Do it Yourself: Tiny Battery Lamp

Here’s another product which was probably designed by someone completely bored. This is what I imagine under funny but completely useless product - special Do It Yourself Battery Lamp. Yeah, it’s like LEGO, but you need an extra 9V battery here. The rest is simple - buy one of tens various designes and build your own mini lamp. Sold as “Designer Emulation Kit,” this kit consist of a series of flat pieces that you remove from the printed circuit board, assemble, and hook up to a 9-volt battery. The price is set to 26 bucks per piece, so it won’t ruin your wallet but there are also more useful things you can buy for these money…

Microsoft sold one million Zunes

Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s Entertainment and Devices Division, confirmed in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle that the company has cleared the million mark. While he said that “a little over a million Zunes” translate into a 10% market share in the category of hard-disk-based digital audio players, Bach conceded that it wasn’t quite an “overwhelming” start: “I’m not going to pretend it’s some gigantic move,” he told the Chronicle.



However, Microsoft did reach its initial goal outlined last December by former VP Bryan Lee. At the time, Lee considered one million Zunes within a nine-month timeframe as potentially “awesome”. Compared to its rival, Apple’s iPod, Zune in fact appears to have done reasonably well: It took the iPod nearly two years to reach the one-million milestone. But, in fairness, the iPod launched in a time (2001) when the portable MP3 player was a toy for geeks and the market opportunity was hardly more than a niche. Microsoft, on the other side, launched Zune in a booming market and, in this perspective, a million sold devices suddenly do not look that “awesome” anymore. Zune has been in the market for 193 days (November 14, 2006 to May 25, 2007) in the U.S. market – which translates into about 5200 Zunes sold per day. About 30,000 stores in the U.S. are currently selling the player, which means that, on average, each store sold about 33 Zunes during this 193 day period – or one Zune every six days. Anyway, it’s still far away from promised iPod killer…

Intel builds boards with SIS chipsets

INTEL IS TO BUY in a bunch of SIS chips to launch two new low-end desktop boards.

In a bid to further diversify its range of products and to spend less time worrying about the razor-thin-margins in the low end of the motherboard market, Intel will buy in the SiS671 and 672 chipsets, according to China's Economic Daily News.

This news comes on the back of another announcement from SiS that its chipsets would be included in a new low-cost PC from Dell. That's lower cost, in fact, since the cheaper-than-Dell Dell machine will be designed for so-called emerging markets.

Between the Dell order and Intel's new-found desire to stop fiddling with cheapo chipsets, SiS should see its chipset shipments climb about 50%, according to sources. That rather indicates how few it was shipping in the first place. Honestly, who do you know that has a SiS chipset in their machine?

Like Intel's low-end parts, the 672 and 671 both have integrated graphics functionality, although performance is even worse than Intel's graphics core (yes, we never thought we'd say that either).

Xilisoft Video Converter v3.1.30.0514b

Guys from group NoPE who became famous mainly with their Windows Vista release continues in releaseing new software - Xilisoft Video Converter is one of their latest releases. This is a useful application for converting videos from almost all formats. Xilisoft Video Converter features a good looking interface and simple controls, so you shouldn’t have any problems finishing your tasks. The retail price is $35.

Xilisoft Video Converter is powerful, versatile video conversion software which convert video file between all popular video formats such as convert AVI to MPEG, WMV to AVI, WMV to MPEG, H.264 video, etc. No other program like Xilisoft Video Converter supports so comprehensive video formats including DVD, VCD, SVCD, AVI, MPEG, MP4, WMV, 3GP, H.264/MPEG-4 AVC, H.264/PSP AVC, MOV, RM, ASF, FLV, SWF, etc. In addition, The Video Converter provides an easy way to convert video file to popular audio file, like MP2, MP3, AC3, RA, M4A, OGG, AAC etc. The Video Converter also supports APE, CUE decoding and audio CD ripping.

Xilisoft Video Converter supports all of the popular multimedia devices such as PSP, iPod, MP4 player, mobile phone, Zune etc. All conversion processes, such as AVI to MPEG, WMV to MPEG, WMV to AVI, are very easy and fast with the best quality.

Product features:

* Convert video file including DVD, VCD, SVCD, MPEG ( MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ),, RM, AVI, MWV, 3GP, ASF, Divx, Xvid
* Convert audio file among OGG, Sun.au, WMA, MP3, WAV, Ra (Real Audio), M4a, AC3, AAC, MOV etc.
* Extract audio from video file including DVD, VCD, SVCD, MPEG ( MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4 ),, RM, AVI, MWV, 3GP, ASF, Divx, Xvid
* Supports batch conversion
* Supports previewing video moive.
* Supports converting more than one file simultaneously.
* Support multi-languages including English, Chinese, French, Dutch, Japanese, Persian, Nederland
* Excellent video and audio quality.
* Super easy to use, suitable for both beginners and Veterans.
* PSP Video Manager inside! It can help you to transfer mp4 file to your PSP.

EA announces first details about FIFA 08

Electronic Arts (EA) has announced that the popular football game “FIFA 08″ will be releasing worldwide this fall on all gaming consoles, including the PSP, PS2, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii, and DS, as well as on the PC. And what’s more, FC Barcelona’s world-class midfielder, and two-time FIFA World Player of the year, Ronaldinho, will feature on the front pack of the game, together with other soccer greats from select teams around the world. The soccer stars to feature along with Ronaldinho include: rising star, Sergio Ramos of Real Madrid; 2006 FIFA World Cup Golden Boot winner, Miroslav Klose of Werder Bremen, Germany; attacking midfielder and captain of Andreas Ivanschitz of Panathinaikos FC, Austria; Tranquillo Barnetta of Bayer Leverkusen, Switzerland; midfielder Florent Malouda of Olympique Lyonnais; and winger Frank Ribery of Olympique.



These stars, along with Ronaldinho, will feature on the front cover of “FIFA 08″ in their respective countries. They will also be motion captured for the game. Joe Booth, Senior Producer for ‘FIFA 08′ said, “We are proud to call some of the world’s best football athletes our partners. The access, guidance, and insight they give us means that ‘FIFA 08′ will create a next-gen experience that not only looks authentic, but that captures the emotion, finesse, and beauty of the game.” Adding to it, Matt Bilbey, International Director, EA Sports, said, “Ronaldinho and all the ‘FIFA 08′ cover stars bring a passion for the sport that is raw and true. They enjoy helping us bring that real-world experience into the game. Their expert skills, commitment to success, and passion for football inspire our development team, and help us make ‘FIFA 08′ the most natural-feeling football videogame in the world.”

Sony sued for Blu-Ray patent infringement

Still reeling over its patent lawsuit with Immersion Corporation over the Playstation rumble technology, another tech firm has sued Sony because it claims Sony’s Blu-ray Disc infringes on its patents. Target Technology Company claims that it holds a patent for reflective layer materials in optical discs, and that Blu-ray Discs use the same technology without TTC’s permission. TTC alleges that its patent, which was filed in April 2004 and approved in March 2006, was deliberately and willfully infringed. It is seeking unspecified monetary damages and a permanent injunction against Sony. Although other companies are also responsible for BD replication, the suit only names Sony Computer Entertainment America, Sony Pictures, and Sony DADC as the defendants. Several months ago, Sony faced a similar patent headache over the Dual Shock rumble feature used in its Playstation and Playstation 2 controllers. Immersion Corporation claimed it owned patents that were used in the creation of the technology, leading Sony to pay $97 million in damages. Target does not specify in its suit whether it believes all of Sony’s Blu-ray discs infringe on its patent, or the suit applies to just a portion of the discs manufactured. The patent was filed in April of 2004 and granted in March of 2006. Yeah, developing new technologies doesn’t have to be that easy as it looks…

DriverMax

Now re-installing Windows is even more easier

Well after a re-install of Windows we all have to install the drivers manually, which can be quite boring sometimes. Also I have seen many users don't have the original mobo cd's to install the drivers and don't have updated drivers as well.

But now with DriverMax, all such worries is solved. DriverMax is a new program which allows you to easily reinstall all your Windows drivers. No more searching for rare drivers on discs or on the web or inserting one installation CD after the other. Simply export all your current drivers (or just the ones that work ok) to a folder or a compressed file. After reinstalling Windows you will have everything in one place!

The Export Wizard will only export the drivers you select by copying the needed files to a folder or a compressed ZIP file.
After reinstalling Windows all drivers will be back in place in less than 5 minutes - sparing you of searching, inserting disc after disk and losing precious time. The Import Drivers wizard allows you to install all the drivers that you exported earlier. The entire operation might take up to 5-10 minutes.

Just one single computer restart will be required after all drivers are reinstalled!


DriverMax is able to display a complete report of all drivers (versions, release dates) installed on your system. This feature can also be very useful when you want to analyze the differences between the drivers installed on different machines.


And what's more it works correctly in Vista too (You have to run it in Windows XP SP2 compatibility mode).



Download :
http://innofiles.com/soft/dmx/drivermax.exe
http://www.innovative-sol.com/soft/dmx/drivermax.exe

freeware -- 2.3MB

An awsome software.

HP unleashes the Dragon

HP has launched its biggest consumer notebook to date called 'The Dragon' at the third annual HP Mobility Summit, which kicked off in Shanghai today.

The HP HDX series, which is the newest addition to the firm's Pavilion notebook line-up, is a 20.1-inch entertainment notebook aimed at the region's media buffs, casual and mid-level gamers, and performance seekers. To fit with the dragon theme, HP has featured a dragon-inspired imprint design on all the notebooks in the series.

At the summit, which was attended by Windows Middle East, Todd Bradley, executive vice president of HP's Personal Systems Group demonstrated the HDX's features, including a dual hinge - similar to Dell's XPS M2010 - that allows users to move or tilt the screen for optimal viewing, plus a Media Center remote control, which can be stored in the keyboard deck.

On the performance front, the HDX features an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, a ATI Radeon X2600 XT graphics card with 512Mbytes of graphics memory. HP's entry-level Dragon model boasts two 200Gbyte hard drives but supports up to 500Gbytes of storage. The notebook also features Altec Lansing audio supported by four integrated speakers and a sub woofer.

Optional features include a HD DVD drive, SuperMulti DVD+R/RW double layer drive and a TV tuner capable of capturing HD content.

The HP Pavilion HDX will be sold in the Middle East in the next few months and pricing starts at US $2999.

At the summit, the firm also unveiled three more additions to the Pavilion series, including the $999 dv2000 Entertainment series, which features a 14.1-inch widescreen LCD, an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and HP's own QuickPlay software. This software allows users to watch movies or listen to music instantly without having to boot up their Windows OS.

Update:- Optimus OLED keyboard

ALMOST TWO YEARS after Art Lebedev studio announced its Optimus keyboard concept, the project is now coming into the commercial arena.

Even though much can be said about the changes developers made to the project, one cannot deny that this design is something that PC industry needed.

The price is set at staggering $1564, and pre-orders will commence on May 20th. Estimated time of delivery is set for autumn this year, and we can say almost for sure that those guys will sell out first batch completely.

Optimus Maximus in all of its OLED glory. Then again, the original concept was somewhat more daring



This might be an expensive one, but when did you last hear about a keyboard that has active (luckily, silent) cooling?

Special edition Halo 3 Zune

Exclusively at GameStop: the custom Zune™ Halo 3® Edition. What could be better for the hardcore Halo 3 fan looking for a portable digital media player that deliv-ers?! And does it deliver. The limited edition black Zune is deco-rated with Halo graphics both front and back. And, it comes packed with a collection of content that showcases Zune’s out-standing music, video and picture capabilities. Zune starts with a 30GB digital media player and adds a twist. You can wirelessly share selected full-length sample tracks, playlists, pictures or your home-grown tracks directly from Zune to Zune.1 You can listen to the full-length songs that you receive up to three times in three days, flag the ones you like and easily buy them the next time you sync up. You can discover new music in the Zune Marketplace, and show off your favorite pictures and videos on the big, bright screen. Zune has all that and a built in FM tuner, too. Let your inner DJ run wild.

Sony’s new E-series MP3 player

Sony’s brand-spanking-new E-series MP3 players , and it really is quite special. It feels like a lipstick, but it’ll play considerably more music.

The cap on one end handily pops off to reveal a USB plug and the opposite end has a 3.5mm headphone socket. There’s a small, rather pixellated, but really useful colour screen that seems to float graciously under the glossy surface of the player.

t’s a really lightweight player, but its rugged build quality gives it a distinctly substantial feel. Sound quality is excellent from what we’ve heard so far, and with 30 hours of battery life, that music will keep pumping long enough for most people.

Gateway CX210X Thin and Light Tablet Notebook

Get the edge with the Gateway® Convertible Notebook. This innovative 14″ widescreen notebook transforms into a tablet in a flash! Packed with the latest technology, it features an optional Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor and an accurate stylus with Continuous Sensing Technology™. Get the best of both worlds with the Convertible Notebook, it all adds up to the right combination of performance, mobility and price.



Specifications -

* Processor: Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2350 (1.86GHz, 533MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
* Operating System: Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium (32-bit)
* Memory: 1024MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-512MB modules)
* Hard Drive: 80GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
* Display: 14.0″ WXGA TFT Active Matrix (1280 x 768 max. resolution) w/ Gateway Executive Stylus w/ Continuous Sensing Technology
* Optical Drive: 24x/10x/24x CD-RW / 8x DVD Combo Drive
* Wireless Network: Integrated Intel® 3945 802.11a/b/g wireless networking
* Battery: Primary 8-Cell Lithium Ion battery w/ 1 Yr. limited battery warrant

Samsung LNT4665F 46″ 1080p LCD HDTV

For those who are ready for a clear, bright LCD picture, Samsung presents the LN-T4665F. Full 1080p resolution is just the beginning: the color-saturated 46″ picture boasts a 15000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, displaying rich blacks and capturing subtle nuances. A fast 8ms response time ensures smooth, lifelike motion. SRS TruSurround XT sound from hidden side speakers is enhanced by the premium audio sound of 2.2 channel dome speakers. Enjoy connectivity with all your other digital devices, with 3 HDMI ports and a full complement of inputs. And the handy HMDI-CEC feature lets you control all your CEC-enabled peripherals using just one remote.



Samsung LNT4665F Spec

* Screen Size: 46 inches
* Type: LCD TV, HDTV
* Native Resolution: 1920 x 1080
* Supported EDTV and HDTV Resolutions (HD Ready): 1080p
* Aspect Ratio: 16:9
* Video Inputs: Component, HDMI, RF, S-Video
* Built-in TV Tuner: NTSC
* Rated Maximum Viewing Angle: Horizontal: 178 degrees
* Rated Maximum Viewing Angle: Vertical : 178 degrees
* Brightness (Max): 550 cd/m^2

HP Pavilion HDX “The Dragon” entertainment laptop announced

HP has announced its new Pavilion HDX recently, also known as “The Dragon”, the HP’s biggest and latest notebook which will compete with Dell’s XPS M2010 and Acer 20 inch laptop for users who want serious multimedia power in a quasi-portable form factor. This HP HDX which weighing in at 15.5-pounds has a massive 20.1-inch WSXGA (1680 x 1050 resolution) + Ultra BrightView widescreen display. The big LCD screen is perfect for you to watch the high definition movies from its built-in HDTV tuner or HD-DVD drive. Besides, audio performance is also significantly better than most laptops thanks to four Altec Lansing speakers with built-in HP Triple Bass Reflex subwoofer.



* Centrino (Core 2) Duo T7700 2.4GHz CPU
* 20.1-inch 1680 x 1050 “Ultra Brightview” display
* ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB graphics (DirectX 10)
* 4GB RAM
* Dual 200GB SATA drives, eSATA port
* Integrated ATSC / NTSC tuner with IR blaster
* 802.11a/b/g/n, Bluetooth
* HD DVD (read-only), dual layer DVD±RW drive
* ExpressCard slot, HDMI out