When you have seen a printer, you’ve seen them all, right? At least, that’s what a lot of many small business owners like to think, when they next buy an all-in-one machine for their office or SOHO.

The Officejet Pro 8600 Plus from HP hopes to change that mindset, by essentially putting together not just the expected print features but also lots of handy features that take away the frustration of everyday tasks.
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Gamers who have been looking out for the 3G version of the Playstation Vita will be happy to hear that SingTel will be selling it in Singapore from April 14 with a mobile broadband contract, and with a discount for those who sign up.

The much-awaited 3G version of Sony’s latest handheld console will go for as low as S$99 if you sign up for a S$40-a-month subscription that comes with 50GB data delivered at 7.2Mbps. …

“Same old expensive price” was probably the first thing that struck many Singapore football fans when they heard today that StarHub is charging S$58 to watch live Euro 2012 matches in June.

The price, for early birds only, is only slightly less than the other football bonanza just two years ago – the World Cup. Back then, pay-TV viewers had to pay S$66 to get the live matches, prompting much unhappiness.

But this time, things may be a little different. And they could have a huge bearing on how expensive sports progammes will be in future.

For Euro 2012, viewers will be able to watch the matches without being tied to a StarHub contract. This includes SingTel mio TV subscribers who can now watch the matches through their existing set-top boxes. They will pay StarHub separately but the content will be piped through SingTel’s network without having them fuss over a new set-top box.

This is the first time this is happening because of a “cross carriage” ruling that the government regulator had hammered into place after the World Cup bidding fiasco in 2010.
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When everyone was going ga-ga last week over Apple’s new iPad, I went out to a small store in Funan and bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7, a tablet that I had under-estimated when I first saw it earlier this year.

I had thought this was simply a refresh of the 7-inch Galaxy Tab that marked the Korean firm’s entry into the tablet market in 2010. But I changed my mind the moment I saw the screen on the new tablet. It is sharp, bright, has great contrast, and is quite stunning.
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Not everyone checks up the specs on the new Apple iPad before buying the shiny toy, but for those who do, they will find an interesting entry in a section called Wireless and Cellular.

Not only is there mention of the touted “4G” or LTE (Long Term Evolution) speed upgrade, which supports the 700MHz and 2,100MHz frequencies, but the iPad can also log on to older networks running UMTS/HSPA/HSPA+/DC-HSPA in four other frequencies. And get this, the new iPad also supports GSM networks in the good old 800, 900, 1,800 and 1,900MHz frequencies as well.

Confused already? That, by the way, is just for the AT&T model in the United States. Also listed on the Apple website is a Verizon model, which supports LTE all the same, but “falls back” on a different older network called CDMA EV-DO, along with the rest of the other cellphone network technologies, if LTE is not available.

Nobody but geeks used to care about the alphabet soup here, but as more LTE devices hit the market this year, as the iPad did this weekend, this fragmentation of wireless network technologies is becoming a huge problem for device makers and users alike.

LTE was meant to unify these disparate technologies evolved over the years, but with 38 different frequencies expected to be rolled out around the world, the new technology is adding to the problem instead.
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The Korean phone maker finally released its official Ice Cream Sandwich update for the popular Galaxy S II phone, after weeks of leaked rumours that it would be available this month.

The update brings the S II on par, at least in terms of the software, with the Galaxy Nexus, along with several other features like an improved Gmail experience, a new task manager and improved browser.

However, the release is only available for South Korea and several European countries like Poland, Hungary and Sweden, and there is no news still of availability for Singapore users, who have had the phone since last year.

Samsung said on a Facebook post today that it was still working with other wireless carriers in other markets to get the Android 4.0 operating system out to more users.

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In case, you needed any proof that white is the “it” colour for phones today, Nokia has come up with the snow-coloured version of its flagship Lumia 800 to add to its cyan, fuchsia and black options.

The phone will sport the same “pillow” of a screen that has impressed – indeed surprised – many users, as part of an attractive sales pitch that also includes a nifty Windows Phone interface.

Like its other variants, the white Lumia 800 comes with a handy 8-meg camera and has a pretty impressive AMOLED screen that boasts some of the best contrasts on a small screen (read review). …

Laptops, tablets, printers, cameras… Virtually everything at this year’s IT Show are familiar products with some dollars shaven off. But if you keep your eyes peeled, some attention-grabbing items do jump out at you. Here are some interesting gadgets to go find on the last day of this year’s show. …

Companies bidding for projects at the Singapore government procurement website, Gebiz, will have some of their deadlines extended, after a possible glitch in a server prevented many from logging in.

Since around 4pm this afternoon, users logging in with their SingPass IDs, which are also used to sign in to dozens of other online government services, have faced error messages telling them that the server is “busy”. On other occasions, the webpage just refuses to load. …

Ask any young woman in Singapore where she can get affordable clothes from indie sellers online, and she’ll most likely point you to a blog hosted on Livejournal. The blog/journal website blossomed around five to six years ago as a popular space for young people to experiment with e-commerce, most commonly the sale of women’s clothing.

About 50,000 of such blog shops and millions of dollars in transactions were enough to catch the attention of Livejournal’s parent company SUP Media, which launched a dedicated Singapore portal last year. But even so, the website lacked built-in e-commerce features, and users paid for their purchases through third-party services like PayPal or the local iBanking services.

That’s all about to change. With the launch of LJCheckout a couple of weeks ago, blog shop owners now have the option to integrate a full-fledged e-commerce system into their blogs. …