It’s svelte like before but it’s got a larger screen, more juice in the battery, and interestingly, smart software features that could turn off the screen after detecting that you have fallen asleep watching a movie.

Is Samsung’s much-awaited Galaxy S III the smartphone to have now? Well, after the Korean electronics maker unveiled its new flagship device just hours ago, you can already sense the credit cards and cash ready to fall out of many users’ wallets.

It’s true, the Galaxy S III, which will ship in Singapore by June the latest, is set for a stay at the top of the charts.  …

Asus is shipping the fastest and possibly sexiest PC graphics card around, the Nvidia GeForce GTX 690, and Techgoondu understands it has already sold out the first batch of pre-orders in Singapore. …

There’s now a way to watch the latest American TV drama serials like Glee cheaply and easily, by signing up for a fibre broadband service that lets users Singapore log on to video-on-demand services like Hulu and Netflix that are 0nly offered in the United States.

Internet service provider ViewQwest is offering its broadband services with a low-cost VPN (virtual private networking) option that enables Singapore users to easily connect to these United States-based services. …

Nokia, which has traditionally done well in the low-price segment of the mobile phone market, will be facing the true test of its future relevance come May 5, when its budget Windows Phone – the Lumia 610 - hits shelves in Singapore.

Retailing for a very attractive S$379, the phone could well be offered by telcos on contract as a zero-dollar phone. This is a significant difference from the Lumia 800, its current highest-end Windows Phone available here, which is retailing for S$775. …

The newly-opened up broadband market in Singapore has seen the entry of new players such as MyRepublic, which promises to cater to niche markets such as gamers with its differentiated fibre broadband offerings.

Just how do these smaller players get their game going and can they continue to prosper as the Big Three telcos in Singapore slash prices in an all-out fibre broadband war?

In this month’s Q&A, we speak to Malcolm Rodrigues, the CEO and co-founder of MyRepublic, the new kid on the block in the broadband market, for his views. …

Dr Tan Tin Wee, an associate professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), has been honoured as a “Global Connector” in the Internet Society’s inaugural batch of Internet Hall of Fame inductees for his instrumental role in the internationalisation of the Internet.

Tan’s list of achievements and awards over the course of his professional life is a long one. He has been working with the Internet since the 1980s when he was training as a biochemist and molecular biologist in Cambridge and Edinburgh.

One of Tan’s key contributions was support for the Chinese and Tamil languages on the Web. …

If you had asked just six months ago if you should buy a solid state drive (SSD) for your PC, I’d have said “only if you are using it for a laptop.”

Besides the pure speed of an SSD, the low power consumption, light weight and durability mean that SSDs are a perfect fit in portable machine. So much of our data is stored on the cloud now, be it e-mail or music, that we don’t need all that space onboard after all. There’s always an external hard disk you can call on if you need storage.

So, what about desktops then? Well, I used to think they can do with a hard disk.

But having used SSDs in all the laptops at home now, I have to say, once you get used to the speed of SSDs, it’s hard to go back to hard disks. And that’s what I did this past weekend – I finally relented and bought a Corsair Force GT for my desktop PC.

…

Remember how I said the Microsoft Surface was way too expensive for domestic use?

That turns out to not be a problem at all, because Lenovo’s new all-in-one PC the IdeaCentre A720 is the perfect alternative to the Surface for tabletop computing in the home.

What makes the A720 so unique is its sleek 10-point multitouch full HD screen on a articulating support, so that with a single push, the entire PC can collapse neatly into a flat screen on your table.

The support for multitouch means that multiple users can play on its screen at the same time, and to start you off Lenovo is bundling popular games with every A720 sold, including Angry Birds and Fruit Ninja. …

It’s something that has happened to many people, even those who think they’re tech-savvy.

You’ve got an urgent conference call over Skype, so you pick up your good old Bluetooth headset, pair it with your PC or phone and think that you are all set for the call.

Then, just as you connect up over Skype, you realise there’s no sound coming from your headset. You struggle to get things going as the meeting starts, turning eventually to your PC or phone’s mic and speakers in desperation. It’s a painful hour listening to the PC speakers or pressing your phone to your ear.

The cause? Your Bluetooth headset probably doesn’t transfer the audio from the PC or phone. Or you may not have set up your PC or phone right. Here’s one way to get it fixed. …

Well, it’s not strictly a complete computer- you’ll still need to stick in an SD card with Linux on it. Yet, the tiny Raspberry Pi, costing just £21.60 (S$43) plus £4.95 for worldwide shipping, has been getting lots of love from the geek community since it went on sale in February.

One of the distributors, RS Components, told reporters in Singapore on Thursday that it had sold the first 700 units in mere hours and has a waiting list no fewer of 200,000 orders.

What’s so hot about this new machine, besides the cost?

For S$43, it has a British-designed Arm-based processor running at 700MHz, a graphics core that can decode 1080p Full HD videos, an HDMI port and a USB port, plus it runs with 256GB RAM and boots from a memory card that you slide into the included SD card slot. …