HTC Hong Kong unleashed a one-two combo punch by releasing two new Windows 7 mobile powered phones, the HTC HD7, and the HTC 7 Mozart. On hand to help launch the two phones was singer/actress Ella Koo who always makes us “coo.”

Yes, it’s true HTC has gone goo goo for Microsoft. If this news wasn’t bad enough Neonpunch was subjected to advanced torture techniques at the launch event, a long winded and boring demo of the new mobile OS, for the second time! What made this even more horrendous was that this was the exact same demo that was done at the LG Optimus 7 E900 launch demo the week before.

No exact launch date has been announced by HTC other than fourth quarter this year which we are already in, so expect these mobile phones to be in the shops sometime soon. As for prices the HD7 has a SRP of HK$4,998 and the Mozart HK$4,498.

HTC HD7HTC HD7 features a large 4.3” high-resolution screen that can be watched handsfree with its built-in kickstand.

Features

• CPU Processing Speed 1 GHz
• 5 megapixel color camera
• Auto focus and dual LED flash
• 720p HD video recording
• Built-in scenes include candlelight, landscape, and portrait match the environment of your subject
• Supports MicroSD 16GB memory
• SRS Surround Sound
• SRP: HK$4,998

HTC 7 MozartThe slim, solid and smart HTC 7 Mozart is crafted from a single piece of anodized aluminum and features SRS WOW HD for high-fidelity, virtual surround sound.

Features

• CPU Processing Speed 1 GHz
• 8 megapixel color camera
• Auto focus and Xenon flash
• 720p HD video recording
• Built-in scenes include candlelight, landscape, and portrait match the environment of your subject
• Supports MicroSD 8GB memory
• SRS Surround Sound
• SRP: HK$4,498

If you are like us and cannot wait to get your hand on the motion controller for the Xbox 360 called the Kinect – and if you are fanboy enough you can obtain bragging rights over the rest of us.

Microsoft is selling 400 special Kinect bundles hours ahead of the official launch. So if you want to be the first to connect with Kinect you’re going to want to get yourself down to Tai Koo Shing in the late afternoon the day before the launch.

Xbox 360 Kinect first sale day event details

• Location: City Plaza, 5th Floor, UA Cinemas Director’s Club
• Date: November 17, 2010 Wednesday
• Time: 20:15 (start lining up at 3 pm)

Xbox 360 4GB Kit host and Kinect

• Xbox 360 4GB
• Kinect sensor
• Kinect Adventures game x 1
• Xbox 360 Black Wireless controller
• Xbox 360 A / V line
• Xbox LIVE Gold Membership month
• Kinect warranty
• Price: HK $ 2,499

Is Microsoft corrupting Hong Kong with more prizes for the first 15 super hardcore employees that don’t return to work after lunch or students that leave school early? Or are they just giving the senior citizens of Hong Kong something to do?

Either way we’ll see you on Xbox Live as soon as we have our Kinect!

We’re surprised at how much Hallowe’en has become a national holiday in Hong Kong. But why not? Cosplay is so popular why not use it sell more than candy! Microsoft took the charge yesterday by rolling out some sexy monsters to promote a bundle package for the Xbox 360 250GB model.

During the promotion period which starts November 2nd, customers who buy the Xbox 360 at a special price of HK$2,369 (original price $2,987) get to including the racing game Forza Motorsport 3 and the horror action game Alan Wake!

This offer is available at all licensed retailers so your best bet is probably Toys R Us.

This is a last chance to get an Xbox before the world goes crazy for Kinect on November 18th. Microsoft has confirmed that there are 13 games launching that are Kinect enhanced that will drive you and anyone nearby into fits of delirium. All the games range in price from HK$259 to HK$399 with EA Sports Active 2 being the most expensive at HK$799 – some of the games will come out in December so they can be bi-lingual so get ready to wait for those since we can’t play US games on HK versions of Xbox.

Wow, Microsoft with so many exciting products in the same year – Xbox Kinect, Windows Phone 7, Office for Mac – what is going over there in Redmond?

For something as big as major new browser from Microsoft to be launched at the Philia Lounge in Central seemed a bit anti-climatic.

Sure, the US had the launch 12 hours ahead of Hong Kong but it seems like the key point of a web browser is to show off the web, um, online – and not necessarily in person? It seems that Microsoft wanted to hold an event just to show off to the press how fast their new Internet Explorer 9 could load OpenRice.com.

Ironic Explorer, no?

Public relations awkwardness aside, the actual browser seems to be a pretty major upgrade from what we’ve seen before. The IE9 public beta is now available to Windows 7 and Vista owners – sorry XP people, but c’mon its really time you upgraded?

We got Microsoft Business Group Leader Raymond Hung to give us a walkthrough which you can see in the video below – but basically the key points were:

• Super-fast HTML 5 rendering – check out the fish demo at 60 fps.
• Scalable vector graphics, CSS3 and the hope that IE will actually deliver the same look across all modern browsers.
• Protection against spam ads and phishing.
• Pinned sites to the taskbar with jump lists that the webmaster can control.
• Integrated look – so it doesn’t look like a browser as much as part of the desktop.

Microsoft has also rolled out kudos from some of Hong Kong’s biggest sites like HKGolden, 6waves, OpenRice.com and TVB.com – all raving about the new browser for gaming, video, surfing and lag-free experiences. Here are a bunch of screen shots to have a look at with local content on it:

And bad news web designers – we were asked Microsoft the question about how this will roll out to corporates and lazy IT departments that can rid their PC’s of Internet Explorer 6 - unfortunately Microsoft is concentrating IE9 on the consumer market so it seems until 2014 when they give up supporting XP you will still have to code around IE6.

The IE9 beta will be the standard until a final release in early 2011.

And even though there is no plans currently to release this new browser on the Mac platform (looks like Microsoft decided Mac users only need Office) they did remind us that MSN Messenger for iPhone is the consolation prize that just launched recently on the app store.

See more of IE9 here: http://www.beautyoftheweb.com/

Once you download it, you can test out these cool samples with it.

We want to know what you think of the new IE9 browser so let us know in the poll below:

Finally a new version of Microsoft Office is coming out for the Mac in a couple of months. If you buy the current Office package now you can upgrade to this new version for free. The prices are quite reasonable as compared to what they used to charge for Office but still way more than iWork, Open Office and Google Docs.

So if you or your company lives within Microsoft and the only way you can use a Mac is if you succumb to using Office, we can think of worse deaths but we’re interested to find out which office suite you use and if these new features for Office: Mac 2011 will get you to buy it?

We here at the ‘Punch love iWork – all 3 programs look and work better than the Office suite does for us, and actually makes it feel fun to work in. While we’re not doing huge spreadsheets and multi-document files, its ease of use and price (HK$650) makes it a winner.

Sure we also use Google Docs when we are collaborating with others but for all the money Google has you’d think they could hire some nice UI designers even if it can be argued that its a free and fast fully-featured Office substitute.

Here are some videos from Microsoft (yes we know, 2 posts in 2 days) about their new Office suite and we think its interesting enough to watch:

New features include:

• Compatibility: Microsoft has focused on making Office for Mac 2011 more compatible with the Windows version than ever before, ensuring that users and documents can move seamlessly between platforms.
• Graphing: Office for Mac 2011 brings a number of new tools to help users display data in graphical formats, including the Sparklines feature that debuted in Office for Windows 2010. Sparklines allows users to display simple data in small graphs that fit right into the cells of Excel spreadsheets to provide a significant amount of information at just a quick glance.
• Photo Editing: Available throughout the suite, photo editing tools will allow users to perform a number of tasks such as filter application, background removal, and color correction without having to leave the document on which they are working.

Editions and pricing include:

• Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Student 2011: Includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Messenger and is priced at $119 for a single install or $149 for a Family Pack allowing up to three installs in a single household.
• Microsoft Office for Mac Home and Business 2011: Includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Messenger and is priced at $199 for a single install or $279 for a Multi-Pack that allows a user to install Office on two of their Macs.
• Microsoft Office for Mac Academic 2011: Includes Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook, and Messenger and is available for higher education students, staff, and faculty, with a single install priced at $99. This academic version may only be purchased from authorized academic stores or direct from Microsoft.

Office 2011 will be available in 13 languages, including Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish and Swedish. Sorry, looks like the Chinese version availability will be announced in October.

via Macrumors.com

You have to wonder what’s going on at Sony. They make phones and they make handheld music devices and they make portable game devices and we’re sure they’ve seen the iPhone by now – but only rumors and shushed sounds on a potential PS game/phone device. But look who’s beaten then to the table?

This Fall when Windows Phone 7 ships from Microsoft its going to have a whole integration with its Xbox platform and now you can see what its going to look like.

Engadget broke the story today on the launch games: Castlevania, Halo: Waypoint, Star Wars, Crackdown, and Guitar Hero, alongside a handful of newer properties like the ultra-cute ilomilo, produced in-house by Microsoft Game Studios.

Head over to Engadget to see tons of photos and tons of videos of the offline phone giving you a pretty nice look at the experience.

We played with an early build of Windows Phone 7 about 2 months ago and it was running on an LG phone. All we’ll say for now is that it looks like Microsoft, ironically, put too much into the aesthetic and not enough into practicality of the phone (not to mention it lacks everything the first gen iPhone lacked) but we’re still hoping that by the time it comes out that some of kinks will be worked out and if it really does integrate seamlessly with say Microsoft Office then it could get some marketshare in the business world.

So to cover the other side – the fun side – adding in this Xbox gaming side is pitch perfect. While Asia is more Playstation than Xbox. the 360 has a very serious hold on the worldwide gaming community, but will they gravitate to this new device.

Tell us what you think in today’s poll:

It was a hot sticky Sunday afternoon, as we discovered not everyone is in line for an iPad, as hundreds of gamers came out in force to buy the new Xbox 360 console this past weekend.

The special first day sale took place in the Atrium of Langham Place Mall in Mong Kok and gamers had been queuing up since the mall opened its doors that morning for a chance to be among the first 200 people in Hong Kong to own the new Microsoft console.

The new Xbox 360 features a new slighter slimmer and edgier body that comes with a whopping 250GB hard drive and built-in Kinect hardware, making this Xbox 360 2.0 console a definite must buy for the hardcore gamer.

There to help launch the new 2.0 console was celebrity ??? and local super Halo gamer girl ??? (who only plays Halo with the best of the best in the world).

Those that attended and bought a console each received data transfer cable and a special coupon that will allow them to try out the new Kinect system at this year’s Ani-Con that is being held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre in Wan Chai at the end of this month.

There was also a special deluxe package that was available for an extra HK$399 on top of the HK$2,369 for the console, which included an extra controller with re-chargeable battery and charging cable, a carry bag and two games (Forza Motor Sport 3 and Nier).

The new Xbox 360 2.0 console is available now at your nearest gaming retailer for the suggested retail price of HK$2,369. Kinect is coming in November so plenty of time to practice your skillz before jumping around with it.

Yesterday, Microsoft Hong Kong officially launched MS Office 2010 their latest installment of their widely used office tools suite. Neonpunch was at the official launch event that was held at the Hong Kong Air Cadet West Kowloon Helipad (it’s very near Elements).

Yes, we were outside in the heat, on one of the hottest and humid days in Hong Kong to watch Raymond Lam (林峯) fly in on a helicopter to kick-off the launch of MS Office 2010! Because nothing says “Office” more than being outside in the humidity, with helicoptors, big inflatable balls and Raymond Lam.

If things weren’t hot enough Neonpunch’s favourite models Emma and Wing were in attendance to double team our photographer with their sweet hot summer smiles.

During the launch presentation Raymond Lam confessed he was a lifelong MS user and said “I don’t know any other operating system,” the comment was met with cheers and applause from some very pleased MS Bosses. At the end of 20 minutes of pomp and circumstance where big cardboard checks were doled out to contest winners and a whopping HK$50,000 was donated to the HK Air Cadet Corps, we were given the opportunity to try out the new MS Office 2010. Unfortunately due to the heat and the fact that the shuttle bus back to Tsim Sha Tsui was leaving 5 minutes after the end of the presentation, we didn’t get to put the new office suite through its paces.

But according to MS hype and press release the new Office 2010 can do these things:

• Create great-looking documents and presentations. Express creativity in PowerPoint 2010 presentations with new video and photo editing features. Add extensive text effects and table formatting options in Word 2010. Reveal important trends in data with Sparklines in Excel 2010. OneNote 2010 makes everything you need simple to find, organize and share.
• Connect and work together more simply. Advanced e-mail management and calendaring capabilities in Outlook 2010 and the new Outlook Social Connector help people stay productive and in touch with personal and business networks. Work with others more efficiently using new co-authoring in Word 2010, PowerPoint 2010 and OneNote 2010. Deliver presentations over the Web with new PowerPoint Broadcast Slideshow.
• Get things done from virtually anywhere. With Office 2010 and the Office Web Apps — the online companions to Word, PowerPoint, Excel and OneNote — people have the freedom to save documents directly from Office 2010 to Windows Live SkyDrive, then view, edit and share those documents in the cloud. The Office Web Apps preserve the look and feel of Office documents, so valuable content and formatting are not compromised while moving between the PC, phone and browser. Office Mobile 2010 also is available from Windows Phone Marketplace for all Windows Mobile 6.5 phones. People using Office Mobile 2010 can perform lightweight editing of Office documents and take notes on the go, or work on Office documents stored on their phone or attached to an e-mail.

Suggested Retail Price

• Home & Student (for 3 machines) – HK$1,204
• Home & Business (1 for primary use and 1 for back-up) – HK$2,199
• Professional (1 for primary use and 1 for back-up) – HK$3,899

MS Office 2010 is available from Fortress, Broadway and more than 100 retail outlets. As part of the launch promotion customers can also get a MS BlueTrack Mouse 6000 and Office training toolkit if purchasing Office 2010 with Lenovo machines at chain retail stores Fortress and Broadway or the Lenovo Pro Shops at Shatin and Tsim Sha Tsui.

We get one holiday and the video game world explodes. We’ll try and catch you up on what you may have missed yesterday.

At the E3 Expo, Microsoft unveiled “Kinect“, the motion-sensing game system that plugs into Xbox and allows hands-free games and controlling the console with voice commands. It will begin selling in November 4, before the crucial holiday season, hoping to lure new and casual players to the Xbox and steal a march on rivals Nintendo Co Ltd and Sony Corp.

The world’s largest software vendor will also begin selling a smaller, same-priced version of the console this week. But the new Xbox 360 will not be able to read players’ motions without the Kinect add-on. Microsoft ambitions to make its Xbox 360 not just a gaming device but a hub of home video and Web entertainment,

Kinect uses a three-camera system and gesture recognition software to read a player’s body movements and then translates those actions onto the TV screen into the game to let people play videogames using natural body gestures instead of hand-held controllers. The platform, if it works well, takes gamers a step beyond Nintendo’s Wii.

Microsoft didn’t disclose how much Kinect will sell for, though analysts’ estimates range from $50 to $200.

On its launch day, Kinect will drop with 15 titles. Microsoft highlighted 6 of the 15:

• Kinectimals – Lets youngsters play with virtual animals, sort of like Nintendogs but with wild and impossibly cute animals.
• Kinect Sports – Soccer, bowling, beach volleyball, pingpong and boxing competitions, track and field games. A bit like Wii Sports.
• Joyride – a racing game, lets players use their hands to hold an imaginary steering wheel – “Thrill of high speed kart racing, with the joy of controller-free gaming”
• Kinect Adventures – an adventure that lets players raft down digital rivers.
• Your Shape: Fitness Evolved – an amazing looking fitness game that lets users track their personal fitness and do workouts with digital trainers. The game features running and aerobics.
• Dance Central – brings a So You Think You Can Dance experience at home, without needing to step on stupid pads or mats.

Microsoft also offered sneak peeks of a LucasArts game, in which Jedi Knights do battle with light sabers, something very enticing. In demonstrations, Microsoft employees showed how Kinect can also be used for video chats as well as to listen to music and watch movies with friends in other locations.

But that’s not all. Microsoft also struck a deal with ESPN network to broadcast live sporting events through the Xbox 360 games console, bypassing traditional cable providers.

Nintendo’s got Wii. Microsoft’s got Kinect. Your Move, Sony.

Earlier this week we picked out the best Android phones, well if you are still not sold on those as alternatives you still have one more big one coming later this year.

Microsoft announced its next-generation mobile OS for mobile devices and dubbed it as Windows Phone 7. It is successor to Microsoft’s line of Windows Mobile operating system. According to the announcement Microsoft made at Mobile World Congress 2010 in Barcelona, the project formerly known as “Windows Phone 7 Series” is set to be released by the holiday shopping season.

Unlike its predecessors, is focused on regular mobile phone users instead of just business users. The WP7 features a new METRO User Interface, which is a bit similar to Zune HD’s UI. On the Start Menu, a barrage of “tiles” is displayed, showing you the apps and functions that you most often use or do on your phone. These tiles can also show real time data from apps like Facebook, Calendar, etc.

Another feature of WM7 is People Hub, which shows you the people in your phonebook, whom you usually call, exchange messages with or connect with, whether they’re your Facebook buddies or GMail contacts. Since it allows you to sync with Facebook, you can view your friends’ updates thru People Hub.

Another feature is Office Hub, which allows you to easily sync your Microsoft Office documents between your phone and your PC. Office Hub comprises of OneNote, ideal for notetaking, and Documents and Sharepoint for presentation collaboration. Office Hub also syncs with Outlook and offers features found on the desktop version like mail flagging. WP7 will also come with a mobile version of Xbox LIVE, complete with Spotlight feed, gamer’s avatar, achievements and profile display.

WP7S also allows users to purchase games and apps easily from the Windows Marketplace and play games with other users.

There’s no multitasking in Windows Phone 7 – in general most apps won’t simply be able to carry on when you switch away from them. Aside from the lack of multitasking, Microsoft has another notably absent headline feature that’ll undoubtedly ruffle some feathers: copy and paste. You would have thought Microsoft would have included this since Apple initially didn’t.

Still, while Microsoft is laying down the ground rules in an effort to construct a more reliable experience across different phones, it doesn’t mean there won’t be variety. Different devices will have their own distinctive features, like keyboards and front-facing cameras, but in general there will be a much more sturdy tone in the nature of Windows Phone 7 devices.

According to Engadget, here’s a look at the specs thus far:

• At first, only large 800 x 480 (WVGA) touchscreens will be permitted.
• Five specific hardware buttons are required: Start, back, search (which integrates with Bing services where appropriate), camera button, and power.
• Capacitive multi-touch with support for a minimum of four contact points, though no more than two are used by any of the platform’s six native gestures (developers are welcome to use as many as they like).
• A Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU with DirectX 9 graphics support. Microsoft says the platform is flexible enough to expand to other chips in the future, but right now it’s all Qualcomm.
• 256MB of RAM or more
• 8GB of internal Flash storage or more
• No support for microSD cards, though that’s partially offset by the requirement for capacious internal storage.
• WiFi
• AGPS
• Accelerometer
• FM radio
• 5-megapixel camera or better with flash

Current mobile phone models running an OS from Microsoft sport Windows Mobile 6.5, a platform that is losing market share to Google’s Android. Unfortunately, these devices might not be able to support the next generation OS. I pity those who are buying Windows Mobile 6.5 phones today – I’d say wait for the holidays to come around to shop for the upcoming phones that will run Microsoft’s next generation mobile OS.