Life

Last week, the US$1,980 (S$2,680) Samsung Galaxy Fold – the Korean giant’s first smartphone with a foldable screen – hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, with several reviewers reporting broken screens, flickering visuals and lost pixels. While other reviewers have reported no major issues with their review units, Samsung has decided to delay the […]

My anticipation for the Panasonic Lumix S1R has been building, having first encountered it as a non-working prototype in last year’s Photokina show before trying a working model two months ago at the CP+ international camera and photo imaging show. This is the first full-frame mirrorless camera from Panasonic. The review unit is the 47.3-megapixel […]

Asus VG278QR GAMING MONITOR Pricing and availability to be confirmed Designed for intense and fast-paced games, this 27-inch full high-definition gaming monitor features an ultra-fast 0.5-millisecond response time and a blazing 165Hz refresh rate. Conventional monitors have a refresh rate of 60Hz. The Asus VG278QR is also G-Sync compatible, which means it works with Nvidia […]

You would not allow a thief to enter your home, but what if the thief was disguised as someone familiar and tricked you into opening the door? Phishing works in the same way – people open the doors to their data, giving up usernames, log-in information or other information to malicious e-mails, links or websites […]

Unable to tell if a uniform resource locator, or URL, is legitimate or leads to a phishing website? The good news is that your browser will probably alert you if you click on a suspicious link. Please subscribe or log in to continue reading the full article. Learn more about ST PREMIUM. Enjoy unlimited access […]

One of my favourite laptops, the Dell XPS 13, received a minor makeover earlier this year. This new 2019 edition, which carries the 9380 model name, comes with a few tweaks that make this ultrabook even more attractive to consumers, while retaining the same, clean design that long-time users would be familiar with. The most […]

Defending your home network against external cyber threats is what D-Link’s latest consumer router, the D-Fend AC2600 Wi-Fi Router, also known as the DIR-2680, claims to do. It certainly has the credentials to do so as it comes with cyber security outfit McAfee’s Secure Home Platform service, which inspects network traffic for suspicious activity, warns […]

Aimed at the fitness crowd, the Galaxy Watch Active is the smallest and lightest model of Samsung’s Galaxy smartwatch series. With a 1.1-inch (360 x 360 pixels) circular display on a 40mm case, it takes up less of your wrist than the flagship Galaxy Watch, which was launched late last year with two variants – […]

If you have ever wanted to interact with storybook characters such as Snow White or Ali Baba, you now have the chance to meet not one, not two, but 22 characters at 22 Stories, a multi-room theatrical production by theatre company Andsoforth Junior, which specialises in family productions. The characters will be stationed in 22 […]

How does domestic violence affect physical space as well as lives? Drama Box’s new experiential installation, Flowers, constructs a fictional home affected by family violence that ticketholders can wander through. Drama Box’s resident artist Han Xuemei emphasises that Flowers is not a site-specific work, but brings its own story to the location – a terrace […]

A new annual academic prize, named for eminent Singaporean poet Edwin Thumboo (above), will recognise outstanding pre-university student writing on English literature. Thumboo, who is Emeritus Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS), is one of Singapore’s earliest and foremost poets in the English language. The inaugural Edwin Thumboo Prize will be presented on […]

NOMINEES FOR BEST ACTOR MOHD FARED JAINAL, 45 Nominated for: Potong by Teater Ekamatra Playing a character of ambiguous gender earned Mohd Fared Jainal his first nomination in the Best Actor category of The Straits Times Life Theatre Awards. He is up for his work in Malay-language production Potong by Teater Ekamatra, in which he […]

There was an uproar when Hong Kong singer Andy Hui was caught cheating on his pop star wife Sammi Cheng. After a video of him making out with TVB actress Jacqueline Wong in the back of a taxi was uploaded by Hong Kong’s Apple Daily News on April 16, netizens pilloried him, with some even […]

British author Ian McEwan wants to talk about love, death and robots. Yes, robots. Just don’t call what he is doing science fiction. “Science fiction usually sets its scenes in the future and I rather wanted to push things into the past,” says the 70-year-old over the telephone from London. “In science fiction, you can […]

In a 1980s Britain where the train of history has jumped tracks ever so slightly, Margaret Thatcher is unseated as prime minister, computer science pioneer Alan Turing survived the 1950s and helped invent the Internet and 25 artificial humans – 12 male Adams, 13 female Eves – come onto the market. British novelist Ian McEwan, […]

It is the eve of battle. White walkers are at the gates. Men and women should be getting ready to fight but at Winterfell, they have a more important task: Unpacking personal baggage. Black people deal with racist Northerners. Tormund gets into Brienne’s personal space. Arya sleeps with a co-worker. If Winterfell has a human […]

A young woman trying to make her way as an artist in 1970s New York is the subject of Siri Hustvedt’s seventh novel – an exuberant, nimble-footed piece of work by the prolific American author. Memories Of The Future, narrated by the protagonist’s 61-year-old self, who goes by the initials SH, is a portrait of […]

A New York-based couple on the brink of separation sets off on a road trip with two children in tow, as they pursue their respective dreams. The wife is a journalist wanting to document the crisis of child migrants heading from Central America and Mexico to the United States, while the husband has secured funding […]

For many years, former Singapore Idol winner Hady Mirza was absent from the music scene. And last year was a particularly bad one for him – he spent some time in rehab. For many years, former Singapore Idol winner Hady Mirza was absent from the music scene. And last year was a particularly bad one […]

After 12 years at Rochester Park, Chinese restaurant Min Jiang at One-North has relocated to the equally lush Dempsey Hill. The 5,000 sq ft restaurant opens tomorrow and its move is in line with the redevelopment of Rochester Park, off North Buona Vista Road. Min Jiang at One-North opened in Rochester Park in 2006 in […]

Newspaper articles have a built-in expiry date. But some themes are evergreen. Mr Vikram Khanna, 63, an associate editor with The Straits Times, has collated more than 50 such articles, culled from his work in the newsroom, in a new book. Headwinds And Hazards: Economic Snapshots In An Age Of Populism covers a wide range […]

My Grandfather’s Road is perpetually a work-in-progress. One enters a set like a construction site – risers covered in plastic sheeting and scaffolding, and ladders tucked away into corners. The thrust stage, by set designer mil de J., is based on the blueprint of the house that once belonged to the grandfather of playwright and […]

LOS ANGELES • Oscar-winning film director Roman Polanski is suing the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, demanding his reinstatement nearly a year after it expelled him amid the #MeToo movement. Polanski, who pleaded guilty in 1977 to statutory rape, argued in a court filing in Los Angeles that the academy wrongly denied him […]

NEW YORK • Oscar-nominated film-maker John Singleton is in the intensive care unit (ICU) after suffering a stroke last week, his family said. The Boyz N The Hood (1991) director had the stroke last Wednesday while already at the hospital, his family said in a statement. “John is in the ICU and under great medical […]

A major global study, which recently found that one in five deaths around the world in 2017 was associated with poor diet, showed that Singapore had the 12th-lowest rate of diet-related deaths among 195 countries. It is perhaps proof that Singaporeans are increasingly aware of the benefits of eating healthy, but as with the rest […]

Few people will dispute the view that drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine are incredibly harmful to the user and to society. However, almost a decade ago, a paper in medical journal The Lancet by a Professor David Nutt espoused the view that alcohol is the most harmful drug of all. Please subscribe or log […]

In the early 1990s, when I was a young plastic surgeon working in the Singapore General Hospital, I was exposed to anthropometry for the first time. This is the systematic recording and analysis of body measurements such as the length and size of individual body parts like the nose, eyes or limbs – or the […]

NEW YORK • Companies have long embraced staff-wellness programmes as a way to improve workers’ health and reduce overall medical spending, but a new study may prompt employers to rethink those efforts. The study, published last week in Jama, a medical journal, looked at the experience of 33,000 workers at American retailer BJ’s Wholesale Club […]

If you are a mother of a toddler today, it is highly probable your Facebook newsfeeds will be filled with parenting updates. On Facebook, I am part of no fewer than 24 groups related to parenting. I read about what it takes to prepare my son for pre-school, the developmental milestones he should be hitting […]

The Breton striped shirt has been embraced by fashion icons through the ages, including French fashion designer Coco Chanel, British model Alexa Chung and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton. The nautical-inspired top can be matched with flared trousers or a pencil skirt, worn under a blazer or even paired with a bright-coloured floral print. Please […]