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.

Tags: asus eee, hifi speaker, touch screen computer, touch screen pc, travel companion
Posted in Gadgets & Technology, Review | No Comments »

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.

Tags: apple powerbooks, firewire 800, GeForce 9400, GeForce 9600M, gma x3100, graphics performance, isight camera, MacBook Pro, portables, usb hubs
Posted in Blogging, Gadgets & Technology | No Comments »

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.

Tags: 3.15megapixel, e71, Gadget Review, nokia, Philippines, qwerty, Symbian
Posted in Gadgets & Technology | No Comments »

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.

Tags: 3G, 3g technology, Cheap iPhone, globe telecom, iPhone, Wi-Fi, wireless technology
Posted in Blogging, Gadgets & Technology, Philippines | 4 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.

Tags: bionic eye
Posted in Blogging, Gadgets & Technology | 1 Comment »

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