Here’s a contest that is actually a little meaningful and also has some rather attractive prizes for Singapore’s young online surfers.

How would you like to travel to Google’s headquarters at Mountain View, California or win some brand new Android phones? What you need to do is create a video that brings up issues to do with cyber wellness and stand out against the many dozens other entries.

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After months of letting users try it out, Microsoft said on Wednesday that its latest, most ambitious Windows operating system in years will ship on October 26.

The touch-based features have been well covered. But they are perhaps just the tip of the ice berg for upcoming changes in the way PCs will be used in the years ahead.

The other part of the equation is the hardware, and that’s evolving by the month as new laptops, tablets and hybrid devices come out sporting Intel’s new ultra-thin designs.

No one knows for sure how things will pan out. But here are three possible scenarios, based on what we’ve seen so far. …

After months of speculation, Google finally released a low-cost 7-inch tablet today that will pack some serious hardware for an attractive US$199 (S$254), when it ships in the United States and three other countries in mid-July.

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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.  …

Just yesterday, Google announced Google Play, a one-stop portal consolidating the Android application store, Google e-book service, Google movies store and Google music store in one place.

Some pundits may have panned it as just a marketing name change, but I think it definitely signals Google’s ambition. They have ratcheted up their rhetoric vs. Apple.

For Singapore, only the paid Android app market is available under Google Play for now. The rest of the services are available mainly only in the US, UK and Canada, and will be rolled out worldwide in the coming months.

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The Samsung Galaxy Nexus, the Google phone that had fans waiting for months, is finally here in Singapore this Saturday with a small bonus – it will come in both black and white.

The first model here to sport the new Android 4.0 OS out of the box, the top-end phone had been delayed from its original January launch, missing both the Christmas and immediate post-Chinese New Year buying sprees.  …

Who would bet against Facebook today, as it readies for the largest initial public offering (IPO) in the United States in the coming months?

Yet, amid the excitement, one thing that investors will read about is this troubling reminder of the threat coming from rival social networking efforts from the likes of Google, which can take away key advertising dollars.

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Google is spreading some Christmas cheer this holiday season with an “easter egg” that will unleash snow flakes on the screen right after you enter “let it snow” in a Google search box.

Once the screen has been filled with snow, there’s a button to defrost the screen, though snow flakes will continue to make their descent on the first page of the search results. …

Google started the building of a new data centre in Singapore on Thursday, a US$120 million facility which represents the Internet giant’s expansion of operations in the region.

“More users are coming online in Asia than anywhere else in the world,” said Julian Persaud, head of Google Southeast Asia at a launch event. Projected to go online in 2013, the new data centre promises to serve this growing demand by delivering fast and reliable access to Google services.

In addition, the data centre will boost the local job market in a small way, as Google is hiring a small team of full-time staff as well as a number of contractors in a variety of roles, including computer technicians, electrical and mechanical engineers, and catering and security staff. …

One of the most loved Android phones and certainly the most long-lasting – the Google Nexus One – looks to finally have a worthy successor in the Samsung-made Galaxy Nexus out in Singapore in January 2012.

For a long time, the Nexus One’s sleek lines, zippy performance and first access to the latest Google Android OS releases have made it a phone to cherish for folks who bought it when it first hit the stores about two years ago.

Since then, brighter and better screens, as well as dual-core chips and faster graphics processors have appeared on newer gizmos, but the Nexus One’s basic design and simple Android OS without any third-party manufacturer add-ons still kept it a favourite among Android geeks.

In the Galaxy Nexus, they will find a worthy upgrade. The Nexus model immediately after the Nexus One, the Nexus S made by Samsung last year, was interesting, but it didn’t feel as slim, as sturdy or as much of an upgrade to the original. …