January 28, 2010

HP has announced it has garnered 184 industry awards and accolades in the Asia-Pacific region in its fiscal year 2009 for imaging and printing products and software, further distinguishing HP as a leading printing provider for commercial, enterprise and graphic arts customers.

“HP continues its relentless focus to offer unparalleled business printing solutions and the past year’s recognition speaks of our commitment,” said Ivy Liang, VP Marketing, Imaging and Printing Group, Hewlett-Packard Asia Pacific. “We are pleased to have received a number of channel, graphics, SMB, Consumer and Editor’s Choice awards as these recognitions align with our strategy to provide our customers with the best quality and most reliable imaging and printing products.”

Leading global independent tester of imaging and printing products, Buyers Laboratory Inc. (BLI), evaluated a wide range of models through its battery of rigorous lab tests, evaluating key performance areas such as reliability, image quality, productivity, ease of use, and more.

“HP’s performance in the 2009 ‘Pick of the Year’ Awards from BLI emphasize HP’s strength in depth across a variety of categories,” said David Sweetnam, BLI’s International Lab and Research Manager.  “From Wide-Format devices through workgroup printers, HP continues to perform consistently well for image quality, productivity, reliability and energy efficiency.”

HP was the recipient of seven Buyers Laboratory, Inc.’s prestigious “Pick of the Year” accolades that were evaluated on key performance areas such as reliability, image quality, productivity, ease of use, and more:

• Outstanding Small Workgroup Monochrome Printer for energy efficiency, Fall 2009: HP LaserJet P2055dn
• Outstanding Small Workgroup Monochrome Printer, Fall 2009: HP LaserJet Enterprise P3015 Series
• Outstanding Mid-Size Workgroup Color Printer, Fall 2009: Color LaserJet CP4525 Series
• Outstanding Wide-Format Color Inkjet Multipurpose Printer, Fall 2009: HP Designjet T1200
• Outstanding Business Inkjet Printer, Spring 2009: HP Officejet Pro 8000 Wireless Printer
• Outstanding Business Inkjet Multifunction Printer, Spring 2009: HP Officejet Pro 8500 Premier All-In-One
• Outstanding Workgroup Scanner, Spring 2009: HP Scanjet 7000

HP continues to receive top honors and gain industry recognition, accredited to HP’s commitment to consistently innovate and provide customers with the strongest portfolio of printing services and solutions.

Samsung has unveiled the latest in mobile handset innovation, Samsung Jet, at a series of global launch events in London, Dubai and at Singapore during CommunicAsia2009 this week. This handset enjoys the benefits of both advanced features of a smartphone and the easy-to-use user interface of a conventional mobile phone.

With a tagline that declares ‘Smarter than a smartphone it supports the latest smartphone features including a multi-task manager and Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync which brings user-friendly menu navigations in a sleek and compact design.

It has the pioneering 3.1-inch WVGA AMOLED display which offers vivid and colorful full touch mobile experience; the WVGA AMOLED screen technology provides a resolution that is four times higher than a WQVGA screen. Its 800MHz application processor delivers optimum speed and stunning performance, making Jet the fastest touchscreen handset on the market today.

With its eye-catching brilliant screen, Samsung’s latest TouchWiz 2.0 user interface gives an unrivalled user experience and includes iconic new features such as motion UI, smart unlock, customizable widget screen, which are all perfect for managing your life at work and at play.

Samsung’s Dolfin Internet browser is designed to let users surf the net and access popular websites, especially social networking sites, with ease and speed. The browser enhances the mobile internet experience by allowing users to view up to five web pages simultaneously and bookmark their favourite Web sites as widgets on the phone’s homepage. A built in ad-blocker, multiple downloading and background downloading feature, and multi-purpose address field, further enhance the experience while

Dolfin’s unique one finger zoom enables users to zoom in and out of web pages using only one hand.

“Samsung Jet provides a seamless and unrivalled mobile experience as a result of our accumulated technology leadership and pursuit of perfect craftsmanship.” says JK Shin, executive VP and head of Samsung’s Mobile Communications division. “Our aim is to deliver ultimate satisfaction to our consumers and I believe that Samsung Jet answers the calls of today’s mobile users who want smart features and easy-to-use user interface. This product perfectly reflects our consumer oriented strategy.”

Unlike many smartphones that sacrifice features for form factor, Samsung Jet packs all of these into a sleek body and super cool frame. Samsung Jet also boasts a host of multimedia features including a five megapixel camera, built-in GPS, DNSe & SRS Sound Effect technology for superior sound quality, and DivX and XviD video support for hassel-free video downloading and viewing.

Specifications

CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia maintains its position as the largest and most comprehensive infocomm and media event in Asia, featuring 1,923 exhibiting companies from 60 countries and regions from across the globe this year, despite the uncertain economic climate.  Industry professionals from across the Asia Pacific will get to experience the latest technologies and most innovative solutions. The exhibitions span 58,000 square metres of show floor, the equivalent of almost 12 football fields.

The shows see strong participation from national and regional groups, with pavilions from Belgium, Brunei Darussalam and Vietnam on show in CommunicAsia2009 for the first time and a new Belgium pavilion in BroadcastAsia2009.  Together with stalwart groups from Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, UK and USA, there are a total of 34 group pavilions this year.

CommunicAsia remains the choice platform for product launches and announcements and international brands, including BlackBerry, Garmin ASUS, Globecast, Harmonic, Huawei, Intelsat, LG, NAVTEQ, Samsung, Yahoo! and ZTE will be making regional and worldwide launches at the show.  Within the iGov area, exhibitors such as Accenture, HP, IBM, Ministry of Finance Singapore, IDA and IDA International, NCS group and ST Electronics will showcase e-Government solutions such as healthcare, education, security, e-service delivery to citizens and businesses, and urban development.  Visitors can also look forward to exciting displays from market leaders like Conax, Canon, Digital Video Broadcasting, Fujinon, Google and Harris and Panasonic at BroadcastAsia.

Held concurrently with the exhibition, the four-day CommunicAsia2009 Summit focuses on infrastructure technologies and offers insights into how enterprises can leverage on them to increase profitability.  The Summit features a balance of business issues and technology topics and delegates can look forward to hearing from over 100 industry heavyweights.

A new inclusion this year is the Next Generation Broadband Forum which will discuss issues operators face as they seek to meet the increasing consumer demand for bandwidth connectivity.  One of the recent significant developments in the global broadband landscape is the emergence of national broadband networks as governments recognise the potential of infocomm technology as a driver of a country’s economic growth and competitiveness.

Also making a debut is Green Telecoms, which focuses on rolling out green networks and green data centres to achieve energy efficiency and improve business profitability.  Key industry topics in mobile and wireless technologies from HSPA to LTE to WiMAX will also be addressed, and the business challenges and opportunities explored.

At BroadcastAsia2009 International Conference, Obama presidential campaign’s external online director Scott Goodstein will speak on how his team effectively used interactive digital media such as mobile broadcasting and social networking communities to engage voters.  He will also discuss how industry players can bank on new media applications and create add-on opportunities to generate additional revenue streams for their broadcasting businesses.

The conference features a line-up of prominent industry speakers and professionals discussing the future of broadcasting, in areas of IPTV, New Media and Mobile Multimedia.  Delegates will also learn how forced reassessment and changes in the industry brought about by the downturn can be beneficial in the long run through more efficient and greener solutions.

CommunicAsia and BroadcastAsia as well as various inter-government meetings, are part of the Infocomm Media Business Exchange (imbX). imbX is Asia’s largest infocomm and media event, bringing together business leaders, industry professionals and thought leaders to showcase their latest innovations, network, exchange ideas and tap new markets opportunities.

Lenovo Philippines is offering a nationwide bundle promotion for their latest exceptionally engineered and stylish IdeaPad Y450 and Y650 notebooks.

From now to June 16, with every purchase of an IdeaPad Y450 or IdeaPad Y650 notebook, customers will receive a Samsonite backpack voucher.  The customer has to simply present the voucher to the official Lenovo consumer accessories distributor, GoldTech International, with a valid identification and proof of purchase to claim a free Samsonite backpack.

Designed for the way people live, work and play, the lightweight IdeaPad Y650 and Y450 consumer notebooks, sport shiny black exteriors with discreet copper accents. The Y650 has a 16-inch widescreen, while the Y450’s screen measures at 14 inches. Both weigh less than 3 kilograms.  They are equipped with 16:9 format glossy widescreen panels, optional latest generation NVIDIA GFX graphics for gaming and smooth HD video playback and Dolby Home Theater surround sound. Both the IdeaPad Y450 and Y650 come preloaded with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium.

The IdeaPad Y650 and IdeaPad Y450 are retailing for PhP82,995 and PhP47,500 respectively.

Filipino cable TV service provider SkyCable puts its viewers at the forefront of home entertainment innovation as it brings hi-def TV (HDTV) straight into the homes of subscribers. HDTV is the new standard in TV technology. Programs in HD format come to life through vivid colors and images coupled with optimized sound quality, providing subscribers with a totally spectacular viewing pleasure.

To enable more Filipinos to get a feel of HDTV, SkyCable partners with Sony Philippines and Abenson in introducing this revolutionary television experience. SkyCable’s HD content may now be viewed at selected Abenson outlets on Sony BRAVIA Full HD LCD TV sets. 

Abenson Alabang, located along Alabang-Zapote Road, will be featuring a live feed of SkyCable HD channels while content samplers from Discovery HD and History HD will be played on Sony Blu-ray players in Abenson Waltermart North EDSA, Eastwood, Greenhills, Shangri-La Mall, Glorietta 5, and Waltermart Makati.

Best viewed on LCD TV sets, HDTV first made its way to the Philippines when SkyCable presented the Ryder Cup Golf Tournament in 2008. Today, SkyCable offers two new exciting programs in HD for discriminating subscribers to enjoy, enabling them to fully maximize their investment on an LCD TV set. HDTV service is made possible through SkyCable’s efforts to upgrade up to 90% of its franchise areas into digital serviceable areas. This move further attests SkyCable’s commitment to bring only the best cable TV service to its growing subscriber base.

To subscribe and know more about SkyCable’s HDTV service, call the Customer Service Hotline at 631-0000 or log on to www.skycable.com. You may also send an SMS to (0917) 631-0000 or (0918) 863-1000.

SAN FRANCISCO - LG Electronics this spring will launch a series of broadband-enabled HDTVs that will stream movies, TV shows, and other high-definition content from Netflix, without the need for an external set-top box, the company has announced. LG and Netflix are demonstrating the new products this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The LG plasma and LCD sets will include software that allows users to access the Netflix Web site, where they can stream movies and other shows. After selected by a user, a movie will begin playing in as little as 30 seconds, the companies say. Pricing is fuzzy at this time, but some reports indicate that LG’s Internet-ready TVs will likely cost US$200 to $300 more than comparable sets without Web features. Subscriber fees for Netflix’ DVD rental service currently start at $9 a month.

LG already offers a Blu-ray disc player that streams Netflix movies, but today’s announcement is significant because no external device is required to access Web content. Many questions remain, however.

Will the new LG sets will be Wi-Fi-enabled? Wireless connectivity would be big plus for home users with Wi-Fi routers. And given the variation in broadband speeds and services, what will the Netflix streaming movies look like? Subscribers of low-end DSL services will certainly want to know.