Suntec IT Show 2006 Report
Show report! Visited the IT show (Held Suntec 9th-12th March 2006) yesterday evening on the opening day, Thurday to beat the weekend crowds & check out the good fresh deals. The so-claimed 4m wide walk ways are really really unbelievable. It was so clear I could even lie down flat on the exhitbiton floor & claim that I could did that in a crowded IT show! So as my friends were crazy suggesting that, but I really don’t mind doing that for a wager if they wanted haha.
:: Geared on Laptops
Anyway many people I know currently are looking for laptops, let be friends, relatives, acquaintances & even including my own sister (not to mention me) haha so I guess its time again to plunge into the show & update on prices & happenings, specifically on Laptops this time.
:: Best Deals
Generally, Dell & Acer stole the show for the best bargain PCs. Sadly Fujitsu, Toshiba, NEC & Sony are still selling 1-year old laptops, clearly what they are doing are clearing or old or current stocks, theres not my innovative products on the current Core Duo systems yet, & their prices are not competitive either, very much like everyday store prices with extra “freebies” like a cheap optical mouse, external harddisk, etc (worth $200 as they claim my ass) thrown in. Obviously people like me who know the market rates will seriously shun such ways of marketing. The IT show for these companies is just an informal gathering for them to sell their everyday products, no good deals at all.
On the contrary, Compaq/HP & LG did come out with newer month-old laptop models, but are just too expensive ($3,500++) , overal not a good bargain from my perspective.
:: Sales people
Furthermore, most of the sales persons I approached are just typical students starting the commissioned-based job on that very day, just for the $10/hr wages, but they all know nuts about PCs – Their knowledge of the product they are selling is as limited to the very flyer they are handing to you. I tested sales-reps from LG, Fujitsu, Toshiba & they heck don’t know anything about even current models of laptops their company is selling but not featured in the show, not to mention giving “blank looks” when you ask them about upcoming release dates of a particular laptop model featured on the company’s very own press releases & website!
I have quite a few friends working on the IT show (& past exhibitions as as comdex, comex), so I know how the system works. Sadly the PC makers choose to hire such incompetent sellers, obviously they don’t know what they are lacking (though its good money for us students to work there as a whole).
:: My Laptop picks
After my observations on, the best laptop deals are, tata can you believe it from Acer & Dell. Though Acer are one of the few brands I usually not patronise, but I definately have to commend on their ambitiousness to put in the best configurations into most of their laptops at a steal-away price (value for money), contrary to other brands like Fujitsu & NEC who take ages to release a new system & they prices are often fixed. Dell shines for the lack of the middleman & price. Heres a summary of the best for money, not to mention latest month old laptops running on the Intel Core Duo “Yonah” Platform.
My General advise to anyone intending to buy a laptop now is to go for AT LEAST an Intel CoreDuo or AMD Turon 64 (Try NOT to get the Dothan or Sonoma 700 series based laptops, this technology has it roots more than 2 years ago!). If not in 6 months time your laptop will: 1. Be 2 generations old with 64-bit laptops out September & 2. Unable to Run Windows Vista (aka windows longhorn) when it releases Q3 this year (at least Intel GMA950 required).
| Acer 5562WXMi Intel® CoreDuo 1.66Ghz 667Mhz FSB 1GB DDR2 SDRAM Intel 945PM Express Chipset 14.1″ XGA TFT Display ATI Radeon X1400 512MB - WOW! 100GB SATA HD DVD-RW Dual Layer Drive Bluetooth 2.0 5-in-1 Media Card Reader In-built 1.3MP Rotating Webcam XP Home Edition |
Dell InspironTM 6400 Intel® CoreDuo 1.66Ghz 667Mhz FSB 512MB DDR2 SDRAM Intel 945PM Express Chipset 15.4″ WXGA TFT Display Intel® GMA 950 (128MB) 80GB Ultra ATA HD DVD-RW Dual Layer Drive 5-in-1 Media Card Reader XP Home Edition |
| Price $2,598 SGD (incl GST) | Price S$1,499 (incl GST) |
:: Misc Deals:
Samsung/Lite-on DVD-RW Dual Layer internal writer going fro $75 ($4 lower then lowest SLS price of $79) at the top floor exhitibiton hall, at the back.
Other than that, another thing which caught my eye are how flash media prices had become now, not to mention harddisk too, I remembered paying $280 SGD for a 250GB Hitachi Harddisk once, now a 300GB Maxor Harddisk retails at $179 in the show. 4GB SD card hit the below-$250 price for the first time, averaging $239 SGD, with the lowest going at $218 SGD at Best Bargain computers (yes the SimLim hardware store). Rates for their Transcend 4GB SD was $299 in January & is $218 now, dunno should I go for it, if they can bring the price so low & make a profit from it, a < $200 price may even be possible in a few months time Mmm decisions, decisions.
Yes prices do change alot now, & I still recalled paying $75 for a 4MB Sony Memory Stick back in 1999 before, OMG!
UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer)
Apparently, Microsoft is coming up with a new line of UMPC (Ultra Mobile Personal Computer), code-named Origami. It will be a seemless blend between our current PDAs & tablet/notebook PCs. So far the closest we had seen embarking on the concept previously was fujitsu with their ultraportable & highly successful Lifebook P1510. The only thing is that the UMPCs will run a rather new & unique software allowing a radical new way to input data, different from current Tablet PC/Personal Computer OS as well.
Lineup of Ultra Mobile PCs showcase at Cebit
From Samsung
The Q1 from Samsung combines a laptop computer with a media player. It weighs in at 1.7 pounds.Samsung’s device, the Q1, will use Microsoft’s Windows XP Tablet PC Edition operating system. It is a product of Microsoft’s so-called Origami project — an effort to shrink and redefine the laptop, while bolstering the company’s software sales for new hand-held devices. Asus will also produce a version.
“This is basically a small but powerful laptop computer that is also a sophisticated entertainment device,” said Patrick Pavel, a Samsung product manager for Germany, who showed a prototype of the Q1 on Wednesday at the Cebit technology fair in Hanover.
The Samsung device is a flat black rectangle that weighs 1.7 pounds, has the dimensions of a DVD box (about 9 inches by 5 inches) and is 1 inch thick. The viewing screen is 7 inches diagonally, more than twice the size of most personal digital assistants or Internet-enabled smart phones.
Microsoft had launched their UMPC website up recently, spearheaded by the Ultra-Mobile PC team, you can check out the details on the following links:
Microsoft Press Release
channel9 1st looks
Been Busy, trip to orthopedics
Had not been regularly updating since the end of my papers. Had been working & meeting up with cilents during the past few days. Not to mention trying to clear up jobs & commissions I’ve recieved as a merchant & designer in the rather profitable MMORPG I’ve been playing for about 5 months, called Second-Life. So far I’ve made about $500 SGD from the game, which has a real economy, entertainment & merchant processes. I mean, what’s the best thing to do but to play a game & be paid for it? Haha only if I wish I can convert the money I earn in Counter-Strike FPS to real cash. Joining Second-Life is free for now, but you need a credit card or paypal account only to verify your age for the mature grids during the registration process.
Dropped by the orthopedic department at TTSH today given a referral letter from the polyclinic last year regarding a slight deformation in my lower legs. The bones just curve slightly inwards, giving a bowed look to my legs. Though this had been bugging me around for quite sometime, I guess I never really find the time to go down to the doctor’s considering this is actually being quite important, but undeniably not urgent on the contrary. Did an X-ray (like the very few times I actually get to experience this in life) & it was like WHOA! so thats how I go tick-tock & THATS how my bones actually look like.. whoa totally cool!
The doctor suggested a form of surgery which involves plugging in a wedge like bone structure into my leg to straighten it out. This too will put me on a wheelchair or crutches for about 6 weeks to 3 months tops post-op. Not to mention a funky cast I gotta try very hard to keep clean & ink-free from my class. I don’t intend to go under the knife this semester holidays, as my I can’t afford to go against my current agenda, but will do so on the next which would be around september. Till then, lets be bowed!
78th Annual Academy Awards results
And so we have it the results of the 78th Annual Academy Awards.
Best Supporting Actor: George Clooney, Syriana
Best Visual Effects: King Kong
Best Animated Feature: Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit
Best Live Action Short Film: Six Shooter
Best Live Animated Short Film: The Moon and the Son
Best Costume Design: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best MakeUp: The Chronicles of Narnia
Best Supporting Actress: Rachel Weisz, The Constant Gardener
Best Documentary Short: A Note of Triumph
Best Documentary Feature: March of the Penguins
Best Art Direction: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Original Score: Brokeback Mountain
Best Sound Mixing: King Kong
Best Original Song: Hustle & Flow
Best Sound Editing: King Kong
Best Foreign Language Film: Tsotsi, South Africa
Best Editing: Crash
Best Actor: Philip S. Hoffman, Capote
Best Cinematography: Memoirs of a Geisha
Best Actress: Reese Witherspoon, Walk the Line
Best Adapted Screenplay: Brokeback Mountain
Best Original Screenplay: Crash
Best Director: Ang Lee, Brokeback Mountain
Best Picture: Crash
Scuba Diving Course Comfirmed
And there we have it – the March Plans for World Domination on paper! With the exams over, time to look forward to the various activites & events lined up for the march holiday (particularly chores). Did some grocery shopping with mum today afternoon at NTUC as lunch at the rather popular hainanese Chicken Rice store in BM. As usual I was the one made to carry all the groceries back home.
I guess was so caught up with exams & chores the last few weeks that I even forgot that it’s my birthday month. *sigh* I can always remember the younger days when I always look forward to my bday even 3 months in advance, dreaming on the presents & exciting places my parents will take me to for the day. I guess as the older you get, the hassle & bassle of life just eats into everything of life, including the very joy of your birthday.
But at least things aren’t so out of hand, my parents already planned birthday celebrations for me in the midst of my frantic schedule. Initially I didn’t pay much attention to them on their suggestions & plans to dine at the “Village” concept resturant this year at a Far East group building near China Square. But it was changed to a international dinner buffet at Trader’s Hotel after we got some niffy 25% discount vouchers courtesy of Singtel.
Got a reply frm the student Intranet Mail today, comfirming my registration for my NAUI (USA) Scuba Diver Course. Heres their official letter in glory, with the schedules:
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Hi StudentWe are pleased to inform you that your place in the Scuba Diving Class B has been confirmed.
Date/Time: 13 March 2006 9.00am – 12.00pn (Theory 1)
13 March 2006 1.00pm – 4.00pm (Theory 2)
15 March 2006 9.00am – 2.00pm (Pool 1)
15 March 2006 3.00pm – 7.00pm ( Pool 2)
16 March 2006 9.00am – 12.00pm (Theory 3)17 & 18 March 2006 8.00am – 3.00pm (5 Open Dives)
Venue : T741 (Theory)
We hope you enjoy yourself.
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Tomorrow, Saturday another full day to get on unfinished (piled-up) chores. Ahha at least the exam stresses are over now.
End of Semester & exams…
Sis blew the family living room computer’s DVD drive together with it’s intellimouse, MSN refuses to log me in, the stupid SP student intranet is hanging Firefox again, the Steam Network just keeps rejecting my password, my correction tape ran dry midway in the exams today. Dammit just when anything can get any worst.
*sighs & ponders*
& there we have it, the semester in closing. The semester exams are finally over, with some high & low hopes heres a summary of the papers:
Engineering Maths - Easy paper, hope to score in this module
C++ Programming - Toughest paper, pray can skim thru with borderline A
Engineering Materials - Very managable paper, but hard to score the DIST
Electrical Technology - Very confident to do well in this paper at least a B+ to A
I am no longer a freshman. I guess I set too high of expectations for myself, hoping at least an A grade or better, but I guess as what my lecturers say, year one is the best time to score, given the relatively easier paces & period of adaptation. Moreover its the only way to guarantee a secure place in college too.
*oww* I am just feel kinda spent now… maybe its the 10km I ran today on the threadmill after the last paper, just gotta keep myself up & don’t be so moody tonight even in the triedness.
Somehow… even when the exams are over with quite optimistic grade expections, I just don’t feel like celebrating…
