Not sure why Asus called it the world’s first touch-screen PC, but its new Eee Top ET16 series of desktop PCs do come with a nice touch-screen and neat “all-in-oneness” that reminds one of the Apple iMac.
The 15.6-inch screen is a tad-bit small compared to HP’s previous touch-screen wonder, but this nifty little Eee (it’s the desktop version of the Eee PC, thus Eee Top, get it?) comes with a nice price tag of just S$999 for the base model. …click here to read more
In the first part of the roundup, we tallied the entries on the Techgoondu LG TV contest, and Apple iPhone emerged as the favourite gadget of 2008.
In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the other gadgets that our readers picked, and why they picked these devices.
Though Google’s been getting the publicity over here at Techgoondu, Microsoft also did a nice show-and-tell this week of its upcoming “Wave 3″ updates for Windows Live services.
Here’s a quick rundown of what it offers, as presented to a group of bloggers this week:
>>Smarter Messenger:
Singapore’s favourite IM client gets a nice refresh, especially with a “Favourites” category that lets you keep your most important contacts in a single group. What we’d like to see, though, is the ability to block entire groups of people at one go - say your bosses - at night when you log on. Hopefully, Microsoft can come up with that later. …click here to read more
Type the words “Quantum of Solace” followed by the “Singapore” in the local Google search box (as in www.google.com.sg). Voila! A shortlist of local cinemas showing this latest Bond flick complete with screening times now appear below the first result. Click on the “More Theatres” link and you will be taken to a page with a fuller listing of more cinemas showing the movie.
Dubbed Movie Onebox, this feature was launched by Google today. And it is a concept so easy and intuitive that one hopes the search engine giant will take the idea and run with it. Restaurant, gadget and TV listing comes to mind. There is also an iGoogle gadget available for this feature. Check out this link for more info. Nice one, Google.
It’s one of those things that make you go: “why didn’t I think of that”?
Google has come up with another useful tool for its growing Gmail user base, by letting them conveniently talk to their contacts via a video or audio link.
As we know, users can already IM or chat with people over Gmail, using its built-in chat function. The nifty part about this is that you can chat with someone instantly if he/she is online, rather than shooting e-mails to and fro cyberspace.
Now, this is taken further with video and voice chat. If you, like I, already use Gmail, this is a no-brainer to add on, especially if you already got a laptop with camera + microphone built-in.
To install the Google application, you’ll need to open up a chat window, click on options and select the option to do voice/video. It then installs a plugin necessary for the new service.
My only gripe - for an otherwise excellent free service - is that this wasn’t installed automatically into the system. But I’m not really complaining, if it makes it so much more intuitive to chat with anyone on the e-mail list (permitted by you of course).
It’ll be another reason why I am keeping my IM pretty private (I have only a dozen contacts coz I don’t like to add people I end up blocking anyway). I can talk to people on Gmail without exposing my IM list, which can pop up all over the desktop.
Tired of the increasingly bloated and unwieldy beast called iTunes? Give Songbird, a new open-source music player a spin.
It has a lot of the nice Apple interface, but it doesn’t come with the heft of iTunes. The most important piece of news is that it supports iPods via a plug-in, letting you sync your PC’s tracks with your portable MP3 player. You can also manually manage your tracks.
Besides being relatively light, Songbird can be customised with plug-ins, a la Firefox. There’s a particularly useful one that lets you look out for both doppelganger MP3 files and orphaned ones, so it’s great if you got a large collection and are trying to keep track of your thousands of songs.
And what’s not to like, especially when you even get attractive MediaFlow album covers on screen! All you need is an add-on, and of course, you only install it, if you want, so there’s no bloat.
I haven’t sync’d my iPod nano, which I mostly use just for jogging, in months because of the problems with the increasingly fat iTunes. Am I glad that something has come along from a third-party that is actually this good.
The Taiwanese phone maker showed off to the media (and Techgoondu) two nice additions to the Touch family - the Touch 3G and Touch HD - in a media briefing today.
Not that these are entirely new, as they have been unveiled previously on the Net. But getting the touch and feel (sorry for the pun) of these phones do make you feel like they will sell pretty well.
The Touch 3G is basically an upgrade to the original HTC Touch, which users loved for its nice shape and different colours. It now has 7.2Mbps 3.5G built in, as well as a somewhat slimmed down version of the TouchFlo 3D interface found on the flagship Touch Diamond. …click here to read more
Just spotted a pretty nice deal over at the Dell website, while I was researching for an article.
Its S2409W 24-inch monitor is going for a nice S$489, making it an attractive deal compared to most other makes out in the market (typically going for S$500 or more).
Note though that, unlike most 24-inchers out there which offer 1920 x 1200, with an aspect ratio of 16:10, this Dell screen sports a resolution of 1920 x 1080 (”Full HD” or 1080p), with an aspect ratio of 16:9.
What’s the diff? It’s actually less pixels for computers users, so it appears to be a worse deal. But for guys playing Blu-ray stuff and watching HDTV broadcasts, 16:9 is the more commonly supported format for their content. …click here to read more
