Asus Color E-Reader

Taiwanese company Asus is coming up with its own version of e-reader, Asus Color E-Reader. This new gadget with twin screen will have color display. Date of launch is not known. Price is rumored to be around $150.

Highlights
* Color display
* Twin screen, can be opened like a book
* Multi-tasking - can be used for reading and surfing
* Touch screen navigation
* Budget and Premium versions
* Likely to have webcam and speakers under the Premium segment
* Likely to be low-priced compared to Amazon and Sony products

(Source: Internet)

Computers To Produce Smell Soon

ScentSciences, a California-based company, has developed a gadget that can add a third dimension to computing - scent, in addition to audio and visuals that we have today. This gadget can be plugged into the computer through a USB port, and it can produced relevant smell based on the visuals.


This technology will revolutionize multimedia games with great audio and 3D visuals by adding a third feature – the smell. ScentScape is a digital scent delivery system to give olfactory experience to gamers. This gadget is installed with 20 scents such as ocean and flowers.

ScentScape is a relatively small gadget (3.5” x 4.25” x 5.5"), which can be connected to a USB port. It can be placed among speakers. Catridge will contain 20 scents. Each catridge will last about 200 hours depending on use. There is a control to adjust the smell intensity.

The machine will use software algorithms to create the relevant odor related to the visuals or the game played. If you are watching the visuals of a slum, ScentScape will generate the smell characteristic of slums. As computing gets more realistic, be prepared to face the scent that the software will be producing based on what you watch on the screen. Price is not known yet.

This gadget is likely to hit markets by the end of the year.

The Snipping Tool In Windows 7

After I switched to Widows 7, I have been engaged in the task of familiarizing myself with the brand new features of this operating system. There are many new features available in Win 7 compared to Win XP, which was a very good operating system that had served its purpose. One feature that endeared me to Win 7, is the Snipping Tool, which can be found in the Accessories folder on the Start Menu.

Snipping Tool makes screen capture a breeze. It can cut image or text displayed on the screen and save it in JPG, PNG, GIF or HTML format. This image can be later edited using an image editing application. What makes it all the more interesting is that, you can capture your favorite scenes from a movie or video and save it as a still image. Below I have given a screen shot that I had cut from a YouTube video featuring Jen Aniston. I have also added a blue border around it in Photoshop.

This tool is available only from Win 7 Home Premium upwards.

Blackberry Playbook - iPad 2 Comparison

Close on the heels of Apple’s announcement of its iPad 2 launch date (March 11, 2011), RIM has made available to the public pictures of its upcoming tablet PC, Blackberry Playbook. Though the launch date is not confirmed, April 10, 2011 is bandied about as being the probable date. Here is a comparison between the two – iPad 2 and Blackberry Playbook. The important omission on the part of iPad 2 is the information about its RAM. While Blackberry offers a whopping 1GB RAM, iPad 2 is likely to have its old 256 MB. Also, Blackberry Playbook supports flash, but iPad 2 not.

iPad 2 Price

Blackberry Playbook’s price is not available as yet.

Internet Getting Ready To Switch To IPv6 Address System

The current Internet address system IPv4 will be expiring immediately, by the middle of this year. The total capacity of the present system is about 4.3 billion addresses, divided into 256/8 blocks. The last 2 blocks of the present system was allocated to Asia Pacific Network Information Centre on 3^rd February, 2011 in Florida. Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) is responsible for allocating address blocks to Regional Internet Registries (RIRs), who will distribute the final addresses to the needy in their region.

When the present system was designed in 1980s, it was thought that the addresses will last for ever. But the heavy growth in the use of internet, both in developed and developing countries, has contributed to the fast depletion of the IPv4 address system. Wide spread use of mobile devices to access internet is another reason. Class A address blocks that can hold 16 million addresses were allotted to universities and large organizations, because the next smaller allocation unit, Class B could hold only 65536 addresses, and was inadequate for their requirements.

IPv6 address System

IPv6 address system is the only viable solution to the shortage of addresses. This system has a 128-bit address format compared to 32-bit format of IPv4. IPv6 can have 3.4x10^38 addresses. That would be a whopping: 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses for about 6.5 billion people populating this world.

Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830

Samsung’s new mobile phone Samsung Galaxy Ace S5830 is now available in India. Its operating system is Android v2.2 (Froyo). Its main features include a 5 MP camera with auto focus, LED flash and 2x Digital Zoom. Specifications and major features of Samsung’s new mobile phone are given below.

·    Weighs 113g

·    Dimensions: 112.4mm x 59.9mm x 11.5mm

·    Screen: 3.5” HVGA TFT capacitive touch screen with 16M colors

·    Camera: 5 MP with auto focus LED Flash, 2x Digital Zoom

·    Stereo FM radio

·    USB: micro USB v2.0

·    Messaging: SMS, MMS, Email

·    Battery: 1350 mAh Li-ion

·    Stand by time: up to 640 hrs (2G), 420 hrs (3G)

·    Talk time: up to 660 min (2G) / 390 min (3G)

·    Connectivity: 3G, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPRS, GPS and Edge

·    Internal memory: 150 MB

·    External memory: Micro SD card up to 32 GB

Price: around  INR 15,000/-

Sasmung Galaxy Ace Features & Specifications:

• Screen: 3.5 inches, HVGA TFT capacitive touchscreen, 16M colors
• Network support : GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / HSDPA 2100 Mhz
• Operting System: Android OS, v2.2 (Froyo)
• USB : micro USB v2.0
• Messages : SMS, MMS, Email
• Band : Quad Band
• Camera : 5 Mp Camera with Auto Focus & LED Flash
• Bluetooth : Yes, 3.0 with A2DP
• Radio : Stereo FM Radio
• Geo- Tagging
• WLAN : Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
• Internal Memory : 150MB
• External Memory : Micro SD Card Up to 32 GB

Sasmung Galaxy Ace Price in India: Sasmung Galaxy Ace is available in India around Rs. 14,990/- approx. (Indian Rupees) INR.

Apple's iPad 2

Apple's latest edition of best-selling tablet PC, iPad 2 will be out in the US market on March 11, 2011. Its predecessor iPad has sold 10 millions units world wide in 2010, and holds 90% of the tablet PC market share. Highlights of iPad 2 is posted below.

Highlights

·    Available in two colors – black and white.

·    Supports both GSM and CDMA networks.

·    Thinner than its predecessor by 33% - thickness being 8.8 mm.

·    Weigh 15% less

·    A5 Dual Core processor, which is 9 times faster in graphic performance, but with same power consumption (10 hrs of battery life)

·    A front camera for video and a rear camera for photos

·    Gyroscope and HDMI feature to connect to the TV.

·    Comes with a new case with wake-on-open-sleep-on-close feature.

·    Available for the same price as its predecessor, $499-$829, depending on the memory.