Latest Inventions

posted by admin on Jan 16

Happy New Year to all you readers - and here are some technological articles to inspire you in 2010.

First up, we have some extensive tips on using the Google Wave software by Herbert Anderson: 25 Tips for Students & Teachers Using Google Wave.

Sam Nash then leads with an interesting post on why we just accept the old as standard when we should be looking for the best instead - he gives his opinion on one of the alternative computer keyboards on the market: DAS Keyboard - The Successor to the IBM Model M Keyboard | Gadget News and Reviews.

A great review of the Samsung Corby Pro by Ankesh is up next with some great opinions and images: OG Review Samsung Corby Pro (GT-B5310), however the obligatory mobile apps post by Mary Jones this month, is about the 20 most useless ones that have been invented: The 20 Most Outrageous/Useless iPhone Apps!  Some are unbelievable…..

And to finish up, something fun: Jason Keller lists his Top 20 Online Games of 2010 and Ankesh gives us a quick glimpse at quite a neat looking gadget: ‘Printing Your Toast’ concept for the office geek.

See you next time!

posted by admin on Nov 16

Right, here we go with a fun-packed Latest Inventions Autumn Blog Carnival;

John Laugherton starts us off with a short article in the Top 50 Web Design Resource Blogs for those of your in the industry, and Katy Unitek takes us to another industry - the renewable energy industry with her post: Moving Away from Oil-Powered Energy - Boots on the Roof

Next we have an interview with an inventor: so Surbhi Bhatia offers us An Interview with Dr. Iqbal Ahmed, Creator of World’s Smallest Steam Engine.

Squeezed in next is the obligatory iTunes link, this month from Linda Jones: 100 Awesome iTunes Feeds for Every Kind of Teacher

Next we have a few posts that may or may not be of interest to everyone, but they offer up some ideas that others might no have thought of, so please give them a look:  First we have some speculative but interesting science from Mike with his Brain-Computer Interface and the Wireless Neurosociety article.

Then, Carolyn Friedman gives those starting out a college a very impressive list of 75 + Useful Web Tools for Your First Year of College, followed by some ebook dilemmas from Marco Gustafsson who offers us both: Know More about EBooks and E-Book Readers and E-Ink: their Past, Present and Future.

And tagged on at the end is a very thorough article detailing the pros and cons of the new Hero Sprint technology by Adam Pittaway: HTC Hero (Sprint).

See you in December!

posted by admin on Nov 5

I recently received the most amazing gift, and I didn’t realise it was all so easy!

Imagine your child’s 1st birthday, your wedding day or a special trip you took made into a unique photobook albums that you designed yourself. 

Now I’m not talking about a jazzed up photo album with hand written notes and photo’s stuck in - I mean an actual real book with your images actually printed into the pages like it was for sale in a store.

Now I knew these things might be possible, but when I received a book about an amazing month in Costa Rica, with all my own great photos and a few of me thrown in - I really was brought to tears!

It Is So Simple:
Not that the person giving me this wanted to give away his secrets, but it turns out that it is really easy to create your own photo book albums online.  Basically you choose your images, you decide what size and design you want for the album - you can even help choose how many pages and what cover you want and it is all stored online until you actually tell them you are delighted with the result.  

If you change your mind, you can then add more pages, remove certain images and basically tamper with it until you are 110% happy.

If you choose a premium online company to help - they will professionally design the book for you to your very own template and in a sturdy hardback cover.  This way, you simply upload your best images onto their site, and they use their experienced design staff to create your own bespoke photobook. 

Before it is printed and individually bound - they give your the opportunity to see the final draft - allowing you to make any final adjustments.

The Result:
Imagine, being able to keep a book of every year of your child’s life, or send out copies of your book to the bridesmaid for a permanent token of your friendship. 

Or send a gift to a friend who achieved something great, a beloved family pet, a beautiful vacation, a house renovation or anything that you want to remember and have taken plenty of images of!

You can choose from plain covers, a photo on the cover, or mine has personalized writing on the cover.  There are also many companies that have specific covers and bindings for certain occasions like your professional wedding album, amazingly designed new home album, birthdays, parties, friends etc, so the choice is yours.

I love my personal photobook, as I know exactly what I was thinking when I took every one of those images.  I remember where I was when I took the snap and I know the little stories that surround each one.

And because it’s a book of only the best shots, my friends don’t have to stare at pictures of people with their heads missing and out of focus animals like in a normal album - this is my special book, and I want one of every vacation I take from now on!

posted by admin on Sep 4

Fancy a top of the range new MP3 players with everything included?

There are still a variety of MP3 players coming onto the market that now include almost everything you could need in a personal music-playing gadget.

I have chosen just the Creative Zen X-Fi2, one of the latest sound systems and video experts many mp3 players available today to represent all that is now available at the touch of a button!

The Creative Zen X-Fi2:
We are now at the stage where there is almost every gadget possible on your MP3 players apart from wind turbine and a microwave!

The new Zen X-Fi2 from Creative systems is one such player - and it looks stylish too.

Basically the features go way beyond playing your favorite tracks and the radio at the touch of a button, and now include photos and video and integrated recorder - to save forever those fantastic live summer concerts or boring morning lectures at uni!

Displayed on it’s 3″ LCD touchscreen are a whole host of easy-to-use icons that open up into files of music, videos and even your RSS feed reader (you connect via your USB). You can even forget that screen when you are indoors and connect it up to your huge widescreen TV indoors - or at your friends - via the AV cable! You can now share those videos and photos life-size without having to burn them onto a disc first!

Space-wise you can have either the 8, 16 or 32GB - but it doesn’t really matter that much as it has a microSD memory card slot for extra capacity! So you can have all your live music on one card, all your lectures on another and keep the main machine for great tunes!

The Creative Zen MP3 players also come with some EP-630 in-ear earphones which apparently send the music away from your ears creating a ‘room sound’ in a new concept. They also restrict the maximum volume to prevent ear damage when using long term! Nice.

And, weighing in at only 75g, this little nifty gadget also plans your life - containing a calender, and alarm, tasks and a contacts list!

All you need to do is switch it on and away you go…..

Try the MP3 Expert website for the best prices for Creative Zens.

posted by admin on Aug 30

Sony’s Playstation has a long and illustrious history. I remember buying my first Playstation 1 back in roughly 1997 and it was cutting edge at the time. The graphics and gameplay were nothing short of amazing. Anyone remember “Abe’s Oddysey”?!

Of course, since then things have moved on. Firstly the Playstation 2 and then even the Playstation 3. Of course the PS3 was a tremendously impressive piece of kit, but was hardly cheap.

Now it seems that Sony are relaunching the PS3, much like they did with the PS1 some years ago, and based on what we’ve seen it looks like the new machine is going to be a run away success.

It seems that Sony have really put some thought into making the PS3 the “must have” gadget for Christmas 2009 having expanded it from just a games console to now being your entertainment center.

Now of course it does play games. And HD games at that for an amazing gaming experience. But plug your PS3 into your broadband connection and suddenly it becomes so much more than just a games system. Thanks to Sony’s “Playstation Network” you can now access a world of new entertainment.

For example, you can play demos of new games to see what you think before actually buying them. And if you like them, you can download the game straight into your PS3 rather than having to go out and buy a disc. Cold, wet winters day? No problem! Just try out the latest games and purchase the one that looks best then get on with playing. What could be easier?

Of course it’s not just games you can access on the network. You will also be able to rent or buy movies and music too, and even surf the internet. Oh, and don’t worry about all the hard drive space because Sony have increased the drive space from 80gig to an impressive 120gig to give you plenty of space for all your media.

Games, movies, music and internet - all on one device and accessable from the comfort of your couch? Sounds pretty good to me.

And just to top it off, Sony have reduced the size of the PS3 by around a third, and have dropped the price too making this piece of kit even more affordable than ever before.

One final point worth making before you dash out for your game system is the newly released Playstation Eye, which is a motion sensitive camera that will attach to the PS3. It can act as a web cam if you desire or best of all, it will allow you to play motion sensitive games thus challenging the Nintendo Wii for functionality.

It should be interesting to see how Nintendo respond to this onslaught to their realm…