Technology|Breakthrough

Next gen Apple TV called iTV? Might not be ‘that’ innovative though

2011-02-08T01:21:00.000-08:00

Apple believes in innovation and they do end up launching something which is often attractive enough to create waves around the planet. Be it the iPhones, the iPods or the iPads; all have been successful enough for people to dream about owing one of them (or even all three). Now (as expected) its time for iTV, speculation is currently booming that Apple TV might be coming to an end and iTV is what might be replacing it. The only difference this time will be that such televisions have already hit the market in plenty. TV sets with apps that make the idiot box a lot more than TV is just awesome. Samsung has Android based TVs and so has Google.

Considering the fact that people out their have already seen so many of these app based TVs it just won’t be easy for Apple to come up with something which is totally unique but at the end of the day it is the brand which matters or is it?

Apple ended up selling around 3 million iPads in just around a month but that was a device which was highly attractive and people had so much to do with it. We are pretty sure that iTV (if this is what Apple calls it) will surely be attractive enough but televisions cover such a huge area that you just cannot think about all the requirements in just one box. It will be interesting to see what Steve’s army does with their format of TV.

Leaked: Mysterious ‘Call’ button appears on Facebook

2011-01-28T17:36:00.000-08:00

It seems that Facebook is working on something big according to the latest leaked screenshot that shows us a ‘Call’ button within Facebook’s messaging system.

We didn’t hear any rumours about voice calls within Facebook, so this latest leaked screenshot is quite a shock to many. As you can see from the screenshot, the new Call button is placed in the top right corner, right next to the chat and send message buttons. So does this button work? Well according to the screenshot, it seems that the person who made this screenshot is trying to find out that as well. Sadly, this button has been removed from the menu, we’re thinking that this is somehow related to Skype, because Skype and Facebook have been working together for a while, but that’s just our guess.

Yahoo now accepts Google and Facebook logins via OpenID

2011-01-21T18:27:00.000-08:00

If you cannot beat them, join them is the policy that folks at Yahoo are following. Since Yahoo is slowly losing their popularity and influence on the internet, the company’s decided to team up with its competitors, Google and Facebook.

As you know, Yahoo started using Bing to power its search engine last year, and now, Yahoo has announced that it will be accepting Google and Facebook account logins via the OpenID protocol.Thanks to this, Yahoo! services are now available to all users without the need to sign up, which is great. We also have to notice that other sites are slowly dropping the support for Yahoo! logins, so will it be that Yahoo! will soon become a dying breed?

USB Battery concept

2011-01-20T03:29:00.000-08:00

Speaking of future and gadgets, it’s certain that we’ll see two things in the future: more USB devices and more AA batteries (for non-USB gadgets!), so why don’t we combine both these into a single solution? Well, this concept tries to do that, so let’s see how it looks like.

We assume that you have a USB drive that you use often and that you keep in your computer’s USB port most of the time. Since you keep your USB docked to your computer most at the time wouldn’t it be useful that you could recharge that USB and use it as a battery? This is what Wonchul Hwang thought of when he designed this USB/AA battery. In order to use this device as a USB you just need to twist the battery and USB connector pops out, and then you just need to twist it again in the opposite direction and you can use it as a battery.

Facebook responds to the rumors about their shutdown

2011-01-12T02:40:00.000-08:00

You might have heard the stories that Facebook is shutting down and in order to prevent these rumors from spreading any further Facebook has officially responded.

According to the rumors, Facebook is shutting down on March 15 2011, and the main reason for Facebook’s shutdown is the fact that Facebook’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg is tired of it. Rumors say that Zuckerberg is tired of this social networking business and that he wants to live a normal life once again. We’re hoping that you didn’t believe in this, because it’s not true, and in order to prove that these rumors aren’t true Facebook has posted a tweet saying: “We didn’t get the memo about shutting down, so we’ll keep working anyway. We aren’t going anywhere; we’re just getting started.”

As you can see, Facebook won’t shut down on March 15, and all these rumors were false, and it would take a lot more to shut down the largest social networking site in the world.

CES 2011: World’s smallest 64GB solid state drive

2011-01-07T22:40:00.000-08:00

In the CES 2011, SanDisk today announced the first product in a new category of embedded solid state drives (SSD), that are the world’s smallest solid state drives so far.

The SSD is smaller than a postage stamp and offer higher capacities and performance than existing storage solutions. The SanDisk® integrated SSD (iSSD), the first high-capacity product within this new category, is designed for use in fast-growing mobile computing platforms such as tablet PCs and ultra-thin notebooks. It is the first flash SSD device to support the industry standard SATA interface in a small BGA (Ball Grid Array) package that can be soldered onto any motherboard, and for use with advanced operating systems in mobile computing platforms.

Ipad Gaming, Easier on Fling Joystick

2011-01-07T22:37:00.000-08:00

We know that iPad is one amazing device that can do all sorts of things, and one of those things is gaming. Since iPad doesn’t have an input controller, except the multitouch display, gaming does feel abit uncomfortable for some gamers. If you’re one of them, the Fling Joystick might be a solution for you.

Playing games on the iPad with your fingers can sometimes be difficult, especially if you’re used to other gaming platforms that have controllers. If you’re used to controllers and joysticks, you can enjoy games on your iPad with Fling Joystick as well. In order to play the games with this joystick, you just need to place it on your screen, right over the directional pad of your game, and that’s it.

Fling Game Controller for iPad sounds like a potential solution, but so far, it only works with certain number of games. As for the price, you can pre-order the Fling Joystick for $25.

Latest Video Technology may help fight video piracy

2010-12-28T03:36:00.000-08:00

Identifying copyrighted materials are only possible if you have the original copy with its digital signature. So the current methods aren't sufficient as we think since many people can still sell and play copyrighted videos.

Video piracy has become a serious issue nowadays and researchers at Tel aviv university have found a way how to protect original video's and preventing video piracy that way. They have made a video technology that prevents video players from playing pirated videos. It should be quite useful because as it scans and analyzes the footage in grids to see if the footage elements are there. In that way the DNA of the video is being analyzed and scanned and if there's a DNA mismatch the video player wont play the copyrighted videos.

This might be the ending of those people making a living of selling pirated and copyrighted videos. But so fat it hasn't been implemented,but will it be successful?

China Made Mobile Phones

2010-12-24T00:13:00.000-08:00

China made mobile phones are those cloned phones from famous mobile phone carriers. In the Philippines. china made mobile phones are very common and very popular, every electronics store has it, why? because its price and availability has leveled those of popular phone carriers. And even from the poor can afford to buy those cheap phones. But it does not end there, majority of these people does not even know what they're buying are cloned phones from china, and bragging up their phones like those of originals. I had bought these phones earlier this year and within months, the phone itself is very fragile and frequent drops are sufficient to crack those cheaply made touchscreens.
And also I've noticed that the video recording capability is in very low quality and the video itself is in low definition. And after one year of using, the phone is now dead. But if you think, your on low in budget, then you might think buying those in online stores would not be in a hassle.

Apple products destroyed for the ''art'' sake

2010-12-23T04:05:00.000-08:00

Apple fan haters! I'm sure you're gonna love this the 12LVE photography exhibit that showcases apple products being shot,burned,and ran over by a train. And who's behind all this? Michael Tompert and Paul Fairchild did it costly but in their own interpretation "to make a provocative yet humorous statement on consumers' attachment to their shiny new electronic toys." Check out the full gallery after the break.

Image Credit: Michael Tompert and Paul Fairchild

Metallic fan made Yoshi Robot

2010-12-23T03:12:00.000-08:00

All of us know that Super Mario is the most popular game character in the world, but what about from the Super Mario franchise? It seems that Yoshi will be getting his share of popularity ,as well, today we've got a nice little thing from Yoshi's fans.

Yoshi was Mario's sidekick in several Super Mario games and he has started in several games a main character. After years being a trusty steed, and yesterday Yoshi got his own steed out of metal, Donald aka kodykoala has managed to create Yoshi's own robotic steed that will be used by Yoshi.

his steed is actually a metal replica of Yoshi and although it doesn’t have a tongue, it looks quite impressive. This metal Yoshi has a lot of detail, and speaking of detail, it even has a small Yoshi inside his mouth behind the control panel. Overall, this is impressive Yoshi robot, and we can only say that Donald aka Kodykoala did an amazing job.

Google nexus S hits the UK market today -price slash

2010-12-21T00:08:00.000-08:00

It was time when Samsung's Google nexus S shows up in UK. But while we all know the next-gen Nexus was arriving today. nobody expected its price to drop £430.

The UK price was first said to be £550 (around €650)but we thought i was a quite steep so Google decided to cut it down to £430 (nearly €510). So if you like buying yourself a nice Christmas gift buy now and it should arrive this December.

world's first dual-core smartphone The LG Optimus 2X, launched

2010-12-20T01:27:00.000-08:00

It won't be long before our smartphones take over what we do with our netbooks. Now official, the LG Star as it was known in the rumor mill is now the LG Optimus 2X, and that "2X" in the name is a statement in itself. Let's get straight into this, it basically contains a dual-core Tegra 2 processor clocked at 1GHz. Now what will this handset use the power for? For starters, it is fully capable of recording videos in crisp 1080p with its 8-megapixel rear camera unit. There's also a front-facing one at 1.3 megapixels for the video-calling people.

Aside from the raw power it can provide, it also has a 4-inch WVGA display. Storage is provided by an internal memory of 8GB, expandable to 32 GB with microSD cards. Peculiarly, the battery has a capacity of 1500mAh, which is typically the ones for single-core smartphones. We now wonder what power conservation will this unit have with the multitude of processes that the dual-core will undergo.

As for the software, it would still run Android 2.2 although there are plans for releasing Gingerbread in future updates. No Prices were given as of yet but it will come out in Europe and Asia in the next few weeks, so definitely watch out for it. For now, here's some eye candy.

Key specifications:

- 1Ghz Dual-core Processor (NVIDIA Tegra 2)
- 4-inch WVGA screen
- 8GB memory (up to 32GB via microSD)
- 1,500 mAh battery
- 8 megapixel rear camera and 1.3 megapixel front camera
- HDMI mirroring
- 1080p MPEG-4/H.264 playback and recording.

Make a difference with Chrome for a Cause extension for Google Chrome m

2010-12-19T00:40:00.000-08:00

It seems that folks from Google are in the holiday spirit, they’re doing some charity work with their latest extension for Chrome. This extension is called Chrome for a Cause and it tracks the number of the tabs that you’re opening.

The more tabs you open the more money will go to the charity on behalf of the Chrome community. In fact, Chrome community has decided to donate one million dollars to various causes, and the amount of money that will be donated is determined by the number of opened tabs on your Chrome browser.

This app tracks up to 250 opened tabs per user, and at the end of each day, users can submit their score to Google and participate in this project that way. According to Google for each 10 tabs that you open, you’ll help one tree to be planted or get a single book published and donated. For 25 tabs, you’ll provide one vaccination treatment, and for 100 or 200 tabs, you’ll provide 1 square foot of shelter or one year supply of clean water for a single person.

Gadgets of The Future

2010-12-17T03:39:00.000-08:00

These futuristic gadgets are creatively cool concept cell phones and accessories that we’d love to see developed and on the market.

Motorola Origami

Origami, a Motorola concept cell phone, is made of thin segmented “technostuff.” It “can be folded into different forms to serve different functions: phone, recording device, camera, and, presumably, a pointy paper crane.”

Coke Powered Phone

Daizi Zheng designed a cell phone to run on Coke. Her design has the potential to operate three to four times longer on a single charge than conventional lithium batteries. She wrote, “The concept is using bio battery to replace the traditional battery to create a pollution free environment. Bio battery is an ecologically friendly energy generates electricity from carbohydrates (currently sugar) and utilizes enzymes as the catalyst. By using bio battery as the power source of the phone, it only needs a pack of sugary drink and it generates water and oxygen while the battery dies out.”

Finger Phone

Do you talk with your hands? Then this concept phone may be for you. Finger Touching is a wearable mobile device for enhanced chatting. Excluding the thumb, each finger joint makes up 12 buttons for input.

Wearable Solar-Powered Leaf Phone Charges on the Go

Designers Seungkyun Woo and Junyi Heo were inspired by photosynthesis. The Leaf cell phone is a wearable bracelet phone that accumulates power from solar cells on its front panel. As a backup, it also can be recharged with electricity. The Leaf offers high-tech fashion and function, however its main objective is to “remind people that they can contribute to energy efficiency.”�

Biodegradable Grass Cell Phone

Je-Hyun Kim designed a cell phone meant to last only for as long as the length of its functional life cycle. The grassy casing on the Natural Year Phone concept will slowly dissolve, leaving the keypad and screen to be recycled. This biodegradable phone is a great idea, but you might want to avoid using it on a rainy day.

Mobile Script Phone

Designer Aleksandr Mukomelov created a sleek, thin cell phone concept that sports two touch screens. One is a traditional screen and the second is a flexible OLED screen that stiffens when you unroll it. The Mobile Script phone has most any feature you might want, like internet access, documents on the go, games, communication, and mobility. Can it get any better? Oh yes. You don’t ever need to recharge this phone. The case is coated with a photo sensitive nano material that converts sunlight into energy.

Scrap Wood Phones

Touch Wood concept phones are made from cypress wood scraps. The protective coating allows these biodegradable phones to be waterproof, insect-proof, and mold-proof. Touch Wood phones have a touch screen and camera.

Kinetic Flexible OLED Cell Phone

If you are a rabid texter, then this concept phone might be for you. Kyocera’s Eos folding concept phone “feeds off of our physical interaction with it, translating kinetic energy into an electric charge via an array of nano-scale piezoelectric generators. The more we interact with Eos, the more energy it creates – without using batteries.” The flexible OLED screen can fold to wallet-size, able to open and close with shape memory.

OLED Roll Phone

Designer Tao Ma has created the world’s shortest roll-up phone. The display screen rolls up so the entire phone is about the size of film canister. The tiny keypad roll might prove challenging to keep from making fat finger typos. It does run on batteries but the OLED screen makes it eco-friendly.

Cell Phone Battery Concept Charges with a Flick of a Finger

Designers Song Teaho and Hyejin Lee may not call this a “green” concept, but finger powered batteries are eco-friendly. If your cell phone is running low on battery power, you pull out the battery and spin it around your index finger. It will be recharged long enough to let you have a conversation or to get to a electrical charger. It would be great to see this developed to last longer.

Facebook app for Android OS hits version 1.5

2010-12-17T01:59:00.000-08:00

If you have an Android phone and you’re an active Facebook user, you’ll be pleased to know that Facebook has released another version of its app for Android OS.

The latest Facebook app for Android OS has been upgraded to version 1.5 and it has some nice improvements to offer to its users. First improvement that we have to mention is the support for Facebook Chat. Now for the first time, Andorid OS users will have the chance to enjoy in Facebook Chat functionality just like desktop or iPhone users. Besides that, chat mode can work in background so it can be used while other applications are being active. In addition, we got push notifications for incoming messages and other content as well.

As you can see, this app has several great features to offer and you can download it for free from the Android Market.

10 Fun Things I Can Do with a new Lenovo Laptop

2010-12-13T04:07:00.000-08:00

10 Fun Things I Can Do with a new Lenovo Laptop
1. Takes my PC on a whole new level
2. Interact with my facebook friends
3. Listen and watch videos on the go
4. Comment,interact,socialize into other blogs and websites
5. Read my daily fortune cookie on facebook
6. Read notifications on facebook
7. Play games on the go
8. Catches wifi signal
9. Extends my inline hours
10. My personal assistant and my friend.

This is my official entry to the Lenovo-YugaTech Laptop Giveaway

>> http://www.yugatech.com/blog/contests/contest-lenovo-yugatech-laptop-give-away/

Game controller and mouse merged by Shogun Bros

2010-12-13T03:37:00.000-08:00

Technology has been improving to extremes but the tiny bits of innovation that are quite obvious but still untouched and yet to be explored. one such innovation has touched the brains of people behind Shogun Bros. They had Innovated the merging of a controller mouse and game keys that will save you a lot of space of your computer table.

The so-called Chameleon X-1 comes with 5 stage adjustable 1600dpi optical sensor with a polling rate of 125 Hz. This can be connected to a PC via 2.5 GHz wireless dongle

The game-pad underneath the mouse will have 14 buttons in total. These don’t include the regular mouse buttons on the top of the device as can be seen in image above.

Along with the red colored option seen above Shogun Bros will also launch a Chameleon X-1 that will come in darker than black color. We are not sure if the mouse will stay dysfunctional when the game-pad will be in use and vice versa but if this will not be the case then people might face a lot of unwanted clicks.

The neatly designed mouse controller will hit the markets somewhere in the first quarter of 2011 for a price tag of $55 USD which might seem a bit costly but you get two products for the price of one. Worth a shot!

Self driving cars to hit European Roads soon

2010-12-13T03:12:00.000-08:00

SARTRE! Though this term might not sound familiar to most of the people out their but it can surely be the talk of the town in upcoming years. Safe Road Trains For the Environment (a.k.a SARTRE) is a project still under testing phase which if goes successful can improve the driving conditions of Europe to an huge extent and save a lot of time that people spend on driving.

The concept behind SARTRE is pretty easy to understand. While on the move people will have the option to co-ordinate with other cars and later on surrender the control of their care to the inbuilt system that will drive the car all the way. This might look like a chase sequence without any jumping actor or the car convoy of some VVIP but it might just be a common sight in days to come if testing is successful for SARTRE.

The test will be done with two cars within next 15 days and a five car test will be completed somewhere in 2011. If all goes well then we might just be able to wrap up a date or finish an important meeting while on the way to office!

The future Workspace: BendDesk

2010-12-12T01:22:00.000-08:00

Microsoft surface is flat right? Do touchscreen tabletops have to be flat? This is what at Media Computing Group had recently created their latest technology BendDesk. BendDesk offers a multi-touch desk that combine both horizontal and vertical touch surface with a curved into a large workspace.Before you start wondering whether this is just another never-to-see-day-of-light concept, we can tell you its not only just an idea anymore.

As you will see in the video below, the BendDesk workspace can be used to display any digital content like documents, photos, videos or even play games. The multitouch technology in the BendDesk allows users to interact with the entire surface of the desk using direct physical manipulation as it follows and recognises your multi-touch gestures. Check out the video demo below, might you picture yourself in something like this in the next ten years or so?

UK gets a free Nokia Booklet 3G with every X3-02 Touch and Type

2010-12-11T21:19:00.000-08:00

Yes, you read it right – T-Mobile UK is giving away a free Nokia Booklet 3G when you buy a Nokia X3-02 Touch and Type on a pay monthly tariff. The Black gloss and Icy white colors are available for both the phone and the Booklet.

To get a free Nokia Booklet 3G with the X3-02 Touch and Type you must choose the £40/month tariff by T-Mobile UK when you check out from the Nokia UK online store. It offers 1200 minutes, unlimited texts and 1GB worth of data transfers.

Nokia Booklet 3G costs £589 contract-free. Quite a gift indeed!

We admit this offer is quite tempting. Perhaps the stock is limited and you should hurry up with your

Latest concept: Wind cubes that can power the entire household for a month

2010-12-09T16:14:00.001-08:00

If you’re interested in ecology and power saving, you might be interested in this interesting concept called Wind Cubes that can power a household for a month with simple wind power. Wind Cubes look and work in a similar way as windmills and all that you have to do is to attach them to your wall and connect them to the battery that will store their power.

These Wind Cubes look perfect and array of 15 of these fans can easily power a household of four for a month. One of these fans can potentially generate 21.6 kilowatt-hours per and 15 of them can produce up to 324 kilowatt-hours per month so we have to admit that these Wind Cubes sound quite impressive. These Wind Cubes look amazing, and the best thing about them is that you can turn them off, or put them back in their case in case of a bad weather and pull them back out when the wind is appropriate.

iPad Made of Gold Will Set You Back $189,000

2010-12-09T16:13:00.000-08:00

Thinking of buying an iPad, but the $829 price tag for the top model strikes you as a touch too plebeian? UK-based luxury gadget designer Stuart Hughes has come to the rescue with a solid gold, diamond-encrusted version of Apple’s “magical” and “revolutionary” tablet.

The price is £129,995, or approximately $189,125, for a 3G iPad with 53 flawless diamonds on the Apple logo and a casing of solid 22ct gold. Even if you’re willing to dish out this much money for a tablet, keep its weight in mind — the device is 2.1kg, or approximately 4.4 pounds, due to all of that gold.

BenQ launches DV S11 Camcorder with Pico Projector

2010-12-08T04:42:00.000-08:00

BenQ has come up with a new camcorder from nowhere. We did not get any leaks nor were we introduced to any hints from BenQ regarding the upcoming launch but it is final. BenQ has launched a camcorder that will be tagged as DV S11. The upcoming model comes in colorful designs and small size thus making it easy to handle during day to day shoots.

The upcoming BenQ model comes loaded with 5 mega pixel camera and the 1/3.2 inches CMOS sensor that will help the camcorder capture videos of 1080p. The camcorder will have 10 shooting modes which will help the general user to concentrate more on shooting rather than understand various settings. You can go ahead and start shooting instantly.

The best part about this camcorder is its pico projector that will help its users to present the videos or presentations loaded in its internal memory instantly at any place without even waiting to transfer the same first to a computer for proper viewing.

Alexander Amosu introduces iPhone 4 Diamond Spider

2010-12-07T03:53:00.000-08:00

The iPhone 4 is an exquisite gadget indeed, but with its sales surpassing 20 million units it takes extra effort to get noticed when carrying one. Fortunately the famous British jeweler Alexander Amosu will give you the chance with its limited edition Diamond Spider - a diamond-encrusted iPhone 4 with some exclusive features.
The sides of the iPhone 4 Diamond Spider are covered by 846 brilliant-cut VVS1-grade F colour diamonds totaling 5.66 carats (we wonder if those are as effective as a bumper in solving the antenna issues). You are free to transfer those diamonds to another handset or just turn them into some kind of jewelry when you decide to switch phones.
You can also pick any color for the back of your Diamond Spider iPhone - black, white (there Apple, was that so hard?) or any other you may want.

Alexander Amosu iPhone 4 Diamond Spider

But as we told you - it doesn't end there. Every iPhone 4 Diamond Spider will come with a special golden number of your choice (the example given being 07XXX 111111). The price will also include a 24hr global concierge service, which promises to access the inaccessible for you.