Microsoft, Mizz Nina and Noh Share Passion for Tech in Passion8 Project

Mizz Nina and husband Noh Salleh of Hujan, performing his latest single, "Pelangi dan Kau"

Today marked the completion of a creative collaboration between Malaysian celebrities Mohd. Noh Salleh and wife Mizz Nina with Microsoft. The collaboration, known as the Passion8 project, saw Mizz Nina using Windows 8 and a number of its applications to find inspiration for a new piece in her ‘Mizz Demeanor’ fashion line, while husband Noh created a new song titled “Pelangi dan Kau”.

Apart from being a collaboration between both artists and Microsoft, the Passion8 project was also a journey for Mizz Nina and Noh. This journey took the two to places like Sarawak to find inspiration for their respective projects, and was aired on 8TV over the course of eight weeks.

Hands-on with Lenovo ThinkPad Helix

At CES 2013, Lenovo is showing off its ThinkPad Helix, a 11.6-inch, full HD 1920 x 1080 pixel resolution, Windows 8, touchscreen hybrid PC. Similar to Microsoft's Surface Pro and Samsung's ATIV Pro hybrid PCs, the Helix utilizes a keyboard docking station to transform between tablet and notebook form factors. What separates the Helix from Microsoft and Samsung's machines is its enterprise security features (in the form of Intel's vPro technology and a fingerprint scanner), as well as a third 'Stand Mode' form factor, thanks to a clever reverse docking system, designed for media consumption or business presentations.

The Lenovo ThinkPad Helix is the first hybrid PC designed specifically for enterprise-use and is touted to be the "thinnest full-function Intel 3rd generation Core tablet with vPro"

Lenovo Announces K900, First Intel Clover Trail+ Smartphone at CES 2013

While most phone makers shy away from competing with Samsung and its GALAXY Note II in the 5.5-inch category, Lenovo takes the fight to the Korean company with its latest flagship smartphone, the K900.

Image source: Lenovo

Announced at CES 2013, the Lenovo K900 is the world's first 5.5-inch Full HD smartphone. In comparison, the GALAXY Note II has a 5.5-inch 720p display. Lenovo opts for an IPS display reinforced with Gorilla Glass 2 on the K900, while the GALAXY Note II comes with a HD Super AMOLED screen, 

LG Shows Off 2013 Google TV Lineup

 

LG Shows Off 2013 Google TV Lineup

From the barrage of TVs launched by LG, seven of them are from their Google TV lineup. We first saw LG step into this scene in a big way in last year’s CES and this time round, they’ve updated it in several ways such as being powered by a dual-core CPU for fast menu navigation and web browsing, a new Magic QWERTY Remote to better tackle web content, incorporating PrimeTime quick guide to help discover content anywhere, SmartShare functionality (no NFC support though), a much slimmer bezel and more models supporting a 240Hz refresh rate. All of these aspects come together to improve the Google TV usage experience.

Hands-on with Polaroid iM1836 Interchangeable Lens Android Camera

On first impressions, the 18-megapixel Polaroid iM1836 bears much resemblance to the Nikon 1 J1/J2 cameras. Its sleek aluminium body makes for compact and casual shooting but we were hoping to see a small grip somewhere.

As expected of rumors in December, Polaroid shows off its first Android-based interchangeable lens camera. Now, Android-based cameras aren't new - Samsung has its relatively new Android 4.1 Samsung GALAXY Camera, Nikon has the Android Coolpix S800C and so on. The difference with these cameras and Polaroid's iM1836 is that those are primarily high-end to low-end compacts whereas the iM1836 is essentially a mirrorless camera (think DSLR-like picture quality on a compact's body) with a proprietary sensor size that's "smaller than the Micro Four Thirds", according to a Polaroid spokesperson at CES.

This isn't an unusual move - Nikon and Canon's mirrorless cameras have sensor sizes that are different from the standard MFT's. What's unusual however is Polaroid's decision to keep the sensors in the lens unit instead, ala what Ricoh did for its GXR camera. While we question the decision to do that, thankfully Polaroid has mentioned that the camera will be made compatible with any MFT lens provided you have the optional adapter.

LG Reveals World's First Curved 3D OLED TV

 

Just as we thought we've seen it all from LG, soon after the CES 2013 show commenced, LG pulled out its showstopper - a curved 55-inch OLED TV. Christened as the EA9800, it's not just a tech demo as it will be available in retail in the later part of 2013.

It’s no secret that OLED panel yields are quite poor at the moment, but LG’s spokespeople have mentioned that their WRGB quad-color pixel structure has better yields than current industry norms and delivers better color accuracy and vibrancy at the same time. This is the reason LG has been able to take in orders for their OLED TVs and start delivering them by March 2013. So with OLED TV availability milestone almost accomplished, LG went full steam ahead to showcase the next evolution of this technology with a curved screen display.

The EA9800 is currently designed with a 55-inch and boasts of an ultra thin 4mm thickness, while the boarders are almost non existent to provide users with a more immersive viewing experience. Its gently inward curving design ensures that the angle of curvature does not distract from your viewing experience and reducing screen edge distortion/detail loss aspects you might have with a traditional large screen flat panel display.

Samsung Divulge Details on Eight-Core Exynos 5 Octa Mobile Processor

Hot on the heels of NVIDIA's Tegra 4 and Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800/600 announcements come Samsung's own next-gen Exynos 5 Octa unveiling. The mobile processor will be the first to implement the ARM big.LITTLE processing technology based on the Cortex-A15 CPU. Dr. Stephen Woo, President of System LSI Business, Device Solutions Division, Samsung Electronics described it as a pumped up combination of existing Exynos 5 Dual and Exynos 4 Quad chips - of which the former is found in Nexus 10 and the later, in Samsung GALAXY S III and Note II. 

The key message here is about energy saving despite the enhanced power. Like the Tegra 3 chip, the Exynos 5 Octa activates necessary cores depending on the level of your workloads - there's a total of four powerful Cortex-A15 processors to handle processing-intense tasks along with four additional Cortex-A7 cores for lighter workloads. Samsung promises that the processor will be up to 70 percent higher energy efficiency compared to its previous quad-core chips.