Archive for May, 2009

iPhone vs Blackberry

Published by admin on May 14, 2009 in Official. 5 Comments



iPhone vs Blackberry
With the launch of Apple iPhone, RIM has faced challenge like never before to keep up their sales of Blackberry phones like many other mobile phone manufacturers. Everyone will agree with me that iPhone is a revolutionary product that changed the way people used to think and act with their mobile phones. But Blackberry was always there to suit the needs of the corporate people. What makes these full featured phones so different? Let us discover 10 differences between these two blockbuster mobile phones.

1. Design

The iPhone design has made a revolution in Cellphone world. Keeping in mind that the recent Blackberries look smarter than before, they are just a good looker but not gorgeous like the iPhone. If the design were a fad then there wouldn’t be hundreds of iPhone Clone available in the market. The clones are selling only because it has the iPhone look.

2. E-Mail

The E-Mail service of Blackberry is simply the best. A Blackberry set up with Microsoft Exchange server has intelligent push email service that downloads the message immediately on the phone and an LED indicates that a new message has been received. The iPhone recognizes new messages in 15 minutes and needs to be checked actively by the user.

3. Application

Any discussion of iPhone is incomplete without a mention of iPhone Apps. The developers of the applications for Blackberry use outdated tools that don’t give them enough access to the core APIs on Blackberry handsets. On the other hand iPhone is the easiest device to develop applications for. This is why there are thousands of developers developing millions of apps for the iPhone.

4. Surfing the Internet

The Blackberry browser is only a primitive one compared to the stunning safari browser of the iPhone. But the iPhone browser seems to load the pages more slowly than Blackberry over the EDGE network.

5. Keyboard

Every Blackberry except Storm boasts a full QWERTY keyboard. It is excellent for fast and accurate typing. It is true that the virtual keyboard in iPhone comes nowhere near the typing satisfaction by hardware keyboard and it takes time to master typing ability in a virtual keyboard. But there are a plenty of people who are fans of QWERTY keyboard only that takes up the whole bottom part of the front face of their cell phone and for them iPhone is really a bliss.

6. Camera

Most of the Blackberries have better camera than the iPhone. For example The Blackberry Storm has a 3.2 MP camera with image stabilization, auto-focus, white balance, variable zoom and flash. The 2.0 MP camera of iPhone is still not upto the mark to be fair. With storm you can also capture videos.

7. Battery

The iPhone battery runs out faster than Blackberry which makes it less reliable for corporate use. Although one reason for this may be due to the fact that iPhone is used for more tasks. But still I feel that iPhone has a poor battery.

8. Phone Call Quality

Blackberry has good RF reception ability. They get signal in many areas where many other phone don’t. The iPhone on the other hand has similar kind of reception quality too. So not much to distinguish between the two.

9. Multimedia

The iPhone is a great multimedia entertainer. It has good music and video players that is far ahead of any other device. The only place where Blackberry is superior than iPhone in multimedia section is the camera quality. But anyway, for multimedia, Apple iPhone -hands down.

10. Usability

At first, the iPhone may seem to be bit awkward with its full touchscreen design but you can use your intuition to get things done. On the other hand everyday Blackberry users can do the tasks faster with their shortcut keys. But Apple iPhone is just too ahead when its about learning from the scratch. Its very simple, easy to understand and still stylish.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, I have to say that the iPhone may be a very good, attractive and revolutionary phone but it still lacks the features that are vital ones for corporate people. But for ordinary people like many of us, the iPhone is the best. They both have their own sets of target and that is why, no matter what Apple iPhone and Blackberry battle will be on for some time to come.

Plasma vs LCD

Published by admin on May 13, 2009 in Myths. 6 Comments



LCD
LCD stands for liquid crystal display. These types of displays have been around for awhile and are commonly used with computers. One reason for their big popularity is the ability to produces a better picture than CRT monitors but also being much thinner.Pro’s

  • Low Energy Consumption - LCD monitors use very low amounts of power. This is why it is very commonly used in battery powered devices.
  • LCD screens also reduce the amount of glare on the screen which can be very beneficial if your TV is in a room with lots of light.
  • If an image is left on the screen too long, LCD screens are less likely to experience the image being burned into the screen. If this does occur, it’s easier to repair than other types of TV’s.

Con’s

  •  The viewing angle of an LCD TV is typically not as great as Plasma but the difference is not great enough to make a huge difference.
  • LCD TV’s can sometimes get dead pixels which aren’t typically covered under warranty. Although they are very small, they can become very annoying.
  • Brightness levels aren’t as great as Plasma and it’s not possible to display darks quite as dark.

Plasma

Plasma technology hasn’t been as widely used as LCD in previous years but has become very popular in large HDTV’s. Although they have historically been more expensive than LCD TV’s, they are becoming more comparable in price.

Pro’ s

  •  Brightness and color are the major advantages of Plasma TV’s. They produce rich colors along with very deep blacks.
  •  Their wide viewing angles allow more people to be able to watch TV comfortably.
  • The pixels of Plasma TV’s are lit individually unlike LCD screens. Because of this feature, the pixels can be completely turned off to display truck black colors.

Con’s

  •  The lifespan of a Plasma TV is typically shorter than other types of TV’s. Turning down the brightness of the screen can extend the lifespan.
  • Plasma TV’s are more susceptible to screen burn-in where an image is “burnt” onto the screen when left on the screen too long such as a network logo in the bottom right corner of the screen.
  • Plasma TV does require a panel of glass to cover it. This glass can reflect light and make it difficult to see the picture. If placed in a dark room, this typically isn’t an issue.

 

Summary

Some of these key points can help you in deciding which type of TV to purchase. Review your personal situation and determine which one is best for your household. Is your TV going to be in a room with lots if windows or light? If so, a LCD may be a better option due to the reduced glare. Are you looking for the best possible picture with the richest colors and darkest blacks? Then a plasma TV is probably the direction you want to go. Although both TV’s have their advantages and disadvantages, either type will give you a substantially better picture than a conventional TV. One of these TV’s paired up with an HD signal will give you the ultimate TV watching experience.

What is netbook ?

Published by admin on May 8, 2009 in Laptops. 0 Comments



A Netbook is a new type of laptop computer, defined by size, price, horsepower, and operating system. They are small, cheap, under-powered, and run either an old or unfamiliar operating system.

Netbooks run either Windows XP Home edition or Linux (not only is Linux unfamiliar to many, but the versions of Linux on Netbooks are not the mainstream popular distributions). They do not run XP Professional, Vista, or OS X. Microsoft arbitrarily restricts Netbooks from running the Professional Edition of Windows XP. Likewise, Apple arbitrarily restricts OS X to Apple hardware and it has never played in the low-end realm that Netbooks occupy.* Vista requires too much horsepower to run well on a Netbook. HP has been the only company to offer Vista on a Netbook. The price, however, was so high that it’s debatable whether such a machine qualifies as a Netbook. Size-wise, Netbooks have 9- or 10-inch screens, weigh from 2 to 3 pounds, and sport keyboards sized from 80 percent to 95 percent of normal.

Review:

The laptop market has changed in recent months. That was due to the introduction of the Asus Eee PC, which single-handedly created the low-cost mini-laptop market segment.

To support this market, Intel has now released its Atom processor, designed specifically for such laptops and the MSI Wind U100 is the first machine we’ve seen sporting the new chip.

In style, the Wind takes many of its designs queues from the Eee PC. It’s made from white plastic - a black version will ship in July - with a 3-cell battery taking up the back of the unit. It feels great in the hand and is certainly tough enough to carry around on a regular basis.

Weighing 1kg, its weight is nicely balanced, especially considering the use of a 10-inch Super-TFT screen that has a native resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels.

Images look great and even when running on battery power it looked sharp. The screen sits on hinges that make the screen cover the back of the unit, giving a slightly low line of sight.

The use of this screen means it feels a lot more like a standard laptop than either the Asus Eee PC or the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. The keyboard is a good size and doesn’t feel as though you’re compromising usability for a smaller form factor.

The touchpad and single-strip mouse button is on the small side but it doesn’t take too much away from the usability.

When it comes to performance, you’ll find a state-of-the-art Intel Atom N270 processor that is the smallest mobile chip to date. As a pre-production unit we were unable to benchmark it but in daily use we found it quicker than the current options on the market. Running Windows XP Professional, the system loaded and ran with ease.

The Atom is a 45nm chip that measures just 22mm across and has been designed to run in fan-less systems. This means the MSI Wind runs exceptionally coolly and quietly.

The use of the ageing Intel 945GSE chipset will no-doubt keep development costs to a minimum for manufacturers but it does mean the Front Side Bus (FSB) is limited to a maximum of 533MHz. So, in real terms you won’t see much performance gain over the current Celeron M chips being used in the Asus Eee PC.

That may be an issue if you’re looking to use this laptop as your sole machine but that’s not its intended use. After all, Intel would be crazy to try and move market share to a sector of the market where there is less money to be made.

However, if short bursts of power are what you need, MSI has a trick in its armoury no one else seems to offer at this stage: Turbo Boost. This tool uses the company’s own Turbo Drive Engine Technology to physically overclock the CPU. We weren’t expecting this to play a part in The Wind but it has been included and pushes the N270 up to 1.9GHz.

Naturally, this only works when you’re plugged in. When you’re running on batteries it runs at the same clock speed but puts performance ahead of battery life, so screen brightness is typically higher. To deal with the extra power, you’ll notice the fan kicks in to life and stays on for the duration you run Turbo Boost.

The 80GB hard drive is a standard laptop hard disc that has been partitioned into two.

Summary

A Netbook is a new type of laptop computer, defined by size, price, horsepower, and operating system. They are small, cheap, under-powered, and run either an old or unfamiliar operating system.

Netbooks can run only on Windows XP Home or Linux. HP is the only company which offers Vista on Netbook. The price is very high and it has been debated that such high price machine can qualify as a netbook i.e. the screen varies from 9-10 inches, weight of the netbook varies from 2-3 pounds and similarly the keyboards sized from 80% - 95% of the normal.

The laptop market has changed in recent months. That was due to the introduction of the Asus Eee PC, which single-handedly created the low-cost mini-laptop market segment.

Intel has now released its Atom processor, designed specifically for such laptops and the MSI Wind U100 is the first machine we’ve seen sporting the new chip.

Wind takes many of its designs queues from the Eee PC. It’s made from white plastic - a black version will ship in July - with a 3-cell battery taking up the back of the unit.

Weighing 1kg, its weight is nicely balanced, 10-inch Super-TFT screen that has a native resolution of 1024 x 600 pixels. Images look great and even when running on battery power it looked sharp.

The use of this screen means it feels a lot more like a standard laptop than either the Asus Eee PC or the HP 2133 Mini-Note PC. The keyboard is a good size and doesn’t feel as though you’re compromising usability for a smaller form factor. Although the touchpad and single-strip mouse button is on the small side.

When it comes to performance, you’ll find a state-of-the-art Intel Atom N270 processor that is the smallest mobile chip to date. Running Windows XP Professional, the system loaded and ran with ease.

The Atom is a 45nm chip that measures just 22mm across and has been designed to run in fan-less systems. This means the MSI Wind runs exceptionally coolly and quietly.

The use of the ageing Intel 945GSE chipset will no-doubt keep development costs to a minimum for manufacturers but it does mean the Front Side Bus (FSB) is limited to a maximum of 533MHz. So, in real terms you won’t see much performance gain over the current Celeron M chips being used in the Asus Eee PC.

If you’re looking to use this laptop as your sole machine but that’s not its intended use. After all, Intel would be crazy to try and move market share to a sector of the market where there is less money to be made.

If short bursts of power are what you need, MSI has a trick in its armoury no one else seems to offer at this stage: Turbo Boost. This tool uses the company’s own Turbo Drive Engine Technology to physically overclock the CPU. We weren’t expecting this to play a part in The Wind but it has been included and pushes the N270 up to 1.9GHz.

When you’re running on batteries it runs at the same clock speed but puts performance ahead of battery life, so screen brightness is typically higher. To deal with the extra power, you’ll notice the fan kicks in to life and stays on for the duration you run Turbo Boost.

The 80GB hard drive is a standard laptop hard disc that has been partitioned into two.

Bottom-line…it’s worth buying. You can carry it anywhere like a mobile if you’re an internet person who wants to surf the net all day. Easy to handle, lightweight, the only best thing after laptop. This is a cheaper laptop you can get anywhere!!!!

Visit Netbooks on shophive