mac world
Posted by admin in Mobile Phones on January 27, 2012
When Apple stopped presenting at Macworld in 2009, everyone wondered what would become of the show. As Apple’s launching point for new products until 2009, Macworlds of the past often took up two giant rooms at Moscone Center and everyone involved with making Macs, iPhones, and the products that surround them would come for the event. Ever since Apple stopped showing at Macworld and making product announcements on its own, the show has lost some of its magic, but you wouldn’t know that by talking to some of the vendors on the floor.
Hasselblad’s US$45,000 camera
The new top-end model from medium-format camera maker Hasselblad is now on the market, and it’s not cheap: the 200-megapixel H4D-200MS will set you back 32,000 euros, or about US$45,000. The camera actually uses a sensor with a mere 50 megapixels, but with Hasselblad’s multishot technology combines six shots into one. That means moving subjects such as fashion models need not apply. But a lot of this very high-end photography involves static subjects such as jewelry, watches, cars, and paintings for reproduction. Hasselblad announced the H4D-200MS last September at the Photokina show. At the time, the company said it hoped to release the camera in the first quarter. The multishot technique isn’t as crude as taking a bunch of shots and stitching them together. Instead, it works with a piezoelectric motor that moves the camera’s image sensor a tiny amount before taking each photo.
Sony’s new Vaio S and F laptops
Sony has just launched new S and F Vaio laptops, which target the ultraportable and desktop replacement markets, respectively. In line with its premium image, the latest machines may not be the cheapest in town, but sport designs and features that warrant the price tag. The Vaio S (shown above) is a slim 13.3-inch laptop which can rival the ThinkPad X1 and MacBook Air in terms of portability, slipping in at a mere 24.1mm with a 1.6kg heft. But unlike those model, the Vaio S comes with an optical drive, making it great for professionals who need to access physical media. Another interesting feature is the Webcam, which uses a face-tracking, low-light Exmor sensor to make video conferencing hassle free.
Sony Vaio S
Core i7 processor (Sandy Bridge)
13.3-inch (1,600 x 900) display
AMD Radeon HD 6630 hybrid graphics
HDD or SSD
DVD writer or Blu-ray player
24.1mm thick
1.6kg weight
Starts at US$1,370
Available in white, black pink and blue
Leica’s V-Lux 30
Leica updates its V-Lux 20 to better compete with the likes of Panasonic, Fujifilm and Sony in the long-zoom compact segment. The 15.1-megapixel V-Lux 30 features a 16x optical zoom, 24mm wide-angle optics and 3-inch touchscreen display. Apart from having GPS capabilities, the snapper is capable of recording full-HD video clips and shooting at 10fps in full resolution. According to the specifications, we think that the new camera is Leica’s version of the Panasonic’s Lumix DMC-TZ20 that costs twice as much as the latter. It seems that Leica simply made some cosmetic changes to the TZ20′s design, stamped its red logo and voila: The V-Lux 30. However, Leica sweetens the deal by throwing in some basic photo- and video-editing software by Adobe.
Sony confirms PlayStation 4 is in the works
The PlayStation 4, as revealed by Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato on a conference call with investors recently. According to Eurogamer, Kato was asked to explain to investors the reason for increased spending on research and development: For the home equipment the PS3 still has a product life. But this is a platform business, so for the future platform when we’ll be introducing what product I cannot discuss that–but our development work is already under way, so the costs are incurred there. His confirmation on the PS4 actually conflicts with comments made by Sony Computer Entertainment President and CEO Kaz Hirai (the face of Sony during the PSN crisis) earlier this year, which are essentially that the PS3 will continue to be the focus of Sony until 2016, and that the next-gen console “is not something that we are even debating now”.
Panasonic takes eco technology to the next level
Panasonic prides itself as an eco-conscious company, and has continued to invest in green technology to stay ahead of the competition. In fact, the manufacturer considered its energy-and-water saving technologies as strong differentiating factors to the competition. The corporation has even spearheaded a Sustainable Smart Town project in Fujisawa on a former factory site. At its annual Asia Pacific Eco Ideas conference, Panasonic announced its green house gas (GHG) emission targets for 2013 along with a showcase of eco-friendly concepts.
Known as EcoNavi technology, Panasonic use sensors extensively to let its home appliances “sense” the surroundings. A fridge has up to four sensors: The door sensor tells it when the doors are opened, an ambient light sensor to determine the time of the day when the contents are accessed, ambient and interior heat sensors for regulating the internal temperature. The fridge goes one step further by using the data obtained to “learn” the eating habits of the household. If the fridge is rarely opened at night or during working hours, the machine reduces the cooling factor. Conversely, during meal times the appliance increase power usage to compensate for cold air escaping. This allows the power-hungry machine to reduce energy usage by up to 10 percent.
NASA unveils new cooling technology
Ever wondered about the source of that humming sound coming from your computer? It’s most likely the fan that tries to ventilate the internal components. That’s a typical cooling system. I am not a rocket scientist, but generally speaking, as electronic components get tinier and more powerful, the amount of heat they generate gets proportionately higher. This is due to the simple fact that there’s just not enough surface for the heat to dissipate quickly enough. That’s why all computers’ processors and high-end video cards come with a heat sink with a fan on top. Take this heat sink away and you’d fry the component in a matter of seconds.
Now bring these little advanced devices into space, where there’s no air or moisture to help conduct the heat, and you’ll have an even bigger challenge. And that’s exactly what NASA has been facing. According to NASA’s Jeff Didion, a thermal engineer at the Goddard Space Flight Center, in the world of electronics, thermal control is always one of the limiting factors. He has been collaborating with Jamal Seyed-Yagoobi, a professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, to partner with the U.S. Air Force and National Renewable Energy Laboratory to find ways to push the envelope of thermal-control barriers.
Budget wired 3D glasses for Nvidia 3D Vision
Nvidia is making 3D more affordable for 3D Vision-ready monitors, projectors and laptops by launching a wired version of its active shutter 3D eyewear. Due in late June, each pair costs US$99 and comes with a 3m USB cable for power. An optional lock allows the glasses to be secured to a computer to deter theft. An existing wireless version is separately available at US$149, too. Nvidia 3D Vision is a proprietary 3D technology for computing devices based on Nvidia’s graphics processors such as its latest GTX 560M chip. The system is compatible with high-quality 1080p 3D PC games.
Google’s new +1 social-networking feature
Google, having failed to out-Facebook Facebook and to out-Twitter Twitter with Buzz, began a more modest attempt today to build social-networking features into its Web presence: The +1 button. The +1 button lets people recommend Web sites to those in their social circle. Web site operators now can add +1 buttons to their own sites; Google and partners such as The Washington Post, O’Reilly, and Best Buy already are adding the feature, Google +1 programmer Evan Gilbert said in a blog post. “With a single click you can recommend that raincoat, news article, or favorite sci-fi movie to friends, contacts, and the rest of the world. The next time your connections search, they could see your +1′s directly in their search results, helping them find your recommendations when they’re most useful,” Gilbert said. Google sites using the +1 buttons include the Android Market, Blogger, Product Search, and YouTube, the company said. The company also has offered Web developer tools for adding +1 buttons to pages.
WHO study: Cell phone radiation can lead to cancer
It’s official: Cell phone radiation can actually lead to cancer, according to an extensive study by the World Health Organization. WHO’s International Agency for Research of Cancer team that worked on the study included 31 scientists from 14 countries. The results, which found that exposure to cell phones are “possibly carcinogenic to humans”, aren’t entirely shocking but rather sobering more than anything else.
The type of radiation coming out of a cell phone is called non-ionizing. It is not like an X-ray, but more like a very low-powered microwave oven.
“What microwave radiation does in most simplistic terms is similar to what happens to food in microwaves, essentially cooking the brain. So in addition to leading to a development of cancer and tumors, there could be a whole host of other effects like cognitive memory function, since the memory temporal lobes are where we hold our cell phones.”