Friday, December 28, 2007

Ferrari Motorola Z8 - Limited Edition

Can't afford a Ferrari? Well you can still buy one! After the success with Acer, Italian Automaker Ferrari has teamed up with Motorola and launched the limited edition Ferrari Motorola Z8 cellphone.The phone has Ferrari written all over it(atleast in terms of colours and the logo).Inside you will find a free video from Ferrari, wallpapers, ringtones, pre registration to ferrariworld.com, online magazine subscriptions and The Bourne Identity.Just be careful while handling it, might be too hot!

Source Mobile Mag

Uniden MapTrax GPS - Give Cops The Slip






















Uniden is showcasing six new GPS devices which will come integrated which with Radar Detection. With this you could not only reach your destination in the quickest way but also........avoid speeding tickets.Yes some of us do like to go over the red line once in a while without getting caught. With radar detection you can locate where the troopers are going to pounce from and accordingly give them the slip! Other features include Bluetooth, text-to-speech,
2GB internal map memory, windshield mount, and pre-loaded maps from NAVTEQ.

Source MobileMag

USB Key Snoop - Your Teenager's Nightmare









Need to know what sites your teenager has been surfing...., or whether your loved one seems to have has more than one "loved one"....,well with the USB Key Snoop you can do all that and more. The Key Snoop is basically a keylogger device which records upto 128,000 keystrokes on anything that is entered into your keyboard whether its E-mail, Chat, Internet addresses , Entries in search engines etc. For example if you want to know who has been surfing on philanderers.com just key in the password and Key Snoop will show you who's been where. There is no software installation , just plug your USB keyboard into the Key Snoop and the Key Snoop's USB wire into the USB jack on you computer. Thats it, you're now ready to snoop!

Source Crave.Cnet

UK Worker Rakes In Huge Internet Bill













Ian Simpson, a UK resident is the newest entrant in the "High Paying Netizens" club by raking in an internet bill of....£27,322. He apparently downloaded nearly 30TV shows each of 250MB on his £7.5 monthly connection which had a limited monthly download of just 120 MB.(No Wonder) The poor guy thought that it was an unlimited connection only to find out that it was his bill which turned out to be unlimited.And although Vodafone wasn't to blame (technically atleast), their rates were a bit absurd with extra charges of upto £18 per minute

Source Wired

Samsung P2-Mp3 Player













Samsung's new P2 Mp3 player features a 3 inch touchscreen with a resolution of 480x272 pixels. You get the power/play/pause buttons on the left edge with the volume controls on the right. However you only get Bluetooth with the P2 and no Wifi. So if you need to surf the web or download stuff you should go for the Archos 605 Wi-fi (or) the iPod touch. A nice feature about the P2 is that you can pair the P2 with a headset and a cell phone; when a call comes in, the P2 switches the headset audio to the incoming call, and you can talk via the pinhole mic on the bottom of the player. With a batttery life of about 30 hours the P2 is available in two versions, 4GB priced at $200 and 8GB at $250.

Source i4u

Amazon Sales Chart Zooms Ahead











17 Wiis sold on Amazon! That doesn't sound much does it? But hold on that's 17 Wiis sold per second...yes PER SECOND!.Amazon.com says it's holiday season sales this year was its bestever with strong sales from Nintendo's Wii and "Harry Potter And The Order Of the Phoenix" movie DVD. Also on December 10th the company averaged overall sales at about 62 items Per Second with over 3.9 million items sold in one day.WTF? At this rate they should probably change the company's name to "Amazoom" instead.

Source Cnn

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Wiki Search - More Transparency















Jimmy Wales, Founder of Wikipedia plans to launch Wikia Search which is a search engine service similar to Google, Yahoo and the like. Users will be able filter sites and rank search results using a model similar to that of Wikipedia. The service he says will enhance transparency by allowing users to see how search results are arrived at, something which none of the "Big Boys" like Yahoo (or) Google offer. Launch date - Jan 7th

Source Yahoo News

Panasonic To Launch Ultra Thin Blu Ray Drive

Panasonic has come up with an ultra thin Blu-ray disc drive for notebooks which measures just 0.37 of an inch(the earlier one from Panasonic measured 0.5 of an inch). The drive can and read and write DVD's in the Blu-Ray format as well as standard CD's and DVD's. Toshiba says it also plans to launch an equally thin drive with similar features in HD-DVD format.


Source Yahoo News


Did Bell Invent The Telephone?




















A new book"The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret written by Seth Shulman claims that Bell pinched ideas for his telephone from a rival, Elisha Gray.Bell's lab notebook which was digitised and widely available in 1999 gives details about the false starts he and his assistant Watson encountered when they tried transmitting sound over a wire.Then, after a 12-day gap in 1876 when Bell went to Washington to sort out patent questions about his work — he suddenly began trying another kind of voice transmitter which proved successful. The technique used was very similar to that which was listed in Gray's patent documents. Also Bell's transmitter design appears hastily written in the margin of his patent and he was quite nervous during his demonstration.

Source Yahoo News

Movie Rental Service On iTunes












iPod and iPhone might soon be able to rent movies from Apple's iTunes store. Reports have come in that Apple and Twentieth Century Fox Film have signed a deal which would allow iTunes users to download new movies and keep them for a specific period of time.TC.Fox is also going to make use of Apple's FairPlay digital rights management technology on its DVD releases, which would enable the movies to be ripped on to computers using iTunes and also onto iPods and iPhones. CEO, Steve Jobs will make news of this at Macworld on Jan 14th

Source Crave.Cnet

Thursday, December 27, 2007

Lacie Ethernet Disk Mini - Access Anywhere

LaCie's new 500GB Ethernet Disk mini external drive comes loaded with features. The SATA drive spins at 7200RPM and comes with an 8MB cache. You also get a USB port for external backups, a power plug and a Kensingto style lock port. However it will only work with Windows 2000, XP and Vista as well as Mac OS X 10.3 or higher - including Leopard. Browser access is pretty varied though - Windows Explorer 6 or higher, Safari 1.3 or higher, Firefox 1.5 or higher.One really cool feature about the mini is that you can access data stored on it from anywhere in the world. Once your mini is rigged onto your network via a LAN cable, all you need to do is log into homelacie.com , key in your username and password and voila! you can access your files and upload them.This way you won't have to carry your mini with you. Now thats portability!

Source i4u


Cowon N3 - GPS + TV



Cowons new N3 is a GPS navigation device with which you can watch T.V while running the navigation software in a PIP frame.Powered by the Alchemy AU1250 600Mhz processor the N3 features a 7 inch screen(made by Samsung) with a resolution of 800x400 pixels. The list of features doesn't stop there; you also get
32MB FLASH, 128MB RAM, SIRF III GPS chip, Microsoft WinCE 5.0 OS, 4W Stereo Speaker, SD Card Slots, AV In, Video Camera In, Line Out, FM Transmitter, AVI, ASF, WMV, MPG, OGM, DivX, XviD, MPEG4, WMV9 video support, MP3, WMA, ASF, OGG, WAV, FLAC, APE, MPC audio support and JPG, BMP, PNG, RAW photo support. Feeling Dizzy?

Source i4u

Sony Cybershot S730 - Coming This Jan







Sony's soon to be launched Cyber -shot s730 is a 7.2 megapixel camera which features a crisp 2.4 inch screen along with a 3x optical zoom lens which can shoot images upto ISO 1250 in it's "High Sensitivity " mode. You also get a multi point autofocus mode which supposedly guarantees you crisp images even if your subject is fidgeting about or is not in the centre.Also loaded are functions like flash, macro and self-timer settings, as well as on-screen advice to help you select the right settings for your chosen subject. Beginners need not worry as the Camera helps by picking the optimum image size for shooting depending on your printing paper size. The Cyber-shot s730 should be in stores by Jan 2008(In Europe).

Source Yahoo News




Asus U2 - Coming Soon










Asus' new portable notebook, the Asus U2 comes in stainless steel with a bundled casing. It features include:

11.1 inch screen
WXGA LED backlit display
GMA X3100 integrated graphics
1.06GHZ Intel Core Duo Processor ULV
120GB HDD
32GB SSD Drive
Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g
4GB RAM(Maximum)
weighs 2.75 pounds

Source lifeatmost


Turboflame Arc - Lights Up Anything


















The Turboflame Arc Lighter looks like something you would see in one of those Matrix movies. Ultra sleek and supremely crafted the Turboflame brings new meaning to "Lighting Up". It's an all metal lighter which is available in chrome, brushed steel or titanium and you also get soft rubber grips to make sure you don't drop this beautiful gadget.With a Jet like flame of around 1
300°c firing out of its spout you can literally light up almost anything . The Turboflame is operated by a soft touch ignition system and also indicates when its low on gas. And to make sure you get your money's worth it's shipped with a 5 year warranty as well.

Source Turboflame



Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Logitech Quick Cam Pro For Notebooks














Logitech's new QuickCam Pro webcam provides you with unmatchable video quality via its 2 megapixel Carl Zeiss lens. The clarity is excellent and the cam does not flare up in bright rooms nor does it dim down in hazy ones. However to squeeze out all the juice that the cam has to offer, you will need the latest Skype 3.6 for Windows, a powerful processor such as Intel's Core 2 duo and an 8mbps broadband line. Whew!.... And you thought you needed to upgrade your computer to play Ghost Recon!. Price $149

Source theage


DVICO TVIX 5130 - Plays Almost Anything













The DVICO TVIX 5130 is a multimedia centre which enables you to play audio, video in almost any format as well as record high-definition TV through a built in digital tuner. There is enough space to store all your favourite movies, music and photos with its 320 GB internal hard derive. The TVIX connects to a computer via USB and you just need to drag and drop content into the appropriate folder on the device. You also have the option to copy files over a network. The best thing about the TVIX is that it can play almost any of the older formats as well as the latest H.264 and MKV video compression formats. However there is no bundled software supplied and you may have to hunt a bit for firmware upgrades and network sharing software. Price $800


Source theage



Belkin N1 Wireless Router - Hot Stuff














Wireless Routers don't get any sleeker than this. The N1 wireless router from Belkin features an LCD screen instead of the usual stale LED lights. You get details on various aspects of your network such as download speed, number of users on the network as well as the current transfer speed and data usage from each user. Configuration is a breeze, Belkin simplifies it by providing you with just a name instead of an IP address to key into your browser. After that you need to go through a few more steps and its all done. The N1 supports the new 802.11n (draft 2.0) wireless standard and you can rig four wired computers to it through its ethernet ports and 16 wireless ones. Man, you could even use this to impress your girlfriend! Price $350

Source theage

Boynq Alibi All In One - Flaunt It
























Speaker, WebCam, and Microphone, that is what you get with The Boynq Alibi which is an all-in-one unit. The whole thing measures about 8" in height and is available in a variety of colours. With the Boynq you can angle the webcam head to about 25 degrees left and right as well give it a turn of about 300 degrees which would enable you to take a video of almost your entire room from one position. However you have to rotate it manually.The webcam records at 640x480 and features include auto white balance and color management.The cam also has a circular piece of metal around it for adjusting the volume which makes it very ergonomic.The 5 watt speaker and mic which are also built into the unit are of decent quality as well.

Source i4u

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Acer Extensa 4620 Launched!






















Acer's new business notebook - The lovely Extensa comes in two models, the Extensa 4620-6294 and Extensa 4620-4054. Features include:

->14.1 inch screen
->Windows XP Professional OS
->120GB HDD
->6 cell Lithium-ion battery which will keep it alive for about 2 hours
->Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 processor(for 4620-6294) (or) Dual Core T2310 processor(yeah, for the other one)
-> One year International Travel Warranty
->Price between $700 to $800

Source Reuters

Sugar Mag Launches Sugarscape








Popular UK teen magazine Sugar has launched its own social bookmarking tool for teenage girls called Sugarscape. Registration is fairly simple which is followed by a download of the sugarscape toolbar.Members('Scapers') can then customize their own page('Scape'), add stuff they find on the web, 'sugar' things up with comments, 'shove' things they dislike or 'share' things with their fellow 'Scapers'. This apart, you can send a virtual hug as well as import existing 'Bebo', 'MySpace' and 'YouTube' profiles into Sugarscape.

Source reuters

DoCoMo Teams Up With Google













DoCoMo, a Japanese mobile service provider will hook in search and email features from Google into its "i-mode" Internet services this spring. As demand for intricate internet functions are on the rise and with its subscriber base declining(a rule brought in last year enabled users to switch carriers without changing their numbers) DoCoMo decided to go ahead with the alliance.

Source Physorg

Solar Powered Bin Sorts Your Trash








As part of a science project, a group of students have built a solar powered bin that sorts out all the trash that is dumped into it. The bin called Recycl-o-sort has three sensors that can distinguish between glass, plastic and aluminium containers or non-recyclable trash. A turntable passes each of the trash items through these sensors and then chucks it into the corresponding storage space. So after assorted butter cookies we now have assorted trash!

Source sciencedaily






RRAM - Future Memory

Smaller, Faster, Cheaper. Most techno products we see today are built with these three factors in mind. And RAM(Random Access Memory) is not to be left out. As our next generation of gadgets, chips and other techno products rely on ultra fast transfer speeds electronic designers are cramming more more components onto each chip. So what happens is the width of the smallest feature keeps decreasing from 130nm in 2000 to 45nm now. And possibly 22nm by 2010.....which means we are running out of room. European researchers say that a new technology known as resistive RAM (RRAM) that could soon be replacing flash RAM in USB drives and other portable gadgets. RRAM relies on the ability to alter the electrical resistance of certain materials by applying an external voltage or current. RRAM is non-volatile, and its simple structure is ideal for future generations of CMOS chips.

Source sciencedaily

When Danger Calls - "Gizmo" saves lives













Javier Rodriguez, an engineeering graduate and programmer analyst at UC San Diego's California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology has come up with a device which he says will be used in disaster situations where it is too dangerous for humans to go. The device termed "Gizmo" looks like a cross between a toy truck and a lunar landing vehicle."Gizmo" he says will collect information real time from the disaster site and transmit it to the emergency personnel via their communication device which would in turn help them to be better prepared. He also aspires to build a range of "Gizmos" including one that can fly!. The "Gizmos" would come in both small sizes(to enter a hostage situation without being noticed) as well as in much larger sizes(such as a full--sized truck which would help to muscle in to a disaster situation such as hurricanes, Tornadoes, Whirlwinds etc). And No, I don't think you can use it to find out if your loved one is cheating on you...Then again, maybe you could!

Source sciencedaily

Monday, December 24, 2007

Joe Eigo - Multi Level Moves

Here's a video by Joe Eigo on multi level moves. He made over $25000 for this video on metacafe. You gotta watch it

Sarah Brighton - Scarbarough Fair

You just have to listen to this. This is a song sung by Sarah Brighton - Scarbarough Fair

Sony XEL-1 - Slimmer Than Ever

















Proud of your new ultra slim LCD TV eh? Well Eat This!. Sony's new LCD TV the XEL-1 which is sold in Japan has a thickness of just 3 millimeters!..... that's about 1/8th of an inch!. The TV features a 11 inch screen and makes use of a thin film that glows with colours when current passes through and enables viewing even from the side. OLED(Organic Light Emitting Diode) technology is what makes this possible. Price $1800


Source IHT

Girls More Active Online?










Girls got more horsepower than Boys? Looks so, altleast in the online world! In a report by Pew Internet and American Life, teenage girls are more likely than boys to do stuff online.....such as creating a blog or joining a social networking site like Myspace, Flickr, Facebook...etc. The study was conducted through telephone interviews among 935 Americans aged 12 to 17. Another interesting point was that the teens who blogged more were those with single parents or in the lower in come group whereas teens who lived with married parents were less likely to blog. Anyway... Boys!, time to get off your playstations and onto the Net. The battle has just begun.


Source New York Times


Bible Etched Onto Pin Head




















(Haifa's Technion University official Ohad Zohar displays a chip in Haifa on Sunday containing the entire Jewish Bible.)

Scientists from Israel have inscribed the entire Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible onto the head of a pin!.....Thats like asking me to score a hundred in my math exam(Practically Impossible). But yeah they did it. 300,000 words of the bible etched on to the head of a pin within an hour. . The nanotechnology experts in Haifa say the text measures less than 0.01 square inch. Now thats got me pinned!

Source Msnbc

Jesus On GPS!

Ah a GPS device! Just what i wanted for Christmas!. But its not me who is getting it .........Jesus is. Yes, a baby Jesus statue in Florida is going to be rigged with a GPS device after the previous statue went missing.....(even though it was bolted down). Well...Well, Thats not all, even the Mary and Joseph statues will be fitted with GPS devices.

Source Cnn

Sunday, December 23, 2007

Queen Elizabeth II speech on YouTube, HD






















Britain's 81-year-old Queen Elizabeth II, has launched her own special Royal Channel on YouTube , http://www.youtube.com/theroyalchannel. The queen will showcase her 50th annual televised christmas message through the video sharing site. Her Christmas speech which was first shown on television on Dec 25 1957, will also be available for download on http://www.royal.gov.uk as well as on television in High Definition. (Not now but on Tuesday).

Source Yahoo News


Google To Launch Flight Tracker

Google is bringing out a new flight tracking search feature which allows travellers to know whether their flight is on time or delayed as well as estimated departure and arrival times. Using it is pretty obvious; just key in your flight number and airline name.... and yeah thats it. The service is available on Flightstats.com.

Source InformationWeek



Air Blown Toaster!












Ok this news isn't exactly going to blow you away but here it is. Oliver Newberry, a student in the U.K has designed a toaster which uses a fan instead of the usual radiation to sizzle the bread. The fan which is screwed into the toaster blasts air right across the heating element to the bread and in 50 seconds, voila your toast is ready!. Newberry says he designed the turbo toaster to because his beans went cold before the bread got toasted. Infact the air blown toaster might go into production next year. Cool!


Source Wired

Jim Cramer's Stay Mad For Life - James.J.Cramer and Cliff Mason

















Whether you're a recent college grad trying to figure out how to start investing, a young parent struggling to decide where and how to put away money, or someone well into middle age and worried about whether you've saved enough for retirement, Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life has the answers. Cramer covers all the essentials: how to save, where to invest, which pitfalls to avoid. He offers valuable advice on everything from mortgages to college tuition. He explains what professional money managers do right that amateur investors do wrong. Because there is always a bull market somewhere, Cramer tells readers where to find the bull markets of the future, and for those willing to do the homework, he chooses twenty stocks that could be long-term moneymakers. For those who don't have the time or the temperament to invest in stocks, he identifies the mutual funds that are proven winners. He's investigated these funds by using his own twenty-five years' experience managing money for himself and dozens of America's wealthiest families. Throughout, in addition to his own enormously successful experience, Cramer draws on rigorous research to back up his advice.

Jim Cramer is America's #1 financial guru. Every day he advises investors on how to get ahead of the markets and stay ahead on his daily television show, Mad Money; in his online columns and commentary at TheStreet.com; in his popular "Bottom Line" column in New York magazine, and on television programs from early morning to late night. His books have all been national bestsellers and have helped educate hundreds of thousands of investors about the perils and promises of the financial markets. USA Today called him "the media's most electrifying market pundit"; and his legions of fans agree. Jim Cramer's Stay Mad for Life is the definitive money book, a practical, concrete, insightful book of invaluable financial advice that is a joy to read.

A Family Christmas - Caroline Kennedy













When I began assembling [this] collection, I was skeptical that I would learn anything new about Christmas, but reading and reflecting on the history and spirit of Christmas brought back many memories, and taught me a great deal #133; The literature of Christmas ranges from the miraculous to the tragic, the profound to the ridiculous, but always represents the connection to something larger than ourselves." -Caroline KennedyIn A Family Christmas, Caroline shares the Christmas poetry, prose, scriptural readings, and lyrics that are most dear to her, drawing on authors as diverse as Harper Lee, Nikki Giovanni, Martin Luther King Jr., Billy Collins, John and Yoko, and Charles Dickens. There are also many lesser-known gems throughout and personal treasures from her own family -- including a young Caroline's Christmas list to Santa Claus and a letter from her father as President to a child concerned about Santa's well-being. This diverse and unique anthology will become a timeless keepsake, and will enrich your heart and mind with the spirit of Christmas.A Family Christmas includes selections from:Groucho Marx, Emma Lazarus, Mark Twain, Sandra Cisneros, Pearl S. Buck, Truman Capote, Gabriela Mistral, Ogden Nash, Clement Clarke Moore, Vladimir Nabokov, Marianne Moore, Calvin Trillin, E. B. White, and many more.Caroline Kennedy is the editor of the New York Times bestselling A Family of Poems, Best-Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, A Patriot's Handbook, and Profiles in Courage for Our Time, and is the coauthor of The Right to Privacy and In Our Defense: The Bill of Rights in Action. She serves as the Vice Chair of the New York City Fund for Public Schools.

Quiet Strength - Tony Dungy


















Tony Dungy's words and example have intrigued millions of people, particularly following his victory in Super Bowl XLI, the first for an African American coach. How is it possible for a coach--especially a football coach--to win the respect of his players and lead them to the Super Bowl without the screaming histrionics, the profanities, the demand that the sport come before anything else? How is it possible for anyone to be successful without compromising faith and family? In this inspiring and reflective memoir, Coach Dungy tells the story of a life lived for God and family--and challenges us all to redefine our ideas of what it means to succeed. Includes a foreword by Denzel Washington and a 16-page color photo insert.

T Is For Tresspass - Sue Grafton
















In what may be her most unsettling novel to date, Sue Grafton's T is for Trespass is also her most direct confrontation with the forces of evil. Beginning slowly with the day-to-day life of a private eye, Grafton suddenly shifts from the voice of Kinsey Millhone to that of Solana Rojas, introducing readers to a chilling sociopath. Rojas is not her birth name. It is an identity she cunningly stole, an identity that gives her access to private caregiving jobs. The true horror of the novel builds with excruciating tension as the reader foresees the awfulness that lies ahead. The suspense lies in whether Millhone will realize what is happening in time to intervene.

Though set in the late eighties, T is for Trespass could not be more topical: identity theft; elder abuse; betrayal of trust; the breakdown in the institutions charged with caring for the weak and the dependent. It reveals a terrifying but all-too-real rip in the social fabric. Once again, Grafton opens up new territory with startling results.

Saturday, December 22, 2007

A Thosand Splendid Suns - Khaled Hosseini

















Mariam's life revolves around her father's visits. While she lives in a hut with her mother, it's the weekly visits from her father that are the light of her existence. All that changes when she turns fifteen and is forced to marry an older man she has never met. Rasheed lives on the other side of the country, so Miriam leaves behind the only people she has ever known to live with a stranger. Rasheed is a strict man, and Miriam finds herself with restrictions on her new life.

On the day the Soviets invade Afghanistan, another woman is born. Laila is raised in a progressive family. Her father encourages her to learn as much as she can in school. Her mother suffers from depression and leaves her alone most of the time. Her best friend is a neighbor boy, Tariq, who lost a leg to a land mine years earlier.

Laila lives just down the street from Mariam, yet they hardly interact until the struggle for control in Afghanistan brings tragedy to their street. Then their lives become irrevocably linked. Despite the 19 years age difference between them, a strong bond of friendship is formed. Will it be enough to endure the hardship ahead?

I tend to stick to light entertainment and rarely read the more serious works of literature. However, several friends I respect loved Khaled Hosseini's first novel, so I decided to give this one a try. And I'm glad I did.

This book isn't light entertainment by any stretch of the imagination. The writing style produces an almost melancholy air right from the start.

I tend to read plot heavy books, so this character study was a definite change of pace for me. I found the first half slow going at times, mainly because I knew where the story was going. Once I got into the second half, things really picked up. The ending was very bittersweet. I couldn't think of a better way to end it.

Not to say I wasn't interested before then. Mariam and Laila are two very real, interesting characters. I felt for them and became a very real part of their struggles over the course of the book.

Adding to the book's richness is the historical background. The novel covers 40 years of Afghani history. While that is never the focus of the novel, it is an ever present backdrop to the personal struggle of the two women. We in the west often forget how much we truly have to be thankful for. Here, we get a picture of life in the midst of a civil war and under an oppressive regime.

I can understand why my friends were so taken with Hosseini's first novel. I know I will read it at some point. This new book comes highly recommended.

Reviewed by Mark Baker (Santa Clarita, CA United States)

For One More Day - Mitch Albom

















Mitch Albom pays homage to all mothers with this novel that beautifully shows the enduring power of a mother's love, a love so strong it can transcend even death. The moral of the story is not particularly original and not even handled in a unique way. But, grab the hankies and prepare to spend several hours reminiscing along with Chick Benetto about the things you wish you had done better with your own mother. Chick Benetto has hit rock bottom---divorced, alcoholic, has-been baseball player, and now comes the ultimate slap-in-the-face---his beloved daughter does not invite him to her wedding. After being shut out of the biggest day in his only child's life, Chick sees no point in continuing his miserable life and attempts suicide. But for his suicide he is drawn once again to Pepperville Beach, to the modest home where he grew up with his mom, dad, and sister. That is, until his dad deserted the family and life changed dramatically. The surprise for Chick is that his mom is still in the house. Intellectually, he knows she died ten years ago but here she is---cooking his food, sharing stories, giving advice.

The reader learns about all the times Chick's mom stood up for him and all the times he let her down. The writing is smooth and poignant, the memories both joyful and sad. If you have lost your own parents, the words will be doubly sad. But Chick has been given a very special gift: he learns that when someone is in your heart, they're never truly gone and they can come back to you, even at unlikely times. Chick has the unheard of luxury of being able to spend just one more day with his mother, having the chance to ask questions about things that have bothered him, finding out at last why his father left, and much more. How does it happen? Is this just another ghost story or a religious experience for non-believers? I think I shed the most tears when I realized at novel's end who was telling the story.

I think sentimental readers will find this one enjoyable and uplifting. So take it for what it is, a nostalgic trip back to childhood, that period of time that never lets you go, even when you're so wrecked it's hard to believe you ever were a child.

Reviewed by Antoinette Klein (Hoover, Alabama USA)

















Having trouble latching on to that elusive wireless signal?..... The USB powered Wi-Fire from HField Technologies will sort it out in a jiffy. With a massive range of about 1000 feet The Wi-Fire not only ensure usability of your own wifi network..... but someone else's internet as well even if that someone is in the next street(At a range of 1000 feet, this is chlid's play). Imagine, you would never have to pay another internet bill again!, Well... unless of course the cops find out about your illicit use of bandwith which would then result in you being given the privilige of paying not only your own bills but others internet bills as well!. :-). Price $80

Source Wired

i2i Music Broadcaster - Share The Rhythm






















Aerielle, the company which manufactures FM transmitters for Kensington, iRiver and SanDisk has come out with it's own wireless music sharing device - The i2i Stream Digital Music Broadcaster. With the i2i you can take music from any source say an Mp3 player or a stereo system and transmit it wirelessly over two or more i2i devices, which means that everyone can listen to the same song within a transmission range of 30 feet. The i2i comes with a volume control and a USB Battery capable of 7 hours of playback. Price $129 for a pair or $69 for a single piece.








Source crave.cnet

Popular Apple Blog To Shutdown














Game Over. That's the story behind Thinksecret, a well know website that publishes unofficial news and inside scoops about Apple's upcoming products. After a long battle with Apple, 22 year old Nicholas Ciareli, the website owner has said that he is willing to ditch the site which he has been running since the age of 13. Apple had sued him in 2005 for leaking undisclosed information on it's future products. Thinksecret which receives 2.5 million page views a month rocketed right upto 5 million page views a month after the lawsuit. However Apple it seems has paid Nicholas an undisclosed amount.("Guess that's why he was willing to shut it down")

Source InformationWeek

Lost Your Glove?...........Find It Online!

















Lost your Glove?.......Not to worry, you can now find it online. Yes, thats right on the Internet. Jennifer Gooch, a student of Carnergie Mellon University came up with this rather strange idea to help people trace their missing gloves. It's only been a month since the launch of her site www.onecoldhand.com and she has already reunited four missing gloves with their beloved owners.Many businesses and other offices in Pittsburgh now have drop boxes where lost gloves can be placed. Gooch takes pictures of these gloves and displays them on her Web site with information about where they was found. Gooch's website landed 55,000 hits within 10 days of its launch as news spread around of her Glove-Matching venture. The site currently has about 75 pairs of unclaimed gloves

Source Yahoo News

GPS For Non GPS Phones

Northport Systems has launched a software that allows you to use your mobile phone as a GPS device even though it isn't GPS enabled. The software is web 2.0 based and enables users to see their actual position on maps, find nearby locations, use various GPS widgets for outdoor recreation such as hiking, mountain biking, and fishing or even if you need directions to your own home. The phones do not need to support Bluetooth nor do they need a client software as it works entirely through an Internet connection. The software named Fugawi Touratel is compatible with models from LG Electronics, Motorola, Samsung and Sanyo, from carriers that include Alltel, Boost Mobile, and Sprint. Subscription is pretty reasonable as well at just $3 a month.

Source: InformationWeek


Asteroid Could Hit Red Planet



















An Asteroid with energy equivalent to a 15 megaton nuclear bomb is on its way......Well not towards Earth but towards our Red skinned neighbour, Mars. Scientists claim that the asteroid known as 2007 WD5(And No, WD does not stand for World Destruction) which was discovered in late November has a chance of banging into Mars on January 30th. The asteroid is similar in size to the Tunguska object which smacked right into central Siberia in 1908, annihilating over 60 million trees. If the astroid hits Mars it would probably land near the planet's equator, carving a hole the size of the acclaimed Meteor Crater in Arizona

Source Msnbc

Friday, December 21, 2007

Transmedia Email Service Is Free Of Ads

Transmedia has launched a free e-mail service termed "Glide" which is free of advertising as well. Members who sign up for a free account are provided with a storage capacity of 2GB. There is also an option to add on an extra 10GB to your 2GB storage which would cost you $49.95 a year.




Driving And Talking-> Next stop Prison House



















Drive and talk on your phone at the same time and guess what ....you could get jailed. And if that sounds bad, listen to this....you won't be spending prison time for a day or two but for two whole years. Yes TWO years! Your mobile phone would probably be outdated by then! In most countries driving and talking would be accompanied by a fine or a warning. Well in the U.K the authorities have gone one step further. Talk or text while you drive and you could well be on your way to the prison house. If motorists or drivers are caught with rash driving they could very well face upto 2 years behind bars with unlimited fines. If this was the same case in India(where I live) the first person who would have to be jailed would be the traffic policeman himself who doesn't even bother to where a helmet let alone talk while driving.

Source InformationWeek

Buy Pirated Software - Get $500 Free













Buy pirated software, Get $500 free!. Sounds too good to be true?. Well better believe it. The SIIA(Software and Information Industry Association) has brought out a plan whereby anyone who accidentally buys pirated software online can receive upto $500 if reported. Though there are no restrictions on what the prize money should be spent on, the SIIA says they hope that it will be used to buy legitimate software. As Ebay and other auctioneers are not doing much to prevent counterfeiting the SIIA say they were forced to adopt this program to place more control. The program is on till January 30th 2007.

Source InformationWeek


Internet Explorer 8 Due This Summer



















Internet Explorer users can expect to have the latest version(Internet Explorer 8) sometime around March next year. After the release of IE 7 in late 2006 the blog of Dean Hachamovitch, Microsoft's General Manager for IE was pretty much dead with no news at all of future updates and releases . Only a post published this month declared that the next version of IE would be called Internet Explorer 8. Infact this is what Chairman Bill Gates had to say when asked about the company's silence over IE.

"I'll have to ask Dean what the hell is going on," he's quoted as saying. "There's not like some deep secret about what we're doing with IE."

The company also says that the browser has already passed the Acid2 test which ensures that the browser works with current webstandards. This would save developers the trouble of writing one version of their websites for Internet Explorer and another version for browsers like Firefox, Opera.

Source InformationWeek

AT & T's 10 Most Popular Ringtones

AT & T on thursday revealed its most 10 most popular ringtones out of the 40,000 ringtones it offers.

Here They Are:

  1. "Party Like a Rockstar" by Shop Boyz
  2. "This Is Why I'm Hot" by Mims
  3. "Crank That" by Soulja Boy
  4. "Rockstar" by Nickelback
  5. "Don't Matter" by Akon
  6. "Buy You A Drank" by T-Pain
  7. "A Bay Bay" by Hurricane Chris
  8. "Beautiful Girls" by Sean Kingston
  9. "Pop, Lock & Drop It" by Huey
  10. "Big Girls Don't Cry" by Fergie
My personal favourite though would be "Smooth" by "Santana And Rob Thomas"

Source InformationWeek


Email Services On Air France











After Jetblue, It's now Air France which is offering E-mail and messaging services on its aircrafts. However unlike Jetblue which uses a Wifi network, the services on Air France are provided on a cellular network. Travellers on certain Air France Planes en route to Europe can send and receive messages as well as E-mails(phone has to support Internet though). Onboard messages are transmitted to a small Cellular base station within the aircraft, which is then channeled over Satellite and finally to telephone networks on the ground. Air France also plans to introduce voice services in about three months and will consider implementing the same in all its airlines in six months time.


Source Infoworld

Google Backed Nanosolar Rolls Out Its Panels












Google Backed company Nanosolar has begun rolling out a new breed of panels which it says will make solar energy cheaper than coal. Nanosolar founder Martin Roscheisen says that they are capable of profitably selling the panels at as little as $.99/watt and claims that the panels deliver five times the current of any other thin-film panel on the market today. The panels are currently available for sale on Ebay with the highest bid at around $11,000.

Source Infoworld

Nokia N96 Leaked Pictures


































These are supposedly leaked pictures of Nokia's new N96. Doesn't look very impressive does it?
More details on it at Infoworld