~ TOP 10 Gadgets 2010 ~

10:23 AM | by Prabhath

No 10. Polk HitMaster Gaming Audio System



Sing-along games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band are immensely popular among the masses and you won’t be doing justice to them by playing on an age-old speaker system. This is why Polk made this high-end audio speaker and amplifier system provides the right way to game and it can be comfortably plugged into every gaming system. This gadget from Polk throws out an awesome 80 watts of powerful neat sound.

No 9. Panasonic 3D Camcorder AG-3DA1



It is the world’s first professional and fully integrated full HD camcorder. Equipped with dual lenses and 2 full 1920×1080 2.07 megapixel imagers, it can record everything from 24p to 1080/60i. The price is, well, $21000. It is scheduled to unleash for fall.


No 8. WD TV Live Plus HD media player



A device from Western Digital that allows you to watch movies, listen to music as well as view images on your big screen TV, all from a USB drive. This baby can play almost any format you can throw at it. The latest model also allows you to connect to the internet and stream live content from many sites such as Youtube, Flickr, Live365 or even from your own home network. Streaming over Wi-Fi is also possible with this model. Furthermore, this model also supports streaming from Netflix, and that too on HD. Whoa!


It is available now for around $120.



No 7. EnTourage eDGe



This tablet PC slash e-book reader device runs Google Android 1.6 and is world’s first dualbook; its one screen is touch sensitive e-Ink, while the other is full color LCD touch screen. In addition to boasting access to e-books, it will also allow for most of notebook computing functions, such as USB data transfer and normal web surfing. This gadget is rather absurdly priced at $499.

No 6. 4G Phones




Set to be released in 2010, these 4g devices are really going to set the wireless world ablaze. With data transfer rate of 100 Mbps that could also reach upto 1 gigabit per second when static, downloading a DVD movie will be only a half minute task.



No 5. Skiff Reader – The electric newspaper



It is being predicted that this gadget might be one of the top 10 “newspaper” in the market by the end of 2010. This e-book reader is said to be one of the thinnest readers around, although it is quite big, but that’s what makes it compatible with newspaper journalism.



No 4. 3M’s M2256PW – The ten finger touch screen


Although not intended for home usage (judging atleast from a price of $1500), this multi-touch beauty is sure to futurize your office. This 22-inch monitor can detect upto 20 simultaneous inputs through the screen. There is no specified release date till now though.



No 3. Alienware M11x



With a starting price of only $799, this is one gadget of 2010 that you really cannot afford to miss! It truly is ultra-portable with a weight of less than 5 pounds and an 11-inch screen. It uses processors from Intel’s latest line of low-voltage processors. The main feature of this laptop though is its twin graphics cards; one is a low power chip that gives you almost 6 hours of computing and the other one, the GeForce 335M is for games. And this one can certainly play the top titles with high details as it runs COD – Modern Warfare 2 at exceptional frame rates (with highest details). It looks like Alienware had been developing this awesome technology for more than four years behind closed doors, while they even had to wait for technology to catch up with their ambitions. This piece of technology was held so secret that when it was finally revealed at CES 2010, there wasn’t a single competitor around. This can mean some serious revolution in laptop gaming.

No 2. Xbox Natal


Now known as Kinect, it was known as Project Natal before this year’s E3. This peripheral for the Xbox360 is set to launch in November this year. There is hardly anyone who games and doesn’t know about Natal, unless he has been living under a rock. Sony and Nintendo revealed similar peripherals for the first time in this year’s E3 too, but Kinect looks way more cooler. It’s currently available for pre-order at various websites for $150.


No 1. 82-inch 3-D Readrt DLP TV




3D has taken the world by storm, as it looks and fittingly the number one gadget in our 2010 list is a 82-inch 3D TV from Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America. It will cost around $4499 when released. Well, you will still have to wear special glasses for this one, but Mitsubishi plans to bring out TVs that work both with 2D and 3D programming. That’s a talk of the future though. This 82 incher is a sure winner for Mitsubishi with its price expected to be dropping to around $3000 by the end of 2010.
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Google Street View

10:07 PM | by Prabhath
Most of you have heard of this Google street view & some may not. So this thread is for all of you.
What is Google street view?
Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world. It was launched on May 25, 2007, originally only in several cities in the United States, and has since gradually expanded to include more cities and rural areas worldwide.


Google street view images appear after zooming in beyond the highest zooming level in maps and satellite images, and also by dragging a "pegman" icon onto a location on a map. Using the keyboard or mouse the horizontal and vertical viewing direction and the zoom level can be selected. A solid or broken line in the photo shows the approximate path followed by the camera car, and arrows link to the next photo in each direction. At junctions and crossings of camera car routes, more arrows are shown.

Where Google street view is available?


Google earth is presently available in the countries that have been highlighted in dark blue. And the countries that have been highlighted in light blue they are still planing to introduce the Google street view.

The cameras they used to develop the Google street view.

Google has used three types of car-mounted cameras in the past to take Street View photographs. Generations 1-3 were used to take photographs in the United States. The first generation was quickly superseded and images were replaced with images taken with 2nd and 3rd generation cameras. Second generation cameras were used to take photographs in Australia. The shadows caused by the 1st, 2nd and 4th generation cameras are occasionally viewable in images taken in mornings and evenings. The new 4th generation cameras will be used to completely replace all images taken with earlier generation cameras. 4th generation cameras take near-HD images and deliver much better quality than earlier cameras.


In October 2009, Google introduced the Street View Trike, a pedal tricycle with a 4th generation camera mounted to take images where cars cannot reach. All streetview images taken now will be taken with the 4th Generation streetview cameras.


In February 2010, Google introduced the Street View Snowmobile, a snowmobile with a 4th generation camera mounted to take images on the Whistler Blackcomb Ski Slopes in preparation for the winter olympics in Vancouver, Canada. 

Google plans to re shoot areas with pre-4th generation cameras with 4th generation cameras.

Google's first street view van camera


Google's second street view camera

Google's third streetview camera, similar to the second but with 3D mapping


Google's latest camera, which takes near HD imagery as well as 3D mapping.
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Google celebrates 12th birthday with a cake doodle

9:56 AM | by Prabhath

pular search engine, Google is celebrated its 12th birthday on 27 September with a new doodle involving a simple picture of a cake and the the letter ‘L’ in Google replaced with a candle.
The doodle has been created by Wayne Thiebaud who is a 89-year-old Los Angeles painter from the field of pop art. The image was used with the permission from the Visual Artists and Galleries Association.
Google, which went on to become the leader in internet search and is now expanding into other sectors likesmartphones, was established as a privately held corporation on 27 September 1998. In December 1998, only months after its incorporation Google succeeded in gaining a reputation of a respected search engine providing relevant search results.
In 2001, Google launched Image Search and came out with Google Labs and Google News in the next year. In 2005, it launched Google Maps while Gtalk was launched six months later. The company also unveiled Google Reader, Google Analytics, and Gmail for mobile that year, even as Gmail went public only in 2007.
Now the company has expanded further with the release of Android platform for mobile phones and other features like Google Buzz, and Google Voice.
The company usually celebrates various occasions with doodles. The first doodle was designed by its founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page for the Burning Man Festival and it appeared in August 1998. The company now celebrates events including Halloween, Christmas, Mother's and Father's Day along with birthday’s of famous persons through doodles.

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Introducing the Google Chrome OS

3:16 AM | by Prabhath


It's been an exciting nine months since we launched the Google Chrome browser. Already, over 30 million people use it regularly. We designed Google Chrome for people who live on the web — searching for information, checking email, catching up on the news, shopping or just staying in touch with friends. However, the operating systems that browsers run on were designed in an era where there was no web. So today, we're announcing a new project that's a natural extension of Google Chrome — the Google Chrome Operating System. It's our attempt to re-think what operating systems should be.

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we're already talking to partners about the project, and we'll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

Google Chrome OS will run on both x86 as well as ARM chips and we are working with multiple OEMs to bring a number of netbooks to market next year. The software architecture is simple — Google Chrome running within a new windowing system on top of a Linux kernel. For application developers, the web is the platform. All web-based applications will automatically work and new applications can be written using your favorite web technologies. And of course, these apps will run not only on Google Chrome OS, but on any standards-based browser on Windows, Mac and Linux thereby giving developers the largest user base of any platform.

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

We hear a lot from our users and their message is clear — computers need to get better. People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to back up files. Even more importantly, they don't want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates. And any time our users have a better computing experience, Google benefits as well by having happier users who are more likely to spend time on the Internet.

We have a lot of work to do, and we're definitely going to need a lot of help from the open source community to accomplish this vision. We're excited for what's to come and we hope you are too. Stay tuned for more updates in the fall and have a great summer.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/07/introducing-google-chrome-os.html
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WD Scorpio Blue

9:11 AM | by Prabhath

Mobile Hard Drives
320 GB, SATA 3 Gb/s, 8 MB Cache, 5400 RPM


With available SATA or PATA interfaces, WD Scorpio Blue drives offer high-performance, low power consumption, and cool operation, perfect for notebooks and other portable devices. Pick the drive that suits your needs with the confidence in knowing that all WD Scorpio Blue drives are built to the highest standards of quality and reliability.

Key Features

Massive capacity - Whether they are in an external drive or a notebook computer, WD Scorpio Blue SATA drives continue to offer the highest capacity for space-hungry operating systems with plenty of room left over for photos, music, and video. A slight increase in overall drive height (750 GB and 1 TB only) has driven storage capacity for 2.5-inch form factor drives upwards to a realm once thought to be impossible.*
Quiet - In a notebook drive, silence is golden. WD's exclusive WhisperDrive™ combines state-of-the-art seeking algorithms to yield one of the quietest 2.5-inch hard drives on the market. These algorithms also optimize the way a drive seeks for data, which significantly improves power consumption. So now silence (and longer battery life) is golden.
Reliable and rugged - WD's ShockGuard technology protects the drive mechanics and platter surfaces from shocks. WD's SecurePark™ parks the recording heads off the disk surface during spin up, spin down, and when the drive is off. This ensures the recording head never touches the disk surface resulting in improved long term reliability due to less head wear, and improved non-operational shock tolerance.
Fast and efficient - Ultra-fast 3 Gb/s SATA interface speed yields performance fit for demanding mobile applications.
Tested for compatibility - We perform tests on hundreds of systems and a multitude of platforms in our FIT Lab™ and Mobile Compatibility Lab to give our customers confidence that our drives will work in their systems.
*750 GB and 1 TB models are 12.5 mm high and may not be compatible with all notebook systems. Consult system specifications for maximum allowable drive height before attempting to install.
Ideal For

Portable digital devices of all kinds including notebook computers, external storage, and digital media players.

http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.asp?driveid=377
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Settlers of Catan on Microsoft Surface: Yes Please

5:55 PM | by Prabhath





I still prefer the real-deal version of board games like Settlers of Catan and Carcassonneover the Xbox Live/iPhone versions because real board games are social. But the officialMicrosoft Surface version? It might be the perfect way to play.
By using the Surface Table, this version of the classic German board game features the best of both worlds. On the one hand, you've got four people sitting around a physical table, talking, laughing, whining in order to secure a resource cards trade. But on the other hand, you've got the slickness and convenience of a video game, with nothing to put away or organize and everything slickly organized and set up.
And yes, this is an official project with the Catan license, not just a tech demo to show off what could be. So in theory, gaming cafes could have a surface set up with this for people to come in and play. Or, you know, you could spring for one in your living room. Which doesn't seem like that crazy an idea after watching this video.
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Adobe Gets Its Say on Microsoft's MAPP Security Channel

12:35 AM | by Prabhath
Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) has joined Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) MAPP program, which provides members with information about security Planning for the next peak season? Ensure your website is fast, secure and available 24/7. Click here to learn how. vulnerabilities before Microsoft releases its monthly patches.
This will let Adobe, which has been plagued by security flaws, notify MAPP members about vulnerabilities in its apps so they can fix those problems more quickly.
Separately, Microsoft has announced a coordinated vulnerability disclosure program which will let anyone who discovers security flaws report them directly to a CERT-CC or other coordinator so vendors of the affected products get the information in time to fix the problem.
Microsoft also released several resources to help customers make informed decisions about security and manage their risk.

Gimme Shelter

Microsoft announced the tie-in with Adobe on Wednesday at the Black Hat USA 2010 conference.
Joining the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP) lets Adobe piggyback on the bulletins Microsoft sends out about newly discovered vulnerabilities in its own applications to the program's 65 global members, which are security vendors. These bulletins are sent out far enough ahead so MAPP members can fix those vulnerabilities before Microsoft issues its regular monthly patches.
"By sharing Adobe vulnerability information with MAPP members prior to the public release of a security update, we give security providers an early start over exploit code writers, enabling them to offer protection to our mutual customers in a timely manner," Adobe's Wiebke Lips wrote about the tie-in.
"Adobe is the first company to publish security information on their own products through what, until now, has been an exclusively Microsoft program," Andrew Storms, director of operations at nCircle, told TechNewsWorld.
MAPP members include Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO), Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC) and McAfee, Dave Forstrom, director of Microsoft's trustworthy computing group, told TechNewsWorld. However, Adobe won't exactly be a member of the program.
"Adobe is not part of that group of 65, as it's partnering with Microsoft to share early warning details of vulnerabilities with them," Forstrom pointed out.

The Road to Rehabilitation

Adobe has been plagued by security vulnerabilities, and its Flash Player is among the favorite vectors of attack used by hackers and malware developers because it's so widespread. Hackers also like attacking through PDF files for the same reason.

Flash has been exploited enough by cybercriminals that Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) CEO Steve Jobs publicly mentioned its security vulnerabilities in an open letter earlier this year.
"I think only Adobe has been as popular as Microsoft with cybercriminals," Roel Schouwenberg, a senior antivirus researcher with Kaspersky Lab Americas, said.
Teaming up with Microsoft to provide advance warning of security flaws may help Adobe restore its reputation.
"This is a smart move on Adobe's part, and it may eventually help them rehabilitate their tattered security reputation," nCircle's Storms pointed out.
"The advantage for Adobe is that this move will make it much easier for security companies to create reliable detection and mitigation strategies for flaws in its products," Schouwenberg told TechNewsWorld.
The team-up with MAPP is Adobe's second major security move this month. A week ago, Adobe introduced Adobe Reader Protected Mode. This is based on Microsoft's Practical Windows Sandboxing technique, and prevents hackers from accessing a user's computer through PDF files.

One Big Happy Anti-Cybercriminal Family

At the Black Hat conference, Microsoft also pushed its coordinated vulnerability disclosureapproach to fighting cybercrime.
This calls for anyone who discovers new vulnerabilities to disclose the information directly to the vendors of the affected products or to a CERT coordination center or other coordinator.
The CERT coordination center, or CERT/CC, identifies and addresses existing and potential security threats; notifies system administrators and other technical personnel of those threats; and coordinates with vendors and incident response team worldwide to address those threats.
This early disclosure will give the affected vendor enough time to diagnose and offer fully tested updates, workarounds or other corrective measures before detailed vulnerability or exploit information is made public, Forstrom said.

Who's to Blame?

Perhaps the move is a response to Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) researcher Tavis Ormandy's public disclosure in June of a security flaw in Microsoft's Help and Support Center in Windows XP and Windows server 2003. Microsoft suggested workarounds that drew criticism from the security community because they led to other problems.
"Microsoft is attempting to get a broader consensus in responsible disclosure by eliminating the hot button of calling irresponsible people like Tavis Ormandy irresponsible," opined Randy Abrams, director of technical education at ESET. "Ormandy's recent irresponsible disclosure put millions at risk for the sole purpose of inflating his ego while helping a few good guys, a ton of bad guys, and putting many in harm's way."
However, Redmond has to share part of the blame for people publicly disclosing information about vulnerabilities and exploits before the affected vendors have addressed these, Abrams told TechNewsWorld.
"The responsible disclosure process is, to a large degree, a problem Microsoft participated in creating with years of irresponsible reactions to responsible disclosure," Abrams pointed out. "Microsoft has dramatically improved the appropriateness of its responses to vulnerabilities, but it takes a lot longer to rebuild than to tear down." 
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