The Zone

Well, I'm finally back from Shanghai and not surprisingly I find myself surrounded with work that has piled up since I was away. First on my agenda is the 2nd part of the Haier media trip that took place last month. Check out more photos (17 of them, to be exact) of the Haier showroom and surroundings after the jump. 

Class and sophistication in a notebook? Why not, says Acer. Check out these pictures of their recent launch after the jump.

How much are you willing to pay for the ultimate PlayStation collection, which includes nearly all games on the list as well as rare games, prototypes,  controllers, and consoles? RM1000? RM10,000? Try RM100,000. That's the asking price (USD30,000) for what looks to be the biggest PlayStation aunction ever on eBay. And shipping is free! But only in the US. International buyers will need to pay half of the shipping costs. And good luck explaining to Malaysian customs. 

But still, wouldn't it be cool beans to own a houseful of PlayStation games? At least it should make for some interesting dinner conversation to your guests when they come over to jealously eye your collection. ;)

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How rugged is the Corsair Survivor flash memory? Very rugged, according to one tech website that made it went through a torture test from hell. Not only did they submerge it in a swimming pool, they boiled it in a pot of water and whacked it with a hammer. And the Corsair Survivor still performed fine. Now that's a real Survivor. Price? USD 80 - 150 for an 8GB drive. Expensive, but when you need to transfer files at the top of Mount Everest, I guess it would come in handy. 

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As part of our efforts to revamp the current Hardware Zone Malaysia forums, we'll be doing some major spring cleaning. In the coming weeks, several non-performing forums will be consolidated to a single forum, and really old threads will be deleted. If there's any particular thread of interest that you haven't read or saved yet, we suggest doing so now!

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.

Maxis Hotlink just launched their latest mass multiplayer mobile card trading game, Master of Maya! Hotlink and Maxis customers will be one of the first consumers worldwide to enjoy the game and it's already available! The card game is steeped in Mayan culture, which explains why the lovely ladies above are dressed in such garb. :3 Click the jump for more pictures of the event.  

If you happen to be in the US anytime soon, mark 29th June down on your calendar because that's when the much anticipated Apple iPhone is going to debut. After tons of rumors and debates, the latest iPhone commercial that aired on US televisions recently confirmed the magic date that it will drop. 

If you're seriously thinking of getting one though, good luck. The iPhone is obviously just gonna fly off the shelves. Trust us on this. Unless you're willing to stand in the long lines or pay premium moolah for one, you can forget about getting one for yourself anytime soon.    

Go here to view the ad in full.  

(Ignore the "new" word. These are not the new iMacs) 

Rumors are abound that Apple's annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) from 11th to 15th June will see the long awaited debut of the new iMacs. Some say that we'll see them fitted with the new Santa Rosa chipset and receive a brushed aluminum treatment (not unlike the G5s).

Some even say that they will sport a "new industrial design that will leave onlookers and competitors smitten." But on the other hand,  the same source is reporting that it could be just wishful thinking. They don't believe that Apple will introduce a new iMac during the WWDC. Instead, the event will focus more on the upcoming OS X Leopard and third party development on the iPhone.

Well, if the new iMac is a no show, at least you guys still have the new Santa Rosa MacBook Pro to cheer about. Coming with faster Core 2 Duos (2.2GHz - 15" 1440x900 LED, 2.4GHz - 15" 1440x900 LED and 2.4GHz 17" 1680x1050 LCD) and more RAM, they are the among the fastest Intel-based notebooks anyone can have (see here and here). By the way, the 15-inchers are using the new mercury-free and power-saving LED-backlit displays.  

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.

You can now get rid of the Safari skin you got on your IE or Firefox because Apple just released the public Beta of Safari 3. Like any decent web browser today, it sports features like tabbed browsing, pop-up blocker, RSS and tougher security features. But Apple being Apple, there has to something inherently better with Safari than any other web browsers out there. And Apple's salvo is that it claims that Safari is "blazing fast" with HTML and JavaScript pages. Firefox 2, Opera 9 and IE 7 can't be even close enough to smell the trail of dust it leaves behind (okay, we might be exagerrating a little but you get the idea).

Don't just take our word for it. Go download it now from here and take it for a test drive. We're downloading ours as we type.

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!