TechBulletin

At a time when the games console market is on its knees with launch delays, bugs and sky high pricing, who in their right mind would be looking to join the crowd? If you believe the recent comments attributed to both companies, and intense speculation on the internet, it seems that both Dell and Nokia are looking at high profile gaming launches this year.

While the current big three in the market, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo have all had their problems of late, there is no doubt that they have a major strangle hold on the market. The reason for the possible new entrants to the market may lie in the fact that the Wii, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 have all ventured outside of their traditional gaming environment into a more multi-media based area of industry.  This is what may have prompted the response from Dell and Nokia, as they look to put down a marker for the future and protect their area of the market.

While you would not normally expect new entrants to the gaming market to have a major impact, the likes of Dell and Nokia already have a loyal customer base and a high reputation in their specialist fields.  While many market observers have been surprised by the cost of recent gaming products such as the Playstation 3, etc, we may see some price deflation if their market positions were to be put under threat.

To many it may sound like a gimmick, but the launch of a music search engine called Midomi (Midomi.com) has the potential to break into new areas of voice recognition. Recently released in beta form by Melodis (Melodis.com), Midomi is a voice activated recognition system geared towards the music market.

The website allows you to either sing, hum or whistle your favourite song, and the search engine will analyse the tune, words, etc and search its vast database of songs to find a match.  While you may believe that it is impossible to search on the above criteria, the system is built around a very powerful recognition system called the Multimodal Adaptive Recognition System (MARS). 

The high tech MARS system actually strips down the sound input to words, pitch, tempo, etc.  The system is then capable of ignoring the speech element if the user hums or sings the song, allowing for a more defined search criteria.

The site is part of a social network which allows users to tag and store their favourite songs, which are then automatically added to the search engine database.  As the database of songs is ever growing, the array of songs will always be changing with the times.

The algorithms and filtering system behind this venture can be used in a variety of areas of business in the future.  This is no gimmick and could literally change the way we search for information on the internet.

This is very small and diskless computer .. supports linux….

Linutop is a Linux-based diskless computer. It offers a completely silent, low-power operation in an extremely small package.

Linutop is ideal for everyday Internet usage in:
- Libraries, schools and universities,
- Business and Government offices,
- Hotels, Hospitals, Internet cafés, Living rooms.
Specifications:
- AMD Geode
- 512 MB ROM
- 256 MB RAM
- 4x USB 2.0 ports
- audio in & out
- 100baseT Ethernet
- VGA output
- Size: 9.3 x 2.7 x 15 cm
- Weight: 280 gr

http://www.linutop.com/
 

ew have accused Microsoft of being first to the market. But plenty have learned the hard way that the company can be very good at sneaking up from behind.That’s the tack Microsoft Corp. is hoping to take with entertainment. The software maker has invested years of effort and billions of dollars in entertainment endeavors ranging from television technology to video game consoles. What’s more, it has said that it’s willing to spend much more money, and take much more time, to see if those investments pay off.  more….

If you are looking to do some basic home improvement around your home, you will first have to have the right tools.  While you don’t need to go out and buy thousands of dollars worth of tools, you will need some basic tools that are required for most jobs.  If you find in the future, you would like to take on specific projects, you can always upgrade or buy specialty tools. Here are 5 home improvement tools that you’re most likely to use: Read the rest of this entry » »

For many people the pride of their home is an awesome home theater.  Home theaters have become wildly popular the last couple of decades and with today’s plasma and LCD High Def TV’s, as well as high tech surround sound receivers and speakers, almost any do it yourselfer can install a high quality home theater. Read the rest of this entry » »

Apple has heralded the Shuffle MP3 player, which weighs 14g, as the world’s smallest digital music player, and has priced it at $US79 ($103).   more….

Apple Computer announced that its matchbook-size iPod shuffle MP3 player would be available in stores worldwide on November 3.          View the Entire Article

The Cleveland Clinic study shows that men who used their cell phones for four hours a day or more had the greatest damage to their sperm.    View the Entire Article

Buying a used cell phone from an internet site like Ebay or perhaps from a garage sale can get you more then you bargained for.  The new concept in cell phones, much like personal computers that are sold, is the erasing of personal information from the phone.  Well the strides that are being made in this area are falling short to say the least and some of the companies are getting the suits slapped on them for the fall out.  There is nothing more dangerous than having your personal information privy to a complete stranger and the many used cell phones that are being sold are telling all to whoever wants to hear it.

The problem is that the systems in place to erase all information off of a cell phone when it changes hands are shoddy at best.  They erase the data from normal view, like attempting to pull up a text message that was deleted, but they do not erase it for the skilled persons out there that have the right software program.  That is where the problem comes in.  Cell phones work much like a computer, with a chip that stores all the information that is saved on the phone to be recalled later.  Well the erasing of that chips sounds simple enough, normally removing it from the power source for a pre-determined amount of time.  The owner of the phone is satisfied that the information is gone forever.

2005 was a bit of a disappointment to many fans of stand alone video game consoles.  The expected release of the Sony platform Playstation 3 was cancelled, Nintendo was not even in the running and the Xbox 360 was tainted with a whole host of problems, from supply not meeting demand to the system not performing due to glitches.  This year looks to be the exact opposite.  With Microsoft moving forward with their personal music division and leaving the 360 to hold its own, there are only two major competitors in the market for the 2006 holiday season, Sony and Nintendo, both of whom will release their new systems within days of each other.

The second week of November will see the much anticipated release of the Sony Playstation 3 game console after many delays.  The company is confident that they have skirted all the possible problems that came with the 360 and plan to ship about one million of the new platforms by the end of the year.  Pre orders are being taken through most retailers but the supply will most likely dry up before the holidays arrive.  The secondary market will boom with this release as prices are expected to skyrocket within a week of the release.  The same concept held true for the 360 that was selling through many internet sites for as much as two thousand dollars.

Let’s face facts, as neat as it is to take a picture with your cellular telephone, the pictures are not all that great.  As a matter of fact they are poor at best, with grainy nature and blurry images the people who use the camera phones for more then just that quick little snap shot are demanding more and Samsung is giving that to them in high style.

Samsung has announced that it will start selling its new camera phone with the capability of taking a ten megapixel picture.  For those who already use the Samsung phones this is no surprise.  Since their development, Samsung picture phones have been a lot better in quality then the close cousins from competing companies, but they are still not top notch.  The new version is the highest resolution of any camera phone currently offered and Samsung is bank a lot of the popularity of this product.

Just when you thought it was safe to use all those electronic devices out comes the newest report to scare the pants off of you.  Just in time for the Halloween season, the SANS Institute has released its yearly report and people using all types of telecommunication devices are not happy.  The two newest threats are cell phones and the VOIP systems that are springing up around the country.  This comes on the heals of several new viruses that have been released in the past ten months that are aimed at these devices and services.  Of course just because the institute is able to claim that these are the new security concerns for the 2007 year does not mean they know what to do about it.  In truth they are just as lost as we are when it comes to the issue.

The newest thing in viruses is the cell phone worm, which attacks cell phones and uses them to harvest personal information.  How are they able to do this on a cell phone?  Well the answer is simple, because the world is now using their cell phone for just about everything in the world, including email and personal messaging.  So they are basically mobile computers that are always connected to the internet by way of the cell phone service.  Sounds like a good idea when you are the owner of the phone, but what about when you are the person who gets a virus and finds out that your identity has been stolen?  That is where the problem comes in. 

For many people who drink coffee each day and are looking for a change to their drinking habits, you will be happy to know that there are plenty of great coffee drinks that not only include the great taste of coffee but also the jolt of energy it provides.  Here are some tips. Read the rest of this entry » »