Posts for 'For Him' Category

Details of AOL's streaming radio application for the Apple 3G iPhone have surfaced after it was revealed that the application won an Apple design award for "Best Entertainment Application" at this year's WWDC. The free application will be available for the 3G iPhone next month, allowing users to stream 200 AOL online radio stations and 150 terrestrial radio stations over both Wi-Fi and 3G cellular connections.

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High Tech Computer on Tuesday launched a more powerful version of its popular Touch smartphone, hoping to lure consumers from better-known rivals such as Apple's iPhone.
The Touch Diamond, which supports carriers' 3G broadband-like networks, includes features that focus on Web browsing and checking e-mail. The device, which runs on Microsoft's Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, includes a 2.8-inch VGA touch screen that the company claims provides near-print-quality viewing.
The smartphone's Web browser can zoom and pan Web sites. In addition, turning the device sideways automatically rotates the page view from portrait to landscape. HTC has also developed its own YouTube application to watch video from the popular site. The software also optimizes the use of Google's mobile mapping service for accessing street maps and getting traffic data. Google owns YouTube.

The Apple iPhone already has similar features to the Touch Diamond, but the latter goes one better by supporting faster 3G networks. Apple, however, is expected to add that feature in the next version of its iPhone, which analysts say is likely to ship this year.

The Touch Diamond is attracting attention, because of HTC's success with the original Touch smartphone, which the company launched in early June 2007. The company has sold 3 million units, making it a challenger to rivals such as Apple, which sold 5.7 million iPhones from its release last summer to the end of the first quarter.

The Touch Diamond weighs less than 4 ounces and includes a 3.2-megapixel camera. The device comes with 4 GB of storage, and supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless technologies. Talk time is up to four hours on a fully charged battery, according to HTC. Its size is roughly 4 by 2 by 0.4 inches.

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Dutch information technology company Tulip Computers (TULN.AS: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Monday it would list its German unit Devil AG on the Frankfurt stock exchange, using the proceeds to fund Devil's growth.

The company said in a statement it would list 2.85 million shares including 2.5 million new shares and that it would keep a controlling stake in Devil.

Tulip said it would announce the price range of the shares on May 7, while investors can subscribe from May 8 until May 14.

It expects Devil to have a listing as of May 20 on the German exchange.

Devil is one of Germany's leading IT distributors and had sales of about 322 million euros ($498 million) in the fiscal year 2006/07, of which 90 percent in Germany, and earnings before interest and taxes of 2 million euros.

After the listing Devil will have 7.5 million shares outstanding, with a free float of about 38 percent.

Tulip said it wanted to use the proceeds of the listing to increase the unit's product line and its client base.

“This advanced digital camera makes it possible for users to share their photos with friends and family with unprecedented ease and without a computer,” said Alex Fried, National Marketing Manager, Imaging, Panasonic Consumer Electronics Company. “Active users will appreciate the TZ50’s Wi-Fi capabilitilies so they can share photos while on-the-go, but they will also benefit from HD video recording, a 10x optical zoom and a 28mm wide-angle lens, so capturing images, whether far or wide; moving or still – is all possible with this compact camera.”

Panasonic uses the T-Mobile HotSpot service and Picasa Web Albums’ APIs to create a new optimal online environment and community for sharing digital photos. After taking photos with the new Panasonic LUMIX TZ50, users will be able to wirelessly send one or multiple photos at a time, directly to Google’s Picasa Web Albums. Users can connect to standard wireless home networks, but furthermore, the TZ50 can also connect to the T-Mobile HotSpot Service, which provides fast and reliable Wi-Fi Internet acess at more than 8,800 public locations throughout the United States, including Borders Books & Music stores, Hyatt Hotels and many major airports. The LUMIX TZ50 comes with an offer for 12-months of complimentary T-Mobile HotSpot Wi-FI service.

Users can register one email account with their TZ50, so after uploading their photos to Picasa Web Albums, they can have the URL to that album sent to the registered account. Since many cell phones and smartphones receive emails, users can register their own email address and then forward that Picasa Web Albums URL to friends and family, all while away from home and without using a computer. In addition, users can browse their albums to confirm that photos have been successfully uploaded, and choose to delete uploaded photos directly on the digital camera.

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Very slim portable camera that captures stills at up to 6-megapixel resolution as well as video with sound.

Likes: The large colour display (5.6cm) makes it easy to line up shots. The sleek metal body and easy-to-press buttons. Digital stills produce vibrant colours and good detail (which make enlargements and cropping possible). Video clips look impressive considering the size of the device and clip length is limited only by the size of the SD card you use (1GB can store up to 1 hour of MPEG-4). Press a dedicated button once and it starts recording. Comes with a docking cradle for charging, uploading images to your computer.

Dislikes: Be careful not to bump the video record button. Internal memory is only 8.3MB so you need to buy an SD card.

Apple's new laptop, the MacBook Air, may not be the true ultraportable that many had hoped for, but it still easily breaks new ground for small laptops. Mimicking the 13-inch silhouette of the current MacBook line, it's only 0.76 inch thick at its thickest, and Apple calls it the "world's thinnest notebook." Some nitpickers say an obscure Mitsubishi laptop from 1997 was a hair thinner, but two of the smallest current ultraportable laptops, the 11-inch Sony VAIO TZ150 and the 12-inch Toshiba Portege R500, are both slightly thicker, and neither tapers to 0.16 inch as the Air does along its front edge.

As we've come to expect from Apple, the design and engineering that went into the MacBook Air is extraordinary, but it's certainly a much more specialized product than the standard 13-inch MacBook and won't be as universally useful as that popular system. The biggest compromises, which have been well-documented, come in its connectivity: The MacBook Air finds room for only one USB port and doesn't include a built-in optical drive, FireWire, Ethernet, or mobile broadband. And like with its other laptops, Apple refuses to outfit the Air with a media-card reader or an expansion card slot. Offsetting its sparse connectivity are genuinely useful new features including new trackpad gesture controls and the ability to wirelessly "borrow" another system's optical drive.

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MOBILE phone and computer time settings have been thrown into chaos by the extension of daylight saving in the east – and the confusion is set to continue with the country now divided into four time zones.

Phones, computer programs and even Telstra's speaking clock service reverted to standard time a week too early in some eastern states yesterday, after the end of daylight savings was extended to 3am on April 6.

But someone didn't tell the phones, some of which had a mind of their own.

Telstra spokesman Peter Taylor said new-generation mobile phones and BlackBerry handsets were affected most because they had software that could override their systems.

"Technology and time went haywire at 2am yesterday, so many people slept in... Thankfully, it was a Sunday," Mr Taylor said.

Some computers and electronic clocks also switched back to standard time too early, and some companies have issued software updates for Microsoft Outlook to correct premature changes to its meeting calendar service.

Western Australia reverted to standard time yesterday, while NSW, the ACT, Victoria, South Australia and Tasmania are still in daylight saving time.

Queensland, which has refused to adopt daylight saving, is an hour behind the other eastern states and the Northern Territory is an hour and a half behind.

In the US last year a similar change in daylight saving schedules meant hundreds of millions were spent on adjusting computer systems.

Although the east coast may be affected, the problem shouldn't affect Western Australia, which is in the middle of a three-year trial of daylight saving, because its systems are already in place.

Premier Alan Carpenter has conceded, while personally not a fan of daylight saving, that it does benefits the state, particularly the business sector.

WA has rejected daylight saving at several referendums and the three-year trial is an attempt to end the debate. 

Nokia’s close scrutiny by the European Commission continues, as the company’s pending acquisition of NAVTEQ comes under further review in Phase II of the pre-purchase inquiry.  Nokia is keen to point out that the review process does not necessarily suggest that the Commission will oppose the buy-out, which has otherwise received all other necessary regulatory approvals.

The Commission now has 90 working days to make a final decision on the transaction.  However, the review period may be extended to 125 working days under certain circumstances.  The completion of the acquisition is subject to the receipt of European regulatory approval.

WHILE THE Indian social fabric is facing a serious threat of disintegration due to collapse of the joint family concept, a fresh crisis has developed in the new society. Unitary families, mostly comprising of husband and wife, are facing a more serious menace of further disintegration. The couples are living like separate islands where each of them seems to be a single unit.
 
This is not because of an unwanted intrusion of the third person in their love life making it a triangular situation. It is not also because of their differences in lifestyles or in philosophies of life. Modern electronic gadgets are, today, playing the role of a villain, which is fast isolating the couples from each other. Love to modern day couples is not platonic, neither robust nor hot and physical. Their first love is the MP3 player, personal digital assistant, portable media player, hand-held game console or mobile phones.
 
Spending quality time with the husband or wife after busy office hours is a story of the past. Now, the couples love to remain busy with several options provided by modern electronic gadgets instead of spending time with ‘meaningless’ or ‘temporary’ kind of relaxation. To them, browsing the net or chatting with the friends, office colleagues or at least enjoying songs or jokes on FM channels are more rewarding.

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Students in Virginia Tech mechanical engineering Professor Mehdi Ahmadian’s senior design class developed a horizontal light bar to communicate slowing and stopping actions to a driver in a following vehicle. It had several drawbacks, including cost of production. A sensor circuit that will do the same job using the extra lights usually mounted on commercial vehicles has now been developed.

You are driving in heavy traffic. The brake lights on the car in front of you come on. Is the car slowing or is it going to stop? It slows to 25 mph and the lights go off. You drop back. The car in front of you stops suddenly! You stop just in time. The car behind you collects your rear bumper.

“The problem is that brake lights are yes and no – on and off,” according to John Hennage of Montross, Va., a Ph.D. mechanical engineering student in Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering. “The driver behind does not know the speed at which the car in front is slowing or stopping. The only other signal would be the smoke off the tires.”

The solution is an intelligent brake light system that communicates slowing and urgent stopping – rather than simply that the brake pedal is being touched. “A driver could be tapping his foot in time to music and the brake lights would blink. Or, a driver can rest her foot on the pedal and the lights would glow. It’s not enough information for the following driver,” said Hennage.

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