If you have dumped your CDs in favour of your iPod, then this little gadget is a must-have for you and your car. The Belkin TuneBase transmitter is powered by the car-lighter power source, and once connected to your iPod, it lets you to broadcast music form your portable device to FM airwaves, on any frequency of your choice. If you think your radio is boring, then this gadget can transform your iPod into your personal radio channel for your car. If you are concerned about interference with the radio reception of nearby receivers, then rest assured, the signals transmitted by the device are not powerful enough to do so.
An additional benefit of the TuneBase FM Transmitter is that it has built-in charger that can recharge your iPod; so you actually gain on battery power while enjoying your favourite music. Furthermore, the flexible antenna on the device allows you to reposition the music player so that it does not get in your way. Belkin offers a one year warranty on the device and price of this nifty gadget is approximately 9500 PKR.Saturday, 13 November 2010
Wednesday, 15 September 2010
Nokia launches C3 Touch and Type touchscreen feature phone
Today Nokia announced the new C3 Touch and Type feature phone at the Nokia World event in London. The C3-01, as the phone is also known, is the second member of Nokia's Touch and Type family, which feature both touchscreens and physical keypads for text entry.
The C3-01 is built upon a stainless steel chassis, yet still measures a light 100g (3.5oz) in weight and measures only 11mm (.4in) in profile. The phone's 5 megapixel camera is equipped with a flash and can record VGA quality video at 15 frames per second, which can, of course, be viewed on the phone's QVGA resolution touchscreen display. The C3 Touch and Type has 30MB of built-in storage, but can accept cards as large as 32GB in size for storing media. A built-in FM radio and 3.5mm headphone jack are also available.
The C3-01 features quad-band UMTS (850/900/1900/2100MHz) and quad-band GSM (850/1900/1800/1900MHz) support for true world roaming capability, and offers high-speed HSPA 3G data connections as well as WiFi for web browsing, IM, and email messaging. The phone's battery is rated for up to 3.4 hours of 3G talk time, or 18 days of 3G standby time.
The C3 Touch and Type includes Nokia's Ovi Store for online application and ringtone/wallpaper purchases and downloads, and features the well known Nokia Series 40 user interface.
The Nokia C3 Touch and Type is expected to go on sale in the fourth quarter of 2010 with an unsubsidized price of roughly 145 EUR ($188). It will be available in 3 colors: silver, warm gray, and khaki.
Saturday, 20 March 2010
Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T
What's hot: Extremely portable yet powerful, excellent battery life.What's not: Not cheap, tiny trackpad.
11.6” portables tend to be underpowered, in fact most are netbooks with Atom or AMD Neo CPUs rather than the more powerful Intel Core i CPUs found in standard sized laptops. Want more power in your ultraportable? It’s gonna cost you some serious bucks. The Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T might not be bargain basement cheap, but it is one of the best equipped and powerful 11.6” notebooks money can buy. At $899 for the Intel Core i7 ULV model and $699 for the Intel Core i5 ULV, Acer beats the competition on price in this segment, and it’s hard to find significant fault with the 1830T. It weighs just 3 lbs., has a 1.47GHz Intel Core i7 680UM CPU with 4 gigs of RAM, a 500 gig hard drive, HDMI, 3 USB ports and a pleasing gloss Acer CineCrystal display.
The Acer 1830T targets those who wish they could carry a netbook on the road but need more power and a higher resolution display. At 11.6”, it’s not for those of you who think that 13.3” is as small as a notebook should go. Rather it’s for the extreme ultraportable set who want to do more challenging tasks such as video encoding, Photoshop and 720p video playback. Battery life is as good as a netbooks thanks to the TimelineX’s focus on long battery life. With the standard 6 cell, 5800mAh Lithium Ion battery that tucks neatly into the rear edge, the 1830T can go for 7 hours when doing productivity tasks.
Design and Ergonomics
he TimelineX 1830T is a good looking notebook that has clean lines and a diamond plate patterned plastic lid that reduces fingerprints and improves grip. The laptop is made of plastics and the wrist rest area has an aluminum finish. It’s a good looking machine that’s reasonably rigid though the keyboard is Acer’s usual sprung model that has flex and not much travel. The small Alps mouse pad is integrated into the wrist rest area and 2 overly subtle lines provide minimal tactile feedback to let you know you’ve wandered off the active area. The mouse buttons live at the edge of the notebook and are stiff. We had no trouble using them, and their location is a concession to miniaturization. The trackpad is too small to make practical use of multi-touch gestures but the designated side-scroller works decently.
The near full size keyboard has relatively large keys but this isn’t the popular and more ergonomic island style keyboard with spacing between the keys. We were able to type quickly and accurately but some folks may be put off by the lack of key spacing. Keys are in their normal locations and we appreciate that both shift keys are oversized unlike the larger Lenovo IdeaPad U260 that has a small right shift key.
11.6” portables tend to be underpowered, in fact most are netbooks with Atom or AMD Neo CPUs rather than the more powerful Intel Core i CPUs found in standard sized laptops. Want more power in your ultraportable? It’s gonna cost you some serious bucks. The Acer Aspire TimelineX 1830T might not be bargain basement cheap, but it is one of the best equipped and powerful 11.6” notebooks money can buy. At $899 for the Intel Core i7 ULV model and $699 for the Intel Core i5 ULV, Acer beats the competition on price in this segment, and it’s hard to find significant fault with the 1830T. It weighs just 3 lbs., has a 1.47GHz Intel Core i7 680UM CPU with 4 gigs of RAM, a 500 gig hard drive, HDMI, 3 USB ports and a pleasing gloss Acer CineCrystal display.
The Acer 1830T targets those who wish they could carry a netbook on the road but need more power and a higher resolution display. At 11.6”, it’s not for those of you who think that 13.3” is as small as a notebook should go. Rather it’s for the extreme ultraportable set who want to do more challenging tasks such as video encoding, Photoshop and 720p video playback. Battery life is as good as a netbooks thanks to the TimelineX’s focus on long battery life. With the standard 6 cell, 5800mAh Lithium Ion battery that tucks neatly into the rear edge, the 1830T can go for 7 hours when doing productivity tasks.
Design and Ergonomics
he TimelineX 1830T is a good looking notebook that has clean lines and a diamond plate patterned plastic lid that reduces fingerprints and improves grip. The laptop is made of plastics and the wrist rest area has an aluminum finish. It’s a good looking machine that’s reasonably rigid though the keyboard is Acer’s usual sprung model that has flex and not much travel. The small Alps mouse pad is integrated into the wrist rest area and 2 overly subtle lines provide minimal tactile feedback to let you know you’ve wandered off the active area. The mouse buttons live at the edge of the notebook and are stiff. We had no trouble using them, and their location is a concession to miniaturization. The trackpad is too small to make practical use of multi-touch gestures but the designated side-scroller works decently.
The near full size keyboard has relatively large keys but this isn’t the popular and more ergonomic island style keyboard with spacing between the keys. We were able to type quickly and accurately but some folks may be put off by the lack of key spacing. Keys are in their normal locations and we appreciate that both shift keys are oversized unlike the larger Lenovo IdeaPad U260 that has a small right shift key.
Display
The 1366 x 768 LED backlit gloss Acer CineCrystal display is solid. Colors are nearly as accurate as the lovely matte high end Lenovo U260’s and we found viewing angles slightly better than the Lenovo (60 degrees). Brightness is good at 200 nits and clarity is excellent with sharp text and good looking images. This is no bargain basement display, and it’s well-suited to the TimelineX’s higher price tier. Glare can be an issue when working near a window and we wouldn’t recommend any gloss display for outdoor work, but it looks great indoors. We found brightness to be surprisingly good (and I like a bright display). I rarely raised brightness much above 55 to 60% indoors thanks to the bright panel. Interestingly, cranking brightness didn’t have a huge impact on battery life.
Ports, Specs and Upgrading
The Acer has a full complement of ports by ultraportable standards including 3 USB 2.0 ports (1 left, 2 right), HDMI, VGA, Gigabit Ethernet, 3.5mm stereo audio out with SPDIF, mic-in and power. The laptop has both WiFi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth 3.0 (both Broadcom). It’s easy to open up the TimelineX 1830T to do upgrades: simply remove 4 Philips head screws and remove the large bottom cover to access the hard drive, 2 RAM slots wireless module and empty PCI Express connector. The machine ships with 4 gigs of DDR3 RAM in 2 SODIMM slots and it has a 500 gig 5400 rpm hard drive with 8 megs cache (ours is a Western Digital).
Performance
The Acer is a fantastic mobile workhorse with enough processing and graphics power to handle Photoshop manipulation of 20 meg RAW files, 1080p video processing using Windows Live Movie Maker and 720p video playback to the built-in display (it can handle 1080p to an external monitor). The TimelineX 1830T-68U118 runs on the Intel Core i7-680UM, a 1.46GHz ULV CPU released in Q3 of 2010. It can Turbo Boost to 2.53GHz and has 2 cores with 4 threads. The cheaper 1830T-3721 runs on a 1.33GHz Intel Core i5-430UM and should be adequate for those who don’t need to do media encoding and other CPU-intensive applications. There’s a Core i3 ULV version, but that’s getting hard to find and we don’t recommend it since that CPU isn’t very powerful and lacks Turbo Boost.
This isn’t the machine for serious 3D gamers; get an Alienware M11x or a larger-screened laptop with dedicated graphics. The TimelineX 1830T uses Intel HD integrated graphics with a maximum 500MHz clock speed (not too shabby) and the Intel HM55 Express chipset. It can handle older games and casual games fine but it’s not nearly up to Call of Duty Black Ops. It does an excellent job of video playback and handles Photoshop well but isn’t meant for serious 3D despite a decent Windows Experience score for 3D gaming.
The Core i7 and Core i5 ULV CPU are ultra-low voltage versions of the standard mobile Core i CPUs. They use less power and generate less heat, making them better suited to small notebooks. They use 18 watts of power and are built in a 32nm process. The i7-680UM has 4 megs of level 2 cache while the i5-430UM has 3 megs. Both are 64 bit CPUs (the machine ships with Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit) and support virtualization and Turbo Boost where the CPU can get a temporary boost to a much higher clock speed. When doing productivity work in MS Office and IE 9 beta, the CPU utilization ran 4-7%, and it hit 26% playing Hulu video and 720p YouTube content (that’s quite good). What about Intel Sandy Bridge ULV CPUs? We probably won’t see those before the summer of 2011 in ULV form, so if you need a notebook now, it’s not worth the wait.
Despite the solid processing power packed into a very small package, the Acer remained cool and quiet. There are plenty of heat vents on the bottom and the fan exhausts warm air at the rear right. The Acer runs cooler and quieter than the metal-clad Lenovo IdeaPad U260 with a Core i5 ULV and the MacBook Air with its Core 2 Duo and NVIDIA dedicated graphics. When playing Flash video, the CPU reached 48 Centigrade and the bottom remained comfortably warm. The fan is unobtrusive in terms of volume and how often it ramps up.
Benchmarks
Windows Experience Index:
Processor: 5.7
Memory: 5.7
Graphics (Aero): 3.5
Graphics (3D gaming): 4.8
Hard disk: 5.8
Memory: 5.7
Graphics (Aero): 3.5
Graphics (3D gaming): 4.8
Hard disk: 5.8
PCMark Vantage:
Acer TimelineX 1830T, Core i7 PCMark: 4850 Memories: 2432 TV and Movies: 2828 Gaming 2480 Music: 5251 Communications: 5712 Productivity: 4245 HDD: 3228 | Lenovo IdeaPad U260, Intel Core i5 470UM PCMark: 3905 Memories: 2274 TV and Movies: 2597 Gaming 2370 Music: 4224 Communications: 3119 Productivity: 3808 HDD: 3015 | Lenovo X100e (AMD Neo) PCMark Suite: 1591 Memories: 1047 TV and Movies: 827 Gaming: 921 Music: 2159 Communication: 1442 Productivity: 1495 HDD: 2671 |
Conclusion
The Acer TimelineX 1830T is our top pick among subnotebooks. It doesn't compromise power or battery life and it has a good set of ports that outnumber the competition. We're impressed with the specs on the 1830T, and they beat out the competition in features vs. price. It significantly outperforms Acer's own Ferrari One, has a faster CPU and more features than Lenovo's IdeaPad U160, a faster CPU and more ports than the MacBook Air (though it lacks the Air's dedicated graphics), and more horsepower and longer battery life than the Lenovo IdeaPad U260. Bluetooth 3.0 is standard, the laptop has HDMI and a classy looking chassis with good build quality. Geeks and tinkerers will appreciate the easy access to internals for hard drive swaps and wireless upgrades. If you're looking for a 3 lb. notebook that fits in the smallest of spaces and don't intend to do serious 3D gaming with current titles, the Acer should measure up.
Pro: A very fast 11.6" notebook, one of the fastest currently on the market. Attractive, light and fairly thin. Very good battery life, runs cool, quiet fan. Plenty of ports including HDMI. Large capacity hard drive is standard on the Core i5 and i7 models. Has both WiFi 802.11n and Bluetooth 3.0, though no integrated mobile broadband.
Con: Acer's flat keyboard may not suit those who favor island style keyboards, trackpad is small and it's easy to wander off its edges.
Wednesday, 27 January 2010
Apple officially launches iPad tablet
Today Apple launched the iPad, a tablet computer that it hopes will fit somewhere between the iPhone and the Mac in its product lineup.
The iPad lets users surf the Web, send emails, download and listen to music and videos in iTunes, and even read ebooks from major publishers using its iBooks application. It also supports applications from the current iTunes app store, as well as apps developed specifically for the iPad, so it will launch with an already exhaustive library of games, too. Currently, it looks like the device runs a similar version of the iPhone OS.
It has a 1024 x 768 resolution 9.7-inch IPS capacitive multitouch display and is equipped with 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1+EDR, a speaker, microphone, 30-pin connector, accelerometer, and a compass. It's powered by a 1-GHz Apple A4 chip and has 16-64GB of flash storage depending on the model you choose. To type, there's an onscreen QWERTY keyboard which works in both landscape and portrait modes.
For surfing the Web away from home, the more expensive iPad models are equipped with a 3G chip for no-contract 3G data plans from AT&T. One plan is $14.99 for 250MB of data per month, and the unlimited plan costs $29.99 per month. You'll also have access to AT&T WiFi hotspots for free. The 3G models ship unlocked and accept GSM SIM cards for using internationally, although global carrier partners have not yet been announced.
Steve Jobs said the device has 10 hours of battery life, enough to watch movies from San Francisco to Tokyo the whole way.
Other features include full iWork support, which will set you back $9.99 per app or $30 for the whole package.
The iPad comes without 3G for $499 (16GB), $599 (32GB), and $699 (64GB). The 3G models cost $629, $729, and $829, respectively. The standard models will be available within the next 60 days while 3G models will ship in 90 days.
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