Gadget Geeks » Latest Technology

Envassion Of Digital SLR Camera

M.D — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 12:40:59 +0000

Professional photographers and photo enthusiasts collect multitudes of tips and tricks over years of shooting. Most of the techniques used in film photography can be applied to digital cameras with no modification. Where there are differences, we hope to give you that information to help you get past the learning curve and get up to speed in as little time as possible. Then you can concentrate on the things that make winning images, like composition, exposure, and drama.

The iPod touch has 802.11n, so what?

M.D — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 02:32:22 +0000

Author and blogger Glenn Fleishman over at TidBITS has some great insights into iFixit’s discovery that the 3rd generation iPod touch has an 802.11n-capable wireless chip. We mentioned this in our initial analysis of iFixit’s teardown, but we still had a few comments asking what it could really do and some who claimed it could do nothing. With the help of Glenn’s article, I’ll put a few of those thoughts to rest and probably fuel more conspiracies with these highlights:

* Until recently, 802.11n-capable devices required two antennas. That has changed with the introduction of Single-Stream 802.11n, thus making it possible for manufacturers to put wireless-n into handheld devices.
* Part of the Single-Stream endeavor was a desire for better battery life. If Apple enables wireless-n in the future, it’s very likely that you’ll see the battery life improve when doing anything on WiFi because these chips should consume less power than wireless-g.
* Wireless-n could allow the iPod touch to send 50 percent more data across the network. That would give it a theoretical throughput of 30Mbps or more instead of its current 20Mbps.
* It’s also possible that Single-Stream wireless-n technology will be more efficient on wireless networks. In order for that to happen, Apple will have to update their wireless routers to contain space-time block coding (STBC), but that could be as simple as a firmware update.

If Apple enabled 802.11n in the iPod touch, we could see a lot of new uses come to the device, including video streaming, wireless sync/home sharing, on-device video rental, and many other possibilities. I have always wanted to be able to start a movie in the living room and continue watching it live while doing other tasks around the house. With this new technology, that dream could someday become reality.

Facebook for Android hits Market

M.D — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:08:55 +0000

We’re hearing from multiple Android Community members that a new Facebook application has arrived in the Android Market. The app seems pretty spartan at present, but does allow access to walls, posting of statuses and commenting. There’s also a homescreen widget, which allows for posting status updates and browsing those updates of friends. Meanwhile a live folder can be used to access phone numbers stored through Facebook.

No chat, though, nor many of the features iPhone users have been enjoying, but it’s a start at least. The app’s development page on Facebook suggests that this isn’t, in fact, an official app, and the early feedback isn’t entirely positive, but the software itself has only just landed in the Android Market so maybe we’ll see more advances after the feedback continues.

New Wii horoscope channel launching

M.D — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 14:00:58 +0000

The horoscope channel will offer advice on everything from relationships through family and careers, and will even do silly stuff like tell you what to eat. The new channel will mercifully be free, which is something we suppose, and you’ll be able to get involved by adding your date of birth and Mii avatar.

A daily fortune reading will then be delivered across a number of categories, and there will be quite a lot of information offered by the look of things. Finally, adding a spot of intrigue to the proceedings, the channel will be able to compare and assess the compatibly of various Miis on a daily basis.

Nokia Beta Labs Introduces New Apps: Ovi Lifecasting, Social Messaging

M.D — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:55:17 +0000

At the Nokia World 2009 event in Stuttgart, Nokia Beta Labs has announced a number of new services ready for testing right now. The most interesting one is Ovi Lifecasting, an application we caught wind of yesterday but is now ready for limited early bird beta-testing.

The beta tool, which requires a Nokia N97 device, taps into Facebook to enable you to share status updates and photos with your Facebook friends and also lets you share your location through Ovi Maps (also in beta). Here’s an introduction video featuring two polished young men using the application to hook up with each other in some city.

Also new is an extension of Nokia Messaging called Social Messaging, which interestingly Nokia calls the groundwork for an impending proprietary multi-community social networking client. The company insists this is an early look, and currently only supports Facebook.

In other news, Nokia Beta Labs is discontinuing Nokia Friend View, which was an experimental research project from Nokia Research Center. We covered the app, which was basically a location-aware microblogging tool when it was introduced in November 2008.

Creative Zen X-Fi2 touchscreen MP3 player

M.D — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 07:53:01 +0000

Creative has announced a new touchscreen MP3 player at IFA on Wednesday called the Creative Zen X-Fi2 that promises to be a cheap alternative to the iPod touch and Sony X-Series players.

Priced at £99 for the 8GB model, the new player will comes with a 3-inch touchscreen sub QVGA screen, Lossless performance, video and picture playback and AV out via a cable in the box.

Attempting to woo you further the player, which also comes in 16GB (£149) and 32GB (£199) sizes will pack a microSD card slot and FM radio.

Supported formats include MP3, WMA, AAC, Audile 4 and FLAC files. There is also a voice recorder and built-in speaker for good measure.

The player will be available in the UK in the next two weeks according to the spokesman we were talking to.

Geeks Gadget: Digital Reader brings comics to the PSP this December

M.D — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:33:55 +0000

After trotting out a mess of new information about PlayStation Home earlier today in Germany, SCEE prez Andrew House announced Sony’s upcoming digital comics initiative on the PSP, the Digital Reader. According to House, Sony has worked out plans with Marvel to launch with “hundreds available, including the Marvel Comics stable.”

Additionally, the service will give PSP-owning comic fans access to Archie and Image comics. Unfortunately, he didn’t specify if the service will be a free firmware upgrade to the existing PSP software or pricing for the comics themselves.

But alas, GamesCom has just started! We’ll poke around and see if we can get some more information as soon as the Sony press conference ends.

Geeks Gadget: Windows 7 is FINALLY out for manufacturing

M.D — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:53:19 +0000

With so much fuss over Windows 7, Microsoft has officially signed off the OS, releasing it to manufacturing. After having done with the testings and validation checks required for RTM, Microsoft has officially declared build 7600 as RTM. Microsoft announced that the RTM code will be delivered to select customers and developers beginning on August 6. For general public, it would be available from October 22. To double up the kicks, Microsoft also announced that Windows Server 2008 R2 also reached that RTM phase. With Windows 7 schedules moving at an accelerated pace, it remains to answer, why Microsoft is hurrying down its new OS.

Windows 7 is likely to be the most crucial operating system, Microsoft has released till date, especially as the largest selling OS maker is on image makeover after its Windows. With the new OS Microsoft would be looking regain the lost ground during Vista’s reign when Apple’s Mac OS X and some Linux distributions gained momentum. As Windows 7 moves to RTM, Microsoft anticipates a better future and can look forward to get rid of current desktop Windows operating system and its broken brand.

Microsoft claims that Windows 7 is build around customers expectations and offers set of features to support them.Most importantly, Microsoft has worked on fixing Vista’s bugs, and ensured that Windows 7 carries an enhanced Interface. Moreover, the new OS would streamlined memory footprint, which will allow the software to run on much less powerful hardware, including netbooks. Windows Vista had an extremely long development cycle, however, Microsoft ensured Windows 7 had an accelerated schedule placing it at the top priority level. Windows Vista was released on January 30, 2006 and we heard of the first Windows 7 milestone 1 release in January 2008. The software has been released 18 months after the release of first milestone

Withb scheduled to hit General Availability October 22, Microsoft will leave no stone unturned to make the most of Christmas season.

Geeks gadget: Apple knows how to sell there products

M.D — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:50:50 +0000

Love ‘em or hate ‘em, Apple knows how to sell, and sell big. As we tune into the company’s fiscal 2009 third quarter conference call this afternoon, we’re told that it has just recorded its “best non-holiday quarter [in terms of] revenue and earnings” in company history. This, mind you, was recorded during what most say is the worst recession since the Great Depression. All told, Apple netted a quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, and international sales accounted for a staggering 44 percent of the quarter’s revenue.

The outfit continued to steamroll the competition in MP3 sales, moving 10.2 million iPod units in the quarter; of note, that was a seven percent decrease from last year, but given that fact that we’re getting ever-closer to a saturation point with these things, we aren’t too shocked to hear it.

More Info here

Geeks Gadget: Navigon MobileNavigator Hits the App Store, $70 For Now

M.D — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 13:48:33 +0000

There were shades of greatness in Navigon’s crippled free MobileNavigator trial, and high expectations for the full version. Now it’s here, and for the first couple weeks, priced at a reasonable (no, really) $70.

Even at the eventual full price of $100 it’s still a solid deal, since most big-name navigation apps charge a monthly fee, which seems to be settling across the App Store at about $10. That’s a lot of upkeep, which would surpass Navigon’s one-off charge well within a year, and keep going, well, forever. But $70 is still a lot, so before you take the plunge, here’s what you get: This is great news to all Geek Gadgets lover.