Apple Let's Rock Event - new iPod Nano, iPod Touch 2G and iTunes 8

Apple Let's Rock event was very anticipated by every Apple fan or gadget lover, because this is the place to announce new products, models and services. And this time it was really worth waiting for: new iPod Nano 4G, redesigned iPod Touch, small update of Classic and a lot of new colors for Shuffle... Firmware update for iPhone along with iPod Touch, which carries number 2.1, and new version of iTunes program - these announcements would be enough for several events! However, they all came together at once, and this is the small roundup of all announcements made at this Apple event.

Pictures of new iPod Nano made a big buzz in the Internet not so long ago, making this announcement the most anticipated. New Nano was certainly worth waiting for. It is now taller than 3G, and the sides are slightly curved. But what is really different is the screen layout - now it is portrait instead of landscape. Built-in accelerometer controls the display and turns image if iPod is turned on side, making the movie playback more comfortable.


Controls are also shifted to match the image on the screen. It supports all iPod Nano 3G games, however, they must be played in landscape mod. New Nano has totally revamped interface, somehow resembling that seen on the iPod Touch. Battery life was increased, and now it is 24 hours for music and 4 hours for video. Even with a hardware upgrade, Nano 4G remained very thin, thinner than any other music player on the market. Prices were announced too - 8 GB will be sold for 149 USD, 16 GB - for 199 USD.

With its new model lineup, Apple introduced a new and interesting feature for all of its music players - Genius mode. This is a feature that will be familiar to all Last.fm users - it can make up smart playlists from songs that go great together. When turned on in the iTunes, it sends information from your music library to Apple, synchronizing with their online database and making a playlist that is made perfectly for your taste. Maybe it won't make the perfect playlist the first time, but it will evolve as more songs are collected in the online database. All new player models have that feature in menu - iPod Nano, Classic and Touch.

Classic upgrade was least interesting than others, because the only change is its capacity - now it is 120 GB. It supports all new features including Genius mode, has improved battery life and that's all. Prices are already available - 120 GB model will be sold for 250 USD. Same for Shuffle - it will have no hardware updates at all, Apple just increased the amount of color options, so you can select from four new colors - vibrant blue, green, pink, and red.

iPhone and iTouch firmware upgrade is almost completely a bug-fix release, which removes existing bugs, enables Genius mode, improves battery life and backup speed. It will be free for all iPhone users, but if you own iTouch you will need 10 dollars to buy this upgrade. iPod Touch also had some small update - WiFi antenna looks much better integrated, internal speakers sound better, and it is even thinner now.

iTunes was also reworked, and new, 8 version of famous music manager brings a lot of new interesting options. First of all, it supports brand new Genius feature, helping to collect data for this service to operate correctly. Another new feature found is new method of browsing your music collection, named Grid view. It can display all your albums in grid and gives you possibility to change the size of grid elements so you can navigate through your collection more comfortably. New Genius sidebar can offer you songs from iTunes Store based on your musical tastes, so you would easily discover new music that you will probably like. Visualizer was also improved, now it is way more beautiful and entertaining.

This year's Apple Let's Rock event was rich for new announcements. New and greatly improved interface of iPod Nano, new Genius function, firmware update for iPhone and iTouch, and a new version of iTunes program - many updates for one event, don't you think? Unfortunately, iPod Classic update was very minor, but does it have the need in major redesign? Don't fix what is already working great, that is the main strategy for Apple at this point. Even if new Nano looks so similar to Microsoft Zune, it is still Apple, and it does have many things Zune hasn't - including huge worldwide fan base. So let's wait for other big announcements from Apple - maybe they will include the clipboard ability in the iPhone at last?

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First in the world cellphone with built-in projector

News about concept GSM phones with projectors inside was around for a while; however, there was no information about how soon these concepts will turn into serial models. Well, Chinese manufacturers are first to introduce this idea into life. First cell phone with built-in projector is already being sold, and its parameters are quite interesting.

This Chinese marvel is named Epoq EGP-PP01, and it is first cell phone in the world with built-in projector. Its characteristics are amazing for its small sizes: it can produce image in VGA resolution (640 x 480)! This was made possible by using miniature LCoS projector, and a very bright LED as a source of light. Maximum distance from phone to the projected surface is 762 mm, or 30 inches. Built-in battery will last for nearly 3 hours when projector is working, which is enough for presentation or movies. Thanks to the USB port, gadget can be connected to DVD player, laptop or PC, to project information that phone cannot read by itself. It can show video and photo without any external help, so it can be useful when you want to show your new photos and videos to some friends or colleagues.


Apart from the amazing projecting ability, phone also has touchscreen (as almost any new Chinese phone does today), camera, 0.5 Watt dynamics and a very familiar interface, that was fully copied from the world's most famous smartphone - iPhone. Not sure, would Apple sue manufacturers of this device for stealing their intellectual property, but if this phone will be sold only inside the country there will be no problems for Epoq at all. They tried to experiment with the phone buttons like many other Chinese phone manufacturers, placing them in a strange unfamiliar pattern - in three rows. Nevertheless, getting familiar with this button placement it is only a matter of time.

Not sure, will this idea of placing projectors inside cell phones be successful, but this interesting gadget deserves some attention. Maybe tomorrow these mobile projectors will be as common as cell phone cameras nowadays? In any case, you can touch to the future now for 550 dollars.

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Mobile broadband - fast and portable internet connection

Fast internet is the thing that almost everybody wants now. There is even a 40 Gb/sec connection given to homes which is certainly too much for a usual computer. However, people always want to get bigger higher faster and better so they connect to best internet providers they know. Speed is one aspect of internet connection. One of the latest tendencies of customers is to get not only fast but also mobile internet for their devices. Mobile broadband has become the best solution for the cell phones that support 3G connectivity. Since then fast internet connections market has been growing very fast.

However, using your PPC is sometimes not enough, users would like fast internet for their laptops on the go. This is where mobile broadband comes in handy. From the beginning of 2008 this area has become very popular and now almost every cell phone user and a considerable part of notebook, or netbook users. The best advantages of this internet connection besides its portability are usability and ease of connecting it.



There are special USB dongles that make mobile broadband possible. It is easy to insert the sim card into the modem and connect it to the notebook's USB port and get pretty fast internet connection. However, maybe soon these modules will be built into notebooks because they give pretty good connection with reasonable price.

Speeds provided by mobile broadband are very good too. Speed range is between 1.8 Mb/sec to 7.2 Mb/sec being the fastest connection and giving the users from 1 GB to 7 GB of internet traffic. They are sometimes even better than usual connections you get home. However, the price of these connections is higher and the traffic is also limited. However, the speed is enough to watch movies and play games online. Speaking of games ping time could sometimes be too high which will make it impossible to play. However, mobile broadband was created for different audience than just gamers.

Today when a lot of companies propose their services in this domain it has become very difficult to decide what provider to use. However, there are websites that make ratings for the best mobile broadband providers. There are also websites where you can make speed test of your service provider and check the possibilities of your device. Besides, it also depends on your cell phone services provider because they use cell phone networks for this type of connections, which means that you will get this service anywhere where 3G connection is available. The bad thing about portable internet is that it will get worse where signal gets weaker.

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Voodoo Envy 133 Laptop vs MacBook Air

It is a well known rule, that every successful product will have its followers. Whether they are direct replicas or strong competitors, they certainly will cause much less impact than the original. Apple knows this for sure, because every now and then their products are replicated and followed by other companies. Let us not mention Chinese HiPhones and other cheap parodies, and try to concentrate on real and interesting competitors offered.

MacBook Air, when released, was a huge success. While it was pricey, it offered a unique experience of owning a world's thinnest laptop with Mac OS X inside. Of course, no other company has a chance to offer Mac OS X in their laptops; however the title of "world's thinnest laptop" will no longer be associated with Air. This title goes now to Voodoo Envy 133, new laptop from the HP. It beats its competitor in thickness, being 0.15 cm thinner that the MacBook Air. However, will it overcome Apple laptop in other domains? Let us see.


This new gadget from Voodoo certainly has its style. It definitely does not even try to copy MacBook Air design, it looks completely unique. While it seems not as slick as Air is, it definitely deserves a plus on this side. Its body is made completely from carbon fiber with custom micro-weave design, and looks very attractive. It comes in two different colors, black and white, with inner part always remaining black. Design is a very subjective thing, but it will be fair to say that Envy 133 has not failed at this point.

Envy's internal hardware does not fall behind MacBook Air either. It is powered by Intel Core 2 Duo SP7500 / SP7700 processor, has 2 GB of DDR2 RAM and 80 GB HDD (which can be replaced by the 64 GB SSD for additional price). Display resolution and size is the same as on MacBook, 1280 x 800, 13.3". Same as Air, it does not have any internal optical drive, so you can use external one that comes together with the laptop. As an answer to the Air's multi-touch touchpad, Envy 133 has large touchpad with multiple finger tracking and gestures support.

In terms of connectivity, Voodoo Envy 133 seems more powerful than MacBook Air. First, apart from wireless capabilities, Envy has Ethernet port, which gives you possibility to connect it to any wired networks available. Second, one of the very interesting features is Envy's integrated wireless personal access point, so you can use laptop as a Wi-Fi Access Point for all Wi-Fi capable devices - all thanks to the Voodoo Aura PowerConnect feature. It also has 2 USB 2.0 slots instead of one on the MacBook Air, so if you have external optical drive connected you will always be able to connect another gadget in remaining USB port without having to buy USB hubs. However, one of the slots is e-SATA, so you will have to use an adapter to connect USB devices there.

On the software side, it could be almost completely similar to other Windows based laptops, but it is not. There is one feature that makes this laptop unique in some sort: Voodoo IOS, Instant On Solution. It gives you the ability to boot up almost instantly in a special mode, where you can browse Internet, chat in IM or talk via Skype - without booting up Windows. It only takes 4 to 5 seconds to be completely usable - very interesting feature for those, who do not want to wait until Windows boots up. Of course, IOS offers only limited amount of programs, so if you want more you can press the button with Windows logo on it to boot directly to Windows Vista.

According to info on the Voodoo page, Envy 133 laptop can work 3 hours on one battery charge. Of course, battery time will depend on how intense you use laptop, so maybe it will be possible to increase this time a little. The biggest difference from Air is that the battery on Envy is replaceable, so you can always buy another one if you feel that one is not enough.

Does this newcomer from Voodoo (or is it best to say, from HP?) will overcome Apple's MacBook Air, but it certainly is a very interesting device. It offers a bunch of new features that are completely unique to this model, and it is definitely thinner that Air. Its price is 2099 USD, which is a bit more that the price for Air, but it seems reasonable for all the features Envy 133 has.

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Intel Centrino 2 announced

Intel is the world's largest CPU producer, that's why each new technology they invent influences the whole computer market. Today, it is good news for laptop users. Many of us know about Intel's Centrino technology, which saves power and gives us a better performance for less energy. Intel has officially announced an upgrade to Centrino line - Centrino 2. It will be even more advanced, promises Core 2 Duo performance with WiFi-N or WiMax wireless capability and faster speeds. Let's look more precisely, what offer us this Centrino upgrade.

The Centrino 2 specs are very promising. It features an upgraded Intel graphics processor, Intel CPU with chipset and Integated Graphics. It includes WiFi-N (the fastest) adapter with optional WiMAX wireless networking adapter and Gigabit Ethernet (vPro model only). It will also support HDMI, Blu-Ray, DisplayPort and CrossFire Dual GPUs for laptops. However, it is not mentioned with what types of GPUs, NVIDIA or XTi will it be compatible. The WiFi capability will come courtesy of a 300Mbps Intel Wi-Fi Link 5150 or 450Mbps Intel Wi-Fi Link 5350.


This new technology will mostly influence laptop users, because it is targeted at increased power managing features. With Intel Centrino 2 inside, specs promise the ability to watch a full-length Blu-Ray movie without need of an AC adapter. This was made possible by hundreds of power management improvements, such as Low-power CPU, DDR3 RAM and many more features, which lowers laptop's power needs by 25%.

Of course some time must pass before we will see first "Intel Centrino 2 inside" laptops, and the price will vary, however, prices on new CPUs are already known: 209 USD Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26Ghz, 3MB cache, 25W TDP to 1 Intel Core 2 Extreme X9100 3.06Ghz, 6MB cache, 44W TDP.

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New iPhone 3G will be cheaper

iPhone 3G is one of the most frequently discussed gadgets on the web. And after Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, that took place in San Francisco in June we have even more speculations about it. Modified iPhone announced there provides discrepant feeling and yet leaves some questions related to its upgrades. But we sure appreciate tendency to not increase gadget's price.


Steve Jobs introduces new Apple iPhone 3GAbout iPhone's price let us appeal to Shaw Wu's words. This American Technology Research analyst said before the conference that integrated virtual keyboard, for example, is only one of the ways to the price reduction and presumed more others. He also mentioned Apple's overall orientation to concentrate on dealer network for making iPhone even more accessible all over the planet.


Apple has sold iPhones to the sum of 5.4 millions which is not much to global market of mobile phones That is why they didn't delay sales for too long (new iPhone 3G is already available in Europe, North, partly South America and in the most other primary markets). Another bait for clients is a free phone for most "talkative" users. If your tariffs per month are higher than 75 pounds, you are up to get a free mobile phone.

How all the introduced modifications will work together, we will find out later, when more gadget lovers examine 3G in everyday use. And while they do, let us get back to some kind of wishlist for previous iPhone 3G:

* More operator networks available
* Better camera and accustomed video recording mods, video calling option
* Synchronized Bluetooth
* while Internet surfing some additional options like cut/copy, paste text or any other info in SMS, MMS or in file storage
* Keyboard switchable to normal and landscape mods mods

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Olympus 360 degree lens camera

Olympus brand new gadget is about to appear. The announced device claims to be a break-through in world digital camera production. New model of 360 degree lens camera is being developed by engineers for more than half a year and now pre-production models are under close consideration.

The idea is not new, and we have seen a lot of prototypes (Kaidan 360 OneVR, etc), but the Future Creation Laboratory, Olympus’ subdivision which is in charge for development of the 360 degree lens, is the first to advance so well at the moment. Their know-how is three centimeters in diameter glass. Its composition is patented and for some time will be kept in secret. Other tips about its components are yet unknown.


The advantages are obvious: small and light gadget is able to cover the whole horizontal spectrum, which has 360 degrees and 180 degrees in vertical platitudes, and, no doubt, ultimate resolution picture area. Such a way Olympus offers redoubled possibilities for security systems. For needs of video conferences the camera can be equipped with a directional aiming microphone. This one helps to reduce unnecessary noise and improve quality of sound. The list of application spheres will be practically endless as soon as the gadget gets a reasonable price.

However there are still numerous difficulties Olympus’ engineers have to cope with. Those may probably drag gadget’s release up to long-term outlook. One of the problems developers face is proper software development for users, which will correspond to all camera’s advantages. Any way we expect to see first handy prototypes in autumn, though no terms are revealed.

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