Sony PlayStation3 Available Next Week In Malaysia

Sony Malaysia is appointed by Sony Computer Entertainment Hong Kong Limited (SCEH) to announce the arrival of the much awaited PLAYSTATION®3 (PS3™) with its launch scheduled on 20th September 2008 at One Utama Shopping Centre, Petaling Jaya. The PS3™ launch is an event that is sure to take the Malaysian gaming fans by storm, with its new bigger and better capacity of 80GB, fabulous launch package you don’t want to miss, fun activities to keep the adrenaline pumping and lots of exciting PS3™ games to satisfy your gaming hunger.

In conjunction with the launch of the much awaited PS3™, Sony Malaysia, for the very first time, is organising a PS3™ game challenge marathon – “Longest Video Game Marathon”. The game marathon is an attempt to achieve recognition in The Malaysia Book of Records, as the longest gaming competition in the country. This game challenge will kick-start on 19th September and continue through to 20th September.

In addition to that, there will be special launch package that is sure to wow the avid fans of PS3™. For the first 120 early birds at PS3™ booth at the launch on 20th September, they will get to purchase PS3™ at a special package of RM 1,799 that comes with 1 unit 80GB PS3™, the latest Soul Calibur IV™ game software, plus one optional selected PS3™ game . All these come with a custom made PS3™ tote bag and Soul Calibur IV™ CD holder. There’s cash voucher giveaways worth from RM150 to RM1,000 for the 120 early birds who purchase the special launch package. The stand-alone price of PS3™ is RM 1,599. Besides PS3™ launch and roadshow, PS3™ will be available at all Sony Style outlets and selected Sony Centre outlets from 20th September onwards.

To add sizzles to the event, there will also be a Game Girls Competition of which the winner at this competition will get a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent Malaysia at the Asia Game Show, better known as AGS, in Hong Kong for the final competition from 19th to 22nd December 2008.

Other activities during the event also include exciting PS3™ product highlights, interactive games activities, and special packages up for grabs. “We expect to receive good response from our PLAYSTATION®3 special launch package. The new PS3™ has bigger capacity with 80GB HDD and the special launch package comes with the latest Soul Calibur IV game and one optional selected PS3™ game at affordable price”, said Mr. Taku Taguchi, General Manager for Product Marketing Division in Sony Malaysia. There will be a roadshow on both 19th and 20th September for customers to feel it for themselves the latest PS3™.

Get set for the bigger capacity PS3™, coming your way this September. Don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy the mouth-watering special launch package, only for the first 120 customers at the launch!

National Council for the Blind, Malaysia and Microsoft Malaysia To Introduce The ‘Save As DAISY XML’ Add-in For Microsoft Word

The National Council for the Blind, Malaysia (NCBM) presented a new software feature that will allow anyone to create documents with content that can be accessible by Malaysians with assistive needs including the blind, visually impaired or physically challenged. The function known as the ‘Save As DAISY XML’ add-in, designed for Microsoft Word 2007, Word 2003 and Word XP, will allow users to save Open XML-based text files into DAISY XML – the foundation of the globally accepted DAISY standard for reading and publishing navigable multimedia content.

Dato’ S. Kulasegaran, President of NCBM, shared that “In recent decades, individuals with assistive needs have increasingly accessed information using a wide variety of assistive technologies such as screen readers, large print, refreshable Braille and text-to-speech synthesizers”. As it was not possible to navigate complex page layouts, they often struggle to keep up with the demands of today’s increasingly information-dependent society. The ‘Save As DAISY XML’ makes it possible to navigate quickly through a document by heading or page number as well as the use of indices and references. The add-in not only provides access to an unprecedented amount of data and documents that was previously unavailable but also provides the ease of finding information needed within those documents.

“The new ‘Save As DAISY XML’ functionality for Microsoft Word has the potential to break down barriers for individuals with assistive needs and enhance the experience for anyone who wants to read, not only materials created locally but also on a global level,” added Dr. Dzahar Mansor, Microsoft Malaysia’s National Technology Officer.

Microsoft’s initiative to put ‘Save As DAISY XML’ in Microsoft Word is the first step to bring fully accessible content to people with assistive needs. With much of the information on documents today being created with Microsoft Word – the new add-in provides a historic leap forward in the nationwide effort to make information available to all. The effort is part of Microsoft’s Unlimited Potential initiative to help bridge the digital divide by creating more programmes that will help the community, transform education and support partnerships through technology.

Today, about 600 visually impaired people in the country use Microsoft Word and will be able to experience immediate benefits from this feature. Dr. Dzahar shared that “because Microsoft Word is a commonly used tool, this add-in allows for content creators in different fields to produce accessible digital material by and for Malaysians, especially individuals with assistive needs.”

The ‘Save As DAISY XML’ tool also presents the opportunity for organisations and independent software vendors to explore ways in which the technology may be used to format their information to be accessed by people with assistive needs. Organisations in the fields of insurance and healthcare or those who publish training manuals will also be able to make their information accessible to Malaysians with different needs.
Kulasegaran added “There have been specific challenges that universities and public institutions face in providing books and materials for those who cannot read. Functionalities like the new ‘Save As DAISY XML’ feature within Microsoft Word can reduce the expense and increase the ease of delivering accessible content to Malaysians who require it.”

The event also included a demonstration on the usage of the ‘Save As DAISY XML’ feature by Moses Choo, Assistant Executive Director of Blind Professional Assistance Service (BPAS), a section of the NCBM.

For more information on the ‘Save as DAISY XML’ tool, please visit the NCBM website on www.ncbm.org.my.

HTC Touch Pro Bridges Mobile Work with Mobile Play

HTC Corp, a global leader in mobile phone innovation and design, today unveiled its advanced next generation business phone, the HTC Touch Pro™. Bringing a beautiful new angle to mobile business productivity, the HTC Touch Pro utilizes similar styling and functionality of the highly anticipated Touch Diamond™ and introduces a variety of business-focused enhancements that make getting work done on the go quick and easy.

HTC has taken a great leap forward in touch screen innovation with its 3D touch interface called TouchFLO™ 3D. TouchFLO™ 3D provides a stunningly intuitive way to zip through common tasks like messaging, calendar appointments or making calls with just one touch. Delve a little deeper to find that your music, photos, contacts and surfing the web are also responsive to the touch. In addition, the Touch Pro includes a new innovative touch-sensitive control for device interaction.

With the introduction of Touch Diamond and Touch Pro, HTC delivers an entirely new mobile Internet experience that utilizes broadband-like speeds with HSDPA 7.2 Mbps and wireless connectivity. Committed to improving Web browsing, HTC provides a new customized mobile Web browser that enables easy viewing and effortless navigation of Websites in the way they are designed to be viewed on a PC. As part of this browsing experience users can zoom and pan Websites with one-hand and automatically view optimized content that has been specially created to fit the display. Turning the device sideways automatically rotates the web page view from a portrait to landscape view.

In addition to Web browsing, the Touch Pro includes an HTC-developed, YouTube application for watching a variety of user generated video content.

The HTC Touch Pro™ will be available from mid September 2008 at all authorized resellers at a suggested retail price of RM3,099.

Blackberry Bold Launch From Celcom

Updated on 2nd September 2008 4pm!

Pix1: (L-R) Mr. Harith Iskander; En Farid Yunus, Senior Vice President, Enterprise Services, Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad; Mr. Dany Bolduc, Regional Director, Asia Pacific, RIM; Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, Chief Executive Officer, Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad; and Mr. Darryl Prince, Carrier Relationship & Sales Manager, Vodafone Business Unit, RIM; with the new BlackBerry Bold smartphone.

Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad and Research In Motion (RIM) today officially introduced the BlackBerry® Bold™ smartphone in Malaysia. Crafted from premium materials inside and out, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone is the first BlackBerry® smartphone to support tri-band HSDPA high-speed networks around the world, providing superior functionality and performance for business professionals and power users.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone integrates 802.11 a/b/g Wi-Fi® and GPS, which can pinpoint the user's location and supports location-based applications and services. It comes with a beautiful half-VGA (480x320 resolution at 217 ppi) color LCD that is fused to the undersurface of the lens, making images and videos appear in stunning definition and clarity. The smartphone also comes with rich multimedia capabilities including a media player for music, videos and photos and a 2 megapixel camera with video recording.

“The addition of the BlackBerry Bold smartphone gives Celcom one of the most attractive BlackBerry smartphone portfolios in the industry,” said Dato’ Sri Shazalli Ramly, Chief Executive Officer of Celcom (Malaysia) Berhad. “Customers will be attracted to the BlackBerry Bold smartphone’s robust features, stylish design, and rich multimedia and productivity capabilities. This helps Celcom customers get the most out of our network, one of the fastest, widest, clearest and best networks in Malaysia.”

“The BlackBerry Bold smartphone provides BlackBerry customers with unprecedented display quality, speed, power and functionality for both professional and personal use in a stylish design that exudes confidence. We are very pleased to be working with Celcom to bring this breakthrough smartphone to customers in Malaysia,” said Dany Bolduc, Regional Director, Asia Pacific, Research In Motion.

Outstanding performance with superb phone features
Powering its robust communications and multimedia capabilities, including phone, email, messaging, organizer, browser, camera and media player, the BlackBerry Bold smartphone comes with a next-generation 624 MHz mobile processor, 128 MB Flash memory plus 1 GB on-board storage memory, and a microSD/SDHC memory card slot* that is conveniently accessible from a side door. DataViz® Documents to Go® is also preloaded, enabling users to edit Microsoft® Word, Excel and PowerPoint files directly on the smartphone.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone also features a new acoustic design that increases the size of the phone’s audio sweet spot, improving listening quality and clarity. It comes with support for hands-free headsets, stereo headsets, car kits (including car kits that adhere to the Bluetooth Remote SIM Access Profile) and other Bluetooth peripherals, noise cancellation technology that offsets background noise, a powerful speaker phone and support for polyphonic, mp3 and MIDI ring tones.

Robust email and messaging
The BlackBerry Bold smartphone works with BlackBerry® Enterprise Server, which enables advanced security and IT administration within IBM® Lotus® Domino®, Microsoft® Exchange and Novell® GroupWise® environments, as well as BlackBerry® Professional Software for small businesses. It also works with BlackBerry® Internet Service, which gives users access to up to 10 supported work or personal email accounts (including most popular ISP email accounts).

Rich multimedia functionality with desktop-style web pages
The BlackBerry Bold smarpthone features a 2 megapixel camera with video recording capability and an enhanced media player that can display pictures and slideshows quickly, play movies smoothly in full screen mode, and manage an entire music collection. Audio can be played over the handset’s dual speakers in rich, stereo sound, and when using headphones or external speakers, the media player gives the user an equalizer with 11 preset filters – like "Lounge", "Jazz" and "Hip Hop" – that boost or soften audio ranges to create the perfect ambiance.

Managing music, pictures and video is made easy with the inclusion of Roxio® Media Manager for BlackBerry® as well as Roxio Photosuite® 9 LE in the BlackBerry® Desktop Manager software. Users can enhance pictures and create photo albums on the computer. For users that manage their collection with iTunes®, the new BlackBerry® Media Sync application provides a simple way to sync iTunes digital music collections with the smartphone**.

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone also comes with a newly enhanced, high performance browser, giving users an on-the-go web browsing experience with desktop-style depiction. The trackball mimics a mouse, making it easy to navigate sites in "Page View" or "Column View" or to zoom in on specific parts of a web page, while various emulation settings allow users to choose between the full desktop-style HTML content and layout or the mobile version.

In conjunction with the launch of the BlackBerry Bold smartphone, Celcom also introduced its new Celcom PowerTools Mobile Email Plans, which will allow customers to access their corporate and personal email accounts from as low as RM38 a month. For BlackBerry Internet Service subscribers, there are three options for light, medium, and heavy email users, and additional plans for those who deploy BlackBerry® Professional Software and/or BlackBerry® Enterprise Server within their company.

“Our customers demand instant and reliable connectivity as well as seamless communication, which is why we have introduced such flexible mobile email solutions. Customers will recoup the cost in a day from the time and travel saved by having email at their fingertips, and the corresponding increase in productivity and efficiency,” Dato’ Sri Shazalli added.

Availability

The BlackBerry Bold smartphone is scheduled to be available for Celcom customers in Malaysia in the third week of September 2008, retailing at RM2,499 (with Celcom PowerTools Mobile Email Plans).

First Wimax Package Introduced

Packet One Networks (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd. (P1), the first Malaysian WiMAX converged telco and subsidiary of Green Packet Berhad, today officially opened its doors for Malaysians to subscribe to its WiMAX services, branded as P1 W1MAX.

Yang Berhormat Dato’ Shaziman Abu Mansor, Minister of Energy, Water and Communications was there to officiate the historic accomplishment at the grand launch of P1 W1MAX services.

P1’s CEO Michael Lai said, “We are indeed proud of the fact that we have put Malaysia on the world map of WiMAX.

Today, not only is P1 the first WiMAX operator in Malaysia to open for subscriptions, but we are also one of the first in the world to offer WiMAX service commercially.

We believe that WiMAX will change the Malaysian broadband landscape and the way we live, learn, work and play, and lay the foundation towards achieving Malaysia’s National Broadband Plan and MyICMS 886 objectives because of the very strong proposition of the WiMAX eco-system known as the DNA- Device, Network and Applications are, all in place.”

Lai also thanked the Malaysian government for having the foresight on the potential of WiMAX as a catalyst for the nation’s development, and being one of the first countries in the world to issue the WiMAX license as early as March 2007.

P1 today introduced two promotional packages to meet consumer and business needs. The promotion runs from 20 August to 30 September 2008. They are:

Packages Speeds Monthly Charges
12 months contract 24 months contract
P1 W1MAX 1200 Up to 1.2Mbps RM99 RM89
P1 W1MAX 2400 Up to 2.4 Mbps RM229 RM199

P1 W1MAX broadband is now available immediately in the following areas: KLCC, Golden Triangle, Pekeliling, Setapak, Gombak, Seri Rampai, Sentul, Pudu, selected areas in Subang Jaya, USJ 1, USJ 7 and Subang Hi-Tech area. P1’s deployment is supported by Intel, which recently invested RM50 million (approx. US$15m) in P1’s parent company, Green Packet Berhad.

In addition, by the end of 2008, P1 targets to extend its WiMAX broadband coverage to Petaling Jaya, Damansara, Klang and Port Klang and others within the Klang Valley; Johor Bahru; Kedah; Perak; Negeri Sembilan; Melaka and all major towns and cities in the West Coast of Peninsula Malaysia.

Entertainment Package with Nokia N85

Updated on 2nd September 2008

Whats more exciting than the unveiling Nokia N85, the latest Nseries multimedia computer made to set new standard for mobile entertainment, gaming and sharing.

Beside, this series comes along with an eye catching 2.6" OLED screen with an 8GB microSD card.

Nokia N79, Powerful Fusion of Technology and Style

Updated on 2nd September 2008

Nokia unveiled the N79 from NSeries family, range that combines intelligent and customizable design with fully loaded multimedia computer.

N79 includes integrated navigation system, music with FM transmitter, high speed connectivity, superior web browsing, 10 pre loaded games and 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics.

It also comes with Xpress-OnTM smart cover that are available in 5 colors: blue, brown, green, white and red.

The N79 comes packaged with 4GB microSD card that makes it possible to store around 3,000 songs