobile phone.
The iPad arrives in Singapore on 23rd July 2010, alongside eight other countries. Official local prices are S$728 to S$1,028 for WiFi 16GB through 64GB, and S$928 to S$1,228 for the WiFi + 3G models.
The Infocomm Accessibility Centre has launched a month-long civic movement, The Tweet Meet, to bridge the digital divide for people with disabilities. The centre aims to offer more IT course placements to people with disabilities across Singapore.
The iPad arrives in Singapore in July 2010, alongside Austria, Belgium, Hong Kong, Ireland, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands and New Zealand. Apple separately confirmed an earlier wave for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland and the UK.
Finally, well done SingTel! Singapore Telecommunications has secured the broadcast rights to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, offering all 64 matches live on mio TV and mobile, with complimentary viewing over the internet for subscribers.
Yes! Three years after Blizzard announced it at their Worldwide Invitational in Seoul, StarCraft II finally hits stores on 27th July 2010. It comes as three games: Wings of Liberty, Heart of the Swarm and the Protoss campaign.
Nokia officially announced the N8 yesterday, after Mobile Review leaked it days earlier. Priced at around EUR 370, roughly S$675, Nokia's latest smartphone is pitched as intuitively connecting you to the people, places and services that matter most to you.
Finally! Adobe has announced Creative Suite 5, and its Content-Aware Fill looks amazing. The breakthrough release updates Adobe's industry-leading design and development software across virtually every creative discipline, arriving on 12th April 2010, about eighteen months after Creative Suite 4.
Sorry for the late news, from Hong Kong: the Sony Ericsson Xperia X10 has launched in Singapore, with SingTel customers first to get it at S$1,088 without contract. Now I hope they bring in the iPad next!
I no longer qualify as a youth! SingTel has introduced BlackBerry Flexi Youth plans from S$48 a month, the first to bundle data and talktime, with perks like free unlimited SMS and outgoing calls from campuses and army camps.
Couldn't make this event since it's during office hours, but I'm keen to see how LTE advances mobile networks. With smartphone numbers rising, demand for faster mobile bandwidth grows too, so I hope SingTel and Ericsson trial LTE soon.