Archive for February, 2008:
Make mine eight gig
A cellphone is a cellphone is a cellphone.
That is what my brother and many other people I know say when it comes to that gadget they have learned to trust with their lives.
Sure, I think to myself, as I smile and wonder how they are able to survive on those cellphones that look like they had seen better days.
Cellphones, like people, are ever-changing. And that is what makes them exciting gadgets to have and to own. Once a person stops learning, he stops living or so they say. The same goes for the stiff competition that cellphones face nowadays. It is precisely why, when a good model comes along, a newer and more improved model is re-launched in the market.
Take the Nokia N95 8GB.
The Nokia N95 8GB is simple to handle because the original N95 is so well known and has been written about so many times.
The original N95, it seems, was intended to be the last word in the classic S60 phone line. The N95 comes loaded with features like S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, with the combined Web/WAP browser and miniUSB connectivity; HSDPA, UPnP and Wi-Fi; a largish, recessed 2.6 inch screen; a five-megapixel still camera with great optics, light sensitivity and options, protected by a physical shutter and spoilt slightly by slow image processing and slow camera startup; a great VGA-resolution video recorder (producing good video images but only mono sound); a very full set of media software, with all audio and video codecs, video and image editing suites; online integration; the facility to work in portrait or landscape mode; and TV out for video echoing of any application or media item to a TV or other video equipment.
A Porsche for your pocket
Stuttgart, Germany-based Porsche Design Group and French-based Sagem Mobiles (Safran Group) have joined forces to create the first Porsche Design mobile phone, the P’9521.
Like its much-coveted automotive namesake, the new mobile phone combines sophisticated, purist design with high-quality natural materials such as aluminum and glass.
The phone’s casing is milled out of a solid aluminum block, a manufacturing technique used for engines and alloy wheels of high-end sports cars but is a unique production method for mobile phones.
With this device, Porsche Design has remained loyal to its clear design language and has utilized sophisticated materials, again in keeping with its storied tradition.
The typography, styling and colors of the phone’s menu underscore the handset’s very functional character. A double hinge made from lightweight aluminum enables the screen to be rotated 180 degrees, allowing the phone to be used as a digital camera.
The P’9521, whose local price was still unavailable as we went to press, features a fingerprint reader, which easily and conveniently identifies the user while ensuring high-security access to sensitive data.
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Internet - online magazine
Foreword of Maximum PC Magazine issue January 2008 from Will Smith, Editor in Chief.
Have you ever heard of this thing called “the Internet”? It turns out that it’s a great platform for publishing information. Color me impressed! I think this “Internet” thing just may change the future of magazine publishing. Seriously though, I’m super-stoked to share the next phase of Maximum PC’s plans for world domination. First off, on MaximumPC.com we’re going to post time-sensitive content much, much earlier than we have in the past. Our current strategy of posting reviews months after everyone’s stopped caring is, admittedly, pretty lame. Starting with this issue, we’ll be posting our reviews online as soon as they’re written.
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Pakistan’s attempt to block YouTube
Most of the world’s Internet users lost access to YouTube for several hours after an attempt by Pakistan’s government to block access domestically affected other countries.
The outage Sunday highlighted yet another of the Internet’s vulnerabilities, coming less than a month after broken fiber-optic cables in the Mediterranean took Egypt off line and caused communications problems from the Middle East to India.
An Internet expert explained that Sunday’s problems arose when a Pakistani telecommunications company accidentally identified itself to Internet computers as the world’s fastest route to YoutTube. But instead of serving up videos of skateboarding dogs, it sent the traffic to oblivion.
On Friday, the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority ordered 70 Internet service providers to block access to YouTube.com, because of anti-Islamic movies on the video-sharing site, which is owned by Google Inc.
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Whoopi Goldberg seems sad, choked up on ‘The View’
Whoopi Goldberg seemed sad and choked up on “The View” chat show Monday when her fellow co-hosts discussed how she was not included in a montage featuring Oscar hosts during the Academy Awards telecast.
The 52-year-old Goldberg has received two Oscar nominations, winning for her role as Oda Mae Brown in 1990’s “Ghost.” She hosted the event in 199, 1996, 1999 and 2002. She did, however, appear as an Oscar winner in a separate montage Sunday night.
Goldberg appeared stumped that the academy would leave her out of the one clip, as well as repeat hot Steve Martin.
“Maybe they accidentally lost a clip of you hosting… But I think its wrong,” Elisabeth Hasselbeck said, Joy Behar said “being slighted is never fun.” Sherri Shepherd wondered if Goldberg had made someone mad.
“Undoubtedly,” Goldberg said, smiling. “Undoubtedly I (bleeped) somebody off yet again. You know what, I don’t – I don’t know.”
Rebecca Broussard sentenced to jail on drinking and driving charge
Actress Rebecca Broussard was sentenced to five days in jail and three years of probation after pleading no contest to a drinking and driving felony charge.
Superior Court Judge Katherine Mader on Monday also ordered Broussard, charged under the name Rebecca Kelly to perform 30 days of state highway cleanup, participate in a hospital and morgue “Scared Straight” program and undergo alcohol treatment program, said Sandi Gibbons, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office.
A second DUI charge was dismissed.
Attempts to find a phone listing for Broussard were unsuccessful. The charges stemmed from an August collision near Los Angeles International Airport.
Broussard, 45, is the mother of Jack Nicholson’s two teenage children. Her movie credits include Nicholson titles ‘The Two Jakes” and “Mars Attacks!”
Source: PhilStar News, Los Angleles (AP)
