Technology Guru

Nov 30, 2010

AUDI UNVEILS TRACK-READY TT GT4

Audi has taken the wraps off a new track-only TT model. Dubbed the Audi TT GT4 concept, the coupe is largely based on the range-topping TT RS and is aimed at private racers.

Those hoping for a release of Angry Birds on Windows Phone 7 before Christmas are in for a disappointing time as Rovio have announced that it's unlikely the game will launch on that platform this year.

Empathy is the bizarre outcome of of a RIM-sponsored design project at the Art Center College of Design.

Hit the read more link for the video!

There’s an easy way to tell that Google Earth is getting so advanced that it’s getting dangerously close to looking like actual Earth: touted new features are kind of humorous. While version 4 brought the sky, and version 5 brought the oceans, now version 6 is bringing trees. Yes, trees. I fully expect version 7 to highlight the addition of dirt. Hit the read more link for details, pictures and a video!

Not to be outdone by cross-country rival BMW, Mercedes-Benz is said to be working on an eco-friendly supercar of its own.BMW green lighted a production version of its Vision EfficientDynamics concept earlier this year.

According to Autocar, Mercedes’ green supercar will closely mirror the Biome concept that was penned at the automaker’s California design studio. The Biome was a low-slung, futuristic coupe designed for the Los Angeles Design Challenge. Hit the read more link for more details.

A CURE FOR AGING? New research on mice reverses the aging process!

The reversal of aging has been one of the great dreams of humanity. The Harvard Medical School has demonstrated "a dramatic reversal" in the aging process when reintroducing the enzyme telomerase into old and feeble mice. What happened was that their naturally worn out organs started to regenerate, instead of degenerating further, bringing them back to a youthful state of health. Sadly, while the results of this study are hugely important, there are a couple of caveats to make: firstly, the mice in question were genetically modified to suffer from a lack of telomerase, which might have inflated the results of the tests relative to regular mice, but more importantly, an increase in telomerase in humans is a hallmark of most human cancers. So time is required for the technology to mature.

Acer comes out with a slim and sexy, AZ3750-A34D all-in-one PC

The AZ3750-A34D all-in-one PC is easily one of the sexiest AIO units we've seen in quite some time, boasting a 21.5-inch LCD, a 3.2GHz Core i3-550 processor, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, a 500GB (7200RPM) SATA hard drive, multi-format card reader, DVD burner and 802.11b/g/n WiFi. You'll also get a gigabit Ethernet port, a 1920 x 1080 screen resolution, Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit), eight USB 2.0 ports and a bundled mouse / keyboard. The hardware alone will go for ¥69,800 ($832).

The Media Computing Group -- otherwise known as the dudes and dudettes responsible for making multitouch hip again -- is back, and some might say better than ever. The BendDesk is an outlandish new concept workspace for the future, relying heavily on a curved multitouch display to bring the wow. The desk is the Group's vision of merging multitouch with a common physical area, and it's probably the best implementation we've seen yet. A full ten touch points are supported, but the lower portion is also designed to be used as a standard desk, holding your laptop, paperwork and ink pen collection. Click the read more link for the video!

Intel's Core i7-2630QM chip has made the leap from the company's roadmap onto its first spec sheet, courtesy of HP's dv7. We've come across a provisional component list for an update to HP's gaming laptop, which includes the 2GHz quad-core CPU as the star of its show.

Since the time when watches were first created, the basic design has been pretty much the same until the digital watches came along. After that, the design has been mostly stagnant besides a few attempts. Here is an interesting new concept! The operation is semi-simple -- the inner ring shows the hour, while the outer ring shows the minutes. There's a group of five LEDs at the top that further explains the latter, and we're hearing that the band itself pushes the IQ of the wearer higher by 12 to 15 points. Even if confirmed by a respected panel of mad scientists. Check out the video at the read more link.

With sales showing no signs of slowing, research firm J.D. Power and Associates expects the Chinese auto market to crest the 18 million unit mark by the end of the year.

2011 ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GT4 RACE CAR

This is one my favorite car makers and their design just keeps getting more and more refined. Check out the new Aston Martin Vantage GT4!

You might remember the successor to Google's Nexus one the Nexus S we showed you in the video in the hands of Google CEO Eric Schmidt. Well here is some more information that has leaked about it.

Is this the Nokia X7? It is not official yet and all we know is that it is running Symbian^3 and it has a nice design. Until there is an official announcement check out the video below.

Here is an illustration of the subcompact BMW crossover that might make its way under the soon to be launched X1 courtesy of Leftlane!

Smartphone Sales In Asia On The Rise, Android Tops Symbian

According to market research company Gfk, smartphones are getting increasing popular in Asia, with Android now being the region’s most popular OS for this type of handsets. Cell phones with the Google software on board have reportedly enjoyed brisk sales in that region in the second and third quarters of 2010.

Gfk says that Android has dethroned Symbian in Asia in Q3 this year, both in terms of value and actual handset sales. Android seems to be especially going strong in Hong Kong, Macau, South Korea and Taiwan. In Southeast Asia (i.e. Indonesia or Malaysia), Symbian is still dominant – even though the OS is gradually losing ground to the iPhone, Blackberry and Android. Hit the read more link for details.

India's corporations flush with cash reserves are increasingly exreting their dominance on the world stage. Following in the foot steps of Tata Corporation's purchase of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford Motors India’s Mahindra & Mahindra has officially been named the new owner of South Korea-based Ssangyong. Mahindra was named the leading bidder for Ssangyong earlier this year.

Saudi Arabian Investment
While SAIC’s investment was rumored for months, a similar acquisition of $500 million in shares by Saudi investment firm Kingdom Holding run by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Alwaleed (or Al-Waleed), considered by investors to be Saudi Arabia’s Warren Buffett, is an American-educated investor with a wide variety of holdings in various industries across the globe.

Nokia C2-01 and X2-01 announced!

Both handsets run the Serios 40 OS. The C2-01 (pictured left) is claimed to be the cheapest 3G handset in Espoo's lineup, featuring a 3.2 megapixel camera, FM radio, Bluetooth, and memory expansion up to 16GB atop a 2-inch display; it'll be available in the first quarter of 2011. the X2-01 certainly looks like a Symbian device from a distance -- but don't be fooled, it's still straight-up Series 40 with a full QWERTY portrait keyboard. It's got a dedicated music button (Nokia's quick to point out that the Xseries' focus is music, after all) along with a 2.4-inch QVGA display, VGA camera on back, and memory expansion to a relatively meager 8GB. Neither WiFi nor 3G are included.

This newly announced ACER phone is absolutely drool worthy! It has an enormous 4.8 inch touchscreen with an atypical 21:9 aspect ratio in use here as well as a"full metal body."Bluetooth 3.0, 802.11n WiFi, HSDPA support, a 1GHz Snapdragon processor and an HDMI output. Delicious, all the way around. Now if ACER would just come up with a nice UI skin like HTC's Sense.

If you point your phone camera at the image above even if some sent this image to you by email or it was on TV, your phone will automatically take you to this webpage. This image is the QR code for this webpage. Imagine a future in which you just point your phone camera at a code on a advertisement billboard or a website and all the information regarding the product is automatically shown on your phone! The code we are talking about is the QR code and it has a huge potential for real life applications. They come to us from Japan where they are very common. Hit the read more link for the full article.

Although I'm sure most of you know this by now. This is a handy free service that was launched by Google through which you can shorten any URL that you have to send to someone and send the shorter version. For example instead of the complete link for this post (which is http://hbtechguru.blogspot.com/2010/11/google-url-shortenerqr-code-service.html) , you just go to Google and type this link in the box and Google generates a shorter link ( this is the short link to this post http://goo.gl/e3HtQ). This makes sharing URLs easy especially if you have to SMS them. Do check it out and let me know about your impressions in the comments section. Hit the source link to go to the page.

Engadget has announced that the much awaited Apple iPhone 4 jail break is finally out. Don't start syncing your iPhones just yet. This is a tethered released, meaning owners of the iPhone 4, iPad, and newer iPhone 3GS and iPod touch models will have to reattach to a PC or Mac to boot into a jailbroken state each time your device loses power or needs a reboot. If your device shuts down, it will have to be jailbroken again.

Video : Angry birds peace treaty!

Check out this hilarious video of our favorite game!

Now here is one interesting finding. Nokia really is having a streak of bad luck here. A detailed post by Eldar Murtazin a senior industry insider from Russia has proven how he found out about problems that are happening in Nokia's brand new devices and how Nokia in the end has accepted it but has not yet implemented a strategy to fix the problem. The editor goes on to warn everyone from buying said devices until Mark 2011 as that will be the only time when Nokia would have been able to implement a solution to the issue as the problem is in the motherboard that the two phones share.

Gmail Call Recording!

Earlier this month, there were some initial reports that Google had improved on this feature with a nifty addition: the ability to record inbound Google Voice calls directly from Gmail. Now it looks like Google is rolling out the feature more broadly — we’ve polled a few people and they’re all seeing it, and there are plenty of reports on Twitter of people noticing it for the first time.

Facebook taking the lead over Google? Hitwise has released another staggering data point in favor of Facebook’s domination today. According to Hitwise’s data, 1 in 4 page views in the US took place on Facebook.com as of last week.

This is an Android (2.1 aka Eclair) smartphone I spent some time with a couple of days back. Theres little chance you will find this in Pakistan as this handset uses the CDMA network of Sprint USA which is not compatible with Pakistan's GSM networks. This review is then targeted at our readers from abroad.

Whether he's playing hero or villain in your personal technology drama, Apple CEO and marketer extraordinaire Steve Jobs likely has a role -- and now the dramatis persona has his very own action figure to help you act it out. For $80, Jobs comes complete with his trademark black turtleneck and rimless glasses, nicely crinkled Levi's jeans, a pair of New Balance sneakers, a miniature iPhone 4 and a truly epic beard. He's even got an Apple logo to stand on and a set of speech bubble cards, which hopefully work with a dry erase marker considering how often the man comes up with juicy new quotes. See the astounding level of detail at our source link, or even grab one for yourself.

Homeshopping - Online Shopping in Pakistan

If you have ever wondered why the online shopping revolution that is old news in the west hasn't really caught up in our country, then this is the site for you. Homeshopping is bringing online shopping to Pakistan in a big way. I'm sure you are wondering about the payment method and the reliability of the whole situation. Well here's where they intentionally deviated away from international practices. The products are delivered to you doorstep without you paying a penny and you only pay after you have checked the products yourself! I can't think of any better way they could have taken care of the trust issue.

For all of you who have searched vigorously online for prices of mobile phones in Pakistan, let me point you in the right direction. Whatmobile is an excellent site for regularly updated prices. They have all the latest prices if phones right after their launch and unlike many other such sites the prices are regularly updated. You wont find a maximum difference of Rs. 500 from the actual price. Also, the site is easy to navigate for the technologically challenged among us. Do check it out and let me know what you think in the comments section!

Darwin's Angry Birds

Angry Birds as Darwin might have seen it.

The growing rivalry between facebook and Google is taking a new turn now that Facebook announced yesterday that it is going to launch a standalone email service where its users will be assigned @facebook email addresses with a new take on email. Facebook's service is designed to combine traditional email, instant message and cellphone text messages into one system, routing messages to whichever service is best for each person, and keeping an archive of it all.

Mazda Shinari Concept Revealed at the LA auto show!

This beautiful car shows the future Mazada design language. Interesting eh?

I came across a highly detailed interview of the HTC Desire HD we discussed about earlier. This is a much more detailed review by Eldar Murtazin an industry insider with a very good grasp are writing in dept reviews! Do check it out when you find the time!

At the Web 2.0 Summit, in San Francisco, Eric Schmidt said that Android 2.3, aka Gingerbread, will be rolling out “in the next few weeks.” Among its new features will be support for interacting with Near Field Communications devices and RFID tags.

Android Gingerbread is the next upgrade after the current Android 2.2. It may get its first released to the general public for Nexus One owners. It will need 512MB of RAM and 1GHz processors.

While Android and iOS aren't short on productivity applications for cobbling together a .doc and sending it on its way, we've been really hankering for native Google Docs support since pretty much day one. Google is finally ready to deliver, and it looks like they've actually put some thought into the UI.

Google instant previews, the hugely popular service launched recently by Google seemed like a blessing that would save you time as you wouldnt have to open each site in the search results. What this service does is it makes screenshots of you search results and will show you those screen shots when you hover the cursor over the result without you having to actually open the page. As innovative as this sounds, this would have a negative impact on the website owners because this would result in less people unltimately landing on their pages and their Ad-supported income would drop as a result!

HONDA ENDS DOMESTIC SALES OF CIVIC MODEL!

In the U.S., the Honda Civic is an icon long known for its reliability and chart-topping sales. In Japan, however, a case of cannibalization to the extreme has forced Honda to stop selling its Civic nameplate in its home market.

Long a purveyor of luxo-boats, the Cadillac name is hardly synonymous with high-efficiency urban motoring. But General Motors’ premium brand realizes that its future might need to include greener vehicles aimed at conquering congested roads, so it has taken the wraps off of its latest concept car, the Urban Luxury Concept.

Google CEO interview - Web 2.0 Summit

I came across this hugely interesting recent interview of the Google Inc. CEO Eric Schmidt. He talks about the general direction of the company for the future as well as some new products! He also gives subtle hints about the Nexus S here! Its 44 minute long but worth it! Check it out!

Eid Mubarak to all our Muslims Readers!

Nov 16, 2010

HD Voice - A game changer for voice quality in telecoms?

I came across an interesting innovation in the telecom sector recently and I just found a detailed article about it. It is difficult to imagine, but voice communication standards were established as early as in 1937 for landline networks and nothing changed since then. Frequencies ranged from 300 to 3400 Hz. When mobile networks were created old rules were adapted and new codecs helped to economize available frequencies. CDs give you as much as 44100 Hz. Do you feel the difference with the 3400 Hz limit for mobile and landline phones?

Hyperion Power - A solution to all the electricity needs of the world?

Can you picture a world in which small safe nuclear reactors give you a virtually inexhaustible energy supply for all the needs of a small neighborhood ( Creek Vista in DHA Karachi for example) and even power your electric cars? That is what Hyperion Power is all about. Click the read more link to find out more!

Former Microsoft technology chief Nathan Myhrvold proposes a method to combat climate change by pumping liquid sulfur dioxide into the stratosphere through nozzles in a hose lifted more than 15 miles into the atmosphere using helium-filled balloons. As described by Myhrvold in an interview this week, the idea behind this "Stratoshield" would be to dim the sun in critical areas of the world by just enough to reduce or reverse the effects of global warming.

Eye-tracking computers - Alternative for finger print scanners?

Beeping, flashing retinal scanners are a constant, and dare I say tired, fixture in films. And why not? They serve as convenient shorthand for wealth and technological sophistication, and their utility is easy to convey.

Rare as they may be, scanners like this do exist. But researchers in Israel have developed software that can identify individuals based on eye movement, and don’t require hardware any more sophisticated than a laptop with a decent webcam.

Light-emitting sutures, biomedical tattoos and more future medical tech

By changing the properties of conventional semiconductor wafers — from stiff and brittle to bendable and stretchable — engineers at the University of Illinois have opened the door to such devices as light-emitting diodes on a suture thread and even implantable biomedical tattoos.

John Rogers, an Illinois engineering professor, said the researchers sliced silicon and other materials thinner by a factor of 100,000 — as if creating a sheet of paper from a two-by-four. Then, to achieve mechanics similar to those of a rubber band, they structured the material in a wavy, accordion-like shape.

Ioxus Inc. is an up and comer in the energy storage industry that has plans this Monday to announce a new hybrid storage device that it hopes will radically alter batteries used in the auto, medical, and consumer electronics industries. The teased product is said to be roughly the size of a typical C-cell battery and combines the fast charge / discharge benefits of ultracapacitors with the impressive energy-to-weight ratio of a lithium-ion electrode. As a result, Ioxus says the hybrid devices can store more than double the energy of traditional ultracapacitors and charge in a matter of seconds.

Genetically Modified Mosquitoes - A permanent cure for Dengue and malaria?

Scientists released sterile male mosquitoes in the Cayman Islands as a new way of controlling the cases of dengue fever. The Oxford-based company Oxitec released the mosquitoes into the wild three times a week in a 40-acre plot of land. Four months into the six-month trial, the mosquito population decreased by 80 percent when compared to a nearby area.

Click on read more for the complete article.

It brings me great pleasure today, to review one of the most cutting edge devices that have graced the earth with its presence up till now. The HTC Desire HD is as cutting edge as you can get, its feature include an enormous 4.3 inch touchscreen, Android Froyo OS, WiFi hotspot capabilities, 1GHz processor, 8 MP camera and just under 800 MB of RAM, separate graphics processing chip to run your graphics heavy applications (including watching high definition videos on the device). Such a rich set of features has gotten all the techies drooling over it even before it was announced in an event in London hosted by HTC on September 15, 2010. Now, lets take a closer look.

Israel Defense Forces will be moving forward on a plan to light up a new cellular system that will blast out SMS-CB alerts to citizens if and when a missile is fired in the direction of Israel. Just over $7 million will be invested, with the application itself being jointly designed by eVigilo and Ericsson. If all goes well, it'll be operational in June of 2011, and it's just one aspect of the country's effort to consolidate all emergency alerts into one centralized system. We're told that the blasts would be sent in a variety of languages, and there's even potential to send them to TVs, radios, websites and "billboards." And unlike various other SMS emergency alert systems that have been implemented, these would actually differ based on how the threat was fore-casted to affect different geographic regions. Something tells us eVigilo's going to become a multinational company in no time.

Ok so this isn't news per se, but it is pretty cool and who doesn't like Angry Birds? More to the point, who doesn't like cake? It was created by fonatic71, a chap over on Flickr and I have to say he's done a smashing job.

Video Update - The TAT LIVE wallpapers for Android!

Check out an new video of the Live Wallpapers we mentioned earlier. As you can see the most amazing thing is that the wallpaper isn't only interactive, it even responds to the accelerometer. That means that when you move the phone around, the trees move in the direction according to the way gravity would move them in the real world! Such amazing Applications are slowly coming and and showing everyone the powerful and elegant features available on Android!

Free New Android Live wallpapers!

Android comes with a pretty great set of live wallpapers built in as I explained to you earlier- and some manufacturers add their own, too - but if you're ready for a change of pace TAT has just dropped three of 'em for free. Called Artemia, Blue Range, and Retro Pixels, the trio run the gamut from dreamy aquascape to eBoy-esque 3D environment to 8-bit gaming, and they're all interactive in one way or another -- poking and shaking both seem to have interesting effects. They're in the Market now, so you may as well grab them for free if you've got a compatible phone.

Review of LG Optimus T aka Optimus One!

As android becomes more common place and a variety of devices make their way into the market for Android phones, manufacturers are increasingly introducing offerings aimed at the low end segment. But who is to say that you cant get the latest version of android (froyo) in the low end range. In comes LG Optimus T aka Optimus on (in UK) this is bound to be another low end contender with Froyo on board and it is pitted by LG to openly battle the Wildfires and IDEOS" of the world! Unlike the affordable Huawie IDEOS we reviewed earlier this phone does not have the stigma of a Chinese brand and it is yet to be know if the device will have poor touch sensitivity like the IDEOS. But with an 800 MHZ processor, a nice 3.2 MP camera and all the features of FROYO (wifi hotspot and 720p High definition video recording and an excellent camera unlike other high end Android phones) onborad, this device is bound to make ripples in the low end market. This device is available on T-Mobile for free on contract. With and expected price of around Rs. 25,000/- in Pakistan, be sure to keep and eye on this device as this will bring Android to the masses and will be one of the first cheap Android devices made by a top tier manufacturer!

Click the read more link for the complete specifications.

Pages

Nov 30, 2010

Nov 29, 2010

Nov 28, 2010

Nov 26, 2010

Nov 24, 2010

Nov 23, 2010

Nov 22, 2010

Nov 21, 2010

Nov 20, 2010

Nov 18, 2010

Nov 17, 2010

Nov 16, 2010

Nov 15, 2010

Nov 14, 2010

Nov 13, 2010

LinkWithin