Latest Technology Blog

The momentous invention of Apple industry has been the ipods. This gadget has become a mass hysteria with every single individual vying to possess it. With a large memory space to store up to 1000 songs, this baby has become more popular than Madonna has.

The teenagers dominate the consumer market for ipods. Children and adults too contribute towards the consumers list for this product teens take the cake. There may be many reasons to associate ipods and teenagers but the most common being style and status symbol. In addition, the second most common reason is peer pressure.

There has been lot of contemplation over the impact of ipod on the teenagers. Though ipods can be beneficial for the teens, as they not only help them get over their boredom but also facilitate in strengthening their concentration power. There are certain features available in ipods that assist in education too. Teens can master diverse languages and gather information on varied topics through Podcast.

However, as the saying goes “all good comes with some bad”, similarly ipod has its own share of negative influence. Studies have shown that teenagers alienate themselves from the social scenario once ipods come in their lives. Ipods fulfill their need for a companion. Moreover, studies too get affected as playing ipod while studying leads to disturbance in concentration power.

Ipods are also believed to incur hearing loss. Plugging in earplugs for longer hours at a high volume gradually reduces the hearing power and finally leads to permanent hearing loss. Prolonged hearing of music also leads to headache.

Ipods are expensive and may cause a huge dent on our pocket when purchased. The initiating price range of the most simplistic model itself is very high. The more refined the version, the costlier it gets. Hence, as a guardian one has to decide whether is it advisable to go for such an extravagant buy for a child?

Any product when wisely and moderately used becomes a boon and at the same time becomes a curse when misused. Thus, it is essential for parents to keep an eye on their teenaged flock who are mesmerized by this device. It is also significant to guide the young mind about the merchandise and its “pros and cons”.

As we all know that Alexa is a company which ranks different websites as according to their traffic details. Here are the top 10 sites according to them:

Number 1 is Yahoo (www.yahoo.com). The site popularly known for its mail, chat, directory and search engine.

Number 2 is Google (www.google.com). The site popularly known for its search engine. World’s number 1 search engine.

Number 3 is YouTube (www.youtube.com). YouTube is the best way to share your videos with the people who matter for you.

Number 4 is Windows Live (www.live.com). Live is the search engine from Microsoft.

Number 5 is Facebook (www.facebook.com). A social site which connects the people. You can manage your photos and friends easily.

Number 6 is Microsoft Network or MSN (www.msn.com). Portal of Microsoft, mainly used as a search engine and content provider.

Number 7 is Myspace (www.myspace.com). One more social networking site.

Number 8 is Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org). One of the finest site of the world, you can use it as an Encyclopedia.

Number 9 is Blogger (www.blogger.com). Free site which provide the option of creating personal and topical weblogs.

Number 10 is again Yahoo (www.yahoo.co.jp). Yahoo in Japanese Language.

This way Alexa has huge rankings of websites. Recently they came with the downloaded version of the list of top 1,000,000 global website. To download the website list of 10th December 2008, please click here.

The gizmo freak world boasts of a new gadget every now and then and generation X go gaga over them itching to possess them as soon as possible. This is the scenario of the gadget dominated world today. Gone are the days when a refrigerator or a mixer grinder was a matter of pride. These things have become basic commodities nowadays and the world today talks of gadgets like play stations, plasma television, ipod, iphone, Microsoft Xbox etc. The list is endless and the money too is big for them.

Every individual today wants to stay at par in this tech savvy world. It is a craze and a style statement nowadays to own the latest gizmo product available in the market. Iphones and ipods are the most desired products today. It is a well known fact that buying them would cause a huge dent to our pay package but one can’t resist them. Plasma TV though expensive is a must have today. Kids can’t do without play stations and mobiles and humans have become inseparable.

Calculating the necessities and luxuries makes us realize that a major chunk of our money goes in buying these gadgets. The desire of people to be at par with technology makes them go for expensive devices. Upgraded versions of mobiles, ipods, Iphones get launched every 6 months and people immediately replace the previous electronic gadget with the new one.

Looking at this trend it is obvious that most of or tech savvy lot is investing a lot of money into gadgets. But how does one curtail such thriving? Well, the wisest step would be to show a little patience. One has to realize that every time at the launch of a new upgraded version of a product the prices are very high. So one has to wait for the prices to come down to buy them. Secondly all the competitive firms have their own feature highlights which confuse the buyers at the time of purchase. So it is advisable to go through the reviews of the product in television or in technical magazines and then go for the one suited for you.

The most sensible step would be to surf the internet, magazines etc and try to find out what are the future products coming in market and then accordingly wait to buy the one you desire. One may also look into the option of owning a second hand one to suit his budget. This may additionally aid you in understanding the gadget and utilizing it in the best possible way. It is also necessary to understand the requirement and necessity of the gadget. Accordingly it is appropriate to check the features offered and strike a balance between the money and features.

So next time you want to own your favorite gizmo in this fast paced and rapidly advancing world think and follow the above points in order to possess it within reasonable and affordable prices.

Recently BenQ Corp has launched the 22 inch LCD Monitor in India. It is in fact a 21.5″ monitor, a 1080p Full LCD Monitor.

The best part of this E2200HD monitor is that it is coming with both VGA and HDMI facility. This LCD monitor is coming up with a headphone jack, so that you can enjoy your favorite music too with the work.

The features of E2200 LCD monitor includes 1920X1080 Pixels resolution. The brightness limit is up to 300 cd per square meter. This LCD has an unique 16:9 aspect ratio and the contrast ratio of 10000:1, which is really excellent.

It has a facility that it can access content from DVD players as well as STBs camcorders. People will probably get it for a price of around 300$.

2008 is a very eventful year with inflations, depression, terrorism, natural calamity etc. but disasters are not the only thing that this year could be related to. There are numerous gadgets which have come in market to cheer us up and make life easy. Few of them are as follows:

Microsoft photosynth: Microsoft in collaboration with Washington University has created a new visual medium known as the photosynth. This visual medium portrays the photos clicked by regular digital camera into 3d images. It has a unique feature of collaborating all the features of the photographs clicked to form a common background where the snaps were clicked and then the snaps are further displayed on this canvas background.

Apple phone 3G: This sleek iPhone with 16GB memory is an excellent buy. With the enhanced feature of 3G the call clarity is much defined, the software supports music downloads from third party music stores and there is expandable mail exchange possible. The phone has better display of videos. This wireless device has a plastic body and looks sleek.

Apple ipod touch: Every thing is just a touch away for this ipod. Ipod touch enables us to access mails anywhere in the world with the wireless internet facility. You can download 20,000 songs from the wi fi store or download itunes online from the music store. There is access and storage of photographs, email exchange and map reading possible on this device. The 16 GB memory space with 3.5 inch screen space allows one to watch movies. You can make notes too on the ipod. You can access your television too through the satellite network.

GatewayXHD3000 monitor: This 30 inch LCD monitor is a very expensive buy but worth every penny. There are some great features like inbuilt speakers, HDMI, sharp picture quality attributed to the blu ray and DVD playback, optical audio rack, DMI etc. the picture and sound quality is amazing. The screen is matt finished. There are multiple connectivity facilities on the LCD and you can connect your PC too with this monitor.

Logitech squeezebox boom: This music player is a boon to the music industry. With a 30watt digital speaker and amplifier the music resounds in its fullest glory. There are inbuilt dual antennas which ensure clear and faster wireless network speed. This boom box enables one to get connected with the radio stations across the world. It has an alarm facility and a battery backup. It is compact yet ensures full enjoyment of music.

Nissan Around view monitor: This technology developed in japans is the latest accessory in the automobile industry. Around view monitor offers an overall view of the vehicles parked or moving around the concerned vehicle for easy movement and parking. There are camera’s placed in the front , rear and both the sides at 180 degree angle to give an overall view of vehicles around. Parking gets easy with this technology as a beeper system in provided to indicate the proximity and shifting of gear enables front and rear view so that parking can be easy and accurate.

I have been aspiring to own a laptop from last few months. There are so many people who have been aspiring to own a laptop, but always get spoilt for choice. There are so many varieties available in market that can satisfy the needs of the customer but that confused him as well. People are not aware from the fact that a small consideration can satisfy their needs of the laptop as well as style too without burning a hole in the pocket of them.

Your Requirement: Before you buy a laptop for yourself, you will need to calculate your requirement. You need to figure out what you want to do from the laptop which you are going to purchase. The need for a professional, a graphic designer, a web developer and a student will always differ. You have to take your pick depending on your usage of the functionalities.

Here are a few lists of things which you require to consider before purchasing the laptop which can suit your style and need:

1> Memory: Depending on your need you can choose the memory for your laptop. You can choose the option of 1 GB RAM and 160 GB Hard Disk for your laptop, for a normal laptop. If you need a faster laptop then you can opt for 2GB or more RAM too. If you need more movies on your laptop then you can choose for higher memory too.

2> Processor: If your budget is less then you can opt for Celeron, but if you don’t have any problem with the money then you can choose Core2Duo processors. There are so many varieties of processors available in market, choose the processor according to your wallet.

3> Monitor: You can get 14 or 15 inch monitor if you want to limit your budget. If you travel a bit more and you need a smaller Laptop, then you can opt for different monitors of the range of 5.6 inch to 13.3 inch. If you have a big budget then you can also opt for 17 inch monitor.

4> Connectivity: Most of the laptops today come with 2 ports; some with 4; and some with 6 too. Parallel ports are common these days. You can either choose Wi-fi, USB, LAN, Bluetooth etc. for your laptop or not.

5> Battery: Battery life is crucial for your laptop. At the minimum the laptop should be able to function for at least 2-3 hours on full charge. If you can invest more than you can get a more battery life too.

Do a bit of market research before purchasing the laptop and choose which suits your needs and preferences as per your pocket too.

A sad news for the fans of the Lively, it is going to shut down after 31st of December 2008. Lively was a program developed by Google Lab, through the help of which you can be able to create an avatar in the way which you like and chat with your friends in the rooms which you design.

Google team has launched the Lively in July 2008 in Google Lab. The motive behind developing Lively was to provide the users an opportunity to be able to interact with their online friends and express themselves. Google always supports these type of activities as they have clearly mentioned it in their official blog:

Google has always been supportive of this kind of experimentation because we believe it’s the best way to create groundbreaking products that make a difference to people’s lives.

Ultimately google has accepted that all risks are not going to pay off, and that is why they have decided to close it at the end of December. Read more about all this at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/lively-no-more.html

With the advent of technology and its fast pace over the last few decades the humankind has been forced to look for alternative sources of energy. The current economic crisis coupled with energy crisis, dwindling resources have made us ponder, and re look at our natural resources. Solar energy is a promising field, which has made sufficient head way since its first use. A renewable from of energy, which is abundantly available, and has been utilized since ancient ages. Testimony to this fact has been specific references of solar ponds found in ancient civilization.

solar home lightning system

Solar technology normally relates to use of sun’s radiant energy in form of heat absorbed by ponds, oceans, and atmosphere. It is also a fact that about 30 percent of this incident radiation is reflected back to the space. Solar technology utilizes and traps this energy by use of devices for use. Typical installations, which have been utilized since early civilization in many architectural monuments, include heating of rooms and providing light/ warmth. The orientation and design of such buildings was made to utilize the energy. Agriculture and horticulture have also evolved and green houses are now a days a common feature. It has a great utility value in our daily homework too where the solar energy is converted to thermal energy and is available for cooking, heating water etc. Solar technology has found its most successful use in rural development in most of the countries owing to its cheap and abundant supply.

Use of photovoltaic cells in applications such as electronic industry and production of electricity for home has also been an area of extreme research and expansion. It is a form of energy devoid of any pollution and harmful effects and hence popular for automobile industry. This coupled with rising oil prices have led the researchers turn towards this form of energy in the field. Though it has its own disadvantages but the benefits such as low pollution, abundant and economical availability, and conservation of energy resources offsets it.

The global market is flooded with electronic, electrical and IT devices which prove to be extremely helpful in professional as well as personal life of the user. Apple Inc has proved to hold the customers fascination and is one company, which satisfies the customers in every aspect. I also am a big user of the apple products. My five favorite apple products are as follows:

Mcbook: It is a single enclosure device performing multiple functions at the same time popularly known as “unibody”. The LCD monitor has been designed using LED back light technology, which warms up faster, and the images appear brighter. This product has proved to be environment friendly by using the LED technology, which is mercury, and arsenic free. This technology exhibits energy conservation. The new McBook trackpad is devoid of all buttons as the trackpad perform all the button functions single-handedly.

Touch screen IPod: This sleek iPod boasts off a sleek body. This iPod is loaded with 100’s of games, iTunes and movies and has amazing memory status. There is a volume button on the left side, which enables us to easily monitor the volume. There is an inbuilt speaker, which eliminates the use of headphones. It has a very long lasting battery. This technology has an associated Nike plus iPod sensor, which can be fixed in a Nike shoe keep a track of our work out be it running or cardio workout. It is easier to transfer the data too from the sensor to the main memory.

Apple 3G iPhone: This is the latest in iPhones with better memory and added salient features. 3G iPhones have made communication easier by inbuilt feature of net access where mails can be checked. The phone has better memory space and downloading games is easier. Its GPRS technology helps in map reading and tracing locations. It has language support system, which encourages use of the iPhone in different languages giving it a universal appeal. The iPhone has a scientific calculator too. Apart from that, there is SMS facility, music download facility, camera, easy contact search, more viewing of attachment, calendar etc.

Apple IPod nano: This is an amazing sleek iPod with a sleek body and a wide screen for featuring videos and movies. There is an inbuilt MP3 player and iTunes too can be downloaded and played. There are many games downloads possible with visual graphics. The iPod has excellent memory space of 4GB and 8GB. The phone has a very long lasting battery. It has split screen feature displaying the song play list and what is playing right now facility.

iTunes5: The iTunes were launched in Sept 2005 and have been one of the most widely used products of apples. There is a shuffle facility for randomizing the shuffle d songs and play list can be created for easy access of songs. There is an enhanced feature of podcasts which incorporate 100’s of songs and an equal number of Audio tunes. There is a parental control facility, which enables the parents to keep a track of their child’s iTunes ventures. There are numerous iTunes available online in the music stores, which can be accessed using credit cards and can be put into a folder.

Convergence technology in lay mans’ term is alliance of different technologies to form a common access point for all of them at one go. The merger is formed to improve efficiency of the product by sharing of resources. The world today is surrounded by media convergent’s functioning at multiple level.

The best example of convergent technology is the internet. This IT programme was introduced in 1969 for the sole purpose of education. Internet was used as a medium of transference of educational data among different institutes. However with the changing time and IT boom in 1990’s this medium suddenly glorified. It was used for sharing of information on all possible topics. Now it has book reading facility, and you can play songs, watch a movie and have the updated news of what all is happening around the world.

The secondly important convergent technology development is mobile. The handsets today are loaded with GPRS facility, Bluetooth options, FM radio, MP3 player, camcorder, voice recorder, voice mails and text messages. The latest versions today come with web connectivity for accessing mails. There are additional accessories like memory card which enhances the efficiency of the mobiles. The mobile market has become very competitive with each company coming up with new user friendly feature.

Convergence technology has boomed to such an extent that the whole world appears to be at your door step. Text messages can be sent from mobiles and internet to the landlines. PC‘s are used to watch movies, play games, listen to songs and watch television along with internet. IPod is the new music machine falling in the same category with ample memory storage and can play 1000 songs at a go and is also used for watching movies, for clicking snaps and is also used as camcorder.

The multiplicity of these objects make life easier for the user. But there are drawbacks too of this technology. The original use of the product gets lost in the web of multi functionality. However there are pros and cons of everything. But we should not forget that life has become so convenient after convergent technology.