Going fishing for rest of July.

We’re going to sit out the rest of July, and return with a bigger and better Butterboom in August. Please sign up for the VIP list so you can be alerted when we start blogging again.

Have a great summer and see you in August with more butter for Hong Kong!

You can now be a citizen of Springfield.

With The Simpsons movie hitting Hong Kong on August 9th, its time to get your Springfield on and create your very own Simpsons avatar - because isn’t it time you upgraded your MSN Messenger avatar?

Choose from male and female characters with tons of skin tones, hairstyles and clothes and define yourself as a citizen of Springfield. There are also games and other cool stuff to explore at the site so have a look here.

Dell’s new Vostro line targeting SME’s

Looking for ways to sell more computers, Dell’s Shanghai design team has come up with the Vostro line, which they want to sell to SME’s and have already been selling in China for as low as RMB3,999.

The Vista- or XP-based hardware, free of so-called revenue-generating pre-installed “trialware,” is aimed at supposedly underserved, budget-constrained companies with less than 25 people and consists of the Vostro 1000, 1400, 15000 and 1700 notebooks starting at US$449; a 200 mini-tower or slim-sized desktop starting at US$319 and a US$229 19-inch monitor.

Some sort of performance desktop is due next month. There are supposed to be automated support tools customized for small businesses that are free for the first year like Automated PC Tune-Up, Network Assistant and DataSafe Online, the last for backing up 10GB of data.

The cheaper laptops don’t skimp on features so if you are looking to get some for your new start-up or for your parents or kids, it looks like this is the one to get.

On TV and in person in August.

If you watch Star TV (or download via BT) then you know one of the biggest hits on TV is the new series Heroes. TVB is bringing the show to free TV in August and rumour has it they are bringing 4 of the stars to Hong Kong to help promote it and one of them is Masi Oka - the former ILM-animator turned superhero actor; has become a breakthrough star for his amazing portrayal of Hiro, a Japanese wage slave who has the power to stop time.

The show is back for a second season this fall in the US and is much more interesting than Lost in our humble opinion, so if you are ready to commit to the soap opera-length storyline (try missing one, and catching up) and like movies like X-Men, this this is the show for you. More info on when the Heroes show up in Hong Kong as we hear it.

3 words and a number: Metal Gear Solid 4

Its the same reason we bought the Playstation 1. Director/Creator Hideo Kojima has released a new trailer for the much anticipated 4th entry in the Metal Gear Solid series which is expected to come out next year. Its very mysterious at this point but the trailer is not to be missed and not good enough to be shown to you via YouTube - so click here to view the HD version of it (age verification needed) and look for it in Q2 2008.

Cathay has a 3-pack air ticket deal for you.

Cathay Pacific has 17 flights a week to beautiful Vancouver, BC, Canada and now they have a pretty special deal if you are flying with 3 people. A bundle for 3 will set you back HK$15,990 for Economy round trip to Vancouver this Summer. Check out the rates here at the Cathay site or call them at 2747-1577.

There are many things to do besides hang out in Richmond, so check out the Vancouver travel guide here and the weather looks good for a relaxing humid-free Summer.

New local trading site is open for business.

FlogIt.com.hk - a new site in Hong Kong we stumbled across that apparently is a mashup of Ebay and CraigsList. It looks like its still in early stages because of the lack of products you can find (we found only 1 entry in the toy section) but sure with more word-of-mouth it will grow and we’re happy to support any homegrown new websites that offer this kind of service.

New first-person-shooter add ons come to the Nintendo Wii.

Nintendo is going forward with more exciting video game innovations. So instead of just fishing and sword-swinging you can now zap people with the Nintendo Wii gun controller aptly named the Zapper, that will most likely revolutionize the way we play First Person Shooters.
Wii Zapper: Designed for first person shooters and targeting games, the Zapper shell (expected later this year) will cost $20 on its own or ship bundled with a game, such as Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles.

Check out the video below: