Samsung's B7000 - looking good

Like many shoppers who’ve been to an electronics store lately, I’ve had a look at Samsung’s incredibly slim B7000 LED TVs (also known as its Series 7 LED TVs) and been pleasantly surprised.

With a depth of under 3cm for the 40-inch model, these svelte beauties never fail to get a reaction when you stare at them from the side – even my parents, non-techies that they are, were shocked to see how thin a screen has become these days.

Yet, looks aside, I never expected to be wowed by the equally stunning image quality on the B7000, which I had a chance to check out closely when Samsung sent us a 40-incher.

Sweaty crowds, loudspeakers and lelong prices. What else would you expect from the latest quarterly IT bazaar happening at Suntec City from today to Sunday, right?

Crowds at the ongoing PC Show seem thinner than the previous IT Show in March, perhaps due to the fears over the H1N1 swine flu, or maybe the bleak economy is finally getting to some folks. Sony, noticeably, did not turn up with a bang as before – there were no Level 2 booths you’ve come to see at Suntec City.

Still, there are bargains to be had. And here are my own few Goondu recommendations.

1. LG 32-inch HD-ready TV (S$499)
With 37- and 40-inchers going for as low as $899, the smaller screens are obviously free-falling in price. One deal I saw at the LG booth was an HD-ready 32-incher with a built-in terrestial DTV tuner going for a mere S$499.

The lelong has begun anew today, with the last of the quarterly computer bazaars being held at Singapore Expo.

What’s the lowdown on the best deals this year? Well, despite the economic downturn and Sitex being usually smaller than the other shows earlier in the year, the halls are chockfull of bargains for those looking for TVs, cameras or memory cards.

Crowd at Sitex 2008

But first, make sure you get in early, and I don’t mean in the afternoon.

Starhub Hubstation HD

Somehow we didn’t catch this piece of news last week, but it’s still worthwhile to mention that StarHub has a new Hubstation PVR that now does HD as well.

This is indeed good news for HD buffs who want to also record their favourite programmes on TV. Previously, there was the useful Hubstation PVR which did not do HD and the HD box which did not have a PVR. Now the Hubstation HD gives you the best of both worlds.

Anyways, here the deals/gadgets that caught my eye at the show.

(1) The Ultimate HP Student Offer (but they were willing to sell to this 39-year-old as well) at Booth 8428 level 4

It’s the new HP Pavilion dv5-1034TX running on Centrino 2 with a 512MB GeForce 9600M GT graphics card, Vista Home Premium, 15.4 inch WXGA screen, 2GB RAM, 250GB HDD, DVD-RW, 6-cell battery, integrated TV tuner and webcam going for S$1,699. It’s simply the cheapest Centrino 2 laptop with a decent graphics card for gaming that I saw at the show. The entire booth only sells this single product. Make sure this is your benchmark model when checking out a new laptop.

(2) The Lightpulse pen at level 6 Convergent Systems booth

This is a really cool gadget. it’s a pen with a built in mic and recorder. As you take notes, you are also recording what the speaker is saying. Now every word that you type is bookmarked to the corresponding portion of the recording, think of it like every word you write is an automatic bookmark.

Visiting the big IT fairs today is very different from the experience 2-3 years ago. The last few tech shows (we have four every year, one every quarter, in Singapore which coincides with the school holidays) has become a lot more complicated and a lot more competitive.

Brands generally don’t set up their own booth and instead work with their resellers. It’s not a problem when there are 1-2 resellers representing each major brand at the show but when there are five different resellers within a 30 feet space representing the same brand, its a major confusion.

That was the case with one Acer booth where there were like Challenger, Harvey Norman and three other retailers all selling Acer laptops at the same booth. They all wore the same uniform, booths looked identical and sold the same packages and deals for the “official” deals listed on the brochure but each also had their own special deals (which is usually not on the brochure).

The jam started from as far back as SCGS along Bukit Timah Road and by the time I hit Nicoll Highway at 2pm yesterday, loads of cars were queuing up to turn left into Suntec and Marina area.

I decided to make a U-turn and head for Shaw Centre, my “secret” car park with plenty of lots whenever I wanted to avoid the crazy car park queues at Suntec, Millenia and Marina.

To my horror, the car park at Shaw was full and I had no choice but to make another run – this time to Raffles City. Phew, there were still 40 or so lots left although they were filling up quickly as well. Above is the car park sign board just outside Suntec City at about 2.15pm yesterday as I was going to Comex.

History Channel HD - Dogfights

Good news for content-starved high-def TV (HDTV) fans. History Channel is going to be shown on HD for StarHub cable TV viewers from September 1, bringing with it programmes like Dogfights and Cities of the Underworld, whose computer graphics will really get a boost with the better clarity on HD.

The new channel will join the four existing StarHub HD channels Discovery, National Geographic, Sports HD and MediaCorp’s HD5. This brings the total number of HD channels for cable customers to five, the cable operator said on Tuesday.

It also said it would start renting out HD set-top boxes for S$6 a month, which will sound sweet to people who have previously stayed away because they had to buy the HD box (S$48 to S$100 when you sign up for a contract).

twitscoop

Where people used to just passively absorb TV images beamed at them at home, today’s Net-savvy crowds share their thoughts instantly online through Twitter, that microblogging site that lets people post instant, quick comments on what’s going on in their lives.

According to iReport, Twitter traffic surged through the roof during the opening of the Olympics opening ceremony.

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.