The craziness around getting an iPad 2 has been much bigger than when the iPad 1 came out a year ago. Interesting to see how this develops - while the first iPad was also a big success - it was more focused within a smaller group of early adopters and Apple lovers. This time it seems everyone is lining up to get an iPad 2.

That gives rise to seeing these silly notices - even displayed outside a store such that you don’t even need to walk in and ask - see picture below…

One tip from me - check out the Mac refurbished page where you can score an iPad first generation for a mere 2588 HKD - or 240 Euro. It is essentially the same thing except you don’t get the built-in camera…

http://store.apple.com/hk/browse/home/specialdeals/ipad

It’s been a while since I visited the Computer Center at 298 Hennessy Road to find new gadgets, stuff, etc.

Here are two key observations from this time:

16GB SD Cards now sell for a mere 248 HKD - very affordable, and it already hurts that I purchased one just 4 months ago for close to 500 HKD…

The other novelty this time around was the sudden increase in brands and types of digital video players on offer. The ones I found definitely indicate a trend towards low cost, reasonable quality devices, including 8, 16, or 32 GB storage, a 3 or 5 inch screen, and built-in speakers. Plays nearly every type of video format and retails here from 600 HKD up to 1300 HKD.

This certainly isn’t a new category, but the sudden onset of very affordable devices could put these devices into the hands of a wider group of consumers. Similar to what happened in the GPS navigation category some years ago. Unfortunately in the case of the digital video player though - this will be an “intermediate device”. I.e. it will at some point be integrated in smartphones and then the need for a separate digital video player disappears. This is already happening in the area of mp3 players. You can see less of these on offer these days!

Below a picture of some of the video playing devices on offer - sorry for the poor quality.

Something really cool is going on in a park near Robertson Quay in Singapore every night. A bunch of enthusiasts play with remote controlled motorized kites. The kites have colorful lights built in to them which makes for an interesting display against the black night sky.

I noticed this from far away while I walked towards Clark Quay and saw different colors of light move around in the sky. Coming closer these Unidentified Flying Objects turned out to be these RC kites.

It’s an interesting concept - the kites make hardly any noise and they seem to ‘magically’ fly around. They can do flips, inverts, rolls, etc - all quite spectacular.

I spend my lunch with a walk through the Wanchai Computer Centre. Not the bigger one near the Wanchai MTR, but a smaller - more local one on Hennessy Road no. 289

I was out looking for an 8GB Micro SD, but couldn’t find a shop stocking it yet. They are selling 4GB cards at HKD319 right now (abt 40 USD or 28 Euro). I guess I’ll have to wait a few more weeks before I can add 8GB to my phone and finally ditch the IPOD alltogether.

The other thing that struck me is that you can now buy a 22inch LCD monitor for just about 2000 honkies (250 USD or 175 Euro).

Here’s a forecast: devices will come out that include TV tuners, hard-disks and internet connection. They will be Linux based entertainment devices (actually I have one already) that hookup directly to any LCD panel and an HiFi set.

New brands will appear in the entertainment device area while the current TV brands will become commodity panel providers.

This could well be my next phone.

I’ve been browsing around for an upgrade from my 18 months old Dopod 818 Pro for a while now, and this Samsung looks like a candidate.

Currently I could buy the Samsung i600, which is already in the shops, but it looks like this next version of that phone could be worth the wait. The issue with buying the Samsung i600 is that it does not have Windows Mobile 6 yet. And it’s always a little hard to buy a phone with an outdated OS… (huh sounds like I’m talking about PCs doesn’t it?).

The i620 does have WM 6 and and the other specs are more or less the same as the i600; 3G, HSDPA, wi-fi etc.

But the formfactor does look good with the sliding keyboard. It’s a little thicker than i600 and that’s fine although it depends on what the weight of the new i620 will be.

I haven’t spotted a review yet, but will post a link here when I see one.

It’s totally cool what kind of remote controlled (RC) toys you can buy now for a couple of dollars. It’ll fly, drive, hover etc.

When I was a boy I remember remote controlled toys were out of reach for most kids, as it was “expensive stuff”.

So one of the joys of having a son I thought was to be able to buy all kinds of remote controlled toys for him, and then play with them myself.

Well I will have to rethink this a little, or be a little more patient as Matthijs has been able to kill two RC toys already, both within 36 hours after we bought them…

First was a remote controlled little helicopter, which created a lot of excitement, but unfortunately also tight gripping kiddie hands, and as such the helicopter’s life was shortlived… At the end it just flapped its wings while moving about the room completely out of control (which Matthijs enjoyed even more than when it was new).

The other toy was a remote control car. I figured as it was a metal one that looked quite sturdy it would live a little longer in the house. Wrong - when I came home the next day after purchase Matthijs had demolished both the remote controller unit and the car was “played to pieces”.

Okay - back to pushcars for a while, we’ll try this again in a year (or two?).

Our little 19 months old toy basher:

I walked by the local computer mall during lunch today - the “298 Computer Zone” on Hennessy Road (see here for location).

The reason was really to see if there’s any new gimmicks, gadgets, or widgets worth wasting some money on. Well, fortunately I came back without having spend any money, so no immediate new things to buy.

What did I learn on new developments on the market today? No new products here, but some new developments still;

1.
Portable DVD players with built-in LCD screens are really dirtcheap currently. You can get one for about 800 HKD, or about 100 USD - with a 9 inch screen. Nice for personal inflight entertainment, or for the kids. With the prices this low I’m now actually considering buying one for my 16 month old baby. So he can watch his ‘Nijntje’ and Pooh bear on his own screen rather than on daddy’s plasma.

2.
It’s amazing how much prices on digital SLRs have come down. When the D70 came out, I had to splash out about 8000 bucks on the body. Now you buy a new digital SLR at around 4000 bucks hong kong.

3.
The striking absence of Windows Vista from any of the shops or advertising in the mall. I certainly was WOWed in the wrong way with this! In fact, the only Vista logo I’ve seen was in the dodgy pirated CD shop I passed, which was happily selling Vista copies, next to all other Microsoft OS versions.

Will aim to update again on ‘lunch walks’ around the Hong Kong electronics stores when I’m not too busy.

Yes it is.

I agree with this article on many fronts. Rafael writes about how his generation - which I guess I’m part off - does not see anything new in the iPhone as released by Apple.

Of all the products Apple has churned out, the only thing I have purchased is an iPod. But I must say that since I purchased a mobile phone with built-in Windows Mobile 5.0 - I no longer use the iPod. I’ve got a 2GB memory card in my phone, enough for a good selection of music. And I can do a ton of other stuff with my mobile phone that I can’t do with my iPod - thanks to the included Office-like functionalities.

The iPod and all other mp3 devices are intermediate devices. They will disappear as soon as they’re integrated into mobile phones. No one wants to carry around these two devices if they could comfortably sit in one. So with that in mind it is just a product that Apple HAD to launch to protect future market share - and as usual, they did it with a marketing boom (nothing wrong here!). At the end of the day there’s nothing new about the iPhone.

I’m much more interested in the Apple TV product. It offers the functionality of connecting your TV set with your PC to allow you to see or listen to pictures, music or video stored on your PC. There are many alternative products available that do the same but they are mostly smaller niche brands. Apple could really make a hit with this product.

I believe the brand that is able to take the seat in a household’s living rooms by connecting up TV sets with PCs and storage servers in the house will be the next big hit. So far the big brands in this area are Microsoft (XBOX 360) and Apple (Apple TV).

Microsoft is - so far - still largely positioning the XBOX 360 as a gaming focused device, so with Apple focusing the Apple TV solely on connectivity it might open up this market and bring TV-PC connectivity to the masses.

Stay tuned!

Being in Korea for a few days gave me a buzz in terms of what the future holds in terms of TV and TV broadcasting technology.

Although the rest of the world is still awaiting HD broadcasting, this has already become mainstay here in Korea. At least 6 of the local Korean channels I zapped by on my hotel TV are broadcasting in HD, and 2 of them with Dolby 5.1 surround. It didn’t quite come out on my hotel room TV which was a basic CTV and not a big screen LCD or plasma, but I can see how Korean families with 42 or 50 inch HDTV sets are already getting the crisp and detailed picture that the rest of the world is waiting for.

The US is also making headway in HDTV broadcasts, but I believe it’s still limited to a number of specialty channels.

In Korea, many of the mainstream channels are filming their own production work in HDTV, which puts them at a next level of adoption.

Besides this, I passed a huge 80 inch plasma screen in Seoul - took this picture of it. It is HUGE! I’m sure the same is true for its price tag…

Cool - tonight the new fiber optic lights built into the DB plaza pavement were switched on.

These little lights are almost invisible in daylight, and at nighttime they switch on and cycle through the whole spectrum of colours. So one moment the whole plaza looks blue, then it turns red etc. The pictures below don’t quite convey the true atmosphere but it’s really neat.

I remember I looked at this type of lighting for my house when we were renovating it - but it was insanely expensive. So this must have cost the Hong Kong Resort Company a good piece out of our management fees as well - problably best I don’t know how much exactly.