Nokia has unveiled a new line up of converged devices and services that promote collaboration and sharing. The Nokia N96, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic and Nokia 6210 Navigator all exhibit different location based and multimedia experiences from pedestrian navigation to geotagging and movie viewing to video and photo sharing.

Nokia N96 is a multimedia computer truly optimized for video and TV. It comes with a large 2.8” screen, 16 gigabytes of internal memory and support for high-quality videos in a wide range of formats. Nokia N78 is a multimedia computer that combines music, navigation and photography with the benefits of mobility.

The Nokia 6220 classic is a full-featured device that combines a 5 megapixel camera with A-GPS functionality to give new meaning to the phrase “to share”. Finally the Nokia 6210 Navigator is the company’s first GPS-enabled mobile device with an integrated compass for pedestrian guidance. The Nokia 6210 Navigator comes with Nokia Maps 2.0, also announced today, and includes full voice and visual turn by turn guidance at no extra cost.

The N96, 6220 Classic and 6220 Navigator are expected to ship during the 3rd quarter of this year while the N78 is expected to ship sometime in the 2nd quarter. Stay tuned for pricing and availability once they come out.

Nvidia has released the NVIDIA APX 2500, an applications processor that enables intuitive 3D user interfaces and engaging high-definition video on connected Windows Mobile phones. The APX 2500 applications processor delivers 10 hours of 720p HD playback—an industry first for video quality and power consumption on a mobile device, as well as stunning HD camcorder and ultra-high-resolution photo imaging capabilities.

"This is the dawn of the second personal computer revolution," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of NVIDIA. "Technologies are converging in amazing mobile devices, that have all of the rich, visual capabilities of a modern PC—from watching movies and making video calls to surfing the web and playing 3D games. The APX 2500 combined with Microsoft Windows Mobile, will make the next generation of smartphones our most personal computer." 

NVIDIA has worked closely with Microsoft on the development of APX 2500, marking a significant milestone in a long-term relationship that has seen the companies share a passion for making interaction with technology more visual and instinctive across multiple platforms. The combined engineering efforts of the two companies will ensure that next generation versions of the Windows Mobile operating system will harness the capabilities of the APX 2500 applications processor across challenging multimedia use cases. 

Read on for more info. 

Apple has announced that the MacBook Air, which is purportedly the world’s thinnest notebook, is now shipping. MacBook Air measures at 0.16-inches at its thinnest point, while its maximum height of 0.76-inches is less than the thinnest point on competing notebooks.

MacBook Air has a 13.3-inch LED-backlit widescreen display, a full-size and backlit keyboard, a built-in iSight video camera for video conferencing, and a spacious trackpad with multi-touch gesture support so users can pinch, rotate and swipe. MacBook Air is powered by a 1.6 GHz or 1.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor with 4MB L2 cache, and includes as standard features 2GB of memory, an 80GB 1.8-inch hard drive, and the latest 802.11n Wi-Fi technology and Bluetooth 2.1. 

We’ve built the world’s thinnest notebook—without sacrificing a full-size keyboard or a full-size 13-inch display,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “When you first see MacBook Air, it’s hard to believe it’s a high-performance notebook with a full-size keyboard and display. But it is.”

Although the official availability of the MacBook Air in Malaysia isn't until sometime at the end of this month, that doesn't mean you can't do an early booking for it. So stay tuned for the availablity and pricing of the MacBoook air. Meanwhile you can read on for the specifications of the MacBook Air.

Apple has added new models of the iPhone and iPod touch which have double the memory, doubling the amount of music, photos and videos that customers can carry with them wherever they go. The iPhone now comes in a new 16GB model while the iPod Touch comes in a 32GB model now.

“For some users, there’s never enough memory,” said Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of Worldwide iPod and iPhone Product Marketing. “Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world.” 

The Apple iPhone is still obviously not available officially here in Malaysia but you could always drop by Low Yat Plaza for the parallel imports. As for the 32GB iPod Touch, stay tuned for the local pricing. 

Microsoft has made available the release to manufacturing (RTM) of Windows Server 2008. Windows Server 2008 automates daily management tasks, tightening security, improving efficiency and increasing availability. It also offers virtualisation solutions that will enable IT professionals to reduce costs, increase hardware utilization, optimize their infrastructure, and improve server availability.

Windows Server 2008 was developed in tandem with the Windows Vista code base. As such it has most of that operating system’s advanced management and security features, such as integrated Network Access Protection (NAP) and Group Policy enforcement using Active Directory.

According to Microsoft, customers will also see system-wide performance improvements from an integrated system architecture, including network file sharing, managed quality of service and reduced power consumption. Common tools and processes across both operating systems will result in efficiencies for IT organizations. 

Read on for more info. 

Dell has launched Dell ProSupport, a global, customer-driven support offering that spans Dell’s commercial product and solutions portfolios. Dell has distilled more than 10 service offerings down to two customisable packages with flexible options for service level and proactive management. With this service,  Dell customers can customize and tailor services to fit their technical expertise.

“Our customers and partners asked us to break the mold of 'one size fits all' reactive support to help them meet the needs of increasingly diverse, global, and mission critical IT operations,” said Steve Schuckenbrock, president, Global Services, and CIO, Dell. “Dell listened and acted. ProSupport delivers important new features and capabilities that make it easier to get the right support package at the right time in the right way. ProSupport is an important step forward in enabling our customers and partners to tap into a world-class service delivery capability that end-users need—and toward Dell’s broader vision to simplify IT.” 

Dell ProSupport is available immediately to Dell Registered Partners, corporate and small- and medium-size businesses and public organizations. To learn more about Dell ProSupport, please visit www.dell.com/prosupport.

Read on for more info.

Sony Ericsson has unveiled its new Z555 phone, an elegant clamshell phone which combines a rich feature set with striking good looks. It’s a perfect match of the latest feature set with an innovative diamond design, intended to make one big style statement. Together with the Z555, Sony Ericsson announced a series of stylish new accessories including a Design Collection of four leather bags all offering unique and creative carrying solutions.

“The Z555 is designed to reflect your look and attract attention,” said Sven Totte, Head of Style Marketing at Sony Ericsson. “We’ve created it for people who are looking for a beautifully designed phone that reflects their personal style and does not compromise on features or performance.” 

The Sony Ericsson Z555 will be available in Malaysian sometime in March or April so stay tuned for price updates and availability. 

For more info on the phone read on. 

Asus has unveiled the latest generation of AMD GPUs – the world´s first on-board dual RV670XT, with the ASUS EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G and EAH3870X2/G/HTDI/1G. The EAH3870X2/G/3DHTI/1G comes equipped with the fastest upgraded DRR3 0.8ns memory modules and two exclusive extra DVI outputs. It also comes specially designed with dual fansinks for both GPUs – ensuring efficient heat dissipation. On top of all this, the ASUS EAH3870X2 Series will also come bundled with the DX10 game, Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts.

Local pricing and availability has yet to be made known but we will update as soon as they become available. Read on for more info. 

Yep pretty soon, your mobile phone cameras might rival that of you normal point and shoot cameras with this latest development. Kodak has combined their Color Filter Pattern technology with a new CMOS pixel to create the KODAK KAC-05020 Image Sensor, the world’s first 1.4 micron, 5 megapixel device. Designed for mass-consumer camera applications such as mobile phones, Kodak’s new sensor enables a new level of resolution in small optical formats, using significantly smaller pixels.

But unlike other small-pixel sensors which can produce poor images, especially under low light conditions, the 1.4 micron pixel used in the KAC-05020 Image Sensor changes this convention, providing image quality that can equal or surpass what is available from current devices using larger, 1.75 micron pixel CMOS designs. 

“Camera phones and other small-pixel consumer imaging devices often suffer from poor performance, especially under low light conditions. To manufacture sensors that utilize these very small pixels – only two to three times the wavelength of visible light – we needed to challenge everything we knew about pixel and sensor design,” said Chris McNiffe, General Manager of Kodak’s Image Sensor Solutions business. “By completely rethinking the design of the CMOS pixel and leveraging our work with high sensitivity color filter patterns and algorithms, Kodak was able to develop this remarkable new sensor that will enable a level of imaging performance previously unavailable from CMOS devices.” 

Read on for more. 

Recently in CES, Sony Ericsson unveiled two new Walkman phones, the W760, what they call the first truly global Walkman phone with tri-band HSDPA and built-in GPS, and the W350, a Walkman phone that Sony Ericsson says offers the perfect blend of style and function. 

The W760's built-in GPS with Wayfinder Navigator1) lets you search over 20 million points of interest around the globe and talks you to your destination every turn of the way. There’s also a GPS-supported fitness application called Tracker that can tell you how fast, for how long and how far you ran. 

The W350’s Walkman player can easily be accessed and operated even without opening its flip cover. With Walkman on Top, key MP3 functions including Play, Pause and Scroll are outside the phone’s flip cover so you can use it just like you would a standalone MP3 player. 

The new Walkman phone have yet to arrive in Malaysia and are expected to be launched here sometime around March or April so stay tuned for more updates. 

Read on for more on the phones.

Well the official N-Gage client hasn't been launched yet but the First Access Preview Service has. The service has a whole set of social gaming tools like chat and such (sorta like the Steam client). The only thing is the client is so far limited to the N81s only so if you're an N81 user, you'll be getting a really small social circle and limited game demos.

Of course Nokia says that the service will evolve as it  draws near to the full scale release of the N-Gage client so don't fret and be happy that you get to play around with some new service from Nokia before the official launch. The data on the service will be reseted once it is officially launched so don't be attached to your high scores too much.

News via Allaboutsymbian.com 

MSI has unveiled its latest 55nm – ATI R3870X2, R3600, and R3400 series graphics car using the latest Radeon HD 3000 series chip.The MSI ATI R870X2 was recently launched by AMD designed for ultimate gaming while the R3600 series is a mainstream graphics card and the R3400 series is a more basic card based on the R3600's architecture.

MSI offers an exclusive image quality enhancement technology, Vivid, for MSI ATI series graphics cards products. Users can easily adjust the screen display setting. Whatever you do – browsing photos, surfing websites, or playing games, it will help you adjust to the best visual quality.

"The new ATI Radeon HD 3600 family core has 256 bit ring-bus memory control capabilities, with high-speed GDDR3 512MB, and other ultra-realistic graphics memory particles, and efficiency is superior to the same price competitors products. This mid-range product gives user adequate multilateral geometry, color rendering, and high-speed image pixels, and other computing support, it can be said that this product has all the cost-effective advantages," said Vincent Lai, MSI Global Marketing Director. 

 Read on for more info.

Following the successful meet-up cum photography gathering at Zoo Negara, LYN's eager bunch of photography enthusiastically gathered again the following weekend at KL Bird Park for more pictures. 

A photographer at work...

Read on for more choice pictures.  As always, visit the forums for information on future gatherings and to share your picture gallery! 

Remember Palm? Yeah that handheld company that used to make one of the hottest PDAs in the world. Well most of you might give Palm devices a miss this days considering that Palm OS has more or less died. However Palm has in recent times decided to use of all thing the Windows Mobile operating system, and to be honest, the Windows Mobile based Palms aren't that bad.

So when I got my hands on the Palm Treo 500v, I thought that maybe moving to Windows Mobile isn't such a bad idea for Palm at all. So read on to see what I thought about the Palm Treo 500v.