The ultrabook market just got more crowded with ASUS joining the party; the Taiwanese company officially jumped into the fray when it unveiled the super-thin Zenbook laptop here in Singapore on Tuesday.

The Zenbook sports a differentiating design with some remarkable innards while keeping the price relatively reasonable. But will this Windows 7 beauty stand up against its competition? We go hands-on to find out more! …

The hype surrounding Internet or smart TVs these days begs the question: why would you want to check your Facebook on your TV with an awkward remote control rather than your touch-screen phone?

Apparently, TV makers think differently. From Samsung to Sony, they have been cranking out smart TVs as the next big thing for the living room, and well, now you too can get your old TV on this “next gen” goodness when you plug in an Asus O!Play Mini Plus set-top box cum video streamer.

Never mind if you can’t pronounce its name. This petite gizmo not only streams all sorts of video formats from your PC to your TV, but it also acts as a conduit for “smart” e-services that your neighbour’s spanking new TV offers. …

Unless you’ve been living in the deep recesses of a Linux terminal somewhere in Antarctica, you would know that Apple has released the newest version of their operating system, OS X Lion, ahead of schedule. But it’s not Lion in which I’m interested.

Along with new software comes new hardware, and Apple has upgraded the MacBook Air to become more powerful than before. They’ll be phasing out the iconic white MacBook a little down the road. For all intents and purposes, the MacBook Air is now Apple’s most consumer-ish offering. …

Some 100 discounted Eee Pad Transfomer tablets from Asus have been sold out within a day of a Singapore pre-order campaign launched by the Taiwanese firm, showing that alternatives to the iPad 2 shipping here this month are as well anticipated as the much-hyped Apple device. …

Availability: 27th March 2010, via M1 and StarHub, and all authorized resellers
Retail Price: S$638 (including GST)
Quick highlights: Windows Mobile 6.5.3 phone, comes bundled with preloaded navigation from Garmin and Tele Atlas, 3.5 inch WVGA 480×800 screen
Promotions: Consumers who purchase the Garmin-Asus M10 smart phone between 27th March to 2nd May 2010 can get a car kit at a discounted price of S$65 (usual price S$78)

Garmin and Asus made a big splash today at their media event for their upcoming launch of the M10 phone in Singapore.

Now Asus is better known for their range of netbooks and graphics cards, but they have been trying to break into the smartphone market for at least two years. I haven’t been really impressed with Asus smartphones I’ve reviewed in the past as I found that both interface and form factor wise were just so-so.

But the Asus folks believe that this phone is a breakout one that will be lapped up by consumers. Benson Lin, vice president and general manager of Asus’ personal mobile devices business unit, believes that their phone will do very well against the competition, like the upcoming HTC HD mini (also a Windows 6.5.3 phone) and HTC Legend (Android 2.1).

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Do check out Part I if you haven’t done so!

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.

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It’s been said that recessions come and go but life goes on at Sim Lim Square, that six-storey techie haunt in Singapore, for those unfamilar.

The best evidence comes from the way PC buffs snapped up Intel’s new Core i7s, as they hit the stores late last week.

So popular are these Core i7s that the supporting high-end DDR3 modules are near sold out. Popular retailer Cybermind, for example, now has stocks for only 3 x 1GB DDR3s from Corsair (S$255 with bundle). The 3 x 2GB packs (S$499 with bundle) are already sold out. …

The official word’s out – the next big leap in Intel CPUs will come next month, when the chipmaker launches its much-awaited Core i7 chips, also known as the “Nehalem”.

An Intel blog written by its PR folks confirm that the new chip will be out in November, just as supporting motherboards featuring the new X58 chipset start appearing.

These Core i7 babies are the biggest shift in CPU technology since the successful Core and Core2 series of chips started dominating the market in the past couple of years. …

If you have been holding out for a new top-end graphics card, here’s a little bit of good news.

Sim Lim Square stores like Cybermind and Bell and online retailers like Potterhouse are (finally) selling some Nvidia GTX 280 cards for S$699 this weekend (down from S$799), reflecting the price drop that gamers in the US have been enjoying for weeks.

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