Archive for the ‘Gadgets & Technology’ Category

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Asus EEE Now Goes Touch Screen

Friday, October 17th, 2008

The small Asus EEE had made such an impact to the computer world. It’s a very small notebook with a price that even a working college student can buy. It wasn’t the best PC in the market but it sure has its own crowd. Those who doesn’t really need to bring a bulky notebook with them wherever they go utilizes the small Asus EEE. It has a small hard disk memory with as little as 2 Gb only so downloading the latest games or storing your thousands of songs or movies ain’t such a good idea with that one. But, it is a perfect gadget for those who just want to surf the net or just want to use basic computer software such as Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.

The Asus EEE is the best travel companion and despite this very good reputation, Asus EEE doesn’t want to be left behind thus they get better and better with more choices to choose from. From the 2 Gb Asus EEE to having 7 inches, 9 inches and 10 inches with widescreen notebooks and now, Asus EEE is taking pre-orders for their latest addition to their line-up of computers, the Asus EEE All-in-One Touch Screen.

If you live in the U.S., you can preorder this new touch screen computer for just around $678. It’s not a notebook; it’s a touch screen computer. The Asus EEE Touch Screen has 15.6 inches of screen size with a single touch panel. The processor is Intel Atom with a memory of 1 GB but the HD capacity is 160 Gb. The operating system used is Windows XP Home but you can upgrade it or change it to another operating system of your choice but that would be priced accordingly. It uses shared graphics of 128 Mb.

It has a 1.3 mega pixel web camera with a digital array microphone. Audio chips included are a 2x4W HiFi Speaker with SRS. It has LAN port and WiFi. You can also use a keyboard and a mouse with the touch screen computer if you want and the Asus EEE All-in-one touch screen PC weighs around 4.3 kg only.

Now, you can pre-order for your very own Touch Screen computer. It’s not quite expensive compared to other similar Touch Screen PCs out there so you can start bragging to your friends that your awesome new PC is actually touch screen.

Asus ensures that we get better choices for our needs. No need to pay a lot of money for a PC when there is a brand that is reliable and world-renowned but with a line-up of computers that are not as expensive as its competitors. Surely the price of the Asus computers is its top selling point but the quality is not to be disregarded as well. With the addition of a touch screen home desktop on the lineup of Asus EEE, we can just be more excited with what they will come up with next.

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Apple’s New Upgrades

Friday, October 17th, 2008

Last October 14, 2008 Apple announced new upgrades for their 3 Macbook Portables.

Their MacBook Pro has been upgraded and this time it has a multi-touch trackpad, Mini DisplayPort, Hybrid SLI and of course, a much faster processor. The FireWire 400 has been removed from the MacBook Pro but you can still use the FireWire 400 by using the FireWire 800 port. Also, with the use of Hybrid SLI, users can choose between the GeForce 9400 and the GeForce 9600M which reduces the battery life by one hour compared to GeForce 9400.

The MacBook Pro now had a much better case design so you could easily upgrade your hard drive.

The MacBook, on the other hand, is now made in aluminum. It uses the GeForce 9400 which is, as they say, is give times more powerful in graphics performance compared to the previous one. The MacBook no longer use the FireWire 400 as well.

The MacBook Air is also with a new upgrade but the design or the original MacBook Air is still used. With the MacBook Air, the upgrades include having a processor known as Core 2 “Penryn” with more cache. The lower end of the MacBook Air will get 120 Gb of disk memory while the high end model will get 128 Gb SSD. It uses the GeForce 9400 GPU as well. MacBook Air, just like the previous 2 is no longer using FireWire 400 anymore.

Thanks to these new upgrades, no one can criticize Apple’s MacBooks being outperformed by the older Apple PowerBooks. The previous MacBook Air loses to the older PowerBooks in terms of Graphics because the old PowerBook has GeForce GX Go 5200 with 64 MB Shared memory while the old MacBook air just had Intel GMA X3100 with 64 Mb of “shared memory”. This means, the MacBook Air takes away 64Mb from the system memory.

One great news from Apple during the event of the announcement of their upgrades is the other announcement that Apple will release a 24-inch Cinema Display. The 24-inch cinema display will have built-in speakers, an iSight Camera and USB hubs as well. Their 24-inch cinema display is the first of Apple’s LED external displays so let’s expect more with this technology from the lineup of Apple’s products. The price for this cool new display is not for the faint-hearted. After all, it’s Apple so it’s no longer shocking to find out that it costs much more than other brands. The Apple Cinema Display is retailed for $899 only!

You should not be left behind especially if you’re a real Apple fan. With these new upgrades, the competition for the faster and better portable computers just gets even higher. You can purchase your very own MacBook computer online by visiting Apple’s online store. MacBooks are worth $999 while MacBook Air can be yours for $1799. The MacBook Pro is worth $1999 while Mac Pro is $2799.

Apple continues to improve thus making them a really hard competitor to beat.

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Nokia E71

Tuesday, August 26th, 2008

If you loved the Nokia E61 and E61i, you will surely love the Nokia E71. It is smaller and thinner compared to the E61i at a thickness of only 10mm and at just 57mm in length. The display screen is respectable at 2.36 inches although it is smaller compared to the 2.8 inches of Nokia E61.

The Nokia E71 features a 3.6 Mbps HSDPA, wifi 802.11 b/g with a Symbian operating system 9.2 that is perfect for your internet browsing requirement.  The QWERTY keyboard lets you type your

grey nokia e71

grey nokia e71

messages just like using a computer keyboard but it’s just a bit too small to be comfortable. If you have big fingers, this phone may not be that appealing because of its cute keyboard. It’s perfect for women though as women are gifted with smaller fingers compared to men but if you could master the fingernail typing instead of using your fingers for pressing the keys then this won’t be a problem for you.

In the Philippines, you could purchase your own Nokia E71 for about P21,000. If you want to buy it from Nokia it can be bought for more than P35,000 inclusive of warranty. With all of Nokia E71’s features, this cellular phone is priced just right.

Of course this cellular phone is not all superb. It only has a 110 MB internal memory with an extra 128 MB of SDRAM memory but this could be increased if you buy a higher memory. Its camera is not designed to compete with other new camera phones as it only has a 3.15 megapixel camera. To some, this is an advantage because this phone is not built for taking photos but for its laptop-like features which is what Nokia focused on for this quality phone.

If you need to check your emails regularly but doesn’t want to buy a bulky laptop, the Nokia E71 is an excellent buy.

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The Apple iPhone 3G will soon be in the Philippines!

Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

That’s right, folks! Pretty soon the Filipinos will soon be lining up to buy their very own Apple iPhone 3G that is said to be much cheaper than the previously released version that costs roughly about P 25,000. Now, the 8 Gb version of the Apple iPhone 3G is announced by Apple to cost only $199 worldwide so that’s less than P10,000 considering the USD to Philippine peso won’t go up to P50=$1 again but even so, at the price of cellular phones nowadays, this one is definitely a great bargain considering all its great features. But will Globe stick to the announced price or will they abuse their tie-up with Apple and price it much higher than what is targeted? We can all just wait and see.

So what can we expect from the new Apple iPhone 3G? Of course, as stated with its name, it now offers the fast 3G wireless technology that is said to be twice as fast as the previously released Apple iPhone. Not only does it feature the fast 3G technology but now you can surf the net with its Wi-Fi. It also has a GPS mapping feature that will work in the Metro Manila areas but the provincial areas may not make much use of it as of the moment. And as what an iPhone has revolutionalized, the Apple iPhone is a combination of a cellular phone, a widescreen (touchscreen) iPod, and also as an internet device so it’s like having your own laptop, ipod and cellular phone in one! All that for less than P10,000? That is definitely hard to beat!

Expect the new Apple’s iPhone 3G to be available to all Filipinos later this year. The Philippines is not a part of the launch date set by Apple on July 11 but it promises to have the phone available a little later. With its partnership with Globe, you would get to enjoy all the great benefits and features offered by Globe Telecom on your Apple iPhone. Surely, with the price as low as what Apple announced, other cellular phone manufacturers would be on their toes and produce better quality phones at an affordable price. With taxes and other expenses, many speculate that it is impossible for the Apple iPhone 3G to be offered at that price. Let’s just hope that it won’t double the price here or else many of us would still resort to buying the phone abroad and unlocking it here.

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Posted in Blogging, Gadgets & Technology, Philippines | 3 Comments »

Could Bionic Eyes End Blindness?

Thursday, May 1st, 2008

It’s another medical breakthrough. With two successful operations of two blind British patients who had been blind for several years gives hope to the many blind people who would love to get another chance into seeing the world in its full glory or to at least have a different view of the world and not live in total darkness.

So how does this bionic eye technology work? The doctors make an implant behind the retina which would be receiving electronic signals translated from the images captured by the camera found on the sunglasses that the patient will be wearing. Depending on the electrodes in the implant, an image is formed. 6 years ago, there are only 4 electrodes for the implants being used that translate to a very blurry black and white image. Now, 60 electrodes are available but even with this great improvement, the patient would still be getting blurry black and white images. They would be getting images but they still can’t recognize faces yet. In the future, doctors are aiming to create bionic eyes that could give not only black and white images, but images with colors and is a lot more detailed.

This new technology still has a long way to go before the blind can fully benefit from it. In the future, doctors are hoping that the blind would get to see the faces of their loved ones again. For now, having a blurry black and white image is enough to give hope to those who desperately wants to experience living out of the darkness.

For now, doctors are testing this bionic eye technology to many blind patients and are happy with the results although they know that this technology is still making its baby steps and is years away from producing clear and colored images. They estimate that it will take 5 more years before they could successfully implant high electrode implants with 1000 electrodes or even more.

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The Power of an iMac

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008

Microsoft should now be trembling on its feet as more and more people are switching to Apple especially with the release of their new Apple’s iMac.

With a speed of up to 3.06 GHz and running on Intel Core 2 Duo processors, this PC is definitely the fastest ever produced by Apple.

There is a 20-inch and a 24-inch iMac that you could choose from. The 20-inch iMac comes with either a 2.4 GHz processor or a 2.66 GHz processor. The 24 inch, on the other hand, runs in 2.8 GHz or 3.06 GHz processor. Apart from its other features, the best thing about the Apple iMac is its versatility. A regular PC has lots of wirings that you need to connect to the CPU. Moving around or cleaning a regular PC can be stress-provoking but this problem is no longer an issue with the new iMac. You may wonder how it can operate without a CPU but that’s what makes this new PC wonderful. Now, your monitor is also your CPU so it takes lesser space and creates less clutter.

With the addition of iMac lures more people to switch from Microsoft to Apple. Well, you also have to add that Apple is known to be a lot more stable system and is less susceptible to spyware or virus attacks unlike with Microsoft. Sure it may take a little practice before you’d get used to this switch but then the MAC OS X Leopard makes your computer experience a lot more colorful and entertaining. Watching movies and photos are clearer than what you’ve been stuck with and also, Safari lets you browse the internet faster and more secure.

If all these still don’t interest you, just take a look at the new iMac. Surely you’d be captivated by its beauty. Check out the LCD screen resolution. It’s like seeing all these wonderful images becoming alive in front of your eyes.

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Flickr with videos? Will this bring down YouTube?

Sunday, April 13th, 2008

Flickr has announced that it will be offering a video uploading and streaming similar to what YouTube is offering. Flickr has gained great popularity especially to many photographers who like sharing their captured photographs to many of Flickr viewers. With its popularity, will Flickr manage to boot out the giant YouTube once their video streaming and uploading is available? Not quite yet.

There are many factors that the new Flickr video streaming would have a problem with and might make many wannabe uploaders to shy away from using Flickr video uploading feature. First of all, you would need to pay a $25 yearly subscription to Flickr in order to use this feature. As a Flickr Pro subscriber, you are entitled to upload videos and share it with your friends or family or if you would want to share it to the world. Second, they only limit your video uploading to 90 seconds. That’s just a minute and a half of video and this is not interesting to many at all. For a yearly fee and all you get is a limit of 90 seconds (a minute and a half) of video each is just not something that many will consider. Against YouTube, these two factors are great barriers to competition. YouTube is free and you could upload a 10-minute video each time and you can share it privately or publicly as well. The video quality is also reduced but that is not a problem since you’re not paying them anything.

It’s too early to tell whether or not this new feature from Flickr would gain popularity. Surely Flickr knows their competition and will provide a feature that has more pros than cons to lure more subscribers. Perhaps their video quality is amazingly crisp, we don’t know yet. One thing is for sure though, a giant like YouTube won’t just wait for a rising competitor to just beat it from its top position. If Flickr provides a great service, perhaps YouTube will improve theirs and we get all the benefits.

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Sony Ericsson G700

Monday, February 25th, 2008

This is the cheapest till date Smartphone being announced by Sony Ericsson. The G700 series was announced at10th February 2008 at World GSM Congress, Barcelona. The phone is one of the 7 new phones launched by the company. It’s a bar shaped phone based on the UiQ 3.1 and Symbian OS, version of which has not yet disclosed. The device is Sony Ericsson’s attempt to bring its range of Smartphone more close to public.

The G700 doesn’t really look like a Smartphone rather it looks much similar to the company’s feature phones. The back has look of a low-cost phone, but is comfortable to touch. The back features exposed camera and dual LED lamps for flash purpose which looks similar to the one in P1i. The speaker grill is situated just under the battery compartment.

The screen is 2.4 inches and boasts of 262k color with QVGA 240×320 pixels resolution. Though it is not as good as it is on the P series phones, but it manages very well. The display though is a nightmare under direct sunlight. Being smaller than the most of the phones based on UiQ, the ease of use is greatly crippled. The cost cutting measures have reduced the size of screen as well the availability of WIFI and auto focus on camera which is otherwise a 3.2megapixel sensor unit making the close-up shots impossible. The camera has image stabilization facility. Video is recorded at QVGA resolution at 30FPS. The secondary camera with VGA resolution is used for video calls.

The weight of the device is mere 99grams and the thickness being only 13mm which makes it come very close to motorazr in terms of size and aesthetics. The device retains touch screen and the interface has been customized to suit day to day needs like putting up sticky notes on the display of the screen. The device runs on a 208 MHz ARM processor with 128MB of RAM which ensures that it will be won’t hang and be quick. In built memory is 160MB which is extended by M2 card up to 1GB. Connectivity is through GPRS/3G in 2100MHz band only. This means that it won’t run on the 3G networks of USA. It also has Bluetooth 2.0 with support for stereo headset. Though with smaller screen display, Sony Ericsson has tried to enlarge the icons so that it’s possible to use the phone with thumbs.

The keypad is the generic alphanumeric with a D-pad for navigation as well as dedicated keys for shortcuts and messaging. The new shortcuts feature is very useful as it can help you organize your most frequently used contacts notes, appointments and shortcuts to favorite applications. The task manager has also been revamped with the recently opened applications tab being removed and only running tasks being showed. The photo gallery, music and videos are made accessible through the media center which is one extremely organized way to browse through your multimedia collection. The interface is very similar to the new walkman branded phones. The search facility has also been greatly enhanced as you can tag the photos into categories and then sort the photos based on those categories/keywords as well as the searching of a particular song is possible even if you don’t know complete name of song, but just some words of it. The video player is very cool; it has very big buttons in horizontal mode which can be pressed by thumb. The controls are transparent and gradually fade away when not being used. The web browser is the same as the ones in previous versions of UiQ i.e. Opera 8.x though the navigation is very fast with the hardware D pad buttons. It is expected to cost around EUR 250, though Sony has also announced another phone G900 with WLAN, 5megapixel camera with auto focus with cost of around EUR 300. The handset is expected to be available by march-end, 2008.

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