Finally, there’s one more channel on StarHub – the long-awaited free-to-air HD5 from MediaCorp, which promises “true HD” channels during primetime (the rest are up-converted).

The channel is supposed to have started on July 28 (yesterday) – just in time for the July deadline set by MediaCorp/StarHub and of course, just in time, for both the Olympics and Barclays Premier League in August. The sharp images for HD5 are on Ch 300, next to the existing Ch301 and Ch302 for National Geographic and Discovery.

The BlackBerry Bold has landed here in Hong Kong. Well, at least some of it cos Smartone-Vodafone is allowing pre-orders here and PCCW Mobile has launched it here.

I’m excited. GPS, Wifi, HSDPA, Qwerty keyboard, 480×320 screen resolution – this is possibly THE device that can replace my aging Treo 650. Now let me go find out the price of this thing.

If you have been holding out for a new top-end graphics card, here’s a little bit of good news.

Sim Lim Square stores like Cybermind and Bell and online retailers like Potterhouse are (finally) selling some Nvidia GTX 280 cards for S$699 this weekend (down from S$799), reflecting the price drop that gamers in the US have been enjoying for weeks.

You’ve probably seen those Apple ads that proclaim that there are no/few viruses for Macs.

Well, it doesn’t matter that virus writers don’t bother with Macs because they only take up less than 5 per cent of the world’s personal computer market.

But guess what, now that Apple’s iPhone is hyped up to be the best thing that happened, security holes are appearing. According to a report in Computerworld, there are vulnerabilities in the software that can lead to users being “phished”.

john

Pay-TV challenger SingTel came up with a pretty interesting proposition today: How would you like to watch the latest episodes of Lost, Prison Break and other hit US drama series just 24 hours after they are screened over there?

It said it has signed a deal with three major US studios – Disney-ABC, 20th Century Fox and Warner-Bros – to bring these shows to its mio TV service as soon as a day after they are shown in the States.

Why is this good news?

Step 3

The journey continues… After buying an external hard drive, the next thing to do is to hook that up to a laptop or PC.

Do you have an old or second hand computer laying around? The good news is that old PCs sound every bit as good – when it comes to serving digital music – as that shiny new powerhouse you see in Harvey Norman.

Musical bits don’t discern processor types. So go cheap – buy a second hand el cheapo PC.

Hooking up a new external drive to the PC should be glitch-free – whether via USB or Firewire. I recommend getting a Firewire drive if your older PC (or Mac) has a firewire connector. Why let a good USB port go to waste?

One of the most fun things to do is to pick the right digital music player software to rip and play your music.

I tried iTunes, Windows Media Player and dabbled with a raft of open source media players like Songbird, Foobar and VLC. I ended up choosing Apple’s iTunes player, since there isn’t a better open source player out there now that are as feature-packed, and are as good at handling song ID tags as Apple’s free player. I also liked how iTunes handle cover art, an aspect which for some is as important as the listening to the music itself when it comes to enjoying the music.

Especially if your library is a quirky one laden with cover art gems.

The main downside of iTunes is speed: Navigation seems to have been slowed by my 10,000 track library and will no doubt crawl slower as more songs are added.

The next essential is a remote control that lets you change tracks from across the room.

Now, flipping over LP records is a ritual that I’ll never tire off – there’s something mechanically cool about returning the tone-arm back to its arm rest, flicking the record 180 degrees with your thumbs while pivoting the record edges on your two palms, lowering it back onto the spinning platter, gently brushing it clean with a carbon-fibre record brush, and then gently lowering the stylus to meet that first LP groove, with that pfffft sound crackling from the loudspeakers as you do so – right?

But getting up from across the room to change digital music tracks via a fiddly mouse is tiresome.

Quite a few companies make remote controls that let you change music tracks in your PC. For the iTunes, Keyspan has one that looks cool, but shops in Singapore don’t seem to stock it. This is how the Keyspan TuneView looks like:

One cheap and cool-looking device, which works with both iTunes and Vista, which has a name that escapes me at the moment, is sold in South Asia Computer in Funan Mall. But that one only works with a laptop with the mini PC Card slot found only in newer laptops – urgh!

Step 4

Next step is getting the musical bits outta your PC, and into your hi fi system. Stay away from the anolgue output of your PC’s (typically cheap) soundcard. This means don’t use the headphone or line-out jacks in your desktop or laptop PC. Get a dedicated DAC (digital to analogue converter) instead.

This is what I use:

My second-hand esoteric Japanese ceramic-housed DAC, called Shigaraki DAC, is one of the best DACs I’ve ever heard – although I have had to save up for this rather expensive toy.

I also have this cheaper DAC – made by a Hong Kong firm called Trends Audio – that sounds pretty good for the $250+ I paid:

To hook up your PC to your DAC, you’ll likely need a USB to digital converter, since most DACs don’t accept USB input directly. The above Trends Audio unit can serve as a converter. In this mode, it bypasses its internal DAC.

Another USB-to-digital converter which has been raved a lot in audio circles is one made by a US company called Hagerman Technology. But the HagUSB is only available online:

This device acts a go-between between your PC and the DAC. Your PC should readily recognise it as a USB audio device. So all that’s left to do is to select this as your primary playback device in your PC. Do this under control panel > sound and audio device.

Step 5

Getting it all to work… will be discussed next week! Thanks for staying with me so far…

Went by Mongkok so had a look at the cellphone shops. As per Alfred’s post and the postings on local Mac lists, the 16GB 3G iPhones were indeed out in full force. Prices were 8800 to 9800 HKD or about S$1525 to S$1698. Way too rich for my blood.

Interestingly, with the stocks of 2.5G iPhones dwindling, the prices for them have gone up. The 16GB ones were going for about 5700 HKD! They used to be about 4000 something HKD. I guess the folks who don’t want the 3G connectivity and the poorer battery life of the 3G iPhone will still want a 2.5G versions.

Being a huge DS fan, I’ve been tinkering with my device ever since I got it last year.

With the right mods, the Nintendo DS Lite can be far more than a portable gaming platform — and can be used to run any number of fun homebrewed apps. In my opinion the DS is probably one of the more moddable gaming platforms that can be “repurposed” for other uses.

Three pictures below tell the story of some apps I’ve been playing with: a wardriving app utilizing the dswifi development kit, an e-book reader that uses TTF (true type fonts), and a video player, dsvideo.

A fun wifi scanner and packet capture tool

Chapter 2 of Alice in Wonderland on my DS

Any Full Metal Alchemist fans out there?

Once my Slot-2 chip arrives I’ll be able to showcase instant messaging, browsing and FTPing (part 2). There’s also fun stuff like Linux for DS, dictionaries, etc. A shoutout to all DS fansboys out there!

So, you can’t wait for SingTel to bring the hyped-to-the-heavens 3G iPhone? Well, since the red camp missed the July 11 launch, you can get one from places where the gizmo is sold.

One place would be Hong Kong, where my bro Paddy says they cost a whopping S$1,700 to S$,2000 in retail shops. No SIM lock, no need to “jailbreak” or hack it to run here. Just insert your SIM in there.

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But for that price? I can buy a nice iPod Touch and another full-featured PDA-phone and have spare cash. Not quite US$199 as Steve Jobs – and his raging mad fans – claim eh?

zenxfi3

On the face of it – a rather “thin” face of it – Creative seems to have finally come up with a solid MP3 player with its Zen X-Fi.

This little gizmo is slim at just 12.8mm (a few credit cards thick) and should fit into the pocket well. Yet it has most of what the pricier – and longer – Apple iPod Touch has and more.

Wi-Fi? Check. Video playback (including DivX and WMV)? Check. SD card slot for additional expansion? Check.

Wait, there’s also built-in FM and a microphone, so it should come in handy for recording meetings and, for us reporters, for recording what interviewees say (and later deny!).

Best of all, the price is right. Creative’s online store is selling the 32GB version for S$399 – that’s less than the S$848 what Apple asks for its 32GB iPod Touch.

With such capacities, there’s finally enough capacity for the whopping 20+GB of music that is quickly expanding on my PC, thanks mainly to my encoding stuff in WAV instead of MP3 these days.

I’ve always said MP3 players, unlike computers, are lifestyle products and Apple’s done a better job with them than a “PC” company like Creative. But would you pay twice as much for a player with less stuff just to look cool?

I know I didn’t buy a Sony Walkman or Discman just because it’s Sony in the past – I bought an Aiwa or Panasonic that played (mostly) just as well. Now, after two iPods, maybe it’s time for me to consider Creative seriously.