Gadgets Technologies

New Vudu Comes on The Scene With a Big Rack

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 20:34:51 +0000

You can almost imagine the Vudu executives huddling together after taking a look around the CEDIA A/V installer conference two months ago:

"You mean we can charge way more money for a giant box of HD content, under the bogus pretext of the 'highest quality standard' promised by the custom installer market? Really? And we can do this when the sensible thing to do in this economy is to market the regular Vudu box for $200? Ok, let's do it. Let's go to Bubba Gump's to celebrate.”

Vudu's new $1,300 HD HL2 box comes packed with a terabyte-sized drive for storing about 500 1080p HD movies and it will only be available for custom jobs. You'll be available to choose from about 10,000 titles, or about the same amount of the downloadable (and lower quality) movies from Netflix. It's also the same amount of movies available to you in the cheaper Vudu versions.

Among the features the box receives through this A/V installer focus is dedicated IP and IR control for a smooth cohesiveness with high-end systems.

We love the Vudu service and its high-quality HDX video (software-upgraded to near-Blu-ray quality), but this box is too expensive. Leave it for the owners of fancy super-condos in Manhattan, and buy the older version instead.

The Wrist Light for when you can’t hold a flashlight

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 18:40:35 +0000

Some jobs you really need someone there to hold a flashlight for you. However, there isn’t always someone around to help out with odd jobs like that. That’s where these bracelets come in. Yes they do look a bit like something that belongs at a party or something along those lines. However, they also would be great to illuminate whatever it is you’re working on. Which would be far more convenient than trying to hold a miniature flashlight in your teeth.

These are sold in sets of two, so you could wear one on each wrist or two on one wrist for extra lighting. Each bracelet features four LED lights, which should put off a nice strong glow. Each bracelet measures 3 and 1/4” in diameter. I doubt any guy could get away with wearing these without a little friendly teasing from friends. Yet, if it’s effective then it’s probably well worth it. You can purchase these in sets of two on Computer Gear for $19.99.

Source: BookofJoe

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Humanoid Robot To Be Ready For Prime Time In 2010

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 17:29:38 +0000

Aldebaran Robotics' Nao robot has been a hit among robot enthusiasts who participate in the Robocup challenge, the annual humanoid robots soccer game.

Nao developed by the French company replaced Sony's Aibo dog as the standard platform for the competition last year and that has helped boost its popularity among a select crowd of enthusiasts.

But the robot still has a way to go before most general users can get near it.

The fully programmable robot is packed with features. With its humanoid appearance can be made to do any number of tasks and comes with x86 AMD Geocode 500 Mhz CPU, 1 GB flash memory, 256 MB SDRAM, two speakers, vision processing capabilities, Wi-fi connectivity and Ethernet port.

The robot has 25 degrees of freedom, which means it can do a lot more than just tilt is head, look right, left and take a few steps.

This makes it a very attractive machine for researchers and robot enthusiasts that want to take a blank-slate robot and program it themselves, says Chris Kilner, software engineer for Aldebaran Robotics, a Paris-based company.

It's also the reason Aldebaran says it is working to create a behavior exchange site where different programs written to manipulate the robot can be shared.

Aldebaran has shipped a little more than 100 robots since it launched in April. But the robots have been restricted to research labs and universities. Next year, the company hopes to expand distribution to some early adopters. But general users are unlikely to get it before 2010 as the company tries to create a version that will appeal to general consumers and manufacture it on a larger scale.

With the 10,000 Euros ($12,600) price tag on the robot, that may be out of the reach for most anyway.

For consolation, there's always the Femisapien robot from WowWee, equally charming but a lot less functional.

See the Nao Robot in Action

Roofus Helps You Shovel Snow

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:39:16 +0000

Having kids is a good thing - once they’re old enough, you can always boss them around the house with this thing called “chores”, and shoveling snow from the driveway is one of those tasks involved. The Roofus concept could be a replacement for kids with heavy bones though, as it is able to collect and dump snow automatically or via a remote, where the latter is certainly much more fun as you get to perform your house chore from the comfort and warmth of your home with a mug of hot chocolate on the table, waiting to reward you once the chore is done. Good thing the designers have decided to make the Roofus versatile, as it can be hooked up to a bunch of attachments for use around the garden even after winter is over. (Read the full post about ‘Roofus Helps You Shovel Snow’…)

Boost up your gaming experience

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 16:24:48 +0000

It’s simply too great to play games while enjoying comforts of the home. The development in technology over the past few years has changed the gaming world. Games have gone more realistic as the graphics have improved greatly. Present day games offer exciting gameplay when compared to old games. Companies release new games every now and then, and they keep making improvements so as to offer great gameplay.

Now, thanks to development in technology, you can boost up your gaming experience with the help of gaming servers. Gaming servers are used to run clans and support multiplayer games. They allow players from all around the world to join each other for playing a game. If you want to play Left4Dead then you need to connect to Left4Dead servers and if you’re allowed to join the server, then you can enjoy the game with fellow gamers.

Gaming server industry has also made significant developments. Gaming servers are good enough to support heavy games, and can also handle large amount of traffic. They can be easily be tweaked to support new games. New games like Zombie Panic can be played with the help of Zombie Panic servers, which can be setup by making suitable changes in configuration of a gaming server. Some enhancements might be needed to support a new game. A heavy game like D.I.P.R.I.P. needs an advanced server to support the game, and the traffic. The diprip servers can be made by adding some enhancements to existing servers.

In order to use servers for boosting up the gaming experience, you need to find a web host which provides gaming servers. You can find a web host easily on Internet. Be sure to compare the features and the prices of different providers to make sure you choose the best gaming server to support your games.

TeamSpeak Server Hosting

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 15:28:49 +0000

TeamSpeak is similar to Ventrilo as it is also used to enable people to communicate with each other over the Internet. It comes with a client and a server program. The server acts like a host to several users available in different parts of world. It allows different users to get into a conference and communicate with each other while they are connected to the same server.

Like Ventrilo, which is run on the Ventrilo servers, the TeamSpeak also requires a server for its execution. The server version of the program is installed on the TeamSpeak servers which are configured to run TeamSpeak in order to allow people to communicate with each other through Internet. It is mainly used by gamers while playing multiplayer games.

You would require a web host which allows TeamSpeak on the server, and you can find such web host on Internet. TeamSpeak server hosting is not much different Ventrilo server hosting, and that’s why you can easily find a web host which allows you to run TeamSpeak. As always, make sure to compare prices so as to get the best value for your money.

Mini Bubblegum - 250 GB USB 2.0 Portable Hard Drive

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 11:56:52 +0000

Ever since I glued rhinestones on my first blackberry, I've flaunted the fact that I'm a geek girl with style. (It was also handy as I worked at AOL at the time and at meetings you had to leave all communication devices outside on a table. Believe me, no one ever picked up mine by accident:)

So I actually love this bubble-gum pink portable hard drive by Simple Tech which boasts 250 GB! (You can also get it in other "flavors.")

What's to love:

- Sleek design by Pininfarina
- Small, compact size
- Durable and made for travel
- Multiple colors and capacities to suit your style
- High speed USB 2.0 “Y” cable included provides power without extra cables
- Simple, automatic backups with Fabrik Local Backup
- Complete protection with Fabrik Ultimate Backup online service (2 GB free)
- Joggle digital content manager for easy tracking, sharing and publishing of photos, music, and videos
- Free technical support

If you feel like flaunting your inner stylish geek girl, it will cost you $85 at Amazon.

Obama now a YouTube regular

admin — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 09:18:28 +0000

Barack Obama may have to relinquish his ever-present blackberry for security reasons when he becomes U.S. President in January, but no way will he give up exploiting the digital technology he built his election campaign on. Obama has launched brief weekly talks and will be posting them on YouTube. Among his promises in the first chat: putting $150 billion toward creating 5 million jobs by creating a new green energy economy. Your response may depend on your politics. You can look at this reaching out as transparency in government - or as plain old politicking, notes Lidija Davis on ReadWriteWeb. Find the video and a link to the transcript of the 3 1/2-minute talk there too. (Read the full post about ‘Obama now a YouTube regular’…)

TV Tuner And USB Drive From Buffalo

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 11:26:34 +0000

TV Tuner And USB Drive From BuffaloNov 18, 2008 Many people, whose life is related closely to computes, sometimes have no time to watch TV. But actually there is no need for this. All necessary new we can get threw internet. Nevertheless, Buffalo - the Japan company presented a new gadget.

Actually I was surprised, this gadget combines a 8Gb USB drive and 18eg TV tuner. This novice was named DH-KONE8G/U2DS 1Seg 8GB.

You can use it with PC platform and Mac PC. Apart from watching TV and listening FM radio you can also record about 40 hours of video and AppleRemote.

Size of this gadget is 79 x 20 13 mm, weight - 23g.

The cost of DH-KONE8G/U2DS 1Seg 8GB in Japan is 138 Euro.

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Internet: It’s the most important thing in people’s lives

admin — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 10:51:22 +0000

Everybody loves a survey (especially me) as it is a great way not only to identify the underlying social changes within the growing world, but also a good chance to laugh at the astonishing number of people who can’t identify where Australia is on a map. This is no exception, as a survey released by YouGov in conjunction with their sponsors AMD showed that 77% of Europeans asked are addicted to the Internet.

However, one thing that surveys like this have told me: beware of gross assumptions. So I dug out a dictionary (yes, I thought that given the subject of this survey it would be too ironic if I used the Internet) and found the definition of an addict:

add’ict noun One who has become dependant on something

The actual answer that 77% people who answered the questionnaire ticked was: “”[The person in question] could not live without daily access to the Internet.“ I think that counts as addicted.

Intrigued, I looked up some other famous addictions as a comparison to this figure (using European figures to make it fair). I found that 3-7% of people are addicted to alcohol, around 10% people are addicted to smoking, and less than 1% are addicted to chocolate. Admittedly these are estimates, but it is still amazing to see how developed the Internet is in the context of its importance in people’s lives. In fact, it would appear it is more important to people than transport or even hygiene, with only 54% of people saying that they could not live without a car, and 61% saying they could not live without a washing machine.

There were a few other interesting figures that also arose from this survey, namely ones regarding computer use. Although less surprising, they still give a good indicator of how our computer use is changing, with 81% of people having uploaded photos, 66% downloaded music, 77% watched something on YouTube and 76% have been gaming online in the last year. Also, 51% have downloaded movies, but only 43% have streamed: an indicator that people not only prefer the quality of downloaded content/streamed content, but also that it is easier to download illegally than stream. Sad but true.

Obviously, we should take this survey with a pinch of salt. We do not know who was asked, where it was asked or whether the questions were in any way leading. If you asked 5,000 people (the sample sized used) ages 18-23 at a gaming convention then you would expect more people to answer positively: we just don’t know.

So is it time for Intenet-aholics anonymous? Unfortunately, yes. People will soon struggle to do mundane tasks without a computer: social skills in situations over the phone for example. But people will deny that they have problems, and obviously it is less easy to identify if they are detached from society and harder to combat as many peoples jobs revolve around the Internet.

I know that I would struggle big time without the Internet: I went to Canada for a month and spent a lot of the time looking for Internet cafes. Scary. Perhaps they could hold IAA (catchy, I know!) meetings in chat rooms, at least you are more likely to get people to come!

Source [MarketWatch]

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