Communic Asia has been a busy week, with IDA press updates on the iN2015 rollout, extension of wireless@SG for another three years (yay!), and launches of phones by both Sony Ericsson (Satio) and Samsung (Jet).

But sometimes just walking the showfloor can uncover interesting technology gems and surprises, and I came across some cool stuff at Broadcast Asia 2009, a sister event to Communic Asia held concurrently at Expo. At the Singapore pavilion at Broadcast Asia in Hall 8, I came across the 3M Vikuiti rear projection film technology being distributed by Singaporean firm GG Alliance.

What you’re seeing is a video being projected on a glass panel that has the 3M Vikuiti film stuck to it, a thin film layer (about 0.3mm) that can be cut to any shape and stuck to any glass panel from the inside. The projection is behind the glass panel (not in front as I originally thought), and the film is easy to both apply (self-adhesive) and remove.

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Thinking of junking your digital camera when you next go on a holiday? The Satio, Sony Ericsson’s new wonder-phone with a 12-meg lens, may just fit your bill.

I got a hands-on with SE’s hero phone for this year at a lavish – if rather painful – event on the sidelines of the CommunicAsia show here, and came away pretty impressed. But later on the event. First, the phone.

First impressions: The touch-screen menus are pretty quick to move between features and you get around the dozens of menus without much lag, unlike on earlier touch-screen devices. There’s none of the fancy3D flip stuff you see on LG’s new S-Class devices, but the Symbian-based S60 OS appears to be a big improvement over SE’s previously laggy UIQ operating system. …

Singapore’s free islandwide Wi-Fi service will be extended for another four years, until 2013, in a move that will delight users who have enjoyed not just free surfing on the go, but increased competition in telecom services as a result of the free offering.

From September, users will also get a speed boost of up to 1Mbps (from the previous 512Kbps) and come January next year, they will enjoy a seamless log-in process – a welcome improvement to the countless users who have had problems logging in on-site.

Launched in December 2006, Wireless@SG covers cafes, libraries and other public places and has jumpstarted the previously stagnant broadband scene in Singapore, leading to cheaper and more varied services in the past three years. …

Singapore’s ultra high-speed broadband service, capable of offering speeds of 1Gbps, will go commercial as early as the first half of 2010, earlier than many observers have expected.

The country’s telecom regulator,the Infocomm Development Authority (IDA), had just awarded the tender for the network’s OpCo (operating company) to StarHub months ago, and the NetCo contract to SingTel late last year.

However, the multi-billion dollar project seems to be picking up fast, with commercial services coming to some users in less than a year, according to Singapore’s Acting Minister for Information, Communications and the Arts, Lui Tuck Yew, at the opening of the imbX show here. …

Samsung Jet

Samsung launched what it calls a phone that is “smarter than a smartphone” at a press event earlier today. This is the touch-screen  Samsung Jet, which boasts of some interesting features including:

Speed – 800 MHz processor
Graphics – 16 million colours in a 3.1-inch AMOLED display
Web – Dolfin web browser lets you view up to five web pages at the same time. Multi-tasking capable
Video – supports DivX, Xvid and H.263/4

Other Specs – HSPDA 3.6 Mbps, 5 Mega camera, 30fps video recording, music player, MS Exchange Active Sync, A-GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 1100 mAh battery
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