When I used think “workstations”, images of generic rectangular cases and screen popped in my head. Or at least that’s what HP used to make. With the introduction of the Z1 earlier this year, HP is taking cues from its consumer offerings to bring together the best of design, performance and extendability to the world’s first workstation all-in-one, which HP was kind enough to lend me one to use.

The first question that popped in my head was how is this different to the the iMac-like all-in-one consumer PCs HP have sold for many years now?

Besides the obvious specification differences which I’ll mention later, the unique feature of the Z1 is an innovative case design that allows for easy upgradability and maintainability.

Continue reading →

What does a Windows 8 slate and a Google Nexus 7 tablet have in common? They both support NFC!

Since I’ve rarely seen NFC across two different platforms, I decided to put the two devices to the test by sharing content from one to the other, all without any prior configuration. As it turns out, it works quite well for sharing web pages but not so well for other things.

The most basic test, sharing webpages, was quite easy. Both devices were able to send and receive when the two devices kissed (in the right place, it takes some getting use to). Surprisingly, receiving NFC content on Android actually required no interaction and launches applications immediately whereas Windows 8 does present a prompt and an opportunity to dismiss it.

Sharing more advanced content presents some interesting challenges. Since there’s very minimal NFC “send” support in Windows 8, sending Google Maps from the Nexus 7 invoked Internet Explorer to open to the website, presumably for compatibility reasons since there’s no industry standard for map data.

I also didn’t have any luck sending photo images between Windows 8 and Android as neither platform understands the proprietary data the other is sending.

Hopefully NFC across platforms will improve as apps and OSes come to agreement with some pseudo-standards for sharing rich data beyond just web pages. Until then, get ready to share your favourite YouTube videos by kissing your friends’ tablets.

Thanks to Dinesh and Hank for their hand-modelling.

There might not be any Microsoft Stores in Australia but that hasn’t stopped Microsoft Australia from setting up an environment for people to go hands on with an array of Microsoft products and services in a friendly and somewhat trendy environment. The first “Microsoft Tech Lounges” opened yesterday at Monash University, one of Melbourne’s largest universities. (Edit: First Tech Lounge was in University of Sydney)

The room’s design, fittings and equipment were entirely sponsored by Microsoft. It has on showcase two Xbox 360s with Kinect, a PixelSense (formerly Surface 2) table, numerous laptops, desktop computers and even a stand of Windows Phone devices. The decor reminds me of a hip coffee shop, especially the “Microsoft Cafe” campaign they tried in Paris a few years ago.

Open from 8am to 6pm, the room is suppose to “provides students with a place to study, play, socialise and interact with the latest Microsoft technologies” Paul Randazzo, Education Audience Marketing Manager for Microsoft Australia said.

When funding always seems to be a hot issue, I’d imagine universities would have held their arms wide open when Microsoft proposed the idea of providing free and state-of-the-art technology as well as the renovation of their facilities.

For Microsoft, who already have a pretty strong connection to Australian university students through the Microsoft Student Partners program, this is a much better channel for them to put products directly in students’ hands who are most likely to purchase at least one or two laptops and phones during their studies. Although the reports don’t mention anything about retail, I’d imagine there would be some enticing student discounts on offer.

TechGeek.com.au also reports (who is a student at Monash University) Microsoft Australia plans to introduce the Tech Lounge to the University of Sydney, Adelaide Univeristy and Curtin University in Perth.

At Comic-Con International today, the official trailer for “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” was announced today. It’s a digital video series that will span across five episodes, starting Oct. 5, 2012 and ends Nov. 6 which aligns with the official release of Halo 4. It will be made available through MachinimaPrime’s YouTube Channel.

For Aussie Halo fans, the film stars a young Australian actor, Tom Green, as the male lead character. You may also recognise the female lead from Chronicles of Narnia, Anna Popplewell.

The movie, with a 90-minute extended edition after Halo 4’s release, tells a story of a young cadet in the Halo universe. Although the story looks to be a mix between action and romance, Halo’s legendary Master Chief does eventually make an appearance after the Covenant attack the training school.

“Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” tells an exciting story of heroism and sacrifice on a scale never before seen in the “Halo” universe, taking fans back to the beginning of the human and Covenant war and leading into the events of “Halo 4.” Set against the backdrop of a United Nations Space Command (UNSC) military academy, a group of highborn cadets are training to be the next generation of soldiers in the UNSC’s ongoing war with insurrectionists in the outer colonial planets. Among these cadets, Thomas Lasky struggles with his doubts about this war, and with the burden of expectations he may not be able to carry. As Lasky comes to terms with his potential as a military leader, the terrifying alien alliance known as the Covenant arrives and turns his world upside down. Inspired by the Master Chief, he must decide what it means to be a hero. “Halo” fans who experience Lasky’s thrilling origin story in “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” will be rewarded with special insights into the story of “Halo 4” and the “Halo Infinity Multiplayer” experience.

Directed by Stewart Hendler (“H+,” “Sorority Row”) and written by Todd Helbing and Aaron Helbing (“Smallville,” “Spartacus”), “Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” features a diverse cast of established and up-and-coming Hollywood talent, including Tom Green (“Dance Academy”) as Thomas Lasky, Anna Popplewell (“The Chronicles of Narnia”) as Chyler Silva, Daniel Cudmore (“X2,” “X-Men: The Last Stand,” “The Twilight Saga”) as the Master Chief, Ayelet Zurer (“Angels & Demons,” “Munich”) as Mehaffey, Mike Dopud (“Mission Impossible – Ghost Protocol”) as General Black, Enisha Brewster (“Footloose”) as April Orenski, Masam Holden (“Grey’s Anatomy,” “Elizabethtown”) as Michael “Sully” Sullivan, Osric Chau (“2012”) as JJ Chen, Iain Belcher (“Supernatural”) as Vickers, and Kat De Lieva as Dimah.

“Halo 4: Forward Unto Dawn” is backed by a top-tier production team led by executive producers Lydia Antonini and Josh Feldman, former Warner Bros. and Playtone executives, respectively. Continuing its involvement with the “Halo” franchise, Legacy Effects (“The Hunger Games,” “The Avengers,” “Avatar”) is creating specialised costumes and armor, and visual effects are being designed by an award-winning team led by John Sullivan (“The Pacific”). Production services are provided by Herzog & Co.

At Sydney today I had the opportunity to pitch and launch a startup product I’ve been working on (and using) in the last number of weeks called SoundGecko.

SoundGecko is a service that let’s you listen to any article on the web, on the go, anywhere.

As someone who now commutes to the city and back every day, spending around 40 minutes on the train, I wanted an easier way to catch up on tech news without squinting at the tiny text on my mobile. Now, I just listen to them on the train. I even listen to reddit.com/r/bestof this way now.

There’s three different ways of sending articles to SoundGecko: website, email or a browser (Chrome) plugin. In a matter of seconds, SoundGecko will send you back an email with a link to the MP3 file that you can listen to, on any device.

You can do all of this for free, without downloading an app and without registration. However if you do register, you get to use the cool iPhone app and also Google Drive/Dropbox sync that lets you listen to all your articles easily. By the way, this is all powered by Windows Azure as well.

Apps for other platforms (Windows Phone, Windows 8) will be coming soon. Please go check out SoundGecko.com.

Team Quad Squad from Ukraine has just won the $25,000 grand prize of the worldwide software design finals at the 10th anniversary of Microsoft’s Imagine Cup 2012 competition held in Sydney of Australia.

Their project is a completely custom-designed-and-made sensory glove that translates sign language into speech by detection motion, finger flexes among many other variables. Using Bluetooth, it connects the glove to a Windows Mobile device which produces a synthesised voice.

Also at the “World Festival” ceremony this evening in Darling Harbour, during an Oprah moment by Microsoft’s Walid Abu-Hadba, the kind hosts announced they will be giving over 350 students of the Imagine Cup 2012 worldwide finals a free Windows 8 PC devices after general availability (subject to regional availability).

Team Portugal (wi-Go) and team Japan (Coccolo) were awarded the second and third prizes respectively in the software design category. Collectively these guys are the best of around 75 country teams who pitched their projects to judges this last weekend.

Beyond the software design category, team Drexel Dragons from United States also took out the Windows Phone game design grand prize. Still in gaming, team TANG Thai from Thailand won the Xbox/Windows game design first prize.

New to this year, the Coca-Cola environmental sustainability award goes to Team Greenway of Germany – a traffic management and reduction system. And the Coca-Cola health awareness award was won by Team Italy with their 5thElement project which enabled Kinect for autistic children to improve involvement and learning experiences during the therapy.

Various other challenge (IT, Windows Azure, Windows Phone, Kinect Fun Labs, People’s Choice, Windows Metro Style App) awards were also given out and you can find the full list on the Imagine Cup winners announcement.