Xbox One available to pre-order on Amazon, release in Asia is in late 2014

Bad news for gamers in Singapore and Asia looking forward to buy a Microsoft’s forthcoming Xbox One console: although the new gaming console will launch in November 2013 in the West, it will not be released in Asia until late 2014!

XBox One is currently available for pre-order in online retailers like Amazon.com. It will be available in 21 countries by November 2013. Xbox One will be available for $499 in the United States, 429 pounds in Britain and 499 euros in Europe. According to Wall Street Journal, Asia Regional Sales & Marketing Manager Alan Bowman said that Microsoft Xbox One is scheduled to release in Asian region by late 2014 about a year after the launch in the United States and other countries. The markets to receive it will be Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore and South Korea.

Speaking with TODAY on the sidelines of the E3 gaming convention, Mr Alan Bowman, Microsoft Xbox 360 Regional Vice-President for Retail, Greater Asia region, confirmed reports that the Xbox One would be launching much later in Asia.

"We have a deliberate strategy in terms of when we launch a product, I think traditionally with previous versions we have a staged approach,” said Mr Bowman. “One of the things that is key for us is to make sure we have the right localised experiences for customers."
Source : Xbox One to launch in Singapore ‘late 2014’

Xbox One Day One Edition is available to pre-order on Amazon.

So Sony will be left without a main competitor for PS4 in its native Japan:

"While the 3DS continues to see strong sales, and promises of upcoming titles for the Wii U will likely bolster the struggling home console’s performance, Nintendo’s approach to gaming and hardware in general puts it and Sony on a quite different playing fields, with either company’s products often appealing to markedly different consumer bases."
Source : Xbox One delayed in Asia until late 2014, no release date for Japan

Here are the 21 countries where XBox One will be released in November 2013:

• Australia
• Austria
• Belgium
• Brazil
• Canada
• Denmark
• Finland
• France
• Germany
• Ireland
• Italy
• Mexico
• Netherlands
• New Zealand
• Norway
• Russia
• Spain
• Sweden
• Switzerland
• United Kingdom
• United States

Microsoft Surface in Singapore

Microsoft Surface RT tablet will be released in Singapore by April 5 2013 according to C|Net Asia. If you wanna know where to buy Microsoft Surface in Singapore, the 10.6-inch tablet and its accessories will be sold at Challenger stores.

The Singapore price of 32 GB Microsoft Surface RT is S$ 668 which is slightly more expensive than 16GB Wi-Fi fourth-generation iPad (S$658). The 64 GB version is priced at S$798:

If you buy both the tablet and the Touch Cover keyboard accessory together, Microsoft offers a deal--S$798 for the 32GB version and S$938 for the 64GB. The keyboard accessories are available separately at S$168 for the Touch Cover and S$183 for the Type Cover. You can also purchase a VGA adapter or even an additional power supply at S$58 each.
Source : Microsoft Surface RT available in Singapore from April 5

The main catch of the tablet is that it runs Microsoft Office so documents you prepare in this tablet computer will be 100% compatible with the Microsoft Office on your desktop and laptop. This makes the tablet ideal for users who want the powerful Microsoft applications but does not want the bulk of a notepad. Another advantage of the tablet is its flash support through Microsoft Internet Explorer application.

Microsoft Surface RT users RT version of Microsoft 8 operating system, which is a very different OS than Microsoft (optimized for tablet chip-sets and battery limitations). So your favorite applications such as Photoshop will not readily run on it.

Microsoft Surface RT is at last in Singapore.

When I have heard about Microsoft Surface, I have written an article here named Microsoft Surface: Tablet I was waiting for?  I was exited about finally having a thin and light replacement for my bulky business laptop in most of the cases. But unfortunately, according to C|Net Asia review of the device back in October 2012, people who are looking for a productivity tablet replacement for their bulky laptops like me will be disappointed:

Is Surface worth its price? We think a more useful question is this: If on a business trip, could we replace my laptop with Surface? The short answer is no. The longer answer is also no, but these are the reasons why. The overall sluggishness and bugginess in the interface, especially when using IE 10, is disappointing. Flash support for IE 10 is currently lackluster. Also, more pointedly, IE 10 isn't yet compatible with CNET's content management system (the tool we use to publish). There aren't nearly enough apps to support our entertainment social networking needs when not actually working. 

Until Microsoft addresses these issues, Surface isn't quite ready to take over as our one and only device. Your needs may be different, though. Paired with a keyboard cover, Surface is an excellent Office productivity tool (the best in tablet form) and if your entertainment needs don't go far beyond movies, TV shows, music, and the occasional simple game, you're covered there as well. Especially if you like to multitask: The split-screen feature is incredibly useful and cool.
Source : Review : Microsoft Surface with Windows RT (Nvidia Tegra Processor; 10.6-inch display)

Here is the full statement from Microsoft Singapore released to announce the arrival of Surface to Singapore:

Microsoft today announced that the highly-anticipated Microsoft Surface RT is now available for purchase in Singapore.

Surface RT is designed to set the ultimate stage for Windows RT and represents exceptional value, providing an immersive entertainment experience and a foundation for getting things done. With a starting retail price of S$668, Surface RT will be available at 20 Challenger stores starting today.

“The Surface RT is inspired by Microsoft’s ambition as a services and devices company. Surface RT represents exceptional value with its cutting edge design, uncompromised usability and power features that will enable users to see more, share more and do more. And today we’re really excited to unveil the Surface RT in Singapore,” said Helene Auriol, Managing Director, Microsoft Singapore.

Surface RT is best described as a tablet with some laptop capabilities that weaves productivity and mobility into one beautiful product. It is great for those looking for all-day battery life* and an entertainment-first experience with the ability to still get work done. Additionally, Surface RT will be equipped with Microsoft Office Home & Student 2013 RT at no additional charge, providing a complete Office experience which include Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote, and allows users to get work done, anywhere, anytime.

The Surface family of PCs represents an extension of the Windows experience, letting customers work, play and connect with the people who matter to them. Surface lets customers transition between entertainment and creation seamlessly.

It offers an ultra-light durable casing and an integrated kickstand and covers that allow customers to be productive anywhere, as well as a full-sized USB port and microSDXC card slot for additional storage and a 16:9 widescreen high-definition display that make it optimal for viewing and sharing content easily**.

Challenger will be the sole launch retailer for Surface RT, and its flagship store in Funan DigitaLife Mall will see the sale of the first Surface RT in South East Asia today from 7.00pm.

Ben Tan, Chief Operating Officer of Challenger said: “We view Surface RT as a game changer for the mobile computing market in Singapore, and we are confident that it will appeal to our customers who are looking for a great companion device for their lifestyles.”

Advances in Industrial Design

Conceived, designed and engineered entirely by Microsoft employees, and building on the company’s 30-year history manufacturing hardware, Surface represents a unique vision for the seamless expression of entertainment and creativity. Extensive investment in industrial design and real user experience includes the following highlights:

VaporMg: The casing of Surface is created using a unique approach called VaporMg (pronounced Vapor-Mag), a combination of material selection and process to mold metal and deposit particles that creates a finish akin to a luxury watch. Starting with magnesium, parts can be molded as thin as .65 mm, thinner than the typical credit card, to create a product that is thin, light and rigid/strong.

Integrated Kickstand: The unique VaporMg approach also enables a built-in kickstand that lets you transition Surface from active use to passive consumption – watching a movie or even using the HD front- or rear-facing video cameras. The kickstand is there when needed, and disappears when not in use, with no extra weight or thickness.

Touch Cover: The 3 mm Touch Cover represents a step forward in human-computer interface. Using a unique pressure-sensitive technology, Touch Cover senses keystrokes as gestures, enabling you to touch type significantly faster than with an on-screen keyboard. It will be available in a selection of vibrant colors. Touch Cover clicks into Surface via a built-in magnetic connector, forming a natural spine like you find on a book, and works as a protective cover. You can also click in a 5 mm-thin Type Cover that adds moving keys for a more traditional typing feel.

Software takes center stage: Surface sports a full-sized USB port and a 16:9 aspect ratio – the industry standard for HD. It has edges angled at 22 degrees, a natural position for the PC at rest or in active use, letting the hardware fade into the background and the software stand out.

Microsoft launched Windows 8

Microsoft has just launched it Microsoft Windows 8 Operating System, which will hopefully bridge the gap between laptops and touch screen devices and make tablets a productive working environment (which are definitely not under Apple iOS and Googles Android). Microsoft made a very dramatic move and significantly changed its operating system, whose previous version, Windows 7 has sold more than 670 million copies (yes 670,000,000 copies!).[1] As I will cover shortly in my Windows 8 review (Windows 8 Beta was available for a while to test drive the new Operating System) this is an end of era in Microsofts history. Windows as we know it in the past 17 years (since Windows 95) has gone and this completely new thing, still called Windows and changed ground up to be an OS choice for both touchscreen devices and laptops, is, well at this point of time for me, not Windows.

The design of Windows 8 clearly shows that Microsoft thinks, touchscreen devices are the future and laptops will be history thanks to Windows 8, which will transform tablets to something merging laptops and tablets (with docking stations maybe). There are 4 versions of Windows 8 to choose from: Windows 8, Windows 8 Pro, Windows 8 Enterprise and Windows 8 RT. The first three runs on standard PC CPU and Windows 8 RT, which is technically an entirely different operating system than the first 3, runs on ARM-based processors. You will have several options to upgrade to the new OS other than buying a new Windows 8 PC. You can for example download Windows 8 from Windows web site and upgrade your current version by paying something around 35 USD (for existing Vista, XP and 7 users).

Microsoft 8 is a great leap to some direction. In my opinion it is to a right direction and time will tell if it is forward or down the hill. But I was really not expecting this entire shift which is completely closing the OS lineage from Windows 95 to highly successful Windows 7 and creating a completely new OS lineage.

Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's CEO, introduces Windows 8
Photo - NBC News

How different is it from previous versions of Windows? Since Wednesfay, I answer this question by referring to a story told by Oo Gin Lee in Digital Life (The Straits Times). He let's his 9 years old daughter to play with Windows 8 for 15 minutes (on a laptop) and the little girl asks "Papa, can I please have Windows instead" lol :D Like her, I have almost only knew Windows except my early teens with Commodore 64 (yes I am old) and a brief year with pure DOS (no, I am not that old). Then on that faitful day in 1996, in the computer lab of my university, I have typed "WIN" at the command prompt of DOS and the world of wonders of Windows opened in front of me. I went in and never looked back.

Once upon a time Windows. This is Windows 3.1.  If you find this
ridiculously primitive, try searching images of Windows 1 and 2.

 Then a few months later, Windows 95 came (actually it came in August 1995 to world but came to our computer lab more than a year later). At the time, it looked like futuristic. Unlike 3.1, this was really an operating system on its own. Yes, it looks primitive from now but do not be harsh. We are talking about a time when the best available hardware for the man on the street was a Pentium 166 MMX with 64 MB RAM and 2GB harddisk and the super computer in the faculty building was half the specs of an iPhone of today. And although it looks primitive now, as you can see from the screenshot below, it is very similar to all Windows version we have lived in the past 17 years.

Windows 95

 And in these 17 long years, we got so used to the features of this new operating system that Windows 8 is not for us. Just think about the good old Start button which survived until Windows 7. Windows 8 does not have it and without it for a while, I felt like that uncle I met in a vfarm years ago and tried to teach how to use Windows with mouse (he had only used DoS for years). Although Windows is redesigned from ground up to  be a natural OS for touchscreen devices, the new interface on the desktop made me feel, well I am sorry to say this Bill Gates because I am a fan, sick and I have panicked. I have panicked because new PCs will be launched with only Windows 8 from now on and for a second I had this crazy idea to rush to Funan Digital Mall and stock as much as Windows 7 laptop as I can! I said, this is blasphemy against the gods! An OS without start button! This is madness ...! Oh no, this is Windows 8.

I must admit I have panicked when I saw this.
This is blasphemy ! This is madness!
Madness ..? This is Windows 8!

 But luckily, I was exaggerating. Windows 8 Start Screen is, luckily, like a skin on the top of Windows 7. So if you prefer working in the good old Desktop mode there is a pre-installed Desktop app (yes app :( ) and when you run it, something almost like desktop is launched. Another shock, Microsoft have taken out the Start button from the Windows forever and expects you to get used to call programs, apps! This ain't iOS. I still refused to conform, and luckily many early Windows 8 beta testers were like me. A company named Starcdock saw our pain and created a program (ah God forgive me, it is an app) called Start 8. It puts aWindows 7-style Start menu with Windows 8 enhancements and boot directly to the Windows 8 desktop. Worth every penny of 4.99 USD paid! After Start 8, I have really had some kind of hope to get used to this new beast (no I am not ready to call Windows 8 a Windows OS).

Since Microsoft is calling plain old programs as apps now, they are naturally providing a must have for apps: Yes an appstore. Windows 8 Store currently has 1,000 plus apps and the number looks like a joke compared to half a million apps in Apple appStore. But unlike Apple's one, whose numbers are inflated mostly thanks to the zillions of copy cat apps like multiple PDF readers, this store is clean and lean with full of quality applications. Of course some key ones are missing, like Google Maps (well for a PC user it is not a big deal).

As I have written before here (Microsoft Surface - The tablet I was waiting for?), I am hoping that some laptop, tablet hybrids with clever docking mechanisms will let me have a single machine to work, play and communicate on. I am even hoping for an innovation which combines a smart phone, tablet and laptop. You dock phone into something and it becomes a tablet, than dock tablet into something and it becomes laptop. So I can carry the phone part or tablet when I am out (i.e. out for a presentation) and then plug tablet into a dock at work and it becomes a PC. unplug it from office dock and plug it to home dock, and it becomes my home PC.

[1] - Microsoft launches Windows 8

Microsoft Surface - The tablet I was waiting for?

I am one of those dinosaurs who can have but do not have a tablet computer yet. I just could not justify any reason to carry it around. If I could work and play on it, I would replace my laptop with it but since neither iPad nor an Android device is a productive working environment, I have to carry my laptop around anyway. Yes, I have seen these Windows tablets but they run on an operating system which is basically touch unfriendly. I long for a tablet, who runs windows (my work operating system) and I can carry around instead of my heavy laptop. I should be able to dock it to docking stations, one at work and one at home. When I go to customer, I should be able to do presentations from my tablet (I should connect it to projector also). So no more carrying around the heavy laptop. Actually I prefer the good old PC days where the computer was not mobile so your boss did/could not expect you to deliver something in the middle of the night (in unproductive work culture monument Singapore your boss even expects you to carry it to your holiday destination so you can deliver something in case it is needed)  but unfortunately those days are over.

So yes, an iPad or an Android is not practical for me. And yes, I am excited with the new Windows tablet, Surface. It will be able to run on Windows 8 Pro and Windows RT and will be super-thin at 9.3 mm. Although Microsoft has not revealed any price for the new tablet, Microsoft says the tablets will be “priced to competitive rates with ARM tablets.”[1]

Microsoft Surface Windows Tablet - Source : Microsoft

Surface has fulls sized USB port and can connect to printer. It has a built-in kickstand to keep screen erect while using on a flat surface. A cool magnetic cover named Surface Touch Cover acts as a keyboard and is one of the most impressive aspects of the new tablet. Touch screen is very painful to work on real work content like Word Documents and MS Excel documents and this new keyboard concept seems to solve this problem.

The tablet will come with 32 and 64 GB memory for the Windows RT version and 64 GB and 128 GB for the Windows 8 Pro version. Windows 8 version will run on standard Intel chipset while Windows RT version will run on ARM chipsets optimized for tablets. The screen of Surface Windows tablet will be 10.6'', larger than 9.7'' iPad screen. And the aspect ratio of the display will be industry standard HD ratio of 16:9.

If somehow Windows 8 Pro Surface can be docked to a monitor, keyboard and mouse which will transform it into an actual computer is available, I will be waiting for the day Windows Surface tablet is released in Singapore. When will microsoft surface be available in Singapore? We will hopefully know soon.

Update 1:
Microsoft Surface will be launched on sale on the same day as the launch of its new Windows 8 operating system. We do not know that when it will be launched/released in Singapore.


Update 2:
You can pre-order Microsoft Surface with Windows RT now for delivery by November 26th from Microsoft web site. 32 GB without Black Touch Cover costs USD 499 while 64 GB with Black Touch Cover costs USD 699.

Microsoft Surface with Windows RT Preorder page

Update 3:
Microsoft launched Windows 8.

Unlike the more expensive other 2 versions, cheapest version of Microsoft Surface on the web site has gone from guaranteeing for delivery by Oct 26 to requesting that customers "order now for shipment within three weeks". This, according to the media, suggests that the first batch of Microsoft Surface with Windows RT 32 GB without Black Touch Cover has sold out, at least in the United States.[2]

[1] - Microsoft Unveils Surface Tablet
[2] - Cheapest Surface tablet may already be sold out