Sony Ericsson Idou - now called the Satio

It was once called Idou… now it goes by another Japanese robot-sounding name – Satio.

We’re talking about Sony Ericsson’s latest all-in-one, “throw-in-the-kitchen-sink” entertainment phone that is being, well, launched, today.

Actually, we’ve heard about it back at the 3GSM World Congress in February, but Sony Ericsson has now decided to change the name of its new flagship phone.

And it’s trying to tease its fans with some shots of the phone which will come with a whopping 12-meg camera, a 3.5-inch 16:9 screen and Symbian Foundation OS (what’s left on the sink?)

The large-screen gizmo comes in red (or Boudeaux, as SE calls it), as well as black and silver, and features a handy sliding lid to protect the precious lens. No details on price yet from SE, which says the phone will hit the shelves in Singapore in early Q4 2009.

This one is worth waiting for, assuming Google/HTC or Microsoft/HTC does not come up with something stunning before SE does. Even then, those two will find it hard to match the 12-meg camera on the back of the, er, Satio.

Microsoft, as you may have heard, is launching a new search engine called Bing.com. What a horrendously silly name. Now I know why.

Dr Qi Lu, President of Microsoft’s Online Services Group just explained 5 mins ago in a worldwide press conference call that the word Bing comes from two Chinese characters – bi and ing (sorry my hanyu pinyin is crap) and that together the two words mean “to be very certain in your answer.” They also want to make bing into a verb!

Microsoft’s strategy to fight Google? It says it’s by building loyalty with users by winning them over one at a time.

Differences vs Google and Yahoo – three key areas:

>>Delivering of best results: type in UPS, and you will get back an UPS link and tracking application, type BT and you get back a customer service number.

>>Bringing new level of organisation: type Bill Gates, you see his pictures, video, speeches,
going deep in four verticals – shopping, travel and local (one more i missed, maybe food?)

Thus the technology approach is more focused on the intent of the user, that is, according to Microsoft, to bring search to “new frontiers”, and to give more satisfying results to users.

Asus ROG OC Station

It used to be a dark art that involved crashing your PC routinely and opening up the case to slowly pick up those tiny jumpers to reset your BIOS settings. Yes, I’m talking about overclocking your PC – an once-backbreaking hobby.

These days, PC buffs have it so easy. A failed overclock leads to an automatic BIOS reset to boot up the PC (without having you fiddle with jumpers on the motherboard). And there are even software tools allowing you to overclock on-the-fly while in Windows.

And it’d get easier. Asus last week unveiled its latest ROG OC Station, a hardware-based overclocking gizmo that lets you dial your overclock with a large knob at the front of the PC.

The Licence2Play gaming and electronics fair at Suntec this weekend from 22nd to 24th May may have been touted as the 1st consumer electronics fair offering wholesale prices to the public (no trade buyers and wholesalers allowed), but as a gamer I was far more interested in the gaming than gadgets.

After all, we already have tons of different IT shows already every quarter like Comex, Sitex, and IT Show, and we’ve grown used to cheap electronic fairs — it is part of our Singaporean geek psyche. This show is also a lot smaller than the previous IT Show, occupying only part of floor 6(Hall 603) on Suntec, whereas IT Show covered 5 floors.

Gadgets aside, however, the gaming aspect of the show is rather fun. It may not as big and established as Games Convention Asia — Licence2Play, set up by SPH subsidiary Sphere Exhibits, is running for the first time this year — but the atmosphere at the fair when I was there yesterday afternoon was buzzing, and there looked to be a roster of fun events running throughout the three days.

Gamers at the World of Warcraft Arena

Creative has just unveiled its new Aurvana Air earphones, which look every bit like a premium set of lightweight pieces for the frequent traveller.

But wait a second, do they not look like Bang & Olufsen’s simply-named Earphones? The same rounded hook holding up the phones against the ear may not be that new now, but check out the stalk, where you see the Creative logo. Change it to B & O, and you might just appear like you got the more expensive version.

Creative Aurvana Air

B & O Earphones

Techgoondu had the chance to be at unConference 2009 held yesterday at the Biopolis, thanks to the kind folks at e27 who had put together an excellent program that brought together some of the top forward-thinkers in the region. Here’s a recap of what I felt were the highlights of the event:

Panel discussion: Innovation in Asia and where is it heading?

SuperModelMe.tv

Think of SuperModelMe.tv as another “America’s Next Top Model” type of show.

Except that it is set in Asia, the episodes of this reality series are available only online, and it is a homegrown experiment by Singapore-based multimedia production agency Refinery Media and Exploit Technologies (subsidiary of government linked company A*STAR).

Set to debut about a month from now on 16th June 2009, SuperModelme.tv is a twice-weekly, 20-episode online model search that will document the trials of ten aspiring models from Singapore, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, Philippines and India. They will compete for a grand prize of S$10,000, with first and second runner up getting S$5,000 and S$4,000 respectively.

Hosted by top local Singapore model Charmaine Harn, the show doesn’t veer from established reality show formats. The models need to impress the resident judges or get voted out, and some judges name-dropped at the swanky announcement event today include fashion photographer Geoff Ang, fashion designer Frederick Lee and celebrity hairstylist David Gan.

The first question a fellow hack at the event said to me when I asked him for his opinion was: “Is this going to be like another S-factor?”

HTC Magic - not just another paranoid android

If the first Android to descend on Singapore didn’t raise your expectations, the second one coming to stores next month will surely get your attention.

The HTC Magic, a “Qwerty-less” version of the the HTC Dream which started selling here two months ago, is coming to town for a cool S$1,048 (without subscription contract).

Unlike the HTC Dream, which also ran the Google Android OS, the Magic will not be tied to SingTel or any other telco here. This is good news for people tired of all these “exclusive” deals that make it just a bit more troublesome to get their hands on their desired handsets.

I had a chance to gets a quick hands-on with the Magic, as it was launched – for the first time in Asia – at Raffles Hotel today. Thinking it was just another Android, I was pleasantly surprised.

Cryptic Studios – the makers of City Of Heroes – is back with Champions Online, an MMOG where your hero is a superhero. I managed to get onto the beta and have played for a few hours. So far, the game looks pretty cool.

Unlike COH, you don’t have to stick to a class – like a tank or a dps type – you can choose from a whole range of skillsets from fire to ice to dual swords to pure might to sorcery and more.

You will probably have a base skillset, say like ice, but there is nothing to stop you from choosing secondary skills from might and more. Each hero also gets to choose a travel power – from super jump to flight to teleport and more.

What is really interesting however is the likelihood that this game will be a cross-platform MMOG. The PC version is scheduled to launch June 14 and there are signs that an Xbox LIVE version is on the way.

Thank you for the memories, 3D Realms

Woke up to a nice Saturday morning and found out from all the online buzz that my dream is well and truly over – Duke Nukem Forever is going to be Duke Nukem For-Never.

Sorry for that joke, but the irony’s hard to avoid. After telling fans of the first-person shooter that the game will be out “when it’s done” in the past 12 years – yes, that’s nearly as old as some of you Counter-strike junkies – 3D Realms said yesterday (United States time) that it is shutting its doors.

Reports say the economy’s downward spiral has forced it to lay off all its staff.

What that means is that the followup to the seminal Duke Nukem 3D, the first shooter to bring us the greatest, funniest and most politically incorrect gameplay in a PC game, is probably shot up in flames as well.