SPH bought over HWZ for S$7.1 million

SPH Magazines acquires leading IT media company Hardware Zone

SPH Magazines, a wholly-owned company of media giant Singapore Press Holdings Limited, has acquired Hardware Zone (HWZ), a leading IT media company in Asia, and its subsidiaries for $7.1 million. The deal was signed today.

HWZ, which provides marketing channels and services to the information communications, technology and interactive entertainment industry, has operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia, China and Australia, publishing prolific IT magazine titles.

Its stable of publications include HWM, GameAxis Unwired and PHOTOVIDEOi. It also operates popular online portal www.hardwarezone.com which has monthly pageviews of more than 35 million. It employs 66 staff in Singapore alone....more

BAK2u, supporting partner of WantToTrade.sg

BAK2u is a proud supporting partner of WantToTrade.sg web portal.

Many a times, we have some items of some value that we no longer need and left behind chucked in a box or to gather dust. At the same time, we do have a certain need or want for another item that we would need to purchase. Having this in mind, WantToTrade.sg was created to facilitate the bartering of items (with no money involved) amongst its members. One can simply sign up for free and start bartering their items in a few easy steps!

WantToTrade.sg is also providing a free platform for non-profit organisations in Singapore to put up their wishlists of items they would like to have for their shelters, homes, hospices etc. Upon seeing these wishlists, members can contact these organisations on how to make their wishes come true!

Http://wanttotrade.sg

Gadget: Palm Treo 750v launched in Singapore

Price: S$1268.00
Discussion @ WantToTrade.sg

Google Earth: Naked woman caught!

Here's a cautionary tale for those of you who like to indulge in a bit of light sunbathing in the privacy of your own patio: make sure you ring Google to see if they're planning a satellite pass-over before whipping off your top

No sooner had the poor Dutch woman pictured here popped up on Google Sightseeing, than Digg got hold of her assets. This immediately prompted a heated debate - sadly not on the technological threat to privacy - but rather as to whether or not she really was enjoying her leisure time as nature intended....more

PhoneBAK featured @ MightyStuff.sg

MightyStuff.sg featured BAK2u's PhoneBAK at its site.

Gadget: USBcell

Sent by Jonathan, Australia.

From usbcell.com
AA Rechargeable Batteries

Introducing our revolutionary new rechargeable battery - the USBCELL.

This NiMH AA cell can be used in normal battery applications and can be recharged simply by plugging into a USB port.

Games: Sony cuts price of PlayStation 3

Sony is to cut the Japanese cost of its forthcoming PlayStation 3 console by 20%, the consumer electronics giant announced in Tokyo on Friday.

The price cut is aimed at boosting the launch of the machine and making it more competitive with the Xbox 360.

The price for the North American and European launch will stay the same.

The surprise move will see the 20 gigabyte version of the PS3 sell for 49,980 yen ($430) when it goes on sale on 11 November in Japan.

No changes to the price of the higher end model - 60GB version - or European and US prices were announced...more

Free tickets to DigitalLife (NYC)

DigitalLife 2006 - the largest consumer technology, gaming & entertainment event of the year - will be taking place October 12 – 15 2006 at the Javits Center, New York.

They are offering FREE tickets to this year's event (regular price is $15). To redeem these tickets, just use the source code 'INSIDER' on this page, where you can print out your own tickets: http://digitallife.com/tickets.html

In addition, there are a limited number of VIP tickets to distribute.

PhoneBAK PDA featured in FEMALE magazine (Oct Issue)

Like to share with everyone that PhoneBAK is featured in the FEMALE magazine and offers a 20% off for its readers.

Sometime back, another service of BAK2u was featured in the July issue of FEMALE magazine too. See here.

Paddy tan

Xbox 360 HD-DVD to launch Nov.22 in Japan

Microsoft's external high-definition DVD player for Xbox 360 console will use the HD-DVD format and will be released on Nov. 22 in Japan, the software maker said on Wednesday during a media briefing at the Tokyo Game Show 2006.

In an effort to gain market share ahead of the arrival of competitive products by Sony and Nintendo Co., the company will begin sales of the DVD player for about USD$169, designed to match the Blu-ray disc functions of Sony's PlayStation3. The basic 20 GB Xbox 360 sells for about $340 in Japan and $300 in the US, both without a next-generation DVD player...more

3.3 million year old child fossil unearthed.

The remains of a 3-year-old girl who lived 3.3 million years ago were unearthed in Ethiopia Wednesday. This is the earliest known child discovered so far and could fill a critical missing link in evolution.

The girl has been named "Selam," which means peace in Ethiopia's languages. She belongs to the "Australopithecus afarensis" species and blurs the line between apes and humans.

She has also been nicknamed "little Lucy," after the famous adult female "Lucy" of the same species discovered just 4 kms away in 1974, a landmark in the search for the origins of humanity...more

Beta test: http://wanttotrade.sg

Go try it out on this beta test.
Kindly note that there be no actual bartering as it is still in beta testing, but you are encourage to post any items to test it out.

(Bartering is within Singapore only)
WantToTrade.sg will be launched officially on 1st Oct.

Mac software: Capture Me

Capture Me is a screen capture utility for Mac OS X which features a floating capture window and resize ability.

Version 1.3 has been rewritten from the ground up using Cocoa and OpenGL so it should be much faster than the previous version. This version is also a universal binary offering equal support for Intel and PowerPC processors.

To use it, drag and resize the floating window to cover the area you want to capture. Then click in the window to capture the screenshot. You can save it in a variety of formats and locations and customize its behaviour....more

PS2: God Hand

This has to be one of the most cheesy but fun game for the year 2006.

From Gamespot.com
There's absolutely something to be said for a good, old-fashioned brawler. Back before games were sweating such things as high-poly visuals, epic stories, and online whatzis, there was the brawler. The lean, pick-up-and-play genre used to be one of the staples of any gaming diet, and Capcom was one of the key developers that helped it thrive. Fast forward to today, and we have been presented with God Hand for the PlayStation 2.

This original game from Japanese publisher Clover Studios, maker of the upcoming gem Okami and the Viewtiful Joe series, is essentially a new type of brawler that marries the accessibility of the old-school genre with modern staples such as character progression, customization, and a story to give it a bit of depth. The funky title first caught our eye at E3 with its quirky style, sense of humor, and old-school gameplay with a new twist. Plus there was a large monkey in a wrestling outfit in the trailer for the game, which featured a Broadway-style dance number. Obviously an exclusive had to be secured, and lo, we have. Does God Hand live up to our lofty and eccentric expectations? From what we've played so far, it surely does. Trailer

Graphics of a different kind

http://www.shinybinary.com

Microsoft steps into digital-media player fray

Microsoft Corp. on Thursday unveiled Zune, its hotly awaited digital-media player, and a related media download service, beginning in earnest a head-to-head challenge to Apple Computer Inc.'s wildly popular iPod and iTunes online media store.

Zune, expected in time for the upcoming holidays, will represent the most serious challenge yet to Apple's dominance of the market for digital music and video files. Zune could place the world's largest software company on track to become a strong No. 2 player in the market that Apple has largely had to itself since it launched the iPod five years ago...more

Article: The Death of AdSense

A controversial report on Google adsense:

Light a candle for the innocent victims of online child abuse

A meaningful site, drop by to light a candle.

http://www.lightamillioncandles.com

The innocent victims of Internet child abuse cannot speak for themselves.
But you can.
With your support, we can eradicate this evil trade.
We do not need your money.

We need you to light a candle of support .
We're aiming to light One Million Candles by December 31, 2006.

This petition will be used to put pressure on governments, politicians, financial institutions, payment organisations, Internet service providers, technology companies and law enforcement agencies who have the power to work together to eradicate the commercial viability of online child abuse.

You have the power to get them to take action.
Please light your candle at lightamillioncandles.com

Together, we can destroy the commercial viability of Internet child abuse sites that are destroying the lives of innocent children.

The best of both world search engine

Yahoo + Google search engine capabilities all in one.

PDAlive.com: Samsung’s new QWERTY Smartphone sports HSPDA, Wi-Fi

Samsung has announced probably the best QWERTY-enabled Windows Mobile Smartphone to date.

Based on the recently launched Samsung i320, the new Samsung i600 packs even more punch in the same slim Blackberry-like form factor. In addition to the basic quad-band 900/1800/1900 MHz GSM/GPRS connectivity, it boasts of support for HSPDA and EDGE as well as integrated WLAN (802.11b/g), a combination of which has never been offered before. In contrast to the i320, the new model also features a secondary camera for video calls.

The Samsung i600 is powered by Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone Edition....more
(from PDAlive.com)

Game: Sony PS3 delayed in Europe

SONY HAS ANNOUNCED a four month delay to the launch of the Playstation 3 in the PAL territory, which means a wait until March for PS3 fan boys in the likes of Europe, Russia, the Middle East, Africa and Australasia. Launch dates for Japan and North America will remain the same, which are November 11th and November 17th respectively.

In an official statement, Sony said the decision to revise the launch date was taken following "the delay in the mass production schedule of the blue laser diode within the Sony Group, thus affecting the timely procurement of key components to be utilised in PlayStation 3.".... more

Comex 2006 promotion

Hi!

like to share with everyone that the first 100 copies of PhoneBAK (Pocket PC version) purchased from BAK2u.com will enjoy a 20% discount!

Refer to http://www.bak2u.com

Thank you
Charlene Pan

Building the Vista PC

Microsoft has issued two sets of hardware guidelines for PCs running its Vista operating system

Vista Capable

• (PCs that can simply run Vista):
• 800MHz processor
• 512MB of RAM
• DirectX 9-capable graphics processor

Vista Premium Ready

• (PCs for all Vista features):
• 1GHz processor; 1GB of RAM
• 128MB of video memory
• DirectX 9-capable graphics processor that supports WDDM (Windows Display Driver Model) as well as features includ- ing Pixel Shader 2.0 and a color depth of 32 bits per pixel.

Source: Microsoft.