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Wii bowler beats real bowler in senior videogame tourney

December 26, 2007 – 9:16 pm

Wii bowler beats real bowler in senior videogame tourney
Proving once again that athleticism and real-world experience have little bearing on the outcome of Wii Sports matches, a 79-year-old bowler was defeated by an 84-year-old who’d only recently picked up the game — virtually — in their retirement community’s latest Nintendo tournament. Obviously a popular pastime among the senior crowd, playing Wii has gotten so big at the 3000-resident Riderwood complex in Montgomery County, Maryland that semi-regular tournies are held in the various events, with underdog Nancy Davies (not pictured) upsetting previous champ Hal Winters (also not pictured) in the most recent excitement-filled Bowling final. When asked to comment on the 202 to 182 stunner, the few other folks who were both awake at the time and able to remember the action agreed that the match was surely one for the record books.

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Top 10 portable speakers

December 21, 2007 – 1:07 pm

Top 10 portable speakersYou want to take your tunes on the road, but headphones don’t always cut it, and even the smallest home speakers and receivers/amplifiers aren’t portable. Technology has come to the rescue with a new breed of portable speakers that sound a lot better than the tinny models you might remember from the Walkman days. These useful devices are the hot ticket for travelers, dorm rooms, the beach, or the office; they plug into iPods, MP3 players, and laptops’ headphone jacks, with sound that can easily fill a small to medium-size room.

It’s also true that you can get much better sound with a decent set of headphones, which are even more portable and have deeper bass, superior treble detail, and better stereo imaging. But headphones are best appreciated alone. Portable speakers are ideal for social settings where you want to share your tunes with a few others or when you’re milling around your hotel room getting ready for a night out on the town. Below you’ll find the Top 10 contenders. Some are perfect for frequent travelers, while others are best suited for the office or trips to the beach, and all of them have the option of being powered from built-in or replaceable batteries.

1. Altec Lansing InMotion iM7: The iM7 is a great modular and portable sound system for iPod owners.
2. Altec Lansing inMotion iM600: Altec Lansing has been in the iPod speaker market longer than anyone, and it shows. The inclusion of a rechargeable battery and an FM radio makes the iM600 incredibly versatile.
3. LG Portable Stereo Speakers MSP-100: If you’re looking for ultracompact speakers that don’t sacrifice on sound quality, LG’s Portable Stereo Speakers MSP-100 fits the bill–and it won’t break the bank.
4. Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere: It may not be the most compact portable speaker on the block, but the Logitech Pure-Fi Anywhere offers useful extras and great sound for an affordable price.
5. Yamaha NX-A01: The Yamaha NX-A01 won us over with its minimal design and sound quality, but don’t expect it to blow the roof off.
6. Logitech PlayGear Amp: The Logitech PlayGear Amp is a great audio solution for users looking to get more sound out of their movies, music, and games on the PSP.
7. Altec Lansing InMotion iM4: The Altec Lansing iM4 finally delivers the bass we’ve been craving in small portable speakers, and they’re not iPod-centric, so you can use them with any MP3 player.
8. Creative TravelSound Zen V Portable Speakers: For frequent fliers who own Creative’s Zen V MP3 player and don’t want to be stuck listening to clock radios, the TravelSound Zen V is a fine choice.
9. Bushnell TravelTunes for iPod: The Bushnell TravelTunes Portable Speakers for iPod are an obvious choice for the outdoor enthusiast–or anyone who spends a lot of time in the backyard. Just keep in mind that weather protection for the iPod itself is not part of the package.
10. Logitech mm32: Frequent travelers who want to release their music from the confines of an MP3 player should seriously consider the Logitech mm32.

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New Li-Ion batteries get 10x boost

December 21, 2007 – 10:55 am

As Stanford researchers, report a heavy boost to current Lithium-Ion technology is just behind the corner. We are to expect up to 10 times more performance out of the same-volume batteries. As the new invention is getting a patent application filed, the assistant professor of materials science and engineering Yi Cui who led the research, is negotiating a deal with battery manufacturers.

It’s been a long time since we’ve seen anything happening on the battery side. This discovery however is nothing less than revolutionary and will either allow mobile phones to last months with a single charge or their batteries will get really minute.

The secret behind this great invention is called silicon nano-wires. Now although it sounds like something coming from the Sci-Fi channel, in fact it’s dead simple - it’s just a new way of doing things. And in this case - it’s a new way of storing the lithium in the battery.

Traditionally, the electrical storage capacity of a Li-ion battery is limited by how much lithium can be held in the battery’s carbon anode. Silicon has a much higher lithium-storing capacity than carbon, but also has a drawback - charging cycles pulverize it and thus degrade its performance.

Cui’s battery gets around this problem with nanotechnology. The lithium is stored in a forest of tiny silicon nanowires, each with a diameter one-thousandth the thickness of a sheet of paper. The nanowires inflate four times their normal size as they soak up lithium. But, unlike other silicon shapes, they do not fracture with time.

We are more than eager to see what the handheld-powered future has in store for us and this new Li-Ion technology.

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Apple tops Time’s Top 10 Gadgets of the year charts

December 20, 2007 – 5:16 am

Apple tops Time’s Top 10 Gadgets of the year charts
As we are coming to the end of the year real fast, various companies have started measuring what they would consider the most influential gadgets of the year. However this year. our beloved Apple iPhone hit the top of the charts beating other gadgets to the top spot of the top 10 list. Here is a quote directly from their website;

“The iPhone changed the way we think about how mobile media devices should look, feel and perform. The design is exceptional inside and out: It’s got a slick glass-and-stainless steel case and an elegant touch screen loaded with eye candy. It’s an iPod and a 2-megapixel camera. Images and video clips display vertically or horizontally — they reorient themselves depending on how you hold the thing. When the phone detects a wireless network within range — your own home wi-fi set up or somebody else’s — it lets you tap once to connect, and then proceed with your Web surfing, Google mapping, emailing and other activities that can otherwise be painfully slow over AT&T’s cellular network — the only one, unfortunately, that carries iPhone calls.”

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The coolest Asus EEE PC mod ever; touchscreen display

December 20, 2007 – 5:00 am

So far, we have seen the coolest Asus EEE PC mod. The Asus EEE PC was modded to sport a touchscreen; something that could be really cool on such a small computer. According to various sources, the touchscreen display was bought on eBay by the person and fitted onto the EEE PC. Preety cool isn’t it? Next we want is a swivel screen along with it.

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