29 Nov
Posted by Tony as 'Tech Gear & Gadgets, Tech Notes'
Enter, the Nintendo Wii. Even though this little sucker isn’t the most impressive, graphics-wise, it sure does make up for it with style and innovation. The most amazing thing about the Wii is how it makes the user physically interact with the games. Sensitive motion sensors within the controllers allow your movements to control the action taking place on the screen. For example, let’s say you are playing Wii Tennis. You would swing the control as you would a tennis racket to hit the ball back towards your opponent. Same would go with baseball, sword fights, and you guessed it, first person shooters.
“Even though this little sucker isn’t the most impressive, graphics-wise, it sure does make up for it with style and innovation.”
The Wii boasts an impressive library of games consisting of more than 300 titles, though still not as many as its competitors. Games like Trauma Center, in which you are a surgeon and have to save lives at the operating table. You use your Wii-mote to cut with a scalpel or even bandage your patient up post-op. Titles like Call of Duty, Zelda, Metroid are already out for the Wii. If anything, at least your friends can’t say that playing video games makes you lazy.
26 Nov
Posted by Tony as 'Geen Tech, Tech Gear & Gadgets'
To be honest with you, I’ve never been a big fan of batteries. The way they run out on you at the most inopportune times is one of their biggest drawbacks, to say the least. I guess my angst towards batteries stems from when I was eight years old. My family and I were on a long road trip from South Florida to Columbus, Ohio when all of a sudden, the batteries in my Gameboy decided to die on me. The worst part was that I couldn’t recharge the batteries due to my father having his radar detector plugged into the a/v socket. Needles to say, it led to 14 hours of Disco sing-a-longs.
Even though battery technology improves annually, it’s still not as versatile as its users, and nowhere near as reliable as it should be. So where do we turn for a cure to this technological ailment? Brunton Inc. decided that we should turn to our Sun for an answer.
We’re all looking for it now-a-days, a car that can keep driving by a gas station without having to stop for refueling. Because as we all have come to notice, a gas station can be a very scary place. I wish that I could say, “back in our day, we used to spend this much on gas” like my parents did but honestly, it’s only been two years and I can definitely feel the rate hike. The pain is located near my backs side, f.y.i.
Two years ago I could fill up my Honda Civic with $25. Now, every time I stop for gas, I feel like I’m being mugged due to my wallet being more empty than it should be. I now spend almost $50 just to fill up the tank. My sister, who owns a Chevy Tahoe, spends upwards of $90 in mid-grade alone, and the prices are just going to keep rising. So, whether you’re an environmentalist or not, we’re all looking for new alternatives to Bush’s gasoline.
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The U.S. Military and numerous allies have been breaking ground when it comes to the future of warfare. Especially in the field of aerial combat, where the F-35 Lightning hopes to be the new jack-of-all-trades of Jet fighter planes. Not that Bush needs any new toys, but hell, why not use technology to blow stuff up.
The Lightning is a single seater, single engine and stealth-capable jet with a plethora of abilities. Designed for close-air support, along with tactical bombing and holding it’s own in a dog fight, the F-35 boasts versatility as it’s lethal innuendo. Vertical take-off without the use of coven.
The F-35 is also currently being tested with voice recognition, in hopes to allow less prep time for the pilot. I didn’t find much information on how the speech recognition would allow for less prep time, but maybe you can save your settings and the jet would preset them according to who the pilot would be at the time. What I do know is that DynaSpeak is running the test for speech recognition. Kevin Hall said it best at Sci Fi Tech with, “The software doesn’t appear to allow for flight control, though — “land” probably wouldn’t do much.”
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Green Tech, we need solutions to help cease or slowdown Global Warming before we get instant skin cancer from getting our newspaper in the morning. A lot has been in the works as of the last few years, in order to reduce the rate in which we’ll bake. Hundreds of ideas and geo-engineering conferences have been looking everywhere for a solution. Anywhere from vehicle emissions reduction, to even placing a giant mirror over Greenland to keep the ice from melting.
It is very frightening to imagine a world in which nothing grows, and oxygen masks become an everyday necessity. So many times have we been warned about the decline of the environment, and still have we to find a suitable solution. MIT does not hope to end global warming with the “City Car”, but they hope to influence a movement in that direction.
Public transportation, as we all know it, sucks. You either have to pay large quantities of money to a shady taxi driver or stand in a bus/train feeling somewhat like a sardine doused in sweat. As you can tell, I’ve used the South Florida public transportation system. I’m sure New York, Mexico City and Tokyo can feel me on that little tid-bit. On the other hand, carpooling and public transportation is very important in the cause to end global warming. MIT wants to change the way we look at public transportation so that people use it.
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This won’t be a very long article but, it must be written. On Tuesday Nokia decided to unveil two new phones for their 8800 series, the new Nokia 8800 Arte and Sapphire Arte. The difference in the two is basically the color, the 8800 Arte is black while the Sapphire is brownish with a sapphire imbedded as a nav/confirmation button.
These two new phones sport high-end metal and glass for the casing, while adding a touch of imported goat skin to match the mink coat sitting in the closet. I’ll admit, these phones look very sleek and classy, but I couldn’t see myself paying over $1400.00 for either of these phones which is what the asking price has been stated to be. Goat skin or not, it’s just not worth it considering you can get an iPhone for much less.
The specs for the phone are somewhat impressive. You can browse the web at high speeds using integrated 3G cellular technology, Nokia 8800 Arte also offers a 1GB internal memory and a 3.2 mega pixel camera with 8x zoom. Needles to say the functionality of the phone is nice, but is it worth the price? Even with the USB port, I think not.
“For the regular everyday tech Geeks I advise only this, keep your money and stick with your iPhone.”
Nokia has obviously targeted high end consumers for the 8800 Arte and Sapphire Arte with such a high asking price. $1460.00 for the 8800 Arte and $1650.00 for the 8800 Sapphire Arte. For the regular everyday tech Geeks I advise only this, keep your money and stick with your iPhone. Nokia needs to understand that slapping a bit of goat skin and a heavy price tag on a cellphone isn’t making it artsy, which was originally what they were going for. Expect to see this around fourth quarter of 2007.
