Easy to Learn, Easy to Work, Easy to Play - Eee PC

I was at Microbytes a couple of days ago and I came across the Eee PC by Asus. It's a cross between a laptop and a Pocket PC. Neat idea. It's 7" wide, has a 800 x 480 screen resolution, weighs less than 1 kg and has over 40 built-in applications.

 

What's really impressive, to me, is that it runs Linux (it's also Windows XP compatible - but WinXP is sold separately). On top of Linux is a tabbed-based interface. Some of the applications that are built-in are OpenOffice.org, Mozilla Firefox, Skype, Tux Paint, e-mail and Internet radio applications, Google Docs and the Wikipedia look-up tool.

The Eee PC doesn't have a hard disk. It has a 2, 4 or 8GB solid-state drive (SSD) and 256 or 512 MB of RAM. SD cards can be inserted to provide additional RAM.

Behind the Scenes: World of Warcraft

Blizzard's World of Warcraft is one example of massively multiplayer online games or MMORPGs. It debuted in North America November 23, 2004. It was the best selling PC game of 2005 and 2006 and is near the top of the bestselling list for 2007. Today 9 million people are subscribed to World of Warcraft. Whoa. About 84% are male and 14% female according to a 2005 study by researcher Nick Yee.

WoW software consists of software that runs locally on the player’s PC and software that runs remotely on world servers.

The game client is installed locally. It decodes and displays the game world data and the user interface (UI). It receives input from the user and the remote server to update the game display. The client gets the visual information from a database stored on the user’s PC. It also retrieves sound in the form of .wav or .mp3 from the client PC. The client application is not static however. It’s automatically updated when Blizzard releases a new patch.

The launcher provides hyperlinks to new information on the Blizzard Web site. It lets a player know when a new patch is available and checks the user’s PC for viruses, hacks and cheat software.

The WoW servers are thought of as world servers or realms. A realm is a self-contained copy of the game world. There are about 200 realms in North America as well as realms in other parts of the world. Realms can be one of three types:

• Player versus environment (PvE)
• Player versus Player (PvP)
• Role playing (RP)

Characters can be created in different realms but they can’t communicate across realms unless they are in the same PvP battlegroup.

A world server is not just one server; it’s actually a collection of servers. As of 2006, Blizzard had about 9000 servers worldwide!

The authentication server handles logins to the WoW. It verifies a player’s name and password before transferring the player to his last location. Everything about a character is stored in a database which is tied to a WoW account.

 

The volatile information or information that changes during game play is communicated between the servers and the game client via the Internet. The figure illustrates some of the interaction (there's plenty more!). When there's a lot of communication (like when there are many players interacting/fighting at one location) an individual player may experience lag – a delay until their information is updated.

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

 

Now this is an idea that I hope will benefit many children. Today is the first day of the two week One Laptop Per Child (OLAP)campaign. Available for consumers in the U.S. and Canada, the campaign offers two green and white XO laptops for $399 but only if one laptop is donated to a developing country. The XO laptop runs the Sugar operating system and is resistant to spills, rain, dust and drops.

more...

USB Gadgets

There are all sorts of gadgets that work connected to the USB port. Of course, there's the usual assortment of mp3 players, digital cameras, etc. But there are also more unusual USB gadgets.

 

The USB Retro Lamp is a cool looking gadget that draws it's power from a computer's or laptop's USB port. It has a flexible neck and sports 6 LED lights. It oddly comes in orange and purple. Just right for those midnight blog entries.

The USB Mini Fridge helps keep your beverage cold. This cute red fridge is powered by, you guessed it, the USB port on your laptop or computer. It keeps your beverage at a cool 45 deg F. Prefer coffee or tea? The USB Cafe Pad keeps warm beverages warm. It goes without saying that paper cups are a no-no.

For those of us that are always cold, there are the USB G-Gloves and the USB Heating Slippers. Yes, they're powered by a USB port (2 ports for the gloves). The gloves come in stylish pink or purple. The slippers come in brown. And it goes without saying that you have to take them off before walking away from your computer or laptop.

Finally, the USB Basketball Dunk is perfect for relaxing after a particularly productive moment. Yep, it's also powered by a USB port. Too cute.

Eye-Fi Wireless SD Card is Never Full

This is a neat gadget. My camera will never tell me the SD card is full again! Check this out.

Eye-Fi is about to release what the company claims is the world’s first wireless memory card. The idea is to allow anyone with a digital camera to download their images wirelessly to their PC or to one of 17 online photo-sharing sites including two favorites Facebook and Flickr and my favorite Picasa. Pretty cool, huh?

The card is configured via a utility that is run on a PC or Mac. The utility tells the card how to reach your PC and/or the online sites you want to upload images to. Then each time your camera is powered up and within reach of a wireless network, the card transfers all the images in memory.

The card even works with secured wireless networks although it has trouble getting around splash screen logons used to authenticate users.

You can get the Eye-Fi 2GB wireless SD card for $99. Check out www.Eye.fi

Roadmaster VR3 Wireless Back-up Camera w/Monitor

CTV news reported on a gadget that can save lives. I'll admit right now that this isn't a "fun" gadget but I found the newscast interesting.

Frank Chang was backing out of his driveway when the unthinkable happened. He felt a slight ripple against his car. He knew it had to be something that wasn’t there when he got in the car. He felt sheer panic.

It turned out to be his 2 year old daughter, Talia, who managed to get out the front door. Chang says that he wishes that more people knew how easy it is for that to happen. Thankfully, Talia survived. She spent three months in a cast to repair her broken bones. In Canada, 50 kids on average are hurt or killed every week when a vehicle backs up over them.

Back-up cameras eliminate blind spots behind vehicles. The wireless VR3 back-up camera is mounted above the license plate. The VR3’s 2.5” monitor sits on the dashboard where it is not in the driver's line of sight. When the car is put in reverse the camera turns on automatically. It’s not difficult to install and costs $150 CDN.

Now that sounds like a step in the right direction.

Montrealer Sues Apple Inc

In the paper a couple of weeks ago, I came across an article about a Montreal law student, David Bitton, who is suing Apple Inc, makers of the iPod. The suit claims that they falsely advertise that the iPod contains 8 GB of memory. In fact, the iPod has 7.45 GB of memory (7.5% less memory than advertised).

He is suing Apple for a refund of the price of the iPod ($225 CDN). Failing that, he wants the cost of his iPod less 7.5% (ha!) plus $75 CDN in damages. His lawyer also filed for permission to make this a class action suit on behalf of all iPod owners in Quebec.

When I started reading the article I thought, what the heck? He’s suing a large corporation over 7.5% less memory for $225 CDN? That’s absurd. Then I read Apple’s reasoning for the memory discrepancy.

The company chalks the discrepancy up to the definition of a megabyte (1 gigabyte = 1000 x 1 megabyte). Apparently a megabyte is defined as 1 million bytes by hard disk manufacturers and 1.048576 million bytes by computer manufacturers. Huh? A megabyte a measure of computer memory (whether memory or disk space) in bytes. Computers deal only in ones and zeros (binary). So the amount of memory must be a power of 2. One million is not a power of two; but 1.048576 million (= 2^20) is.

In fact, the law student came upon the discrepancy using iTunes software to download music to his iPod. Hmm, iTunes is Apple's software and it uses 1.048576 million as the definition of a megabyte.

Me thinks that Apple marketing went with the definition that best suited their purpose.

The Hottest Gadgets of the Year

Author: Joe Merrick

Everybody is crazy about the latest high-tech gadgets and gizmos like super-slim MP4 players that can do nearly everything except shoot laser beams, advanced toy robots with artificial intelligence that are smarter than your math teacher and can transform into racing cars, micro RC helicopters that are small enough to manoeuver in a shoebox and USB turntables that are able to shrink your vast record collection down to the size of a micro chip.


But which gadgets and gizmos are really hot this year? What are the must-have gadgets of 2007, what’s going to be big next year and where can you get all this awe-inspiring stuff for a reasonable price?


That’s a lot of questions! For starters, here’s a short list of the most exciting gadgets for winter 2007/2008.


The Top 10 most remarkable Gadgets and Gizmos include:


1. Walkie Talkie Watches are elegant high quality wristwatches with full clock function that are also real professional mobile radio communicators with voice activation. They’re perfect for hiking, biking, mountaineering and other outdoor sports and - best of all - they let you communicate for free. Can your super-expensive iPhone do that?


2. A stylish hybrid between a chopper and an insect, the innovative Micro Mosquito RC Helicopter is the tiniest, lightest and most stable indoor flyer in the world and it’s so incredibly easy to navigate that even your kids can fly it in a china shop with their eyes closed.


3. The handy Ion USB Turntable allows you to convert your vinyl records into MP3s while listening to them. All you have to do is plug it into the USB port of your computer, put a record on and press “Play”. It also has a 3.5mm input jack so you can use the turntable as a converter for your tape deck or Mini Disc player.


4. The elegant Archos Gmini 402 Pocket Multimedia Center is a user-friendly 20GB multimedia player that lets you watch videos and photos, lets you listen to your favourite tunes and even lets you play games. You can plug it into your telly, computer or digital camera and it’s also a powerful digital recording unit. A must-have for multi media enthusiasts!


5. Who woulda thunk this? The Stylophone is back in style! One of the most bizarre inventions of the 70s is the ingenious Stylophone Pocket Organ. David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Pulp and even Kraftwerk used Stylophones on their recordings. Thirty years after the first Stylophone-craze, the fantastic electronic musical instrument makes its comeback with new features like volume control, headphone jack and cool new sounds. You can even plug in your iPod or MP3 player to play along to your favourite songs.


6. The environmental friendly, muscle powered Can Crusher reduces your empty beer cans to a fifth of their size. Can you drink as fast as the crusher crushes? It also has an in-built bottle-opener in case you prefer bottles.


7. Digital Photo Frames let you display your digital pictures in a new way without the need for a computer. They come in an assortment of colours, styles and sizes and are simply perfect for your office desktop or bedside locker.


8. The amazing SpiderSapien Spider-Man Robot does whatever a spider can! Well, almost. It’s as if the award-winning Robosapien was bitten by a radioactive spider: This awesome 2’ tall biomorphic robot looks like Spidey, talks like Spidey, has “Spider-Sense” and even pretends to shoot spider-webbing from his wrist like Spider-Man!


9. Designed by gamers for gamers, the phenomenal Pyramat S2000 with innovative Audio Responsive Technology, personal surround sound and rumbling bass delivers the ultimate gaming experience! Plug in your game console, iPod, telly, VCR or DVD player and feel the action!


10. Get all those coins that gather dust in your piggy bank, under the sofa cushions or in stray pots by the front door, throw them into the handy Battery Operated Coin Sorter and – presto – you have all the dough you need to buy the aforementioned gadgets!


As to where to get all these wonderful high tech toys, have you ever heard of the internet? It’s a virtual space that you can access via your computer where you can shop for these fantastic gizmos without having to leave your comfy home or office!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/gadgets-and-gizmos-articles/the-hottest-gadgets-of-the-year-246531.html

About the Author:

Joe Merrick is a copywriter and product tester for Redsave.com which is one of the UK’s leading online gift and gadget retailers, providing the hottest gadgets and latest gizmos on the market, all from one big Gadget Shop.