Singapore’s a pretty tech-savvy country, and it’s no surprise that
innovations and upcoming creations from our shores reflect just
that. We may be one of the smallest countries around, but with cool
and some really important contributions to the world of tech, we’ve
certainly put ourselves on the map. Here are eight brilliant brands
and bits of tech from Singapore that have made the world a better
place.
Who would’ve thought something this essential and staple to our
daily tech could’ve been designed on our little island?
While there are plenty of competing claims for the maker of world’s
first thumb drive, Singapore was the first to get it a commercial
release. In a partnership with IBM, the 8MB “ThumbDrive” was
manufactured. It was a huge step for storage devices too, as your
old floppy disks only packed 1440KB of storage. And the rest is
history.
Razer and gaming go hand in hand. And amazingly, though it may be
based in the U.S., it was founded by a Singaporean.
Indisputably the world’s leading lifestyle brand for gamers, Rzor
and its triple-headed snake logo can be recognized anywhere. It may
not be the most affordable in the range, but earns its place thanks
to ridiculously good, and of course excellent gaming hardware and
software married with a commitment to build-quality.
In its arsenal are plenty of iconic products, from laptops to mice
and keyboards; you’ve probably used one before and loved it for its
great ergonomics and tactile feel.
It wouldn’t be a list of best Singaporean tech without the iconic
X-Mini.
Xmi are pretty significant in driving portable speakers forward in
the world. And unlike other portable speakers of that time, X-Minis
were properly small with unmatchable sound. You may remember the
classic capsule speakers with their Bass Xpansion System—the
accordion-like chamber that can be opened for even better sound. It
was revolutionary at the time, and is still being duplicated
today.
After 10 whole
years and dozens of awards brought back to the
country, Xmi have released a whole
new range of speakers that are well-priced and
pack great audio. The past few years may not have been smooth for
our darling homegrown brand, but the future sure looks bright.
Surely you’ve heard of Creative, and possibly owned several
products of your own stashed up in your room once upon a time.
Founded in 1981, this is Singapore’s very own digital entertainment
product company that has been changing the game ever since the
release of their Sound Blaster sound cards.
It was the world’s first dedicated audio processing card—like a
brain just for sounds—and it allowed computers to produce more than
just “beeps” and “blips”. It contains the features still used
today—music synthesisers, digital audio, joystick ports and other
parts crucial for audio in devices.
The glory days of the Sound Blaster sound card may be well behind
us, but Creative has sprung forward to deliver solid products
yearly, from the highly affordable Creative Muvo to the
room-thumping Sound Blaster Roar line.
Necessity finds itself the mother of invention again; with our
sizeable citizen-soldier population and large defence industry with
plenty of restricted zones, our NS men needed a smartphone that
could meet their daily needs. The iNO One was hence the first
certified non-camera smartphone based on the Android 4.0 platform
that was made with Singaporeans in mind. Back then, most users
resorted to using old Nokias and conventional phones that were far
from “smart”, or had to buy pricey smartphones only to do it a
disservice by removing or sandblasting the camera.
iNO solved the widespread Singaporean dilemma and then some, as its
phones weren’t just well-built but also well-priced, which made
this the ideal phone to grab before booking in. XiaoMi may have
risen and taken over the title of the go-to non-camera phone,
thanks to mighty low prices (and how it didn’t feel like a kick in
the teeth when its cameras were removed), but we can always feel
good about how Singapore’s tech industry rose to occasion when
there was a need.
Apps are tech too, and Carousell stands proud as one of the best
innovations from Singapore in recent years.
This needs no introduction. Got stuff you don’t want? Don’t throw
it, list it! There’s bound to be someone who can make use of it
somewhere in Singapore. Carousell’s genius is its blending of
Craigslist and Instagram, making it fun and simple to get your
stuff sold.
Recent developments like “bumping” and other marketing ploys have
seen Carousell-ing become trickier for casual sellers not part of
Carousell-based businesses, but it still remains the best platform
for selling pre-loved stuff. The days ahead look exciting too, as
Carousell is currently working on incorporating AI into their app
so you can list products in a matter of seconds.
You can’t miss this; its everywhere. Challenger’s house brand
Valore has really made a name for itself. The quality isn’t
amazing, nor are its products pretty to look at, but they make up
for all those shortcomings with great value and vast coverage—they
make just about everything tech.
From the common cables and powerbanks, to gaming peripherals,
drones and rotating display cases, Valore has got you covered. In
fact, you can count on Valore for just about anything at an
entry-level or for used for daily needs.
It may not be our best, but it’s commendable that a homegrown brand
has made such an impact in local tech. Hats off.
Here’s one that’s really taken off in recent
years, AFTERSHOCK PC.
For serious gamers; these guys specialize in customization and
bespoke rigs, piecing together the PC of your dreams from the
inside out. They rock premium brands and excellent service, really
making a name for themselves. It’s not just CPUs either, they’ve
ventured into gaming laptops that offer some ferocious specs at
good prices.
Singaporean developer Clean Shaven Apps recently became one of
the winners of the very prestigious Apple Design Award at WWDC this
year, which awards independent developers for outstanding Mac and
iOS software and hardware.
The award was given to their super intuitive currency converter
app, Elk
– Travel Currency Converter. It shows conversions for
currencies in a table, one for the home currency and another for
the currency of interest. These currencies can be compared across
10 values, which can be adjusted simply by swiping instead of
typing—fewer actions to get the figure you want.
This story originally appeared on Stuff
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