Recently having stumbled upon the RSS Feed for The Malay Mail, we have several localised topics to bring to your attention. Starting with an article covering Oracle’s announcement that the rate of growth within the Asia Pacific region in regards to the adoption of Grid-Computing was higher than any place on the planet:

The study showed an 83 per cent year-on-year rise of organisations in APAC that have implemented or plan to implement a Grid Computing system, compared to lower growth in the USA (45 per cent) and Europe (7 per cent). “The increased adoption in Asia Pacific is the result of greater appreciation for the value that Grid Computing offers to organisations, coupled with the readiness level of IT infrastructure that is already in place,” said Quocirca research director Clive Longbottom.

Further analysis into the countries driving the adoption results show that South-East Asia is a top scorer with almost 50 per cent of its organisations having implemented or planning to implement a Grid Computing system – the largest share of planned implementations worldwide." For our full year FY06, Oracle Asia Pacific had more than 40 per cent year-on-year growth in customers for Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC), a building block for Grid Computing architectures,” said Oracle Asia Pacific senior director of technology architecture Chris Chelliah.

The next piece of interesting technology news that Cache had provided was in regards to Thinkscape Creative Communications Group, who announced that they were the sole distributors of the M2i Heliodisplay FreeSpace Projection Display; and being the world’s first interactive free-space display system, they may gotten themselves a very strong foot hold in the holographic market of Malaysia.

They may be a generation ahead of themselves, for we still have the whole Microsoft Surface phase to go through first, but it is nonetheless very interesting news:

Developed by IO2 Technology, a US-based company, the projection device is capable of producing images that literally fl oat in mid-air, unlike traditional systems that rely on solid or frosted glass screens. Speaking at its launch, the founder and principal of Thinkscape John Jong expressed his excitement over the prospect of this novel technology. “It is the first of its kind in the world and Thinkscape is proud to be appointed as the sole distributor of the M2i technology in the country. Our vision is to heighten its availability in the consumer market. We hope that it would transcend existing methods of business communications, and eventually become a catalyst to spur new trends in businesses and daily lives. ”

“This is something that people have been dreaming about for a long time, ever since the movie Star Wars featuring a distress call from Princess Leia was released. People from all over the world have wanted one of these and now, science fiction has become a rooted reality with the M2i Heliodisplay.” Apart from Malaysia, Thinkscape was also appointed by IO2 Technology as the distributor for the M2i Heliodisplay for the South-East Asian region.

Last but not least, The Malay Mail also had something promising to say about a new partnership between Celcom (Malaysia) Bhd and Hewlett Packard (M) Sdn Bhd that would empower users with integrated 3G mobile broadband:

For only RM190 a month, users will be able to take home a HP Compaq nx6310 notebook, mid-range mobile workstation that offers users a compelling mobile computing solution. Commenting on the strategic partnership, Celcom Malaysia Bhd’s chief executive officer Datuk Shazalli Ramly revealed, “This unprecedented strategic alliance is set to strengthen both Celcom and HP’s market position and revenue through voice and data usage for Celcom and upgrades and accessory sales for HP.

Subscribers of the Celcom HP 3G Bundling Package programme need only pay RM190 per month for 24 installments. They will take home a fully-featured HP Compaq nx6310 notebook, a Celcom 3G data card as well as a full subscription to the Celcom 3G service, which now offers download speeds of up to 2Mbps (megabits per second). The programme is available via a Zero- Per Cent interest installment plan for selected credit cards.

The entire bundle is worth RM4,560, which saves you up to RM2,318 off the full value of RM6,878.

To find out more, call 1-800-88- 3447.