NetPad - Next-gen Notebook from Carbon Fiber

The NetPad notebook is currently in the development stage and we hope to see it soon in real life. The notebook was designed by taking into consideration direct feedback from a wide range of users.

NetPad's main screen features two info bar touchstrips, which means that you can instantly spot new emails, change songs and view images.

The notebook's keyboard is retractable, so you can hide it when you don't need it. One of the most impressive parts of this gadget is the HD screen.

In addition, the notebook has a media streamer which provides hi-fi sound when you connect it to a PC on windows 7 platform.

You can also transform the display into a stand when you want to watch your favorite movies. There is no need to worry when transporting the NetPad, since it is covered in carbon fiber.

Optoma Pico PK101 - Pocket Projector

Optoma, one of the largest projector companies in the world, is proud to introduce the stunning Optoma Pico PK101 – a projector that’s so small it fits easily in your pocket! Imagine being able to show your friends and family videos from your media player or mobile phone at up to sixty inches in size. Ever wanted to show the photos on your digital camera or PDA whilst you’re out and about? Well, now it’s possible with this revolutionary new projector you can hold in your hand. No need to worry about connecting to the mains either; the Optoma Pico Pocket projector comes supplied with batteries to give you complete freedom on the move and what’s more it’s fully rechargeable, just like your mobile phone.

Two cautionary notes: The sound output is dinky, so you'll want to use it with headphones, which makes it less fun for the whole family, or an external speaker, which makes it bulky. (Or, see the FoxL Bluetooth Speaker, at No. 5 on this list). And the rechargeable battery lasts 1.5 hours. Luckily, it ships with two. Price: $399. Optoma Pico PK-101 – This has got to be the coolest gadget to date. It is a mini-projector. All you have to do is plug this small gizmo into your iPod and you have your own personal projector where crisp video images are projected on a wall.

The latest LED technology, Optoma’s projector expertise and Texas Instruments tried and trusted DLP® chip technology, (used in millions of business and home cinema projectors the world over), come together to produce astonishing image quality from such a small projector. There’s no need to worry about replacing the lamp either - the Pico has a lamp-life of an astonishing twenty thousand hours: enough for more than eighteen years of life, even if you use the projector three hours a day, every single day of the year.

Watch the video here:

Pico could even project an image up to 6ft if it were in a very dark room - depending on the source. This tiny Optoma model may be the most expensive and unusual iPod accessory to date. Optoma's diminutive projector makes a great traveling companion, despite somewhat fuzzy image projection. But, once you’ve seen the Optoma Pico, you’ll agree that it sets the standard in pocket projectors.

Water-Powered Can Clock

If you have an area that you could really use just a normal clock, you might as well make it an eco-friendly one. Sure, you could just hang a battery powered wall clock just as easily, but then you’re stuck buying batteries. With this all you have to do is remember to refill it with water and thankfully you don’t even have to do that very often. These clocks would be great to sit on a desk or tabletop to make it easier to keep track of the time.

The water in the can will actually last between 6 to 12 months before you need to add water to the clock. Which means the clock won’t really take any more maintenance than a normal clock with batteries would. Plus, since it doesn’t require batteries it’ll also run cheaper than the rest. When you combine the fact that it runs cheaply with it being a cheap clock to begin with, it makes it an ideal arrangement. You can purchase it for £9.99 or about $16 through Green Stamp.

Comply NR-10i earphones

Whenever you pick up an iPhone, you can more or less be sure that you’re getting a quality piece of portable media player as well. After all, it is basically an iPod touch with the added capability to communicate with the rest of your friends and family. Having said that, there is an extremely huge market where accessories for either device are concerned (alongside the rest of the iPod family, of course, but I digress). Even average Joes these days want something better than the stock earphones provided with the regular iPhone, which is where third party earphones come in. The Comply NR-10i earphones is just one of numerous third party earphones available, where we shall take a closer look at it right after the jump.

As we know, many countries these days already have laws in place that ban the use of cellphones while driving unless you’re on a Bluetooth headset or on other kinds of hands-free solution. As for the iPhone, the Comply NR-10i will propel the hands-free iPhone experience to the next level, as you know it just oozes with quality – don’t take our word for it, just check out their five-star rating on apple.com/uk for the evidence. Each pair will help reduce the amount of ambient noise coming in, and personal testimonies best convey the message as one consumer states, “I absolutely love these ear buds…They make my commute down Oxford Street enjoyable since I can actually hear my music or mobile conversations.”

Specially designed to cater to iPhone users, the Comply NR-10i earphones will rely on a similar patented Comply Foam Technology that is currently seeing action in U.S. Army helicopter crews in order to experience amazing noise reduction, superior comfort and secure in-ear fit, providing clear conversations and music experiences in noisy environments. After all, with more and more people picking up the iPhone all over the world, clearly (no pun intended) an audile solution for crystal-clear conversations is nigh, and the Comply NR-10i seems to deliver. Features include an integrated microphone/function switch on the cable, external music control capability and the ability to utilize the new 3GS Voice Control with the touch of a button. Expect to pick up a pair for £79.95 as it comes with one pair of slim-size Comply Foam Tips, one pair of standard-size Comply Foam Tips and a deluxe travel pouch.

Spycam Classic Lighter Camera

One thing that you ought to be more careful about these days are the number of spy and hidden cameras around, coming in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The Spycam Classic Lighter Camera from ThinkGeek is one of them, where this $59.99 device allows you to record down movements and behavior of your target discreetly without looking out of place. You get 4GB of storage space with this classic style lighter, where it will record in AVI format at 640 x 480 resolution. Plugging it into any available USB port will help juice up its internal battery, while that also allows you to transfer data over in a jiffy. Too bad it isn’t as realistic as to actually double up as a real lighter though.

Cheapest laptop Ever

World's cheapest laptop has been launched by China's Menq. Using an ARM-based processor manufactured by Samsung, it sells for $80. Menq calls it EasyPC. The EasyPC runs Windows CE but it is claimed that it can also run Google's Android.

Features:

* 400Mhz ARM9 processor

* Screen-size is 7 inches

* Supports Wi-Fi, Ethernet Lan

* 2 USB ports.

* 128Mbytes of RAM

* Pixel resolution: 480 x 234

* 2GB SSD storage

* 2,000mAh battery.

* SD card slot capable of adding 32GB of flash storage

Certainly it has all basic features of a laptop! So you can call it like that!! Processor speed isn't impressive though but looking at the cost it is very much okay.

If it launches in India surely its going to be hit because even a simple mobile phone with GPRS has about 80$!!

Meanwhile the initial launch of Google's Chrome OS for netbooks is said to be a week or two away.

GreenPlay household media center system

Let me tell you what a media center is, first of all: it’s a computer. It’s a computer from which you have a bunch of cords and plugs and bluetooths and everything running into and out of so you can, from that one machine, run your whole media experience in your home. What have we got here? “Mod Systems’ GreenPlay” system from Samuel Hoang with Teague – a media center without all the keyboards and mice!

A) Mod System’s GreenPlay software engages your main system with your “set top boxes” and storage units throughout the house for easy management. Music, movies, tv shoes, and photos. It’s connected to Mod Systems online library from whens mass amounts of media can be purchased or rented.

B) The online library of Mod Systems is a fully interactive customer and administrator user interface designed just for the GreenPlay system.

Let me tell you what a media center is, first of all: it’s a computer. It’s a computer from which you have a bunch of cords and plugs and bluetooths and everything running into and out of so you can, from that one machine, run your whole media experience in yourhome. What have we got here? “Mod Systems’ GreenPlay” system from Samuel Hoang with Teague – a media center without all the keyboards and mice!

Digital content galore!

C) The GreenPlay Set Top Boxes connect to high definition televisions and other networked devices (such as speakers, your PC control station, etc.) Designed at the same time as a digital interface and a physical object, this is made to fit into thehome in more ways than one.

The full integrated experience is what this is all about.

Designer: Samuel Hoang with Teague

Online Free Data storage

There are many sites which offer to store your data online. They have different plans but i'm going to mention only the free storage option. You can these services to back up your important data or to store files.

• A-Drive

Basic Account holders get 50 GB of free storage, which is accessible through the web interface. Additional storage and services like multiple connections, FTP with timestamp support, WebDAV, and file history recovery are available through paid subscription plans

• SkyDrive- From Microsoft

SkyDrive is a file storage and sharing service that allows users to upload files, then access them from a web browser. It uses Windows Live ID to control access to the user's files, allowing them to keep the files private, share with contacts, or make the files public. Publicly-shared files do not require a Windows Live ID to access.
The service currently offers 25 GB of free personal storage, with individual files limited to 50 MB Optionally, an ActiveX-based tool can be installed to allow drag-and-drop uploading from Windows Explorer. Up to five files can be uploaded each time if the tool has not been installed. The third party free software "SkyDrive Explorer" can enable SkyDrive as an additional drive in windows systems.

• i-Drive

The free Basic version allots up to 2GB of storage, and gives you 10GB extra storage just for referring it to five e-mail contacts. So you will get 12GB of storage space

The three sites so far I've mentioned gives you whopping 87GB storage space for FREE!!

There are many sites which gives you little more storage space. Some of them are

• 4shared-5GB
• Fileqube-2GB
• Mozy- 2GB
• Dropboks-1GB
• Box.net-1GB
• Freedrive-1GB
• Freevirtualdrive-1GB

If you sign-up to all these services you will get 100GB free storage!

online storage is recommended for those who have unlimited plan and a high-speed internet connection.

WinX HD Video Converter Free of Cost

WinX HD Video Converter is the HD (High Definition) video converter software which can convert among all popular HD video formats, like HD TS, HD MTS, HD M2TS, HD MKV, HD MPEG, HD AVI, HD WMV, HD MPG, HD MP4, HD MOV, HD ASF, HD MOD, etc. Besides, it supports to convert HD videos to SD videos and audios, Here SD videos include AVI, MP4, MOV, WMV, etc.
key features-

1. Multi-core CPU supported, which speeds up video conversion notably - New!
2. Lets you batch rename video clips with "Renaming Template" before converting - New!
3. Extract audio from HD video to enjoy the amazing background music
4. Capture images from videos and save them as JPEG & BMP files
5. Offers the option to automatically shut down your computer after conversion completed
6. Super fast HD video converting speed, up to 300%-500% faster than real time
7. Friendly interface helps both veterans and beginners complete the video conversion as simple as 1-2-3
8. Best video/audio quality


learn more about this product here

The original price of WinX HD Video Converter is $39.95. Now it is given away to all users for FREE. This offer starts from Dec.1st and will expire at 12:00am GMT Dec. 16th So get your copy now!

Download

Install and Register the software with the following key

Reg Name: HDgiveaway
Reg Code: WINXHVC-5230-1898-1278

Samsung new bugdet touch mobile

Samsung’s budget touchscreen segment has been increasing steadily and the latest to make the scene is the S3650 which looks like slightly lower ended version Although we don’t know how eco-friendly this handset is, the S3650 is a compact touchscreen handset in the same league as the Samsung Star series.

S3650 handset is quite slim at about 13mm in depth and weighs in at approximately 92 grams. Other features include -

• a 2.8-inch touchscreen with a 240 x 320 pixel resolution
• a 2 megapixel camera
• Bluetooth v2.1 with A2DP
  
• FM radio
• and microSD card support for external memory
• Social Networking widgets and apps

I have to say that the color of the handset is a little bit odd with a black front and a yellow rear panel. Seems a bit gaudy to be honest.

Although the handset is yet to be officially announced by the company, it’s been estimated at about V Є 200 EURO

Samsung's YP-R1 (PMP)

Samsung Electronics has announced the launch of a new PMP – the R1. Designed to offer users a similar experience as their BeatDJ handsets, the R1 is also their slimmest and lightest multimedia player that’s compatible with DivX video format.

“Samsung’s R1 beat player provides a rich multimedia experience for users who prefer a small form factor but don’t want to sacrifice quality,” said Joo Ho Song, Vice President, Mobile Communications Division, Samsung Electronics. “Samsung is committed to launching additional multimedia players with advanced features and designs.”

This light weight PMP weighing in at about 50G is just 8.9mm slim and Samsung has it running on their TouchWiz UI. It also features -

• a 2.6-inch touch screen
• DivX-certificated
• DNSe 3.0 (Digital Natural Sound Engine)
• Bluetooth
• FM radio
• e-Book reader

The R1 will be available in 8GB or 16GB capacities.

Nokia to Enter Net book Market.

The world's top cellphone maker Nokia will start to make laptops, entering a fiercely competitive but fast-growing market with a netbook running Microsoft's Windows operating system.

Nokia had earlier this year said it was considering entering the laptop industry, crossing the border between two converging industries in the opposite direction to Apple, which entered the phone industry in 2007 with the iPhone. Nokia has seen its profit margins drop over the last quarters as handset demand has slumped, and analysts have worried that entering the PC industry, where margins are traditionally razor-thin, could hurt Nokia's profits further. "We are fully aware what has the margin level been in the PC world. We have gone into this with our eyes wide open," Kai Oistamo, the head of Nokia's phone unit, told Reuters. "There's really an opportunity to bring fresh perspective to the PC world," he said, adding that Nokia would introduce extended battery life and continuous connectivity. Nokia has produced PCs before, but divested the unit in 1991 when it started to focus on the mobile phone industry. But Nokia's first netbook, the Nokia Booklet 3G, will use Microsoft's Windows software and Intel's Atom processor to offer up to 12 hours of battery life while weighing 1.25 kilograms. Netbooks are low-cost laptops optimised for surfing the Internet and performing other basic functions. Pioneered by Asustek with the hit Eee PC in 2007, netbooks have since been rolled out by other brands such as HP and Dell. "The question is: How will Nokia differentiate? This is already a crowded market. If they manage to differentiate it's going to give them competitive advantage," said Gartner analyst Carolina Milanesi.

Research firm IDC expects netbook shipments this year to grow more than 127 percent from 2008 to over 26 million units, outperforming the overall PC market that is expected to remain flat and a phone market which is shrinking some 10 percent. "Nokia will be hoping that its brand and knowledge of cellular channels will play to its strengths as it addresses this crowded, cut-throat segment," said Ben Wood, director of research at CCS Insight. "At present we see Nokia's foray into the netbook market as a niche exercise in the context of its broader business." Nokia's choice of Windows software surprised some analysts who had expected the company to use Linux in its first laptop. Analyst Neil Mawston from Strategy Analytics said the technology choices were a good win for the U.S. companies. "We believe ARM and Symbian are among the main losers from the Nokia Booklet announcement," he said. Shares in ARM were 0.2 percent lower at 1400 GMT, underperforming slightly firmer DJ Stoxx European technology shares index. Shares in Nokia were 1.6 percent stronger at 8.91 euros, while Microsoft was 0.6 percent firmer. Nokia said it would unveil detailed specifications, market availability and pricing of its new device on Sept 2.

A source close to Nokia said the new netbook would use the upcoming Windows 7 operating system. Microsoft says a stripped-down version of Windows 7 will be introduced to netbooks the same time as its general release on Oct. 22. Local media reports in Taiwan have said that Compal, the world's No. 2 contract laptop PC maker, has pitched netbook models to Nokia, but there has been no official confirmation from either side. Nokia declined to comment on the manufacturer it uses. Most of the world's top electronics brands typically do their own design work, but outsource the manufacturing process to contract manufacturers such as Compal and its larger rival Quanta

The world's largest BitTorrent tracker shuts down for good!

Today marks the end of an era, as The Pirate Bay team announces that the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker is shutting down for good. Although the site will remain operational for now, millions of BitTorrent users will lose the use of its tracker and will instead have to rely on DHT and alternative trackers to continue downloading.

In the fall of 2003, a group of friends from Sweden decided to launch a BitTorrent tracker named ‘The Pirate Bay’. It soon became one of the largest BitTorrent trackers on the Internet, coordinating the downloads of more than 25 million peers at its height.

Despite this success, The Pirate Bay operators today decided to pull the plug and close down the tracker permanently. The evolution of the BitTorrent protocol has made trackers redundant they say, as BitTorrent downloads work well with trackerless solutions such as DHT and PEX.

“Now that the decentralized system for finding peers is so well developed, TPB has decided that there is no need to run a tracker anymore, so it will remain down! It’s the end of an era, but the era is no longer up2date. We have put a server in a museum already, and now the tracking can be put there as well,” the Pirate Bay crew write on their blog.

Aside from this shutdown, there is also another major development quietly under discussion.

TorrentFreak has learned that behind the scenes the Pirate Bay operators are talking to other BitTorrent site owners to encourage them to follow suit and completely ditch torrents in the future. BitTorrent has reached a point where trackers and torrents are no longer needed to download files successfully. Supported by all of the major BitTorrent clients, DHT and PEX can handle the transfers and Magnet links can largely replace traditional torrent files.

“We’re talking to the other torrent admins on doing magnet links and DHT+PEX for all sites. Moving away from torrents and trackers totally – like pick a date and all agree ‘from this date, we’ll not support torrents anymore’,” a Pirate Bay insider told TorrentFreak.

Switching to trackerless and torrentless downloading on public BitTorrent sites does indeed seem to be an option. Previously, many people thought that BitTorrent would collapse if a dominant tracker like the Pirate Bay went down, but this doomsday scenario never unfolded. In fact, the recent downtime of the tracker did not slow down or stop many transfers, as DHT and PEX seamlessly took over.

Those BitTorrent users who don’t want to go trackerless just yet can of course still use OpenBitTorrent and PublicBitTorrent, or indeed one of the many other alternative trackers currently available.

Whether or not The Pirate Bay and others will move away from torrent files in the future, the closure of the world’s largest BitTorrent tracker is nevertheless a milestone in the history of the Internet. Starting today, the Pirate Bay has changed its tagline from “The world’s largest BitTorrent tracker” to “The world’s most resilient (magnetic) BitTorrent site.”

Tips 'n' Tricks

This section contains tips and tricks on a wide range of topics such as website development, browsing, searching, hardware, windows operating system and softwares.

Browsing

Do you wait forever for your pages to load up when surfing? Are you confused about why you’re not getting a good browsing and downloading speed even though you’re using one of the best ISPs around? Have you ever wondered why your V.90 dial up modem doesn’t operate at the 56k speed it boosts of? Ever even thought of what V.90 or 56k means? Do you just wish you had a smooth and secure browsing experience without all the annoying pop ups and spyware? If your answer to most of these questions is in the affirmative then the following links could just prove to be the remedy of your worries.

Cnet's Internet Speed Tweaks: At the Cnet website, you’ll find 14 steps to faster surfing which I must say are extremely effective. It doesn’t matter what type of connection you have as most of the steps mentioned apply to all types of Internet connections - be it cable, DSL, dial-up, etc. There’s also a download section from where you can download software to enhance the speed of your Internet connection and monitor it. Plus, you’ll also find a speed tweaks discussion board and a free newsletter to subscribe to.

Inboost.com: This website provides complete computer and Internet boost solutions. Besides loads of information and tips on browsing you’ll also find here computer tips for a better PC. The reviews on Net speed boosting software are also given in detail here.

Cyberwizardpit-Xpert Tips: Here you’ll find some useful guides and tips to help you optimize your system and internet connection. The details are pretty technical so new bees won’t find this site very useful.

Learnthenet.com: This site is about Internet for beginners. Check out the top ten browsing tips featured here.

How to Speed Up Excellent speed tips. A must for everyone who wants to enhance his dial up speed.

Search

SearchEngineWatch.Com: An entire website dedicated to search engines. There’s everything about search engines in here from web searching tips to search engine listings. Get tips on search engine submissions and learn about search engine maths. Also featured on the site are reviews, ratings and tests of search engines. One really doesn’t need to visit any other site after visiting this one if you’re on the look out for information on search engines.

Related Links:

A Guide to search online

Web Searching Tips and Tricks

Web builder

Websitetips.com: This website is an educational resource providing CSS, HTML, and XHTML tutorials, graphics tutorials, besides articles, tips, information and resources to build or improve websites. Needless to say, it’s the best online resource if you’re looking for tips on website development online. Also featured at the website are discussion lists and newsletters. You’ll also find fonts in here besides excellent links to other resources on the web.

Website Marketing tips and tricks: Having trouble marketing and getting hits on your site? Look no further because at this website you’ll find fabulous tips on how to make your website pay and web traffic boosting tips.

The Internet Magazine’s Web Design Help: This fantastic UK based magazine also has an online presence from where you can get information on the latest web design techniques. Here you can find an archive search section where you can find the tips you are looking for.

.Net Magazine’s web development tips and tricks page: Another UK-based Internet magazine which has uploaded fantastic web site building resources online.

Related Links:

The first & largest ASP.NET Directory!

Official ASP.NET Website

PHP

XML

Hardware

If you have any problem related to any device on your computer or if you want to install devices or just want to know what tricks you can do with the computer then check out the following links:

• PCWORLD
• ComputerTips.com
• PC BAZAR
• Tips on Common Hardware Problems
• Active Hardware Resource

Toms Hardware Did you say hardware? Tom is synonymous with the computer hardware news covering all the latest news, reviews and gossips. The site covers it all and has a large category base.

Extreme Tech For the extreme geeks who want to learn and live on all the latest news, opinions and reviews. Has an Excellent discussion group. A must favourite for the die-hard.

Tom’s Hardware Guide:This site has a great variety of reviews on video cards, chips, and so on and what not. The reviews themselves are very in-depth as in the writer compares the product to similar products, tests the product out on games, and writes a summary.

Ace’s Hardware:The last of the three great sites, this one combines reviews, how-to guides, and technical/architectural advice to bring you a complete scope on chipsets, 3D graphics, servers, and workstation.

Software

Microsoft Software Inventory Analyzer: A handy tool that generates a local inventory of core Microsoft products on your computer or network.

SoftwareTipsandTricks.Com: For the best and most comprehensive tips and tricks on software.
The best tips and tricks sites available on the Windows Operating system are as follows:

• Windows XP tips and tricks
• Windows 2000 tips and tricks
• Windows 98 tips and tricks

If you’re still not satisfied with the above tips and tricks and want to explore more avenues then try out the following links, which probably have answers to all of your queries.

PC Magazine’s Expert Tips Page

BBC’s Web Wise Expert Help Guide

CNET’s Tips pages

Cell Phones

The Web is littered with mobile or cell phone paraphernalia. You can read reviews about the latest phones at Lets Talk. We also recommend Esato , a unique venture from Norway covering features and fun about cell phones, including a very active discussion forum. If you’re on the look out for a mobile portal, access Think Mobile.

Get the most out of your cell phone. Or go over to CNET’s Cell Phone Diva and make sure you see the cell phone newsletters at the bottom of the page.

Oxygen Phone Manager connects your cell phone with your PC, so you can perform tasks such as reading, editing, and rewriting your phone book and many more. More tricks? See below.

Nokia
Speed Trap Detector: Your Nokia cell phone can be programmed to pick up radar speed traps, when programmed your cell phone picks up the radar and alerts you on the message alert tone. Log on to Maxim.

The James Bond Trick: If you short-circuit the left middle and right pins on the bottom of the phone with all connections touching each other, the Nokia software hangs! How to rectify? Log on to Maxim.

Teach the old phone new tricks: Compose your own ring tones with Ringtone Converter for your Nokia. Your phone will play a different tune every time it rings.

Siemens
Wanna have fun with your brand new Siemens? See Siemens Secret Codes.

[?]Suggest links and ideas for this section.

Cell Manners
Read and forward cell etiquettes. Where mobile phones have made life easier, its unwanted intrusion cannot be denied. Imagine what discomfort you cause to others when your ‘Mission Impossible’ ringtone buzzes in the middle of a seminar or an organized gathering – you interrupt everyone!

To avoid the embarrassment at large, learn the basic cell etiquettes on Cell Phone Etiquette or Cell Manners.

Ringtones & Logos
Downloading tones and logos via an SMS from your vendor [ Instaphone, Paknet, U-Fone and Mobilink ] is an easier bargain, however, if you feel a little adventurous, you can key-in the tones yourself (for free!). Try Mobile City which has a cute ‘Mobile Secrets’ section.

Games
Mob Madness has a huge listing of time-wasters for your cell phone. This websites is specially cool because it offers a variety of games individually for Nokia, Siemens, Sharp, and Motorola. Hmm…where’s SonyEricsson? Try Gaming It.

Have a look at the Wireless Gaming Review for more cool links and info.

SMS
What is SMS? It is the shortest distance between you and a friend measured in ‘text’ format (Short Messaging Service).

If you don’t own a cell phone, you can text or SMS a cell phone owner using the Web. Send a message to anyone from any place. Log on to Free SMS.

There are a number of ways to make your text fun and wacky. Learn the SMS lingo including what the smileys, abbreviations and numbers really mean. Remember, you can also send fun text and picture messages from the mobile vendors’ sites.

MMS
Moving on to MMS? Multimedia Messaging is the same as SMS if you have a built-in camera inside your sleek phone. Look how BBC is capitalizing on the MMS craze by inviting people to send snaps for their news frontpage.

If you are new to the game, have a look at this excellent article by Roman Vichr

Currently, exchanging digital snapshots is only optional for Ufone subscribers in Pakistan.

Sumo Canvas Clock Bomb shows time ticking away

I don’t know if any of you watch Total Drama Island (TDI) on the Cartoon Network (CN), but it is quite an awesome show. I swear, CN did not pay me to write that, it really is. I bring this up because the animated reality show had an episode where each character had to face their greatest fears. For one character, Cody, it was disabling a bomb under pressure.
Cody would definitely not be the audience for the Sumo Canvas Clock Bomb, for he would be forced to look at a bomb that would tell the time. Just to let you know, the ticking clock counts down to nothing and there is no explosives set to go off at a certain time. It’s just there to show you the time that is ticking away second by horrific second.
There’s no real complex tech going on with this gadget. It’s just a photo of a bomb that has a real clock face. In all honesty, I am surprised that they did not use a digital clock with red numbers. After all, if there is one thing that movies and television has taught us, it’s that all bombs have little red numbers that tell us when they are about to go off.
I suppose if you are an evil genius, and you want to convey to your minions the value of time, then feel free to go over to RED5 website and pay $34 dollars for this.

Nokia N97

Here is a video tour of the new Nokia N97.

Microsoft Revamps MSN Home

Microsoft has setup a new look for its MSN home page. Athough the update is scheduled for a later launch - notably early next year, according to an MSN representative. Microsoft has made available public preview of the redesigned MSN Home page.

The new MSN portal as seen in the preview, debut major upgrades, freshening up the popular destination with social networking tools: integrated Facebook and Twitter feeds.

This latest move by Microsoft is the first step in a systematic process to upgrade the entire MSN network. MSN is making an effort to offer localized content with Local Editions. Local Edition contents such as: weather forecasts, event listings, local sport scores, and traffic updates will serve to leverage its integration with Bing search engine.

Microsoft, however, states that the main purposes of the update are to declutter the MSN homepage and to refresh its outdated look.

Top 3 Video Game Websites

Let's Play Those

Gamespot.com

GameSpot is a video gaming website that provides news, reviews, previews, downloads, and other information. The site was launched in May 1996 by Pete Deemer, Vince Broady and Jon Epstein. It was purchased by ZDNet, a brand which was later purchased by CNET Networks. CBS Interactive, which purchased CNET Networks in 2008, is the current owner of GameSpot. GameSpot.com is currently one of the 200 highest-trafficked websites according to Alexa

In addition to the information produced by GameSpot staff, the site also allows users to write their own reviews, blogs, and post on the site's forums. The forums are partially shared with those on GameFAQs, another website owned by CNET.

In 2004, GameSpot won "Best Gaming Website" as chosen by the viewers in Spike TV's second Video Game Award Show and has won Webby Awards for several years. Other gaming websites such as IGN, 1UP.com, and GameSpy have been its biggest rivals. The domain gamespot.com attracted at least 60 million visitors annually by 2008 according to a Compete.com study.
GameSpot's main page has links to the latest news, reviews, previews, and portals for the following current platforms: Wii, Nintendo DS, PC, Xbox 360, PSP, PS2, and PS3. It also includes a list of the most popular games on the site and a search engine for users to track down games of interest. GameSpot also covers the following platforms to a lesser extent: Nintendo 64, Nintendo GameCube, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, Xbox, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, Neo Geo Pocket Color, N-Gage, and mobile games, among others.

#2. IGN.com

IGN (an abbreviation for the former Imagine Games Network) is a multimedia news and reviews website that focuses heavily on video games. Its corporate parent is IGN Entertainment, which owns and controls separate sites such as GameSpy, GameStats, Rotten Tomatoes and AskMen. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites, or "channels", each occupying a subdomain on IGN and covering a specific area of entertainment. Game-related channels include PC Games, Wii, Nintendo DS, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PSP, Xbox Live, Wireless, Retro, and iPhone games. In addition, IGN has channels covering movies, music, gear and technology, sports, comic books, television and more. Founded in September 1996 as Imagine Games Network, IGN began as five individual websites within Imagine Pu blishing: N64.com (later renamed IGN64.com), PSXPower, Saturnworld, Next-Generation.com and Ultra Game Players Online. In 1998, the network consolidated the individual sites as system "channels" under the IGN brand. Next-Generation and Ultra Game Players Online were not part of this consolidation; UGPO dissolved with the cancellation of the magazine, and Next-Generation was put "on hold" when Imagine decided to concentrate on launching the short-lived Daily Radar brand. Then-parent company Snowball.com held an IPO in 2000, which subsequently bombed with the dot-com bomb. As of June 2005, IGN claimed 24 million unique visitors a month, with 4.8 million registered users through all department s of the site. IGN is ranked among the top 200 most-visited websites according to Alexa.In September 2005, IGN was acquired by Rupert Murdoch's multi-media business empire, News Corporation.

GameFAQS.com

Game FAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff "CJayC" Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by CBS Interactive. The site has a database of video game information, cheat codes, reviews, game saves, and screenshots, almost all of which is submitted by volunteer contributors. The systems covered include the 8-bit Atari platform through modern consoles, as well as computer games. Submissions made to the site are reviewed by the site's current editor, Allen "SBAllen" Tyner.

GameFAQs hosts an active message board community, which has a separate discussion board for each game in the site's database, along with a variety of other boards. Since 2004, most of the game-specific boards have been shared between GameFAQs and GameSpot, another CNET/CBS website. The site also runs a daily opinion poll and tournament contests.

GameFAQs has been positively reviewed by The Guardian and Entertainment Weekly. As of 2009, GameFAQs.com is one of the 300 highest-trafficked English-language websites according to Alexa.

GameFAQs was started as the Video Game FAQ Archive on November 5, 1995,by Jeff Veasey, who says he wanted to collect the numerous online guides and FAQs into one centralized location.Hosted on America Online, it originally served as a mirror of Andy Eddy's FTP FAQ archive.The initial version of the site had approximately 10 pages and 100 FAQs.In 1996, the site moved to its current domain at gamefaqs.com and changed its name to GameFAQs.At this time, GameFAQs listed less than 1000 FAQs and guides and was updated on an irregular basis.

During the following months, the site grew in content and in design; two different styles were introduced in early 1997 to accommodate the support of tables in web browsers (or the lack thereof). Two key features of the site—the game search engine and the contributor recognition pages—were planned at this time.

Release Date of Windows 7 scheduled in January 2010

Microsoft will ship Windows 7 sometime in or near Jan. 2010, according to a letter company senior vice president Bill Veghte sent to Microsoft customers Tuesday.

The letter, sent to enterprise and business customers, will eventually be publicly posted on Microsoft's Web site. In the letter sent to "Windows Customers" and titled "An Update on the Windows Roadmap," Veghte said "our plan is to deliver Windows 7 approximately three years after the January 2007 general availability launch date of Windows Vista."

Veghte wrote, "You have told us you want a more regular, predictable Windows release schedule" and he said that was the impetus for setting the 2010 the ship date.

Vista has been slowly gaining steam, but is still drawing fire from critics who say it has not lived up to promises.

Veghte went further in addressing customer concerns over application compatibility, which had been a problem shortly after Vista's release.

"You've also let us know you don't want to face the kinds of incompatibility challenges with the next version of Windows you might have experienced early with Windows Vista. As a result, our appro ach with Windows 7 is to build off the same core architecture as Windows Vista so the investments you and our partners have made in Windows Vista will continue to pay off with Windows 7. Our goal is to ensure the migration process from Windows Vista to Windows 7 is straightforward."

Veghte's discussion of Windows 7 was part of an effort to clarify the June 30 XP deadline that will see the operati ng system removed from retail shelves and OEM hardware, and to tout the virtues of Windows Vista. Veghte also thanked customers for their loyalty and support.

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