ASUS 2 in 1 hybrid Android PadFone Infinity to go on sale in Singapore from 1st June 2013
23 May 2013 [3 pages]

Yesterday, ASUS Singapore held a press event at the Luxe Art Musuem at Handy Road. The event focused on the flexibility of the product featuring a 5 inch LTE smartphone which can be docked onto a 10.1″ PadFone Infinity Station, turning it into a tablet.

The PadFone infinity looks sleek with it’s 5 inches screen in full HD. It is powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 1.7GHz quad core processor, thus making it one of the fastest smartphone available in the market.

The PadFone Infinity is LTE capable and it can deliver high speed data transfers of up to 100Mbps. Users on DC-HSPA+ can also surf up to 42Mbps. The phone supports the following bands

EDGE/GPRS/GSM (850, 900, 1800, 1900MHz)WCDMA (900, 2100MHz)LTE (800, 1800, 2100, 2600MHz)

The phone also carries with it a high resolution 13 mega pixel camera with f/2.0 give element lens. is able to capture incredibly detailed images with no shutter lag. A dedicated image signal-processor enhances low-light image quality and enables PadFone Infinity to capture up to 100 sequential photos at eight frames-per-second, while simultaneously recording 1080p full HD video. PadFone Infinity can also output 1080p Full HD video via its Micro-USB-compatible MyDP port.

If you intend to do a simple presentation with the phone, you can dock the phone into the PadFone Infinity Station which is sold seperately at S$368.

Once the smartphone is docked into the Infinity station, current activity (e.g. playing of video) continues onto the larger 10.1 inches screen.

Other than that, ASUS preinstalls two custom software SuperNote 3.1 for ntoe taking and ASUS Story for photo album and ASUS echo for voice control.

As for battery life, PadFone Infinity has up to 19 hours of 3G talk time, which increases to up to 40 hours when docked into PadFone Infinity Station. PadFone Infinity Station also has sufficient battery capacity to fully recharge the docked the phone up to three times.

The 32GB version without operator plan is priced at S$898 while the 64GB version at S$998.

Go to page 2 for a video demonstration of the unit.

Corbell and MSI launches new generation of gaming notebooks featuring exclusive technologies

Are you a gamer ? If the answer is Yes, you would probably want to do away bulky motherboard and graphics card and go for a gaming notebook. Corbell with MSI yesterday launches a series of gaming notebooks featuring the next generation Intel processors. The new machines features high end discrete graphics which will perform just as good as the desktop machines. The new gaming notebooks comes with new exclusive features like Super Raid 2, Cooler Boost 2, Matrix Display and Killer Doubleshot. A speed booster Super Raid 2 makes reading and writing speed 15 times faster than the speed of using one hard disk using up to 3 SSD + 1 HDD in a RAID 0. Cooler Boost 2 blows heat away and keeps your palm cool. Matrix Display let you work multi-tasking with up to 4 monitors and Killer Doubleshot let you respond faster in time-conscious FPS games with lower latency. The models are GT70 Dragon edition 2 and GT70 2OD, GX70 3BE, GE70 2OE, and brand new products GS70 and GE40 2NC.

While most of the features are available on most Gaming series notebooks, only the high end GS70 and GT70 has Killer Doubeshot and GT70 has Super RAID2

ASUS Z87 series feature new technologies such as 802.11ac technologies

Intel will be launching a new chipset next month. In conjunction with the upcoming launch, ASUS held an event in Singapore late last month to introduce their line up of boards at CHIJMES, Singapore.

The ASUS Z87 Series now comes in a Golden colour scheme that makes it stands out from the rest. The Z87 boards comes in different feature set. The Z87 Deluxe / Dual being the top of the range comes with DIP4 with 4 way optimization, WiFI 802.11ac 5Ghz. The Z87-Pro,Plus,-A and -C are lower range models of the series.   As it is a new chipset, the socket type is changed to LGA1150 which is incompatible with existing socketed processors. The new chipset supports native PCIe 3.0×16, 6 USB 3.0 and 6 SATA 6Gbps. It can also support up  to 3 indepdendent displays from DP/HDMI/DVi/VGA. Displayrtport 1.2 monitor can daisy chain up to 3 displays. ASUS new Z87 board features 4 Way Optimization and they are Digi+Power, TPU, fan Xpert2 and EPU. It can all be done in real time or by a single click. TPU:Overlclocking CPU, EPU:CPU voltage, Digi+:Power, Fan:Speed and noise.

ASUS also is the first to incorporate 802.11ac which delivers higher data throughput of up to 867Mbps compared to 802.11n’s 300Mbps. Lastly, the Z87 series has a revamped UEFI BIOS to make tuning much simpler than before.

On the next page, we take a look at the TuF Series boards – SABERTOOTH Z87 and GRYPHON Z87.

Dell Latitude 6430u Ultrabook review
Bluetooth 11 May 2013

Tablets are flooding the market in different sizes and shapes. Although they cater to a new generation of users who loves apps for functionality, such Windows 8 tablets do not come with a nicely built functional keyboard and expansion capabilities.

Tablets are handy but it has a 10 inches or smaller screen. When it comes to the business world, it may not be practical as most of the users require a bigger screen and a nice keyboard to type and view comfortably.  A large 14″ 1366×768 anti glare LED screen and a tactile keyboard is definitely the preferred platform for the working professionals.

Today, we take a closer look at the Dell Latitude 6430u Ultrabook, a no frills durable ultrabook.

The Dell Latitude 6430u is thin slim 1.69kg ultrabook. Flip open the screen and you will notice the sturdiness of the ultrabook. In fact, the Dell Latitude 6340u is the only Ultrabook tested to 14 MIL-STD-810G standards. The keyboard is somewhat water proof. The silver black colour scheme makes it stand out when illuminated by the white keyboard light.

Specfications wise, the unit is powered by the 3rd generation Intel Core i5-3427U at 1.8GHz. To speed things up, the unit comes with a 128GB Samsung SSD PM830 mSATA. Loading Windows 8 to login screen takes less than 6 seconds from power up. The unit we review comes with a 6-cell (60Whr) Li-polymer battery with ExpressCharge.

The graphics inbuilt within the processor is a Intel HD Graphics 4000 graphics and supports the 14″ HD display at 1366×768.

The Latitude 6430u is also vPro-enabled for easy management and comes with TPM and Dell Data Protection│Encryption.

ON the next page, we will take a detail look at the unit followed by benchmarks.

Here are the specs

Processor

Review of Synology DiskStation DS213 NAS
Bluetooth 2 May 2013

Do you run a small office and has a number of PCs, notebooks for your different usage ? With so much data stored on your local HDD or SSD, it is always messy to hold multiple USB devices to backup your work. You would also want to do it manually. With the Synology DiskStation DS213, all these problems can easily be resolved. Not only can you backup your data from multiple machines to one central network storage, the data is also replicated to a second drive in a RAID 1 storage. Using the Synology Data Replicator software, it ensures your data is always intact even if your PC or notebook decides to go on strike. Mac OS X is also supported using it’s native Apple Time Machine software.

The DS213 allows backup to scale up to another level. It also comes with a backup wizard for backing up the data from DS2w13 to another DiskStation or rSync server or to another external USB 3.0 HDD/SSD. This backup wizard can also backup data to the cloud via Amazon S3 or STRATO HiDrive.

Using CloudStation software, you can turn the device into a storage for all your computers and devices. It also keep multiple versions of a document in case it is accidentally deleted or upon any change.

Unboxing of the Synology DiskStation DS213

ASUS RT-AC66U Dual band (802.11ac) and USB-AC53 Dual band USB adapter review (802.11ac)
Bluetooth 17 Apr 2013

A traditional 802.11n router is probably what most people would use with their signed up broadband plans. While it delivers the connection, wireless speed is always a major complain.

While most 802.11n promises a speed of 450Mbps theoritically, most users will find that the speed doesn’t really go beyond half of it. A single band would also not be able to handle so many clients and cover a larger pool of home users.

Most users will buy their own routers to replace those bundled with their subscription plan. A Dual Band 2.4GHz + 5GHz would be a good choice. While there are various manufacturers out there with such design, the 5GHz band doesn’t really travel far enough.

With the ASUS RT-AC66U, all these issues are solved with the 802.11ac support which can deliver a theoritical speed of 1300Mbps on the 5GHz band. So, no more hanging during video streaming and you get comparable speeds as good as having a line connection.

The 3 antenna design is specifically design for better coverage of wireless signal. In fact, we noticed that most 5GHz Band routers will be out of the radar once you are around 10 metres aways from the router. For the ASUS RT-AC66U paired up with the  USB-AC53, we can still achieve pretty decent connection speeds even on the 2nd floor.

As a wireless router, the RT-AC66U is more than a simple router. It comes with built in USB ports that connect to printers, 3G/4G dongles or storage media. Other features include guest access, VPN server, DLNA server,  Download Master, 5GHz HD Streaming and Printer Sharing.

ASUS also preloads RT-AC66U with AiCloud ASUS AiCloud is the cloud service that delivers you the most at no cost. Sync your data on a home PC with an online storage account, share files with anyone using a simple link, and stream media from your home PC directly to any internet-connected device. Keep in touch with your stuff wherever and whenever like never before.

the ASUS RT-AC66U is easily setup with the web browser using the setup wizard. The menus are very intuitive and can be easily configured through the web. For Singapore users, the firmware also has option for easy set up for fibre broadband operators, M1, Singtel and Starhub.

In the subsequent pages, we will take a look at the package, setup and benchmarks.

ASUS RT-AC66U Specs

BIOSTAR FM2 motherboards support AMD new Fusion S-Series “Richland” CPU

April 16, 2013, Taipei, Taiwan – AMD is ready to launch the next generation of company’s APUs in June, 2013, codenamed “Richland”. The new Fusion S-Series “Richland” CPU Series will have an updated graphics code which turns out to be HD-8000 series graphics and support native DDR3-2133.

Today, BIOSTAR full range FM2 motherboards are ready to support the new “Richland” series; users just need to update BIOS and Drivers which are available at BIOSTAR homepage.

*** Please see the table below for more details about AMD Fusion S-Series “Richland” CPU line up:

Gigabyte GV-R7790OC-1GB AMD Radeon HD 7790 Graphics card review
Bt 3 Apr 2013

Last week, AMD launched it’s latest 7000 series graphics card with it’s partners. The latest model is the Radeon HD 7790. It is a PCIe 3.0 card The Radeon HD 7790 features complete DX11.1 support featuring the Graphics Core Next (GCN) architecture. It supports the AMD CrossFire, Eyefinity, PowerTune and ZeroCore power. In terms of cost/performance, the Radeon HD 7790 beats the competitors at every price point such that the competitor has to release a newer version just days after it’s announcement. Below is a break down of the Radeon HD 7790. While the default GPU clk is 1GHz , the Gigabyte version is clocked at 1075MHz and the 1GB GDDR5 clocks at 1.5GHz. It has 896 stream processors and a 128bit memory interface. On the second page, we will take a look at the Gigabyte’s graphics card.

Forcing Windows Phone 7.8 OS update on HTC Trophy 7
29 Mar 2013

A few days ago, we received an update notice on our LG E900 also known as LG Optimus 7, the first generation Windows 7 phone. The update took almost an hour or so to bring us from Windows 7.5 to Windows 7.8.

Before the actual OS upgrade to Windows 7.8, there were a number of interim updates made to Windows 7.5 which was not made available before. It went through 5 steps to the final build.
Build 8779.8 -> 8783.12 -> 8858.136 -> 8860.142 -> 8862.144

As LG and Microsoft already pushed out their updates, we tried to see if HTC trophy 7 gets any love. To our disbelief, there were no updates available.

I did a search on the net and discovered that the old trick that we used to update to NoDo is able to trick the servers to push down the updates. We did it again and was successful to get it updated to the latest OS.

The trick is to unplug your network cable or USB network adapter at the 6 second after you click on the UPDATE button.

Here is how to go about it :

1.  Power on the HTC Trophy 7
2.  Switch the phone to AIRPLANE mode
3.  Connect up the USB cable and let it detect and install any drivers (if necessary).
4.  Run Zune
5.  Click Update and count till the 5 or 6 second
6.  Pull out the network cable or USB WiFi adaptor
7.  Wait for Zune to display “An update is found”. If it says “You are having the latest update”, proceed to step 5 and try it again.
8.  Plug your Ethernet cable or USB WiFi adaptor back to your system.
9.  Proceed with the update.

The update is automatic and do not need any human intervention. It will go through a number of updates depending on your latest OS update. Most users will start with Windows 7.5 as it was the last available update to most Trophy 7 users.

Below are the screen shots of the update process.

You can now resize the Live Tiles and get all the fixes applied to your HTC Trophy 7.

Related : LG Optimus 7 gets updated to Windows Phone 7.8

PC Enthusiasts who build their own systems knows Western Digital. They have been delivering high speed and reliable hard disk all these years. The next thing one will relate to is data backup, Network Access Storage.

Western Digital realised it with the My Net N900 Central. It is a Dual Band Wireless Router with a 1TB or 2TB HDD storage built in.

The device itself comes with 4 Gigabit Ethernet ports for high speed access to your connected devices. There is also a USB port which allows you to add external storage such as My Book or My Passport hard drives, shared printers and scanners.

IT Show 2013 is here again. This time round it will be held at Marina Bay Sands for the first time. It will span 2 floors levels 1 & B2 from 7 to 10 Mar 2013 (12 to 9pm).

As usual, we have put up a scanned price list section in our forums so that you can grab the best bargains on the first few days.

7 – 10 March 2013
Marina Bay Sands
Levels 1 & B2
Opening Hours : 12 noon to 9pm
Free Admission

Price lists updated : Klipsh, Logitech, Ricoh, Epicentre, AC Ryan, Viewquest, Aztech, BUffalo, Norton, AVG, TP-LInk, Seagate, Casio, Lenovo, Western Digital, Panasonic, Canon, Xerox, Touch8, MSI, Seasonic, TactSlider, ADATA, HP, ASUS, Starhub, Singtel, M1, MyRepublic.

http://forums.ocworkbench.com/forumdisplay.php?f=77

Sony Xperia Z the 5″ Android smartphone with dust and water resistance
Bluetooth 27 Feb 2013

These days when you walk on the streets, you would see people with large screen phones, so much so that you thought they are talking to a piece of white bread. The conventional 3 inches to 4.2 inches might be too straining to the eyes while those 5.5 inches bread-phone is simply too big and ugly. Well, it looks like the Japanese have thought of If you find someone talking to a piece of white bread, you will know that particular device is way beyond what most can accept. A 5 inches display should be the optimum size for a smartphone.

Unboxing Video

Sony Xperia Z, the first full 5 inches reality display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 smartphone in a compact water proof design form factor. The Xperia Z is 7.9mm thin and is highly durable with tempered glass and anti shatter film on the front and back and it is IP 55 and IP57 certified for dust and water resistant. With the larger screen, the Xperia Z really comes handy with display of text, images and videos. Powered by the Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad Core processor,, touch experience has never been that smooth before. In fact, I don’t find the lag that was experienced on the earlier Acro S. The Xperia Z improves on power management with a new feature BATTERY STAMINA mode which improves the standby time by 4 times or more by automatically shutting down battery draining apps.

The Xperia Z comes with a  13 megapixel fast capture camera which performs just like a HD camera. Exmor RS for mobile, the world’s first image sensor with HDR video is available on the Xperia Z. Take photos with more details even under low light conditions.

Similar to the Xperia V, the Xperia Z allows you to share music, photos and videos to the new BRAVIA TV. Simply touch the remote control of the TV and mirror the contents to the large screen Sony TV using NFC.

Panasonic announces 2 new Toughbook and 1 new Touchpad to it’s slate of TOUGHBOOK series of products
7 Feb 2013

On Tuesday, Panasonic announces 2 new Toughbook and a new Touchpad.

The Toughbook CF-AX2 is the world’s lightest business rugged convertible Windows 8 ProUltrabook. One of the first ready-made Microsoft Windows 8 Pro certified devices, the AX2 is ideal for the mobile sales workforce, merchandisers, and executives on the go.

Designed for healthcare professionals, aviation technicians and automotive engineers, the Toughbook CF-C2 is the world’s first semi-rugged Windows 8 convertible PC.

The  ToughPad which was initially showcased at CommunicAsia last year on the Android platform, is now available on the Windows 8 platform as Toughpad FZ-G1, designed for on-the-go business professionals and government institutions.

Sony Mobile Singapore showcase the new 5″ Xperia Z
bluetooth 16 Jan 2013

Sony Mobile Singapore showcase it’s latest Android Smartphone at Red Dot Museum yesterday. The latest addition to the Xperia family is Xperia Z, the first full 5 inches reality display with Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 smartphone in a compact water proof design form factor.

The 5 inch full HD 1080p Xperia Z is powered by Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad Core processor. Other than having a larger screen compared to the Xperia V, it has a 13 megapixel fast capture camera which performs just like a HD camera. Exmor RS for mobile, the world’s first image sensor with HDR video is available on the Xperia Z.

The Xperia Z improves on power management with a new feature BATTERY STAMINA mode which improves the standby time by 4 times or more by automatically shutting down battery draining apps.

We have seen NFC being used on Xperia V share music on speakers. With Xperia Z, you can share music, photos and videos to the new BRAVIA TV. Simply touch the remote control of the TV and mirror the contents to the large screen Sony TV.

The Xperia Z is 7.9mm thin and is highly durable with tempered glass and anti shatter film on the front and back and it is IP 55 and IP57 certified for dust and water resistant.

The Xperia Z and Xperia ZL (in a smaller form factor) will be launched in Q1 2013 with JellyBean. It will shortly be upgraded to Android 4.2.

It will be available in 3 colours, Black, White and Purple. Xperia ZL will be available in Black and White.

On the next few pages, we run through the specifications and included two videos showing the features of the Xperia Z and the One Touch Mirroring feature mirroring contents through NFC.

Microsoft gets ready for 2013 with new Microsoft Office 365 Home Premium
Bluetooth 23 Dec 2012

November should be the busiest month for Microsoft as they launched the highly anticipated Windows 8 followed by Windows Phone 8. The Windows 8 operating system brings a revolution to computing. Windows 8 is now tablet friendly. In addition, the move from conventional storage to the cloud using SkyDrive definitely changes the way users interact with their applications through the conventional desktops and portable devices including tablets and phones.

So, what is new for 2013 at Microsoft ? Well, we were invited to the Microsoft Technology Centre in Singapore for a heads up on the upcoming product that is scheduled for a January 2013 lanuch.

At the event, we saw the Windows Surface tablet and other Windows Phones on display. See the Gallery below.

AMD A-series platform
Bluetooth 18 Dec 2012

Christmas is round the corner, have you decided what platform is the most cost effective solution out there? Last year, AMD delivered the first APU LIano which delivers integrated graphics into the core. This October, AMD delivered the 2nd generation that is built on the strength of the earlier generation.

If you have read our reviews, you would have noticed how well the Trinity or A10-5800K performs especially in the graphics performance against even the high end Intel Core i5-3570K. So what has changed ?

Basically, the the new A-series plaform Socket FM2 features the new X86 architecture featuring the “Piledriver” cores. Some features of it includes supports up to 4 cores and latest ISA instructions including AVX, AES, XOP, FMA4/3. There is also enahnced cache performnce over the previous BullDozer cores. It has also improved it’s max turbo frequency to up to 4.2GHz and is configurable through AMD Overdrive.

The GPU is also improved and feature 384 shaders at 800MHz, It supports 8xAA and 16AF  and DX11 support. UVD and VCE allows video encode and decode hardware to offload CPU and AMD Picture Perfect support with HD post processing technologies are included in this new design.

For those who always do file compression using WINZIP, you can also take advantage of the OpenCL instructions. One of such application is WinZip 16.5 x64 build 10095. Another such application is Cyberlink PowerDirector ver 11.

In fact, something that most users overlook is the support of new display technologies. This new platform comes with AMD Eyefinity technology that can support 3+1 monitors and has Display Port 1.2 support.. In addition, it has AMD Dual Graphics enhancements that allows you to pair up with an external graphics card to boost the graphical performance.

Western Digital VelociRaptor 1TB and Western Digital Black 4TB Hard Disk Review
poor poor 16 Dec 2012

The traditional hard disk isn’t obsolete. If you thought it would be, it is still around and has served users beyond the expected life span. In fact, my first SSD was dead within a year but my desktop HDD from Western Digital is stil running right now.

Western Digital has 4 series of desktop/workstation hard drives. They are the Blue series WD Blue which offers solid performance an d realiability for everyday computing. It ranges from 80GB to 1TB. The other series which is environmental friendly is the Cool and Quiet WD Green. It has storage capacities of 500GB to 3 TB.

The WD Black series has the highest capacity range from 500GB to 4TB and offers maximum performance for power computing. It has a 32MB – 64MB cache and 5 years warranty.

The WD VelociRaptor, the highest end is more suitable for workstation. It comes in the capacity of 250GB to 1TB and in form factor of 2.5 and 3.5inches. It has a 64MB cache and runs at a high speed of 10,000 RPM.

Both WD Black and WD VelociRaptor has 5 years warranty.

Today, we will take a look at two products from Western Digital, the high speed Western Digital 1TB VelociRaptor & the WD Black 4TB 3.5inch.

Both hard disks are high performance drives, one with speed while the other with high capacity.

WD® ENTERS WIRELESS HOME NETWORKING MARKET, USHERS IN NEW ERA OF BLAZING FAST HD ENTERTAINMENT STREAMING

My Net™ Family of Dual-Band Routers with Exclusive FasTrack™ Technology Accelerates Video and Games using Intelligent, Real-Time Entertainment Prioritization

SINGAPORE – Dec. 6, 2012 – WD^®, a Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) company, and a world leader in external storage and maker of the popular WD TV^® media player family, today unveils its first line of wireless home networking products, designed specifically to accelerate movies, video and gaming, delivering a premium high-definition entertainment experience. With the My Net family of powerful and easy-to-use home networking products, WD debuts its exclusive FasTrack™ technology that instantly detects entertainment traffic on the network and fast-forwards it to gaming consoles, media players, smart TVs, tablets, smartphones, computers and other Wi-Fi connected devices.

“With increasingly more people within the home simultaneously watching movies, playing games and browsing the Web via a variety of smart devices, the network demands placed on today’s connected home has grown exponentially,” states Amy Tan, senior manager, sales management, branded products group, WD South East Asia region. “Our successes in creating Connected Home solutions with our WD TV media players and personal cloud products have given us valuable insights into the network-overload problems of home wireless users, and entering the wireless home networking market offers WD an exciting opportunity to strengthen our Connected Home offerings that are aimed at enhancing the home entertainment experience for consumers.”

Accelerated Entertainment

According to Nielsen’s Digital Media Habits and Attitudes of Southeast Asian Consumers Report, data from the fourth quarter of 2011 shows that 42 percent of Singaporeans watch TV online or stream movies from the internet. Further to that, 49 percent of Singaporean digital consumers stream, or download online video on a weekly basis. Internet video services, multi-player online gaming sites, and live video chat services, combined with the explosive growth of tablets, smartphones and other devices that connect to the home network, have created a new model of home entertainment and Internet usage.

With the industry’s only full line of HD dual-band wireless N routers, My Net customers can fully enjoy this new age of home entertainment. WD’s exclusive FasTrack™ optimization technology intelligently and automatically prioritizes Internet favorites like Netflix, Hulu Plus, VUDU, YouTube™, Xbox^® LIVE, Skype™ and others, to create a smooth streaming experience in up to Full-HD 1080p quality. By using real-time analysis to maximize bandwidth for entertainment services, My Net routers provide a premium entertainment experience on any screen in the home that is connected to the router.

Streamlined Setup and Ease-of-Use

The sleek hardware design of the My Net family of routers is complementary to the devices’ friendly and intuitive user interface, which was designed by a veteran team of developers to enable quick router setup from wireless or wired devices such as iPads and other mobile devices, as well as PCs and Mac^® computers. The streamlined router setup is designed to make it easy for novice users to be up and running in minutes, while also providing all the customization tools expert users crave. The included My Net Dashboard makes it easy for users to customize, monitor or change the settings of the network, including setting parental controls, Internet security, guest network access, network name and password, printer and scanner settings, and mapping storage drives, all in one easy view.

New Combination Router, Personal Cloud and Automatic Wireless Backup

In addition to getting a premium home entertainment experience with My Net routers, customers can centralize storage and backup for all the computers in their home, as well as create a personal cloud for their digital media and remotely access those files anytime, anywhere. Part of the My Net family, My Net N900 Central is WD’s all-in-one N900 router with an integrated 1 TB or 2 TB internal hard drive. Remote access to My Net N900 Central is available on any computer through www.WD2go.com and with WD mobile apps for iPad, iPhone, iPod touch^® or Android™ smartphones and tablets.

In addition to keeping content safe at home and always accessible while away from home, users can rely on My Net N900 Central for automatic wireless backup with the included WD SmartWare™ software for Windows^®, while Mac users can utilize all the features of Apple^® Time Machine^® backup software. Additionally, any WD external hard drive with SmartWare software can connect directly to a My Net router to wirelessly backup all PC computers in the home.

My Net Router Family

• My Net N900 Central – The My Net N900 Central HD dual-band storage router provides accelerated HD streaming plus integrated storage for wireless backup and remote access. With FasTrack™ Plus optimization technology, My Net N900 Central delivers high quality, accelerated HD entertainment that is intelligently and automatically prioritized to ensure smooth streaming. The wireless-N storage router features fast wireless performance with speeds up to 900 Mbps (450 + 450 Mbps on the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands combined), as well as integrated 1 TB or 2 TB internal storage for automatic wireless backup. My Net N900 Central includes 4 LAN and 1 WLAN Gigabit Ethernet ports for up to 10/100/1000 Mbps wired speeds, 1 USB port for additional storage, printer and media share server use, and range amplifier antennas for extended range. Additionally, My Net N900 Central is Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) and Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) certified for easy detection and connection of Wi-Fi devices.
• My Net N900 – The My Net N900 HD dual-band router also provides a premium entertainment experience for movies, games, video, music, video chat and more. The My Net N900 offers the ultimate performance for all connected devices in the home, even while streaming to multiple devices at the same time. The exclusive FasTrack™ Plus technology provides intelligent, real-time traffic prioritization for simultaneous HD and 3D media streaming and online gaming. The wireless-N router features high wireless performance with speeds up to 900 Mbps (450 + 450 Mbps on the 2.4 and 5 Ghz bands combined) and also includes 7 LAN and 1 WLAN Gigabit Ethernet ports for up to 10/100/1000 Mbps wired speeds, 2 USB ports for additional storage, printer and media share server use, and range amplifier antennas for extended range. Additionally, My Net N900 is UPnP and DLNA certified.
• My Net N750 – The My Net N750 HD dual-band router is optimized to deliver multiple simultaneous HD media streams on the network, delivering accelerated video to all connected wireless and wired devices. WD’s exclusive FasTrack™ technology detects entertainment traffic and prioritizes bandwidth on the network to smoothly stream multiple HD movies, shows, games and more to connected devices. The router provides a combined data rate of up to 750 Mbps (300 + 450 Mbps) and features 5 Gigabit Ethernet ports and 2 USB ports.
• My Net N600 – The My Net N600 HD dual-band router is ideal for simple and fast web surfing and entertainment streaming with FasTrack™ technology for a smooth HD viewing experience. The router provides a combined data rate of up to 600 Mbps (300 + 300 Mbps) and features 5 Fast Ethernet ports with 1 USB port.

Pricing (MSRP)

Availability

My Net N900 Central, My Net N900, My Net N750 and My Net N600 will be available at select retailers by mid of December. The My Net family of routers will be distributed by select distributors and resellers.

Introduction to the Sony Xperia V LTE Smartphone
bluetooth 5 Dec 2012

Sony Mobile launches it’s LTE flagship mobile phone the Sony Xperia V in Singapore yesterday. The Bond Phone was showcased in the release of Skyfall.

This new mobile device is comes with full NFC and IP57 dust and water resistance just like the Xperia Acro S. In addition to these features, it supports LTE high speed data, supporting modes I, III, V, VII.

In contract to the Xperia Acros S which comes sealed, the Xperia V comes with a 1750mAh battery that is replaceable.

The phone comes in 2 variations a black and a white model. It has a dimension of 129 x 65 10.7mm and weighs 120 grams. It runs on 1.5 GHz Qualcommm MSM8960 Dual Core processor and powered by Google Android 4.0 ICS.

Features wise, it has a 3D Sweep panormam 13 megapixel 16x Digital ZOom camera which can do 1080p video recording. It also has a front facing 720p camera. It uses the Sony Exmor R image sensor and HDR.

For music it has Clear Audio+, XLoud, music equaliser and WALKMAN application. The display is a 4.3″ HD display powered by Mobile BRAVIA Engine 2 for razor sharp quality content.

The phone uses MHL connectivity for outputting contents on a big screen.

It has a talk time (GSM) of up to 7 hrs standby time (GSM) up to 300 hrs talk time (UMTS) up to 7 hrs standby time (UMTS) up to 400 hours standby time (LTE) up to 270 hours Music Listening time up to 18 hours video playback time Up to 4 hours.

In the next few pages, we will take a good look at the features of this phone.

Page2

Every quarter, we will see the telcos unbid one another to secure more customers. This is not the first and will never be the last. At Hall 5 of Singapore Expo, you would probably see the three main telecom operators sitting side by side at Singapore Expo, luring customers with the freebies and super low price.

So which operator has the best deal for Fibre Broadband and package deal ? Let’s take a look at them one by one.

M1

First is M1. To date, M1 has the best Fibre Broadband no frills package that will attract most users who just want plain 100Mbps fibre connection and nothing more. Priced at S$39 per mth with a 24 months contract, it also throws in a Mobile Broadband mData 1GB (up to 7.2Mbps HSPA SIM card alone) and Home Fixed Voice Service. The Optical Networko Terminal installation is FREE. Upgrade to 200Mbps at S$49/mth, just $10 more is you really need 2X the speed for the poor local contents.

They also have the bundle offer of 100Mbps with the same as above but comes with a FREE Acer Aspire V5 Touch notebook worth S$1398. The price is tagged at S$75/mth or you can choose to get a ValurSurf+ mobile plan or Value+plan with another $10 more.

Something which is not mentioned is that M1 does not provide you with a Wireless Router. So, you have to purchase you own. Price ranges from S$52-$209 from Cisco or ASUS.

M1 also has very cheap Mobile Broadband offers starting from $12/mth (3G) or $24/mth (LTE) for 2GB bundle. There is also a free 3 mth mData+ subscription if you sign up for 24 mths.

Singtel

Singtel doesn’t seem to have standalone Fibre broadband plan. Instead, it bundle their Mio TV service with a 100Mbps at S$69.90 or 300Mbps at S$99. For the price, you get a Wireless Router worth S$188, 10 GB online storage, Fixed Home Line and Mio TV Family+ with 44 channels. In addition you get 10% discount for additional mio tv contents. Those with Singtel mobile lines also enjoyu annual mobile handset upgrade and multiline users can get up from 10% to 25% discount for their Singtel mobile lines. Latest : They are throwing in one year of Fox Movies (you have to pay from the 13th month at S$16 in addition to the S$69.90). They also throw in a 1GB data SIM free.

The Mio TV package seems rather attractive for those who wants to catch the latest News and Education programmes in HD. Entertainment wise there is Starworld HD, Fox HD. Unfortunately there is no CNN, BBC or CNBC on this platform.

Something that is not mentioned is the installation charges. So, do check before you commit the 24mths contract.

Starhub

Starhub has a number of bundle deals giving away notebooks. All deals comes with free 1 GB data SIM card free. The most appealing is the 200Mbps Fibre broadband plan at S$128/mth. They are giving away a MacBook Pro worth S$1688 for a 2 yrs contract. Alternatively, you can go for ASUS R405CA notebook with 100Mbps at S$89.90/mth. Cable broadband wise, they have a 50Mbps cable broadband plan at S$77.90/mth, comes with free Toshiba Satellite M840.

If you want just plain vanilla broadband, 150Mbps + 1GB mobile broadband and wirles home gateway is yours for S$49.90/mth. There are small prints below the brochure which indicates the installation charges.

As for Starhub TV bundle, it has a S$73 Home Ultimate which gives you 100Mbps Fibre, Home Gateway, 37 channels of Starhub TV, Home phone line, Tv anyway and up to 30% off mobile subscription and 1GB data SIM. This plan is comparable to the Singtel offer at S$69.90/mth.

Viewquest

Viewquest also has something up on it’s sleeve. It is promoting it’s Fibrenet Raptor 200 giving you 300Mbps at S$79.95. In addition, the first 50 sign up per day get a free Apple TV. It ia also throwing in a 1mth trial and 3 months freedom VPN for you to access overseas contents. There is no mention of free installation on it’s brochure.

MyRepublic

MyRepublic seems to be one of the more aggressive new players. They offer 2 plans – Pure Plan is S$59/mth at S$100/mth and Gamer Plan is S$69/mth at 150Mbps.

It is offering free service installation. You can choose to have free 6 mths Fire Broadband or take home a free Acer ASpire S7 worth $1898  (plan is $109.90/mth) or Acer Iconia W510 worth $1198 (plan is S$88/mth).

One thing good about MyRepublic is that you can have a Fix IP address for S$50 more, Home Voice isn’t free thought. You can to pay S$49/mth for installation and equipemtn charge. So Pure plan works out to be S$44.25/mth and Gamer plan at S$51.75/mth. Just like M1, you have to purchase your own ASUS router from S$69 to S$209 onwards.

Verdict

If you are a user who just wants plain internet surfing without free notebooks or whatsoever, the M1 plan remains the King among the 5 players. MyRepublic is slightly more expensive than M1 but it’s Home Fixed line service isn’t really free and it is limited in a way. Secondly, it doesn’t provide a free mobile 1GB data plan.

If you want TV content to be bundled, I think the Singtel Fibre plan would be worth the money but do take note you have to pay an additional $16 for the Fox movie channels (it’s free for the first year). The Starhub TV is good but you have to pay extra for HD contents.

As for the other Viewquest, it’s quest for gamers market might not work out too well. As for VPN option it is indeed a good option for exptraites who missed their home channels. As for locals, most people will use their means to download them over P2P network.

So the choice is up to you. Which operator will you go for ? Check out the brochures here

Discuss here.