SHOWCASE: Hey everyone! The live blog session and coverage of CommunicAsia 2009 has ended. Thank you to all our readers from the different HWM countries for participating, including panelists from the editors behind HWM.

For those of you who missed the live session, feel free to browse the content within the viewer window below. Scroll all the way down to begin.

Till our next live session, have a great CommunicAsia 2009 (it continues at the Singapore Expo until 19 June 2009). For additional reads, you can check out a detailed coverage here (Samsung Unpacked event), here (Nokia Connections) and the two-part CommunicAsia & BroadcastAsia 2009 showfloor coverage here.

The iPhone 3G S comes in two models - 16GB and 32GB - and comes with Apple's new iPhone OS 3.0.

SHOWCASE: Apple has unveiled a new iPhone called the iPhone 3G S at the Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco today. ‘S’ in 3G S stands for ’speed’ and apparently, the 3G S is twice as fast as the iPhone 3G, thanks to its 7.2Mbps HSDPA chip. Expect the phone to hit US stores June 19.

Not only that, battery life is longer, there’s a 3-megapixel autofocus camera, voice recording and hands free voice control. The 3G S will also include the new iPhone OS 3.0, which comes with 100 new features from Cut, Copy and Paste, MMS, Spotlight Search to landscape keyboard and more.  

While the 16GB model costs US$199 and the 32GB costs US$299, US-based telecom operator AT&T will be charging consumers between US$399-699 for the iPhone 3G S. 

Apple will be giving away the iPhone OS 3.0 for free to existing iPhone owners but charge US$9.95 for iPod touch users who want to upgrade. Not only that, the existing 8GB iPhone 3G will cost just US$99 for new AT&T subscribers from June  8.

The iPhone 3G S will be made available in more than 80 countries over the coming weeks. Check out some of its other features here.

If you want to catch the press conference of the announcements, watch in Quicktime MOV format here. If you want to read up on a report of what exactly went on over there (yes, one of our own from the Singapore team was there), go here. 

The BRAVIA ZX1 is a 40" Full HD LCD TV that fits in any existing decor.

SHOWCASE: Sony launched a bunch of LCD TVs in Singapore and Philippines recently, with the Philippines launch held on 27 May 2009 at the EDSA Shangri-La Hotel, Manila and the Singapore launch held on 9 June at the Red Dot Museum, Singapore.

The star of the launch in both countries is of course, the BRAVIA ZX1, a 40-inch Full-HD panel with a significant lean depth of 9.9mm. Powered with Sony’s Edge LEDs, the ZX1 uses side-LEDs incorporating a “Light Guide Plate” to ensure the same luminance as the CCFL breeds, so that center areas of the screen are evenly lit. Expect the BRAVIA ZX1 to be available in June 2009.

Besides the ZX1, Sony also unveiled the WE5 Series in both countries. The WE5 aims to conserve energy with the use of a Hot Cathode Fluorescent Lamp (HCFL) for its backlights, and an Intelligent Presence Sensor that senses if a viewer is present in the room. If the viewer is absent, the sensor will automatically turn the TV off to reduce power consumption by over 40%.

More pictures after the jump. (more…)

Nokia N97 launch in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia: Mr. Vlasta Berka, General Manager, Nokia Singapore/Malaysia & Brunei shares the benefits of the new Nokia N97.

SHOWCASE: The country editors of HWM Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia have come together to share photos from the launch of the Nokia N97. The Malaysia/Singapore launch was held on 5 June 2009 in a Web-themed launch party at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, while Indonesia had theirs on 8 June 2009 at the Shangri-La Hotel in Jakarta, Indonesia. The Philippines launch is expected for June 25.

At the Kuala Lumpur event, guests were treated to an immersive Internet experience that combined all the Nokia N97 has to offer - social networking, localized Web widgets and apps, multimedia capabilities and a personal touch that exemplifies the S60 5th edition touch experience.

The Singapore edition will give consumers the opportunity to purchase an N97 with the Comes With Music service, giving users one year’s worth of unlimited music downloads. The recommended retail price for the Nokia N97 is RM2,480 in Malaysia and S$1,028 (without Comes with Music) or S$1,228 (with Comes with Music) in Singapore. The price of the device in Indonesia is expected to be 9 million rupiah (US$896).

Here’s a video preview of the Nokia N97 when the Singapore team first had the phone on April 24, 2009:

(more…)

SHOWCASE: Our team is currently in Computex Taipei and they’ve been busy covering the event here and putting videos up for this post.

The first video shows Mr. Drew Henry, General Manager, Desktop GPU Business Unit from NVIDIA and Mr. Murray Vince, General Manager OEM Division, Microsoft, demonstrating video encoding speeds of Windows 7 using DirectX Compute. Of course, there’s a tidbit segment where Mr. Jen-Hsun Huang, NVIDIA CEO went on stage to solve a slight wardrobe malfunction. For additional coverage of the conference, including videos, go here.

(more videos after the break)

(more…)