Thursday, February 28, 2008

Revolutionary Keyboard has 'Evolved'


Its true that Keyboards cause strain to fingers, but what if we could get a keyboard just to suit our needs that also reduces the strain on our fingers ? Well one such keyboard has arrived, and this time, its from Logitech. Its the new MX5000 keyboard which the company calls as an 'Evolved' Keyboard.

This keyboard best suits both Mac and PC users, and provides a cushioning effect to the palm says Logitech. The keyboard also comes with a wireless Mouse to avoid the irritating wires just to reduce the complexity. In all, its a brilliant keyboard with all the basic multi-media features.

Lenovo's X300 ThinkPad

Recently Lenovo launched its ultra portable Thinkpad X300 to challenge Apple's Macbook Air. X300 is 0.73" thick compared to 0.16" thick Macbook Air. However, X300 is expected to support more applications compared to Macbook Air.

X300 Thinkpad has 3 USB ports compared to just 1 USB port offered by Macbook Air. Also Thinkpad offers a DVD writer which is not, incase of Macbook Air. Lenovo has off late stormed the world markets with its Laptops for all users. It also claims 25% lesser Power usage compared to all of its earlier versions.

X300 comes with a 64gb hard disk along with a 13.3" wide screen and long lasting, effecient batteries. So, in many ways its a great laptop to own.

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A big Bus - Airbus A380


Every sector has been seeing a revolution in technology and one such promising sector is Aircraft sector. The largest Aeroplane manufacturer has come out with the A380 models civilian plane which is a double decker which is a whopping 525 seater. It is a very spacious and an effecient airliner.

A380 is based on Environment Management System that always keeps a track of the airliner's impacton the environment. Some of the appreciable improvements in A380 are as follows,

. Low-noise characteristics, it is the quietest plane available
. Fuel effecient, burns 17% less compared to other airliners

It is less noisy because of the effecient engines and some external sound absorbers. It is veryeffecient in terms of CO2 emmissions as it burns less fuel and is also light weight. To put it in simple words, it is a gateway for future technologies to come.

Airbus A380 has been on demand by several countries and has so far supplied only to Singapore.Orders for around 300 planes have been sought by various countries and Airbus is in the process of manufacturing them for a huge sum. Lets hope more such planes rule the skies with brighter innovative ideas that are environmental friendly.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

What are Black Holes ?

For sometime, we have been hearing the news about Black Holes. What are Black holes ? In the 20th century, astronomers predicted the existence of dark areas in space. The gravitational pull of these areas are so high that nothing can escape out of it, not even light. These areas are called as Black holes or Collapsars.

A german astronomer predicted the existence of Black holes and he theoretically proved that black holes are the end results of all stars which have a mass greater than the sun. The black holes are the smallest and the most dense objects in the universe.

Scientists are still looking for the evidence of a real Black hole in the Universe. In the year 1974, a black hole Cygnus X-1 was discovered based on which they came to many other conclusions.

The Triangle Problem


Though most of the things can be given a convincing answer, most others cannot be solved and still remaina puzzle. One such thing is the Bermuda Triangle, also known as the Devil's Triangle. It is a triangular region in the Atlantic Ocean, off the south east US. In this area, several ships and aircraftshasvanished without leaving a trace. The area is bounded by Florida, Puerto Rica and Bermuda. Thetriangle extends from 25 to 40 N latitude and 55 to 85 W longitude, covering a total area of 3,900,000 sq.Km

Several planes, ships have never been spared pnce they entered this territory. On Dec.5th, 1945,5 US torpedo bombers disappeared on the thin air after they heard some bizzare radio signals. A Seaplane sent to investigate this also vanished. A recent case of this kind was the loss of a US nuclearsubmarine in 1968. From there onwards, everyone became more conscious and named it a Deadly triangle.

There were many attempts to unravel this mystery, but no one could possibly come out with a concrete solution. Some said that the heavy winds, and air currents were cause of this deadly act, where assome came up with the idea that there could be heavy Magnetic Fields that blocked the radio signals.But till date, no convincing answer has beem given on this.

Monday, February 25, 2008

And the OSCAR Goes to ...




It was a packed house at the amphitheatre in Los Angeles for it was an important happening. It wasnone other than the 80th Annual Academy Awards - The Oscar. Many expectations, some disappointments too, some cried, some were joyous, so there were mixed emotions amongst all of them. The Oscarswere awarded in 24 categories and the winners of the 80th Oscars are as follows,



Actor in Supporting Role - Javire Bardem (No Country For Old Men)
Visual Effects - The Golden Compass
Animated Feature Film - Ratatouille
Short Film (Action) - The Mozart Of Pick Pockets
Short Film (Animated) - Peter and the Wolf
Costume Design - Elizabeth : The Golden Age
Make Up - La Vie En Rose
Actress in Supporting Role - Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)
Documentry Short - Freeheld
Documentary Feature - Taxi To The Dark Side
Art Direction - Sweeney Todd The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Sound Mixing - The Bourne Ultimatum
Music (Score) - Atonement
Music (Song) - Once
Sound Mixing - The Bourne Ultimatum
Foreign Language Film - The Counterfeiters
Film Editing - The Bourne Ultimatum
Cinematography - There Will Be Blood
Actor in a leading Role - Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)
Actress in a leading Role - Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose)
Writing (Adapted Screenplay) - No Country For Old Men
Writing (Original Screenplay) - Juno
Directing - No Country For Old Men
Best Picture - No Country For Old Men
Sound Editing - The Bourne Ultimatum.


These are the award winners this year. We congratulate them all to continue giving their best and to entertain the audience.

Sunday, February 24, 2008

LCD or Plasma ???



Television is one sector that has off late seen too much advancement that too in a very short span of 15 years. Technology has been advancing from CRT tubes to LCD to Plasma and now the latest being Organic LED display. So the customers have been subjected to lot of confusion. Let me try to clear that doubt as to which is the best, LCD or Plasma ?

Size of the Screen :
Plasma - from 32" till 63"
LCD - from 16" till 45"

Viewing Angle :
Plasma - till 160˚
LCD - till 175˚

Weight :
Plasma - Fairly heavy and need support to mount.
LCD - Weigh less and are portable.

In addition to this, Plasma Tv is 3" thick whereas LCDs are just 2" on less thick. Also Plasmas consume more power that LCDs. But when the Clarity is taken into consideration, Plasma excels LCD by a huge margin. Also the response time on case of plasma is 1 ms(milli second) only. Hence, now it is upto you to decidee between Plasma and LCD. But one thing is for sure, Plasma is very costlier than LCD. So after thorough analysis, LCD has a slight edge over plasma but with a slight compromise in clarity.

Pic1 - Plasma Tv
Pic2 - LCD Tv


Saturday, February 23, 2008

What actually is Recession ?

We have for quite sometime been hearing about the word 'recession'. What actually is it, what effects will it have on the country and on other countries ? Let's see in detail.

A country is said to be in recession when the GDP of two or more consecutive quarters is negative. However the effects of the recession will be felt well in advance, might be several quarters before. For example, the symptoms of a recession might be the pop up of unemployment, businesses coming to a halt, a stock market crash and many more.

When there comes a problem of recession in a country, the associated countries also suffer a setback. This can be illustrated with an example. The causes of a possible recession might be inflation, and other economy related problems.

Now, recession is slowly creeping into US. Hence, countries like India, Pakistan that are extensively dependant on US will surely suffer a setback. As a result of recession, the economy begins to crumble. The only and the effective solution could probably be the cut in the Interest Rates which is what the Federal Bank has done now. As a result of this, US is now showing some signs of recovery.

Nokia announces N78



Another good news on line, Nokia is going to come out with another edition of the N-Series, N78.Its just like N73M but with loads of other features too, namely GPS, Wi-fi, Document Viewer, in-builtPhoto editor, FM transmitter etc. N78 has a huge 2.4 inch display, ie. 240 x 320 pixels. It also has a 3.15 mp camera with flash and also a VGA camera in front for video calling. It has stereoFM too.

It also has a 70mb internal memory can be expanded till 2gb using a micro SD card. It is a 3G enabled phone with HSDPA technology. The phone is 15.1mm thick and weighs 102gms. Other importantfeatures are as follows

Bluetooth - Yes
Infra Red - No
USB Port - Yes, v2.0
Edge - 276/178 kbits
Operating System - Symbian OS

It also has a voice commanded dialing feature. In all, its cleanly a phone targeted towards the customer, a great phone to own with all pre-requisite features. Hope more such models roll intothe markets.

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Tigers Shown the way Out ???



Tigers are one of the most beautiful land animals today on earth. But will they continue to be admired the most is the question, for they are being hunted down so rapidly that they may not be roaming on the earth in the next decade. To put it in simple words, tigers are on the verge of extinction. Their numbers are estimated to be around 6500 and this number is reducing at an alarming rate.

There existed 8 species of tigers of which only 5 species exist at present. The 2 possible threats for their existence might be

. Poaching
. Loss of Habitat

Poachers hunt them for their skin, bones etc. and other is the ever increasing human population and lack of space to live.

Control Measures :

The effective ways are, implementing tough laws and enforcing penalties for those who break laws. Active campaigns, petitions, awareness among people, activists are the ones that can put a halt at this inhuman activity. If we do not stop this, then we wont have any tigers left to show the future generation that such an animal once roamed the Earth.

F1's New Formula For 2008


Every year millions of fans get hooked to the Formula 1 because of the action packed races and some because of the kind of technology that is incorporated. This year too fans can look out for awe-inspiring races with new defined rules and regulations.

F1 as we all know is full of surprises every season and it is this year too with new rules. Some of them are as follows :

. Revised cockpit dimensions that gives the driver more protection.
. Atleast 5.75% of fuel must be from biological sources.
. The engine, gearbox, clutch must be made by ECU and must be approved by the FIA.
. The same gearbox must be used for 4 consecutive races, only then it can be changed.

Teams and corresponding drivers :

Ferrari - Kimi Raikkonen, Felippe Massa
Toyota - Jarno Trulli, Timo Glock
Renault - Fernando Alonso, Nelson Piquet
Williams - Nico Rosberg, Nakajima
Red Bull - David Coulthard, Mark Webber
Toro Rosso - Sebastian Vettel, Bourdais
BMW Sauber - Robert Kubica, Nick Heidfeild
Honda - Barichello, Jenson Button
Super Aguri - Takuma Sato, Davidson
Force India - Adrian Sutil, Fisichella
Mc Laren - Hamilton, Heikki Kovalainen

Therefore, totally 22 drivers will contest for the driver's championship and 11 teams for the constructor's championship. Intense competition is expected amongst Alonso, Hamilton, Massa and Raikkonen for the driver's title. There will be 18 races in total.

The Race time-table is as follows:

01 AUSTRALIAN GRAND PRIX (Melbourne) 14 - 16 Mar
02 MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX (Kuala Lumpur) 21 - 23 Mar
03 BAHRAIN GRAND PRIX (Bahrain) 04 - 06 Apr
04 SPANISG GRAND PRIX 2008 (Catalunya) 25 - 27 Apr
05 TURKISH GRAND PRIX (Istanbul) 09 - 11 May
06 GRAND PRIX DE MONACO 2008 (Monte Carlo) 22 - 25 May
07 CANADIAN GRAND PRIX 2008 (Montreal) 06 - 08 Jun
08 GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE 2008 (Magny-Cours) 20 - 22 Jun
09 BRITISH GRAND PRIX (Silverstone) 04 - 06 Jul
10 DEUTSCHLAND (Hockenheim) 18 - 20 Jul
11 ING MAGYAR NAGYDIJ 2008 (Budapest) 01 - 03 Aug
12 GRAND PRIX OF EUROPE (Valencia) 22 - 24 Aug
13 BELGIAN GRAND PRIX (Spa-Francorchamps) 05 - 07 Sep
14 ITALIAN GRAND PRIX 2008 (Monza) 12 - 14 Sep
15 SINGAPORE GRAND PRIX (Singapore) 26 - 28 Sep
16 JAPANESE GRAND PRIX (Fuji Speedway) 10 - 12 Oct
17 CHINESE GRAND PRIX (Shanghai) 17 - 19 Oct
18 BRASILIAN GRAND PRIX (Sao Paulo) 31 Oct - 02 Nov

Lets all hope we get action packed 2008 season just like the 2007 season was.

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

A Nokia - Google Joint Venture

Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker is all set to join hands with Google for including the Web giant's search engine in the handsets. Sources suggest that Nokia would first includethe Google search in its upcoming models namely N96, N78, 6220 and 6210. Furthermore Nokia would include the search on all the models released there after.


The main purpose of this joint venture is to promote Google search in more than 100 countries. Nokia is expected to promote the Search in its high end models. Lets hope all these ventures make the world of mobiles more exciting with ready made searches at the push of a button.

Gaming set to become more Realistic

There's no one in this world who hates computer games. To encourage gaming, various Game developersare queing up innovative ideas. Of all of them, the Emotiv Software Developers are about to bringout a kit that will be unveiled at the Game Developers Conference which is to be held at San Fransico this week.

The Kit consists of a head set and various other motion sensing tools. It is to induce some amountof reality into the gaming world. The kit can recognise facial movements, expressions and emotionsof the players. This expression will be transferred to the character in the game. The characterwould do actions just like the gamer.

The makers have also said that the music and lighting effects would change according to the gamer.They have said that it is one step closer to virtual reality. Hence its good news for all thosecomputer game freaks. However there is no news on the cost of the equipment.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

A Spy up in the Sky



A spy satellite is an observatory satellite used for the inspection purpose. It is used to take pictures of places on earth where it is focussed to and it is then descended to the earth. It is mainly for the surveillance purposes of some selected areas on the earth.



Today, these spy satellites are launched by some developed countries like US, Japan, China, Russia, Germany, UK etc. They are low orbit satellites and hence provide very high resolution pictures. Today these satellites are being used by these countries to monitor other country's military base and their arsenal.



Recently a US spy satellite lost control. US first planned to deploy it in the orbit itself, but because of the stiff opposition from the other countries, it was allowed to fall into the earth on its own. These satellites are known to contain some toxic chemicals and are harmful to the earth. Despite the voices of other countries, this has been going on for quite sometime. Hope these satellites are used for the welfare of the people like finding out mineral rich areas etc.

Ref. : Pic 1 - A US spy satellite.
          Pic 2 - Eiffel Tower from spy satellite
          Pic 3 - Old picture from spy satellite.

Monday, February 18, 2008

Paradise amongst all Hotels

Hotel Kognishof



We might have seen hotels, but see this and you will be made to re-think. Yes, it is the world's best, Hotel Konigshof. It is situated in heart of Munich city. There are several malls nearby. Hotel Konigshof is also near to the Munich International Airport which makes it easy for the tourists to reach the desination.



It has totally 87 rooms, all fully furnished. It has sound proof doors and windows along with various other latest technologies like Wi-fi etc. In germany, this hotel is mainly known for its service and attention paid to the customers.



The interiors have been designed to perfection. It would be very appealing and it is clearly evident from the pictures above. Boating and other such modes of entertainment are always just around the corner. It is for this reason that it is considered by the locals as 'Paradise on Earth'.



In addition to this, the hotel has a gym, coffee lounge and other such places of recreation. Hence without any doubt, it is the best hotel in Munich. The room rents vary according to the bookings done by various agencies. On an average it is expected to be $200 per day and costs more for executive class rooms.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

S Class Truly a Class




How many of us are comfortable with the steering in the car ? We have always wanted a car that would be easy to ride. Recently Mercedes Benz launched a S-class, branded SCL 600. Well this is not the news. The thing is, it has a Joystick control. The joystick has 4 way navigation control that can be controlled easily along with a manual gear system.



In addition to this, it does not have any pedals, that is, no leg operated clutch or brakes, everything is in the control board. It is truly a driver friendly car in all aspects. Benz has designed the car according to the taste of the people.



The car's interior's have been designed in a way to keep the passengers comfortable in all possible manner. The tyres are alloy wheels that do not skid and it grips the surface really tight. The boot space is very large and is controlled using a remote. The doors open upwards and the car overall is sexy. It is a 4 passenger car, probably Mercedes Benz got influenced by the video games it seems.

Hence, everyone would wish to own this car, but the car is expected to hit the markets not in the near future, but will surely take time taking into account all the safety measures and traction control. But when the car starts rolling, it is for sure that the sales would reach sky high.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

Virtual Salon

As the name indicates, it is a virtual salon, ie. you will feel as if you are really in a salon. The procedure is, download the file, then hear it using the head phones, else you will not feel it. Trust me, its an amazing work. You will just react in the same way as you are in a salon for a hair cut.

Bike Board - What is this ?


We all might have seen skateboard enthusiasts and bike enthusiasts. But what about people who like both of them. Dont worry, Atomic Sports recently launched Bikeboard Pro - a hybrid variety of a Bike and a Skateboard. It is also called as a Stunt Machine. It has a Skateboard at the back with a BMX like front. Most of the tricks that can be done with a BMX, can be done with this too, the Bikeboard Pro does not let you down. It has a 20" front wheel which makes it easy to steer.

Features
  • Hand Operated Front Brakes.
  • A 20", 36 spokes front wheel.
  • Solid stel handle bars.
  • Available in Black colour only
  • A 28" Skate Board, that is 7" wide.

The Bikeboard costs $215 has already been a mega hit in the US. So what are you enthusiasts waiting for, go get one for yourself !


Friday, February 15, 2008

A Shift From The Touch



This is for all those cell phone freaks, who are really mad about the latest phones available in the market. This month, HTC announced its latest product 'HTC Shift', a phone with an awesome look. The features are mind blowing, definitely no one would takehis/her eyes away from this Smart phone.

Features
Dimensions :  207 x 129 x 25 mm
Weight         :  800 g
Display         : 800 x 480 pixels
Memory      :  1Gb RAM,128mb ROM, 40/80gb HDD,
                         Intel Stealy 800Mhz Processor

In addition to this, the phone has 3G (HSDPA) capability, inbuilt Media player 11, a VGA and a video-call camera. The phone has a USB 2.0 for fast data transfer, a BlueTouth for file sharing. It is also enabled with Wi-Fi. You will be surprised to hear that the phone has a Microsoft Vista Business Operating System. It has a QWERTY keyboard and provision for external memory card. The only disadvantage in this phone is that it weighs 800gms.

In all, its a great smart phone, HTC has built a phone just as we all would have dreamt.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

New Bond Film On The Cards



All those James bond fans have good news, for the next bond film is titled 'Quantum Of Solace'. It is tipped that this film would feature many dazzling stunts that the previous bond movies, said the movie producers. The title of this movie has been kept 'Bond 22' as of now.

The movie is directed by Marc Fosterand it has the new bond fame Daniel Craig of the 2006 blockbuster Casino Royale. The movie also has Olga Kurylenko as the new bond girl, and Mathieu Amalric as the villain.

The movie has been slated for the november 2008 release. Lets hope it meets all our expectations and has less of those hi-fi gadgets. Craig has said that the film would satisfy all the 007 fans, lets wait and see if this is going to be a fact or not !


Saturday, February 9, 2008

Download Saw 4 Movie


'VJM01' Unleashed



It was a much awaited Thursday evening for it was the day where the Force India was to unveil it's car. Called 'VJM01', the team announced the car in colours of white, gold and tungsten at the ceremony. This is regarded by many as a way of showing what potential India has.

The car was just an improved version of the 2007 Spyker. 'VJM01' is also known to be called the 'Silver Arrow' is expected to give a decent fight in the competitive motor racing season which starts in February end.

The launching ceremony was accompanied by the team drivers Giancarlo Fisichella, Vintantonio Liuzzi, and Adrian Sutil. The VJM01's first race is expected to be from the Circuit De Catalunya (Barcelona) which is slated to be on February 25.

Let's hope for the best. It would be really nice if Force India team could win atleast one race, but expecting too much, so early is mere foolishness as they themselves have said that they hope to start winning races from 2010.. A billion people stand with Force India !!!

Friday, February 8, 2008

Sample (.midi) Mobile Ringtones

http://rapidshare.com/files/90096340/midi.rar.html

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Are these Printers ?





Once upon a time it was all about printers everywhere and anywhere you go. But now , its not just printers, but something more than that. Now-a-days the printer manufacturers have started reinventing their products - accessing the Internet to web enable the digital imaging process.

On monday, Hewlett Packard unveiled its 2 laser printers for shared corporate sector. These printers have in them many new web-enabled features that are being collectively called as Print 2 - a reflection of Web 2.0

The P1505 series Laserjet prints the first print out in less than 6.5 seconds to give an overall average of 24 prints per minute. Different models cost 9,999 and 14,999 - the latter one is compatible with Linux too !

The M2727 series is a multi-functional printer-scan-fax copy machine that allows one to directly e-mail the scanned document. These models are priced at 45,000 and 55,000. A 'Smart' cartridge is also provided to monitor and optimize the toner usage in both these models.

The new web based features include downloadable 'universal' drivers for a whole class of printers, free online tools and other accessories to help small enterprises create their own professional documents and 'Smart Web Printing' software that makes printing web pages more effecient and good printing.

Friday, February 1, 2008

Microsoft Bids To Buy Yahoo !



Microsoft Corporation on Monday offered to buy Yahoo Inc. for a whopping price of $44.6 billion (22.4 billion pound), in a bold bid to transform the two ailing Internet businesses into a worthy competitor for market leader Google Inc. The proposed over haul by Microsoft has been on talks since early Jan. 2006.

In what would be the biggest Internet deal since the ill-fated Time Warner-AOL merger, Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Steve Ballmer sent a letter to Yahoo's board on Thursday night to offer $31 per share in cash and in stock.

Yahoo would give Microsoft the dominance in Web banner ads used by corporate brand advertisers. It also attracts more than 600 million people monthly to sites that are devoted to news, finance and sports, and Yahoo Mail is the No. 1 consumer e-mail service till date and is expected to be for quite sometime.

Market Analysts say that the two companies have too many overlapping businesses - from instant messaging to email and advertising, as well as news, travel and finance sites - and both are weak in the Web search market, where Google dominates, and is unbeatable in a few years to come.

"They have to do it because they've tried everything they can do to fix MSN. Yahoo is the most visited site in the world, so it goes without saying that, given the current valuation, this is the perfect time for them to buy it," said a critic.

Let's hope that it bring good to the users in the near future as we are all dependant on these two giants.

India's Embarrasing Loss


India, the T20 world champions never seemed to play like the world T20 champions. India succumbed to a low score of 74 which was too less to defend. The downfall started with the classic dismissal of Virendar Sehwag by Michael Clarke with a classic run out from backward point. India for a moment was on the verge of making the lowest total in T20, but some how scraped through to pass the total of 73, the lowest till date in T20 game by Kenya against New Zealand. To say simply, India thrashed a billion people's expectations.

India did not have Yuvi on its side who always came to India's rescue in T20 at the time of need. Nevertheless, dhoni also proved ineffective with 9(27). Only Pathan scored 26(30) to help India get to that decent score.

Australians were off to a flier with the openers Gilli and Clarke. It was a one sided contest with no fight from the Indians in all departments of the game. Clarke, the stand-in captain set an example as he led Australia to their maiden victory in T20 game against India.

India - 74/10 (17.3 ov)
Australia - 75/1 (11.2 ov)

Probably many would now be thinking - what would have happened had the seniors been a part if this team ? Keep thinking and hope we all get an answer in the next T20 encounter.