Sunday, March 6, 2011

Hack enables Atrix to be connected using HDMI port



Atrix is a great phone from motorola but you know it's too costly to try out the docks and guess what Fenny of xda developers has developed a new hack that modifies the phone's APK files and allows it to activate Webtop mode on standard HDMI cable.

That certainly is something. No need to go for the expensive dock as you can access the Atrix Webtop features on your TV or monitor with a bluetooth mouse and Keyboard ready. But ofcourse the phone should be rooted and deodexed to do this and it's not too difficult to do that.

Fenny's hack could make the laptop dock obsolete but you know what, the dock is something else. Eventhough expensive, it is razor thin. It also charges the Atrix phone while working in it. So you cannot completely write of the dock as of yet.

Nvidia Quad-Core chip


Nvidia on Mobile World Congress 2011 has announced a Quad-Core chip code named Kal-El. It contains four cores and delivers 5 times the CPU capacity of a Tegra 2 processor and 3 times the Graphic capacity. Well this is really exciting and interesting. They have announced that the chips should be available in tablets this August and in smartphones this Christmas.

It also has a 12 Core Nvidia Geforce GPU. Nvidia's new chip can handle 1440p videos at 2560x1660 pixel resolution. Well that's one heck of a media performance. Also they reported that it will consume less energy and provide more battery life. Because you can run four cores at low voltage and lesser clock speed than a single chip running at higher speed.

Nvidia hasn't said anything that whether the chip will be renamed Tegra 3 before the launch but this is the successor to the popular Tegra 2 chip.

Nvidia's sticking with the superhero names for the other upcoming chips as well. Kal-El is the Kryptonian name for Superman. The next chips in order will be called Wayne(Batman), Loagan(Wolverine) and Stark(Iron Man). They will be released in the next three consecutive years. And the Stark chip will have 75 times better capacity than the Nvidia Tegra 2 chip.

Also both Qualcomm and Freescale has promised to bring Dual Core chips to the market by the year end. So we will be seeing many Quad-Core devices by the year end.

Asus Quad-Core Tablets



Asus is said to be readying a Quad-Core tablet to be relased in 2011, with 3D availability. The CEO Jerry Chen hinted that the plan of the company is to ready a 3D Quad-Core tablet in 2011. The tablet is rumored to be made by the same company that made LG Optimus Pad. And it can be safely assumed that unless Google releases a new OS Asus will be sticking with the Honeycomb operating system.

Nvidia announced a Quad-Core chip earlier at the Mobile World Congress 2011 dubbed "Kal-El" for superman. That chip is said to be five times faster than the Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. Video quality will be 1440p double that of 1080p. Well that combined with the 3D display is going to make this a rocking media experience.

There is currently no word on the release or pricing of the product. But we expect to hear it soon. Stay tuned for more updates.

Tablets to shun Laptops

Well there have been many estimates and reports that tablets will shun the growth of laptops. According to the estimates with the better touch interface, great performance and much better user experience, tablets will be much more loved than a laptop. Obviously that might become just true.

Next year people are prone to buy more tablets than laptops. The PC share is also expected to grow less the next year compared to the last year. Also it is expected that Apple will still remain the leader in tablet market, with the current release of the new version of iPad, the iPad 2.

Immediately after the release of the iPad 2 they are said to take on 80% of the market share despite the release of a number of competitor tablets.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

iPad 2



Apple CEO Steve Jobs has earlier announced the successor to the iPad, the all new new iPad 2.

There have been major changes in the iPad 2. The first and foremost one is the A5 CPU. New chip with 1GHz dual core processor, which delivers 2 times CPU and a whopping 9 times Graphics capacity. Well that makes it great to play games on.

Well making the processor dual core has it's own advantages like you get a super cool phone with high end CPU performance. The core OS and all is still the same, but you would get a thundering speed increase and also the graphics is highly enhanced.

And the other thing with this is that it is thinner than the last version. The last iPad was 13.4mm thick and you know what they have reduced the thickness of the current version to just 8.8mm. Massive decrease in size. They also decreased the weight from nearly 1.53gm to just 1.3gm.

The earlier version of the iPad was criticized for it's weight and thickness. Now it's much more thin that it's great to hold it in your hand.

They also introduced a front VGA camera and rear primary camera capable of recording 720p videos. Also the former iPad lacked a gyroscope which has been included in this one, meaning much improved gaming experience.

Another thing is that you get both the black and white variants of iPad form day 1 onwards and the shipping starts from March 11. The price starts from 499$. Apple has announced they will provide both AT&T and Verizon models for the iPad 2.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Spielberg to make Wikileaks movie



Stephen Spielberg is supposed to make a movie on Wikileaks with dreamworks, his production company having bought the right of two books about the organisation and it's author Julian Assange. Wikileaks: Inside Julian Assange's war on secrecy, written by two journalists from the Gaurdain and Inside Wikileaks penned by one of Assange's former colleague.

Reports is that the movie will be a thriller and pacier than the real incident of Assange's run from the law. The movie will be more like David Fincher's Social Network about the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg. Like in that movie many incidents would be taken from various sources and some parts would be fictionalised. That would make it much more interesting to watch and there won't be any need to make a rights deal with Assange.

Social Networks success has made internet a hot topic of Hollywood and we can see a number of movies with the theme in recent years. But with Steven Spielberg at the helm and the story being that of wikileaks we can expect a great movie.

Asus with Kinect style gesture tech for PC

Asus has been demonstrating it's new PC based geture controlled technology. They are hoping to attract of potential gamers who spend less time or do not use consoles much. It's a primesense developed WAVI Xtion product.

Well PrimeSense is that company which collaborated with Microsoft on the development of first generation of Kinect for Xbox 360. WAVI stands for Wireless Audio Visula 'Interaction' transmitter and receiver. The Xtion asus's new product looks mostly like the kinect and is able to transmit user's motion from about 0.8 to 3.5 meter away.

"Connections to both PCs and TVs via wireless HDMI (WHDI technology) deliver smooth transfers of high definition content such as movies, games and photos in 5GHz with a range of up to 25 meters."
Initial software releases set to run on Asus' new gesture-tech include MayaFit Cardio Lite, a motion-sensing fitness training game and BeatBooster, "a multiplayer racing adventure game where users maneuver jet aircraft with their body movements."

PrimeSense CEO Inon Beracha said of the latest gesture tech: "Our collaboration with ASUS in providing a 3D sensing solution for WAVI Xtion proves to the industry that natural interaction technology is the ideal fit for living rooms, and that intuitive, gesture-based control will be the go-to route for operating all devices.
"We believe that PrimeSense solutions like the user interface used on ASUS' WAVI Xtion represent the future of the way people interact with consumer electronics, and help break down barriers of use to allow people to sync with the electronic world around them."

Asus is ready to sell games for it's new motion sensor technology via it's online store and is already making Xtion pro developer kit available for interested third party developers.

The details about the arrival and pricing is not out yet. Stay tuned for further updates.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Flexible batteries



A team of Korean researchers have produced flexible batteries, bendable energy sources that are at a time more powerful and cheaper than the rigid Lithium ion batteries. And unsurprisingly enough graphene is at the heart of the innovation. The rechargeable battery contains a vanadium oxide cathode, grown on a sheet of graphene paper, an unidentified seperator, and an anode made of lithium coated graphene.

According to the developers this battery sports higher energy and power density as well as better cycle life. Also one similar technology like this enlists the use of carbon nanotubes which is more costlier to make than graphene, and like everything else these technologies will also take years perhaps decades to get implemented. So bear on with the rigid lithium stuff.

Google buys security firm Zynamics

Google bought a German security firm Zynamics, which was established in 2004 by security expert Thomas Dullien known in the Hacking community as "Halvar Flake".

Zynamics blog announce that, "We are pleased to announce that Zynamics has been acquired by Google!. If you are an existing cutomer and do not receive our email announcement within the next 48 hours, please contact us at info@zynamics.com. All press enquiries should be sent to press@google.com."

A Google representative commented that they are happy with the acquisition of Zynamics and hope that their skills and tools will help Google in tackling with malwares thus protecting Google users.

Details of the deal were not disclosed.

Free Xooms, laptops and Nexus S



Developers at this GDC once again were showered with gadgets this month. They have been given free Motorola Xoom tablets, Chrome OS CR48 laptops and Google Nexus S phones. Last year it was Motorola Droid and Nexus one. Well all this absolutely free. Well Google is trying it's best to dish out more studios to join the Android Game Development platform.

Well seriously guys, most of you might have thought about going to attend the GCD. But for developers the experience they get at the conference matters and the free gadgets are only a part of it. They pay hundreds of dollars just to be here, and believe me just coming here for getting the free gadgets is not a good idea. If that's your motive I would say you go and buy these from the down here.

Sony Ericsson Walkman phone coming back


Sony Ericsson is gearing up for the release of a new and smarter Walkman phone or so the new poster says. Sony Ericsson is said to be gearing up for a 2011 new Walkman phone launch.

We don't know anything about it's specifics or features yet but, we could guess something based on the current trend. We could expect a Walkman phone with as usual great music quality, Bravia powered display and great cameras.

We don't even know whether this mystery handset will be of the xperia Android type. I suggest they go for a completely different feel this time for great music quality and all.

Seeing through walls



Light passing through walls, that's sounds like a science fiction right. Actually it does. Well if you count on lasers, it can. And also X-ray can see through suitcases and all in airports but this time Jochem Aulbach from FOM institute of Atomic and Molecular physics in Amsterdam, Germany has developed a new technology that allows scrambled light to pass through ultra thin layers of paint.

When light is passed through opaque materials it gets muddled and lost in space time continum. Aulbach and his crew used a Spatial light Modulator(SMT) to control a 64 femtosecond long laser pulse that's passed through a thin layer of paint. The light remains only long enough for machines to see and is recorded and send to a computer for calibration. With this new technology it might be possible to blast away the cancerous cells without damaging the surrounding healthy tissues.