The Zone

In an announcement that took quite a lot of people by surprise, Microsoft has released Surface, its first "surface computer". In layman terms, the Surface is akin to a 30-inch touchscreen. But according to the official press release, its of course much more than that.

The Surface is sort of like a collaborative tool where multiple users can interact and work on the same platform. Imagine you and your team are trying to prepare a pitch for a multimillion dollar deal that's going to go down tomorrow. Instead of normally sitting in the conference room and jotting down notes on the white board or your notebook, you guys can sit around the Surface and simultaneously work on the presentation. 

The Surface accepts multiple inputs at once unlike conventional touchscreens. additionally, it even accepts inputs from objects where they can trigger a response like digital content transfer. The OS for the Surface is a customized version of Windows Vista and connectivity options include Ethernet, wireless 802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.0.

Full details here.

Check this out - electronic paper has been in development for sometime now and has created certain solutions, like electronic ink used in the Motorola MotoFone.

However, offering color on e-paper, and even better, moving images to create video - has yet to be shown - until now!  We found Sony has revealed its razor-thin display which can bend like a paper and show full-color video to boot!

Kyosho has recently released a tiny robot dubbed the PF-01 that has over 17 motors, several sensor mounts, and the ability to be programmed with your evil bidding which looks delectably like Astro Boy from the iconic anime series. The only problem is that it comes unassembled and there's no programming out of the box, but that's good news for people who want to experience the joy of bringing their robot child toy to life! We also hope that someone makes a Gundam bodykit for this :D

The PF-01 is the one on the left 

More often than not, Taiwanese products are acknowledged as "affordable and bang-for-the-buck" alternatives in the world of IT, though sometimes their "design philosphopies" are rather questionable. Case in point, the Amigo R622AG Wi-Fi Router spotted at the recently concluded Computex Fair in Taipei, Taiwan. Looks familiar, doesn't it? 

Well, you don't get a prize if you guessed that it looked like Microsoft's Xbox 360 console. If Microsoft didn't come up with the Xbox 360 first, we'd say that this router looks dashing and rather sleek, although we're not so sure about the, uhm, large Xbox-ish size.

Like most Wi-Fi routers nowadays, the Amigo R622AG supports 802.11a/b/g and has four Ethernet ports for wired connections. It also has an additional two USB ports for connecting USB devices to the network. If you need to boost the range of the wireless connectivity, you can even stick a high-gain antennae on the back as well.

If you're interested in one, too bad. It's not on sale in Malaysia, yet. From the official website, www.amigo.com.tw, we think it's probably only available in Taiwan and the US for now.  

One question. If the thing breaks down, will it get the dreaded 3 Red Rings of Death just like the Xbox 360 too?

I shudder to think what the Computex 2007 mascots actually are, especially with the giant arrows pointing to their crotches. Click the jump for more pics.

Proton moving out of the car business and into displays instead? Nah. Just a HD  TVs manufacturing company sharing the same name...though the logo design looks suspiciously similar to the older Malaysian Proton logo. 

(And for anyone thinking that they're a new company ripping off Proton's name, they claim they were established in 1982)

Click the jump for more pics!

Pretec's novelty USB flash drives engineering samples look yummy enough to gobble up. More pictures of the 3rd and final day of our trip to Computex 2007 after the jump.

Just a friendly reminder that tomorrow will see the start of Transformers RobotCon 2007. What's Transformers RobotCon 2007? Well if you love  the Transformers toys, cartoon, games and (soon-to-be-released) movie, you can't afford to miss out on this mega Transformer event at Cineleisure Damansara tomorrow. Autobots, roll out!

Where do robots go if they're naughty? To the Robotarium of course! This art installation was built by artist Leonel Moura, and it's creepy enough for us; remember how robots came to rebel when they were mocked at for centuries in the Matrix?

In other news, the iPhone will not have MP3s as its ringtones, stereo Bluetooth (no A2DP) video recording, MMS, voice recognition, games, no IM (meaning no Adium) and best part - no flash games. Making it worse is that there might be firmware upgrades that will unlock phone features - at a price. Apple, what gives? 

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!

Notebooks that you can actually game on? Asus says 'Why not?' and promptly came out with the Asus G1 and G2 notebooks. Now Asus has come up with a refresh of the G1 notebook series, the G1S, which comes with spanking new NVIDIA 8600M GT discrete graphics.

Starting prices? RM6988 for the 15.4" while the 17" model goes for a cool RM7988. Expensive? Terribly so. Highly desirable? Oh yes indeed. Click the jump for more wanton pics of the new G1S notebook in the flesh, along with Asus' Ultra Mobile U1F notebook and the oh-so-sexy Asus Lamborghini VX2.

Thanks to English Russia, we now get to see how GPS devices in the wild wilderness of the Siberian plains look - like blocks of armor that fell from a tank while navigating the battlefield!

A face only a mother could love..... 

(Read) 

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!

The topic to dominate most gaming blogs is undoubtedly the latest E3 2007 event. What used to be a carnival-like affair has been scaled down dramatically. While we're a bit disappointed of not being able to go, at least several online gaming sites have been doing a pretty good job in covering the event. Here are quick highlights of E3 2007 so far:

Nintendo

- WiiFit for health concious. I wouldn't mind picking this up once I get my Wii at the end of the year. However Nintendo says that it's unlikely it will be released for the American market this year, so that's kind of a disappointment.

- Super Mario Galaxy (November 12th) and Super Smash Bros (December 3rd) can't come soon enough. 

- Mario Kart Online is also gonna be neat but frankly speaking, that Wii Wheel just look like blah. Looks like one of those cheap third-party Wii peripherals you can find in some local game shop. Same goes for the Wii Zapper.

Sony

- The real Killzone 2 trailer actually looks pretty decent. While it doesn't top the E3 2006 trailer that got everyone so excited, it comes pretty close.

- The new redesigned PSP Slim is a letdown. Sure it may be slimmer and theoretically better on game loading time, but c'mon: it looks like the old PSP! It's like when they announce the new Sixaxis controller back last year. Total snoozefest.

- Cheaper PS3 by US$100. Yeah, everyone knows this already. So am I gonna buy one? Nope - it's still too expensive, and there aren't any games for it at the moment that I'm looking forward too. Assassin's Creed is coming out for the Xbox 360. The same goes for Silent Hill V. Tell me again why I want a PS3?

- Konami reassures Sony fanboys that MGS4 will still be for the PS3 but you never know with Time Exclusives...

Xbox 360

- Halo Edition Olive Green Xbox 360. Ho hum, pass the salt. One interesting note is that although it has a 20GB HDD, it will apparently also sport an HDMI port. Is a 20GB Xbox 360 with an HDMI port in the works?

- Halo 3, and Halo Wars. Interesting, but I'm not too big a fan of the Halo series. Maybe I'll see what the fuss is all about once I finish the first Halo game.

- Resident Evil 5, yes! Great to see the ubiquitous survival-horror game for the Xbox 360. HD Zombies, here I come! :D

Other stuff

- Crysis looks like sex with its graphics and physics engine but unless you have a pimp rig, it's going to be a long time since I'll actually get to play this game. Maybe I can start abusing our uber test reference system... :p

- Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 will be my chosen music games of the year. Don't know if I'll ever pick up the new DDR game: home console dance mats still mostly suck. Although Rock Band for the Xbox 360 is a given for me, I'm undecided as to which GH3 version should I get. Xbox 360, PS2, or the Wii? If they're all the same, I might as well get the Xbox 360.  

- Burnout Paradise without real-time lighting and weather effects is a bit disappointing. Will this be the same for the Xbox 360? *sigh* Well, the previous Burnout games had pretty much only one type of weather, so I guess I'm not too bummed over this.

What's your most anticipated E3 2007 game news? 

For the August issue of HWM, we'll be reviewing two polar opposites of the standard notebook. One is the Toshiba Qosmio G40, a desktop replacement notebook that's absolutely ginormous in multimedia entertainment. The other is the petite Fujitsu U1010 UMPC, which is the smallest tablet PC we've ever reviewed. Click the jump for a preview of the two notebooks that we'll writing about next month!