RIM Unveils "Playbook" to take on Apple iPad 2

Research in Motion (RIM) makers of the popular corporate smart mobile, Blackberry is poised to release their first 7" tablet named "Playbook" (previously anticipated to be named "Blackpad") in early 2011 contending with the upcoming Apple iPad 2 or iPad Mini (rumored 7" tablet from Apple).

I would actually prefer it to be named "iBerry" lol... retaining the Blackberry identity...of course if it's targeting for purely on the enterprise market that won't sound too appropriate.

R.I.M. co-chief-executive Mike Lazaridis’ keynote was that the PlayBook will have no cellular connection of its own. The PlayBook is designed to wirelessly tether to a BlackBerry smartphone in order to get on the Internet and pull in contact, calendar and email data from the phone to the tablet. More of a Blackberry companion - so that Blackberry owners don't have to incur 2 data plan...

PlayBook will be running Blackberry Tablet OS built from the recently acquired QNX OS. Touted to be the "First Professional Tablet" the Playbook will be the fastest tablet in the market sporting a Cortex A9-based dual-core 1Ghz  CPU.

Other compelling features of the Playbook (which is currently lacking in the Apple's iPad) includes a 3 megapixel front-facing camera (for Video conferencing) along with a 5 megapixel rear lens, and not forgetting standard ports like Mini-USB & HDMI (allowing HD playback on LCDs).

Tablets portables or handheld aren't really new... in fact, it's old wine in new bottles... The tablets didn't take off the last time I believe owe to the fact that it was only then focusing on corporate usage. It would be interesting to see whether RIM is addressing purely to the needs of enterprise users. "Playbook" seems to implied that R.I.M. is also catering to the mass market.

There's also a lot of talk that instead of the usual product refresh in January 2011, Apple's gonna launch the second generation of iPad this December. One of most desired feature to be included in iPad 2 is "Facetime".  It would definitely be interesting to see whether those early adopters will ditch their iPads especially those owning iPad without 3G.

For those looking for a bargain, probably can get a pre-owned iPad for SGD500 or lesser...

The other rumour is that a 7" iPad Mini will be released subsequently. This might be an attractive investment for those looking for a lighter tablet... something maybe a lady can put into her handbag or a student can easily stuff it into the school bag...

One thing for sure, laptop sales will be greatly affected during this Christmas with so many tablets & eReaders available in the store...

Bill Chang's "Live" Animated 3D Singtel CLOUD at iluminate 2010

Singtel's "on demand & elastic" ICT CLOUD offering was illustrated "live" in an impressive state-of-the-art 3D cinematic animation when Bill Chang was delivering Singtel i.Luminate 2010 Keynote 2: "Powering of the Future Business".

Actual footage was removed due to request from Organiser

Other impressive presentation includes Singtel's demo on their Bandwidth On-demand - a hybrid bandwidth offering for the market. Singtel Cloud subscribers can also scale their bandwidth as and when they need more resources on top of their usual standard plan during peak periods.

"In today’s highly competitive global economy, businesses are constantly challenged to be more agile and improve business productivity. With scarce resources, they have to focus on building their core competitive edge for sustainable growth, while lowering their overall costs.

The convergence of IT and telecommunications technologies have created new, exciting opportunities that empower businesses to achieve sustainable growth, scale their operations and reduce their costs significantly."

Bill Chang, EVP, Business Group shares on how SingTel is capitalising on these technology trends to lead and shape the ICT market and power the future of businesses.

Singtel has recently fostered a very strategic alliance with "Best-of-Breed" Silicon Valley vendors like Cisco, EMC & VMWare to build their ICT Cloud infrastructure.

Singtel has clearly taken centre stage in the global Cloud arena.

Interesting Speculative Singapore MRT Maps

There are quite a number of Singapore MRT route maps found from the web. Below are of 2 of most plausible & "Comprehensive"...

This one is most complex speculative Singapore MRT route that links all the way to Johor Bahru...

Sometimes it's really hard to differentiate what's real & what's fake...This is one is the actual one from SMRT:

SMRT MRT Route as of April 2010

You can download the pdf version from here - http://www.smrt.com.sg/trains/network_map.asp

Winning Toto Numbers on Leopard Geckos?

Leopard Gecko
Originally uploaded by phuser72

I was chit-chating with colleagues today on whether there's really numbers on the body of the passe "Lohan" fishes which are now mostly back to the "longkow" aka the drain.

My take was that it's all in the mind probably a marketing gimmick... if you are anticipating some numbers there naturally there will be...

Not really a gambler but wonder if anyone would look for "toto" or lottery numbers from the body of the leopard gecko ... or maybe a short message on 'em...

Do you see any numbers or words on my body?

By then the Leopard Gecko will be the next big thing...lol

What women do when bored at IT Lecture

What are some of the stuff that female do when really bored in an IT lecture? I recently attended an IT training sponsored by a famous IT Hardware vendor...while recording some of the presentations by the trainer, one of the attendee's laptop screen caught my attention...



I guess the other common time filler is getting connected via social media like Facebook, Instant Messaging (IM), Tweeter, Forums, Blogs, e-Zines, etc