The music service offers ad-free access to more than 10 million tracks, and will initially be offered at a rate of S$0.99 (for web) and S$1.99 (for web and mobile on the Android platform) per month in Singapore.

After three months, the price point will jump to S$4.99 per month for web and S$9.99 per month for web and mobile respectively.

Take a look:

My initial reaction was: meh. I’m not really impressed after I visited the site.

I expected to have some kind of trial or download demo, but that wasn’t the case. Besides having to sign-in with an email account, you have to put in your credit card and pay to see what you can get.

No demo or trial.

Now, music streaming is not a new business at all, and for anybody late coming to the party, you would expect the new kid-on-the-block to come up with demos to persuade people what the fuss was about.

Yes, some of the more dodgy music streaming sites have gone out of business, or have changed business models, but there are still dozens of alternatives — and quite a few are free — out there.

That’s not even mentioning all the strides telcos and mobile vendors have made in making streaming music available over the air, like SingTel with AMPed, and all the experiments Nokia and Sony Ericsson had with mobile music services.

And based on Rara.com’s EULA, the music tracks come laden with DRM, something that is a pet peeve of mine for content issues.

I understand that it is a necessary evil, but I’m not comfortable with the portion on DRM in their EULA.

Quoting directly from Rara.com’s EULA:

“Because the rara Application includes security components, special rules and policies apply. You agree to abide by the rules and policies established from time to time by rara media. We will apply such rules and policies generally in a non-discriminatory manner to users of the rara Application, and such rules and policies may include, for example, required or automated updates, modifications, and/or reinstallations of the rara Application to address security, interoperability, and/or performance issues. These updates, modifications and the like may occur on a periodic or as needed basis without notice to you.

All streaming content is encrypted and, where your Subscription allows you to cache Content for offline playback, that cached Content is protected by digital rights management (DRM) technology to protect the Content against unauthorised use. You must not do anything to disable or circumvent the encryption of the DRM technology.

In addition, you understand that the rara Application is capable of monitoring itself for security-related and tamper-detection purposes and for communicating information to rara media about security incidents. You hereby consent to the operation of the rara Application in this way. Your copy of the Software and your access to certain applications that communicate with it are subject to restriction and/or revocation (such as being shut down) for security purposes or according to consistently applied Content-protection policies. You understand and agree that this may result in Content that was previously available for use being unavailable thereafter.”

I don’t like not knowing what DRM software I’m installing on my PC or device, but more importantly I’d like to know what information it’s sending to Rara.com without my notice. Clarifications on the DRM in the EULA might help.

Yes, Rara.com may have secured international licensing agreements with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music and Warner Music Group and has a large 10 million-plus track database. It may be available in 20 countries around the globe, and is available in Singapore, unlike Deezer, Pandora or Spotify.

And yes, the music streaming industry is not an easy one — anyone remember Soundbuzz, who was one of Singapore’s first online music store but went out of business about two-and-a-half years back?

But that doesn’t change the fact that, for a latecomer, Rara.com feels pretty meh to me on first impressions.

And given that I cannot try the service without paying money, I’ll stick with Grooveshark, Last.fm and Musicovery for my music streaming needs.

It’s hard to fault Nokia for the good work that has been put into the Lumia 800.

With a unibody polycarbonate shell, an AMOLED display and an eight-megapixel Carl-Zeiss lens, Nokia’s comeback phone is up against the top smartphones in the market, such as the iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy SII.

I’ve been using the Lumia 800 for over a week now and the one thing that impresses me most is its curved Gorilla glass display that’s nearly flushed with the edges. Its 3.7-inch screen, which displays images with vibrant colors and deep blacks, is comparable to the iPhone’s Retina display.

The Lumia 800′s auto-focus camera takes good-looking pictures, though I had trouble focusing on nearby subjects. While you can snap photos quickly, there were times when the camera clicked before an object was in focus.

The camera also sports 3x digital zoom for zooming in on objects from a distance, but your photos could turn out to be a tad grainier than usual.

Folks who take self-portraits may be disappointed as the Lumia 800 does not sport a front-facing camera. You’ll have to wait for the Lumia 900 if a front-facing camera is top on your smartphone feature list.

The Lumia 800′s minimalist design means the only physical buttons you’ll see are volume keys, power button and the camera shutter, which are all aligned along the left edge of the phone.

Like most smartphones, the Lumia 800 has enough power to last a day of messaging and web browsing. But when the battery is completely drained, it could take over an hour for the phone to be turned on again while plugged into the power socket. This issue has since been addressed in a recent software update.

While Nokia’s flagship device is spiffy, this isn’t enough to win over iPhone and Android users. Much has been said about the qualities of the Lumia 800′s Windows Phone 7.5 “Mango” operating system, but a rich app ecosystem is all it takes to dent the market share of rival platforms.

For now, there are still a number of apps (DBS mBanking, Pixlr-o-matic, Skype and TweetDeck, to name a few) I have on my iPhone and Android devices that aren’t available for the Window Phone platform yet.

That said, both Microsoft and Nokia are expected to rally developers to produce apps for the Windows Phone platform and this should also encourage other smartphone makers such as LG, Samsung and HTC to offer more Windows Phone devices.

According to estimates by iSuppli, Windows Phone devices are expected to account for 9 percent of total smartphone shipments this year, up from just 1.9 percent in 2011.

Symantec has discovered over a dozen apps with malicious code that could cede control of your smartphone to perpetrators.

In a recent blog post, the security company said the apps, which are hosted on the Android Market, can be used to propagate a “bot-like threat that can receive commands to carry out certain actions, as well as steal information from the device”.

These threats are also known as botnets, where a collection of compromised computers can be controlled by a central server to launch denial-of-service attacks. Private information such as bank account numbers on compromised devices could also be stolen by cybercriminals.

According to Symantec, the malicious code is grafted onto the apps in a package called “apperhand”. Once launched, a service with the same name may be seen running on a compromised device. A search icon will also appear on the home screen

The malicious apps appear to be from three publishers: iApps7 Inc, Ogre Games and redmicapps. About half of the apps in question have been removed from the Android Market as of today.

Malware targeting mobile devices are expected to increase this year. The hardest hit are likely to be Android-based devices, given the operating system’s large market share and open innovation platform, said ICSA Labs, a division of Verizon Business that tests and certifies security products.

With the Evernote and Skitch add-ons, features that were once available through separate apps can now be accessed directly through the Dolphin browser.

That means you can quickly save text on a webpage to Evernote, or use Skitch’s drawing tools to annotate content without firing up the respective apps.

But here’s the catch: you’ll need to first install the apps, and the add-ons are only for the Android version of Dolphin HD.

While desktop browsers have been embracing add-ons for years, makers of mobile browsers are only starting to warm up to the idea.

Hopefully, this will be a sign of things to come as more app developers start to think about integrating their apps with others for a more seamless — rather than walled garden — user experience.

Launched in March 2010, Dolphin HD was one of the first browsers for Android devices to introduce gesture-based navigation.

The browser hit its 10 million-user milestone in November 2011, three months after it made its debut on the Apple iOS platform.

Android might not be the smoothest of mobile operating systems – I’ve seen it slow down even on dual-core chips – but that’s all about to change with the ASUS  Eee Pad Transformer Prime and its brand new quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 processor.

A brief hands-on I had earlier in the week revealed that it truly is a sea change in the responsiveness of Android, even more so than the Sony Tablet S, which until now is the smoothest Android tablet I’ve tested. With a whole range of goodies packed into this tablet, the Transformer Prime is easily the best Android tablet on the market right now.

The design of the Transformer Prime is heavily borrowed from the Zenbook, and that’s a good thing. The cold and shiny metal back with concentric circles looks and feels great. Slot the tablet into its keyboard dock and one can be forgiven for thinking that he/she is looking at a tiny Zenbook.

The front of the tablet is all Gorilla glass stretching from edge to edge. It’s smooth to the touch, and rather pretty if you can get past the huge bezel around the 10.1-inch (1280 x 800) screen. The Super IPS+ panel also looks crisp and vivid with excellent viewing angles.

The Transformer Prime is powered by Nvidia’s Tegra 3 processor, 1GB of RAM and either 32GB or 64GB of storage, which you can expand with a microSD card. At just 8.3mm, this tablet is thinner than both the iPad 2 and Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1, and yet somehow feels more premium than both.

On the back of the tablet lies an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash, and it’s quite the camera, with a back-illuminated CMOS sensor, large aperture, high-speed autofocus and colour enhancement. Of course, you have to be the sort who don’t mind holding up a 10-inch slab to take photos.

The bottom of the tablet houses the port which connects to a keyboard dock which the original Transformer was famous for. It fits flawlessly into the keyboard dock, transforming the tablet into a netbook or sorts which greatly increases productivity with a full Qwerty keyboard, USB 2.0 port and SDcard reader.

The dock also packs an additional battery, increasing the Transformer Prime’s uptime to a promised 18 hours. It folds up nicely, too, which makes lugging the whole package around very convenient. This is definitely not your run-of-the-mill third-party keyboard accessory.

The star of the show is undoubtedly the Tegra 3 chip powering the Transformer Prime. The quad-core chip makes Android unbelievably smooth, handles multitasking admirably, and has no qualms running 1080p full HD videos and 3D games.

And I have to say, the 3D games are very, very good. The smoothness of the graphics is particularly noticeable in the water effects. And in fact, if you hook up the tablet to a 3D TV or monitor through a handy micro HDMI port and run a game with 3D graphics (which means all the X-Y-Z axis data are present), the tablet is capable of automatically splitting the graphics on the TV and letting it pop through 3D goggles, while the tablet continues displaying the game in flat 2D. It’s hard to explain in words, so here’s a photo of it in action:

It looks absolutely gorgeous, and coupled with the built-in SonicMaster audio technology, the Transformer Prime is an excellent entertainment device.

The only downside is that the Transformer Prime ships with Android 3.2 Honeycomb. But with a promised 4.0 software update that should be on the way this month, that’s not much of a problem.

Good news is, the prices are not over-the-top crazy as well.

• Eee Pad Transformer Prime + Docking station: S$899 (GST Included) [UP: S$1,098]
• Eee Pad Transformer Prime (Tablet only): S$759 (GST Included) [UP: S$899]
• Docking station: S$199 (GST Included)

Simply put, if you want a top-of-the-line tablet that is not an iPad, the Transformer Prime is the one to get.

If 2011 was remembered for shiny new tablets that made people part with their hard-earned cash, then 2012 may just be the one where the craze for these thin and light yet powerful and affordable ultrabooks takes off big time.

At the annual CES show just concluded earlier in the week, a good number of laptop makers joined the fray with their takes on what people would be carrying to meetings and classrooms in the coming months.

Perhaps having seen Asus, Acer and Lenovo whip up demand for such ultra-light PCs in the closing months of 2011, the likes of Sony, Dell and HP showed of their versions of the ultrabook at CES this year. Lenovo too came up with a quite surprising “yoga-like” ultrabook cum tablet.

Here’s a sneak peek.

Sony Vaio Ultrabook

credit: Engadget

The venerable Vaio brand finally has an ultrabook join the family, after Sony showed off a Vaio Ultrabook at CES. Actually, “Vaio Ultrabook” is what journalists have called the device so far, as it is really still unnamed yet.

Little more is known about this new entry except that it’s a 13-incher with a glossy screen and has the typical chiclet keyboard common on many Vaios.

From what observers seem to have discovered, there seems to be a Ethernet port along with a VGA port, a sorely missing feature on some ultrabooks that lets you connect your machine to a projector.

Early photos from CES do seem to suggest that Sony’s new Vaio looks very much like a thin MacBook Pro, but that’s not a bad thing, considering many people buy Macs and install Windows and Parallels on them. Just watch out for lawsuits, Sony!

Dell XPS 13

Looking pretty too is Dell’s new XPS 13, the US laptop maker’s entry into the ultrabook market. What distinguishes it from others here is a machined aluminium finish, coupled with a carbon fibre composite base, which gives it rigidity while keeping relatively light at just 1.36kg.

It boasts a 13.3-inch screen (1,366 x 768 pixels), which seems like regular issue, but this is protected by a piece of hardy Corning Gorilla glass that will come in handy for a bit of rough and tumble on the go.

Like many ultrabooks before it, the XPS 13 will feature both Core i5 and Core i7 chips, and will sport 4GB of RAM as well as 128GB or 256GB solid state drives.

No indication of prices yet from Dell Singapore, but the XPS 13 is expected to go on sale in March. We expect this sleek-looking ultrabook to be quite popular this year.

HP Envy 14 Spectre
Perhaps the prettiest of them all is HP’s Envy 14 Spectre. It breaks the mould here by having a 14-inch screen instead of a regular 13.3-incher, yet manages to keep things slim and light by having an ultra-thin frame around the display.

It’s slightly heavier than the Dell at under 4 pounds (1.8kg) but for a laptop with a 14-inch screen, it is surely one of the lightest. Powered by Intel’s Core i5 and i7, and with 128GB and 256GB solid state drives to choose from, the Envy 14 Spectre really ups the ante for the already respectable Envy line.

No word yet on availability in Singapore, though the machine is up for pre-order in the United States. I’m sure many Envy users would love to see the Envy 14 Spectre come in black as well!

Lenovo IdeaPad Yoga
Finally, we have the IdeaPad Yoga, which is a pretty innovative take on the increasingly common “transform” device. At first glance, it looks like another slim 13-inch ultrabook, but that’s because you haven’t discovered the hinge design here that lets the screen flip around all the way back – like a yoga master – to transform into a tablet.

Once it’s in this position, the pre-installed Microsoft Windows 8 OS automatically runs in tablet mode. Here, a 10-point finger or gesture input gives you the convenience of a regular tablet touch interface.

The screen runs at a sharp 1,600 x 900, according to a report by Geek.com. Plus, the “target price”, according to its video, is under US$1,200, which makes it very attractive when it is launched later this year with Windows 8.

A year of choices
The good news is, whatever form or shape you prefer in an ultrabook, you’ll have a lot to choose from in 2012. It has taken a while for PC makers to challenge Apple’s innovative MacBook Air, but the next 12 months should see a lot of them wowing back users with both sexy machines and an innovative edge provided by the laptop- and tablet-friendly Windows 8 OS.

Motorola is putting up a lighter, more powerful follow-up to its Xoom tablet for sale here in Singapore from today, but with a rather hefty price of S$978.

The new Xoom 2, which will come with both 3G and Wi-Fi, sports a 10.1-inch screen and a faster processor, but will run only on Android Honeycomb (3.2) for now. It should likely be upgradeable to the newest Android 4.0 later in the year, if Motorola Singapore follows the practice of its US headquarters.

The original Xoom hit the stores in Singapore as one of the first Android 3.0 tablets early in 2011, but had a tough time overcoming Apple’s iPad 2 and fellow Android tablets from Samsung that were slimmer and lighter.

This time round, the Xoom 2 has shed some of its weight and tips the scales at 608g instead of the 700+g of the original Xoom. Performance wise, it also boasts a faster 1.2GHz dual core processor instead of the original’s 1GHz chip.

Interestingly, it has curved corners, a departure from the regular squarish tablet design we’ve become used to seeing. More practically, Motorola has included a hardy Corning Gorilla Glass to protect the screen and a splash-resisting coating that protects against accidentally spills, much like what we saw in the Motorola Razr.

But the Xoom 2 will face competition from Samsung and Asus, which has already started selling the Transformer Prime in Singapore for S$899. The Asus tablet should already get an Android 4.0 update in January 2012 and weighs a light 586g, not to mention that it has a new Tegra 3 quad-core processor.

And that’s not also mentioning the many other tablets unveiled this week at CES in Las Vegas that will hit the stores in a few months.

The much-awaited Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the next “Google phone” featuring the new Android 4.0 operating system, will only reach Singapore stores in February 2012, a month later than expected.

Samsung Singapore today said the units would be sold at S$948 (without contract), as it revealed earlier in November. However, the delay will not be good news for folks here who have been waiting for the latest and greatest from the Android camp.

The Galaxy Nexus, following in the Nexus One and Nexus S tradition, would come with a “clean” interface without any add-on software, which is a boon to those who want a “pure” Google experience without clunky extras. It has another plus: being a Nexus phone, it will be the first to get the latest updates direct from Google.

Android 4.0, or Ice Cream Sandwich is also desired for several new features, for example, a nifty face unlock, improved task-switching, and an updated Gmail interface. (See our hands on test for the Galaxy Nexus here)

The Galaxy Nexus naturally is expected to compete with the current flagship from Samsung, the Galaxy S II, which sports a smaller 4.3-inch screen compared to the Nexus’ 4.65-incher.

The Galaxy S II runs Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) and is slated to be upgraded to Android 4.0 in Q1, according to Samsung HQ. However, the Korean firm’s Singapore representatives were tight-lipped about any timeline for software updates for Singapore users, when queried by Techgoondu today.

At the launch event today, Samsung also showed off a number of other devices for the new year. The S$768 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus, out in January 2012, is an update on the original Tab, sporting a 7-inch screen and a faster 1.2GHz dual-core chip, while the slightly broader but slimmer and more attractive Galaxy Tab 7.7 with a dual-core 1.4GHz chip will go for S$898 when it arrives in February 2012.

A new mid-end phone also worth checking out is the Galaxy W, which runs Android despite the “W” moniker, which usually means Windows Phone in Samsung-speak. Out this month, it sports a 1.4GHz CPU and costs an attractive S$498. With operator discounts sometimes at about S$400 to S$500 for high-end plans, this could be a S$0 ph0ne well worth looking out for.

Samsung is dangling the same attractive price tag on its Omnia W. Similar to the Galaxy W, specs wise, this phone will be noted for running Windows Phone “Mango”. For folks who are looking for a Windows phone, the Super AMOLED display makes it stand out from the competition when it hits the stores this month.

In the time between the launch of the first iPad and today, a sea of Android tablets have attempted to cash in on the tablet craze, but with the noticeable exception of one Japanese consumer electronics giant. Late last year, Sony caught up to the crowd with their Tablet S, which we managed to get hold of for a review.

Eschewing the traditional flat slab for a shape, Sony took a turn and designed a tablet which looks distinctively different from its peers. Does the Tablet S have what it takes to stand out?

Hardware and design

The Sony Tablet S has a striking shape, which looks like a magazine with one flap folded back, and has no problem standing out from the pack. At first glance, the shape looked ridiculous. It’s clumsily thick on one side, and sleek and thin on the other.

But the moment you pick it up, you start to appreciate the genius of this design. The tablet is weighted towards the thicker part, and feels pleasantly ergonomic. Reading one-handed on a tablet has never been more comfortable.

Turn the tablet to landscape orientation, however, and the experience is less pleasant. I found myself adjusting the tablet constantly to try to find a good way to hold it, but to no avail.

Rest the tablet down on the table, and the situation is reversed. The gentle incline of the screen facilitates reading and typing in landscape orientation. But turn it around to portrait and you’ll find yourself having to contend with the screen’s weird angle.

Despite the innovative design, the materials used to build the Tablet S are nothing to sing about. The plastic feels flimsy and attracts fingerprints like flies to honey. The touch screen is not of the Gorilla variety, and actually flexes if you press too hard. We wouldn’t risk putting the tablet near sharp objects.

The only upside to the use of such materials is the weight of the tablet: at 598g, it doesn’t strain the arm during long periods of holding like the heavier Android tablets do.

The Tablet S has a dual-core 1GHz processor, 1GB of RAM, and built-in storage of 16GB or 32GB. While there’s no micro SD support, Sony did include a standard SD card slot and a micro USB port, which can be used to attach flash drives if you have a micro USB to USB adaptor.

Note, however, that plugging in an SD card or thumb drive doesn’t work in the traditional sense. The tablet cannot read files on external storage, and they’ll have to be copied over to internal storage before they can be used. This actually makes it next to useless, since it doesn’t expand the tablet’s storage at all, and you need to conserve space in order to, say, view photos from your camera’s SD card.

The Tablet S can be charged through its proprietary port at the thin edge, which also works as a connector for accessories such as the charging dock. However, the port doesn’t have any sort of cover, which means you’ll have to contend with its ugly exposed metal bits breaking the smooth edge of the tablet.

Display and sound

The 9.4-inch screen (1280 x 800) is a tad smaller than what we’re used to seeing, but it’s a fantastic screen which incorporates the TruBlack tech from Sony’s line of Bravia televisions. The higher pixel density means text is nice and crisp, and viewing angles are excellent, with bright, vivid colours and deep blacks.

There’s no way tablets can have impressive audio, but the Tablet S doesn’t do too badly. Music sounded decent without the sound cracking or sounding tinny when cranked up. But as usual, for the best audio experience on a mobile device, hook it up to a pair of good earphones.

Software

Sony has packed a wealth of software features into the Tablet S, including a useful universal remote control app that works on virtually any well-known electronics, including televisions and even electric fans.

The tablet also comes pre-loaded with two PlayStation games: Crash Bandicoot and Pinball Heroes. It’s a PlayStation Certified device, but that’s also rather useless for the time being as the PlayStation Store is not yet available in Singapore. You’ll have to stick to games from the Android Market and the two preloaded game for the time being.

And we don’t think we have to say more on how much it sucks to play a PlayStation game with all touch controls. Fortunately, an update has enabled compatibility with PS3 controllers, which should make playing those games less painful.

There are also under-the-hood enhancements, including Sony’s own finger-tracking algorithm which greatly improves the tablet’s responsiveness. It’s not an understatement to say this is the smoothest Android tablet I’ve tested to date.

Sony has also done some tweaking to the Android interface, but they’re not that intrusive, and are rather pleasant in truth. Tiny quick launch icons on the top of the screen give you quick access to frequently used apps like the web browser, and the apps menu has a nice stretchy effect as you scroll. You can even add separators in the apps menu to really customise its layout.

The keyboard is also improved, and features a numeric keypad when the tablet is in landscape mode, which is fantastic when you need to crunch numbers. Coupled with the gentle slope of the tablet, the Tablet S has the best soft keyboard without the need for any additional purchase.

Bottom-line

As great an Android tablet as the Sony Tablet S is, it’s lacking in one very important area: the lack of 3G connectivity. Despite being so late to the tablet game, Sony is still taking its time to release a 3G version to market, which makes the Tablet S hard to recommend.

At S$668 for the 16GB version and S$789 for the 32GB, it’s not that much different from other tablets on the market. This means we also cannot recommend the tablet based on its price.

But the tablet is very nice on its own, with its smart design and elegant user interface. Coupled with the superior responsiveness, PlayStation certification, DLNA streaming and IR remote control, it could probably fit the bill for users who don’t need on-the-go 3G connectivity.