Forget a normal MAP! It's all about a GPS!

I think that it's pretty much amazing how GPS's has helped everyone through the traffic ways. My mom has one and it's pretty cool! It's weird how it knows exactly where you are and it's cool how it gives you a little sound to show that a turn is coming up! I'm super amazed by all the technology ways! haha But I actually found this review about the Navigon 8100T GPS. And here is what they had to say! Navigon's portable navigation devices (PNDs) haven't had the best track record when it comes to performance, but we thought the tide had changed with the Navigon 7200T, which offered a far better user experience than previous models had and boasted accurate directions. That's why we had high hopes for the Navigon 8100T, the company's most ambitious GPS to date. The 8100T not only features an extra-wide touch screen, but it also has something called Panorama View 3D, which brings 3D topographic-like maps to the viewing experience. In addition, you also get a number of other great navigation features, including text-to-speech functionality, voice commands, advanced lane guidance, and free real-time traffic for life. However, it's all overshadowed by the PND's subpar performance. The Navigon 8100T is frustrating to use given its sluggishness and bugs, and while the panorama view is cool, it doesn't bring any significant benefit. This is really a shame, given that the 8100T does its main job of navigation well, but if we're expected to pay $599.99 for the GPS, we want something that will deliver on all fronts. side from the 3D panorama views, the Navigon 8100T offers a feature list very similar to that of the Navigon 7200T. The GPS is equipped with a SiRFStarIII GPS chip and comes with an SD card preloaded with maps of the United States and Canada and 5 million points of interest. To plan a trip, you can enter a location by specific address, point of interest, recent destination, user-defined home, and so forth. You can also enter addresses via the voice-command system. As with the 7200T, you will have to read a short paragraph so the system can learn your voice. It's also recommended you do this exercise in the car so the GPS can get the optimal settings for the environment. Unlike the Garmin Nuvi 880, the voice command system is limited to just address entry and can't be used for other tasks.

The 8100T can calculate routes in one of three ways--fast, optimum, and short--and gives you the option to allow or avoid highways and toll roads. There are also pedestrian and bicycle modes. In addition, like most other Navigon products, the 8100T offers free real-time traffic updates for life, so you can know the traffic condition before hitting the road or you can find alternative routes if you happen to get caught in traffic. If there are any incidents along your route, you'll see a little exclamation point on your map screen (and hear an audible cue) and by tapping it, the 8100T will bring up a list of congested areas. You can select a specific incident and get more details on the problem or choose to ignore it.

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The Almighty Nintendo DS

I've always wanted a Nintendo DS just because you can do a lot on it! I have an iPhone so it's pretty much the same thing! NOT haha It's better to have a Nintendo DS so you won't waste your battery on your own cell phone. I just think that it's pretty cool how you have a screen and another screen where you play. I've been wanting it since last year and then I actually went on the nintendo website to find out exactly what this DS lite does! And this is what they had to say:

Nintendo DS revolutionizes handheld gameplay. With two ultra bright screens, 3D graphics, touch-screen technology and wireless communication, you can challenge yourself or your friends anywhere, anytime. Why do I need Nintendo DS?
Nintendo DS brings multiple features together to deliver cutting-edge games for fans of every genre. Pit your wits and test your skills against other players everywhere - from the other side of the room to the other side of the world. A great library of games means there's something for everyone.

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Keeping your memories alive.

I often reminisce. I think about my childhood, last holiday, when I first met my fiance. I find it comforting and special to have that place in my mind I can go to. I believe that memories are so important to making the person unique and building a person's character.

My fondest memory may be during my childhood and spending the evenings with my brothers and sisters, playing games, laughing and making random jokes. Obviously I am not alone when it comes to cherishing memories because there are a ton of blogs and internet articles written about memories and cherish the memories. I find that as I grow older and life gets more hectic, family time becomes a more luxurious commodity. It gets harder and harder to create those memories that I cherish so much and the memories I do have are even more precious.

An article I found on articledirectory.com, the author writes about the importance of memories and discusses how he enjoyed listening to his mom tells stories that she recalled from her own memories. He writes, "As I listened to her stories it was very easy to see the importance of memories that bring happiness and joy." He can see the joy in her eyes as she searches her memories and goes back to her childhood. I think everyone can relate to this, atlesat I hope so. I hope everyone has that special place in their mind that they can go to, a place that can make you warm on the coldest days and bring a smile to your face during the toughest of times. If you do not have this place yet, it's never too late! Memories, are by the way, created! So create your memories and caputure it forever!

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Fight Diabetes with Coffee?

My fiance is an avid coffee drinker. He drinks atleast one cup a day. My best friend has been a loyal Starbucks member since her teenage years. Drinking atleast one Grande Ice White Mocha a day. She is now 25 years old. Drinking coffee seem to be a religious ritual for some people. But there is some good news for those who can't seem to shake this teeth staining, bad-breath causing habit. According to the WebMD Health News, in a studying involved people at high-risk, drinking caffeinated coffee was found to reduce of developing type 2 dibetes by as much as 60%.

The study was performed by Besa Smith and colleagues at the University of California San Diego. The unique study was performed by following 910 adults, including some who were high-risk for type 2 diabetes for a time span of eight years. And the results showed that past and present drinkers reduced their risk by about 60%. Combined results from different studies involving more than 200,000 people also showed similar effects.

How is this possible? Researchese are not quite sure yet. "It appears that there are other compounds in coffee responsible for this," says researcher Besa Smith, MPH. There is not enough evidence to start promoting coffee as a method to fight diabetes. But it is a relief to know that those who turn to coffee for comfort or a pick-me-up can continue to do so without the guilty or fear of diabetes.


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LifeStraw Water Purifier Turns Cow Poop into Water

I have been searching for something like this! I think this is a great way for people to recycle their waste. I mean, I haven't necessarily taken a sip of the water, but it seems like a great idea. It's another great way of recycling another thing in this world. The video on the website that I found is pretty sick, well not really. but I just viewed a cow pooing green waste. I'm just wondering about all the other effects. I mean it might taste good once you put it down your throat, but goodness! what happens afterwards? I wonder if there are any side effects after drinking it. This is one great survival gadget. I can't wait for them to invent more creative new ideas. You've probably heard about the LifeStraw which lasts up to three years and uses crazy nanotechnology to purify any kind of contaminated water into crystal clear drinking water. To prove that it actually works the UnculturedProject went to Kenya where they took rain water and actual cow manure and ran it through the LifeStraw system, and then drank the filtered water that came out!

After some digging we've discovered that you can't actually purchase either the LifeStraw Personal or LifeStraw Family for yourself, although you can donate one through the LifeStraw website. We humbly suggest that LifeStraw offer their products for sale via the One Laptop Per Child Approach - we know we'd gladly pay for two to add one of these awesome survival gadgets to our arsenal, and have one donated to those who need clean drinking water at the same time.

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Nokia N97 Touchscreen Cellphone

I don't know the deal about Touch screen phones. It seems like every company is trying to make their own so they wont switch out to other companys like AT&T. Nokia has always been around for many years and they have made their share of great phones. And I just finished watching the youtube ad for this phone and it actually seems pretty cool! Nokia has provided some wonderful information about its upcoming 2009 release of the new Nokia N97 Touchscreen Cellphone for its growing N-Series. This new Nokia Cellphone provides wonderful features and abilities within a greatly designed powerhouse of a mobile phone.

As can be expected from Nokia, this new Touchscreen consists of Haptic Display making messaging and entering information on the screen a snap. In addition, a full Qwerty Keyboard is pulled out, with the phone sitting at an angle making it look like a mini-notebook, especially with its nice 3.5 inch screen.

The Nokia N97 includes 32 GB of Internal memory with the possibility of adding an extra 16 GB with an external card. This truly makes this neat Nokia cellphone a convenient and portable mobilephone that has a lot of storage potential for all your personal and business needs. Furthermore, the battery makes the Nokia N97 even more attractive with approximately 37 hours of music playback and 5 full hours of video playback. This can help you see the convenience of having a powerful cellphone that can also deliver the allotted time required to use it.

Besides the wonderful technical features, is the Nokia N97 a fun cellphone? But of course. It has a 5MP camera with dual LED flash to make your daily picture taking always available (with enough room to save many many images). For Web surfers, Wifi and 3G are both available with Touch Sensitivity to make the world wide web so much easier to surf when away from your computer. Additional fun and commonly required features are music, video, FM Radio, N-Gage compatibility, assisted GPS with Nokia Maps and its design is just beautiful.


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ZeptoPad 2.0 for iPhones

I thought that this was a another cool gadget that I found for the iPhone. I watched the video of the short clip that they offered, and it seemed pretty cool! Very promising and I can't wait to try it! I just hope that it isn't too expensive! This ZeptoPad is some sort of a Whiteboard that copies on a screen from your iphone with whatever you are drawing! Pretty cool right?

It's just a demo right now, but Ryo Shimizu's ZeptoPad 2.0 whiteboard app looks pretty promising. We already love collaborative drawing apps like Netsketch, but Ryo's whiteboard adds a couple of interesting tweaks—the ability to watch the whiteboard live via a web interface or on what looks like a local client, and then save everything to PDF when you're finished. If collaborators are not limited to being on the same wi-fi network, which is how these apps often work, sign us up. Barring any Apple hold-ups (that's never happened, right?), ZeptoPad should hit the store next weekend.

There could be some downsides consumers were looking at like this comment here: This app definately looks really cool, but in all reality what would you use it for? I like the web interface idea, is it possible to share word and excel files to and not just pictures with multiple people. It seems like it is going in the right direction, but he had made a statement about using it for presentations and I'm still trying to figure out the how I could use it for presentations unless I'm a teacher with multiple students that are sitting in front of computers. Maybe...sorry to be the devils advocate I definately like the app though.


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NY public toilets feature TVs, tuxedoed attendants

What a relief! The free public restrooms operated by the Charmin toilet paper company in Times Square during the holidays have been rolled out for another year.

It's the third straight year for the 20 deluxe stalls.

The plush potties feature flat-screen televisions, attendants dressed in tuxedos and plenty of Charmin.

The loos are so luxurious that Charmin promises Times Square tourists will feel like kings sitting on their thrones before making their royal flushes.

The toilets were inaugurated Monday with a ceremonial first flush by pop singer and Broadway star Joey Fatone (fuh-TOHN').

They'll be open daily through the end of the year except Christmas Day. For the first time, they'll be open on New Year's Day until 2 a.m. for the crowd watching the 2009 ball drop

Original Article from Boston.com

What’s Going On In Head Of A Computer?

A research team led by Dr Alan Drew (University of Fribourg, Switzerland and Queen Mary, London) and Dr Elvezio Morenzoni (Paul Scherrer Institute – PSI, Switzerland) is the first one to have tracked the magnetic processes going on within a hard-drive read head – similar to the heads that read the data off computer hard discs.

In their experiment, the researchers implanted muons into their device. Muons are elementary particles that act like small magnets, and can thus show up the magnetic fields in their surroundings. The muons for this experiment were generated in the particle accelerator at PSI and subsequently subjected to heavy deceleration – PSI is the only location world-wide where this process is available. In the long term, this type of experiment will help us to understand the processes going on inside the read head in greater detail, so that engineers can see where they need to concentrate their efforts to optimise the heads.

The fact that computers can store more data and MP3 players have become so much smaller in the past decade is largely due to an effect that physicists call giant magnetoresistance. In 2007, the Nobel Prize for physics was awarded for the discovery of this effect, which makes it possible to produce electronic components with an electrical resistance extremely sensitive to external magnetic fields. By using the effect in hard drive read heads, magnetically coded information can be packed together very densely, and the hard disc can then be extremely small. Without this effect, it would be impossible for a device half the size of a cigarette packet to store all the information contained in 100 CDs and more.

Original Article from Science Daily

Let's Upgrade to Windows XP!

Many people will read the title and think it's a mistake. "Shouldn't it be Vista?" Nope, I found this article on FOX 11 website and it said a lot about downgrading to XP, just because it's so hard to use. I thought it would be a step up for Windows because everyone knows that Apple is beating them by a landslide. I think that Windows Vista is not user-friendly. I have actually seen a lot of their recent commericials and I'm still not convinced. They have that parent control thing, but it actually tells them what time their child has been online and for how long. Nearly six months after it launched, gripes over what doesn't work with Vista continue, eclipsing positive buzz over the program's improved desktop search, graphics and security.

With Vista now shipping on most new computers, it's all but guaranteed to become the world's dominant PC operating system — eventually. For now, some users are either learning to live with workarounds or sticking with Vista's predecessor, Windows XP.

Pirillo is geekier than the average user. He runs a network of technology blogs called Lockergnome, and was one of several "Windows enthusiasts" Microsoft asked for Vista feedback early on.
Still, Vista tested even Pirillo's savvy. He fixed the hobbled printer and other problems by installing VMware, a program that lets him run XP within Vista. But when his trial copy expired, he decided the solution was too clunky — and too expensive.

He "upgraded," as he called it, back to XP.

Users' early complaints aren't a threat to Microsoft's dominance in operating systems. The various flavors of Windows run 93 percent of PCs worldwide, according to the research group IDC. Last fiscal year, Windows accounted for about a third of Microsoft's total revenue of $44.3 billion.

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Let's Upgrade to Windows XP!

Video Gamers not Effected by Unstable Economy

The economy may not be going so great for everybody and we are probably in a recession or heading in one. But all that depressing news doesn't effect gamers! Video game sales were up 18% in October from the same month a year ago! That's pleasantly surprising.

Video machine makers said the results boded well for the holiday season. The Wii console secured its title once more as the country's best-selling videogame console after Nintendo sold 803,210 units of the Wii in October, up from 687,000 in the previous month. Wii sales have topped 13 million units since Nintendo released the console in November 2006.

Cammie Dunway, executive vice president of sales and marketing for Nintendo of America, told Reuters that sales showed consumers would continue to buy the Wii during the holidays. U.S. consumers bought 371,000 of Microsoft Corp's Xbox 360 console in October, up from 347,200 units in the prior month. Microsoft cut the U.S. price of its entry-level console in September to $50 below the Wii.

The price cut helped spike a 7 percent increase in Xbox 360 unit sales from September, according to NPD Analyst Anita Frazier. "We feel cautiously optimistic (going into the holidays), we don't see anything in this (NPD) data that leads us to believe there's a pullback," said Microsoft spokesman David Dennis.

Sales of Sony Corp's PlayStation 3 dropped 18.2 percent from the prior month, from 232,400 units sold in September to 190,000 units sold in October. Still, "PS3 sales realized the greatest year-over-year monthly unit sales increase at 57 percent," Frazier said. The videogames industry is set to top $22 billion in 2008, according to NPD. U.S. sales of videogames hardware, software and accessories totaled $1.35 billion in October, with accessories sales falling 8 percent.


Original Article from Yahoo! Tech

EA to Join Wii Fit, in the Healthy Games

Have any of you tried to the Wii Fit? It's awesome (in my opinion) it actually makes me want tot work out and get healthy. Who ever came up with the idea must be a genius (and probably filthy rich by now). Well now Electronic Arts ( EA Games) wants to help get people healthy too- biters (cough cough).

Electronic Arts Inc. on Thursday announced a new line, EA Sports Active, that runs on the Nintendo Wii console and aims to complement, not compete with, Nintendo's "Wii Fit" exercise title. Peter Moore, president of EA Sports, called the new brand, whose first title launches next March, a "somewhat radical departure from the normal game experiences we provide customers."

EA's sports audience has been mostly young men, who have flocked to football, soccer, basketball and hockey titles to make the company the world's dominant player in sports video games. But to stay competitive with rivals such as Activision Blizzard Inc., whose success with games like "World of Warcraft" and "Rock Band" seems to be weathering the recession, EA needs to continue to expand its audience.

The company's new brand seeks to take advantage of the popularity of the Nintendo console and of exercise games. While the "Wii Fit" is already enormously popular, Moore, a former physical-education teacher, said EA's sports software will run people through an exercise routine with a more Western approach than the Japanese company's product.

Original Article from Yahoo! Tech

LimeWire, a death trap to all PCs

I'm pretty sure a lot of people have been getting viruses, or wondering why their computer is slowing down. I thought it was because of my memory. Although that's not the real full reason, LimeWire is a dangerous maneuever to take hold of because in my eyes, it is on safe and I wouldn't know what to do though without it. I was a little curious when they LimeWire Pro came out, I figured that there would be no viruses whatsoever. But I'm not going to spend $18.88 to find out.

If the Gnutella Network is your playground, then LimeWire is probably your playmate; it’s been the most popular Gnutella client going for years. Although LimeWire is an open-source program, the LimeWire Group offers a Pro version for $18.88, which it claims has more features, more search results, and better speed via a Turbo-charged connection. (The GPL allows for this because the Pro version’s source code is freely available to anyone who wishes to compile it themselves. Good luck with that, though.) But is the $18.88 premium worth it, or is the free LimeWire even worth using at all?

For comparison’s sake I ran both LimeWire versions on two identical virtual machines on the same PC with the same Internet connection. I entered the same searches and downloads in both programs. For searches of popular songs (all legal, of course), both versions came up with almost identical results. The Pro version, however, came up with about 25% more results for more obscure tunes. On average, the Pro version downloaded files about 10 to 15% faster than the free LimeWire version. So, while the advantage goes to LimeWire Pro overall, users of the free version shouldn’t feel like they’re missing out on too much.

Both LimeWire versions offer an appealing feature set. They work through firewalls right out of the box and both optionally integrate with your iTunes music library for easy sharing. Both have an integrated player and can preview partially downloaded multimedia files. In addition, built-in spam filtering automatically removes obviously bogus files from lists, and a porn-blocker prevents adult content from appearing. An intuitive filter system also makes it simple to whittle down a huge list of barely relevant files to a smaller list of files that you may actually want.

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No Viruses on OS X

When was the last time you heard someboy said ther MacBook crashed? NEVER! If you think about it, it's always a PC! Apple makes sure that your purchase in their store will be secured and that no viruses will get in. This article even says that it's hard to attack the Mac just because there's not a lot to attack about! Microsoft could never be equipped like Apple can. Some people (mostly Microsoft supporters) like to claim there are no Mac OS X viruses because there is not enough market share to encourage them to write viruses for it. But, Paul Venezia of InfoWorld cleverly makes the point that market share has nothing to do with it. Virus writers like to show off and the real reason why we haven’t seen any Mac attacks is simply due to the fact that Macs are just more secure.

It is so difficult to successfully attack the Mac, virus writers simply give up and go back to attacking windows because why put the time and resources into Macs when they can have full run of most windows machines without any effort at all. Even when there is a vulnerability discovered on the Mac there isn’t a rush to exploit it because the OS further prevents attackers from gaining full control and doing much harm. With Windows, once an attacker is “in” the entire machine and every layer is compromised in most cases. More and more viruses are deploying rootkits and other means to avoid detection and the only way Windows users can be sure they’re rid of the malware is to fully format the entire machine.

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MacBook Seizes to Amaze Us

If you really think about it, what's not to love about a MacBook? MacBooks are becoming more and more popular in today's world, and they are not stopping. Apple has once again amazed us with a beautiful MacBook that is supposedly better than the other previous MacBooks. I finally recently bought one and it has amazed me in so many different ways! It runs longer than my pervious laptop and it weigh's a whole lot lighter!

Since then, Apple has been content to issue minor periodic hardware upgrades, which, while not all that exciting, continue to add CPU horsepower while keeping prices steady.

The latest update, from November 2007, bumped up the top available CPU to a 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, and added Intel's Santa Rosa platform and slightly better integrated graphics, resulting in a modest boost in performance.

But you'll probably be much more interested in Apple's new Leopard version of its OS X operating system, which comes preinstalled on new MacBooks. It adds a handful of useful new features, keeping the MacBook in our top tier of laptop recommendations, even if we're secretly itching for something new.

While the $1,099 entry-level MacBook is available only in white, we're much more used to seeing the black version (starting at $1,499) in the wild. The matte black look still isn't quite as sharp as the metallic MacBook Pro, but we still like it better than the plastic-looking white finish.

Inside, you'll find Apple's typically minimalist setup, including a power button, a full-size keyboard, a sizable touch pad with a single mouse button, and a built-in iSight camera that sits above the display. If you miss the scroll bar found on almost every Windows laptops, the two-finger scroll option works well (run two fingers down the touch pad, and it scrolls like a mouse wheel).

We remain fans of Apple's flat-key keyboard, although Windows users will have to get used to a Delete key that functions like a PC Backspace key, and no standalone equivalent key for what PCs call Delete. Compared with previous MacBooks, the main visual difference is that a few of the alternate functions on the F keys have been juggled around.

The look and feel are largely unchanged, but several useful new features have been added, including Time Machine, an easy-to-use backup utility; Spaces, which allows you to set up multiple desktops (one with all your media apps open or one for Web pages) and swap between them on the fly; and Quick Look, which lets you open a fast preview version of any document or file without waiting for their associated applications to open.

The MacBook still includes the Front Row remote control (sadly, only available in white), and the extremely handy MagSafe power adapter, which handily (and safely) detaches itself from a magnetic plug on the laptop's side when you invariably trip over the power cord.

The 13.3-inch wide-screen LCD display offers a clear and easy to read 1,280x800 native resolution, which is standard for a screen this size, as well as most 14- and 15-inch laptops (although Apple's 15-inch MacBook Pro offers a higher 1,440x900 resolution).

Apple's previous revision added support for 802.11n Wi-Fi technology, but the lack of an SD card reader remains one of the MacBook's few weak spots. Adding mobile broadband -- not offered by Apple -- will also be difficult without an Express card slot.

Not surprisingly, we saw a decent uptick in performance from the new 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, with the new system beating the earlier 2.16GHz MacBook in each of our benchmark tests.

If you have a previous generation MacBook, the difference isn't enough to make you want to go out and get a new one, but credit goes to both the fast CPU and Intel's Santa Rosa platform for the improvement. Note that our review unit came with 2GB of RAM, a $150 upgrade over the default 1GB offered in even the $1,499 MacBook.

The MacBook ran for 4 hours and 30 minutes on our DVD battery drain test, which is even longer than the 3 hours and 36 minutes we got on the older 2.16GHz MacBook. We again give credit to the efficient Santa Rosa platform, and because our DVD battery drain test is especially grueling, you can expect even longer life from casual Web surfing and office use.

We're still not fans of Apple's nearly obligatory extended warranty upsell. The default warranty for the MacBook is one year of coverage for parts and labor, but toll-free telephone support is limited to a mere 90 days - -well short of what you'd typically find on the PC side -- unless you purchase the $249 AppleCare Protection Plan, which extends phone support and repair coverage to three years.

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Intel Capital Gives Shot of Green to Chinese Solar Venture

Intel has made its first green tech investment in China with a $20 million position in Trony Solar Holdings, which makes solar and wind power equipment. The investment comes from Intel Capital's $500 million second China technology fund.

Intel's investment, its first in clean technologies in China, will be used by Trony to enhance its production and research and development, the Chinese company, based in the southern export hub of Shenzhen, said in a statement.

Trony, set up in 1993, has sales in more than 20 countries.

The two companies did not provide details on the size of Intel Capital's equity stake or other terms of the investment.

"Investing in 'clean-tech' is relatively new for Intel Capital," said Stephen Eichenlaub, Intel Capital's managing director. "Clean technology area will take on a large strategic significance for Intel's future."

Escaping Oil
In addition to its investment in Trony, Intel Capital also announced plans to invest in NPH Holdings, a Chinese company specializing in electricity storage systems for renewable energy. But no details were provided.

China's renewable energy industry is growing quickly, as the country attempts to shift away from heavily polluting coal and oil-fired power generation to cleaner, more efficient energy sources.

It's not a question of surging oil prices but of long-term sustainability, Eichenlaub said.

"Our challenge as investors is to find technologies where we should be supporting innovation where the price of oil doesn't matter, because we can't control it," Eichenlaub said.

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Sony Announces Pro-Photographer Program

Sony unveiled its professional photographer program at the PhotoPlus Expo tradeshow.

Based on synergies between their unique styles of photography and Sony’s line of α (alpha) cameras, Sony hand-selected five professional photographers to be included in its first-ever professional photographe program. These pro-photographers—Andy Katz, David McLain, Christina Mittermeier, Brian Smith and Matthew Jordan Smith—have recently been using the alpha (model DSLR-A900) camera and an assorment of lenses.

By following their unique visions, each of the photographers created the images in a gallery that is on display today at the PhotoPlus Expo in New York City’s Jacob Javits Convention Center.

Sony Electronics also added two new models to its family of S-Frame digital photo frames—including the company’s first 10-inch model here at the PhotoPlus Expo trade show.

The new 10-inch and 8-inch digital photo frames (models DPF-D100 and DPF-D80) have high-quality SVGA resolution (800 x 600 pixels) LCD screens. They are Sony’s first digital photo frames that offer a 4:3 aspect ratio.

This apect ratio eliminates borders around the digital photos and allows pictures to fill up the screen. Photos appear larger on theses frames’ displays than digital photo frames with the 16:9 aspect ratio.


Visit Sony’s news and information site (www.sony.com) to find out more about the professional photography program, digital photo frames and SnapLab™ products unveiled at PhotoPlus.

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HP's Mini Notebook is a Real Deal Eee PC Killer

In my opinion, Apple is my favorite. But I decided to look upon other brands for laptops. Like the HP's Mini Notebook. I actually found this review about the HP's Mini Notebook being a real deal Eee PC Killer. It's been less than a year since Asus first sprinkled its Eee PCs with magical miniaturizing dust, yet these low-cost, diminutive laptops have already taken off like an F/A-18 catapulted from an aircraft carrier. In the past nine months alone, the industry has produced a spate of "mini-me-too" offerings, including Cloudbooks, Airs, Winds and other ebulliently named subnotebooks.

Seriously, it was only a matter of time before the big boys of computing decided to get in on this burgeoning and potentially lucrative category. Dell has already announced plans to release a cheap (and derivatively named) E mini notebook for $300 in August. And then there's HP with its new 2133.

Despite beating Dell to market by a few months, it's clear the company put a substantial amount of thought into its initial offering. Price-wise, the 2133 remains competitive with other itty-bitty notebooks, coming in at $600 for the Vista Business version. A Linux OS is available for $100 less while a Windows XP "upgrade" will cost you $100 more.

Unlike many of its tiny compatriots, this is one of the few mini notebooks that didn't feel cheap and flimsy in our hands, due in no small part to its fetching brushed aluminum and plastic outer shell. That casing does add slightly more to its overall weight, which is 2.8-lbs sans battery and 3.7 with the power source attached, but rest assured, you won't have any trouble toting around 2133.

Even more impressive is the fact that HP flat-out nailed the QWERTY keyboard on its first try — something other manufacturers are still struggling to perfect. In fact, we found the (almost) full-size keyboard to be one of the most responsive and comfortable we've used on a mini notebook thus far.

While these standout features make the 2133 competitive with the MSI Wind and Asus Eee PC 900, this category is all about hitting the right balance of features. The importance of those features will vary depending on the user, but in general the big three are: price, battery life and weight. One can argue that screen size, processor power, storage capacity and keyboard size can also make or break a mini notebook experience. Amazingly, the 2133 tends to shine in most of these areas as well — with a few exceptions.

The one big drawback — especially when compared to other ultraportable notebooks — is the processor. While other manufacturers have already started cramming Intel's power-efficient yet highly capable Atom processor into their dwarf notebooks, the 2133 comes with a decidedly feeble 1.2-GHz Via processor. While it looks good on paper, we found that web pages still tended to render at a snails pace, and most multitasking were mind numbingly slow. Granted, that may have a lot to do with running Vista, but it was still annoying. Similarly, battery life was also an issue for us. We squeezed a little more than two hours out of 2133, and while that's not much different from other mini notebooks, it is by no means acceptable.


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Best Buy’s Geek Squad Gets Extended-Service Program

Effective Sept. 14, all Best Buy extended-warranty plan names were changed to Geek Squad Black Tie Protection to reflect increased service and coverage options and other benefits not found in traditional retailer service plans, the company said.

The program offers coverage for hundreds of products across the home theater, PC, car, digital imaging, mobile and portable CE categories, and is designed to provide options in scope and term of coverage to suit the varying needs of customers.

“Geek Squad Black Tie Protection delivers the support our customers tell us they want to safeguard their gear, a level of support that only Best Buy is able to provide,” said Best Buy president/COO Brian Dunn. “By listening to our customers, we’re evolving service and reliability to a whole new level.”

The service plans are available exclusively on products purchased at Best Buy, are backed and administered by AIG WarrantyGuard, and leverage the retailer’s fully owned Geek Squad services infrastructure for support.


“We have a responsibility to be there for our customers, and a unique capability in Geek Squad to serve them,” said Jeff Severts, Best Buy’s services VP. “The combination of Best Buy product support with Geek Squad service has produced one of the best protection and service plans available anywhere.”

For more information, visit the Original Article
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Recycle Your Electronics

Global Warming, what could we do to help prevent it from happening? Of course, we recycle our cans, plastic bottles, and much more things. But what most people don't know, is that you can actually recycle your electronics! This could help out with global warming tremendously. People don't realize that every little thing can benefit our children's future and much more.

When recycling, you can do the following:
Search For An Electronics Recycler in Your Area
Important Considerations:

* Reuse is Preferable, but Don’t Dump Your Junk!

The NCER encourages reuse of working, newer equipment as the first option for used electronic equipment, and has listed several non-profit and other reuse programs below. However, many of these programs are unable to handle broken or severely outdated equipment. It is always advisable to call ahead to see if your used equipment meets that program’s needs.

*

Protect Your Data

If you are reusing or recycling a laptop or desktop computer, your personal data could still be on your hard drive. Most recyclers have hard drive wiping policies, but it is always in your best interest to protect your personal information by erasing or destroying your hard drive. There are many hard drive wiping software programs available. You can read more about the importance of hard drive erasure as well as do a comparison of some of the more popular software programs by going to Tech Soup’s website at: http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/software/page5726.cfm

*

Call Ahead

Many recyclers are not set up to take small loads of computer and electronic equipment – many deal strictly in e-cycling on a commercial level. As a result, you should contact recyclers ahead of time to ensure that they can receive your equipment. A few handy search engines for electronics recyclers are included on this page.

How to Choose an Electronics Recycler:



Sometimes it’s not easy to tell who is a responsible recycler and who is not. One of the best ways to choose a recycler is to rely on the recommendations of credible environmental groups. For example, several recyclers have signed the Computer Take Back Campaign’s Electronics Recycler’s Pledge of True Stewardship, formally committing them to responsible electronics recycling practices. Go to http://www.ban.org/pledge/electronics_recycler_pledge.pdf to view a list of these recyclers.

Original Article

Start Selling HP Smartphones

HP has announced an agreement with Vodafone in Europe to resell the HP iPAQ Voice Messenger and the HP iPAQ Data Messenger, starting in the UK, with other European countries to be announced.

The HP iPAQ Voice Messenger and HP iPAQ Data Messenger are the latest additions to the HP smartphone portfolio, and both support Windows Mobile 6.1. The HP iPAQ Voice Messenger is a 3G smartphone with an integrated 20-key keypad. The HP iPAQ Data Messenger is a 3G smartphone with a large touchscreen display, full slide-out alphanumeric keyboard and built-in GPS capabilities.

HP is taking mobile computing beyond borders and boundaries to something truly global as a result of our relationship with Vodafone,” said David Wright, vice president and general manager, Personal Systems Group, HP UK&I. “Our new HP iPAQs will enable people to stay connected seamlessly on Vodafone’s high speed networks to the information, content and people that matter most to them.”

Both smartphones feature a unique five-way optical navigation button that provides a “gliding” sensation when scrolling through menus, and intelligent predictive text capabilities that learn user’s vocabulary and style from messages and emails for progressively faster and easier message composition.

Both devices feature ample memory to access important Microsoft Office Mobile files and store photos and music with up to 8 gigabytes of micro secure digital (SD) storage.

Will this be better than the iPhone? Well, I guess we just have to see. Pricing will be announced it November, so if HP really want to compete with Apple then they should have a similar price.

Original Article

T Mobile's G1 MOST OBNXIOUS FLAWS

I still think that the iPhone is number one with all of the touch screen phoens made out there. I found this article about the major flaws of the G1. Which I still don't get.. is it called Android or G1?! Apple has contacts and syncing which comes in handy if your phone ever fails on you.. but the G1 doesn't have that.. basically it's being supported by a cloud. This article also claims that the connection could be slower than EDGE network. So many companies attempt to make a better phone that the Apple iPhone, but yet have to succeed in such a hypothesis. While I was more impressed by the T-Mobile G1 than I thought I'd be, the list of catches for Android and the phone are quickly piling up—some that might very well be dealbreakers. Topping the list, it's tightly integrated with your Google account—so tightly that you can only use one Google account with the phone. If you want to switch to another account, you have to do a whole factory reset. Update: T-Mobile has patched up some of them—the 1GB cap is gone, and they'll unlock the phone for you after 90 days.

Contacts and Syncing: As mentioned, there is no desktop syncing app. It's all about the cloud—your Google contacts and cal are considered the masters. So if it's all on your desktop or god forbird, MobileMe, you've gotta move it over to your Google account.

Video: There's no video playback at all right now, except for YouTube. The expectation is that developers will create video playback apps and the requisite support.

Hardware Inadequacies: No multitouch on the G1 and there never will be, since the panel itself doesn't support it.

Miscellaneous: You've gotta have an SD card for any kind of music or video playback, once the latter arrives—there's no internal storage for media playback.

Bonus T-Mobile obnoxious flaw: If you're lucky enough to live in one of the markets sprinkled with 3G, after you've used 1GB of data, T-Mobile will slow you down to 50Kbps for the rest of the month. That's slower than EDGE, which is theoretically capable of 384Kbps, though in real world it's closer to 100Kbps.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE

The Apple iPhone: Significant Shortcomings

The intriguing features and natural freshness of the iPhone, had everyone running to the stores to purchase one. But that the phase is dying down. Many are seeing the negative outcomes of the iPhone. Yes it might have been cheaper than the first but the cost to have it operating may not be a great investment.

1. EDGE-only, and limited Wi-Fi: Cingular's rapidly rolling out HSDPA across the country, with other carriers making similar high-speed data services infrastructure investments. Yet the Apple iPhone only handles comparatively archaic and slow EDGE.

2. No removable battery: Long-time readers know this is a frequent sore point of mine. Manufacturers claim that by going with a completely enclosed battery they can make their systems thinner, smaller, lighter and otherwise more aesthetically pleasing than they'd otherwise be.

3. High price, and high profit margin: $500-600 for the phone. Plus a roughly $100-month voice-plus-data service plan, with two-year minimum duration.

With this being said and the new iPhone 3G already out, has Apple redeemed themselves?

Original Article

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Microsoft Vista = Problems

For all the computer owners out there, most of us have Microsoft installed in their pcs. The lucky ones are the ones who owns an Apple computer of some kind. Microsoft XP, was doing fine for everyone, until they tried to upgrade their software. And I think that it just went down hill from there on out. I put an emphasis on how much Microsoft tries to be like Apple just because they CAN'T! ever! I don't think that it's possible for them to beat Apple. Apple is just too high equipped for that. Although I am only one person, and I am entitled to my own opinion...I have found an article that might you think just like me! With that article, I was really more informed about Microsoft. Microsoft basically says that Vista is a winner, when in actuality.. it's the complete opposite! I think that people who purchased Vista is going back to XP just because it's not user friendly and it's just too damn different from Windows XP!

Revenue from the company’s so-called client division — PC operating systems mainly — came in at a bit under $4.03 billion. That was about $300 million less than most analysts had expected.
He said that Microsoft’s programs to combat piracy of Windows, which had bolstered sales in the previous couple of quarters, did not generate revenue-increasing gains this time.

Mr. Liddell dismissed claims that some customers were reluctant to buy Vista machines. “There are no Vista-related issues at all,” he declared.

Perhaps. But even if there were issues with Vista, no Microsoft executive would say it publicly.


Original Article

Apple introduces 2 new MACS

What's next for APPLE!? Apple always comes out with great technology that always seizes to amaze us. And they aren't stopping just quite yet! Everyone thought that the rumor was, Apple was going to come out with a MacBook touch. Not quite yet! Although that the new Macbook is not touch screen, Apple promotes that there are features that will surprise us with new engineering. Apple has once again beaten Windows (Vista especially) without even hurting their own company. Apple is apple, and it will always be a favorite to all of us. haha
The announcements also serve as a reminder that Apple's top and bottom lines are still driven largely by sales of its computers even though the company has become more associated with its iPhone mobile telephone over the last two years.

In the company's fiscal third quarter ended July 31, nearly a 30% of Apple's revenue came from sales of its notebook computers, and 42% from sales of notebooks and desktops.

Apple Chief Operating Officer Tim Cook said the company was also hoping to take advantage of public dissatisfaction with software giant Microsoft Corp.'s ( MSFT) Vista operating system, which hasn't caught on with either corporate clients or consumers. Apple said it now has 18% of the U.S. retail computer market.

"I think it's fair to say that Vista hasn't lived up to everything Microsoft hoped it would," Cook said at the event. "Apple has been the beneficiary of this."

Original Article

Warnings on MP3 Players

Have you seen someone using their MP3 player as an fashion accessory? Not only have it around them, but listening to it every moment of the day? Well listen up because European scientists have sounded the alarm about the dangers of using digital music players, warning that listening to them too long and too loud can cause permanent hearing loss.

Europe has already restrict noise levels from such MP3s to 100 decibels, but the European Commission said that there was growing concern about excessive exposure to such devices, especially among youths.

MP3 players are so valuable and very convenient to people. Many listen to their personal choice when they are at the gym, walking their dog, doing homework, or even just relaxing. But now that they are causing health problems, it will be extremely hard to separate MP3s from society.

The European Union's executive arm estimated that there are roughly 50 to 100 million people who may be listening to portable MP3 music players on a daily basis. So, the only way from lowering the risks to MP3s will be lowering decibels requirements to manufacturing companies.

Original Article

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Intel details PC graphics-aimed 'Larrabee'

Intel said its first Larrabee-based product, not expected until next year or 2010, will target the PC graphics market and will be what the company said is the industry’s first many-core x86 Intel architecture. The company also expects Larrabee to spur efforts to create and optimize software for the dozens, hundreds and thousands of cores that will power computers in the future.

Santa Clara, Calif-based chip giant Intel Corp will present a paper at the Siggraph 2008 conference being held next week in Los Angeles that details features and capabilities for its forthcoming multi-core “Larrabee” architecture which includes a new approach to the software rendering 3-D pipeline, a many-core programming model and performance analysis for several applications.

The chip giant reminded that it has a number of internal teams, projects and software-related efforts underway to speed the transition to multi-core, with its tera-scale research program garnering the single largest investment in its technology research and has partnered with more than 400 universities, DARPA and companies such as Microsoft and HP to move the industry in this direction. Initial product implementations of the Larrabee architecture (an overview drawing of which is pictured below) will target discrete graphics applications, support DirectX and OpenGL, run existing games and programs, and support a range of highly parallel applications including scientific and engineering software that will benefit from the Larrabee native C/C++ programming model, Intel continued.

Further, the Larrabee architecture has a pipeline derived from the dual-issue Intel Pentium processor, which uses a short execution pipeline with a fully coherent cache structure in order to allow enhancements such as a wide vector processing unit (VPU), multi-threading, 64-bit extensions and pre-fetching, which should allow a massive increase in available computational power combined with the familiarity and ease of programming of the Intel architecture, the company explained.

Original Article

Politics in the airwaves

Airwaves now being used for wireless services may also now be used for offering internet services without government licensing, the Federal Communications Commission ruled. This decision came after opposition by wireless providers such as T-Mobile USA (which has spent $4.2 billion in lobbying efforts in 2006), contending that allowing internet on the "wireless spectrum" without operating licenses would cause problems in their services. The FCC decided that thre is no such interference. This spectrum, also known as "the white space", exist "between TV channels as buffers to ensure that TV channels don't interfere with each other. (http://tech.yahoo.com)" The use of these airwaves will start in February when the mandate for Digital TV transition comes into effect. Major companies such as Google and Microsoft had been behind efforts to convince the FCC to allow such use of airwaves.

Whether this was a good decision by the FCC or not is beyond me. But "lobbying" is a flagged word to me. Whenever I hear it, I grow ten times more skeptical. Political favors do not necesarily translate into good policies. Airwaves have been considered a public domain by the government and as such assumed responsibility for regulating it. The FCC should stay to its core goals of policing traffic on the air objectively and not wield its power to please the individuals and groups with the most lobbying money.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/cnet/20081011/tc_cnet/8301103531006386694

Sony to reorganize after going solo

Sony Corporation and Bertelsman AG has broken up and Sony Corp. is getting custody of the offspring of their relationship. According to Yahoo Tech News, Sony bought out Bertelsman AG for 900 million dollars, effective October 1. This deal gives Sony the full rein on the operations of prominent recording company Sony BMG, which have unfortunately incurred some losses in the past years because of a decline in CD sales. Yahoo Tech News also reported that this move will allow Sony to "to harmonize its consumer electronics and its music, a duo that was badly out of sync". Bertelsman AG, meanwhile, will venture off to another direction, and will focus on its "growing TV, magazines and book publishing businesses."

This break off, I think, is a risky move for both companies, although there are obvious benefits. At a time of declining consumer spending, I do not know if a break up between two companies is really a smart move. As we have seen lately, the market has been trending more towards consolidation. However, this could also be a good move for Bertelsman AG and Sony Corp as it would allow both companies to operate independently and give them the free rein to specialize and improve their products.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/ap/20081010/ap_on_hi_te/sony_bertelsmann

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.24x7updates.com/newsimages/Sony_BMG_Recalls_Affected_CDs_Offers_Exchange.jpg

Apple Vs. Microsoft

Do you think that Microsoft Vista really could add up to Apple? I think that Microsoft is trying way too hard to be in the future. It's all in the sense that Apple is always at least 3 technological gadgets of what they sell out. With Apple, they simply focus on the program knowing that it will be good and then they know that if they have a good product that will continue to amaze their customers, then they have a product that will sweep the whole country once again. It's very hard to top Apple with its high technology. Microsoft has a state of mind that quantity is more important than quality. I believe that they should have tested the program out rather than just putting the product out there hoping that it wouldn't give anyone any problems what-so-ever. And I bet you right now that Apple already has another program that will wipe the floor with microsoft all together.

"I agree with you that Vista will double Apple’s market share, but I think it’s going to be bigger than you realize. For an awful lot of customers, Vista is Microsoft’s last chance. They’ve waited for six years, every feature that was supposed to make Vista worth the wait has been punted, and we know that they’re not even going to deliver a securable product.

My own prediction is that Vista is going to be remembered as the start of Microsoft’s slide to 20% market share or less. In the next decade or so, Apple will gain the most from Microsoft’s losses, but the cracking of the monopoly will be a major opportunity for Linux as well. I think we will also see the emergence of several entirely new operating systems, now that Microsoft will lose their ability to prevent new alternatives from reaching customers, as they did to Be."

Original Article

Dish Loses Final Appeal Of TiVo Ruling

I can admit, can you? I can admit that I cannot live without my DVR. If my favorite show comes on, but I'm stuck at work or school, I want to be sure that when i come home I can watch it, and skip through those commercials too. On Monday, The Supreme Court denied Dish Network’s appeal of a $74 million judgment it lost for violating a patent held by TiVo on DVR technology.

The denial of the appeal was issued without comment, and it essentially confirms a ruling last January by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit that upheld a lower court ruling that Dish’s DVRs violated some of the intellectual property used in the TiVo software, but overturned the lower-court’s finding that Dish also infringed on Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo’s hardware design. Responding to the decision, Dish issued a statement saying the Supreme Court decision "does not impact our software design-around, which has been placed in Dish DVR subject to the district court’s injunction, and our customers can continue using their Dish DVRs. We believe that the design-around does not infringe TiVo’s patent and that Tivo’s pending motion for contempt should be denied. We look forward to that ruling in the near future."

The statement also said, "Because of the Supreme Court’s decision, we will pay TiVo approximately $104 million (the amount the jury awarded in 2006 plus interest). The money is in an escrow account and will be released to TiVo in the next few days." TiVo originally sued EchoStar (now known as Dish) in 2004, alleging that the satellite-TV service infringed on TiVo's patents on technology that enables viewers to record one program while watching another. Originally, the lower court ordered 3 million offending Dish DVRs be shutdown, but the action was put on hold while Dish appealed the ruling.

Original Article
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Spam '08

Is it a good or bad thing that even spammers are getting involved in this year's elections? Well I guess it is to some extent. The candidates have fanned the flames of democracy so well that even spammers are getting a piece of the action in this year's electoral debate. So who's getting most of the spam attention?

According to data gathered by Yahoo News Tech from a firm called Secure Computing, Sarah Palin gave his fellow Vice-Presidential candidate a drubbing. The ratio of spam mail related to Gov. Palin compared with those of Sen. Joe Biden is 7:2. But the Democrats are not on the losing end. In fact the, the spam contest is pretty even. Obama is way ahead of McCain with regards to spam related to each of them. If that were actual electoral polls, maybe we would see more of McCain's cheap attack ads.

Secure Computing said that the spam mails were usually "nonsensical" and "shallow", dealing with trivial matters. Obama-related spam mails, for instance, discussed "race, disputes with Clinton, messianic oratory, and FOX news smears", while McCain was nailed for his "age and wealth".

This story probably has no significant relevance to anything, but its certainly fun to find out about these little details. I mean, if you look at it, the insight contained in these spam mails is a good satire of how the elections are conceived by individuals and the media. Most ideas contained within these emails are said to be inane, but hey, if you think about it, is the media's coverage of this election really that different?

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/zd/20081003/tc_zd/232721

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.guilderlandschools.org/farnsworth/PTA/Images/BS00107_.jpg

Xbox wins on rival's turf

In an effort to keep the Xbox competitive in Japan, the game console's mother company Microsoft has decided to do some price cuts on its product. The result is that the Xbox eclipsed the sales o Japan-based Sony's Playstation 3 last September. Yahoo News Tech reported that 53,547 Xbox 360 units were sold, while only 33,071 PS3 consoles were sold. The price cut was specifically done for the Xbox Arcade and Elite models by 8000 yen or $76. Yahoo New Tech that a new RPG called "Infinite Undiscovery", which was released in Japan for the Xbox also helped the console get the boost it needed in the market. Sony seems to have had a tough month as it's other competitor, Nintendo, outsold the Playstation Portable with the Nintendo DS. Nintendo was also the top game console maker in the market, as there were more Wii units sold than Xbox and PS3 consoles.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://tech.yahoo.com/news/nm/20081003/tc_nm/us_microsoft_sony_game

Google Chrome

Google wants to change the world. Knowing what they know and not doing anything with it is anathema. Being able to see what people want, how they think, all this is part of their intention to build something different. That isn't a bad thing, they're not out for control in a cravenly sense, and they aren't positioning themselves as a kind of benevolent dictatorship. And Chrome, in its simplicity, telegraphs their plan.

Firefox replacement? Hardly. Microsoft replacement? Nothing like that. What Google is working on is an Internet replacement. Or rather, an alternative.

And Chrome fits into it like this: Google is creating some mental real estate with their own browser. They're never going to stop backing Firefox, they'll need their Mozilla compatriot down the road; I'd be surprised if they ever pull funding. But they want to get people used to the idea that they can browse with Chrome. Because while Microsoft starts small and works to big, starting with a Windows computer, then bringing in hardware people, software people, developers, artists, musicians, and whoever else they can populate their ecosystem with, Google is working from the other direction: collect and study every bit of data, develop a brand, build an infrastructure, create the idea of a platform, and then make something new.

Taking a step back, what has Google got already? They gots the datas; all of them, don't make any assumptions to the contrary. They'll always have that. This is the heart of their business and their product. Without Google, the Internet wouldn't be nearly as important or even valuable: think about it, it'd be a whole lot of crap pages tied together using banner ads and webrings. You remember 1998? You remember Netscape? It was worthless. So they fixed it, and now Google is a brand - even your mom knows the Google. It costs GOOG dollars. It's real.

Original Article

Microsoft admits Vista isn't up to their standards

To all the readers reading this blog, who has a Microsoft Vista? I'm sure that most of you who have it, first thought it was confusing to deal with. In a lot of people's perspective, Microsoft Vista is just a knock off version of Apple's software. And sure enough Apple has made their software a lot more different to use than PCs. But did Microsoft really think that Vista is failure? DELL noticed that their sales went down when switching to Vista, and wanted to get XP back. Let's face it, Microsoft can never beat Apple and we all know that those are the two largest companies when it comes to computer and software.

WITH TWO OVERLAPPING events, Microsoft admitted what we have been saying all along, Vista, aka Windows Me Two (Me II), is a joke that no one wants. The other equally monumental Me II failure? Gates in China launching a $3 version of bundled XP. Why is this not altruism? Well, it goes back to piracy and how it helped enforce the MS monopoly. If you can easily pirate Windows, Linux has no price advantage, they both cost zero.


Original Article

BlackBerry's Pearl Flip first in fold

I personally, am a blackberry owner. So when i heard that Blackberry was going to introduce a flip phone, it blew my mind. Never has blackberry had such thing available to the public so this news is very intriguing to Blackberry users and non users alike. Research in Motion (RIM), the manufacturer of BlackBerry phones, is set to unveil a phone that folds in half, a departure from the slab-like design that has defined its products.

The long-rumoured phone will be called the BlackBerry Pearl Flip and will be available from T-Mobile USA and from overseas carriers later this year, at an undisclosed price. The "flip" or "clamshell" design, where the display and keyboard are separated by a hinge, is a popular one for conventional cellphones, particularly in the US. Jim Balsillie, co-chief executive of Rim, said 70% of handsets in the country have this shape.

"Bringing this form factor to the smart phone category is, we think, very special," Balsillie said. Smart phones expand the features of a regular phone with applications like web browsing and e-mail access, which is RIM's forte. The Flip is the successor to the BlackBerry Pearl, which launched two years ago. It has a standard "candybar" shape. Both models have 20 keys and double up some letters on each key, in contrast to the wider, more professionally orientated BlackBerries that have more keys and assign only one letter to each key.

RIM has done very well with the Pearl, which was its first entry into the consumer smart phone market. It turned the BlackBerry from an accessory for corporate e-mail slaves into a hot item for consumers who wanted a bit more from their phones. Figures from research firm IDC showed that RIM nabbed 54% of the US market for smart phones in the second quarter, though that figure was probably inflated because buyers looking at getting an iPhone from Apple were holding off in the quarter, waiting for a new model to arrive.

Original Article

Starwars game hits the market

Gamers and Starwars fans alike got a new taste of the film classic on their game consoles as LucasArts released Starwars:The Force Unleashed Wednesday. Associated Press reported that the game has garnered mixed reviews, but a toy industry analst, Anita Frazier predicted good sales for The Force Unleashed given the iconic stature of the Star Wars franchise. Some complaints that have been gathered so far include the inability of the Wii controller to be used as a light saber. The Star Wars game was released in many platforms, "including Microsoft's Xbox 360; Nintendo's Wii and DS; Sony's PlayStation 3, PlayStation 2, and PSP; and even Apple's iPhone and iPod touch." In doing so, Lucas Arts accomplished two milestones. First, it was the first time the game developer ever released anything for the Playstation 3 and Microsoft Xbox. Second, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is the first time that a game of such iconic position was ever released for the Ipod and the Itouch. The goal of Lucas Arts is obviously to increase their bottom line, and that remains to be seen. But at least for now, they can bask in the historical victories of their accomplishment.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080918/bs_nf/61963;_ylt=AgTpoxtVWSeXhaF74mR5pywK77EF

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jldavid/2787471674/

Microsoft improves Zune connectivity

Microsoft has good news for its Zune users and prospective buyers. The company just put out a software that would make it easier for Zune users to download songs and discover new music. The free software is considered as a way to compete with the Ipod's product lineup, and will allow Zune users to download music straight from their players "either over a home wireless network or through Wi-Fi hot spots at more than 9,800 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S., courtesy of Internet access provider Wayport (Long 2008)." Associated Press reported that new technological changes have allowed Zune players to store information on a lot of songs over the radio. This means that folks can listen to a song on the radio and directly download it to their players. The new software will also allow Zune users to get music recommendations from the Zune editorial staff and also share their play list with select friends.These improvements, however, won't stop Microsoft from tweaking their products more, as they also plan to introduce new software that would allow the Zune "new 'channels' feature that the software giant describes as a hybrid between a playlist and a podcast. (Long 2008)" Several radio stations and magazines are already placing their bets on this measure.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nf/20080918/bs_nf/61964;_ylt=Au5UngRnexgkYsB3uiUjhWIN7YV4

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/yggg/299105788/

Investment sites experience online traffic

Associated Press reported Friday that investment companies dealt with more activity than usual on their websites. This surge, of course, was caused by brewing crisis in the stock market. The article noted that Scottrade, Inc. experienced the most online traffic, although company spokeswoman Kelly Doria said that Scottrade's website did not encounter any difficulties. Other investment sites who received more-than-usual online activity held up relatively well during the increased traffic. There were times during the day when the websites were not operating in 100% capacity, but the shortcomings were not too overwhelming. Associated Press reported that E-trade's website handled the increased online activity better than anyone. The article also reported that the web traffic did not spill onto banking websites, which is fortunate news because it meant that not a lot of folks were pulling their savings off of banks.

The increase in web traffic is probably going to calm down pretty soon, given the bailout plan that Congress is currently working on. Meanwhile, it is fortunate that internet technology was able to effectively hold up amidst a crisis. The bailout plan probably deserves a brunt of the credit for giving investors a psychological assurance (as shown by significant gains in the Dow Jones and other stocks) to continue to have faith in the market , but I would not count out the contribution given by the accessibility of the web to that boost in investor confidence.


ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080919/ap_on_hi_te/tec_meltdown_online_activity;_ylt=Ao58kztbHMjkoSfpPRzrYPQjtBAF

PHOTO SOURCE: http://www.flickr.com/photos/goodresolution/252377405/

Rumor: Macbook Touch?

Rumor has it, by October Apple will offer a new and improved computer that you would have never expected. It's like an iPhone..but 10x bigger! I'm already an iphone owner, I just think that I should stick with just one touch screen device. As I look at the pictures in this article, it really is like a huge iphone! but with much much more to offer. And Apple actually tries to take over the Architect strategies of doing blue prints though a special Macbook Touch just for designing as well!

UPDATE: A post over at AppleInsider might have some more light to shed on the story. At the recent earnings talk, Apple promised a product transition by the end of September with "technologies and features that others can't match" at a profit margin that no one else can approach (read: cheaper stuff). The plot thickens!

Original Article

Integrated circuit hits 50

50 summers ago, Jack Kilby skipped on the beach bum routine and toiled in his job to be the hero for all internet users. He ended up inventing the Integrated Circuit, a device that proved crucial in propelling all of us into an age where Internet is nearly ubiquitous. No less credit, however, should be given to another genius, Intel founder Robert Noyce. Leslie Berlin, "project historian for Stanford Silicon Valley Archives and author of a book about Noyce", said in an Associated press article that Noyce was tinkering around his tool box at just about the same time as Kilby was. Kilby ended up being the first person to actually present the IC chip to the world, but Noyce was the one who found a way to actually have the IC chip produced in mass numbers. Associated Press noted that the two men are credited equally for their contributions. And that is just about fair. Innovation is meaningless unless it actually becomes useful in the real world. Kilby and Noyce are both geniuses whose efforts are probably one of the most significant in the modern age and the future.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080913/tc_afp/usitinternetchipkilby;_ylt=AnTHHcmZTRluXoq2DAZO75gjtBAF
PHOTO SOURCE: http://bass.gmu.edu/images/IC-chip.jpg

Spam: free speech?

Jeremy Jaynes may not be in the wheelhouse of high profile criminals like Al Capone or Charles Manson, but his name sure has gained some level of notoriety, at least in Virginia. As a recent Associated Press put it, Jaynes is arguably "one of the world's most prolific spammers."

Jaynes was taken into custody but the Virginia Supreme Court overturned his conviction on September 12, saying that "the state's anti-spam law [was] unconstitutional." The court ruled that the law infringed on free-speech rights, especially because the law also prohibited the transmission of "unsolicited emails" from religious and political institutions.

The plaintiffs in the case were disappointed with the ruling, contending that spam mails were essentially an invasion of privacy "because the Virginia law bars trespassing on privately owned e-mail servers through phony e-mail routing and transmission information." Associated Press reported that Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell is planning to bring the lawsuit to the U.S. Supreme Court.

My opinion? McDonnell should have won the case. Email addresses are private property. Obtaining such information without owners knowing about it should be a federal crime. I agree that people have a right to free speech, whether it means selling something or simply spreading their political or religious ideas, but we have to do it in a civilized manner. We have to do it in such a way that we are not using shady methods to intrude into the private property of citizens.

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080912/ap_on_hi_te/anti_spam_law;_ylt=AqPmZDG4EIs0F.ZV.qUolDkjtBAF

A shot in the arm for India and the world's economy

Where there's love, businesses will flock. That is the central tenet of a free capitalist system. And for India, growing demand for electronic products is alluring new companies to set up shop in the developing country. According to a recent article from the Business Standard, three Asian companies and one American enterprise are planning to expand their market reach. These businesses include, "Japanese testing firm Saki, Hong Kong’s surface mount technology (SMT) company WKK, Singapore’s Mydata (SMT) and USA’s Indium (solder paste)." The Business Standard cited a study conducted by the Consumer Electronics Association, which predicted a 10% or $700 billion rise in demand for electronic products, ranging everything from cellular phones to laptops and video games. This promising sector has expectedly attracted many companies and is a battleground of stiff market competition between Asian companies, considered to be perennial leaders in the electronics manufacturing industry, and other emerging enterprises, particularly those in Mexico.

Whoever comes out on top of the heap, the synergy generated in the electronics industry could only mean better products and prices for consumers

ORIGINAL ARTICLE: http://www.business-standard.com/india/storypage.php?autono=334346