It was the device that Android geeks had been dreaming of. A phone stuffed with all the best hardware, run on a clean, fast interface that does away with any bloatware.

When Google unveiled plans to sell a version of Samsung’s popular Galaxy S4 with its stock Android interface on Wednesday, many Android fans must have got their credit cards out ready to spend. The bigger question, though, is whether this is the start of a trend – a good one.

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Millions of messages fly above our heads every second, each one akin to a grenade lobbed into an instant messaging (IM) competitor’s camp. Although WhatsApp remains the most popular mobile IM client in Singapore, other up-and-rising stars, such as LINE, WeChat, and KakaoTalk, are starting to make their aggressive moves in Southeast Asia.

In this impending war for your messages, one lesser known app is slowly making its move in Southeast Asia. Nimbuzz, which just hit 150 million users worldwide in March, started out as an aggregator of various chat services, such as Google Talk and Skype, and is now also setting its sights on the lucrative Southeast Asian market.

Techgoondu recently sat down with Joby Babu, chief of operations at Nimbuzz (pictured above), to find out more about the company and the state of mobile instant messaging in general. …

There comes a point where our gadgets and gizmos become so small that it just doesn’t matter if one brand is marginally smaller than another. But that’s not stopping ASUS from claiming the “world’s smallest” for its new WL-330NUL pocket router.

At only 6.5 cm in length and weighing only 17.5g, the WL-330NUL may very well be the world’s smallest router, but it comes with a full set of features created specifically for travellers.  …

Phone users in Singapore can finally say no to annoying spam SMSes or phone calls by adding their phone numbers to a much-awaited do-not-call registry from January 2, 2014.

When it swings into action, telemarketing companies will have to check against the registry to ensure that they do not call, SMS or fax people who have opted out of marketing messages.
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You’ve got to give it to BlackBerry for sticking to its guns.

Close to 5 months after re-branding itself from Research in Motion to BlackBerry and unleashing the first BlackBerry 10 devices into the world, the Canadian company is still showing no signs of the demise that many have gleefully foretold, even turning a profit of US$94 million in Q4 of 2012.

At its annual BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando earlier today, BlackBerry unveiled the new BlackBerry Q5 smartphone (pictured above), a QWERTY device (similar to the Q10) aimed at the company’s strongholds in emerging markets such as Indonesia. …

It’s got a metallic case, it’s slimmed down drastically and it has the great camera as before. Say hello to Nokia’s new Lumia 925, which was unveiled hours ago as the follow-up to the flagship Lumia 920. …

Determining an organization’s tolerance for loss is a key first step in preparing for disaster recovery. The cost a business incurs to maintain a suitable disaster recovery plan depends largely on how closely it relies on IT for its revenue.

This is true for any sized business from the large online vendors such as Zalora.com or Xinmsn.com to SMEs with a small online cart. …

Ever since the iPhone 4 with its self-styled retina display hit the market, tech companies have been scrambling over each other trying to top each other in the display of their smartphones. Smartphones with 1080p displays are all the rage right now, and even televisions are getting their resolutions bump up to 4K.

Thankfully, laptops are also starting to receive this much-needed upgrade, with Sony’s latest range of affordable laptops shipping with displays of at least 1,600 x 900 pixels. …

There’s a rather unhelpful argument going on right now in Singapore, and it seems to be between new and old media.

On one side are professional journalists whose credibility depends on the stories they deliver daily. On the other, social commentators who run independent blogs, watching over the mainstream media for mistakes and highlighting them whenever one is spotted.

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When Adobe launched its Creative Cloud offerings to creative professionals in Singapore, it was clear to observers that the software subscription service would be Adobe’s main focus from then on. However, few expected Adobe to scrap its perpetual license offerings entirely and go all-in with Creative Cloud.

But that is exactly what Adobe has announced on Tuesday: the existing Creative Suite 6 will be the last of its kind, and all production software from Adobe will henceforth be issued under the broad Creative Cloud moniker. …