The "affordable M3", BMW 1M, has been sold out for over a month. Some BMW dealerships were even known for raising the sticker price of $54000 another $40000 during it's 1000 copy run. Anyone looking for a good deal on a 1M should look elsewhere as there's been no depreciation on the vehicle since launch and is the only BMW appreciating in value in recent memory. I'd certainly get in line for one in the future but I just wish it had paddle shifters. This car is for purists only!

"When you hit it right, with the exact amount of power, the right amount of bank and the precise amount of steering, the 1 does what every proper M car should do: hangs out its tail until instructed otherwise." - Autoblog

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/08/03/2011-bmw-1-series-m-coupe-review-road-test/

Engine: Twin-Turbo 3.0L I6
Power: 335 HP / 332 LB-FT
Transmission: 6-Speed Manual
0-60 Time: 4.7 Seconds
Top Speed:
155 MPH (limited)
Drivetrain: Rear-Wheel Drive

I love it when the PC industry needs it's fix on buzzwords to confuse consumers. This year's word...."Ultrabooks". Sony, Samsung, Asus among others have released even more Ultrabook PCs to the market in 2012. Ultrabooks are for the higher end of the notebook market as "Netbooks" were to the low end. Ultrabooks also carry a higher end price as you'll have a challenge finding a good one for under $1000. Common traits of the Ultrabook are very slim designs, lack of optical drive and touch screen. I'll give credit to Apple for getting their early "Ultrabook" out to market first....the MacBook Air. Anyone got a manila envelope?

Samsung announced their first production OLED TV this week. The ES9500 will launch the second half of 2012 in Korea for the equivalent of $9000. The ES9500 is the production version of the test units first shown at CES 2012 earlier in the year. OLED TV's have a ridiculous contrast ratio that makes its image seem like moving photo paper that "pops" right off of the screen. Each individual pixel has it's own backlighting resulting in vivid details and super thin screens. Don't be fooled by the picture above...looks so clear it seems "photoshoped" but it's the real deal. I believe this is the real future of HDTV's as 3D will always be a niche market for gaming/movies and "4K Ultra Resolution" TV's will not take up meaningful market share for another decade. Can't wait to buy an OLED TV when the price drops! Anyone got $9000 to spare in the meantime?

Calling all designers from artists to videographers, your new tools have arrived! Adobe delivers on its "tick-tock" product cycle release with a full revision to Creative Suite 6. You can buy Adobe's new Creative Cloud subscription based service for $49 a month all the way up to the full Master Collection for $2599. Positive reviews have been pouring in for CS6 for its refined GUI to its enhanced hardware GPU acceleration across all of its apps. Can't wait to try out Premiere's new interface and improved Mercury Engine. I'm glad it looks like Adobe didn't mess with Premiere CS6 like Apple nerfed Final Cut Pro X. I recently upgraded to CS 5.5 so I'll wait for 6.5 to be released next year...just in case there's a few kinks to work out. You can check out Creative Bloq's thorough review here:

http://www.creativebloq.com/general/adobe-cs6-review-1233349/

Last month I was invited to the BMW 3-Series launch event hosted by BMW Toronto. The 3-Series is BMW's bread-n-butter car which means the event was completely packed. This event was much bigger than last year's BMW X1 launch. The most notable changes to the F30 iteration of the 3-Series are the wider headlights, that go directly against the kidney grill, and the option of a fuel efficient turbocharged inline 4-cyclinder engine producing up to 241hp. In between the wine, beer and food, I took the opportunity to grill the BMW reps about the lack of a 3-Series coupe in the line-up. Official word was "no comment" but they were hinting that HQ was leaning towards only having even numbers in the BMW series (2,4,6) being coupes and odd numbered vehicles (1,3,5,7) being sedans. I think BMW is diluting their brand by taking a page out of Mercedes' playbook and releasing a model for every demographic under the sun. Why do we even need a 6-Series Gran Coupe...that has 4 doors?! Who really needs a long wheel base 3-Series...just go buy a 5-Series already! This looks like the end of an era for the M3 Coupe. It's going to be a while till I get used to saying "M4 Coupe". *Update: Now BMW's releasing an M6 Gran Coupe? Seriously?!!

The popularity of mobile gaming with iOS and Android platforms have been cutting into traditional portable gaming markets such as the Nintendo 3DS and Sony PS Vita. I'm not a big fan of gaming on my cell phone or any touch screen only device for that matter. Have you ever tried playing a fast action game like Street Fighter 2 on a touch screen and actually enjoyed it? Call me old fashioned but I need buttons! I'm sure once the 3DS and PS Vita hit their stride and release killer apps and games they'll reclaim more of the market share but mobile gaming has the unfair advantage of not being rated by the ESRB. Developers of games on iOS and Android devices can cut corners and release their software quickly as they choose to ignore the rating system. I'm not a fan of rating systems or censorship but I say if Nintendo and Sony have to adhere to the ESRB so does Apple and Google.

The GoPro Hero 2 will be my next camera purchase. At $300 the rugged design, HD footage, super slow motion and wide angle/sharper lens will make this a great camera to bring with me to the Nurburgring this summer. Check out GoPro's demo footage below:

British hyper-car BAC Mono is the car of my dreams and for $130000 I'll be dreaming for quite some time. In a sports car world where power-to-weight ratio means everything...this car is feather light and will destroy Bugatti's on the track. At 280bhp and 540kg curb-weight we're talking 519bhp per tonne with 0-100km/h time of 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 275km/h makes this a street legal monster. The Stig named it his car of the year for 2011 and of course it's also mine. Have a look below at AutoCar's review of the BAC Mono:

At CES 2012 we began to see more 4K "Ultra Definition" TVs on the show floor but do we really need them right now? The highly competitive TV market has manufacturers throwing every unnecessary feature and buzz word at consumers to make them stand out against their competitors. Does anyone actually enjoy watching 240hz TVs that makes films look like cheap home movies? Who's going to buy a 4K TV when there's no content on the market? Blu-Rays aren't going anywhere soon and no one wants to see another disc format on the market. Internet steaming isn't going to fix the problem as we can barely get good HD on Netflix if you even want to call that HD. Streaming 4K content won't happen till service internet service providers get bigger bandwidth in the homes. Cable and satellite providers won't jump for 4K channels because they can use the same bandwidth that 1 channel takes to make more money off of 4 to 6 HD channels. 4K TVs will be useless on sets smaller than 40 inches. We don't even have 1080p content as mainstream yet. Stop selling consumers on 4K TVs and keep it to medical and other professional markets!

Hi everyone, thought I'd give blogging about the geeky parts of my life to the world. I've always been asked advice on cars, cameras, gadget and games. I'll be posting current events in the industry and giving some editorials and advice along the way. Feel free to drop a comment on what you want to see more of. Cheers! - Tao