Tuesday, March 20, 2012
Sonos-Sub Wireless Multi-room Audio Systems
Now Sonos has released a subwoofer to complement its array of wireless Play speakers and Connect amps. It’s simply called Sub. The $700 powered speaker component isn’t cheap but it does add excellent definition and low-end heft to any existing Sonos system.
The Sub’s glossy, piano-black case is shaped like a big, square doughnut with a rectangular hole in the center. That central cavity is where all the sound is directed. Two 4.5-inch by 7-inch rectangular divers, each with its own class-D amp, face each other from opposing sides of the cavity. The speaker enclosures are ported into the cavity, too, with one port at the top and one at the bottom.
Setup is ridiculously easy. If you already have a Sonos system, just plug the Sub into an outlet wherever you want it to live, fire up your Sonos controller app and add it to your system’s existing mesh network. You can tune the output level and the tonal coloring of the speaker using a simple test suite within the controller app. Setting up an entirely new multi-speaker system is equally as easy, and only involves an extra step or two.
The Sub sounds fantastic. Sonos speakers have always sounded excellent to my ears, and if you’re a fan of the audio your Play or Connect system already puts out, the Sub will only make it sound better. It adds just the right amount of subtle depth, driving everything below about 90Hz, and enhances all different kinds of music. The amount of detail in the default settings to be a bit too understated, so its better to use iPhone app to crank up the output levels. All the necessary adjustments can be made using your phone or tablet, which is refreshing.
The price is very high. And you can buy a subwoofer as good as this one for far less than $700. But you’re not paying the premium to get superior audio quality, you’re shelling out for the Sonos experience — the easy setup, the plethora of music choices, and the joy of having multiple powered speaker components all working in concert without wires and without a controller amp.
And since it only works with Sonos systems, it only makes sense if you’re a “Sonos person.” But provided you’re already comfortable with paying the company’s high prices, the Sub is a worthy addition to your wireless rig.
Positeve - Sound is excellent, on par with the rest of Sonos’ speakers. Well-designed dual-driver subwoofer with dual class-D amps offer efficient and distortion-free boom. Sleek looks make the 16-inch-tall box disappear into your ultra-modern decor. Just over 6 inches tall when laid flat, so it can slip under a couch or table.
Negative - That’s a lot of Simoleons. The tall, square-shaped doughnut design can be too bulky for some rooms, even laid flat.
Friday, March 16, 2012
Microsoft Research Team Developed FAR Technology
Microsoft wants to help you sword fight without the physical risks of getting stabbed. The company’s solution? A team at Microsoft Research has created a hardware localization technology that enables you to play a multi-player sword fighting game using only smartphones.
No, you won’t need to attach any crazy lasers or peripheral accessories to make it work. The team’s aptly named SwordFight game requires only the existing hardware in most shipping smartphones. But it’s also not quite as simple as an app like Star Wars: Lightsaber Duel.
“There’s a lot of technology now that allows phones to connect. But if you want to enable games that have a more active flavor, then you need more,” Thomas Moscibroda, a Lead Researcher in the Mobile & Sensing Systems Research Group at Microsoft Research Asia, told Wired. “What you need is a technology that allows mobile devices to localize each other. If I move, I need to know how close your phone is next to me.”
Moscibroda and his colleagues on the Microsoft Research team have developed a technology called FAR. It’s a new sound-ranging scheme that makes it possible for a smartphone to locate another smartphone by measuring sound. One phone sends out a chirp, and a second phone determines the distance and the position of the first phone by measuring the time it takes for the chirp to travel to its speaker.
In SwordFight, two players aim their phones toward each other, and try to jab at the other person’s handset. When one player’s phone strikes within 15 centimeters of the other player’s phone, the second player loses a point. It’s as if there are imaginary swords, albeit very tiny ones, jutting out from each device. With the help of a phone’s accelerometer and digital compass, the game can tell which opponent did the striking. But what’s unique is the fact that the phones can know how close they are to one another.
The process of measuring distance with sound is nothing new. But the Microsoft team created faster, more accurate algorithms built on top of the core processing principles. Traditional techniques can take about one second to turn around a measurement, David Chu, one of the Microsoft researchers on the SwordFight project told us. But in that one second, a person can move his arms up to 4 meters.
“If you think about the fact that you could only take one measurement per second, you could have an error of 4 meters. We’ve been able to improve that, so that we can go 12 samples per second and theoretically up to 22 samples per second,” Chu said. “On average, based on our testing, we can actually achieve within 2-centimeter accuracy.”
In essence, the technology is incredibly fast, allowing users to play an interactive, phone-to-phone game in real time. But it isn’t limited to just a silly sword fighting game. The researchers were first inspired to create this localization technology to make games more interactive, but they see other potential applications.
“Overall, there’s really a broad applicability to it. We’re not simply talking about phones. A fundamental part of the research that we’ve done is not tied to any particular operating system or anything like that,” Chu said.
All a device needs to use the FAR technology is a speaker and a microphone — components that the vast majority of modern-day tablets, PCs and phones come with.
Unfortunately, you won’t get these capabilities on your phone anytime soon. In theory, SwordFight could be released as an app on Windows Phone or other platforms, but the Microsoft Research team has no current plans to release FAR or its SwordFight game to the general public.
The technology still faces challenges. For example, the chirping noises the phone sends are very noticeable, because smartphone mics and speakers only support audible frequency range. (One solution is to make the chirps part of a game’s music.) Another challenge: Users can easily block their mics or speakers, causing inaccurate measurements.
Moscibroda, Chu and the rest of the Microsoft Research team plan on further developing the technology to address these issues and create more prototype games and applications. They’ve already created another game called ChaseCat, which uses the same technology to let you play a two-player running game where one person attempts to get within a certain distance of another user to score points.
“We’ve seen some other developers taking the underlying technology in a completely different direction than what we had thought of,” Chu said. “We think there is a healthy amount of uses in gaming and outside.”
Google Started to Ship Pre-orders Nexus 7 Tablet
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| Nexus 7 Tablet |
Monday, March 12, 2012
Microsoft Will Sell Millions of Surface Tablets
If Surface is to be a hit, Microsoft can’t just position it as yet another iPad or Android competitor. It needs people to think of the Surface as a real mobile computer. It needs people to buy Surfaces instead of laptops. That means competing with its traditional partners like HP, Dell and Acer. Not only is this Microsoft’s best play, there’s not even a downside to it.
The Surface Pro (and to a lesser extent the Surface RT) is clearly a laptop competitor that’s going to cannibalize sales from Microsoft’s traditional hardware partners. But so what? Who cares if Dell or HP or Acer gets pissed off? What are they going to do, sell only Chromebooks? Go all in on Linux boxes? Exit the PC business altogether? HP’s promise to do just that turned out to be tellingly empty.Sure, Microsoft needs its manufacturing partners. But those partners need Microsoft far more.
And then there are tablets. Microsoft isn’t even close to being a player in the tablet business, which is dominated by Apple and Android. (And, in all reality, Android is but a twee little sideshow relative to the iPad.) Many of Microsoft’s desktop partners have gone full-tilt toward Android tablets, so they’re already competing with Microsoft. So Microsoft’s best bet is to prove there’s a market in Windows tablets — which shouldn’t be hard given how abysmal Android tablets are.
Which brings us to phones. Ballmer left the door open to Microsoft rolling out its own phones. Windows Phone 7 has been a commercial failure, despite its UI being a critical darling. These phones just aren’t selling. Microsoft’s big mobile partner is Nokia, and Nokia is a wreck. Its flagship Lumia line has gone nowhere. HTC and Samsung, meanwhile, seem far more focused on Android. So if handset manufacturers and carriers can’t gin up any excitement over Windows Phone, Microsoft has to do that itself. And one clear path to this would be for Microsoft to release its own device.
In the weeks before it announced Surface, Microsoft’s hardware manager Ben Reed was on the pitch circuit talking to reporters. The meetings were odd — puzzling even — as he didn’t have any news to share. Instead, Reed spent an hour talking about Microsoft’s 30-year history in the hardware business, complete with hoary old mice. In retrospect, Reed was priming the pump, doing the groundwork for the Surface launch to plant an idea: Microsoft is a hardware company.
And if Microsoft is going to be a hardware company, it needs to be a hardware company. Microsoft’s biggest consumer success over the past decade has been Xbox. It needs to replicate that success, and the only way it can be assured of doing that, at least in the short term, is to screw its hardware partners. There’s no shame in that. It’s just business.
Saturday, March 10, 2012
Telstar 1 The Tiny Aluminum Satellite
Before Telstar was launched, microwave towers could flash TV shows and other communication information from point to point through the air, supplementing the landlines that already crisscrossed the globe. But once these signals reached the ocean, they reached their limit.
Satellite transmission allowed instantaneous communication – such as long-distance phone calls and real-time international TV – to become an everyday reality. The phrase “live, via satellite” is only possible with Telstar and the machines that followed it into space.
So, in tribute to Telstar 1, here we look back on the little satellite that helped make the modern world.
Tiny Satellite
Telstar 1 was built as an international collaboration between AT&T, Bell Labs, NASA, the British General Post Office, and the French National Post, Telegraph, and Telecom Office. The satellite launched on a Delta rocket on July 10, 1962.
The aluminum satellite was wimpy by modern standards. It used 14 watts of power – roughly one-seventh that of a modern laptop – generated by the 3,600 solar panels on its outer hull. As well, it could only carry 600 phone calls and one black-and-white TV channel, though not much more was really needed at the time.
Telstar 1 was placed in low Earth orbit and circled the planet every two and a half hours, only in the right position to beam transmissions between Europe and the U.S. for 20 minutes each orbit. This is in contrast to contemporary communications satellites, which fly in geosynchronous orbit, staying above one spot on the Earth.
New Mobile Application Released by Twitter for Android and iOS
Twitter released new mobile apps for Android and iOS Tuesday. Main features include “expanded tweets,” better search, more fine-grained push notifications, and enhanced event support. In short, the update adds a lot more multimedia support, and more quickly delivers the information that’s truly important to you. The most interesting feature is probably beefed-up support for push notifications tied to particular accounts. So, for example, you could set up a push notification for your local news channel, a feed like @Emergency_In_SF, or any other source that you want to monitor with vigilance. The other notable upgrade is the ability to expand tweets within the app. Expanded tweets let users play videos, read article summaries and experience other rich media directly in tweets themselves. So, rather than just seeing a link to a story or a video when you tap a tweet, you’ll be able to directly see the pertinent information without leaving the app. This function is already available on the web (and mobile web) but now Twitter is adding app support too. It’s a clever way to keep people in-app, and now MLB, Etsy and Kickstarter join a growing list of partners who provide this rich content. Tuesday’s update also adds event support and better search autocomplete. The former is Twitter’s attempt to be the backchannel go-to-discussion forum during events like NASCAR, while the latter just lets you accomplish what you’d like faster than you previously could.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
SPi Global Won the 2012 European Outsourcing Association Award
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| SPi-Global Officers |
“The judges selected SPi Global as the winner due to its excellent objective, implementation and the fact that it has clearly helped so many. They also have an innovative way of contribution by gain share to the benefit of their clients, their staff and the charities they support.”
SPi Global’s CSR Program “Power to Inspire” was bestowed the highest honors among the many CSR programs of some of the best outsourcing companies in the world. SPi Global won the 2012 European Outsourcing Association (EOA) Award for Corporate Social Responsibility. The event was held June 27 at the prestigious Law Society in Central London.
The competition was tough. Other had resources that SPI Global could not match. And yet, with their simple, unique and effective approach to help the youth wherever they are in the world, Spi Global impressed the judges. Maulik, their president and CEO and their CSR champion was so proud of their achievement. “SPI Global known as a global outsourcing service provider that operates across four continents, they believe that their host communities around the world should benefit and grow along with them. They've created so much impact with the programs that they had for the children and their humble effort to make a difference was recognized. Their CSR program clearly represents the values that define them as an organization – excellence, innovation and malasakit.”
Malasakit in action
Monday, March 5, 2012
Learn How to Repair Laptop Computer
How to Repair Laptop Computer
To repair laptop computer is not too easy, you have to consider several factors, and these are software and hardware. You must analyze the issue before taking any action, you must consider if the issue involves whether software of hardware. How to repair laptop computer software problem? Most laptop computer has its own recovery disk which you can use in repairing any software issue like operating system and restoring software drivers. In most cases using the recovery disk will clean install your hard drive and this simply means that it will wipe out all data that you have in the hard drive, before you decide to use the recovery disk you must backup your data before doing it.
How to repair laptop computer hardware issues? This is the most challenging part since this will involve technical knowledge, generally, to repair laptop computer hardware; you need to consult technical persons and as much as possible certified technical person. To repair laptop computer hardware will need special tools such as multi tester which you can use to measure voltage, resistance, and current. Aside from multi tester you need also to have various types of screw drivers and you must consider also the length and size of these tools, since there are several types, models, and brands of laptop computer and they have their own style and design when it comes to laptop computer body casing.
Now, that we have provided some basic information on how to repair laptop computer, now let’s discussed also what are the advantages and disadvantages of laptop computer. Today’s generation most people desire’s to make their work easier and comfortable, that is why most people longing to acquire mobile devices like laptop computer, especially those people that are always on the move, some of these people are researchers, businessmen, students, scientist and doctors.
Computer Laptop Advantages:
Computer Laptop advantages are… power consumption is much lesser compare to a desktop computers, space saver since it require only a small space to work on. You can carry it anytime anywhere, the interface ports are accessible. You can easily share data, can easily conduct a presentation anywhere at any time, no need to have a UPS unit since it has a built in battery that supplies power in the event of power interruption or fluctuation. No need to carry additional accessories like keyboard, monitor, and mouse since the design is integrated in one unit.
Computer Laptop Disadvantages:
Computer laptop disadvantages are… because of its integrated design, computer laptop is difficult to repair, since you can’t re-place interfaces cards when it becomes defective. Upgrading a computer laptop is limited only to hard disk and memory only, since these are the only parts that are accessible and re-place able. Repairing computer laptop requires a certified technicians and this means that you have to pay much for their technical services. Price difference compare to a desktop computer is much greater and computer parts are too expensive as well.
How to prolong the life of computer laptop:
Avoid working on uneven surface like table mat, placing the laptop on top of a pillow or the likes, this can cause overheating, since usually the exhaust ventilation of a laptop is located at the bottom, and this can blocked the air from coming out. Avoid eating while working on your laptop because some of the food residue might fall in between of the keyboard and it may attract ants from coming in, and ants are greatest factor to short circuit the laptop electronics components. Avoid drinking as well while working because it may accidentally spill out the liquid on the unit and may cause short circuit. Do not bang the laptop computer cause it may damaged the hard disk and the casing as well. Maintained the exhaust ventilation clean, free from dust and any other foreign objects this way you can keep up the required temperature inside. Do not apply pressure on top of the LCD screen because this will damage you screen and it will cost you a lot in replacing this laptop computer parts.
Recommendation to computer laptop users:
Learn Printer Repair and Printer Preventive Maintenance
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| Broken Printer |
Printer repair is not quite easy, this is usually done by certified technician; however, printer repair may also be done by end-user side. There are several considerations on how to conduct printer repair, the software driver problem and hardware problem.
Here are some tips on how to determined printer repair that involves software driver problem, if you are having issues like the expected characters are not printed well, blank output, characters are not aligned, data is not coming out you might think that these mentioned issues cause by hardware issues. Please do not jump in to this conclusion since it might be also cause by software driver issues. All you have to do is, before looking at the hardware issue check first the software driver or the printer application. There are times that the printer application is not configured to meet the printer hardware requirements, check also if the printer driver installed is corresponding to the actual printer make model. Check the properties of the printer since sometimes you might accidentally click the pause printing and this may cause issues like no output. These issues can be done in users end, however, if you don’t know how to resolve these issues you can ask assistance for any certified technicians.
Printer repair that involves hardware problem, you might encounter the following issues, no print data output, smudge output, line can be seen in the characters, blank or black output this is usually encounter on a laser printer. For no output issue this issue can be cause by connection between system unit and print device, check the cable that connects the system unit and print device it might be cause by a loose data cable. Smudge output issue, this is usually encounter on the DeskJet, bubble jet and laser jet printer, this is usually cause by an old cartridge and this need replacement, line issue can be cause by defective printer cartridge and this need replacement as well. Color missing issue, we all know that color printer have separate cartridges for color inks, these are black, cyan, magenta, and yellow if ever one of these color is empty it may cause missing the expected color on the printer output and you need to replace this color ink.
Printer preventive maintenance is really necessary; this may prevent any untoward issues for a printer. Normally printer preventive maintenance is usually done by certified technicians. What are being done on the printer preventive maintenance? These are usually hardware cleaning, there are several types of printer model and each model has its own procedure on how to conduct the maintenance, printer type’s models are dot matrix, LaserJet, DeskJet and bubble jet. For the dot matrix printer you need to clean the internal parts of this unit and you must put a lubricant on the moving parts of this machine, normally the shaft where on the printer head assembly is attached. LaserJet, usually printer preventive maintenance for this model are done by cleaning the internal parts of the laser printer by taking out excess particles of laser toner, and also by replacing the expired parts like maintenance kit. Maintenance kit package contains the fusing assembly, and re-placement rollers.
How to Prevent Malicious attack or Viruses
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| Virus Alert |
Computer viruses can be prevented at the very first level which is the user side. Today and for the near future computer internet users are growing rapidly, there are billions of users everyday browsing the internet, chatting, and using some social networking sites, with that being said, people now a days are relying all information from the internet, with out knowing that some users also are fan of making some foolishness on the internet which is spreading some viruses or sometimes gathering personal information.
Viruses can be prevented, here are some tips.
- Be sure that your operating system and other applications are licensed. In this way you can update your application at anytime with out any concern.
- Install trusted and license anti virus application, and frequently update the virus definition.
- Frequently update your operating system especially if you are using Microsoft products.
- Hide or do not share your personal information on the internet or you can limit only to those persons that you personally trusted.
- Do not open nor downloads information coming from popup messages this might contain malicious software or virus.
- Downloads information only from well known and trusted sites.
- Be sure to scan any devices such as usb storage devices or the likes before copying or transferring the content in your PC.
- Scan your PC regularly, in this way you can be sure that your PC is efficiently running.
Information above can be done on the user level, meaning you are responsible of maintaining you own personal PC. I would recommend that you should use Microsoft Security Essential I already tested this Anti Virus software for a long time and its good.
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Resolving Desktop PC Video Card Issue
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| Video Card |
There are various types of video card issues, please see below reference.
- During power on of your PC, you may hear series of beeping sounds like one long beep followed by 2 succeeding short beeps, and your screen has no display.
- Garbage display or unknown characters, and lines can be seen during power on or on the application level.
- Sometimes it freezes the application and might cause an unexpected PC restart.
- Sometimes it can cause also blue screen.
- Sometimes it can cause too much brightness or darkness as well.
How to resolve this issue:
- Unplug and open your PC and find the video card module, once found pull out the video card module and try to clean the copper edge contacts by electronic contact cleaner, if you doesn’t have this type of cleaner rubber eraser will do. Just rub the rubber eraser on the copper contact edges, once done replace the video card module in the video card slot but before doing this be sure that the slot is cleaned free from dust and any particles. Power on your PC again and test.
- There are cases that the video card has a cooling fan attached on the heat sink try to verify if the cooling fan is rotating as normal, if not try to re-placed it.
Resolving Desktop PC Memory Issues
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| Memory Module |
Memory Issue During PC Power on:
- Once you’ve powered up your PC and you can hear a three (3) succeeding long beep sound, and it doesn’t have any display on your screen. This indicates that you have memory issues.
- There are times especially right now for the new model of PC’s sometimes it doesn’t give out any beep error message, however, you can simply identify it on the power LED indicator, commonly it flashes and instead of green color it turns into red, and it doesn’t have screen display. You can refer on your user’s manual to identify the LED flashing error codes.
- Sometimes it doesn’t give out any error code but simply, it doesn’t have any display on your screen and you will notice that there is no activity on hard disk LED indicator, but power LED remains green.
How to Resolve the Issue:
- Unplug your PC from the power outlet, open the cover of your desktop PC and locate the memory module, pull out memory module, if you have more than one memory module pull out it all, clean the copper pins of the memory module using electronic contact cleaner or if you don’t have this type of cleaner, rubber eraser will do. Clean the memory copper by rubbing the eraser on the memory copper contacts, once done, replace the memory module on the memory banks, but before that, be sure that the memory banks are free from any dust or any foreign objects. Be sure that the memory modules are well fitted on the memory bank. Turn on PC, if does resolved the issue meaning dirt causes the issue.
- If you have more than one memory module and after replacing the module on the memory bank, and if doesn’t still resolved the issue try replacing the module one by one, this is to identify which memory module is defective.
- There are times that the board doesn’t support single memory module, meaning it will work only by pair, please refer on your user manual for the memory module configuration.
- If the issue doesn’t resolve on the above procedure it may require re-placement.
Memory Issue on the Application Level:
- There are various types of indication that your memory module is in critical stage, for some reasons you might encounter blue screen while running some applications or during the OS start up. It states that “unexpected error” or “memory error xxxxxx” or sometimes your applications will not run smoothly.
How to resolve the Issue:
Friday, March 2, 2012
Carry All Electronics and Compusales Services Inc.
Carry All Electronics and Compusales Services Inc. A newly established computer repair center that were organized by a group of professionals, were in their expertise is in the field of electronics, electrical, and information technology. They have combined their skills to provide technical consultancy and technical support to client from small to large enterprise.
Their electronics personnel are highly trained to provide technical support for hardware. Their line of duty is to analyze, troubleshoot and repair electronics equipment such as home and industrial appliances. They also provide electrical setup from home to medium type of business.
Their information technology experts are divided into several groups they have the network, systems, and hardware technician. The hardware technicians are the one providing hardware repair for Desktop PC, Printers, UPS, POS machine and other computer accessories. Their network team are the one handling network architecture design for clients, they can setup network from small to large type of business, these includes network physical cabling, network switches and router equipment configurations such as Cisco products and others. Their systems Engineers are the one setting up servers, these includes physical setup and server configuration. They also provide building security system, such as installing of security cameras or CCTV.
They also sell various types of computers, printers, and computer accessories. They carry all brands of computers such as IBM, Acer, HP Compaq and generic brand of computers. For printers, they have Epson, Canon and HP products.
Services That They Offer:
- Electronic appliance repair services.
- Building Electrical facilities.
- Computer Repair and Maintenance.
- Networking and Server Services.
- Building security system CCTV.
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