The Zone

While we were still lagging behind the rest of the world on our slower-than-slow internet connections, Hitachi has pulled off a big one - it has broke the 1TB hard drive space, which means that we can now fit that hidden stash of porn movies in our HTPCs!! hurrah!

more sauce here: Hitachi announces 1TB hard drives (opens in a new window)

One thing we spotted while browsing Engadget is their hands-on report of the Asus XG Station in the CES event in Las Vegas, which is basically an external video and audio processing "docking station". Once you connect it to your notebook via your ExpressCard slot, you no longer have to depend on the stock Intel GMA graphics chips to power your games. Apparently it managed to run 3DMark06 (default settings, we presume) quite nicely.

A few caveats: it's kinda big, and you'll need an external monitor to output the graphics. But if you're just gonna use it at home I guess that's okay; as long as it's a marked improvement over the standard Intel GMA graphics. We're still wondering what's the GPU powering the Asus XG Station... X1000 Radeon or a GeForce 7 card?

Read

Samsung seems raring to go after Canon and Nikon - they just launched their new range of Samsung NV digital cameras, which will be targeted towards mainstream consumers. Maybe it's me but they've a classic-retro camera look to them, especially the NV10 and its pop-up flash. They're very purty-looking though, and I wouldn't mind upgrading my old Canon IXUS 30.

Thing is, they've an interface with like a dozen tiny touch-sensitive buttons on the back, which I ain't too crazy about. Still, can't deny that they perform well and look sleek too. Anyway, here are a few more shots to whet your appetite. 

Hello guys, missed me? If you were wondering why I didn't blogged any entries for the week, it was because I was down in Korea for the HP regional PSG consumer launch. Lots of nifty stuff was on showcase, including their new HP TouchSmart PC and "Touch & Twist" TX-1000 notebook. I'll cover more on the event in the March issue of HWM Malaysia. Mucho thanks to my colleague kev for covering my share! I'll treat ya to yum cha one day. :D

What you see above is the free original DVD copies of Windows Vista Ultimate 32-bit and 64-bit edition that was given out to all the members of the media who attended the Microsoft Corporate Vista launch this morning at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre. Don't you just love the holographic imagery captured by our studio lights? Too bad this Vista is for office-use only. I wish they had given away free copies of Office 2007 though...I could really use it, heheheh...

Look forward to our March issue for more pictures and coverage of the Malaysian Vista launch! For now, here's some pictures of what went down this morning down at the KLCC. 

Windows Vista and Office 2007 was finally launched last weekend at LowYat Plaza in Malaysia and we were there to capture all of the excitement! We'll have a full report in the next issue of HWM so in the mean time, enjoy this batch of photos! :3

And its not the R600!!!!

Although we would like to call the R600 a monster, judging from all the spy shots that we see from Vr-zone (wasn't the whole issue under NDA? boo hoo) this Asus 8800GTX takes the cake for size - its not as long, but once installed, you can't SLI your whole setup! Unless, of course, you extend the tubings to make 'em fit outside the case.

Oh yeah, the cooler is OEM-ed from Thermaltake if anyone's asking. That gives us somewhat of a clue on its thermal dissipation performance. 

Normally we don't blog about the products that we're going to review for the magazine but this new Asus notebook that we just got for our test labs this month is worth mentioning. What's cool about it? It supports Windows Vista Sideshow, so there's a little lid on the top to quickly view little details and info like time, battery life, the current song playing and mini image slideshow. Pretty neat stuff. Read more to see a few more pics of the Windows Sideshow in action.

Olympus press conferences are always fun, especially if they've a product demo to go along with it. Today's launch of their new compact digital camera models saw a simple but effective demo of their new mju 770SW digital camera, which Olympus has touted as being not only waterproof to up to 10 metres but also freezeproof from -10 degrees Celcius, shockproof, and crushproof of up to 100kg! Click more to see pics of the demo!

Dopod has gone super mini with the launch of their u1000 mini notebook today. Not only is it a mini notebook, but it's also a mobile phone, GPS device, web browser, and digital camera! Outfitted with Windows Mobile 5.0, it's quite capable of handling presentation files and being a mobile office platform. Very handy. The QWERTY keyboard is even magnet-detachable for quick storage. 

We'll leave it to our Singaporean counterparts to explain more about the Dopod U1000, which was launched there last week. The Dopod U1000 will have a suggested retail price of RM4288 and is expected to retail around early March.

For all its worth, being at the cutting-edge of technology is a slow and excruciating torture process on your wallet and I for one, couldn't resist the hype around Windows Vista, since its so cool (that's my #1 reason) and my not-so-legit downloading machine at home is using an *ahem copy of XP (the #2, real world reason), so I bit the bullet, forked out the remainder of my ang-pow money and bought a full-fledged legit copy of Home Premium.

We're currently looking for graphic designers in Malaysia which have the following criteria - 

-           At least 1 year of working experience

-           Proficiency in handling the Mac and desktop publishing software such as Adobe InDesign, QuarkXPress, Illustrator, Photoshop is necessary

-           Self-motivated and independent

Email: fred@my.hardwaremag.com

Fax: (03) 7803 9172

We seriously had a fun time today poking about with the Samsung PPM63M6HBX, an upmarket coffee table that suspiciously looks like a plasma display. Of course, being a fine piece of furniture that it is, it cost us more than this table you can buy from a fine manufacturer somewhere in Indiana like the one above.  But then again, you can't possibly play chess on something like that, wouldn't you? its too boring, and too plain, eventhough it is hadmade by craftsmen. No, we're technocrats and we used this intead;

Fancy a game of chess on my plasma screen, anyone?

This is a shot with our other writer, FatCatLim, for size comparision 

From Aving.net, this television is the cumilation of a custom mod job at A1display.com, which makes full HD TVs to your flavour. What this means is that you can now stick it to the major corporations and have your own, affordable 32" Full HD LCD TV with three digital tuners and the like. What they don't advertise is the fact that you'll be getting cabinet designs like the one shown above, which isn't like the lovely Samsung Bordeaux designs, and the fact that the menu is only available in Korean. 

Warewarewa were lucky to be invited to the launch of Panasonic's Planet 1080p Full HD showcase which happened today, and got to see the wonders of HD and the processes used to bring you HD products, from the recording to the playback. Well, we were there superficially because we were more interested in the lovely girls who were nicely wrapped up in nicest kimonos we've seen.

Pretty, aren't they?

Actually, the plasma TV they're posing with is even more beautiful, but at a price tag of RM250000, a bosom of 36cm is still much more affordable. 

(more pics after the break) 

Hahaha, its time for you 'gamers' to show what you're made of....check out the reaction time tester, and see how well your training has come along (especially if you are a hardcore DOTA-er who loves changing directions within a few nanoseconds from each other)

Chek this out @ Iconinteractive.com and see how well you fared. That score is mine btw, and I'm an old fart.