GadgetDotRed

Courtesy of Google Street View

Here’s a first look at Google’s Street View, a feature of Google Maps. This definitely adds more value and it’s a welcome feature as it opens up the possibility of turn by turn navigation based on Google Maps. Some interesting things to note tho – faces and vehicle license plates have been blurred out, although it will probably not take long before gems (interesting pictures) will be discovered

Have a go at it online – it’s pretty addictive!

StarHub has reached an agreement with Apple to bring in the iPhone to StarHub customers later this year – just like M1, with a range of tailored service plans. “More information on pricing, tariffs and availability dates will be released in due course.” Great news for consumers. More choice, more competition and lower prices!

Local geeks/entrepreneurs/engineers/techies hackers have banded together and are working to get a local hackerspace up and running. What’s a Hackerspace? Hackerspaces are physical places where people with common interests, usually in science, technology, or digital / electronic art can meet, socialise and collaborate.(from wikipedia )

Hackerspace in Noisebridge, San Francisco

A local space for the geek / hacker community to work, collaborate or just chill. This is going to get pretty exciting if it comes to pass – something built and managed for the community by the community.

Join the group and get into the discussions at the following links:

Hackerspace.sg (Main website)
Hackerspace.sg Wiki
Google Groups

M1 finally announced on October 13th that they have reached an agreement with Apple to bring the iPhone to M1 customers in Singapore later this year. M1 also hinted at ‘tailored’ service plans for iPhone customers. More details will be revealed in ‘due course’.

Way to go M1! Welcome to the party, better one year late then never.

The hype has been building up for Apple’s new operating system; and Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard is now available at Apple Authorized Resellers and Apple’s online store as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users for just S$48! – My personal experience with the OS in the past few weeks has been a sheer productive and intuitive experience, pretty amazing for someone who switched from using PC’s almost his whole life. “Once you go Mac, you’ll never go back!”

Reviews of the new OS have been positive, with many in-depth articles. Here are some links to the flood of reviews.
[ Engadget] [ Gizmodo ] [ Macworld ] [ CNET ]

It’s here again! Boy does time fly – COMEX 2009, one of the major Computer Shows in Singapore is boasting to be the ‘Most Complete Showcase The Latest Technologies‘

Event Details
10 – 13 September 2009
Suntec Singapore Levels 1, 2, 3, 4 & 6
12 noon to 9pm
Admission is FREE.

Press Coverage :
Digital Life – 9th September 09 (Wednesday)
The Straits Times – 10th September 09 (Thursday)
TODAY Newspaper – 10th September 09 (Thursday)

Sony has finally yielded to the netbook phenomenon and has pre-launched the VAIO W Series
in Singapore. Pre-orders are available on the Sony Website.

Retailing for S$899, the VAIO should be available in August, after the current pre-sales
event held from 28th July – 12th August 2009. Visit the Sony VAIO W Mini-Website
for more product info or pre-order details.

Quick Update : Singtel’s launch date for the iPhone 3GS will be on Friday, the 10th of July, Details of the event will be updated here once they become available.
Stay tuned…

Update : Singtel has made their iPhone 3GS pricing available on their website.

Here’s some snapshots of PC Show 2009

Apple is holding it’s 14th Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 8th to 12th 2009. The event brings together apple engineers and developers as well as fans and enthusiasts interested in the latest developments in Apple. Apple also releases news on upcoming products as well as uses the event to launch new products. Here’s a summary of the announcements made during the June 8th keynote.

New MacBook Pro Lineup

Apple® updated the aluminum unibody MacBook® Pro line to include 13-inch, 15-inch and 17-inch models featuring Apple’s innovative built-in battery for up to 40 percent longer battery life. Each MacBook Pro includes an LED-backlit display, the innovative glass Multi-Touch™ trackpad, an illuminated keyboard, an SD card or ExpressCard slot, a FireWire® 800 port and state of the art NVIDIA graphics.

The interesting thing about this update is that Apple managed to bump the specs of the notebooks, and in the case of the MacBook Pro 13-inch, the new price was lower than the MacBook it replaced. Another noteworthy tidbit is that on the 13-inch Macbook Pro, there is only one audio jack, which is user selectable for either line in or line out with one exception – it supports the Apple Headset with Microphone – The same one which comes with the iPhone!

Snow Leopard’s September Release

Apple® also unveiled Mac OS® X Snow Leopard™, an even more powerful and refined version of Apple’s Leopard operating system. Snow Leopard builds on OSX innovation and success with hundreds of refinements, new core technologies, out of the box support for Microsoft Exchange and new accessibility features. Snow Leopard will ship as an upgrade for Mac OS X Leopard users in September 2009 for USD$29.

There’s way too many features in Snow Leopard to go into detail here, but here’s 2 groundbreaking features.

64 Bit System - The OS has a 64 bit core, with nearly all system applications rewritten in 64 bits. This enchances the performance as well as future proofs the OS for “whatever computing enhancements might arrive in the future“

Grand Central Dispatch – This built-in technology allows full use of every core in multi core systems to be used by applications. This offloads thread management from the application to the OS, resulting in more responsive apps as well as full utilisation of modern CPUs.

iPhone 3G S

Last but not least, Apple® introduced the new iPhone™ 3G S, their fastest, most powerful iPhone yet, with improved speed and performance, longer battery life,a 3 megapixel autofocus camera, video recording and hands free voice control.

There is no news on Singtel’s apple-inspired site as of today on any informatioon regarding the new iPhone, possibly hitting the region in July. It would be interesting to see if current iPhone users get any upgrade options, and most importantly, at what price.

Images Courtesy of Apple. For more details, do check out the Apple® Website or you can catch the WWDC Keynote posted online as well.