The Zone

A Dell product launch event? In Malaysia? Yeap, it's true. For the first time, Dell has decided to do something different with their new line of Inspiron and XPS notebooks, staging a product 'fashion show' at Cineleisure Damansara yesterday to highlight the bright and bold display colors that their new notebooks sport. More pics of the show after the jump!

iZZi just launched their new wireless broadband service today, and to demonstrate how effective their connections were, the media were treated to a trip to The Eye On Malaysia wheel at Tasik Titiwangsa. Needless to say, the view at the wheel was incredibly scenic, which I managed to capture a few snapshots. Click the jump to view more!

This morning the media was invited to a special Media Machinimasia workshop organized by Intel and Machinimasia, where we were briefed on some tips on making our own short movies through captured footage from games and basic film-making techniques. It was kinda interesting, though I wished they had prepared the presentation earlier so we could have more time to play around with the game and movie-making application. 

The good news is that the workshop is also open to the general public but only for today (Friday) at 5 p.m. and tomorrow (Saturday) at 10 a.m. So if you have an interest in making your own short movie clip of your favorite video game, go check it out! It's totally free of charge, and you might pick up some useful tips in the meantime.

Venue:
Horus Surfer iCafé
No.4, Jalan SS 2/61,
47300, Petaling Jaya.

Time:
Fri, 13 Jul, 5pm to 7.30pm
Sat, 14 Jul, 10am to 12.30pm

Hey guys, next month its that time of the crazy bargains and all-out buying fun as PIKOM's PC Fair (II) 2007 comes along! we have some real great promotions in store for you!

More after the jump! 

How was the weekend? For us, it was a fun experience as the grand finals of the CELgames were held at Plaza Low Yat. It was an action-packed two days which saw old rivalries heat up and new friendships made, and it was one of the 'bestest' days in Malaysian gaming as more than a hundred gamers cheered to another wild ride.

What a better way to start off than a classic FIFA 07 France vs. Brazil match!

More pics and the results after the break! 

Philips' millionth Ambilight Flat TV has gotten some plastic surgery, and while its other siblings are busy entertaining millions (since they've made a million) of families, this one had a porejob among other things. Created in conjunction with New York–based jewelry company A.Link, the 42-inch Ambilight LCD HDTV features 225 carats of diamonds - close to 2,250 individual diamonds are applied along the sides and edges of the set’s Ambilight frame....and its not for sale, unfortunately. The pic below was taken from the Malaysian leg of its worldwide tour - like supermodels, you're expected to start a jet-set lifestyle! :D

Just a friendly reminder that registration for the World Cyber Games 2007 Malaysia is now open and it's FREE! That's right! It will cost you zilch, nada, niet to sign up so join the world's largest cyber game tournament and you stand a chance to win big prizes! Places are limited so point your browser to Multiplay.Lowyat.net and register today!

As usual, the here's the bevy of girls spotted at the PC Fair (II) 2007 over the weekend. While we also had a booth to run, we weren't so perverted as to scour the fair and take photos of each and every one of them! Look out for a caption the picture contest inside! Winner gets some goodies from the show!

Moar pics after the break! 

We were invited to an Apple launch yesterday and while the net was abuzz over the new iMac and its lovely new features, we really didn't imagine that they would be introduced to us at such a short notice!

Tony Li from Apple Singapore posing with the new beauties 

[More pics and comments after the break]

Last week Intel sent a couple invites our way to catch Ratatouille at Cineleisure Damansara, the latest Disney 3D animated film from Pixar studios. Since the Intel Core 2 Duo processor is also 2 years old, they held a little birthday cake party before the event where they had these two 'French chefs' extolling the benefits of the Intel processor. Wah so knowledgeable one these chefs. :p

After the cake was carried out and the candles were blown, we were ushered to the seating halls where we got free popcorn and Coke. :D We didn't get any cake though, even though we were promised some slices. :(

As for the movie Ratatouille, I highly recommend it. The graphics and animation is fantastic and quite unparalleled compared to other 3D animated movies showing in cinemas now. The short animated clip 'Lifted' at the beginning was really funny, and the movie overall was solid entertainment for both adults and kids. 

Just came back from a very eye-opening Media Prima (the company that owns TV3, NTV7, 8TV and TV9) media introduction of thier Network Media Portals and I must say, I'm impressed with the amount of work that's gone into the website. For one, users can now watch EVERYTHING that was shown on TV a couple of hours after the program has been aired in a quality that's better than your average VCD up to a week from its screening date.

Secondly, you can check out the content from the Media Prima archives (stuff like Majalah Tiga and the likes) all the way back to when they first started which is a total of 40000 screen hours - all from RM1 per download/RM15 per 150 downloads without ads!

Talk about unlimited reruns of fresh new shows for free! To date, only the 8TV portal is "near 100% up" as the team sorts out the bugs, but we're already enjoying our Ho Chiak  reruns!! Check out the whole lineup come September 9th, I know I will! XD

In the era of increasingly-growing goliath technology companies, yet another acquisition spree is occurring between Acer and Lenovo.

Acer will buy that Cow Company, Gateway, for USD$710million, creating a deja-vu when HP bought over Compaq years ago. Why did Acer do this?

To help them move up to the 3rd spot in the PC market by blocking Lenovo from taking Packard Bell, and getting Gateway while they're at it.

All this because Gateway didn't want to take over Packard Bell, which Lenovo was eyeing.  Hence, now not only does Acer get Gateway, but Packard Bell as well. It would seem the market is heating up in Asia between an Acer and Lenovo battle.

On other news, Lenovo plans to buy Seagate. Sour grapes perhaps? We wonder.

That's right, the China company which took over IBM's desktops and notebooks now has interests in buying the hard drive maker, which earlier bought over Maxtor. Well I guess if you can't get Packard Bell, you might as well get Seagate?

It would seem it's a shopping spree going on in the technology industry, and it's not just the Merdeka Sales here. Don't get trampled under the feet of the giants.

Sources : Information World (Acer) and The New York Times (Lenovo)

(It is not mentioned which China company plans to buy Seagate, but that's because the original name Lenovo has been edited and removed - perhaps for reasons unknown to us, but anyway, which other China company could it be?)

Today was pretty hectic as I kept running between the Game Developer Conference on the 2nd floor of the convention centre and the 6th floor, which housed the main showroom floor. Now that the Game Developer Conferences are over, I can now mainly concentrate on the showroom floor though I already have a fairly good impression of most of the games so far.

I managed to talk to the producers of EA's upcoming titles Burnout paradise and Battlefield: Bad Company earlier today, and was walked through the titles. Being a big fan of the Burnout series, I was a little concerned when I heard the news that they were planning to make it an 'open world' map and that most of the standard user interfaces and menu bar were gone.

After the demo, I'm happy to report that Burnout Paradise is shaping up to be a solid Burnout title in the series. The producer demonstrated how seamless it was to connect wirelessly to multiplayer without having to go out of the game, and how even when both players are at different locations in the city, they're still able to compete with each other through other performing a series of mini achievements (longest drift, racing traffic, etc). The graphics look sharp and crisp on the PS3 and the game runs at a smooth 60fps. Definitely a title to look out for when it comes out sometime later this year.  

The other EA title that I got to watch in action was Battlefield: Bad Company. Built on an entirely new engine called Frostbite, I wasn't so much impressed with Bad Company's graphics (looks amazing by the way) but more by its physics engine, especially with explosions and blast. In the demo, we were able to blast a hole in the wall of a house and enter through there and use it as cover. It's unscripted and totally dynamic, so it's quite possible to destroy an entire house if you have the ammo and weaponry. The same goes for the trees in the game, and anything that looks destructible. 

Bad Company also takes a cue from the Battlefield games in that how you want to complete a mission or map is entirely up to you as you may start off with your basic kit of weapons or enemy soldiers may carry useful weaponry that can aid you in your task. Speaking of enemy soldiers, while the demo didn't show that they had capable AI (the build is still very early in the works), they are able to destroy buildings as well, so if you're taking cover in a house and the enemy is using a tank, then your cover can easily be blown to bits in a matter of seconds.

Our demo tester willingly acknowledged the weaknesses of the previous Battlefield games on consoles since they were direct ports from PCs, which is why they decided to go with an entirely new engine from the ground up with Bad Company. With the game optimized for console controls, this should hopefully address the previous qualms that Battlefield fans had. He also didn't rule out a PC port of Bad Company in the future.

I don't normally pay much attention to the Battlefield series but now that Bad Company appears to have a decent single-player storyline, I'm willing to check it out. Plus I want to blow some stuff up too. 

Hurrah! It was a fine day for Malaysian gamers yesterday as the 2007 chapter of the World Cyber Games closed. For some, it was an eye-opener and a place to learn more skills. For others, it was a place to reunite with old friends and rivals. Like our CELgames this year, the competition in WCG '07 made us grit our teeth in anticipation, especially during the final matches on the stage. No matter what, congratulations to all the winners and may our flag fly high in Seattle!

More pics after the break!! 

I just recently came back from the MSI Media Tour 2007 in Shanghai, China so I apologise for the lack of updates on my side. While it isn't my first time visiting an assembly factory, it was for me for a notebook and motherboard assembly plant so watching its production unfolds was a terribly interesting endeavour. It's a pity we couldn't take any shots of our own, so all of the factory production shots that you'll see in the upcoming report for this trip are basically stock photos approved by MSI.

What I was surpised most of all was how much of the assembly work is still done manually by hand instead of by machine, judging by the hundreds of assembly workers at the factory. I had always thought that notebooks were always churned out by the dime by machines.