The UrbanWire      

“Fashion with a purpose” is what best describes Ocean Minded, a leading designer and manufacturer of environmentally responsible footwear and apparel.

UrbanWire got a sneak peek of the 2010 Spring/ Summer Collection at Ocean Minded’s concept store at VivoCity on Nov 18.

The new range contains several capsule collections to appeal to various tastes, such as stylish leather sandals, sporty sandals and casual shoes. The products on display showed a refreshing change from the current range.

^{Image Meilani Yellow Plumeria
(All images from Ocean Minded)}

An example is the Image Meilani. It’s an update to the very popular Meilani sandals by adding loud and colourful prints. The Meilani collection is American surfer Bethany Hamilton’s signature sandal and named after her middle name, Meilani, which means “Heavenly Flower” in Hawaiian. Make a statement with the print that suits your personality best.

^{Image Meilani Yellow Green}

The new Image Meilani collection will be available in January 2010 in Yellow Plumeria and Kiwi colours at a recommended retail price of S$39.95.

There’s also the Cheyna collection for women which features premium leather straps. It’s a very versatile selection with its streamlined and simple design, going well with almost every outfit. Sore feet will never be a problem as the midsole is made from the special recycled Ocean Minded foam containing Ethylene Vinyl Acetate to guarantee comfort with every step.

^{Cheyna Red}

The Cheyna collection will be available from February 2010 in Red, Black and Yellow at a recommended retail price of S$49.95.

Not forgetting the guys, there’s the Seaweed collection that’s created with recycled Croslite material to keep the weight to a minimum. It also features a pliable nylon toe post made from recycled plastic bottles that prevents abrasions between toes.

^{Seaweed Charcoal/Lime}

The Seaweed collection will be available in January 2010 in Rasta and Charcoal/Lime at a recommended retail price of S$54.95.

The Durbo collection by Bede Durbridge is another very surfer-inspired sandal and is surprisingly comfortable thanks to its Croslite DNA. Wear the Durbo with extra pride as it has a specially crafted message on its outsole such as “Keep our beaches clean. Be part of the solution” and “Live. Protect. Respect.”

^{Durbo Rasta}

With great attention to details in the stitching and labels, plus the use of materials such as Croslite which makes the footwear non-slip and odour resistant, Ocean Minded promises comfort, durability and environmental responsibility while still being fashionable.

Trail, sand, gravel and road were soaked with more than 10, 000 people’s blood, sweat and tears during the New Balance REAL RUN 2009 on Nov 8.

The ultimate X-terrain challenge pushed even the most seasoned of runners to the brink of exhaustion. Even Dev Kumar Rai, a Gurkha (they’re known for their courage and stamina), admitted that the race route was harsh.

“I think that the race is very challenging, especially the muddy area. It’s lucky that it didn’t rain before the race, or it would have been very difficult.”

Held at the Changi Exhibition Centre, the enthusiastic joggers were flagged off by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, Senior Minister of State for Law & Home Affairs and current president of HomeTeamNS.

He provided words of encouragement to the runners like, “You can do this!” before waving the starting flag and was waiting at the end to cheer on the runners as Alex Melly breezed past the finishing line.

Alex, at a prime age of 26, proved to everyone why Kenya is dominant in long distance athletics with a convincing finish time of 32:48 minutes in the 10 km Men’s Open Category, more than 2 minutes faster than the second placed runner.

When asked about the race, he said, “I like the route, its very good.”

Up and coming runner, Rui Yong Soh, second year student from Raffles Institution is promising to be the next Mok Ying Ren with his first place finish in the 10 km Men’s Junior Category.

Call it déjà vu, but there are similarities between the 2 mentioned runners. Both have won the same running category and are sponsored by Nike.

Just 2 words from this young talented runner summed up the New Balance REAL RUN 2009, “Very tough”.

(All images taken by Pramod Gurung)

The latest installation of the popular game franchise by NAMCO BANDAI GAMES Inc., Tekken 6, certainly didn’t disappoint. It can’t afford to, especially since 2009 is a good year for gamers, with the release of major fighting games such as King Of Fighters XII, Street Fighter IV and Blazblue just to name a few.

So why should anyone play Tekken 6? With 41 unique characters to choose from, Tekken 6 has the largest fighting roster ever seen in the series (Street Fighter IV only has a measly 19). This means that technically, one shouldn’t get bored with the game due to the abundance of characters available.

The game features a scenario campaign that’s basically a story mode with 2 of the game’s new characters, Alisa and Lars. I’d recommend playing this only if you’re interested in the storyline, if not, just head on to the all-important arcade mode.

The scenario campaign isn’t bad, but it’s just not my cup of tea. I pay good money to play a great fighting game to smash buttons and have fun. The only thing about the scenario campaign that I liked was the amazing cut scenes with the highest level of detail.

Onward to the main course in the game – the arcade mode. It’s where gamers, the young and old, the good and the not-so-good excel in. One might even say it’s where the spirit of Tekken lies.

Getting the hang of the controls to execute a special 10-hit combo will take a while, but in the meantime, the basic fight mechanics are surprisingly simple, with each button controlling a specific limb of your character.

Unfortunately I had trouble completing stage 5 of the arcade mode, against a blonde fighter, Lili. I got 4 of my friends to have a go at her, but she shot all of them down like a cleaner swatting flies. The fighting level of the artificially-intelligent (AI) opponent increases after each stage and she was surprisingly strong.

After much button-mashing and cheering from our motley gang, we finally defeated her. Tekken 6 offers not only a rich fighting experience but also allows users to customize the characters, enhancing the incredible gameplay as the players go fisticuff.

If you are bored of playing against AI, you can go online and pit your skills against other players all over the world via Xbox Live® in the online versus mode. You can also create and upload your own characters as ghost characters, which can be downloaded as AI opponents. The ‘ghosts’ will have all the battle data of the player who uploaded them. This allows you to practise with the best gamers in the globe without having to suffer the agony of losing to them in real time.

Tekken 6 was released on end of last month for Xbox 360® and PlayStation® 3 consoles, and will be available for PlayStation®Portable on Nov 27.

Get ready folks! It’s time to play a new album on your music player because country superstar, Carrie Underwood is back with her third studio album, Play On. If her previous 2 albums are any indication of what to expect from her, this latest album should have success written all over it.

With a very Kelly Clarkson-esque cover picture on her album, it gives the impression that Carrie Underwood is trying to cross over to the more pop side of country music. After all, that’s how she’s managed to sell more record copies than any other American Idol winner. Simon Cowell was right in saying that Carrie Underwood would become the biggest American Idol singer (in album sales) in Idol history.

So how do the new songs fare compared to the high expectations that Carrie Underwood set from her first 2 albums, Some Hearts and Carnival Ride? I’d have to say quite good actually. I can easily see quite a number of songs making it onto the Billboard’s Top 10 Country Songs list.

Her first single, “Cowboy Casanova”, was released ahead of time but it got people buzzing in anticipation of her new album. It has a very aggressive guitar riff in the opening that paves the way for Carrie to sing about how country boys can be so dangerous yet irresistible at the same time. It’s a rather cliché song with lyrics comparing guys to “a disease”, “a curse” and “like a drug”, but for her, it’s a proven record seller.

Another song that I particularly liked is “Mama’s Song”. It’s a touching ballad about how mothers shouldn’t worry too much about their daughter getting married as the man is treating her like a real man should. A drastic change from the loud and upbeat first single, but I’m loving it.

If you thought “Cowboy Casanova” portrayed the country starlet’s bad-girl side, think again. The song, “Songs Like This” is like Carrie gone vamp. With lyrics like “Wanna find some boy, rip his heart right out” and “How easy sweet revenge rolls off my lips”, coupled with a wicked banjo, I’ve a feeling that this song will appeal to many teenage girls.

That being said, Carrie Underwood definitely deserves credit for her song-writing as they feature in more than half of the songs in the album. Her maturity is evident in her song writing skills, but after 2 fabulous albums, one would expect better from her.

Title: Play On
Artiste: Carrie Underwood
Language: English
Record Label: 19/Arista Nashville
Release Date: Nov 2

Standout tracks: “Cowboy Casanova”, “Mama’s Song”, “Songs Like This”, “This Time”

Tracklist:
1. Cowboy Casanova
2. Quitter
3. Mama’s Song
4. Change
5. Undo It
6. Someday When I Stop Loving You
7. Songs Like This
8. Temporary Home
9. This Time
10. Look at me
11. Unapologize
12. What Can I Say (feat. Sons of Sylvia)
13. Play On

The point of having a mini notebook is presumably to have such a small form factor, you can tuck it away in a large pocket. But this week, Hewlett-Packard (HP) has launched the HP Mini 311, which goes the other way, fitting the largest screen on a Mini notebook.

Its main bragging rights come from the 11.6-inch diagonal HD LED Brightview Widescreen Display. Other features include having a NVIDIA ION LE graphics card to allow you to watch HD movies and Altec Lansing speakers to complete the full HD experience.

Priced at $849, the HP Mini 311 comes with either Black Swirl or White Swirl protective HP Imprint finishes.

HP Mini 311

From Brother International Singapore comes a new range of compact colour printers using LED technology.

The compact colour LED printers, HL-3040CN and HL-3070CW, are very similar in terms of specifications with the latter packed with more features. Both have built-in Ethernet for networking and print sharing while the HL-3070CW comes with an additional WIRELESS LAN plus the option to print from USB flash memory drive.

You can expect high speed printing at 16 pages per minute and rich colour print quality at up to 2,400 x 600 dpi resolution. Available in stores by mid-November.

Recommended Retails Prices

HL-3040CN – $498

HL- 3070CW – $568

HL-3040CN

HL-3070CW

All the listed products from Brother come with a 3-year on-site warranty.

Last, but not least, Sony unveiled its latest Blu-ray player, BDP-S765, for home theatre movie buffs. It features the latest cutting-edge technologies like the newly developed HD Reality Enhancer and Super Bit Mapping to deliver even sharper and more vibrant images from today’s Blu-ray disc movies.

The BDP-S765 is fully BD-Live capable through the Ethernet connection that lets users connect to the Internet to access BD-Live features and firmware updates. Another good thing is that you can always save the content downloaded from BD-Live onto a USB flash storage device connected to the external flash memory port.

This player will decode the latest advanced audio codes effortlessly and, because it has an integrated headphone jack for virtual surround, it will simulate the sound of a multi-channel home theatre setup when you put on a pair of headphones.

There’s even a front USB port for viewing photos from your USB flash memory drive or directly from a digital camera.

Well, it has a Quick Start mode that improves boot-up times to just 6 seconds. It also has Sony’s XrossMediaBar™ for easy menu navigation and Sony’s BRAVIA Sync™ for Theatre.

Did I mention that the remote control is backlit?

The BDP-S765 Blu-ray player is available at all Sony authorised retailers at a suggested retail price of $799 (inclusive of GST).

More than 10, 000 local runners along with a million other people from more than 30 countries around the globe participated in the world’s largest 1-day running event, the Nike+ Human Race 10K on Oct 24.

It’s only the second year that Nike has held this event and Singapore was once again the only country in Southeast Asia to be a part of this historic race. It’s no surprise, actually, considering that Singapore was the first to fill its registration slots in a record 6 days.

This year’s run offered a unique race experience as the participants took off onto the track where, only recently, the top Formula 1 drivers were racing, with the tire marks still visible.

The runners were flagged off by a panda mascot from the World Wide Fund for Nature, Nike’s global adopted charity, while Estranged from Malaysia pumped up the atmosphere with their rock act. Adding to the excitement was Thaitanium from Thailand, Taken By Cars from Philippines and Singapore’s very own The Fire Fight and Composition B.

These enthusiastic joggers spilled out in an endless stream of red Nike t-shirts and it took more than 20 minutes for everyone to start their race.
Just 30 minutes into the race, the crowd went wild after seeing the flashing lights of the race marshals’ bikes accompanying the race leader, Jauhari Johan, from Indonesia.

He crossed the finish line in just over 31 minutes, which was about 2 minutes faster than what he clocked last year. When asked about his overall race experience, he said, “I’m very happy and proud that I won and this will give me a good confidence boost before the upcoming SEA games later this year.”

The flag-off time for this year’s race at 7.20 am, as compared to the previous year’s 4.30 pm, seemed to have garnered mixed opinions among the runners. The winner himself said that he preferred the race to be in the morning as that was when the body is fresh, while avid runner, Lee Ying Hao, 19, said that it’s better to run in the evening when the weather is cooler.

Despite differences in opinions, 10, 000 people from all walks of life still ran the Nike+ Human Race 10k. October 24 can now be counted as the day Nike united the world.

In a knockout combo, Sony will release not 1, but 3 new VAIO notebook (namely the X, CW and NW) series along with a new VAIO desktop L series, giving us 7 spanking new products. All the computers will be available in Singapore at end October, with prices to be released.

The X series:

Remember Apple’s MacBook Air? Well, the X series is Sony’s version. It’s mainly targeted at people who want a laptop that’s almost as light as a netbook, at just over 600 grams, yet having the computing power of regular size notebooks. Business users who travel frequently will love to know that their laptop can last up to 16 hours of continuous use with the introduction of the VAIO X series’ 8-cell battery option.
It’s also Sony’s first 3G notebook model, equipped with WWAN for users to stay connected to high-speed Internet on the go. The VAIO X series features a high quality 11.1’’ wide, LED-backlit display along with a convenient multi-finger gesture touch pad for easy flick and zoom navigation.

The VAIO X comes in 2 colours, limited edition Gold and Black.

The CW series:

Targeted at gamers and those who enjoy watching videos on their notebooks, the 14-inch Real Wide LCD screen delivers colorful, breathtaking images. Users will also be able to create high definition videos using the exclusive VAIO Media Gallery, with music tracks of their own choice, without having to use other applications for different media files.

Other notable features of the CW series notebooks are the powerful NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM, a well-placed Quick Web Access button and a DISPLAY OFF button to conserve power.

The CW series comes in 5 eye-catching colors of Black, White, Red, Blue and Pink to suit the personality of the user.

The NW series:

Also available in Singapore from November, the NW series is the perfect choice for people who find their desktop to be more bulky than they’d like. It also has a 15.5-inch widescreen with 16:9 aspect ratio, vastly enhancing your viewing pleasure. A reverse hinge design camouflages the point where the display and the back of the keyboard meet, creating an even sleeker image.

With an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card, 320 GB hard disk drive and 2GB of RAM, the NW series is definitely no slouch.

The VAIO NW comes in 3 colours, Brown, White and Black.

The L series:

Know people who have a bad habit of touching their computer screen constantly and who want all-in-one PCs? Now they’ll have every excuse to, with the new VAIO L series. It is the first VAIO series to be equipped with multi-touch optical sensor display and on a gorgeous 24-inch wide display, using your PC is a whole new experience. Flick, flip, zoom and rotate images with a few deft touches. It’s that simple!

With a full HD 1920 x 1080 display (VAIO Display Plus), users can now enjoy the latest Blu-ray Discs on the new VAIO L series with the built-in Blu-ray drive. But what’s the point of having high definition visuals without having the audio to back it up? The VAIO L series has 5.5W + 5.5W speakers and S Master Digital Amplifier technology integrated into the PC itself to allow users to experience a premium audio experience without the unsightly clutter of additional cables.

To keep things simple, the VAIO L series allows users to save more workspace by being able to store its wireless keyboard under the display. With the sleek profile of the L series along with its Intel Core 2 Duo Processor and 4 GB of memory (upgradeable to 12GB), we might just have found something to keep our itchy hands busy with.