Technology Effect

Who knows what will come in near future? No one! I am afraid of technology now and probably you will also be when you will listen about iPhone 5. It is not an ordinary phone, and not also like the previous model of iPhone. Let’s see what is it and what iPhone 5 can do. ?The concept image below tells us that the next gen iPhone will have a transparent flexible design with orange Apple logo. Amazed? Now let’s see how it will look in your hands. Though still it is a concept and not come in the production. However you will see many rumors wandering around on the internet that it has been decided designed. There is no such word from the apple. Let’s hope for the best.

The biggest improvement is the Conversation Mode. Though Conversation mode is still in alpha phase it works pretty good because it translates your voice conversations in real time. That’s right, now you can speak to anyone in your native language and Google Translate will convert your speech into other person’s native language. So far, only English and Spanish languages are supported, but Google plans to add other languages over time. Besides Conversation mode, there are some UI changes that offer cleaner and easier interface with dropdown menus. Overall, Google Translate for Android has a lot to offer, and although Conversation mode doesn’t work perfectly, it’s a great innovative addition. If you want to try the latest version of Google Translate, make sure that you visit the Android Market and that you have Android 2.1 or later.

Developers who have so far installed the beta version are reporting new features in iOS 4.3 including the mobile hotspot feature (just like tethering) that was one of the major features of the Verizon iPhone that was announced yesterday. Though considering worldwide, this feature may be disabled depending on your network / carrier. So we’ll have to wait and see if carriers like AT&T will support the feature. Its also being revealed that iOS 4.3 beta allows users to stream videos from apps to compatible devices via AirPlay. iOS 4.3 will give iPad users back the option to use the side switch as a mute switch or screen rotation lock. It looks like iOS 4.3 has some cool new gestures built specifically for the iPad. 4 & 5 finger gestures; pinch to the home screen, swipe up to reveal multitasking tray, swipe left/right to switch apps. Apple seems to have also changed the FaceTime icon as well. Unfortunately, iOS 4.3 is not available for iPhone 3G and iPod Touch 2nd...

In contrary to its name, this site isn’t just for girls. If you’re looking for affordable skins to personalise your iPhone, iPod Touch, MacBook, tablet, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and more DecalGirl is a decent source. I’ve personally had to go through the trouble of finding an appropriate place to find quality decals for a MacBook Pro, only to receive a poor quality sticker in the end, DecalGirl have got an extensive collection of thousands of adhesive-backed cast vinyl decals for any device you can possibly think of. Check out DecalGirl here , (we are not affiliated in anyway)…

If you know us well, you’ll know that we’ve got a soft spot when it comes to all things gizmos and gadgets related that can be strapped to the wrist. The latest Hammacher wrist watch may not be a mobile watch but it is a mouth watering geeky TV remote control wrist watch, another reason to keep our arse on the couch and not even have to bother picking up the remote. Now often these watches may have plenty of functions and features but can look hideous, this one from Hammacher on the other hand has a retro touch to it, not too far off from some of Diesel’s watch collection in my view. There are six buttons on the watch’s bezel command essential functions (volume, power, channel up/down, play/rewind/fast forward) of televisions. It’ll also control your DVD player and any other devices that use infrared signals. The brushed stainless steel watch also functions as an accurate digital timepiece with alarm, calendar, and chronograph. For $100, I reckon that’s not too bad, i...

New Delhi: The last quarter of 2010 witnessed an increase of 3.1 percent in PC shipments from the fourth quarter of 2009. The total number of PC shipments in the quarter totalled 93.5 million units worldwide. These figures were released by Gartner, which had earlier predicted that a 4.8 percent growth for the fourth quarter of 2010. Mikako Kitagawa, Principal Analyst, Gartner said, "Overall, holiday PC sales were weak in many key regions due to the intensifying competition in consumer spending. Media tablets, such as the iPad, as well as other consumer electronic (CE) devices, such as game consoles, all competed against PCs."The fourth quarter however saw a steady growth in the PC market that was mainly driven by replacement purchases. Going forward, the PC market is set to face challenges from the new convergent devices like tablets. Hewlett Packard (HP) was in top of the rung in the PC shipments in the fourth quarter of 2010. However, HP's profe...

Stop the presses completely. The world’s first iPad newspaper, The Daily, is prepping for launch. Journalists have been hired and are in place at multiple U.S. bureaus, including Los Angeles and New York. The formal announcement of the digital publication owned by News Corp. will be made at an event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on January 19, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people said the event will be attended by Steve Jobs, chief executive of iPad-maker Apple Inc., and Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp. The people were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Details are scant, including how much a subscription to the tablet-only paper will cost, if there is indeed a fee, but the name at least implies it will come out once a day. It will cover general news, culture and entertainment and will include video. The publication is a bold attempt by Mr. Murdoch to rewrite the business of journalism, as rev...

Stop the presses completely. The world’s first iPad newspaper, The Daily, is prepping for launch. Journalists have been hired and are in place at multiple U.S. bureaus, including Los Angeles and New York. The formal announcement of the digital publication owned by News Corp. will be made at an event at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art on January 19, according to two people familiar with the matter. The people said the event will be attended by Steve Jobs, chief executive of iPad-maker Apple Inc., and Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corp. The people were not authorized to speak publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Details are scant, including how much a subscription to the tablet-only paper will cost, if there is indeed a fee, but the name at least implies it will come out once a day. It will cover general news, culture and entertainment and will include video. The publication is a bold attempt by Mr. Murdoch to rewrite the business of journalism, as rev...

In a major achievement for artificial intelligence, an IBM supercomputer beat two human champions of the popular U.S. quiz show Jeopardy, IBM said. Thursday’s victory is significant because it came in a contest of non-linear thinking and natural language questions at which computers have generally lagged far behind their human inventors. The contest took place at a computer lab at IBM’s research headquarters, which was decorated to appear as the set of the long-running U.S. game show, in which the host gives contestants an answer to which they must formulate the question. The event was a practice for a real live TV contest between two human contestants and the supercomputer named Watson, which is due to air in February with the first placed contestant winning $1 million. The room-sized computer was represented on the blue set in between the two contestants by a black screen with a glowing globe. The computer correctly answered about half the 15 questions quicker...

In a major achievement for artificial intelligence, an IBM supercomputer beat two human champions of the popular U.S. quiz show Jeopardy, IBM said. Thursday’s victory is significant because it came in a contest of non-linear thinking and natural language questions at which computers have generally lagged far behind their human inventors. The contest took place at a computer lab at IBM’s research headquarters, which was decorated to appear as the set of the long-running U.S. game show, in which the host gives contestants an answer to which they must formulate the question. The event was a practice for a real live TV contest between two human contestants and the supercomputer named Watson, which is due to air in February with the first placed contestant winning $1 million. The room-sized computer was represented on the blue set in between the two contestants by a black screen with a glowing globe. The computer correctly answered about half the 15 questions quicker...

New Delhi: In the first step towards ending the menace of pesky calls, the telecom watchdog Friday said it will start online registration of telemarketing companies from Jan 15. "The new telemarketers will have to pay a registration fee of 1,000 and customer education fee of 9,000 while the existing telemarketers will have to pay the customer education fee of 9,000," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in a statement"The registration would be valid for a period of 3 years unless revoked earlier," it added. Last year, the telecom watchdog announced a set of new measures to curb unsolicited commercial calls and messages, which were to be implemented from Jan 1, including online registration of the telemarketing companies on Dec 15. The registration process which required all the telemarketers to fill in online application forms for getting themselves registered was postponed citing security reasons. The regulations, which is ...

  Seafood Watch is a mobile guide based on the Seafood Watch educational service from Monterey Bay Aquarium designed to help you make sustainable seafood choices quickly and easily. Seafood Guide allows you the convenience of access to an enormous amount of information right from your iPhone. Many of us, in our efforts to live with as minimal an impact on the environment as possible, have taken measures towards living green by incorporating more choices that increase sustainability. Doing so requires making selections that assure we’re not negatively impacting a species into extinction. Further to live healthier we must feel confident that we are not consuming a product that contains high levels of hazardous chemicals such as mercury. Seafood Watch provides the assurances we need to make a decision on the purchase of seafood at our favorite market, restaurant, or sushi bar. In the past I’ve had cards that I picked up with similar information and carried them wit...

  Capo is a clever app that gets to the heart of why budding musicians bother to practice in the first place: to learn to play the songs they love. Toward this end, Capo will slow down whatever music you have saved on your iPhone, iPod, or iPad, so that you can play along at a speed that matches your skill level. With practice, the user will be able to speed up the track and play along at the regular playback speed. Is this a single-purpose app? You bet. But that is not a criticism. What Capo does, Capo does impressively. When Capo slows down a track, the pitch is left unchanged– in other words, the vocalist’s voice will not sound like some basso profundo monster. However, if you want to play with the pitch for whatever reason, Capo will do it. You can add markers to particular parts of a song you mean to practice, or even loop one part of the song over and over again, to practice continuously until you get it right. It’s no surprise that Capo for iOS works like...

  SpectaRuler is a very clever utility that allows the user to measure the distance, height, and elevation of objects. How is this possible without actually walking up to the object with a massive tape measure? Through a combination of the iPhone’s camera, accelerometer, touch-screen display, and the addition of a little triangulation (and other difficult math type stuff) SpectaRuler is able to make estimates that are apparently pretty accurate. The way to use the app is very particular– and a little surprising– so it’s very important to configure SpectaRuler properly and read through all the instructions before you begin. In a nutshell, this means configuring the accelerometer and telling the app what size shoe you wear. That’s right: your shoes are of the utmost importance. Here’s why: SpectaRuler works by recording the relative size and angle of objects that are captured with the camera. Then, the user has to carefully walk either three or six steps, placing one...

Groklaw: “Stephen Walli, now technical director of the Outercurve Foundation, has written a guest post for OStatic, The Rise of Open Source Software Foundations. I guess he thinks Outercurve is one. He explains why Microsoft set up the foundation in the first place, which I have wondered about for quite a while. His article also reminded me that I promised to explain what bothered me so much about the recent OpenSUSE Project meeting on December 15th. We’re still working on the Comes v. Microsoft exhibits, but I need to take a break. So here goes. I will use the OpenSUSE Foundation discussion to show you why it’s so important, if you are setting up a foundation, to set it up right in the beginning, and why you absolutely must have a lawyer to protect your interests. It’s not good if only the corporate entity’s guys know what bylaws are and how to set up corporate structures, and the community is relying on them to explain it. Your interests are not identical. Not by a lo...

LinuxforDevice: “Google announced more details about its web-centric Chrome OS operating system, including a new 12.1-inch “Cr-48″ reference notebook that will be provided to beta testers. The first commercial Chrome OS notebooks will ship in mid-2011 from Acer and Samsung, and will be available with free cellular connectivity provided by Verizon, the company added. Over a year after Google released the first open source code for Chrome OS, the company has provided details on the progress of its Linux- and Chrome browser-based operating system. It also announced a prototype “Cr-48″ notebook, which won’t be sold commercially but will be offered via an expanded beta testing program. Google additionally provided updates on the Chrome browser and launched its previously announced Chrome Web Store. The latter will provide apps that run both on machines using the Chrome OS, and on others equipped with a Chrome browser regardless of their operating system, the company says.”

  Google’s two most ambitious OS, Android and Chrome OS have created many ripples in the market. Both these OS boasts of exquisite features which aim to enrich experience of users using smartphones or netbooks. While, Android based smartphones are finding huge favors among buyers, Chrome OS has already created much enthusiasm among computer geeks. Does Google really need two operating systems? Yes, both Android and Chrome OS are Linux-based operating systems. Neither, at the application level, uses the common Linux desktop application programming interfaces (API) that are used by the GNOME or KDE desktops and their applications. Chrome OS and Android look and act in very different ways. Here are their main points of difference: Linux desktop or Android application will not support Chrome OS Chrome OS will be used like a desktop operating system, it’s not a traditional fat-client desktop like Windows or even a Linux desktop such as Mint. Instead, all of its “applicat...

  Linux for Devices: “Google released a video overview of Android 3.0 (“Honeycomb”), confirming that it is designed for tablets while hinting at exclusivity for tablets. Honeycomb enhancements include a revamped, “virtual and holographic user interface,” improved multitasking, drag and drop widgets, video chat with Google Talk, Google eBooks integration, and tablet-oriented overhauls for the browser, Gmail, and YouTube. With Asus, LG, and Motorola announcing their Honeycomb tablets yesterday, Google released a preview video of Android 3.0 in anticipation of a formal release date many expect will to coincide with Mobile World Congress in February. The brief Google preview video for Honeycomb confirms several widely, but not universally held assumptions: First — as we had already learned from Asus’ announcement of its Honeycomb-based Eee Pad tablets yesterday — it’s Android 3.0, not Android 2.4. Second, it supports an optimized display on larger screens and higher resolu...

Zone-m: “Banks are important. The world economic crisis is due for a good part to insufficient transparency in banks. Wikileaks next document drop may target banks. And a small group of activists is trying to solve those bank problems in a (Open Source) way that may make Wikileaks less necessary. I already wrote about real openness at the last Open World Forum, but during that conference I also met Simon Redfern of the Open Bank Project (OBP). We only had a few minutes, so Simon could give me only an extra-short explanation, but it was enough to let me eager to know more. The Open Bank Project develops Open Source Software called the OBP API (Application Programming Interface). In general, an API is a piece of software and/or a set of rules that many independent programmers can embed into their own software programs to make them talk to each other. “Open Source” means that the software is freely usable, auditable and reusable by everybody, so it can’t play tricks. The OBP ...

For more than six months rumors around an Android music service has built. Today some leaked screenshots confirm what could be this very music service everyone has talked about. Predicted for the next version of Android OS the music service is something to go head-to-head with iTunes and Amazon. The website GizmoFusion first leaked these images today of the proposed Gingerbread release. The image released shows a data and synchronization button for music in the settings tab. For the Android users among us, we know that the music option is new. Google has been reportedly been working on a cloud-based music service, either by subscription or pay-as-you-go. The Android platform has become so immense that having integration at the device level with Android could help Google gain the upper hand on other music services. Even if music synchronization is not a pointer to an integrated music server, being able to sync over ...

It seems like the Sony Ericsson PlayStation Phone is one of the top leaked devices of the last few years. A YouTube video showcases more features of the upcoming device that will be heavily focused on gaming and is expected for release this quarter. From the video we clearly see the device running a custom overlay on top of Android 2.3 Gingerbread. We also see the phone opening applications and scrolling through homescreens very smoothly, which would back up the rumor that not only will it be a very powerful device, the Gingerbread overlay will be very optimized allowing for a better end-user experience. Hardware-wise it’s the same device we have been seeing for about a month. It’s definitely not thin, but in addition to the ability to pack impressive hardware, the larger device will allow for better grip when gaming. The PlayStation Phone is set for launch early this year, and although no official word has be...

  That about does it. The PadPivot must be the last novel idea in tablet stands. Shut down the Chinese design factories. This seems to address the entire market’s needs and more. Not only does the PadPivot do multi-angle, table-top tablet mounting and holding, but the contoured shape is designed for legs, too. Most tablet users can attest, this is the most common usage location anyway. The Kickstarter demo video shows why. You sit down, put the tablet on your thigh and then do a little balancing routine to keep it in place. With the PadPivot, you simply rest the backside of the iPad or any other slate device on the PadPivot’s pad while the rounded shape holds to your leg. Oh, and it folds up nicely, too. I’m sold. The creators are looking to raise $10,000 on Kickstarter , which will allow them to start the injection molding process. As of this post’s writing, the project is 2-days old and they’re already north of 10% ($1,155~) towards their target goal. U...

You probably have a life. You probably have things to do offline. It’s likely that you often see awesome stuff online, but due to all that real-life stuff you do, occasionally you miss something great. But do you ever catch up? Not really. There’s always the next big thing. Next time you find yourself with an evening up your sleeve, refreshing Reddit and PopURLs with some vague hope something new will happen, you can instead catch up on all the memes you missed using Rrrewind . This will quickly become one of your favourite haunts because it is just so good at letting you browse all the popular stories on the web. What’s Rrrewind? Rrrewind lets you see all the popular stories on the best services on any given day. Although that sounds a lot like the PopURLs archive , it’s not exactly that. The PopURLs archive is a snapshot of the day, showing you exactly what PopURLs looked like that day. Rrrewind is more focused on the content you like best, and is far more browsable fo...

There has been a lot of discussion in the Windows Media Center community about the product's death. The theory is that Microsoft is throwing in the towel, focusing on the Xbox 360 and intends to let the best DVR software available become stale -- or worse, eliminate it from future versions of Windows altogether. After watching the Ballmer keynote at CES last week, it was hard not to get on this train as we all watched the 360, Windows Phone 7, and Windows highlighted on stage. But then something happened when the show floor opened: Windows embedded products were highlighted in private meetings and elsewhere. There was a buzz around Media Center embedded and even a price and ship date; meanwhile, home theater PCs got no love. So after years of trying, it appears that all hopes that HTPCs will ever emerge from their niche status are gone, but the same can not be said for Windows Media Center. The demise of HTPCs is not for a lack of effort We've had a fasc...

Sure, all of us like 3D TVs , but what good are they without 3D TV shows? How long can you play your 3D movies before they get old? Fortunately, SkyPerfecTV and major TV network Fuji will air a new 3D show called Tokyo Control, and it will begin Wednesday of next week. Tokyo Control is a dramatic series about a group of people working at the Tokyo Air Traffic Control Center. There are about 10 episodes altogether, and each one lasts around 60 minutes. I’m not certain what the final outcome will be, but hopefully the 3D will look cool. By the way, the Fuji TV employees went to ask the producers of Avatar some advice before filming in 3D. Source

It’s about time that one of the earliest pioneers of online commerce opened up shops on Facebook. Today Amazon’ s subsidiary Quidisi has opened up a few stores selling household items on the social network. Quidsi, which was  acquired by Amazon for $540 million in the fall, has created electronic commerce pages on Facebook for Soap.com, BeautyBar.com and Diapers.com. These are companies owned by Quidsi, and their social network presence together amounts to about 60,000 fans. When you go to Soap.com’s Facebook page , you see a tab  called “My List” where you can search for and purchase products all within the social network. The shopping cart on the site looks like a more sophisticated, cleaner version of the one on Amazon.com, and lets you confirm what you want to purchase. The tool also tracks your order, and encourages you to “like” the product. What I found most helpf...