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Samsung W7900 showcase

Posted by Fiddy On 5:42 AM 0 comments


Pico projectors are all the rage, and their popularity is growing. I always thought that these little projectors would really shine once they become fully integrated into the projects that use them such as a phones or handheld games. Well, the Samsung Show W7900 has been demoed, and it is very nice.

The Samsung Show W7900 is just like any other Samsung media device save for one essential feature; it has a built in projector capable of displaying a great image up to 50 inches diagonally. Specifically, the projector features 10 lumens and 480 by 320 pixels. Other specs on the phone include a 5MP camera, 3G connector, 3.2 inch OLED screen, and a front facing VGA camera for video conferencing. If the OS and the media functions are up to snuff, this phone will be very nice.

It was only a tech demo, and there is no official Samsung W7900 release date or price, but you can bet these things will be hitting the street soon. Now if I could only get a PSP or a Nintendo DS with a built-in projector.

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About Computer injuries

Posted by Fiddy On 5:33 AM 0 comments



While back pain, blurred vision and mouse-related injuries are now well-documented hazards of long-term computer use, the number of acute injuries connected to computers is rising rapidly. According to a study published in the July 2009 issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, researchers from the Center for Injury Research and Policy and The Research Institute at Nationwide Children's Hospital; and The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus have found a more-than-sevenfold increase in computer-related injuries due to tripping over computer equipment, head injuries due to computer monitor falls and other physical incidents.

According to data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System database, over 78,000 cases of acute computer-related injuries were treated in U.S. emergency departments from 1994 through 2006. Approximately 93% of injuries occurred at home. The number of acute computer-related injuries increased by 732% over the 13-year study period, which is more than double the increase in household computer ownership (309%).

Injury mechanisms included hitting against or catching on computer equipment; tripping or falling over computer equipment; computer equipment falling on top of the patient; and the straining of muscles or joints. The computer part most often associated with injuries was the monitor. The percentage of monitor-related cases increased significantly, from 11.6% in 1994 to a peak of 37.1% in 2003. By 2006, it had decreased to 25.1%. The decrease since 2003 corresponds to the replacement of heavier cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors with smaller and easier-to-lift liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors.

Children aged 5 years had the highest injury rate of all age groups. The most common cause of injury was tripping or falling by patients aged 5 years had the highest injury rate of all age groups. The most common cause of injury was tripping or falling by patients aged 5 years (43.4%) and ≥60 years (37.7%) and hitting or getting caught on computer equipment for individuals of all other ages (36.9% of all cases). While injuries to the extremities were most common (57.4%), children aged 10 years most often had injuries to the head (75.8% for those aged 5 years and 61.8% for those aged 5�� years).

According to Lara B. McKenzie, PhD, MA, Nationwide Children's Hospital Center for Injury Research and Policy, Columbus, "Future research on acute computer-related injuries is needed as this ubiquitous product becomes more intertwined in our everyday lives. More information is needed on the types of computers and equipment used, the layout of these systems, and the furniture utilized in order to develop household-safety practices in this areaGiven the large increase in acute computer-related injuries over the study period, greater efforts are needed to prevent such injuries, especially among young children".


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Extending computers life

Posted by Fiddy On 5:26 AM 0 comments


Sometime I think losing a laptop is almost as traumatic as losing a pet. You spend so much time and effort getting to know what it, trying new things. You waste hours of your life playing with it. It even follows you around.

Okay, so I might be pushing the analogy, but the truth is, most of us don"t have the money to get a new laptop every 6 months. We"d like to keep the one we have alive and running for as long as possible.

So here are a few useful little tips that might extend the life your computer. Don"t worry, you probably already know them, but reminders never hurt anyone:

1. Shut it Down: This may sound simple but a number of of us just close the lid, turn of the monitor or set it to sleep mode. Completely shutting your computer down will keep it from overheating and leaking memory. Think of your computer like your brain, it can"t function without a good night"s sleep.

2. Defrag!: Again, another simple "duh" moment. Defrag your computer. Most PCs will even let you set up a regular defrag schedule once a week. Cleaning up your files on a regular basis will also keep your computer functioning at optimal speed.

3. Keep it Clean: During your regularly scheduled defrag, go ahead and run a scan for viruses, spyware, malware, all that bad stuff you can pick on the internet. Find a good program to keep your PC"s health good.

4. Don"t Drop It: Look, be nice to your laptops. Keep them in safe places, don"t expose them to weird temperatures and be sure not to eat or drink near them if possible. Also pets. I lost a laptop a few years ago to a cat pouncing on and then hairballing all over my keys, it broke my screen and something gross seeped into the circuitry. Trust me, helping your computer and your pets avoid each other is a good idea.

These might not be the most enlightening tips, but they"ll go along way in keeping your computer chugging along for an extra year or so.


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Posted by Fiddy On 5:18 AM 0 comments



Despite the distraction potential of laptops in college classrooms, new research shows that they can actually increase students' engagement, attentiveness, participation and learning.

To achieve this, however, the instructor must set the right stage, says University of Michigan professor Perry Samson.

Samson is a professor in the Department of Atmospheric, Oceanic and Space Sciences who has received honors for his educational technology work.

He has developed robust interactive student response system called LectureTools that utilizes students' laptops. A paper about how students report that LectureTools affected their learning is reported in the May edition of the journal Computers & Education.

"If you allow laptops in the classroom without a plan for how you'll use them, you can potentially invite disaster. It's unlikely that students will be so entranced by class material that they won't wander off to their favorite social networking sites," Samson said. "The key is to deliberately engage students through their computers. LectureTools does just that".

LectureTools is an interactive student response system and teaching module. Instructors at more than 400 colleges and universities have set up accounts to use it.


Samson recently surveyed close to 200 students who, over the past three semesters, have taken his Extreme Weather lecture course that utilized LectureTools. Students reported that while they did sometimes stray from in-class tasks, laptops with LectureTools made them feel more attentive, engaged and able to learn, compared with classes that don't use the system.

"Our surveys showed that while laptop computers can be a distraction, students of this generation feel that they are capable of productive multitasking," Samson said.

Through LectureTools, laptops serve as robust "clickers," providing drastically more interaction than the class polling that clicker-based student response systems offer.

LectureTools also allows students to take notes directly on lecture slides. Students can anonymously ask the instructor's aide a question through a chat window during class, and others can see these questions and answers. Students can also rate their own understanding of each slide, giving the professor valuable feedback.

"It is the first successful instance I've seen of dramatic use of information technology to augment the real-time classroom experience," said John King, vice provost for academic affairs and the William Warner Bishop Collegiate Professor of Information. "LectureTools significantly increases the interactivity between the student and the instructor without disrupting the flow of the class. The instructor gets a lot more detailed information about where the students are while maintaining normal operation in the class".

Close to half of students surveyed said that having a laptop in class increased the amount of time they spent on tasks uncorrelation to the lecture. But a full 78 percent agreed that laptops in class made them more engaged. Approximately half said that having their laptops made them more attentive. Seventy percent said laptops had a positive effect on their learning.

LectureTools significantly increased class participation as well. The system allows students to chat with an instructor's aide, posing questions without raising a hand and having to speak up in front of their peers.

"You can ask the dumb question without fear," Samson said.

More than half of the students asked at least one question during the semester, which is a much higher percentage than Samson saw in classes without LectureTools, he said.

The paper is called "Deliberate Engagement of Laptops in Large Lecture Classes to Improve Attentiveness and Engagement".

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Vopium invensting in Skype

Posted by Fiddy On 5:09 AM 0 comments

The underdog Danish voiceover IP (VoIP) company Vopium has received a large cash injection from a prominent Indian telecommunications investor and has declared it is gunning for Skype in a bid to compete with the frontrunning VoIP provider.

Vopium, sometimes dubbed the 'other' VoIP company, today announced that Indian investor Raghuvinder Kataria, an early backer of Bharti Airtel – the third largest in-country mobile operator in the world – would invest $16.5m (£11m) in the Danish internet telecom, making him its largest shareholder.

In a statement, Kataria said: "We believe that the market demands an alternative mobile solution to Skype and the fast market penetration of smartphones opens up new and more intelligent ways of communication."

Kataria's investment significantly increases Vopium's funding as their last posted investment was €4.2m (£3.5m) in 2008 from Enex Group SA, a private Luxembourg-based investment company.

But the little VoIP still has a long way to go before it catches up with Skype, the field's clear leader.

At peak hours, Skype reports 23 million users online and Skype traffic accounts for 12% of global international calling minutes. Its users made 3.1bn minutes of calls to landlines and mobiles, and 36.1bn minutes of calls between Skype users in the third quarter of 2009.

Vopium, on the other hand, has a total of one million users with 10,000 of them online at peak hours. Last year, Vopium reported 40m-50m minutes of calls during the whole of last year.

But at reported growth of 30% every month, Vopium could well be on track to become a real challenge to Skype's hegemony.

Vopium was founded in 2006 by Pakistani entrepreneur Tanveer Sharif. Users download software to their mobile phone, which then re-routes calls over the internet. It was initially founded to allow cheap calling to Pakistan, India and Bangladesh but launched throughout the world last year.

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Stomach Acid Wins...

Posted by Fiddy On 9:03 PM 0 comments

This girl is getting sick of technology...


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8 CELL PHONE MYTHS AND FACTS PART 2

Posted by Fiddy On 9:02 PM 0 comments

5. Your cell phone can set you on Fire

Probably one of the last things you want your phone to do is spontaneously combust, especially if it’s in your pocket or, you know, against your head. For the most part we like to think there are hard working men and woman out there ensuring that the products we use from day to day just don’t do that. And while most things are pretty safe, very few things are 100%

Back in 2004, a teen in California was walking with her phone in her back pocket when, as witnesses say, it made a woosh sound, bulged a little, then spewed forth fist-sized flames. The girl suffered 2nd degree burns.

So how could such a nutty thing happen? An overheated battery. Kyocera issues a recall of 140,000 batteries and the Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued recalls as well for certain batteries that can short circuit, overheat and, yes, burst into flame.

There have been other reported incident of phones bursting into flames while charging as well and though it’s rare, it actually can happen, though it seems to have been the result of poor quality batteries more than your phone angry at the poor grammar used in texting as you might think

6. Your phone can spy on you

This one has been a favorite of conspiracy nuts for the last few years, the idea that the government can tap into your phone and use it to track your whereabouts, or ever turn on the microphone and listen in on your conversations, whether or not you’re using the phone at that moment.

In fact, it’s true that the FBI has used this technique, calling “roving bug” to eavesdrop on criminals, like in New York when it was used as a surveillance tool in an organized crime investigation. Traditional wire tapping of land lines is a bit too old school and criminals are on to it, so the FBI had to adapt. Since many phones will never fully power down unless the battery is totally removed, a cell phone is a perfect wireless transmitter for law enforcement to tap into, and it still falls under the purview of existing wiretapping laws.

In other cases, though judges are have batted the attempts down due to a lack of probably cause, law enforcement has attempted to get access to information about cell phone use – locations of cell towers that took calls from individuals, strength and angle of signal and timing of calls, which would allow them to approximate the location of an individual. You’ve seen it in television and movies before and, for all intents and purposes, it’s fairly accurate. With access to cell company records, you could be tracked in real time based on your cell phone usage, or even just having the phone on and in your possession.


7. Your cell phone can explode

If you’re the kind of person who figures a cell phone fire is no big deal, you may be more inclined to be slightly nervous of cell phone explosions. After all, fire can be our friend and let us roast weenies and such. Explosions just suck, by and large.

Back in 2007, word came out of Korea that a man who had his cell phone in his shirt pocket died when the phone blew up, sending shrapnel into his heart and lungs. Last year in China, a man died shortly after changing his phone battery when the same thing happened. It was the 9th recorded phone explosion in the country over a seven year period.

In one incident, a man working in an iron mill died when it was determined that the heat of the mill caused the liquid in the battery to overheat and blow up. So it may be rare, but it can happen. Let that be a lesson to you, never expose your phone to molten metal.


8. Cell phones cause infertility

Potentially the most horrible rumor of all, at least for some people, is the one that says cell phones lower your sperm count. And apparently it’s true.

Research conducted at the Center for Reproductive Medicine at the Glickman Urological and Kidney Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio suggests that there’s a chance using a cell phone is bad news for your boys if you’re the hands free type who keeps the phone in your pocket. Long term exposure to all that electromagnetic radiation so close to the goods may lead to an increase in body temperature. And that can effect sperm count as well as mobility and shape.

The jury’s not out, of course, and odds are you need to be doing a lot of talking with the phone in your pocket, but probably to be on the safe side you could keep the phone over a couple of inches or two. You never know.

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