MY TECHNOLOGY

Concept Real Notebook

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 16:38:00 +0000

The Real Notebook is concept of laptop by a designer Kim Min Seok. Its essence is that you can browse as a notebook. In this concept a unique technique is used that involve the opportunity to bend the screen. Take Real Notebook in hand and turn like an ordinary book.

Smartphone HTC Evo 4G

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Sat, 30 Jul 2011 22:25:00 +0000

New Technology Update ...

HTC Evo 4G – it is the joint work of the designer Donn Koh , studio One & Co and of HTC. This smartphone has capacious battery, 8-megapixel camera with flash, based on the two LEDs, a 1.3-megapixel front camera for video calls. Operating system Android 2.1, and support for cellular networks of the fourth generation (4G). The touch screen takes up the entire front panel and made ??it the technology AMOLED, thus ensuring the highest image quality. Placed on the back of the camera, external speaker and a leg-stand.

10 Most Bizarre iPhone Accessories that will surprise you

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Tue, 10 May 2011 20:48:00 +0000

New Technology Update ...

iPhone is undoubtedly one of the most astounding smartphone we ever have. It is undeniably most popular smartphone over world wild. It has unbelievable features which place it at the top and made it a part from other smartphones of the world. We must grateful towards many phone accessories manufacturers. With the help of technological advancements they create variety of accessories for apple iPhone. Here we present 12 whimsical and astounding iPhone accessories designed by different companies for recent versions Apple iPhone 4 and iPhone 5. Below is the number of Apple iPhone accessories with which you can personalize your iPhone and make it looks splendid.

-The Most Luxurious iPhone shell

The German lebal GnG gives Apple iPhone the most precious diamond studded golden shell . It is made up of 14grams of 18carat gold and hundreds of diamonds. Its amazing logo only takes up about 400 diamonds. Though this outlandish shell may hide Apple iPhone’s identity but you can cover it proudly with its diamond ornamented shell. Of Course, the shell cost very high it prices around 77,777 Euros (approx. $108,880).

-Mirror-like peripheral that turns iPhone into an iPad

Metin Seven of Seven Heaven has presented a mirror-like peripheral that can convert an iPhone-screen into an iPad. This accessory is easy to fit in your pocket and makes your iPhone a pocketable iPad tablet.

-iPhone charger that looks like Umbilical Cord

Japanese accessory maker Mio-I-Zawa has created this unique iPhone charger. Amazingly this charger gives moments of real Umbilical Code while charging. During the process it may look like a python is swallowing its pray. i.e. iPhone.

-Your iPhone: Nostalgia of 80′s Mobile Phone

This innovative technique will change your advanced iPhone into 1980′s Golden Geeko’s wall street phone in just $20.

-iPhone zoom lens

Convert your Apple iPhone to high-end rear camera with this 6x optical zoom lens which is made by Conice. This add-on camera lens help iPhone to boost the flexibility and accuracy of images taken by it. This new accessory is quite difficult to carry as it weighs around 4.69ounce including both case and lens, in addition to Apple iPhone wight which is 4.8. There is not any tripod support, so focusing through lens is difficult. It is priced at $15.

-Docking Speaker System for iPhone

The Fabulous iPhone docking system is designed by one of the most renowned UK based accessory makers FoneJacketHacker which is also known as moniker, M Booth. They take this concept from 1940′s rotary telephone receiver. This amazing device is a speaker phone that has three speakers at different parts and it is designed in a way that the iPhone rest in the receiver cradle.

-The iPhone Dock with Light and Alarm System

Philips has designed a light and alarm system for iPhone which known as Philips HF3404. This system carries an iPhone/iPod in its dock and at the other part there is a large that emits lite which gradually increase. The sound will also come in increasing manner. This accessory content four natural sounds along with iTune track or FM Radio to set alarm tune.

-iPhone 4 rest in the long cradle of Gun Case

Here is one more wired gun case for Apple iPhone 4 as its name suggest. It is shaped like a revolver. Isn’t it creative?

-iPhone as Bottle opener

In order to open bottles of beverages at the party this iBottle opener is indeed very helpful this case has a metal bottle opener in the rare part. The soft touch plastic case sports the stiff bottle opener on the back.

-Factron Quattro iPhone 3G case

The Japanese iPhone case makers had made case for iPhone 3G Factron Quattro
. It is made up of stainless steel, leather and carbon fiber. This case is enhanced with camera lances and speakers. It is quite expensive and cost around $200.

Large-screen Samsung Infuse smartphone to launch on May 15

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Sun, 08 May 2011 15:31:00 +0000

New Technology Update ...
In New York on Thursday, Samsung announced that its large-screen Infuse smartphone will be hitting AT&T stores on May 15.

At a press event in New York on Thursday, AT&T and Samsung unveiled the Infuse 4G. With a thickness of just .35 inches, it claims to be “the nation’s thinnest 4G smartphone.”

We first ran into this eye-catching piece of kit at CES 2011 and were immediately impressed by its specs. And it’s the huge 4.5-inch Super AMOLED screen that really grabs your attention. It’s the biggest of any Samsung phone – any bigger and you’re in tablet territory. Indeed, this might just be big enough for some consumers to leave off buying a tablet (and having yet another device to lug around).

Samsung‘s Infuse smartphone sports an auto-focus 8-megapixel rear-facing camera with LED flash, and a 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for chat. As you’d expect, you can also shoot HD video (at 720p). The phone packs a single-core ARM 1.2-GHz processor and runs Android 2.2, though hopefully a more recent version of the OS will be offered before long.

It weighs 4.9 oz, features up to 400 hours standby time and up to 8 hours talk time. The Korean company also says the phone will have “super fast 4G data connection speeds with HSPA+ (Download speed up to 16+ Mbps in selective locations).”

AT&T is offering the device, and it’ll be available to consumers from May 15 priced at $199 with a two-year contract. The decent spec sheet tells us that this phone will be turning more than a few heads of those on the hunt for a new phone. And fans of Angry Birds will be pleased to know that the Infuse comes pre-loaded with a special version of the game, created for it by makers Rovio. Bet you can’t wait…

Apple Releases iPhoto 9.1.2 Update

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Mon, 02 May 2011 00:21:00 +0000

New Technology Update ...
Apple has released the iPhoto 9.1.2 Update via their Software Update utility and website for direct download. According to the company, this update adds new card themes to iPhoto '11. It also improves overall stability and addresses a number of other minor issues, including the following:

Addresses an issue that prevented the Zoom slider from being accessible in Magnify (1-Up) view.

Fixes an issue where Toolbars were not auto-hiding in Full Screen view.

Search field now correctly performs an "includes" search when searching by text string.

Fixes minor formatting issues with book, card and calendar themes.

Message Size of emails now correctly updates when changes are made using the Photo Size menu.

Addresses an issue that prevented some iPhoto 5 libraries from upgrading correctly.

Multiple book pages can now be drag-selected when in All Pages view.

Design tools in print project panels are now accessible via separate Layout and Options buttons.

Photo backgrounds applied to a book are now preserved when book type is changed.

Tab key can now be used to navigate through all text fields in a book project.

The iPhoto 9.1.2 Update weighs in at 106.32MB and requires Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later.

The Best iPhone Apps

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Sun, 01 May 2011 23:21:00 +0000

New Technology Update ...
There's an ocean of apps out there. Whether you just got your iPhone and are feeling adrift or you're a salty old dog seeing what you might've missed, here are the absolutely essential apps.

Social

Twitter : Twitter thankfully didn't make too many changes when they gobbled up the already-great Tweetie 2 from Atebits—same clean interface, same Tweet swiping, and the same it-feels-so-good pull to refresh mechanism. Free.

Facebook : The new, panel-based interface takes a little getting used to, but once you're acclimated it's the most effective way to throw yourself, fingers first, into the black hole timesuck that is Facebook. Free.

Fring : Not only a decent multinetwork chat client, Fring also allows for free (or in some certain cases dirt cheap) VoIP calls and, for those with a front facing camera, video calls over WiFi and 3G. Free.

Meebo : Meebo is the king of iPhone messenger apps right now, with support for AIM, Google Talk, Facebook and the like (as well as an impressive list of smaller networks) all packed into a pretty, polished package. Free.

Instagram : Take a photo and dress it up with one of the supplied Hipstamatic-esque filters, Then you share it over the usual suspects—Twitter, Tumblr, Flickr, etc —or, and here's the interesting part, over Instagram's built-in social networking service. It's new and ambitious and that's why we like it. Free.

Group Me : A godsend of a group messaging app, GroupMe killed for us at CES. The idea is simple: your friends are grouped together via a phone number and when you text that number it sends the message to everyone (with your name in front). Like a SMS chat room. Free.

Entertainment

Netflix : All the joys of Netflix in your pocket, all the time—including the power to battle that always growing Watch Instantly queue. Streaming's silky smooth over Wi-Fi, less so over 3G, but the app itself is indispensable. Free.

Remote : Apple's official app for controlling iTunes from wherever your butt might find itself planted is pretty much perfect. Browse your entire library by artist, song, playlist, whatever, pick a tune, and there it is, playing in your iTunes. Free.

Shazam : You know that song you keep hearing everywhere but can't quite place? Shazam can place it. Like, almost every time. Shazam Encore, $6, gets you unlimited tags and a host of other features like charts, recommendations, lyrics, etc.

SoundHound : Like Shazam, SoundHound dabbles in tune recognition (smaller library of songs, snappier tagging), but it also serves as a full replacement for your iPhone's comparatively barren iPod app. Think lyrics, artist info, YouTube links, etc. $5.

Flixter : While it blows my mind that I can watch movies on my phone, one thing I need it to do, and need it to do well, is find movie times for theaters nearby. Flixter does that and much more, packing box office charts, Rotten Tomatoes reviews, DVD releases and what seems like a thousand other movie-related features in one extremely handy app. Free.

StreamToMe : A lightweight client on your computer catalogues the videos of your choosing, as well as all your iTunes playlists, and then lets you easily stream the files in them easily to the app on your iPhone. The best part: all the transcoding is done on the fly, and pretty much any video format plays back superbly. $3.

Pandora : Pandora. You know the one. The internet radio app that has uplifted a million work hours and scored a million make-outs. It's simply the best out there, streaming music at home or on the go over Wi-Fi or 3G. Free.

Kindle : Just because you don't own a Kindle doesn't mean you shouldn't be buying Kindle ebooks—especially when Amazon's iOS app is this good. While it looked for a while like iBooks might come along and disrupt Amazon's ebooks hegemony, well, that didn't happen. Free.

Rdio : It's our favorite subscription music service and can easily replace your iPod app altogether. The baked-in social elements make it super easy to find new music your friends are digging, and the whole app just got an attractive makeover. $10/month.

Hipstamatic : Why do everyone's iPhone photos look so damn hip while yours look so, you know, not. Probably cause they're using Hipstamtic, the preeminent "make my photos look cool" app which lets you mix and match films and lenses (available for in app purchase) to make your iPhone photos look more analog than ever. $2.

Brushes : Even for the artistically disinclined, having a 3.5" palette and canvas in your pocket can be fun. Brushes is the only one you'll ever need, easy enough for the uninitiated to jump into and advanced enough to keep real artists happy. Hell, they paint New Yorker covers with this thing. $6.

NPR News : You've gotta have a news app on your iPhone, because, you know, news is important. NPR's happens to be great—you can read NPR's reliably-interesting stories, download them for offline reading, and, and, listen to NPR radio stations while you're doing it. Free.

Tune In Radio : A truly great radio app, TuneIn has a dizzying amount of stations both local and global, and it gives you the ability to pause, rewind, or record live radio on the fly. $1

Camera+ : After a brief beef with Apple over a (much-missed) volume button shutter easter egg, Camera+ is back in the App Store and updating at a steady clip. It has a bevy of filters and effects that make Hipstamatic and Instagram look downright cheap by comparison. $1.

Vimeo : The video selection on Vimeo is always stellar but the real cherry on top? Free HD video editing for all your movies, right from your iPhone. Free.

PhotoSynth : It's a free-wheeling panorama photography app by Microsoft. With Photosynth, you just just spin around, fire away and let Photosynth stitch the picture together. Free.

Games

Angry Birds : Probably the world's most popular iPhone game, and for good reason. There's something about launching these different sorts of aviary ammunition into the precarious pig pens that just never gets old. There are always new birds and new stages coming out the pipeline to keep things fresh, too. $1.

The Incident : With excellent pixel art and an admirably morbid sense of humor, twisting your iPhone around to avoid falling objects is way more fun than it sounds. And you have to appreciate anything that makes the apocalypse this enjoyable. $2.

Cut The Rope : Some have called it the heir apparent to Angry Birds for quick, clever, doesn't-really-ever-get-boring iPhone gameplay—lofty praise, but in many ways deserved! Cutting a rope to swing a candy into a little monsters mouth, avoiding electrical currents and spiders along the way, is quite fun. $1.

Real Racing : It's just the best racing game out, walking the tightrope between looking highly realistic and being incredibly fun to play. There's a good selection of cars and tracks and the graphics look wonderful. $5.

Archetype : An exceptionally shiny first person shooter optimized for the iPhone 4 with slick, functional controls. Best of all is the 5v5 team deathmatch mode, just like the consoles—including multiple guns, grenades, maps, and medals—except this one you play while you're sitting on the toilet. $1 (map updates cost extra).

Doodle Jump : You know those people you see standing on the subway or waiting in line at the grocery store clutching their iPhone to their face and tilting their entire body to the side like they're the leaning tower of Pisa? This is the game they're playing. $1.

Words With Friends : Why did we, as an iPhone-wielding society, suddenly decide that push-notified Scrabble (or, more specifically, this knock-off) was the most fun to be had with words since Alphabet Soup? That I don't know. But it is a hell of a lot of fun trying to slot that Triple Word Score against friends, family, and coworkers. Free with ads, or $3.

Infinity Blade : Angry Birds may be fun, but the graphics aren't going to blow your hair back. Infinity Blade, the first iOS game to run on the Unreal Engine, could easily be called Angry Knights. And it looks f-ing incredible. $6

NBA Jam : I was gonna have to go Ron Artest on EA if they bungled the iPhone port of this classic, but thankfully they've turned out a excellent, faithful update of the original. "He's on fire." "Boomshakalaka." Big head mode. It's all there waiting for you. $5.

Tiny Wings : Slide an adorable bird up and down hills to collect coins. The trick is to gain momentum and beat the night. Surprisingly addictive with extremely cute animations. $1.

Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP : A game that's an epic experience. One part 8-bit graphics, one part beautiful original music, one part adventure, and one part RPG combine for a game that's essentially about exploring and brings your childlike wonder back. $5.

Productivity

Instapaper : Perhaps the most universally loved of all iPhone apps, Instapaper, in conjunction with a bookmarklet on your PC, strips websites of all that crap and leaves just the text, synced to your iPhone and pristinely awaiting your eyeballs. Free with ads, or $5.

Reeder : The best all-around RSS reader, Reeder syncs flawlessly with Google Reader (not as common as you'd think!), includes intuitive, swipe-friendly controls, and has a spartan interface that gets out of the way of the stuff you care about: your feeds. $3.

Simple Note : It takes notes, simply. That's a good thing! Without any whiz-bang features for tagging or appending images, SimpleNote just lets you jot things down and, crucially, keeps them flawlessly in sync with the app's website, a client (like Notational Velocity, for Mac), and its iPad app. Total note nirvana. Free.

Ever Note : Everybody's favorite do-it-all note taker got a big update for iOS: a new home screen with an information-dense snippet view; a new split-view note screen which allows for multiple attachments to a single note; and easy browsing by notebook or tag. Free.

Dropbox : Dropbox is like the SimpleNote of files—seamless, effortless syncing across as many machines as you want. And with the slick native Dropbox app, you can count your iPhone among those machines. Check out documents and photos, attach them to emails, export them to other apps, all with the cloud as your safety net. Free.

BoxCar : Most apps, if they send you push notifications at all, do so on their own terms. Boxcar lets you pipe in notifications for all aspects of Facebook, Twitter, and email for the unbeatable price of free.

Kayak : Sometimes it seems like the internet can make traveling more of a hassle, what with all the different rates to sort through and confirmation numbers to manage. Kayak actually makes the process easier—from booking your flights and hotels to organizing your itinerary. Free.

DocumentsToGo : If you're a businessperson, you undoubtedly are adrift in a sea of documents, pretty much every day of your life. DocumentsToGo is the best way to deal with them on your iPhone. You don't have a lot of room to stretch out when you're editing, but you'll get the job done. $10.

Google Voice For iphone : What kind of bizarro alternate universe are we living in? Well, it's one with an official Google Voice iPhone app. It's missing some advanced features like calling groups and scheduling, but the important stuff—texting and calling—works beautifully. Free.

PasteBot : You'd never think you'd use the word "ultra-powerful" to describe a "clipboard manager," but that's basically what PasteBot is, an app for organizing and managing copy clippings—text, photos, links, whatever—not only on your iPhone but, and here's where the magic happens—between your iPhone and your Mac, too. $3.

To Do : A to-do app on some serious steroids, 2Do can organize parts of your life you didn't even know needed organizing. It has a slick interface and enough features and syncing options to keep even the most fastidious productivity nuts busy. $7.

WolframAlpha : WolframAlpha—formerly $50, now just $2—is smart. Like, scary smart. It's part calculator, part search engine, but for any situation in which you need facts—population of Waco, TX; observable stars in the universe; unemployment rate in Boise—it's indispensable. $2

Google Translate : Google Translate's been kicking around for a while, but the new native iPhone app really makes translations enjoyable. It supports tons of languages—many of which it'll speak back to you—and has handy features like full-screen text translations for when you're waving your phone at some bewildered cab driver. Free.

PhotoSync : Don't ever tie your iPhone to your computer for pictures again. It wirelessly transfers photos and videos to and fro your computer through Wi-Fi and can even dance with the iPad. So easy. $2.

Wi-Fi Photo Transfer : Wi-Fi Photo Transfer brings photos from your iPhone to your computer (not the other way around) and is super easy to use. Just fire up the app, plug in an address in your computer's browser and pick and choose which iPhone pictures you want to bring over. Easy. Free.

Lifestyle

Google Earth : It's, like, the entire world...on your iPhone. Google Earth is cooler than ever when you're using your fingers to manipulate it, seamlessly zooming around the globe and diving into various places to take a closer look. Free.

MotionX GPS Drive : A solid turn-by-turn navigation app for $3 a month with no long term commitment. There are others that are richer (and far more expensive), but if you just need turn-by-turn directions once in a while, MotoinX GPS is the ticket. $1, $3 a month.

Google Mobile : Yeah, there's no two ways about it: you have to have Google's Swiss Army Knife app on your iPhone. Search the internet by voice, location, or now, with the recent addition of Google goggles, by picture. Free.

Yelp : Everyone's a critic when it comes to bars and restaurants; Yelp puts that impulse to work for you. Search for food, drink, or whatever else by location, price, style and then read up on what people have to say about it. Free.

Wikipanion : If you aren't using your iPhone to settle petty disputes, what's the point? Wikipanion gives you iPhone-optimized access to all of Wikipedia, that great argument-ending resource, with added features like bookmarking, quick wikitionary lookup, intelligent search and more. Free, $5 for Wikipanion Plus.

Nike+ GPS : Nike, it turns out, knows a lot about fitness. And with its latest iteration, their Nike+ GPS app can track you on your runs, no sensor required, and keep you going with features like Cheer Me On (a Facebook-integrated social encouragement tool) and One More PowerSong (adding one last song to your pump-up playlist). $2.

AppShopper : Aside from the shiny facade of the "featured apps" front page, Apple's App Store is not easy to navigate. AppShopper delivers some sanity to the process, allowing you to easily check out new apps, create wishlists of ones you want, and get alerted when those apps go on sale. Free.

Amazon Mobile : Amazon Mobile does an admirable job of shrinking the shopping behemoth that is Amazon.com down into iPhone-friendly form. It recently picked up the ability to scan barcodes, which means that whenever you're out there shopping in the real world (gross) you can check to see if you can get a better deal on Amazon. You probably can. Free.

Menu Pages : If you live in New York, San Fran, LA, Philly, Boston, Chicago, DC, or South Florida and you like food, Menu Pages should be part of your arsenal. It has full menus for an impressive roster of restaurants, so you'll be able to know what you want before you even get there. Free.

Layar : ugmented reality is often cooler in theory than it is in practice. Layar's one of the few places where you can peer into the future and see how this whole AR thing might actually amount to something. Free.

OpenTable : Easily make reservations at some 14,000 restaurants which you can search by name or location. Just remember to put down your phone while you're actually dining. Free.

WeatherBug : It may not be as cute as some of the competitors, but who ever said weather should be. Weatherbug gets down to business with forecasts, maps, and video, doing so reliably and straightforwardly. Free with ads, $1 for Weatherbug Elite.

How To Cook Everything : OK, the name of the app is sorta an exaggeration, but not by as much as you'd think. For those of us who aren't concerned with preparing gourmet meals and are just happy with making something, How To Cook Everything, adapted from the excellent cookbook of the same name, is like the Holy Grail. $5.

Epicurious : A food app with a bit more context than How To Cook Everything—it lets you find recipes based on what's in season, create interactive shopping lists, etc.—it is well designed and packed with utility. Free.

Adobe Photoshop Express : It's not the powerhouse that the desktop version is, but for basic edits like crop, straighten, rotate and simple tweaks like changing exposure, saturation, and tint, this stripped down Photoshop does the trick. Free.

Mixologist : The gold medal winner of our best drinking apps battle, Mixologist is an encyclopedic database of drinks searchable in a variety of ways. At some point, you will impress someone by following this app's instructions.

WordLens : WordLens is a taste of the future. Point it at a sign in Spanish and it'll overlay an English translation on the fly while approximating the size and typeface of the original text. It's not perfect but it works well enough to blow your mind into a thousand little pieces. $10.

Seamless : Paired with a free app in the Mac App Store, Seamless can fade out a song you're playing in iTunes on your desktop and fade in that same song on your iPhone's iPod app (you have to have the file on both). So you never have to stop listening to music. $1.

MLB At Bat 2011 : Hands down, the best sports application on any device. You'll be able to keep up with your favorite team in a snazzy new customizable homescreen and stream live games (if you have a MLB.tv package). For any self respecting baseball fan, it's an absolute must have. $15.

Watch ESPN : If you have the right cable provider, you can stream ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN3 and ESPNU through WatchESPN. That's a ton of sports streaming right to your phone. Free.

HBO Go : If you're smart enough to order HBO with your cable, HBO Go will let you watch every episode of every season of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Rome, and any other awesome show HBO has ever made. Oh, and you can stream movies too. Free.

RED EPIC-M Cameras

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:36:00 +0000

New Technology Update ...

The huge success of Avatar has made its mark at the arena of hollywood. As Jim Jannard (Chief of RED) has revealed that the most creative and academy award winning director of this movie james cameron has ordered 50 RED EPIC-M cameras. The massive success of avatar over world wide has created a batchmark for a new flick in the franchise. RED EPIC-M cameras has modular design which can be used to shoot in 3D, as two EPIC-M camaras can be placed on the same mount and linked.

The best looking RED EPIC-M cameras are packed with tech and has a very attrective industrial design that makes them unique from the other cameras and it also has astounding 5k image resolution. Surprsingly its price is quite controvarsial. As RED EPIC-M cameras retail for $58,000 so Cameron’s order closed to $3 million, this would surpass Peter Jackson order who purchased 30 EPIC-M cameras late last for “The Hobbit”. Probably Cameron placed this order for making sequel of Avatar 2 which is going to hit cinemas in 2014.

The RED EPIC-M 5k-resolution is delivered courtesy of a 5k Mysterium-X sensor. It incorporates a bomb electronic viewfinder, a five-inch touchscreen, an SSD module, a remote and four 128GB SSD cards. The device can be used wire free and delivers a peak frame rate of 120FPS, even at its highest resolution settings.

PlayStation Network outage: 6 days and counting

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Tue, 26 Apr 2011 20:18:00 +0000

New Technology Update ...
Sony is still struggling to get its PlayStation Network back online.

There has been no update since yesterday, when the company communicated to users via its Web site that it has no prognosis for when PSN would be back in business.

The PlayStation Network (and Qriocity, Sony's cloud music subscription service that has also been taken down) has more than 70 million users worldwide and allows people to download TV shows and movies and video games to their PlayStation consoles. Both services went down in the middle of last week. Since then the company has said it is rebuilding the network.

Sony has not provided details on what caused its network to need rebuilding. The company has only vaguely acknowledged an "external intrusion." Some have speculated that Sony shut down the network to prevent widespread pirating of content on its network.

In the meantime, it's not clear if the credit card information of paying subscribers was compromised during the "intrusion" by outsiders, and Sony isn't saying. The company has also yet to explain how it will compensate customers whose subscriptions are rendered useless by the outage.

The timing is also rather unfortunate. Last night Sony unveiled its first two tablets. Like most Sony products they use access to its media networks as a selling point. In the case of these tablets, Qriocity.

Fortunately for Sony, the tablets won't go on sale until this fall, buying the company some time to bring its PSN and Qriocity network back online.

But current customers are losing patience with the protracted outage.

Someone who goes by the name NecroC wrote yesterday on PSN's official blog, "Boy I sure am glad I paid $50 for a membership I cant use, and pay $15 a month for a game I cant play. I was fine with a day or two, but we are hitting on day 5." Others chimed in with more concise but less specific complaints like, "Epic fail," and "Pathetic, Sony."

But what's really grating on many fans and players is the flow of information about the problem from Sony. Many are taking issue less with the lack of access to the network content and service than how the company has conducted itself.

In CNET's own comments user E B wrote, "I'm not sure I have a big problem with PSN being down while they rebuild it -- it's certainly annoying, but if it's needed to bring it up stable instead of having it come down over and over again, that's fine. What I *DO* have a big problem with is the lack of communication from Sony through their customer service channels."

On the PSN blog, user VixDiesel vented that he just wants to know what happened. "There is absolutely not reason you can't give us more info," the user wrote. "Stop doing the shady crappy pr and just tell us already."

Nintendo: Wii successor coming in 2012

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Mon, 25 Apr 2011 21:13:00 +0000

Nintendo today confirmed that it plans to release a Wii successor in 2012.

In a three-paragraph note (PDF) issued this morning, the game company said it "has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii." Nintendo said it had sold 86.01 million Wiis since the console's launch in 2006.

A playable version of the new system, as well as its specs, will be unveiled at the giant E3 video game show in Los Angeles in June, Nintendo said.

The news should not come as a shock to industry observers. Rumors have been circulating for some time about a potential new Wii that could cost between $350 and $400. It was thought that the console could hit shelves as early as October. But Nintendo's announcement would seem to throw cold water on that potential date.

On Thursday, the game-focused site IGN reported that its sources were telling it that the next Wii was being code-named Project Cafe:

According to sources with knowledge of the project, Nintendo's next console could have a retail price of anywhere between $350 and $400 based on manufacturing costs, and will ship from Taiwanese manufacturer, Foxconn, this October, putting the earliest possible retail release anywhere between mid-October and early November.

However, Nintendo could also opt to build up a sizable supply of the system and allocate more time for software and games development by launching in early 2012. Similarly, Nintendo could attempt to lower the retail price of the system with lower profit margins to make the price more alluring.

Clearly, the company seems to have chosen the latter route, at least as far as the release date. If IGN's reasoning is correct, that decision could be because Nintendo doesn't want customers to repeat the experience of previous years, when a Wii was nearly impossible to find in stores during the holiday season. On the other hand, it would be interesting for Nintendo to launch the Wii's successor in early 2012. The original Wii was released in the fall (of 2006) as was Sony's PlayStation 3. Microsoft's Xbox 360 also came out in the fall, albeit of 2005. All three of those releases were timed to the holidays, and led to significant sales of the respective consoles.

In its announcement today, Nintendo did not address the specifications for the new system. But IGN seems to believe that the console will have a lot more horsepower than the existing Wii. "The system will be based on a revamped version of AMD's R700 GPU architecture, not AMD's Fusion technology as previously believed," IGN wrote, "which will, as previously reported, out perform the PlayStation 3's Nvidia 7800GTX-based processor. Like the Xbox 360, the system's CPU will be a custom-built triple-core IBM PowerPC chipset, but the clocking speeds will be faster. The system will support 1080p output with the potential for stereoscopic 3D as well, though it has not been determined whether that will be a staple feature."
Related links
• Major retailers cut price of Wii to $169.99
• iOS, Android gobbling Nintendo DS market share
• Xbox birthday signals death of 5-year console cycle

Many people have been wondering when, or if, Nintendo would put out a system rivaling the performance of the PS3 or the Xbox 360. If IGN's sources are correct, 2012 would appear to be the answer. Of course, Microsoft and Sony are hardly going to stand still and let their consoles be overtaken by a rival that has sold 86 million systems in large part because of its ease of use, not its appeal to core gamers.

But if either Sony or Microsoft is to step up their games, as it were, it's most likely going to be after Nintendo makes its next move. A report last week suggested that neither Sony nor Microsoft will come out with a new console until 2014.

"Both companies are hoping to wait out the current generation, and extending an already elongated console life-cycle despite clear signs that Nintendo will launch its next machine by the end of 2012," cited the report from the video game blog Kotaku. "Both MS and Sony are telegraphing to each other that they're delaying, to milk the current [generation] and fill in previous craters better," one insider who has worked with the first-party companies like Sony and Microsoft told us."

No matter what happens, of course, the idea of the five-year console generation--which was the industry standard for years--has gone out the window. If it hadn't, Microsoft would have put out the next Xbox in 2010, while both Sony and Nintendo would have followed suit this year. On the other hand, as Kotaku suggested, all three of the current-generation consoles are still selling well, and there's no immediate reason for any of the companies to supersede their existing hardware. That's particularly true for both Microsoft and Sony, which have breathed new life into the current-gen machines with the release of new motion control systems, Kinect for Xbox, and Move for PS3.

Cute and topless 2012 Fiat Cabrio debuts at the New York Auto Show

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Sun, 24 Apr 2011 13:40:00 +0000

Did you know that the original Fiat 500 debuted as a topless convertible in Italy?

In New York this week the newest (and perhaps cutest version) of the all new topless 2012 Fiat Cabrio debuted in North America.

The new Fiat 500C is scheduled to go on sale in May, and will be available in two different trim levels. The base Pop is priced from $19,500, and the more upscale and better-equipped Lounge model, will start at $23,500.

If you are wondering what a topless Fiat 500 looks like, just check out the video below from the New York Auto Show debut.

Fiat says that the 500c has three setting for the cloth top, that the top can be retracted, and lowered at highway speeds, and that it does intrude into passenger space in the car.

The base Pop version of the cabrio gets:

- a power cloth top

- 5 speed manual transmission

-15-inch steel wheels

- seven standard air bags

- air conditioning

- AM/FM/CD/MP3 radio with auxiliary audio input

- chromed exhaust tip

- power windows and door locks

- power heated mirrors

- Handsfree Communication USB port

- leather-wrapped steering wheel

And of course all of the sunshine that you can handle with the top down.

Microsoft: 350 million Windows 7 licenses sold in 18 months

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 21:14:00 +0000

Microsoft has announced that Windows 7 has sold more than 350 million licenses so far, meaning it is still the fastest-selling operating system. Windows 7 has been available to the masses for 18 months.

"We've done a lot in the last 18 months that improves upon the experience people have on their PCs with Windows 7," a Microsoft spokesperson said in a statement. "We launched Windows Live Wave 4 (which included Windows Live Essentials 2011 and enhancements to Hotmail), released the first service pack for Windows 7, and recently launched Internet Explorer 9. And we’re hard at work on further innovation for Windows. At CES this year we announced the next version of Windows will support System on a Chip (SoC) and last week at MIX11 we released the first platform preview to developers for Internet Explorer 10."

Windows 7 actually grabbed 20 percent of the market at the end of 2010. Between January and December 2010, Windows XP fell almost 10 percentage points to 56.72 percent market share, Windows Vista lost over five percentage points to 12.11 percent, and Windows 7 gained over 13 percentage points, pushing it to 20.87 percent.

In March 2011, Windows 7 had 24.17 percent of the market. By the end of this month, I would expect Windows 7 to pass the 25 percent market share mark, meaning one in four users would be using Microsoft's latest and greatest. Meanwhile, Windows Vista is on its way to falling below the 10 percent mark and Windows XP should soon drop below 50 percent.

Three months after release, Microsoft said more than 60 million Windows 7 licenses were sold. At the 15 month mark, the company had sold 300 million licenses. This means Microsoft was selling some 20 million licenses per month, although today's number means that sales have slowed down a tad. Still, back to school season is coming up, followed by the holiday shopping frenzy, so the company may be able to get that number back up.

If you're already on Windows 7, you should check out our guides for Microsoft's latest operating system. If you haven't upgraded to it yet, tell us why in the comments below.

I sure hope the iPhone 5 looks like this

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 21:10:00 +0000

Pictured here is the latest mockup of Apple’s next iPhone, taking into account a slew of new and old rumors, put together by ex-Engadget editor Joshua Topolsky over at his interim online home.

If the iPhone 5 ends up looking close to this mockup design, Apple may just lock me in for another cellphone cycle (which in gadget blogger terms is between a year and 18 months).

At first glance, you’ll notice a larger screen that reaches the edge of the device (the iPhone 4’s bezel instantly looks more unattractive after looking at this picture), a slightly tapered back, and a larger home button. Topolsky says that despite current rumors that the iPhone 5 won’t be a major redesign over the iPhone 4, he’s been hearing differently for months. His sources say that the next iPhone more closely resembles the super-thin iPod Touch and will have a “teardrop” shape (similar to the curves on Google’s Nexus S).

The larger home button also serves as a gesture area, according to Topolsky’s sources. The larger screen will likely be 3.7-inches to retain Apple’s “Retina Display” marketing, something that wouldn’t be possible if it was 4-inches (this runs contrary to the majority of rumors we’ve seen). Topolsky adds that he’s also hearing the iPhone 5 will be able to work across multiple carrier networks, something that Verizon accidentally mentioned this week as well.

Topolsky stresses that he’s still not sure if the iPhone 5 will have a metal back (it just looks that way because he used an iPod Touch image as the basis for the mockup), and that the device’s taper may not be as extreme as his mockup.

Corey Daniels, a fan of Topolsky’s site, also contributed his own take on the mockup (below), which may be a more accurate interpretation of the rumors.

The Revolutionary 3D Software That Has Helped 6,100 People In 67 Countries Create Stunning 3D Animations From The Comfort Of Their Own Home...

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Sat, 23 Apr 2011 12:23:00 +0000

Now YOU Can Create Professional 3D Animations, Games And Graphic Models Like Pixar and Dreamworks In 2 Hours or Less...

Click Here !

What you're getting is an advanced animation software and a full featured integrated modelling, rendering, animation and real-time 3D game creation package.
This hi-end software suite allows you to:

- Create high quality 3D graphics
- Produce your own cartoon animated film
- Draw and animate 3D models
- Design your own 3D game easily
- Create real-time interactive 3D content
- Creating and render exceptionally rich & realistic natural environments.

Let your imagination come alive with the easiest way to create stunning animations!

Lawmakers demand answers from Apple on iPhone tracking

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:11:00 +0000

Lawmakers want answers from Apple after a report was published this week that showed that iPhones and iPads track and store users' location information.

Congressman Ed Markey, who is the co-chair of the House Bipartisan Privacy Caucus, sent a letter today to Apple CEO Steve Jobs in response to a report published yesterday by Alasdair Allan, senior research fellow in astronomy at the University of Exeter, and Pete Warden.

The researchers discovered that the iOS version 4 software for the iPad and iPhone creates a log file of where users have been, based on time stamps and location information. The information is stored locally on the devices without any encryption and it's transferred via iTunes to computers that these devices are synced to.

It's unclear what the data is used for or why Apple has been collecting it in iOS products that carry a 3G antenna for nearly a year now.

But Congressman Markey said in his letter that he wants some answers.

"Apple needs to safeguard the personal location information of its users to ensure that an iPhone doesn't become an iTrack," he said in a statement Thursday. "Collecting, storing, and disclosing a consumer's location for commercial purposes without their express permission is unacceptable and would violate current law. That's why I am requesting responses to these questions to better understand Apple's data collection and storage policies to make certain sensitive information can't be left behind for others to follow."

Specifically, Markey wants to know if Apple developed the feature intentionally to keep a log of users' whereabouts. And if it did mean to collect this information, what did it intend to do with it? He also wants to know if Apple has notified consumers that this information is being collected.

If Apple did collect this data and intends to share it with marketers without users' consent, it could violate federal law, Markey said.

Apple has not responded to requests for comment on the report, nor has it responded to Markey's or other politicians' letters. Yesterday, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) stated that "the existence of this information--stored in an unencrypted format--raises serious privacy concerns." And he wanted to know why this feature exists.

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) also issued a statement that criticized Apple for not notifying customers that this information was being recorded and stored on their devices.

Next Xbox, PlayStation launching in 2014

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 23:05:00 +0000

If you're hoping for the Xbox 720 or the PlayStation 4 to arrive anytime soon, prepare to be disappointed.

Citing "industry sources," video game blog Kotaku reported yesterday that Microsoft and Sony aren't planning to release follow-ups to the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 until 2014. One of the blog's sources said that Microsoft hasn't even decided which components its next console will offer when it eventually launches.

If both Microsoft and Sony wait until 2014 to release new machines, it would mark a dramatic shift in the way console makers have structured launch schedules.

Historically, most console companies release new devices an average of every five years. Microsoft, for example, launched the original Xbox in 2001 and followed that up with the Xbox 360 in 2005. Sony's PlayStation 2 launched in 2000 and its follow-up console hit store shelves in 2006. A 2014 launch would leave the Xbox 360 on store shelves for nine years, and the PlayStation 3 for eight years, without a successor in place.

Cashing in on a console until the bitter end is something that Sony has never taken issue with. The company has said on numerous occasions that it follows a "10-year life cycle" for consoles. In fact, the company is still selling thousands of PlayStation 2s every month, even though the PlayStation 3 is available. But this time around, things could be different, since there wouldn't be a newer console in place to help boost sales over the long haul.

Speaking to CNET last year for a story outlining the death of the five-year console lifecycle, Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications for Sony Computer Entertainment, seemed nonplussed by the shift. He made it clear that Sony has always believed that its consoles can hold up over a 10-year period.

"We at PlayStation have never subscribed to the concept that a console should last only five years," he said. "Both the original PlayStation and PlayStation 2 had life cycles of more than 10 years, and PlayStation 3 will as well. The 10-year life cycle is a commitment we've made with every PlayStation consumer to date, and it's part of our philosophy that we provide hardware that will stand the test of time providing that fun experience you get from day one for the next decade."

The PlayStation 3 might be around for a very long time.
(Credit: Sony)

Microsoft's senior director of Xbox product management, David Hufford, indicated last year at the Consumer Electronics Show that his company is on the same page as Sony. And with the release of Microsoft's motion-gaming peripheral Kinect in November, the company was potentially able to extend the life of its console.

"I think it's important to say that the Xbox 360 is the console of the long future for us," Hufford said before an audience at CES. "There is no need to launch a new console because we're able to give this console new life either with software upgrades or hardware upgrades like Project Natal. The Xbox 360 was designed for a long life, and I don't even know if we're at the midpoint yet."

Such a statement seemingly makes perfect sense to game maker Electronic Arts. Last year, EA CFO Eric Brown said there isn't much room for improvement in the console market and there simply isn't a compelling reason for either Sony or Microsoft to release a new hardware platform in the near future.

"Today we have two of the three consoles that operate in full high-definition and are running games at 60 frames per second," Brown said. "If you step back and say if it's a multibillion capital dollar investment for the next generation, the question I would ask is 'if you were to produce that then what would you display it on?' There's really nothing in terms of broadly available consumer viewing technology other than 1080p flat panel televisions. And so you could upgrade in theory, but you wouldn't get the obvious graphical benefit that we saw really drove the sharp transitions in the prior cycle."

Even so, Microsoft is seemingly looking toward the future. Last month, a job notice was posted on the company's Web site, seeking a hardware engineer for its Interactive Entertainment Business division. The job would require the person to be "responsible for defining and delivering next-generation console architectures from conception through implementation." The notice led some to suspect that this future employee will be working on the next version of the Xbox.

What about the Wii?
Although Kotaku's sources didn't mention the Wii, many industry watchers believe that Nintendo will be launching a successor to its motion console later this year. Nintendo hasn't said a word about what its next console will offer or even when it might hit store shelves.

Not everyone is convinced that a new Wii would even sell all that well if it did hit store shelves in 2011. In an interview with IndustryGamers earlier this year, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter said that the chances of the Wii 2 succeeding after a late 2011 launch would be slim. One of the key additions would be HD suppport, which the Xbox 360 and PS3 have had since launch. Pachter sees Nintendo as jumping aboard that train much, much too late.

"I just think Nintendo's blown it; I think by the time they launch [their next console] if it's Christmas 2011, it's two years too late, and for sure one year too late," Pachter said in the interview. "So it's over--I don't think they can ever recover. Wii sales will continue to decline and I think Wii 2 will not sell well."

Insider Secrets to Cheap Flights – Downsized Agent Reveals All

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 13:52:00 +0000

Air Travel will always be expensive and people will always want to save big money on flights. Super conversions, almost unlimited article writing potential. Great product for new Internet Marketers. 75% Commission = over US Per Sale.

Insider Secrets to Cheap Flights – Downsized Agent Reveals All

0 to 100 iPad App Beautifully Gives You the Faces, Advice and Stories of People at Each Stage of Life

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:51:00 +0000

0 to 100 is an iPad app filled with the faces of complete strangers. Why should you care? Because all those people come together in the app to show each stage of life, from birth until 100 years old. Each picture comes with a little info about the person and when they're young, it captures the childlike wonder and naivety of youth and when they get older, the time distilled wisdom of age.

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It's refreshing! We only have one life to live and sometimes we need to remind ourselves of that. It's beautiful! The photography of each person is awesome. And it's insighful! A 3rd year old says: "I'll be a princess. A rock star. I'll be a princess rock star". The 100 year old? "You don't have to worry about anything. You let other people do the worrying."

It's a big app at nearly 300 MB but it's free and will make you smile more than a couple times. [iTunes via 0 to 100 Project via Co.]

Michael Jackson’s Golden Game Boy Is Only $75!

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:49:00 +0000

According to the bill of sale, this Game Boy was owned by Michael Jackson. He used it to court Macaulay Culkin. Culkin even set Tetris records on it. So $75 to call it your own is quite a steal!

Or, it would were that actually the story behind this golden Game Boy, but it's not. It's just a very creative sales pitch from the people at "Shit Painted Gold", who will sell you, well...you get the idea.

This Golden Gameboy was once owned by none other than Michael Jackson. He used it to gain a profitable friendship with none other than Macaulay Culkin. Rumor has it that Culkin achieved the highest score in Tetris on this exact Gameboy. Unfortunately, the Tetris cartridge is still missing.

note: this Golden Gameboy can/will play games that are not made of gold.

If you've already got a Game Boy, or find $75 a bit steep, you could always buy a one-of-a-kind AT-ST-G walker from Star Wars.

The AT-ST-G was the pride of the empire. Storm Troopers relished in watching the golden machine of death squash stupid defenseless ewoks. It was told that even the Emperor himself chuckled at the thought of killing ewoks.

Square’s Credit Card Readers for iPhones Are Now Being Sold in Apple Shops

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:47:00 +0000

If this won't boost Square's userbase, nothing will. Stocked in 235 brick-and-mortar Apple stores across the US, and online, the credit card readers cost $9.95. Here's a little tip, though—if you sign up for Square online, they'll actually send you a card reader for free. Shh. [Apple via IntoMobile via BGR]

Nokia and Microsoft Finally Sign the Marital Papers

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:46:00 +0000

Those endless photos of Nokia and Microsoft execs shaking hands and dishing out the complaints were just foreplay, it turns out. They've announced today that finally, "after 10 weeks of intense collaboration," the papers are signed and the deal hashed out.

Poking fun at Microsoft's Steve Ballmer's now-infamous keynote, Nokia's news on the partnership spoke of the high-level of apps they've seen since news broke in February:

"As new partners, we recognize the importance of having a strong and growing ecosystem. And, that ecosystem is fueled by our three favorite words. Developers! Developers! Developers! Since announcing our intention to partner, the number of Windows Phone apps submitted on a daily basis has almost doubled, further illustrating the level of excitement and interest among the community for Windows Phone."

While they haven't revealed any of the handsets that we can expect WP7 to appear on, the Nokia blog released the above photo, saying "bright, bold and beautiful, the Windows Phone Concepts are a first snapshot of what we can expect from the Nokia and Microsoft tie-in. Exciting times ahead!" Meanwhile, tipsters have been pointing at the first two WP7 handsets being called W7 and W8, with the first handset having an 8MP camera, and the W8 resembling the Nokia N8. Well, it wouldn't be like Nokia to delve too far out of their comfort zone now, would it?

iSpy Conspiracy: Break Apple’s Secret Tracking with This App

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:39:00 +0000

Not entirely cool with the idea of your iPhone or iPad following your every move without your consent? Understandable! Luckily, only a day after the privacy revelation, a fix has been cooked up that switches off Apple's covert tracking.

The root of the tracking problem is a single file that logs your location. Untrackerd nukes the location logs from that database. Although it requires a jailbroken device, it's a cinch to use—it simply runs in the background, erasing that dubious info: "A package installs a daemon (process that can run in the background) to clean consolidated.db file. No new icons are added to your homescreen. There are no options to configure."

Sounds good to us! This is, however, only a bandaid—a fairly inconvenient bandaid. This is a problem that affects and potentially compromises the privacy of every single iPhone and iPad user. And most of these users aren't ever going to consider jailbreaking.

So as much as Untrackerd is a laudable effort, it answers none of the underlying questions about why this data was being logged in the first place where normal—not just carriers and law enforcement—can get to it from our computers and handsets. The only real fix will be one that comes from Apple, allowing all users to opt-out of the tracking with a simple tap. Or hey, crazy idea—don't have it enabled to begin with.

Why Is Samsung’s LTE-Packing Droid Charge $300 on Verizon?

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:37:00 +0000

The Droid Charge is, on paper, a very good phone—at least from the hardware perspective. It's Verizon's second LTE phone, but it's likely got a better display than the Thunderbolt (a 4.3-inch Super AMOLED Plus display, to be precise), an 8-megapixel rear camera plus 1.3-megapixel front camera. And it's gonna be all fast and stuff.

But! It's $300 after a 2-year agreement. I thought we all agreed, people, that smartphones shouldn't cost more than $200—$250 max?

Will Chrome Notebooks Be Available for a Monthly Fee?

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:34:00 +0000

We'd heard previously that Google's going to make its Chrome notebooks widely available this June or July. A little more curious, according to Neowin, is the way in which Google's bringing Chrome hardware to the masses: as a subscription service, reportedly, tied to Gmail.

It's not clear whether that means any Gmail user can order up a Chrome notebook, or just Google Apps users. But Neowin's sources say that the laptops will be available for $10-$20/month per user, with hardware refreshes built into the package. They'll also be available for a more traditional one-time purchase.

A subscription service seems like a strange way to launch a new product widely, to say the least. And if those subscription fees are right, you'd end up paying, at the low end, only $360 or so over the device's lifespan. But Google wasn't afraid to be disruptive with the Nexus One—first, unsuccessfully, employing an online-only sales policy—so who's to say they won't rock the boat again with laptops?

What Is Japan’s Fetish This Week? Glasses

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:27:00 +0000

In game after game, comic book after comic book, manga after manga, there they are: characters with glasses. And Japan is totally gaga for them.

Of course, glasses fetishism is not unique to Japan as it's widespread in the West as well. Universally, glasses represent intelligence as well as authority, giving rise to stock characters in popular culture like the brainy geek or the school teacher. Take Sarah Palin, who was able to elicit a certain degree of glasses fetishism during her vice-presidency bid with reporters inquiring what type of glasses she wore.

Yet the connection between Japan and glasses is strong. In fact, the type of glasses Palin wore were made in Japan and designed by Kazuo Kawasaki, a Japanese industrial designer. John Lennon's glasses? They were also made by a Japanese designer, Hakusan. Japan didn't invent glasses (thank the Europeans for that) and didn't get its first pair until Francis Xavier brought them from Spain in the 16th century, but the country was a quick study and has since mastered the craft. Spectacles are embedded into the Japanese subconscious, becoming not only a trope, but an object of desire themselves.

In Japan, they're called "meganekko" or "girl with glasses". The meganekko is a stock character in Japanese animation and games. According to Patrick W. Galbraith, a PhD candidate at the University of Tokyo, nobody quite knows when the first "girl with glasses" entered the Japanese pop culture zeitgeist. "Glasses were kind of was always around, like the animal ears in Tezuka Osamu manga, and slowly took on special meanings," says Galbraith. In Japan, glasses have different meanings for both male and female characters.

When male characters wear glasses, says Galbraith, they are a dominant character. They are in control. But, when a female character wears glasses, it can also means she is shy or a wallflower. "If the female character takes off the glasses, however, she tends to be stunningly beautiful," adds Galbraith. "This is straight out of shojo manga, which provides many of the archetypes for contemporary otaku fetish characters." The construct exists in the West as well, but it occurs in a higher degree in Japan. The reason for that is simple: glasses are shorthand - a cheat sheet, if you will. Gamers or anime viewers can look at a meganekko and immediately size-up the character. There are already embedded connotations, making characterization "easy". According to Galbraith, "This might have to do with the large casts of characters, the need to distinguish characters easily with a relatively rudimentary set of tools, the relative dependence on still images and the need to make them visually interesting."

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Of course, there is the same "hot teacher" connotations that exist abroad, as evident in the video game character Bayonetta. The character's glasses were present from the earliest stages of design as Platinum Games were formulating her personality, Bayonetta game designer Hideki Kamiya tells Kotaku. "I felt they were necessary for accentuating the appeal of an intelligent, noble, mature woman." Her glasses, Kamiya continues, make up an important part of her allure. "For instance, let's say you're in high school, and there is a new teacher on staff," says Kamiya. "Everyone can understand hoping for an extremely beautiful, sexy female teacher in glasses, right? Same thing with Bayonetta and her glasses." The character design is universal, which might be why the title (and Platinum Games) continue to find success in Japan and abroad.

There is something distinctively Japanese in how glasses are fetishized, however. Sure, it could be the fact that pin-up models not only often appear in wearing glasses, but wearing glasses while in, for example, swimwear. The notion that one would logically remove glasses while wearing a bikini goes out the door, because it's not only the model's body that is the object attention, but her face - namely, her eyes. She is a girl with glasses, a feminine four-eyes. Maganekko.

Japan even has a "glasses idol", 23 year-old Ami Tokito. The idea that Japan has a glasses idol is hardly unusual, considering there have been a retro game idol, a computer idol and, yes, even a natto idol. Dubbed a "megadol" by fans, Tokito sings pop songs, appears in pin-up pics and cosplays, scoring a fair amount of success in Japan and singing in video games like Rhythm Heaven. Whether she's wearing a bikini or dressed up as Miku Hatsune, one thing that's always constant: she's wearing glasses. The glasses that made her famous, however, are a prop. Tokito's publicly admitted that her specs are "datemegane" or "glasses for show". The model started wearing them to protect her eyes from camera flashes during photoshots, and in highly competitive world of Japanese pin-ups, they ended up being her selling point.

The fact that Tokito doesn't actually need the glasses are besides the point. She's just one of many celebrities with good vision who wear glasses. Glasses are an accessory, and there are even countless speciality shops throughout Japan that specialize only in datemegame, offering customers frames and lenses with UV coating.

Glasses now fall in the realm of moé, explains famed game and character designer Akiman, known for his work on Final Final and Street Fighter II. Moé, of course, is slang used to describe the warm, fuzzy feeling otaku get from characters, situations, costumes, etc. As illustrator Noizi Ito told me, there's no real way to define moé because it's different things for different people. But for many Japanese otaku, glasses (and the girls that wear them) are definitely moé. And glasses-wearing characters, like Mari Illustrious Makinami were brought in to otaku-friendly franchises to capitalize on meganekko appeal.

In Japan, Akiman points out, it's thought that the reason people wear glasses is because they read too much or play too many video games or watch too much TV. According to Akiman, "The moment that someone puts on glasses, even if it's Superman, they take on the appearance of being an introvert like me." The reason why girls who wear glasses are appealing is that they thus appear to introverts, and it's easy for fellow introverts to relate to them. As Akiman says, girls with glasses become "one of us". Thus, the glasses themselves become an object of fetish. "Japanese people are basically introverted," says Akiman, "and I think that's why this fetish has grown."
What Is Japan's Fetish This Week? is a regular, obsessive look at the trends and topics, from mainstream to niche, that catch Japan's fancy. WIJFTW alternates bi-weekly with its sister column, What Is America's Fetish This Week?

10 Most Advanced Submarines

all.techno.blog7@gmail.com (Ahmed Ghourab) — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 23:01:00 +0000

We all know that the submarines are part of the Navy of any country that has access to the sea / ocean. But now an increasingly popular trend is the development of models of personal submarines that can carry 1-2 people. Of course, the cost of such a vehicle may not be low. In this review we present the five most successful models.

1. Hyper-Sub.
The cost of this undersea motorboat is 3,5 million dollars. This ship was designed by Marion HSPD, and will soon be sent to the production assembly.
The boat is a heavy duty cruiser with a closed cabin length of 31 feet. Equipped with a double diesel engine of 440 horsepower with a total capacity of 880 HP, Hyper-Sub can develop a maximum speed on the surface at 40 knots and cover maximum distance of 500 miles. In immersion Hyper-Sub can sink to a depth of 250 feet with the possibility of autonomous diving apparatus.

2. Yellow Submarine.
That submarine can accommodate only two people. It can dive to 1000 feet under water, and life support systems is sufficient for 6 hours. It also has a battery life of 120 and 24 volts, the two main motor 3 hp, two vertical engine 3 hp, 4 external halogen lamp, high frequency radio communications, GPS, as well as climate control.
Its cost is 2 million dollars.

3. Compact semi-submersible boat EGO.
Technically, this is not a submarine. But this does not mean that the semi-submersible boat EGO can not be submerged. In fact, its cabin is always under water, and the upper part – on the surface.
Transparent cockpit allows you to see the amazing marine life, ideal for those who want to see the fish close and not get wet. The best advantage of the EGO is that it is environmentally friendly thanks to its motor. From 6-10 hours the charge can make a 4-hour cruise. Compact semi-submersible boat EGO manufactured by RAONHAJE and the official site price of this boat is not specified.

4. Seabreacher X.
Seabreacher X is an incredible submarine in the shape of a shark which boasts a “supercharged engine to 260 hp, thanks to which the ship speeds up to 50 miles per hour on the surface and up to 25 miles per hour under water.”
Seabreacher X has a high speed dive, as well as high-speed surfacing from the water. An entirely new thrust vector system mimics the actual movement of sea creatures such as sharks and dolphins. Exhaust system with customizable simulates a growl when driving on the surface.

5. Deep Flight Super Falcon.
The latest creation of marine engineer Graham Hawkes Deep Flight Super Falcon is a winged submarine on battery for 1,5 million dollars, which looks like an airplane, except that it “flies” underwater.
It established a single engine, molded back, which is more like an electric fan, and lithium – phosphate battery of 48 volts, which provides meals. Its body is made up of carbon-epoxy mixture, allowing two passengers to sit in the cockpit, bow and stern, watching the water environment through the thick canopies of plexiglass.
According to Hawkes, the ship “flies like a jet aircraft with electric motors that control the roll, pitch and deviation from the direction of the course. The vessel can dive at 200 feet per minute, and emerges two times faster than this speed. The duration of such “safety” is 5 hours. Aquatic biology department chairman John McCosker of the California Academy of Sciences said that the fast submarine for the first time will allow him and his colleagues to follow the “whales and dolphins and even sharks, and may be behind the mysterious giant octopus.

6. Scubster.
Scubster is a personal submarine, which is made of carbon fiber. The vessel, which was developed by Stephen Rawson to participate in the International Race of submarines, a top speed of up to 6 miles per hour, and plunges to a depth of 20 feet.

7. The submarine made of pig trough.
14-year-old from Switzerland, and the marine enthusiast Aaron Cryer spent 4 years to build his own submarine parts of the pig trough.

8. Nautilus VAS Luxury Submersible.
Nautilus VAS Luxury Submersible is a private submarine with the possibility of launching a boat. It has a military structure of the bullet-proof iron, so if you find yourself in the situation where you will shoot, you will surely be security. In a submarine there is a mini-bar and stereo system! The cost of such luxuries is 2,7 million dollars.

9. Trilobis 65.
Italian naval designer Jean Carlo Terr wanted to design a house that would be a half boat and half a submarine. It seems that his dream came true called – Trilobis 65. At first glance, this house looks like a computer image of flying saucers from science fiction movies 1950. Drawings Trilobis are a maritime heritage, while embracing technology of the 21 st century, which include high-strength composite materials and environmentally friendly fuels from hydrogen.

10. RC Steampunk Nautilus Submarine.
Founded by Bob Martin, the submarine with a remote control, a copy of the submarine from the cartoon “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea». A submarine with a remote control in length, 66 5 inches is a copy of Disney’s boat with a scale of 1 to 32. Steampunk submarine was built with careful observance of the smallest details in the design and function. It has a waterproof cylinder, ballast tank, automatic transmission and all supported with power from lithium-ion battery.