Presenting to you some of the better hardware deals at the IT Show. No pictures due to time constraint. Look at this and check them out by Sunday if you're interested!

Location: Suntec City Levels 3,4,6. Level 3 is crap.
Time: Till 12 March. Noon to 9pm.

[Notebooks]
Samsung Q30. The anorexic 1.1kg red notebook is back with a $1000 price slash. Flyer says original price was $3999 but I think $3799 is more correct. Anyway the show price is $2799 and it comes with an additional 6 cell battery. Finally good enough value.
Samsung X60. Samsung introduces its dual core notebooks with a reasonably priced one. 15.4" display, DVD writer, 80GB, 512MB RAM, remote control, slim for its size, 2.48kg, $2499. Worth checking out if you've always wanted a Samsung lappy but found them chronically overpriced. Both Samsungs comes with free mouse and carrying case.
Samsung R50, X20 and X1 also at a better than usual price.
MSI Megabook S452B. At $2099 with a 14" widescreen display, 512MB ram, 80GB HDD, DVD writer, GeForce Go6200 gfx card and XP Pro, this is too good value for money to be ignore.

[Digicams]
Nikon Coolpix S1. Slim, relatively stylish and armed with a 5 megapixel camera. An older model, but you can definitely do worse than this. At a $349 clearance price, it's hard to ignore as well.
Fuji FinePix F460. This 5 megapixel shooter with 3x optical zoom and 2.5" display is priced at $399 and comes with 256MB xD card and extra battery among other freebies.
Olympus FE-150. 5 megapixel, 2.5" display, 3x optical zoom and lightweight. Priced $349, with free 512MB xD card and more.
Casio Z600. 6 megapixels, Anti-shake, 2.7" LCD, 3x optical zoom. $649, with 512MB SD card, Siemens DECT phone, leather carrying case and more.

[MP3 players]
Samsung YH-820. Outgoing model that plays MP3 and WMA formats. FM, line in recorder and JPEG viewer also features. Free Sennheiser headphones. $299 for 4GB storage and colour display. Good value.
Creative. Many of Creative's players are receiving a free set of its speakers (worth $69) or earphones (worth $39). But check out Samsung's YP-T55 if you're thinking of going MuVo. It sounds better.

[LCD monitors]
Acer AL1916W. 19", widescreen, $399. Very limited sets left.
But for something of higher quality, you may want to check out BenQ FP91G+ and ViewSonic VA912/B at $469 and $455 respectively. Both comes with free DVI cable, not available in the Acer. I personally prefer the ViewSonic.

[Printers and AIOs]
As usual, many good deals. Check out your preferred brand. All have some decent offers.

Gourmet Plus, along Frankel Avenue.

So this was the first time I patronised this cosy little restaurant near Siglap area. Wouldnt call the decor fantastic but I liked the setting. Surroundings were peaceful, restaurant was peaceful enough. A polite waiter greets as I enter.

Anyway today was celebration for a friend's birthday, and out comes my I-S restaurant guide and ta-da! We end up at Frankel Avenue. Food time!

First up, escargots as a starter! For those who haven't tasted escargot, it actually tastes quite like shellfish. Something like... mussels? Yea. But with the herbs, saltier and more.. garlic-ky.


My main course, Chicken Truffle. A rather lean piece (i.e quite healthy) of chicken breast meat topped with creamy truffle sauce, with pan-fried cauliflower, boiled french beans and fried potato cubes. Oh, and a cherry tomato too.


Friend's main course, Squid Ink Seafood Risotto. If you can't tell from the picture, the serving portion is actually rather filling, due to the cheese and rice. Oh, if you don't see the seafood, it's all hidden under the rice. But you won't be able to see much of it even if it's not anyway, cos everything's black.

All in all a not bad place, with a deli corner beside the cashier. Menu also includes other European fare like foie gras, pork knuckles, pasta and bratwurst sausages. Main courses cost around $18-$25.

The next wave of Sony Ericsson products has been released over the month of February, with 2 additions to the quickly expanding Walkman family, a replacement for their lukewarm clamshell model (not featured here) a basic dial n sms phone (not featured here), upgrades of 3 K-series models (not featured), a replacement for 2005's coolest 3G candybar (which I own. heh.) and a new-ish concept executive smart phone.

First up, the successor to 2005's hottest, brand new Cybershot sub-branded K790i / K800i.

Features include :
- 3G (K800i)
- 2" 240x320 pixels 262k colour TFT display
- 3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus, 16x digital zoom, image editor, image stabiliser function, xenon flash, Cybershot interface and a Sony T7 digicam style lens cover.
- 64MB internal memory, Memory Stick Micro (new format) card slot
- FM with RDS
- 105x47x22mm, 115g

Entry level Walkman model W300i

Features include :
- Quadband
- 1.8" 128x160 pixels 262k TFT display, orange-on-black external display
- VGA camera with 4x digital zoom
- Walkman interface
- FM radio with RDS
- 20MB internal memory, MS Micro card slot
- 90x47x24mm, 94g

Retro-cool 3G candy goes sleek in K610i

Features include
- 1.9" 176x220 pixels 262k TFT display
- 2 megapixel camera with 2x digital zoom
- info on internal memory and FM radio not in press release, but 32MB and FM with RDS expected
- MS Micro card slot
- 102x45x17mm, 92g

Smart, sexy and slim M600

- 3G
- 2.6" 240x320 pixels 262k colour TFT touchscreen display
- Symbian v9.1 Smartphone platform
- Blackberry style QWERTY keyboard
- Opera 8 browser, MS office editor and Adobe PDF viewer
- Email friendly features like next word prediction, auto word correction and handwriting recognition
- 80MB internal memory, MS micro card slot
- 107x57x15mm, 112g
- And yes, you didnt miss it, there's no camera on this phone.

King of the Walkman hill, W950i

- 3G
- 2.6" 240x320 pixels 262k colour TFT touchscreen display
- Symbian v9.1 Smartphone platform
- Album art support for music player
- Opera 8 browser
- Email friendly features like next word prediction, auto word correction and handwriting recognition
- 4GB hard drive
- FM radio with RDS
- 106x54x15mm, 112g
- And yup, the king of Walkmans has no snapper(camera, not fish) too

All models listed here features Bluetooth and a MP3-AAC-MPEG4 compatible media player, with the Walkman models also supporting AAC+ and WAV formats. This trend shows that almost all Sony Ericsson phones from now on will feature Bluetooth for wireless data transfer technology. Also, Sony uses the new mobile devices to introduce the new Memory Stick Micro (M2) format, which is the size of microSD cards. Lastly, applaud the return of the jog-dial control (notice left flanks of M600 & W950)!

Other Sony Ericssons announced in Feb.
- Z530i clamshell that looks like a W300i without the Walkman logo. Basically an upgrade of the current Z520i clamshell with a Memory Stick Micro card slot.
- Together with the low end K310i model, Sony Ericsson introduces a new UBC (ultra bright colour) screen type that slots in below its TFT screen models. K310i is basically a K300i with bluetooth.
- K510i will be essentially be a curent K600i model with a lower resolution screen and without 3G.
- Right at the bottom of the scale is the J100i, a basic phone and sms device.

All looks quite wonderful with Sony Ericsson's improving design and integration of Bluetooth in all bar lowest end phones, but one cant stop nitpicking. And for those people, yes, 16M colour screens are still not available half a year after Panasonic VS series' launch and the imminent arrival of Nokia's E60/E61/N92. Also, for those looking for optical zoom in their phones, you'll still have to turn to Sharp phones usable but unavailable officially in this part of the world.

Inspired by a trip to the airport today.

The airport is a place full of emotions. One may say you can actually get enough footage to create an entire drama series if you stayed at the airport for a day or two. Oh, by the way, I just want to say that Changi Airport and Singapore Airlines offer some of the best facilities and services in the world.

Airports are sometimes happy places. At the arrival hall, people wait eagerly outside the gates even before the "landed" status of a flight is indicated. There are some who are carrying flowers, some boards with names, and some even babies. All these people only have one thing in mind, and that is to wait for the arrival of their loved ones abroad. Huge smiles, big hugs, warm kisses, excited chatter and even tears of joy; these are what we can all observe at the arrival hall.

We move a level up to the departure hall, and things may look a little less cheerful. Sure, those going on holidays will be happy, but there are others who've come to send off friends and family away, probably for work, probably for studies. Whatever the reason, they're saying goodbye and are going to miss the other party for awhile. I saw a lady crying quite terribly when I stepped into the departure hall earlier. People give a final hug for a few days, weeks or months to come, and they let go unwillingly right outside the check in gates.

Airports can be places of hope and joy or places of frustration during different instances. Although I myself do not have much of airport drama to share, I did ever wait for the 'departed' sign to appear on screen before leaving the airport when sending someone off, and I have also secretly went to the airport just to see if someone has come out from the gates to know that someone has landed safely.

There is no real point of this post, just that for those of you who've just sent someone home, fret not, because sooner or later, another of those flying turbines will soon bring those close to your heart through the arrival gates again.