Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Asus showed off a number of new notebooks featuring Bang & Olufsen’s Icepower audio amplification technology at a glitzy launch party here today.

The audio technology, which has been the talk of audiophile circles because of its use in a number of highly-rated power-efficient amplifiers, promises improved sound over existing laptop offerings.

Icepower will come in a number of Asus’ N-model laptops as well as its top-of-the-range NX90 Multimedia Notebook. There’s a reason why it’s called that, instead of a laptop, because you’d not want to place this 4.8kg machine on your lap (a small bag of rice weighs 5kg).

Of course, with that heft comes all the goodies you’d expect from a desktop. Think of an Intel Core i7-720QM chip, Nvidia GeForce GT335M graphics, 18.4-inch screen, 1TB capacity (made up of two 500GB drives), and a crazy 8GB of RAM.

What’s even more interesting are the speakers that are placed outside the screen – they are built onto the side of the screen, but extend beyond the width of the keyboard. The reason: they get to have bigger drivers of sound than the usual tiny ones you get on lesser laptops.

How good are they, since they are paired with B&O amplification? I’d say much better than the average laptop, which to be fair, isn’t very strong competition. The dynamic range is much better – you hear trebles and bass more clearly – and generally, there is little of the distortion so common on laptops.

The Asus folks here played a number of classical tunes, and you can tell that the violins and pianos, which usually tear through laptop speakers, are relatively better controlled here.

Of course, with such thin speakers, you don’t expect to fill a room, or even a cubicle. It’s a clear improvement over existing speakers, which are often no bigger than headphone drivers producing really distorted sounds.

Coupled with a polished aluminium finish (which unfortunately is a fingerprint magnet), the NX90 is clearly a design piece from Asus aimed at the high-end user who with a budget for good sound and design in his notebok/desktop replacement.

I’m just thinking, for S$3,888, whether it’s such a good deal. For that amount, I can buy a smaller laptop that costs less, bring it on my travels, and still have enough moolah to buy separate satellite speakers (like the Bowers & Wilkins MM-1) which will surely sound better.

But then again, maybe the folks who buy the NX90 may already have a nice B&O setup at home.

“Usually the June show is quieter than the March event, because people have already used up all their bonus money from the Chinese New Year,” said a PC hardware distributor friend, when I met him at the PC Show today.

Sure enough, if you walk around this quarter’s IT bazaar at Suntec City, which runs until this Sunday, you’d notice that there aren’t the usual big Sony booth or telecom operators taking up entire sections of a floor. These guys are still at PC Show today, but the show just seems smaller than the one in March.

So, what are the bargains?

LED TVs galore

The LG Infinia series of high-end, near-borderless LED TVs that I’ve been eyeing for a while now are finally hitting the show stands. Problem is, the best price I’ve been quoted is about S$5,700 for a 47-incher. Nice as it is, and with 3D feature which I don’t need, that’s a crazy price to pay. The next best LG – the older but still excellent SL90 is sold at S$2,800 for a similar 47-inch size.

At Audio House earlier this week, I even saw the price go down to S$2,400 (S$800 off the usual price)  if you charge the purchase to your DBS credit card (subject to you spending S$18,000 a year on the card).

And there are other new LED TV models from Samsung which are pretty impressive as well. A similar model from Samsung, the UA46C5000 46-incher, is going for S$2,799. Normal price is about S$3,000.

If you don’t need such a big screen, the popular 40-inch size comes with good bargains too. Samsung’s LA40C530, a 40-inch Full HD LCD (not LED-enabled, so not so thin) is going for an attractive S$999. TVs offer some of the best deals at shows like the PC Show, because the savings are usually in the hundreds of dollars.

Core i3, i5 and i7 laptops rule

Basically, old Core 2 Duo laptops are now in the sub-S$1,000 range, like with Compaq’s Presario CPQ321. Pay a bit more – from about S$1,300 – and you get a newer Core i5 chip in your next laptop. Even more, say, S$1,599 for HP’s Pavilion dv3-4036TX, and you get a zippy Core i7 processor.

Intel’s new chips are pushing into mainstream notebooks and the prices are indeed attractive.

Western Digital My Passport Elite

For just S$10 more than the regular WD Passport portable drive, you can buy the nifty My Passport Elite 500GB at S$119.90, which to me a good deal. Not just a nicer finish and a dock, the Elite version comes with encryption for your data when you carry them around. I bought one to backup my corporate data. One of the deals of the show.

Telcos

No spectacularly solid deals from these folks when I was checking out the SingTel, StarHub and M1 booths, which were all out in force at PC Show this week. In fact, SingTel recommends that you buy online and get the phone shipped to you instead of queueing at the show – good advice!

What makes me happy though is that StarHub has boosted speeds for its cable modem service by about two times. Its 8Mbps service will now offers 16Mbps max, while the 12Mbps will support up to 30Mbps. Sign up for a two-year deal and you get a free HP Pro Book laptop (with the 30Mbps service) or a free Lenovo netbook (with the 16Mbps service).

Finally, one note of caution if you are driving there. Get there early – maybe an hour or two – before the show starts at noon. I was there today at 10.30am and the carpark around the convention area was already almost filled up. By the time I left at 3pm, the carpark was full.

Tell us what you bought at the show!

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.

In the latest use of technology for its “3G Army“, the Singapore Armed Forces is giving each new recruit a laptop – no, not to surf porn, or update Facebook on, but to learn how to strip a rifle and throw grenades. Yes, throw grenades.

I’m sure Singapore readers of The Straits Times would have read the story that first came out last Saturday, but it is still something of a shock to many of us guys who’ve already done two or two-and-a-half years of national service plus a decade of reservist call-ups the old way.

Because there was a time when you would have to actually get drilled countless times on what to do before throwing a live grenade. You work with a dummy grenade, learn that you have to pull out the pin carefully, keep your palm clasped and NEVER drop the thing.

If you screw up during training, you got a smack in the head or a yelling you will never forget – even if you are throwing a grenade 10 years down the road (Singaporeans are liable for call-ups up to 40 years old for enlisted men, and 50 for officers).

But now, recruits at Basic Military Training (BMT) will learn it through a laptop! Apparently, this is more receptive to new Net-savvy recruits, reports the Straits Times (reproduced here on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ website):

‘Navigating through the slides and videos was a breeze, and we could learn and absorb the more tedious details very quickly,’ said one recruit, who declined to be named.

Another said having a laptop was helpful with revision: ‘This gives us more confidence when we go outfield, especially when we had to throw a live grenade.’

Instead of a lesson at a stuffy training shed, recruits go through reading material on their laptops and pose questions to their commander or instructor using instant messaging. I hope the instructors learn how to effectively convey their Hokkien vulgarities over IM!

Like many Singapore guys who’d done NS over the years, I welcome, if grudgingly and sometimes with a bit of sarcastic humour, improvements on training. The food is one – the vegetables these days actually don’t taste like rubber band any more.

But I’d question why we need laptops to teach people practical skills that can be learnt 1,000 times better with a live demo and countless hands-on sessions. And of course, some “whacking” from the sergeant.

There are better uses of technology and taxpayer dollars (see how passport collection is automated now, to the relief of thousands each month). But thinking soldier or no, 3G Army or not, laptops to learn BMT skills look like technology for technology’s sake.

“Poor recruits,” said one of my kakis from NS, circa 1993-1995. “Now, they got one more thing to look after besides their rifles. We end up being an Army who is more worried about losing our notebooks and rifles than being shot at.”

Sony is reportedly dropping support for other operating systems on the PlayStation 3 (PS3) through a firmware update that will be rolled out to users on April 1.

In a blog post, Patrick Seybold, Sony’s senior director for corporate communications and social media, said version 3.21 of the PS3 firmware “will disable the ‘Install Other OS’ feature that was available on the PS3 systems prior to the current slimmer models, launched in September 2009.

So far, this feature has allowed users to install an operating system such as Linux on the PS3. But due to “security concerns” which were not revealed by Seybold in his post, Sony will remove the functionality through the software update.

Users can choose to forgo the new firmware update, but they won’t be able to sign on to the PlayStation network, play PS3 games and Blu-ray discs that require version version 3.21 of the firmware, play copyright protected videos stored on a media server or enjoy new PS3 features that require the latest firmware.

The firmware update, if applied, will effectively cripple the use of PS3s in high performance computing clusters and other applications. According to the U.S. government procurement website, the Department of Defense is looking to buy 1,700 PS3s which will augment an existing cluster of 336 PS3s. The clustered system will be used to to “determine the best fit for implementation of various applications” and “what software and hardware technologies are implemented into military systems”.

The choice of the PS3 in HPC applications is largely due to its use of cell processor technology that was developed jointly by IBM, Toshiba, and Sony. According to the DoD, the cell processor has shown large performance advantages for several applications, including Back Projection Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Imager formation, High Definition Video image processing, and Neuromorphic Computing. The applications have been shown to have performance up to 70 percent of peak performance on the current Cell BEA cluster using 336 PS3s.

Cost also appears to be a primary driver for the use of PS3s in HPC applications. Compared to a single 1U server configured with two 3.2GHz cell processors, the cost can go up to US$8,000 while two Sony PS3s cost approximately $600, the DoD says.

“Though a single 3.2 GHz cell processor can deliver over 200 GFLOPS, whereas the Sony PS3 configuration delivers approximately 150 GFLOPS, the approximately tenfold cost difference per GFLOP makes the Sony PS3 the only viable technology for HPC applications. Sony is the only firm capable of manufacturing the brand of required hardware without the Government experiencing substantial duplication of cost that would not be recoverable through competition among providers of alternative technology.”

More flat-screen TVs, portable hard disks, printers and laptops were what I expected when I joined the mass of humanity that had congregated at the IT Show at Suntec Singapore yesterday.

Arriving just before noon, I could still find many lots in the carpark. And there weren’t so many people carting away large-screen TVs and printers on trolleys. Is it because everyone already has two TVs and three printers at home, thanks to spending crazily at previous shows?

My tiredness of the bargain-hunting, however, soon disappeared when I saw how cheap these new Intel Core i3 and i5-based laptops were going for.

I’m talking about prices from S$999 for an entry-level Dell Inspiron with a 14-inch screen. Cute with bright colours like cherry red and ice blue, it comes with enough horsepower from the dual-core processor to crunch everyday work. It helps too that Windows 7 now doesn’t suck up as much resources as Windows Vista previously.

What you get is a zippy experience which also happens to last hours – thanks to all the power-saving features built into Intel’s new laptop platforms.

And the good news is that the competition is forcing prices down at this early stage of the technology being rolled out. My advice to you if you are looking for a new laptop – forget about the older Intel Core2 processors and jump straight to ones sporting the new Core i3s and Core i5s.

Besides Dell, the best deals for these budget laptops – which are no longer fat and undesirable like in the past – were from LG and Sony.

Yes, even the “premium brand” Sony. My wife bought a bright pink Vaio E sporting a Core i3 and a large 15.5-inch screen for about S$1,350 (a special deal from a Sony pal I bumped into, normal price is S$1,399).

Here were the laptops we considered – and ones worth checking out if you are down to Suntec today for some last-minute laptop bargains:

1. Sony Vaio E
- Intel Core i3-330M
-4GB DDR3 RAM
- ATI Mobility 5470 graphics
-320GB hard disk
-15.5-inch screen
-S$1,399

Quick review: My wife is super happy with this, especially the keyboard which has keys well-separated that makes typing a breeze. The large screen, along with the large keyboard that includes a numeric keypad, makes this a good alternative to a desktop PC. The ATI graphics onboard don’t hurt too – if my wife decides to play Warcraft! I think we got a good buy.

2. Dell Inspiron 14
-Intel Core i5-430M
-4GB DDR3 RAM
-ATI Mobility 4330 graphics
-320GB hard disk
-14-inch screen
-S$1,259 (after $60 2GB-to-4GB RAM upgrade)

Quick review: My sister-in-law bought this – a red version of it. I must say Dell’s design has improved in recent years, and it’s clear that at the low-end market, people expect even more out of looks than specs. The new Inspiron 14s don’t look as stunning as the Sony Vaios, but they are pretty neat as well with some faux brushed metal and clean lines all round. The 14-inch screen looks great too.

3. LG R490-K
-Intel Core i5-520M
-4GB DDR3 RAM
-Nvidia GeForce 310M
-500GB hard disk (after free upgrade)
-14-inch screen
-S$1,411 (should be under S$1,300 now, after price cuts).

Quick review: Nowhere as pretty as the other two models here, LG’s Core i5 and i3 models are great for the price. Pretty powerful discrete graphics plus a bigger hard disk means you are getting a lot of hardware for a very good price. I’ve noticed a price cut in these LG models, so head on down to check if there are further discounts. Link to the brochure here.

That’s it, folks, for my quick IT Show laptop roundup. Tell us what you bought at this quarter’s crazy IT bazaar!

In other words, a Linux OS. “That’s rubbish” was my response and I simply told him/her that the sentence was a total waste of valuable space on the newspaper. He/she said he/she did not understand why I used the word rubbish and went on to send me more info:

Q. What is the OS for Skylight and why did you choose it?
A. The Skylight User experience is comprised of a custom UI layer built on a custom Linux base OS.   The average user will not be aware that the OS is based on Linux.  We chose this approach because it provided the flexibility to deliver a simple, discoverable, and fun gadget based way of presenting web applications and media.

Q: Is this a Lenovo Operating System?

A: That depends on your definition of “Operating System”.   We have created a unique software stack optimized to achieve a specific user experience focused on web applications, media and cloud computing.    The focus of our investments have been on the User Interface layer.

Q: What did you base the OS on?

A: Lenovo’s Skylight Interface runs on Embedded Linux.  ThunderSoft is Lenovo’s Linux System Integrator.

Q: Are you working with a Linux distribution partner? Who is it?
A: Yes Thundersoft.  Lenovo recognized the value of running Linux as a base platform for the Skylight User Interface for everything from performance to extensive customization.   This allowed us to pick the best and most appropriate elements to solve the SmartBook equation.   An extensive team of partners along with internal development teams from Lenovo and Qualcomm worked together to pick, customize and create what we needed to provide a world-class solution.

Yes my friend. It is still a Linux OS.

Take Nouveau for example. The open source project started in 2006 with the aim of building high quality drivers for Nvidia graphics cards. Although Nvidia provided a Linux driver several years ago, it was a basic driver with no 3D support. The Nouveau project gained momentum and a year later, its driver soon outperformed Nvidia’s in 2D performance.

While some Linux drivers can be as good as proprietary ones from hardware vendors, others only allow basic functionality with sometimes abysmal performance. My interest in Linux was rekindled recently when I installed Ubuntu 9.10 on my three-year-old Macbook. The basic hardware like the keyboard and graphics worked right out of the box after the installation, with the exception of the iSight webcam which only worked after I installed a software that reverse engineered the right driver out of Apple’s proprietary iSight driver.

Driven by commercial interest through a stranglehold over the unique features of its hardware, it is not in Apple’s interest or any hardware vendor to release open source drivers. A recent feature in Linux Magazine on the Nouveau project pointed out that Nvidia “still gains far too much advantage by keeping their driver closed. They get support for brand new models, extra performance, better power management, extra features like VDPAU, and certain technology components can remain a company secret”.

Meanwhile, Linux users have to continue tinkering with their boxes to make things work, but with the support of the community through hundreds of thousands of forums and interest groups on almost every Linux distro, there’s bound to be a workaround out there. But hey, it’s also what makes computing fun isn’t it?

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!

I was just gushing down a bowl of extremely salty French Onion soup at TGIF near the Marriot Grand Hotel in Moscow where I am staying when I saw Jobs flashing the iPad in some Russian news channel. That was enough for me to spend the next 90 minutes watching Job’s keynote.

Two things struck me from the iPads launch today:

1. Apple is really going into a closed lock-down system.

   The iPad will be utilising Apple’s new 1GHz processor (Apple now totally owns the hardware and the OS).

   It also launched iWorks (competitor to MS Office) for US$9.99 for each of the spreadsheet, presentation and word processor software (called numbers, keynote and something else I cant remember) It also launched iBooks – an e-book reader and store.  With App Store and iTunes Music Store,  now Apple also owns the software and services platform.

   Apple struck a deal with AT&T for adding 3G at US$29.99 per month for unlimited access. So like the iPhone, you are stuck again with a specific telco. And my guess is the two will work together to lock-in consumers and share the money.

   It looks like the Apple way is increasingly becoming a closed, lock-down system. I dont like lock-down systems and it sure makes Microsoft (who only controlled the OS and the apps and tried with the browser) look like an angel in comparison.

2. Is the iPad simply a glorified smartphone?

   Yes, it did look cool watching Jobs spin the thing round, but what exactly is the Apple 1GHz processor? Early rumours are swirling that it is simply one of the many 1GHz ARM processors (ARM licences its processor tech to people like Nvidia and Qualcomm to make smartphone processors) around. The same architecture that powers the Google Nexus One smartphone. But can it be powerful enough to support a mini-laptop? In case you are still wondering why the iPad does not support the ability to run multiple apps at the same time, perhaps this is the answer!