On June 7th, Apple introduced its newest iPhone – the long rumored iPhone 4. It’s completely redesigned, has a better screen, better camera, better battery life, but one of its best features is it now supports multitasking. It enables you to run several applications simultaneously and switch between them without having to close them. It also features FaceTime – full-screen video conversations with abilities to switch between front and back camera. The camera is now 5MP with built-in flash and HD-video capabilities – it can record 720p videos.
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Apple iPhone 4
June 8th, 2010TinEye – a reverse image search engine
April 30th, 2010
You know how search works – you open your favorite search engine, type a keyword or two, and there – a list of thousands of pages, containing info about your topic of interest. There even is an image search – you go to Google images and there again – hundreds of images, corresponding (better or worse) to the keywords you entered. But what if you do not know what you’re looking for? What if you have an image of a painting and want to know who painted it? Or a photograph of a place, you want to know where?
TinEye is the “reverse image search engine” you need – you just have to upload your image (or give the URL-address, if it is published on a webpage), and you will get results from other pages, containing the same image. It gives you the chance to learn what it is, since you will probbably get pages, containing info about it. Here is how it works:
It is also a good tool to see who is using your images 
WiDi – Intel wireless display
April 14th, 2010
Have you already heard about the new WiDi technology? it is the Intel’s wireless display.
It requires a compatible laptop (some of the new Intel Core i7 / i5 / i3 processors, an Intel (Advanced) N wireless adapter, 64-bit Windows 7, and some specialized Intel software), a wireless TV adapter and a TV with a HDMI or composite A/V input. Look for the WiDi icon to find compatible devices.
So far, the announced compatible devices are:
Laptops:
- Dell Studio 15z
- Sony VAIO S Series
- Toshiba Satellite E205
Wireless receiver:
- NETGEAR Push2TV Adapter for Intel Wireless Display
Here’s how it works:
Invaluable knowledge resources
March 1st, 2010
There are numerous sources of knowledge on the Internet. Among the eLearning resources, specialized reading, focus groups, portals, etc., you can find the topic that is of interest to you and spend a lot of hours reading and watching videos on the subject.
I am also very keen on learning new things and gathering knowledge in various spheres of life. So, I was very excited, when several years ago, one of the most prominent universities in the IT sphere – the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), decided to start an innovative project – to make the courses, taught to MIT students, available online. Since then, many universities have made this step, and as a result, you can now “attend” top universities’ courses from the comfort of your own home, to mix and match content according to your own interests and needs, and to design unique curricula for yourselves.
So here is (hopefully, an ever growing) list of links to the publicly available university courses and other knowledge resources:
Academic Earth [http://www.academicearth.org/]
MIT Open CourseWare (OCW) project [http://ocw.mit.edu]
MIT World [http://mitworld.mit.edu]
UC Berkeley Webcasts [http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php]
Open Yale Courses [http://oyc.yale.edu]
Apple iTunes U [http://www.apple.com/education/mobile-learning]
Research Channel Video Library [http://www.researchchannel.org]
Sceince Stage [http://sciencestage.com]
TeacherTube [http://www.teachertube.com]
TED Talks [http://www.ted.com]
Udemy [http://www.udemy.com]
videolectures.net [http://videolectures.net]
YouTube EDU [http://www.youtube.com/education]
Yovisto [http://www.yovisto.com]
RSA [http://www.thersa.org]
Open CourseWare Consortium [http://www.ocwconsortium.org]
Feel free to propose other valuable resources, that belong to the list. Also, be sure to revisit this article, as it is my intention to keep the list updated as I find other valuable resources.
[Image by svilen001, taken from www.sxc.hu]
Big day for technology
January 27th, 2010Today is going to be a big day for technology. Two major technology events are going to happen at the same day – January 27th, 2010:
Sun + Oracle merger: At 9:00 AM PST (17:00 GMT) There will be an Oracle + Sun Strategy Update Webcast. It is entitled “Transforming the Way You Buy, Run, and Manage Your Business Systems”. The Sun acquisition by Oracle is by far one of the most significant transformations in the Enterprise segment, making Oracle an even bigger giant.
And then comes the most awaited event by the general public:
Apple: The long awaited announcement of a “major new product”, as dubbed by Steve Jobs, is going to happen at 10:00 AM PST (18:00 GMT). All rumors in the tech circles point it’s going to be the public presentation of the mystical Apple tablet, called iTablet, iSlate or iPod Tablet Edition. There is no live feed from the event, but rumor has it there is going to be a video on Apple’s website as soon as it’s finished.
To all people interested in technology – enjoy!
Social networks
October 13th, 2009
A friend asked me today: “Do you have a Facebook?”
My quick answer was: “Of course not, I am a geek!”
Then it made me think, what is it that makes geeks hate the new social networks hype? It’s not like we are unfamiliar or feel uncomfortable, come on, we create these things for breakfast! 
And there definitely is an issue with geeks and social networks – all my geek friends avoid them, at least the fashion ones. It does not matter where everybody is, I just don’t care if I get a thousand invitations to Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, etc. And it is not like we don’t have social contacts also. It’s more like “you go into that fancy place and mingle with the fancy people. If you want to contact me, come where I am”.
So far so good. But then again, where am I? And most importantly, what makes it different from the other places where people communicate on the Internet?
I am on Twitter, I even have 2 accounts – one personal and one for the blog. I am on LinkedIn. I am on Jamendo. I may even be on some, or even most of the other social networks, but I am not really on them.
What is common between all of these places – they are not commercial. Even though Twitter is so popular, it is somehow clean. No marketing, no spam, no SEO bullshit. It got out of nowhere, some people were just having fun, others thought it is fun too. Another thing common is privacy – you are not bugged 20 times a day with invitations for mindless activities, fake causes and not embarrassed by someone, who thought it is very funny to share a picture of you when you had a bad day. Without asking you do you mind, or giving you any choice. And it is more personal too. You are not part of the crowd, it is like going out with friends.
What do you think about it? How is it for you? And don’t forget to share this within your social network!
[Image by Davide Guglielmo, taken from www.sxc.hu]
Nokia N900 Tablet
September 6th, 2009
Nokia just announced the preorder availability of its new 3G Tablet phone Nokia N900. It runs the Linux-based open-source operating system Maemo 5.
Technical specifications include:
- Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/1700/2100
- 800 x 480 pixels (WVGA) Touch screen
- 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera with dual LED flash (4:3 and 16:9 ratio) with CMOS sensor
- Side-slide full QWERTY keyboard
- Up to 32 GB internal storage with up to 16 GB microSD memory card extension
- Total available application memory up to 1 GB (256 MB RAM, 768 MB virtual memory)
- GPRS, EDGE, WCDMA, HSPA, WLAN WiFi IEEE 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth
- Desktop with up to 4 personalizable views
- Email, Mozilla-powered browser with Flash 9.4 and AJAX support
- Integrated A-GPS receiver with Ovi Maps application
- MP3 (.mp3, .wma, .aac, .m4a, .wav) and Video (.mp4, .avi, .wmv, .3gp) player
- Micro-USB 2.0, 3.5 mm audio jack, TV out (PAL & NTSC)
- Tons of applications from the Ovi store and maemo.org
Nokia N900 – Product showcase
Maemo 5 user interface
N900 interaction documentary
The Nokia N900 Tablet is available for preorder for 499 £ (UK) or 599 € (most of Europe, 649 € in France).
Nokia Booklet 3G
August 24th, 2009 Nokia just announced its first netbook – the 10.1″ Nokia Booklet 3G.
Highlights include:
- 10.1″ display
- a palette of broadband connectivity – 3G, WiFi b/g/n, Bluetooth
- A-GPS navigation
- HDMI
- a stunning 12-hour battery life
- weight: 1,25 kg.
- the new Windows 7
Here is the preview:
Always-On PC
August 19th, 2009
There is a new service available for the people, who wish to have a full-featured desktop while on the road. The service is called AlwaysOnPC, and is in essence a virtual desktop, stored on a server that you can access anytime, and from anywhere.
As it is described on their website:
Introducing AlwaysOnPC, the world’s first personal cloud computer that works from any device, anywhere – including your iPhone™.
Your own online virtual personal computer loaded with a full set of applications and 2 GB of personal file storage. Accessible from an iPhone (other platforms tba) as well as any netbook, laptop, desktop, Internet kiosk.
The service includes an always-on PC with 2 GB of storage, available for documents, files, photos, etc. It is ideal for the travelers, who need to access their desktop remotely from different locations – a computer, their iPhone and soon-to-come other internet-connected platforms. It includes a variety of applications:
- Internet applications – Firefox browser, Email client, Instant messenger (supporting multiple IM services, such as AOL, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, etc.)
- Office package (Word processor, Spreadsheet, Presentation application, Project-management application)
- Utilities (Contacts manager, Calendar, Text editor, Archive manager, Calculator, Dictionary, etc.)
- Multimedia (Movie player (no sound for the time being!), GIMP – a full-featured image editor, etc.)
- Games (17 board and puzzle games)
and even some heavy-duty programming tools including Eclipse and Glade interface designer.
Important! You can get a free registration to try it for 5 days, but in order to get the service permanent, you have to download the AlwaysOnPC app from the Apple AppStore (a one-time 29.99 USD) and login from your iPhone or iPod.
From Xform Computing.
