WEDNESDAY, APRIL 24, 2013 HOME B3 AsiaOne fans pick Changi traffic hits favourite new high for March brands for the northern summer season Good Friday long weekend pushes from March 31 to Oct 26 this By AARON TAN year. passenger numbers to 4.61 million To cater to this predicted VIVOCITY, Singapore Airlines boost in travellers, it is expected and Samsung were among the win- By ROYSTON SIM that there will be more services – ners at the AsiaOne People’s up to seven a week on some Choice Awards this year. THE Good Friday long weekend Over the first routes – to places such as Bang- Samsung Asia’s vice-president of sales and marketing Irene Ng receiving the Best Into their fifth year, the awards Mobile Phone award, for the Galaxy SIII, from RazorTV editor Jonathan Ng at the spelt good news for Changi Air- quarter of this kok and Phuket in Thailand, and gave AsiaOne readers a chance to ceremony yesterday. ST PHOTO: DESMOND LIM port. Passenger traffic hit a new Danang in Vietnam. vote for their favourite brands, high for the month of March, year, Changi Jetstar Asia has also added six products and services. with 4.61 million passengers pass- Airport handled weekly services to Perth from More than 180,000 votes were News Centre Auditorium last the event. This year, a special Hall ing through. this month, while Singapore Air- cast from last October to January night. “This means that there are of Fame segment was unveiled to This was 7.7 per cent more 13.05 million lines will add seven weekly this year, with more than 200 more people voting for their fa- recognise repeat winners POSB than in March last year. The passengers, up 6.2 flights to Melbourne and two to nominees for 27 award categories. vourites.” Everyday Card and SIM Global Ed- number of flights also grew by Adelaide in July. To reflect the growing diversi- The categories for Best Full Ser- ucation for clinching the top spot 5.3 per cent to 28,400. per cent over the But the amount of cargo han- ty of consumer choices, a Best vice Airline, Best Tablet and Best for five consecutive years in the Changi Airport Group (CAG) same period last dled by Changi Airport has gone Budget Airline category was add- Mobile Phone, which was award- Best Credit/Debit Card and Best yesterday attributed the rise to down by 2.2 per cent for the first ed this year. ed to Samsung’s Galaxy SIII, re- Private School categories, respec- holiday-makers travelling over year. quarter of the year, to 434,000 The camera category has also ceived the most votes. tively. the Good Friday long weekend tonnes. been expanded to include Best Mir- Samsung Asia’s vice-president Mr Luke Siew, assistant vice- and the weekend before that. The slowdown in air freight rorless Camera, Best DSLR Cam- of sales and marketing Irene Ng president for cards and unsecured It also continues a year of big- to 82,600. prompted Changi to announce a era and Best Compact Series. said: “All our phones are well de- loans at DBS Bank’s consumer ger numbers for Changi. CAG said the growth was $17 million aid package for cargo “From our very first awards, signed with innovative features banking group, said: “The award Over the first quarter of this underpinned by more people trav- carriers last month. the vote count has grown by leaps that are easy to use. This contrib- is a very good recognition of how year, the airport handled 13.05 elling to and from North-east This included a 50 per cent dis- and bounds to nearly 200,000 utes to the popularity and accept- the POSB Everyday Card has been million passengers, up 6.2 per and South Asia, as well as Aus- count on landing fees for all car- votes,” said AsiaOne editor ance of our phones.” addressing the needs of Singapore- cent over the same period last tralia. And CAG believes it will go flights until the end of the Adrian Tay at the award ceremo- AsiaOne was partnered by gold ans over the years.” year. Likewise, the number of get better, predicting that travel year. ny, which was held at the SPH sponsor Fuji Xerox Singapore for [email protected] flights increased by 3.9 per cent demand will increase within Asia [email protected] And the winners are:

í Best Beauty Brand: SKII í Best Shopping Centre (Town): VivoCity í Best Shopping Centre (Suburbs): nex í Best Laptop: MacBook Pro with Retina Display í Best Tablet: The new iPad í Best DSLR: Canon 5D Mk III í Best Mirrorless Camera: Nikon 1 J1 í Best Compact Series: Canon Powershot SX240 HS í Best Mobile Phone: Samsung Galaxy SIII í Best Car: Audi Q3 í Best Private School: SIM Global Education í Best Local University: NUS í Best Bank: POSB/DBS í Best Credit/Debit Card: POSB Everyday Card í Best Hotel: Marina Bay Sands í Best Full Service Airline: Singapore Airlines í Best Budget Airline: Jetstar í Best Travel Agency: Chan Brothers Travel í Best Beauty/Weight Loss Provider: London Weight Management í Best Health & Fitness Provider: California Fitness í Best Nightspot: Zouk í Best Western Restaurant: Pizzeria Mozza í Best Chinese Restaurant: Din Tai Fung í Best Japanese Restaurant: Kuriya Dining í Best Buffet Restaurant: Carousel í Best Asian Restaurant: The Banana Leaf Apolo í Best Hawker Stall: Toa Payoh Rojak

15,000 ST readers hoping to win Samsung S4

By SHERWIN LOH

THERE are only 30 phones up for grabs but about 15,000 readers of The Straits Times submitted en- tries over the last week for a chance to be among the first in Singapore to get their hands on the Sam- sung Galaxy S4 smartphone for free. The Straits Times, together with Samsung Singa- pore, will invite 60 lucky readers to attend the ex- clusive Straits Times Appreciates Readers (Star) event this weekend, where they will get to try out the phone. Of this group, 30 will go home with the highly anticipated Android phone, which is slated to go on sale this Saturday morning. The remaining 30 readers will each get a $100 Samsung accessory voucher. All 60 readers who have been picked will be notified today through phone and e-mail. “We are truly delighted by the overwhelming re- sponse from Straits Times readers,” said Mr Harry Lee, Samsung Asia’s managing director. Announced in March, the S4 is the Korean hard- ware manufacturer’s latest flagship device in the Galaxy S series that has sold more than 100 million units globally. The phone will have gesture con- trols, allowing users to answer calls by moving their hand across the screen. A face detection fea- ture lets users scroll up and down Web pages and e-mail messages by tilting their heads. Samsung Singapore says local pre-orders for the S4 are more than double the number for the Sam- sung Galaxy SIII which was launched last May. Due to the strong response, all three telcos have stopped taking pre-orders. All S4s sold will be preloaded with The Straits Times Android app, offering owners free access to the national newspaper’s premium content for a lim- ited time. The S4s will also come with the new SPH Universal Launcher app, which is a directory of all Android apps made by Singapore Press Holdings, in- cluding those for The Straits Times, The New Pa- per, Stomp, STJobs and SPH Magazines. The directory will link users to the handset mak- er’s own app store, Samsung Apps, for downloads. An exclusive review of the S4 is in today’s edi- tion of Digital Life, the tech pull-out which comes with every Wednesday’s copy of The Straits Times. [email protected]