German architect Rolf Disch has built a home, called Heliotrope, that is able to generate five times the solar energy that it consumes.

The way it does this is by rotating itself to follow the rays of the sun throughout the day. The structure features a 6.6 kWH solar panel (called the Sun Sail) on the rooftop that is able to rotate independently from the house to produce more than enough energy for the house to consume. The advantage this provides is 30 to 40 percent more energy generation than that of the traditional rooftop solar panels.

The balcony railings on the roof double as solar thermal collectors that act as water heaters and radiators. On a cloudy day, the house can be heated with wood chips and the solar thermal heating.

Technology within the house is also green, with waste water being re-used after going through a purification system, and rainwater is collected in a rooftop basin. Even human waste matter is turned into compost through the toilet system.

The architect himself lives within the prototype of the house and two other Heliotropes have been built to date, costing $2 million each.

Here is a video tour of the house. Unfortunately it is in German, so for those who don’t understand the language, make what you will of it.

Design wise, this isn’t the most aesthetic house I’ve seen, but with all the green technological advances that make up what the house is, I do think that this house can make a difference. Though something may have to be done about that steep pricetag to make it available for everyone.

I’ve been a PC/Windows user all my life. But just recently, after installing Windows 7 on my Dell Vostro laptop (which was running Windows Vista), I’m starting to experience my fair share of Windows problems. So I decided jump ship and join the Apple camp – here’s a look at my new toy… a shiny new Macbook Pro 13.

This was how it arrived. Hmm… doesn’t look like an Apple product at all. But don’t judge the book by its cover…

Phew! Yes… this is more like it.

Ahh! OK now we’re talkin’ !

Beautiful packaging, tightly put together, glossy and shiny. What you’d expect from Apple… much like a BMW engine

Here it is with all the cables and stuff. The power cable is a really a marvelous piece of work… more on this later.

Here’s the special power cable I was telling you about earlier. It is magnetically attached so that if you trip over the cable (like I often do), no worries at all. It comes off but the Mac just keeps running. (In case you don’t know, the battery does not come off in a MacBook.)

OK time to power it up. WOW took like only 15 seconds to boot up. Shut down was even quicker… less than 10 seconds I think. Clearly beats Windows flat in this area. But the 4GB Ram comes in handy I suppose.

BTW the track pad is quite tricky… looks like it’s got no mouse buttons but you can click on the Bottom Left area for a left click and click on the Bottom Right area for a right click. You will need to know this when you go through the initial setup (because tapping the track pad will not work at first until it is enabled after setup). Fooled a Mac novice like me indeed!

What I LIKE about the MacBook Pro

1. Beautiful finish and supersonic boot-up and shut down time.
2. Touch Pad has wonderful two-finger scroll-up and scroll-down control.
3. Touch Pad lets you do pinching like the iPhone. (But it’s not as easy as the iPhone).
4. The lighted keypad looks cool at night, good if you need to use your laptop at night.
5. The laptop doesn’t seem to heat up much, compared to my Dell Vostro which is like an oven after 10 minutes use.
6. The charger is quite compact, much more cleverly designed than Dell chargers.
7. The battery life is pretty good. Just yesterday I was clocking around 6.5 hours+ from a full charge.

What I DON’T LIKE about the MacBook Pro

1. If you come from a Windows environment, you will really suffer in File Management tasks at first.
2. Everything on the screen appears smaller. And I’m not getting any younger. You can try to pinch on the Touch Pad to make things biggers, but most likely you’ll give up after a while. 
3. PrintScreen is such a pain. You need to use the Preview application, then there is a timer which sets off the PrintScreen function after a few seconds. Does anyone know an easier way?
4. There are no Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keys (but there are some Hot Keys to do this – see below).
5. I found out that my Xerox Laser Printer doesn’t have driver support for Mac, so off I went to buy a new printer.
6. Maybank2U Online Share Trading – it doesn’t work with Mac unless you run Windows and install IE. The last version of IE that runs on Mac was IE 3.0 or something. Most likely I will end up installing VMware and running Windows… no escaping from Bill Gates. I called Microsoft but they tell me that I can’t move the Windows from my Dell Vostro to the Mac. The more Mac buyers, the richer Microsoft becomes.
7. The 250GB hard disk is really crap by today’s standards.

Microsoft Office

Did I mention that I’m not gonna install MS Office? Nope, I’ve opted for Open Office instead, it’ll do everything that MS Word and Excel does. I’ve saved myself around RM500 and this has helped me to acquire the superior hardware instead Anyway all the reviews on Apple’s website say that MS Office for Mac really sucks so this is a no-brainer decision for me. Having said that, a week on, I’m still getting used to Open Office. Guess I’m working at 70% speed compared to MS Office, but I’ll get there eventually.

Useful Hot Keys

If you are looking to buy a Mac, you’ll want to know these keystrokes:

END                   :    Command  +  Right Arrow
HOME               :    Command  +  Left Arrow
OPEN                 :    Command  +  O
PAGE UP          :    Fn  +  Up Arrow
PAGE DOWN   :    Fn  +  Down Arrow

Web Developers

Any web developers out there considering switching to Mac? You will need an FTP Software and an Apache environment. I recommend Cyberduck for a free & simple FTP, and MAMP for your Apache, PHP and MySQL.

All in all, the MacBook takes getting used to. I was told Mac users don’t need to install anti-virus, this is a weird concept for me, I’m still coming to grips with it. But if you do have an anti-virus on your Mac, please let me know which one you recommend

The app, known as the Brother iPrint&Scan allows users to wirelessly print from and scan to their iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, with a compatible printer from the range of Brother’s latest inkjet multifunction printers.

Since smartphones are such an essential tool for the consumers today, this app comes as a very convenient tool for printing and scanning.

The app is fully compatible with Brother’s range of multifunction printers that have wireless capability released from 2009 onwards. Certain models with network interface are also compatible when connected to a wireless network.

Brother iPrint&Scan is now available at the Apple iTunes App Store. The app itself is free and requires the iPhone 3.0 Software Update or later and a compatible Brother printer.

The appwas initially launched in English, though there are plans to launch the app in French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch versions by the end of 2010. Also, similar apps are planned to be developed by Brother that are compatible with other smartphones including the Google-based Android 1.6 handsets.

Personally I think this is a great idea and I’m sure there are a lot of people who have also been waiting for an app such as this too.

What I find most inconvenient is that the app is geared towards printers/scanners from Brothers only. I realise that as it was developed by Brothers, it’s obvious that the app would only work with the company’s printers. I hope that there will be similar apps developed in the future that works with different brands of printers too.

What are your takes on this app?

Blurring the line between video games and reality is certainly nothing new, with the Roomba Pacman and the 6-string Guitar Controller, so it might not come as such a surprise that someone has brought this racing game to life.

German designer Malte Jehmlich and company created this real-life rendition of Wipeout with just a webcam, an R/C car and a race-track made of cardboard.

The speed mimics the PlayStation original due to the scale speed of the 1/28 model R/C car. Controlling of the game is done through an arcade racing cabinet that comes complete with a stearing wheel and an on screen display that is wirelessly connected to an Arduino board. The idea started out as a 2 month hobby project and it is now being worked towards an advanced version. The designers are planning to build sensors right into the track to allow for force feedback and powerups.

Sounds like an amazing plan. I wonder it could be expanded to create a new form of gaming or will it stay as a novelty item? Even if it did stay as a novelty, I would love to try playing it!

Watch the video and see for yourself this twist of a racing game.

Watch the RACER DEMO video game mashup in Vimeo

Silicon Touch

This case works in tandem with a custom app and was designed to be used by the visually impared, with the bas-relief buttons of the case that corresponds to a modifed home screen of the iPhone.

Wooden iPhone cases

I love the natural look and feel of wooden cases as with the iWood cobra , and Substrata’s cases.

Card Holder/Wallet

Here’s a creative yet practical idea that both protects your iPhone and also holds your credit cards at the same time. It’s also eco-friendly as it’s made of recycled plastic.

Hardrive

With this interesting case, you can disguise your iPhone as a hardrive. Pretty sneaky if you ask me, though I’m not sure if anyone’s going to fall for it.

Owl Case

A cute owl case that has been beautifull hand-crafted. I just love the details in every stitch.

Chocoo’s Cute Cases

And a treat for the girls, here’s a whole line of cute cases decorated with cakes, hearts and rhinestones. These are just beautiful, but their prices are pretty steep.

Felted Bacon iPhone Case

Here’s an idea, an iPhone Case made to look like bacon. Mmm, scrumptious.

Factron’s Quattro

An amazing steampunk case from Factron, the Quattro is even designed to hold a fish-eye/macro lens for some interesting pictures.

Which are your favourites and what other creative designs for iPhone cases have you seen?

This requires you to have a certain amount of Windows skill, esp Regedit knowledge for the part that calls for it.
*Note that by using Regedit – though it has been built into every Windows since Windows 95 – is not encouraged by Microsoft, which has disclaimed all responsibility if you messed up your Windows with it. If using this rendered your computer into a giant door stopper, be prepared to swear to your manufacturer’s and Microsoft’s tech support that you have never heard of or know anything about it. Don’t bug us either as we had already warned you.

Also, before you do this, check that the particular program which startup you want disabled has no options to disable auto startup anywhere within its program’s Options or Preferences, or in the system tray when you right click on its icon.

I am sure you are aware that Windows programs NORMALLY start up automatically by having:
a) their program shortcuts in Start > Programs > Startup folder OR
b) a String Value in the Registry, especially under the “HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run” keys

So for:
Program which has its startup shortcut in the Startup folder:
1. Create a “Startup_Disabled” folder.
2. Go to Start > All Programs, right click “Explore All Users”.
3. On the right pane, right click and select “New Folder”. Name it “Startup_Disabled” or anything you want.
4. To prevent programs from starting up: From the Start Menu, just navigate to
Start > All Programs > Startup, left click and hold the link of the program-to-be-disabled, and drag the it over to the Startup_Disabled folder and then release the mouse button.

Program which has its startup string value in the Run registry keys:
1. In the registry, Create a Run_Disabled key for where you can find its startup string:
Depending on your Windows version, the keys below will be different; but generally the idea is to create a “_Disabled key” for each string you want to disable. No need to create the “_Disabled” keys for all the Run folders, just create on-demand for the key where the string you want to disable resides in, whether in:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run OR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce OR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce OR
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServicesOnce OR

eg. HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run_Disabled

2. Put all the links you want to disable inside this key.
Windows will only check the Run key for auto startup programs and will be unaware of the existence of the Run_Disabled key.

Why I don’t use msconfig to do this, you asked?
Cause it requires a restart and your computer will be eternally on “Selective Startup” after this, which slows down the system.
Also, it is designed to be a troubleshooting tool, not for permanent use. There are programs out there that make doing this easier but this is my quick fix method without installing any program to do this.

Personally, I have Gladinet and Bluetooth as permanent residents here in my _Disabled folder as I rarely use them but for the one or two times when I really need to use them, I just re-enable them here. And when you get used to doing things this way, you’ll find that you can also copy a registry autostart string, make it into a shortcut in Startup_Disabled folder, and then move or even delete the original registry key. To enable it, just move it the to Startup folder. It’s easier to check Startup_Disabled folder than to go through all the registry keys.

SPEED:

1. HTC Desire:
Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor

2. Apple iPhone 4:
1 GHz Apple A4 processor

Navigation wise, both are equally fast. But for gaming, iPhone 4 is better because HTC Desire has no dedicated graphic engine.

SCREEN & RESOLUTION:

1.HTC Desire:
3.7 inch, AMOLED capacitive touchscreen with 16 millions color.
480 x 800 pixels.

2.Apple iPhone 4:
3.5 Inch, TFT capacitive touchscreen with 16 millions color and IPS technology.
640 x 960 pixels (Retina display – 4 times clearer than previous generations.)

HTC Desire screen is simply beautiful but iPhone 4’s IPS and Retina Display are far superior to HTC Desire’s AMOLED

CAMERA & VIDEO RECORDING:

1.HTC Desire:
5 Megapixels, LED flash, face detection and auto focus.  (with camera options)
Recording at WVGA (800×480 pixels) for 15fps

2.Apple iPhone 4:
5 Megapixels, LED flash and auto focus.
Recoding at 720p for 30fps.

Clearly, iPhone 4 is far superior in Video Recoding and takes better photo quality. But rumors have it that HTC Desire might be getting 720p recording in future update.

OS & AVAILABLE APPS:

1.HTC Desire:
Android OS 2.1 Eclair (Soon be upgraded to Froyo 2.2 with full flash support and 2x to 4x times speed increment.)
More than 70,000 apps

2.Apple iPhone 4:
iOS4 with multitasking, folder managment and etc.
More than 200,000 apps.

iOS4 is fast, so is Android. If you need freedom (rooting) and widget, Android will be your choice. But iOS4 has more quality games.

CONCLUSION

HTC desire is definitely one of the best smart phone out there. But iPhone 4 is far superior in term of features and available apps. With Apple’s new gyro sensor, secondary camera, IPS & retina display, noise cancellation, extremely durable battery and A4 processor (used in iPad), HTC Desire is still behind. But of course, HTC Desire is value-for-money compared to iPhone 4 and you got the freedom to root your phone, Google apps integration and interactive widgets. So it is the choice for techno geeks like myself.

Update: Latest Cinematic Trailer just released on Jul 21, 2010 by Blizzard:

For some, July 27, 2010 is the most important day in the calendar; for the last few years and maybe more.

For others – that means those of you who has been too busy working to remember 1998 when StarCraft was released, this article is full of videos that will take you back to those days when we used to rule the galaxy with our buddies, and all we do is go Zerg or Protoss hunting. Ah, those were the days!

Even as I am writing this, people who bought the digital version of the game are already downloading it, waiting for the game to be officially released on July 27 in order to be able to install it. These people want to be ahead of the digital queue! This digital queue is much better than the one you see at an Apple product launch or the one when Star Wars Episode I just got released. For one thing, you don’t have to sleep overnight on site to be the first. All you gotta do is wait. The bad thing is – the waiting can kill you …

So while waiting, why not take a peek at the game requirements provided by Blizzard, to release some tension, and also to watch and re-watch some videos to get us in the mood:

This is the StarCraft II Official Cinematic Trailer from 3 years ago, for those of you who has not seen it yet:

7 mins of gameplay footage from StarCraft2 single player campaign:

Starcraft II Beta Tournament: David Kim vs Tyler on Lost Temple Part 1 and 2:

Game Requirements:

Windows Specs:

Windows Minimum Game Requirements*:

Operating System: Windows® XP SP3 |Windows Vista® SP1 |Windows® 7 (All having the latest Service Packs) with DirectX® 9.0c
Processor: 2.6 GHz Pentium® IV or equivalent AMD Athlon® processor
Graphics: 128 MB PCIe NVIDIA® GeForce® 6600 GT |ATI Radeon® 9800 PRO video card or better
Hard Drive: 12 GB available HD space
Memory: 1 GB RAM (XP) OR 1.5 GB (Windows Vista® |Windows® 7 users)
DVD-ROM drive
Broadband connection
1024X720 minimum display resolution

Windows Recommended Game Requirements*:

Operating System: Windows Vista® SP1 |Windows® 7 (With the latest Service Packs)
Processor: Dual Core 2.4Ghz Processor
Graphics: 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 8800 GTX |ATI Radeon® HD 3870 or better
Memory: 2 GB RAM

Macintosh Specs:

Mac Minimum Game Requirements*:
Operating System: Mac® OS X 10.5.8, 10.6.2 or newer
Processor: Intel® Processor
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® 8600M GT |ATI Radeon® X1600 or better
Hard Drive: 12 GB available HD space
Memory: 2 GB Ram
DVD-ROM drive
Broadband connection
1024X720 minimum display resolution

Mac Recommended Game Requirements*:

Operating System: Intel® Core 2 Duo processor
Graphics: NVIDIA® GeForce® 9600M GT |ATI Radeon® HD 4670 or better
Memory: 4 GB system RAM

*Note: Subject to changes by Blizzard by the time the game is released. It is correct as of Jul 16, 2010.

The Official StarCraft II in-game demo from 3 years ago. If you have seen this in 2007, you will want to see it again to compare how different the game is now compared to then:

Hell, It’s About Time!

Now let me explain how that makes it a new technology. Mainstream 3D cameras (or stereo cameras) utilise two (or sometimes more) lenses to create a stereoscopic or 3D image by capturing two separate images from two (or more) different perspectives. The two images are then overlaid and by using red/blue anaglyph filters, polarization or viewing the images on a specially treated screen, it simulates human binocular vision to give it a three dimensional view.

The new Exmor R CMOS-sensor-based Sony Cyber-shot DSC-WX5 (left) and Cyber-shot DSC-TX9 (right) are the first of their kind to offer a 3D panorama mode that allows you to shoot 3D images with a single lens. To do this, you only have to press the shutter button and pan it across the scene and the camera automatically stitches a 3D image for you. Then you view it through special glasses on a compatible HDTV set to see the 3D effect.

The main shortcoming of this one is that although the 3D image displays fine on other monitors, in order to obtain the proper 3D effect, you need to view the images through Sony’s Bravia HDTV while wearing the company’s Shutter 3D glasses. A hefty investment just to view images shot through these cameras.

 What’s HOT on HTC Desire

The 1GHz Snapdragon CPU with 576MB of ram (64MB more than its cousin – Nexus One) is extremely fast. Web surfing experience has never felt so good!

Desire’s 3.7 AMOLED with 480 x 800 pixels plus HTC Sense UI looks extremely nice & eye candy! And the capacitive touch screen is MUCH MORE responsive than Nokia N900’s resistive touch screen. Finally someone is giving a decent challenge to Apple iPhone and HTC’s multi-touch pinch zooming makes it happen.

When it comes to the web, the guys at HTC have thought of it all – Facebook & Flickr integration, Facebook & YouTube app etc. In addition the Flash Lite support means I can still check out those fancy flashy websites on the web. But then again at least I didn’t lose the Full Flash Support in Nokia N900 –

Overall I’m pretty happy with my HTC Desire, it’s fast, very fast and EXTREMELY FAST!

Having said all this, I think Desire has some shortcomings too: 

1. Android Éclair 2.1 does not supporting application installation on external memory card. 120MB for apps is just not enough! (Hopefully Froyo 2.2 will)
2. No task manager and file manager – this is really WEIRD for the typical Smartphone cause you don’t feel like you’re controlling it. But third party apps will do.
3. The alarm gets turned off automatically if it’s not in task manager ignore list. (Solution: Don’t install any Task Manager and let Android handle it.)
4. The only way to wake up the phone is through the power button. This is extremely annoying and hopefully HTC will fix this in next update.
5. A rather useless Optical Track Pad. Does anyone know what it’s for?
6. Battery life is mediocre at best.
7. Mobile Network connection problem -enabling & disabling it too fast or frequently will hang the device.
8. Is it just me? Or does Android have a rather confusing interface. Sometimes long press for options, sometimes menu button to be pressed for options…
9. There is no built in TV out and FM transmitter and no secondary camera. Hmm.. even iPhone 4 has it.
10. Paid apps are not available in Malaysia.

I am compiling a comparison between HTC Desire and Apple iPhone 4 next couple of days. Hopefully this will help you decide on your favorite Smartphone.