One digital camera that might be worth reserving your spare cash for this year, is the Lytro – the unlikely offspring of a dissertation by a Stanford University researcher, and fuss-free point-and-shoot consumer photography.

Looking vaguely like a Jedi’s preferred weapon slash compact camera, the Lytro light field camera is not your typical digital camera.

A micro-lens array combined with an image sensor captures 11 million rays of light in a light field, which is defined as “the amount of light travelling in every direction through every point in space”.

The bottomline: you don’t have to worry about adjusting the focus because the camera captures so much light information, you can tweak your photo’s focus AFTER shooting the images — so every shot, in effect, becomes the money shot.

In fact, you can even let your audience/viewers adjust the photo to their liking, be it everything in super-sharp focus or picking a favourite point to have a shallow depth of field on the fly.

Amazingly, the Lytro’s bright f/2 lens aperture applies across the 8X optical zoom range.

(Alright, so it sounds like magical rainbows and unicorns, but rest assured that the Lytro has been field tested by pro photographers in the U.S. and it works).

The camera thus promises to eliminate out-of-focus shots and missed photo opportunities faster than you can say “Photoshop”. And yes, it might even replace digital cameras offering 3-D shooting capabilities.

I can’t really hype about the camera without testing it first though, but even at this point, it is an intriguing technology.

Pricing starts from US$399 (for the 8GB version good for storing 350 images), but there are a few bugbears though.

First of all, there’s the vague “Shipping in early 2012” schedule.

And then, it’ll be limited to the U.S. initially.

Finally, for the anti-Apple folks, this could be the deal breaker: The Lytro’s image editing software will — initially, at least — work on Mac OS X only.

But fear not, Windows support is forthcoming.

It’ll be fun to see if the Lytro becomes a major commercial success, or if major digital imaging companies make moves to license the technology for their own digital cameras — or even unveil their own light field-based imaging technology.

In the meantime, take a good look at the retro Lytro at https://www.lytro.com/.

Apparently, 40 minutes is too late by several hours.

I was far too late to score a new HP Touchpad (either the 16GB or 32GB version), because both were sold out at COMEX 2011 within minutes of the opening of the computer show, which runs from 1st to 4th September at the Suntec Convention Centre.

With limited availability of 200 devices total per day, it’s no wonder that the TouchPads were sold out. It was highly anticipated and queues had started forming way before the show started, according to our friends over at Digital Life.

Said Gin Lee on DL’s Facebook channel: “People were apparently queuing from 4am.”

The photo above does not do justice to the crowd at the HP booth. Here’s a better one.

Please note that it’s just the first hour of the first day (!) and the alleys around the booth were thronged with people. It was so packed that you could hardly move, and the emcees had to repeatedly make announcements every few minutes that the HP TouchPad is sold out.

You can certainly expect a repeat of this every single day the show is running. It’ll probably get even worse over the weekend on Saturday and Sunday. Unless you queue up in the wee hours of the morning, don’t expect to get your HP Touchpad.

On HP’s end, they can and should definitely do better crowd management. Already there are complaints on blogs and Facebook that the queue for the HP Touchpad wasn’t well managed this morning. People who queued for hours walked away empty handed.

Beyond the mania over the HP Touchpads, COMEX 2011 is the biggest IT show in Singapore ever, according to the organizers.

Every COMEX sees rivalry between the telcos, where they compete to see who can draw the biggest crowds. Typically StarHub and SingTel have the biggest booths and crowds, but this time M1 has pulled out all the stops.

M1 was particularly aggressive. I had barely come out of the turnstiles at the Esplanade MRT when I met their show staff inside the station, where I was given a pamphlet of their bargain broadband price plans, available only during COMEX 2011.

They booked a big convention room and floor space on the second floor, obviously expecting a large crowd to turn up over the weekend. Given the pre-buzz in the social media space around their cutthroat pricing plans, I wouldn’t be surprised if M1 will be proven right.

Lastly, I passed by the Nubox booth on the 3rd floor, who had earlier sent Techgoondu a press release on their special promotion plans for Apple iMac, Macbook Air, and Macbook Pro products.

They are touting special bundles with savings in the hundreds — for example, Windows 7 Home Premium and Parallels Desktop 6 at a special price of S$249, off from the usual price of S$318
— and discounts in accessories up to 70 percent.

More interesting though, is that Nubox is doing a tie-up with Universal Music to promote UK boyband “The Wanted”. The first 200 customers who spend above S$300 at the Nubox COMEX 2011 booth will get to redeem The Wanted’s eponymous debut album at Nubox@Raffles City from 10th to 16th September.

They also get a chance to win showcase passes to see the pop group perform live in Singapore on 17th September.

And my search ended with the HiMedia (海美迪) HD600B-TV – which is a squarish looking do-it-all box that’s the localised-for-Hong Kong version of the HD500D-TH.

HiMedia HD600B-TV

A Hi what? Well, HiMedia is a Shenzhen-based company and my wife was surprised that I sprung for this made and designed in China product. Well, it certainly wasn’t its looks or its inspiring branding/model name that won me over. I guess it was its insides – the fact that it promised to plug right into my home network and save me time spent on installation and configuration, plus its price,  and the fact that I don’t have to ingest this made in China device, that led me to it. The lack of competition in this space also played a part – for while there are loads of digital media players out there (but practically all made in China too), few integrate the HDTV receiver.

Interestingly, one of the shops in Golden Computer Centre tried to pass off the HD600B-TV as a ‘fake’ and the HD500B-TH as the real thing but don’t be fooled – the HD600B-TV is the real local version – with a local distributor that will warrant it for a year.

No major complaints on the HDTV receiver side of things, except that compared to dedicated set top boxes, the HD600B-TV boots up slower. It takes about half a minute from the moment you hit the power button to the point where the HD signal hits your screen – still tolerable for me. Dedicated set top boxes start up faster but they wouldn’t let you just pull up your Electronic Programming Guide on the screen and choose the programme you want to record simply by highlighting the programme and hitting the “Enter” button.

Electronic Programming Guide - just select the programme you want to record and hit enter on the remote

Picture quality was good, audio was fine, and it switched channels fast enough. Recording (either onto a 3.5” SATA HDD that slots into it or a USB storage device – unfortunately, you can’t record onto a NAS) worked well enough, and saves the recording as a .TS file. Recorded picture quality was recorded in the same resolution as your video display mode – and generally just as good as the broadcast signal. However, the audio was a little softer and there doesn’t seem to be a fix for it besides simply turning up the volume a little more during playback.

Connects via UPnP to my Synology NAS

On the digital media player side of it – this thing plays every format you throw at it – at least everything that I have. To hook up to my NAS, it was plug and play via UPnP. I connected it via its 10/100 Ethernet port to my router and soon enough, it found an IP address on my local area network and I could see browse my files on the NAS through the UPnP menu. I was initially worried that playback of 1080p files might choke on the 100 Mbps (and not gigabit) port but they played just fine. You can also attach one of the approved Wireless N dongles to it and do away with the Ethernet cable altogether.

Compared to running a PC with XBMC or a Mac on Plex, this device was definitely not as flexible. For example, your subtitle files have to be in the same directory and have the same filename as your video file, and if you want music for your photo slideshows, you have to either put the music file into the same directory of the photos, or manually start playing the music first before switching to the photo slideshow.

The device had a couple of other nifty features, like a built-in browser to surf the Net but you’d probably need to hook up a keyboard for the experience to work out well. Surfing with a remote control just doesn’t cut it. It can also stream from YouTube and Youku via its built-in apps.

At HK$1460 (S$253), I could have bought a HD receiver and a digital media player separately, but I’d have missed out on the ease of recording that comes with the HD600B-TV and I really could live with one less switch to turn on, not to mention one less remote control.

For those concerned about audio quality, besides the RCA line out jacks, the HD600B-TV also sports a TOSLINK optical out and a Coaxial out, and while it has 2 USB ports, I’m not sure if it will work with a USB DAC.

On the whole, the HD600B-TV has worked better than I expected – then again, I must admit I had pretty low expectations to begin with, thanks to the fact that my previous set top box that went “kaput” was also proudly made in Shenzhen.

As the World Cup got underway last month, I finally succumbed to a long-suppressed itch to buy a new TV – one that could be mounted on the wall to free up my TV console and one which provided better contrast and clarity over my entry-level Full HD screen.

Thus began a long afternoon at Audio House, where I tested and re-tested several TVs, changed my mind a few times, before finally settling on a 55-inch Samsung C7000 (UA55C7000WM).

The C7000 is part of Samsung’s new Series 7 entry-level 3D LED TVs and it comes with your usual array of Internet-based features, such as the ability to watch YouTube (over a wired Ethernet link or optional Wi-Fi dongle).

More importantly, for me, the C7000 provides excellent contrast and smooth, natural motion.

But first, why 55 inches? In terms of screen real estate, the Samsung 46-inchers are not a huge leap over popular 40- and 42-inchers, which are significantly cheaper (think S$1,000 to S$2,000 less). After getting the measurements of my humble apartment (about 3.6 metres wall-to-wall), I decided to go for the bigger screen.

With Samsung’s ultra-thin wall-mount, the 2.65cm skinny screen is a mere 3cm from the wall and is literally hung like a painting using a thin but strong steel cable. This means the screen doesn’t look big at all, even in a living room that is typical of a three-bedroom apartment in Singapore.

Now, after a month with C7000, I am glad I went with the 55-incher. HD videos – whether they are in broadcast TV’s 1080i or Blu-ray’s 1080p – all look sharp. Surprisingly, SD videos look great too, possibly because my C7000 is hooked up to a Denon AVR-2310 that does a little upscaling to keep things looking sharp and in focus.

The dynamic contrast, which enables very deep blacks, and the vibrancy of colours are what attracted me to the C7000 at the showroom. One step down was the C6900, which I also liked, but which comes with a less aggressive sports/action mode (Clear Motion 4o0 versus the C7000′s Clear Motion 600) and no 3D.

In the end, the C7000 caught my eye, and I just had to have it after looking at it for half a day at Audio House. After all, I’d been quite impressed by Samsung’s excellent B7000, which I reviewed last year.

Like the older model, the eye candy in movies such as Avatar (non-3D) and Pearl Harbor is very impressive on the new C7000.

If you prefer the theatre experience, dim the lights and run the Movie mode on the TV. This way, the screen’s a little dimmer and “yellow” in colour temperature, replicating what you see in the cinema.

I personally prefer something with more impact and punch, so the C7000′s Dynamic mode does it for me with the extra brightness and contrast. And no, even after a couple of movies like Terminator Salvation and Pearl Harbor, the eyes don’t tire. They want more.

Blacks really look black, even when compared to LG’s excellent SL90 series from last year (which I considered as an alternative to the Samsungs). And how fast motion is portrayed can also be easily adjusted, whether you prefer the “computer-like” super-sharp/in-focus feel or one that seems more “natural”, so there’s no argument on whether the details are too soft or hard.

What impresses me too are the colours, which really come alive in a movie like Avatar. Here, you never fail to get a good sense of the beauty – and savagery – of Pandora because you are easily drawn into its multi-coloured world.

Details are extremely fine as well. You tend to take more seriously Colonel Quaritch’s safety brief early in the Avatar movie, when you see the battle scars etched on his skull in a stark close-up.

Of course, the C7000 is far from perfect. Quite a few folks on AV forums have complained about backlight bleed issues, especially at the edges where they could see “clouds” forming in place of a solid colour. I personally have not seen this, so either I am lucky or I have not been concentrating hard enough to find the problem.

Plus, some serious video buffs are still a little underwhelmed and are looking to the more precise dimming offered by the more expensive Samsung C8000 and C9000 (going at a cool S$12,888). But those models were surely out of my budget.

For me, a bigger issue I had with the C7000, until recently, was HDMI sync’ing problems with my Denon AVR. With my old Samsung 40-inch LCD, I could turn on my devices in any order and things would just sync up and I’d get sound and video within a second or two.

With the C7000, I actually had to apply a software patch from Samsung to solve persistent sync’ing problems, which a number of Onkyo AVR users have also raised. This mostly solved the problem, even though the occasional failure to sync still happened until I found a workaround.

The simplest way to ensure everything works is to turn on my AVR and source (StarHub set-top box, Sony Playstation 3 or HTPC) before turning on the TV. With this, I’ve never had a problem.

Since I’m at it, here’s another tip for fellow C7000 users. This is for folks running a set-up like mine  - I know there are lots of you out there who bought a Denon AVR in the past year and also use a Sony Playstation 3 as a Blu-ray player.

When playing Blu-ray movies, I had problems sync’ing a character’s dialogue with his lip movements, possibly because I’ve turned on the motion-enhancement settings on the C7000.

To get past this, try setting the Denon AVR’s audio delay to match the video on your Blu-rays. I set mine to more than 100ms and the problem went away immediately. I don’t see anymore out-of-sync lips now.

On the whole, the C7000 has been a big leap over my previous TV. With a list price of over S$6,000 (I got it cheaper after trading in my 3D glasses and 3D Blu-ray player), it had better be.

To be honest, I’m not blown away by the newfangled 3D feature. Going by shop demos, some content are hit-and-miss when upmixed by the TV’s 2D-to-3D converter.

But on regular 2D TV, I’m pretty impressed by the C7000. Great contrast and excellent colours make it an impressive screen for Blu-ray movies and even everyday pay-TV content. Well worth checking out if you are looking for a slim LED TV that packs in the goodies.

I’ve been wanting to swap out my old Razer Tarantula keyboard for a while now, seeing how the lettering is all gone, and I sometimes have to second-guess where the right keys are. I finally did that yesterday with a Logitech K350 wireless keyboard.

Now, you may think I’m downgrading from a performance gaming keyboard to just another boring wireless typepad. But for me, it’s more like switching to something that suits what I do now, which is, sadly, 95 per cent typing e-mail and articles and 5 per cent games.

Sure, the Tarantula was big and impressive. But the lost paint on the lettering aside, I always preferred quiet and soft keys. I’m not your mechanical keyboard lover who misses the “clik-clak” on his old IBM compatible, so I’m not going for something like the SteelSeries mechanical keyboards.

At the same time, I’m not sure I ever needed the Tarantula’s anti-ghosting features that let a gamer press several keys at once without freezing the keyboard (my ageing reflexes play a bigger part in my character getting whacked online). The most important keys I’m going to use now are A-W-S-D, paired with my trusty Razer DeathAdder mouse in Battlefield: Bad Company 2.

And no, I don’t want ultra-thin diNovo from Logitech either, because of a lack of depth in the keys, which always makes me feel that I am typing on a really cheap piece of plastic.

In the end, I settled on a wireless yet “semi-ergonomic” keyboard. The Logitech K350 is a little curved (Logitech calls it “Wave”), yet is not the full-blown version like the Microsoft Ergonomic series.

Having used the excellent Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 in my last job – I had bought it to hook up to my office-issue laptop after suffering from a slipped disc – I was tempted to buy one again.

But in the end, I thought I wanted to finally give wireless a try. Logitech promises up to three years of battery life on the K350 (I’ll update you when the battery runs out). And it comes with this Unifying USB transceiver that’s no bigger than a dollar coin, yet can connect up to six devices.

This means that I can easily hook up another Logitech wireless mouse in future by just pairing it using the included Unifying software (I’m eyeing the Performance Mouse MX, but I haven’t gotten over the heaviness of these critter for gaming).

To be honest, the finishing on the K350 keyboard is not top-notch or as polished as S$100+ rivals. But for S$75 (S$4 discount from friendly folks at Cybermind), I think it’s a pretty good deal.

If you can’t wait to lay your hands on an Apple iPad, head down to Lucky Plaza where the device was spotted at several electronics stores in the basement level. Prices are hovering around S$990.

CNET Asia’s Crave blog reported that the iPad is going for S$1,299 at one large 24-hour megamall, so Lucky Plaza might just be offering the best iPad prices in town for now before the device officially ships to Singapore.

Earlier this week, Apple said in a media statement that it will delay international sales of the iPad for at least a month due to strong demand for the device in the U.S:

“Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April.

“Faced with this surprisingly strong U.S. demand, we have made the difficult decision to postpone the international launch of iPad by one month, until the end of May. We will announce international pricing and begin taking online pre-orders on Monday, May 10.

“We know that many international customers waiting to buy an iPad will be disappointed by this news, but we hope they will be pleased to learn the reason—the iPad is a runaway success in the U.S. thus far.”

One of the questions I often get from friends coming up to Hong Kong is if stuff is cheaper here or in Singapore. In many cases, the answer is “not really” or “just a little” – but in the case of the Synology DS210j that I bought for my bro recently, it was a helluva lot cheaper!

At HK$1530 (which is about S$278 at 1S$:5.5HK$), you’d be paying almost 50% more if you bought one from Synology’s dealer in Singapore (Memory World) which has priced it at S$408. Plus according to the Synology forum (post dates back to 2007 though), Synology does provide international warranty.

So why the DS210j? Only the Qnap TS210J II comes close to the DS210j’s transfer rates, but is more expensive. The rest of the 2-bay NAS competition, like the D-Link DNS-323 are generally slower. Oh, and its DLNA compliant too, so fits in with the plan of adding those ‘media extender’ devices to stream video and audio later.

And so far, the DS210j – paired with 2 x 1TB Seagate ST31000528AS HDD – has proven to be a great buy. No nasty surprises – it runs quietly, was easy to hook up to the network and does what it’s supposed to do.

The installation process could have been a tad better documented though. During the initial install, the installation wizard asked for the latest firmware file to flash the NAS, which left me for a sec wondering where to find it. After digging through the install disc, it turns out that the firmware files were in a directory labelled “patches”. In any case, geeks need to stay on top of firmware revisions so I went on down to their website and found a version that was newer than that on the disc.

Mac users will also be happy to know that the NAS popped right up in the Finder (I’m on OSX10.5.8) – leaving nothing to muck around with.

So unless you want to venture the DIY NAS on FreeNAS route that Alfred had shown previously, the Synology DS210j is the best bang for buck in the RAID 1, 2-bay NAS scene – especially if you get it here in HK!

Perhaps SingTel felt that their earlier Suntec Christmas Fair was sufficient, and thus didn’t want to have a presence at Sitex. Still, they are running promotions till end of the week even though they don’t have a booth.

IT shows are where the telcos and vendors roll out freebies to entice people to buy. And this year, the M1 booth is really aggressive with their marketing and freebies given. Compared to SingTel and StarHub, I feel that M1 just has that little bit more discount plus goodies being thrown around. For example, up to 50 per cent off their home broadband and mobile broadband plans, and “freebies worth over S$420″ — according to their marketing brochure — being given out for every package signed up. Some of the M1 phone offers even come with extra micro SD cards, Ez-link cards and grocery vouchers(!).

If you don’t care much about bundling your phone and broadband contracts with a pay TV option — i.e. StarHub’s Cable TV and SingTel’s MioTV — M1′s deals are worth taking a look at. Was tempted, but unfortunately, I’m still bound by contract to StarHub for about a year left, and no pay TV is not an option. So kaypoh look only. Ah well.

Walking around the show, I noticed more of the touch screen PCs being touted by vendors than half a year back. Prices have also fallen about one or two hundred dollars since then. For example, the entry level HP TouchSmart is about S$1,699 compared to S$1,799 earlier in June this year. Compared to the Acer and Dell touch screen PCs, have to say that the HP touchsmart series still has one of the nicest looking form factors.

A slight aside here. The touchscreen PCs probably is better pitched towards kids, as adults like me find it quite cool but not really necessary. The best non-trivial use of a touchscreen PC I’ve seen so far was at a Montessori playschool, where the kids were doing “finger painting” and learning to write Chinese characters on the screen. Bundle the touchscreen PCs with education tools or games that uses these tracing movements, target the parents, and then the whole touchscreen PC proposition suddenly makes a lot more sense.

Every IT show I go to, I always look out for memory card prices, and this time is no exception. The 16GB micro SDHC card has fallen since June from about S$70 to about S$50 (8GB and below have remained the same in price), so if you’re looking out for a micro SD card, the 16GB is probably the mid range one with the best price for value.

Speaking of price for value, I picked up a Western Digital 2.5-inch 750GB portable hard disk drive for S$179. The 1TB one is about S$249, whilst the 500GB one is S$135, so the 750GB is good value for money. The cheapest portable hard disks I saw were the 320GB ones from Imation and Iomega at S$89, but they didn’t sell drives bigger than 500GB (at $119).

Lastly, I finally got a brand new desktop — the mid-ranged value-for-money Dell Inspiron 545 — to replace my cranky and dying old one. At S$1,299 it had pretty decent specs that fit my budget. This Intel Core 2, 2.5Ghz Quad processor desktop came with a 1TB hard disk, a decent 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT220 card, and 23-inch full HD widescreen monitor, besides other freebies like a wireless keyboard and mouse. Worth a look if you’re looking for a mid-range PC that’s not expensive, yet has decent specs.

Are we in the worst recession since the 1930s? Doesn’t seem like it when you see the long lines of people waiting to sign up for a StarHub line or those snapping up LCD TVs like there was no tomorrow at the IT Show.

When I turned up at around noon, the Suntec area was was already a nightmare to drive around. Was going to give up after being stuck in my car, when I finally managed to enter Marina Square from the back (near Ritz Carlton), and guess what, there were dozens of empty carpark lots. Amazing how the security folks just happily block off all the carparks in the area and list them as “full”.

Anyway, I walked around and found some bargains – not downright dirt cheap, but somewhat tempting, especially if you are in the market for some of these gadgets.

1) LG HD-ready 42-inch plasma
I believe the model name is LG’s 42PG10R, which Courts was clearing on Level 4 for (if I don’t remember wrongly) S$1,299 at the time I was there. Good deal, as these folks clear their HD-ready models to move on to Full HD LCDs, which surprisingly wasn’t all that cheap.

The cheapest Full HD 40-incher from Samsung, at one of the many booths selling the Korean brand’s TVs, was going for S$2,249 (the Series 6 model). Not that much cheaper than what I paid for my Full HD model six months ago (albeit an older Samsung model).

Samsung, however, was selling its 32-inchers at S$749 – a great deal for a second TV in the bedroom, say, for movies or games. Saw quite a few people carting away these babies in trolleys.

2) HP Photosmart C6380 all-in-one
It prints, it scans and it reads your camera’s photo memory cards. This all-in-one is all you need if you want everything in a small form factor and at an attractive price – S$299. Better yet, it comes with Wi-Fi, so no more tangling with wires or wasting one Ethernet port on your router (as my older HP Photosmart C5180 AIO does on my desk). HP is throwing in one extra year of warranty for this model, so it’s worth checking out.

3) Sony Vaio Z laptop
Not such a cheapo bargain at S$3,199, but the entry level to Sony’s thin-and-light 13-incher Vaios looks stunning and is a joy to hold in your hands, especially when it weighs just 1.48kg.

The typical Vaio keyboard – with nicely spaced-out keys – are a joy to type in. Now if only this came out before I sunk my money on a Fujitsu S6520, which is great but surely not half as sexy!

The S$3,199 deal at IT Show gets you a top-end Intel Centrino 2 P9600 processor, 4GB DDR3 RAM and most crucially, Windows Vista Business in 64-bit (no point running 4GB on 32-bit Windows, which is usually able to use up to only 3GB).

Some pix here to share with you from the show:

Check out also Chi-loong’s posts on IT Show 2009 Part I and Part II.

At every computer show I always check out memory card prices just to see how much they have fallen. Here’s what I spotted at the Kingston booth at Hall 6.

For a comparison, look at some of the memory card prices from last November’s Sitex.

Prices of memory cards, especially the 8GB and 16GB varieties, have fallen. The 8GB micro SD has dropped from around $32 to $25 and the 16GB micro SD from $112 to $84.

I was on the lookout for a netbook, and went to both the Asus and Acer booths to look at their EePc and AspireOne range respectively.

Will probably trawl IT Show some more this weekend for more cheapo offers, but overall felt that I liked the Asus AspireOne 10.1 inch netbook (in blue) better because of the overall nicer finishing.

The price is $688 for the Intel Atom Processor N280 , Windows XP Home edition version, 1GB onboard RAM and 160GB hard disk. The weight is 1.33kg with battery (the whole point of buying a netbook is that it is light!), and it comes with wi-fi 8021.11 b/g and bluetooth, which is pretty standard.

There were no freebies packaged with the deal, but I was told the outside retail price is $799. Of the few resellers selling the Acer AspireOne at the IT Show, the Best Denki booth threw in a free upgrade to 2GB RAM which I will strongly consider if I go back this weekend to snipe a good deal.

If you find any great deals at the IT Show, drop a comment on this post and share your experience!