Call it plastic, safe or even boring. Despite the criticism, Samsung has sold a record 10 million of its flagship Galaxy S4 phones in under a month, tightening its stranglehold on the smartphone market.

That’s four phones sold a second, according to the Korean electronics giant, which unveiled the figures today surely to the dismay of fellow Android rivals as well as Apple, which has seen demand for its iPhone cool off in recent months. …

Those looking to get their hands on the successor to the Asus PadFone 2 will have their wish granted very soon. The much-awaited Padfone Infinity is slated to be out in Singapore on June 1 from M1 and StarHub as well as authorised dealers in time for the upcoming PC Show 2013. …

Nimbuzz may not think much of television commercials at the moment, but it seems to be getting WeChat a fair bit of traction here in Singapore and the region.

A month after the China-based instant messaging app made its debut on local television, showing off its functionality through Taiwanese celebrities Show Luo and Rainie Yang, WeChat is now topping the charts on iTunes, Google Play, and the Windows Phone Store. …

M1 is rolling out a service that makes use of customers’ home or office broadband links to provide a better connection on the cellphone, whether this is to make calls or surf the Web.

Instead of connecting to the nearest base station that may be several kilometres away, these users’ phones hook up wirelessly to a femtocell device installed indoors, next to their broadband modem, and tap on the faster wired connection to reach the cellphone operator.

In essence, this offloads the traffic from the often congested cellphone networks to much faster, and often under-used fixed line networks.  …

Consumers who constantly worry about losing or damaging their phones or tablets may be pleased to know that they can now purchase insurance for their mobile devices.

An Irish insurance company specialising in mobile devices, Mobilecover, recently started offering such a service in Singapore, providing insurance coverage against damage, loss and theft for smartphones and tablets.

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HP has released an affordable, entry-level Android tablet, the HP Slate 7, which looks set to challenge Google’s Nexus 7 in the 7-inch tablet arena.

The most attractive thing about the HP Slate 7 might just be its price – at a mere S$249, the Slate 7 is S$100 cheaper than the Nexus 7 in Singapore. Pre-order it online at the HP online store and the HP Slate 7 costs only S$199 – that’s substantially cheaper than the Nexus 7, which is priced from S$349. …

To be honest, I wasn’t quite sure about the MSI S20 Slidebook when I first saw it. Slide-out Windows 8 machines, like those from Sony and Toshiba before it, haven’t done really well, mainly because of the limitations that often come with such a design.

Can MSI make a difference with this portable tablet cum laptop?

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(Photo credit: Standard Chartered Bank)

Don’t you just hate it when you climb to the peak of Mount Everest and find yourself unable to engage in mobile banking activities?

Yes, the financial world keeps moving and pays no heed to your momentous achievement of scaling the highest mountain on Earth. If you foresee yourself getting into a tangle like this, you may at least rest easy knowing that two mountaineers are currently on their way up to the peak of Mount Everest just to prove that it’s possible.

Sponsored by Standard Chartered Bank, Horacio Galanti and Horacio Cunietti will attempt to trade stocks and transfer funds at the peak through the bank’s Breeze mobile banking apps. …

If money is no issue, then Lenovo’s X1 Carbon Touch (above) is an ideal slim and light companion for all your work trips. But if you can’t bear to part with S$2,999 for the expensive laptop, there are affordable – yet fast – ultrabooks that make for great machines on the go.

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It was the device that Android geeks had been dreaming of. A phone stuffed with all the best hardware, run on a clean, fast interface that does away with any bloatware.

When Google unveiled plans to sell a version of Samsung’s popular Galaxy S4 with its stock Android interface on Wednesday, many Android fans must have got their credit cards out ready to spend. The bigger question, though, is whether this is the start of a trend – a good one.

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