Your smartphone is a Desktop too with Ubuntu OS for smartphones.

Today smartphones have become more powerful than ever before. We have smartphones which have high clock speed Quadcore processors, upto 2gigs of RAM and also a great deal of storage, well that's a lot of processing power in the palm of your hands. But all people end up doing with it hardly utilizes the full potential of the hardware they paid for. Practically  its just a waste of hardware resources. Although that's not the users fault, Its the industries fault, The top three smartphone operating systems, the Android from Google, iOS from Apple and Windows Phone from Microsoft also have a separate PC OS. Why didn't these IT giants never though of developing an OS that works for/on both the devices or rather, just getting a Smartphone to do the work of an entry level PC. 
Well Apple and Microsoft in the recent past made some effort and big talks about the Desktop-Mobile convergence but never made serious effort towards it, may be the industry was never ready enough for it cause they were already making good money by kinda fooling people.

That being said Ubuntu backed by Canonical may have set a spark to revolutionize the IT industry for good, by just doing that, Building an OS that works both on smartphones and PC, rather a smart phone that's also an efficient desktop computer when connected to a screen, keyboard and a Mouse. 

In a recent announcement Ubuntu backed by canonical announced a new smartphone OS that's just the same as the PC OS, just with a Mobile friendly interface. What that means is you can convert your smartphone into a PC by just connecting it to a Screen, keyboard and a Mouse. Ubuntu is already available for Android Smartphones with a Dual core processor for free. What that means is you can run the full PC Ubuntu OS on a compatible smartphone.

MSI N550 GTX-TI unboxing/review on Intel Pentium 4 PC

Hey guys this is the first ever GPU unboxing review on Tech Center, I m not a PRO. at reviewing graphics cards, so please bear with me. I would like to tell you first hand that this is not a GPU review that you might find all across the internet its more of a GPU review on an old desktop computer.

My desktop computer is now over 6 years old and I really needed to upgrade it to gain some performance improvements. My desktop wasn't even able to play HD videos smoothly with the age old on-board graphics. With my tight budget, I did not go for the processor and motherboard upgrade, cause that would be like buying a new computer that would end up being only a little better than the existing one.

Keeping in mind that I would buy a new computer in like one year, I had to go for a graphics card that would not only fit my budget but; improve my existing machine and also be useful in the new computer that i plan to buy a year later. So after quite a bit of research and looking at benchmark results online I went for  the MSI Nvidia N550GTX-TI Cyclone II (1GB DDR5).

Miniand Tech its MiniX TV Box and Mini PC devices.

In the past we have covered some really interesting and cost effective mini computers and plug computer devices. Here is a list if you are interested. 

An Australia/China based company by the name "Miniand Tech" is selling two interesting mini computer devices. One is the MK802 Mini PC and the other is the MiniX TV Box H24 which can be rather compared to a TV box like Google TV.

The MK802 Mini PC.

The MK802 Mini PC is a kind of plug computer with very small dimensions i.e. 88.5 x 35 x 13.4 mm weighs in at 300 grams. The device has 2 USB ports one Full size standard USB and the other seems to be a micro USB. The best part is the standard USB could be used to connect plug and play devices like a wireless mouse and keyboard. It runs on the latest Android 4.0 OS ans supports most application and features supported by a top notch Android 4.0 smartphone. Its powered by an External adapter 5V/2A output, 110-240V input.

What that means you could even run it from an external battery if you get the right voltage and amps. Although i wont recommend you to do that if you don't know anything about electronics.

ASUS unveils its new Windows 8 Ultra Books: ASUS Taichi (dual screen) and ASUS Transformer

With the new ultra book line up of laptops hitting the market its all about having the computing power of the top of the line laptop and the weight and thin profile of a net-book. Now that's leading to more and more laptop-tablet hybrid devices. Laptops have the advantage of their productivity and the comfort of the keyboard. Tablets have the advantage of being light weight and ultra portable and give the best browsing and entertainment experience. ASUS is one company that been putting in a lot of efforts into these laptop-tablet hybrid devices. In the past ASUS came up with Eee Pad Transformer Prime. Now with the Windows 8 OS at hand things seem to have have become a lot easier for these kind of hybrid devices.

About a week ago popular computer hardware manufacturer ASUS unveiled to the world its new line up of Windows 8 ultra-books, tablets and desktop PCs at the Computex 2012 in TAIPEI, Taiwan.

Although what really caught the attention are two devices in particular, the ASUS Taichi (dual screen) and the ASUS Transformer.

ASUS Transformer Book

LG Unveils its New P series Cloud Monitors for Office setup

With cut throat competition and increasing power and software costs, it has become really important for businesses these days to reduce office setup and other operational overheads to get the best out of the business. The IT industries solution to the problem was Cloud Computing, making office computing more reliable, efficient and fast. Now we have a huge software environment for cloud computing but it can be fully effective only when we pair it with the right kind of hardware for office needs.

A week ago LG released its new P series of monitors which have been built for the Cloud office environment, something comparable to a Sunray thin client. The P series of monitors are the predecessors of the already existing D&E series of cloud monitors which LG seems to have discontinued.

LG likes to call these new P series of monitors as 'zero client' monitors. the reason being all you have to do is plug in a Keyboard, Mouse and an Ethernet Cable to the monitor and the system is ready to go. It even features this new technology from Cisco called Universal Power over Ethernet (UPoE) technology, enabling it to draw its power right from the Ethernet cable, no power socket needed.

Doggie Poo = Free WiFi internet for everyone around.

With Pet dogs in public parks, Dog poo is something that always comes in the way. It's always difficult to make pet owner clean up the mess. So the best idea to make people work is a reward strategy. 

A Mexican Internet service provider 'Terra' in partnership with an Ad agency called 'DDB Mexico' has come up with an innovating marketing strategy that's not only unique but also a benefit to everyone around.

The idea is pretty simple, Terra has installed these very interesting looking units called 'Poo WiFi' in 10 different parks around Mexico City. When someone puts a bag of dog poo in the unit, it weighs the poo and activates a free public WiFi Hotspot for some amount of time; its like 70 grams = 20mins. The more the poo the more free minutes of WiFi for everyone in the range.

It's a really great idea to spread  awareness among pet owners. Plus its a great way to promote a service. Obviously the units can't make a difference between dog poo and ordinary garbage so the units are manned with hostesses all day, passing out bags for doggie droppings.

Check out this really creative and funny sounding video 

Source

Google+ gets a makeover

When Google plus first came out everyone thought it would take social networking to a new level and yes Google Plus does have the potential. But unfortunately the novelty died pretty quick and then a lot of people stopped using Google plus. Although Google Plus now has over 170 million users, I really wonder how many are really active though. So now Google is using it's big programming Guns to make Google Plus the best place for Social networking.

I just logged into my Google+ account today to find out Google plus looks all different than ever before. I must say the new interface looks amazing. It's made things a lot simpler to find. Everything looks a lot clearer. I really appreciate the new interface. The free conference video chat feature called 'Hangout' has become much easier to use. Being an avid Facebook user, I must say the new G+ interface has won my heart. If only all my friends on Facebook are willing to be on Google plus. I m ready to stop using my Facebook account.

Indian Television shows on YouTube!

Well it seems like YouTube has struck a major deal with various television media houses in India.

I just logged into my YouTube account to find out a new link tab called "TV shows" . What I ended up discovering is a whole archive of Indian TV shows right there infornt of my eyes, any episode from the shows available at the click of a mouse. 

Recording Data through heat could lead to faster magnetic Hard Drives

When it comes to computer components like processor, RAM and graphics everything is getting faster and cheaper than ever before, the only thing that's not keeping up with speeds is data storage devices, although we have SSDs but they don't have a lot of space and it is seen that they tend to degrade in performance over time. As a result the good old magnetic hard drive is still the choice for many, because its cheaper and has more storage space than existing SSD for the price.

All that being said, an international team of scientists have demonstrated a revolutionary new technology of magnetic recording which will allow information to be processed hundreds of times faster than by current hard-drive technology. The multinational team of scientists and researchers from countries which include Spain, Switzerland, Ukraine, Russia, Japan and the Netherlands. Experimental work for the research was carried out at the Paul Scherrer Institute in Switzerland, the Ioffe Physical Technical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and Radboud University Nijmegen, in Netherlands.

It was found that data could be recorded by using heat which was never thought of before. Existing hard drive and other magnetic storage devices use a magnetic field to bring changes in the polarity of magnetic domains within the hard drives metallic plate, but there is a limitation to the speed of writing and reading the data. Until now it has been believed that in order to record one bit of information by inverting the poles of a magnet  there is a need to apply an external magnetic field. The stronger the applied field, the faster the recording of a magnetic bit of information.  

Unboxing the D-Link Wireless N150 ADSL2+ Modem Router

Hey guys this is the first ever unboxing here at Tech Center. We start with the D-Link Wireless N150 ADSL2+ Modem Router (Model no. DSL-2730U). 

Nothing much to talk about here. Its a really great Wireless modem router, it provides all the necessary feature for a home or small office needs to establish a secure and high-speed link to the internet. As you might have figured by now this is an ADSL modem which basically provides you with internet service over a land-line phone. 

We picked this modem from Lamington Road, a place in Mumbai popularly know for its electronic and computer hardware market. The modem is priced at Rs. 2536/- on the box but we got a fair deal at a decent price of Rs. 1850/- from a shop called Cassette World. 

Here is a look into whats comes in the box.

Raspberry Pi: A $25 Credit card sized bare bones PC

In the world of Technology the smaller it gets the better it is. Back in 2011, we talked about 'Dream Plug'  a small computer that could be directly plugged into the wall socket. That opened up a door to whole new possibilities for developers and prototypes. Raspberry Pi is a project that started out as a non-profit foundation (RPF) to broaden the access to personal computer to kids by developing bare-bones and ultra cheap machines. It's basically a full computer board the size of a credit card.

The world's smallest USB Flash stick from Deonet

USB Flash drives or Pen Drives as a lot of people popularly call them these days come in all shapes and sizes. Just when you are already worrying about loosing you new USB Flash stick because of its really tiny size; Imagine a USB as small as the size or your thumb nail. That's what  'DEONET', a Dutch manufacturer know for making funky data storage solution has come up with, the world's smallest USB stick.

ASUS Unveils the Eee Pad Transformer Prime with a quad core processor

With it series of Quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 mobile processor it seems like Nvidia is serious about getting into the main stream market for ultra powerful and efficient tablet processors. Finally we have the world's first ever device from ASUS powered by the much talked about Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. ASUS unveiled it's first quad core powered tablet/netbook called the 'Eee Pad Transformer Prime' the successor of the Eee Pad Transformer. Now the main reason these tablet devices are called 'Transformer' is the fact that they can be used as a Tablet or a net-book by docking the tablet to the keyboard; although the keyboard docking is sold separately. 

Getting into the details of the new 'Eee Pad Transformer Prime', the device is a hardware marvel, it is basically a beefed up version of its predecessor. Along with packing the Tegra 3 quad-core CPU it features a 12-core GeForce GPU and Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing (vSMP) technology, it sports 1 GB of DDR2 RAM and will be available in two versions with  32 GB or 64 GB of onboard storage plus expandable via SD card. 

It has a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 pixel of resolution, the screen is protected by a Super IPS+, Gorilla Glass panel. The screen has a wide viewing angle of 178-degree and 600 nits of maximum brightness.

The Microsoft Kinect effect. (Video)

Microsoft Kinect has turned out to be a really effective add-on not only for gaming but; it has given a lot of developers a platform to create really amazing technologies. 


Here's a video as to whats possible with the Microsoft Kinect.

APEN: A pen that digitalizes your writing.

Recording anything in a digital format is always the best way, not only to preserve data but also to make it portable. Ever wondered if you could save hand written notes or hand written notes on your digital photos straight to your mobile phone or your computer in real time? An Israeli company, Pegasus Technologies Ltd has made it possible by what is called APEN.

APEN is basically a standard shaped digital pen ­that also writes on paper and comes with a transmitter and easy to use software for PC, Mac and popular smartphone devices.

LG announces LSM-100: World's First Scanner Mouse

The recent trend in newer computer peripheral and other devices is that, devices are getting more and more multi-functional. Back at CES 2011 LG electronics unveiled to the world its first prototype of the LSM-100 scanner mouse. LG is now all set to open a new era for scanners at this year’s IFA 2011 with the LSM-100, the mouse with a built-in scanner.

The problem with conventional scanners is that they take up a lot of space on the desk and can only scan papers of a limited sizes. Using the LSM-100 is far more convenient, all the person has to do to take a scan is to hold the scan button placed at the left side of the mouse and move it in a regular pattern from  top to bottom. The scanned image can then be saved in a wide range of formats i.e. PNG, JPEG, TIFF, BMP, PDF, XLS and DOC or it can be simply dragged and dropped into the desired application.

IEEE completes 802.22 wireless network standard; provides 62 miles range

Over the past couple of years the use of WiFi to access networks and Internet has really penetrated deeper than ever before, the simple fact being its ease and simplicity to setup and connect devices. Not only that, it can be used to connect various devices ranging from desktops to mobile phones and across various platforms without any hassle and big infrastructure costs involved. Keeping this in mind; back in 2004, IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) started working on a new Wi-Fi standard called the 802.22 for a wider wireless connectivity range and it has finally come to its completion. Its different than the existing popularly know 802.11 standard, which has a maximum range of 100 meters and works in the frequency ranging from 2.4GHz-5GHz.

Ideum MT55: The Thinnest, Largest, Most Powerful Multitouch Table

Ideum, a U.S. based company that's known for designing and creating interactive computer-based exhibits and multitouch installations, has unveiled a new multi-touch table called the MT55, adding to its already existing MT55 PROTouch Table, the major difference being the dimensions and thus the hardware.

LG introduces the world's first 'Glasses-Free' 3D monitor

3D technology has been pretty slow in being a part of our everyday lives, mainly cause of the odd glasses you need wear to view the content, and also because of the high price of the technology. That may not be the case anymore. LG electronics unveiled the world's first Glasses-free 3D monitor with eye-tracking technology. The special feature of the monitor is it utilizes 'eye-tracking technology' to maintain an optimal 3D image from a range of viewing angles, this has been made possible because of the integrated webcam in the top sleeve of the screen.

MSI unveils the world's first PCI Express 3.0 motherboard

Renowned motherboard manufacturer 'MSI' unveiled the world's first motherboard to feature a PCI Express 3.0 slot. PCI Express Gen 3 slot provides a data transfer rate that is upto 200% faster than PCI Express Gen 2 (PCI Express 2.0) resulting in enhancing the performance of graphics cards without bandwidth limitations or bottle necking. The board is named 'Z68A-GD80 (G3)', this makes it a future proof board for handling upcoming high bandwidth cards without any compromise.