The IT show is back at Suntec City from today till Sunday, noon to 9pm!

I haven't been to the show yet of course because it's an hour before it actually starts, but let's look what good deals and nice stuff some companies have released to the press so far!

Notebooks
Lenovo N100 $1469
Great value entry level Vista notebook, with Core Duo processor, 80GB HDD and 1GB RAM.

Packard Bell BU45 $1998
Touted as the most affordable 12.1" laptop in the market, it's hardly the most eye catching. But if you don't need much style or the tablet form factor, this one gives you similar power to the HP tx1000 with $300 savings.

Asus A8Jr $2098
Headline specs include Core 2 Duo processor, new ATI Radeon X2300 graphics, 1.5GB RAM after free upgrade and freebies that include a tv tuner and Altec Lansing speakers. Effectively makes all their other models look ridiculously overpriced.

HP Pavilion tx1000 series $2298
Specs wise it's like a Pavilion dv2000 but in a tablet form and a 12.1" screen. Processing power comes from AMD Turion 64x2 instead of Intel's Core 2 Duo though. Comes with Vista Home Premium and a free 6 cell battery pack.

LCD Monitors & LCD TVs
Samsung 940NW $299
Viewsonic VA1912wb $299
BenQ FP92W $299
Hanns.G HW191 $299
19" widescreens, all but the Samsung model supports DVI input.

Akira 32" LCD TV $899
It's HD ready and based in Singapore!

Printers
Dell 926 AIO $99
HP F380 $99
Epson Stylus CX2900 $98
Brother DCP115C $88
Print, scan, copy. All for under $100. Dell should work out to be the most expensive overall because of the lack of third party compatible ink.

Samsung ML1610 $99
The cheapest mono laser printer out there, and yours truly bought one at the last show too. No duplex printing mind you, and printing on both sides is a pain in the ass. But it is so affordable, well built and quick.

Digital Cameras
Ricoh Caplio R5 $599
If I'm not wrong, the cheapest 7x optical zoom compact camera currently on sale.

Casio Exilim Z70 $399 (trade in any old digicam)
Save $100, and bag a rather stylish 7.2 megapixel slim shooter with 3x zoom. Casio's anti shake is rather useless, but it does feature in this model.

Fujifilm Finepix A610 $199 (student offer)
6.3 megapixels, 3x optical zoom, fully auto point and shoot. Accepts both xD and SD cards! Seriously anyone who uses xD cards on this camera is plain stupid or has too much money to spare.

Pentax Optio M20 $199
7 megapixels, 3x zoom, 2.5" screen. But I think the Finepix is a better choice as a digicam despite looking a tad hideous.

Portable media players
Creative Zen Vision M (3oGB) $399
Creative Zen Vision W (30GB) $499
Creative Zen V Plus (8GB) $299
Local, competitive with the best products in its class (Vision models) and well priced!

Archos 404 (30GB) $399
Wider and longer but slimmer than a Zen Vision M, its 3.5" screen makes it more a full media player competitor for the Vision W but without the widescreen display. Definitely worth checking out.

Others
Windows Vista Home Premium Upgrade / Office 2007 Home & Student Edition
$99
Limited copies!

Anyway look out for the Sony PS3 local launch ($799), Sony Cybershot T100 (the first in the series to have 5x optical zoom), Sony Vaio L Series laptop-desktop hybrid, Panasonic's 103" mammoth TV and Canon IXUS 70/75 that now comes in 2 colour options.

I seriously hope iriver and Cowon are there too. Desperate to play with their new players. Have fun at the show!

Ok, the title is not totally true, because just 2 of the 3 pictures were taken on a rainy day, and they were taken on different rainy days. Get what I'm saying? Anyway, let's move on.


The heavens seriously wept and wailed on my last day at Al Dente, but unfortunately it was before operations so there was no 'ooh where on earth can we put our customers?' frantic show. The flood was worse than what the picture shows cos you could've covered your whole shoe in the water.


Lai ang ah! Yesterday saw a huge sea of red in the auditorium building as we were packing goodie bags for the openhouse coming Saturday. What you see here is probably 60-70% of the bags we packed (my camera couldn't fit everything in its frame). So thousands of people, you better come, cos packing these bags for you was a sucky job.


Finally as I always say, go to the expression board at the canteens to get your daily laughs. Winner of this issue's pick of the board: 7-9! A good jab at the 7-11 here that opens till 9pm on weekdays and closes during weekends, you win for yourself exposure in my blog! So congratulations to whoever you are.