Asus Eee PC Seashell (1008HA)
$798, available from May 16 at Ngee Ann City B2
AS its name suggests, the new netbook from Asus has an exterior that looks like a shell - glossy with tiny reflective specks.
Other than just emulating the look of a mollusc, the layer is supposed to serve as protection against scratches from day-to-day use.
Pry it open and there is a 10-inch LED-backlit WSVGA display, ergonomic keyboard and multi-touchpad that reacts to tapping, pinching and sliding.
The 1.1-kg netbook runs on the Intel Atom N280 processor, comes with 1GB DDR2 memory and a 160GB hard disk drive. Available in white, black, blue and pink.
Service
Wall art
Snapfish Canvas Prints
Prices start at $49.90, go to www.snapfish.sg to order. From now until May 31, enter 40PercentOffDL when you order to get 40 per cent off your order of canvas prints
DON'T know what to do with your digital prints? HP's online photo printing service can convert them into art pieces by printing them on canvas.
The prints come in different sizes, in rectangle or square shapes to fit your room's decor.
To order, sign up for a Snapfish account online and upload your photos to create your desired print.
Software
Get organised
Bento for iPhone and iPod touch
NZ$6.49 (S$5.65), from the Apple App Store
ANYONE, from the very organised to those who are just trying their best to keep it together, can use the Bento for iPhone and iPod Touch to manage their lives.
The personal database software has 25 templates for organising all kinds of tasks from monitoring daily expenses to planning parties and tracking your progress at the gym.
You can also create your own forms by selecting from 15 field types including text, media and even checkbox.
The software also works with the iPhone and iPod's coverflow interface, so you can flip through the databases to find the one you need.
Virtually hassle free
Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization
Price unavailable; for more information, call Red Hat on 6490-4200 or visit www.apac.redhat.com/virtualization-strategy/
RED HAT has expanded its virtualisation portfolio. Comprising four primary components - Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Servers, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Manager for Desktops, Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization Hypervisor - the products are based on the Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) technology which was developed as part of the Linux operating system.
The products will help companies consolidate their management of virtual servers and virtual desktops and supports both Windows and Linux machines.
Mobile Phone
Primed for play
LG ARENA (LG-KM900)
$768, available at all major mobile phone shops THE LG Arena is a 3G HSDPA (high-speed downlink packet access) phone that might encourage people not to talk.
After all, it is crammed full of features that make it perfect for entertainment.
There is the 3-inch WVGA touchscreen display that is four times sharper than standard QVGA phone screens - good enough for watching DVD quality DivX or Xvid movies on.
There is even Dolby Mobile technology in the phone, which provides surround sound.
Other distractions include a 5-megapixel camera with auto and manual focus, DVD-resolution video recording capabilities and music player with equalizer.
Boost its 8GB internal memory with a 16GB micro SD card and you will have all the space you need to store music and movies.
Surely, that will leave no time to talk.
Services
Keeping kids safe
Symantec OnlineFamily.Norton
Download for free until Jan 1, 2010, at onlinefamily.norton.com
WITH the rate at which children go online these days, keeping up with their online activities has become a full-time job. Symantec's Web-based
OnlineFamily.Norton service can do it each day, every day of the week.
Parents can configure it to track anything from search terms and phrases their children have used on sites like Google and YouTube, to instant messaging chats and what their children are posting on social networks like Facebook.
Of course it is not all about monitoring and the service also allows parents to block sites by defining prohibited topics.
The online service also leaves room for some autonomy: there is an option for parents to flag sites, instead of blocking them, so their children can decide whether or not to visit.
Meeting planner
meetings360
For more information, visit corp.americanexpress.com/ms
THE work needed for planning a meeting or event does not end when the last participant leaves. There is still money that needs to be paid and reports that need to be churned out.
With meetings360, everything can be done in one fell swoop.
The service is a combination of StarCite's software-as-a-service offering and American Express' card payment tool and it ties together the front-end processes of planning, budgeting, sourcing and attendee management with the back-end processes of payment, reconciliation, and reporting.
The service even highlights hotel promotional offers so companies can save money.
Headphone
Clearly for chats
Plantronics .Audio 655 USB Stereo Headset
$89, available at major IT retailers
YOU can save money making calls with Skype but conversations just sound different through headphones and a microphone.
The Plantronics .Audio 655 USB stereo headset is set to change that. It is the first to work in concert with Skype's new speech technology, dubbed Silk speech codec, that makes conversations clearer by improving audio quality while using less bandwidth.
The headset delivers its sounds through 40mm speakers and comes with a noise-cancelling microphone that will cut out ambient sounds. You can also mute it quickly by just raising the boom.
This article was first published in The Straits Times, Digital Life
