Asia finally gets date with BenQ-Siemens

Goodbye Siemens, hello BenQ-Siemens
Ready or not, BenQ-Siemens is now official. Coming three days after its global announcement, the company has finally confirmed dates for the rollout of its phones in Asia. BenQ Asia Pacific Corp's vice president Philip Newton also revealed at today's press launch that customers can expect 30 percent of BenQ Mobile's portfolio to comprise 3G-based phones, with every three out of four products featuring a music player or FM radio, and every second phone offering at least a 1.3-megapixel camera. However, first up will be the final two Siemens-branded mobiles, the SL75 and S75, coming out in late January, followed by BenQ's S500 a month later. Handsets appearing under the joint marque--the Sony Ericsson-looking S88, the S68 and 3G-capable RAZR-like EF81--will make an appearance in Asia only between February and April. When asked how the company would create a clearly differentiated product proposition in a highly competitive and saturated market, Newton would say only that there will be "a lot of surprising adaptations to the mobile phones in the next 12 months", with "unique features and innovations that our customers are looking for". Newton also added that BenQ Mobile will adopt a "holistic approach to service marketing where customers can access information on warranty issues, product updates, etc., 24/7 online". To date, Siemens has two service centers in Singapore, which will now come under the joint brand name. The takeover of Siemens AG's Mobile Devices Business has certainly given Taiwan-based BenQ an instant leg up to becoming the world's fourth-largest handset maker. As BenQ Corp's CEO KY Lee explained of the acquisition: "BenQ had to sieze the opportunity afforded by Siemens to reach a scale that would otherwise take seven to eight years to achieve." Newton sees the move as complementary: "Our strengths were the same as their weaknesses, and their strengths were the same as our weaknesses." So can this newcomer follow the same path successfully carved out by another earlier partnership, Sony Ericsson? Only time will tell. But as far as ambitions go, BenQ Mobile has outlined its 2006 growth strategy, at least for Singapore, to be a Top 5 vendor in mobiles with a 5 percent market share, growing to Top 3 with a 10 percent share by the end of 2007.

Samsung to Introduce New YP-Z5 Flash Player at CES 2006

Samsung will be introducing their new YP-Z5 flash-based audio player at the 2006 CES convention in Las Vegas 2 weeks ago.The YP-Z5 will be available in both 2GB and 4GB capacities, and will feature a 1.8" LCD display, MP3 and WMA audio playback, JPEG photo viewing, DNSe Digital Natural Sound Engine 3D audio processing, and a 38-hour Li-ion battery.The YP-Z5 is expected to launch in February 2006 and retail for $249 USD (4GB) and $199 USD (2GB).

Samsung's New 4GB SGH-i300x Musicphone

Samsung has announced an update to its SGH-i300 "Super Musicphone" - increasing the storage capacity of the built-in HDD from 3GB to 4GB.The SGH-i300x shares the same design and features as its predecessor - tri-band GSM, 1.3MP camera w/flash, QVGA TFT LCD display, MPEG-4 / H.263 / H.264 / WMV video recording and playback, MP3 / AAC / AAC+ / WMA / ASF / WAV / WMA audio playback, 3.5mm earphone jack, stereo Bluetooth, MS Office / PDF Picsel viewer, Bluetooth / USB / IrDA connectivity, flight mode, microSD storage, and running Windows Mobile for Smartphones. I think this phone is really cool as I am Samsung Mobile Phone Supporter. This is because I found that Samsung is a perfecr business phone for all businessman or sales person if you are not looking for a bulky PDA phone.

4GB SDCard

With this SD card, you can download more Mp3 or movie to your PDA phone or take more pictures with your love one during the vacation. It support the digital cameras, PDA phones, DVs and printers as stated below:-

DSC
SAMSUNG D4000
SAMSUNG Digimax V4000
UMAX ASTRAOIX 590
CANON IXUS40
CANON IXY55
CANON 700
CANON PowerShot SD 400
CANON PowerShot SD 500
CANON IXY Digital 55
CANON IXY Digital 600
KONICA MINOLTA DIMAGE X31
Nikon Coolpix S1
Nikon D50

DV
DIGILIFE V4
MUSTEK DV-4000
MUSTEK DV-3500

PDA
ETEN M500
Mio 138
Mio 168
Mio 169
Mio 201
Mio 269plus
Mio 700
Mio Magellan RoadMate800
Mio Medion MDPNA150
HP iPAQ 6515

Printer
HP Office Jet 7410
HP Photosmart 385
HP Photosmart 2410
HP Photosmart 7450
HP Photosmart 8250
HP Photosmart 2610/2710
HP Photosmart 3110/3310
HP PSC 1610
HP PSC 2210

iCar

A typical scenario for exploiting HTI-BT800’s unique and superior features is this: when you drive to your office, home, or a shopping mall, you insert the headset unit into the speaker-equipped base of HTI-BT800, and start to make or answer phone calls wirelessly by taking advantage of HTI-BT800’carkit/speakerphone functions. After you reach your destination, you pull the headset unit out of the speaker-equipped base, wear it on your ear, and start to enjoy the mobility and superior sound quality that a high-end Bluetooth headset could offer.
This is another gadget that I found it's very useful for every driver. I believe it will reduce the accident cases on the road.

Bluespoon 5G

Hey, this is the most smallest and lightest headset in the world.
Bluespoon™ 5G is a small and discrete Bluetooth headset with a weight of 5.85 grams. It is 30 mm long and 17 mm wide. Bluespoon™ 5G is designed to be used both for the right and left ear. It has a talk time of about 2 hours and up to 100 hours standby time. Bluespoon™ 5G is a high quality headset, supporting headset and handsfree profile, making it compatible with all Bluetooth cellular phones on the market.

Backup-Pal -Your Cell-Phonebook Is Now BACKED UP!

Backup-Pal (Patent-Pending) is the first easy-to-use, cellular phonebook back-up solution that does NOT require the use of a PC. This portable, wireless accessory connects to a user’s cellular phone and at the touch of a button makes a permanent back-up copy of the stored contact information. Restoring information is just as easy – simply attach Backup-Pal to virtually any cellular phone and click “restore”. The device makes backing-up and transferring information between phones a snap!!! Backup-Pal: a simple, portable, and innovative device that backs up cellular phone data at the touch of a button.
I found this is interesting. With this gadget which means that most of the phone users won't be headache whenever they want to change a new mobile phone.

E-TEN M600

The perfect combination of wireless technology and style
A perfect combination of wireless technology and style, the M600 continues the E-TEN tradition of international award winning design concepts first introduced on the M500 model in Q1, 2005.
The M600 featuring built-in Wireless LAN technology is the smallest wireless LAN PDA available with a phone function. The compact M600 unit supports a 2.8" 65, 536-color QVGA screen, a Samsung S 3C 2440 400MHz processor, 64MB RAM, 128MB ROM, GPRS/GSM - Quad-Band, a 1.3 Mega pixel built-in camera with enhanced brightness and white balance controls for improved imaging performance, Bluetooth Version 1.2, Skype peer-to-peer telephony and a 1440mAh Li-ion long-life battery.
The M600 runs on the Windows Mobile 5.0 operating system, the latest version of Microsoft's Windows Mobile software platform. This new, state-of-the-art device offers users greater productivity and more appealing entertainment choices through enhanced, integrated multimedia options and an upgraded Mobile Office suite. Built-in Wireless LAN technology, allows M600 users to connect with all of their contacts through Skype telephony anytime or anywhere they can access a Wireless LAN connection. With the M600, you can be connected to every corner of the world in the least expensive way.

My hubby likes this phone very much. We saw it in the PC fair last year at KLCC with the promotion price RM2488

Dopod 900

The new Tri Band (850/900/1800/1900) Super Mini Notebook Dopod 900 with its comprehensive connectivity options (3G, WiFi, Bluetooth, GPRS) is an obvious choice for business users and frequent travellers. Powered by Windows Mobile 5.0, the Dopod 900 packs a complete suite of applications – Pocket Word, Pocket Excel, Internet access and push emails – to give mobile information workers access to critical business information while on-the-go. The QWERTY keypad enables easy input while saving on the need to purchase an external keyboard and the large 3.6-in VGA (640 x 480) screen makes it a joy to use.
This super mini notebook is also equally adept at play. The 1.3 Mega-pixel camera, equipped with a built-in photo-light, captures both still images and video. Coupled with this, the Dopod 900 has an ability to play a host of video and audio formats, including MP3 that makes the Dopod 900 a formidable entertainment center. An Intel 520 MHz processor, no slouch by any standards, is at the heart of the Dopod 900. The external storage options (MMC/SD/SDIO) extend functionality in both real-time practicality and back-up or archival purposes.

Cnet Asia Review

Sony's PlayStation 3 Coming in Spring 2006

The first of the big E3 announcements came this afternoon--and it was a big one. At a bash hosted on Sony's Culver City studio lot, Sony Computer Entertainment formally announced details about its next highly anticipated console, the PlayStation 3. The original PlayStation launched in 1994, followed by the PlayStation 2 in 2000, and the PlayStation Portable in 2004.
The PlayStation 3 (shown below) will be backwards-compatible with both original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games.

The PlayStation 3's CPU is a 3.2-GHz Cell processor jointly developed by IBM, Sony Group, and Toshiba. The console will have 512KB of L2 cache, and it comes with 256MB of main memory (up from a mere 32MB on the PS2) and 256MB of GDDR3 VRAM (video memory). It will also have NVidia's RSX Reality Synthesizer, which Sony says has the power of two of NVidia's top-of-the-line gaming cards, the NVidia 6800 Ultra graphics card.
The improved graphics power should provide smoother, more realistic gameplay, since the unit will be able to more efficiently handle high-resolution, high-polygon graphics.
The PS3 is going to support the highest hi-def display resolution of 1080p, on up to two HD screens. Other inputs include: 6 USB 2.0 ports, SPDIF audio, two HDMI ports, and memory card slots (for Memory Stick, SD, and CompactFlash media).
Sony is stocking the PS3 with ample connectivity, too. The unit will have gigabit ethernet, built-in Wi-Fi 802.11b and g, and Bluetooth wireless. The myriad of connection options means you should be able to connect your way--for example, you'll be able to use up to 7 Bluetooth wireless controllers simultaneously, do video communication via the Internet, or use peer-to-peer networking so connected PS3s can talk to one another. Here's a closeup of the controller:

As expected, Sony also announced that the new console will support the Blu-ray Disc format--including that format's BD-ROM (read only), BD-R (write-once), and BD-RE (rewritable) discs. Blu-ray can store a maximum of 54GB on a dual-layer disc, enabling delivery of hours of entertainment content in full high-definition (HD) quality. Other supported optical formats: SACD, DVD-Video, DVD-ROM, DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW, CD-R/RW, CD-ROM, Audio CDs, and Dual-Disc.
In this event, Sony announced a slew of PS3 games--including Final Fantasy XII, Grand Turismo, and Fight Night 3. Sony says the PS3 and the new-generation of PS3 software will be available in Spring 2006.
It sounds great. Let's have a look in this coming spring.