Pinoy Technology News

Dell reveals 'world's thinnest' laptop

2009-11-07T06:30:00.000-08:00

The Adamo XPS – actually the third machine in the Adamo series – is, judging by its looks, designed to compete with the likes of Apple’s MacBook Air and Toshiba Portégé R600. The XPS’ odd hinged design will be the first aesthetic point that catches your eye, we believe.

Next will be the Adamo XPS’ super-thin format. It measures just 9.7mm at its thinnest part and weighs in at class-typical 1.4kg.

Despite its slim profile, the PC still manages to cram in a removable battery and a 128GB solid-state drive.

Powering the impossibly thin XPS is a 1.4GHz Core 2 Duo ULV processor and 4GB of memory. Connectivity options extend to 802.11n, integrated Bluetooth and two USB ports.

The machine, like many other super-thin machines on the market, doesn’t have an optical drive. The XPS doesn’t have an Ethernet port either, Dell added.

Adamo XPS will be available in North America by Christmas, priced at $1800.

Asus Turbo 33 Technology

2009-11-04T18:16:00.000-08:00

Asus has installed Turbo 33 technology on its new UL netbook series. Asus has 7 models for the new UL netbooks and all are running in Intel CULV processors. But aside from the performance that the CULV processors are capable of, Asus claimed that the UL series are far superior in performance because of the proprietary Turbo 33 technology that the netbooks are using.

The main feature of the Turbo 33 technology is its ability to boost the operating performance of the netbooks by 33 percent on the average. Technically, Turbo 33 technology can boost a UL's Celeron, Core 2 Solo or Core 2 Duo processor performance by up to 77 percent but boosting the operating performance can seriously impact system performance specifically the battery life. This is the reason why Asus limited it to 33 percent improvement.

The Turbo 33 technology can significantly reduce file format conversion times. In a demo, a Turbo 33 enabled UL laptop converted a 555MB MPEG 4 to WVM in 4596 seconds that would take 6160 seconds for a similar laptop without Turbo 33 technology installed. Boot-up time can is also reduced with the use of Turbo 33 technology. Using a Windows 7 PC, boot-up was reduced from 35 seconds to just 16 seconds.

All of Asus' UL series notebooks are equipped with batteries that can last up to 12 hours. That would be more with Turbo 33 switched off. If you really like this technology then you might as well consider buying one of the 12in to 15in UL laptops.

COMDDAP Expo Manila 2009

2009-10-30T20:16:00.000-07:00

The biggest IT selling exhibit in the Philippines, the COMDDAP Expo Manila 2009 dubbed as Maximum Exposure is slated on December 3 to 6. To all Pinoy who loves technology and gadgets this is your chance to experience the best and the latest technology of the I.T. industry. Go to the SMX Convention Center of the SM Mall of Asia Complex on the said dates to experience first hand the homegrown Pinoy tech.

COMDDAP stands for Computer Manufacturers, Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines.

There are four main categories that the Expo will showcase. These are the following:

Open Pinoy Solutions (OPS)

This is a special exhibit featuring twelve great minds and companies of the Philippines' I.T. industry. Open Pinoy Solution aims to showcase the Pinoy I.T. geniuses and give them their well-deserved recognition.

3D Philippines Initiative

This will feature Philippines’ breathtaking sites on Google Earth using Google SketchUp.

The Great Projector Shoot-Out and LCD Monitor Shoot-Out

I guess no detailed explanation is needed. These will literally showcase different brands of Projector and LCD Monitor.

Printer Shootout

The battle of the pixels, test and compare the world’s top printer brands by printing your photos onsite. I hope there is an unlimited supply of printing materials for this.

360° 3D TV from Sony

2009-10-19T20:30:00.001-07:00

The television has been evolving rapidly these years. We have the flat screen TV, LCD TV, the plasma TV, HD TV and now manufacturers are going for 3D TV. With so many TV manufacturers jumping in the race for 3D TV, Sony decided to make a higher leap by developing a 360° 3D TV. Yes that is right, a television with 360° 3D display.

As shown in the picture, the 3D TV is tubular and displays the image in 3D to those who are around it. It is not clear though if the image being displayed is seen in the same angle by all viewers of if the image will depend on how the viewer is facing it.

Sony claims that viewing glasses are not needed to view the 3D on TV. Currently the prototype is 13cm wide by 27cm high and can display 24-bit color.

Details on the 360° 3D TV will be made available by Sony during a demonstration video at the Digital Contents Expo 2009 show in Tokyo which will start on October 22.

Spy Gadgets Proliferating in Manila

2009-10-15T16:06:00.000-07:00

Manila police have their eyes focused on China-made sophisticated spy gadgets that are now are being sold in Manila indiscriminately. The said gadgets include sunglasses that are camera-equipped and cameras that can be concealed as buttons. These gadgets are not limited though to video cameras there are wireless scanning devices that can capture conversations within a room by simply plugging it in a wall outlet.

photo from philstar.com

The said gadgets that can be used for spying can be purchased from the 168 Mall in Divisoria with prices ranging from P1,000 to P3,000.

The concern here of the police is that these spying gadgets can be used by criminals in their modus operandi. A call to regulate the sale of these devices is being pushed for so as not to have these gadgets fall into thewrong hands.

Kindle DX Made Available Internationally

2009-10-10T02:38:00.000-07:00

Amazon has recently confirmed that the Kindle DX will be shipped internationally during 2010. The DX which has a larger screen of 9.7 inches compared to the Kindle which has 6 inches will be available internationally “sometime next year” according to company spokesman Drew Herdener.

Meanwhile Amazon will start shipping the smaller Kindle internationally on October 19 and that is including the Philippines. Those who want to get their hands on this ebook reader be prepared to pay $279 plus shipping and import taxes or that is a little over Php 13,000. Amazon is already accepting pre order so if you are interested you might as well do the reservation now.

Aion, newest MMORPG

2009-10-09T00:00:00.000-07:00

I just came across the latest MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game) game, the Aion. I'm not sure if some of you have heard about the Aion. Curious as to what this new MMO online game I checked it out.

For those not familiar with MMORPG, the online game will require you to take on a role as a player. You can read more about MMORPG if you like. For the hardcore gamers, Aion offers the usual basics of MMORPG. That is selection of race, class and the character that you want to play. There are two races that you can choose from, the Asmodians and Elyos. A Warrior, Scout, Mage and Priest are the four classes to choose from. As far as character creation is concerned, you can basically let your imagination create the character that you want since Aion offers a highly customizable character. You might as well check the site and the Aion forum for more details on these.

The setting is at Atria, a world composed of floating islands, chaotic voids, lush lands and other places that you think do not exist. Let your character explore all these worlds only accessible to your through Aion.

Speech-to-text app for phones

2009-10-08T00:59:00.000-07:00

Ever thought of speech-to-text app for phones? Speech recognition is not new and it is being used in most computers. But how about saying a message and your phone converts it to text? Cool isn't it?

Well TravellingWave’s VoicePredict app was launched recently, though still in beta, it enables Windows Mobile users say their messages to their phones. The app then converts it to text ready for sending to the intended recipient. For Android and iPhone users, the speech-to-text app is not yet available at this time but I know it will just be a matter of time when it will be.

Going back to the VoicePredict, the speech-to-text app, is not yet fully functional. Users still need to press a key or two so you can not totally ditch the keyboard for sending SMS. The key press is still necessary since the app will display the spoken word on the phone's screen that is matching those that are stored in the phone's virtual dictionary. If the spoken word is unfamiliar, it will prompt the user to select from a list or the user needs to physically enter the word.

Speech-to-text app for iPhones and Android will be available early next year according to TravellingWave while Windows Mobile users can download the VoicePredict from now TravellingWave's web site.

Nokia Messaging in RP

2009-10-03T03:47:00.000-07:00

Nokia Messaging on selected Nokia phones will be available in the Philippines through Smart Communications Inc. starting September 26. This was brought by the recent deal signed by Smart COmmunications Inc. and Nokia. This will be an exclusive service for Smart subscribers only under a special data plan.

Initially, the Nokia Messaging plan from Smart will be available to Nokia E75 only but other Nokia Messaging capable phones will be offered in the future as well.

The Nokia Messaging is currently being offered at P299 per month on the Nokia E75 for Smart Gold subscribers. With this plan, subscribers will be able to enjoy unlimited Nokia Messaging push e-mail service.

Dell Latitude Z, thinnest 16in laptop

2009-09-29T20:09:00.001-07:00

Dell finally announced, after leaked pictures and speculative specs were posted in the Internet, the latest in its Latitude line of laptops - the Dell Latitude Z.

Measuring 396 x 272 x 20mm and weighs 2kg the Latitude Z is so far the thinnest 16in laptop today. This new machine from Dell has a 1600 x 900 display and users have the choice of powering it up with either a 1.4GHz or 1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor. For the memory, Dell Latitude Z can handle up to 4GB of DDR 3. Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD is used to handles the Latitude Z's graphics. Not bad at all for a thin computer.

Speculations of wireless charging are indeed true. The Latitude Z have an optional Dell Wireless Power Notebook Stand which you can use to charge this slim PC. A Dell Wireless Dock is also expected to be rolled out late next month.

The Latitude Z comes with a standard four-cell battery pack which can provide you about four hours of juice but an eight-cell battery is also an option.

Connectivity wise, the Latitude Z supports 3G, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. It also has a built-in 2Mp webcam which can be used in logging in to the machine through facial recognition technology.

Latitude Z comes with Windows Vista OS but it also has Latitude On, a Linux-based quick boot feature which enable users quick access to email and the Internet.

You can now buy Dell Latitude Z but the thinnest 16in laptop will make your pocket $2093 thinner as well.

LG GD910 Watch Phone

2009-09-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

We are familiar with watches ever since these time pieces were invented. Nowadays, smart phones are common and it can be considered as one of those things that people cannot live without. But how about having a watch and at the same time a phone? Pretty cool technology isn't it? Well meet the LG GD910 watch phone.

There were watches before that have memories and can store data like the watches from Casio. But the GD910 watch phone from LG is more than just a watch. It is more of a phone than a watch. The LG GD910 being worn in your wrist will make it look like a watch but with its touchscreen display, HSDPA, Bluetooth, and 80MB of internal memory does not make it come close to any watch. And did I mention that it does have a camera which can be used for two-way video calls?

One thing that you might be thinking is how will you hear the other party? Well you don't really have to talk to the watch because it does have a Bluetooth headset. The only thing I don't like about having this watch phone is the cables. You need to bring the clumsy charger, which comes with a splitter for the Bluetooth headset so you can charge both at the same time, with you since you will need to charge the watch phone often.

The good thing is, the LG GD910 uses GSM so it can be used here in the Philippines. Just twist the back cover of the watch phone to insert your SIM card and you are good to go.

Nokia 7705 Twist

2009-09-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

Nokia says goodbye to the traditional rectangular mobile phones recently with the release of a square-shaped mobile phone, the Nokia 7705 Twist.

The 7705 Twist have a 2.4in display that slides to reveal a full QWERTY keyboard which is of course square as well.

A Contact Light Ring, which can be seen at the bottom right of the phone, is fully customizable so you can assign a different color to different contacts and message types. I'm not quite sure though how this will work if I'm working with hundreds of contacts.

As with iPhone and Palm phones, the Nokia 7705 Twist display your messages in threads making it easier to follow the conversation. The cool messaging feature on the 7705 Twist is the ‘post to blogs’ feature which enable the user to simultaneously post the messages from the phone to social networking sites that they are active.

Aside from the regular features of a phone, the Nokia 7705 Twist has a flash and self-timer mode incorporated with its 3Mp camera. This makes the phone ideal for taking group pictures with you included.

We'll have to wait when the Nokia 7705 Twist will be locally available but it will be available in North America later this month.

Free Business Cards

2009-09-18T17:59:00.001-07:00

The Internet is offering a lot of free stuff which are most probably not free. Offers ranging from free business cards to free software are not uncommon. There are a lot of things that are being advertised as free but there is usually a catch. This is usually true for too-good-to be true items. But small items like bumper stickers or business cards are indeed free. You can try searching for the keyword "free business cards" and surely you will find hundreds if not thousands of sites giving away business cards as freebies. But again, a piece of advice, be careful with these offers especially if the offer is too good to be true.

Limited Edition Palm Pixi

2009-09-18T00:02:00.001-07:00

Palm announced last week its second phone that is running on web OS, the Palm Pixi. The Pixi is just the second phone running Palm's web OS after the Pre. The new web OS phone is slated for release in time for the Holidays.

The Pixi is by far the thinnest phone that Palm ever made. Though it is thin, it has a 2.63-inch touch screen display with 320x400 resolution at 18-bit color.

The new web OS phone still uses EVDO data connection and it have integrated GPS as well as IM, SMS, and MMS. With regard to email, it supports Outlook® with Microsoft Direct Push Technology as well as Personal email support using POP3 and IMAP.

Unlike the Pre which has a slider keyboard, the Pixi has an exposed QWERTY keyboard and it does not have the center button as well so I'm assuming that the center button will become virtual.

The Palm Pixi has a 2Mp fixed-focus camera with LED flash and pictures and other multimedia files can be stored in its 8GB of user storage space. Supported audio formats are MP3, AAC, AAC+, AMR, QCELP, and WAV. For video formats it support MPEG-4, H.263, and H.264. GIF, Animated GIF, JPEG, PNG, and BMP image formats are supported.

The Pixi also supports Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth and it uses 3.5mm headphone jack. The Pixi is also compatible with the Palm Touchtone charger.

Once released, there will be a limited-edition Palm Pixi Artist Series covers. Five designs will be available as listed below:

Sheri Bodell: “Skin”
Jeremy Fish: “Skull”
Cole Gerst: “Hummingbird”
Melissa Hutton: “Red Barn”
Michelle White: “Two Fish”

Only 5,000 numbered units of each design will be made.

First Android from Motorola

2009-09-12T22:59:00.000-07:00

Well Motorola has joined the Android revolution by releasing its first Google OS powered phone CLIQ. Let's take a quick run through on what this new Android phone packs.

Motorola CLIQ has a 3.1in display which is touchscreen. The CLIQ is a slider phone with a full QWERTY keyboard. The 5Mp integrated camera can also capture video up to 24fps which you can store using Micro SD cards up to 32GB capacity. If you are playing videos, you can listen to it using your headphones because the CLIQ comes with a 3.5mm jack.

As far as connectivity is concerned the CLIQ supports 3G connection as well as Wi-Fi. Bluetooth was not mentioned at all in the specs so I'm assuming that the new Android phone from Motorola does not support it.

With the entire Android phone in the market, you might ask what will make CLIQ stand out. Well it comes with Motoblur which is described as Motorola’s “unique solution for its Android portfolio”. Motoblur is Motorola's attempt to sync contacts, feeds, emails, messages, and photos from common social networks like Facebook and Twitter. This sounds familiar and works like the Palm Pre Synergy feature. Well, in any case Motorola now can say "Hello Android!"

Say goobye to point-and-press TV remote controls

2009-09-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

Traditionally couch potatoes have to deal with a point-and-press TV remote control that has more or less 20 buttons on it. We have heard of plasma TV HD TV, OLED TV and all sorts of new technology concerning our ever present television sets. Though innovations are done on the TV set itself, less attention was given to the couch potato-friendly remote control.

Not until now that Philips’ revealed its latest gadget on channel-switching technology, the uWand. No longer called as a TV remote control the new gadget was dubbed “remote touch pointer”. Users will not push buttons and point the control towards the TV but instead uWand controls the TV using physical gestures.

The uWand uses a small camera inside it to pick up signals from beacons integrated into the TV or any controlled device. The controller's coordinates as well as the button pushed are sent to the target device, like your TV, via radio waves and then it converts the gestures into actions.

Philips’ uWand is designed to control TVs, multi-media PCs and other in-home electronic gizmos. No pricing or release date yet but Philips’ will do a demo for the uWand at the IBC show in Amsterdam next week.

Solar Charger for iPhones and iPods

2009-09-05T12:21:00.000-07:00

Stand alone solar chargers for iPhones and iPods are around for sometime now. But a casing for iPod or iPhone that converts the sun's energy to the much needed power is still unheard of.

The new Solar Surge line of cases from NOvothink for iPhone 3G and 3GS and iPod touch will surely keep you iPhone and iPod going as long as the sun is shining. Novothink claims that its Solar Surge line of cases are the first Apple-certified case solar chargers.

The solar charging cases for both iPhone and iPod are soft-touch and non-slip. The iPhone version has eight solid and metallic colors while the iPod version is available in four.

In full sunlight, the solar charger cases output 5.5V at 100mAh pumping juice into 1500mAh 3.7V lithium-polymer batteries that provide 120 per cent of the the Apple handhelds' built-in batteries. Two hours of direct sun exposure will give 60 minutes of talk time on 2G network. Using the 3G network will cut the talk time to 30 minutes. First generation iPhones is not supported,

The Solar Surge will costs $69.95 for both iPod and iPhone version but the iPhone version will not be available until November.

Dual-screen Laptop

2009-08-28T22:32:00.000-07:00

Revolving laptop screen, laptops and netbooks that has OLED screen display, I'm sure you have heard of these computers. But have you ever heard of a dual-screen laptop? A prototype laptop that has two sliding display screens was unveiled by computer manufacturer GScreen recently.

The two-screen 15 in laptop from GScreen is called the Spacebook. I've never seen the real thing but as shown in the picture above and what I read from blogs, the left-hand screen slides right beneath the right-hand screen. Both screen can be used simultaneously of course. Why put two screens if you cannot use both at the same time.

The specs that is known so far are:
2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 processor
4GB of DDR 2 Ram
nspecified Nvidia graphics.
320GB hard drive
choice of a six- or nine-cell battery
one HDMI port

Spacebook will probably be available by December according to GScreen and most likely you'll find one in Amazon first.

Warcraft Gold Store

2009-08-28T19:36:00.000-07:00

World of Warcraft gamers who are seasoned with the game knows their way with this very popular RPG game. For newbies it is interesting to learn the game as you play along. But once you know how to play WoW then boredom might set in especially if you are doing the routine task. This is where the World of Warcraft gold can help you out. Having gold for World of Warcraft will enable the player to skip the boring parts of the game such as grinding. If you are at this stage now then it might be time for you to buy WoW gold. Take this in consideration and enjoy the game more by skipping the boring parts. There are a lot of sites in the Internet that sells WoW gold. Just search for a Warcraft gold store and do buy from stores that are in the business for some time now. IN short buy online from trusted sellers of World of Warcraft gold.

Walkman S Series

2009-08-26T02:48:00.001-07:00

Well, who can forget the Walkman that made Sony famous in the 70's? If you are on your late 20's or 30's surely you have owned or at least seen the cassette-playing Walkman back then. But now, with all the technology that we have, here is the latest digital Walkman that Sony will soon release, the Walkman S series.

The Walkman S series 2.4in display but you might get a little disappointed if you are after the display since it is an LCD rather than an OLED which was used in the X-series Walkmans. The S series supports almost all of the common video file formats including WMV, H.264 and MPEG 4. For audio files MP3, WMA or AAC are supported which you can listen to using the integrated speakers or if you do not want to share your blaring music then you can opt to use the headphone. Using the headphone can give over 6 hours of video playback enough for you to watch almost 3 movies. Or if you're a music buff then play away your songs for 42 hours. Using the speakers will cut the video playback time to 5 hours and music playback time to 17 hours.

The S series is capable of radio-broadcast and voice recording. Music can be transferred from your PC to the Walkman using drag-and-drop once connected or you can use the Content Transfer feature within iTunes version 8.1. Pictures can be displayed and copied as well as long as it is in JPEG file format.

The Walkman S series will be available next month in two capacity models, the 8GB will cost $110, and 16GB priced at $130. You can also choose from black, red, violet and pink body colors.

Waste Management Software

2009-08-26T00:58:00.000-07:00

Who says only gadgets and devices has the technology? Even garbage needs technology. Well at some point waste needs to be managed either in the traditional way or with the use of the latest technology. And I'm not talking about the latest hardware or machinery that the world has to offer but a waste management software. You can call it Recycle Bin Software or Skip Bin Hire Software or whatever you like as long as it helps in managing our waste then that is fine. Think of what a software can do to help us with our waste disposal problems. Not that it will solve our waste management challenges but it will really contribute a lot in the waste industry.

PS3 Slim, One per Household Only

2009-08-23T17:33:00.001-07:00

It looks like the new PS3 Slim which was recently launched will have shortages in the US once it becomes available this September 1. If you are planning to get one then you might as well be early on launch date or better yet try to check out if you can be wait-listed. The news of the shortage was according to Amazon’s US arm. As a result Amazon will be limiting sales of the 120GB PS3 Slim to one per household only.

If you are thinking of a workaround like buying and sending your second PS3 Slim console to your work address will most likely have your account with them terminated. Well, you might as well be early come launch date.

The new Sony PS3 Slim is 33% slimmer and 36% lighter than its bulky predecessor according to Sony. Another highlight of the new console is the efficiency in power. The PS3 Slim consumes two-thirds less than its predecessor. Thanks to the PS3 Slim's redesigned Cell processors, power supply and cooling unit.

Mouse for Glass-topped Table

2009-08-20T22:01:00.000-07:00

I know I'm not the only one having problems with a mouse on a glass-topped table. Most of the mice around does not really work well on a glass or shiny surface. But just recently Logitech introduced a couple of mice that will work on glass-topped tables or almost any surface save the really course ones. According to Logitech they are using the Darkfield Laser Tracking technology to enable the mouse to work well on any high-gloss surface and clear glass. One catch though for this to work is 4mm thickness of the glass.

The first of the two, the Performance Mouse MX which will be available this month and will costs you $100.

And the Anywhere Mouse MX, will go on sale this month as well for $80.

Both the Anywhere Mouse MX and the Performance Mouse MX are cordless and uses Logitech's own 2.4GHz wireless technology. Notice the tiny USB adaptors which is really ideal for laptops since you can just leave it attached in the USB port. The Anywhere Mouse MX needs 2 AA batteries while the Performance Mouse MX comes with a built-in rechargeable battery.

What are HTML, XHTML and CSS

2009-08-15T16:13:00.000-07:00

If you have a web site or a blog then you might have heard of HTML, XHTML and CSS. If you are a programmer or coder then you might be more knowledgeable about this than me. In any case let me just discuss what these languages are, when and where to use them.

Basically these three programming languages, HTML, XHTML and CSS, are used in coding a web site. HTML or Hypertext Mark-up Language is the coding of choice that was used before in creating web pages. Later on it evolves to XHTML or the Extended Hypertext Mark-up Language. So what are the differences of these two mark-up languages? Well HTML was the simplest coding language for the web but at the same time it is tedious sometimes confusing for a coder to format a web page. The XHTML is actually a combination of XML and HTML. What the XML is doing is somewhat similar to CSS which makes it easier to format web pages. Another thing that XHTML addresses is the formatting of a web page as it appears when displayed in different browsers.

The third, the CSS or Cascading Style Sheets, is being used to format the web page. Without CSS a coder will need to manually "code" and repeat the same code for the web page that he is creating to appear uniformly correct. When CCS was developed, web page formatting was made easier and simpler. A coder does not have to go through the entire HTML or XHTML code to format the web page but instead can use one page of CSS for formatting the entire web site.

Though nowadays it is more of XHTML and CCS that composes most web sites there are still a lot of web pages that are in HTML. But whatever the language that is being used these three still makes the majority of web pages today.

Pictures of Dell Smartphone

2009-08-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

Well even though this is blurry we have a picture at last of the rumored Dell smartphone which was code-named Benzine. This picture surfaced from the BGR web site. It was thought that this will be a Dell Android phone but judging from the picture it is more iPhone-like than Android.According to the source this phone supports Quad-band GSM/GPRS and EDGE class 12. No mention though of 3G so most probably it is not supported. It has Bluetooth 2.0 and USB 2.0. Assisted GPS is on board but Wi-Fi was not mentioned at all so I'm assuming it is not capable of Wi-Fi as well.

As far as physical dimension is concerned, it is 122 x 58 x 11.7mm and weighs 103g. It has a 3.5in, 640 x 360 touchscreen display which supports multi-touch and has a handwriting recognition feature. It sports a 3Mp camera at the back equipped with an 8x digital zoom and 30f/s video shooting mode. Micro SD card slot was mentioned in the specs but it was not mentioned if the Dell mobile phone has enough onboard memory storage.

The Dell Smartphone will also support EAS account, Google, AIM, Yahoo and MSN IM according to the source of BGR.