The Future of Technology Vol. 3

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Imagine downloading a music video or movie onto your phone and displaying it on a wall. That's not far from reality. Expected to debut in 2008 on game consoles and PCs, it will revolutionize the way we view videos. Right now, the big thing is watching TV and movie online but by the looks of it, that will all be transferred over to the mobile phone.

The first mobile phone will be projector equiped by 2009 with due help from Motorola to develop PICO projectors that were first invented by Microvision. The projectors use light scanning technology to display a colourful image all from a beam of light. If you open your cell phone and project the image from 12 feet away, the picture on the wall will be up to 120 inches which is incredible. Soon the picture will be HD and you'll have a mobile TV in your pocket. A PicoP engine will control the whole thing, the size of a mint, to control the intensity of te thousands of colours generated by the scanner. All on one phone charge, you'll be able to play "I Know Pronounce You Chuck and Larry." The estimated cost of intergrating all this onto your phone will be $150 and accessory projectors will be a higher price of $200.

 

Photoshop Express Beta

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An online-only version of Adobe Photoshop Express is slated to be released by the end of 2007 with an open beta. It is doing this to keep up and compete with other offerings by companies trying to get rid of software and instead use online-based applications. First announced at the beginning of the year, Adobe recently announced it would be officically releasing it.

Adobe will be collaborating with other online sites such as Photobucket and Shutterfly which is a similar move to what Yahoo Flickr is doing with PicNik.

Photoshop Elements is still very basic compared to any Photoshop offering so don't expect to get anything special when it does come out. It will however include all the common features like : rotation, colour adjustment, red eye removal, rotation, highlight, fill, and more great options, but it will also include cool features such as "huge", "sketch", "distort" and many others.

 

LCD vs Plasma

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Buying an HDTV has never been harder and now with LCD fast approaching Plasma set prices, it's getting even harder to differentiate them. That's where I come in. I'll give you the lowdown on the advantages and disadvantages of each platform and I'll help you make the better choice.


LCD
An LCD HDTV seems to be the right choice at first with it's higher price and with more sizes to choos from, LCD would seem the hands down choice. Wrong (for now). While LCD has made significant strides in the past years, Plasma still has the edge over LCD. If you are looking for a smaller screen size then LCD may be your only choice but with fairly good picture and decent viewing angles it isn't the worst thing. One of the huge advantages of LCD is there is no burn-in produced after static images but they do suffer from retained pixel charge which basically means some pixels will stay at a certain spot. The other key advantage is LCD TVs have a higher native resolution. Basicaly what that means is a 42 inch LCD TV will have more pixels than a 42 inch Plasma TV which results in a slightly better picture. They also weigh less and are more durable so personally installing your LCD TV is possible. They don't overheat and are more energy efficient so it can be a more of an environmental choice for people that are trying to cut there energy bill.

Plasma
We are considering a Plasma HDTV because it is better for watching sports with rich colours and deeper blacks. This can also help the picture for regular use and movies. They do suck up more power and suffer from burn-in but if you are pro-active, this will never be an issue because burn-in happens when you leave a static image for too long (pausing a video game or live TV). They are cheaper which is surprising because they are more expensive to ship and handle. If you are mounting it, a professional would be highly recommended and would come with a price tag. Plasmas have a wider viewing angle than LCDs which can be a factor if you have a large room.

Best Buys
Pioneer is by far the best bet for a plasma TV but they will run a little more on the price side. If you are looking for a more bang for your buck, then a Panasonic plasma will be good, just ahead of a Samsung. My two favourite Plasmas are the Pioneer PDP-4360HD ($1700) and Panasonic TH-42PZ700U ($1500).
My favourite LCD is a Sony KDL-46XBR4 ($3000). All three of these TVs are 46-inch (except the Panasonic- 42inch) which I believe most people do buy. Note: US prices.
Canadian retailers
Panasonic TH-42PZ700-ShopBot has a list of retailers including Henry's and The Brick from $2500-$3100.
Pioneer PDP 4360HD-Not sold in Canada but similar model PDP-4280HD at Best Buy for $3000.
Sony KDL-46XBR4-ShopBot has a list of retailers including Sony Style Canada. for $3300

 

Organize Yourself on the Web

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Is Microsoft Office too expensive or are you just looking for something different to manage your data, personal life, and/or finances? We'll there are sites that will do that for you all for free. The great thing about websites is they are everchanging and updates are made very often.

Stixy
Is your fridge getting too full or do you wish that you could share all those proud family moments with the rest of the world? A website is out there that will make you a fridge like page to share with friends and family. Stixy allows you to put notes, to-do lists, photos, documents and upload music with the help of their widgets. Within 10 seconds you are up and running with only your email and personal password entered. You can either start setting up your board or you can invite other people to be allowed to view and edit the board. There isn't the largest amount of space at first but you can close or hide a few toolbars to free up some space. You can create as many boards as you like which is great for people with alot of contacts. Note: to add music, drag the document widget onto the board.

Mint
Alot of people are clueless when it comes to accounting and keeping track of your bank account but that's where a handy website comes in. To keep track of your finances, Mint will download your daily transactions and categorize them to its best ability, all after you've given it your login info to the respected online accounts. A key feature of this site is it will notify you of low balances and/or unusual activity. Due to the sensitivity of this topic you have the right to not trust this blog but if you are curious and want to explore further and gain more respect, then visit theses sites with personal reviews. Piaw and Filife.

Zoho: DB & Reports
My dad loves to fiddle around with charts, data sheets, graphs, and whatnot which could be a reason why he is an accountant so my review of this will lie on his shoulders. Give him till this weekend to fiddle around with the site and I'll give you a personal and in depth review on the site later. Basically Zoho is a database application with a new application called DB & Reports. It gives you many ways to analyze data including graphing, tables, pie charts, etc. The data can be created from scratch or it can be imported from a spreadsheet. Wait to hear the offical review on it later.

 

Firefox 3.0 Beta Released

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If you are a fan of Mozilla or you are getting fed up of Internet Explorer, then Mozilla is updating its much respected broswer, Firefox. Entitled, Mozilla Gran Paradiso, it aims to better the graphics and text rendering and improve stability.


"Gran Paradiso Alpha 1 is being made available for testing purposes only, and is intended for web application developers and our testing community. Current users of Mozilla Firefox should not use Gran Paradiso Alpha 1."

This didn't stop me though when I chose to download the alpha of Firefox 3.0. I will delete it after this review as none of my widgets work and there isn't much benefit now to using it now. I noticed a speed increase though and the only physical change I saw were the File, Tools, etc; buttons became 3D when you hovered over them. If you aren't a web developer I'd suggest you'd wait until the next version comes out unless you don't have any add-ons associated with Firefox.

 

Cool Downloads Vol.2

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Computer work gets tediuos and hard so here are a couple of downloads to ease the workload on you and your computer.

Snap Back To Reality
When you go and search up a term in Google or any other search let alone have a multitude of websites at your fingertips, you have no clue what to expect from each of them. So, what do you do? You start clicking them one by one, elimating each link as you go along. Wouldn't it be easier if you could click ALL the links at once, or a selective few. Pedro Fonseca thought the same way and he beat me to the development of an actual add-on. He titled it Snap Links and when installed, will enable you to right click and drag, across all the links you'd like to view. When coupled with , you will be offered a multitude of options including: open in new tab, open in new window, save to bookmarks, and copy to clipboard.

Tip Top Computer
Time eats many things up, metaphorically, including humans, animals, and products such as computers. This download though will work against time to bring back your hard drive to what it once was. CCleaner works unlike any other cleaning program as it not only tells you what to clean up within the browser, temp files, and recycling bin, but it goes further and looks at leftover files from programs like Adobe, Nero, HP, Microsoft, etc. It also comes with an uninstaller for other programs (as well as itself) and a registry scanner. Another notable is the included tag editor which enables you to check folders other than the defaults for scanning.

PC PitStop
This website is a personal recommendation of mine and is a must look when browsing for tips to fix your sick computer. It many free utilities that can be used directly from there website without the need for downloading. This includes an optimizer, performance scanner, and disk health. There are literally many more scans and tests you can run at this site and it's proven great for me.

Lest We Forget
IN FLANDERS FIELDS the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.