No, it is not SingTel and StarHub you should be angry with. Nor should you fret that the S$66 package – at about S$1-a-match – to watch the World Cup on the telly is four times more than what you had paid in 2006.

Rather, the best reason to switch off from next month’s football extravaganza is because you, the Singapore football fan, have been taken for a ride.

And unless you vote with your remote, prices for sports programming and other pay-TV offerings in future will go further north, after these World Cup deals announced last Friday. …

Here’s something for all you sweaty joggers and gym regulars – a “wearable” Walkman MP3 player that is not just water-resistant and but also washable.

The latest Sony Walkman W, launched today, also comes without a long wire dangling down the side. The S$129 device appears like a one-piece construction that wraps around the back of your head and is secured onto the ears with ear buds that remind one of Bluetooth headsets.

This means no more getting tangled with an irritating wire either running to your iPod hooked up on your arm or stored in your shorts pocket. …

It used to be such a pain to be living in Singapore as a gamer.

I remember wanting to play Meridien 59 – the first MMO game – but it would have cost me my life savings connecting to a US server over 14.4kbps dial-up.

When World of Warcraft launched in November 2004, I was among the first to buy a copy from Tec-drome at Sim Lim. Even though I was reviewing games for The New Paper, in those days the distributors didnt bring in MMOGs. Guild Wars, Star Wars Galaxies, Jump To Light Speed – all bought with my own money. But the bigger problem – World of Warcraft was only launched in the US, Aust and NZ. Even though Vivendi was HQed in Singapore for the APAC region, they bloody ignored us, amazingly on the grounds that they chose countries with stable Internet infrastructure. Hogwash, because there is no way we were worse off than ANZ in those days.

The simple reason is that we are too small a market. Thankfully, all that was required was an Australian or US address and our good old local Singapore credit card was accepted.

BUT THINGS ARE DIFFERENT NOW! …

Just when you thought that mobile data plans could not get cheaper, along comes an “entry level” plan from SingTel to entice users to “test water” with surfing on their phones.

A couple of weeks ago, SingTel updated the prices for its Broadband on Mobile services. There’s now a S$5.90-a-month plan that gives you 200MB of data, with the total bill capped at S$29.90 (inclusive of subscription price). …

With all the buzz surrounding cloud computing today, enterprises large and small may still be grappling with what the term really means for their business.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) senior vice president Andy Jassy took the opportunity to demystify some misconceptions about cloud computing and its benefits to enterprises as part of the IDA Distinguished Speaker Series on Thursday. AWS also announced its first Asia-Pacific Region in Singapore. …