“The iPad is our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary device at an unbelievable price”. No prizes for guessing that these are the words of Steve Jobs. He also added during his speech at the launch of the device, “We’ve wondered for years as well — in order to create that category, they have to be far better at doing some key tasks… better than the laptop, better than the smartphone“. He followed up that with, “Now, some people thought that was a netbook — the problem is that netbooks aren’t better than anything!“  Yay, what gem of prejudiced insight can we expect next? As always, he kept on praising Apple and its products. Someone needs to tell him that  calling your own creations “magical, revolutionary, ground-breaking, phenomenal, extraordinary, unbelievable” each and every time makes you sound ridiculously cheap. Not to mention the repetition of super annoying lines like “It’s that simple… it just works… right out of the box“. I wonder why he can’t just unveil the product and let people judge it. Since most tech bloggers are paid off by Apple anyway, I see no reason for Steve to loudly push his products like a hawker.
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If you’re reading this, chances are you already own a netbook, or are considering buying one. In all likelihood though, you’re browsing just out of curiosity, because the prospect of messing with a brand-new netbook isn’t even remotely appetizing. Fair enough. Dissecting an expensive gadget with your hard-earned money, obtained after slogging for months on end, isn’t easy for anyone. Not even for me, despite all my modding experience. Then again, someone’s got to man up and take on the demons of uncertainty and apprehension to pave the path for the rest. So here I am, your self-styled knight in shining armour, putting my spanking new netbook on the line for your modding pleasure. I’m sure your mind is teeming with a motherload of questions by now, so before we take up this endeavour, an FAQ would be in order.
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BlackBerry has hit the American market with the second wave of its “Storm“.  As expected, no signs of this gale are to be seen here. Hence, us poor Indians will probably have to make do with a preview, rather than a full review. The Storm2 9550 has few upgrades over its predecessor, the Storm 9500. Don’t remember that phone? Well, does the name Lewis Hamilton ring a bell? Some popular Storm users are Formula One race driver Lewis Hamilton, as well as web celebrity and amateur comedian Barack Obama.
Anyway, we were talking about the Storm2. Unfortunately, this device hardly has anything new or exciting over its predecessor. That explains my rambling in this paragraph — I’m paid by the word, you see. And oh, if you still haven’t remembered the Storm ad with Hamilton in it, here it is for your viewing pleasure:
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The human race is uncannily intriguing; we have some great examples of individual brilliance offset by legions of idiots, ever willing to take themselves out of the gene pool. Not that they don’t succeed, but there’s a considerable disparity between the number of Darwin Award nominees and that of terminal retards born every minute. Makes me wonder how humanity hasn’t imploded under the weight of its own collective stupidity.
A prime example of what I’m talking about is the laptop computer. I have no prejudice towards the concept of mobile computing, but the laptop has turned out to be anything but that. You can deem it another casualty of purposeless design encouraged by a clueless user base. This lack of design purpose is evident from the hardware crammed into a typical laptop. I don’t understand why anyone requires a 15” or 17” display, when the screen is meant to be stared at point blank from your lap. Pointless, unless you have cataract, and even then you need an ophthalmologist more than a big-ass screen.
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Oh yes, I already know what you’re going to say. “You’re too late dude, the entire internet’s beaten you to publishing a list of the best and worst of 2009. You suck!“. To which I’d say: well, you’re right. But what else can you expect from a website that wasn’t updated for a whole year? Besides, better late than never, right? Right?
Well, like it or not, here I am with my very own “worst list” of 2009. A disclaimer before we proceed: This list is based purely on my personal choices and prejudices, and the amount of scientific research put into ascertaining facts is a big, grand zero. This explains why the list is dominated by Apple products. What’s more, some of these devices were actually launched much before 2009. If you don’t like it, go make your own list. Tthengaa!
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Vigyaapan Technologies has recently launched the first ever iPhone application for Ishqiya, a Bollywood movie released last week or thereabouts. The application includes photos, videos, songs, and information about the cast and crew of the movie. The app will be available online and in the Apple Store.
Ankush Gupta, Founder & CEO, Vigyaapan, had this to say: “The application provides an experience that allows users to relive scenes from the movie. It will help market the movie to about 650,000 NRI iPhone users”.
The app reportedly supports integration with Twitter and Facebook (and I have no idea what that means). It offers quizzes and contests to test users’ knowledge on the movie. The application plays on the storyline, reveals facets of the movie, situations in the plot, and other interesting trivia. Fascinating stuff indeed.
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Right, first things first. What exactly is a netbook, and when does a portable computer get to be called a “netbook” as opposed to a regular notebook\laptop?
A netbook is a an “ultra-portable” computer that is restricted in size, weight, and performance to make it as easy to carry around as possible. It is basically a laptop that has shed its excess baggage (such as a DVD drive) and keeps its peripherals to a minimum, allowing you to perform basic computing tasks, such as browsing the web, checking email, or working on office documents. In doing so, it trades performance for extended battery life. Having said that, some high-end netbooks (such as those using NVIDIA’s ION graphics chipset) can still play HD (High-Definition) video, sacrificing some battery life in the process.
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All around the world, the burial day of some godforsaken eponymous saint is celebrated as Valentine’s Day. As if having to celebrate the anniversary of your being entrapped in the “sacred bond of love” wasn’t enough, poor St Valentine’s burial is another occasion to let the big corporations steal your money, all in the name of love. How do most celebrate this day? Well, you generally waste money by giving and receiving gifts. The smart ones though gift 1 GB pen drives, hoping to receive a 500 GB external HDD in return. We at Gadgetted.com are good humans (honest!), so here we are, presenting a few gift ideas for a “Gadgetted” Valentine’s Day. With this article, I hereby grandly announce the end of the era of gifting Apple products to males and teddy bears to females.
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HTC is soon to be ready with its follow-up to the recently launched Google Nexus One. The device, currently under wraps, is called Incredible (talk about lofty aspirations). HTC, which has in recent years grown to be recognized as one of the leading manufacturers of smartphones, will soon be launching the Incredible some time later this year.
This fact has apparently been confirmed by anonymous sources within the company, who also added that the phone would be lauched in partnership with Verizon, an American telecommunications giant. The turf war for the high-end segment will heat up once the Incredible hits the market. It’s also been reported that the Incredible will be powered by a 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which has been described as being “extremely fast” (for a mobile, that is).
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Japs are known for their weird taste in pretty much everything, including video games, gadgets, and cartoons. They come up with the strangest of gadgets — albeit with cutting edge technology — and still manage to sell them, mostly to their own weird countrymen; though after announcing to the world their “global” product. Say, recently, Sharp Japan launched a solar-powered mobile phone — admittedly, an idea whose time has come. Or how about the Japanese video game series Dead or Alive 4 [cough, cough]. This time around, Oriental Co Ltd, a Japanese manufacturer, has launched a new machine called the White Goat. This contraption looks like a double-door cupboard into which you feed office paper at one end and receive neatly rolled toilet paper out the other — in short, a device that seems to have come straight out of Dexter’s Laboratory. Sweet!
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When cars were first mass manufactured, the factory-installed gadgets in it were next to none. Then, “problem-based solutions” such as wipers, anti-fog lights, and windshield defoggers were invented and installed. Not that it was impossible to drive without such add-ons, but it made life so much easier. Back then, it was a luxury to have fog lights or a defogger installed in your car. Fast forward to today, where having a defogger is still a luxury, though the scene has shifted from your car to your bathroom. Often during a cold winter day, after you’ve had a nice, long, hot shower, the mirror gets covered with fog. As we are prone to do, cleaning it with our hands leaves oil residues on the mirror, eventually leading to dust settling on the surface and spoiling the finish of your expensive bathroom mirror  eventually (since this product is targeted at the rich, I’m assuming your bathroom has expensive mirrors). Before you start running out of the bathroom in panic Ă la Archimedes though, ClearMirror has come to your rescue by introducing a mirror defogger to handle this global catastrophe.
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The ability to perform gravity-defying stunts has long since intrigued us. There have been many who have wished to posses the godly power of unaided flight. Remember the character Magneto from the X-Men comics and movies? His power over magnetism enabled him to move magnetic objects and levitate himself. The idea of hovering steadily as demonstrated by Magneto comes straight out of science fiction, which as time passes and technological marvels abound, transforms into solid science. One example of a company that has achieved this transformation is  Crealev Levitation Technologies (CLV), which has developed a compact device to implement this technology in all its glorious aesthetic appeal. The end result is simply a lampshade floating on air. This is neither black magic, nor godly power, nor David Blaine’s handiwork, but an applied use of magnetism.
In case you spent your time in school looking out the window while science class was on, the rules of magnetism dictate that similar poles repel each other. Strong magnets can develop enough repulsive force to keep their similar poles apart despite being subjected to the weight of a heavy object. Now, weight is basically the gravitational force acting on the mass of the object. The magnetic force generated should therefore overcome both the weight of the object on the magnet, as well that that of the magnets themselves. The stronger this force, the further the separation between the magnets.
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Sony Ericsson has announced the Elm, the latest in its GreenHeart series of mobile phones. ”GreenHeart” is indeed a funny name for any mobile company’s lineup, considering phones don’t really have hearts. According to Sony Ericsson, GreenHeart phones are the result of a “longstanding commitment” to eliminate the use of environmentally-hazardous substances from the product, and using recycled plastics during the manufacturing process. What a great initiative! They’re saving the world from the carbon footprint of a mobile… Wait, isn’t the carbon footprint of a mobile negligible? “Greener” cars do make sense, but greener mobiles are just a marketing gimmick.
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Since I’ve claimed this is not just another Swine Flu piece, I must back my claim by emphasizing how important this article is for the public good. In order to understand its relevance better, let’s take the example of the Mayan Civilization and its calendar. The B’ak’tun Cycle started on 11th or 13th August, 3114 BC, marking the beginning of the Mayan Calendar. Now, archaeologists have found inscriptions that claim the calendar was created up to 13 B’ak’tuns and no further, which corresponds to 5125 years roughly. Typical of their presumptuous trait, said dirt diggers automatically assumed that the Mayan calendar ends after 5125 years, and further stretched this hypothesis to conclude that the world would end after that amount of time. Eventually, some Hollywood director stumbled upon this whacky idea, made into a movie called 2012 that had spectacular effects and an equally spectacular lack of a plot, and laughed all the way to the bank carrying his millions.
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For the average Indian music lover, Bose Corporation is to music what the T-Rex is to dinosaurs. It’s another matter altogether that this perception persists largely due to the lack of penetration of high-quality speaker systems in the market. In all fairness though, if you’re looking for a legitimate high-quality system that comes with a warranty, Bose is an excellent choice.
Coming to the portable category, Bose has six models across headphones and earphones — also called “headphones” by the manufacturer for reasons that aren’t immediately apparent. From what I can gather, products with Bose’s patented TriPort Acoustic Structure get termed as “headphones”. In effect, the company terms earphones it develops with said technology as a “compact in-ear headphone design” or “Earbud-style headphones with silicone tips that rest gently and securely in your ears“. Damn, ain’t Bose smart and different. Anyway, let’s leave the debating of semantics to anal-retentive audiophiles, and instead focus on the product.
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Many people use Tom Tom, Garmin and Magellan’s GPS based navigation systems. They buy the device, then also pay for a voice-guided navigation service. The whole thing costs thousands of rupees. What’s worse, these devices can only be used in a specific region. If you happen to be touring another country, you’ll have to buy map data for that country.
If you’re pissed off about this issue, you’re not alone. A guy named Anssi Vanjoki also hates the idea of carrying multiple gadgets, such as a mobile and sat-nav device. Like you, he too dislikes the fact that they are limited to the map software you’ve loaded. Well, what makes this guy so special?
Unlike you, he can do something about it, since he’s the Executive Vice President of Nokia. Which is good for you. In a recent press release, he put forward the idea: “Why have multiple devices that work only in one country or region? Put it all together and make it free!”. His statement was enough to reveal Nokia’s plans to make high-end, walk-and-drive navigation free on its smartphones.
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What good is the internet if it can’t teach you a thing or two? In case you haven’t achieved your quota of learning something new every day, here are two new scientific findings:
Woolly mammoths and prehistoric horses grazed on the North American plains several thousand years longer than hitherto presumed. This is shown by samples of ancient DNA, analyzed by an international team of research scientists under the leadership of Eske Willerslev, Professor at Copenhagen University.
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The Indian Air Force (IAF) will have a central network in the next two years to process data that will help during critical operations, Chief of Air Staff PV Naik recently said. “I am looking at two years’ time to have a net-centric environment to process data in real-time for combat operations and optimal performance”, Naik told reporters on the margins of an air force event at Bangalore, dropping jargon with the alacrity of an Su-30K dropping cluster bombs on terrorist camps in POK (not that they actually do that, mind you).
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Unfortunately, it’s not what you think. Reliance mobile subscribers can now browse through comic strips on their cellphones while on the move. Reliance Communications has tied up with Cartoon Network to launch Archies, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel & Hardy, Ben 10, Johny Bravo, Dexter’s Laboratory, and Powerpuff Girls for its subscribers at Rs 1 per day.
“With this, subscribers can now be transported to the imaginary world of comics at the mere press of a button, especially [sic] when they are on the move”, Krishna Durba, Head, Value Added Services, Reliance Communications, said. It was not immediately clear whether moving while reading a comic strip on your mobile would elicit more laughs as compared to standing still while doing so. Perhaps Reliance has been inspired by the recent Idea! campaign.
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The invention of a new laser may make faster and cheaper computers possible. “The on-chip light source will be key to enabling the simultaneous transmission of multiple data channels either on-chip or between chips in a single optical fibre, each at a different wavelength. Currently, information on a chip is shuffled around using electronic signals over copper wires, or interconnects. We know that metal is prone to “choking” on the bandwidth bottleneck”, says David Moss, Associate Professor, University of Sydney.
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